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DAN owing to the irregularity of his private life, few causes were intrusted to him. he was fitted, both by his position and by his natural gifts, for the office of a political agitator; and when the revolution broke out he threw himself headlong into the movement, and became the very incarnation of the revolutionary spirit. In 1790 he founded the notorious club of the Cordeliers, and headed a deputation from the sections of Paris, to demand from the assembly that the ministers of Louis XVI. should be dismissed from office and brought to trial. After the imprisonment of Louis in 1791, Danton contributed greatly to the downfall of the monarchy, by instigating the popular assemblage on the Champ de Mars to call for the dethronement of the king. After the fatal 10th of August, Danton became minister of justice, and gave full scope to his ambition and disregard of life. When the Prussian invasion took place, however, and many of his revolutionary colleagues exhibited the most craven terror and proposed to retire beyond the Loire, amid the general consternation Danton displayed indomitable courage, and was the soul of every movement, both for the suppression of the royalists, and the expulsion of the invaders. On the 1st of September the fearless demagogue, ascending the tribune, addressed the perplexed and dismayed convention in an impassioned speech, ending with these memorable words—"It is not the alarm cannon that you hear, but the pas-de charge upon our enemies. To conquer them, to hurl them back, what do we require?—to dare, again to dare, and without end to dare." The shocking massacres of September immediately followed, and if not originated were undoubtedly encouraged by him. On their return from Versailles, he harangued the bloodstained assassins on the good service they had rendered to the country. "It is not the minister of justice," he said; "it is the minister of the Revolution who thanks you for your praiseworthy fury." On the other hand, it is only fair to state that Danton rescued several individuals, including the Abbé Barthelemy, author of the Voyage of Anacharsis, who, but for his interference, would in all probability have been sent to the guillotine. After the abolition of the monarchy, Danton resigned his office as minister of justice, and became president of the constituent committee and of that of public safety. He took a leading part in urging the death of Louis, and though absent during the trial, he returned in time to vote for the king's execution. At Danton's instigation, too, the revolutionary tribunal was established, of which he himself ultimately became one of the victims. The popularity of Danton among the Jacobins was now, however, on the decline; and after the downfall of the Girondins his influence diminished day by day. Robespierre was now in the ascendant, and the austerity of his manners and his personal purity, combined with his intense self-love and inveterate malignity towards his rivals, made him both envy and hate a man of Danton's popularity. The former was determined to persevere in his remorseless and bloody career, whilst the latter was heart-sick of turbulence and slaughter, and was willing, as he said, to be guillotined rather than to guillotine any longer. Danton appeared to shrink from a contest with Robespierre, and retired to his native place, to seek happiness in domestic privacy with his young wife. An attempt was made to bring about a reconciliation between the rival demagogues, but it utterly failed. An interview indeed took place, but Robespierre reproached Danton with malversation, and Danton retorted by charging Robespierre with his cruelties. They parted more exasperated against each other than ever, and henceforth became irreconcilable enemies. Danton was urged by his friends to save himself by striking the first blow, or at least to fly. "Whither fly?" he answered. "If liberated France cast me out, there are only dungeons for me elsewhere. One carries not his country with him at the sole of his shoe." As he had been forewarned, he was denounced by St. Just as a traitor, and arrested on the night of the 30th of March, 1794, along with his associates Camillo, Philippeaux, and Lacroix. On entering the Luxembourg, he said to the prisoners who crowded forth to see this giant of the Revolution, as Carlyle calls him, enter among them—"Messieurs, I hoped soon to have got you all out of this; but here I am myself, and one sees not where it will end." He was afterwards heard to ejaculate—"This time twelvemonth I was moving the creation of that same revolutionary tribunal. I crave pardon for it of God and man. Oh, it were better to be a poor fisherman, than to