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anonymous letters. Here is a confessor's tale, and delightful details unknown to the whole world, &c."

The writer's portrait of prince Potemkin will be interesting to others beside those who wish to form a judgment of Russian commanders.

"Behold a general-in-chief, who seems lazy, yet his mind is incessantly occupied; who has no desk but his knees, and no comb but his fingers. Always stretched at full length, sleeping neither day nor night, because he is kept in a continual state of agitation, by his zeal for the service of his sovereign whom he worships as a deity, and because he starts at the firing of a gun not aimed against himself, from the idea that it may cost

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the life of some of his soldiers. Fearful for others, yet exposing his own person; stopping under the hottest fire of a battery to give orders, yet having more of Ulysses than of Achilles; uneasy at the foresight of any kind of dangers; gay the midst of them; sad when surrounded with pleasures; miserable by too much happiness; benumbed in all his powers of perception; easily wearied, sullen, inconstant, a deep philosopher, an able minister, a sublime politician, or—a child of ten years old. In no wise vindictive; apologizing for the slightest pain he has given; eager to repair an injustice; believing that he loves God; fearing the devil, whom he conceits to be greater still and bulkier than a prince Potemkin; kissing one hand to the women he likes; crossing himself with the other; folding his arms on his breast at the foot of a Madona; entwining them round the alabaster neck of his mistress; receiving innumerable

favours from his great sovereign; sharing them immediately after; accepting lands from the empress; returning them immediately, or paying her debts without acquainting her; selling, then buying again immense estates, to erect a colonade, or plant an English garden; then parting with them again; gambling incessantly, or not at all; more inclined to give away his money, than to pay his debts; immensely rich, or pennyless; alternately full of suspicions, or of confident good

nature

of jealousy, or of gratitude; of spleen or of joke; easily prejudiced for or against; changing his mind with equal facility; entertaining his generals with theology, and his archbishops with military topicks, averse to reading, but watch ing closely in conversation, and contradicting frequently to obtain further information; assuming the most savage or

the most amiable countenance; affecting the most disgusting or the most pleasing manners; in short, resembling alternately the proudest satrap of the east, or the most polished courtier of Louis XIV; exapcessively harsh according to exteriour pearances, but really mild and gentle in his heart; fanciful as to his hours, his meals, his rest, and his amusements; wishing for every thing like a child, yet knowing how to support all kinds of privations like a great man, temperate with all the appearance of a glutton; biting his nails or munching apples or turnips; scolding boling or praying, singing or meditating; or laughing, mimicking or cursing, gam calling to him, sending away from him, calling again twenty aids-de-camp without giving them any orders; supporting heat better than any one, yet always solicitous to procure the most voluptuous baths; despising cold, yet apparently unable to exist without furs; either in his shirt, not retaining even drawers, or in regimentals

laced down all the seams; either bare

footed, or wearing slippers embroidered with gold spangles, without either a cap or a hat; in that equipage I saw him once in an engagement] sometimes clad in a sable night gown; sometimes in a magnificent tunick, with his three stars, his ribands, and diamonds as large as one's thumb, round the picture of the empress. These diamonds seem intended there to attract the balls-bent in two, and huddled head to heels when at home. He is tall, erect, haughty, beautiful, noble, majestick or enchanting when he appears at the head of his army, like Agamemnon surrounded by the kings of Greece.

"In what, then, consists his magick art? and again in his genius. He has, besides, in his genius; certainly in his geniusa great share of natural wit, an excellent memory, an excellent mind. He is keen without malice, and artful without cunming. By the happy mixture of his whims he gains every heart. When he happens to be in the benevolent mood, his generosity is unbounded; he is graceful and just in the distribution of rewards; he possesses a great perspicacity; the talent of guessing at what he does not know: with a thorough understanding of mankind."

To show how the prince de Ligne contrived to manage this extraordinary character, while acting as a commissary of the emperour of Austria, at the Russian army before Oczakow, we translate the following

passage from one of his letters addressed to the emperour Joseph II. from the camp before that town.

"I am here absolutely like a nursery maid; but my child is tall, strong, and very froward. Yesterday, again, he asked me : 'Do you believe that you came here to lead me by the nose? Do you believe, said I, that I would have come, had I not expected it? Lazy and without experience, what can you do better, my dear prince, than to trust a man anxiously zealous for your glory, and that of the two empires? So very little is wanting to make you a model of perfection! But what can your genius do, if unassisted by trusty friendship?"

