Through the preceding events of the war, the Rapparees had played no insignificant part. The torch of the invader had rendered them homeless and reckless, and, thrown on their own resources, they took up this wild life, and wrung their subsistence from the enemy with a daring hand. From the Shannon to the eastern coast, wherever a tribute could be levied, or a British detachment ambushed, there were the stealthy Rapparees wresting a reprisal or wreaking a revenge. Neither toil nor privation seemed to affect them, nor could danger deter them from their purpose. Death, swift and certain, was their doom when captured, and that they dealt as swiftly and surely in their turn. Unable, through want of regular arms and discipline, to meet large bodies of the enemy in the field, they divided into small bands, and traversed the country in all directions. All the by-ways of the land were known to them; they came and went like shadows; and wherever they passed, there was a hostage or a victim. No position of the enemy, however guarded, was safe from them, and frequently in the dead of night, when his camp seemed most secure, the skies would be suddenly lit up by the blaze of his tents, and horses and other booty secured in the confusion, and borne with a noble disinterestedness to the headquarters of the Jacobite army. In fine, the Irish Rapparee was an Irish patriot, and a devoted one,--as brave and devoted as the Chouan of La Vendée. He fought without pay; suffered without murmur, and gave his life for a country that scarce holds his name in grateful remembrance. Such were the men that Sarsfield now called to his aid, and for this purpose, he "let loose,"--says the English historian of the war,--"a great part of the army to manage the best for themselves that time and opportunity would allow them, giving them passes to signify what regiments they belonged to, so that in case they were taken they might not be dealt with as Rapparees, but _soldiers_.... Keeping a constant correspondence with one another and also with the Irish army, who furnished them with all necessaries, especially ammunition." These soldiers now extended along the whole frontier, and in a short time established communication between the Rapparees and the regular army, while Sarsfield, with a small force, took the field, to profit by every diversion they might create in his favor.