CAMEO XXXIV.

Abdication of Victor Amadeus.

1730.

FRESH disturbances were preparing for Europe. Victor Amadeus of Savoy, who had become among the various changes King of Sardinia, suddenly resigned his crown to his son. The cause was apparently that at sixty-three he had fallen in love with the widowed Marchesa di San Sebastian, one of his daughter-in-law's ladies, who was fortyfive, and had secretly married her on the 12th of August, 1730.

On the 3rd of the following September, without warning to her, his son, or any one else, he announced his abdication in council at his Castle of Rivoli, reserving to himself only a pension of 50,000 crowns, and then he set off with his bride for Chambery.

He had been a harsh father to Charles Emanuel, who at twenty-nine found himself so unexpectedly in possession of the throne. He changed the Ministry, much to his father's vexation, and in the course of the winter, Victor Amadeus had an apoplectic attack, which probably made him more irritable. The father and son had quarrelled, the old King was plainly tired of his retreat, and it was whispered that he was going to withdraw his act of abdication. The young King assembled his council in alarm, and the Chancellor Gattinara, Archbishop of Turin, obtained from him an order for the arrest of his father, on the plea that he was misguided by his wife.

The order was brutally executed. A party of grenadiers, some with torches, others with bayonets, entered the King's bedroom at Montcalieri in the middle of the night. His wife was wakened by the noise, and jumped out of bed with a scream. She was instantly seized by the soldiers, and just as she was, was put into a carriage and carried off to a convent at Carignan. Poor Victor Amadeus was so heavily asleep as to have heard nothing of all this, and he did not

wake till he had been roughly shaken by the Count of la Perosa. Then he could not believe that his son could have given such an order, and struggled so that he was carried off at last, rolled up in the bed-clothes. The soldiers, between whose ranks he was carried, and who were attached to him, durst not interfere. He was taken to Rivoli, and there whenever he attempted to speak to any one he was only answered by a low bow, nor were any letters allowed to reach him. He was like a madman at first under such treatment, but after some weeks two monks were sent to him, and calmed him. When he found that neither his grandson, Louis XV., nor his son-in-law, Philip V., made any move on his behalf, nor any of his old generals and counsellors, he gave up hope and submitted to his fate. His wife, his servants, and his books were then restored to him, and he was allowed to return to Montcalieri; but his health was entirely broken, and he died on the 31st of October, 1732.

In Russia, Catherine, the widow of Peter the Great, had died in 1727, and his grandson, Peter II., a mere boy, was a victim to the small-pox in 1730, upon which Anne, the daughter of the great Peter's elder brother, began a not very respectable reign of ten years.

Neither of these events had, however, such an effect on the affairs of Europe as the death of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, and King of Poland. He had been one of the handsomest, strongest, and most voluptuous men in Europe. He could twist a horseshoe with his fingers, so that the Turks called him the Bender of horseshoes, and his palace at Dresden was full of splendid plate, jewels and pictures; but the habits of his court were so shocking to all sense of Christian propriety that the stern old soldier, Frederick William of Prussia, was horrified at having taken his son thither, went away in haste, and swore never to come near it again.

However, he sent his Minister, Grumkow, thither on the invitation of Augustus, who wanted to purchase the hereditary succession to the throne of Poland for his family, by consenting to the Pragmatic Sanction in favour of the daughters of Charles VI. Grumkow and Augustus each hoped to discover the secrets of the other by making him intoxicated, and the carousal was such that the King died of it, in 1733, and the Minister never recovered the effects. This was the time, as it seemed, for poor Stanislas Lecksinski to regain his crown, and to his great joy, he heard that the nobles of Poland had sworn only to elect a Pole for their King. Assisted by French money, and buoyed up by French promises, he left the Castle of Chambord, and arrived at Warsaw, where he was unanimously elected by that wonderful diet of 60,000 nobles, which was wont to assemble on horseback in the open field.