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"The prince told me: 'Make your emperour cross the Save, and I will cross the Bog.'-' How can you,' said I,' stand upon ceremonies, as if you were at the door of a drawing room? My emperour gives you up all claims to precedency. There is a Turkish army acting against him. There is none opposed to you.''Do you think,' said he, that he would give us crosses of Maria Theresa, and accept crosses of St. George for those who should distinguish themselves in our two armies?' I saw what he was at. He is mad for orders. He has only twelve of them; and I assured him that Oczakow was well worth our grand cross; and that if he should facilitate to your majesty, the taking of Belgrade, he might pretend to the order of St. Stephen. I beg, sir, you may be pleased to confirm those hopes I have given him; and if our Romancatholicity could bend a little in his favour, and promise him the Golden Fleece, he would be entirely our own."

Every one knows, that this Turkish war, the result of the interview of the two sovereigns, on the banks of the Boristhenes, disappointed the interested views of both parties, equalJeager for the spoil; but by no mend agreed as to their respective share of it. "What the d-l shall we do with Constantinople?" Joseph used to say [vol. I. p. 96.] in the unreserved familiarity which prevailed among the illustrious travellers and their suite, during the whole of their extraordinary journey; yet this apparent friendship covered the heart burnings of jealousy, which even courtly dissimulation itself, could not prevent from breaking out at times.

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This disposition of the two courts, which was indeed to be expected, may account in some measure for the disasters of Austria and the inactivity of Russia, in the first campaign; but from the publication before us (and we need no better authority) there is abundant reason believe, that the Turks are a much more formidable enemy to the two empires, than is generally supposed. The prince de Ligne fairly owns as much in several of his letters. Writing to his sovereign from the camp before Oczakow, in October 1788, he says [vol. I. p. 193] "The month of September will repair the misfortunes of the Bannat, and the want of success in Bosnia. Could any one have believed, that this shattered, Mussulman empire, should have reduced Russia to so mortifying a situation?" Again, in a letter to marshal de Lazy, December 1789 [vol. I. p. 226] "Nothing can be thought of at St. Petersburgh, until peace is made with Constantinople. The day the news arrived there that Bulgakoff had been sent to the Seven Towers, the empress was almost sorry for it." The reason of this is, we think, explained by details which the prince de Ligne gives on the Turkish mode of warfare, &c. We shall extract some of these: passim.

"I see Turks [vol. II. p. 13, letter to M. Segur] who pass for being void even of common sense in war, yet carry it on with a kind of method; who scatter themselves to prevent the fire of our artillery against them; aiming perfectly, and firing and of our battalions from being directed always at collected objects; by that sharp shooting, hiding their own kind of manœuvres; lurking in every cleft, in every hollow, or on trees; or else advancing in number 40 or 50, with a standard, which they carry, running, and place forward to gain ground. They first kneel on the ground to fire; they then step back to reload, and so on in succession till by another race, in advance, they carry their whirlwind, and their standard further. These standards are intended to mark the line, so that the head of none of these little

troops should outpass that of another, Imagine the most dreadful yells, the cries

among them.”

of allah! encouraging the Mussulmen, erects intrenchments, which the last has and causing dismay among the Christians; only to man in occupying its camp. add to that, the cutting off of heads, and " Let it be forbidden in the army to the whole is, I think, terrifick enough. pronounce the word Neboïssé, which How in the name of wonder, could my

means do not be afraid; and which the father and three uncles, who fought Turks, who are by no means jocose, against the Turks, say, that their order

pronounce in cutting off a head. I have of march resembled the flight of geese, remarked, that this word has an astonishthat it was shaped like a pig's head, ing effect on Christians. Let the soldier or like the cuneus of the ancients? thus

be told beforehand of the yells of the infidels, of their ridiculous prancing, which is useless against us, and hurtful to them. With my regulations, we might easily suffer ourselves to be surrounded by those clouds of spahis [horse soldiers] who buzz about like wasps.

“ Coolness is necessary when in preI have seen nothing which could in- sence of any troops in the world; but duce the idea that the like ever existed

more especially when before these people;

for when the head of an opponent is moIn the next letter addressed to the rally gone, it is soon physically gone also. same gentleman, also dated from Whatever has been said of their opium, Oczakow, 1st September 1788, the and of the fury it excites, is an idle tale. prince de Ligne enters into some

Officers may, perhaps, use it, sometimes,

but it is too dear for the common Turk; further details on the same subject; and I have never seen one who had taken to which he adds his sentiments on

any. the means of enabling the Christians “ The mein and dress of the haughty to fight the infidels on better terms. Ottoman are more dignified than the awk. This last part has been a good deal ward air, and very often hang dog looks abridged by the editor, through fear of Christians. The Turks are, `at the of mistakes. And we shall omit it

same time, the most dangerous, and the

most contemptible enemy in the world. altogether, when not intimately con

Dangerous when they attack; contemptinected with our object, which is to ble, when they are anticipated. O:1 heights, convey information on the mode of and in woods, they have had, till now, Turkish warfare.

