No labourer dared bring any thing for sale lest some marauder should lay hands on it by the way.

The ambassador was put one night into a miserable taproom full of soldiers smoking, another night into a dismantled house without windows or shutters to keep out the rain.

At Charlemont a bag of oatmeal was with great difficulty, and as a matter of favour, procured for the French legation.

There was no wheaten bread, except at the table of the King, who had brought a little flour from Dublin, and to whom Avaux had lent a servant who knew how to bake.
Those who were honoured with an invitation to the royal table had their bread and wine measured out to them.

Every body else, however high in rank, ate horsecorn, and drank water or detestable beer, made with oats instead of barley, and flavoured with some nameless herb as a substitute for hops, [188] Yet report said that the country between Charlemont and Strabane was even more desolate than the country between Dublin and Charlemont.