The Story of Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 19, 27 May 1925, Page 9

The Story of Ireland

(By A. M. Sullivan.)

The siege now began. William’s bambardv ment, .however, proceeded slowly; and the Limerick gunners, on the other hand, were much.more active and vigorous than he had expected. On .Monday, the 11th, their fire compelled him to shift his field train entirely nut of range; and on the next day, as if intent on following up such practice, their balls fell so thickly about his own tent, killing several persons, that lie had to shift his own quarters also. But ii a day or two he meant to be in a position to pay back these attentions with heavy interest, and to reduce those old walls despite all resistance. In fine, there was coming up L him from Water- < ford a magnificent battering train, together with immense stores of ammunition, and, s. . what was nearly as effective for him as the v V siege train, a. number of pontoon-boats of tin or sheet copper, which would soon enable him to pass the Shannon where he pleased. So he took very coolly the resistance so far offered from the city. For in a day more Limerick would be absolutely at hi,- mercy! So thought William ; and so seemed the inevitable fact. But there was a. bold heart and an active brain at work at that very moment planning a deed destined to immortalise its author to all time, and to baffle William’s now all-but accomplished designs on Limerick! On Sunday, the 10th, the battering train and its convoy had reached Cashel. On Monday, the 11th, they reached a place called Ballyneety, within nine or ten miles of the Williamite camp. The country through which they had passed was all in the hands of their own garrisons or patrols; yet they had so important and precious a charge that jpd" they had watched it jealously so far; but Wl'_. now they were virtually at the camp —only la. few miles in its rear; and so the convoy, when night fell, drew the siege train and the. . - vast line of ammunition wagons, the pontoon boats and store-loads, into a field close ill (to an old ruined castle, and, duly posting I- J night sentries, gave themselves to repose. That day, an Anglicised Irishman, one (Manus O’Brien, a Protestant landlord in ' A the neighborhood of Limerick, came into the J Williamite camp with a puce of news. Sarslr i field at the head of five hundred picked men, ■■.iff had ridden „off the night before -on. some Apr. mysterious enterprise in the direction of Kill-

CHAPTER LXVll.—(Continued.)

aloe; and the informer, from Sarsfield’s character, judged rightly that something important was afoot, and earnestly assured the Williamites that nothing was too desperate for that commander to accomplish. The Williamite officers made little of this. They thought the fellow was only anxious to make ranch of a trifle, by way of securing favor for himself. Besides, they knew of nothing in the direction of Killaloe that could affect them. "William, at length, was informed of the story. He. too, failed to discern what Sarsfield could he at but his mind anxiously reverting to his grand battering train —albeit it was now barely a few miles off—he, to make safety doubly sure, ordered Sir John Lanier to proceed at once with five hundred horse to meet the convoy. By some curious chance, Sir John —perhvns deeming his night ride quite needless —did not greatly hurry to set forth. At two o’clock, Tuesday morning, instead of at nine o'clock on Monday evening, he rode leisurely off. His delay of five hours made all the difference in tin* world, as we shall see. It was indeed true that Sarsfield, on Sunday night, had secretly quitted his camp ' on, the Clare side, at the head of a chosen 1 body of his best horsemen ; and, true enough, 1 also, that it was upon an enterprise worthy of his reputation he had set forth. In fine, 1 he had heard of the approach of the siege ' train, and had planned nothing less than its surprise, capture, and destruction ! ! On Sunday night he rode to Killaloe, dis--1 taut twelve miles above Limerick on the 5 river. The bridge here was guarded by a 7 party of the enemy; but favored by the dark- ** ness, he proceeded further up the river until k he came to a ford near Ballyvally, where he ,T crossed the Shannon, and passed into TipJ perary county. The country around him now ) was all in the enemy’s hands; but he had one ' with him as guide on this eventful occasion, e whose familiarity with the locality enabled =• Sarsfield to evade all the Williamite patrols, and but for whose services it may be doubted p if his ride this night had not been bis last. 1 This was Hogan, the rapparee chief, im--0 mortalisod in local traditions as “Galloping '' Hogan.” By paths and passes known only i: to riders “native to the sod,” he turned into e the deep gorges of Silver Mines, and ere day had dawned was bivouacked in a wild ravine

