military loyaltiy to Fr.ance, and soon Irishmen fouz.:ht Irishmen for foreign kit:i:gs as they h'ave done .s:o.nften in our histnrp. In 1657 T'urcnue, the ~,rench commander, attacked a'1l 1along the Flemish lbordcrs, aided :by rstrong Crnmwcllian .forces. A few months laJter, in June 1658, Don_ ;.Juan's :Spanish_.Irish-Walloon army was routed on tl1e Downs lbefore Dunkirk. Muskerry's regiment iwas destroyed almost to a man, and the Duke of York's and BrisJtol's we!'e made prisoner. With thiiS defeat the war ;was almost at an end, and 1Spain's short period of .power was over. Worn down thy the opposition of all Europe, by the al:iances of 1Jlis Mos1t Christian Majesty of France rwith the forces of religious and po:itical revolt, whe\ther Dutch or Swedish, Eng:iish or Turk, Spain was forced to make terms. When Mazarin once agajn demanded the hand of the infanta Maria-Teresa (together iwith the colossal dowry of half a ;million gold ·crowns) for his young-and exceedingly unwilling- ,mar~ter, Louis XIV, the Emperor Philip had no option hut to yield. \Hence it was thatt in the summer o.f 1659, the whole 1French Court wended its way to Toulouse in preparation for the royal marriage in the little iBasque church of St. Sean de Luz on the nearlby Spanish 1border. The Queen-mother accompanied the reluctant king; with him went the household fooops who remained qU'artered that winter 1all round T.oulourse. Here our story comes iback to Carey and Callan, quartered in. IBlagnac. They !belonged to a Swiss battalion, ·which was almost certain:y part 'Of the Hol!sehold Guard. It is not impossible that they had helped ]n the defeat of their fellow-country men at Dunkirk the previous year, since the king had risked ihis nohle ~erson in that 1battle. According to a note inserted in the margin of the register by the Cur{~ of the time, 1M. Delort, lboth Care>· and Ca'1lan died by violence. 1Since the fighting wa:s now over-and in any ·CflSe there hfld never l>cen any in this area-their deaths were probr.11Jly due to some kind '(Of dispute betiween the soldiers of differer.:.t nationalHies. * This 1suppos'ition is .made more likely by the f.act ithat a Swiss soldier of (;mother company had idied two or three days before. 1A few montlis later the Stua!'t king ,was rback -0n the throne of ·England .. Many of the "Ensign-men" who 11nd fought for his po:itira1 interests .abroad, returned to theh--native country in high hopes of justice. Charles !·e1warded them with his famous DecJaration, ibut iwith 1~ittle else. "My justice .I must afford to you all, but my favour mu.st be .given to my Protestant :subjects". While under the -green fie1ds of France many thousands 1werc .beyond the reflrh of his "jn3tice" or 1his favours Ernan McMu11in, College of St. iAnthony, iLouvain. *I .am .indebted .for this suggestion-as ·for his :helpfu1ness in many .other ways-to 1~1. ,J.M. Sm·an, local historinn of Blagnac. *~ 1. (Curtis ·: HiSJtory iof Ireland, 6th edn., p. 251). - ~: 2. (O'Conor : Iriish Brig~ndes; Dublin, Duffy, 1855, p. 78). *~ 3. (One wonders wheither any of Luuis' Cromwellian ·a11ies were in the neighbourhood!) 332.
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