improved types include the cabinet room, made up of a series of racks or trucks arranged with bars or hooks to hold the collars, cuffs, shirts or other garments, and running on tracks into a cabinet made of wood or metal. The heat is supplied by a series of steam coils arranged horizontally or longitudinally in the room, and often heated by the waste wash water. Fans are used to circulate the heat among the goods and accelerate the drying process. The most recent development is the automatic dry-room. In this the goods are hung on hooks attached to an endless chain or wire cable, which enters into and passes through the room in a series of loops, and out at the other end of the room. The goods are dried in one journev and are removed from the hooks by an automatic device so that they fall into baskets on the outside of the room.

Ironing Machinery.-The third general division of laundry work is the ironing, for which many forms and styles of machines are used. For collars and cuffs, it is done on machines consisting of a combination of revolving covered drums coming in contact with revolving heated rolls, the goods being ironed as they pass through. The covered drum is wound with layers of felt, cotton flannel and we bire vlovor dr vd Hyu

steam.

muslin, forming a padding much the nature of that which covered the old-fashioned family ironing board. The heated rolls are highly polished and are heated by gas or Formerly all these machines required the goods to be passed through several times for a perfect finish. The more modern types of ironers are known as "one pass machines." These have a series of heated rolls and drums so that the collar is put in at the front of the machine and comes out at the back perfectly ironed. Some of these ironing machines of modern production have a capacity of from 250 to 300 dozen collars or cuffs per hour. The length of the ironing surface of the heated rolls of collar and cuff ironing machines of different sizes varies from 12 to 48 inches. For the ironing of flat pieces such as sheets, table linen and towels, a machine known as the mangle is used, by which the goods are dried on revolving cylinders heated by steam. In the recent types of mangles great capacity is attained; in some the length of ironing surface reaches 10 feet and requires several operators to feed the machine. For shirts, a separate class of ironers is required. These are the bosom, body, sleeve and band ironers. The general principle and operation are, how

ever, the same as in the collar and cuff ironers, previously described. The most recent development of shirt ironing machinery is a series of machines steam heated, and on which the finish is produced by pressing instead of ironing. Flannels are pressed on a hollow table having a perforated surface through which steam comes up in sufficient amount to dampen the goods. Special padded forms of various shapes are employed in the pressing of ladies shirtwaists and fancy skirts.

Other important machines not described above and which are used in laundering are starchers, shapers and dampeners. There are many other forms of laundry machinery made to cover parts of processes, and new forms and types are constantly being invented and put on the market. The special census of manufactures taken in the United States in the year 1914 reported a total of 6,097 power laundries of factory grade, operating machines aggregating 174,881 horse power. These establishments employed 130,641 wage-earners who received annually a total of $59,483,000 in wages. The capital invested amounted to $98,055,000, and the amount received for the work done was $142,503,000. Consult Rothery, G. C., and Edmonds, H. O., The Modern Laundry) (London 1909).

JOHN T. BIRGE, Vice-President and Treasurer, Adams Laundry Machinery Company.

LAUNE, lön, or LAULNE, Etienne de, or DELAUNE, French engraver: b. Paris or Orléans, 1518; d. Strassburg, 1595. He was by trade a goldsmith and medallist, but is said to have had lessons from Benvenuto Cellini, and from 1561 appears to have devoted himself to engraving. Political affairs caused him to leave France, and the later part of his life was spent at Augsburg and Strassburg. His finest work is shown in his small prints, some of which may be seen at the Louvre. They are for the most part designs for coins, and for goldsmith's and armorer's work. His larger prints are not important.

LAUNFAL, SIR, knight of the Round Table and steward to King Arthur. He is celebrated in James Russell Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfel and his story more fully told by Thomas Chestre in Sir Launfal.' Tryamour, the sweetheart of Sir Launfal, supplied him with a never-failing purse and promised to appear to him when he was alone. His loyalty to her incensed Queen Guinevere, daughter of the king of Ireland, whom Sir Launfal declared to be unworthy to kiss Tryamour's feet. Imprisoned by King Arthur and threatened with death unless he could prove his assertion, Sir Launfal is rescued and freed by the appearance of Tryamour. The two then journeyed to the isle of Oleron and were seen no more.

LAUNITZ, lou'nits, Robert Eberhard, Russian-American sculptor: b. Riga, Russia, 1806; d. New York, 1870. He studied under Thorwaldsen in Rome; emigrated to America in 1828, and in 1833 became a member of the National Academy. Among his works are the Pulaski monument at Savannah, Ga., and the battle monument at Frankfort, Ky.

