Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/125

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LAMARQUE statement which the German chancellor vehe- mently denied. LAMARQUE, Maximilien, count, a French gen- eral, born in St. Sever, July 22, 1770, died in Paris, June 1, 1832. He enlisted in the army in 1791, was sent to Spain, reached the rank of captain, and joined the corps styled the colonne infernale, under the command of Latour d'Au- vergne. In 1794, at the head of 200 soldiers, he stormed Fuenterrabia, for which he was rewarded with the rank of adjutant general, and a decree of the convention declared that he had "merited well of his country." After the peace with Spain, he served under Dessolles and Moreau on the Rhine, distinguished him- self at Hohenlinden, and was made a brigadier general in 1801. He afterward joined the army under Napoleon, and participated in the battle of Austerlitz. He shared in the inva- sion of Naples, was present at the taking of Gaeta, smothered the insurrection in Calabria, and worsted some British detachments in 1807. In the same year he was made general of di- vision, and in 1808, under Joachim Murat, who had succeeded Joseph Bonaparte as king of Naples, he captured the island and fortress of Capri, which was defended by the English garrison under Sir Hudson Lowe. He sub- sequently distinguished himself at "Wagram, where he had four horses killed under him ; and in Spain, where he led the rear guard when the French evacuated the Peninsula. On the return from Elba, Napoleon appointed him to the command of Paris, and sent him to the west against the royalists. On the second restoration he was exiled and retired to Brussels, where he devoted his time to lit- erature, art, and the education of his son. In 1818 he was allowed to return to France, and settled in his native town. In 1828 he was elected to the chamber of deputies by the de- partment of Landes, and took his seat among the opposition. He was one of the 221 mem- bers who boldly declared against the policy of Charles X. in 1830, but after the accession of Louis Philippe opposed the ministry, and bit- terly denounced the system known as that of peace at any price. His honesty of purpose, sincerity, and martial eloquence gained him great popularity. His funeral, which took place June 5, 1832, was attended by a large concourse of citizens ; and the republicans took advantage of it to raise a formidable insurrec- tion in the most populous districts of Parts. The whole army in Paris and the national guard marched against the insurgents, who yielded after nearly 48 hours of bloodshed. LAMARTIffE, Alphonse Marie Louis de, a French poet, born in Macon, Oct. 21, 1790, died in Paris, March 1, 1869. His early education was superintended by his mother at the village of Milly, near Macon, where his father, who had passed the reign of terror in prison, had re- tired on the fall of Robespierre. In his 12th year he was sent to study Latin under a neigh- boring priest, who, a sportsman as well as an LAMARTINE 119 ecclesiastic, afterward furnished the subject of Jocelyn. He was soon transferred to the col- lege of Lyons, and again to the school of the Jesuits at Belley, whence he returned in 1809 to Milly and devoted himself to the reading of the poets. In 1811 he accompanied a rela- tive to Italy. Near the close of the empire he returned to France, entered the royal body guards in 1814, and on the escape of Napoleon from Elba retired to Switzerland, returning to Paris after the second restoration. In 1817 he wrote his elegy of the Lac, in which he first displayed the ability of a great poet. His ear- liest published collection appeared in 1820 un- der the title of Meditations poetiques, and won a remarkable success, 45,000 copies being sold within four years. Soon afterward he was appointed secretary to the embassy at Naples. On his way thither he married at Geneva Miss Birch, a wealthy young English lady, who had received a brilliant literary and artistic educa- tion. In 1823 he published his Nouvelles medi- tations, which, though it contained many of his finest poems, was less popular than the preceding volume. In 1824 he became secre- tary of legation at Florence, and in 1825 ap- peared his Dernier chant de Childe Harold, an imitation of Byron, containing a severe ti- rade on Italy, which resulted in a duel with Col. Pepe, an Italian revolutionist, in which Lamartine was wounded. After a residence of five years in Florence, he returned to Paris, was received into the academy, and published Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (1830). In 1832 he set sail from Marseilles, with his wife and daughter, in a vessel chartered and fur- nished by himself, on a journey to the East, which had been the religious and romantic dream of his life. The French emir, as the Arabs called him, travelled like a sovereign, making princely presents, buying houses for his convenience, and having whole caravans of horses in his service. Leaving his family at Beyrout, he went alone to Jerusalem, where he heard of the death of his daughter. He returned to Paris after 16 months' absence, by way of Constantinople and the Danube, and published Voyage en Orient, souvenirs, impres- sions, pensees et pay sages (4 vols., 1835), a work splendid in design, but in parts carelessly com- posed, and inexact in facts. During his absence the electors of Bergues, Le Nord, had chosen him to represent them in the chamber of deputies, in which he took his seat two months after his arrival in France. Though he acted with no political party, his eloquence gave him distinc- tion, and many who doubted his aptitude for practical questions admired in his discourses the language of poetry applied to political affairs. In 1836 appeared Jocelyn, a poem of love and duty, announced as a journal fcrund in a village curacy. It is one of his finest productions, combining dramatic movement with lyric fervor. Two years later followed La chute d'un ange, a poem whose negligences and extravagances justified the coldness of iti