time till 1889 acted for the British government as a paid military spy. He was a proficient in medicine, among other qualifications for this post, and he remained for years on intimate terms with the most extreme men in the Fenian organization under all its forms. His services enabled the British government to take measures which led to the fiasco of the Canadian invasion of 1870 and Riel’s surrender in 1871, and he supplied full details concerning the various Irish-American associations, in which he himself was a prominent member. He was in the secrets of the “new departure” in 1879–1881, and in the latter year had an interview with Parnell at the House of Commons, when the Irish leader spoke sympathetically of an armed revolution in Ireland. For twenty-five years he lived at Detroit and other places in America, paying occasional visits to Europe, and all the time carrying his life in his hand. The Parnell Commission of 1889 put an end to this. Le Caron was subpoenaed by The Times, and in the witness-box the whole story came out, all the efforts of Sir Charles Russell in cross-examination failing to shake his testimony, or to impair the impression of iron tenacity and absolute truthfulness which his bearing conveyed. His career, however, for good or evil, was at an end. He published the story of his life, Twenty-five Years in the Secret Service, and it had an immense circulation. But he had to be constantly guarded, his acquaintances were hampered from seeing him, and he was the victim of a painful disease, of which he died on the 1st of April 1894. The report of the Parnell Commission is his monument.
LE CATEAU, or Cateau-Cambrésis, a town of northern
France, in the department of Nord, on the Selle, 15 m. E.S.E.
of Cambrai by road. Pop. (1906) 10,400. A church of the early
17th century and a town-hall in the Renaissance style are its
chief buildings. Its institutions include a board of trade-arbitration
and a communal college, and its most important
industries are wool-spinning and weaving. Formed by the union
of the two villages of Péronne and Vendelgies, under the protection
of a castle built by the bishop of Cambrai, Le Cateau
became the seat of an abbey in the 11th century. In the 15th
it was frequently taken and retaken, and in 1556 it was burned
by the French, who in 1559 signed a celebrated treaty with Spain
in the town. It was finally ceded to France by the peace of
Nijmwegen in 1678.
LECCE (anc. Lupiae), a town and archiepiscopal see of Apulia,
Italy, capital of the province of Lecce, 24 m. S.E. of Brindisi
by rail. Pop. (1906) 35,179. The town is remarkable for the
number of buildings of the 17th century, in the rococo style,
which it contains; among these are the cathedral of S. Oronzo,
and the churches of S. Chiara, S. Croce, S. Domenico, &c., the
Seminario, and the Prefettura (the latter contains a museum,
with a collection of Greek vases, &c.). Buildings of an earlier
period are not numerous, but the fine portal of the Romanesque
church of SS. Nicola e Cataldo, built by Tancred in 1180, may
be noted. Another old church is S. Maria di Cerrate, near the
town. Lecce contains a large government tobacco factory,
and is the centre of a fertile agricultural district. To the E.
712 m. is the small harbour of S. Cataldo, reached by electric
tramway. Lecce is quite close to the site of the ancient
Lupiae, equidistant (25 m.) from Brundusium and Hydruntum,
remains of which are mentioned as existing up to the 15th century.
A colony was founded there in Roman times, and Hadrian made
a harbour—no doubt at S. Cataldo. Hardly a mile west was
Rudiae, the birthplace of the poet Ennius, spoken of by Silius
Italicus as worthy of mention for that reason alone. Its site
was marked by the now deserted village of Rugge. The name
Lycea, or Lycia, begins to appear in the 6th century. The
city was for some time held by counts of Norman blood, among
whom the most noteworthy is Bohemond, son of Robert Guiscard.
It afterwards passed to the Orsini. The rank of provincial
capital was bestowed by Ferdinand of Aragon in acknowledgment
of the fidelity of Lecce to his cause. (T. As.)
See M. S. Briggs, In the Heel of Italy (1910).
