Prince Eugene’s next employment was in a service that required diplomatic as well as military skill. He was sent by the emperor Leopold to Italy with the view of binding the duke of Savoy to the coalition against France, and of co-operating with the Italian and Spanish troops. The first engagement with Cιtinat at Staffarde resulted in the defeat of the coalition; but in the spring of 1691 Prince Eugene, having secured reinforcements, caused the siege of Coni to be raised, took possession of Carmagnole, and in the end completely defeated Catinat. He followed up his success by entering Dauphiné, where he took possession of Embrun and Gap. After another campaign, in which there was little eventful, the further prosecution of the - war was abandoned owing to the defection of the duke of Savoy from the coalition, and Prince Eugene returned to Vienna, where he soon afterwards received the command of the army in Hungary.

It was about this time that Louis XIV. secretly offered him the baton of a marshal of France, with the government of Champagne which his father had held, and also a pension of two thousand pistoles. But Eugene rejected these offers with indignation, and proceeded to combat the Turks commanded by the sultan Kara-Mustapha in person. After some able marches and skilful manoeuvres, he surprised the enemy (September 11, 1697) at Zentha, on the Theiss, in a camp retrenched en tete de pont ; and, after an attack as vigorous as it was daring, he killed twenty thousand of them, drove ten thousand into the river, made prisoners of the remainder, and took the whole of their artillery and baggage. The victory was one of the most complete and important ever won by the Austrian arms. The earlier historians and biographers of Prince Eugene have generally stated that the battle of Zentha was fought against express orders from the court of Vienna, that Eugene was placed under arrest for violating these orders, and that a proposal to bring him before a council of war was frustrated only by the threatening attitude assumed by the citizens of Vienna. It is somewhat curious that a story so minute in its details should, as is now agreed on all hands, be utterly devoid of foundation. It is in fact so pure a fabrication that the latest biographers do not even allude to it. Immediately after the battle Eugene returned to Hungary; and, after a campaign distinguished by no remarkable event, a treaty of peace was at length concluded with the Turks at Carkwitz, on the 26th January 1699.

Prince Eugene’s next opportunity of distinguishing himself in active service came in the war of the Spanish succession. At the commencement of the year 1701, he was sent into Italy once more to oppose his old antagonist Catinat. He achieved a rapid success, forcing the French army, after sustaining several checks, to retire behind the Oglio, where a series of reverses equally unexpected and severe led to the recall of Catinat in disgrace. The duke of Villeroi, an utterly inexperienced general who succeeded to the command of which Catinat had been deprived, having ventured to attack Eugene at Chiari, in an impregnable position, was repulsed with great loss. And this first check was only the forerunner of more signal reverses; for, in a short time, Villeroi was forced to abandon the whole of the Mantuan territory, and to take refuge in Cremona, where he seems to have considered himself as secure in the midst of his staff. By means of a stratagem, however, Eugene penetrated into the city during the night, at the head of 2000 men, and, though he found it impossible to hold the town, succeeded in carrrying ofl' Villeroi as a prisoner. But as the duke of Vendome, a much abler general, replaced the captive, the incursion, daring though it was, proved anything but advantgeous to the Austrians. The superior generalship of his new opponent, and the fact that the French army had been largely reinforced, while reinforcements had not been sent from Vienna, forced Prince Eugene to confine himself to a war of observation, without important results, though fertile in most useful lessons to students of military science. This campaign was terminated by the sanguinary battle of Luzara, fought on the lst of August 1702, in which each party claimed the victory. Both armies having entered into winter quarters, Eugene returned to Vienna, where he was appointed president of the council of war. He then set out for Hungary in order to combat the insurgents in that country; but his means proving insufficient, he effected nothing of importance. The revolt was, however, put down by the success which General Heister obtained in another quarter. Prince Eugene accordingly proceeded to Bavaria, where, in 1704, he made his first campaign along with Marlborough. Similarity of tastes, views, and talents soon established between these two great men a friendship which is rarely to be found amongst military chiefs, and which contributed, more than all other causes put together, to the success which the allies obtained. The first and perhaps the most important of these successes was that of Höchstädt or Blenheim, gained on the 3d of August 1704, where the English and imperial troops triumphed over one of the finest armies that France had ever sent into Germany.