LAUNITZ, Vladimir voN DER, Russian soldier and government official: d. Saint Petersburg, 3 Jan. 1907. He served in the Turkish

Var of 1887-88, was governor of Tamboy for three years, and in 1906 was appointed prefect of police at Saint Petersburg. He was particularly severe in his suppression of revolutionary tendencies, and after the assassination of Gen. Count Alexis Ignatieff, 22 Dec. 1906, and the attempt to kill Vice-Admiral Dubassoff he redoubled his efforts. His published report showed the arrest in Saint Petersburg of 588 persons, accused of revolutionary agitation, in the three days 25-27 Dec. 1906. He was shot and killed at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Saint Petersburg, 3 Jan. 1907, the assassin himself being immediately afterward shot by an officer who was present.

LAUPEN, low-pen, town in canton of Bern, Switzerland, situated at the junction of the Sense and Saane, 10 miles west-southwest of Bern. It was the scene of a victory of Bern over Fribourg and allies in 1339. Pop. about 1,000.

LAURA, the French lady celebrated by Petrarch as the object of his lifelong passion: b. Eaumont, Provence, 1308; d. Avignon, 6 April 1348. Petrarch (q.v.) has told us that he saw her for the first time in the church of Santa Chiara at Avignon, on Good Friday, 6 April 1327; that she was the mother of several children and died on Good Friday at the hour in which he had first seen her, and was the same evening laid to rest in the Franciscan church. It would appear that Laura was the daughter of Audibert de Noyes and was married to Hugo de Sade and bore him 11 children. There is no ground for supposing that Laura was a mere creature of the poet's fancy. Consult Minich, Sulla Persona della Celebre Laura,' in 'Atti dell Instituto Veneto (Vol. IV, series 5, 1877-78); D'Ovidio, 'Madonna Laura' (in the 'Nuova Antologia,' 15 July and 1 Aug. 1888).

LAURA, a small monastic community, such as was common in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. It formed a mean between the solitude of the hermitage and the community life of the mediæval monastery. There was a superior, but no very definite rules. The cells were separately clustered like an encampment round the chapel. The brethren only met together twice a week and subsisted on bread and water. Three monks occupied one cell, under Pachomius. A famous laura was founded by Chariton, a hermit, at Pharan near Jerusalem, one by Saint Euthymius several leagues from Jerusalem, and others in the 5th century by Sabas, a celebrated hermit. The Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II, also instituted a laura. Consult Genier, R., Vie de Saint Euthyme le Grand, 377-473' and 'Le moines et l'église en Palestine au Ve siècle' (Paris 1909).

LAURACEÆ. See LAUREL,

LAUREL, lâ'rěl, Miss., city and countyseat of Jones County, on the Gulf and Ship Island, the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City and the Queen and Crescent railroads. 110 miles northwest of Mobile. In 1890 this was a village of 100 people, while in 1910 it had 8,465 population. The town owes its beginning to the sawmills of Eastman, Gardiner & Company, and of the Kingston Lumber Company. These sawmills have timber sufficient to last them at least 25 years. Laurel has the following important industries in addition to its sawmills: Laurel Cotton Mill, having 10,000 spindles and 640 looms, and employing 400 hands; Laurel Oil & Fertilizer Company, using 40 tons of cotton seed daily; Lindsey Wagon Company; Brick & Tile Company, having a capacity of 30,000 bricks per day, and Mississippi Knitting Mills, with a capacity of 125 pairs of hose per day. It also has many smaller factories, as a machine shop, railroad repair shops, foundry, cotton compress, ice factory and electric-light and power plant. The town has two national banks. It contains a fine city hall building and the State Agricultural Farm. The waterworks are operated and owned by the municipality. Laurel has adopted the commission form of government. Pop. 10,711.

