the doings of the wicked metropolis, has been pronounced by such a judge as Sir Walter Scott "as much a creation of genius in his way as Ariel or Caliban." Two years later, after a great deal of opposition from players and financiers (the latter offered the author one hundred thousand francs, if he would suppress it), Le Sage owed to the influence of Monseigneur the performance of his chief original comedy, which is to the traffickers in finance of his age what Molière's Tartuffe is to its traffickers in religion. "Turcaret" was most successful. Yet the Théatre Français continued unfavourable to Le Sage, and to gain his bread he turned to the minor theatres called "De la Foire," from their original connection with fairs. For these he composed during his long dramatic career upwards of a hundred pieces. Meanwhile, in 1715 he had published the first two volumes of the work on which his fame mainly rests. Completed by the publication of a fourth volume in 1735, "Gil Blas de Santillane" occupies in French fiction the same place as Tom Jones or Roderick Random in that of Britain. The names of the persons and places may be Spanish; but "Gil Blas" is the France of Le Sage's time in all its variety, seen and described by a "softened Molière," as M. Sainte Beuve has happily called its author. Simple as was Le Sage's way of life (there is a charming picture of it in the Anecdotes of Joseph Spence, who visited him in Paris); great as was the success of "Gil Blas;" and unremitting his industry, theatrical and literary—he failed to earn by his labours the competency which he steadily refused to owe to the patronage of the great. During the later years of his residence in Paris he subsisted, according to Spence, chiefly on the moderate gains of his eldest son, a successful actor of genteel comedy, who assumed the name of Montmenil; and this statement of Spence throws some discredit on the story that Le Sage had originally quarreled with Montmenil, because he went upon the stage. On the death of this son, a second one, who had entered the church and been appointed a canon in the old cathedral of Boulogne, received under his roof his father, sister, and mother. To the last gay, genial, and—though long so deaf that he had to use a Speaking-trumpet—conversible and accessible, Le Sage died at Boulogne in his eightieth year on the 17th of November, 1747. Of his minor works, the chief are an adaptation of the Spanish Guzman de Alfarache, 1732; and the "Bachelier de Salamanque," 1738. His "Roland L'Amoureux," 1717-21, is a poor and meagre version of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. Something of his peculiar talent shone forth in his latest work, not a fiction, but a compilation or collection, the nature of which is explained by its title "Mêlange amusant de saillies d'esprit et de traits historiques les plus frappants."—F. E.
LESBONAX, a Greek orator and philosopher, pupil of Timocrates, was born at Mitylene, and flourished in the time of Augustus. Only two of his orations have been preserved He is not to be confounded with the author of a treatise De Figuris Grammaticis, Leyden, 1739.—D. W. R.
LESCHES, a Greek poet, who flourished about 600 b.c., was the son of Æschylenus of Pyrrha in the island of Lesbos. He is generally believed to be the author of the "Little Iliad," a continuation of Homer, of which four books remain.—D. W. R.
LESCOT, Pierre, the earliest and one of the most famous of the French renaissance architects, was born at Paris in 1510. Having acquired in Italy the then newly-revived classic (or renaissance) style of architecture, he was employed with Serlio by Francis I. in carrying out the architectural improvements of Paris. Lescot's chief work was the old Louvre, which was commenced by him in 1510. The only portion which remains is the western façade, of which the grand feature is the clock tower, with its colossal caryatides, executed by the sculptor Goujon, who is said by some writers to have been associated with Lescot as architect of the Louvre. The façade is the standard example of the early French renaissance; but it was considerably altered by Lemercier. The celebrated Fountain of the Innocents was the work of Lescot and Goujon. Lescot in reward for his architectural labours was made abbé of Clermont, and canon of Notre Dame. He was councillor to Francis I., and to his three successors—Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX. He died in 1571.—J. T—e.
