Part 20

SEIGNEURS AND COUNTS OF LAVAL. The castle of Laval was founded at the beginning of the 11th century by a lord of the name of Guy, and remained in the possession of his male descendants until the 13th century. In 1218 the lordship passed to the house of Montmorency by the marriage of Emma, daughter of Guy VI. of Laval, to Mathieu de Montmorency, the hero of the battle of Bouvines. Of this union was born Guy VII. seigneur of Laval, the ancestor of the second house of Laval. Anne of Laval (d. 1466), the heiress of the second family, married John de Montfort, who took the name of Guy (XIII.) of Laval. At Charles VII.'s coronation (1429) Guy XIV., who was afterwards son-in-law of John V., duke of Brittany, and father-in-law of King René of Anjou, was created count of Laval, and the countship remained in the possession of Guy's male descendants until 1547. After the Montforts, the countship of Laval passed by inheritance to the families of Rieux and Sainte Maure, to the Colignys, and finally to the La Trémoilles, who held it until the Revolution.

See Bertrand de Broussillon, _La Maison de Laval_ (3 vols., 1895-1900).

LA VALLIÈRE, LOUISE FRANÇOISE DE (1644-1710), mistress of Louis XIV., was born at Tours on the 6th of August 1644, the daughter of an officer, Laurent de la Baume le Blanc, who took the name of La Vallière from a small property near Amboise. Laurent de la Vallière died in 1651; his widow, who soon married again, joined the court of Gaston d'Orléans at Blois. Louise was brought up with the younger princesses, the step-sisters of La Grande Mademoiselle. After Gaston's death his widow moved with her daughters to the palace of the Luxembourg in Paris, and with them went Louise, who was now a girl of sixteen. Through the influence of a distant kinswoman, Mme de Choisy, she was named maid of honour to Henrietta of England, who was about her own age and had just married Philip of Orleans, the king's brother. Henrietta joined the court at Fontainebleau, and was soon on the friendliest terms with her brother-in-law, so friendly indeed that there was some scandal, to avoid which it was determined that Louis should pay marked attentions elsewhere. The person selected was Madame's maid of honour, Louise. She had been only two months in Fontainebleau before she became the king's mistress. The affair, begun on Louis's part as a blind, immediately developed into real passion on both sides. It was Louis's first serious attachment, and Louise was an innocent, religious-minded girl, who brought neither coquetry nor self-interest to their relation, which was sedulously concealed. Nicolas Fouquet's curiosity in the matter was one of the causes of his disgrace. In February 1662 there was a storm when Louise refused to tell her lover the relations between Madame (Henrietta) and the comte de Guiche. She fled to an obscure convent at Chaillot, where Louis rapidly followed her. Her enemies, chief of whom was Olympe Mancini, comtesse de Soissons, Mazarin's niece, sought her downfall by bringing her liaison to the ears of Queen Maria Theresa. She was presently removed from the service of Madame, and established in a small building in the Palais Royal, where in December 1663 she gave birth to a son Charles, who was given in charge to two faithful servants of Colbert. Concealment was practically abandoned after her return to court, and within a week of Anne of Austria's death in January 1666, La Vallière appeared at mass side by side with Maria Theresa. But her favour was already waning. She had given birth to a second child in January 1665, but both children were dead before the autumn of 1666. A daughter born at Vincennes in October 1666, who received the name of Marie Anne and was known as Mlle de Blois, was publicly recognized by Louis as his daughter in letters-patent making the mother a duchess in May 1667 and conferring on her the estate of Vaujours. In October of that year she bore a son, but by this time her place in Louis's affections was definitely usurped by Athénaïs de Montespan (q.v.), who had long been plotting against her. She was compelled to remain at court as the king's official mistress, and even to share Mme de Montespan's apartments at the Tuileries. She made an attempt at escape in 1671, when she fled to the convent of Ste Marie de Chaillot, only to be compelled to return. In 1674 she was finally permitted to enter the Carmelite convent in the Rue d'Enfer. She took the final vows a year later, when Bossuet pronounced the allocution.

Her daughter married Armand de Bourbon, prince of Conti, in 1680. The count of Vermandois, her youngest born, died on his first campaign at Courtrai in 1683.

