The
occurrence paralysed the Irish army. Sarsfield was away, there was no one
to give orders, the news that some extraordinary calamity had happened
spread rapidly, the men in the battery ceased firing, the cavalry,
receiving no orders to charge, remained immovable.
Talmash took advantage of the pause to get the rest of his cavalry across
the passage, and then, with his whole force, moved towards the centre. As
he approached, the idea that the unknown calamity, of which they had
heard, was that the British had defeated their own left, spread among the
Irish, and they began to fall back. The British column on the edge of the
bog advanced, Ginckle pushed several fresh battalions across the morass
in the centre, and the Irish infantry fell back, disputing every inch of
the ground.
The cavalry were still without orders, for strangely enough, no one
assumed the command on the death of Saint Ruth. As night came on, the
retreat of the Irish infantry became a rout, but the cavalry halted on
the summit of Kilcomeden, and covered the retreat.
The extraordinary circumstance, of the Irish army being left without
orders after the death of Saint Ruth, has never been explained. The
command should have devolved upon Sarsfield, but none of the accounts of
the battle speak of him as being present.
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