tenoy and the redoubt of Eu-fairly in There was some confusion in the French sight of the French position. In front of army, owing to the surprise at this most them, as it chanced, were four battalions audacious advance, and the resistance at of the Gardes Francaises, with two bat-first was unconcerted and desultory. talions of Swiss guards on their left, and Regiment after regiment, both foot and two other French regiments on their right. horse, was hurled against the redoubtaThe French officers seem to have been ble column, but all were repulsed by greatly surprised when they saw the an admirably sustained fire, which the English battery of cannon taking position French called feu d'enfer. Voltaire states on the summit of the rising ground. that among the forces which made these "English cannon!" they cried; "let us go ineffectual attacks were certain Irish and take them." They mounted the hill battalions, and that it was in this charge with their grenadiers, but were astonished that the Colonel Count Dillon was killed. to find an army in their front. A heavy And still the formidable column steadily discharge, both of artillery and musketry, and slowly advanced, calmly loading and made them quickly recoil with heavy loss. firing, "as if on parade," says Voltaire, The English column continued to advance and were now full three hundred paces steadily, and the French guards, with the beyond the line of fire from Fontenoy and regiment of Courten, supported by other the redoubt of the wood, resolutely troops, having re-formed, came up to meet marching on towards the French headthem. It is at this point that the cere- quarters. By this time Count Saxe found monious salutes are said to have passed that his batteries at Fontenoy had used between Lord Charles Hay, who com- all their balls, and were only answering the manded the advance of the English, and guns of the enemy with discharges of the Count d'Auteroche, an officer of the powder. He believed the battle to be lost, French Grenadiers-the former taking off and sent two several times to entreat the his hat and politely requesting Messieurs king to cross the Scheldt, and get out of of the French Guards to fire-the latter danger, which the king, however, steadily also, with hat off, replying, "After you, refused to do. Messieurs." D'Espagnac and Voltaire both record this piece of stage-courtesy. But Carlyle, though he says it is a pity, disturbs the course of history by means of "a small irrefragable document which has come to him," namely, an original letter from Lord Hay to his brother, of which this is an excerpt: "It was our regiment that attacked the French Guards; and when we came within twenty or thirty paces of them I advanced before our regiment, drank to them (to the French), and told them, that we were the English Guards, and hoped they would stand till we came quite up to them, and not to swim the Scheldt, as they did the Mayn at Dettingen; upon which I immediately turned about to our own regiment, speeched them and made them huzzah. An officer (d'Auteroche) came out of the ranks, and tried to make his men huzzah. However, there was not above three or four in their brigade did," &c. In fact, it appears that the French, who, according to that chivalrous legend, "never fired first," did fire first on this occasion; but both Gardes Francaises and Swiss Guards were driven off the field with considerable slaughter. And still the English column advanced, with a terrible steadiness, pouring forth a tremendous fire of musketry and artillery, suffering greviously by repeated attacks, both in front and flank, but still closing up its gapped ranks, and showing a resolute face on both sides. Military critics have said that at this crisis of the battle, if the English had been supported by cavalry, and due force of artillery, to complete the disorder of the French-or, if the Dutch, under Waldeck, had at that moment resolutely repeated their assault upon St. Antoine, the victory was to the Duke of Cumberland, and the whole French army must have been flung into the Scheldt river. Count Saxe was now in mortal anxiety, and thought the battle really lost, when the Duke de Richelieu rode up at a full gallop and suggested a plan, which was happily adopted. It was the thought of that same Colonel Count de Lally, who has been heard of before at Dettingen.* In fact, this famous plan does not appear to have required any peculiar strategic genius to conceive, for it was neither more nor less than to open with a battery of cannon right in front of the advancing column, and then attack it simultaneously with all the reserves, including the King's household cavalry, and the Irish brigade, which still stood motionless near the western point of the wood of Barri, and now abreast of the English column on its right flank. There was also in the same quarter the French regiment of "It is said the Jacobite Irishman, Count Lally, of the Irish brigade, was prime author of this notion.