La Vallière's _Réflexions sur la miséricorde de Dieu_, written after her retreat, were printed by Lequeux in 1767, and in 1860 _Réflexions, lettres et sermons_, by M. P. Clement (2 vols.). Some apocryphal _Mémoires_ appeared in 1829, and the _Lettres de Mme la duchesse de la Vallière_ (1767) are a corrupt version of her correspondence with the maréchal de Bellefonds. Of modern works on the subject see Arsène Houssaye, _Mlle de la Vallière et Mme de Montespan_ (1860); Jules Lair, _Louise de la Vallière_ (3rd ed., 1902, Eng. trans., 1908); and C. Bonnet, _Documents inédits sur Mme de la Vallière_ (1904).

LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR (1741-1801), German poet and physiognomist, was born at Zürich on the 15th of November 1741. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, where J. J. Bodmer and J. J. Breitinger were among his teachers. When barely one-and-twenty he greatly distinguished himself by denouncing, in conjunction with his friend, the painter H. Fuseli, an iniquitous magistrate, who was compelled to make restitution of his ill-gotten gains. In 1769 Lavater took orders, and officiated till his death as deacon or pastor in various churches in his native city. His oratorical fervour and genuine depth of conviction gave him great personal influence; he was extensively consulted as a casuist, and was welcomed with demonstrative enthusiasm in his numerous journeys through Germany. His mystical writings were also widely popular. Scarcely a trace of this influence has remained, and Lavater's name would be forgotten but for his work on physiognomy, _Physiognomische Fragmente zur Beförderung der Menschenkenntnis und Menschenliebe_ (1775-1778). The fame even of this book, which found enthusiastic admirers in France and England, as well as in Germany, rests to a great extent upon the handsome style of publication and the accompanying illustrations. It left, however, the study of physiognomy (q.v.), as desultory and unscientific as it found it. As a poet, Lavater published _Christliche Lieder_ (1776-1780) and two epics, _Jesus Messias_ (1780) and _Joseph von Arimathia_ (1794), in the style of Klopstock. More important and characteristic of the religious temperament of Lavater's age are his introspective _Aussichten in die Ewigkeit_ (4 vols., 1768-1778); _Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner selbst_ (2 vols., 1772-1773) and _Pontius Pilatus, oder der Mensch in allen Gestalten_ (4 vols., 1782-1785). From 1774 on, Goethe was intimately acquainted with Lavater, but at a later period he became estranged from him, somewhat abruptly accusing him of superstition and hypocrisy. Lavater had a mystic's indifference to historical Christianity, and, although esteemed by himself and others a champion of orthodoxy, was in fact only an antagonist of rationalism. During the later years of his life his influence waned, and he incurred ridicule by some exhibitions of vanity. He redeemed himself by his patriotic conduct during the French occupation of Switzerland, which brought about his tragical death. On the taking of Zürich by the French in 1799, Lavater, while endeavouring to appease the soldiery, was shot through the body by an infuriated grenadier; he died after long sufferings borne with great fortitude, on the 2nd of January 1801.

Lavater himself published two collections of his writings, _Vermischte Schriften_ (2 vols., 1774-1781), and _Kleinere prosaische Schriften_ (3 vols., 1784-1785). His _Nachgelassene Schriften_ were edited by G. Gessner (5 vols., 1801-1802); _Sämtliche Werke_ (but only poems) (6 vols., 1836-1838); _Ausgewählte Schriften_ (8 vols., 1841-1844). See G. Gessner, _Lavaters Lebensbeschreibung_ (3 vols., 1802-1803); U. Hegner, _Beiträge zur Kenntnis Lavaters_ (1836); F. W. Bodemann, _Lavater nach seinem Leben, Lehren und Wirken_ (1856; 2nd ed., 1877); F. Muncker, _J. K. Lavater_ (1883); H. Waser, _J. K. Lavater nach Hegners Aufzeichnungen_ (1894); _J. K. Lavater, Denkschrift zum 100. Todestag_ (1902).

