introduction to the Daru family, with which the Beyles were connected.

Pierre Daru offered him a place in the ministry for war, and with the brothers Daru he followed Napoleon to Italy. Most of his time in Italy was spent at Milan, a city for which he conceived a lasting attachment. Much of his _Chartreuse de Parme_ seems to be autobiographical of this part of his life. He was a spectator of the battle of Marengo, and afterwards enlisted in a dragoon regiment. With rapid promotion he became adjutant to General Michaud; but after the peace of Amiens in 1802 he returned to study in Paris. There he met an actress, Melanie Guilbert, whom he followed to Marseilles. His father cut off his supplies on hearing of this escapade, and Beyle was reduced to serving as clerk to a grocer. Melanie Guilbert, however, soon abandoned him to marry a Russian, and Beyle returned to Paris. Through the influence of Daru he obtained a place in the commissariat, which he filled with some distinction from 1806 to 1814. Charged with raising a levy in Brunswick of five million francs, he extracted seven; and during the retreat from Moscow he discharged his duties with efficiency. On the fall of Napoleon he refused to accept a place under the new regime, and retired to Milan, where he met Silvio Pellico, Manzoni, Lord Byron and other men of note. At Milan he contracted a _liaison_ with a certain Angelina P., whom he had admired fruitlessly during his earlier residence in that city. In 1814 he published, under the pseudonym of Alexandre Cesar Bombet, his _Lettres ecrites de Vienne en Aulriche sur le celebre compositeur, Joseph Haydn, suivies d'une vie de Mozart, et de considerations sur Metastase et l'etat present de la musique en Italie_. His letters on Haydn were borrowed from the _Haydini_ (1812) of Joseph Carpani, and the section on Mozart had no greater claim to originality. The book was reprinted (1817) as _Vies de Haydn, Mozart et Metastase_. His _Histoire de la peinture en Italic_ (2 vols., 1817) was originally dedicated to Napoleon. His friendship with some Italian patriots brought him in 1821 under the notice of the Austrian authorities, and he was exiled from Milan. In Paris he felt himself a stranger, as he had never recognized French contemporary art in literature, music or painting. He frequented, however, many literary salons in Paris, and found some friends in the "_ideologues_" who gathered round Destutt de Tracy. He was the most closely allied with Prosper Merimee, a _dilettante_ and an ironist like himself. He published at this time his _Essai sur l'amour_ (1822), of which only seventeen copies were sold in eleven years, though it afterwards became famous, _Racine et Shakespeare_ (1823-1825), _Vie de Rossini_ (1824), _D'un nouveau complot centre les industriels_ (1825), _Promenades dans Rome_ (1829), and his first novel, _Armance, ou quelques scenes de Paris en 1827_ (1827). After the Revolution of 1830 he was appointed consul at Trieste, but the Austrian government refused to accept him, and he was sent to Civita Vecchia instead. _Le Rouge et le noir, chronique du XIX^e siecle_ (2 vols., 1830) appeared in Paris after his departure, but attracted small notice. He had published in 1838 _Memoires d'un touriste_, and in 1839 _La Chartreuse de Parme_ (2 vols.), which was the last of his publications, and the first to secure any popular success, though his earlier writings had been regarded as significant by a limited public. It was enthusiastically reviewed by Balzac in his _Revue Parisienne_ (1840). Beyle remained at Civita Vecchia, discharging his duties as consul perfunctorily and with frequent intervals of absence until his death, which took place in Paris on the 23rd of March 1842. He wrote his own epitaph,[1] describing himself as a Milanese. His posthumous works include a fragmentary _Vie de Napoleon_ (1875); _Melanges d'art et de litterature_ (1867); _Chroniques italiennes_ (1885), including "_L'Abbesse de Castro_," "_Les Cenci_," "_Vittoria Accoramboni_," "_Vanina Vanini_," "_La Duchesse de Palliano_," some of which has appeared separately; _Romans et nouvelles_ and _Nouvelles inedites_ (1855); _Correspondance_ (2 vols., 1855); Lamiel (ed. C. Stryienski, 1889); his _Journal 1801-1814_ (ed. Stryienski and F. de Nion, 1888), of which the section dealing with the Russian and German campaigns is unfortunately lost; _Vie de Henri Brulard_ (1890), a disguised autobiography, chiefly the history of his numerous love affairs; _Lettres intimes_ (1892); _Lucien Leuwen_ (ed. J. de Mitty, 1894); _Souvenirs d'egotisme_ (ed. C. Stryienski, 1892), autobiography and unpublished letters. Stendhal's reputation practically