In February, the Prince and Princess of Orange were elevated to the throne, by the title of King William and Queen Mary, and their accession was proclaimed at Inniskilling on the 11th of March. On the following day King James landed at Kinsale from France; he was accompanied by five thousand French troops, and made his public entry into Dublin on the 24th of March, three days after the accession of William and Mary had been proclaimed at Londonderry. In the mean time several encounters had taken place between the forces of King James and the newly-raised Protestant corps in the north of Ireland, in which many of the latter were overpowered; but the Inniskilling men were conspicuous for personal bravery, which they evinced on several occasions, and by their valour they preserved themselves from many of the calamities which befel others. On the approach of Lord Galmoy with a detachment of King James's army, the country people, fearing a general massacre, fled with their cattle and effects to Inniskilling. King James's troops besieged _Crom Castle_; but were driven from before the place with loss; and a party of his dragoons was seized at Armagh; a most gallant action was performed by two troops of horse and three companies of foot, under Mr. Matthew Anketill, by which _Monaghan Castle_ was preserved; and on the 12th of March Lord Blayney defeated a body of the Irish at _Ardtray bridge_. The success was, however, not always on one side: Captain Henry Hunter and a band of armed Protestants were surprised and destroyed, near Comber; and a party of Inniskilling men were slaughtered on the banks of the _Aughaclane_. The army of King James advanced against _Londonderry_, to which city the Protestants of that part of the country fled as to their last refuge, and they defended the place with heroic gallantry against the numerous army by which it was besieged. Colonels Thomas Cunningham and Solomon Richards arrived at Lough Foyle in the middle of April, with their regiments, the ninth and seventeenth foot, for the support of Derry; but in consequence of the misrepresentations of the governor, Colonel Lundy, who stated that there was not provision in the town for more than ten days, and that an army of 25,000 men was near the gates, they returned to England. The governor and town-council were desirous of surrendering; but when King James approached the town with his army, the garrison broke through all restraint--fired on the besieging force, killed several men, threatened to hang the governor and council for tampering with the enemy, and declared their resolution to defend the place to the last extremity. The governor escaped in disguise; a new council was chosen; and the Reverend George Walker and Major Thomas Baker were nominated joint-governors during the siege.