82 * C H A 
an ob'fcure Informer was found to denounce him, and 
Chamfort was carried to the Madcdonnettes. Unable to 
obtain there the attentions he required, he conceived fo 
profound a horror of imprifonment, that when he was 
buffered to return-, a few days after, to his apartments, 
tinder the cuftody of a guard, he fwore he would rather 
die than be immured anew. In little more than a month, 
the gendarme told him he had orders to carry him back 
to confinement. Chamfort retired to a clofet, tired a 
piftol at his head, fhattered the bones of his nofe, and 
drove-in his right eye. Aftonifhed at finding himfelf a- 
live, he took up a razor, tried to cut his throat, and 
mangled the flefh in the moil dreadful manner. The 
weakness of his hand made no change in the resolution 
of his mind : he attempted Several times, in vain, to 
reach his heart with the fame inftrument; and, finding 
himfelf begin to faint, made a laft effort to open the 
veins at his '--sees. At length, overcome by pain, he ut¬ 
tered a lcuu cry, and fell almoft lifelefs into a chair. 
The door was broke open, and furgeons and civil offi¬ 
cers foon repaired to the fpot. Wliile the former were 
preparing dreffings for fo many wounds, Chamfort dic¬ 
tated to "the latter the following truly Roman declara¬ 
tion : “I, Scbaftian Roch Nicolas Chamfort, declare it 
was my intention to die a freeman, rather than to be 
carried back, like a flave, to a houfe of confinement. I 
declare, moreover, that, if violence be ufed to carry me 
thither in the ftate I am in, I have ftil! llrength enough 
to finifh what I have begun.” An hour or two after he 
became perfeftly calm, and refumed his ufual ironical 
manner: “ See what it is,” Said he, “ to want dexteri¬ 
ty; an aukward man cannot even kill himfelf.” He then 
went on to relate how he had perforated his eye, and the 
lower part of his forehead, inifead of blowing out his 
brains; f'cored his throat, in Head of cutting it; and i'ca- 
rified his bread, without reaching his heart: “ At iaft,” 
added he, “ I recoileCled Seneca; and, in honour of 
Seneca, 1 refolved to open my veins; but Seneca was,a 
rich man; he had a warm bath, and every thing to his 
with : I am a poor devil, and have none of the fame ad¬ 
vantages ; yet here 1 am (till.” Not one of the multi¬ 
tude of wounds he had made was mortal. Strange as it 
may appear, they were even attended by beneficial con- 
fequences. By giving vent to an internal humour that 
had long preyed upon his conftitution, they reftored him 
to a date of health he had been, a ftranger to for years; 
and Chamfort might now have been alive, if, when his 
wounds were clofed, the furgeons had given vent to that 
humour by other means. But they negle&ed the’precau- 
tion, and this fingularly courageous chara&er was foon 
after feized with an inflammation of the lungs, and died. 
In his port-folio was found a colle&ion of original anec¬ 
dotes, thoughts, maxims, and charabiers, which were 
published in one volume, 8vo. Paris, 1796. 
CHAMIER' (Daniel), an eminent proteftant divine, 
born in Dauphiny, was long minifter at Montelimart, 
from whence he removed in 1612 to Montaubon, to be 
profeflor of divinity; and was killed at the fiege of that 
place by a cannon ball in 1621. He was no lefs diftin- 
guifhed as a ftatefman than as a divine. Varillas fays, ,it 
was he who drew up the edift of Nantz. His treatife De 
cecumenicopontilice, and his Epiftolie jefuiticse, are com¬ 
mended by Scaliger. His principal work is his Panftra- 
tie catholique, written at the deflre of the fynod of the 
reformed churches in France, to confute Bellarmine. 
Though this work makes four large folio volumes, it 
wants a-fifth, which the author’s death prevented him 
from finifhing. His Corpus Theologicum, and his Epif- 
tolae jefuiticne, were printed in a final 1 folio volume, 1693. 
CHAMILLA'RD (Stephen), a jefuit, born at Bour- 
ges in 1656, taught grammar and philoi'ophy, and was a 
popular preacher for about twenty years. He died at Pa¬ 
ris in 1730, at the age of feventy. He was deeply verfed 
in the knowledge of antiquity. He publifhed, 1, A 
C H A 
learned edition of Prudentius for the life of the dauphin, 
with an interpretation and notes, Paris, 1687. qto. It is 
become fcarce. 2. DiHertations or. feveral medals, gems, 
and other monuments of antiquity, Paris, 4to. 17n. 
