42

the Caffle of Borda, where Prince Eugene was left to guard the Imperial lines.

But this accursed Grand Vizier, quiet on a height, not daring to attack me, I do not know why, saw, with more coolness than my. self, this important place taken and plundered before his face. '

Again, after an antiate i defcripin of the taking of Belgrade by ftorin, he adds, in his peculiar manner

Nothing could be more brilliant, or more sanguinary. How strangely one may sometimes find amusement in the midst of horror! I shall never forget the appearance and grimaces of some Jews, who were employed to throw into the Danube about twelve thousand dead bodies, to spare the trouble and expense of burying them.'

We are next prefented with his negociations, to engage the Duke of Savey on the fide of the Emperor, in which he did not completely fucceed. He obferves of this prince, and the Duke of Lorrain, that their geography prevented them from acting like men of honour.' Alas, this powerful motive is too much extended in our times!

We fhall give his account of the battle of Staffarde, as a fpecimen of the colloquial ftyle of thefe recollections.

The ministers of the Emperor had promised to let me have seI knew the slowven thousand men, to support Victor Amadeus. ness with which every thing is decided and ordered at Vienna; and, eager to engage the French, whom I had never yet seen opposed to me, I went to join the Duke of Savoy at his camp of Villa Franca. "I am just going to give "You are come in good time," said he; battle to Catinat. "" Then you must take care of your movements," said I; "he is an excellent general, and commands the old troops, the flower of the French infantry. Your's are new le vies, and mine are not yet come up. "-" What does that signify?" said the Duke; "I know the country better than Catinat: to-morrow I shall advance with my army to the Abbey of Staffarde. Instead of making the attack, however, we had to sustain it. The right wing, where the Duke was placed, was attacked in front. The French wing crossed marshes which were believed to be impracticable; and after having turned, and beaten ours, both their wings united, and fell upon our left, where I commanded. I made my retreat in as good order as I could; and in the rear-guard, composed of gendarmes, and the lifeguards of Savoy, I was slightly wounded by a spent ball. I did not choose to remind my dear cousin of his presumption, or my prediction; but I endeavoured to repair matters a little, at least in point of glory; for, some time after, I had the good fortune to cut off a large detachment, which had pillaged Tivoli. It fell into an ambuscade, from which, hearing the French coming, who sung to the utmost stretch of their throats, I sallied out to fall upon them. I scolded my soldiers for treating the prisoners à la turque. But they had been so long on that service, that they had forgot that it was usual to give quarter to Christians. '

In

In 1692, Prince Eugene prevailed on the Duke of Savoy to invade France, on the fide of Dauphiné, which, he fays, would have been fuccessful, had not the Duke been feized with the fmallpox, -in confequence of which the army retreated. This fact, we believe, has been little known, at least in its full extent. There are many traits of the Duke's inftability, which are extremely piquant; but they would occupy too much of that space which muit be devoted to more interefting matter. Though conftantly at war, and fighting with the most defperate bravery, it was always a very doubtful point, whether he wished to gain even the battles. which he fought.

In 1696, Louis attempted to regain the Prince, and made him offers, which were indignantly rejected. This fact, we believe, is entirely new. So is the following.-While the Prince was on his march to attack the Turks at Zenta, a courier brought him a pofitive order from the Emperor to avoid a battle. He put the letter in his pocket, attacked the enemy, and obtained a fignal victory; which is defcribed in his energetic manner. On his return to Vienna, the Emperor fent to demand his fword; and put him under arrest. On the report that he was to be tried for his life, an infurrection took place in Vienna. He was enlarged, and fent to command in Hungary.

In 1699, he gives a fketch of his private life.

In this year I began my fine library, and conceived a passion for gardens and palaces. I bought, from time to time, some beautiful cabinet pictures, and some drawings very little known. I was not rich enough yet to form a gallery; and I did not like prints, because others might have the same. I have never liked copies of any kind, or talents which consume valuable time. Some wind-instruments, marches, military or hunting airs, trumpet-calls, or agreeable airs of comic operas, dispensed me from talking during dinner, or from hearing tiresome speakers.'

