Douglas summoned the Irish garrison to surrender. Colonel Richard
Grace, the gallant old governor, returned a passionate defiance.
"These are my terms," he said, discharging a pistol at the messenger:
"when my provisions are consumed, I will defend my trust until I have
eaten my boots."

Abandoning as indefensible the English part of the town, situated on
the east side of the Shannon, Grace set fire to it, and retired with
all his forces to the western side, blowing up an arch of the bridge
behind him. The English then brought up the few cannon they had with
them, and commenced battering the walls. The Irish had more cannon,
and defended themselves with vigour. The besiegers made a breach in
the castle, but it was too high and too small for an assault.
"Notwithstanding this," says Rapin, "the firing continued very brisk
on both sides; but the besiegers having lost Mr. Neilson, their best
gunner, and the cavalry suffering very much for want of forage; and at
the same time it being reported that Sarsfield was advancing with
fifteen thousand men to relieve the place, Douglas held a council of
war, wherein it was thought fit to raise the siege, which he
accordingly did on the 25th, having lost near four hundred men before
the town, the greatest part of whom died of sickness."

Thus, after a week's ineffectual siege, Douglas left Athlone, and made
all haste to rejoin the army of William, which had already reduced the
most important towns in the south of Ireland. On the 7th of August he
rejoined William at Cahirconlish, a few miles west of Limerick. The
flower of the Irish army was assembled at Limerick. The Duke of
Berwick and General Sarsfield occupied the city with their forces. The
French general, Boileau, commanded the garrison. The besieged were
almost as numerous as the besiegers. William, by garrisoning the towns
of which he took possession, had reduced his forces to about twenty
thousand men.

Limerick was fortified by walls, batteries, and ramparts. It was also
defended by a castle and citadel. It had always been a place of great
strength. The chivalry of the Anglo-Norman monarch, the Ironsides of
Cromwell, had been defeated under its walls; and now the victorious
army of William III. was destined to meet with a similar repulse.

Limerick is situated in an extensive plain, watered by the noble
Shannon. The river surrounds the town on three sides. Like Athlone,
the city is divided into the English and Irish t