the siege he received a reinforcement of twelve companies of English, and cut out a new harbour at Ostend, which proved of great service to him. On Aug. 14, he was wounded in the head by the bursting of a cannon, which obliged him to remove into Zealand till Sept. 19, when he returned to Ostend, and found that in his absence some English troops had arrived there to reinforce the garrison. On Dec. 4, in the night, the Spaniards fiercely assaulted the English trenches, so that sir Francis Vere was called up without having time to put on his clothes; but by his conduct and valour the enemy were repulsed, and lost about 500 men. In the mean time the place began to be much distressed; and sir Francis, having advice that the besiegers intended a general assault, in order to put them off, and gain time, he artfully contrived to enter into treaty with them for the surrender of the place; but receiving part of the supplies which he had long expected from the States, with an assurance of more at hand, he broke off the treaty. The archduke, equally surprized and enraged at this conduct, which indeed is scarcely to be vindicated, took a resolution to revenge himself of those within the town, saying he would put them all to the sword; and his officers and soldiers likewise took an oath, that, if they entered, they would spare neither man, woman, nor child. They made a general assault on Jan. 7, 1602; but sir Francis, with only twelve hundred men, kept off the enemy's army of 10,000, which threw that day above 2,200 shot on the town; and had before discharged on it no less than 163,200 cannon shot, leaving scarcely a whole house standing. Our heroic general having acquired immortal honour in the defence of Ostend for eight months together, resigned his government March 7, 1602, to Frederic Dorp, who had been appointed by the States to succeed him; and he and his brother, sir Horatio Vere, returned into Holland. Soon after his discharge from the government of Ostend, sir Francis, at the request of the States, came into England to desire fresh succours, which went over in May, and were to be under his command. He accordingly returned again to Holland; and upon receiving the news of queen Elizabeth's death, he proclaimed king James I. at the Brill, in April 1603. A few months after he came to England, and his government of the Brill expiring, or he being superseded at Elizabeth's death, it was renewed to him by king James. But under this pacific sovereign, a peace was concluded with Spain in 1604. Sir Francis survived this about four years, and died at home, Aug. 28, 1608, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. He was interred in St. John's chapel, Westminster-abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory by his lady. Besides his other preferments, he was governor of Portsmouth. He had three sons and two daughters, who all died before him. He married Elizabeth, second daughter of John Dent, à citizen of London, and she re-married with Patrick Murray, a son of John earl of Tullibardine, in Scotland. Sir Francis Vere was a general of the greatest bravery, and of equal military talents. Queen Elizabeth had an high opinion of him, and always treated him with the greatest respect, often saying that she "held him to be the worthiest captain of her time." He was a man of letters, as well as an accomplished general, and wrote an account of his principal military transactions, which were published from the author's original, compared with two other transcripts, in 1657, by William Dillingham, D. D. under the title of "The Commentaries of sir Francis Vere, being divers pieces of service, wherein he had command, written by himself, in way of commentary," Cambridge, fol. with portraits of sir Francis, and sir Horace Vere, sir John Ogle, and maps and plans, &c. and additions by sir John Ogle, Henry Hexham, Isaac Dorislaus, and the editor.' VERE (SIR HORACE), baron of Tilbury, and younger brother to the preceding sir Francis Vere, was born at Kirby-hall, in Essex, in 1565. Entering early into a military life, he accompanied, in the twentieth year of his age, his brother, sir Francis, into the Low Countries, where he acquired great reputation by his valour and conduct. In 1600 he had a considerable share in the victory obtained by the English and Dutch near Nieuport. He afterwards, as well as his brother, signalized himself in the defence of Ostend. He commanded the forces sent by king James I. to the assistance of the elector Palatine. He was a man of a steady and sedate courage, and possessed that presence of mind in the greatest dangers and emergencies, which is the highest qualification of a general. It was owing to this quality that he made that glorious retreat from Spinola, 1 Biog. Brit.-Lloyd's and Fuller's Worthies.-Peck's Cromwell Collections, p. 32.-Lodge's Illustrations, vol. III. the Spanish general, which was the greatest action of his life; and his taking of Sluys was attended with difficulties which were thought insuperable. Upon the accession of king Charles I. sir Horace Vere, as a reward for his services, was advanced to the peerage, by the title of lord Vere, baron of Tilbury; being the first peer created by that monarch. He died the 2d of May, 1635, and was buried in Westminster-abbey. He married a lady who was then the widow of Mr. John Hoby: she was the youngest daughter of sir John Tracy of Doddington, or Tuddington, in Gloucestershire. She died in 1671, at a great age. The parliament placed the younger children of Charles I. under the care of this lady, who was a person of great piety and worth, and in her punning epitaph, written by Dr. Simon Ford, is thus addressed, "Nobilitas tibi vera fuit; prudentia vera; Clark has a long account of her in his lives published in 1684, fol. and so highly was sir Horace esteemed, that at his death a volume was published, dedicated to her, containing "Elegies celebrating the happy memory of sir Horatio Vere," &c. Lond. 1642, 8vo.' VERE (EDWARD), seventeenth earl of Oxford, was