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* DE SOTO. 165 DES PLAINES BIVER. at it, and the shattiivd ri'innaiits of the expedi- tion, after many fuilluT privations, succeeded in floating down the .Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and reaching their cuunlrynieu at Pii- nuco. An interesting contemporary account of Ue koto's expedition is the analiie of llie t'uiicr uf Ucrnamlo </<■ Hotu in the Discovery of Florida by a Kniyht uf Elva, etc., trans, by Smith (New York, 18G0). The following secon- dary authorities deal with it fully: Winsor, yarrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., Boston, 1884-80) ; Bancroft, History of the Viiilcd l^tates (0 vols., New York, 1883-85) ; Shipp, History of H. de Solo (l'hiladcli)hia, 1881). DESPAIR, GiA.NT. The monstrous owner of 'Doubting Castle,' where Christian and Hopeful aze temporarily imprisoned, in Bimjan's Pil- grim's I'royrcss. DESPARD, des'pard. Edw.ved :NLrcls (1751- 1803). An Irish cons|)irator, born in Queen's County. Ue entered the army as ensign, and in 177'J was appointed engineer in the San Juan expedition, in which he distinguished himself. In 1781 he became commander of the island of Pattan, with the rank of captain, and subse- quently of the Bay of Honduras and the entire ilosquito Coast. Soon after the peninsula of Yucatan had been added to his domains, by Spanish grant, he was accused of cruelty and other offenses by the prior English settlers, who resented the concessions made to logwood-cutters from the Mosquito Coast. He was ordered to England, where he remained from 1790 to 1792, only to learn that no real accusation had been preferred against him. An unjustifiable im- prisonment from 1798 to 1800 so incensed him against the Government that he devised a plot, which included in its details the assassination of the King and the capture of the Bank of England and the Tower. He was convicted of treason, and executed at Xewington. EESPEN'SER. A powerful English family of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Hugh LE Despenser (died 1205) was justiciar of Eng- land for some time between 1260 and 1205, and was associated with Simon de Montfort in the rising against Henry III. He was killed at the battle of Evesham. His son, Hugh le Desi'EXSEr the Elder (1263-1320) played a very prominent part in the reign of Edward II. He sen'cd in the Welsh wars and in Scotland. l)cing present at the battle of Dunbar in 1296. Subsequently he was employed on numerous diplomatic missions to various European powers and to the Pope. Up to the year 1308 he was a member of the Barons' party, in which his prop- erty and rank assured him a high position, but about the time of the fall of Gaveston (q.v.). the King's favorite, he .abandoned the cause of the Barons, and became the head of the Court party, and a bitter enemy of Tliomas, Earl of Lan- caster. Though undoubtedly avaricious and un- sonipulous in the means he adopted for increas- ing his possessions, Hugh was probably no more selfish than most of the great nobles of his time, who took advantage of the presence of a weak king on the throne to further their own inter- ests. In 1321 the Barons' party gained the upper hand, and Hugh was sentenced by Parlia- nient to banishment. He was re<'alled. however, in the following vear, when the King's faction was once more in the ascendent, and contributed no doubt to the fall and death of the Earl of Lancaster. In the same year he was made Karl of Winchester, and his position became more inlluential than ever. The feeling of hatred with which he was regarded by .all the great nobles finally led to the outbreak of a rebellion, in which Isabella, the wife of Edward 11., joined. The IJueen's forces marched upon Bristol, which was defended by Hugh le Despenser. The King's favorite was forced to surrender, and was speedily beheaded. Hugh le Despenser the Yol'.xger (ilied 1326) was the son of the preceding. In his youth he was the intimate friend of the young Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward III., and served with him in the Scottish wars. He obtained great wealth by his marriage to one of the heiresses of the house of Gloucester, and, like his father, was for a time a prominent leader among the Barons, with whom he made common cause for a long time after his father I'.ad gone over to the Court party. It was not until 1318 that he went over to the King, being actuated in this move by an insatiable greed for land, which had brought him into repealed con- llicts with many of the nobles of the ilarches. A league was formed against him, headed by the Earl of Lancaster, and in 1321 he was ban- ished with his father. ith his father, he was recalled in the following year, restored to his old possessions, and overwhelmed with grants and new titles. He met the same fate as the elder Hugh. In the Barons' rising of 1326 he was taken prisoner, brought to Hereford, tried upon the charge of piracy and complicity in the death of Thomas of Lancaster, and put to death. A grandson of Hugh the younger was the 'war- like bishop.' Henry of Norwich, who died in 1406. He was chosen by Urban VI. to lead a crusade against the followers of Clement VII. in Flanders. A great-grandson, Thomas ( 1337- 1400 ), was created Earl of Gloucester. DESPERIERS, da pa'rya', Bo.xaventire ( 150H-44 I . A French satirist and story-teller, born at Arnay-le-Duc, He was a courtier of JIargarct of Angouleme. and, either through insanity or fear of persecution which she was powerless to avert, committed suicide. Besides translations and poems of minor interest, he left a collection of 129 yonrellcs recreations et joyeux deviz ( 1558) . gross sometimes in substance, but always masterly in style, and ranking high among simi- lar collections. More important is the satiric dialogue C'ymhalum Mundi (1537), .suggesting Lucian in its mockery of superstition, old and new, with an occasional pensive seriousness very characteristic of the finer culture of the French Renaissance. Desperiers's Worlds are best edited by Lacour (Paris, 1866). Consult Chenevi?re, Bonaventure Des I'cricrs (Paris. ISSO). DES PLAINES (da-plan') RIVER ( Fr.. of the plains). A river rising near Kacine. Wis. (^lap: Illinois, D 2). It flows .south nearly par- allel with the shore of Lake Michigan, and from six to twelve miles distant, to Lyons, just west of Chicago, 111.: thence south- west, uniting with the Kankakee River (q.v.) in Grundy County. 111., and forming the Illinois River (q.v.). It is separated from the lake by a low divide, over which, during high water, it discharges into the Chicago River (q.v.). For thirteen miles, its waters have been