the advantage over us; because they run They run, they climb, they leap, to the attack with confidence, knowing

, because they are lightly clad, and lightly that we have none ourselves when we are ármed. The weight carried by the stupid thus situated. They have two excellent Christians, reduces them to the bare pow

customs : one is, to get the intrenchments er of moving. I had been told that the of their camps raised by the spahis, as I Turks fought with their arms naked, to

mentioned before : and the other is, to have a free use of them, and to cut off dig holes in the ground, or within an in. heads more dexterously. But this may

trenchment, to shelter themselves from be more naturally accounted for. They

cannon balls. Every man has his hole, wear neither shirts nor stockings. They where he remains till the firing is over. are often even without shoes ; and except “ It is impossible to say positively, which a small waistcoat, and large drawers, is infantry and which is cavalry. The they are quite naked, no doubt, to be more spahi who has lost his horse, runs and active in the warm countries, where they mixes with the infantry; and the foot solcarry on war. Nevertheless, as they are dier who has either won, or taken, or not famous for foresight, they are not bought a horse, finds his rank among the otherwise clad in the coldest weather, spahis. In consequence, these last are when they are shut up in their towns, or excellent marksmen; and whenever theg during a winter campaign.

can fire with effect, they use their mus“ Let us have tents as well contrived kets a great deal; but they do not set as those of the Mussulmen; the same about it like our Christian cavalry, which faith, if possible, in predestination ; and is always in the wrong, when it has relet us try to give the same tools to caval- course to that weapon. The spahi alights ry, which moving faster than infantry, nimbly from his horse, fires his piece

;

and springs again on horseback with great tacking the boats on the Danube, and agility.

celebrating their festivals, by firing "The reason why we often witness deeds their great guns with balls, which of heroick bravery from the Mussulman, is, because he never fights, but when he reached the Austrian camp. The has a mind to it. It is only when in good prince de Ligne was not behindhand health, in good huinour, and after having in this kind of merriment, which taken his coffee, that he prepares his was considered by the Turks as a arms for battle. He even waits often for matter of course ; and the death of a a fine day, and for a vivifying sun. In the beginning of the siege, I used to get

few spectators killed in these delightup at break of day; which, in our Euro- ful feux de joie, did not occasion the pean armies is often the time chosen for smallest complaint. enterprises. Now, I rest at my ease. The The following is a letter from the beautiful horses and the striking colours ish manners and scenery. fashionables, easily distinguished by their prince giving a lively picture of Turkof their dresses, never issue out before ten, to engage in battle. During the

Parthenizza. whole siege, the Turks only undertook From the silver shores of the Black one trifling operation by night ; and then, Sea-from the banks of the largest rivulet probably, because they wanted a gene- which receives all the torrents of Fezetral's head, which they accordingly took terdan :- from under the shade of the from M. Maximovitz.

two largest walnut-trees in existence, and “ Their artillery, in sieges, is worked by which certainly are coeval with the world: the first soldiers who get up, and who go from the foot of a rock, near which and fire their pieces by way of amuse- still stands a column, the melancholy rement. The Turks, owing to their instinct, main of the temple of Diana, celebrated which is often preferable to the boasted for the sacrifice of Iphigenia :—from the systematick sense of the Christians, are left side of the rock from which Thoas extremely handy, and capable of perform- precipitated strangers into the sea ; in ing the operations of war in all its branches; short-from the finest and most interesting but, the first impulse only is in their fa- spot of the whole world, am I writing vour: they are not susceptible of a

this letter to you. cond thought. And after that lucid mo. " I am seated on Turkish cushions, and inent, of which they make a tolerably fair on Turkish carpets; surrounded by Tarand proper use, they become a compound tars, who gaze on me, while writing, and of childhood and madness.

lift their eyes in adıniration, as if I were “ Their religious phrenzy increases in a second Mahomed. proportion to danger. Their eries of Hechter My eye reaches the happy shores of Allah! (that is, one only God!] augment ancient Idalia, and the coast of Natolia ; daily, and the besiegers are sure not to the blossoms of the fig, the palm, the be heard, whatever noise they make in olive, the cherry and the apricot trees, opening the trenches. They are never perfume the air with their fragrance, and disturbed the first night, which surely is shelter me from the rays of the sun ; the the most interesting.”

