4? 4 



LEFEVRE LEGEND. 



Napukailaetoiiedbim in his upper chamber. Ilia name 

 was consequently erased after tin- second restoration; 



I ,;. n: I -.1' ' t.i \v..~ .:!_. .11 -:illii:ii'lii d Id I;ikr hi- >r;il. 



KKT; a portrait painter in Paris ; 

 A iHipil of Keginult. He produced also historical 

 niotM of great merit, which, with those of David, 

 Kirodet.Gueriii, ami Gerard, belong to the best of the 

 odera French school. Several portraits of Napoleon 

 .ire among the best. He died in 1831. 



t till, PBAMCIS JAMKS, the celebrated favourite 



r ihe limit, was born at Geneva, 1G5G. His 

 fathtT, a merchant in tliat place, sent him to Ham- 

 burg to become acquainted with commerce ; but, 

 having an inclination for a military life, he went 

 secretly to Marseilles, in his fourteenth year, and 

 entered first the French and afterwards the Dutch 



. which he left to go to Moscow, by the way 

 of Arrhiiiiu'el, in 1<>75. Here he became secretary 

 to the Danish ambassador ; and a fortunate accident 

 gave him an opportunity to gain the favour of the 

 yoini-,' czar. Peter Alexiowitsch, which he retained 

 ti.l his death. In both was the germ of greatness, 

 which was gradually developed. Peter felt that he 

 needed an instructer and assistant ; and Lefort pos- 

 sessed talents fitted for both offices. The first great 

 service which he rendered the czar was in a rebellion 

 of the Strelit(1688). Lefort quelled the insurrection, 

 and saved the prince from the danger which threat- 

 ened his life. This service gained for him the un- 

 boiuuled confidence of the czar, who was now become 

 the absolute master of Russia. Lefort's influence 

 increased daily. He established the military system 

 of Russia, and laid the foundation of her navy, which 

 Peter afterwards carried to such a degree of perfec- 

 tion. When Peter travelled into foreign lands, in 

 1697, Lefort was the principal of the embassy, in the 

 train of which the czar remained incognito. In the 

 mean time, the nobles, jealous of the favour shown 

 to a foreigner, saw a favourable opportunity to 

 revenge themselves, in the long absence of Lefort 

 and the czar. The Strelitz rebelled ; but Peter 

 darted on them with the rapidity of an eagle, and 

 took a bloody revenge. The czar, Lefort, and Men- 

 tikoff executed the guilty with their own hands. 

 Soon after, Lefort died (1699). He had a compre- 

 hensive and cultivated mind, a penetrating judgment, 

 much presence of mind, great dexterity in sounding 

 those of whom he wished to make use, and an 

 uncommon knowledge of the resources of the Russian 

 empire. The groundwork of his character was firm- 

 ness, invincible courage, and justice ; but his habits 

 were irregular, which hastened his death. 



I.Ki.A IKS, with the ancient Romans, were the 

 (slants of a proconsul or propraetor, in the admi- 

 ni-tralion of a province and in the command of the 

 nrmy ; also the higher officers, who commanded 

 under the general-in-chief of any army. Of the 

 papal legates, there are several kinds. Legatus 

 natitt is a mere title connected with an episco- 

 pal see, by the grant of the pope. These sees 

 IK; out of the Roman states ; among them are those 

 of Treves, Cologne, Salzburg. The real envoys are 

 railed legati missi. Among them, the legati a Mere 

 have the highest rank, and are sent on particularly 

 important missions to the principal courts, or into the 

 x-es of the papal dominions as governors. They 

 are taken from the college of cardinals only. The 



is of the States of the Church, therefore, are 

 called lepationt. Legates who are not cardinals are 

 called nun/it apottolici. If they are sent cum facitl- 

 legati a latere, their power is equal to that of a 

 legate a latere. All Catholic governments, however, 

 do not allow them equal authority. Thus the Aus- 

 trian expressly prohibits any clergyman from trans- 

 nciing business with the pope through the legate. 



LEGATION is used to signify the body of official 

 persons attached to an embassy ; hence secretary of 

 li gut ion. (See Ministers, Foreign.) Counsellor of 

 libation is a title bestowed in Germany the land of 

 counsellors on certain officers connected with the 

 ministry for foreign affairs. Very often, however, it 

 is a mere honorary title, conferred upon persons 

 who never had any connexion with politics, as 

 Jean Paul Richter, who was made counsellor of 

 legation by one of the petty princes. Legation also 

 signifies a division of the States of the Church. See 

 Legate. 



LEGATO (Hal.); a word used in opposition to 

 staccato, and implying that the notes of the movement 

 or passage to which it is affixed are to be performed 

 in a close, smooth, and gliding manner, holding each 

 note till the next is struck. 



LEGEND (legenda); the title of a book containing 

 the lessons that were to be read daily in the service 

 of the early Roman Catholic church. The term 

 legend was afterwards applied to collections of bio- 

 graphies of saints and martyrs, or of remarkable 

 stories relating to them, because they were read at 

 matins, and in the refectories of cloisters, and were 

 earnestly recommended to the perusal of the laity as 

 proofs of the Roman Catholic faith. The Roman 

 breviaries likewise contain histories of the lives of 

 saints and martyrs, which were read on the days of the 

 saints whom they commemorated. They originated in 

 the twelfth or thirteenth century , and they contributed 

 much to the extinction of the old German (heathen) 

 heroic traditions. In the middle ages, a collection of 

 the lives of the saints was known by the name of 

 Legenda Sanctorum, or Historia Lombardica, There 

 is a celebrated collection, called the Golden Legend 

 (A urea Legenda), by Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop 

 of Genoa, who died in the year 1298. The histories 

 of saints, which are founded merely on tradition, are 

 also known by the name of Legends. (See Baillet's 

 historical and critical treatise on the histories of the 

 saints and martyrs, in his work entitled Les Vies det 

 Saints.) As these histories were often nothing more 

 than pious fictions, the name of a legend was given 

 by the incredulous to all fables of a similar nature, to 

 all fictions which make pretensions to truth. Valerius 

 Augustinus, who was bishop of Verona in the six- 

 teenth century, in his work De Rhetorica Christiana, 

 ascribes the numerous fables, which have been 

 ushered to the world under the title of legends, in 

 part to the custom prevailing, in many monasteries, 

 of requiring the monks to write Latin paraphrases 

 and dissertations on the most striking circumstances 

 in the lives of the saints, in which they were allowed 

 to ascribe to tyrants and persecuted saints such works 

 and actions as they considered most adapted to their 

 situation and character. This gave rise to those 

 embellishments of history, which were preserved, 

 and afterwards found in monasteries, ami mistaken 

 for true histories. Although many of the legends 

 are tasteless and unmeaning fictions, the offspring of 

 childish credulity, or intended to gratify it, there is 

 also a large number of highly poetical and ingenious 

 fables among them. Hence many poets have 

 attempted to avail themselves of these rude materials, 

 and to arrange them in the modern taste ; and hence 

 every poetical fiction, in the style of ecclesiastical 

 tradition, whether in verse or prose, is called a legend. 

 The principal characteristic of a legend is the mira- 

 culous, which should be of a religious nature, or 

 relating to some traditions of the church, without, 

 however, falling into frivolity. The legend is a pro- 

 duction of Christianity, and, like the traditions of the 

 church, wholly different from the mytlios, or ancient 

 fable. The style proper to it is plain and simple, 

 such as would naturally flow from the gentle inspira- 



