They were greatly superior in number, and the English cavalry who had got across the passage were still in confusion, and were suffering from the fire of the battery, and, indeed, even when in equal numbers, William's cavalry had never withstood the charge of the Irish.
It seemed that nothing could avert the defeat of the body on which Ginckle's last hope rested.
But at this moment one of those events, by which Providence overrules the calculations of man, occurred.

A cannonball struck Saint Ruth, as he stood in the middle of the battery and killed him instantly.

The occurrence paralysed the Irish army.

Sarsfield was away, there was no one to give orders, the news that some extraordinary calamity had happened spread rapidly, the men in the battery ceased firing, the cavalry, receiving no orders to charge, remained immovable.
Talmash took advantage of the pause to get the rest of his cavalry across the passage, and then, with his whole force, moved towards the centre.

As he approached, the idea that the unknown calamity, of which they had heard, was that the British had defeated their own left, spread among the Irish, and they began to fall back.