Memoirs of Prince Eugene of Savoy

Front matter

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MEMOIRS

OF

Preface

TO THE WEYMAR EDITION.

Wi acquainted vwth

now that the Count de Canales I city, near thirty years, as the

of the King of Sardinia. One of his d to the Count de rand-huntsman, and one or two In the interval which j the d f Prince Eugene, and

preceding the coming of the Count de Canales, the prince^ niece and heiress, married to the Prince of Hildburgbausen, possessed an excellent house, and kept a kind of little court in the prince's garden, now known by the .ion of the Belvidere. There the at de Canales was introduced the day after his arrival; she soon became attached not only as the minister of the king, her cousin, but also as a very agreeable and vi Preface.

well-informed man. The Memoirs of Prince Eugene were jet fresh ; he circulated in society many of the expressions, sarcasms, and anecdotes contained in them*

The Count de Canales was a great collector. An editor of that class who at the present day impose upon the living pretended relics of the dead, would have abundant opportunity to make the latter say whatever he pleased. I know not whether the Count de Canales committed to writing what he learned from very recent tradition ; but nothing of the sort was found among his papers. It was among those of another person, that what is here presented to the public was discovered, and in the following manner.

The Princess of Hildburghausen, after relating a great deal concerning her uncle, said to him : — " As to his military transactions, you must excuse me : but here is a short sketch of them, written partly by the hand of the prince himself, between his last campaign and his death. Do not keep it ; read it with attention, and then return it to me."

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1 imagine that the Count de Canales was in no great hurry; at least so much is certain that the manuscript was still in his hands when the princess died, I believe in 1752 or 1753.

It was not thought of for a great length of time. Count O'Donel, general of cavalry, and uncle, after the fashion of Bretagne, to the Count O'Donel, who is at present at Vienna, told me that he had read it.

For upwards of twenty years the Count de Canales passed all his evenings with the celebrated Metastasio and the Baron de Hagen, who died presidept of the Aulic Council, seven or eight years ago. Sometimes the graver classics were the subjects of their conversation ; sometimes they culled the lighter beauties of the language and literature of eyevy nation.

The Abbe Guasco, a friend of Montesquieu's, was admitted as a Piedmontese and a man of letters to the evening parties of the Count de Canales, whenever he returned from Paris or Tournay, where he had a canonry.

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One day when all four were on the subject of history, Prince Eugene happened to be mentioned. " Here/' said the Count de Canales, "is what I have collected respecting his private and military life; you shall hear it, but you must not carry it away. I will not give you the prince in robe de cliambre ; but I am desirous to shew him to you in helmet and armour/' continued he, turning to the Abbe de Guasco, " for the instruction of your brother : he ought to study him ; he will have occasion for it, since he has just been appoinfed quarter-master general of Marshal Bairn's army." — This conversation must consequently have taken place in the month of February, 1757.

Many people still living can attest the accuracy of what I am advancing, and especially that of the dates, on which point I am particularly scrupulous. To one I venture to appeal, if he be yet alive, as I hope, for two years ago he was recovering from a severe illness at Moron, a small town in Tyrol, whither, driven from Italy, I, unhappy emigrant, repaired with my slender baggage. Should he be dead,

PREFACE. IX

bis daughter is not; she was promised the appointment of canoness at Halle. She will not refuse to certify the truth of what I say ; for she was present at my conversations with her venerable father, aged ninety-two, M. de Ferraris, major on half- pay, formerly aid-de-camp to the Count de Guasco, general of infantry.

The reader will begin to trace the descent of the work which I have printsd, a; H ,d to perceive in what manner it has found its way before the public. Want of money on my part, the curiosity of an old soldier, graiiiude for my attentions on his part, and the indii of a

»jg man to all that is passing around him : this it was that procured me this magnificent present, which he made im with a voice scarcely audible. Besides, nothing was to be sold in a little town of *he Tyrol; « are no buyers. The kind M. de Fesrkjris gave or suffered those around him to take what they pleased. Some of his old friends., half-pay officers like himself, took possession of his books; an Austrian general" employed at Inspruck of his maps ; and I, though I

X PREFACE.

never expect to have armies to command, fell upon a manuscript whose title rendered it valuable to me. The letters are made long and narrow in this manuscript, the authenticity of which may be ascertained by comparing it with the Prince's signature at the Aulic Council of war, at Vienna, of which a copy is subjoined. It is Very remarkable that the German character and orthography were both unknown to him, and that he signed his name in three different languages. It was in this manner, which I defy any person whatsoever to disprove.

'wear

PREFACE. XI

For the rest, it is only the conversations which he had with different persons, the reflections, and the last year that are in his own hand writing. He appears to have dictated the rest to a secretary.

This Major Ferraris was a man of great merit ; he possessed the confidence of his general, whose dangers he shared, and whose operations he seconded at the siege of Schweidnitz in 1762. He contributed the more towards it, as he frequently reconciled the differences that took place between M. de Guasco and M. de Gribeauval, a celebrated French engineer — differences which invariably occur between officers whose authority is not accurately determined ; and he inherited all the plans and books belonging to his general ; on his death as a prisoner, a year or two afterwards I believe, at Kbnigsberg. Having become possessed of this manuscript, I put it into the hands of George Conrad Waldburg, printer and bookseller at Klagenfurt where the curious may examine the hand-writing of Prince Eugene, and thus have an

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opportunity of ascertaining its authenticity. The following is a copy of his acknowledgment of the receipt of this valuable manuscript.

<c I acknowledge with gratitude that Morvsieur N..^., a French emigrant officer, has put this manuscript of Prince Eugene's into my possession.

" George Conrad Waldburg.

" KIngenfurt, January 1st, 1807."

I know not whether some person in the chancery of the prince might not possibly have taken a copy of this excellent work, which may have furnished the outline of the history reprinted at Vienna, by Briffaut, in 1777. I cannot tell what the author meant by this expression: {{ I had an opportunity to avail myself of what was written by Prince Eugene in the German language. " Did he intend to assert or to make people believe that the prince wrote in German? I have shewn above that he was not sufficiently acquainted

PREFACE. X1U

with the language for that. I think it was a Monsieur Lazzay, or a Monsieur Rousset, who was the author or printer of a history in five volumes.

In the style of the prince will be found a military air, which well accords with his physiognomy and his actions. Another proof of the authenticity of this manuscript is the garrulity of age which it exhibits; repetitions which a professed author would haye avoided, negligences which a man of letters would not have committed ; in a word, there is no part of it but what betrays the military man. The tone which pervades it would be ill adapted to any other character, but may be allowed in a soldier, whose style is not always excellent, and sometimes too familiar. That of the prince, such as it is, is clear and concise ; so he was also in conversation, as I have been told by the Prussian General Lentulus, who retired to Neufchatel, where he died at a very advanced age. He had served under him in his last campaign' on the Rhine, whither he had accompanied the great Frederic, then

XIV . PREFACE prince royal. Here is abundance of facts, dates, and names, which may be confronted ; my name alone shall not be made public.