Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/171

I/ESDIGUIERES. 153 LESLEY. general, born at Saint-Bonnet-de-Champsaur. and educated at Avignon and at Paris in the CoU&ge de Navarre. He suddenly gave up the law and entered the army under Bertrand de Gordes, but soon left it to join the Protestant party. He was in the thick of the religious civil war. and did much for the cause of Henrj' IV. He commanded the King's armies against Charles Emmanuel I. of Savoy with great success (1591-92) ; and in 1597 raised an army at his own expense, beat the Spaniards, and in the following year again defeated the Duke of Savoy. He succeeded in making himself practically ruler of Dauphine. He was made Marshal of France in 1608, and three years afterwards Buke of Lesdiguigres. Under Louis XIII. Lesdigui6res fought for the cause of Savoy against the Spaniards. He finally abjured Calvinism and commanded against the Huguenots, being rewarded for liis services by being made Constable of France. Consult Du- favard, Le connetable de Lesdiguieres (Paris, 1892). LESGHIANS, lez'gi-«nz. or Lesghian-tche- TCHEN. A group of peoples of the Caucasus, comprising the eastern division of Lesghians proper, the more central Tchetchenzes. and some other peoples, whose exact relations are still some- what in doubt. The Lesghians. who mainly in- habit Daghestan (sometimes called Lesghistan) , and who number about half a million, comprise the Avars, Kurins, and other tribes. The Tche- tchenzes comprise the Tchetchenzes proper, the Karabulaks, Tushes, etc. The Georgian name for the Tchetchenzes is Kists. They call them- selves Naktchuoi. Keane (1896) considers that some of the languages of this region of the Cau- casus, as the Ude, Kubachi, Andi, etc., "must for the present be regarded as so many stock languages," while according to Uslar some of the languages of Southern Daghestan are prac- tically 'inflectional.' Shamyl, whose capture by the Russians in 1859 ended a thirty years' heroic struggle for Lesghian independence, was an Avar. The Lesghian group includes many of the wflder and more independent tribes of the Caucasus. Their physical features, too. are less prepossess- ing than those of the Georgians, Circassians, etc. The Lesghians (particularly the eastern tribes) are very brachycephalic, with a fairly high stature. The face sometimes suggests Mongolian admixture, the nose Semitic. Light-gray eyes and fair hair are rather common among them. Some authorities (Miiller, 1879; Brinton,'l890) classify the Lesghians and Kists (Tchetchenzes) as two difl'erent groups. Anthropological and ethno- logical information about the Lesghians will be found in the following works: Wagner, Schami/l (Leipzig. 1854) ; id., Die Viillcer des Kaiikasus und ihre FreilieitslMimpfe gegen die Rtissen (Ber- lin, 1855) ; Cunninghame, Eastern Caucasus (London, 1872) ; Rittich, Die Ellinoqraphie RussUmds (Gotha. 1878) ; Erckcrt. Dcr Kau- kasiis und seine Vijlker (Leipzig. 1885) ; Chantre, Recherches nnthropoJopiques dans le Caucase (Lyon, 1885-87); Hutchinson, Living Races of Mankind (London, 1901). LE SICILIEN, oti L'Amour Peintke. le se'- sS'lyaN' o<J la'moor' paN'tr' (Fr., The Sicilian, or Love as a Painter). A comedy by Molifere (1667). In this slight sketch Adraste, in the character of a painter, hoodwinks Don P&dre, and elopes with the latter's Greek slave, Isidore, disguised as his own slave, Zaide. LESKIEN", les'ke-en, August (1840-). A_ German philologist. He was born at Kiel and' studied there, at Leipzig, and at Jena, where he specialized in Slavic linguistics under Schleicher- (1866-67), and was made professor of compara- tive philology in 1869. A year later he went to Leipzig to give the first course there in Slavic languages. With Burgraann he edited Litauische VolksUeder und Miirchen (1882). In 1884 he became an editor of Ersch and Gruber's Real- encyklopiidie. His other writings include: Iiidogermanische Chrestujnatliie. with Ebel, Schleicher, and Schmidt (S69) ; Handbuch dcr altbulgarischen Sprache (3d ed. 1898); Die Deklination im Slawisch-Litauischeii und Ger- manischen (1876); Untersuchungen iiber Quan- titiit und Beionung in den slaicischen Hprachen (1885-9.3): and Die Bildung der Xomina im Litauischcn (1891). LES'LEY, or LESLIE, Joiix (1527-96). A Scotch prelate, statesman, and historian, the natural son of the parish priest of Kingussie, Inverness-shire. He graduated M.A. at King's College, Aberdeen, and in 1547, in his twentieth year, became a canon of Aberdeen Cathedral. In 1549 he went to France, where he studied canon and civil law at the universities of Poitiers and Paris. He returned to Scotland in 1554 to take up an appointment as professor of canon law in his alma mater, and in 1559 he was appointed Canon and Prebendary of Oyne. He was a strenuous opponent of Knox and of the introduc- tion of Protestantism into Scotland, and was one of the commissioners sent to invite Queen Mary to Scotland; on her accession he became her chief ecclesiastical adviser, and in 1566 was made Abbot of Lindores and in the same year Bishop of Ross. His loyalty to his Queen subjected him to much dangerous intrigue, and after her im- prisonment in Bolton Castle, in 1568. he went to plead her cause at the Court of Elizabeth. In 1571 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for complicity in the projected marriage of Mary to the Duke of Norfolk, for his share in the resulting uprisings in the north of England, and for his attempts to secure Spanish intervention. The confession extorted from him led to Norfolk's execution. In 1573 he was released by Elizabeth, but was banished from the Kingdom. He went to France, and continued to intercede, but unsuc- cessfully, for his Queen at various Continental courts until her death. He visited Rome and received several traveling commissions from the Pope. In 1579 he was appointed Suffragan and Vicar-General of the Diocese of Rouen, where in 1591 his efforts in stimulating the citizens to resist successfully the siege during the Civil War were rewarded by Clement VIII.. who appointed him Bishop of Coutances. The disturbed state of the countrj-, however, prevented him from pro- ceeding to his see, and he retired to the Augus- tinian Monastery of Guirtenburg. near Brus- sels, where he died. He was the autlior of several Latin and English publications, many of them written in defense of Queen Mary. His most important work is De Originc, Moribus et Rebus GesiisScoioriim (Rome. 10 vols.. 1578), a Latin abridgment in seven volumes of the work of Boethius, with three original volumes in the Scotch dialect, dealing with the period from the- death of James I. in 1437 to the return of Quecm Mary to Scotland in 1561.