Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/621

 ESTHER

549

ESTHER

on parole, entered the service of the French East In- dia Company, and (with two vessels) destroyed the British factories in Sumatra and the Persian (iulf. He was on his way to France, in 1760, when he fell into the hands of the English and was sent to Plymouth. Re- leased a second time, he was appointed lieutenant- general of the navy in 1763. and vice-admiral in 1777. One year later, he left Toulon in command of a fleet of twelve battleships and fourteen frigates with the in- tention of assisting the struggling American colonies against Great Britain. Unfavourable winds delayed him and so Admiral Howe's fleet escaped his pursuit and d'Estaing took possession of Newport (8 August). A great naval battle was about to take place, when a violent storm arose and dispersed the two fleets. After ashort sojourn in Boston harbour, he sailed to the West Indies where he took St. Vincent and Grenada (4 July, 1779) and badly damaged Admiral Byron's fleet. His attempts to retake Savannah, in concert with the Americans, were unsuccessful ; a severe wound obliged him to give up the enterprise. On his return to France, in 1780, he fell into disfavour at the court. Three years later, however, he was placed at the head of

the Franco-Spanish fleet

assembled before Cadiz,

that he gave in the third year of his reign, divorced her and ordered the most attractive maidens of the kingdom brought before him that he might select her successor from among them. Among these v/a.% Esther, whose rare beauty captivated the king and moved him to place her on the throne. Her uncle Mardochai remained constantly near the palace so that he might advise and counsel her. While at the gate of the palace he discovered a plot of two of the king's eunuchs to kill their royal master. This plot he revealed to Esther, who in turn informed the king. The plotters were executed, and a record of the ser- vices of Mardochai was entered in the chronicles of the kingdom. Not long thereafter, Aman, a royal fa- vourite before whom the king had ordered all to bow, having frequently observed Mardochai at the gate of the palace and noticed that he refused to prostrate himself before him, cunningly obtained the king's con- sent for a general massacre in one day of all the Jews in the kingdom. Following a Persian custom, Aman de- termined by lot ipiir, pi. ptirim), that the massacre should take place a twelvemonth hence. A royal de- cree was thereupon sent throughout the Ivingdom of Persia. Mirdochii m formed Esther of this and

SCE.NKS FROM THE LiFR OP ESTHER ESTHER BEING PRESENTED

Paolo Caliari (Veronese), Church of San Sebastiano, Venice to King Assuerus

but peace was signed and no operations took place. He was then made a grandee of Spain. When the French Revolution broke out, he favoured the new ideas. A member of the Assembly of Notables, he was named commandant of the National Guard at Versailles in 1789, and admiral in 1792. He con-

begged her to use her influence with the king and thus avert the threatening danger. At first she feared to enter the presence of the king unsummoned, for to do so was a capital offence. But, on the earnest entreaty of her uncle, she consented to approach after three days, which with her maids she would pass in fasting

stantly endeavoured to protect the king, and at the and prayer, and during which she requested her uncle

trial of Marie Antoinette in 179.3 spoke in her favour. He was charged with being a reactionary and was sent to the scaffold, 28 April, 1794. In his moments of leisure, he wrote a poem, "Le Reve" (17.55), a tragedy, "LesThermopyles" (1789), andabookonthe colonies. Jal, Dictiomuiire critique de biographie et d'histoirr (Paris. 1872): Extrait du journal d^un officier de la marine dc Vescadre de M. le Comte d'Eslaing (Paris, 1782); Levot, Le Comle d'Estaing (Paris, 1857).

Louis N. Delajuarue.

Esther (Heb. iriDN, star, happiness; Sept. 'Eo-^j^p), Queen of Persia and wife of Assuerus, who

to have all the Jews in the city fast and pray.

On the third day Esther appeared before the king, who received her graciously and promised to grant her request whatever it might be. She then asked him and Aman to dine with her. At the banquet they ac- cepted her invitation to dine with her again on the following day. Aman, carried away by the joy that this honour gave him, issued orders for the erection of a gallows on which he purposed to hang the hated Mardochai. But that night the king, being sleepless, ordered the chronicles of the nation to be read to him. Learning that Mardochai had never been rewarded for identified with Xerxes (485-465 B. c). She was a his service in revealing the plot of the eunuchs, he

Jewess of the tribe of Benjamin, daughter of Abihail, and bore before her accession to the throne the name of Edis.sa (riDin, HAdilssah, myrtle). Her family had been deported from Jerusalem to Babylon in the time of Jechonias (.591) b. c). On the death of her

asked Aman, the next day, to suggest a suitable re- ward for one "whom the king desired to honour". Thinking it was himself that the king had in mind, -Vman suggested the use of the king's apparel and in- signia. These the king ordered to be bestowed on

parents she was adopted by her father's brother. Mar- Mardochai. .\t the second banquet, when the king re-

dochai, who then dwelt in Susan, the capital of Persia, pcatcd to Esther his otTer to grant her whatever she

King .\ssuerus being angered at the refusal of his wife might ask, she informed him of the plot of Aman

Vagthi to respond to his invitation to attend a banijuet which involved the destruction of the whole Jewish