dauphin, when she returned to court. Marie Antoinette, charmed by her gentle and naïve manners, singled her out for a companion and confidante. The impetuous character of the dauphiness found in Madame de Lamballe that submissive temperament which yields to force of environment, and the two became fast friends. After her accession Marie Antoinette, in spite of the king’s opposition, had her appointed superintendent of the royal household. Between 1776 and 1785 the comtesse de Polignac succeeded in supplanting her; but when the queen tired of the avarice of the Polignacs, she turned again to Madame de Lamballe. From 1785 to the Revolution she was Marie Antoinette’s closest friend and the pliant instrument of her caprices. She came with the queen to the Tuileries and as her salon served as a meeting-place for the queen and the members of the Assembly whom she wished to gain over, the people believed her to be the soul of all the intrigues. After a visit to England in 1791 to appeal for help for the royal family she made her will and returned to the Tuileries, where she continued her services to the queen until the 10th of August, when she shared her imprisonment in the Temple. On the 19th of August she was transferred to La Force, and having refused to take the oath against the monarchy, she was on the 3rd of September delivered over to the fury of the populace, after which her head was placed on a pike and carried before the windows of the queen.
See George Bertin, Madame de Lamballe (Paris, 1888); Austin Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (1890); B. C. Hardy, Princesse de Lamballe (1908); Comte de Lescure, La Princesse de Lamballe . . . d’après des documents inédits (1864); some letters of the princess published by Ch. Schmidt in La Révolution française (vol. xxxix., 1900); L. Lambeau, Essais sur la mort de madame la princesse de Lamballe (1902); Sir F. Montefiore, The Princesse de Lamballe (1896). The Secret Memoirs of the Royal Family of France . . . now first published from the Journal, Letters and Conversations of the Princesse de Lamballe (London, 2 vols., 1826) have since appeared in various editions in English and in French. They are attributed to Catherine Hyde, Marchioness Govion-Broglio-Solari, and are apocryphal.
LAMBALLE, a town of north-western France, in the department
of Côtes-du-Nord, on the Gouessant 13 m. E.S.E. of St
Brieuc by rail. Pop. (1906) 4347. Crowning the eminence on
which the town is built is a beautiful Gothic church (13th and
14th centuries), once the chapel of the castle of the counts of
Penthièvre. La Noue, the famous Huguenot leader, was mortally
wounded in 1591 in the siege of the castle, which was dismantled
in 1626 by Richelieu. Of the other buildings, the church of St
Martin (11th, 15th and 16th centuries) is the chief. Lamballe
has an important haras (depot for stallions) and carries on trade
in grain, tanning and leather-dressing; earthenware is manufactured
in the environs. Lamballe was the capital of the territory
of the counts of Penthièvre, who in 1569 were made dukes.
LAMBAYEQUE, a coast department of northern Peru,
bounded N. by Piura, E. and S. by Cajamarca and Libertad.
Area, 4614 sq. m. Pop. (1906 estimate) 93,070. It belongs to the
arid region of the coast, and is settled along the river valleys
where irrigation is possible. It is one of the chief sugar-producing
departments of Peru, and in some valleys, especially near
Ferreñafe, rice is largely produced. Four railways connect its
principal producing centres with the small ports of Eten and
Pimentel, viz.: Eten to Ferreñafe, 27 m.; Eten to Cayalti, 23 m.;
Pimentel to Lambayeque, 15 m.; and Chiclayo to Pátapo, 15 m.
The principal towns are Chiclayo, the departmental capital,
with a population (1906 estimate) of 10,500, Ferreñafe 6000, and Lambayeque 4500.
LAMBEAUX, JEF (Joseph Marie Thomas), (1852–1908),
Belgian sculptor, was born at Antwerp. He studied at the
Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, and was a pupil of Jean Geefs.
