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DU GUESCLIN 434 DULCIMER Thomas Davis and John Dillon the "Na- tion" as the organ of the Young Ireland party. Tried and convicted for sedition with O'Connell in 1844, but saved by the House of Lords quashing the conviction, he aided his great chief in the agitation for repeal and next helped him to found the Irish Confederation. He had an ac- tive share in promoting the Tenant League and the Independent Irish party, and on the break-up of the latter emi- grated to Australia in 1856. After some time of practice at the Melbourne bar, following the establishment of the Vic- torian constitution, he rose in 1857 to be Minister of Public Works, of Lands in 1858 and 1862, and Prime Minister in 1871. He was defeated next year, was ):nighted in 1873, and in 1877 elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. His little work, "The Ballad Poetry of Ireland" had been for 30 years a house- hold book in his native country, when in 1880 he published "Young Ireland; a Fragment of Irish History, 1840-1850," and in 1883 its sequel, "Four Years of Irish History, 1845-1849." He died Feb. 9, 1903. DU GUESCLIN, BEBTRAND (dii- ga-klan). Constable of France; born about 1314. Mainly to him must be at- tributed the expulsion of the English from Normandy, Guienne, and Poitou. He was captured by Chandos at the bat- tle of Auray in 1364, and ransomed for 100,000 francs. While serving in Spain against Peter the Cruel he was made prisoner by the English Black Prince; but was soon liberated. For his services in Spain he was made Constable of Cas- tile, Count of Trastamare, and Duke of Molinas; and in 1370 he was made Con- stable of France. He died in 1380. DUKE, in Great Britain, the highest rank in the peerage. The first heredi- tary duke in England was the Black Prince, created by his father, Edward IIL, in 1336. The Duchy of Cornwall was bestowed upon him, and was thence- forward attached to the eldest son of the king, who is considered a duke by birth. The Duchy of Lancaster was soon after conferred on Edward's third son, John of Gaunt, and hence arose the special privileges which these two duchies still in part retain. A duke in the British peerage, not of royal rank, is styled "your grace," and is "most noble"; his wife is a duchess. The coro- net consists of a richly chased gold cir- cle, having on its upper edge eight golden leaves of a conventional type called strawberry leaves; the cap of crimson velvet is closed at the top with a gold tassel, lined ^^th sarsnet, and turned up with ermine. At various periods and in different continental coun- tries the title duke (Herzog in Germany until the close of the World War) has been given to the actual sovereigns of small states. DUKHONIN, GENERAL, a Russian soldier, on the General Staff during the World War, who succeeded General Kornilov in command of the Russian army when the latter was arrested by the Provisional Government for his at- tempt to assume dictatorial powers in the summer of 1917. General Dukhonin was in command at the front when the Bolsheviki precipitated their revolution and came into power, during the second week of November, 1917. When com- manded by the Soviet Government to send a flag of truce through the lines to open negotiations with the Germans, for the purpose of discussing peace terms. General Dukhonin refused, whereupon he was displaced by Abram Krylenko. A few days later he was thrown off a moving train by his own soldiers and killed. DUKLA PASS, the largest and most accessible pass through the Carpathian Mountains. Through this the Austrians conducted their main operations against the Russians in the southernmost part of the eastern front, during the first six months of the World War. On Dec. 25, 1914, the Russians began a strong offensive into the Carpathians which re- sulted in their capture of all the passes through the mountains, including Dukla. In the spring campaign of 1915 the Aus- trians attempted to recapture the Car- pathian passes, and sanguinary battles were fought in this region, especially in Dukla, where the Russians retained their positions, being dislodged from all the others, with one exception, Lupkow Pass. The final Russian retirement from the Carpathian passes was caused by lack of munitions and other war supplies rather than by the assaults of the enemy. DULCIMER, one of the most ancient musical instruments, used by various na- tions in almost all parts of the world, and, in shape and construction, having probably undergone fewer changes than any other instrument. In its earliest and simplest form, it consisted of a flat piece of wood, on which were fastened two converging strips of wood, across which strings were stretched tuned to the nat- ural scale. The only improvements since made on this type are the addition of a series of pegs, or pins, to regulate the tension of the strings, and the use of two flat pieces of wood formed into a resonance-box, for the body. The Ger- man name, Hackbrett (chopping-board)