334 



LA All LAB AT. 



all sorts of grain, particularly very fine wheat, and < 

 excellent peas. It is also famous for a kind of red 

 fruit calico manna. The country lies low, the soil is 

 damp, and the air is very unhealthy. Of all the 

 inhabitants of this island, the clergy are the best 

 provided for, according to their rank. The nobility 

 are numerous here, and many of them have very fine 

 seats, and considerable estates. Naskow is the 

 capital. Population, 38,000; square miles, 459. 

 Laaland, united with Falster, forms a bishopric. 

 Lon. 10 59' to 11 52' E.; lat. 54 40' to 55 N. 



LAAR, or LAER, PETER VAN, surnamed il Bam- 

 boccio, a painter, born in 1613, at Lauren, a village 

 near Naarden, in Holland, enjoyed, during sixteen 

 years, the society of the most distinguished artists, 

 viz., Poussin, Claude Gelee (Lorraine), Sandrart, &c., 

 and had considerable influence on the taste of the 

 Italians. In 1673 or 1674, he put an end to his life, 

 probably from hypochondria. He received his sur- 

 name durii g his residence at Rome, according to 

 some, on account of his deformity ; according to 

 others, from his humorous representations of objects 

 of common life, which he brought into favour. Even 

 in his earliest youth, it was his constant occupation 

 to draw every thing which he met with. His memory 

 served him so admirably, that he could represent 

 objects most strikingly, which he had only seen once, 

 or a long time previous. He was also one of the 

 greatest musicians of his time. He only attempted 

 minor objects, such as fairs, children's games, hunt- 

 ing scenes, landscapes, &c., but his paintings possess 

 great power and animation. The museum of Paris 

 possessed several of his pieces. 



LABARRE, JOHN FRANCIS LEFEVRE, CHEVALIER 

 DE, grandson of a lieutenant-general in the French 

 service, was one of the latest victims of religious 

 fanaticism in France. His father having spent his 

 fortune, his aunt, the abbess De Villancourt, took 

 charge of his education, and the youth made much 

 progress in his studies. The command of a company 

 of cavalry had been promised to him, when the fol- 

 lowing horrible event put a stop to his career. In 

 the year 1765, a wooden crucifix, on the bridge of 

 Abbeville, had been defaced, and the bishop of 

 Amiens, De la Motte d'Orleans, issued a proclama- 

 tion, demanding a disclosure of the perpetrators of 

 the crime, under penalty of ecclesiastical censures 

 and excommunication. Duval de Saucourt, counsel- 

 lor of the presidial of Abbeville, the private enemy 

 of the abbess De Villancourt, accused the chevalier 

 De Labarre of the crime. Several witnesses were 

 heard. Labarre and Detallonde, a youth of the same 

 age, were ordered to be arrested. The .latter fled, 

 and entered the service of Prussia, in which he dis- 

 tinguished himself; but Labarre was apprehended 

 and brought to trial. The indictment charged him 

 with having passed a procession without taking oft' 

 his hat, of having spoken against the eucharist, and 

 of having sung impious and licentious songs. The 

 tribunal sentenced the young man to have his tongue 

 cut out, his right hand cut off, and to be burned alive. 

 A decree of the parliament of Paris, of June 5, 1766, 

 passed by a small majority, commuted the sentence 

 into decapitation before burning. This decree was 

 executed July 1. Labarre, hardly nineteen years 

 old, was carried to the place of execution in a cart, 

 with the words impious, blasphemer, sacrilegious, 

 abominable, and execrable, written on his breast. Vol- 

 taire exerted himself as zealously against this infamous 

 act as he had against the execution of Calas. (q. v.) 

 Under the name of M. De Casen, advocate of the 

 royal council, he published a Relation of the Death of 

 the Chevalier De Labarre, which may be found in 

 vol. xxxvi. of his works, ed. Beaumarcliais. " A Do- 

 minican/' he says, " was appointed to attend him as 



confessor, a friend of his aunt, the abbess, with 

 whom lie had often supped in the convent. This good 

 man wept, and the chevalier comforted him. Dinner 

 was brought to them ; but the Dominican was unable 

 to eat. ' Let us take a little food,' said the chevalier 

 to him ; ' you will need strength to support the spec- 

 tacle which I am going to exhibit.' " He ascended 

 the scaffold with calmness, without complaints, with- 

 out anger, and without ostentation, merely saying to 

 the monk who assisted him, ' I did not think that a 

 young nobleman could be put to death for such a 

 trifle." 



L ABARUM; the name given to the imperial ban- 

 ner, upon which Constantine, after his conversion, 

 blazoned the monogram of Christ. Eusebius has de- 

 scribed it with much particularity. After the vision, 

 in which the luminous cross was exhibited to the em- 

 peror, and while he was yet meditating on the mean- 

 ing of that apparition, a sudden night came on, " at 

 which time," as he said, " the Christ of God appear- 

 ed to him, when asleep, with that sign which had 

 been shown him in the heaven, and ordered him to 

 get a standard made, in imitation of that which he 

 had seen in the heaven, which he should use as a 

 protection in his engagements with his enemies. As 

 soon as it was day, he arose, and declared the whole 

 secret to his friends. Then he called together the 

 workers in gold and precious stones, in the midst of 

 whom he himself sat, and gave them a description 

 of that standard, and ordered them to express its 

 likeness in gold and precious stones, which standard 

 we ourselves, also, happened some time to have a 

 sight of." 



LABAT, JEAN BAPTISTE, a Dominican missionary 

 and traveller, born at Paris 1663, took the vows at 

 the age of nineteen. He afterwards taught mathe- 

 matics and philosophy at Nancy, where at the same 

 time, he performed the duties of a preacher. In 1693, 

 he returned to Paris, to the Dominican convent, in 

 the street St Honore. A letter arriving shortly after, 

 from the superior of the Dominicans in the French 

 Antilles, in which this ecclesiastic urged his brethren 

 in Europe to come to his aid, an infectious disease 

 having carried off many of the members of the order, 

 Labat determined to carry into execution the plan he 

 had long entertained of becoming a missionary. As 

 the superiors of the order expected great benefit from 

 his services in France, it was with difficulty that he 

 succeeded in carrying his intention into effect. He 

 embarked, with several brethren of the order, at 

 Rochelle, in 1693, landed at Martinique in 1694, and 

 immediately undertook the care of the parish of 

 Macouba, which he superintended for two years, after 

 which he was sent to Guadaloupe, for the purpose of 

 building a mill, on an estate belonging to the order. 

 His mathematical knowledge recommended him to 

 the governor there, whom he accompanied during a 

 tour through the island, to assist him in selecting the 

 points best adapted for works of defence. On his 

 return to Martinique, Labat found his cure occupied 

 by another, and he received the office of procureur- 

 general of the mission, in which an opportunity was 

 afforded him of displaying the whole extent of his 

 useful activity, at the same time that he served the 

 government by his mathematical knowledge. Dur 

 ing several voyages in the service of the mission, he 

 visited all the Antilles, and, on the attack of Guada- 

 loupe, by the English, in 1703, he rendered his 

 countrymen important services as an engineer. In 

 1705, he was sent to Europe on business of the order, 

 and, landing at Cadiz, he embraced the opportunity 

 to survey, geometrically and scientifically, the en- 

 virons and the whole coast of Andalusia, as far as 

 Gibraltar. He likewise went to Italy, and finally re- 

 turned to Paris in 1716, where he occupied himself 



