then and there if the unfortunate people were not removed.  It is to the credit of the Derry men that they shared their provisions to the last with their prisoners, even while they were dying themselves of starvation.  Perhaps the example of humanity set to them by General Hamilton was not without its effect, for kindness and cruelty seem equally contagious in time of war.  Kirke’s squadrons at last passed the forts, broke the boom, and relieved the garrison, who could not have held out forty-eight hours longer.  It was suspected that English gold had procured their admittance, and that the officers who commanded the forts were bribed to let them pass unscathed.  The siege was at once raised; the royal army withdrew on the 5th of August; and thus terminated the world-famed siege of Derry.

James now held his Parliament in Dublin, repealed the Act of Settlement, passed the Act of Attainder, and issued an immense quantity of base coin.  He has been loudly condemned by some historians for these proceedings; but it should be remembered (1) that the Act of Settlement was a gross injustice, and, as such, it was but justice that it should be repealed.  Had the measure been carried out, however severely it might have been felt by the Protestant party, they could not have suffered from the repeal as severely as the Catholics had suffered from the enactment. (2) The Act of Attainder simply proclaimed that the revolutionists were rebels against their lawful King, and that they should be treated as such. (3) The utterance of base coin had already been performed by several Governments, and James only availed himself of the prerogatives exercised by his predecessors.

The day on which the siege of Derry was raised, the royalists met with a severe reverse at Newtownbutler.  They were under the command of Lord Mountcashel, when attacked by the Enniskilleners.  The dragoons had already been dispirited by a reverse at Lisnaskea; and a word of command[538] which was given incorrectly, threw the old corps into confusion, from which their brave leader in vain endeavoured to rally them.  Colonel Wolseley, an English officer, commanded the Enniskilleners; and the cruelties with which they hunted down the unfortunate fugitives, has made the name almost a byword of reproach.  Five hundred men plunged into Lough Erne to escape their fury, but of these only one was saved.  Lord Mountcashel was taken prisoner, but he escaped eventually, and fled to France.  Sarsfield, who commanded at Sligo, was obliged to retire to Athlone; and the victorious Williamites remained masters of that part of the country.