made no forward movement, they decamped and marched in good order to Milton Pass, a small village about six miles to the north-west, on a river which empties into the southern section of Lough Ree. There they remained until ten o'clock next day, when the infantry took up their march towards the south-west, and the cavalry, after remaining some hours longer to protect their rear, took the same direction, and disappeared from the sight of the enemy. CHAPTER XVII. THE INTERVAL FROM JULY 1ST TO THE 12TH. From its central position on the principal river of the country, Athlone, at any period of the war, was of the utmost importance to either belligerent; its loss to the Irish cause was, at this particular crisis, a misfortune almost irreparable. It was the main link in that chain of fortresses which the Irish generals had early recommended as a base of operations, from which they could indefinitely prolong the war, and eventually roll back the tide of invasion. Their successful defence of it since the battle of the Boyne had tended to strengthen that belief, for, notwithstanding the incessant assaults of the enemy, not a link in the chain had been broken, and every attempt to sever it had resulted in his repulse or discomfiture. Well has the Shannon been termed the "principal feature of the island:" nay more! in a military sense it is the key to it. Though most of its principal garrisons are approachable by roads at all seasons; yet, by reason of its high winter floods, rising towards the beginning of October, and scarce ever receding until the end of May; with its islands and adjacent callow lands completely inundated, it appears throughout its whole length a chain of extensive lakes, completely hiding its main channel, and greatly limiting the number of assailable points throughout the intervening period. The possession of Limerick, too, by the native army, deprived the invader of the advantage of any craft, save such as could be improvised in the interior, and against the action of cannon these were almost or totally unserviceable. There were, therefore, only five or six months of the year during which the invading army could prosecute a vigorous campaign along its environs, and with its garrisons in a proper state of defence, with the native army lying conveniently behind them, and the other three provinces open to its incursions at will, all the power of England alone were incompetent to the reduction of the country.