LAUREL, a tree or shrub of the family Lauracea, having alternate, simple, often evergreen, exstipulate leaves; panicles or umbels of perfect flowers and one-seeded drupes or berries. The species, of which there are more than 1,000, mostly tropical, are divided into about 40 genera and are most largely represented in Brazil and southwestern Asia. Among the best-known North American members are the red bay (Persea borbonia), sassafras (Sassafras sassafras), pond spice (Litsea geniculata), and wild allspice (Benzoin benzoin), all of which are found east of the Mississippi. The tropical species are, however, more important. Among them are avocado or alligator pear (Persea gratissima), cinnamon, camphor-tree and cassia (Cinnamomum), and greenheart (Nectandra rodia). The name is usually restricted, however, to the two trees of the type genus Laurus, which are natives of the Mediterranean region, and are characterized by dark, evergreen leaves, small, diœcious or perfect inconspicuous flowers in little axillary umbels and small, succulent, purple, cherry-like berries. They sometimes attain heights exceeding 50 feet, but are usually scarcely more than a third of this height. The more popular species is the poet's or wreath laurel (L. nobilis), called in America sweet-bay. See BAY.

Among the numerous other shrubs known as laurels are the mountain-laurel (q.v.) and other species of Kalmia, the Portugal laurel (Prunus lusitanica), the cherry-laurel (Prunus laurocerasus and P. caroliniana), and the ground-laurel (Epigaa repens), better known as "trailing arbutus."

LAUREL IN ART AND SYMBOLISM. The laurel was dedicated by the ancients to Apollo. The very earliest belief of the mysterious virtues of the laurel was that it had purifying qualities. Ancient writers say that Apollo purified himself with laurel after slaying Python, the snake monster who was making

Parnassus (near Delphi), home of the oracle, inaccessible. And every eighth year Delphi commemorated this purification of the god by a festival; hence laurel is said to have been used by the ancients for purification from evil consequences that might follow through the slaying of a living animal. The laurel tree was supposed to be inhabited by spirits this belief and that of purifying influences may have arisen from the fable that Diana (Artemis), the virgin goddess, guarded the purity of her nymphs with great jealousy, and when Daphne offended she was turned into a laurel tree. Hence the ancient terming of the laurel plant Daphne. In depictions Apollo frequently figures in purification ceremonies and the laurel accompanies the rite. An ancient writer says that during a pestilence at Miletus, Branchis, the founder of the oracle there, sprinkled the people with laurel leaves and purified them. Of a certain priestess (Gaia) we read that in delivering Apollo's oracles she "regularly chewed laurel and fumigated herself with it" before giving her responses. Now, Asclepius, or Esculapius, was a son of Apollo and the laurel was made also sacred to him as well as his paternal god (this besides the better-known serpent emblem on his staff, also borrowed from Apollo). And, as Esculapius was master of the mysteries of the therapeutic values of the vegetable kingdom (taught him by physician Chiron), the connection between the laurel's medicinal values and the persons of Apollo and Esculapius in the minds of the ancient classic pagans becomes clear. But both Apollo and his son were close patron gods of the oracles, hence their symbolic presentment, the laurel, became the attribute of divination and poetry. The poet Hesiod relates how the Muses (Apollo, as Musagetes, was their leader) put into his hands a branch of laurel and immediately he became a poet. We are told that the guests at feasts who did not know how to play the lyre, recite rhapsodies or poems and could not sing acquired the necessary talent when holding a branch of myrtle or laurel in the hand. The laurel which the diviners carried in the hand they termed ithynterium and those who chewed its leaves for purposes of divination were known as daphnefagi. It was but a short step from the carrying of laurel for purpose of inspiration to the crowning of the inspired with laurel, and the laurel wreath evolved into a symbol of fame in poetry and the arts of the Muses. Thus we soon see Clio, Muse of History, wearing a wreath of laurel; Calliope, Muse of Heroic Poems, gets laurel woven into her wreath; Melpomene, Muse of Tragedy, although often crowned with cypress, also is seen frequently with a laurel wreath; Thalia, Muse of Comedy, has a laurel wreath as attribute; Polymnia wears a laurel wreath; Terpsichore and Erato are generally so crowned. But their relationship to Apollo permits each of the group a right to the laurel emblem. By some means the before-mentioned connection of spirits with the laurel tree appears to have brought it into contact with the underworld, for we find (in magic) Medea, as a witch, had twigs of laurel in classic art. Leaving the realm of the Muses, the laurel wreath as emblem of fame of the art gifted reached later to the brow of the successful competitor in Grecian athletics; and

thence it was but a short step to the brow of the conqueror in battle and the Roman emperor. And the pupils of Esculapius, who had been prescribing laurel medicinally as cure for "fever, convulsions, the afflictions of lethargy, headache and coughs," naturally assumed the emblem. Young doctors were decorated with laurel branches (having berries on them) — whence is said to be derived the term "baccalaureatus.» The person crowned with laurel was called "laureatus." The origin of the English poet-laureate title is obscure. There was a king's poet (Versificator Regis) in the reign of Henry III (13th century), but Chaucer, on his return from abroad, assumed the title of poet-laureate, and obtained an annual allowance of wine from 1389. Edmund Spenser (died 1599) is generally considered as the first of the officially appointed line of poet-laureates, which have been continued down to our present day. As a decorative art motif the laurel was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In copying the classic arts the French styles Louis XIV and Empire, of course, used the laurel liberally as one of their favorite decorative elements. In wreaths, borders and other uses, the laurel is retained in art of recent times.

