Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/39

 fKlNCE EUGENE OF SAVOY 223 ceeded to St. James's, amid the joyful acclamations of the crowd, " Long live the king !" " Long live the Duke of Marlborough ! " Old age had now laid his withering hand on the duke. For nearly two years he continued to enjoy the favor and confidence of the new king, who, on one oc- casion, said, " Marlborough's retirement would give me as much pain as if a dag- ger should "be plunged in my bosom." But he soon was obliged to retreat to Blen- heim, where he spent six years of declining life among his family and friends. At length, after a violent attack of palsy, the disease from which he suffered, he lay for several days expecting death. Early in the morning of June 15, 1722, he resigned his spirit, with Christian calmness, into the hands of his Creator. The duke was nearly seventy-three when he died. His remains were interred with every honor in Westminster Abbey, but soon after were taken up, and con- veyed to the chapel at Blenheim, and laid in a magnificent monument, which the duchess had erected for this honorable purpose. PRINCE EUGENE OF SAVOY By G. p. R. James (l 663-1 736) P' RiNCE Eugene, the most famed of Austrian generals, was the son of Eugene Maurice of Savoy (by the moth- er's side Count of Soissons) and of Olympia Mancini, niece of Cardmal Maz- arin. His father intrigued, and was ban- ished from the court of France ; and his mother also quitted Paris not many years after, suspected of many vices of which she was very probably innocent ; and guilty of a thousand follies, which were more strict- ly scrutinized than her crimes. Eugene was originally destined for the Church, and, according to a scandalous custom, then common in France as well as other Catholic countries, he obtained several benefices while but a child, of which he was eager to divest himself as soon as his mind was capable of discriminating be- tween one profession and another. He seems soon to have felt within himself that ardent desire for military service, which is sometimes a caprice and some times an inspiration ; but Louis XIV., at whose court he still remained, positive