Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/793

 DEMBINSKI DEMETRIUS 789 zealous adherent of the anti-Russian party and of the liberal constitution of May 3, 1791, urged his sons in his will to defend the same principles; and their mother educated them accordingly. Henryk studied at the Vienna academy of engineers, and left it in 1809, re- fusing to accept a commission from the Aus- trian government, and enlisted as a private in the Polish army. He became a lieutenant at the opening of the campaign against Russia in 1812, was made captain by Napoleon at Smo- lensk, and distinguished himself in the battle of Leipsic. After the fall of the French em- pire he returned to Poland. In 1825 he was elected to the Polish diet, where he acted with the opposition. After the outbreak of the revolution at Warsaw in November, 1830, he was intrusted with the command of the mobile national guard of his native palatinate, marched with his troops to the capital in February, 1831, received from Skrzynecki the command of a cavalry brigade, fought bravely at Dembe, Liw, and Kuflew, and on the banks of the Narew, where he repulsed the Russians. He was next attached to the unsuccessful expedi- tion to Lithuania, and alone led his detach- ment through the marshes and forests back to the capital, where he was received with great enthusiasm by the people, and with public thanks by the diet. Made governor of War- saw, he was also for a few days successor of Skrzynecki in the chief command, but soon lost popularity. After the fall of Warsaw in September he followed Rybinski to Prussia, went thence to France, where he published his Memoires sur la campagne de Lithuanie (Strasburg, 1832), and in 1833 to Egypt, to as- sist in the organization of the army of Me- hemet AH. He then returned to France, where he lived till 1848, when after the out- break of February he went to Germany, and was present at the Slavic congress of Prague. He accepted a command in Hungary, passed through Germany and over the Austrian fron- tier, and made his appearance on the battle field in the camp of Perczel, Jan. 23, and re- ceived the chief command of the main Hun- garian army on Feb. 5. The machinations of Gorgey, however, hindered his plans and operations. He lost the battle of Kupolna against Windischgratz and Schlick (Feb. 26, 27), and retreated beyond the Theiss. He was removed from the chief command on the com- plaint by several officers of their want of con- fidence in his abilities. On July 2 Dembinski received the virtual, and Meszaros the nominal command of all the Hungarian armies. Dem- binski was defeated at Szoreg (Aug. 5), forced to give up the lines of the Theiss and Maros, and retreated toward Temesvar, and there lost (Aug. 9) the battle which sealed the fate of the revolution. He sought refuge with Kos- suth in Turkey, whence he went to Paris, where he occupied himself in writing his " Memoirs of the Hungarian Campaign," which have not yet been published. A Polish pamphlet, entitled "A Glance at the Last Events of the Polish Revolution," was pub- lished by him in Paris in 1837. DEMERARA, a river of British Guiana, which rises in about lat. 5 12' K, Ion. 58 38' W., and flows almost due N. to Georgetown, where it falls into the Atlantic, after a course of 175 m., nearly parallel to that of the Essequibo. It is 2 m. wide at its mouth, where it forms a spa- cious harbor, the entrance to which is rendered difficult by a bar. It is navigable by large vessels about 100 m., but beyond that point is impeded by cataracts. Its affluents are small but numerous. DEMERARA, a division of British Guiana. See GUIANA. DEMETER. See CEBES. DEMETRIUS, Dimitri, or Dmitri, the name of several Russian princes, who reigned in the 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries. The most im- portant of them is known under the name of Dimitri Samozvanetz, or Pseudo-Demetrius, and is generally believed to have falsely as- sumed the name of the younger surviving son of Ivan the Terrible, who during the reign of the elder son, the feeble Fedor, was confined by Boris Godunoff, the brother-in-law and ruler of the czar, in the town of Uglitch, and died there in 1591 a violent death, which was attributed by his mother to the treachery of Boris ; but the latter instituted an investigation, from which it appeared that the child fell in a fit and was accidentally stabbed with a knife he held in his hand. The despotic rule of Boris, before and after the death of Fedor, the last of the. Ruriks (1598), had prepared the minds of the Rus- sians for a rebellion, when rumors of Demetri- us having escaped the hands of the assassins by the substitution of another victim spread over the country. The pretender, whose real name and origin are still a mystery, made his first disclosures in 1603 at the court of Prince Adam Wisniowiecki in Lithuania, where he was serving in the capacity of a page. Prince Oonstantine Wisniowiecki, the brother of Adam, introduced him to his father-in-law, Mniszek, palatine of Sandomierz. Some of the Polish nobles and their friends were gained by the persuasive skill of the pretender, while Mniszek was fascinated by the prospect of seating upon the throne of Russia his daughter Maryna, for whom the youth declared his love. An audience of the king, Sigismund III., was easily gained, and, the interests of both the state and the Catholic church decisively pleading in favor of the cause, the nobles were allowed to set on foot an expedition to Moscow, independently of the government (1604). The future czar was zeal- ously assisted by the Jesuits, and some historians therefore believe him to have been the tool of the order. A simultaneous revolt of the Rus- sian Cossacks against the rule of Boris, under the lead of Grishka (Gregory) Otrepieff, a run- away monk, with whom Demetrius has often been confounded, seconded the enterprise. The invading army, about 5,000 strong, was re-