LAVAUR, a town of France, capital of a cognominal arrondissement in the department of Tarn, stands on the left bank of the Agout, here crossed by a handsome bridge, 25 miles S.W. of Alby. In the thirteenth century it was a stronghold of the Albigenes, but was taken in 1211, after a vigorous resistance, by Simon de Montfort, who massacred the inhabitants without distinction of age or sex. Lavaur has a communal college, public library, and 7113 inhabitants, chiefly employed in the manufacture of silk serge, hosiery, cotton yarn, and leather. It is the entrepôt for the silks of Upper Languedoc.