st it was
stipulated that the Catholics of Ireland should enjoy such privileges in
the exercise of their religion as were consistent with law, or as they
had enjoyed in the reign of Charles the Second. The Crown pledged itself
also to summon a Parliament as soon as possible, and to endeavour to
procure to the good Roman Catholics such further security in that
particular as "may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account
of the said religion." By the military treaty those of Sarsfield's
soldiers who would were suffered to follow him to France; and ten
thousand men, the whole of his force, chose exile rather than life in a
land where all hope of national freedom was lost. When the wild cry of
the women who stood watching their departure was hushed the silence of
death settled down upon Ireland. For a hundred years the country
remained at peace. But the peace was a peace of despair. No Englishman
who loves what is noble in the English temper can tell without sorrow
and shame the story of that time of guilt. The work of oppression, it is
true, was done not directly by England but by the English settlers in
Ireland; and the cruelty of their rule sprang in great measure from the
sense of danger and the atmosphere of panic in which the Protestants
lived. But if thoughts such as these relieve the guilt of those who
oppressed they leave the fact of oppression as dark as before. The most
terrible legal tyranny under which a nation has ever groaned avenged the
rising under Tyrconnell. The conquered people, in Swift's bitter words
of contempt, became "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to their
conquerors. Such as the work was, however, it was thoroughly done.
Though local risings of these serfs perpetually spread terror among the
English settlers in Ireland, all dream of a national revolt passed away.
Till the very eve of the French Revolution Ireland ceased to be a source
of political danger and anxiety to England.

[Sidenote: French Descent on England.]

Short as the struggle of Ireland had been it had served Lewis well, for
while William was busy at the Boyne a series of brilliant successes was
restoring the fortunes of France. In Flanders the Duke of Luxembourg won
the victory of Fleurus. In Italy Marshal Catinat defeated the Duke of
Savoy. A success of even greater moment, the last victory which France
was fated to win at sea, placed for an instant the very throne of
William in peril. William never showed a cooler