woman's hand; but his foot slipped, and down he came, with his load, atop of her. She, of course, redoubled her yells, which brought the guard up. In this way, as Carlyle says, "the big widow discovered that he (Maurice) did not like Westphalia hams in that particular form; he only pretended to like them." The result of this little affair was, that Anne went off to Russia, and worked sedulously against Maurice. The death of Catharine was followed by the march of General de Lascy, at the head of 8000 Russians, into Courland; and Maurice received a hint to be off, with a threat, in case of refusal, of "un pays éloigné en perspective," a charming euphemism for Siberia. Maurice escaped alone by swimming through a lake on horseback; but his little band of soldiers was captured. The whole result of the Courland expedition, which cost Maurice two years, was an augmentation of his debts, -though probably he did not care much for that; and he held as consolation the parchment that confirmed his election. On arriving in Paris, a fresh disappointment awaited him: he hurried on the wings of love to his Adrienne, and found on her mantelpiece a very warm letter from the Marquis de Tencin. He hastened off to his rival, and begged him to take a walk with him. The latter fancied that a duel was meant, and was agreeably disappointed when Maurice led him to Adrienne, and said, "My dove, I bring you this gentleman. The vanquished must crown the victor." Up to the year 1733 we do not find Maurice performing any thing of consequence. He made a trip to Russia, on matrimonial thoughts intent; but it proved a failure. In the above-named year, however, Louis XV. declared war against Austria; and a French corps under Maréchal Berwick, to which Maurice was attached, crossed the Rhine. In this campaign, and in the one of the following year, our hero behaved with such gallantry that he obtained his promotion as lieutenant-general. An armistice was soon after signed, and the Count was again placed on the shelf. In 1737 we catch a glimpse of him, spending his time in shooting partridges and hares, and not attending court, "because he liked to get to bed early." The rest of his time he filled up by writing gossiping letters to his father. These letters are still preserved in the Saxon archives; but do not contain much of importance beyond the floating scandal of the day, told rather more coarsely than we find it in contemporary memoirs. Of how little importance Maurice was considered at the time is proved by the fact that the Duc de Luynes, who so carefully treasured up every court incident, does not once mention his name till 1741. Louis XV., who had bought Choisy, issued an order that nobody was to shoot in the woods of that domain. Maurice, who had purchased a small property called "Aux Pipes," close to Choisy, solely for the purpose of shooting in the royal woods, determined to sell it. The king, hearing of this, very politely made an exception in his favour; and of course Maurice, in spite of his love of early to bed, hastened to Versailles to return thanks. Soon after, the king gave Maurice a proof of his favour by sending him a "brevet de retenue" on his regiment to the value of 50,000 livres. By means of this document he was able to raise that sum; and we may feel quite sure that he very speedily used it. On the accession of Maria Theresa, Frederick of Prussia at once set to work to make a rent in the Pragmatic Sanction; and his example was followed by the Elector of Bavaria, who was promised the support of a French army. Maurice led his cavalry division across the Rhine, and fought very bravely in several skirmishes. A sensible observer, Captain de Lignières, who was attached to Maurice, wrote in this year: "Il aime le métier, et je l'ai toujours dit; c'est un grand homme déguisé; on peut se fier à lui." The capture of Prague was the first brilliant achievement that attracted attention to Maurice de Saxe. He strictly prohibited looting; and the grateful inhabitants gave him in return a valuable diamond. The Elector of Bavaria marched in, and was pro-claimed King of Bohemia; but on Maurice congratulating him on his new dignity, he replied, "Oh, yes; I am King of Bohemia much in the same way as you are Duke of Courland." Who would accuse a German prince of so much wit? Maurice next went to Dresden to see his father, and met there Frederick II. of Prussia, who had come to ask for help from Saxony. Brühl, the Saxon minister, who was afraid of Frederick's ambitious projects, tried to gain time by giving him splendid dinners, operas, &c. During one of the most important negotiations, it was announced that the opera had begun; and away flew the King of Poland, forgetting all about the war. As Frederick recorded, no doubt with an ominous shake of the head, "Ten kingdoms to conquer would not have retained the King of Poland a moment longer." On returning to head-quarters, Maurice distinguished himself by taking the strong place of Eger, which caused the Elector to write to him very flatteringly, "Que ne pouvez-vous être partout?" Shortly after he set off to