replied by assembling an immense army and sending it across the Save. Eugene went to meet them at the head of the Imperial troops, an army inured to war-in perfect discipline-confident in the remembrance of many victories, and proud of their leader. When such an army-led by such a general, versed in all the science and practice of modern warfare, came into collision with the blind and undisciplined valour of a multitude of barbarians, the result was easy to be foreseen. The defeat of the Turks at Peterwaradin and at Belgrade can be paralleled only with the route of the Persians at Marathon or Arbela. In the battle under the walls of Belgrade, Eugene fought with 40,000 men against 200,000, being himself besieged in his own camp while laying siege to Belgrade. The Imperialists forced the entrenchments of the Turks with irresistible impetuosity, and sent the whole mass of barbarians flying in such terror and disorder that they trampled each other to death in their precipitous confusion. This victory made more noise in Europe than any since the raising of the siege of Turin; odes were written about it in almost every language, and the Pope presented Eugene with a consecrated cap and sword for his services against the infidels. In consequence of this defeat the Turks signed the peace of Passarowitz, which established a treaty for twenty-five years and put Austria in possession of the Banat of Temeswar and the western part of Wallachia and Servia, together with Belgrade and part of Bosnia.

We have no space now left us to trace the finger of Eugene amid the tangled threads of diplomacy which were woven among the different courts in the first half of the eighteenth century. Eugene lived, however, to behold nearly the whole of the share of the Spanish dominions which fell to Austria at the peace of Utrecht wrested from it. Having first exchanged Sardinia for Sicily, the House of Hapsburg lost both Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos in 1734, and never recovered them. Nothing but the Milanese remained of all the splendid heritage of Charles V., and that was destined to be a source of weakness rather than strength. The war, however, in which the Two Sicilies were lost was undertaken in opposition to the urgent advice of Eugene, whose counsels were almost always, in the latter part of his life, of a peaceful character. He, nevertheless, at the request of the Emperor, once more took the field at the head of an Imperial army on the Rhine. But with the motley, ill-disciplined force under his command he could effect nothing, and Philipsburg was taken by the French in his presence, and in spite of him.

*

* At this siege Berwick was killed: when Villars, who always

During his eventful career the successive emperors, Leopold, Joseph, and Charles, for the most part, treated so faithful a servant with all the confidence and esteem he deserved. For a few years, however, under the reign of Charles VI., his position at the Court of Vienna was very painful. Court cabals and jealousies, indeed, had all his life been at work against him, but with little effect except during the years 1717-22, when the intrigues of the Spanish courtier, Althan, contrived to bring about an estrangement between the monarch and his illustrious subject. The Emperor always retained a vivid recollection of the sacrifices which the Catalans had made for him, and endeavoured to repay their devotion in part by the favours which he heaped on the Spanish noblemen who accompanied him from Barcelona. Count Althan, with the Bishop of Valencia and others, made up a Spanish council, which, under pretence of governing the Imperial provinces which lately belonged to Spain, endeavoured absolutely to control the affairs of the rest of the empire. Eugene, as the greatest authority in the empire, was the especial object of their machinations. It was insinuated to the Emperor that the Prince was too powerful for a subject, and that he had designs upon the succession. The plot which was being woven to ruin him in the Imperial favour was discovered to the Prince by a domestic, when the decided tone which he adopted, the threat of laying down all his offices and appealing to Europe to pronounce judgment between them, constrained the Emperor to recognise the groundlessness of the suspicions which he entertained, and their former confidence and intimacy was restored.

Eugene, as a politician, was distinguished for the clearness, steadiness, and uprightness of his views: his state papers are always remarkable documents; they are logical, concise, and vigorous, and those in French are written in an excellent style. His political foresight was remarkable, and at any particular crisis it is to be remarked that his advice was always the wisest, the justest, and the best for the weal of the empire. Had his suggestions been adopted with respect to alliances, Austria would have been spared many of the humiliations which she had to undergo. He proposed that Maria Theresa should be married to Frederick the Great, and when this counsel was not adopted, he recommended the young princess to take care

longed for a soldier's end, and was then eighty-two, heard of his death, he exclaimed, 'J'ai toujours dit qu'il était plus heureux que 'moi,' and died himself a few hours afterwards.

that her father left her a full treasury and a well-appointed army. He was likewise very liberal in his views, and in the troubled state of Hungary his influence was often used to modify the severity of the Imperial counsels.*

His common sense and penetration were always excellent on every question. Thus when speculations were overrunning Europe, and South Sea schemes and Mississippi bubbles were ruining myriads in Change Alley and the Rue Quincampoix, the good sense of Eugene kept Austria clear of all such enterprises; yet so much the more did he encourage every kind of real industry, and several kinds of manufactures were introduced into Vienna by his patronage. If in point of mere strategy he may be placed somewhat below Marlborough, yet in moral worth and in general cultivation he must rank far higher. He wrote and spoke grammatically, though not orthographically, French, Italian, and Spanish, German and Latin also, but not so accurately; and it appears that his famous signature, Eugenio von Sauoy,' was adopted because he thought it was German (Sauoy indeed is not French). He was

deeply attached to literature, the fine arts, and sciences, and showed it in a variety of ways. When he threatened to retire from public affairs, he said with 12,000 livres de rente and his books, he should have occupation for the rest of his life. He spared no pains and no expense to make his library complete. He was anxious to read every new work of merit, and particularly so to possess copies from the authors themselves, and often wrote letters to ask for them. He became intimate with Leibnitz during his residence at Vienna, and applied himself diligently to master his philosophy. The treatise containing the exposition of Leibnitz's theory of monads was composed especially for the use of Eugene, who kept the MS. in a box, and showed it only to his intimate friends. He endeavoured

