battle of Neerwinden. Although he had given notice of Dumouriez’s treachery, he was put on his trial on the 12th of May, unanimously acquitted, but again imprisoned, and not released till after the 9th Thermidor. He was sentenced to be deported after the struggle of Vendémiaire, yet he continued in Paris till the coup d’état of Fructidor caused him to take refuge in England. He now found Pitt and Dundas ready to listen, but, as neither of them would or could give him substantial help, he went to the United States, where President Adams only gave him fair words. Addington might have done something for him but for the peace of Amiens in 1802. Though in no way amnestied, he returned to Paris, but was expelled by the First Consul, who was eager to be on good terms with Spain. Disappointed in England and the United States, he decided to make an attempt at his own expense. Aided by two American citizens, Colonel W. S. Smith and Mr S. G. Ogden, he equipped the “Leander,” in 1806, and with the help of the English admiral Sir A. Cochrane made a landing near Caracas, and proclaimed the Colombian republic. He had some success, but a false report of peace between France and England caused the English admiral to withdraw his support. At last, in 1810, the events in Spain which brought about the Peninsular War had divided the authorities in Spanish America, some of whom declared for Joseph Bonaparte, others for Ferdinand VII., others for Charles IV., and Miranda again landed, and got a large party together who declared a republic both in Venezuela and New Granada or Colombia. But Miranda’s desire—that all the South American colonies should form a federal republic—awoke the selfishness of provincial administrations, and the cause was believed to be hateful to heaven owing to a great earthquake on the 26th of March 1812. The count of Monte Verde, the Bourbon governor, had little difficulty in defeating Miranda, and on the 26th of July the general capitulated on condition that he should be deported to the United States. The condition was not observed; Miranda was moved from dungeon to dungeon, and died on the 14th of July 1816 at Cadiz.
There are allusions to Miranda’s early life in nearly all memoirs of the time, but they are not generally very accurate. For his trial see Buchez et Roux, Histoire parlementaire, xxvii. 26–70. For his later life see J. Biggs, History of Miranda’s Attempt in South America (London, 1809); and Veggasi, Revolucion de la Colombia. Prof William S. Robertson has recently devoted considerable research in the Spanish archives and elsewhere to Miranda, his monograph on F. de M. and the revolutionizing of Spanish America being awarded a prize of the American Historical Association in 1908. See also Marqués de Rojas, El General Miranda (Paris, 1884), and his Miranda dans la révolution française (Carácas, 1889); and R. Becerra, Ensayo historico documentado de la vida de Don F. de M. (Carácas, 1896).
MIRANDE, a town of south-western France, capital of an
arrondissement in the department of Gers, on the left bank of
the Grande Baise, 17 m. S.S.W. of Auch by the Southern railway.
Pop. (1906), 2368. Mirande is laid out on the uniform plan
typical of the bastide. Its church, built at the beginning of the
15th century, is chiefly remarkable for its porch which bestrides
the Rue de l’Évêché and is surmounted by two flying buttresses
supporting a belfry of Flemish appearance. The remains of
ramparts are still to be seen and the principal street is bordered
by ancient arcades. The town has a sub-prefecture and a
tribunal of first instance. The trade is in live-stock and
agricultural products. Tanning and wood-turning are carried on.
Mirande was founded in 1286 by the monks of Berdones and the seneschal of Toulouse acting on behalf of Philip IV. During the 14th century it was the capital of the counts of Astarac.
MIRANDOLA, a town of Emilia, Italy, in the province of
Modena, 1912 m. N. by E. of it by rail, 59 ft. above sea-level.
Pop. (1901), 15,162 The Palazzo del Commune is a 15th-century
edifice of Gothic style. The castle of the Pico family,
who held the town from the 14th century to 1710, when the last
member was deprived of his dominions by Joseph I. of Austria,
is almost entirely destroyed. The height of the fortunes of this
family was from about 1450 to 1550, Giovanni (b. 1463, d. 1494)
being its ablest and most learned member (see Pico). The
cathedral, dating from the end of the 16th century, has been
restored. S. Francesco is a fine Gothic church.
