King James, shamefully for himself, deserted the battlefield, or, rather, the outer edge of it, before the fight at the fords was over. An Irish Protestant poet, the late Dr. W. R. Wilde, of Dublin, says of the incident: “But where is James? What! urged to fly, Ere quailed his brave defenders! Their dead in Oldbridge crowded lie, But not a sword surrenders!” He reached Dublin at 9 o’clock that evening, while still the Irish army exchanged shots with William’s troops across the Nannywater at the pass of Duleek! Tradition says that, meeting Lady Tyrconnel at the Castle, he exclaimed: “Your countrymen run well, madam!” The spirited Irishwoman at once replied: “I congratulate your Majesty on having won the race!” English historians, in general, taking their cue from Story, are ungenerous to the Irish in connection with the Boyne. English troops had comparatively little hand in obtaining the victory. The French writers, also, in order to screen the misconduct, and possibly treason, of De Lauzun, seek to throw all the blame for the loss of the battle on their Irish allies. Not so, many of the Irish Protestant writers, whose coreligionists bore a great deal of the brunt of the fighting on William’s side, and were thus enabled to know the truth. Among those writers may be mentioned Colonel William Blacker, poet-laureate of the Orange Order in Ireland, who wrote at the beginning of the last century, and, in his poem, “The Battle of the Boyne,” gives full credit to his Catholic fellow-countrymen for their valor, thus: “In vain the sword Green Erin draws and life away doth fling— Oh! worthy of a better cause and of a braver king! In vain thy bearing bold is shown upon that blood-stained ground; Thy towering hopes are overthrown—thy choicest fall around. “Hurrah! hurrah! the victor shout is heard on high Donore! Down Plottin’s Vale, in hurried rout, thy shattered masses pour. But many a gallant spirit there retreats across the plain, Who ‘change but kings’ would gladly dare that battlefield again!” The expression, in regard to exchanging monarchs, alluded to in the ballad, is founded on a saying attributed to Sarsfield, who, on being taunted by a British officer at the Duleek outposts the night of the engagement, exclaimed: “Change kings with us, and we will fight the battle over again with you!”