Russia again, in re the Courland chimera. The Empress Elizabeth received him very kindly at Moscow, where she had gone for her coronation. We read about a vast quantity of eating and drinking, midnight processions through the illuminated streets; but deuce a word about the duchy business. When Maurice returned to the scene of action in Germany, he found the posture of affairs greatly changed. Saxony and Bavaria had made a separate peace with Austria; and the French, under Broglio and Belleisle, had been driven back under the walls of Prague. Maurice was placed at the head. of a corps, with which he marched into Bohemia, and thrashed Trenck the Pandour. But the French troops were badly handled; and court intrigues, fostered by Maurice's old rival Prince de Conti, led to his being kept in the background. After the battle of Dettingen, however, Broglio was recalled, and the Maréchal de Noailles placed at the head of the army; while the Count de Saxe received a separate command in Upper Alsace. He behaved very gallantly, holding the allies in check; and when the army went into winter quarters he proceeded to Paris, where the king received him with special favour. As he could not be made a marshal owing to his religion, there was a talk of reviving in his favour the old rank of "capitaine-général," so that he might hold the independent command of an army. In January 1744 Count de Saxe was placed at the head of a corps which was to take ship at Dunkirk and support the landing of Charles Edward in England. But, as Maurice said, "le vent n'était pas jacobite." The transports were cast ashore; and before they could be repaired and put to sea, Admiral Norris arrived with a fleet off Dunkirk, and the expedition was countermanded. Charles Edward took such a liking to Count de Saxe, that he proposed to make the next campaign under him; but his adherents were opposed to it, fearing lest the Chevalier might thus render himself unpopular in England. Maurice arrived in Paris just in time to foil the intrigues going on against him; and on March 26, 1744, was appointed Maréchal de France, thus leaping over the heads of eight senior generals on active service. An attempt was made on this occasion to win him over to the Catholic faith; but he declined, saying that people would fancy the staff was a reward for renegadism. It was decided that the army for Flanders should be divided between De Noailles and De Saxe in the proportions of two-thirds and one-third respectively. Before Maurice took the field, he made a very profitable bargain with the king: the latter advanced him 200,000 livres, with which to equip ten letters of marque to fight the English; and the money was to be repaid out of the prizes. Maurice behaved magnificently during the campaign, and though the enemy was superior in numbers, he managed to keep him in check. Voltaire says of him justly: "Camper et décamper à propos; couvrir son pays; faire subsister son armée aux dépens des ennemis; aller sur leur terrain, lorsqu'ils s'avancent vers le pays qu'on défend, et les forcer à revenir sur leurs pas; rendre par l'habilité la force inutile: c'est ce qui est regardé comme un des chefs-d'œuvre de l'art militaire, et c'est ce que fit le Maréchal de Saxe depuis le commencement d'auguste (sic), jusqu'au mois de novembre." Maurice started for the next campaign-that of 1745-in a sad state of health; but to go he was determined. When Voltaire asked him sympathisingly, "What he could do in such a state of weakness?" he replied: "It is not a question of life, but of departing." Among his baggage was a carriage full of young baggages; but his surgeon took the precaution of posting sentries round his quarters every night, with the strictest orders not to let any petticoats pass in. The count's first step was to invest Tournay; and the allies hurried to relieve it. These movements led to the battle of Fontenoy, the only one the French ever had the honour of winning from the English; and they did so, after all, * Précis du Siècle de Louis XV, cap. xiii. We give the text in the original, as we think it a crime to disfigure any thing written by King Voltaire. by the help of the Irish. Those who desire to read a vivid account of this memorable battle we again refer to Lover's Treasure Trove. We need only mention that it was fought with tremendous obstinacy on both sides, and that in the final charge Maurice was carried at the head of the columns in his litter, as he was too ill to mount his horse. The delight of the French at such a rare victory was unbounded. The king publicly embraced the Maréchal, and called him "his cousin ;" and Voltaire wrote in his honour the poem of Fontenaï, in which he says, like a true Frenchman, "C'est là ce fier Saxon, qu'on croit né parmi nous.” Probably, however, Maurice felt most flattered at a letter he received shortly after from Frederick of Prussia, in which the Protestant hero wrote: "We were talking a few days ago about battles, and discussing the point as to what victory most honoured the general. Some said that it was Almanza, others declared for Turin. For my