surge rolls diamond pebbles at my feet. The prince de Ligne had after. On turning myself round, I discern through wards the command of an

the foliage, the shelving habitations of the

army kind of savages around me, who are deep. against these very Turks, which he ly engaged in smoking on their flat roofs, had so accurately observed. And he which they use as drawing rooms. I perhad a considerable share in retriev- ceive their cemetery, which, owing to the ing the honour of the Austrian arms, situation always chosen by Mussulmen for and in conquering Belgrade. His that purpose, presents an idea of the Elycorrespondence during that cam

sian fields. This cemetery is on the banks

of the rivulet I mentioned before ; but on paign, contains some curious specić the very spot where its stream is the most mens of official communications, be- impeded by pebbles; this rivulet widens tween the commanders of the hostile a little half way down the sloping hill, armies during a kind of armistice, and then flows gently by the roots of fruit which did not prevent the Turks trees, which lend their hospitable shade fron now and then cutting off a departed is marked by tombstones crown.

to the dead. The peaceful abode of the füvv heads in the Austrian lines, at- ed with turbans, some of which are gilt;

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and by a kind of cinerary urns, of marble, intentions of a prince, whose genius is but of rude workmanship. The variety of equally active and fruitful. this mortuary scene, while it excites con- « Sent to the court of France at the most templation, disinclines me from writingbrilliant age, and on the most brilliant 1 stretch on my cushions, and indulge in occasion, with the news of a victory, I meditation.

intended never to visit it again. Chance “No, all that passes in my soul cannot be brings the count d'Artois into a garrison, conceived. I feel a new existence. Es. near another where I was inspecting some caped from grandeurs, from the tumult of troops. festivity, from the fatigue of pleasure, and

• There I went with about thirty of my from their two imperial majesties of the Austrian officers, fine looking men. He west and the north, whom I have left on took notice of us ; called me; and beginthe other side of the mountains, I at last ning as a king's brother, he ended as if enjoy myself. I ask, where I am ?--by he had been my own. We drank, played, what chance I find myself here? and, and laughed. Tasting freedom for the without intending it, I review all the in- first time, he was at a loss how to enjoy consequences of my life.

it. I was charmed by that first effusion I perceive, that unable to enjoy happie of gayety, and by the sprightliness of ness but in tranquillity and independence, youth. I could not resist that ingenuousboth of which are within my reach, and ness, and that good nature which mark naturally inclined to laziness of body and his character. I must, he said, visit him of mind, I harass the one in wars, in in- at Versailles. I answered, that I should spection of troops, or in journeys, and I see him when he visited Paris; he insistexhaust the other, to please those who ed; and spoke of me to the queen, who very often are not worth the expense. ordered me to attend. The beauties of Naturally gay enough for my own satisfac- her countenance, and of her mind, both tion, I fatigue myself to enliven those who equally fair and equally unspotted, the are dull. if for an instant I am occupied charms of her society, quickly induced with a hundred things which cross my me to spend five months in every year, at mind together, they tell me, you are sad: Versailles, almost without quitting it for it is enough to make one so; or, you are a moment. The love of pleasure first tired : it is enough to make me tiresome. brought me to Versailles : gratitude in

“ I ask myself, how it came to pass, that duced me to return thither. disliking restraint, and not being fond of “Prince Henry, of Prussia, was visiting honours, riches, or favours; being duly the scenes of war. Our pursuits in phiqualified to attach no importance to those losophy, and in military affairs, were the things-nevertheless, I have spent my same; this was the first link; I followed life at court in all the countries of Eu- in his suite, and soon had the happiness Hope,

to find that my company was agreeable “I recollect, that some marks of a kind to him. This brought marks of favour of paternal goodness from the emperour from him, and a redoubled assiduity from Francis I. who was fond of very giddy me. Then followed a long.correspondence, young men, first attached me to him ; and a rendezvous at Spa, and at Reins. that being beloved afterwards by one of berg. bis female friends, I was long detained at A

camp of the emperour in Moravia court; for having, as a matter of course, attracted thither the then king of Prussia, bost the affections of that charming lady, and his present majesty. The first soon I retained those of our sovereign. At his perceived my enthusiastick admiration for death, I thought myself, though very great men, and induced me to visit Beryoung, a courtier of the old court; and lin. Connexions with him, the marks of I was just ready to criticise the new one favour and esteem I reccived from that without being acquainted with it, when I first of heroes, intoxicated me with glory: perceived that the young emperour knew His nephew, the prince royal, went to likewise how to be amiable ; and that he Strasburgh. We had been connected, possessed qualities which make his es. though at a distance, by some little offices teem more courted than his favour! in a love affair; by some little money, and

Having ascertained that he disliked some friendly services he had required of showing marked preferences, nothing pre- me confidentially, for the object of his vented me from indulging my inclination regard. So far from home, strangers soon for his person; while I blamed his too grow intimate, notwithstanding the dif. great haste in his operations, I could not ference of interests, of rank, and of party. avoid admiring by far the greater part of withdrew from the tender sentiments of tbem ;, and I shall always praise the good two other northern kings. The one, i

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