CI 1 AMIR', a town of Arabia, in the country of Ye¬ 
men: fifty miles north-eaft of Loheia. Lat. 17. 15. N. 
Ion. 43. 5. E. Greenwich. 
CHAMI'RA, f. in botany. See Heliophila, 
CHAMIT SCHE, a town of Ruffia, in the government 
of Mogilev, on the borders of Poland: forty miles fouth- 
fouth-weft: of Mogilev. 
CHAM'KA or Tchamka, a town of Alia, in the 
country of Thibet: 229 miles fouth-eaft of Laifa. 
CHA'MLET, f [See Camelot,] Scuff made origi¬ 
nally of camel’s hair.—To make a chamlet, draw five 
lines, waved overthwart, if your diapering confiit of a 
double line. Peach am. 
CHAMNEPSKOI, a fortrefs of Ruffia, on the con¬ 
fines of China : 168 miles fouth-weft of Verch Udinfkoi. 
CHA'MOIS, f. [ chamois , Fr.] An animal of the an¬ 
telope kind, whole fkin is made into loft leather, called 
among \i%fhammy. SeeCAPRA, vol. iii. p. 772.—Tiiefe are 
the beafls which ye fhail ear; the ox, the flieep, and the 
wild ox, and the chamois. Deuteronomy. 
CHA'MOMILE, f. See Anthemis. 
CHAMOMIL'LA, f. in botany. See Matricaria. 
CHA'MOS, oi-Chemosh, the idol orgod of the Mo¬ 
abites; a fymbol of the i'un, which that people worfliipped. 
CHAMOU'Nl, or Chambny, one of the elevated 
valleys of the Alps, fituated at the foot of Mount Blanc. 
See Alps, vol. i. p.371. 
CHAMOUSSET', (Charles Humbert Piarron de), 
born at Paris in 1717, and deftined to lupply his fa¬ 
ther’s place in the parliament of that city as a judge. 
Medicine, however, became his favourite ftudy ; and his 
difpoficion to do good appeared fo early, that, whenhewas 
a boy, he ufed to give, to the poor the money allowed 
him weekly for bat things. When became into praftice, 
he was lo forcibly brack with .the wretched fituation of 
the great hofpital of Paris (the Hotel Dieu), where the 
dead, the dying, and the living, were very otten crowded 
together in the fame bed (five perfo’ns at a time occafion- 
ally occupying the fame bed), that he wrote a plan of 
reform for that hofpital, which no one can read without 
fhuddering at the horrid pictures it reprefents. M. de 
Chamouflet was now fo well known as a man of true be¬ 
nevolence, that Choifeul made him, in 1761, intendant 
general of the military liofpitals of France, the king, 
Louis XV. telling him, “that he had never, lince he 
came to the throne, made out an appointment fo agree¬ 
able to himfelf;” and added, “I am fure I can never 
make anyone that will be of fuch fervice to my troops.” 
The pains he took in this employment were incredible. 
His attention to his fituation w as fo great, and conduct¬ 
ed with fuch good fenfe and underftanding, that the 
marfhal de Soubife, on vifiting one of the great military 
hofpitals at Duffeldorf, under the care of M. de Cha- 
mojiffet, faid, “ This is the firft time I have been fo happy 
as to go round an hofpital without hearing any com¬ 
plaints.” Another marfhal of France told his wife: 
“ Were I fick,” faid he, “ I would be taken to the hof¬ 
pital of which M. de Chamouflet has the management.” 
This good man died in 1773, at the age of 56 years, 
from a malignant diforder induced by an inceffant appli¬ 
cation to the duties of his profeffion. 
CH AMOU'X, a town of Savoy, in the county of M tu- 
rienne: four miles and a half north-weft of Argentina. 
To CHAMP, nj. a \_champayer, Fr.] To bite with a 
frequent aftion of the teeth.—Coffee and opium are taken 
down, tobacco but in fmoke, and betel is but champed in 
the mouth with a little lime. Bacon. 
The fiend reply’d not, overcome with rage ; 
But, like a proud fteed rein’d, went haughty on, 
Champing his iron curb. Milton. 
