D’ARGENS, MARQUIS, born at Aix; disinherited owing to his misconduct; turned author, and became a protege of Frederick the Great, but lost caste with him too, and was deprived of his all once more (1704-1771).

D’ARGENSON, COMTE, an eminent French statesman, head of the police in Paris; introduced lettres de cachet, and was a patron of the French philosophes; had the “Encyclopedie” dedicated to him; fell out of favour at Court, and had to leave Paris, but returned to die there (1696-1764).

DARIC, a gold coin current in ancient Persia, stamped with an archer kneeling, and weighing little over a sovereign.

DARIEN, GULF OF, an inlet of the Caribbean Sea, NW. of S. America.  For isthmus of, see PANAMA.

DARIEN SCHEME, a project to plant a colony on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus, which was so far carried out that some 1200 left Scotland in 1698 to establish it, but which ended in disaster, and created among the Scotch, who were the chief sufferers, an animus against the English, whom they blamed for the disaster, an animus which did not for long die out.

DARIUS I., eldest son of Hystaspes, king of the Persians; subdued subject places that had revolted, reorganised the empire, carried his conquests as far as India, subdued Thrace and Macedonia, declared war against the Athenians; in 492 B.C. sent an expedition against Greece, which was wrecked in a storm off Athos; sent a second, which succeeded in crossing over, but was defeated in a famous battle at Marathon, 490 B.C.

DARIUS II., called OCHUS or NOTHUS, king of the Persians; subject to his eunuchs and his wife Parysatis; his reign was a succession of insurrections; he supported the Spartans against the Athenians, to the ascendency of the former in the Peloponnesus; d. 405 B.C.

DARIUS III., surnamed CODOMANNUS, king of the Persians, a handsome man and a virtuous; could not cope with Alexander of Macedon, but was defeated by him in successive engagements at Granicus, Issus, and Arbela; was assassinated on his flight by BESSUS (q. v.), one of his satraps, in 330 B.C.; with him the Persian empire came to an end.

DARJEELING (14), a sanitary station and health resort in the Lower Himalayas, and the administrative head-quarters of the district, 7167 ft. above the level of the sea; it has greatly increased of late years.

DARLEY, GEORGE, poet and critic, born in Dublin; author of “Sylvia” and “Nepenthe”; wrote some good songs, among them “I’ve been Roaming,” once very popular; much belauded by Coleridge; contributed to the Athenaeum (1795-1846).

DARLING, a tributary of the Murray River, in Australia, now stagnant, now flooded.

DARLING, GRACE, a young maiden, daughter of the lighthouse keeper of one of the Farne Islands, who with her father, amid great peril, saved the lives of nine people from the wreck of the Forfarshire, on Sept. 7, 1838; died of consumption (1815-1842).