LAVAUR, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn, 37 m. S.E. of Montauban by rail. Pop. (1906), town 4069; commune 6388. Lavaur stands on the left bank of the Agout, which is here crossed by a railway-bridge and a fine stone bridge of the late 18th century. From 1317 till the Revolution Lavaur was the seat of a bishopric, and there is a cathedral dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with an octagonal bell-tower; a second smaller square tower contains a _jaquemart_ (a statue which strikes the hours with a hammer) of the 16th century. In the bishop's garden is the statue of Emmanuel Augustin, marquis de Las Cases, one of the companions of Napoleon at St Helena. The town carries on distilling and flour-milling and the manufacture of brushes, plaster and wooden shoes. There are a subprefecture and tribunal of first instance. Lavaur was taken in 1211 by Simon de Montfort during the wars of the Albigenses, and several times during the religious wars of the 16th century.

LAVEDAN, HENRI LÉON ÉMILE (1859- ), French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orleans, the son of Hubert Léon Lavedan, a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist. He contributed to various Parisian papers a series of witty tales and dialogues of Parisian life, many of which were collected in volume form. In 1891 he produced at the Théâtre Français _Une Famille_, followed at the Vaudeville in 1894 by _Le Prince d'Aurec_, a satire on the nobility, afterwards re-named _Les Descendants_. Later brilliant and witty pieces were _Les Deux noblesses_ (1897), _Catherine_ (1897), _Le Nouveau jeu_ (1898), _Le Vieux marcheur_ (1899), _Le Marquis de Priola_ (1902), and _Varennes_ (1904), written in collaboration with G. Lenôtre. He had a great success with _Le Duel_ (Comédie Française, 1905), a powerful psychological study of the relations of two brothers. Lavedan was admitted to the French Academy in 1898.

LAVELEYE, ÉMILE LOUIS VICTOR DE (1822-1892), Belgian economist, was born at Bruges on the 5th of April 1822, and educated there and at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, a celebrated establishment in the hands of the Oratorians. He continued his studies at the Catholic university of Louvain and afterwards at Ghent, where he came under the influence of François Huet, the philosopher and Christian Socialist. In 1844 he won a prize with an essay on the language and literature of Provence. In 1847 he published _L'Histoire des rois francs_, and in 1861 a French version of the _Nibelungen_, but though he never lost his interest in literature and history, his most important work was in the domain of economics. He was one of a group of young lawyers, doctors and critics, all old pupils of Huet, who met once a week to discuss social and economic questions, and was thus led to publish his views on these subjects. In 1859 some articles by him in the _Revue des deux mondes_ laid the foundation of his reputation as an economist. In 1864 he was elected to the chair of political economy at the state university of Liége. Here he wrote his most important works: _La Russie et l'Autriche depuis Sadowa_ (1870), _Essai sur les formes de gouvernement dans les sociétés modernes_ (1872), _Des Causes actuelles de guerre en Europe et de l'arbitrage_ and _De la propriété et de ses formes primitives_ (1874), dedicated to the memory of John Stuart Mill and François Huet. He died at Doyon, near Liége, on the 3rd of January 1892. Laveleye's name is particularly connected with bimetallism and primitive property, and he took a special interest in the revival and preservation of small nationalities. But his

## activity included the whole realm of political science, political

economy, monetary questions, international law, foreign and Belgian politics, questions of education, religion and morality, travel and literature. He had the art of popularizing even the most technical subjects, owing to the clearness of his view and his firm grasp of the matter in hand. He was especially attracted to England, where he thought he saw many of his ideals of social, political and religious progress realized. He was a frequent contributor to the English newspapers and leading reviews. The most widely circulated of his works was a pamphlet on _Le Parti clérical en Belgique_, of which 2,000,000 copies were circulated in ten languages.

LAVENDER, botanically _Lavandula_, a genus of the natural order Labiatae distinguished by an ovate tubular calyx, a two-lipped corolla, of which the upper lip has two and the lower three lobes, and four stamens bent downwards.