LAUREL WATER, or CHERRY-LAUREL WATER, liquid distilled from the leaves of the cherry-laurel and water. It standardizes to 1 per cent of hydrocyanic acid and constitutes a powerful poison. It is used as a flavoring for medicines, and as a sedative and narcotic. It has been used ignorantly as a flavoring in cooking with fatal results.

LAUREMBERG, lou'rěm'běrk, Johann, German satirist: b. Rostock, 26 Feb. 1590; d. Soröe, Denmark, 28 Feb. 1658. He studied medicine at Paris and Rheims, traveled extensively in England and on the Continent, and in 1618 was appointed professor of poetry at Rostock. He became professor of mathematics at the Ritterakademie at Soröe in 1623 and remained there until his death. His use of the Low German dialect mirrored wittily the peculiarities of the people and scenes he portrayed. He wrote a Latin play 'Pompeius Magnus' (1610), and a Greek epithalium. His most notable work, however, is his 'Veer olde berömde Schertzgechichte. Consult Classen, J., 'Ueber das Leben und die Schriften des Dichters J. Lauremberg) (1841).

LAURENCE, Richard, Anglican archbishop, younger brother of French Laurence: b. Bath, 1760; d. Dublin, 28 Dec. 1838. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was ordained in the Church of England. He held the vicarage at Coleshill in 1787 and later was vicar of Great Cheverall and

rector of Rollstone, Wiltshire. He became deputy regius professor of civil law under his brother at Oxford in 1796; and in 1804 delivered the Brampton lectures, "An attempt to illustrate those articles of the Church of England which the Calvinists improperly consider Calvinistical," later published (1805; 3d ed., 1838). He was appointed rector of Mersham, Kent, in 1805, and of Stone, near Dartford, in 1811. A well-versed student of theology, canon law and Oriental languages, he was in 1814 appointed regius professor of Hebrew and a canon of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1822 he became archbishop of Cashel, Ireland. He was instrumental in having the study of Oriental languages given a more important place in English universities, was a zealous defender of the Church of England against the Calvinists and Unitarians, and succeeded in recovering from the Ethiopic manuscripts several supposedly lost apocryphal works, among them The Ascension of the Prophet Isaiah' (1819), and 'The Book of Enoch the Prophet' (1821). Author of numerous sermons and essays, and 'Dissertations on the Logos of Saint John' (1808); 'On the Existence of the Soul After Death (1834); 'Poetical Remains' (1872; 25 copies, privately printed), etc.

LAURENCE, lâ'rĕns, Saint, Roman Christian martyr: d. Rome, 10 Aug. 258. He was of Spanish race, and when in the Valerian persecution Pope Sixtus II was carried to martyrdom, Laurence as deacon and treasurer of the Church refused to give up the keys of the treasury, and according to tradition was put to death by being laid over a fire on bars of iron. The Escurial was built by Philip II in fulfilment of a vow made on Saint Laurence's day, 10 August, to the honor of that saint, the ground plan being after the pattern of a grid

iron.

LAURENCE, Samuel, English painter: b. Guilford, Surrey, 1812; d. London, 28 Feb. 1884. He was one of the most successful portrait painters of his day, and had as sitters many of his most eminent contemporaries, including Whewell, Browning, Carlyle, Dickens, Froude, F. D. Maurice, Thackeray and Tennyson. While on a visit to Longfellow in 1854 he painted a portrait of John Russell Lowell which has been engraved.

