Agath’ocles (4 syl.), tyrant of Sicily, was killed by a tooth-pick, at the age of 95.

Anacreon was choked by a grape stone.—­Pliny, Hist. vii. 7.

Bassus (Q.  Lucilius) died from the prick of a fine needle in his left thumb.

Chalchas, the soothsayer, died of laughter at the thought of his having outlived the time predicted for his death.

Charles VIII., conducting his queen into a tennis-court, struck his head against the lintel, and it caused his death.

Fabius, the Roman praetor, was choked by a single goat-hair in the milk which he was drinking.—­Pliny, Hist. vii. 7.

Frederick Lewis, prince of Wales, died from the blow of a cricket ball.

Itadach died of thirst in the harvest field, because (in observance of the rule of St. Patrick) he refused to drink a drop of anything.

Louis VI. met with his death from a pig running under his horse, and causing it to stumble.  Margutte died of laughter on seeing a monkey try ing to pull on a pair of his boots.

Philom’enes (4 syl.) died of laughter at seeing an ass eating the figs provided for his own dessert.—­Valerius Maximus.

Placut (Phillipot) dropped down dead while in the act of paying a bill.—­Backaberry the elder.

Quenelault, a Norman physician of Montpellier, died from a slight wound made in his hand in the extraction of a splinter.

Saufeius (Spurius) was choked supping up the albumen of a soft-boiled egg.

Zeuxis, the painter, died of laughter at sight of a hag which he had just depicted.

DEATH RIDE (The), the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, October 25, 1854.  In this action 600 English horsemen, under the earl of Cardigan, charged a Russian force of 5,000 calvary and six batallions of infantry.  They galloped through the battery of thirty guns, cutting down the artillerymen, and through the calvary, but then discovered the batallions and cut their way back again.  Of the 670 who advanced to this daring charge, not 200 returned.  This reckless exploit was the result 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).