nd a considerable body of foot, and encamped
half-way between Limerick and the Irish horse camp, whereby he hindered
all communication between them and the town. On the twenty-fourth, the
captains within Limerick sent out a trumpet, desiring a parley," and as
a result of this parley, a treaty was ultimately signed between the two
parties, Limerick was evacuated, and the war came to an end. This was
early in October, 1691.

The war had, therefore, lasted nearly four years, a sufficient testimony
to the military qualities of the Irish, seeing that throughout the whole
period they had matched against them greatly superior numbers of the
finest troops in Europe, veterans trained in continental wars, and at
all points better armed and equipped than their adversaries.

What moves our unbounded admiration, however, is to see the troops
displaying these qualities of valor not only without good leadership,
but in face of the cowardice of the English king, and of duplicity
amounting to treachery on the part of his chief adherents. Foremost
among these time-servers was Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, whose name
shows him to have sprung from one of the Norman families, and we see
here the recurrence of a principle which had worked much harm in the
eight years' war of the preceding generation. The Duke of Ormond, sprung
from the Norman Butlers, was then the chief representative of the policy
of intrigue, and many of the reverses of both these wars are to be
attributed to the same race.

It is tragical to find the descendants of the old Norman barons, who at
any rate were valiant fighters, descending thus to practices quite
unworthy; yet we can easily understand how the fundamental injustice of
the feudal principle on which they stood, not less than the boundless
abuse of that already bad principle under the first Stuarts, could not
fail to undermine their sense of honor and justice, preparing them at
length for a policy of mere self-seeking, carried on by methods always
doubtful, and often openly treacherous.

The old tribal chieftains lived to fight, and went down fighting into
the night of time. Owen Roe O'Neill, last great son of a heroic race,
splendidly upheld their high tradition and ideal. No nobler figure, and
few more gifted captains, can be found in the annals of those warlike
centuries. The valor of Cuculain, the wisdom of Concobar, the chivalry
of Fergus--all were his, and with them a gentle and tolerant spirit in
all th