Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 2.djvu/42

 226 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS the Duke of Savoy, who madly engaged the French forces in a position where his own discomfiture was a certain consequence. Few movements of any import took place in Italy for some years after this, in which Eugene was concerned. Victor Amadaeus, partly from caprice, partly from fear, withdrew from his alliance with Austria, and, once more signed a treaty of neutrality with France. The Imperial troops, unable singly to keep the field against the French, abandoned Savoy ; and Eugene, though his efforts had proved unsuccessful, was received at Vienna with the highest distinction. The emperor, probably judging rightly in this instance, that the prince had failed from his energies being crippled by a divided power, now gave him the sole command of the army opposed to the Turks in Hungary. Eugene immediately found himself menaced by the whole force of the Turk- ish Empire ; but after some masterly manoeuvres he saved the city of Peterwara- din, on which the Ottoman forces were marching ; and then, though with very inferior power, approached the intrenchments of the Grand Vizier, at Zeuta, with the intention of forcing him from his camp. At the very moment, however, that the army had advanced too far to retreat, a courier arrived, bearing the emperor's commands to Eugene, on no account to risk a battle. Eugene's measures were already taken ; he put the letter in his pocket, attacked the Turks, defeated them completely, left twenty thousand Mussulmen dead on the field, and ten thousand drowned in the Danube ; pursued his victory by burning Serai and securing the frontier line of fortresses, and then returned to Vienna in expectation of reward and honor. The emperor received him coldly, and before the day was over he was put under arrest for disobedience of orders. The clamor, however, of the people, and some feeling of shame in the bosom of the proud, weak Leopold, soon caused him to restore Eugene to his rank, and to send him once more against the Turks. Success, however, did not follow the prince through the succeeding cam- . paign ; and before the season brought it naturally to a close, peace had been de- termined on between Austria and the Porte. Some time previous to the period of which we now speak, Louis XIV. had endeavored to tempt Eugene back to his Court, by the offer of a Marshal's rank in the French army, the government of Champagne, and a considerable yearly pension. Eugene, who felt that, however flattering to himself, the offer origin- ated alone in the selfishness of an ambitious monarch, refused it in terms suffi- ciently galling to the proud King of France. Nevertheless, after the peace of Westphalia, Villars, who was sent as ambassador to Vienna, is supposed to have been again charged with a mission of the same nature to Eugene. The fact, however, is not only doubtful, but very improbable, from the character of all parties concerned. Eugene was not a man to leave himself the possibility of changing ; Louis was not a man meanly to solicit where he had once been re- fused ; and Villars was not a man to undertake a mean commission, even for a king. It is probable that the courtesy which the prince evinced toward Marshal de Villars from a sense of his personal merit, at a time when the haughty Court