enots, he shortly succeeded in taking the fortified towns
of Cork and Kinsale. After garrisoning these places the Earl returned
to England.

General Ginckel went into winter quarters at Mullingar, in Westmeath.
The French troops, under command of Count Lauzun, went into Galway.
Lauzun shortly after returned to France, and St. Ruth was sent over to
take command of the French and Irish army. But they hung about Galway
doing nothing. In the meantime Ginckel was carefully preparing for the
renewal of the campaign. He was reinforced by an excellent body of
troops from Scotland, commanded by General Mackay. He was also well
supplied, through the vigilance of William, with all the necessaries
of war.

Rapin's friend, Colonel Lord Douglas, pressed him to accompany him to
Flanders as his aide-de-camp; but the wound in his shoulder still
caused him great pain, and he was forced to decline the appointment.
Strange to say, his uncle Pelisson--the converter, or rather the
buyer, of so many Romish converts in France--sent him a present of
fifty pistoles through his cousin M. de la Bastide, which consoled him
greatly during his recovery.

General Ginckel broke up his camp at Mullingar at the beginning of
June, and marched towards Athlone. The Irish had assembled a
considerable army at Ballymore, about midway between Mullingar and
Athlone. They had also built a fort there, and intended to dispute the
passage of Ginckel's army. A sharp engagement took place when his
forces came up. The Irish were defeated, with the loss of over a
thousand prisoners and all their baggage.

Ginckel then appeared before Athlone, but the second resistance of the
besieged was much less successful than the first. St. Ruth, the French
general, treated the Irish officers and soldiers under his command
with supercilious contempt. He admitted none of their officers into
his councils. He was as ignorant of the army which he commanded as of
the country which he occupied. Nor was he a great general. He had been
principally occupied in France in hunting and hanging the poor
Protestants of Dauphiny and the Cevennes. He had never fought a
pitched battle; and his incapacity led to the defeat of the Irish at
Athlone, and afterwards at Aughrim.

St. Ruth treated his English adversaries with as much contempt as he
did his Irish followers. When he heard that the English were about to
cross the Shannon, he said "it was impossible for them to take the
town, and be so n