His first work, “War,” was exhibited in 1871, and was followed
by a long series of humorous groups, including “Children
dancing,” “Say ‘Good Morning,’” “The Lucky Number” and
“An Accident” (1875). He then went to Paris, where he
executed for the Belgian salons “The Beggar” and “The Blind
Pauper,” and produced “The Kiss” (1881), generally regarded
as his masterpiece. After visiting Italy, where he was much
impressed by the works of Jean Bologne, he showed a strong
predilection for effects of force and motion. Other notable works
are his fountain at Antwerp (1886), “Robbing the Eagle’s
Eyrie” (1890), “Drunkenness” (1893), “The Triumph of
Woman,” “The Bitten Faun” (which created a great stir at the
Exposition Universelle at Liége in 1905), and “The Human
Passions,” a colossal marble bas-relief, elaborated from a sketch
exhibited in 1889. Of his numerous busts may be mentioned
those of Hendrik Conscience, and of Charles Bals, the burgomaster
of Brussels. He died on the 6th of June 1908.
LAMBERMONT, AUGUSTE, Baron (1819–1905), Belgian
statesman, was born at Dion-le-Val in Brabant on the 25th of
March 1819. He came of a family of small farmer proprietors,
who had held land during three centuries. He was intended for
the priesthood and entered the seminary of Floreffe, but his
energies claimed a more active sphere. He left the monastery for
Louvain University. Here he studied law, and also prepared
himself for the military examinations. At that juncture the
first Carlist war broke out, and Lambermont hastened to the
scene of action. His services were accepted (April 1838) and he
was entrusted with the command of two small cannon. He also
acted as A.D.C. to Colonel Durando. He greatly distinguished
himself, and for his intrepidity on one occasion he was decorated
with the Cross of the highest military Order of St Ferdinand.
Returning to Belgium he entered the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs in 1842. He served in this department sixty-three years.
He was closely associated with several of the most important
questions in Belgian history during the last half of the 19th
century—notably the freeing of the Scheldt. He was one of the
very first Belgians to see the importance of developing the trade
of their country, and at his own request he was attached to the
commercial branch of the foreign office. The tolls imposed by the
Dutch on navigation on the Scheldt strangled Belgian trade, for
Antwerp was the only port of the country. The Dutch had the
right to make this levy under treaties going back to the treaty of
Munster in 1648, and they clung to it still more tenaciously after
Belgium separated herself in 1830–1831 from the united kingdom
of the Netherlands—the London conference in 1839 fixing the
toll payable to Holland at 1.50 florins (3s.) per ton. From 1856 to
1863 Lambermont devoted most of his energies to the removal of
this impediment. In 1856 he drew up a plan of action, and he
prosecuted it with untiring perseverance until he saw it embodied
in an international convention seven years later. Twenty-one
powers and states attended a conference held on the question at
Brussels in 1863, and on the 15th of July the treaty freeing the
Scheldt was signed. For this achievement Lambermont was
made a baron. Among other important conferences in which
Lambermont took a leading part were those of Brussels (1874)
on the usages of war, Berlin (1884–1885) on Africa and the
Congo region, and Brussels (1890) on Central African Affairs and
the Slave Trade. He was joint reporter with Baron de Courcel
of the Berlin conference in 1884–1885, and on several occasions
he was chosen as arbitrator by one or other of the great European
powers. But his great achievement was the freeing of the Scheldt,
and in token of its gratitude the city of Antwerp erected a fine
monument to his memory. He died on the 7th of March 1905.
LAMBERT, DANIEL (1770–1809), an Englishman famous for
his great size, was born near Leicester on the 13th of March
1770, the son of the keeper of the jail, to which post he succeeded
in 1791. About this time his size and weight increased enormously,
and though he had led an active and athletic life he
weighed in 1793 thirty-two stone (448 ℔). In 1806 he resolved
to profit by his notoriety, and resigning his office went up to
London and exhibited himself. He died on the 21st of July
1809, and at the time measured 5 ft. 11 in. in height and weighed
5234 stone (739 ℔). His waistcoat, now in the Kings Lynn
Museum, measures 102 in. round the waist. His coffin contained
112 ft. of elm and was built on wheels. His name has been used
as a synonym for immensity. George Meredith describes
London as the “Daniel Lambert of cities,” and Herbert Spencer
uses the phrase “a Daniel Lambert of learning.” His enormous
proportions were depicted on a number of tavern signs, but the
best portrait of him, a large mezzotint, is preserved at the
British Museum in Lyson’s Collectanea.
