Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/180

 174 LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-LIANCOURT edition, prepared by Gratel-Duplessis, and ed- ited by Sainte-Beuve, appeared in Paris in 1853. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-LIANCOURT, Francois Alex- andra Frederic, duke de, a French statesman and philanthropist, born Jan. 11, 1747", died in Paris, March 27, 1827. Having fallen under the dis- pleasure of Mme. du Barry, he found little in- ducement to attend the court of Louis XV., but passed his time chiefly on his estate of Liancourt, where, under the influence of a visit to England in 1769, he established a model farm. He also established there a school of arts and trades, which became the parent of the institution bearing the same name at Cha- lons. After the destruction of the Bastile in July, 1T89, he was appointed president of the national assembly. His efforts to befriend the king, after the life of the latter had been men- aced, having brought him into danger, he took refuge in England, and subsequently travelled in the United States and Canada. He returned to France in 1799, and for some years lived in obscurity in Paris. Still busy with philanthro- pic plans, he aided in introducing vaccination into France, and inaugurated the system of dis- pensaries in Paris. Napoleon admitted him to the chamber of peers, under his hereditary title. After the restoration he became a member of the general council of hospitals, and president of the society of Christian morals, in which capacity he labored to abolish the slave trade, and to suppress lotteries and gaming houses. He was inspector general of the school of arts and trades at Chalons for 23 years, and a member of various public bodies of an indus- trial and philanthropic character, from most of which he was removed by the ministry in 1823 in consequence of his liberal political views. The academy of sciences testified their disap- . probation of this persecution by admitting him a member, and the academy of medicine ap- pointed him on the commission destined to re- place the committee of vaccination, of which he had been president, and which had been suppressed by government. He subsequently inaugurated the system of schools for mutual instruction, and established the first savings bank in France. He was a voluminous writer, and among his publications are works on pau- perism, on public instruction, on savings banks, on prison discipline, &c. Among the fruits of his visit to America were an account of .the prisons of Philadelphia (Philadelphia and Paris, 1796), and Voyage dans les Etats-Unis de VAmerique (8 vols., Paris, 1800). LA ROUIKJAQIELELY. I. Henri dn Verger, count de, a French royalist, born in the chateau of La Durbeliere, near Chatillon-sur-Sevres, Poitou, in August, 1772, killed at Nouaille, March 4, 1794. He was educated at the mili- tary school of Soreze, and after the outbreak of the French revolution entered the constitu- tional guard of Louis XVI. ; but after the mas- sacre of the Swiss guards, Aug. 10, 1792, he retired to Poitou, and joined the marquis de Lescure in the movement organized among the LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN people of La Vendee for the reestablishment of the monarchy. The peasantry having de- termined to select their leaders from the pro- vincial nobility, the parishes around Chatillon chose La Rochejaquelein, who joined his fol- lowers at St. Aubin in March, 1793, and ad- dressed them in a brief speech, ending with these words: "I am young and without expe- rience ; but I burn to show myself worthy to be your commander. Let us meet the enemy. If I advance, follow me ; if I retreat, kill me ; if I fall, avenge me ! " The peasants, animated by his example, on the succeeding day attacked the republicans at Aubiers with irresistible force ; and having effected a junction with the royalists of Anjou, they defeated the enemy in several encounters. At the attack upon Thou- ars, May 4, La Rochejaquelein, mounted upon the shoulders of Texier de Courlai, helped to detach with his own hands some of the stones from the wall, and was the. first to mount it. At the battle of Fontenay, May 16, and the siege of Saumur in June, he showed equal in- trepidity. In a short time the royalist troops had taken 80 pieces of cannon and 12,000 prisoners, with the loss of fewer than 500 killed and wounded. In the less fortunate engage- ments at Lucon and Cholet, at which the chief Vendean leaders were killed or disabled, La Rochejaquelein performed prodigies of valor ; and upon the assembling of a new army at Varades, on the northern bank of the Loire, whither the Vendeans had fled after their de- feat at Cholet, he was chosen generalissimo, as the only one capable of reviving the spirits of the troops. Accepting with reluctance this responsible trust, which seemed incompatible with his extreme youth, he marched toward the coast of Brittany in the expectation of meeting there promised succors from England. In October he occupied Laval, driving out a large body of national guards, and immediately after sustained an attack by the republicans un- der Lechelle, which resulted in one of the most glorious victories for the Vendeans during the war. The enemy were driven in scattered par- ties as far as Nantes and Rennes, losing 12,000 men and 19 pieces of cannon. Elated by their success, the royalists, 30,000 strong, attacked Granville, Nov. 14; but having no artillery with which to breach the ramparts, they re- ceived an unexpected check and were obliged to fall back with the loss of 1,800 men. This disaster disconcerted the plans of La Roche- jaquelein, who was about to advance to Caen ; and to add to his embarrassment a revolt broke out among his hastily assembled levies, whom it required all their commander's powers of persuasion to prevent from returning at once to their homes. As it was, a retrograde march toward the Loire had to be conceded to them. On their way they defeated a large body of republicans at Pontorson ; but the latter, hav- ing rallied at Dol, Nov. 21, where they were largely reenforced, opposed the royalists with 35,900 men and a numerous park of artillery.