The son of Augustus, Frederick Augustus, had not a single partisan in Poland, but he had an army of 33,000 men, and both Charles VI. and Czaritza Anne were pledged to support him, while the army of Poland had been kept low by his father, and only consisted of 15,000.

CAMEO XXXIV.

Death of Augustus the Strong.

1733.

CAMEO XXXIV.

Election.

1733.

All at once, before France could interfere, the Russian, Austrian, and Saxon armies invaded Poland. The untrained force of the nobles was The Polish dispersed ; many were made prisoners, and these were dragged, some of them in chains, to an inn near Warsaw, where the election of Frederick Augustus was forced from their reluctant lips. The unfortunate Stanislas was forced to flee to Dantzic, a merchant city almost independent, though under Polish protection, and devoted to his cause. His bravest friends joined him there, and for five months they held out with the utmost courage and constancy, sustained by the hope that Louis XV. would send troops for their relief. At length a few ships, bearing 1,500 soldiers, which had been designed for the King's escort to Warsaw, appeared in the Baltic, but all the means of approach to the beleaguered city had been occupied by the Russians, and the old officer in command, Le Peyrouse de Lamotte, thought the risk too great, and returned to Copenhagen to wait reinforce

ments.

The French envoy to Denmark, Colonel Count Plélo, was shocked at what he held to be a disgrace to his flag, and declared that the attempt ought to be made.

"The talk of a man safe in his Cabinet," said one of the officers, and Plélo was so much stung that he undertook to lead the relief party himself, though he knew that the attempt would be hopeless, and wrote to the Minister of foreign affairs to commend to the care of the country his wife and children. Lamotte felt obliged to go with him; they landed, made a gallant attack, and Plélo fell under fifteen wounds. It was an error, not merely of rashness, but because an envoy was like a herald, bound never to make war, and the next French ambassador to Russia paid the penalty, being kept prisoner for eighteen months. Lamotte now contrived to form camp, which he held out for a whole month, though he could do nothing for the besieged. This is a place still shown at Dantzic as the grave of the Russians. His courage was so much admired by the Russian General Munich, that when at length he had to surrender, he and all his troops were allowed free passage home. Dantzic was thus obliged to give up hope, and the first condition was that Stanislas should be given up. The King, however, had started in the disguise of a peasant with General Steinflict and three guides in a little boat, crossing flooded meadows, and trying to keep within reach of the Vistula, but not able to approach it because of the Russian outposts. As they went, they heard the salutes of the cannon announcing the surrender of the town, and on they crept for days, hiding behind hedges, or in bogs, or in barns, where a breath might have betrayed them, while Munich was issuing proclamations threatening any one who concealed the fugitives. Thus at last they reached the Prussian town of Marienwerder, and thence returned to France.

Fleury was thought to have thus left the King's father-in-law to his fate because he disliked the Queen for her one unfortunate attempt at

influence.

The war, in concert with Philip V. of Spain and Charles Emanuel of Sardinia, was going on in Italy, against Charles VI., and the Queen of Spain at last saw her hopes fulfilled of securing a kingdom for her son. A descent was made on the kingdom of Naples, where the Spaniards were much preferred to the Austrians, the conquest was easy, almost bloodless, and her son, Carlos, was proclaimed King of Naples and Sicily.

The Emperor was raising troops, and hoping for support from England, but Walpole was resolved to keep out of war which but slightly concerned the country. Fleury decided on a campaign on the Rhine, and gave the command to Marshal Berwick. This very noble person, who had nearly all the military talent of his uncle Marlborough, and all the best qualities of the House of Stuart, except their personal charm of manner, had been living quietly for the last eight years at his estate of Fitzjames, so bringing up his children that for two generations more they were marked out by their religious and honourable character, and it is impossible not to wonder how it would have been with England if Arabella Churchill had been wife to James II.

Montesquieu, the philosophical moralist, said, "In Plutarch's Lives I have seen great men at a distance; in Marshal Berwick I have seen what they were." His half-brother, the Chevalier, had not the sense to estimate his worth, and was repelled by his grave dry manner, so that he kept aloof, and only did his best for his fellow exiles. "I hear of nothing but these Irish Officers," said Louis XIV. one day, when he made some application on their behalf. "Sire," returned the Duke, 'your Majesty's enemies make the same complaint.”