rests on the two novels _Le Rouge et le noir_ and _La Chartreuse de Parme_. In the former of these he borrowed his plot from events which had actually happened some years previously. Julien Sorel in the novel is tutor in a noble family and seduces his pupil's mother. He eventually kills her to avenge a letter accusing him to the family of his betrothed, Mlle de la Mole. Julien is a picture of Beyle as he imagined himself to be. The _Chartreuse de Parme_ has less unity of purpose than _Le Rouge et le noir_. For its setting the author drew largely on his own experiences. Fabrice's experiences at Waterloo are his own in the Italian campaign, and the countess Pietranera is his Milanese Angelina. But of the two novels it is more picturesque and has been more popular. Stendhal's real vogue dates from the early sixties, but his importance is essentially literary. In spite of his egotism and the limitations of his ideas, his acute analysis of the motives of his personages has appealed to successive generations of writers, and a great part of the development of the French novel must be traced to him. Brunetiere has pointed out (_Manual of French Lit._, Eng. trans., 1898) that Stendhal supplied the Romanticists with the notion of the interchange of the methods and effects of poetry, painting and music, and that in his worship of Napoleon he agreed with their glorification of individual energy. Stendhal, however, thoroughly disliked the Romanticists, though Sainte-Beuve acknowledged (_Causeries du lundi_, vol. ix.) that his books gave ideas. Taine (_Essais de critique et d'histoire_, 1857) found in him a great psychologist; Zola (_Romanciers naturalistes_, 1881) actually claimed him as the father of the naturalist school; and Paul Bourget (_Essais de psychologie contemporaine_, 1883) cited _Le Rouge et le noir_ as one of the classic novels of analysis. The 1846 edition of _La Chartreuse de Parme_ contains a prefatory notice by R. Colomb, and a reprint of Balzac's article. In addition to the authorities already mentioned see the essay on Beyle (1850) by Prosper Merimee; A.A. Paton, _Henry Beyle, a Critical and Biographical Study_ (1874); Adolphe Paupe, _Histoire des oeuvres de Stendhal_ (1903); A. Chuquet, _Stendhal-Beyle_ (1902); a review by R. Doumic (_Revue des deux mondes_, February 1902), deprecating the excessive attention paid to Beyle's writings; and Edouard Rod, _Stendhal_ (1892) in the "Grands ecrivains francais" series. See also _Correspondance de Stendhal, 1800-1842_, with preface by M. Barres (Paris, 1908). FOOTNOTE: [1] Qui giace Arrigo Beyle Milanese; visse, scrisse, amo. BEYRICH, HEINRICH ERNST VON (1815-1896), German geologist, was born at Berlin on the 31st of August 1815, and educated at the university in that city, and afterwards at Bonn, where he studied under Goldfuss and Noggerath. He obtained his degree of Ph.D. in 1837 at Berlin, and was subsequently employed in the mineralogical museum of the university, becoming director of the palaeontological collection in 1857, and director of the museum in 1875. He was one of the founders of the German Geological Society in 1848. He early recognized the value of palaeontology in stratigraphical work; and he made important researches in the Rhenish mountains, in the Harz and Alpine districts. In later years he gave special attention to the Tertiary strata, including the Brown Coal of North Germany. In 1854 he proposed the term Oligocene for certain Tertiary strata intermediate between the Eocene and Miocene; and the term is now generally adopted. In 1865 he was appointed professor of geology and palaeontology in the Berlin University, where he was eminently successful as a teacher; and when the Prussian Geological Survey was instituted in 1873 he was appointed co-director with Wilhelm Hauchecorne (1828-1900). He published _Beitragezur Kenntniss der Versteinerungen des rheinischen Ubergangs-gebirges_ (1837); _Uber einige bohmische Trilobiten_ (1845); _Die Conchylien des norddeutschen Tertiargebirges_ (1853-1857). He died on the 9th of July 1896. BEYSCHLAG, WILLIBALD (1823-1900), German Protestant divine, was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 5th of September 1823. He studied theology at Bonn and Berlin (1840-1844), and in 1856 was appointed court-preacher at Karlsruhe. In 1860, he moved to Halle as professor ordinarius of practical theology. A theologian of the mediating school, he became leader of the _Mittelpartei_, and with Albrecht Wolters founded as its organ the _Deutschevangelische Blatter_. As a representative of this party, he took a prominent part in the general synods of 1875 and 1879. His championship of the