102 LA FLSCHE governor of the impending invasion, pointing out the importance of the position that he occupied, and offering his services in defence of Louisiana, on the sole condition of pardon to himself and followers for the offences with which they stood charged. This amnesty would, of course, include in its provisions a brother of Jean Lafitte, who was then in prison in New Orleans under an indictment for piracy. After some hesitation on the part of the Amer- ican authorities, Lafitte's offer was accepted. In connection with an officer of the army Lafitte was employed in fortifying the passes of Ba- rataria bay, and rendered efficient service, in command of a party of his followers, in the battle of Jan. 8, 1815. The subsequent career of Lafitte is involved in as much obscurity as his earlier life. President Madison confirmed the amnesty which had been granted to all the Baratarians who had enlisted in the American service, though it does not appear that their chief ever received any further reward from the government. It is generally understood that he returned to his old pursuits and formed a settlement on the site of the present city of Galveston, which was broken up in 1821 by a naval force under the orders of Lieut, (after- ward- Commodore) Kearny ; but it is possible that his brother Pierre, who commanded one of his vessels, has been confounded with him. Other authorities say that he was for a time after the war commander of a packet between Philadelphia and New Orleans. In person La- fitte is represented to have been well formed and handsome, about 6 ft. 2 in. high, with large hazel eyes and black hair. His manners were polished and easy, though retiring ; his address was winning and affable; and his influence over his followers almost absolute. There is every reason for believing that he was of a respectable family, and that his early opportu- nities for education had been good. See "De Bow's Review," vols. xi., xii., xiii., xix., and xxiii. ; Marbois's " Louisiana ;" Gayarre's "Louisiana;" Latour's "War in Louisiana;" Walker's "Jackson and New Orleans;" Yoak- um's "History of Texas;" and Parton's "Life of Jackson." LA FLECHE, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Sarthe, on the left bank of the Loir, in a beautiful valley, 25 m. S. W. of Le Mans ; pop. in 1866, 9,292. It has a tribunal of pri- mary jurisdiction, a chamber of agriculture, a theatre, an aqueduct, and a statue of Henry IV. which was unveiled in 1857. The large castle built by Henry IV., which is surrounded by a magnificent park and contains a picture gallery and a library of about 20,000 volumes, now serves as a military school. The town has an active trade in grain, wine, leather, cattle, and fowls. In December, 1793, the royalists were defeated here by the republican troops under Westermann. The Jesuit college of La Fleche was long celebrated, and among its students were some very eminent men. The town suf- fered much during the war of La Vendee. LA FONTAINE LAFONT, Pierre Che*ri, a French actor, born in Bordeaux in 1801, died in Paris, April 19, 1873. He began life as a surgeon in the navy, went to Paris in 1822, and made his debut at the Vaudeville in 1823. From 1839 to 1849 he achieved brilliant successes at the Varietes as the chevalier de St. Georges and in other plays. In 1855 he resumed his connection with the Vaudeville, and in 1859 appeared at the Gymnase, when his personation of the marquis in Les Ganaches (1862) and of Raoul in Montjoye (1863) increased his reputation. His more recent successes were won in Baba- gas and Le centenaire. He was a comic actor of singular elegance and grace, and was as pop- ular in London as in Paris. LA FONTAINE, Jean de, a French fabulist, born in Chateau-Thierry, July 8, 1621, died in Paris, April 13, 1695. He received an irregular education, partly at home, partly at the college of Rheims, and in 1641 entered the seminary of the Oratorians with the design of becoming a priest; but at the end of 18 months he re- turned home, and led an idle and dissipated life, which gave little promise of his future celebrity. He showed however considerable poetical talent, and this was fully awakened on his hearing the recitation of one of Malherbe's odes. He began eagerly to read the ancient and modern poets and prose writers. In or- der to reclaim him from his loose habits and apparent idleness, his father induced him to marry in 1647, and resigned to him his own office of master of waters and forests; but Jean was ill fitted for either a husband or a functionary, and was equally neglectful of his matrimonial and official duties. In 1654 he published at Rheims a translation in verse, or , rather an adaptation, of Terence's " Eunuch," which gave no indication of his future powers. He soon went to Paris, and was introduced to Fouquet, the great patron of literature and art at that time, who appointed him his poet, and bestowed upon him a yearly income of 1,000 livres. La Fontaine was thus enabled to live at his ease for seven years, during which he pro- duced only occasional poems of no great merit. On the fall of his protector he wrote in 1661 his admirable filegie aux nymplies de Vaux, an eloquent but fruitless appeal to the magnanimity of Louis XIV. in behalf of the superintendent. Two years later he renewed his entreaties in his Ode au roi, but with no better success. He would now have been at a loss for means of livelihood, had it not been for the generosity of two noble ladies, the duchess of Bouillon, Cardinal Mazarin's youngest niece, who wel- comed him at her chateau, and the duchess dowager of Orleans, from whom he received a pension as her gentleman servant; but he was always neglected by the king, who could not overlook his irregular mode of life, the char- acter of some of his writings, and above all his fidelity to Fouquet. In 1665 he brought out the first series of his Contes ; a second part appear- ed in 1666, and they were completed in 1671