LAURENS, lâ'rens, Henry, American patriot and statesman: b. Charleston, S. C., 1724; d. there, 8 Dec. 1792. He was a mercantile clerk in London and Charleston and in the latter place established a successful business. An opponent of royal aggression, he was involved in numerous disputes with the Crown judges regarding their decisions in marine law and the admiralty courts. Having withdrawn from active business, in 1771 he went to England and was there one of the 38 Americans who in 1774 signed a petition to advise Parliament against passing the Boston port-bill. In 1775 he became a member of the first South Carolina provincial congress, in 1776 vice-president of the Council of Safety in that colony and from 1 Nov. 1777 to 10 Dec. 1778 was president of the Continental Congress in succession to Hancock. He sailed in 1779 as Minister to Holland for the negotiation of a treaty with that country, but his packet, the Mercury, was

captured by the British, he was examined by the Privy Council and from 6 Oct. 1780 was imprisoned for about 15 months in the Tower on suspicion of high treason. Having been exchanged for Cornwallis, he was sent to Paris, where, with Adams, Franklin and Jay, he signed the preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain 30 Nov. 1782. The collections of the South Carolina Historical Society_contain many of his papers. Consult "Henry Laurens: Narrative of his Capture and Confinement in the Tower of London," in "Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society (Vol. I, Charleston 1857); Moore, Frank, Correspondence of Henry Laurens of South Carolina, in 'Materials for History) (New York 1861); Dawson, H. B. (ed.), Laurens Petition and Letters (Morrisania, N. Y., 1866-67).

LAURENS, Jean Paul, zhon pōl lō-ron, French artist: b. Fourquevaux, department of Haute-Garonne, in 1838. He studied in the École des Beaux-Arts at Toulouse, and became a pupil of Cogniet and Bida in Paris. His work is distinguished for boldness and vigor, and the tragic elements of his subjects are heightened by the dramatic realism of the artist. In point of moderation, in treatment and of taste in coloring, his compositions have received some adverse criticism, but his powerful effects are not called in question. In 1886 he became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in 1891 he was elected a member of the Institut and president of the Société des Artistes Français and in 1900 commander of the Legion of Honor. Among his pieces are 'Death of Tiberius' (1864); A Voice in the Desert' (1868); 'Execution of the Duc d'Enghien (1872); The Pool of Bethesda' (1873); The Interdict' (1875); The Austrian General Staff Around the Deathbed of General Marceau) (1877); 'Napoleon and Pius VII at Fontainebleau' (1894), and the 'Proclamation of the Republic in 1848 (1902). He is also distinguished for his decorative work; notable frescoes from his brush adorn the Panthéon and the Paris Hôtel de Ville. Consult Van Dyke, C. J., 'Modern French Painters.'

LAURENS, John, American soldier: b. South Carolina, 1753; d. there, 27 Aug. 1782. He was the son of Henry Laurens (q.v.). He was educated in England, and in 1777 became an aide to Washington, whose secretary he also frequently was. From the battle of Brandywine (11 Sept. 1777) he participated, it is said, in all actions in which Washington commanded. He was severely wounded at Germantown, commanded the light infantry when the united American and French troops under Lincoln and D'Estaing attempted the capture of Savannah, and aided in the defense of Charleston when besieged by Clinton. In the spring of 1781 he was sent to France to obtain money and supplies. Contrary to diplomatic precedent, he requested and obtained an audience with the king, and secured the necessary assistance. He captured one of two redoubts at Yorktown and received Cornwallis' sword. He was killed in a skirmish on the Combahee River, S. C. What Washington called his "intrepidity bordering on rashness" won for him the sobriquet of "the Bayard of the Revolution." His correspondence, with a memoir by William Gilmore Simms, was privately printed in 1867.

LAURENS, formerly LAURENSVILLE, S. C., village and county-seat of Laurens County, 38 miles southwest of Spartansburg and 75 miles northwest of Columbia, on the Charleston and Western Carolina and the Columbia, Newberry and Laurens railroads. It is situated in an agricultural district, has cotton mills and a glass factory. Pop. 4,818.

LAURENT, Auguste, ō-güst lō-rŏn, French chemist: b. La Folie, Haute-Saône, 14 Nov. 1807; d. Paris, 15 April 1853. In 1838 he became professor to the Academy of Sciences of Bordeaux, which post he held for eight years. In 1848 he was made assayer to the mint and chemical adviser of the Minister of War. His researches were very numerous, embracing all departments of the science, organic and inorganic, and opening up new fields and new views. He was one of the champions of the unitary system against the dualistic held by most of the chemists of the time. He was opposed also to the electro-chemical theory, which his investigations into the derivatives of naphthaline did so much to shake, and maintained the doctrine of types-forms of constitution of bodies which admitted of parts being substituted by other elemental or compound substances without the type of the original body being altered. His views on general chemical theory appeared in a posthumous work entitled 'Méthode de chimie, translated into English by Odling, and published by the Cavendish Society, 1855.

