ity at the near prospect of war, for which they had
so long clamoured; and the ministry seeing it unavoidable, began to be
earnest and effectual in their preparations.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE EMPEROR AND CZARINA CONCLUDE A PEACE WITH THE TURKS.

The events of war were still unfavourable to the emperor. He had
bestowed the command of his army upon velt-mareschal count Wallis, who
assembled his forces in the neighbourhood of Belgrade; and advanced
towards Crotska, where he was attacked by the Turks with such
impetuosity and perseverance, that he was obliged to give ground, after
a long and obstinate engagement, in which he lost above six thousand
men. The earl of Crawford, who served as a volunteer in the Imperial
army, signalised his courage in an extraordinary manner on this
occasion, and received a dangerous wound of which he never perfectly
recovered. The Turks were afterwards worsted at Jabouka; nevertheless,
their grand army invested Belgrade on the side of Servia, and carried
on the operations of the siege with extraordinary vigour. The emperor,
dreading the loss of this place, seeing his finances exhausted, and
his army considerably diminished, consented to a negotiation for peace,
which was transacted under the mediation of the French ambassador at the
Ottoman Porte. The count de Neuperg, as Imperial plenipotentiary, signed
the preliminaries on the first day of September. They were ratified by
the emperor, though he pretended to be dissatisfied with the articles;
and declared that his minister had exceeded his powers. By this treaty
the house of Austria ceded to the grand seignor, Belgrade, Sabatz,
Servia, Austrian Wallachia, the isle and fortress of Orsova, with the
fort of St. Elizabeth; and the contracting powers agreed that the Danube
and the Saave should serve as boundaries to the two empires. The emperor
published a circular letter, addressed to his ministers at all the
courts of Europe, blaming count Wallis for the bad success of the last
campaign, and disowning the negotiations of count Neuperg; nay, these
two officers were actually disgraced, and confined in different castles.
This, however, was no other than a sacrifice to the resentment of the
czarina, who loudly complained that the emperor had concluded a separate
peace, contrary to his engagements with the Russian empire. Her general,
count Munich, had obtained a victory over the Turks at Choczim in
Moldavia, and made himself master of t