Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/40

 224 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS ly forbade his throwing off the- clerical habit, notwithstanding all the entreaties of the young abbe, and by so doing, incurred the enmity of one who inherited from his mother no small faculty of hatred. At length, various circumstances with which he was in no degree connected, brought about a change in the affairs of Europe that afforded him an opportunity of escaping from the restraint placed upon his inclinations, and of turning the genius they had despised against those who had contemned him. France and Austria had long been either secretly or openly at strife ; but now the dilapidated state of the German empire, after tedious and expensive wars, together with the combination of external foes and internal insurrection, threatened the nominal successor of the Roman Caesars with utter destruction. The Hungarians in re- volt, joined with the Turkish forces which they had called to their assistance, marched into Germany and laid siege to Vienna. Louis XIV. had hitherto taken care to foment the spirit of insurrection, and to aggravate the more pressing dan- gers of Germany ; but at this moment, to cover the encouragement he had held out privately to the rebels, he permitted the nobility of his court to volunteer in defence of Christendom, which the fall of Vienna would have laid open to Infi- dels. A large body of young men set out immediately for Austria, among whom Prince Eugene contrived to effect his departure in secret. The famous, but un- amiable minister Louvois, when he heard of the young abbe's escape remarked with a sneer, " So much the better, it will be long before he returns." The speech was afterward repeated to Eugene, who replied, " I will never re- turn to France but as a conqueror ; " and he kept his word, one of the few instances m which history has been able to record that a rash boast was afterward justified by talents and resolution. On arriving at Vienna, Eugene cast away the gown forever, and his rank in- stantly procured him a distinguished post near the person of the Duke of Lor- raine, then commanding the imperial forces. Shortly after he had joined the army, John Sobieski, the valiant King of Po- land, advanced to the assistance of the emperor, and the Turks were forced to raise the siege of the Austrian capital. In the campaign that followed against the Infidels, Eugene distinguished himself greatly, both by a sort of light un- thinking courage, and by a degree of skill and judgment, which seemed to show that the levity he was somewhat too fond of displaying, though perhaps a con- firmed habit from his education in an idle and frivolous court, was no true type of the mind within. It was the empty bubble dancing on the bosom of a deep stream. This was felt by those who surrounded him ; and promotion succeeded with astonishing rapidity. Before the end of three months he was in command of a regiment of horse. Continual battles, sieges, and skirmishes, now inured Eugene to all the hard- ships and all the dangers of war, and at the same time gave him every opportu- nity of acquiring a thorough knowledge of his new profession, and of obtaining higher and higher grades in the service. In the course of a very few years he had been wounded more than once severely ; but at the same time he had aided in the