LAURENTIAN (lâ-ren'shĭ-ān) MOUNTAINS, the crescent-shaped plateau-like height of land in British North America, extending for over 3,000 miles from Labrador to the Arctic Ocean, surrounding Hudson Bay, forming the watershed between Hudson Bay, the Saint Lawrence and the Great Lakes, and dividing the same bay from the sources of the Mackenzie River. The average elevation of this range is about 1,500 feet, while some_of the peaks attain a height of 3,000 feet. The system is remarkable for its number of lakes and sheets of water. The rock formation belongs to the sedimentary deposits known as the Laurentian system.

Sim

LAURENTIAN SYSTEM. The term Laurentian has been applied by certain Canadian geologists to a great series of rocks, partly of sedimentary and partly of igneous origin, that is typically developed on the Laurentian Hills north of the Saint Lawrence River. ilar rocks occur elsewhere along the Height of Land, from Labrador to the western end of Lake Superior. The rocks are of very ancient date, but the exact, significance of the term Laurentian as a time division or as a lithologic name is in dispute. The typical Laurentian includes a series of gneisses, mica, schists, quartzites and crystalline limestones with intrusive granites and green stones of the Archæan group, including also the Huronian. The total thickness may be 30,000 feet. By the United States Geological Survey, Laurentian is made an epoch of the Archæan period. During this epoch the Laurentian series of granite batholiths (q.v.) were intruded into the Keewatin (q.v.) series of greenstone schists (q.v.). The proper application of the term is in much dispute,

LAURIA, lou'rē-a (LURIA or LORIA) Ruggiero di, Spanish-Italian admiral: b. Castle of Lauria, Lauria, Basilicata, 13th century; d. Valencia, 2 Jan. 1305. Of his early life little is known. His father was an adherent of King Manfred of Sicily, and his mother, Bella of Lauria, accompanied Constanza, the daughter of Manfred, to Spain where she was married to Peter, son of James, conqueror of Aragon. Lauria was reared in the court of Aragon, and received estates in Valencia after the subjection of that kingdom, but little is known of his life until 1282, when he accompanied Peter III on his expedition to Sicily. The Sicilian revolt, known as the "Sicilian Vespers," had broken out against the ruler established by Charles of Anjou after the death of Manfred. Peter III claimed the kingdom by right of his wife as daughter and heiress of Manfred, and with the support of the Sicilian nobles. The expedition against the Anjou forces was successful and in 1283 Peter III was crowned king by the Sicilians. Lauria was thereupon made commander of the fleet, but while this first document concerning him refers to him in the highservices. As commander of the Aragon fleets, est terms it gives no clue to the nature of his Lauria in the succeeding 20 years proved himself one of the greatest naval commanders in history, his career recording continuous victories. He fought in both the south Italian waters and off the coast of Catalonia, his first recorded victory being that over the naval force of Charles of Anjou off Malta in 1283. His fleets were maintained in a high degree of efficiency, and his methods included the use of the ram and of powerful crossbows instead of depending, as did the French, upon boarding and hand-to-hand fighting. He won a decisive victory over the Angevin fleet in the Bay of Naples, 1284, capturing Charles of Salerno, heir to the kingdom, who continued for years a prisoner in Sicily and Spain. His most brilliant exploit was the defeat of the French fleet off Catalonia in 1285, which still ranks as a supreme achievement in naval history. The French king, Phillipe le Hardi. invaded Catalonia with the purpose of aiding his cousin, Charles of Anjou, in his effort to regain_Sicily. The invading army was supported by the French fleet off the coast, from which it drew reserves and supplies. Peter III summoned Lauria from the Sicilian coast, the commander reaching Barcelona 24 August. The nature of the French campaign necessitated the French fleet's being extended along the entire coast of the invaded territory, and while Lauria's fleet was greatly inferior in numbers his naval strategy was fully equal to the emergency. On 9 September at night he struck at the French centre near the Hormigas in full force and gained a complete victory. He then sailed for Rosas, induced the enemy fleet to come out by raising the French colors and visited upon it a defeat as crushing as the first blow upon the centre. The capture of the town followed, together with the stores massed there for the invading army. The retreat of King Phillipe soon followed, nearly his entire army being lost through hunger and the attacks of the mountaineers. The French naval power was so broken that it did not recover for many years, and Lauria returned to Sicily to resume command of King Peter's forces against those of Anjou.