[Sidenote: Fruitless negotiations, June.]
[Sidenote: Non-combatants turned out of Limerick.]
[Sidenote: Disaster to the besiegers, June 23.]
On the same day that the castle on the weir was taken, the garrison of Limerick sent out a drum in answer to Ireton's summons. A truce was asked for, hostages to be given by the Deputy during the time that the representatives of the besieged were in his camp. Both conditions were refused, but Ireton had no objection to treat for a capitulation, and six commissioners were sent out, two for the garrison, two for the citizens, and two for the clergy, a like number being named by the Deputy. Among the former were Major-General Purcell and Geoffrey Baron, one of the late Supreme Council; among the latter, Ludlow, Waller, and Colonel Henry Cromwell. They met in a tent between town and camp, dined together every day, and discussed the terms in a leisurely way; but Limerick did not yet despair of relief, and the negotiations came to nothing. Meanwhile, the bombardment continued, two bridges being thrown across the Shannon, one of wood at Castleconnell and the other of boats or floats, below the weir. O'Neill tried to reduce the number of useless mouths by driving non-combatants out of the town. On one occasion Ireton ordered that four of these poor wretches should be knocked on the head, but the order was wrongly given, and forty were killed--'an act much disgusted by his Excellency.' The castle on Thomond Bridge was stormed after many hand-grenades had been thrown in; which, strange to say, failed to ignite some barrels of powder specially laid to blow up the assailants. An open arch under the drawbridge was filled up with rubbish and faggots, so that the captured work could be used against the town; but the garrison broke down other arches, and there appeared to be no chance of entering that way. As soon as the floating bridge was finished, Ireton fortified the Clare end of it, and transferred the bulk of his army to the county Limerick side. More than a dozen boats were laden with men, and an attempt was made to seize the upper end of King's Island, upon the lower end of which a large part of Limerick stands; but here the besiegers met with a serious reverse. Four boats got over safely, under Major Walker, who had been distinguished at O'Brien's Bridge, and three other officers. Finding no resistance at first, the men got out of hand and ran through the enemies' line up to a fort in the middle of the island. The garrison sallied out and drove them back to their boats and to a fifth which was just coming ashore, so that nearly all were either shot or drowned. 'We find missing,' Ireton wrote, 'eighty-six or eighty-seven men, besides the four commissioned officers aforementioned, and not more whatever may be reported.' Abundant reinforcements were at hand, but before order was restored it was broad daylight, and nothing more could be done. A night attack is always risky, and Ireton acknowledges that there was mismanagement; but some of Tothill's men who had broken faith with the enemy were among those who perished, and on that account, he adds, 'that most justly the Lord hath rebuked us, and cast reproach and confusion of face upon us.'[211]