s
embellished the camp of the victors.

And now Eugene led his triumphant troops, sixty thousand in number, down
the river to lay siege to Belgrade. This fortress, which the labor of
ages had strengthened, was garrisoned by thirty thousand troops, and was
deemed almost impregnable. Eugene invested the place and commenced the
slow and tedious operations of a siege. The sultan immediately
dispatched an army of two hundred thousand men to the relief of his
beleaguered fortress. The Turks, arriving at the scene of action, did
not venture an assault upon their intrenched foes, but intrenched
themselves on heights, outside of the besieging camp, in a semicircle
extending from the Danube to the Save. They thus shut up the besiegers
in the miasmatic marshes which surrounded the city, cut off their
supplies of provisions, and from their advancing batteries threw shot
into the Austrian camp. "A man," said Napoleon, "is not a soldier." The
Turks had two hundred thousand _men_ in their camp, raw recruits. Eugene
had sixty thousand veteran _soldiers_. He decided to drive off the Turks
who annoyed him. It was necessary for him to detach twenty thousand to
hold in check the garrison of Belgrade, who might sally to the relief of
their companions. This left him but forty thousand troops with whom to
assail two hundred thousand strongly intrenched. He did not hesitate in
the undertaking.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHARLES VI.

From 1716 to 1727.

Heroic Decision of Eugene.--Battle of Belgrade.--Utter Rout of the
Turks.--Possessions of Charles VI.--The Elector of Hanover Succeeds to
the English Throne.--Preparations for War.--State of Italy.--Philip V.
of Spain.--Diplomatic Agitations.--Palace of St. Ildefonso.--Order of
the Golden Fleece.--Rejection of Maria Anne.--Contest for the Rock of
Gibraltar.--Dismissal of Ripperda.--Treaty of Vienna.--Peace Concluded.

The enterprise upon which Eugene had resolved was bold in the extreme.
It could only be accomplished by consummate bravery aided by equal
military skill. The foe they were to attack were five to one, and were
protected by well-constructed redoubts, armed with the most formidable
batteries. They were also abundantly supplied with cavalry, and the
Turkish cavalry were esteemed the finest horsemen in the world. There
was but one circumstance in favor of Eugene. The Turks did not dream
that he would have the audacity to march from the protection of his
intrenchments and assail th