In 1700, began his friendship with Villars, then French ambassador at Vienna, which seems to have been warm and sincere on the part of both these great men. Here follows one of the curious conversations, which, the editor informs, are written in the Prince's own hand.

"It is no fault of mine," said Villars, if, without stopping to quell the rebellion in Hungary, you insist upon going to war with us. I only wish, my Lord, that you would be persuaded to treat me, like those gentlemen, who turn their backs on me here, and who will do the same elsewhere, if I command an army. "-" This," says the Prince," was a sally à la Villars. You think, perhaps," he added, "that the Turks will take a part, because the Abbé Joachin has prophesied that the Empress will have twins, one of which will gain the throne of Constantinople. "I myself have no quarrel with you, M. de Villars," said I ; for in your correspondence, a

little in the light French style, you have drawn my portrait with the hand of a friend: but there are people who complain of your imprudences; and the Court complains of having read in your de spatches, "We shall see whether the Christ of Leopold's Chapel will speak to him, as it did to Ferdinand II. It is there still; I have seen it with my own eyes. "-Even private men never forgive ridicule; judge of the effect which a sarcasm must produce on a sovereign." I have only supported myself in this country," replied he, "by singular reserve in conversation. But I am a little angry at you Austrians, who, among other stories, say that I conspired with Ragotz against the person of the Emperor. "" That is another piece of stupidity," said I;" it was owing to the recollection of this phrase in an intercepted letter, while you served with us as a volunteer: I am an Austrian in the army, but a Frenchman at Vienna.” ”—" There is much implied in that," said the Noodles. "There have been no conspiracies against our Emperors; they have never been assassinated. We have no Jacques Clement, or Ravaillac. Our people are not enthusiastic like yours; but they are moresteady. There are scarcely any crimes committed in Austria. "Some persons wished to persuade Leopold, last year, that there had been an attempt to kill him, because a ball had passed through his hat, in hunting. "Let them find the man," said he, with his Spanish air; "he is a bungler of one kind or other; he is dying with fear, or dying of hunger; give him a thousand ducats.”

In fpeaking of the celebrated furprife of Cremona, the Prince pays high compliments to the courage of the French; and intimates, that he was much diffatisfied with the conduct of his own troops. His account agrees very nearly with that of Folard.

Of the Duke de Vendome, he uniformly fpeaks in the warmest terms of eulogium.-The able, the intrepid, the amiable, the generous, the dexterous difcoverer of his enemy's projects-fometimesindifcreet refpecting his own-the affable, the indolent Vendome !'-Such is the language which he fupports, even refpecting thofe great battles, in which he defeated this general. During Prince Eugene's blockade of Mantua, he threw up entrenchments round his camp, twenty feet high. Who,' fays he, would believe that I had learned fomething from the Turks, and that the Turks had learned fomething from the Romans? This practice they must have derived from fome of thofe omnipotent colonifts, like the Etrufcan forms of vafes and pitchers, which are to be found in every cottage.

He confirms the curious fact, of his having attempted to furprite the French army, by lying in ambuscade with his own, on the fpot where they intended to take up their encampment. This bold idea was fruftrated, as is well known, by the accident of a French officer's mounting the dike, to gain an extenfive view of the country.

In 1703, we find him, as War-minifter, telling the Emperor most important truths. Your army, Sire, is your monarchy; without that, you would foon be a vaffal of the Turks, the French, or, perhaps, the Hungarians. Your capital is a frontier town. Your Majefty has no fortrefs, on any fide; every one is paid, excepting thofe who ferve you. Make peace then, Sire, if you cannot carry on war; which it is apparent you cannot, without the money of England. What are your minifters doing, to take no advantage of the national hatred against France, and to embroil you with all Europe, even with your own fubjects?' In the next year, the Hungarian infurgents actually entered the fuburbs of Vienna, and endangered the fafety of the court.

Leopold, he fays, could never bear to hear truths, excepting when he was afraid. The Prince now gained over Queen Anne and Marlborough to the Imperial intereft; and began his great campaigns against France. We fhall give his account of the battle of Blenheim.

