Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/426

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406 BAYAED et-Loire, March 17, 1T9G, died Feb. 20, 1853. In 1821 he wrote Une promenade '& Vaucluse, which was successfully performed at the vau- deville theatre. It was followed by La reitie de seize am, brought out at the Gymnase, and received with great favor. Bayard united his labors in many instances to those of M61esville, Carmouche, Dumanoir, and Scribe, whose niece he married in 1827. He was the author of over 200 plays. A complete edition of bis works, in 8 vols., containing a memoir written by Scribe, was brought out at Paris in 1856. BAYARD, Pierre dn Terrell, chevalier de, a French knight, born at the chateau de Bayard, in Dauphiny, in 1475, died in Italy, April 80, 1524. He came of a martial family : his great- great-grandfather was killed at Poitiers, his great-grandfather at Cr6cy, his grandfather at Montlh6ry, and his father received many wounds in the wars of Louis XI. As page to the duke of Savoy and in the household of Paul of Lux- emburg, count de Ligny, he received while young his education in horsemanship, feats of arms, and rules of chivalry. At the age of 18 he entered the service of Charles VIII. and accompanied him in his expedition to Naples in 1494-'o, during which he distinguished himself by capturing a stand of colors in the battle of Fornovo. In the Italian wars of Louis XII. he displayed great courage, especially at the siege of Milan (1499), where in the eagerness of pur- suit he was carried by the press of fugitives in- side the gates, but was liberated with horse and armor, without ransom, by Ludovico Sforza. On one occasion he alone defended a bridge over the Garigliano against 200 Spaniards until the French army had effected its retreat. He was wounded in the assault of Brescia, and carried to a house in the town, where in his disabled condition he defended the ladies of the house- hold against the brutality of the soldiery. For this service his hostess prevailed upon him to accept 2,000 pistoles, which he at once bestow- ed upon her two daughters as marriage por- tions. In the war with the English king Henry VIII. at Terouanne and Tournay, Bay- ard struggled bravely to sustain the failing for- tunes of Louis XII. In the "battle of the spurs" at Guinegate, Aug. 16, 1513, he with 14 men-at-arms held the English army in check, while the French, who were retreating panic- stricken, reassembled. Bayard with an ad- vance force preceded Francis I. on his expedi- tion into Italy to regain Milan and other con- quests of his predecessors ; he captured Pros- pero Colonna, who had formed an ambush for the French, and on Sept. 13 and 14, 1515, gained the battle of Marignano, during which he performed such feats of valor that at the close of the contest Francis asked to be knight- ed by his hands. In 1522, with a force of 1,000 men, he defended the unfortified frontier town of Mezieres for six weeks against the in- vading army of the count of Nassau, which numbered 35.000 and was aided by strong ar- tillery. For this service Bayard received the BAYBEREY collar of St. Michael, and was made a com- mander of 100 men-at-arms a position until tnen never held except by princes of the blood royal. In 1524 he was summoned from Dan- phiny, over which he had been made lieutenant general, and given a subordinate command in the army of Bonnivet, which Francis I. sent into Italy to act against the constable de Bourbon. Bonnivet was obliged to retreat, and being wounded committed the army to Bayard, who succeeded for a while in checking the enemy. While fighting in a ravine near the banks of the Sesia he was struck by a stone from an arquebuse, taken from his horse, and at his own request left seated against a tree with his face to the advancing enemy, among whom he died after having, confessed his sins to his squire. With his fall the battle ended; the French lost standards, ordnance, and baggage, and their retreat became a disor- derly flight. Bayard was the last, as he was the best, example of the institution of knight errantry. He lived at a time when the strict laws of chivalry were becoming greatly relaxed, and when knights were assuming the vices as well as the profession of mere soldiers of for- tune. For this reason his loyalty, purity, and scrupulous honor gained for him the more universal admiration, and the titles of "the good knight " and the chevalier sans peur et sans reprocht. According to original signa- tures of his preserved in the national library, Paris, the name should be spelled Bayart. BAYBERRY, or Wax Myrtle (myrica cerifera, Linn.), a low, crooked shrub, 3 to 8 feet high, growing in extensive patches or in thick clus- ters on every variety of soil, usually near the seacoast, throughout the United States. The bayberry is typical of the natural order myri- cacea of Lindley, related to the birches, but distinguished chiefly by the 1 -celled ovary, with a single erect, straight ovule, and the drupe-like nut. This order embraces three or four genera, shrubs or small trees covered with resinous dots and glands, and alternate, simple leaves, with or without stipules, indigenous to North and South America, the Cape of Good Hope, and India. Their flowers are dioecious, amentacions, naked ; the stamens 2 to 8, gen- erally in the axil of a scaly bract ; anthers 2 to 4-celled, opening lengthwise ; ovary 1-cellecl, ovule solitary ; stigmas 2, subulate or else pe- taloid ; fruit drupaceous ; seeds solitary, erect, the embryo exalbuminous. The bayberry has an irregular, crooked, seldom erect stem, which gives off rough branches in clusters ; the bark brownish gray, sprinkled with round or oblong white dots ; the leaves irregularly scattered, often in tufts, nearly sessile, obovate lance- shaped, abruptly pointed, cuneate at base, wavy, slightly serrate and revolute at the edge, yellowish beneath. The flowers appear in April and May, the barren ones in short, stiff, erect catkins, having loose, rhomboidal scales containing each 3 or 4 stamens; the fertile flowers are much smaller and occur on a dif-