rights of the laity and his belief in the autonomy of the church led him to advocate the separation of church and state. He died at Halle on the 25th of November 1900. Among his numerous works are _Die Christologie des Neuen Testaments_ (1866), _Der Altkatholicismus_ (three editions, 1882-1883), _Leben Jesu_ (2 vols., 1885; 3rd ed., 1893), _Neutestamentliche Theologie_ (2 vols., 1891-1892; 2nd ed., 1896), _Christenlehre auf Grund des kleinen luth. Katechismus_ (1900), and an autobiography _Aus meinem Leben_ (2 parts, 1896-1898). See P. Schaff, _Living Divines_ (1887); Lichtenberger, _Hist. Germ. Theol._ (1889); Calwer-Zeller, _Kirchenlexikon_. BEZA (DE BESZE), THEODORE (1519-1605), French theologian, son of _bailli_ Pierre de Besze, was born at Vezelai, Burgundy, on the 24th of June 1519. Of good descent, his parents were known for generous piety. He owed his education to an uncle, Nicolas de Besze, counsellor of the Paris parlement, who placed him (1529) under Melchior Wolmar at Orleans, and later at Bourges. Wolmar, who had taught Greek to Calvin, grounded Beza in Scripture from a Protestant standpoint; after his return to Germany (1534) Beza studied law at Orleans (May 1535 to August 1539), beginning practice in Paris (1539) as law licentiate. To this period belong his exercises in Latin verse, in the loose taste of the day, foolishly published by him as _Juvenilia_ in 1548. Though not in orders, he held two benefices. A severe illness wrought a change; he married his mistress, Claude Desnoz, and joined the church of Calvin at Geneva (October 1548). In November 1549 he was appointed Greek professor at Lausanne, where he acted as Calvin's adjutant in various publications, including his defence of the burning of Servetus, _De Haereticis a civili magistratu puniendis_ (1554). In 1558 he became professor in the Geneva academy, where his career was brilliant. His conspicuous ability was shown in the abortive Colloquy of Poissy (1561). On Calvin's death (1564) he became his biographer and administrative successor. As a historian, Beza, by his chronological inexactitude, has been the source of serious mistakes; as an administrator, he softened the rigour of Calvin. His editions and Latin versions of the New Testament had a marked influence on the English versions of Geneva (1557 and 1560) and London (1611). The famous codex D. was presented by him (1581) to Cambridge University, with a characteristically dubious account of the history of the manuscript. His works are very numerous, but of little moment, except those already mentioned. He resigned his offices in 1600, and died on the 13th of October 1605. He had taken a second wife (1588), Catherine del Piano, a widow, but left no issue. He was not the author of the _Histoire ecclesiastique_ (1580), sometimes ascribed to him; nor, probably, of the vulgar skit published under the name of Benedict Panavantius (1551). See Laingaeus, _De Vita et Moribus_ (1585, calumnious); Antoine la Faye, _De Vita et Obitu_ (1606, eulogistic); Schlosser, _Leben_ (1806); Baum, _Th. Beza_, portrait (1843-1851); Heppe, _Leben_ (1861). (A. Go.*) BEZANT or BYZANT (from Byzantium, the modern Constantinople), originally a Byzantine gold coin which had a wide circulation throughout Europe up to about 1250. Its average value was about nine shillings. Bezants were also issued in Flanders and Spain. Silver bezants, in value from one to two shillings, were in circulation in England in the 13th and 14th centuries. In Wycliffe's translation of the Bible he uses the word for a "talent" (e.g. in Luke xv. 8). In heraldry, bezants are represented by gold circles on the shield, and were introduced by the crusaders. BEZANTEE, in architecture, a name given to an ornamented moulding much used in the Norman period, resembling the coins (bezants) struck in Byzantium. BEZBORODKO, ALEKSANDER ANDREEVICH, PRINCE (1747-1799), grand chancellor of Russia, was born at Gluchova on the 14th of March 1747, and educated at home and in the clerical academy at Kiev. He entered the public service as a clerk in the office of Count P.A. Rumyantsev, then governor-general of Little Russia, whom he accompanied to the Turkish War in 1768. He was present at the engagements of Larga and Kaluga, and at the storming of Silistria. On the conclusion of the peace of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) the field marshal recommended him to Catharine II., and she appointed him in 1775 her petition-secretary. He thus had the opportunity of impressing the empress with his brilliant gifts, the most remarkable of which were exquisite manners, a marvellous memory and a clear and pregnant style. At the same time