Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/532

 520 CHOTEAU CHOUANS ignominious conditions of peace, which were rejected by Heraclius, and the war recom- menced. The military glory, the pride and splendor of the Persian monarch had now at- tained their zenith. Master of western Asia, he oppressed the Christian inhabitants of the Byzantine provinces, and adorned with the spoils of the conquered his favorite residence, Dastagerd, east of the Tigris, about 60 m. from Ctesiphon, the capital. Its marvellous beauty and pomp have been extolled by visitors and poets, and even grave historians speak minute- ly of its paradise, or park, containing pheas- ants, peacocks, ostriches, roebucks, and wild goats ; of its lions and tigers, destined for the pleasures of the chase; of the 960 elephants, 20,000 camels, 6,000 mules and horses, kept for the service of the camp and to carry the royal tents ; of the 6,000 guards that watched before the gates ; of the 12,000 slaves and 3,000 wom- en subjected to his caprices or passions ; of the precious metals, gems, silks, aromatics, in a hundred subterranean vaults of the palace ; of its 30,000 hangings, 40,000 columns, and its cupola with 1,000 globes of gold imitating the motions of the planets and the constellations of the zodiac. But in the midst of all this greatness Ohosroes was summoned in a letter from Mecca to acknowledge Mohammed the prophet of Allah. He tore the letter and re- jected the proposal ; upon which Mohammed is said to have exclaimed, "Thus will God tear his kingdom and reject his supplications." The first part of this prophecy was soon fulfilled by the victories of Heraclius, who in a series of brilliant campaigns (622-627) reconquered all the lost provinces of the empire, repeatedly defeated Chosroes, advanced to the Tigris, and finally won the great battle of Nineveh; after which the pusillanimous but proud and obsti- nate monarch fled with his favorite wife Sira, the Shirene of Persian poetry, and escaped the hands of his enemy only to be murdered at the command of his son Srroes, after hav- ing witnessed the massacre of his numerous sons, and suffered the horrors of a dungeon (628). Chosroes II. was the last mighty king of the house of Sassan ; his son enjoyed the fruits of his unnatural deed only for eight months ; and, after a few years of civil wars, Persia was conquered by the Arabs. < HOTKU, a N. county of Montana, border- ing on British America; area, about 12,500 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 517. It is drained by Milk river, by the Missouri, and by Dog, Judith, Arrow, Teton, and Bear's or Maria's rivers, affluents of the Missouri ; Medicine or Sun river forms a portion of the S. boundary. The Bear's Paw, Little Rocky, and Judith mountains lie wholly or partly in the county. Some gold has been found, and coal is abun- dant. The estimated value of farm produc- tions in 1870 was $1,647, and of live stock $6,000. Capital, Fort Benton. (HOI >s. a name given to the royalist peas- antry of Brittany and Lower Maine, in France, j who, following the example of the Vendeans, rose in arms against the revolutionary govern- ment as early as 1791, and who often, under the pretence of waging war in the king's be- half, infested the roads, pillaged villages, and I committed all sorts of depredations. The name was ultimately extended to all the insurgents in ' western France. The rebellion in Lower Maine had been prepared by a number of contraband 1 salt makers, among whom four brothers, named Cottereau, were conspicuous. The taciturnity of their grandfather had given him the nick- name of Chat-huant (screech-owl), or Chmian according to the Bas Breton dialect. This nick- name had been transmitted to the grandsons, who were usually called the " brothers Chouan." Jean, the eldest and boldest of the four, had once been sentenced to death, and, having through the entreaties of his mother obtained his pardon from Louis XVL, had become an ardent royalist. His earliest companions were a lame beggar surnamed Jamie <T Argent (Sil- ver Leg), Tristan 1'Hennite, Taillefer, Coque- reau, and a few others. Their first encamp- j ment was established in an excavation in the woods of Misdon ; and they began to appear in villages where revolutionary opinions pre- ! vailed, against detachments of troops and na- tional guards. The Chouannerie, as these war- j like bands were soon called, was not limit- ed to a single province ; from Lower Maine it extended through Brittany, where it gained a strong foothold, and thence eventually to Normandy. The Chouans received powerful accessions from the ranks of the peasants, driven to rebellion by heavy taxes, by persecution of their religion, or by fear of being enrolled in the army. The first serious outbreak in Brit- tany (Feb. 13, 1791) was occasioned by the at- tempted removal of the bishop of Vannes, who had refused to take the civil oath ; the peasants of Sarzeau came forward to protect him, but were fired upon by troops of the line and na- tional guards. Thenceforward Brittany wan divided into two camps, the adherents and the opponents of the government. The military organization of the Chouans was gradually perfected, and they soon numbered no less than 100,000 volunteers, who were subsequently dis- tributed into five distinct corps ; but for the sake of efficiency they generally moved in bands of 25, 50, and sometimes 100 men, acting independently, but according to a common di- rection. In 1793, under the name of the Little Vendee, the Chouans joined the great royalist army.' On this occasion it was proposed to invest one of the royalist generals with the command of the Chouans, but the reply was : " We have come with Jean Chouan, we know no one but him ; we obey him through friend- ship ; he must be our leader ; if not, we will depart." Consequently Cottereau reassumed the command of his forces, which he kept until July 28, 1794, when he was killed in an en- counter with republican troops. Tactics and regular evolutions were not in accordance with