all he could hope to accomplish was to throw such
embarrassments as he might in the path of the victors.

The young officers, ignorant, impetuous and reckless, were for giving
battle, which would inevitably have resulted in the destruction of the
army. They were so vexed by the wise caution of Eugene, which they
regarded as pusillanimity, that they complained to the emperor that the
veteran general was in his dotage, that he was broken both in body and
mind, and quite unfit to command the army. These representations induced
the emperor to send a spy to watch the conduct of Eugene. Though deeply
wounded by these suspicions, the experienced general could not be
provoked to hazard an engagement. He retreated from post to post, merely
checking the progress of the enemy, till the campaign was over, and the
ice and snow of a German winter drove all to winter quarters.

While recruiting for the campaign of 1735, Prince Eugene wrote a series
of most earnest letters to his confidential agent in London, which
letters were laid before George II., urging England to come to the help
of the emperor in his great extremity. Though George was eager to put
the fleet and army of England in motion, the British cabinet wisely
refused to plunge the nation into war for such a cause, and the emperor
was left to reap the bitter fruit of his despotism and folly. The
emperor endeavored to frighten England by saying that he was reduced to
such an extremity that if the British cabinet did not give him aid, he
should be compelled to seek peace by giving his daughter, with Austria
in her hand as her dowry, to Carlos, now King of Naples and heir
apparent to the crown of Spain. He well knew that to prevent such an
acquisition of power on the part of the Spanish monarch, who was also in
intimate alliance with France, England would be ready to expend any
amount of blood and treasure.

Charles VI. waited with great impatience to see the result of this
menace, hardly doubting that it would bring England immediately to
terms. Bitter was his disappointment and his despair when he received
from the court of St. James the calm reply, that England could not
possibly take a part in this war, and that in view of the great
embarrassments in which the emperor was involved, England would take no
offense in case of the marriage of the emperor's second daughter to
Carlos. England then advised the emperor to make peace by surrendering
the Netherlands.

The emperor