-"-Carlyle, Frederick. This is the only indication in all Carlyle's laboured account of the battle that he was aware even of the presence of one Irishman. France were immense-Tourney at once surrendered; Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges, Dendermonde, Ostend, were taken in quick succession; and the English and their allies driven back behind the swamps and canals of Holland. Normandie, and several other corps which lant Dillon was killed, with one-fourth of had already been repulsed and broken in the officers and one-third of the rank and several ineffectual assaults on the im-file; but the immediate consequences to pregnable column.* A French authority † informs us that "this last decisive charge was determined upon. in the very crisis of the day, in a conversation, rapid and sharp as lightning, between Richelieu, galloping from rank to rank, and Lally, who was out of patience at the thought that the devoted ardour of the Irish brigade was not to be made use of." He had his wish, and at the moment when the battery opened on the front of the column, the brigade had orders to assail its right flank, and to go in with the bayonet. The English mass was now stationary, but still unshaken, and never doubting to finish the business, but looking wistfully back for the cavalry, and longing for the Dutch. Suddenly four guns opened at short range straight into the head of their column; and at the same moment the Irish regiments plunged into their right flank with bayonets levelled and a hoarse roar that rose above all the din of battle. The words were in an unknown tongue; but if the English had understood it, they would have known that it meant "Remember Limerick!" That fierce charge broke the steady ranks, and made the vast column waver and reel. It was seconded by the regiment of Normandie with equal gallantry, while on the other flank the cavalry burst in impetuously, and the four guns in front were ploughing long lanes through the dense ranks. It was too much. The English resisted for a little with stubborn bravery, but at length tumbled into utter confusion and fled from the field, leaving it covered thickly with their own dead and their enemies. They were not pursued far, for, once outside of the lines, their cavalry was enabled to cover their retreat. The allies lost nine thousand men, including two thousand prisoners, and the French five thousand. So the battle of Fontenoy was fought and won.‡ None of all the French victories in that age caused in Paris such a tumult of joy and exultation. In England there were lamentation, and wrath, and courts-martial; but not against the Duke of Cumberland, for the King's son could do no wrong. In Ireland, as the news came in, first, of the British defeat, and then, gradually, of the glorious achievements of the brigade and the honours paid to Irish soldiers, a sudden but silent flush of triumph and of hope broke upon the oppressed race; and many a gloomy countenance brightened with a gleam of stern joy, in the thought that the long mourned "Wild-geese would one day return, with freedom and vengeance in the flash of the bayonets of Fontenoy. CHAPTER XI. 1745-1753. Alarm in England.-Expedition of Prince Charles -Lucas and the Patriots.-Debates on the Supplies.-Boyle and Malone.-Population of Ireland. THE battle of Fontenoy was an event in the history of Ireland-not only by the English. But Voltaire always grudges any credit to his histories when he can possibly avoid it. D'Arthe Irish troops, and never speaks of them at all in genson himself was well known to be no friend of theirs, and would not have praised them on this ocof all. Indeed, in the same letter to Voltaire this casion if their bravery had not attracted the notice courtier says very emphatically-"The truth, the positive fact, without flattery, is this-the king gained the battle himself." The services of the brigade, however, on that great day, were too notorious in the French army to It cost the Irish brigade dear. The gal-be altogether concealed. The Memoir cited before from the Biographie Universelle says: "It is notorious how much the Irish brigade contributed to the victory by bursting at the point of the bayonet into the flank of the terrible English column, while Kichelieu cannonaded it in front." The Marquis D'Argenson, minister of Foreign Affairs, was present in the battle, and immediately after wrote a narrative of it, which he addressed to M. de Voltaire, then "Historiographer to the King." He says: "A false corps de reserve was then brought up; it consisted of the same cavalry which had at first charged ineffectually, the household troops of the king, the carbineers of the French guards, who had not yet been engaged, and a body of hish troops, which were excellent, especially when opposed to the English and Hanoverians."" Bieg. Univ. Lally. M de Voltaire, though he gives a long account of this battle, and cannot avoid naming a least the Irish brigade, has not one word of praise for it. This is the more notable, as he had D'Argenson's Memoir before him, who speaks of them as proving themselves excellent troups, especially against the English historians scarce mention the brigade at all on this occasion; but Lord Mahon is a creditable exception. He says Count Saxe "drew together the household troops, the whole reserve, and every other man that could be mustered; but foremost of all were the gallant exiles of the Irish brigade." Voltaire, however, speaking of the troops who charged on the right flank, takes care to say "Les Irlandais les secondent." Isut, perhaps, the best attestation to the services of the brigade was the imprecation on the Penal Code wrung from King George when he was told of the events of that day, Cursed be the laws which deprive me of such sub'jects!" principal chiefs of the enterprise were officers of the Irish brigade, coming flushed from Fontenoy; and the Government thought it was not in the nature of things that there could be tranquillity in Ireland. There must surely be an arrangement either for stirring an insurrection in the island itself, or for sending fighting men to Scotland. On the whole, it was judged needful, in this dangerous crisis of British affairs, to show some indulgence to the Irish; and, accordingly, in the month of September, just as Prince Charles Edward was leading his mountaineers into Edinburgh, an amiable viceroy was sent to Dublin, bearing what might be called a reflected glory of Irish heroism, but be- bite spirit; besides, it was known that the cause disaster to England was followed, as usual, by a relaxation of the atrocities inflicted upon Irish Catholics, under the Penal Code. England, indeed, was in profound alarm, and not without cause, for, not only had the campaign in the Netherlands gone so decidedly against her, but, almost immediately after, it became known that preparations were on foot in France for a new invasion on behalf of Charles Edward, the "Young Pretender." The prince was now twenty-five years of age. He had been wasting away his youth at Rome, where his father, James III., then resided. In 1742 he was recalled to France, and some hopes were held out of giving him an armed force of French, Scotch, and Irish, to assert his father's rights to the crown of England. For three years he had waited impatiently for his opportunity; but the times were then so busy that nobody thought of him. It was the Cardinal de Tencin, who one day advised him to wait no longer, but go with a few friends to some point in the north of Scotland. "Your presence alone," said the cardinal, "will create for you a party and an army; then France must send you succour." In short, the prince consulted with a few of his friends, chiefly Irish officers; an armed vessel of eighteen guns was placed at his disposal by an Irish merchant of Nantes, named Walsh; a French ship-of-war was ordered to escort him; and on the 12th of June, just one month after Fontenoy, he set sail with only seven attendants upon his adventurous errand. The seven who accompanied him were the Marquis of Tullibardine, brother to the Duke of Athol, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Colonel O'Sullivan ("who was appointed," says Voltaire, "Maréchal des Logis of the army not yet in being"), a Scotch officer named MacDonald, an Irish officer named Kelly, and an English one named Strickland. They landed on the bare shore of Moidart, in the Highlands, where the prince was quickly joined by some of the Jacobite clans, the MacDonald, Lochiel, Cameron, and Fraser. The Dukes of Argyle and Queensberry, however, who controlled other powerful clans, kept aloof, and prepared to take the part of the reigning king. King George was at this moment in Hanover; but the lords of his council of regency made the best arrangements possible for resistance in a country so nearly stripped of all its regular troops, and set a price upon the prince's head. In this emergency it was necessary to think of Ireland, as it was considerd certain that the prince must have had agents in that country to stir up its ancient Jaco message of peace to Ireland." This was the Earl of Chesterfield, who had a reputation for gallantry, accomplishments, and an easy disposition. What Lord Chesterfield's secret instructions were, we can only judge by the course of his administration. He at once put a stop to the business of priest-hunting, and allowed the Catholic chapels in Dublin and elsewhere to be opened for service. On the 8th of October he met Parliament; and although in his speech on that occasion he recommended the Houses to turn their attention to the laws against Popery and consider whether they needed any amendment, yet this was expressed in a cold and rather equivocal manner, which greatly disgusted the fierce and gloomy bigots of the "Ascendency." He recommended no new penal laws, thinking probably there were quite enough already, and did not even introduce that traditional exhortation to the Houses- to exercise extreme vigilance in putting in force that Penal Code which they already had in such high perfection. He soon made it evident, in short, that active persecution was to be suspended, although that indulgence was contrary to law; and those too zealous magistrates who had earned distinction by active prosecution of Papists under former viceroys found only discouragement and rebuke at the Castle. Chancellors, judges, and sheriffs were made to understand that if they would do the king's business aright this time, they must leave the common enemy" in peace for the present. But Lord Chesterfield, immediately on coming over, employed many confidential agents, or, in short, spies, to find out what the Catholics were doing, thinking of, and talking about-whether there were any secret meetings-above all, whether