companies, or parties; that, if plundered by the way, William's government should make good their loss; that fifty ships, of two hundred tons each, should be provided for their transportation, besides two men-of-war for the principal officers; that the garrison of Limerick might march out with all their arms, guns, and baggage, colors flying, drums beating, and matches lighting! The garrison of Limerick, moreover, were to be at liberty to take away any six brass guns they might choose, with two mortars, and half the ammunition in the place. It was also agreed that those who so wished might enter the service of William, retaining their rank and pay.

"The civil articles were thirteen in number. Article I. guaranteed to members of that denomination remaining in the kingdom, such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the law of Ireland, or as they enjoyed in the reign of King Charles the Second'; this article further provided that,' their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavor the said Roman Catholics such further security in that particular as may preserve them from any disturbance."" Article II guaranteed pardon and protection to all who had served king James, on taking the oath of allegiance prescribed in Article IX., as follows:

“I, A. B., do solemnly promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to their majesties, King William and Queen Mary; so help me God."

Articles III., IV., V., and VI., extended the provisions of Articles I. and II. to merchants and other classes of men. Article VII. permits "every nobleman and gentleman compromised in the said articles" to carry side arms, and keep “a gun in their houses." Article VIII. gives the right of removing goods and chattels without search. Article IX. is as follows:

"The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as submit to their majesties' government shall be the oath aforesaid, and no other."

Article X. guarantees that "no person or persons who shall hereafter break these articles, or any of them, shall thereby

make or cause any other person or persons to forfeit or lose the benefit of them." Articles XI and XII. relate to the ratification of the articles" within eight months or sooner." Article XIII. refers to the debts of "Colonel John Brown, commissary of the Irish army, to several Protestants," and arranges for their satisfaction.

On the morning of the 5th of October, 1691, a singular scene was witnessed on the northern shore of the Shannon, beyond the city walls. On that day the Irish regiments were to make their choice between exile for life, or service in the armies of their conqueror. At each end of a gently rising ground beyond the suburbs, were planted on one side the royal standard of France, and on the other that of England. It was agreed that the regiments, as they marched out"with all the honors of war, drums beating, colors flying, and matches lighting"-should, on reaching this spot, wheel to the left or to the right beneath that flag under which they elected to serve. At the head of the Irish marched the foot guards-the finest regiment in the service-fourteen hundred strong. All eyes were fixed on this splendid body of men. On they came, amidst breathless silence and acute suspense; for well both the English and Irish generals knew that the choice of the first regiment would powerfully influence all the rest. The guards marched up to the critical spot andin a body wheeled to the colors of France; barely seven men turning to the English side Ginckle, we are told, was greatly agitated as he witnessed the proceeding. The next regiment, however (Lord Iveagh's) marched as unanimously to the Williamite banner, as did also portions of two others. But the bulk of the Irish army defiled under the Fleur de lis of king Louis; only one thousand and forty-six, out of nearly fourteen thousand men, preferring the service of England!

A few days afterwards a French fleet sailed up the Shannon with an aiding army, and bringing money, arms, ammunition, stores, food, and clothing! Ginckle, affrighted, imagined the Irish would now disclaim the articles, and renew the war. But it was not the Irish who were to break the Treaty of Limerick. Sarsfield, when told that a powerful fleet was sailing up the

river, seemed stunned by the news! He was silent for a moment, and then, in mournful accents, replied: "Too late. The treaty is signed; our honor is pledged-the honor of Ireland. Though a hundred thousand Frenchmen offered to aid us now, we must keep our plighted troth!"

He forbade the expedition to land, with a scrupulous sense of honor contending that the spirit if not the letter of the capitulation extended to any such arrival! The French ships, accordingly, were used only to transport to France the Irish army that had volunteered for foreign service. Soldiers and civilians, nobles, gentry, and clergy, there sailed in all nineteen thousand and twenty-five persons. Most of the officers, like their illustrious leader, Sarsfield, * gave up fortune, family, home, and friends, refusing the most tempting offers from William, whose anxiety to enrol them in his own service was earnestly and perseveringly pressed upon them to the last. Hard was their choice; great was the sacrifice. Full of anguish was that parting, whose sorrowful spirit has been so faithfully expressed by Mr. Aubrey de Vere, in the following simple and touching verses-the soliloquy of a brigade soldier sailing away from Limerick :

I snatched a stone from the bloodied brook,
And hurled it at my household door!

No farewell of my love I took:

I shall see my friend no more.

I dashed across the church-yard bound:
I knelt not by my parents' grave:
There rang from my heart a clarion's sound,
That summoned me o'er the wave.

No land to me can native be

That strangers trample, and tyrants stain:
When the valleys I loved are cleansed and free,
They are mine, they are mine again!

Till then, in sunshine or sunless weather,

By Seine and Loire, and the broad Garonne
My war-horse and I roam on together

Wherever God will. On! on!

* His patrimonial estates near Lucan, county Dublin, were, even at that day, worth nearly three thousand pounds per annum.

These were not wholly lost to Ireland, though not a man of them ever saw Ireland more. They served her abroad when they could no longer strike for her at home. They made her sad yet glorious story familiar in the courts of Christendom. They made her valor felt and respected on the battle-fields of Europe. And as they had not quitted her soil until they exacted terms from the conqueror, which if observed, might have been for her a charter of protection, so did they in their exile take a terrible vengeance upon that conqueror for his foul and treacherous violation of that treaty.

No! These men were not, in all, lost to Ireland. Their deeds are the proudest in her story. History may parallel, but it can adduce nothing to surpass the chivalrous devotion of the men who comprised this second great armed migration of Irish valor, faith, and patriotism.

LXXIII. HOW THE TREATY OF LIMERICK WAS BROKEN AND TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT BY THE "PROTESTANT INTEREST," YELLING FOR MORE PLUNDER AND MORE PERSECUTION.

HERE is no more bitter memory in the Irish breast than that which tells how the Treaty of Limerick was violated; and there is not probably on record a breach of public faith more nakedly and confessedly infamous than was that violation.

None of this damning blot touches William-now king de facto of two islands. He did his part; and the truthful historian is bound on good evidence to assume for him that he saw with indignation and disgust the shameless and dastardly breach of that treaty by the dominant and all-powerful Protestant faction. We have seen how the lords justices came down from Dublin and approved and signed the treaty at Limerick. The king bound public faith to it still more firmly, formally, and solemnly, by the issue of royal letters patent confirmatory of all its articles, issued from Westminster, 24th February, 1692, in the name of himself and queen Mary.

We shall now see how this treaty was kept toward the Irish Catholics.

The "Protestant interest" of Ireland, as they called themselves, no sooner found the last of the Irish regiments shipped

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Here it may be well to note an occurrence which some writers regard as a deliberate and foul attempt to overreach and trick Sarsfield in the treaty, but which might, after all, have been accident. The day after the treaty was signed in 'fair copy," it was discovered that one line-containing however one of the most important stipulations in the entire treaty-had been omitted in the "fair copy" by the Williamites, though duly set out in the "first draft" signed by both parties. The instant it was discovered, Sarsfield called on Ginckle to answer for it. The latter, and all the Wil. liamite "contracting parties," declared the omission purely accidental-inserted the line in its right place, and, by a supplemental agreement, solemnly covenanted that this identical line should have a special confirmation from the king and parlia ment. The king honorably did so, The parliament tore it into shreds!