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 684 DARBYITES with the court of Rome. A protracted cor- respondence ensued ; but the difficulty was settled, and the archbishop attended the coun- cil of the Vatican. Before setting out he pub- lished a letter on the relations between church and state, which he concluded by urging the observance of the concordat agreed upon be- tween Napoleon I. and Pius VII. He was firm in opposing everything in the proposed measures which he thought hostile either to the rights of bishops in their own administra- tion, or to the natural rights of civil society within its own lawful sphere. Having suffered from the attacks of certain French journal- ists, he demanded from the council a canonical remedy against such abuses. He voted to the last against the opportuneness of the decree on infallibility, and abstained from voting in the session in which it was proclaimed, but was one of the first to give in his adhesion to the supreme decision of the church before he left Rome. At the commencement of the war with Prussia he was active in organizing relief corps for the sick and wounded, and was un- sparing in labors and alms while the siege of Paris lasted ; and when the commune was pro- claimed he refused to forsake his flock. On April 5, 1871, he was seized as one of the hos- tages for the communist prisoners in the hands of the Versailles government, and confined in the prison of Mazas. Transferred to the prison of La Roquette on the first decided suc- cess of the Versailles troops, the open wagons in which he and his companions rode were followed by an infuriated multitude shouting "Death! death!" On the morning of May 24 the corridor in which the prisoners had been confined for two. days was suddenly invaded by a detachment of communists. Six names were called out, among them that of the archbishop. The victims passed between a double rank of armed men into a narrow alley, where they were ordered to stand up against a wall, at some paces from the firing platoon. Words of pity and forgiveness fell from the archbishop's lips on his executioners, and his hand was yet lifted in blessing when he was shot. DARBYITES* See PLYMOUTH BRETHREN. DARCET, Jean, a French chemist, born at Donazit about 1727, died in Paris, Feb. 13, 1801. Although his parents had destined him for the bar, he studied chemistry, spent a for- tune in the pursuit of his favorite science, and suffered for a time the privations of pov- erty. Having accepted the tutorship of the sons of Montesquieu, he became his intimate friend and an associate in all his labors, assist- ing him in preparing the Esprit des low, and defended him in his last moments against the attacks of the Jesuits. After the death of Montesquieu he devoted himself exclusively to chemistry in company with Count de Laugarais. His experiments on the materials of porcelain and the modes of treating them form an epoch in the progress of the art, as practised at Sevres. In 1770 he made his first communica- DARDANELLES tion to the academy of sciences, in which he explained his investigations into the chemical nature of precious stones, demonstrating the combustibility of the diamond. He discovered the method of extracting soda from marine salt, and the means of manufacturing soap with any kind of grease or oil, of calcining calca- reous earth, of improving various processes of dyeing, and of assaying metals more accurately. He discovered what is called the " fusible alloy " of tin and bismuth. He also wrote a paper on the means of extracting nutritive substances from bones. In 1774 he was appointed' pro- fessor of chemistry at the college de France, and in 1784 became a member of the academy of sciences and director of the manufactory at Sevres. He was general inspector of the assay office of the mint at Paris, and of the Gobelins manufacture of tapestry. On the outbreak of the revolution he espoused its cause. DARDANELLES, four castles or forts situated on the opposite shores of the Hellespont, or strait of the Dardanelles, which joins the archi- pelago (the ^Egean sea of the ancients) to the sea of Marmora (Propontis), and extends in a S. W. direction about 45 m., between lat. 40 and 40 30' K, and Ion. 26 10' and 26 45' E. The name is probably from the ancient city of Dardanus, on the E. shore. The Dar- danelles are intended to command the access to Constantinople, but in several instances ships of war have passed them without serious in- jury. Thus in 1770 a Russian squadron under Admiral Elphinstone, in 1801 Commodore Bain- bridge in the American frigate George Wash- ington, and in 1807 the British admiral Duck- worth, sailed through the strait. The two castles at the entrance from the archipelago, Kum Kale or Hissar Sultani on the Asiatic and Sed-il-Bahr on the European shore, were built by Mohammed IV. in 1659, to secure his fleet against the Venetians, who used to attack it in sight of the old castles ; they are in good repair, but inefficient in consequence of the width of the channel (4 m.). The two old castles, Tchanak Kalesi or Kale Sultanieh in Asia, and Kilid Bahr in Europe, command the strait at a point where it is only 800 yards across, and may be closed by chains. The principal de- fences on the European side are two excel- lent coast batteries, Namasyah and Degermen Burun. All the forts are defended by guns of the largest calibre and of the most modern construction; the bastions are open at the gorge, the batteries without casemates, and both are commanded by hills in the rear. The barrow of Hecuba or Cynossema, where the Athenians erected a trophy after their victory in the Peloponnesian war (411 B. C.), is close to the old European castle. The town of Tchanak Kalesi is an indifferent place, con- taining about 2,000 houses. N. and E. from it a low strip of land called Nagara Burun projects into the sea. This spot has been fixed upon as the site of the ancient Abydos, and a similar projecting point corresponds to it on the