With patience, and without fighting, Tallard and Marsin might have forced me to abandon Bavaria; for 1 had no other place than Nordlingen for the establishment of my magazines, But these gentlemen were impatient; and the Elector was enraged at the pillage which I had allowed Marlborough to commit, who, by that means, was entirely with me. We loved and esteemed each other sincerely. He was a great statesman and general.

They had eighty thousand men as well as ourselves. But why did they separate the French from the Bavarians? Why did they encamp so far from the rivulet, which would have impeded our at tack? Why did they throw twenty-seven battalions, and twelve squadrons into Blenheim? Why did they disperse so many other troops in the neighbouring villages? Marlborough was more fortunate than myself, in his passage of the rivulet, and his fine attack. A little steepness of the bank made me half an hour later. My infantry behaved well; my cavalry very ill. I had a horse killed under me. Marlborough was checked for a moment, but not repulsed. I succeeded in rallying some regiments, which had at first been shy of attacking; (qui d'abord n'avaient pas voulu mordre.) I led them back four times to the charge. Marlborough, with his infantry and artillery, and sometimes with his cavalry, got rid of that of the enemy, and went to take Blenheim. We were all driven back for a moment by the gendarmerie; but we ended, by pushing them into the Danube. I had the greatest obligations to Marlborough, for his alterations in the dispositions, according to circumstances. A Bavaiian dragoon took aim at me; one of my Danes luckily prevented him. We lost nine thousand men; but twelve thousand Trench killed, and twenty thousand eight hundred prisoners, prevented them, this time, from singing the usual Te Deum for their defeats, which they make it a point never to acknowledge.'

Thefe rapid, but masterly pictures of great actions, are ineftim

able.

able. They refolve many cur.cus queftions in tactics, when closely ftudied; while they make us almott partakers in the ferne, by their general spirit and effect. But they occur too frequently, to be particularized. For this reafon, we fhell pafs over the battle of Turin, giving only the Prince's striking and candid acknowledgement at the clofe. My good fortune would have it, that Marfin ftayed to receive me, with his eighty thousand men behind the lines: if he had come to attack and turn me beforehand, I should have been a good deal embarraffed with my thirty thoufand.' Nor anuft we omit his remark on the noted Bonneval and Langallerie, whom he had promoted to the rank of generals in the Imperial fervice: I was forry that they turned out ill: they pretended to be frethinkers, who are almost always unsteady. The affectation of irreligion is, independent of its fool.th in picty, a mark of bad

tafte.

In 1707, he meditated the invafion of France, on the fide of Toulon. This, he fays, would have infallibly fucceeded, had not two curfed cardinals, Grimni and Pignatelli, engaged the Emperor, in fpite of the Duke of Savoy and himfelf, to undertake the conqueft of Naples.' Louis XIV, he obferves, would have been much more morrified by the lofs of Dauphiné, Languedoc, and Provence. The abfence of the Dutch fleet, in the Neapolitan expedition, fived Toulon. Such, he exclaims, are cabinets, paraments, ftates-gener 1, and coalitions!"

<

We cannot resist the temptation to translate the account of the battle of Oudenarde, in 170s. It abounds in curious particu

lars.

The French had 100,000 men in the Low Countries; Marlborough had only 60,000. I received orders to march to his assistance. I pushed on my troops by forced marches, and rode post myself, fearing that a battie might be fought without me. Cadogan came to compliment me at Maestrich. He told me that the French had surprised Ghent, Bruges, and Plaskendael, and that I was wanted. I passed through Brussels, where my interview with my mother, after a separation of twenty five years, was very touching, but very short. I found Marlborough encamped at Asch, between Brussels and Alost; and, learning that the enemy had their left on the other side of the Dender, I asked Marlborough, on arriving, whether he did not intend to give batle? "It is my intention, "" said he," immediately; and I see with pleasure, but without surprise, that the same reflection has occurred to us both, that, without fighting, they night cut off our communication with Brussels. I should like, however, to wait for your troops. "I would not advise it," replied I; "for the French would have time to retreat."

Vendome wished to oppose our passage of the Dender. He said to the Duke of Burgundy, whom bad advisers inclined to march towards Ghent, When you let Prince Eugene see that you wish to