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met bashaw intimated to the French ambaffador J.C. 1739. Heg.1152. that the peace would be treated of at the head of the army only, because the valid fultanefs and the kiflar aga 'would not have the blame of the event attributed to them, if the peace fhould not be as glorious as the janiffaries, the people,* and the ulema wifhed. The French ambassador, decorated with a new character, received greater honors at the grand feignior's audience than were usually paid to the representative of the first Christian potentate. He was clothed with a cloak of fable; an unusual quantity of caftans was distributed to his rétinue, and the train of janiffaries and officers of the feraglio was more numerous at this audience than had ever been feen. As the marquis of Villeneuve was preparing to join the grand vizier, he received difpatches from Vienna, which authorised him, as mediator, to cede the major part of imperial Walachia to the Turks, and half of. Servia. It would not have been difficult to conclude a peace at this rate, if the marquis of Villeneuve had received a favorable reply from the czarina to the dispatches by which he demanded her final refolution; but the court of Vienna would not separate itself from Ruffia, and the cabinet of Peterfburg remained filent. It was rumoured that the czarina, fearing the partiality of France, was defirous of having the mediation, or at least the comediation, of Poland; but the Turkish ministers declared conftantly, that they would have no other 3 C mediator

VOL. IV.

Heg.1152

The
French

fets out for

J.C. 1739. mediator than the marquis of Villeneuve if à peace were never concluded. This ambaffador left Conftantinople the 15th of June, and the ambaffador fame train that had conducted him to the grand the army. feignior's audience, accompanied him as far as Darud Bashaw. His journey was retarded by an innumerable crowd, come to meet him, who loaded him with benedictions, and warmly folicited him to conclude a glorious peace for them. These marks of an anticipated acknowledgment proved the confidence which the Turkish people have in the French nation, notwithstanding their prejudices against the Chriftians in general.

He re

ceives dif

from Ruf fia, and stops at Nilla.

On his arrival at Adrianople, the marquis at patches length received the anfwer of the court of Russia. He found by the difpatch of count Oftermann, fecretary of state to the czarina, that her imperial majefty perfifted in retaining Afoph, in order to preferve her dominions from the incurfions of the Tartars. The Ruffian minifter endeavoured to prove, that the ceffion of this place would be of no injury to the Turks, because if the Ruffians incroached on the grand feignior's dominions, the powers interested in the prefervation of the Ottoman empire with regard to their commerce, would lend the latter fuccours; that moreover the Turks would be at liberty to build a fortress near Kuban, on the frontiers that fhould be affigned them; that it should be ftipulated in the treaty that Ruffia fhould not keep any fleet on the fea of Asoph, and that the commerce of the Ruf

fians on that fea and the Black fea fhould be car- J.C. 1739. Heg.1152. ried on in Turkifh bottoms only. Thefe difpatches were brought the French ambassador by Mr. Cagnoni, a man chofen by the Ruffian miniftry to explain and fecretly direct the negotiation. He accompanied the pacquets which he gave the marquis of Villeneuve with a bill payable to the bearer for thirty-five thousand piaftres, drawn on some merchants at Marseilles. The French ambaffador, after having thanked Mr. Cagnoni, returned him the bill, faying, that he had not yet done any thing that deserved a recompenfe from the czarina; that if the negotiation fhould end in a manner agreeable to that princefs, he would not refuse the testimony of fatisfaction which her majesty should be pleased to honor him with, perfuaded that it would be of a nature agreeable to the character with which he was invested. The marquis of Villeneuve received at Niffa dispatches from the grand vizier, which defired him to remain in that town till a more favorable time for entering on a conference. Meanwhile the Turks paffed the Moravia to Motions of the number of a hundred and thirty thousand rent armen. The Imperialists advanced towards Semendriah. General Munich was at Kaminieck and menaced Choczin. The khan of the Tartars was at Orkapi with fixty thousand men, and he expected reinforcements from the Turks. All thefe difpofitions did not feem to announce a peace; the grand vizier appeared more deter3C.2 mined

VOL. IV.

the diffe

mies.

Heg.1152.

invested by

J.C. 1739 mined than ever to attack the emperor of the Weft vigorously. The Auftrian army did not amount to twenty-five thousand men; it was intrenched in a place called Krofka. The Turks Belgrade is forced these intrenchments the 25th of July, and the Turks the Imperialists retired with lofs under Belgrade. Being attacked a fecond time, they were conftrained to repafs the Save: the grand vizier then caufed Belgrade to be fummoned to furrender. General Vallis, who commanded the army, had fhut himself up in that place. He replied to the fummons by propofals of peace. The grand ambaflador vizier immediately fent a courier to the marquis of Villeneuve, for him to come to the camp all speed.

The French

is fent for to the

Turkish

army.

Com

mencement of

ation.

with.

The French ambaffador found the Turkish army, which he had been told was on the point

the negoti of wanting provifions, enjoying the greatest abundance. The Ottomans were masters of the courfe of the Danube, and numerous and well conftructed batteries were playing on the fortifications; the trenches too were carried as far as the glacis, and the janiffaries were murmuring because they were made wait 'till the ramparts fhould be open to be led to the affault. The grand vizier told the marquis of Villeneuve, in the first interview which he had with him, that the Auftrians began to know their weakness; that general Vallis, authorised with full powers from his master, had fent a colonel from the town to offer him, the grand vizier, one part of Walachia and Servia,

and

and the ifle of Orfowa, on condition of demolish- J.C. 1739-Heg.1152. ing the fortrefs; but that God had armed the Ottomans against the knavery of the Auftrians; and that as he does not permit an unjuft war to have a fortunate iffue, the Turks would hear of no propofition 'till Belgrade fhould be given up to them with the fortifications that the Auftrians had made there, and the Porte fhould be restored every thing that belonged to it by right in Hungary. The marquis, who had received new inftructions from the court of Vienna, was forry to fee that the negotiations croffed one another, lefs through felf-love, as he wrote to Versailles, than because the multiplicity of the negotiators could only throw uncertainty and confufion into this Charles VI. had it fo much great affair. at heart, that the marquis of Villeneuve was written to from Vienna to go on with the treaty between the Imperialists and the Turks, if not independently of the Ruffians, at least before fpeaking of the affairs of that court, only inferting the effential claufe that they should be treated of immediately after that of Auftria, and both under the guarantee of France. This new inftruction was conformable to that which the French ambaffador had received from Verfailles. He refolved to defire a conference with the plenipotentiary of Vienna, with whom the court of Austria had just affociated the count of Neuperg, who arrived at the Turkish camp the 18th of Auguft.

After

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