ophagi, with the subdistricts Kasrkand,
Geh, Bint, Dasht, Kucheh and Bahu. The total population of Baluchistan is
under 200,000. The province was practically independent until the
occupation of Bampur by Persian troops in 1849, and over some of the
extreme eastern districts Persian supremacy was not recognized until 1872.

BALUE, JEAN (_c._ 1421-1491), French cardinal and minister of Louis XI.,
was born of very humble parentage at Angle in Poitou, and was first
patronized by the bishop of Poitiers. In 1461 he became vicar-general of
the bishop of Angers. His activity, cunning and mastery of intrigue gained
him the appreciation of Louis XI., who made him his almoner. In a short
time Balue became a considerable personage. In 1465 he received the
bishopric of Evreux; the king made him _le premier du grant conseil_, and,
in spite of his dissolute life, obtained for him a cardinalate (1468). But
in that year Balue was compromised in the king's humiliation by Charles the
Bold at Peronne and excluded from the council. He then intrigued with
Charles against his master: their secret correspondence was intercepted,
and on the 23rd of April 1469 Balue was thrown into prison, where he
remained eleven years, but not, as has been alleged, in an iron cage. In
1480, through the intervention of Pope Sixtus IV., he was set at liberty,
and from that time lived in high favour at the court of Rome. He received
the bishopric of Albano and afterwards that of Palestrina. In 1484 he was
even sent to France as legate _a latere_. He died at Ancona in 1491.

See Henri Forgeot, "Jean Balue, cardinal d'Angers" (1895), in the
_Bibliotheque de l'ecole des hautes etudes_.

BALUSTER (through the Fr. from the Ital. _balaustro_, so-called from a
supposed likeness to the flower of the [Greek: balaustion], or wild
pomegranate; the word has been corrupted in English into "banister"), a
small moulded shaft, square or circular, in stone or wood and sometimes in
metal, supporting the coping of a parapet or the rail of a staircase, an
assemblage of them being known as a balustrade. The earliest examples are
those shown in the bas-reliefs representing the Assyrian palaces, where
they were employed as window balustrades and apparently had Ionic capitals.
They do not seem to have been known to either the Greeks or the Romans, but
early examples are found in the balconies in the palaces at Venice and
Verona. In the hands of the Italian revivalists they became featur