SAL
888
SAL
again appointed commander-in-chief. In his official capacity
he was one of the deputation sent to Turin to escort the present queen of Portugal to Lisbon, and shortly after his return was appointed ambassador to Rome (November, 1862).—F. M. W. SALE, George, the translator of the Koran into English, is said to have been a native of Kent, to have been born in 1680, and to have followed the profession of the law. Of his personal history little is known. In the Calamities of Authors, the elder D'Israeli, without quoting his authority, says of Sale:—"This great Orientalist, when he quitted his studies, too often wanted a change of linen, and often wandered in the streets in search of some compassionate friend who would supply him with the meal of the day." He contributed the articles in Oriental history to Dr. Birch's General Dictionary, and the Cosmogony, with a portion of the narrative following it, to the Universal History. His great work, however, was his translation of the Koran, with notes and an elaborate preliminary discourse, published in 1734: it has long been the standard English version of the sacred book of the Mahometans. He was one of the members of the Society for the Encouragement of Literature, to free authors from the tyranny of booksellers, founded in 1736, the year of his death. Warburton, writing of his death regretfully to Birch, says, that had Sale lived, "he would have proved the English Herbelot."—F. E. SALE, Sir Robert Henry, an illustrious British officer, who occupies a prominent place in the annals of Anglo-Indian warfare. He was born in 1782, and entered the army in 1795. Two years later he obtained a lieutenant's commission, took part in the battle of Mallavelly, and in the siege and storming of Seringapatam in 1799. He served with distinction in the campaign in the Uznaud country in 1801, was made captain in 1806 and major in 1813, was present at the storming of the Travancore lines in 1809, and at the capture of the Mauritius in 1816. When the Burmese war broke out in 1824 Major Sale took part in the siege of Rangoon, and displayed conspicuous valour at the storming of the stockades near Kemmendine. In the following year he was elevated to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was nominated a C.B. for his brilliant services at Prome and Malown. From this period until the commencement of the Affghan war he had little opportunity of acquiring distinction; but when in consequence of Lord Auckland's fatal policy hostilities were evidently impending, Sale was appointed to the command of the 1st Bengal brigade, and his troops formed the advance throughout the whole Affghanistan expedition. At the siege of Ghuznee, under Sir John Keane (25th June, 1839), Sale led the storming party, and was severely wounded. The capture of this strong fortress, which the Affghans regarded as impregnable, rescued the army from a very critical situation, and produced such an effect upon the enemy that they considered further resistance as useless. Shortly after Sale was raised to the rank of major-general, and was nominated a K.C.B. In September, 1840, he was sent at the head of a select body of infantry and cavalry to subdue the Kohistannees, a service which he performed with great skill and success. In October, 1841, he commanded the brigade which was despatched from Cabul to the provinces, in total ignorance on the part of his superior officers and the political agents in the Affghan capital of the real state of the country, or of the storm which was about to burst on them. Sir Robert, however, took every possible precaution, and by indomitable courage combined with skilful generalship cut his way through a hostile population, who seized every favourable opportunity for assailing him; stormed the famous Khoord Cabul pass, and other steep and almost impenetrable defiles; repeatedly routed the hordes of enemies who swarmed around his troops, forced their barricades and stormed their castles, and at length succeeded, though not without severe loss, in reaching Jellalabad, the winter residence of the kings of Cabul. Here Sale and his small but gallant force were closely besieged, from the 12th of November, 1841, till the 7th of April, 1842, by the insurgent Affghans. At length, after repelling every assault of their enemies, and bearing the severe privations and hardships of their situation with the greatest cheerfulness, the ammunition and provisions of this brave band began to fail. They therefore marched out of their entrenchments, attacked and completely defeated the besieging army, capturing their guns, ammunition, and camp. Sir Robert subsequently took part in the recapture of Cabul, and in the condign punishment which was inflicted