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 SEBASTIAN whom had been deprived of the throne by the former, seemed to offer a favorable oppor- tunity for the Portuguese monarch to inter- fere. With a large fleet, having on board 15,- 000 or 20,000 soldiers, he sailed to Africa to support the cause of the nephew in 1578. He found Muley- Mohammed at Tangier, but the landing of his forces took place at Azila, where he was joined by Muley-Mohammed with his forces, and together they began the campaign by the siege of Alcazar. Muley-Malek, who had collected an immense army, gave battle, Aug. 4. After a desperate engagement, in which Sebastian displayed great heroism but no generalship, his army was routed and al- most all killed or taken prisoners ; and he him- self disappeared, but his dead body is said to have been recognized on the field by a page. Muley-Mohammed was drowned in the flight, and Muley-Malek, who had risen from his sick bed to participate in the action, died, so that all the chiefs perished. The flower of the Por- tuguese nobility was destroyed in this expedi- tion, and Portugal, becoming a prey to anarchy, soon fell into the power of Spain. But the Portuguese could not believe that their king had been killed, and many adventurers sprung up who gave themselves out as the true Sebas- tian. Among these impostors the most re- markable was one who appeared in Venice 20 years after the battle, and asserted that he was left upon the field among the dead and wound- ed; that he had remained in Barbary, finally took the resolution of disclosing himself to the pope, on the way was plundered by robbers, and was recognized by a few Portuguese and taken to Venice. The senate of that city ban- ished him, and on his return imprisoned him ; but his case excited universal sympathy in Europe, and he was finally set at liberty. He was imprisoned again at Florence, then taken to Naples, and, insisting upon his statements, was treated as a galley slave. He is said to have died in prison in Castile. See Le faux Don Sebastien, by D'Antas (Paris, 1865). SEBASTIAN, Saint, a Roman martyr, born at Narbonne in Gaul about 255, died in Rome, Jan. 20, 288. According to the " Acts of St. Sebastian," written before 403 and attributed to St. Ambrose, he was educated in Milan, be- came a captain of the praetorian guard, and distinguished himself by his zeal in spreading the Christian faith. Being summoned for this before the emperor Diocletian, he refused to abjure Christ, and was shot with arrows and left for dead, but was found still alive by a Christian woman, through whose care he was restored. Having ventured to appear before Diocletian to remonstrate against his cruelty, he was beaten to death with clubs and his body thrown into a sewer, but afterward re- covered. A church was built over his tomb by Pope Damasus (366-384) ; and his remains, according to some writers, were given to the abbot of St. Denis, near Paris, by Pope Euge- nius II. (824-827), but were deposited at St. SEBASTOl'UL 743 Medard in Soissons. Portions of his relics were distributed throughout Christendom. He became one of the most popular saints of the middle ages, innumerable churches were named after him, and the acts of his martyrdom were a favorite theme for artists. He is generally represented as tied to a tree and pierced with arrows. His feast is celebrated on Jan. 20 in the Latin church, and on Dec. 20 by the Greeks. SEBASTIAN!, Francois Horace Bastifn, count, a French soldier, born near Bastia, Corsica, Nov. 11, 1775, died in Paris, July 21, 1851. After several years' service, he became prominent in the Italian campaigns of Bonaparte, whom he aided in the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire, and who after the battle of Austerlitz (1805) appointed him general of division. In 1802 he visited Constantinople to alienate Selim III. from Russia and England. In 1806 he went there again as ambassador, and thwarted Eng- lish intervention ; but the success of his mis- sion was frustrated by the sultan's deposition. Subsequently he joined the army in Spain, from which he withdrew in May, 1810, after incurring Napoleon's displeasure by boasting too much of his exploits. In the Russian cam- paign of 1812, and in the battles of 1813 and 1814, he displayed great valor. On the first abdication of the emperor he joined the Bour- bons, but went over to Napoleon after his re- turn from Elba. In 1819 he was elected to the chamber of deputies, of which he remained a member for many years. Under Louis Phi- lippe he became minister of marine in August, 1830, and of foreign affairs in November. His blind devotion to the king's peace policy led to his retirement in October, 1832, but in the following March he reentered the cabinet as minister without a portfolio. He finally with- drew, April 1, J834, on the rejection by the chamber of his provisional indemnity treaty with the United States. He was ambassador to Naples in 1834-'6, and to London in 1836- '40, after which he was made a marshal. In 1847 his only daughter was murdered by her husband, the duke de Praslin. SEBASTOPOL, or Sevastopol, a fortified city of Russia, in the Crimea, on a peninsula on the S. side of the roadstead of the same name, an arm of the Black sea, 190 m. S. E. of Odessa; pop. about 12,000. It has a celebrated harbor 3 m. long and from 700 yards to 1 m. wide. In 1854~'5 the place was invested by the allied English, French, Sardinian, and Turkish ar- mies, and after a protracted siege was taken, Sept. 8, 1855. (See CRIMEA.) One of the churches was erected by Vladimir I., the first Christian czar, out of the remains of the an- cient cities of the Chersonesus. In 1780, when Russia commenced fortifying Sebnstopol, il was a small Tartar village named Akhtiar. It became a city remarkable for fine streets, buildings, and quays, and as one of the great- est military harbors in the world ; and before the Crimean war it had a population of about 47,000, including many marines and soldiers,