Ugly Duckling

PRINCE EUGENE -- Paul Frisehauer -- Morrow ($4). "Every one who knew him spoke repeatedly of his nose, which hardly deserved the name, and of the huge, black nostrils surmounting the upper lip, which was drawn up revealing his two enormous front teeth."

Nobody at Louis XIV's court thought very highly of this ugly little Prince Eugene of Savoy. Even his ambitious mother, who had been a favorite of the great Louis and was always scheming to get back her lost position, considered Eugene a negligible quantity. He wanted to be a soldier and attract his monarch's attention; his family thought the best he could do was to go in the Church and keep quiet. The one thing nobody noticed was the chip he carried on his crooked little shoulder. Men go far for various reasons: Prince Eugene's ambition was to show the world.

He pored over military histories and books of strategy, wrapped his thin legs around a horse, learned fencing. The Prince de Conti took an interest in him, presented him to the King as a candidate for military glory. That interview was the making of Eugene. Louis said nothing, looked over the ugly duckling's head as if he were not there. Eugene ground his big teeth, bided his time. When the Turks threatened Vienna, 20-year-old Eugene galloped off to win his spurs fighting for the Austrians. At first his defection merely amused Louis. He heard that the little prince was acquitting himself surprisingly well, but his spies assured him that Eugene was no great shakes as a soldier. Eugene's first chance at revenge came when his plan for an invasion of France by way of Savoy was accepted and he was made second-in-command. The campaign was going well and victory was in sight when the Duke of Savoy, bribed by Louis, sold Eugene out.

Misfortune continued to dog Eugene when he came up against the French. He was never badly beaten by them but he never won a thoroughgoing victory. His thwarted feelings he took out on the Turks. At Zenta he ground the Sultan's army to powder. The Emperor of Austria made him Imperial Field Marshal at 34, gave him enormous estates in Hungary, carte blanche on the exchequer. Overnight he had become famed and rich. Louis XIV, awake at last to his worth, tried to buy him back. Eugene politely declined the offer. In the War of the Spanish Succession he fought the French again. Though only Hannibal had taken an army across the Alps before him, when he reached Italy Eugene was outnumbered and again his luck was low. Only with Marlborough as his ally could he beat the French. But Eugene was always more successful on the eastern front. At Peterwardein, with 70,000 men, he demolished a Turkish army three times the size of his own, recaptured Belgrade and drove the Turks finally out of Hungary.

Popular with his soldiers as an old shoe that has proved its worth, he got a send-off such as few commanders have rated. After the fall of Belgrade, when the army was being demobilized, Eugene rode quietly away in his dusty brown coat. Behind him his veterans raised a spontaneous ditty which soon all Austria was singing: "Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter . . ." ("Prince Eugene the noble Knight"). His career had been a success; he had shown the world. But he got no rest on his hard-won laurels. He was over 70 when for the last time he led an army against the French. Outnumbered four to one, he maneuvered skilfully, fought no decisive action. Tired almost to death, he went back to the daily political grind in Vienna. One morning his servant found him with his boots off at last.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.