was afterwards, in 1691, sent to
Ireland to take the command of the army fighting for James
II. against William III. There, Saint-Ruth had soldiers, many
of them Huguenots banished from France, to contend with; and
he was accordingly somewhat less successful than in Viverais,
where his opponents were mostly peasants and workmen, armed
(where armed at all) with stones picked from the roads.
Saint-Ruth and his garrison were driven from Athlone, where a
Huguenot soldier was the first to mount the breach. The army
of William III., though eight thousand fewer in number,
followed Saint-Ruth and his Irish army to the field of
Aughrim. His host was there drawn up in an almost impregnable
position--along the heights of Kilcommeden, with the Castle
of Aughrim on his left wing, a deep bog on his right, and
another bog of about two miles extending along the front, and
apparently completely protecting the Irish encampment.
Nevertheless, the English and Huguenot army under Ginckle,
bravely attacked it, forced the pass to the camp, and routed
the army of Saint-Ruth, who himself was killed by a
cannon-ball. The principal share of this victory was
attributed to the gallant conduct of the three regiments of
Huguenot horse, under the command of the Marquess de Ruvigny
(himself a banished Huguenot nobleman) who, in consequence of
his services, was raised to the Irish peerage, under the
title of Earl of Galway.]

Tracking the Protestants in this way was like "a hunt in a great
enclosure." When the soldiers found a meeting of the people going on,
they shot them down at once, though unarmed. If they were unable to
fly, they met death upon their knees. Antoine Court recounts meetings
in which as many as between three and four hundred persons, old men,
women, and children, were shot dead on the spot.

De Cosmac, the bishop, was very active in the midst of these
massacres. When he went out to convert the people, he first began by
sending out Saint-Ruth with the dragoons. Afterwards he himself
followed to give instructions for their "conversion," partly through
favours, partly by money. "My efforts," he himself admitted, "were not
always without success; yet I must avow that the fear of the dragoons,
and of their being quartered in