nt in being thus abandoned; and unduly
estimating his strength, resolved alone, with the resources which the
empire afforded him, to prosecute the war against France and Spain.
Having nothing to fear from a Spanish invasion, he for a time
relinquished his attempts upon Spain, and concentrating his armies upon
the Rhine, prepared for a desperate onset upon France. For two years the
war raged between Austria and France with war's usual vicissitudes of
defeat and victory on either side. It was soon evident that the
combatants were too equally matched for either party to hope to gain any
decisive advantage over the other. On the 7th of September, 1714, France
and Austria agreed to sheathe the sword. The war had raged for fourteen
years, with an expenditure of blood and treasure, and an accumulation of
misery which never can be gauged. Every party had lost fourfold more
than it had gained. "A war," says Marshal Villers, "which had desolated
the greater part of Europe, was concluded almost on the very terms which
might have been procured at the commencement of hostilities."

By this treaty of peace, which was signed at Baden, in Switzerland, the
States of the Netherlands were left in the hands of Austria; and also
the Italian States of Naples, Milan, Mantua and Sardinia. The thunders
of artillery had hardly ceased to reverberate over the marshes of
Holland and along the banks of the Rhine, ere the "blast of war's loud
organ" and the tramp of charging squadrons were heard rising anew from
the distant mountains of Sclavonia. The Turks, in violation of their
treaty of peace, were again on the march, ascending the Danube along its
southern banks, through the defiles of the Sclavonian mountains. In a
motley mass of one hundred and fifty thousand men they had passed
Belgrade, crossed the Save, and were approaching Peterwarden.

Eugene was instantly dispatched with an efficient, compact army,
disciplined by twelve years of warfare, to resist the Moslem invaders.
The hostile battalions met at Karlowitz, but a few miles from
Peterwarden, on the 5th of August, 1716. The tempest blazed with
terrific fury for a few hours, when the Turkish host turned and fled.
Thirty thousand of their number, including the grand vizier who led the
host, were left dead upon the field. In their utter discomfiture they
abandoned two hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery, and baggage,
tents and military stores to an immense amount. Fifty Turkish banner