MIRANZAI VALLEY, or Hangu, a mountain valley on the Kohat border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. Miranzai comprises two valleys draining S.W. into the Kunam and N.E. into the Kohat Toi. It is thus divided into upper and lower Miranzai, and extends from Thal to Raisan, and from the Zaimukht and Orakzai hills to those of the Khattaks. Its length is about 40 m., and its breadth varies from 3 to 7 m. Area, 546 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 43,901. The portion of Miranzai east of Hangu village consists of numerous small and well-cultivated valleys, in which orchard trees flourish abundantly. To the west of Hangu, including the whole of Upper Miranzai, the country is a broad, open, breezy valley. The plain is bare of trees, but the hills are generally covered with scrub. The country is full of ravines towards Thal. The wealth of the inhabitants consists principally in cattle, goats and sheep; of these the cows are of a lean and dwarf breed, and give but little milk. Miranzai forms the meeting place of many different tribes; but its chief inhabitants are the Bangash and Orakzais. Disturbances have necessitated British expeditions in 1851, 1855, and twice in 1891.
MIRBEAU, OCTAVE HENRI MARIE (1850-), French dramatist and journalist, was born at Trevières (Calvados) on the 16th of February 1850. He was educated in a Jesuit school at Vannes, and studied law in Paris. He began his journalistic career as dramatic critic of the Bonapartist paper, L’Ordre. For a short time before 1877 he was sous-préfet and then préfet of Saint-Girons, but from that time he devoted himself to literature. He was one of the earliest defenders of the Impressionist painters. His witty articles in the anti-republican papers, and his attacks on established reputations, involved him in more than one duel. He gradually developed extreme individualist views. In 1890 he began to write for the Révolte, but his anarchist sympathies were definitely checked by the murder of President Carnot in 1894. He was one of the early and consistent defenders of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. He married in 1887 the actress Alice Regnault. His first novel, Jean Marcellin (1885), attracted little attention, but he made his mark as a conteur with a series of tales of the Norman peasantry, Lettres de ma chaumière (1886). Le Calvaire (1887), a chapter of which on the defeat of 1870 aroused much discussion, was followed by L’Abbé Jules (1888), the story of a mad priest; by Sebastien Roch (1890), a bitter picture of the Jesuit school in which his own early years were spent; Le Jardin des supplices (1899), a Chinese story; Les Mémoires d’une femme de chambre (1901); and Les Vingt-et-un jours d’un neurasthénique (1902). In 1897 his five-act piece, Les Mauvais Bergers, was played at the Renaissance by Sarah Bernhardt, and he followed this up with Les Affaires sont les affaires (Théâtre Français, 1903), which was adapted by Sydney Grundy for Sir H. Beerbohm Tree in 1905. Some of his short pieces are collected as Farces et moralités (1904).
MIRFIELD, an urban district in the Morley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 3 m. S.W. of Dewsbury, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire and London & North-Western railways. Pop. (1901), 11,341. The church of St Mary was completed in 1874, from designs of Sir Gilbert Scott. The tower of the ancient church remains. The large industrial population is employed in woollen, cotton, carpet and blanket manufactures, and in the numerous collieries in the vicinity.
MIRKHOND (1433–1498). Mohammed bin Khāwandshāh bin Mahmūd, commonly called Mīrkhwānd or Mīrkhāwand, more familiar to Europeans under the name of Mirkhond, was born in 1433, the son of a very pious and learned man who, although belonging to an old Bokhara family of Sayyids, or direct descendants of the Prophet, lived and died in Balkh. From his early youth he applied himself to historical studies and literature in general. In Herāt, where he spent the greater part of his life, he gained the favour of that famous patron of letters, Mīr ʽAlīshīr (1440–1501), who served his old schoolfellow, the reigning sultan Husain (who as the last of the Tīmūrides in Persia ascended the throne of Herāt in 1468), first as keeper of the seal, afterwards as governor of Jurjān. At the request of
