c o u . 
■ is his picture of the laft judgment: it is in the fieri fly 
of the Minims at Bois de Vincennes, and was graved by 
Peter de Tode, a Fleming. This picture thews the fruit- 
fulnefs of Coulin’s genius, by the number of the figures 
that enter into the competition. His learning acquired 
him the name of the Great. He was well received at 
court, and in favour with four kings fucceflively; namely, 
Henry II. Francis II. Charles IX. and Henry III. He 
fometimes worked in fculpture, and made admiral Cha,_ 
hot’s tomb, which is in the chapel of Orleans, belonging 
to the Celeftines in Paris. He died about the year 1689. 
COUSSAY', a town of France, in the department of 
the Vienne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt of 
Loudun : three leagues and a half fouth-fouth-eaft of 
London. . 
COUSSER'GUES, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Aveiron, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftricl of Severac-le-Chateau: twenty miles fouth-eaft 
of Rhodez. 
COUS'SEY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Vofges, and chief place of a canton, in the di drift of 
Neufchateau : one league north of Neufchateau. 
COUSSON', a river of France, which runs into the 
Loire, near Blois. 
COUSTOU' (Nicolas), an eminent fculptor, born at 
Lyons in 1658, and died at Paris in May 17 33, aged feventy- 
five, member of the royal academy of painting and fculp¬ 
ture. He went to Italy as penfionary of the French king. 
It was there he produced his fine-ftutuc of the emperor 
Commodus, reprefented under the character of Hercules, 
forming one of the ornaments of the gardens of Verfailles. 
On his return to France, he decorated Paris, Verfailles, 
and Marly, with feveral pieces of exquifite workman- 
fhip. The group at the back of the high-altar of Notre 
Dame de Paris is by him, as well as the two groups at 
Marly, reprefenting two horfes tamed by grooms. In 
all his productions he difplays an elevated genius, a ju¬ 
dicious and delicate talte, a fine feleCtion, a chaite de- 
fign ; natural, pathetic, and noble, attitudes; and his dra¬ 
peries are rich, elegant, and mellow. 
COUSTOU' (William), brother of the foregoing, and 
direftor of the royal academy of painting and fculpture, 
died at Paris, 2 2d of February 1746, at tire age of fixty- 
nine, made himfeif not lefs famous by the number and 
perfection of his works. He mult not be miftaken for 
the William Couftou, who died at Paris in 1746, aged 
Tixty-eight, known for his maufoleum of the cardinal 
Dubois in the collegiate church of St. Honore ; and the 
two groups of managed horfes at Marly, &c. 
COUSTOU' (William), born at Paris in 1716, was fon 
of the laft-mentioned, and fucceeded to his talents, which 
he improved at Rome. On his return to France, where, 
■previous to his departure for Italy, he had carried off 
the prize for fculpture at the age of nineteen, he foon 
found hii chiffel employed by great princes. He was en¬ 
gaged to make the maufoleum of the dauphin, father to 
Louis XVI. and his illuftrious confort ; a monument 
which embelliflies the cathedral of Sens. It was juft 
finifhed when its author was fnatched off by death, in 
July 1777, in the fixty-firft year of his age. His other 
performances are, the apotheofis of St. Francis Xavier, 
which he executed in marble for the jefuits of Bour- 
deaux ; an Apollo placed at Bellevue ; Venus and Mars, 
which the king of Pruflia bought as. an ornament to his 
gallery at Berlin. His Venus is particularly confpicuous 
for the grace, the precilion, and the dignity, of its form. 
COUTAHOU', a town cf Alia, in the country of Thi¬ 
bet : twenty-five miles eaft of Manas-Hotun. 
COUTAN'CES, a city of France, and capital of the 
department of the Channel; before the revolution, the 
feat of a governor, and fee of a bifhop. The principal 
trade is in grain, butter, and cattle. There are manu¬ 
factures of woollen and linen cloth. The number of in¬ 
habitants are about five thoufand : eleven leagues well- 
fouth-weft of Bayeux. Lat. 49. 3. N. Ion. 16. 9. E. Ferro. 
