profitable, we
might well regret that he did not follow the example of the great
English commander, his contemporary, and declare himself Lord Protector
of Ireland, with despotic power.

After his death, the work he had done so well was all undone again, in
part by treachery, in part by the victories of Oliver Cromwell. Yet ten
years after the Lord Protector's arrival in Ireland, his own work was
undone not less completely, and the Restoration saw once more enthroned
every principle against which Cromwell had so stubbornly contended.

XIV.

THE JACOBITE WARS.

A.D. 1660-1750.

The Restoration saw Cromwell's work completely undone; nor did the class
which helped him to his victories again rise above the surface. The
genius of the Stuarts was already sowing the seeds of new revolutions;
but the struggle was presently to be fought out, not between the king
and the people, but between the king and the more liberal or more
ambitious elements of the baronial class, who saw in the despotic
aspirations of the Stuarts a menace to their own power.

These liberal elements in England selected as their champion Prince
William of Nassau, before whose coming the English king found it
expedient to fly to France, seeking and finding a friend in that apostle
of absolutism, Louis XIV. We have already seen how the interests of the
feudal lords of Ireland, with the old Norman families as their core,
drew them towards the Stuarts. The divine right of the landowner
depended, as we saw, on the divine right of kings; so that they
naturally gravitated towards the Stuarts, and drew their tenants and
retainers after them. Thus a considerable part of Ireland was enlisted
on the side of James II, and shared the misfortunes which presently
overtook him--or in truth did not overtake him, as the valiant gentleman
outran them and escaped. Nothing is more firmly fixed in the memories of
the whole Irish people than a good-natured contempt for this runaway
English king, whose cause they were induced by the feudal lords to
espouse. We shall follow the account of an officer in the Jacobite army
in narrating the events of the campaigns that ensued.

James, having gained courage and funds from his sojourn at the court of
Louis XIV, presently made his appearance in Ireland, relying on the
support of the feudal lords. He landed at Kinsale, in Cork, on March 12,
1688, according to the Old Style, and reached Dublin twelve days later,
warmly welcomed b