"In a short time the fort was stormed. The soldiers who had garrisoned it fled in confusion to the city. The Town Major, a French officer, who commanded at the Thomond Gate, afraid that the pursuers would enter with the fugitives, ordered that part of the bridge which was nearest to the city to be drawn up. Many of the Irish went headlong into the stream and perished there. Others cried for quarter, and held up their handkerchiefs in token of submission. But the conquerors were mad with rage; their cruelty could not be immediately restrained, and no prisoners were made till the heads of corpses rose above the parapet. The garrison of the fort had consisted of about eight hundred men; of these only one hundred and twenty escaped into Limerick."
The result of this capture was the fall of James's power in Ireland and the signing of the famous treaty on the stone near the bridge on October 3, 1691, the ninth article of which provided that the Roman Catholics should enjoy the same privileges of their religion as they enjoyed in the reign of Charles II., and that William and Mary would endeavor to insure them immunity from disturbance on account of their religion. This article, however, was never carried into effect, although through no fault of William's. Large numbers of the Irish soldiers took service under France, and formed the "Irish Brigade," famous in after years in continental wars. Sarsfield was killed at the battle of Landen (1693), and it has been estimated that in the next half century four hundred and fifty thousand Irishmen died in the French service. For seventy years after the siege, the city was maintained as a fortress, and its ramparts and gates kept in repair and guarded. In 1760 it was abandoned as such, its defences dismantled, and the city, thus freed, rapidly extended its boundaries. It has since, however, been a station for large detachments of troops, and is at the present day one of the most bustling and pleasant garrison towns.
The Shannon is crossed by three important bridges, of which the Thomond Bridge, rebuilt in 1839, claims priority from its ancient associations. It connects English Town with the County Clare, the entrance from which, through Thomond Gate, was protected by the fort mentioned above and King John's Castle. It is one of the finest Norman fortresses in the kingdom, and has a river front of about two hundred feet, flanked by two massive drum towers fifty feet in diameter; the walls are of great strength, being ten feet thick. The northern tower is the most ancient, and from the bridge traces of the cannonading it received in its various sieges can be clearly seen. It still retains its ancient gateway, but the modern entrance is from Nicholas Street. Its venerable appearance is marred by the addition of the modern roofs and buildings of the barracks into which the interior was converted in 1751. The constableship of the Castle was only abolished in 1842. The "Treaty Stone," on which the famous treaty was signed in 1691, is at the western end of the bridge; it was set upon its present pedestal in 1865.