tle of comte de Chambord. On his death in 1883 it came by
bequest into the possession of the family of Parma.

CHAMBRE ARDENTE (Fr. "burning chamber"), the term for an extraordinary
court of justice in France, mainly held for the trials of heretics. The
name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that the proceedings took place
in a room from which all daylight was excluded, the only illumination
being from torches, or there may be a reference to the severity of the
sentences in _ardente_, suggesting the burning of the prisoners at the
stake. These courts were originated by the Cardinal of Lorraine, the
first of them meeting in 1535 under Francis I. The _Chambre Ardente_
co-operated with an inquisitorial tribunal also established by Francis
I., the duty of which was to discover cases of heresy and hand them over
for final judgment to the _Chambre Ardente_. The reign of Henry II. of
France was particularly infamous for the cruelties perpetrated by this
court on the Huguenots. The marquise de Brinvilliers (q.v.) and her
associates were tried in the _Chambre Ardente_ in 1680. The court was
abolished in 1682.

See N. Weiss, _La Chambre Ardente_ (Paris, 1889), and F. Ravaisson,
_Archives de la Bastille_ (Paris, 1866-1884, 16 vols.).

CHAMELEON, the common name of one of the three suborders of Lacertilia
or lizards. The chief genus is _Chamaeleon_, containing most of the
fifty to sixty species of the whole group, and with the most extensive
range, all through Africa and Madagascar into Arabia, southern India and
Ceylon. The Indian species is _Ch. calcaratus_; the dwarf chameleon of
South Africa is _Ch. pumilus_; the giant of the whole tribe, reaching a
total length of 2 ft., is _Ch. parsoni_ of Madagascar. The commonest
species in the trade is _Ch. vulgaris_ of North Africa, introduced into
southern Andalusia. A few queer genera, with much stunted tail, e.g.
_Rhampholeon_, in tropical Africa and _Brookesia_ in Madagascar are the
most aberrant. The common chameleon is the most typical. The head is
raised into a pyramidal crest far beyond the occiput, there is no outer
ear, nor a drum-cavity. The limbs are very long and slender, and the
digits form stout grasping bundles; on the hand the first three form an
inner bundle, opposed to the remaining two; on the foot the inner bundle
is formed by the first and second toe, the outer by the other three
toes. The tail is prehensile, by being rolled downwards; it is not
br