troopers, followed by 200 of Cunningham's Eniskillen dragoons. The Jacobite response demonstrated the strength of their defence but also meant that the attackers were no longer able to break off the engagement as Ginkel had planned. A conference was held at about 4 pm: Ginkel still favoured withdrawing, but the Williamite infantry general Hugh Mackay argued for an immediate full-scale attack. Battle was joined in earnest between five and six o'clock. In the centre, the largely English and Scots regiments under Mackay attempted a frontal assault on Dorrington's infantry on Kilcommadan Hill. The attackers had to contend with waist-deep water and a tenacious Irish defence of the reinforced hedge lines. They withdrew with heavy losses: the Jacobites pursued them downhill, capturing colonels Erle and Herbert. On their left centre, the Williamites advanced across low ground exposed to Jacobite fire and took a great number of casualties. The Williamite assault in this area, led by St John's and Tiffin's regiments and the Huguenot foot, was driven back into the bog by the Irish foot fighting with clubbed (reversed) muskets; many of the attackers were killed or drowned. In the rout, the pursuing Jacobites managed to spike a battery of Williamite guns. The Jacobite regiments of the Guards and Gordon O'Neill were said to have fought particularly strongly. The musketry was so intense that "the ridges seemed to be ablaze" according to Andreas Claudianus, a Norwegian fighting with the Danish infantry. The Jacobite right and centre holding firm, Ginkel tried to force a way across the causeway on the Jacobite left, where any attack would have to pass along a narrow lane covered by Walter Burke's regiment from their positions in Aughrim castle. Four battalions led by Brigadier Kirke secured positions near the castle, following which Compton's Royal Horse Guards got across the causeway at the third attempt. Dorrington having earlier withdrawn two battalions of infantry from this area to reinforce the Jacobite centre, they were faced only with weak opposition, reaching Aughrim village. While a force of Jacobite cavalry and dragoons under Luttrell had been tasked with covering this flank, their commander had ordered them to fall back, following a route now known locally as "Luttrell's Pass". Rumours later flew that he had been in the pay of William, although it seems most probable that Luttrell withdrew as he had little or no infantry support. The cavalry regiments of Henri de