"WILLIAM AND MART.

9

Each of the contending princes had some advantages over ciiap.his rival. James, standing on the defensive, behind entrench—j——ments, with a river before him, had the stronger position:*The armybut his troops were inferior both in number and in quality to ° r James 'those which were opposed to him. He probably had thirtythousand men. About a third part of this force consisted of ex-cellent French infantry and excellent Irish cavalry. But therest of his army was the scoff of all Europe. The Irish dra-goons were bad; the Irish infantry worse. It was said that theirordinary way of fighting was to discharge their pieces once, andthen to run aw'ay bawling “Quarter” and “Murder.” Theirinefficiency was, in that age, commonly imputed, both by theirenemies and by their allies, to natural poltroonery. How littleground there was for such an imputation has since been signallyproved by many heroic achievements in every part of the globe.

It ought, indeed, even in the seventeenth century, to have oc-curred to reasonable men, that a race which furnished some ofthe best horse soldiers in the world would certainly, with judi-cious training, furnish good foot soldiers. But the Irish footsoldiers had not merely not been well trained: they had beenelaborately ill trained. The greatest of our generals repeatedlyand emphatically declared that even the admirable army whichfought its way, under his command, from Torres Vedras toToulouse, would, if he had suffered it to contract habits ofpillage, have become, in a few weeks, unfit for all military

* James says (Life, ii. 393. Orig. Mem.) that, the country afforded nobetter position. King, in a thanksgiving sermon which be preached atDublin after the close of the campaign, told his hearers that “the ad-vantage of the post of the Irish was, by all intelligent men, reckonedabove three to one.” See King’s Thanksgiving Sermon, preached oilNov. 16. 1690, before Lords Justices. This is, no doubt, an absurd ex-aggeration. But M. de la 1-Ioguette, one of the principal French officerswho was present at the battle of the Boyne, informed Louvois that the Irisharmy occupied a good defensive position. Letter of La 1-Ioguette from

Limerick, ^ ul — - 1690.

Aug. 10.