A Popular History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Queen Victoria; Vol. IVGuizot, François
History
A Popular History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Queen Victoria; Vol. IV
Guizot, François
Great Britain -- History
The death of Dundee was in truth the end of the Scotch rising.
Irregular and indecisive actions were continued for some time
between the Highlanders and the Cameronian regiments, inflamed
against each other by religious and political passions. Meantime
the mountaineers returned gradually to their flocks. On
separating, their chiefs declared that they remained the faithful
subjects of King James, always ready to serve him.
They had ceased fighting for him when Marshal Schomberg landed at
Antrim, on the 13th of August. Soon master of Carrick-Fergus, he
had much difficulty in protecting the Irish regiments against the
rage of the Protestant colonists. The courage of the Jacobites
revived a little: twenty thousand men were assembled under the
walls of Drogheda. After one day's march, Schomberg had
entrenched himself in a strong position near Dundalk.
The inexperienced zeal of the Irish, as well as of the English
recruits brought by Schomberg, led them to desire immediate
battle; but Rosen and Schomberg were old commanders, accustomed
to weigh the chances of war and the valor of armies; and neither
was eager to give battle. In spite of the maladies which ravaged
his army, of the bad quality of the provisions, and of the
injurious rumors circulated against him in England as well as
Ireland, Schomberg remained shut up in his camp at Dundalk
without the enemy's daring to attack him. When he returned to the
north, at the beginning of November, the Irish had taken up their
winter quarters and did not disturb themselves about his retreat.
"I declare," wrote the marshal, from Lisburn to William III.,
"that if it were not for the profound obedience I have for your
majesty's orders, I should prefer the honor of being inactive at
your court to the command of an army in Ireland composed as was
that of the past campaign; and if I had hazarded a battle, which
would have been hard to do if the enemy wished to remain in his
camp, I should perhaps have lost all that you possess in this
kingdom, without speaking of the consequences which might have
resulted from it in Scotland, and even in England."
{29}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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