upon the treacherous and cruel population, and was immediately afterwards rewarded for his brilliant services with the grand cross of the bath and the thanks of parliament. But he did not long enjoy his well won honours. He acted as quartermaster-general in the campaign against the Sikhs on the Sutlej, and was mortally wounded at the battle of Moodkee, 18th December, 1845. He was then in his sixty-fourth year. Lady Sale, who was a wife every way worthy of her heroic husband, fell into the hands of the Affghans along with her widowed daughter, Mrs. Sturt, but was rescued after a captivity of some months. Her Journal, which has been published, gives a deeply interesting account of the occurrences at Cabul, and of the treatment she and her fellow-captives experienced at the hands of Akbar Khan.—J. T. SALES, Francis de. See Francis de Sales. SALESBURY, William, a Welsh philologer of the sixteenth century, was born at Plasisav, Llanrwst, Denbighshire. He was educated at Broadgate hall, Oxford, and proceeded thence to Thave's inn, London, for the purpose of studying law. He appears to have devoted himself by preference to the acquisition of languages, of which he mastered nine, including Hebrew. To his skill as a Hebraist was due his appointment by the Welsh bishops to the charge of translating the New Testament into Welsh. The version of which he wrote the greater part was published in obedience to an act of parliament in 1567. Salesbury was interrupted in the task of translating the Old Testament, by a quarrel he had with Bishop Davies about the etymology of a word. He died between 1595 and the close of the century.—(Williams' Eminent Welshmen.)—R. H. SALIMBENI, Arcangiolo, a celebrated Italian painter, was born at Siena in 1536. He was a scholar, but not an imitator, of Federico Zuccari. His earlier pictures are marked by a dry precision of manner; his later are freer and bolder in style. Of this latter kind a Peter Martyr in the church of the Dominicans at Siena is considered to be the best example. Zani and other authorities say he died in 1583, but according to Lanzi he must have died in or before 1565, as his widow married again and had a son, Francesco Vanni, in that year.—J. T—e. SALIMBENI, Ventura, Cavaliere, born at Siena in 1557, was also called Bevilacqua, a name conferred on him, along with knighthood, by his patron, Cardinal Bevilacqua. Ventura was the son, and some say the pupil of Arcangiolo Salimbeni, but that seems incompatible with the date of the father's death given by Lanzi. Ventura travelled in Lombardy, and there studied the works of Correggio. He executed several frescoes in the churches and public buildings of Rome; and at Florence painted a series of the Life of the Virgin in the cloister of the Servi, and others in the cathedral of Pisa; in the churches of Pavia, Lucca, and Foligno; besides a great many at Siena. His manner resembled that of Baroccio. Lanzi speaks of Ventura and his father, Arcangiolo, as restorers of the school of Siena. But they lived in the decline of the school, and though clever painters, they did not arrest its decline. Ventura painted some ceilings with his half-brother, Francesco Vanni; he was assisted in painting his backgrounds by Agostino Tassi. Ventura has left a few spirited etchings. He died at Siena in 1613.—J. T—e. SALIERI, Antonio, chapel-master to the emperor of Austria at Vienna, was born at Legnano, a Venetian fortress, in the year 1750. At eleven years of age he began to learn the harpsichord; but his passion for music soon increased to such a degree that on the death of his father, who was an eminent merchant, and who died just as his son had attained his fifteenth year, the boy devoted himself entirely to the study of his favourite art. The patronage of Mozenigo, a Venetian nobleman, furnished him with an opportunity of resorting to that city to continue his studies, which he afterwards concluded at Naples. Giovanni Pescetti, a celebrated chapel-master at St. Mark, was his first master; after whose death he made choice of Pietro Passini. In 1766 he went to Vienna, and enjoyed the friendship of Gassman, whom he succeeded in the places of chapel-master to the court and theatre. The age and infirmities of Gluck disabling him from satisfying the continual demands of the public at Paris for new compositions for their theatres, Salieri, under the auspices of this great master, and with the assistance of his ideas as to the manner of treating the subject, composed the opera for him entitled "Les Danaides." Gluck assured him on this occasion that he was the only man that had ever been able to familiarize himself with his style. So completely did the imitation succeed, that it was supposed in Paris that Salieri had