court and clergy. The assembly of the states met on May 5, 1789. Louis' subsequent history is that of the Revolution until Jan. 21, 1793, when he died by the guillotine. His last words were: “I pray that my blood come not upon France.” See The French Revolution by Carlyle, by Gardner and by Michelet.
Louis XVII, second son of Louis XVI, was left in prison at the death of his father. There he was rudely separated from his mother and placed in the charge of a brutal Jacobin, who treated him with great cruelty. He became a wreck in body and mind, and died on June 8, 1795. Louis XVIII, in 1815, made many attempts to find the remains of this hapless boy, but failed. This fact gave rise to the appearance of false dauphins, whose claims deluded many honest royalists in France. Even in 1874 the children of one of these claimants raised fruitless actions before Paris law-courts against the Count of Chambord. See Louis XVII the Lost Dauphin by Stevens.
Louis XVIII, a younger brother of Louis XVI, was born at Versailles, Nov. 17, 1755. He fled from Paris on the same night as Louis XVI, and reached the Belgian frontier in safety. From his retreat he issued declarations against the revolutionists which damaged the king. After the execution of his brother he proclaimed the dauphin king under the title of Louis XVII, and in 1795 himself took the title of king. The fall of Napoleon opened his way to the throne, and on April 26, 1814, he landed at Calais after 24 years of exile. He ruled by “the divine right of kings.” The Revolution had taught him nothing, and his treatment of Protestants, republicans and followers of Napoleon opened the way for Napoleon's return from Elba, when he fled into exile until after the battle of Waterloo. He was restored to the throne by the allied powers in 1815, and ruled until his death on Sept. 16, 1824.
Louis Napol′eon. See Napoleon III.
Louis Philippe (lo͞o′ē fē-lēp′), born at Paris on Oct. 6, 1773, was the oldest son of the duke of Orleans. With his father he renounced his titles and called himself Philippe Egalité (Equality). He became a member of the Jacobin Club, and, being proscribed for liberal views, was an exile for 20 years. In Switzerland he taught school, and spent three years in the United States. In 1814 he returned to Paris, when he received his great estates which the royal government had taken. Louis XVIII received him with much distrust, the court regarded him with jealousy, but he was popular in Paris. The Revolution of 1830 having ended, he was appointed lieutenant-general, mainly on the proposal of Lafitte and Lafayette. On Aug. 9, he accepted the throne and was called to be king of the French. In 1848 he was compelled to abdicate, and thus ended a reign remarkable for the wave of liberalism in which it took its rise and for the whirlwind of democracy that swept it away. He spent the remainder of his life in England, where he died on Aug. 26, 1850. See Memoirs of a Minister of State by Guizot and Rise and Fall of Louis Philippe by Poore.
Loui′sa of Prussia, known as The Good Queen, was born at Hannover, March 10, 1776. She was the wife of Frederick William III and the mother of Frederick William IV and William I, kings of Prussia. She was very popular, her great beauty and dignity, added to her lovely character and wide benevolence, making her the idol of the people. She showed energy and resolution in the nation's trouble after the battle of Jena, and still further won the respect of the people by the manner in which she endured the conduct of Napoleon, whom she had visited at Tilsit, vainly hoping to obtain favorable conditions of peace for her country. She died on July 19, 1810. The Prussian Order of Louisa, The Louisa School for Girls and The Louisa Governess' Seminary were founded in honor of her. See Life by Hudson.
Louis′burg is a port on the southeastern coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is now inhabited by a few fishermen, but the ruins of the old town are visible. It was once regarded as the strongest fortress in America, until the English took it in 1758. Then the fortifications, which had cost France over $5,000,000 and been 30 years in building, were destroyed. The town has a fine harbor, and is on the Intercolonial Railroad. Population 1,650.
Louisiana (lo͞o′ḗ-zḗ-ä′nȧ), one of the southern or gulf states of the Union, lying between Mississippi and Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, with Arkansas on the north. It measures about 200 miles from north to south and a little less than 300 from east to west, and covers 45,420 square miles, being nearly equal to Mississippi in area.
Surface. The highest land is in the northwestern and northern regions. The coast of the delta and the east consists of lands little above sea-level, intersected by tracts of elevated prairies and low ridges.
Drainage. The Mississippi flows nearly 600 miles through Louisiana, a large portion of its delta below New Orleans being marshy and below its high-water mark. About one fifth of the surface is subject to the overflow of the rivers, especially along the Mississippi. This is prevented by the levees or artificial embankments on each side of the river. The Red River is the principal tributary of the Mississippi flowing through Louisiana. The Sabine, forming part of the western boundary, flows into Lake Sabine and thence through Sabine Pass into the Gulf of Mexico. The lakes (of which Ponchartrain is the largest)