of the Keeper Mountains. Here he lay perdu ■ all day on Monday. When night fell there was anxious tightening of horsegirths and girding of swords with Sarsfield’s live hundred. They knew the siege train was at Cashel on the previous day, and must? by this time have reached near to the Williamite lines. The mid-night ride before them was • long, devious, difficult, and perilous; the task at the end of it was crucial and momentous indeed. Led by their trusty guide, they |set out southward, still keeping in by-ways and mountain roads. Meanwhile, as already mentioned, the siege train and convoy had that evening reached Ballyneety, where the guns were parked and convoy bivouacked. It was three o’clock in the morning when Sarsfield, reaching within a mile or two of the spot, learnt from a peasant that the prize was now not far off ahead of him. And here we encounter a. fact which gives the touch of true romance to the whole story ! It happened, by one of those coincidences that often startle ns with their singularity, that the pass-word with the Williamite convoy on that night was ‘-Sarsfield !” That Sarsfield obtained the password before he reached the halted convoy, is also unquestionable, though how he came by his information is variously stated. The painstaking historian of Limerick states that from a woman, wife of a sergeant in the Williamite convoy, unfeelingly left behind on the road by her own party in the evening, but most humanely and kindly treated by Sarsfield’s men, the word was obtained. Riding softly to within ashort distance of the place indicated, he halted and sent out a few trusted scouts to scan the whole position narrowly. They returned reporting that besides the sentries there were only a few score troopers drowsing beside the watch fires, on guard: the rest of the convoy being sleeping in all the immunity of fancied safety. Sarsfield now gave his final orders —silence or death, till they were in upon the sentries; then, forward like a lightning flash upon the guards. One of the Williamite sentries fancied he heard the beat of horsehoofs approaching him ; he never dreamt of foes; he thought it must be one of their own patrols. And truly enough, through the gloom he saw the figure of tin officer evidently at the head of a body of cavalry, whether phantom or reality he could not tell. The sentry challenged, and, still imagining he had friends, demanded the “word”. Suddenly, as if from the spirit land, and with a wild, weird shout that startled all the sleepers, the “phantom troop” shot past like a thunderbolt; the. leader crying as he drew his sword, “Sarsfield is the word, and Sarsfield is the wan!” The guards dashed forward, the bugles screamed the alarm, the sleepers rushed to arms, but there was scarcely an effort. The broadswords of Sarsfield’s five hundred were in their midst; and to the affrighted gaze of the panic-stricken victims that five hundred seemed thousands! Short, desperate, and bloody was that scene; so short; so sudden, so fearful, that it seemed like the work i of incantation. In a few minutes the whole ; of the convoy were cut down, or dispersed; ] and William’s splendid siege train was in Sarsfield’s hands! But his task was ;as yet only half accomplished; Morning was ap-

preaching; William’s camp was barely eight : or ten miles distant, and thither some of the I es&dped. had . hurriedly fled. There was scant rand for the important work yet to be done. * The siege guns and mortars were filled with powder,' and each muzzle buried in the earth; upon and around the guns were piled the Ip pontoon boats, the contents of the ammuni- ■:| tion wagons, and all the stores of various p kinds, of which there was a vast quantity. ILrt'A train of powder was laid.to this huge pyre, •| and Sarsfield, removing all the wounded Wills liamites to a safe distance, drew off his men, m halting them while the train was being fired. H* There was a flash that lighted all the heavens ||: and showed with dazzling brightness the | country for miles around. Then the ground rocked and heaved beneath the gazers’ feet, as, with a deafening roar that seemed to !?| rend the firmament, the vast mass burst into the sky; and as suddenly all was gloom -'4;. again! The sentinels on Limerick Avails || heard that awful peal. It rolled like a thunder storm away by the heights of Cratvi 100, and wakened sleepers amidst the bills of Clare. William heard it too; and he at v.'l; least needed no interpreter of that fearful sound. Fie knew in that moment that his

splendid siege train had perished, destroyed by a feat that only one man could have so planned and executed an achievement destined to surround with unfading glory the name of Patrick Sarsfiehl! Sir John Lanier’s party, coming up in no wise rapidly, saw the flash that, as they said, gave broad daylight for a second, and felt the ground shake beneath them as by an earthquake, and then their leader found ho was just in time to he too late. Rushing on lie sighted Sarsfield’s rear-guard but there were memories cf the Irish cavalry at the Boyne in no a\ ay encouraging him to force an encounter. From the Williamite camp two other powerful bodies of horse were sent out instantly on the explosion being heard, to surround Sarsfiehl and cut him off from the Shannon. But all was vain, and on Tuesday evening he and his Five Hundred rode into camp amidst a scene such as Limerick had not witnessed for centuries. The whole force turned out; the citizens came with laurel boughs to line the way, and as b a marched in amidst a conqueror’s ovation, the gunners on the old bastions across the river gave a. royal salute to him whom'-they all now hailed as the saviour of the city ! (To be continued.)