SAVOY SAXE-COBURG. 



105 



as they termed it ; find, as Domenico persisted in 

 his determination, lie thus happily escaped the 

 ordeal for which he had offered himself. But this 

 event was fatal to Savonarola. The people loaded 

 him with insults, and he was finally thrown into 

 prison. A spiritual court, under the direction of 

 two papal commissioners, was held for his trial. 

 His firmness and eloquence at first threw his judges 

 into confusion, but, being examined on the rack, 

 he confessed that he had falsely arrogated super- 

 natural powers. He was condemned, with some 

 of his adherents, to be first strangled, and then 

 burnt, and the sentence was executed May 23, 

 1498, in presence of a large multitude, some of 

 whom considered him as a martyr and a saint. 

 This extraordinary man left, besides letters, a 

 Treatise against Astrology, and several philoso- 

 phical and ascetical works (Opera, Lyons, 1633 

 40, 6 vols.) His sermons (Prediche, Florence, 

 1496), though wanting in the characteristics of 

 finished discourses, contain powerful and stirring pas- 

 sages. See Reformation. 



SAVOY (Savoia, Italian; Savoie, French) ; a 

 duchy belonging to the Sardinian monarchy (see 

 Sardinia), and bordering on France, Switzerland, 

 ind Piedmont, with a superficial extent of 3750 

 square miles, and a population of 501,165. The 

 greatest part of the duchy consists of lofty moun- 

 tains and forests, alternating with deep and narrow 

 valleys. The Cottian and Pennine Alps belong in 

 part to Savoy, and the Gray Alps separate it from 

 Piedmont. (See Alps.*) Mont Blanc, the loftiest 

 summit in Europe, is in Savoy. The Iseran, the 

 Little St Bernard, and mount Cenis, over which 

 an artificial road leads from Savoy to Piedmont, 

 are also in this duchy. (See Alps, Roads over.) 

 Many of the summits are covered with perpetual 

 enow and ice. Savoy is watered by the Rhone, 

 the Isere, the Avre, which flows through the vale 

 of Chamouni and the Arc. The lake of Geneva is 

 on the borders. The smaller lakes are those of 

 Bourget and Annecy. Near the lake of Bourget 

 is an intermittent spring, called the Miraculous 

 Fountain, which ceases to flow during periods 

 varying from twenty minutes to towards three 

 hours. The climate is very changeable, and in the 

 course of a day the severest cold is often succeeded 

 by a great heat. The soil is mostly rocky, and far 

 from fertile; but where it is susceptible of being 

 brought into cultivation, it yields corn, though 

 insufficient to supply the inhabitants, potatoes, 

 hemp, flax, wine, chestnuts, and orchard fruits. 

 The forests are extensive, and the pastures good; 

 grazing is therefore much attended to. Game, the 

 marmot, chamois, and ibex, are found in the moun- 

 tains. - Among the mineral productions are silver, 

 copper, lead, iron, coal, and salt. The Savoyards 

 speak a mixture of French and Italian. They are 

 honest, faithful, frugal, and industrious, but poor. 

 They are often compelled to quit their ungrateful 

 soil for a subsistence (as porters, pedlars, &c.), but 

 generally return with their earnings to their country. 

 Cliamberry, the capital, with 11,991 inhabitants, is 

 the only considerable town. Savoy was anciently 

 inhabited by the Allobroges. It was under the 

 Roman dominion till 400, belonged to Burgundy 

 till 530, to France till 879, to Aries till 1000, 

 when it had its own counts, and,, in 1416, was 

 erected into a duchy. In 1792, it was conquered 

 by the French, and incorporated with France, as 

 the department of Mont Blanc. It was partly 

 ceded to Sardinia by the first peace of Paris 



(1814), and by the second (1815), the remainder was 

 given up to the Sardinian monarchy. See Cribario's 

 Notizie. sopra iPrincipi di Savoia (Turin, 1825). 



SAW-FISH (pristis antiquorurri) ; a fish of the 

 family of sharks, remarkable for having the head 

 prolonged in the form of a long, flat plate, having 

 strong osseous spines implanted like teeth on each 

 margin, the whole bearing some resemblance to a 

 saw. This forms a powerful weapon, with which 

 it attacks whales and other cetaceous animals, 

 towards whom this fish seems to bear an inveterate 

 hostility. The habits of the saw-fish are other- 

 wise, as well as their organization, the same as 

 those of the shark. It grows to the length of 

 twelve or fifteen feet. The flesh is hard, coriace- 

 ous, and ill-tasted. Several species of saw-fish are 

 now known. They inhabit all seas, from the polar 

 ice to the equatorial regions. 



SAW-GIN. See Cotton. 



SAXE, MAURICE, count de, a celebrated mili- 

 tary officer, was the natural son of Augustus, king 

 of Poland, by the countess of Konigsmark. He 

 was born at Dresden in 1696, and even in child- 

 hood displayed some presages of his warlike genius. 

 At the age of twelve, he joined the allied army 

 under the duke of Marlborough and the prince 

 Eugene, and was present at the sieges of Lisle and 

 Tournay, and at the battle of Malplaquet. His 

 father then gave him a regiment of cavalry, with 

 which he served in Sweden, and was at the taking 

 of Stralsund. His mother procured his marriage 

 with a German lady of rank, when he was but 

 fifteen; but the inconstancy of his temper occa- 

 sioned a divorce after a few years. He was with 

 prince Eugene, in Hungary, in the war with the 

 Turks; but, after the treaties of Utrecht and Pas- 

 sarowitz, he withdrew to France, and was perma- 

 nently attached to the service of that country by a 

 brevet of mareschal-de-camp, given him in 1720, by 

 the regent duke of Orleans. He applied himself to 

 study at Paris, and made himself intimately ac- 

 quainted with professional tactics. In 1726, he 

 was a candidate for the duchy of Courland ; and he 

 formed various other schemes of ambition at dif- 

 ferent periods. On the death of his father, he de- 

 clined the command of the Saxon army, offered 

 him by his brother Augustus III., and joined the 

 French on the Khine, under the duke of Berwick. 

 He distinguished himself at Dettingen and Philips- 

 burg, and, in 1744, was rewarded with the staff of 

 a marshal of France. He was employed in the war 

 that followed the death of the emperor Charles VI., 

 and, in 1745, gained the famous battle of Fontenoy, 

 which was followed by the capture of Brussels, 

 and many other places in Flanders. In 1747. he 

 was victorious at Lafeldt, and, in the following 

 year, took Maestricht, soon after which the peace 

 of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded. Marshal Saxe 

 survived that event a little more than two years, 

 dying November 30, 1750. He wrote a treatise 

 entitled Mes Reveries, on the art of war (2 vols., 

 quarto.) General Grimoard, in 1794, published 

 Lettres et Mtmoires choisis parmi les Papiers oriai- 

 naux du M. de Saxe, depuis 1733 jusquen 1750 (5 

 vols., 8vo.) For a full account of the biography 

 of this distinguished officer, see his life by M. d'Es- 

 pagnon, in two volumes, 12mo. 



SAXE-COBURG, SAXE-GOTHA, SAXE- 

 MEININGEN, SAXE-WEIMAR, SAXE AL- 

 TENBURG, SAXE-HILBURGHAUSEN. See 

 the articles Coburg, Gotha, Meiningen, Weimar, 

 Attenburg, Hilburyhausen, and Saxony. 



