WILLIAM AND MA11Y.
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was drawn up in the vast meadow which lay on the Clare bank chap.of the Shannon. Here copies of Ginkell’s proclamation were —profusely scattered about; and English officers went throughthe ranks imploring the men not to ruin themselves, andexplaining to them the advantages which the soldiers of KingWilliam enjoyed. At length the decisive moment came. Thetroops were ordered to pass in review. Those who wished toremain in Ireland were directed to file off at a particular spot.
All who passed that spot were to be considered as having madetheir choice for France. Sarsfield and Wauchop on one side,Porter, Coningsby and Ginkeil on the other, looked on withpainful anxiety. D’Usson and his countrymen, though notuninterested in the spectacle, found it hard to preserve theirgravity. The confusion, the clamour, the grotesque appear-ance of an army in which there could scarcely be seen a shirt ora pair of pantaloons, a shoe or a stocking, presented so ludicrousa contrast to the orderly and brilliant appearance of theirmaster’s troops, that they amused themselves by wonderingwhat the Parisians would say to see such a force mustered onthe plain of Grenelle.*
First marched what was called the Royal regiment, fourteen Mosl ” f ,hundred strong. All but seven went beyond the fatal point, troopsGinkell’s countenance showed that he was deeply mortified, forHe was consoled, however, by seeing the next regiment, which Prancl! 'consisted of natives of Ulster, turn off to a man. There hadarisen, notwithstanding the community of blood, language andreligion, an antipathy between the Celts of Ulster and those ofthe other three provinces; nor is it improbable that the exampleand influence of Baldearg O’Donnel may have had some effecton the people of the land which his forefathers had ruled.** In
* D’Usson and Tessd to Barbesieux, Oct. 1 T } . 1G91.
** That there was little sympathy between the Celts of Ulster and thoseof the Southern Provinces is evident from the curious memorial which theagent of Baldearg O’Dounel delivered to Avaux.