730 



BHUNKUAUT-BItUNET. 



British and Russians were to evacuate the north of 

 Holland. In January, 1800, he was made a coun- 

 sellor of stale, and was placed at the head of the army 

 of the west. The restoration of tranquillity to the 

 provinces torn by civil war, was, in a great degree, 

 effected by him. August 13, he was appointed com- 

 mander-in chief of the Italian army. Towards the 

 end of December he led his troops over the Minrio, 

 conquered Uie Austrians, passed the Adige, Jan. 8, 

 IMU, tixilc possession of Vicenza and Koveredo, and 

 concludeii an armistice, Jan. 16, at Treviso, with the 

 Austrian general Bellegarde, by which several forti- 

 fied places in Italy were surrendered to the French 

 troops. When peace recalled him to the council of 

 state, towards Uie end of November, 180^, he laid 

 het'i.re the legislative body for confirmation the treaty 

 of peace with the court of Naples. The next year he 

 went as ambassador to the court of Constantinople. 

 He prevailed there at first over the British party, 

 and received from Uie Turkish ministry the highest 

 marks of honour ; but, when new dissensions arose 

 Ix-tween the two powers, he left Turkey. During his 

 absence, May 19, 1804, he was appointed marshal of 

 the empire. At the end of 1806, Napoleon appointed 

 him governor-general of the Hanseatic towns, and, 

 soon after, commander of the troops in Swedish Pom- 

 erania, against Uie king of Sweden. This monarch 

 invited Uie marshal to a personal interview, in which 

 he endeavoured to convert him to the cause of Louis 

 XVIII. B. refused every proposal. He may, how- 

 ever, have drawn upon himself Uie indignation of Na- 

 poleon by his conduct in this interview, or by favour- 

 ing Uie British contraband trade in Hamburg. At 

 any rate, he was recalled, and suffered to remain 

 without employment. After the revolution of 1814, 

 he recognised Louis XV11I., and received the cross 

 of Louis, but no appointment. This was the cause of 

 his declaring himself for Napoleon immediately upon 

 his return. He received the chief command of an im- 

 portant army in the south of France, and was made a 

 peer. When circumstances changed again , he delayed 

 a long time before he gave up Toulon, which was in 

 his possession in 1815, to the troops of Louis XVIII., 

 and sent in his resignation to the king. This circum- 

 stance, and the severities exercised by his command, 

 might well have excited against him Uie rage of the 

 people. While retiring from Toulon to Paris, he was 

 recognised, at Avignon by the people who favoured 

 the king ; and they immediately collected together 

 about the hotel where he had entered. The excited 

 populace were heated still more, when a report was 

 spread among them, that B. was the murderer of the 

 princess Lamballe. The marshal was permitted, how- 

 ever, to go away quietly. But scarcely had his car- 

 riage left the city, before a mob of the rabble which 

 had followed compelled the driver to turn back to the 

 hotel. When the marshal had alighted, and retired, 

 with his two adjutants, to his former chamber, the 

 doors of the house were locked. The insurgents had, 

 in the mean time, gained a powerful accession to their 

 numbers, and, with loud shouts, demanded the death 

 of the marshal. In vain did the prefect and the 

 mayor strive to defend him (as there were no troops 

 in the city) for the space of four hours and a half, at 

 the peril of their lives. The door was at last broken 

 open, a crowd of murderers rushed into the chamber, 

 and the unhappy marshal fell under a shower of balls, 

 after a fruitless attempt to defend himself, and justify 

 his conduct. His body was exposed to the most 

 sJiameful insults, and then dragged from the hotel to 

 t he bridge over the Rhone, from which it was Uirown 

 into the river. 



BRUXKHADT. See Brunehild. 



BRUXEHILD, Brunichild ; married to Siegebert I., 

 king of Austrasia, in 568, a Visigothic princess, of 



powerful mind, enterprising spirit, heroic resolution, 

 deep political knowledge, and unrestrained ambition. 

 She involved her husband in a war with his brother 

 Chilperic, in the course of which he was murdered, 



A. D. 575; but she continued to live and rage till 

 613, when she fell into the hands of CloUiaire 11., 

 king of Soissons, who put her to a most terrible death, 

 as having been the murderess of ten kings and royal 

 princes. See Fredegonde. 



BRUNELLESCHI, Philip, born 1377, at Florence, de- 

 voted himself to the study of the works of Dante, to 

 natural philosophy and perspective, the rules of which 

 were then scarcely known. He formed various figures, 

 and invented ingenious machines. He devoted him- 

 self particularly, however, to architecture; and learned 

 the art of drawing, to make his architectural plans ; 

 statuary, to adorn them ; and mechanics, that he might 

 be able to raise the materials. He was also pro- 

 foundly versed in maUiematics and geometry. He is 

 said to have drawn views of the finest monuments in 

 Florence in perspective an art which then excited 

 much astonishment. This various knowledge pre- 

 pared him for bold and difficult undertakings, and 

 gained him the name of the restorer of architecture. 

 As a statuary, he was much indebted to his intimate 

 connexion with Donatello, who was then very young, 

 but very able. Both went to Rome. Here B. con- 

 ceived the idea of restoring architecture to the princi- 

 ples of the Greeks and Romans. When the architects 

 assembled, in 1407, at Florence, to consult upon the 

 building of the dome of the cathedral, the plan which 



B. proposed received but little attention, and he went 

 back to Rome. It was found necessary, however, 

 to have recourse to him, as the undertaking far sur- 

 passed the powers of the other architects. He en- 

 gaged to erect a dome, which, by its own weight, and 

 By the strong connexion of its parts, should hang sus- 

 pended. This proposal seemed so wonderful, that the 

 author was regarded as insane. As all other plans, 

 however, failed to answer the expectations of the ma- 

 gistrates, B. was again recalled, and ordered to ex- 

 plain the mode in which he intended to execute Itis 

 plan. This he refused to do, but built two small 

 chapels according to his new system, upon which the 

 charge of erecting the dome was committed to him. 

 As he observed that the higher the building was 

 raised the more time was lost in going up and down, 

 he erected some small lodgings on the dome itself, 

 and by that means saved the labourers the time thus 

 spent. Aided only by his own genius, he accom- 

 plished the work, which remains one of the boldest 

 creations of the human mind. But the ingenious 

 lantern, which formed the upper part of the dome, 

 was not finished when he died, in 1444, aged sixty- 

 seven. It was completed, however, according to his 

 first design. No monument of ancient architecture is 

 so noble as this wonderful building. Only the dome 

 of St Peter's at Rome, which was built since, excels 

 it in height, but is inferior to it in lightness and 

 grandeur of style. Michael Angelo said it was diffi- 

 cult to imitate B., and impossible to excel him. B. 

 is the author of a great number of other masterpieces 

 of architecture. 



BRONET, James Cliarles, bookseller at Paris, began 

 his bibliographical career by the preparation of seve- 

 ral auction catalogues, of which the most interesting 

 is that of the count d'Ourches (Paris, 1811), and of a 

 supplementary volume to Cailleau's and Duclos' Die- 

 tionnaire Bibliographique (Paris, 1802). In 181C was 

 published the first edition of his Manuel dit Libraire 

 et de f Amateur de Livres, in three vols., which gained 

 such universal applause, that, in 1814, a second, and, 

 in 1820, a third edition, of four volumes each, were 

 demanded. This work showed him the worthy suc- 

 cessor of the meritorious Debure (from, whose works 