there was any apparent diminution in the numbers of young men at fairs and other gatherings; in short, whether there was him with the fact that his own coachman was in the habit of going to Mass. Is it possible?" cried Chesterfield; then me there." A courtier burst into his apartment one morning, while he was sipping his chocolate in bed, with the startling intelligence that the Papists were rising" in Connaught, Ah!" he said, looking at his watch, "'tis nine o'clock; time for them to rise." There was evidently no dealing with such a viceroy as this, who showed such insensibility to the perils of Protestantism and the evil designs of the dangerous Papists. Indeed, he was seen to distinguish by his peculiar admiration a Papist beauty, Miss Ambrose, whom he declared to be the only "dangerous Papist " he had met in Ireland. any migration to Scotland, or any uneasy movement of the people, as if in expectation of something coming. Nothing of all this did he find, and, in truth, I will take care the fellow shall not drive nothing of the kind existed. The people were perfectly tranquil, not much seeming even to know or to care what was going on in Scotland, enjoying quietly their unwonted exemption from the actual lash of the penal laws, and even repairing to holy wells again without fear of fine and whipping. It is true the lash was still held over them, and they were soon to feel it; true, also, that they were still excluded from all rights and franchises as strictly as ever. Not one penal law was repealed or altered; but there was at least forbearance towards their worship and their clergy. They might see a venerable priest now walking, in daylight even, from his "registered" parish It was during this period of quietude into another, to perform some rite or ser- and comparative relief that the excellent vice of religion, without fear of informers, Bishop Berkeley, of Cloyne, wrote a of hand-cuffs, and of transportation. Nay, pamphlet, in the form of an address to bishops and vicars apostolic could venture the Roman Catholics of his diocese of to cross the sea, and ordain priests and Cloyne. He had evidently feared that confirm children, in a quiet way; and it the Irish Catholics were secretly enwas believed that not even a monk could gaged in a conspiracy to make an insurfrighten Lord Chesterfield, who, in fact, rection in aid of the Pretender; and had lived for years in France, and re-writes in a kind and paternal manner, exspected a monk quite as much as a rector of the Establishment. Having once satisfied himself that there was no insurrectionary movement in the country, and none likely to be, he was not to be moved from his tolerant course by any complaints or remonstrances. Far from yielding to the feigned alarm of those who solicited him to raise new regiments, he sent four battalions of the soldiers then in Ireland to reinforce the Duke of Cumberland. He discouraged jobs, kept down expenses, took his pleasure, and made himself exceedingly popular in his intercourse with Dublin society; and not having forgotten the precepts which he had given to his son, the old beau (he was now fifty-two) pretended, from habit, to be making love to the wives of men of all parties. When some savage Ascendancy Protestant would come to him with tales of alarm, he usually turned the conversation into a tone of light badinage, which perplexed and baffiled the man. One came to seriously put his lordship on his guard by acquainting horting them to keep the peace and attend quietly to their own industry, though, indeed, the bishop is evidently at a loss for arguments which he can urge upon this proscribed, disfranchised race, why they should take their lot quietly and be loyal to a Government which does not recognize their existence. In the meanwhile, Prince Charles Edward, with his Highlanders, had won the battle of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh (2nd October), and a few days after that victory arrived a French and a Spanish ship, bringing money and a supply of Irish officers, who, having served in France and Spain, were capable of disciplining his rude troops.* He marched south-westward, took and garrisoned Carlisle, advanced through Lancashire, where a body of three hundred English joined his standard, and thence as far as Derby, within thirty leagues of London. Report, which exaggerates everything, represented his army as amounting to thirty thousand men, and all Lancashire as having declared in his favour. