Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/413

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MURAT 351 MURCIA he entered it, and displaying an active zeal for revolutionary principles, he was soon advanced to the rank of lieutenant- colonel. The overthrow of the Terrorists checked his progress for a time, but the Directory made him chief of brigade, and in 1796 he accompanied Bonaparte to Italy as aide-de-camp. Here he distin- guished himself by his impetuous cour- age as a cavalry officer, and was em- ployed as a diplomatist at Turin and at Genoa. He followed Napoleon to Egypt, where he decided the victory over the Turks at Aboukir, and returned as Gen- eral of Division. In 1800 he married Marie Caroline, Napoleon's younger sis- ter; and in 1804 Murat was made Marshal, Grand Admiral, and Prince of the French empire. His services in the campaign of 1805 against Aus- tria, during which he entered Vienna at the head of the army, were rewarded with the grand-duchy of Berg, He continued to share Napoleon's vic- tories with such distinction, that, in 1808, the emperor placed him on the throne of Naples. After reigning peace- ably four years, he was called to accom- pany Napoleon to Russia, as commander- in-chief of his cavalry; and, after the defeat of Smolensk, he left the army for Naples. He next took part with Napo- leon in the fatal campaign of Germany; but, after the battle of Leipsic, he with- drew, and finding that the throne of the emperor began to totter, concluded an alliance against him. In 1815, however, he again took up arms, and formed a plan to make himself master of Italy as far as the Po, at the very time that Austria and the allies, on his repeated assurances that he would remain true to them, had determined to recognize him as King of Naples. It was too late. Austria, therefore, took the field against him, and he was soon driven as a fugi- tive to France. After the overthrow of Napoleon he escaped, in the midst of continual dangers, to Corsica, from which he sailed with a few adherents to re- cover his lost throne. A gale, off the coast of Calabria, dispersed his vessels, but Murat determined to go on shore. He was seized, and carried in chains to Pizzo. brought before a court-martial and condemned to be shot. This sentence was executed Oct. 13, 1815. MURATORE, LUCIEN, French tenor; born at Marseilles in 1878, he studied voice culture at the conservatory there, and, after some time spent in Paris, sang with Madame Calve at the Opera Comique in "La Carmelite," "Muguette" and "Le Cor Fleuri" and at the Paris Opera gaining distinction as Faust and Romeo, and in "Salome" and "Francesca da Rimini." Since 1912 he has been a member of the Grand Opera Company in Chicago. MTJRCHISON, SIR RODERICK IM- PEY, an English geologist; born in Tar- radale, Ross-shire, Scotland, Feb. 19, 1792. After receiving a portion of his educa- tion at the Durham grammar school, he entered the military college at Marlow in 1805. and left in two years subse- quently, on receiving a commission in the 36th regiment. In 1828 he accom- panied Sir Charles Lyell in a geological tour among the extinct volcanoes of Auvergne. He subsequently succeeded in discovering the whole series of Silurian rocks in the sea-cliffs W. of Milford Haven, England. The term "Silurian System * which is the name of his first great work, was first used by him. The result of his several expeditions was pub- lished in 1845, in a volume, entitled "Geology of Russia and the Ural Moun- tains." Shortly after the publication of this book Murchison was knighted. In 1854 he produced "Siluria; the History of the oldest known Rocks containing Organic Remains, with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold over the Earth." In 1855 he was appointed Director-Gen- eral of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Director of the Metropolitan School of Science applied to Mining and the Arts. He died Oct. 22, 1871. MURCIA (mor'the-a) , an ancient town of Spain, on the Segura river; 46 miles