C 0 U 307 
COUTER'NE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Orne : three leagues and a half fouth-eaft of 
Domfront. 
COUTHON' (George), a principal mover in the French 
revolution, native of Ofary, in the department of the 
Puy de Dome, for which department he was defied a 
reprefentative to the convention. The firft time he dif- 
tinguilhed himfeif in the fenate, was,-in the proceedings 
againft the twenty-one deputies, o’n whom his invectives* 
fell tvith conliderable weight. He was the more attended 
to by the whole alfembly from the circumftance of his 
being allowed to fpeak in his feat, being a cripple from 
his infancy. When, therefore, he wilhed to deliver an 
opinion, a member near him always addrefted the preli- 
dent, faying, “ Couthon defires to fpeak and he was, 
perhaps, the only member who never experienced any 
interruption. The flattering approbation bellowed noon 
him by the minority, for his reproaches of the Girondins, 
marked him out to Robefpierre as a fit perlori to intereft 
in his defigns, which were to deftroy all thofe men wliofe 
exiftence he conceived menaced his own. From the dupe, 
Couthon, in a Ihort time, became the abfolute creature 
of Robefpierre ; fo that, when the latter had any daring 
or odious meafure to propofe to the legiflature, the for¬ 
mer was thought the fitted organ to communicate it. 
By viewing the conduft of this man in the latter part of 
his life only, it might eafily be conceived that he was 
by nature cruel, like Sylla the Roman. This, however, 
was not the cafe ; for, till he had been corrupted by evil 
communication, he was admired for the amiablenefs of 
his manners. His countenance was animated, denoted 
great fufeeptibility, and, at the fame time, gave figns 
of unufual benignity. He enlifted under Robefpierre, 
as Lucius Cornelius did under Marius; and, by the in- 
ftrudion of that infidious mailer, was qualifying apace 
to put as many of his fellow-creatures to death, by the 
defpotifm of the law, as thofe fanguinary generqls had 
done by the edge of the fword. The eighth Thermidor, 
in the fecond year of the republic, decided the fate of 
the ufurpers; yet, had any one of them po He fled the 
courage and prefence of mind of a Cromwell, he might 
have triumphed over the convention, and have attained 
fupreme power. Couthon was refeued from the Luxem¬ 
bourg prifon, to which he had been committed ; but it 
was impoflible that every movement concerning him 
fhould not be made public, fince the diftorted condition 
of his frame made it neceflary that he fliould be carried 
from place to place in men’s arms. In the laft defenfive 
ftruggle, the imbecility of Couthon’s mind appeared as 
confpicuous as that of his body. He was feized in a 
clofet, in the Maifon de,Vjlle, drowned in tears, with a 
knife in his hand, an inftrument he had procured with a 
view of having him from ignominioufly perilhing by 
the guillotine, but which he had not courage to ufe. 
The horror of his execution was increafed by the dif¬ 
ficulty of attaching him to the moving plank of the mur¬ 
derous inftrument. The executioner was compelled, at 
laft, to lay him on his fide, to receive the llroke of the 
axe ; Inch was the frightful contraction of his lower 
limbs. This Ihocking ceremony took up twice the time 
occupied in difpatching the other feven fufferers. 
COUTHUT'LAUGH, f. [from the Saxon cooth, 
knowing, and urlaugh, optlaw.J A ,perfon who wit¬ 
tingly receives a man outlawed, and cheriflies or conceals 
him ; for which offence he was in ancient times fubjecfc 
to the fame punifhment with the outlaw himfeif. 
COUTOUBE'A,/ in botany. See Picrium. 
COUTOUCTOU'-HOTUN, a town of Chinefe Tar¬ 
tary : 225 miles eaft of Pekin. Lat. 40. 28. N. Ion. 129- 
9. E. Ferro. 
COU'TRA-LOUGH, a lake of Ireland, in the county 
of Galway : three miles fouth-eaft of Gort. 
COUTRA'S, a town of France, in the department of 
the Gironde, and chief place of a canton, in the diftricl of 
I.ibourn, fituated at the conflux of the 1 lie and Drome, 
containing 
