[Chasles, Michel], an eminent French mathematician, and held one of the first in the century; on the faith of certain autographs, which were afterwards proved to be forgeries, he in 1867 astonished the world by ascribing to Pascal the great discoveries of Newton, but had to admit he was deceived (1793-1880).
[Chasles, Philarète], a French littérateur, born near Chartres, a disciple of Rousseau; lived several years in England, and wrote extensively on English subjects, Shakespeare, Mary Stuart, Charles I., and Cromwell among the chief (1799-1873).
[Chassé, David Hendrik, Baron], a Dutch soldier; served France under Napoleon, who called him "General Baïonnette," from his zealous use of the bayonet; fought at Waterloo on the opposite side; as governor of Antwerp, gallantly defended its citadel in 1832 against a French and Belgian force twelve times larger than his own (1765-1849).
[Chassepot], a French breech-loading rifle named from the inventor.
[Chasseurs], picked bodies of light cavalry and infantry in the French service, called respectively Chasseurs-à-cheval and Chasseurs-à-pied.
[Chastelard, Pierre de Boscosel de], grandson of Bayard; conceived an insane passion for Queen Mary, whom he accompanied to Scotland; was surprised in her bedchamber, under her bed, and condemned to death, it being his second offence (1540-1562).
[Chat Moss], a large bog in Lancashire, 7 m. W. of Manchester, which is partly reclaimed and partly, through the ingenuity of George Stephenson, traversed by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
[Châteaubriand, François René de], eminent French littérateur, born in St. Malo, younger son of a noble family of Brittany; travelled to N. America in 1791; returned to France on the arrest of Louis XVI., and joined the [Emigrants] (q. v.) at Coblenz; was wounded at the siege of Thionville, and escaped to England; wrote an "Essay on Revolutions Ancient and Modern," conceived on liberal lines; was tempted back again to France in 1800; wrote "Atala," a story of life in the wilds of America, which was in 1802 followed by his most famous work, "Génie du Christianisme"; entered the service of Napoleon, but withdrew on the murder of the Duc d'Enghien; though not obliged to leave France, made a journey to the East, the fruit of which was his "Itinéraire de Paris à Jerusalem"; hailed with enthusiasm the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814; supported the Bourbon dynasty all through, though he wavered sometimes in the interest of liberty; withdrew from public life on the elevation of Louis Philippe to the throne; he was no thinker, but he was a fascinating writer, and as such exercised no small influence on the French literature of his day; he lived in a transition period, and hovered between legitimism and liberty, the revolution and reaction, and belonged to the Romantic school of literature—was perhaps the father of it in France (1766-1848).
[Châteaux en Espagne], castles in Spain, visionary projects.