Although England was delivered from the power of papacy and despotism, a great part of Ireland was subject to King James and his adherents, whose cruel proceedings towards the protestants awakened the sympathies of the English nation, and King William resolved to proceed to the rescue of the unoffending sufferers. Colonel BABINGTON'S regiment was one of the corps selected to proceed to Ireland: it embarked at Highlake on the 12th of April, 1690, and immediately on landing marched to the siege of _Charlemont_--a strong castle situate on the angle formed by the confluence of the river Canlin with the Blackwater, on the eastern side of the county of Armagh, and erected in 1602 by Lord Mountjoy, as a curb on the Earl of Tyrone, whose chief mansion-house, with a strong fort, was at Dungannon, about five miles north-west of it. Under the shelter of this fort a town was built, which in 1689 was a corporation, sending members to parliament. It contained a good garrison under Teague O'Regan, an old soldier and a great humorist, who made a resolute defence. The garrison being in want of provision, King James sent a small supply, accompanied by a detachment of five hundred men under Colonel M'Mahon, who was permitted to enter the castle, but not to return. On the third night they attempted to force their way through the besieging force, but were repulsed with the loss of an officer and eight men; a second attempt made on the following day was also unsuccessful; and during the succeeding night they made another attempt, and were driven back with the loss of sixteen men. O'Regan was so incensed at their ill success, that he fastened the gates upon them, and refused to admit them into the castle; and they were forced to make huts in the dry ditch within the palisadoes and on the counterscarp. The place being closely invested, the garrison was forced to surrender in the middle of May for want of provision; and four companies of the SIXTH, commanded by the major, took possession of the castle, where they found seventeen pieces of cannon and a large mortar, also a good supply of ammunition: but the fortress was found in so filthy a condition, that the officers and men were forced to encamp until it was thoroughly cleansed. In the early part of June the regiment pitched its tents on the undulating grounds near Armagh; and the regiments of Lloyd, Cutts, Hastings, and Fowkes, eleven regiments of Danish horse and foot, and a brigade of Dutch cavalry, afterwards joined the camp.