75S 



DUROC DUTENS 



hand, with several Turks. The army, seeing him 

 di-apj>ear in a lower which was defended with 

 great fury, gave him up for lost, but soon received 

 him with shouts on seeing him appear on the top, 

 master of the tower and of the ramparts. After 

 having distinguished himself, on several occasions, 

 iM-fore St Jean d'Acre, he was severely wounded by 

 the bursting of a howitzer, in one of the last assaults 

 nuule during the siege, the most bloody and obstinate 

 in the military annals of France. He distinguished 

 himself no less at the battle of Aboukir. Being 

 named chief of brigade, he accompanied general 

 Bonaparte on his return to France ; he was almost 

 the only aid-de-camp of the commander-in-chief who 

 survived the expedition : four had been killed in the 

 campaign. Duroc took part in the events of the 

 eighteenth Brumaire, and, a few days after, was sent 

 to the court of Berlin, where he was received with 

 great distinction. This embassy contributed to pre- 

 serve the peace between these two countries. 



War continuing between France and Austria, the 

 first consul set out on the campaign, which was ter- 

 minated at Marengo. Duroc accompanied him as 

 first aid-de-camp. His name is honourably men- 

 tioned in the account of the passage of the Ticino, 

 where he was one of the first to leap into a boat, at 

 the head of the grenadiers. After the peace of 

 Amiens, he was sent, on diplomatic missions, to the 

 courts of St Petersburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. 

 On his return, lie was promoted to the rank of general 

 of brigade and governor of the Tuileries ; and, on the 

 9th Fructidor, year X. he was made general of divi- 

 sion. When the first consul assumed the title of em- 

 peror, he made Duroc grand marshal of the palace. 

 The courtier and favourite never ceased to be a sol- 

 dier. He accompanied Napoleon in all his cam- 

 paigns. In 1805, he was charged with a mission to 

 the Prussian court, at the time when Napoleon was 

 inarching against Vienna. He rejoined the army 

 previously to the battle of Austerlitz, and took the 

 command of the division of grenadiers, which had 

 been left without a head, in consequence of the wound 

 of Oudinot. At the battle of Austerlitz, he also com- 

 manded a division of this chosen corps. During the 

 campaign in Prussia, in 1806, Duroc was commis- 

 sioned to sign the treaty of peace with the king of 

 Saxony ; and, at a later period, he was the principal 

 negotiator of the armistice which preceded the peace 

 of Tilsit. He followed Napoleon to Spain, and dur- 

 ing the campaign of Wagram. At the battle of Ess- 

 lingen, he arranged and directed his batteries in such 

 a way as to arrest the progress of the enemy in a 

 decisive movement. After the battle of Znaym, Na- 

 poleon sent him to the archduke Cliarles, to nego- 

 tiate an armistice. On the return from the Russian 

 campaign, in 1812, Duroc reorganized the imperial 

 guard, which, at this time, and on several other oc- 

 casions, he commanded. Before his last departure 

 for the army, he was appointed senator. Duroc fin- 

 ally followed Napoleon to Germany, in 1813, and was 

 killed, May 23, after the battle of Lutzen, on entering 

 the village of Merkersdorf, by a ball, which also 

 killed general Kirschner, with whom he was convers- 

 ing behind the emperor. This ball was the last which 

 fell on that day ; and the piece from which it was 

 discharged, was at so great a distance, and surround- 

 ed by so many obstacles, that it is inconceivable how 

 it could have reached the place. Napoleon visited 

 Duroc on his death-bed, and mingled tears with his 

 farewell. He lost in him a true counsellor, a faithful 

 friend, and one of his bravest officers. The deaths of 

 the duke of Friuli and of the duke of Montebello are 

 the two .events on which Napoleon showed the great- 

 est sensibility. Successively charged with the most 

 important dutie?, military and political, the duke of 



Friuli was ever remarkable for a moderation rare In 

 a soldier, for ability, disinterestedness, modesty, firm- 

 ness, and a presence of mind which never deserted 

 him. For fifteen years, he was the confidant and 

 friend of that extraordinary man. When Napoleon 

 left France, in 1815, and embarked on board the Bel- 

 lerophon, he wished to live in England, under the 

 name of colonel Duroc. Seven years afterwards, we 

 have another proof of the constant and affectionate 

 remembrance which Napoleon retained of him. He 

 left to his daughter one of the largest legacies be- 

 queathed by his will. 



DUSSELDORF ; capital of the government of 

 Dusseldorf, in the Prussian province of Juliers-Cleves- 

 Berg, formerly the capital of the duchy of Berg, si- 

 tuated in a beautiful plain on the Rhine and the Dus- 

 sel, which unite under its walls. It was bombarded 

 by the French in 1794, and the castle and many of 

 the finest buildings were destroyed. The town is one 

 of the finest on the Rhine ; some of the streets are 

 regularly laid out ; the houses are of brick. It con- 

 tains 2200 houses and 26,600 inhabitants, and is di- 

 vided into the Old Town, New Town, and Charles's 

 Town. The New Town was built by the elector 

 John William. The buildings resemble palaces, and 

 the principal street is adorned with lime-trees. 

 Charles's Town owes its existence to the elector 

 Charles Theodore, from whom it derives its name. 

 It has recently been much embellished, and contains 

 several spacious squares. The collegiate church, and 

 principal parochial church, which contains the tombs 

 of the ancient dukes of Juliers and Berg (among 

 which the marble mausoleum of the duke John is 

 distinguished), deserve mention. The Jesuits' church, 

 which is, however, too much ornamented ; the bronze 

 statue, by Crepello, of the elector John William (a 

 great patron of the arts, to whom Dusseldorf was in. 

 debted for its prosperity), which stands in the mar- 

 keUplace, and a marble statue of the same elector, by 

 the same artist, in the yard of the castle (the beauti- 

 ful castle itself is in ruins) ; the observatory, in wliat 

 was formerly the Jesuits' college, and the fine scien- 

 tific apparatus, are also worthy of attention. The 

 gallery of paintings, containing the richest collection 

 of the works of Rubens, and other great artists of the 

 Dutch and Flemish schools, and formerly the chief 

 ornament of Dusseldorf, has been removed to Mun- 

 ich ; only the valuable collection, containing 14,241 

 original designs, 23,445 copperplates and casts in 

 plaster, is still retained for the use of the academy of 

 arts at Dusseldorf. The town has some important 

 silk and cotton manufactories and sugar refineries, 

 with glass founderies and vinegar and soap manufac- 

 tories. Dusseldorf is one of the principal commercial 

 towns on the Rhine. 



DUTCH LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, 

 SCHOOLS OF ART, &c. See Holland. 



DUTENS, Louis, born at Tours, 1730, of Protest- 

 ant parents, died in London, 1812. At the time of 

 his death, which happened at an advanced age, he 

 was historiographer to the king of England, and mem- 

 ber of the academy of sciences in London, and of the 

 Paris academy of inscriptions. Being convinced, by 

 some unsuccessful attempts in tragedy, that he had 

 no genius for poetry, he obtained, with some difficul- 

 ty, the place of a tutor. He became the friend of 

 many distinguished men, who enriched him \\itli 

 pensions, benefices, and legacies. He was three 

 times British charge d'affaires to Turin, travelled 

 through Europe several times, and formed an ac- 

 quaintance with many of the learned men in different 

 parts of the continent. His works have been often 

 republished, and show the variety of his learning, 

 refined by intercourse with the polite world. He 

 published the works of Leibnitz, at Geneva, in six 



