The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 1 (of 7)Malkin, Arthur Thomas
History
The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 1 (of 7)
Malkin, Arthur Thomas
Biography
matter of policy, that wretched country was laid waste to a deplorable
extent. This transaction went far beyond the ordinary license of war,
and excited general indignation even in that unscrupulous age. It will
ever be remembered as a foul stain upon the character of the general who
executed, and of the king and minister who ordered or consented to it.
Having carried fire and sword through that part of the Palatinate which
lay upon the right or German bank of the Rhine, he crossed that river.
But the Imperial troops, reinforced by the Saxons and Hessians to the
amount of sixty thousand men, pressed him hard: and it seemed impossible
to keep the field against so great a disparity of force; his own troops
not amounting to more than twenty thousand. He retreated into Lorraine,
abandoning the fertile plains of Alsace to the enemy, led his army
behind the Vosges mountains, and crossing them by unfrequented routes,
surprised the enemy at Colmar, beat him at Mulhausen and Turkheim, and
forced him to recross the Rhine. This is esteemed the most brilliant of
Turenne’s campaigns, and it was conceived and conducted with the greater
boldness, being in opposition to the orders of Louvois. “I know,” he
wrote to that minister, in remonstrating, and indeed refusing to follow
his directions, “I know the strength of the Imperialists, their
generals, and the country in which we are. I take all upon myself, and
charge myself with whatever may occur.”
Returning to Paris at the end of the campaign, his journey through
France resembled a triumphal progress; such was the popular enthusiasm
in his favour. Not less flattering was his reception by the King, whose
undeviating regard and confidence, undimmed by jealousy or envy, is
creditable alike to the monarch and to his faithful subject. At this
time Turenne, it is said, had serious thoughts of retiring to a convent,
and was induced only by the earnest remonstrances of the King, and his
representations of the critical state of France, to resume his command.
Returning to the Upper Rhine, he was again opposed to Montecuculi. For
two months the resources and well-matched skill of the rival captains
were displayed in a series of marches and counter-marches, in which
every movement was so well foreseen and guarded against, that no
opportunity occurred for coming to action with advantage to either side.
At last the art of Turenne appeared to prevail; when, not many minutes
after he had expressed the full belief that victory was in his grasp, a
cannon-ball struck him while engaged in reconnoitring the enemy’s
position, previous to giving battle, and he fell dead from his horse,
July 27th, 1675. The same shot carried off the arm of St. Hilaire,
commander-in-chief of the artillery. “Weep not for me,” said the brave
soldier to his son, “it is for that great man that we ought to weep.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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