The French general seems to have thought that the bridge and the ford might easily be defended, till the autumnal rains and the pestilence which ordinarily accompanied them should compel the enemy to retire.

He therefore contented himself with sending successive detachments to reinforce the garrison.

The immediate conduct of the defence he entrusted to his second in command, D'Usson, and fixed his own head quarters two or three miles from the town.

He expressed his astonishment that so experienced a commander as Ginkell should persist in a hopeless enterprise.

"His master ought to hang him for trying to take Athlone; and mine ought to hang me if I lose it." [96] Saint Ruth, however, was by no means at ease.