true enough; and so the knights and gentlemen in the Lower House, and the restored lords of the Pale in the Upper, hastened to pass an Act to enable themselves to resume the estates of their ancestors, and considered that they had more than met the justice of the case by inserting a clause which provided that purchasers for valuable consideration should be compensated out of the lands of those who were attainted of treason to King James. The Act was as defensible as the Act which deprived them of their land, and at any rate as much an act of justice, or as little one of injustice, as the handing back in England of the estates of the Church and cavaliers after the Restoration. The next step was one of vindictiveness, an act of attainder launched against their political adversaries. As in the Acts of proscription passed by Elizabeth, James, and the Commonwealth, a long list of persons was made out, who had either thrown in their lot with the Prince of Orange, or had fled from the country, or were in correspondence with his adherents. Two thousand four hundred and forty-five names in all appear in the Act; amongst them those of two archbishops and seven bishops, the Duke of Ormonde, and sixty-three temporal peers, eightythree clergymen, and 2289 ladies, knights, gentlemen, yeomen, and tradesmen. Many of these were inserted haphazard, or from personal spite, or for the sake of their estates, which as a consequence became forfeited to James, and were greedily desired for distribution; while, in addition to the exclusion of the absentees from pardon and the sequestration of their lands, the whole

of their personalty was vested in "his Majesty." So well had the lesson of confiscation been learned by experience.

To meet current expenditure, the Irish Parliament granted James a tax of £20 a month on all real estate; but as this did not nearly meet his requirements, and as nothing came in from the customs and excise, by reason of the complete collapse of trade, he took the fatal course of issuing base money. Having seized some authorized coining machines in Dublin, he set up a mint, and gathered all the refuse metal he was able to collect ; from every pound of which he produced, and compulsorily circulated as legal tender, coins amounting to the nominal value of £5, and of the actual value of 4d. This meant ruin to the country, but especially to the Protestants, who were now compelled to receive these counters in exchange for their goods, and were forced to accept the same rubbish in payment of all debts due to them on mortgage, bonds, or bills.

In the mean time the English in Ulster were fighting for their lives with unexampled doggedness. The famished garrison of Derry, after enduring a siege of 105 days, had at length been relieved by the tardy arrival of three provision ships under Kirke's convoy ; and De Rosen and the Irish army had raised the siege in despair. The gallant Enniskilleners, upon whom three bodies of troops were converging under the Duke of Berwick, Colonel Patrick Sarsfield, and Colonel Justin McCarthy, after checking the former two, boldly attacked the last with inferior numbers, and utterly overthrew him

at Newtown-Butler, with a loss of two thousand men, to whom no quarter was given. Sarsfield was driven back on Athlone, and Sligo occupied by Kirke. The whole Irish army of the north, abandoning their stores, was in full retreat upon the Blackwater; and in two months' time the veteran Duke of Schomberg had landed with one thousand men at Bangor, in the county of Down.

The half-hearted James was in despair at this succession of disasters. The cold-blooded Frenchman D'Avaux urged him to a general massacre of the Protestants in the three southern provinces; but the suggestion was indignantly repelled. That which had filled James with despair, roused the Irish to renewed activity, and very shortly the decimated regiments from Ulster were filled with eager recruits, and increased enthusiasm was kindled throughout the Irish quarters. The Irish infantry soldiers were individually brave, but they were ill-armed and ill-trained. Few of their officers had had any military experience, or had the knowledge to enable them to drill the raw material into shape. Still, now that the danger became pressing, great efforts were made, both by De Rosen and the French officers and by the Irish themselves, to procure a better organization and to complete the transport. James did his best to prevent all robbing and plundering, by stringent orders and summary executions; and according to Dr. Gorges Schomberg's secretary, the behaviour of the Irish army was very different from that of William, which rioted and lived at free quarters on their friends.

Schomberg, to whom Carrickfergus capitulated after

a few days' siege, took his way to Lisburn, Berwick retreating before him and burning the towns of Carlingford and Newry. But Schomberg's army was hardly more efficient than that of James, and was considerably inferior in numbers. His Dutch and French refugee regiments were seasoned men, but his English troops were raw recruits, hurriedly enlisted in England, and ignorant even of how to let off their muskets. Worse still, through the frauds of the army-contractors, the stores were uneatable, the tents were rotten, and the supply both of clothing and of horses was deficient. On reaching Dundalk he formed an entrenched camp, not daring to attack the enemy, who greatly outnumbered him, and who were encamped on the neighbouring heights some few miles off; and he determined to await reinforcements from England before he risked a battle. For two months the wary old general kept his men in their quarters, striving to infuse skill and discipline into his recruits. Exposure to the wet climate and poor living brought on fever and dysentery, which thinned his numbers terribly: and at length the Irish army, in despair of drawing him into an engagement, broke up their camp and went into winter quarters; and Schomberg drew the remnants of his army off to Lisburn, and went into winter quarters also.

CHAPTER IV.

THE RECONQUEST.

A.D. 1690, 1691.

IN the spring De Rosen and D'Avaux, disgusted with James's imbecility, obtained their recall to France; and shortly afterwards Louis despatched to Ireland a reinforcement of five thousand French troops under the Count de Lauzun; but, in return, there were drafted off, for service on the Dutch frontier, an equal number of Irish soldiers, under the command of Colonel Justin' McCarthy. Schomberg's army was getting over its demoralization, reinforcements were streaming over from England; and the important fortress of Charlemont, after a determined defence surrendered to the English.

At length, in June, William landed at Carrickfergus, and took the supreme command. His strict discipline and unselfish example soon restored order and enthusiasm to his troops; and supported by his ships, which moved in parallel course along the coast, he marched southward and occupied the northern bank of the Boyne, where he was confronted by James's army upon the opposite side of the river. James's army was the smaller of the two. He had thirty thousand men, including six regiments of