Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689; The Story of Some Famous Battle-Fields in Ulster. the Story of Some Famous Battlefields in Ulster (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1879. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX. THE REWARD. -HE Siege of Berry and the Defence of Enniskillen did not, as we have shown, terminate the struggle nor extinguish the hopes of King James in Ireland; but they stopped the meditated invasion of Scotland and England. The loss of time, the loss of money, and the loss of prestige, resulting from the unsuccessful assault upon these towns, made it impossible for him to attempt to carry his army across the Channel. The defeat had localised the war in Ireland; but had left the struggle to be finished afterwards'at the Boyne, at Aughrim, and at Limerick. The North of Ireland, and especially those districts which had been the seat of war, suffered severely. Both parties wasted and destroyed the property of the enemy, and also the property of their friends, for fear it should be seized by the enemy. It was difficult to say whether the helpless non-combatants suffered most from the one party or from the other. Between them the whole province was impoverished to such an extent, that years were required to enable it to recover. Houses were in ruins, villages burned, the fruits of the field wasted, everywhere around, famine and death. The gentry, clergy, farmers, artisans, and labourers of a whole province were driven from their peaceful avocations: some of them fled from the country; others were turned into soldiers; many of them were dead. The cannon, the musket, the broadsword, had become the familiar every-day weapons of men who had been much more appropriately employed at the sickle or the plough. Enniskillen, from the circumstances which its heroic defenders had created for themselves, had lost little except the time of its industrious people, and the precious lives of brave men who had fallen on the field. In every other respect it was ...