Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/218

 212 LAUZUtf LAYACA and a spire, and contains the remains of St. Bernard de Menthon. The church of St. Fran- cois is also a very old building, and is memora- ble for the council assembled within its walls in 1449, in which Felix V. resigned his claims to the popedom. The other remarkable build- ings are: the old episcopal palace, now the government house, the penitentiary, the char- ity schools, and the casino or club house. The streets are steep, narrow, and ill paved. The manufactures comprise woollen cloth, paper, leather, and jewelry, and some trade is carried Lausanne. on in wine, which is the staple of the canton. Steamboats ply on the lake between Ouchy, Geneva, and other towns ; and there are rail- ways to Yverdun, Geneva, Bern, and Vevay. Among the objects of interest are the house in which Gibbon wrote the greatest part of his "Decline and Fall," and the grave of John Philip Kemble, the tragedian, in the cemetery of St. Pierre de Plain near the city. A Celtic burial ground has been discovered about 6 m. N. "W. of the city, near Cheseaux. Lausanne became the see of a bishop in the 6th century ; but in 1536 the bishop transferred his seat to Fribourg, as Lausanne had joined the Reformed church. Since then Fribourg has been the residence of the bishop of the diocese, which retained the title of Lausanne till 1819, when it was called Lausanne and Geneva, as the Catholic parishes of the canton of Geneva were united with it. In 1873 the bishop re- sumed the former title of bishop of Lausanne, as the pope had erected the canton of Geneva into an independent vicariate apostolic. The federal council of Switzerland regarded the change of the title and the territory of one of the Swiss dioceses as an encroachment upon the rights of the confederation, and refused to recognize it. (See SWITZERLAND.) LAUZCN, Antonin Nompar de Canmont, duke de, a French courtier, born about 1633, died Nov. 19, 1723. A poor nobleman from Gascony, he made his fortune at the French court by his elegant manners and wit and dauntless ambi- tion, and became a favorite of many of the most eminent and beautiful women, and of Louis XIV., who appointed him to various offices. He was about to marry Mile, de Mont- pensier, granddaughter of Henry IV., and take the command of the French army in ders, when the intrigues of Louvois and Mm( de Montespan caused him to be detained prison for many years. He finally recovered his liberty at the instance of the French prin- cess, whom he is supposed to have secretly married. In 1688 he escorted the queen of James II. and her infant son to France, and in 1689 took an active part in the fruitless expe- dition to Ireland. Although he never fully re- covered the good graces of the French mon- arch, he was raised to the rank of duke in 1692. Mile, de Montpensier died in 1693, and in 1695, at the age of about 62, he married Mile, de Durford, a girl of 16. Lauzun figures fre- quently in the French literature of the 17th century, and even of a later period, particu- larly in the works of Mme. de S6vign6, Bruyere, and Saint Simon. The Memoires di due de Lauzun, of which various editions have appeared, and a new one by Lacour in Pi in 1858,. do not refer to this Lauzun, but a noted member of the Biron family. (S( BIRON, ARMAND Louis.) LAVA. See VOLCANO. LAYACA, a S. E. county of Texas, watered by Lavaca and Navidad rivers ; area, 926 sq. m. : pop. in 1870, 9,168, of whom 2,707 were col-