onspicuous figure all through the French
Revolution, the Consulate, and the Empire, who thought in his simplicity
that the salvation of France and the world at large depended on sound
political institutions, in the drafting of which he spent his life; was
born in Frejus, of the bourgeois class; represented Paris in the States
General; sat in the Centre in the Legislative Assembly; renounced the
Christian religion in favour of the Goddess of Reason; projected a
constitution which was rejected; supported Napoleon; fled to Belgium on
the return of the Bourbons, and returned to France in 1830, by which time
he was politically defunct (1748-1836).

SIGISMUND, emperor of Germany, son of the Emperor Charles IV., was
markgrave of Brandenburg, king of Hungary, and palatine of the Rhine;
struggled hard to suppress the Hussites; held the Council of Constance,
and gave HUSS (q. v.) a safe-conduct to his doom; he is the
"Super Grammaticam" of Carlyle's "Frederick" (1362-1437).

SIGISMUND is the name of three kings of Poland, the last of whom
died in 1632.

SIGNORELLI, LUCA, the precursor of Michael Angelo in Italian art,
born at Cortona; studied at Arezzo under Piero della Francesca, and
became distinguished for the accurate anatomy of his figures and for the
grandeur and originality of design exhibited in his admirable frescoes of
religious subjects at Loretto, Orvieto, and elsewhere (1441-1525).

SIGOURNEY, MRS., American authoress, was a prolific writer; wrote
tales, poems, essays, chiefly on moral and religious subjects; was called
the American Hemans (1791-1863).

SIGURD. See SIEGFRIED.

SIKHS (lit. disciples), a native religious and military community,
scattered, to the number of nearly two millions, over the Punjab, and
forming some fifteen States dependent on the Punjab government; founded
(1469) by Baber Nanak as a religious monotheistic sect purified from the
grosser native superstitions and practices; was organised on a military
footing in the 17th century, and in the 18th century acquired a
territorial status, ultimately being consolidated in to a powerful
military confederacy by Ranjit Singh, who, at the beginning of the 19th
century, extended his power over a wider territory. In 1845-46 they
crossed their E. boundary, the Sutlej, and invaded English possessions,
but were defeated by Gough and Hardinge, and had to cede a considerable
portion of their territory; a second war in 1848-49 ended in the
ann