DESEADA DESMOULINS. 



653 



the male heirs. But the laws of England respecting 

 personal estate, make no distinction on account of the 

 sex of the heirs. 



DESEADA, DESIRADA, or DESIDERADA ; 

 the first of the Caribbee islands discovered by 

 Columbus in the year 1494 ; is about ten miles long, 

 and hardly five broad. It belongs to France. The 

 soil is, in some places, black and good ; in others, 

 sandy and unproductive ; 16 miles E. Guadeloupe ; 

 Ion. 61 15' W. ; lat. 16 3(X N. : population, about 

 1000. 



DESERTER ; a soldier who quits his regiment 

 without leave. If an armed soldier deserts a post 

 where he is placed on duty, the offence, we believe, 

 in all armies is punished with death ; but simple 

 desertion, not. In the British army, however, death 

 is the punishment for desertion in any shape, although 

 it is seldom inflicted, except in extreme cases ; the 

 general punishment being personal flagellation or 

 banishment. 



DESFONTAINES, PIERRE FRANCOIS GUYOT, 

 abbe, born at Rouen, in 1685, died at Paris, in 1745, 

 was one of those French literati who are known to us 

 more from their controversies with Voltaire, and his 

 biting attacks, than from their own productions. 

 Voltaire, by the superiority of his wit, succeeded in 

 gaining many to his opinions ; but impartial judges 

 have long agreed, that he was not altogether correct, 

 and that the criticisms of the abbe Desfontaines, 

 though severe, are by no means unjust. One of the 

 works of the abbe, which had the misfortune to ex- 

 cite the particular displeasure of the poet, was the 

 well known Dictionnaire Neologigue, of which the 

 sixth edition appeared in 1750 (Amsterdam and 

 Leipsic), and whicii was intended to guard the purity 

 of the French language, as the great writers of the 

 seventeenth century had formed it ; and, in this re- 

 spect, it has certainly proved of much service. 



DESHOULIERES, ANTOINETTE ; a French lady of 

 much literary reputation. Her maiden name was 

 Du Ligier de Lagarde. She lived at Paris from 1638 

 till 1694. With a prepossessing appearance she com- 

 bined a distinguished talent for light and agreeable 

 poetry, which she cultivated under the direction of the 

 poet Hainault. She was acquainted with the Latin, 

 Spanish, and Italian languages, and studied philoso- 

 phy in her later years, during which she had to en- 

 dure continual sickness. Voltaire was of opinion, 

 that of all the French poets of her sex, she had the 

 greatest merit. Several learned societies elected her 

 ii member, and her agreeable manner, her animation 

 and wit, which sometimes, but rarely, gave way to 

 a gentle melancholy, made her the centre of attrac- 

 tion in the best societies at that period. For reasons 

 unknown to us, she was imprisoned, in February, 

 1658, at Brussels, by the Spaniards ; but her hus- 

 band, an officer, procured her deliverance. Her 

 works appeared, together with those of her daughter 

 Antoinette Therese (died 1718), who also devoted 

 herself to poelry, but with less success, at Paris, in 

 1753, 2 vpls., 12mo, and at Brussels, in 1740, 2 

 vols. , under the title CEuvres de Madame et de Made- 

 moiselle Deshoulieres. They contain, 1. pastoral 

 poems, which may still be numbered amongst the 

 best French works of the kind (the finest of these, 

 however, Les Moutons, is taken, nearly word for 

 word, from a poem of Antoine Cotel or Coutel, and 

 madame Deshoulteres has only the merit of having 

 modernized the old style and expression) ; 2. odes, 

 which are, in general, very poor; 3. a tragedy, 

 Genserich, in which so little talent was displayed, 

 that she was advised, according to the French pro- 

 verb, revenir a sea Moutons ; 4. poetical letters ; 5. 

 madrigals, epigrams, and small poems, of which some 

 are full of excellent and witty remarks, which have 



become proverbial from their truth. Frederic II. 

 had a selection of her poems published together with 

 Chalieu's, under the title Choix des meilteures Pieces 

 de Madame Deshoulieres et de VAbbe de Chaulieu 

 (Berlin, 1777). This selection is little known. 



DESIGN, in painting; the first plan of a large 

 work, drawn roughly, and on a small scale .with the 

 intention of being executed and finished in large. 

 See Drawing, 



In music, design means the invention and execu- 

 tion of the subject in all its parts, agreeably to the 

 general order of the whole. 



In manufactures, design expresses the figures with 

 which the workman enriches his stuff or silk, and 

 which he copies after his own drawing, or the 

 sketches of some artist. 



In building, the term ichnography may be used, 

 when by design is only meant the plan of a building, 

 or a flat figure drawn on paper ; when some side or 

 face of the building is raised from the ground, we 

 may use the term orthography ; and when both front 

 and sides are seen in perspective, it may be termed 



DESMOLOGY (from the Greek lurpos, a liga- 

 ment, and Xoyof) ; that branch of anatomy which 

 treats of the ligaments and sinews. See Anatomy. 



DESMOULIMS, BENOIT CAMILLE, born in 1762, 

 was conspicuous during the first period of the French 

 revolution. His exterior was mean ; he was of a 

 dark complexion, and repulsive expression. From 

 the commencement of the revolution he was connect- 

 ed with Robespierre, with whom he had studied at col- 

 lege. From the secret meetings which he had at 

 Mousseaux with the duke of Orleans, it may be in- 

 ferred that he was, at first, only the agent of this 

 prince. He chose the palais royal for the usual 

 scene of his citizen-apostleship, and was constantly 

 seen there surrounded by many orators, who, with him, 

 prepared the plan for the taking of the Bastile. After 

 this first triumph, he endeavoured to excite the minds 

 of the people by his orations or his publications, and 

 called himself procureur-gen eral de la lanterne. He 

 then became one of the founders of the club of the 

 Cordeliers, connected himself intimately with Dan- 

 ton, and remained faithful to him. On the flight 

 of Louis XVI. to Varennes, he was one of the insti- 

 gators of the assembly of the champ de Mars. He 

 was particularly active in the tumult of June 20 

 1792, and on the 10th of August. About this time 

 he was secretary to the minister of justice, Danton, 

 and prepared with him the scenes of September. As 

 deputy of Paris, in the national convention, he de- 

 fended the duke of Orleans, December 16. Janu- 

 ary 16, 1793, he gave his vote for the death of 

 Louis XVI. His friendship for Danton was the 

 cause of his fall. Robespierre, at the head of the 

 committee of public safety, was making rapid pro- 

 gress towards tyranny. Danton, assisted by the 

 leaders of the Cordeliers, intended to resist this com- 

 mittee, and C ami lie commenced the attack in his 

 journal Le Fieux Cordelier, in which he declared 

 himself against the terrorists, and even made use of 

 the word clemency (clemence). Upon this, he was, 

 at the instigation of St Just, whom Camille had also 

 attacked in his journals, imprisoned on the night of 

 the 31st of May, 1794, together with those who were 

 called his accomplices, brought before the revolu- 

 tionary tribunal, June 4, and condemned to death, 

 " because he had dishonoured the revolutionary sys- 

 tem, and had attempted to re-establish monarchy." 

 June 5, he was taken, after a violent struggle, to 

 the place of execution. His wife, whom he adored . 

 and who returned his affection, a beautiful, coura-: 

 geous and spirited woman, desired to share her hus- 

 band's fate. Robespierre ordered her to the scaffold 



