Sarsfield
After Aughrim no one disputed his right to be the leader of the Irish, but after Aughrim the stake was lost. Sarsfield with some five thousand men retreated at first to the Clare mountains; but while Ginkel moved slowly towards Limerick, thither also Sarsfield drew to oppose him. The town had been strengthened by new fortifications, but it appears to have been defended principally by the memory of its former resistance. Ginkel at all events determined not to assault, though he was well aware that supports were expected from France, and though he was very short of supplies. Under these circumstances, the commanders began to negotiate. Sarsfield knew that the game was up; he knew his rank and file broken in spirit, his staff of officers honeycombed with treachery. On the other hand he knew, as Ginkel knew, the probable effect of encampment on the swamps about Limerick on an English army; he knew that the French ships might any day appear in the Shannon. It is evident that in the negotiation Ginkel got the better, for the treaty was made on terms less generous than the Lords Justices were prepared to grant; and two days after the treaty was signed the French fleet came into Dingle Bay.
In a sense the fact that the Lords Justices
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