but failed, and Mons had to surrender (September 17). Louis, who was
sick with fever, withdrew to his ancestral home, Dillenburg, to recruit
his health, and then once more to devote his energies to the raising of
money and troops for another invasion of the Netherlands. In the hope of
drawing away the Spaniards from the siege of Leiden by a diversion in
the south, Louis, with his brothers John and Henry, at the head of a
force of mixed nationalities and little discipline, crossed the frontier
near Maastricht, and advanced as far as the Mookerheide near Nijmwegen.
Here he was attacked by a body of Spanish veterans under an experienced
leader, Sancho d'Avila, and speedily routed. In the disorderly flight
both Louis and his younger brother Henry, refusing to abandon the field,
lost their lives. Their bodies were never recovered. Thus perished at
the age of thirty-six one of the most chivalrous and gifted of a gallant
band of brothers, four of whom laid down their lives in their country's
cause.
See P. J. Blok, _Lodewijk von Nassau, 1538-1574_ (The Hague, 1689),
and the _Cambridge Modern History_, vol. iii. chs. vi. and vii., and
bibliography (1904); also A. J. Van der Aa, _Biographisch woordenboek
der Nederlanden_ (22 vols., Haarlem, 1852-1878).
LOUIS, JOSEPH DOMINIQUE, BARON (1755-1837), French statesman and
financier, was born at Toul (Meurthe) on the 13th of November 1755. At
the outbreak of the Revolution the abbé Louis (he had early taken
orders) had already some reputation as a financial expert. He was in
favour of the constitutional movement, and on the great festival of
federation (July 14, 1790) he assisted Talleyrand, then bishop of Autun,
to celebrate mass at the altar erected in the Champ de Mars. In 1792,
however, he emigrated to England, where he spent his time studying
English institutions and especially the financial system of Pitt.
Returning to France on the establishment of the Consulate he served
successively in the ministry of war, the council of state, and in the
finance department in Holland and in Paris. Made a baron of the empire
in 1809 he nevertheless supported the Bourbon restoration and was
minister of finance in 1814-1815. Baron Louis was deputy from 1815 to
1824 and from 1827 to 1832. He resumed the portfolio of finance in 1815,
which he held also in the Decazes ministry of 1818; he was the first
minister of finance under the government of Louis Philippe, and held the
same portfolio in 1831-1832. In 1832 he was made a peer of France and he
died on the 26th of August 1837.
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