[89] Athlone was perhaps, in a military point of view, the most important place in the island.

Rosen, who understood war well, had always maintained that it was there that the Irishry would, with most advantage, make a stand against the Englishry.

[90] The town, which was surrounded by ramparts of earth, lay partly in Leinster and partly in Connaught.

The English quarter, which was in Leinster, had once consisted of new and handsome houses, but had been burned by the Irish some months before, and now lay in heaps of ruin.

The Celtic quarter, which was in Connaught, was old and meanly built.