LION (2)

Li″on, n. — Lion of Lucerne, a famous sculptured lion at Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Thorwaldsen and dedicated in 1821 as a memorial to the Swiss Guards who fell defending Louis XVI. in the attack of the mob on the Tuileries, Aug. 10, 1792. The animal, which is hewn out of the face of a rock, is represented as transfixed with a broken spear and dying, but still trying to protect with its paw a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis of France. — Lion of St. Mark, a winged lion, the emblem of the evangelist Mark, especially that of bronze surmounting a granite column in the Piazzetta at Venice, and holding in its fore paws an open book representing St. Mark's Gospel. — Lion of the North, Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632), King of Sweden, the hero of the Protestant faith in the Thirty Years' War.