Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/475

Rh E N E T 455 after besieged Colonna. In 1249 he took the castle of Arola, and on this occasion he sullied his fair fame by putting to death more than a hundred Guelfs of Reggio who were taken prisoners there. At the head of the Modenese, Enzio encouutered the troops of Bologna, May 26, 1249, at Fossalta, and was wounded and taken prisoner. He was consigned to perpetual imprisonment, aud nothing could move his captors to abate a jot of their rigour. On one occasion he nearly succeeded in making his escape concealed in a cask, but was recognized by his golden hair. &quot;A captive at the age of twenty-four,&quot; says Dean Milman, &quot; this youth, of beauty equal to his bravery, the poet, the musician, as well as the most valiant soldier and consum mate captain, pined out twenty-three years of life, if not in a squalid dungeon, in miserable inactivity.&quot; Enzio was passionately loved by Lucia Biadagioli, a high-born maiden of Bologna, who was given to him as a companion ; and she made several unsuccessful attempts to restore him to freedom. He was the best-beloved son of the emperor, who would have given any sum for his ransom, and to whom the loss of him was a life-long affliction. Nor was he less idolized by his followers for his brave, honourable, and generous character as a leader in war. Enzio died in con finement at Bologna, March 14, 1272. The Bolognese gave him a magnificent funeral. His body was embalmed, robed in scarlet, and lay in state for some days wearing a golden crown and sceptre. It was then buried in the church of St Dominic, and a marble tomb was erected in memory of the hero. History, says Mr Kiugton (Hist, of Frederick the Second, vol. ii. p. 289), does not record a more sorrowful tale. EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES GEsravifevE LOUISE AUGUSTS ANDRE TIMOTHEE D (1728-1810), commonly known as the Chevalier d Eon, a political adventurer, was born at Tonnerre, in Burgundy, on the 5th October 1728. He was the son of an advocate of good position, and after a distinguished course of study at the College Mazarin, he became a doctor of law by special dispensation before the Uaiial age, and adopted his father s profession. He com menced literary work as a contributor to Freron s Annee Litteraire, and attracted notice as a political writer by two works on financial and administrative questions, which he published in his twenty-fifth year. His reputation in creased so rapidly that in 1755 he was, on the recommenda tion of the prince of Conti, entrusted by Louis XV. with a secret mission to the court of Russia. It was on this occa sion that he for tha first time assumed the dress of a woman, with the connivance, it is supposed, of the French court. In this disguise he obtained the appointment of reader to the empress Elizabeth, and won her over entirely to the views of his royal master, with whom he maintained a secret correspondence during the whole of his diplomatic career. After a year s absence he returned to Paris to be immediately charged with a second mission to St Peters burg, in which he figured in his true sex, and as brother of the reader who had been at the &quot;Russian court the year before. He played an important part in the negotiations between the courts of Russia, Austria, and France during the Seven Years War. For these diplomatic services he was rewarded with the decoration of the grand cross of St Louis. In 1759 he served with the French army on the Rhine as aide-de-camp to the Marshal de Broglie, and was wounded during the campaign. He had held for some years previously a commission in a regiment of dragoons, aud was distinguished for his skill in military exercises, particularly in fencing. In 17G2, on the return of the Due de Nivernais, Eon, who had been secretary to his embassy, was appointed his successor, first as resident agent and then as minister plenipotentiary at the court of Great Britain. He had not been long in this position when he lost the favour of his sovereign, chiefly, according to his own account, through the adverse influence of Madame de Pompadour, who was jealous of him as a secret corre spondent of the king. Superseded by Count Guerchy, Eon showed his irritation by denying the genuineness of the letter of appointment, and by raising an action against Guerchy for an attempt to poison him. Guerchy, on the other hand, had previously commenced an action against Eon for libel, founded on the publication by the latter of certain state documents of which he had posses sion in his official capacity. Both parties succeeded in so far as a true bill was found against Guerchy for the attempt to murder, though by pleading his privilege as ambassador he escaped a trial, and Eon was found guilty . of the libel. Failing to come up for judgment when called on, he was outlawed. For some years afterwards he lived in obscurity, appearing in public chiefly at fencing matches. During this period rumours as to the sex of Eon, originating probably in the story of his first residence at St Petersburg as a female, began to excite public interest. Bets were frequently laid on the subject, and an action raised before Lord Mansfield in 1777 for the recovery of one of these bets brought the question to a judicial decision, by which Eon was declared a female. A month after the trial he returned to France, having received permission to do so as the result of negotiations in which Beaumarchais was employed as agent. The condi tions were that he was to deliver up certain state docu ments in his possession, and to wear the dress of a female. The reason for the latter of these stipulations has never been clearly explained, but he complied with it to the close of his life. In 1784 he received permission to visit London for the purpose of bringing back his library and other property. He did not, however, return to France, though after the Revolution he sent a letter, using the name of Madame d Eou, in which he offered to serve in the republican army. He died in London on the 22d May 1810. During the closing years of his life he is said to have enjoyed a small pension from George III. A post mortem examination of the body conclusively established the fact that Eon was a man. EOTVOS, J6zsEF, BARON (1813-1871), a distinguished Hungarian statesman, author, poet, and orator, was born at Buda on the 3d September 1813. He was educated partly at his father s estate at Ercsi, in the megye or county of Szekesfehdrvdr (Stuhlweissenbuvg), and partly in Buda, where also he studied law and philosophy from 1826-31. As early as 1830, Eb tvos commenced his literary career by a translation of Goethe s Goetz von Berlichingen, followed shortly afterwards by two original comedies and a tragedy Boszil (Revenge], which showed a singular beauty of style. In 1833, after having passed the requisite examinations at Pozsony (Pressburg), he began at the early age of twenty his official career as a vice-notary, which position he held for two years. He then went to Vienna, where he was employed at -the Hungarian chancellory ; here, however, he only remained for a short time. In 1836 he commenced a long journey with the object of visiting the chief towns of Germany, Holland, France, and England, and did not return to Hungary before 1837. Shortly after this he was appointed to a seat in the district court of justice at Eperies, which office he soon resigned, withdrawing to his grandfather s estate at Salyi, where for some time he devoted himself to literary studies. His dramatic works had mean while attracted the attention of the Kisfaludy society, of which learned body he was elected a member in the year 1835. But he reached the zenith of his fame as an author in the year 1838, when his novel Karthausi (T/ie Carthusian) appeared in the celebrated Arvizkonyv (Inunda tion-Book], of which he was himself the editor, and which