BELLAY BELLE-ISLE 503 Gaules (Paris, 1566 and 1587), in which he en- deavored to prove the French descended from the Trojans. We owe to him a description of the field of the cloth of gold, where he witness- ed the meeting of Francis and Henry VIII. in 1520. He made concerning the magnificent and costly dresses of the courtiers there the remark often erroneously attributed to Henry IV., that " many carried their mills, their for- ests, and their meadows on their shoulders." II. Jean dn, brother of the preceding, a cardinal and diplomatist, born hi 1492, died in Rome, Feb. 16, 1560. In 1527, being then bishop of Bayonne, he was sent on a mission to England, where Henry VIII. had already begun to show signs of rebellion. In 1532 he was made bishop of Paris, and in 1533 again sent to England, and induced Henry to agree that he would not fur- ther contend against the church, if time were given him to prepare a defence of his previous conduct. Du Bellay secured these terms from Pope Clement VII., hut Henry did not keep the compact, and was excommunicated. Paul III. made him a cardinal in 1535, hut ho con- tinued to reside in Paris, and when Charles V. entered France, and the king left the capital to march against the enemy, Du Bellay showed unexpected talent as a military commander, in putting the city into a state of defence. Through- out the war he proved himself an able officer, holding for most of the time the appointment of lieutenant general. On the accession of Henry II., however, he found himself supplanted by the cardinal de Lorraine, and retired to Rome, where he spent the remainder of his life. He left several volumes of controversial writings concerning the diplomatic affairs of his time ; and many letters, of which a few have been published as historical documents in the works of other authors. Several Latin poems from his pen were also published in Paris in 1546, under the title of Poemata Elegantiisima. III. Joachim (In, a French poet, canon of Notre Dame de Paris, born near Angers in 1524, died Jan. 1, 1560. He was a favorite with Francis I., with the queen of Navarre, and with Henry II. Though a priest, the license of the times allowed him to devote himself to a lady named Viole, on whom he wrote a collection of 115 sonnets, which he called his canticles. They were very successful. Du Bellay was called the French Ovid ; and when, after spend- ing three years with his uncle the cardinal du Bellay at the papal court, he published 183 son- nets entitled Regrets, and 47 on the antiquities of Rome, the public admiration extended across the channel, and was shared by the English Spenser, who translated and paraphrased sev- eral of the poems. His contemporary Ronsard being known as the prince de Pode, Du Bellay was spoken of as the prince du sonnet. Du Bellay's appointment as canon of Notre Dame in 1555 was probably obtained through his uncle's influence at Rome, as he paid no atten- tion to ecclesiastical duties. Du Bellay's poet- ical works were voluminous, including, besides those already named, a Diseours de la poesie, a metrical translation of the 4th and 5th books of the ^Eneid, and numerous odes, elegies, and minor poems. He also wrote in prose a cele- brated Defense et illustration de la langue franfoise. All these are found in his collected works (Paris, 2 vols. 8vo, 1567) ; and the last named was published in 1849. BELLE, Jean Francois Joseph de, a French gen- eral, born at Voreppe, in Danphiny, May 27, 1767, died in Santo Domingo in June, 1802. He entered the army in 1789, and earned rapid promotion ; distinguishing himself before Dus- seldorf, he was made general in 1795. He was in the Italian campaign of 1799, and on the fatal day of Novi, when, Joubert having fallen, the French army was forced to retreat, he directed the artillery. In 1801 he was in the army which sailed under command of Leclerc to reduce Santo Domingo ; he participated in the action which compelled Maurepas to capitulate, and soon after attacked the army of Dessalines, forced him to retreat, and pursued the fugitives into the fort of Crfete-d-Pierrot. De Belle him- self, while advancing at the head of his column, was severely wounded, carried from the field of battle, and soon died. BELLECHASSE, an E. county of the province of Quebec, Canada, bordering on the St. Law- rence opposite the island of Orleans, and sepa- rated from Maine by the 8. W. branch of the St. John ; area, about 600 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 5,520. It is traversed by several small rivers and by the Grand Trunk railway. Chief town, St. Michael. BELLE-ISLE. I. Charles Loots Angnste Fon- quet, duke de, a French soldier and statesman, born at Villefranche, in Rouergue, Sept. 22, 1684, died Jan. 26, 1761. He was at the siege of Lille in 1708, and at the conference of Ras- tadt in 1714. In 1732 he became lieutenant general, was the chief negotiator of the treaty of 1735, by which France acquired Lorraine, and was afterward governor of Metz and the three Lorraine bishoprics. Cardinal Fleury in 1741 appointed him marshal and plenipotenti- ary in Germany, where he assiduously worked to put the elector of Bavaria, whom he accom- panied to Frankfort, on the German throne as the emperor Charles VII. Schlosser says that " he and his brother conducted the whole aifairs of Germany, as it seemed most agreeable to the ambition of the one and to the vanity and the pride of the other, but by no means to the true advantage of their country." In the war against Maria Theresa and her allies, he took Prague, Oct. 26, 1741, but finally barely es- caped, amid great disasters, to Eger, Dec. 17, 1742. In December, 1744, while proceeding to Berlin, he was arrested by the English at Hanover and detained in Windsor castle from Feb. 19 to Aug. 12, 1745, when he was ex- changed. In 1746, as general-in-chief, he operated successfully against the enemy on the French-Sardinian frontier, but his invasion of Savoy in 1747 ended fatally. He was never-
