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 40 DESNA intimate terms with the future dictator of the ition. He vns also acquainted with Ma- rat. But his hoM>m friend was Danton, who -nlled the voiin^r and brilliant wri- ter. Their de-tmies were do-.-ly connected .-iblishment of the club of the Cpr- nille was instrumental in the in- tdon of Aug. 10, 1792, and was appointed the ministry of justice when Dan- ! that office from the legislative assembly. In the massacre of September he used his influence to preserve the lives of sev- eral intended victims. With Danton ho was elected to the national convention. In the contest between the Girondists and the Mon- tagnards, he contributed to bring the former into contempt by his ll'mti'ire des Brissotins, a pamphlet in which ridicule was skilfully blend- ed with serious charges. He was satisfied with the fall of the party, and would have saved the individuals of whom it was com- posed, but this was beyond his power. Both he and Danton now tried to bring the conven- tion to a milder policy, and toward the end of January, 1794, Camille established a journal, Le tieux Cordelier, in which he advocated conciliatory measures. Denouncing the sys- tem of proscription, he demanded the estab- lishment of a committee of clemency as a pre- liminary step to clearing the prisons of the suspected. This was answered by accusations brought against him in the club of the Jaco- bins. Robespierre defended his old friend on two occasions; he represented Camille as a wayward child, whose person it was not ne- cessary to injure, but demanded that his wri- tings should be burned. " To burn is not to answer," exclaimed the headlong journalist; and from that day his fate was sealed. He was arrested on the same night with Danton (March 80), arraigned with him before the revolution- ary tribunal, and, without a hearing, was sen- trixvd to death. When asked his age, he re- plied, Tr, nti -fro}* ans, Vdge du sans-culotte Jesus, Vdge funeste aux rewlutionnaires. On their way to the scaffold, while Danton 'stood composed and immovable, Camille became al- most frantic, struggling with his bonds, and appealing to the people. His friend vainly motioned him to keep quiet ; he continued to address the crowd, and recalled to their mem- ory all that he had done in their service. " Be- hold," he cried in despair, " behold the recom- pense reserved to the first apostle of the revo- lution: 1 ' His young and beautiful wife, who had vainly implored his pardon from the old friendship : : !V, tried to raise a riot to save him, but she was arrested, and suffered - later. Camillo Desmoulins btaa* high rank as a pamphleteer. His Vieux Cordelier was reprinted in 1833. DKSM. :i river of Russia, which rises in the rnolensk, flows through those 1 and TcliernL'ov, and falls into the Dnieper a few miles al.ove Kiev. It is a fine stream, abounding in fish, and navi-rabk DE SOTO for the greater part of its course of about 500 miles. DESNOYERS, Anguste Gaspard Louis Boucher, baron, a French engraver, born in Paris, Dec. 20, 1779, died there, Feb. 15, 1857. At the age of 20 he received a prize of 2,000 francs for an engraving of Venus disarming Cupid, and in 1801 established his reputation by the repro- duction of Raphael's "Beautiful Gardener," in the gallery of the Luxembourg. His most admired productions are copies of Raphael's works, and prominent among them is an en- graving of the "Transfiguration." He was elected a member of the institute in 1816, ap- pointed chief engraver to the king in 1825, created baron in 1828, and officer of the legion of honor in 1835. DESOR, Edward, a Swiss geologist and natu- ralist, born at Friedrichsdorf, Hesse-Homburg, Feb. 11, 1811. He studied law at Giessen and Heidelberg, was compromised in the republi- can movements of 1832-'3, and escaped to Paris. Here his attention was drawn to geol- ogy ; he made excursions with Elie de Beau- mont, and in 1837 met Agassiz at a meeting of naturalists in Neufchatel, and with Gressli and Vogt became his active collaborator, con- tributing the essays for vol. iii. of his Mo- nographie d'echinodermes mvants et fossiles (Neufchatel, 1842). He also published Excur- sions et sejours dans les glaciers et les hautes regions des Alpes de M. Agassiz et de ses com- pagnons de voyage (Neufchatel, 1844). After spending a few years in the north of Europe, especially in Scandinavia, investigating the er- ratic phenomena peculiar to that region, he accompanied Agassiz in 1847 to the United States, found employment in the coast survey, and made with Whitney, Foster, and Rogers a geological survey of the mineral district of Lake Superior. Returning to Neufchatel in 1852, he investigated with Gressli the orog- raphy of the Jura for industrial purposes, and was appointed professor of geology. He pub- lished subsequently Geologische BescJireibung der neufcJiateler Jura (with Gressli) ; Synop- sis des ecMnides fossiles (Paris, 1857-'9) ; and De Vorographie des Alpes dans ses rapports avec la geologie (Neufchatel, 1862). Having been made a citizen of the community of Ponts, he was elected a member of the cantonal grand council, of which he became president. In the winter of 1863 he visited Algeria and the Sahara, and published Aus Sahara und Atlas (Leipsic, 1865). The discovery of the lake dwellings induced him to pursue the study of archa3ology, and the results of his researches are given in Les palajittes, ou constructions lacustres du lac de Neufchatel (Paris, 1865 ; German, Leipsic, 1866). The most important of his recent publications is chinologie hehe- tique (Paris, 1869-'7l), prepared in conjunc- tion with Loriol. DE SOTO. I. A N. W. county of Mississippi, bordering on Tennessee, and bounded N. W. by the Mississippi river; area, 960 sq. in. ; pop.