MASSENA MASSILLON. 



greatest excesses. The people, who now regarded 

 their deliverer as a new oppressor, ami were ex- 

 cited against him by his enemies, poured forth 

 in crowds against him, shouted applause to the 

 viceroy, and demanded Massaniello's death. He fled 

 tor safety to a Carmelite convent ; but four con- 

 spirators, formerly his friends, shot him dead, with 

 several balls, July 16, 1647. His body was shame- 

 fully maltreated by the populace. But the true 

 sentiments of the viceroy were soon manifested ; and 

 the people, fearing a renewal of the former oppres- 

 sion, again became turbulent. The martyr of liberty 

 was now remembered ; Massaniello's murderers be- 

 came victims to the popular rage, his body was 

 buried with the highest marks of respect, and even, 

 for some time, held as sacred. Naples remained still 

 convulsed, but nothing further was effected by the 

 people. 



MASSENA, ANDRE, duke of Rivoli and prince of 

 Esslingen, marshal of France, &c., was born in 1758, 

 at Nice, and rose from a common soldier to the 

 rank of commander. At the commencement of the 

 French revolution, he was an inferior officer in the 

 Sardinian troops; but, in 1792, when the warriors of 

 the new republic had ascended mount Cenis, he 

 joined their ranks, soon distinguished himself by his 

 sagacity and courage, and was made a commissioned 

 officer, and, in 1793, general of brigade. Here he 

 learned, without a master, the science of war, in the 

 skirmishes. In April, 1794, he was appointed general 

 of division, and took command of the right wing of 

 the Italian army. He was the constant companion 

 in arms of Bonaparte, who, after the successful battle 

 of Roveredo (1796), against Beaulieu, called him the 

 favourite child of victory. The commander-in-chief 

 sent him to Vienna to conclude the negotiations for 

 peace, and, in 1796, to Paris, to procure the ratification 

 of the treaty. While Bonaparte was in Egypt, Mas- 

 sena and Moreau were the hope of France. In 1799, 

 Massena displayed his ability as commander-in-chief 

 in Switzerland. After having opened the war with 

 success, lie was forced to fall back to the Albis, on 

 account of the ill fortune of Jourdan on the Danube. 

 Here he took a strong position, watching his oppor- 

 tunity, and. by the battle of Zurich (September 25), 

 prevented the junction of Korsakoff and Suwaroff, 

 who had already asceaded mount St Gothard. This 

 battle, the first that the Russians had lost in the open 

 field for a century, decided the separation of Russia 

 from Austria, and saved France. After Massena had 

 reconquered the Helvetian and Rhaetian Alps, he 

 was sent to Italy to check the victorious career of the 

 Austrians. He hastened, with the small force which 

 could be assembled, to the support of Genoa, his 

 defence of which is among his most remarkable 

 achievements. Ten days before the battle of Mar- 

 engo, when all his resources were exhausted, Mas- 

 sena obtained an honourable capitulation. The 

 consul Bonaparte, who now returned to Paris, gave 

 him the chief command of the army. Peace soon 

 followed. Massena was chosen member of the corps- 

 Ugislatif, by the department of the Seine, and, in 

 1804, was created marshal of the empire. In 1805 

 he received the chief command in Italy, where he losl 

 the battle of Caldiero. When the archduke Charles 

 was compelled, by the ill success of the German arms 

 at Ulm, to retire to Inner Austria, Massena pursuec 

 him, but was unable to gain any advantage over him. 

 After the peace of Presburg, Massena was sent by 

 Napoleon to take possession of the kingdom of 

 Naples for Joseph, and captured Gaeta. After the 

 battle of Eylau, in 1807, Napoleon summoned him to 

 Poland, to take the command of the right wing of 

 the French army. After the peace of Tilsit, war 

 having broken out in Spain, Ma&seua took the field 



with the title of duke of Rivoli ; but, in 1809, he was 

 recalled to Germany. He was present in the battles 

 f Eckmiihl, Ratisbon, Ebersberg, Esslingen and Wag- 

 ram. A i Esslingen, his constancy and firmness saved 

 the French army from total destruction; and Napoleon 

 rewarded him with the dignity of prince of Esslingen. 

 After the peace he hastened to Spain, to deliver 

 Portugal from the hands of the British. Wellington 

 retired before him, and took a strong position ;it 

 Torres Vedras, for the defence of Lisbon, till want 

 of provisions made it impossible for the French forces 

 to hold out longer. Massena was at length obliged 

 to retire. Napoleon recalled him from Spain, and, 

 in 1812, left him without a command. In 1814, he 

 commanded at Toulon, declared for Louis XVIII., 

 and was created commander of the order of St Louis. 

 At the landing of Napoleon, in 1815, his conduct in 

 Toulon was by no means doubtful. When the em- 

 peror was re-established, he swore allegiance to him, 

 and was made peer and commander of the national 

 guard at Paris, and contributed much to the preser- 

 vation of tranquillity in the city, during the turbulent 

 period which preceded the return of the king. He 

 lived afterwards in retirement, and his death was 

 hastened by chagrin at the conduct of the royalists. 

 He died April 4, 1817. 



MASSILLON, JEAN BAPTISTE, one of the great- 

 est pulpit orators of France, was born, in 1663, at 

 Hieres, in Provenge, entered, in his seventeenth year, 

 the congregation of the oratory, and became a general 

 favourite by his pleasing manners, which, however, 

 excited etivy. He was accused of some amours, and 

 attempts were made to exclude him from the congre- 

 gation, and it is said that he retired, for some months, 

 to the abbey of St Fond. The applause with which 

 his funeral sermon on the archbishop Henri de Villars 

 was received, induced the general of his congregation, 

 La Tour, to call him to Paris. He was obliged to 

 obey, and, against his inclination, to ascend the pulpit, 

 where his genius soon showed itself, in all its power 

 and peculiarity. According to some, an answer to 

 a pastoral letter of the cardinal Noailles, which 

 Massillon drew up in the name of his convent, attract- 

 ed the attention of the cardinal, in compliance with 

 whose order he returned to the oratory. The applause 

 which he met with in Paris, even at court, was 

 almost without example. The effect of his Sermon 

 du petit Nombre des Elus was almost miraculous. 

 Massillon spoke with that powerful simplicity which 

 can be resisted only by utter want of feeling. After 

 he had preached the first time at Versailles, Louis 

 XIV., who was famous for the happiness of his com- 

 pliments, addressed him with the words, " On hearing 

 other preachers, I have often been much pleased with 

 them, but having heard you, I was much displeased 

 with myself." His delivery contributed much to the 

 effect of his eloquence. With apparent artlessness, 

 nay, even negligence, he produced a greater effect 

 than others with studied art. The famous actor Bar- 

 ron once exclaimed, after hearing one of Massillon's 

 sermons, " There is an orator ; we are but actors." 

 On account of his amiable temper and manners, lie 

 was chosen to reconcile cavdinal Noailles \yith the 

 Jesuits ; but he found that it was much easier to con- 

 vert sinners than to reconcile theologians. The 

 regent appointed him, in 1717, to the see of Clermont, 

 which he could not have accepted, had not a friend 

 of his paid the e*penses connected with it. In 

 the year following, he was chosen to preach be- 

 fore Louis XV., then nine years old, and wrote 

 a series of sermons, so famous under the title 

 of Petit-Car erne, which are masterpieces of pulpit 

 eloquence. They are remarkable, also, for the 

 political truths which they contain ; among oilier? 

 that the monarch is made for the people, who 



