Vauban
SÉBASTIEN LE PRES- TRE DE, a military engineer and Marshal of France; born in Saint Léger du Fougeret, Burgundy, May 15, 1633. Left a destitute orphan at 10 he was brought up by the village curé, and at 17 enlisted in the regiment of Condé, then in league with Spain against the king. Taken prisoner in 1653, he was persuaded by Mazarin to take service under the king, and in 1655 he received his commission as one of the royal engineers. Already in 1658 he had the chief direction of the attacks made by Turenne's army, and the eight years of peace that followed this campaign he devoted to works at Dunkirk and elsewhere. In 1667 he helped to reduce Lille, and next was appointed governor of its new citadel. During the campaigns in Holland (1672- 1678) he took part in 17 sieges and one defense, rising to be brigadier and major-general and at the close commissary-general of fortifications. He first introduced the method of approach by parallels at the siege of Maestricht (1673), and with such effect that that strong fortress capitulated in 13 days.
The rest of his more famous exploits in these campaigns were the triumphant defense of Oudenarde and the sieges of Valenciennes and Cambrai. During the 10 years of peace which followed 1678 Vauban rendered to France perhaps the greatest of his services, in surrounding the kingdom with a complete cordon of fortresses, and he planned and partly executed the magnificent aqueduct of Maintenon, by which the waters of the Eure are conveyed to Versailles. In 1703 he rose to be Marshal of France.
War breaking out again in 1688, Vauban conducted with his usual success the sieges of Philipsburg-introducing here his invention of ricochet batteries- Mannheim, Mons (1691), and Namur VAUBAN (1692). The sieges of Charleroi (1693), Ath (1697), Breisach (1704), and the construction of the intrenched camp near Dunkirk (1706) are the only professional works of importance during the last 14 years of his life. After the peace of Ryswick in 1697 he had applied his active mind to the consideration of various faults in the internal government of France, and he had observed the fatal consequences of the Revocation of 1685.
His ideas he submitted in a memoir to 0000000 00 SEBASTIEN VAUBAN a Louvois and Madame de Maintenon in 1686. But another work, the "Royal Tithe" (1707), in which he discussed the question of taxation, and anticipated in the most striking manner the doctrines which 80 years later overthrew the French monarchy, brought down heavier storm on his head. Saint-Simon tells us the book was clear, simple, and exact, but the truths it told were unpalpably plain. In 1699 and again in 1704 he had sent it to the king, but no notice was taken till in 1706 he began privately to print 300 copies, whereupon the book was at once condemned. Vauban did not long survive the disgrace, dying in Paris, March 30, 1707. "I have lost a man very devoted to my person and to the State," said his self-com- VAUCLUSE placent master. His body was buried at Bazoches; in 1806 Napoleon deposited his heart in the Invalides.
VAUCLUSE (vō-klüz'), a department in the S. E. of France; bounded on the W. by the Rhone, and on the S. separated by the Durance from Bouches du Rhone; area, 1,381 square miles; pop. about 250,000. The E. is intersected by spurs of the Alps; in the W. are plains.
Agriculture is the chief occupation; of late oaks have been largely planted for the culture of truffles; and there are manufactures of silk, wool, pottery, chemicals, etc. Originally composed of the county of Venaissin, the principality of Orange, and part of Provence, the department is divided into the four arrondissements of Apt, Avignon, Carpentras, and Orange, Avignon being the capital.
The village of Vaucluse (Vallis clausa) stands in a romantic ravine 19 miles E. of Avignon, and is noted as having ring been for 16 years the residence of Petrarch, and for its famous fountain. Here, too, lived John Stuart Mill.
VAUD (vō) (German, Waadt), a canton which forms the W. corner of Switzerland; between the Jura and the Bernese Alps; area, 1,244 square miles; pop. about 320,000. It is a comparatively level district, traversed, however, by an elevated tract known as Mount Jorat, from which plains slope on either side to the Lake of Geneva on the S. and the Lake of Neufchâtel on the N. On both sides, near the mountains, there are extensive pasture lands, but the greater part of the country is highly cultivated.
The vineyards yield white wines of excellent quality. Vaud forms part of French Switzerland; the religion is Protestant. After the fall of the Roman empire it belonged to the Burgundian kingdom, but in the 13th century it became a dependency of Savoy, and in 1536 the Bernese took possession of it. The French invasion put an end to the rule of Bern, and Vaud became a separate canton. The existing democratic representative constitution dates from 1845. Lausanne is the capital. See SWITZER- LAND: WALDENSES.
VAUDEVILLE (vōd'vēl), a term originally applied to a country song of like kind with those written by Oliver Basselin, of the valleys of Vaux de Vire, in Normandy, in the 15th century. These songs, which were satirical, had for their subjects love, drinking, and passing events. They became very popular and were spread all over France under the name Lais des Vaux de Vire. The peculiarity of their character lived after their origin was forgotten, and plays, interspersed with songs of this description, VAUGHAN came to be called Vaudevilles, and occasionally Virelais. Also a light gay song, frequently embodying a satire, consisting of several couplets and refrain burden, sung to a familiar air, and often introduced into theatrical pieces; a ballad, a topical song. In French drama a piece whose dialogue is intermingled with light or comic songs sung to popular airs. In the United States of late years the term has come into use to denote light or "variety" theatrical entertainments, especially when continuous.