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 almost unmixed merit in the critical essays. As a critic, indeed, either of art or letters, Bourget leaves little to be desired. If he is not in the very first rank of novelists, if his books display more ease of finished craftsmanship than joy in spontaneous creation, it must be remembered that the supreme writers of fiction have rarely succeeded as he has in a different field.

 BOURIGNON, ANTOINETTE (1616–1680), Flemish mystic, was born at Lille on the 13th of January 1616. From an early age she was under the influence of religion, which took in course of time a mystical turn. Undertaking the work of a reformer, she visited France, Holland, England and Scotland. Her religious enthusiasm, peculiarity of views and disregard of all sects raised both zealous persecutors and warm adherents. On her death at Franeker, Friesland, on the 30th of October 1680, she left a large number of followers, who, however, dwindled rapidly away; but in the early 18th century her influence revived in Scotland sufficiently to call forth several denunciations of her doctrines in the various Presbyterian general assemblies of 1701, 1709 and 1710. So far as appears from her writings and contemporary records, she was a visionary of the ordinary type, distinguished only by the audacity and persistency of her pretensions.

 BOURKE, a town of Cowper county, New South Wales, Australia, 503 m. by rail N.W. from Sydney. Pop. (1901) 2614. It is situated on the south bank, and at the head of the ordinary winter navigation, of the Darling river. Very rich copper ore exists in the district in great abundance. Bourke is the centre of a large sheep-farming area, and the annual agricultural show is one of the best in the colony. On the west side of the Darling, 3 m. distant, is the small town of North Bourke, and at Pera, 10 m. distant, is an important irrigation settlement.

 BOURMONT, LOUIS AUGUSTE VICTOR, (1773–1846), marshal of France, entered the Gardes Françaises of the royal army shortly before the Revolution, emigrated in 1789, and served with Condé and the army of the émigrés in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793, subsequently serving as chief of staff to Scépeaux, the royalist leader, in the civil war in lower Anjou (1794–1796). Bourmont, excepted from the amnesty of April 1796, fled into Switzerland, but soon afterwards, having been made by Louis XVIII. a maréchal de camp and a knight of St Louis, he headed a fresh insurrection, which after some preliminary successes collapsed (1799–1800). He then made his submission to the First Consul, married, and lived in Paris; but his thinly veiled royalism caused his arrest a few months later, and he remained a prisoner for more than three years, finally escaping to Portugal in 1804. Three years later the French army under General Junot invaded Portugal, and Bourmont offered his services to Junot, who made him chief of staff of a division. He returned to France with Junot after the convention of Cintra, and was promptly re-arrested. He was soon released, however, on Junot’s demand, and was commissioned as an officer in the imperial army. He served in Italy for a time, then went on the staff of the viceroy Eugène (Beauharnais), whom he accompanied in the Moscow campaign. He was taken prisoner in the retreat, but escaped after a time and rejoined the French army. His conspicuous courage at the battle of Lützen in 1813 led Napoleon to promote him general of brigade, and in 1814 his splendid defence of Nogent (February 13) earned him the rank of general of division. At the first Restoration Bourmont was naturally employed by the Bourbons, to whose service he had devoted his life, but he rejoined Napoleon on his return from Elba. On the eve of the campaign of 1815, and at the urgent request of Count Gérard, he was given a divisional command in the army of the north. On the first day of the Waterloo campaign Bourmont went over to the enemy. It is not probable that he gave information of French movements to the allies, but the best that can be said in exculpation of his treachery is that his old friends and comrades, the royalists of Anjou, were again in insurrection, and that he felt that he must lead them. He made no attempt to defend his conduct, and acted as the accuser of Marshal Ney. A year later he was given command of a division of the royal guard; and in 1823 he held an important position in the army which, under the command of the duc d’Angoulême, invaded Spain. He commanded the whole army in Spain for a time in 1824, became minister of war in 1829, and in 1830 was placed in command of the Algiers expedition. The landing of the French and the capture of Algiers were directed by him with complete success, and he was rewarded with the bâton of marshal. But the revolution of 1830 put an end to his command, and, refusing to take the oath to Louis Philippe, he was forced to resign. In 1832 Marshal Bourmont took part in the rising of the duchesse de Berri, and on its failure retired to Portugal. Here, as always, on the side of absolutism, he commanded the army of Dom Miguel during the civil war of 1833–1834, and after the victory of the constitutional party he retired to Rome. At the amnesty of 1840 he returned to France. He died at the château of Bourmont on the 27th of October 1846.

 BOURNE, VINCENT (1695–1747), English classical scholar, familiarly known as “Vinny” Bourne, was born at Westminster in 1695. In 1710 he became a scholar at Westminster school, and in 1714 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated in 1717, and obtained a fellowship three years later. Of his afterlife exceedingly little is known. It is certain that he passed the greater portion of it as usher in Westminster school. He died on the 2nd of December 1747. During his lifetime he published three editions of his Latin poems, and in 1772 there appeared a very handsome quarto volume containing all Bourne’s pieces, but also some that did not belong to him. The Latin poems are remarkable not only for perfect mastery of all linguistic niceties, but for graceful expression and genuine poetic feeling. A number of them are translations of English poems, and it is not too much to say that the Latin versions almost invariably surpass the originals. Cowper, an old pupil of Bourne’s, Beattie and Lamb have combined in praise of his wonderful power of Latin versification.

 BOURNE, or, a market town in the S. Kesteven or Stamford parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England; lying in a fenny district 95 m. N. by W. from London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4361. The Stamford-Sleaford branch of the Great Northern railway here crosses the Saxby-Lynn joint line of the Great Northern and Midland companies. The church of St Peter and St Paul is Norman and Early English with later insertions; it is part of a monastic church belonging to a foundation of Augustinian canons of 1138, of which the other buildings have almost wholly disappeared. Trade is principally agricultural. Bourne is famous through its connexion with the ardent opponent of William the Conqueror, Hereward the Wake. Of his castle very slight traces remain. Bourne was also the birthplace of the Elizabethan statesman Cecil, Lord Burghley. The Red Hall, which now forms part of the railway station buildings, belonged to the family of Digby, of whom Sir Everard Digby was executed in 1606 for his connexion with the Gunpowder Plot.

 BOURNE (southern form of burn, Teutonic born, brun, burna), an intermittent stream frequent in chalk and limestone country where the rock becomes saturated with winter rain, that slowly drains away until the rock becomes dry, when the stream ceases. A heavy rainfall will cause streams to run in winter from the saturated soil. These are the winter bournes that have given name to several settlements upon Salisbury Plain, such as