[91] The Shannon, which is the boundary of the two provinces, rushed through Athlone in a deep and rapid stream, and turned two large mills which rose on the arches of a stone bridge.

Above the bridge, on the Connaught side, a castle, built, it was said, by King John, towered to the height of seventy feet, and extended two hundred feet along the river.

Fifty or sixty yards below the bridge was a narrow ford.

[92] During the night of the nineteenth the English placed their cannon.

On the morning of the twentieth the firing began.