Towards the end of May the different divisions of the British army were put in motion towards Mullingar. On the 27th, General Douglas marched from the North with a force of about 10,000 men, and encamped at Ardagh. At the same time Wurtemburg put his troops in motion from Thurles, taking the detached garrisons on his route, and replacing them with the organized militia. On the 28th, Major-Generals Mackey and Ruvigney arrived with their divisions and encamped outside the town. About the same time General Talmash and Sir Martin Beckman, the Chief Engineer, landed at Dublin with troops and a corps of sappers and miners, and set the great train of artillery--"such as had never been seen before in that kingdom"--on its way, and immediately started for the camp. And "to give them the more comfort," Ginckle received advice from Opdam, who regulated the cartel at Breda, that the Irish soldiers released in lieu of the Dutch prisoners, were not to be returned to Ireland, but sent into the French service, and that the Irish officers would not be exchanged according to the rank they laid claim to.[60] Proclamations again became the order of the day, all tending to the same object--the "comfort" of the English troops, and inviting desertions from their enemy. On the 31st of May, Ginckle appeared in person at Mullingar. All his outposts were immediately called in, notwithstanding strong protests from the Lords-Justices to the contrary; for he had determined to put forth all his strength, as the arrival of St. Ruth filled him with apprehension, and he only yielded to their appeals so far as to give them some officers from the army to command the private companies which all the country gentlemen now enrolled for their own protection. Ginckle immediately contracted the defences of Mullingar, drew out his troops, and sent orders to Wurtemburg to encamp opposite to Banagher and Meelick, being resolved to force the river at one or both of those places, and afterwards to invest Athlone on the east and west. But finding a portion of the Irish army well advanced towards Frankfort, he abandoned that design, the order was countermanded, and Wurtemburg was directed to take a more circuitous route to the eastward, and join him on his way to Athlone.