Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/452

 American continent. His exact route is often doubtful; but it seems to have passed north into Georgia as far as 35' N., then south to the neighbourhood of Mobile, and finally north-west towards the Mississippi. This river was reached early in 1541, and the following winter was spent on the Ouachita, in modern Arkansas and Louisiana, west of the Mississippi. As they were returning in 1542 along the Mississippi, De Soto died (either in May or June; the 25th of June is perhaps the true date), and his body was sunk in its waters. Failing in an attempt to push westwards again, De Soto's men, under Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, descended the Mississippi to the sea in nineteen days from a point close to the junction of the Arkansas with the great river, and thence coasted along the Gulf of Mexico to Panuco.



SOU (O. Fr. sol, Lat, solidus, sc. nummus), the name of the bronze 5-centime French coin, corresponding to the English “halfpenny.” It is still colloquially used in France in reckoning, and the franc, 2 and 5-franc pieces are known as pièce de vingt, quarante and cent sous respectively. The solidus was originally a gold coin, first struck c. 312 by Constantine to take the place of the aureus. In the Eastern Empire this gold coin was the standard down to 1453, and, as the “bezant,” circulated from Portugal to the Indies. In the West after Pippin gold coinage ceased and the solidus in silver became the standard, one pound of silver making 22 sols (solidi) and 264 deniers (denarii). Under Charlemagne one pound of silver = 20 sols = 240 deniers. The livre (libra), the sol and the denier formed the universal money of account throughout France until the Revolution; and they have left their mark on the English money symbols, £ s. d., for pounds, shillings and pence.

SOUBISE, BENJAMIN DE ROHAN, (? 1589-1642), Huguenot leader, younger brother of Henri de Rohan, inherited his title through his mother Catherine de Parthenay. He served his apprenticeship as a soldier under Prince Maurice of Orange-Nassau in the Low Countries. In the religious wars from 1621 onwards his elder brother chiefly commanded on land and in the south, Soubise in the west and along the sea-coast. His exploits in the conliict have been sympathetically related by his brother, who, if he was not quite an impartial witness, was one of the best military critics of the time. Soubise's chief exploit was a singularly bold and well-conducted attack (in 1625) on the Royalist fleet in the river Blavet (which included the cutting of a boom in the face of superior numbers) and the occupation of Oléron. He commanded at Rochelle during the famous siege, and (if we may believe his brother) the failure of the defence and of the English attack on Rhé was mainly due to the alternate obstinacy of the townsfolk and the English commanders in refusing to

listen to Soubise's advice. When surrender became inevitable he fled to England, which he had previously visited in quest of succour. He died in 1642 in London. The Soubise title afterwards served as the chief second designation (not for heirs apparent, but for the chief collateral branch for the time being) of the house of Rohan-Chabot.

The name Soubise appears again in the military history of France in the person of (1715-1787), peer and marshal of France, the grandson of the princess de Soubise, who is known to history as one of the mistresses of Louis XIV. He accompanied Louis XV. in the campaign of 1744-48 and attained high military rank, which he owed more to his courtiership than to his generalship. Soon after the beginning of the Seven Years' War, through the influence of Mme de Pompadour, he was put in command of a corps of 24,000 men, and in November 1757 he sustained the crushing defeat of Rossbach. He was more fortunate, however, in his later military career, and continued in the service until the general peace of 1763, after which he lived the life of an ordinary courtier and man of fashion in Paris, dying on the 4th of July 1787.

SOUHAM, JOSEPH, (1760-1837), French soldier, was born at Lubersac on the 30th of April 1760, and served in the French army as a private from 1782 to 1790. In 1792, having shown himself active in the cause of the Revolution, he was elected commandant of a volunteer battalion, and by 1793 he had risen to the rank of general of division. He served with credit under Pichegru in Holland (1795), but in 1799 fell into disgrace on suspicion of being concerned in Royalist intrigues. He was reinstated in 1800 and served under Moreau in the Danube campaign of that year. During the Consulate he appears to have been involved in conspiracies, and along with his old commanders Moreau and Pichegru was disgraced for alleged participation in that of Georges Cadoudal. He regained his rank, however, in 1809, took a notable part in Gouvion St Cyr's operations in Catalonia, and won the title of count by his conduct at the action of Vich, in which he was wounded. In 1812 Marshal Masséna, in declining the command of Marmont's army which had just been defeated at Salamanca, recommended Souham for the post. The latter was thus pitted against Wellington, and by his skilful manœuvres drove the English general back from Burgos and regained the ground lost at Salamanca. In 1813 he distinguished himself again at Lützen and at Leipzig (when he was wounded). At the fall of the First Empire he deserted the emperor, and having suffered for the Royalist cause was well received by Louis XVIII., who gave him high commands. These Souham lost at the return of Napoleon and regained after the Second Restoration. He retired in 1832, and died on the 28th of April 1837.

SOULARY, JOSEPHIN [] (1815-1891), French poet, son of a Lyons merchant of Genoese origin (Solari), was born on the 23rd of February 1815. He entered a line regiment when he was sixteen, serving for five years. He was chef de bureau in the prefecture of the Rhône from 1845 to 1867, and in 1868 he became librarian to the Palais des arts in his native town. He died at Lyons on the 28th of March 1891. His works include À travers champs (1837); Les Cinq cordes du luth (1838); Les Ephémères (two series, 1846 and 1857); Sonnets humoristiques (1862); Les Figulines (1862); Pendant l'invasion (1871); Les Rimes ironiques (1877); Jeux divins (1882), and two comedies. His Œuvres poétiques were collected in three volumes (1872-1883). His Sonnets humoristiques attracted great attention, and charmed their readers by the mixture of gaiety and tragedy. His mastery over the technical difficulties of his art, especially in the sonnet, won him the title of the “Benvenuto of rhyme.”



SOULT, NICOLAS JEAN DE DIEU, Duke of Dalmatia (1769-1851), marshal of France, was-born at Saint-Amans-la-Bastide (now in department of the Tarn) on the 29th of March 1769, and was the son of a country notary at that place. He was fairly well educated, and intended for the bar, but his father's death when