he set to work to acquire the principal European languages, especially French, of which he became a master. It was at this time that he wrote his historical sketches of the Tatar wars and of Little Russia. His activity was prodigious, and Catharine called him her factotum. In 1780 he accompanied her on her journey through White Russia, meeting the emperor Joseph, who urged him to study diplomacy. On his return from a delicate mission to Copenhagen, he presented to the empress "a memorial on political affairs" which comprised the first plan of a partition of Turkey between Russia and Austria. This document was transmitted almost word for word to Vienna as the Russian proposals. He followed this up by _Epitomised Historical Information concerning Moldavia_. For these two state papers he was rewarded with the posts of "plenipotentiary for all negotiations" in the foreign office and postmaster-general. From this time he was inseparably associated with Catharine in all important diplomatic affairs, though officially he was the subordinate of the vice-chancellor, Count Alexander Osterman. He wrote all the most important despatches to the Russian ministers abroad, concluded and subscribed all treaties, and performed all the functions of a secretary of state. He identified himself entirely with Catharine's political ideas, even with that of re-establishing the Greek empire under her grandson Constantine. The empress, as usual, richly rewarded her _comes_ with pensions and principalities. In 1786 he was promoted to the senate, and it was through him that the empress communicated her will to that august state-decoration. In 1787 he accompanied Catharine on her triumphal progress through South Russia in the capacity of minister of foreign affairs. At Kaniev he conducted the negotiations with the Polish king, Stanislaus II., and at Novuiya Kaidaniya he was in the empress's carriage when she received Joseph II. The second Turkish War (1787-92) and the war with Gustavus III. (1788-90) heaped fresh burdens on his already heavily laden shoulders, and he suffered from the intrigues of his numerous jealous rivals, including the empress's latest favourite, A.M. Mamonov. All his efforts were directed towards the conclusion of the two oppressive wars by an honourable peace. The pause of Verela with Gustavus III. (14th of August 1790) was on the terms dictated by him. On the sudden death of Potemkin he was despatched to Jassy to prevent the peace congress there from breaking up, and succeeded, in the face of all but insuperable difficulties, in concluding a treaty exceedingly advantageous to Russia (9th of January 1792). For this service he received the thanks of the empress, the ribbon of St Andrew and 50,000 roubles. On his return from Jassy, however, he found his confidential post of secretary of petitions occupied by the empress's last favourite, P.A. Zubov. He complained of this "diminution of his dignity" to the empress in a private memorial in the course of 1793. The empress reassured him by fresh honours and distinctions on the occasion of the solemn celebration of the peace of Jassy (2nd of September 1793), when she publicly presented him with a golden olive-branch encrusted with brilliants. Subsequently Catharine reconciled him with Zubov, and he resumed the conduct of foreign affairs. He contributed more than any other man to bring about the downfall and the third partition of Poland, for which he was magnificently recompensed. But diplomacy by no means exhausted Bezborodko's capacity for work. He had a large share in the internal administration also. He reformed the post-office, improved the banking system of Russia, regulated the finances, constructed roads, and united the Uniate and Orthodox churches. On the death of Catharine, the emperor Paul entrusted Bezborodko with the examination of the late empress's private papers, and shortly afterwards made him a prince of the Russian empire, with a correspondingly splendid apanage. On the retirement of Osterman he received the highest dignity in the Russian empire--that of imperial chancellor. Bezborodko was the only Russian minister who retained the favour of Paul to the last. During the last two years of his life the control of Russia's diplomacy was entirely in his hands. His programme at this period was peace with all the European powers, revolutionary France included. But the emperor's growing aversion from this pacific policy induced the astute old minister to attempt to "seek safety in moral and physical repose." Paul, however, refused to accept his resignation and would have sent him abroad for the benefit of his health, had not a sudden stroke of