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended; the shops were closed * Plowden. This worthy writer, as well as his for a day or two; and Dutch and Hessian predecessor, Dr. Curry, is very emphatic in estab- troops were brought over in a great hurry lishing the "loyal" attitude of the Irish people upon this occasion. Dr. Curry takes pains to prove that from the Continent. The Franco-Irish solno Irish Catholic, lay or clerical, was any way en-diers in the service of France now begaged in the Scottish rebellion of 1715." It is proba- came violently excited and impatient. ble that Sheridan, O'Sullivan, Kelly, and other They imagined that a descent upon Eng French-Irish officers, who fought in Scotland, were * Voltaire. land, in the neighbonrhood of Plymouth, an English force at Falkirk. This was would be quite practicable, as the passage is so short from Calais or Boulogue. The plan was to cross by night with ten thousand men and some cannon. Once disembarked, a great part of England would rise to join them, and they could easily form a junction with the prince, probably near London. The officers, of whom the most active in this business was Lally, demanded, as leader of the expedition, the Duke de Richelieu. who had fought with them at Fontenoy. They urged their point so earnestly that at length permission was granted. But the expedition never took place on anything like the scale on which it was projected. M. de Voltaire, in describing the preparations, for once departs from his usual rule so far as to praise an Irishman. He says: Lally, who has since then been a lieutenant-general, and who died so tragic a death, was the soul of the enterprise. The writer of this history, who long worked along with him, can affirm that he has never seen a man more full of zeal, and that there needed nothing to the enterprise but possibility. It was impossible to go to sea in face of the English squad-in presence at Culloden-the prince with rons; and the attempt was regarded in London as absurd."* the last of its successes. The Duke of Cumberland was now marching into Scotland with a considerable army, and arrived in Edinburgh on the 10th of February. Prince Charles Edward was obliged to raise the siege of Stirling Castle. The winter was severe, and subsistence was scarce. His last resource was now in the northern Highlands, where there was still a force on foot, watching the seaports to receive the supplies which might still be sent from France; but most of the vessels destined to that service were captured by English cruisers. Three companies of the Irish regiment of Fitzjames arrived safely, and were received by the Highlanders with acclamations of joy-the women running down to meet them and leading the officers' horses by the bridles. Still the prince was now hard pressed by the English; he retired to Inverness, which he made his headquarters; and on the 23rd of April he learned that the duke, steadily advancing through the mountains, had crossed the river Spey, and felt that a decisive battle was now imminent. On the 27th the two armies were five thousand men or less, the duke with ten thousand, well supplied with both cavalry and artillery. The English were by this time accustomed to the Highland manner of fighting, which had so intimidated them at first, and with such superiority of numbers and equipments the event could scarcely be doubtful. The prince's small army were totally defeat In fact, only a handful of troops was actually sent; and these troops were not Irish, but Scotch. Lord Drummond, brother of the Duke of Perth, an officer in the French service, set forth in one vessel, by way of the German Sea, and arrived safely at Montrose with three companies of the Royal Ecossais, a Scot-ed, with a loss of nine hundred killed tish regiment in French service. But before this small reinforcement arrived, the army of the Prince had already retired from the centre of England. It had been diminished and weakened by various causes, the principal of which were jealousies of Highland chiefs against one another, and of lowland lairds against them all, together with a general lack of discipline, and ere long a lack of provisions also. The Jacobite force made the best of its way back to Scotland, and soon after (January 28, 1746), utterly defeated Any attempt of any kind is always regarded in London as absurd; and Voltaire was always too ready to adopt the view of English affairs which the English chose to give. He never wished for the Hanover a blessing to England, and did not care for Ireland at all. The reasons why he disliked the Irish were, first, that they were good Catholics, and, next, that the Irish in France were not very modest in asserting their pretensions and demanding recog success of the Stuarts; considered the House of nition of their services. It was Voltaire's corre spondent, D'Argenson, when minister, that said once to King Louis, "Those Irish troops give more trouble than all the rest of your majesty's army.' My enemies say so," answered the king. and three hundred and twenty prisoners. The prince himself made his way into the mountains, accompanied by his faithful_friends, heridan and O'Sullivan ; and his adventures, concealments, and ultimate escape, are sufficiently well known. This was the last struggle of the Stuarts, and their cause was now lost utterly and for ever. There were still, from time to time, plots, and even attempts by the Scottish Jacobites to make at least some commencement of a new insurrection, but all in vain. Ever after Jacobitism existed only in songs and toasts, sung and pledged in private society; and many a house in Edinburgh and glen in the Highlands is yet made to ring with those plaintive or warlike lyrics. So long as the prince lived, the health of Prince Charlie was often drunk, or, "The King over the Water;" but he died in Florence in 1788, without legitimate posterity, and the cause of the ancient family sank definitively into the domain of sentimental associations and romantic souvenirs. |