CONSTANT DE REBECQUE CONSTANTS FAULCON 269 to revolt and to send emissaries to put him to death. He fled toward Spain, but was over- taken and slain. He protected the Christian faith, as established by the council of Nice, against the Arians and Donatists, and closed many of the pagan temples. CONSTANT DE REBECQUE, Henri Benjamin, a French orator and author, born at Lausanne, Oct. 25, 1767, died in Paris, Dec. 10, 1830. He was descended from a family of French Protestant exiles, and his father was a colonel in the service of Holland. He studied succes- sively at the universities of Oxford, Erlangen, and Edinburgh, and became acquainted with many of the scholars and writers of France, Germany, and Great Britain. He married a German lady, and was for several years cham- berlain of the duke of Brunswick. Having been divorced from his wife, he went to Paris in 1795, and began his political career as a moderate republican. His pamphlet, De la force du gouvernement actuel de la France, &c., attracted considerable attention ; and oth- er political writings, mostly published in the periodicals of the day, added to his reputation. At this time he became an intimate friend of Mme. de Stael, and aided in the formation of the club de Salm, in opposition to the royalist club de ClicJiy. In 1799 he was placed by Na- poleon in the tribunate, but showed so much opposition to the first consul's encroachments upon constitutional liberty, that he was ban- ished in 1801. Mme. de Stael was expelled from France about the same time, and with her he associated with Goethe, Wieland, Schiller, and other literary celebrities at Weimar, and at Necker's residence in Switzerland. At this time he made a translation of Schiller's Wal- lenstein, and wrote a novel called AdolpJie. He afterward visited various European courts, and lived for a time at Gottingen, where he married Mme. de Hardenberg. In 1814 he published a pamphlet entitled De Vesprit de conquete et de V usurpation, which attracted much attention. He returned to Paris in the wake of the invading armies, and espoused the cause of the Bourbons, publishing articles in their support in the Journal des Debate. The day before Napoleon's return from Elba he published a violent assault upon him, but was soon after invited to the palace, won over to what now appeared the cause of France, and appointed a councillor of state, the long per- secuted Mme. de Stael, too, lending her influ- ence to Napoleon. Constant now assisted in drawing up the famous acte additionnel to the constitution. After the battle of Waterloo, being on the proscribed list, he retired to Eng- land, but was allowed to return in September, 1816. The reactionary tendency of the gov- ernment led him to join the force of so-called liberal writers, and he aided in founding the Minerve, and wrote many able articles on con- stitutional liberty and kindred subjects. He was elected to the chamber of deputies by the department of Sarthe in 1819, and became prominent as a speaker, at the same time con- tinuing to write brilliant pamphlets and arti- cles for periodicals on the questions of the day. After the death of Gen. Foy in 1825, he was the acknowledged leader of the opposition, be- sides being considered the highest expounder of monarchical constitutionalism. His health had failed before the revolution of 1830, and he was absent from Paris at the time of that outbreak. On his return he concurred in the proceedings which placed Louis Philippe on the throne, and was appointed president of the council of state. He also remained in the chamber of deputies, but his prestige was gone ; and when he was presented as a candi- date for the French academy, he failed of elec- tion. These disappointments are believed to have hastened his death. He had just com- pleted his philosophical work, De la religion consider ee dans sa source, ses formes et ses de- veloppements (5 vols., Paris, 1823-'31), and left uncompleted a supplement to it, Du polythe- isme romain considere dans ses rapports avec la pJiilosopJiie grecque et la religion chretienne (2 vols., 1833). His political works are edited by Laboulaye (2 vols., 1861 ; 2d ed., 1872). CONSTANTIN, Abraham, a Swiss painter on porcelain, born in Geneva in 1785. He was originally an ornamenter of watch dials, but upon going to Paris devoted himself to painting on porcelain. His first work, a copy of Ra- phael's Madonna della seggiola, was execu- ted for the empress Josephine. He afterward spent many years in Italy studying the works of Raphael. In 1832 he was commissioned by Louis Philippe to make copies of Raphael's chief works in the Vatican. The " Transfigu- ration " alone occupied him a year. He also made copies of the masterpieces of Titian, Cor- reggio, and others, and in a few instances at- tempted original compositions and portraits from life. His best works are in the museum at Sevres and in the royal collection at Turin. He made some valuable discoveries in the me- chanical processes of his art, particularly with reference to the effect of burning upon colors. CONSTANTIN (or CONSTANCE) FAULCON, also PHATJLOON or PATJLOON, a Greek adventurer, born at Custode, in the island of Cephalonia, in 1648, put to death in Siam in June, 1688. Engaged in commercial ventures in the East Indies, he was several times shipwrecked, and on one such occasion, when thrown on the coast of Malabar, met an ambassador of the king of Siara, who had also been shipwrecked. Constantin helped him to reach Siam, and in return received an appointment at the Siamese court. After the death of the prime minister, Constantin became the ruling spirit of thai country. Threatened by the jealousy of the mandarins, he sought the assistance of France. In 1685 Louis XIV. despatched the chevalier de Chaumont as ambassador to Siam, while Siamese ambassadors were sent to France. The object of their negotiations appears to have been the subjection of Siam to French