The plant to which the name of lavender is commonly applied, _Lavandula vera_, is a native of the mountainous districts of the countries bordering on the western half of the Mediterranean, extending from the eastern coast of Spain to Calabria and northern Africa, growing in some places at a height of 4500 ft. above the sea-level, and preferring stony declivities in open sunny situations. It is cultivated in the open air as far north as Norway and Livonia. Lavender forms an evergreen under-shrub about 2 ft. high, with greyish-green hoary linear leaves, rolled under at the edges when young; the branches are erect and give a bushy appearance to the plant. The flowers are borne on a terminal spike at the summit of a long naked stalk, the spike being composed of 6-10 dense clusters in the axils of small, brownish, rhomboidal, tapering, opposite bracts, the clusters being more widely separated towards the base of the spike. The calyx is tubular, contracted towards the mouth, marked with 13 ribs and 5-toothed, the posterior tooth being the largest. The corolla is of a pale violet colour, but darker on its inner surface, tubular, two-lipped, the upper lip with two and the lower with three lobes. Both corolla and calyx are covered with stellate hairs, amongst which are imbedded shining oil glands to which the fragrance of the plant is due. The leaves and flowers of lavender are said to have been used by the ancients to perfume their baths; hence the Med. Lat. name _Lavandula_ or _Lavendula_ is supposed to have been derived from _lavare_, to wash. This derivation is considered doubtful and a connexion has been suggested with Lat. _livere_, to be of a bluish, pale or livid colour.

Although _L. Stoechas_ was well known to the ancients, no allusion unquestionably referring to _L. vera_ has been found in the writings of classical authors, the earliest mention of the latter plant being in the 12th century by the abbess Hildegard, who lived near Bingen on the Rhine. Under the name of _llafant_ or _llafantly_ it was known to the Welsh physicians as a medicine in the 13th century. The dried flowers have long been used in England, the United States and other countries for perfuming linen, and the characteristic cry of "Lavender! sweet lavender!" was still to be heard in London streets at the beginning of the 20th century. In England lavender is cultivated chiefly for the distillation of its essential oil, of which it yields on an average 1½% when freed from the stalks, but in the south of Europe the flowers form an object of trade, being exported to the Barbary states, Turkey and America.

In Great Britain lavender is grown in the parishes of Mitcham, Carshalton and Beddington in Surrey, and in Hertfordshire in the parish of Hitchin. The most suitable soil seems to be a sandy loam with a calcareous substratum, and the most favourable position a sunny slope in localities elevated above the level of fogs, where the plant is not in danger of early frost and is freely exposed to air and light. At Hitchin lavender is said to have been grown as early as 1568, but as a commercial speculation its cultivation dates back only to 1823. The plants at present in cultivation do not produce seed, and the propagation is always made by slips or by dividing the roots. The latter plan has only been followed since 1860, when a large number of lavender plants were killed by a severe frost. Since that date the plants have been subject to the attack of a fungus, in consequence of which the price of the oil has been considerably enhanced.

The flowers are collected in the beginning of August, and taken direct to the still. The yield of oil depends in great measure upon the weather. After a wet and dull June and July the yield is sometimes only half as much as when the weather has been bright and sunshiny. From 12 to 30 lb. of oil per acre is the average amount obtained. The oil contained in the stem has a more rank odour and is less volatile than that of the flowers; consequently the portion that distils over after the first hour and a half is collected separately.

[Illustration: Lavender (_Lavandula vera_).

1. Flower, side view. 2. Flower, front view. 3. Calyx opened and spread flat. 4. Corolla opened and spread flat. 5. Pistil.]

The finest oil is obtained by the distillation of the flowers, without the stalks, but the labour spent upon this adds about 10s. per lb. to the expense of the oil, and the same end is practically attained by fractional distillation. The oil mellows by keeping three years, after which it deteriorates unless mixed with alcohol; it is also improved by redistillation. Oil of lavender is distilled from the wild plants in Piedmont and the South of France, especially in the villages about Mont Ventoux near Avignon, and in those some leagues west of Montpellier. The best French oil realizes scarcely one-sixth of the price of the English oil. Cheaper varieties are made by distilling the entire plant.

Oil of lavender is a mobile liquid having a specific gravity from 0.85 to 0.89. Its chief constituents are linalool acetate, which also occurs in oil of bergamot, and linalool, C10H17OH, an alcohol derived by oxidation from myrcene, C10H16, which is one of the terpenes. The dose is ½-3 minims. The British pharmacopeia contains a spiritus lavandulae, dose 5-20 minims: and a compound tincture, dose ½-1 drachm. This is contained in liquor arsenicalis, and its characteristic odour may thus be of great practical importance, medico-legally and otherwise. The pharmacology of oil of lavender is simply that of an exceptionally pleasant and mild volatile oil. It is largely used as a carminative and as a colouring and flavouring agent. Its adulteration with alcohol may be detected by chloride of calcium dissolving in it and forming a separate layer of liquid at the bottom of the vessel. Glycerine acts in the same way. If it contain turpentine it will not dissolve in three volumes of alcohol, in which quantity the pure oil is perfectly soluble.

