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Saxe (MAURICE COUNT DE a French)

MAURICE, COUNT DE, a French military officer; a natural son of Augustus II., King of Poland; born in Goslar, Prussia, Oct. 28, 1696. He entered the army at an early age, and was present with Prince Eugene at the siege of Tournay. In 1720 he went to Paris.

After an unsuccessful attempt to get himself elected Duke of Courland he took service in the French army, distinguished himself in the campaign of 1733-1735, and was made lieutenant-general. In the general war which followed the death of the Emperor Charles VI., Saxe took a SAXE SAXIFRAGA distinguished part. He captured Prague, the inhabitants, particularly in Coburg, defended Alsace, and in 1743 was named Marshal of France. In the following year he held a command in Flanders.

One of his most brilliant achievements was his victory over the English and Hanoverian forces at Fontenoy in May, 1745. He was at the time "nearly dead of dropsy; could not sit on horseback, except for a few minutes; was carried about in a wicker bed; had a lead bullet in his mouth all day, to mitigate the intolerable thirst." (Carlyle.) The victories of Roucoux and Laufeldt, and the capture of Maestricht, added to his fame in two following years. Saxe was a man of great size and strength, intrepid, selfpossessed, and as a commander won fame for his ingenuity and dash; but he was one of the most dissolute men of his age. George Sand, the eminent author, was descended from an illegitimate daughter of his. He wrote a work on the art of war, called "My Reveries." Hẹ died in his palace of Chambord, near Blois, France, Nov. 30, 1750.