the only son of John the sixteenth earl, who died in 1563, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of John Golding, esq. He is supposed to have been born about 1540 or 1541, and in his youth travelled in Italy, whence it is said he was the first who imported embroidered gloves and perfumes into England, and presenting queen Elizabeth with a pair of the former, she was so pleased with them, as to be drawn with them in one of her portraits. This gives us but an indifferent opinion of his judgment, yet he had accomplishments suited to the times, and made a figure in the courtly tournaments so much encouraged in queen Elizabeth's reign. He once had a rencounter with sir Philip Sidney (see SIDNEY, vol. XXVII. p. 507), which did not redound much to his honour. In 1585, Walpole says he was at the head of the nobility that embarked with the earl of Leicester for the relief of the States of Holland; but Camden, who gives a list of the principal personages concerned in that expedition, makes no mention of him. In 1586 he sat as lord great chamberlain of England on the Biog. Brit. Bibliographer, vol. II.-Lodge's Illustrations. trial of Mary queen of Scots. In 1588 he hired and fitted out ships at his own charge against the Spanish Armada. In 1589 he sat on the trial of Philip Howard, earl of Arundel; and in 1601, on the trials of the earls of Essex and Southampton. One of the most remarkable events of his life was his cruel usage of his first wife, Anne, daughter of the celebrated William Cecil, lord Burleigh, in revenge for the part acted by that statesman against Thomas duke of Norfolk, for whom he had a warm friendship. Camden says, that having vainly interceded with his father-in-law for the duke's life, he grew so incensed that he vowed revenge against the daughter, and "not only forsook her bed, but sold and consumed that great inheritance descended to him from his ancestors ;" but in answer to this, Collins says, that the estate descended to his son. It was probably, however, much impaired, as Arthur Wilson agrees with Camden, and something of the same kind may be inferred from a letter in Winwood's Memorials, III. 422. The earl was buried at Hackney, July 6, 1604. His character appears to have been marked with haughtiness, vanity, and affectation. He aped Italian dresses, and was called "the mirror of Tuscanismo." His rank, however, and his illustrious family commanded the respect of a large portion of the literary world, and among his eulogists were the contemporary writers, Watson, Lily, Golding, Munday, Greene, Lock, and Spenser. Scattered pieces of his poetry are found in the collections of the times, and particularly in the "Paradise of dayntie devises," lately reprinted in the Bibliographer. In these there appear the same traits as are said to have been exhibited in his character. They are generally affected, full of conceit and antithesis, and obscure. He is said also to have written comedies, and to have been reckoned the best writer of comedy in his time, but the very names of these plays are lost. His lady, Anne, has lately been introduced to public observation, as a poetess, by Mr. George Steevens, the editor of Shakspeare. Her poetical attempts are to be found in a collection of odes and sonnets, entitled "Diana," published by one John Southern or Soothern. Some account of these, which seem to be below mediocrity, is given by Mr. Park as a supplementary article to Walpole's "Royal and Noble Authors." Biog. Brit.-Bibliographer, vol. III.-Park's Royal and Noble Authors. VERGER DE HAURANE (JOHN DU), abbot of St. Cyran, famous in the seventeenth century as a controversial writer, was born in 1581, at Bayonne, of a good family. He pursued his studies at Louvain, and formed a strict friendship with the celebrated Jansenius, his fellow student. In 1610 he was made abbot of St. Cyran, on the resignation of Henry Lewis Chateignier de la Roche-Posai, bishop of Poitiers. The new abbot read the fathers and the councils with Jansenius, and took great pains to impress him with his sentiments and opinions, as well as a number of divines with whom he corresponded; nor did he leave any means untried to inspire M. le Maître, M. Arnauld, M. d'Andilly, and several more disciples whom he had gained, with the same opinions. This conduct making much noise, cardinal Richelieu, who was besides piqued that the abbot of St. Cyran refused to declare himself for the nullity of the marriage between Gaston, duke of Orleans, the brother of Louis the thirteenth, and Margaret of Lorraine, confined him at Vincennes, May 11, 1638. After this minister's death, the abbot regained his liberty, but did not enjoy it long, for he died at Paris, October 18, 1643, aged sixtytwo, and was buried at St. Jacques du Haut-Pas, where his epitaph may be seen on one side of the high altar. His works are, 1." Lettres Spirituelles," 2 vols. 4to, or 8vo, reprinted at Lyons, 1679, 3 vols. 12mo, to which a fourth has been added, containing several small tracts written by M. de St. Cyran, and printed separately. 2. "Question Royale," in which he examines in what extremity a subject might be obliged to save the life of his prince at the expence of his own, 1609, 12mo. This last was much talked of, and his enemies drew inferences and consequences from it, which neither he nor his disciples by any means approved. 3. "L'Aumône Chrétienne, ou Tradition de l'Eglise touchant la charité envers les Pauvres," 2 vols. 12mo. The second part of this work is entitled "L'Aumône ecclesiastique." M. Anthony le Maître had a greater share in the last-mentioned book than the abbot of St. Cyran. He published some other works of a similar cast, but his last appears to deserve most notice. It is entitled "Petrus Aurelius," and is a defence of the ecclesiastical hierarchy against the Jesuits. He was assisted in this book by his nephew, the abbé de Barcos, and it seems to have done him the most honour of all his works, though it must be acknowledged, says the abbé L'Avocat, that if all the |