[417] Robert François Damiens (1715-1757) made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of King Louis XV. on the 5th of January 1757. He succeeded in stabbing him. The punishment inflicted on Damiens was one of the most serious known in history: his right hand was burnt in a slow fire; his flesh was torn with pincers and burnt with melted lead; resin, wax and oil were poured upon the wounds; and he was torn to pieces by four horses.--T. [418] The Family Compact was a treaty signed on the 15th of August 1761 between the Kings of France, Spain and the Two Sicilies and the Duke of Parma, and so-called because all the contracting parties belonged to the Bourbon Family. The object of this treaty, of which the Duc de Choiseul was the chief author, was to counteract the superiority of the British Navy by the union of the French, Spanish and Italian forces.--T. [419] _Cf._ Vol. I., p. 139, n. 1.--T. [420] Madame Du Barry was guillotined on the 6th of December 1793--T. [421] Dominique Joseph Garat (_Cf._ Vol. II., p. 106, n. 6) was sent, as Minister of Justice under the Convention, on the 20th of January 1793, to notify Louis XVI.'s condemnation to him.--T. [422] Claude Louis Comte de Saint-Germain (1707-1778) became Minister for War to Louis XVI., in 1775, on the advice of Turgot. He effected many useful reforms, especially in the King's Military Household, but displeased the army by attempting to introduce the Austrian discipline and corporal punishment. He resigned office in 1777 and died in the course of the following year.--T. [423] Chateaubriand was born on the 4th of September 1768.--T. [424] Prussia declared herself a kingdom in 1701.--T. [425] Russia underwent her greatest development under Peter the Great, whose reign lasted from 1682 to 1725.--T. [426] Corsica was annexed to France on the 15th of August 1768.--T. [427] Napoleon I. was born on the 15th of August 1768.--T. [428] _Cf._ Vol. I., pp. 68-69.--T. [429] American Independence was recognised by Great Britain in 1783.--T. [430] _Gen._, IV., 19.--T. [431] Isabella II. Queen of Spain (_b._ 1830 and still living) was made to usurp the throne, in 1833, on the death of Ferdinand VII., when a child of three, by the machinations of her mother, Maria Christina (_cf._ Vol. III., p. 221, n. 2 and Vol. V., p. 74, n. 4). Queen Isabella was deposed and driven from Spain in 1868, since which time she has resided in Paris.--T. [432] Victoria Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (_cf._ Vol. IV., p. 47, n. 2) married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on the 10th of February 1840, when in her twenty-first year.--T. [433] GUILLAUME ANFRIE, ABBÉ DE CHAULIEU, _Les Louanges de la vie champêtre, à Fontenay, en_ 1707, 71-72: "O beautiful trees that presided O'er my birth, you shall soon see me die!"--T.