in which Mary Queen of Scots was long confined, and was beheaded 8th Feb. 1587, is situated in Northamptonshire, 3½ miles N.N.E. of Oundle. It was demolished by order of her son, James I. of England.

FOUCHÉ, JOSEPH, Duke of Otranto, minister of police under Napoleon, was born at Nantes in 1763. In the oratoire of that city where he was educated he distinguished himself by his proficiency in the various departments of study, and on leaving it taught successively in the colleges of Juilly, Arras, and Vendome. The outbreak of the Revolution found him settled quietly in his native town, practising as an advocate. In 1792 he was returned to the National Convention as member for the department of Loire Inferieure, and in this capacity voted for the death of the king, without the right of appeal to the people. Having earned the character of a zealous republican by his conduct at Nièvre, where he suppressed public worship, plundered the churches, imprisoned the priests, and decreed materialism by inscribing over the entrance to the town cemetery, "La mort est un Sommeil éternel." Fouché was associated with Collot d'Hérbois in that frightful mission which razed Lyons to the ground, and deluged the south of France with blood. On his return to Paris he was made president of the Jacobin Club, though he was shortly afterwards expelled from it altogether by the intrigues of Robespierre. Fouché avenged this disgrace by doing his best to bring about the downfall and death of Robespierre; but he was himself seized and imprisoned as a dangerous terrorist; and Fougasse though he was released under the act of general amnesty in 1795, yet, finding his enemies become more numerous and powerful, he judged it prudent to retire for a while into the obscurity of private life. In 1796 he was engaged in the public service in Italy; and on returning home was appointed to the ministry of police, a situation for which he was eminently qualified by his unscrupulous boldness, his matchless cunning, and his capacity for intrigue. Having assisted Bonaparte in his rise, he was continued in office, and contrived to stand well both with that conqueror and with the royalists, whom he frequently screened from Napoleon's vengeance. In the foreign wars of the emperor, Fouché's system of espionage preserved the internal tranquility of France. Sometimes, as in the case of the English expedition against Holland in 1809, he acted with an independent boldness that accorded very ill with the dictatorial mind of his master. On that occasion he called forth the national guard; and in his address to them said, "Let us show Napoleon that his presence is not indispensable for the repulsion of the enemies of France." Napoleon both hated and feared him, but wisely consulted his own interests in employing and promoting him. In 1809 Fouché was made Duke of Otranto, but was obliged in that year to retire into the country for a time. In 1810 he was made governor of Rome, and in 1813 of the Illyrian provinces, and afterwards of Naples. During the Hundred Days he resumed his old functions of minister of police, and after Waterloo strongly urged Napoleon to abdicate, while he secured his own interest with the Bourbons at Ghent. His services were retained for a while by Louis XVIII.; but in 1816 he shared the fate of the surviving revolutionists who had voted for the death of Louis XVI., was banished from France, and deprived of his estates. He died at Trieste in 1820, leaving behind him an enormous fortune. His memoirs, which were published in France in 1824, were not acknowledged by his sons; but there are good reasons for believing them to be authentic. Various attempts have been made to defend the character of Fouché, but with very indifferent success. The best thing that can be alleged in his favour is, that he does not appear to have been a coward. It is to be doubted if the French Revolution produced a worse man than Fouché. He was only less bloodthirsty than Collot d'Hérbois, and less of a hypocrite than Barrère. In cunning and the unscrupulous abuse of great power, a parallel, or even a second to him is not to be found in these disjointed times. In such a man it would be too much to look for honesty of purpose or single-heartedness of aim, and accordingly we find him, though fulfilling his official duties as they never were fulfilled before or since, animated throughout his whole career solely by the principle of an ambitious self-interest. He succeeded so well, that it may be doubted if even Napoleon himself exercised a more despotic power in France during the period of his reign than did his formidable minister of police. Much light is thrown on Fouché's character, and the hidden workings of his political machinery, in the Témoignages Historiques, ou quinze ans de haute police sous Napoléon, par Desmarets.