y Lord and Lady Tyrconnell. The only place in the
country which strongly declared for William was the walled city of
Derry, whence we have seen the Puritan forces issuing during the wars of
the preceding generation. James, this officer says, went north to Derry,
in spite of the bitterness of the season, "in order to preserve his
Protestant subjects there from the ill-treatment which he apprehended
they might receive from the Irish," and was mightily surprised when the
gates were shut in his face and the citizens opened fire upon him from
the walls.

[Illustration: Tullymore Park, Co. Down.]

James withdrew immediately to Dublin, assembled a Parliament there, and
spent several months in vain discussions, not even finding courage to
repeal the penal laws which Queen Elizabeth had passed against all who
refused to recognize her as the head of the church. James was already
embarked on a career of duplicity, professing great love for Ireland,
yet fearing to carry out his professions lest he might arouse animosity
in England, and so close the door against his hoped-for return.

Enniskillen, on an island in Lough Erne, dominated by a strong castle,
was, like Derry, a settlement of Scottish and English colonists brought
over by the first of the Stuarts. These colonists were up in arms
against the grandson of their first patron, and had successfully
attacked his forces which were besieging Derry. James, therefore, sent a
small body of troops against them; but the expedition ended in an
ignominious rout rather than a battle, for the Jacobite army seems
hardly to have struck a blow. The Irish leader, Lord Mountcashel, who
manfully stood his ground in the general panic, was wounded and
taken prisoner.

The armies of James, meanwhile, made no headway against the courageous
and determined defenders of Derry, where the siege was degenerating into
a blockade, the scanty rations and sickness of the besieged being a far
more formidable danger than the attacks of the besiegers. James even
weakened the attacking forces by withdrawing a part of the troops to
Dublin, being resolved at all risks to protect himself.

So devoid of resolution and foresight was James that we only find him
taking means to raise an army when Schomberg, the able lieutenant of
William, was about to invade the north of Ireland. Schomberg landed at
Bangor in Down in August, 1689, and marched south towards Drogheda, but
finding that James was there before him, he w