XXXII. The army of Schomberg received fresh reinforce- CHAP. ments of English and Dutch troops, of Brandenburgers from Germany, and was at laft rejoiced by the arrival of king William himself, who landed at Carrickfergus on the fourteenth of June in the year 1690. CHAP. XXXIII. CHAP. Foreign Progress of king William-Proceedings of king James character. HAVING received by VING received by Walker an addrefs from XXXIII. the northern clergy, and published a proclamation Progrefs to fupprefs lawless violence, king William advanced 1690. without delay from Belfast, by Lisburne, to Hillf of William. borough. Here a yearly penfion of twelve hundred pounds, which was afterwards inferted in the civil lift, and made payable from the exchequer, was granted, by his warrant, out of the cuftoms of Belfast, to the diffenting clergy of Ulfter, of whom not a few had exerted a zeal and courage against the jacobites, and all had suffered by the calamity of war. war. "I came not to Ireland to let grafs grow un- CHAP. der my feet," was the reply of this wife and martial monarch to some officers who advised caution; and, fenfible of the importance of difpatch, he reviewed his affembled forces at Loughbrickland, whence he advanced fouthward without loss of time. In this review, to the furprize of the officers and the delight of the foldiers, inftead of contenting himfelf with a general furvey from fome convenient point, as had been expected, he rode through the midft of the troops, examining with eagerness and clofe attention the ftate of every regiment, notwithstanding a ftorm and clouds of duft with which he was incommoded. In his march he lived as a foldier, riding all the day with an advanced party, and taking his quarters in the camp at night, with lefs attention to his own accommodation than to that of his men, infomuch that, when he was requested to fign an order for wine for his own table, he exclaimed with emotion, "let them not want; I fhall drink water." The forces of James retired before him. from Dundalk and Ardee, and took poft on the fouthern fide of the Boyne, near Drogheda, to the northern fide of which river the army of William arrived on the thirtieth of June, while his fleet coafted flowly in view, ready to fupply him with provifions and other neceffaries. XXXIII, Proceed James. James, who had imagined William to be detained in England by violent factions, furprised at ings of the news of his arrival, not until fix days after his 1690. landing at Carrickfergus, marched with fix thou fand XXXIII. CHAP, fand French infantry to the main body of his troops at the Boyne, leaving Dublin under a guard of militia commanded Lutterel, the governor. As the French monarch had promised to fend, as foon as the squadron attending William fhould have returned, a fleet of frigates into the Irish channel, to destroy the tranfports of that prince, and thereby to detain him in Ireland, until domestic infurrection, aided by invafion, might operate in Britain to the restoration of its former fovereign, James was advised by his council of officers to decline an engagement, to retire to the Shannon with his cavalry and fome foot, to ftrengthen his garri, fons, to protract the war by a defenfive plan, and thus to await the refult of machinations in Britain, and the probable wafting of William's army in a country of experienced infalubrity to English conftitutions. On the other hand the king declared his refolution of maintaining his poft, and his fatisfac tion in the opportunity of a decifive battle; alleging that his abandoning of the capital would operate, as an acknowlegement of his inferiority, to the defertion of the Irish, who were apt to judge merely from appearances, and, which would be worse, ta the difcouragement of the fchemes formed by his friends in Britain for his restoration, From the force of his expreflions his officers conceived the expectation of his taking an active and determined part in the approaching battle yet he betrayed his diffidence by his precaution in fending Sir Patrick Trant, one of his commiffioners of revenue, to en gage gage a fhip at Waterford for his conveyance to France CHAP. in cafe of his difcomfiture. XXXIII. the Boyne. William, intent on dispatch and decision, advanc- Reconed toward the Boyne, at the dawn, on the thirtieth notering at of June, with his army in three columns, and arrived at nine o'clock, at the head of his vanguard, within two miles of Drogheda, seated on both fides of that river. From a hill to the weft of this town he reconnoitered the pofition of James's army; and, as the view was partly intercepted by fome hills on the oppofite fide of the river, he proceeded with fome officers, for more diftin& obfervation, within mufket fhot of a ford oppofite to the village of Oldbridge, thence to fome diftance weftward, and, at length alighting for refreshment, feated himself on a rifing ground with his attendants. As Berwick, Tyrconnel, and other leaders of the Jacobites, were reconnoitering on their fide, they difcovered the fituation of William, and formed a plan for his deftruction. About forty horsemen, appearing in a ploughed field oppofite to his ground, in a fhort time retired, leaving two field-pieces, which they had concealed in their center, planted, and masked under a hedge. At the inftant of his remounting, a man and two horfes, on a line with the king, at some distance, were flain by one bullet; and another immediately fucceeding, grazed the river's banks, rofe, and flanted on his right fhoulder with a fupèrficial wound. As, from the appearance of his attendants, who crowded round him in confufion, a belief of his death was entertained by the enemy, a univerfal |