Lavender flowers were formerly considered good for "all disorders of the head and nerves"; a spirit prepared with them was known under the name of palsy drops.

Lavender water consists of a solution of the volatile oil in spirit of wine with the addition of the essences of musk, rose, bergamot and ambergris, but is very rarely prepared by distillation of the flowers with spirit.

In the climate of New York lavender is scarcely hardy, but in the vicinity of Philadelphia considerable quantities are grown for the market. In American gardens sweet basil (_Ocimum basilicum_) is frequently called lavender.

_Lavandula Spica_, a species which differs from _L. vera_ chiefly in its smaller size, more crowded leaves and linear bracts, is also used for the distillation of an essential oil, which is known in England as oil of spike and in France under the name of _essence d'aspic_. It is used in painting on porcelain and in veterinary medicine. The oil as met with in commerce is less fragrant than that of _L. vera_--probably because the whole plant is distilled, for the flowers of the two species are scarcely distinguishable in fragrance. _L. Spica_ does not extend so far north, nor ascend the mountains beyond 2000 ft. It cannot be cultivated in Britain except in sheltered situations. A nearly allied species, _L. lanata_, a native of Spain, with broader leaves, is also very fragrant, but does not appear to be distilled for oil.

_Lavandula Stoechas_, a species extending from the Canaries to Asia Minor, is distinguished from the above plants by its blackish purple flowers, and shortly stalked spikes crowned by conspicuous purplish sterile bracts. The flowers were official in the London pharmacopoeia as late as 1746. They are still used by the Arabs as an expectorant and antispasmodic. The Stoechades (now called the isles of Hyères near Toulon) owed their name to the abundance of the plant growing there.

Other species of lavender are known, some of which extend as far east as to India. A few which differ from the above in having divided leaves, as _L. dentata_, _L. abrotanoides_, _L. multifolia_, _L. pinnata_ and _L. viridis_, have been cultivated in greenhouses, &c., in England.

Sea lavender is a name applied in England to several species of _Statice_, a genus of littoral plants belonging to the order _Plumba gineae_. Lavender cotton is a species of the genus _Santolina_, small, yellow-flowered, evergreen undershrubs of the Composite order.

LAVERDY, CLÉMENT CHARLES FRANÇOIS DE (1723-1793), French statesman, was a member of the parlement of Paris when the case against the Jesuits came before that body in August 1761. He demanded the suppression of the order and thus acquired popularity. Louis XV. named him controller-general of the finances in December 1763, but the burden was great and Laverdy knew nothing of finance. Three months after his nomination he forbade anything of any kind whatever to be printed concerning his administration, thus refusing advice as well as censure. He used all sorts of expedients, sometimes dishonest, to replenish the treasury, and was even accused of having himself profited from the commerce in wheat. A court intrigue led to his sudden dismissal on the 1st of October 1768. Henceforward he lived in retirement until, during the Revolution, he was involved in the charges against the financiers of the old régime. The Revolutionary tribunal condemned him to death, and he was guillotined on the 24th of November 1793.

See A. Jobez, _La France sous Louis XV_ (1869).

LAVERNA, an old Italian divinity, originally one of the spirits of the underworld. A cup found in an Etruscan tomb bears the inscription "Lavernai Pocolom," and in a fragment of Septimius Serenus Laverna is expressly mentioned in connexion with the _di inferi_. By an easy transition, she came to be regarded as the protectress of thieves, whose operations were associated with darkness. She had an altar on the Aventine hill, near the gate called after her Lavernalis, and a grove on the Via Salaria. Her aid was invoked by thieves to enable them to carry out their plans successfully without forfeiting their reputation for piety and honesty (Horace, _Ep._ i. 16, 60). Many explanations have been given of the name: (1) from _latere_ (Schol. on Horace, who gives _laternio_ as another form of _lavernio_ or robber); (2) from _lavare_ (Acron on Horace, according to whom thieves were called _lavatores_, perhaps referring to bath thieves); (3) from _levare_ (cf. shop-lifters). Modern etymologists connect it with _lu-crum_, and explain it as meaning the goddess of gain.