But since Prince Eugene had quitted Italy, Vendome, who commanded the French army in that country, had obtained various successes against the duke of Savoy, who had once more deserted France and joined Austria. The emperor deemed the crisis so serious that he recalled Eugene and sent him to Italy to the assistance of his ally. Vendôme at first opposed great obstacles to the plan which the prince had formed for carrying succours into Piedmont; but after a variety of marches and counter-marches, in which both commanders displayed signal ability, the two armies met at Cassano (August 16, 1705), where a deadly engagement ensued, and Prince Eugene received two severe wounds, which forced him to quit the field. This accident decided the fate of the battle, and for the time suspended the prince’s march towards Piedmont. Vendôme, however, was recalled, and La Feuillade (who succeeded him) was incapable of long arresting the progress of such a commander as Eugene. After once more passing several rivers in presence of the French army, and executing one of the most skilful and daring marches he had ever performed, the latter appeared before the entrenched camp at Turin, which place the French were now besieging with an armyeighty thousand strong. Prince Eugene had only thirty thousand men; but his antagonist was the duke of Orleans, who, though full of zeal and courage, wanted experience. Besides, by a secret order of Louis XIV., who had, in fact, transferred the command to Marsin, the young prince was restricted to the execution of an ill-conceived plan, which neutralized the advantage of superior numbers, and put it in the power of the enemy to select his point of attack. With equal courage and address, Eugene profited by the misunderstanding which the exhibition of such an order could not fail to produce between the Frenclι generals; and having on the 7th September 1706 attacked the French army in its entrenchments, he gained a complete victory, which decided the fate of Italy. This brilliant achievement, the result of the most masterly combinations, and in several respects the prototype of the campaign of Marengo in 1800, affords one of the most remarkable examples of the difficulty of defending extensive lines even against an inferior army, massed upon one or two points. As soon as the duke of Orleans observed the imperial army approaching, he wished to march out of the lines with the whole French army, and to deliver battle in the open field, where he could have availed himself of his great numerical superiority, but he was restrained by Marsin, who, by this absurd interposition, sealed the fate of the French army, and lost Italy. In the heat of the battle Eugene received a wound, and was thrown from his horse into a ditch. As a recompense for so important services the prince received the government of the Milanese, of which he took possession with great pomp on the 16th April 1707.

The attempt which he made against Toulon in the course of the same year failed completely, because the invasion of the kingdom of Naples retarded the march of the troops which were to have been employed in it, and this delay afforded Marshal de Tessé time to make good dispositions. Obliged to renounce his project, therefore, the prince repaired to Vienna, where he was received with great enthusiasm both by the people and by the court. “I am very well satisfied with you,” said the emperor, “excepting on one point only, which is, that you expose yourself too much.” This monarch immediately dispatched Eugene to Holland, and to the different courts of Germany, in order to forward the necessary preparations for the campaign of the following year, 1708.

Early in the spring of 1708 the prince proceeded to Flanders, in order to assume the command of the forces which his diplomatic ability had been mainly instrumental in assembling. This campaign was opened by the victory of Oudenarde, to which the perfect union of Marlborough and Eugene on the one hand, and the misunderstanding between Vendôme and the duke of Burgundy on the other, seem to have equally contributed. The duke immediately abandoned the Low Countries, and remaining in observation made no attempt whatever to raise the siege of Lille, where Bouffiers distinguished himself by a glorious defence. To the valour of the latter Eugene paid a flattering tribute, and invited him to prepare the articles of capitulation himself, with the words, “I subscribe to everything beforehand, well persuaded that you will not insert any thing unworthy of yourself or of me.” After this important conquest, Eugene and Marlborough proceeded to the Hague, where they were received in the most flattering manner by the public, by the states-general, and, above all, by their esteemed friend the pensionary Heinsius. Negotiations were then opened for peace, but proved fruitless. The campaign of 1709 was opened in Flanders by two hostile armies, each a hundred and fifty thousand strong. That of the French was commanded by Villars, who, fearing to compromise himself in opposition to such great captains as Marlborough and Eugene, remained upon the defensive, and suffered them to take Tournay without opposition. Having gone to succour Mons he was followed by the allies, who attacked him at Malplaquet on the 9th of September, in a formidable position, where he had had time to entrench himself. The attack was made with equal vigour and ability; but owing to the strength of the French position, and the tenacity with which it was maintained, the victory was purchased at the cost of twenty-five thousand men killed on the field of battle, and the Dutch infantry was almost annihilated. Although the allies remained masters of the field of battle, this barren advantage had been so dearly bought that they found themselves soon afterwards out of all condition to undertake any thing. Their army accordingly went into winter-quarters, and Prince Eugene returned to Vienna, whence the emperor almost immediately dispatched him to Berlin. From the king of Prussia the prince obtained every thing which he had been instructed to require; and having thus fulfilled his mission, he returned into Flanders, where, excepting the capture of Douai, Bethune, and Aire, the campaign of 1710 presented nothing remarkable. On the death of the emperor Joseph I. in .April 1711, Prince Eugene, in concert with the empress, exerted his utmost endeavours to secure the crown to the archduke, who afterwards asceuded the imperial throne under the name of Charles VI. In the same year the changes which had occurred in the policy, or rather the caprice, of Queen Anne, brought about an approximation between England and France, and put an end to the influence which Marlborough had hitherto possessed. When this political revolution became known, Prince Eugene immediately repaired to London, charged with a mission from the emperor to re-establish the credit of his illustrious companion in arms, as well as to re-attach England to the coalition. The mission having proved unsuccessful, the emperor found himself under the necessity of making the campaign of 1712 with the aid of the Dutch alone. The defection of the English, however, did not induce Prince Eugene to abandon his favourite plan of invading France. He resolved, at whatever cost, to penetrate into Champagne; and in order to support his operations by the possession of some important places, he began by making himself master of Quesnoy. But the Dutch, having been surprised and beaten in the lines of Denain, where Prince Eugene had placed them at too great a distance to receive timely support in case of an attack, he was obliged to raise the siege of Landrecies, and to abandon the project which he had so long cherished. This was the last campaign in which Austria acted in conjunction with her allies. Abandoned first by England and then by Holland, the emperor, notwithstanding these desertions, still wished to maintain the war in Germany; but the superiority of the French army prevented Eugene from relieving either Landau or Freiburg, which were successively obliged to capitulate; and seeing the empire thus laid open to the armies of France, and even the hereditary states themselves exposed to invasion, the prince counselled his master to make peace. Sensible of the prudence of this advice, the emperor immediately entrusted Eugene with full powers to negotiate a treaty of peace, which was concluded at Rastadt, outlie 6th of March 1714. On his return to Vienna, Prince Eugene was employed for a time in matters of internal administration; but it was not long before he was again called on to assume the command of the army in the field. In the spring of 1716 the emperor, having concluded an offensive alliance with Venice against Turkey, appointed Eugene to command tho army of Hungary; and at Peterwaradin, with a force not exceeding sixty thousand men, he gained (5th August 1716) a signal victory over the Turks, who had not less than a hundred and fifty thousand men in the field. In recognition of this service to Christendom the pope sent to the victorious general the consecrated rapier which the court of Rouie was accustomed to bestow upon those who had triumphed over the infidels. But the ensuing campaign, that of 1717, was still more remarkable on account of the battle of Belgrade. After having besieged the city for a month he found himself in a most critical, if not hopeless, situation. The force opposed to him numbered six times his own army, which besides was become smaller every day ow ing to the prevalence of dysentery. In these circumstances the only possible deliverance was by a bold and decided stroke. Accordingly on the morning of the 16th August 1717 Prince Eugene ordered a general attack, which resulted in the total defeat of the enemy with an enormous loss, and in the capitulation of the city six days afterwards. The prince was wounded in the heat of the action, this being the thirteenth time that he had been hit upon the field of battle. On his return to Vienna he received, among other testimonies of gratitude, a swoιd valued at eighty thousand florins from the emperor. In the following year, 1718, after some fruitless negotiations with a view to the conclusion of peace, he again took the field; but the treaty of Passarowitz (21st July 1718) put an end to hostilities at the moment when the prince had well-founded hopes of obtaining still more important successes than those of the last campaign, and even of reaching Constantinople, and dictating a peace on the shores of the Bosphorus.