*Immediately after the peace of Passarowitz, he gave notice to his fair friend the Countess Batthyany, by means of a letter from his camp in Hungary, that danger threatened the liberties of Hungary, in these words: 'It is intended to place Hungary on a Bohemian footing.' The countess instantly dressed herself in mourning, and went to the house of the Countess Althan, the mistress of Charles VI. When the monarch came to pay his daily visit to the Countess Althan, he found both ladies in deep mourning. They besought him with tears to do nothing with Hungary until he had heard Prince Eugene. He consented to write a letter to the Prince. The countess's travelling carriage was in the court. Although it was the depth of winter, she travelled day and night, and brought back the Prince, and the liberties of Hungary were saved.

also to forward Leibnitz in all his schemes, and especially in that for the foundation of an Academy of Sciences at Vienna. He took especial pleasure in the intimacy of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, the French lyric poet in vogue, and then residing in Vienna. Rousseau was much with him, dining with him constantly in public and private. He was astonished at the greatness and simplicity of the Prince's character; at the justness of his views, the catholicity of his taste, the generality of his information, and the general modesty of his language and demeanour. Eugene also ventured at times to give Rousseau advice upon his literary schemes full of good sense and judgment. Literary and learned men in every country were employed to pick up books for him, and even when he came to London he found time to purchase books, MSS. and choice engravings. Rousseau remarked with astonishment that large as his library was, and choice as was the selection of books, all bore marks of Eugene's perusal. No branch of knowledge was unrepresented, and at the present day Eugene's collections form a striking portion of the Imperial Library, all splendidly bound, with the arms of the Prince on both covers. The same taste extended itself to works of art, curiosities of nature, and articles of virtu. The famous connoisseur, Cardinal Albani, assisted in forming the collections of antiques, medals, china, pictures, statues, engravings, furniture, which embellished his beautiful palaces in town and country. Nor was he less curious about birds, beasts, and plants, of each of which he made a collection. Every ship from the Indies brought him some bird of strange plumage. His collection of plants was esteemed by the best botanists of the day; and in his menagerie a favourite lion was said to have announced by a roar the hour of the decease of his master.

He had two splendid palaces in Vienna, on both of which he expended large sums of money. He was fond of building and of laying out gardens, not only for his own pleasure but to give occupation to the poor. In 1714, when the plague was in Vienna and a dearth likewise came on, though other employers turned away their labourers, Eugene purposely increased the number of his own workmen. He built much on his estates, and on one occasion, when some works were nearly finished, and his foreman spoke of dismissing the workmen, he remarked sharply, In that case I shall have no need of you.' In the same way his care for his troops was also very great, and was well rewarded by the attachment of his men. His receptions with the army were always enthusiastic. The soldiers called him their friend and their father, and as every great

general nearly has had a sobriquet, so Eugene was the Capuzinerl, the little Capuchin,' from a common brown great coat with brass buttons which he was accustomed to wear, and up to the present time he is the favourite of the soldier's song in every state of Germany as Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter-Prince Eugene, the noble Knight.' Indeed, universally it was nobility, true nobility of soul which impressed every one who had to do with Prince Eugene as his great characteristic. He was generous, true, and above all forgiving. Constant as was the chicanery, jealousy, and spite which pursued him at the Court of Vienna, he always remained true to himself, and his enemies never had the satisfaction of driving him to do or say anything nnworthy his reputation. Guido Stahremberg in particular, the Austrian general next in reputation and ability to Eugene, was an incessant and rancorous detractor of his fame, but he never excited Eugene to speak an evil word of himself. As for honesty, he expressed his opinion that 'honesty was not indispensable, but that it was the best quality of a statesman;' and Villars in his negotiations with him wrote home to his court that nothing in his life gave so much trouble as not giving ' offence to Eugene.' He continued, as long as Villars lived, to hold friendly intercourse with him. The two warriors wrote affectionate letters, and informed each other of their amusements and occupations, discussed the politics of Europe, and sent each other little presents. But the great friend of Eugene for the last twenty-five years of his life was the beautiful Countess Lory Batthyany. For a quarter of a century Eugene passed his evenings at the Duchess of Holstein's, where he met the countess, or at the countess's own house. His four horses used to find their own way there at last, and have been known to stop of their own accord before her doors, with Eugene asleep inside, the coachman asleep on the box, the heyduck on the steps, and the footman in the rumble; the collective ages of master and servants amounting to 310 years. He passed his last evening with the countess, and played piquet till nine in the evening. It was observed that he breathed hard and had difficulty in forcing himself to appear at ease. On his return home his attendant wished him. to take medicine which had been prescribed, but he refused, saying to-morrow was time enough.' About midnight his servant entered his chamber, and saw him quietly sleeping; but in the morning he did not rise as usual, and he was found to have passed away quietly in the night.

His body lay in state three days, booted and spurred, and clad in the scarlet uniform of his regiment; the lieutenant