part, I was of opinion that it was the victory which an almost dying general gained over the enemies of France." The solid pudding Maurice acquired was a pension of 40,000 livres, and the Château de Chambord and its dependencies for life. Unfortunately for Maurice, he had not only external but also internal foes to contend with. Although the king felt that he was indispensable, the royal vanity was offended by the Maréchal's independent tone: he actually failed so greatly as to omit accompanying the king on his walks abroad! The French grandees also felt a jealousy of the foreign adventurer, and advised Count Clermont to quit the army, "telling the general that it was too humiliating for a prince of the blood of France to obey a foreign bastard." Clermont, however, had the sense to let well alone. Another charge against the Maréchal was, that he wasted his opportunities, and did not follow up the victory; and there appears to have been some truth in this. He soon triumphed over his enemies, however, and regained his ascendency with the king. At the capture of Brussels, the oriflamme of Francis I. was recovered among other trophies, and Maurice received orders to bring it to Paris himself. His journey resembled a triumphal procession. When the custom-house officers attempted to search his carriage at Peronne, the chief bailli rushed forward, crying, "What are you doing, scoundrels? are laurels contraband?" At Versailles he received the same honours which had been granted to Turenne and Villars: he worked several hours a day alone with the king, and supped at night with the Pompadour, who took a great liking to him. When he went to Paris, the mob followed him. through the streets with shouts; and on appearing at the Opéra a laurelwreath was handed to him by a young artiste. On returning to the army in April 1746, Maurice opened the ball by forcing Antwerp to surrender. After the loss of Mons, Charleroi, and Namur, the Lowlanders began to feel alarmed, and Prince Charles of Lorraine marched to the rescue at the head of 50,000 men. On October 11, 1746, the Maréchal de Saxe won the brilliant battle of Raucoux; but the negligence of his lieutenants prevented him from reaping the. full fruit of the victory. Fresh intrigues at court compelled the hero to return shortly after to Paris. The king received him magnificently at Fontainebleau, granted him the title of "Altesse Sérénissime," and gave him six of the cannon captured at Raucoux, which were planted in front of his house at Chambord. A Gascon very simply expressed his wonder at the number of flags hung up in Notre Dame. 'Cadedis," he exclaimed, "this marshal scandalises one; he is going to turn this church into a wardrobe for Madame de Hongrie." Early in the following year the king, who was alarmed at the Marshal's continued grumbling about the favouritism shown in appointing the Prince de Conti generalissimo, and afraid lest he might retire permanently to Chambord, appointed Maurice "Maréchal-Général de ses camps et armées," saying the while, "You have served me as well as M. de Turenne served the late king; it was fair that I should give you the same grade, and I hope that you will imitate him in every thing." The last remark was a sly attempt at proselytism; but Maurice evaded it by saying "that he hoped to die in his majesty's service, as M. de Turenne had done." The new dignity was accompanied by a further pension of 30,000 livres, and the hero's portrait was put up in the Louvre, with the inscription: "Rome eut en Fabius un guerrier politique; Dans Hannibal Carthage eut un chef héroïque : On May 31, 1747, the king joined the Maréchal at Brussels, in the hope of witnessing another equally glorious victory with that of Fontenoy. The third act of the sanguinary trilogy, as a Frenchman calls it, was the battle of Lawfeldt, fought on July 2d following. The battle began at 4 a.m., the most important position being the village of Lawfeldt, held by 10,000 English and Hanoverians with 50 guns. The first attack of the French was repulsed. "What do you think of this?" Maurice said to Valfons, his aide-de-camp; "we begin badly; the enemy hold their ground firmly." "M. le Maréchal," was the reply, "you were dying at Fontenoy, and beat them; convalescent at Raucoux, and they were defeated; to-day you are in too good a state of health not to crush them." "I accept the augury," Maurice replied. But the second attack also failed. The Maréchal was ever in the hottest fire, and gave his orders with the coolness natural to him in the greatest peril. For the third attack on Lawfeldt Maurice personally collected the scattered troops, and lead them himself within twenty paces of the village. This time the victory was decided. The same complaints, raised by friends and foes after Raucoux, followed the battle of Lawfeldt. The Austrians were again accused of not displaying the requisite activity. When Louis XV. asked General Ligonier, who was taken prisoner, "By what accident the right wing, composed of Austrian troops, had not given way?" the general replied in the first moment of surprise, “It |