sult of some misunderstanding in an order from the
commander-in-chief. Tennyson has a poem on the subject called _The
Charge of the Light Brigade_.

For chivalrous devotion and daring, "the Death Ride" of the Light
Brigade will not easily be paralleled.--Sir Edw. Creasy, _The Fifteen
Decisive Battles_ (preface).

DEB'ON, one of the companions of Brute. According to British fable,
Devonshire is a corruption of "Debon's-share", or the share of the
country assigned to Debon.

DEBORAH DEBBITCH, governante at Lady Peveril's--Sir W. Scott, _Peveril
of the the Peak_ (time, Charles II.).

DEBORAH WOODHOUSE. The practical sister of the spinster pair who
cherish (respectively) a secret attachment for Mr. Dermer. Miss
Deborah is an admirable cook, and an affectionate aunt and considers
that in religion a woman ought to think just as her husband
does.--Margaret Deland, _John Ward, Preacher_ (1888).

DECEM SCRIPTORES, a collection of ten ancient chronicles on English
history, edited by Twysden and John Selden. The names of the
chroniclers are Simeon of Durham, John of Hexham, Richard of Hexham,
Ailred of Rieval, Ralph De Diceto, John Brompton of Jorval, Gervase
of Canterbury, Thomas Stubbs, William Thorn of Canterbury, and Henry
Knighton of Leicester.

DECEMBER. A mother laments in the

"Darkest of all Decembers
Ever her life has known,"

the death of two sons, one of whom fell in battle, while the other
perished at sea.

"Ah, faint heart! in thy anguish
What is there left to thee?
Only the sea intoning
Only the wainscot-mouse
Only the wild wind moaning
Over the lonely house!"

Thomas Bailey Aldrich, _Poems_, (1882).

DE'CIUS, friend of Antin'ous (4 _syl_.).--Beaumont and Fletcher, _Laws
of Candy_ (1647).

DEDLOCK _(Sir Leicester), bart_., who has a general opinion that the
world might get on without hills, but would be "totally done up"
without Dedlocks. He loves Lady Dedlock, and believes in her
implicity. Sir Leicester is honorable and truthful, but intensely
prejudiced, immovably obstinate, and proud as "county" can make a man;
but his pride has a most dreadful fall when the guilt of Lady Dedlock
becomes known.

_Lady Dedlock_, wife of Sir Leicester, beautiful, cold, and apparently
heartless; but she is weighed down with this terrible secret, that
before marriage she had had a daughter by Captain Hawdon. This
daughter's name is Esther [Summerson] the heroine of the novel.

_Volumnia Dedloc