“Far dearer the grave, or the prison, Illumed by one patriot name, Than the trophies of all who have risen On liberty’s ruin to fame!” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOOK VI TREATING OF THE PERIOD FROM THE SECOND SIEGE OF LIMERICK, IN 1691, TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE EXILED FRANCO-IRISH BRIGADE A CENTURY LATER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER I Second Siege of Limerick—Terrific Bombardment—The English, Aided by Treachery, Cross the Shannon—Massacre of Thomond Bridge THE decisive battle having been lost by Ireland, what followed in this campaign became almost inevitable. Louis XIV and his ministers were criminally culpable in encouraging the Irish people to resistance when they did not mean to give them effective aid. Ireland had proved, in breach and field, that she needed no foreign troops to do her fighting, but she badly needed arms, ammunition, quartermaster’s supplies, and a money-chest. Perhaps the egotism of the French monarch and his advisers led them to underrate the importance of Ireland as a factor in the affairs of Europe, and the slanders of the perfidious Lauzun and his lieutenants had poisoned the mind of the ruler of France in regard to Irish valor. James, in his panic flight, had also carried with him to the French court a most unfavorable impression, and some Irish writers—among them Mr. Boyle—aver that Louis bitterly reproached the fallen king for his ignominious abandonment of Ireland after the affair of the Boyne. James, however, managed to conciliate his haughty cousin, and the latter made him still more promises of effective assistance.