LESDIGUIÉRES, François de Bonne, Duc de, one of the famous captains of France, born at St. Bonnet, 1st April, 1543; died at Valentia, 28th September, 1626. In the wars of religion he first joined the protestants, whose forces he commanded after the death of Montbrun. He contributed greatly to the success of Henry IV. His military life was a long and triumphant one. He was never beaten, and never wounded. Queen Elizabeth was so impressed with his talents that she said, "If France had two Lesdiguiéres, I should beg one of them from the king." Misled in old age by his mistress, Marie Vignon, he changed his faith and became a catholic. At the request of Henry IV. he wrote a treatise on war—still preserved in MS. in the imperial library.—P. E. D.
LE SEUR or LE SUEUR, Thomas, a mathematician, was born at Rethel in the Ardennes on the 1st October, 1703, and died at Rome on the 26th of September, 1770 He was a minorite friar, and professor of theology and mathematics. He edited along with Jacquier the Principia of Newton.—(See Jacquier.)—W. J. M. R.
LESLEY, John, Bishop of Ross, was the illegitimate son of Gavin Lesley, rector of Kingussy, and was connected with an ancient and respectable family, the Lesley's of Balquhain, in the county of Aberdeen. He was born on the 29th September, 1527, and studied in King's college, Aberdeen, where he took the degree of A.M. In his twentieth year he was made a canon of the cathedrals of Aberdeen and Elgin, and the revenues of these canonries enabled him to go abroad to prosecute his studies in the universities of France. In Paris he applied himself to Greek and Hebrew, besides divinity; and in Poitiers he occupied four years in the study of civil and canon law. He also resided for a year at Toulouse, where he took the degree of licentiate of civil law, and returning to Paris he took the degree of LL.D., and read lectures for nearly a year on the canon law. In 1554 he returned to Scotland with a high measure of attainments, which, added to his general ability and great respectability of character, procured him rapid promotion. He was appointed professor of canon law at Aberdeen, and in 1558 was made official of the diocese. At the convention of Estates, held in Edinburgh in January, 1561, immediately after the downfall of the Romish church, Lesley was summoned, along with other Aberdeen doctors, to give an account of his faith, and disputed publicly with Knox and other reformers upon the mass and other points of the catholic system. Both he and Knox have given accounts of this disputation, and both historians perhaps do a little more than justice to their own side. The reformers, however, were on the winning side now, and whatever Lesley might think of his arguments, he knew that the only chance now remaining for his own church in Scotland was in the catholic convictions and intentions of the young queen. When the protestant nobles, on hearing intelligence of the death of Francis II., resolved to send Lord James Stewart on a mission to Mary to invite her to return to Scotland, and to prepare her mind for a favourable consideration of their cause, Lesley was despatched by the catholic lords to France to counter-work the mission of Lord James, and to propose to her to land with an army at Aberdeen and restore the catholic church by force of arms. Mary received him kindly, but declined his overtures; and on her return to Scotland in 1561, Lesley followed in her train. In 1564 he was made a lord of session and a member of the privy council, and in the following year the queen gave him the bishopric of Ross, having previously bestowed upon him the abbacy of Lindores. These offices, to be sure, were now little more than nominal; bishops and abbots had now no spiritual care and jurisdiction; but their revenues were still considerable, and the social and political status formerly conferred by such titles was still recognized. And Lesley, it must be owned, made a fair return of public usefulness for these advantages. He served upon the commission issued in 1566 for revising and publishing the laws of the realm, and the publication of the acts of parliament from the reign of James I. owed much to his care and liberality. As one of her most trusted councillors, Leslie must be held in part responsible for the grave errors of the queen's government; but he made amends to her for his share of the evil counsels under which she acted by sharing largely in her troubles and misfortunes, and by the devoted fidelity with which he attached himself to her service during many years. When she escaped from Loch Leven castle she summoned him to her side; but before he could arrive at Hamilton, her hopes were all blasted by the defeat at Langside, and he had to become an exile himself in order to be able to serve his exiled queen. In September following he waited upon her at Bolton castle; and in the conference opened at York in October, and afterwards continued at Westminster, he did his very utmost to defend her honour from the charges laid against her by the noblest and best
