The royal party set out, leaving Tyrconnel in charge at Dublin, and arrived at Charlemont on the thirteenth of April.

The journey was a strange one.

The country all along the road had been completely deserted by the industrious population, and laid waste by bands of robbers.

"This," said one of the French officers, "is like travelling through the deserts of Arabia." [187] Whatever effects the colonists had been able to remove were at Londonderry or Enniskillen.
The rest had been stolen or destroyed.

Avaux informed his court that he had not been able to get one truss of hay for his horses without sending five or six miles.