VILLENEUVE, SILVESTRE, French admiral, born at Vilensoles, Basses-Alpes; entered the navy at 15, became captain at 30; commanded the rear at the battle of the Nile; was placed in command at Toulon, steered his fleet to the West Indies to draw Nelson off the shores of France, but was chased back by Nelson and blockaded in Cadiz to the defeat of Napoleon’s scheme for invading England, but felt constrained to risk a battle with the English admiral, which he did to his ruin at Trafalgar (1763-1806).

VILLEROI, DUC DE, marshal of France; was a courtier but no soldier, being defeated in Italy by Prince Eugene and at Ramillies by Marlborough; was guardian to Louis XV. (1644-1730).

VILLIERS, CHARLES PELHAM, reformer, brother of the Earl of Clarendon; bred to the bar; entered Parliament; M.P. for Wolverhampton, which he represented to the end; was an advocate from the first, and one of the sturdiest, for free trade and poor-law reform, and had a marble statue raised in his honour at Wolverhampton before his death (1802-1898).

VILLON, FRANCOIS, French poet, born in Paris; studied at the university, but led a singular life; had again and again to flee from Paris; was once condemned to death, but set free after a four years’ imprisonment into which the sentence was commuted; is the author of two poems, entitled the “Petit Testament” and the “Grand Testament,” with minor pieces bearing on the swindling tricks of Villon, the name he assumed, and his companions (1431-1485).

VINCENNES (24), an eastern suburb of Paris, in the famous Bois de Vincennes, which contains a large artillery park and training place for troops; it is a favourite resort for Parisians of the middle class.

VINCENT, ST., a Spanish martyr who in 304 was tortured to death; is represented with the instruments of his torture, a spiked gridiron for one, and a raven beside him such as drove away the beasts and birds of prey from his dead body.

VINCENT DE PAUL, ST., a Romish priest, born in Gascony, of humble parents; renowned for his charity; he founded the congregation of the Sisters of Charity, and that of the Priests of the Missions, afterwards called Lazarites, from the priory of St. Lazare, where they first established themselves, and instituted the Foundling Hospital in Paris; he was canonised by Pope Clement XII. in 1737 (1576-1660).

VINDHYA MOUNTAINS, a range of hills, 500 m. in length, forming the N. scarp of the plateau of the Deccan in India, the highest peak of which does not exceed 6000 ft.

VINEGAR BIBLE, an edition of the Bible printed at Oxford, in which the page containing the “Parable of the Vineyard” in Luke xx. was headed “Parable of the Vinegar.”

VINEGAR HILL, a hill (385 ft.) near Enniscorthy, co.  Wexford, Ireland, where General Lake defeated the Irish rebels on June 21, 1798, to the utter annihilation then and after of almost every man of them.

VINET, ALEXANDRE RODOLPHE, a Protestant theologian, born near Lausanne, where he studied and ultimately became professor of Practical Theology; was a zealous defender of the liberty of conscience and of the freedom of the Church from State connection and control; he was a litterateur as well as an able and eloquent divine (1797-1847).