ABRAHAM ABRANTES ABRAHAM (originally ABRAM), the first patri- arch of the Hebrews. See HEBREWS. ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA, a German preach- er, whose proper name was ULRICH VON ME- OERLE, born at Krahenheimstetten in Swabia in 1642, died in Vienna, Dec. 1, 1709. He was <m Angustinian monk, and preached such witty and powerful sermons that the German empe- ror appointed him court chaplain. He wrote "Hotch Potch," "Judas the Arch Knave," "Fie and Shame on the World," &c. ABRANTES, a town in Portuguese Estrema- dura, at the head of navigation on the Tagus, 80 m. N. E. of Lisbon; pop. in 1863, 5,590. It is surrounded by a very fertile and highly cul- tivated plain, dotted with villages and villas, but is chiefly important as a military position, commanding one of the frontier roads from Spain into Portugal. HUM IN. I. Andoche .In not, duke of, a French soldier, born at Bussy-le-Grand, Bur- gundy, Oct. 23, 1771, died in Montbard, July 29, 1813. He was educated for the law, but in 1792 enlisted in the army as a volunteer, and by his courage won the sobriquet of " the Tem- pest." He attracted Bonaparte's attention at the siege of Toulon, and a close intimacy sprang up between the two, Junot's devotion to his superior amounting almost to fanaticism. He accompanied Bonaparte to Italy as his aide- de-camp, and won the rank of colonel in the campaign of 1797. He distinguished himself in Egypt, and was made brigadier general. A wound received in a duel with a brother officer, who was not as enthusiastic a Bonapartist as himself, delayed his return to France, and he landed at Marseilles on the day of the battle of Marengo. He was forthwith appointed to the command of Paris, and a few months later married Mile. Laure de Permon, and was made general of division. But his own as well as his wife's indiscretions were so distasteful to Napoleon, that in 1803 he removed Junot to the command of one of the corps of the " army of England. 1 ' On the establishment of the em- pire Junot was promoted to the rank of colonel- general of the hussars, received a pension of 30,000 francs, and a little later the grand cross of the legion of honor ; but he could not con- ceal his disappointment at not having been placed among the first marshals of the empire. His dissatisfaction, his improper behavior and lavish expenditures, coupled with his wife's eccentricities, caused the emperor to send them for a while into honorable exile ; and Junot was in 1805 appointed ambassador to Lisbon, where he distinguished himself only by osten- tation. In the same year he went to Germany without permission, and arrived in time to par- ticipate in the battle of Austerlitz. In 1 806 he was again appointed governor of Paris and commander of the first military division ; but his follies again compromised him, and in 1807 he was sent to Spain to take command of the army that was to invade Portugal. At the head of 25,000 men, hastily collected and ill provided, he marched from Salamanca Nov. 12 ; reached the frontier at Alcantara amid extreme privation and suffering; gained the town of Abrantes, whence his title of duke, Nov. 23 ; and, without pausing a moment, seized Lisbon (Dec. 1), at the head of only 1,500 grenadiers, most of whom were so worn out that they seemed to be only walking skeletons. Display- ing enormous activity, he got possession of the principal fortresses of the kingdom, and reor- ganized and strengthened his exhausted forces ; but his success was soon checked by the arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley with an English army. Junot was defeated at Vimieira, and constrained by the convention of Cintra, Aug. 22, 1808, to evacuate Portugal. Landed at La Rochelle with his troops by the English fleet, he imme- diately joined Napoleon, who took him back to Spain, where he was placed in command of the third corps, then besieging Saragossa. He par- ticipated in the campaign of 1809 in Germany, and in 1810 was sent back to Spain, where he was severely wounded in the face by a bullet. In 1812 he commanded a corps of the invading army in Russia ; but his slow operations did not satisfy the emperor, who, instead of em- ploying him actively the next year in Saxony, appointed him commander of Venice and gov- ernor general of the Illyrian provinces. This kind of disgrace, combined with other troubles and the suffering from his old wounds, preyed so much upon him that he became insane, and was taken to his father's house at Montbard, where he threw himself from a window and died from the effects of the fall. II. Lanre Permon Jnnot, duchess of, wife of the preceding, born in Montpellier, Nov. 6, 1784, died at Chaillot, near Paris, June 7, 1838. Her mother, a Corsican, claimed descent from the Comnenus family. Her father, M. Permon, made a fortune by provisioning Rochambeau's American troops, but lost it before his death (October, 1 793). The mother lived in good style at Paris, and her house was frequented by Bonaparte, Junot, and other distinguished per- sons. Bonaparte, according to her daugh- ter's Memoires, wished to marry her, though she was old enough to be his mother. Mile. Permon became the wife of Junot in 1800, the first consul giving her rich presents, both then and many times afterward. This munificence encouraged Mme. Junot in a course of extrava- gance which, as well as her other indiscre- tions, eventually proved disastrous to her for- tunes. Napoleon's friendship for her was also said to have excited the jealousy of Josephine, while her excessive love of finery and'her sharp tongue made him call her petite peste. While in Madrid and Lisbon with her husband, her lavish expenditure and her regal pretensions caused astonishment. At Neuilly she hired a palace known as the Folie St. James, where she performed in private theatricals, in which she excelled. Even while following her hus- band in the Spanish campaign, she kept up her Parisian style of entertainments in the various
