The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-12-31
OF BOYNE.
A Quaint Description Of the Fa-
nous Fight by an Anony-
nous Writer. i
HOW 1T WAS LOST AND WON.
Inemciency Of King James as a
Leader Gave the Victory to
William of Orange.

Leader Gave the Victory to
William of Orange.
Amongst the manuscripts belonging to
the EarIs of Fingal, which used to be
preserved in Killeen Castle, was one of
more than ordinary interest, and which
has been more than once referred to aud
described by Irish historians Probably
the fullest and most accurate account of
its contents which hasyet been published
is that which, in 1885. Or. John I. Gil
bert gave in the tenth of the Historical
Manuscripts Commission. The docu-.
ment to which we refer is generally
styled, for shortness, "a Light to the
Blind" Sir William Wilde IN 1859 sub
mitted notice OF the work to the Royal
Irish Academy and quoted from the Earl
of Fingal who said he had always heard
that it was written by Nicholas PluDkett,
an eminent lawyer Of the time, who was
evidently an eyewitness of the battle.
The following extracts from the. old.
manuscript are given in a Dublin paper !.
The Prince of Orange with fayr troops
embarked at High Lake, in Lancashire
on the l1th of June, 1890, and or the
14th he landed at Oangfergus. He
joined Immediately Marshall Schomberg,
by which conjunction there was an army
made up of thirty-six thousand chosen
men, of which $4,000 were horse, most
veterans, Danes, Germans, French, Dutch,
English, SCOTS and Irish Protestants,
we'll payed, we'll clothed, with numer-
GUS artillery. With the Prince of Or
ange, and in some time before, came
Prince George of Denmark, the Duke OF
Wirtemberg, General of the Danes, the
Prince Of Hesse Darmstadt, tho Lord
Douglass, the Count de Nassau, the
Duke Ormond, Baron de Ginkle, Count
de Solmes, Lieutenant General Macay,
Major General Scravenmore, Major
General Talmash, Monsieur d Overkirk,
the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of Portland,
the Earl of Scarborough, the Earl of
Manchester, the Lord Sidney, and others
of quality out of England, all zealots for
the cause.
His Majesty had but eight regiments
and two troops of guards, tho, most ex-
cellent core; three regiments of which
viz, of Tyrconnell, Galmoy and Sarce-
field, could hardly be matched. The
King had also seven of dragons; and SO
Of foot, besides the five regiments he had
sent to France, in whose place he re-
ceived six French. Yet of these bodies
Of men, the King had not in the field
against the Prince the day Of the Boyne,
but $4,000 French and all; the rest be-
ing in garrisons; and his train of artil-
lery was not above 10 small pieces, of
which IL belonged to the French bri-
gade.
The writer of "A Light for the Blind"
is justitiably strong in his censure of
James for his entire neglect Of proper
effort to strengthen and sustain his po.
sit1on. After describing the Kings re-
treat from Dundalk towards Dublin he
tells how the foot crossed the Boyne
through Drogheda and the cavalry by
the self same ford at Old Bridge, which
William was so soon to utilize, and in
doing this he comments bitterly on the
folly which omitted to raise entrench-
ments along the river, (which might
have been done in the space of three
howers by three hundred pioneers"
The King observing the Prince to at
tempt trajection, commanded his army
to halt and face the enemy, which they
did; aud prepared themselves to fight
upon the passage Of the river. But
alas! they were deceived in their expec-
tatious, "tor there was no battle" be-
cause they were not brought to combat.
"There was only skirmish in, passing
the waters between party Of theirs and
the whole army Of Orange" And be-
cause this party did not keep ell tbs hos
tile troops beyond the food, the Kings
host must march away, and leave the
pe1s to the foe # there was settled
resolution to fight, why was not the army
led down in two wings to the river with
their field pieces, IS they saw the enc
my's forces divided; and there to stand
it out for two or three howerse The
hostile cannon could not much annoy
the Irish, as being mounted upon an
overlooking ground, while the Irish ar
tillery might play without obstruction
in the faces and TANKS Of the enemyes
as they we're descending to the river and
croeang It am confident By the
knowledge I have Of the loyal troops
and of their eagerneee Tor fighting that