meddle with governing of men." He was tried on the 2nd of April along with fourteen of his followers. He made a vigorous defence, but was voted hors de débats, forcibly silenced, and of course found guilty, and executed on the 5th of April. At the foot of the scaffold he was heard to exclaim—"Oh, my wife, I shall never see thee more; but—Danton, no weakness." The executioner having cruelly refused him permission to embrace for the last time his intimate friend Hérault de Séchelles, he exclaimed indignantly— —"Fool! not to know that our heads will meet there," pointing to the headsman's sack. His last words were to the executioner himself—"Thou wilt show my head to the people; it is worth showing." He perished in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Danton has been termed the Mirabeau of the populace. In person he was tall and muscular, with harsh and striking features, and an uncommonly powerful voice. His eloquence was of the most impassioned character, and, combined with his indomitable courage, unbounded energy and activity, made him the Titan of the French revolution. The charge brought against him of having accepted presents from the court has been denied, and is probably unfounded; but there can be little doubt that he supported his extravagances at the public expense. Danton belonged to the school of French materialists. "My abode," said he on his trial, "will soon be annihilation; but I shall live in the pantheon of history."—J. T.  DANVERS,, an English general, who was born at Dantesy in Wiltshire in 1573. He fought in Flanders under the banner of Maurice, count of Nassau, afterwards prince of Orange, and took part in many actions both by sea and land. He held the rank of captain in the body of troops sent by Queen Elizabeth to the assistance of Henry IV. of France, and was knighted by that monarch on account of his bravery. He afterwards served in Ireland, under the Earl of Essex, and Baron Mountjoy. On the accession of James VI., Danvers was elevated to the peerage by the title of Baron of Dantesy, and Charles I. created him Earl of Dauby, a member of the privy council, and a knight of the garter. Danvers was a friend of literature. He bestowed on the university of Oxford five acres of ground for the formation of a botanical garden, and founded an hospital and a school at Malmesbury in Wiltshire.—J. T.  DANVILLE. See.  DANZEL,, a German litterateur, was born at Hamburg, 4th February, 1808, and died at Leipzig, 9th May, 1850, in the prime of his life. After having completed his education at the universities of Leipzig, Halle, and Berlin, he returned to his native town, and in 1845 settled at Leipzig as lecturer in the university. His two great works, "Gottsched and his Time," and "The Life and Works of G. E. Lessing" (completed by Guhrauer after the author's death), at once won him the universal esteem of the German literary world, and will secure him a lasting memory.—K. E.  DANZI,, a musician, was born at Manheim on 15th May, 1760 (according to some authorities 1763), and died at Carlsruhe in 1826. His father, Innocenz, was court musician, and solo violoncellist to the elector palatine, and he instructed his son in the principles of his art. Danzi also studied composition under the Abbé Vogler, for which he had such talent that he produced some pieces of considerable importance when but twelve years old. He was a proficient on his father's instrument, and, at the age of fifteen, received an appointment as violoncellist in the elector's band. The entire company of the elector's musicians went to Munich in 1778, with Danzi among them, and there he brought out his first opera "Azakia" in 1780. He married Margarethe Marchand, a singer of distinguished talent, in 1790, and travelled with her to some of the chief cities of Germany and Italy. He returned with his wife to Munich, and in 1796 was there appointed vice-kapellmeister. He was severely afflicted by his wife's death in 1799, and the duty of directing the performance of operas, in which she had been celebrated at the theatre in which she had sung, rendered his office intolerable to him. He obtained no other, however, until 1807, when he was engaged as kapellmeister at Stuttgard; but the political changes of the following year deprived him of this appointment. He then went in the same capacity to Carlsruhe, where he passed the remainder of his life. Besides composing many works of greater or less importance for the theatre, he wrote extensively for the church (his "Te Deum" was for many years greatly admired), and produced also several symphonies, concertos for the violoncello, violin quartets, and other pieces of chamber music.—G. A. M.  DAOUD-PACHA, a Turkish grand vizier, who was put to 