household words. It is not impossible to convey to those who are familiar with their exploits a pleasing resumé of their leading features and salient points of difference; to those who are not, to give some idea of the pleasure which the study of their characters is calculated to afford. Generals, like writers or artists, have certain leading characteristics which may be traced through all their achievements; a peculiar impress has been communicated by nature to their minds, which appears, not less than on the painter's canvass or in the poet's lines, in all their actions. As much as grandeur of conception distinguishes Homer, tenderness of feeling Virgil, sublimity of thought Milton, nobleness of character Tasso, does daring of design distinguish Eugene, perfection of combination Marlborough, invincible tenacity Frederick, vastness of genius Napoleon, profound wisdom Wellington. A summary of the characters of these illustrious men, a comparison of their excellencies, a glance at their failings, however imperfectly executed, will not be an unprofitable task, and form a fit conclusion to this history. CHAP. XII. 1714. 26. of Prince EUGENE'S early history and great achievements in the War of the Succession, have been already detailed; but Character it is hard to say whether his greatness did not appear Eugene. more strongly in the magnanimity of his private life than in the brilliancy of his public actions. It has been already mentioned how noble and cordial was his cooperation with Marlborough, and how entirely destitute those great men were of jealousy toward each other. He gave equal proof of the magnanimity of his disposition, by the readiness with which he granted the most favourable terms to the illustrious besieged chief in Lille, who had, with equal skill and valour, conducted the defence. CHAP. When the articles of capitulation proposed by Boufflers were placed before him, he said immediately, without 1714. looking at them, " I will subscribe them at once: knowing well you would propose nothing unworthy of you and me." The delicacy of his subsequent attentions to his noble prisoner evinced the sincerity of his admiration. When Marlborough's influence at the English court was sensibly declining, in 1711, he repaired to London, and exerted all his talents and address to bring the English council back to the common cause, and restore his great rival to his former ascendency with Queen Anne. When it was all in vain, and the English armies withdrew from the coalition, Eugene did all that skill and genius could achieve to make up for the great deficiency arising from the withdrawal of Marlborough and his gallant followers; and when it had become apparent that he was overmatched by the French armies, he was the first to counsel his Imperial master to conclude peace, which was done at Rastadt on the 6th March, 1714. Great as had been the services then performed by Eugene for the Imperialists, they were outdone by those which he subsequently rendered in the wars with the Turks. In truth it was he who first effectually broke their power, and for ever delivered Europe from the sabres of the Osmanlis, by which it had been incessantly threatened for three hundred years. Intrusted with the command of the Austrian army in Hungary, sixty thousand strong, he gained at Peterwardin, in 1716, a complete victory over a hundred and fifty thousand Turks. This glorious success led him to resume the offensive, and in the following year he laid siege, with forty thousand men, to Belgrade, the great frontier XII. 1714.. fortress of Turkey, in presence of the whole strength CHAP. of the Ottoman empire. The obstinate resistance of the Turks, as famous then as they have ever since been in the defence of fortified places, joined to the dysenteries and fevers usual on the marshy banks of the Danube in the autumnal months, soon reduced his effective force to twenty-five thousand men, while that of the enemy, by prodigious efforts, had been swelled to a hundred and fifty thousand around the besiegers' lines, besides thirty thousand within the walls. 28. cape from wonderful Belgrade. Everything presaged that Eugene was about to undergo the fate of Marshal Marsin twelve years before at Narrow esTurin, and even his most experienced officers deemed a ruin, and capitulation the only way of extricating them from victory at their perilous situation. Eugene himself was attacked and seriously weakened by the prevailing dysentery, and all seemed lost in the Austrian camp. It was in these circumstances, with this weakened and dispirited force, that he achieved one of the most glorious victories ever gained by the Cross over the Crescent. With admirable skill he collected his little army together, divided it into columns of attack, and, though scarcely able to sit on horseback, himself led them to the assault of the Turkish intrenchments. The result was The result was equal to the success of Cæsar over the Gauls at the blockade of Alesia, seventeen centuries before. The innumerable host of the Turks was totally defeated-all their artillery and baggage was taken, and their troops were entirely dispersed. Belgrade, immediately after, opened its gates, and has since remained, with some mutations of fortune, the great frontier bulwark of Europe against the Turks.1 1 Biog. The successes which he gained in the following campaign 482-491. of 1718 were so decisive that they entirely broke the VOL. II. 2 C Univ. xiii. CHAP. XII. 1714. 29. Ottoman power; and he was preparing to march to Constantinople, when the treaty of Passarowitz put a period to his conquests, and gave a breathing time to the exhausted Ottoman empire. From this brief sketch of his exploits, it may readily His charac- be understood what was the character of Eugene as a general, and general. He had none of the methodical prudence of Napoleon. Turenne, Marlborough, or Villars. His genius was ter as a parallel to 30. skill with which he extricated himself from dangers. entirely different; it was more akin to that of Napoleon, when he was reduced to counterbalance inferiority of numbers by superiority of skill. The immortal campaigns of 1796 in Italy, and of 1814 in Champagne, bear a strong resemblance to those of Eugene. Like the French Emperor, his strokes were rapid and forcible; his coup-d'œil was at once quick and just; his activity indefatigable; his courage undaunted; his resources equal to any undertaking. He did not lay much stress on previous arrangements, and seldom attempted the extensive combinations which enabled Marlborough to command success; but dashed fearlessly on, trusting to his own resources to extricate himself out of any difficulty— to his genius, in any circumstances, to command victory. Yet was this daring disposition not without peril. Daring and His audacity often bordered on rashness, his rapidity on haste; and he repeatedly brought his armies into situations all but desperate, and which, to a general of less capacity, would unquestionably have proved so. But in these difficulties no one could exceed him in the energy and vigour with which he extricated himself from the toils; and many of his greatest victories, particularly those of Turin and Belgrade, were gained under circumstances where even the boldest officers in his army had given him over for lost. He was prodigal of the blood of his soldiers, and, like Napoleon, indifferent to the sacrifices at which he purchased his successes; but he was still more lavish of his own, and never failed to share the hardships and dangers of the meanest of his followers. Engaged during his active life in thirteen pitched battles, in all he fought like a common soldier. He was in consequence repeatedly, sometimes dangerously, wounded; and it was extraordinary that he escaped the reiterated perils to which he was exposed. He raised the Austrian monarchy by his triumphs to the very highest pitch of glory, and finally broke the power of the Turks, the most persevering and not the least formidable of its enemies. But the enterprises which his genius prompted the cabinet of Vienna to undertake were beyond the strength of the Hereditary States; and for nearly a century after it accomplished nothing worthy, either of its growing resources, or of the military renown which he had achieved for it. FREDERICK II., surnamed THE GREAT, with more justice than any other to whom that title has been applied in modern times, was born at Berlin on the 24th January 1712. His education was as much neglected as ill-directed. Destined from early youth for the military profession, he was, in the first instance, subjected to a discipline so rigorous that he conceived the utmost aversion for a career in which he was ultimately to shine with such lustre, and, as his only resource, threw himself with ardour into the study of French literature, for which he retained a strong predilection through the whole of his subsequent life. Unfortunately, his studies were almost entirely confined to that literature. That of his own country, since so illustrious, had not started into existence. Of Italian and Spanish he was |