After the short peace of 1736, anew war was caused by the death of Charles VI. Count Saxe took the city of Prague by assault in 1741; and Egra submitted to his arms a few days after the trenches were opened. In consequence of this success, Charles VII. wrote a letter of thanks to the Count with his own hand.
When the king of France invaded Flanders in per son in 1744, and had obtained the most signal success, he was obliged to quit the scene of his triumph, in or der to check the advance of Prince Charles of Lor raine, who had entered Alsace. He therefore left Mar shal Saxe to watch the motions of the enemy, a duty in which he displayed the most consummate general ship.
In 1745, though in very bad health, he gained the celebrated battle of Fontenoy, of which we have alrea dy given an account in our article BRITAIN.
In the campaign of 1747 and 1748, he acquired ad ditional honour. On the 1 lth Oct. 1746, the King of France sent him a present of six pieces of cannon; on the 12th Jan. 1747, he was created Marshal of the French armies; and, in 1748, he was intrusted with the command of the French conquests in the Nether lands.
After the peace of Aix-la-Chapplle, to which these victories led, Marshal Saxe retired to Chambord, an estate which was presented to him by the king of France, and he spent his leisure hours in the most agreeable manner in the society of philosophers, men of letters, and artists. He was induced some time afterwards to pay a visit to the king of Prussia, by whom he was received with the highest honours.
Exhausted with the labours of a military life, he was carried off by a fever on the 30th Nov. 1750, in the 54th year of his age. Though licentious in his habits, Marshal Saxe was firmly attached to the Lutheran re ligion, in which he had been brought up, and when the Queen of France heard of his death, she expressed her regret that they could not " say a single de pro fundis for a man, who had made them sing so many Sc deuins." In his will dated at Paris, March 1, 1748, he directed his body to be buried in quick lime, that nothing but the remembrance of him among his friends might remain." The body, however, was em balmed, and his heart deposited in a silver gilt box. His body was interred in the Lutheran church of St. Thomas, at Strasburg, on the 8th Feb. 1751, and the expenses of his funeral defrayed by Louis XV.
Marshal Saxe, though a man of ordinary stature, was remarkable for great strength and a robust con stitution. Along with a warlike mien, he possessed great mildness of expression. He was affable and generous even to excess. In his last illness he de clared that " his life had been a fine dream;" and he expressed much penitence for the licentiousness of his life.
The best edition of his Reveries appeared at Paris in 1757, in two vols. 4to. accompanied with several en gravings, and a life of the author. For a full account of the biography of this eminent general, see his life by M. d'Espagnon, in 2 vols. 12mo. and Marechal de Saxe's Lettres et Menzoires, Paris 1796.