WIIXIAM AND MART.

11

followed him in this campaign, not only as then-general, hutas their native King. They now rank as the fifth and sixth ofthe line. The former was led by an officer who had no skill inthe higher parts of military science, but whom the whole armyallowed to be the bravest of all the brave, John Cutts. Con-spicuous among the Dutch troops were Portland’s and Ginkell’sHorse, and Solmes’s Blue regiment, consisting of two thousandof the finest infantry in Europe. Germany had sent to the fieldsome warriors, sprung from her noblest houses. Prince Georgeof Hesse Darmstadt, a gallant youth who was serving his ap-prenticeship in the military art, rode near the King. A strongbrigade of Danish mercenaries was commanded by DukeCharles Frederic of Wirtemberg, a near kinsman of the head ofhis illustrious family. It was reported that of all the soldiers ofWilliam these tvere most dreaded by the Irish. For centuriesof Saxon domination had not effaced the recollection of theviolence and cruelty of the Scandinavian sea kings; and an an-cient prophecy that the Danes would one day destroy thechildren of the soil was still repeated with superstitious horror.*Among the foreign auxiliaries were a Brandenburg regimentand a Finland regiment. But in that great array, so variouslycomposed, were two bodies of men animated by a spirit pecu-liarly fierce and implacable, the Huguenots of France thirstingfor the blood of the French, and the Englishry of Ireland im-patient to trample down the Irish. The ranks of the refugeeshad been effectually purged of spies and traitors, and were madeup of men such as had contended in the preceding centuryagainst the power of the House of Valois and the genius of theHouse of Lorraine. All the boldest spirits of the unconquerablecolony had repaired to William’s camp. Mitchelburne wasthere with the stubborn defenders of Londonderry, and Wolseleywith the warriors who had raised the unanimous shout of

CHAP.

xvi.

1690 .

* Narcissus Luttrcll’s Diary, March, 1690.