第741章 CHAPTER XVI(1)

William lands at Carrickfergus, and proceeds to Belfast--State of Dublin; William's military Arrangements--William marches southward--The Irish Army retreats--The Irish make a Stand at the Boyne--The Army of James--The Army of William--Walker, now Bishop of Derry, accompanies the Army--William reconnoitres the Irish Position; William is wounded--Battle of the Boyne--Flight of James--Loss of the two Armies--Fall of Drogheda; State of Dublin--James flies to France; Dublin evacuated by the French and Irish Troops--Entry of William into Dublin--Effect produced in France by the News from Ireland--Effect produced at Rome by the News from Ireland--Effect produced in London by the News from Ireland--James arrives in France; his Reception there--Tourville attempts a Descent on England--Teignmouth destroyed--Excitement of the English Nation against the French--The Jacobite Press--The Jacobite Form of Prayer and Humiliation--Clamour against the nonjuring Bishops--Military Operations in Ireland; Waterford taken--The Irish Army collected at Limerick; Lauzun pronounces that the Place cannot be defended--The Irish insist on defending Limerick--Tyrconnel is against defending Limerick; Limerick defended by the Irish alone--Sarsfield surprises the English Artillery--Arrival of Baldearg O'Donnel at Limerick--The Besiegers suffer from the Rains--Unsuccessful Assault on Limerick; The Siege raised--Tyrconnel and Lauzun go to France;William returns to England; Reception of William in England--Expedition to the South of Ireland--Marlborough takes Cork--Marlborough takes Kinsale--Affairs of Scotland; Intrigues of Montgomery with the Jacobites--War in the Highlands--Fort William built; Meeting of the Scottish Parliament--Melville Lord High Commissioner; the Government obtains a Majority--Ecclesiastical Legislation--The Coalition between the Club and the Jacobites dissolved--The Chiefs of the Club betray each other--General Acquiescence in the new Ecclesiastical Polity--Complaints of the Episcopalians--The Presbyterian Conjurors--William dissatisfied with the Ecclesiastical Arrangements in Scotland--Meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland--State of Affairs on the Continent--The Duke of Savoy joins the Coalition--Supplies voted; Ways and Means--Proceedings against Torrington--Torrington's Trial and Acquittal--Animosity of the Whigs against Caermarthen--Jacobite Plot--Meeting of the leading Conspirators--The Conspirators determine to send Preston to Saint Germains--Papers entrusted to Preston--Information of the Plot given to Caermarthen--Arrest of Preston and his Companions WILLIAM had been, during the whole spring, impatiently expected in Ulster. The Protestant settlements along the coast of that province had, in the course of the month of May, been repeatedly agitated by false reports of his arrival. It was not, however, till the afternoon of the fourteenth of June that he landed at Carrickfergus. The inhabitants of the town crowded the main street and greeted him with loud acclamations: but they caught only a glimpse of him. As soon as he was on dry ground he mounted and set off for Belfast. On the road he was met by Schomberg. The meeting took place close to a white house, the only human dwelling then visible, in the space of many miles, on the dreary strand of the estuary of the Laggan. A village and a cotton mill now rise where the white house then stood alone; and all the shore is adorned by a gay succession of country houses, shrubberies and flower beds. Belfast has become one of the greatest and most flourishing seats of industry in the British isles. A busy population of eighty thousand souls is collected there. The duties annually paid at the Custom House exceed the duties annually paid at the Custom House of London in the most prosperous years of the reign of Charles the Second. Other Irish towns may present more picturesque forms to the eye. But Belfast is the only large Irish town in which the traveller is not disgusted by the loathsome aspect and odour of long lines of human dens far inferior in comfort and cleanliness to the dwellings which, in happier countries, are provided for cattle.