As the government of the Netherlands, formerly conferred upon Eugene, had now for some reason been bestowed on a sister of the emperor, the prince was appointed vicar-general of Italy, with a pension of three hundred thousand florins. Though still retaining his official position and much of his influence at court, his personal relations with the emperor were not so cordial as before, and he suffered from the intrigues of the antiGerman party. During the ten years of peace which ensued, Eugene occupied himself with the arts and with literature, to which lie had hitherto been able to devote little of his time. This new interest led him to correspond with many of the most eminent men in Europe. But the contest which arose out of the succession of Augustus II. to the throne of Poland having afforded Austria a pretext for attacking France, war was resolved on, contrary to the advice of Eugene. In spite of this, however, he was appointed to command the army destined to act upon the Rhine, which from the commencement had very superior forces opposed to it; and if it could not prevent the capture of Philipsburg after a long siege, it at least prevented the enemy from entering Bavaria. Prince Eugene, having now attained his seventy-first year, no longer possessed the vigour and activity necessary for a general in the field, and he welcomed the peace which was concluded on the 3d of October 1735. On his return to Vienna, his health declined more and more, and he died in that capital on the 21st April 1736, leaving an immense inheritance to his niece the Princess Victoria of Savoy.

Of a character cold and severe, Prince Eugene had almost no other passion than that of glory. He died unmarried, and seemed so little susceptible to female influence that he was styled a Mars without a Venus. Although one of the greatest generals of his time, military science is not indebted to him for any remarkable improvement^. His operations were not directed according to any positive method, nor conformable to invariable principles; it was by sudden inspirations, and an admirable rapidity of coup diceil, that he conducted himself on the ground according to the circumstances and the men he had to deal with; and upon all occasions he took the greatest pains to ascertain the character of the generals who were opposed to him. Despising the lives of his soldiers as much as he exposed his own, it was always by persevering efforts and great sacrifices that he obtained victory. His almost invariable success raised the reputation of the Austrian army to a point which it has never reached either before or since his day. War was with him a passion. Always on the march, in camps, or on the field of battle during more than fifty years, and under the reign of three emperors, he had scarcely passed two years together without fighting. Prince Eugene was a man of the middle size, but, upon the whole, well made; the cast of his visage was somewhat long, his mouth moderate, and almost always open; his eyes were black and animated, and his complexion such as became a warrior. His funeral oration, composed in Italian by Cardinal Passionei, was translated into French by Madame du...