paralysis prevented Bezborodko from taking advantage of his master's kindness. He died at St Petersburg on the 6th of April 1799. In private life Bezborodko was a typical Catharinian, corrupt, licentious, conscienceless and self-seeking. But he was infinitely generous and affectionate, and spent his enormous fortune liberally. His banquets were magnificent, his collections of pictures and statues unique in Europe. He was the best friend of his innumerable poor relatives, and the Maecenas of all the struggling authors of his day. Sycophantic he might have been, but he was neither ungrateful nor vindictive. His patriotism is as indisputable as his genius. See _Sbornik_ (Collections) of the _Imperial Russian Historical Society_ (Fr. and Russ.), vols. 60-100 (St Petersburg, 1870-1904); Nikolai Ivanovich Grigorovich, _The Chancellor A.A. Bezborodko in Connexion with the Events of His Time_ (Rus., St Petersburg, 1879-1881). (R. N. B.) BEZEL (from an O. Fr. word, cf. Mod. Fr. _biseau_, _basile_, possibly connected with Lat. _bis_, twice), a sloping edge, as of a cutting tool, also known as basil. In jewelry, the term is used for the oblique sides or faces of a gem; the rim which secures the crystal of a watch in position or a jewel in its setting, and particularly the enlarged part of a ring on which the device is engraved (see RING). BEZIERS, a town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Herault, 47 m. S.W. of Montpellier by rail. Pop. (1906) 46,262. Beziers is situated in a wine-growing district on a hill on the left bank of the river Orb, which is joined at this point by the Canal du Midi. The Allees Paul Riquet, named after the creator of the canal, occupy the centre of Beziers and divide the old town with its maze of narrow and irregular streets from the new quarter to the east. They form a long and shady promenade, terminating at one end in the Place de la Republique and the theatre, the front of which is decorated with bas-reliefs by David d'Angers, and at the other in a beautiful park, the Plateau des Poetes. The most interesting portion of the town is the extreme west where the old ramparts overlook the Orb. Above them towers St Nazaire, the finest of the churches of Beziers; it dates from the 12th to the 14th centuries and is a good specimen of the ecclesiastical fortification common in southern France. Its chief artistic features are the rose window in the western facade, and the stained glass and curious iron grilles of the choir-windows, which belong to the 14th century. Adjoining the south transept there are Gothic cloisters of the 14th century. The Orb is crossed by four bridges, the railway bridge, an ancient bridge of the 13th or 14th century, a modern bridge and the fine aqueduct by which the Canal du Midi is carried over the river. About half a mile to the south-west of the town are the locks of Fonserannes, in which in 330 yds. the water of the canal descends 80 ft. to reach the level of the Orb. There are remains of a Roman arena which have been built into the houses of the rue St Jacques. Beziers is seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, communal colleges and several learned societies. It is an agricultural market and carries on an active trade in wine, brandy, fruit, leather and sulphur. Its industries are chiefly connected with the wine trade (cask and cork making, &c.) and there are important distilleries. It also has iron-works and tanneries. The Romans established a colony at Beziers, and it was the headquarters of the seventh legion, under the title of _Baeterrae Septimanorum_. The present name occurs in the form _Besara_ as early as Festus Avienus (later 4th century). The town was completely destroyed in 1209 by the forces of Simon de Montfort in the crusade against the Albigenses, on which occasion 20,000 persons were massacred. The walls were rebuilt in 1289; but the town again suffered severely in the civil and religious wars of the 16th century, and all its fortifications were destroyed in 1632. BEZIQUE (probably from Span. _besico_, little kiss, in allusion to the meeting of the queen and knave, an important feature in the game), a game at cards played with two similar packs from which the twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes have been rejected, shuffled together and used as one. It is modelled on a group of card games which possess many features in common; the oldest of these is _mariage_, then follow _brusquembille, l'homme de brou, briscan_ or _brisque_, and _cinq-cents_. Bezique (also called _besi_ and _besigue_) is, in fact, _brisque_ played with a double pack, and with certain modifications rendered necessary by the