y the guiding star
to Jesus. He was a king, who gave to his enemy who sought to
dethrone him half of his kingdom, and thus turned a foe into a fast
friend.--Klopstock, _The Messiah_, v. (1747).

BELERMA, the lady whom Durandarte served for seven years as a
knight-errant and peer of France. When, at length, he died at
Roncesvalles, he prayed his cousin Montesi'nos to carry his heart to
Belerma.

I saw a procession of beautiful damsels in mourning, with white
turbans on their heads. In the rear came a lady with a veil so long
that it reached the ground: her turban was twice as large as the
largest of the others; her eyebrows were joined, her nose was rather
flat, her mouth wide, but her lips of a vermilion color. Her teeth
were thin-set and irregular, though very white; and she carried in her
hand a fine linen cloth, containing a heart. Montesinos informed me
that this lady was Belerma.--Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, II. ii. 6
(1615).

BELE'SES (3 _syl_.), a Chaldaean soothsayer and Assyrian satrap, who
told Arba'ces (3 _syl_.) governor of Me'dia, that he would one day
sit on the throne of Nineveh and Assyria. His prophecy came true,
and Beleses was rewarded with the government of Babylon.--Byron,
_Sardanapalus_ (1819).

BEL'FIELD _(Brothers)._ The elder brother is a squire in Cornwall,
betrothed to Sophia (daughter of sir Benjamin Dove), who loves his
younger brother Bob. The younger brother is driven to sea by the
cruelty of the squire, but on his return renews his acquaintance
with Sophia. He is informed of her unwilling betrothal to the elder
brother, who is already married to Violetta, but parted from her.
Violetta returns home in the same ship as Bob Belfield, becomes
reconciled to her husband, and the younger brother marries
Sophia.--Rich. Cumberland, _The Brothers_ (1769).

BEL'FORD, a friend of Lovelace (2 _syl_.). They made a covenant
to pardon every sort of liberty which they took with each
other.--Richardson, _Clarissa Harlowe_ (1749).

_Belford (Major)_, the friend of colonel Tamper, and the plighted
hnsband of Mdlle. Florival.--G. Colman, sen., _The Deuce is in Him_
(1762).

BELGE (2 _syl_.), the mother of seventeen sons. She applied to queen
Mercilla for aid against Geryon'eo, who had deprived her of all her
offspring except five.--Spenser, _Faery Queen_, v. 10 (1596).

[Illustration] "Beige" is Holland, the "seventeen sons" are the
seventeen provinces which once belonged to her; "Geryoneo" is Phili