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His hours were arranged with military precision for reading, walking, writing his very valuable memoirs of his own time, conversing with friends, and attending to his gardens, which he had laid out himself. Thence he was summoned to command the army of the Rhine, in which he found the future chief general of the French armies, Maurice, an illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong, who, on his father's death, had entered the French army, and was known by the title of Count Maurice of Saxe. He had inherited much of his father's strength, beauty, and talent, and is said to have been the great grandfather of the French authoress called Georges Sand.

In 1733, Berwick invested Kehl, but it was too late in the year for carrying on operations, and he could not begin to secure the passages across the Rhine by besieging Kehl and Philipsburg till the spring of 1734, when he found nothing ready, for the Count de Belleisle had, by inflated language and fine promises, induced Cardinal Fleury to grant him, for besieging Traerbach, all that artillery that had been prepared for Berwick, for Philipsburg. The other survivor of the former wars was Prince Eugene, who had been called on by the Emperor to take the command. He had not approved of the undertaking, nor of the unjustifiable interference with the Polish Election, but his voice was not listened to. I have seen three emperors," he

CAMEO

XXXIV.

Marshal Berwick.

1733.

CAMEO XXXIV.

The Old

General. 1735.

said; "Leopold was my father, Joseph my brother, this one is my master."

However, like a good soldier, though seventy-one years of age, he obeyed the call, and was enthusiastically greeted by the Austrian troops, who called him "father," and the King of Prussia, who was in the camp with his son, said, "I see my master;" but the troops were only half what had been promised, and, except the Prussians, were raw levies, ill-equipped, so that Eugene could attempt nothing, and had to abandon the lines of Eslingen, enabling the French to begin the siege of Philipsburg on the 3rd of June. On the 12th, Berwick, while visiting the trenches, mounted the bank thrown up so as to see around him, not listening to a sentinel who had been posted below to prevent persons going on so dangerous a spot. In a moment, a cannon ball took off his head. He was sixty-three years of age when he fell, in the same way, and nearly in the same place, as Marshal Turenne, leaving an equally honourable name. The Marquis d'Asfeld went on with the siege and took Philipsburg in July.

Another of the old generals, Villars, at eighty-one, had been sent into Italy. He had always been boastful, having beaten every one except Marlborough, and he said to Cardinal Fleury, "Tell the King that he may dispose of Italy, I shall conquer it for him.” The Queen of France fastened a cockade in his hat, the Queen of Spain sent one to meet him at Lyons, and the Queen of Sardinia had another for him at Turin. To her he said, "My hat is adorned by a flight of three queens to make me fortunate in my enterprises for the three crowns.

Milan and its duchy were conquered, though Charles Emanuel resented Villars' airs of superiority, and almost always refused to follow his advice. However, one day when they were reconnoitering with an escort of only eighty grenadiers, they found themselves before four hundred of the enemy, who opened fire on them. "Now is the time for audacity," said the old Marshal; "retreat would be destruction." They charged so boldly that the four hundred fled before them, and the King could not help saying, "M. le Maréchal, I was not surprised by your valour so much as by your vigour and activity."

"Sire,” he answered, "they are my last sparks. It is my last engagement, and thus I take leave of war."

For he was mortified at the disregard of his advice, and was irritable and forgetful, so that it was found well to persuade him that his health was not equal to the fatigue. He left the camp, and the King, who was glad to get rid of him, had not the grace to say more than "Bon voyage, M. le Maréchal." He only reached Turin before he was taken ill. When tidings came that Berwick had been killed by a cannon shot, he sighed out, "That man was always lucky," and he died the next day, it is said, in the room where he had been born when his father was ambassador at Turin.

Eugene likewise was experiencing the fate of old age in being disregarded by the young. He knew his army to be unequal to a battle