LECCO, a town of Lombardy, in the province of Como, 32 m. by rail N. by E. of Milan, and reached by steamer from Como, 673 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 10,352. It is situated near the southern extremity of the eastern branch of the Lake of Como, which is frequently distinguished as the Lake of Lecco. At Lecco begins the line (run by electricity) to Colico, whence there are branches to Chiavenna and Sondrio; and another line runs to Bergamo. To the south the Adda is crossed by a fine bridge originally constructed in 1335, and rebuilt in 1609 by Fuentes. Lecco, in spite of its antiquity, presents a modern appearance, almost the only old building being its castle, of which a part remains. Its schools are particularly good. Besides iron-works, there are copper-works, brass-foundries, olive-oil mills and a manufacture of wax candles; and silk-spinning, cotton-spinning and wood-carving. In the neighbourhood is the villa of Caleotto, the residence of Alessandro Manzoni, who in his Promessi Sposi has left a full description of the district. A statue has been erected to him.
In the 11th century Lecco, previously the seat of a marquisate, was presented to the bishops of Como by Otto II.; but in the 12th century it passed to the archbishops of Milan, and in 1127 it assisted the Milanese in the destruction of Como. During the 13th century it was struggling for its existence with the metropolitan city; and its fate seemed to be sealed when the Visconti drove its inhabitants across the lake to Valmadrera, and forbade them to raise their town from its ashes. But in a few years the people returned; Azzone Visconti made Lecco a strong fortress, and in 1335 united it with the Milanese territory by a bridge across the Adda. During the 15th and 16th centuries the citadel of Lecco was an object of endless contention. In 1647 the town with its territory was made a countship. Morone, Charles V.’s Italian chancellor, was born in Lecco.
See A. L. Apostolo, Lecco ed il suo territorio (Lecco, 1855).
LECH (Licus), a river of Germany in the kingdom of Bavaria, 177 m. long, with a drainage basin of 2550 sq. m. It rises in the Vorarlberg Alps, at an altitude of 6120 ft. It winds out of the gloomy limestone mountains, flows in a north-north-easterly direction, and enters the plains at Füssen (2580 ft.), where it forms rapids and a fall, then pursues a northerly course past Augsburg, where it receives the Wertach, and joins the Danube from the right just below Donauwörth (1330 ft.). It is not navigable, owing to its torrential character and the gravel beds which choke its channel. More than once great historic events have been decided upon its banks. On the Lechfeld, a stony waste some miles long, between the Lech and the Wertach, the emperor Otto I. defeated the Hungarians in August 955. Tilly, in attempting to defend the passage of the stream at Rain against the forces of Gustavus Adolphus, was fatally wounded, on the 5th of April 1632. The river was formerly the boundary between Bavaria and Swabia.
LE CHAMBON, or Le Chambon-Feugerolles, a town of
east-central France in the department of Loire, 712 m. S.W.
of St Étienne by rail, on the Ondaine, a tributary of the Loire.
Pop. (1906) town, 7525; commune, 12,011. Coal is mined in
the neighbourhood, and there are forges, steel works, manufactures
of tools and other iron goods, and silk mills. The feudal
castle of Feugerolles on a hill to the south-east dates in part
from the 11th century.
Between Le Chambon and St Étienne is La Ricamarie (pop. of town 5289) also of importance for its coal-mines. Many of the galleries of a number of these mines are on fire, probably from spontaneous combustion. According to popular tradition these fires date from the time of the Saracens; more authentically from the 15th century.
LE CHAPELIER, ISAAC RENÉ GUY (1754–1794), French
politician, was born at Rennes on the 12th of June 1754, his
father being bâtonnier of the corporation of lawyers in that town.
He entered his father’s profession, and had some success as an
orator. In 1789 he was elected as a deputy to the States General
by the Tiers-État of the sénéchaussée of Rennes. He adopted
advanced opinions, and was one of the founders of the Breton
Club (see Jacobin Club); his influence in the Constituent
Assembly was considerable, and on the 3rd of August 1789 he
was elected its president. Thus he presided over the Assembly
