me method, and probably derived it from the Greeks; in the palaces at
Crete, however, light-wells would seem to have been employed.

CLERFAYT (or CLAIRFAYT), FRANCOIS SEBASTIEN CHARLES JOSEPH DE CROIX,
COUNT OF (1733-1798), Austrian field marshal, entered the Austrian army
in 1753. In the Seven Years' War he greatly distinguished himself,
earning rapid promotion, and receiving the decoration of the order of
Maria Theresa. At the conclusion of the peace, though still under
thirty, he was already a colonel. During the outbreak of the Netherlands
in 1787, he was, as a Walloon by birth, subjected to great pressure to
induce him to abandon Joseph II., but he resisted all overtures, and in
the following year went to the Turkish war in the rank of lieutenant
field marshal. In an independent command Clerfayt achieved great
success, defeating the Turks at Mehadia and Calafat. In 1792, as one of
the most distinguished of the emperor's generals, he received the
command of the Austrian contingent in the duke of Brunswick's army, and
at Croix-sous-Bois his corps inflicted a reverse on the troops of the
French revolution. In the Netherlands, to which quarter he was
transferred after Jemappes, he opened the campaign of 1793 with the
victory of Aldenhoven and the relief of Maestricht, and on March 18th
mainly brought about the complete defeat of Dumouriez at Neerwinden.
Later in the year, however, his victorious career was checked by the
reverse at Wattignies, and in 1794 he was unsuccessful in West Flanders
against Pichegru. In the course of the campaign Clerfayt succeeded the
duke of Saxe-Coburg in the supreme command, but was quite unable to make
head against the French, and had to recross the Rhine. In 1795, now
field marshal, he commanded on the middle Rhine against Jourdan, and
this time the fortune of war changed. Jourdan was beaten at Hoechst and
Mainz brilliantly relieved. But the field marshal's action in concluding
an armistice with the French not being approved by Thugut, he resigned
the command, and became a member of the Aulic Council in Vienna. He died
in 1798. A brave and skilful soldier, Clerfayt perhaps achieved more
than any other Austrian commander (except the archduke Charles) in the
hopeless struggle of small dynastic armies against a "nation in arms."

See von Vivenot, _Thugut, Clerfayt, und Wuermser_ (Vienna, 1869).

CLERGY (M.E. _clergie_, O. Fr. _clergie_, from Low Lat. form _clericia_
[Skeat],