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276 CHARETTE DE LA CONTRIE CHARIOT proved but afterward condemned by the Athe- nians. He subsequently led an expedition against Sestos, which town he took, and served with little success in the Olynthian war. In 346 he was in command in Thrace, but seems to have been engaged in private plunder rather than in fighting the enemy. In 340 he was sent to aid the Byzantines against Philip, but his character was so distasteful to them that they refused to receive him. In 338 he was one of the Athenian generals at the disastrous battle of Chseronea. He appears to have died at Sigeum a few years afterward. He was not endowed with superior military ability, yet was apparently the best qualified Athenian of his time for command. He seems to have won and maintained his ascendancy over the people partly by his athletic figure, partly by flattery and corruption. II. A Grecian statuary in bronze, the designer of the statue known as the colossus of Rhodes, was a native of Lindus, the favorite pupil of Lysippus, and flourished in the beginning of the 3d century B. 0. CHARETTE DE Li CONTRIE, Francois Athanase, a Vendean soldier, born at CouffS, April 21, 1763, executed in Nantes, March 29, 1796. He was a member of an ancient Breton family, his branch adding the surname La Contrie after their manor. He was educated at the college of the Oratorians in Angers, entered the navy in 1779, and took part in the American war. He waa among the emigres after the outbreak of the revolution, but soon returned to Paris, took part in the defence of the Tuileries, and then retired to his estates, in Brittany. In March, 1793, the peasantry obliged him to become their commander, and gaining several victories over the republican troops, he was soon re- garded as the insurgent leader in lower Ven- d6e, and shared with Stoiflet in the supremacy of the whole royalist camp, especially after the execution of their commander Marigny for neg- lect of duty, by order of a court martial. The count d'Artois promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general in July, 1794, and he soon assumed supreme authority in lower Vend6e. A treaty of peace, signed Feb. 19, 1795, proving abortive, Charette resumed a guerilla warfare which was now more hopeless than ever, owing to Hoche's energetic operations as commander- in-chief of the republican army. But though completely exhausted, and finally routed, he nevertheless urged upon the allies the recog- nition of Louis XVIII. Declining the most honorable terms of capitulation, with only 33 men he attempted on March 23, 1796, to tight his way through the republican ranks, but was wounded, captured, and taken to Nantes, where he was shot by sentence of a court martial. The future Louis XVIII.. who called him " the second founder of the monarchy," delivered a speech in his honor at the commemoration of his death, celebrated on May 6, 1796, at the headquarters of Condi's army. CHARGE D'AFFAIRES, the title of the fourth rank of diplomatic agents. They are accredit- ed not to the sovereign but to the department of foreign affairs, and are appointed by and re- sponsible to the minister of state of their own country. They were not recognized in Euro- pean diplomacy till near the 18th century. By the congress of Vienna in 1815 they were made the third order of diplomatists, which was changed to the fourth by the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. The title is given to the agent whom an ambassador or envoy, by virtue of authority from his prince or state, appoints to conduct in his absence the affairs of his mission. CHARITE, La, a town of France, in the de- partment of Ni&vre, situated on the Southern railway and on the right bank of the Loire, over which there are two bridges, 12 m. N. N. W. of Nevers; pop. in 1866, 4,870. It has manufactures of coarse jewelry and earthen- ware and woollen stuffs. CHARIOT, among ancient nations, a two- wheeled carriage, open above and behind and closed in front, and used in war, in public games, and for the purposes of common life. The axle of the Greek chariot was usually made of oak, ash, or elm, though Homer de- scribes the chariots of Juno and Neptune as having metallic axles. The wheels were about Roman Chariot. four feet in diameter, and each consisted of a nave bound with an iron ring, of spokes, a felly of elastic wood, and a heavy iron tire. They were fastened to the axle by pins, and the overthrow of (Enomaus in his contest with Pelops was caused by the treachery of his charioteer, who inserted a linchpin of wax. The Lydians and Romans sometimes attached two or three poles and spans of horses to their chariots, but the Greeks rarely added a third horse. From the earliest historic periods chariots were used in war both by the Asiatic and the classic nations. The famous scythe chariots, whose spokes were armed with long hooks and sickles, were chiefly used by the ancient Persians, Britons, and Gauls. The warriors of highest rank among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans either fought from their chariots, or sometimes in close combat dis- mounted. In the Roman games chariots were often decorated with sculptures and enriched with gold and ivory. The triumphal chariot, which was usually made of ivory, adorned with the utmost skill, and drawn by four white