besieging the door of a monastery or pursuing a diligence up him.
With ill concealed contempt, however, he addressed himself
vigorously to the task of disciplining these strange soldiers, and
was day and night in the saddle, galloping from post to post, from
Limerick to Athlone, from Athlone to the northern extremity of
Lough Rea, and from Lough Rea back to Limerick.86

It was indeed necessary that he should bestir himself; for, a few
days after his arrival, he learned that, on the other side of the
Pale, all was ready for action. The greater part of the English
force was collected, before the close of May, in the
neighbourhood of Mullingar. Ginkell commanded in chief. He had
under him the two best officers, after Marlborough, of whom our
island could then boast, Talmash and Mackay. The Marquess of
Ruvigny, the hereditary chief of the refugees, and elder brother
of the brave Caillemot, who had fallen at the Boyne, had joined
the army with the rank of major general. The Lord Justice
Coningsby, though not by profession a soldier, came down from
Dublin, to animate the zeal of the troops. The appearance of the
camp showed that the money voted by the English Parliament had
not been spared. The uniforms were new; the ranks were one blaze
of scarlet; and the train of artillery was such as had never
before been seen in Ireland.87

On the sixth of June Ginkell moved his head quarters from
Mullingar. On the seventh he reached Ballymore. At Ballymore, on
a peninsula almost surrounded by something between a swamp and a
lake, stood an ancient fortress, which had recently been
fortified under Sarsfield's direction, and which was defended by
above a thousand men. The English guns were instantly planted. In