“Please express to Captain Davenant and his son the extreme obligation under which I feel towards them, and assure them that I look forward to the time when this unfortunate struggle shall be at an end, and I can meet them and thank them personally.  It will be a satisfaction to you to be able to inform them that I have, this morning, obtained from the king a peremptory order on the commission in Dublin, to stay all proceedings in the matter of Captain Davenant’s estate near Bray, which was on the list of confiscated properties.  I am forwarding this by one of the royal messengers, who leaves with despatches today, and, when I visit Dublin, I shall do myself the pleasure of calling on Mrs. Davenant, and of setting her mind at ease.”

While Walter had been at his worst, his father had been away for only a few hours.  After his interview with Sarsfield in Limerick, a messenger arrived from that general, ordering Captain Davenant to bring his troop into the city at once.  It was four in the afternoon when he arrived, and he at once went to General Sarsfield’s quarters.

“Let the men dismount, Captain Davenant, and let them and the horses feed.  We have a long ride before us tonight.  I have just heard that William’s siege artillery is coming up, under a weak escort, and I mean to get round in the Dutchman’s rear and destroy it.  He shall find that Limerick is not to be taken as easily as he expects.

“He has had a disagreeable sample of our quality today.  A deserter brought in news of the exact position of his tent, and our artillery have been giving him such a peppering that, from the church tower, we see that he has been obliged to move his camp.”

As soon as it was night, four hundred cavalry were in the saddle.  Sarsfield placed himself at their head, and rode twelve miles up the Shannon to Killaloe.  Crossing the river there, he made a wide sweep with his cavalry, until he was in the heart of the Tipperary mountains, in rear of William’s camp.

Quietly as the expedition had been carried out, it was impossible that so large a body of horse should ride through the country unperceived, and a gentleman of county Clare, named O’Brian, thinking that he would gain honour and advantage by reporting their passage to William, set out for the British camp.  Being unknown there, he was a long time before he could get access to the king.  The officers to whom he spoke paid little attention to his story about a body of Irish horse passing through the country, and were much more interested in gaining information from him as to the state of the stock of cattle, sheep, and pigs in his part of the county; for, owing to the terror excited by the conduct of William’s soldiers, the people for many miles round had driven off their stock and left the villages, and provisions were already becoming scarce in the camp.

At length, however, one of those to whom he had spoken mentioned his story to the king, who at once sent for him, and saw the importance of the news he brought.  O’Brian himself had no idea of the object of Sarsfield’s expedition, but the king instantly guessed that it was the siege train.  He therefore ordered a large body of cavalry to be immediately despatched to meet the artillery on its way, and protect it into camp.