than from temper, profuse from taste, and rapacious from necessity, she united in her character, qualities apparently the most discordant. The majesty of her person, the dignity of her aspect, and the elegance of her dress, added lustre to her beauty, which remained unimpaired to an advanced period of life.

Animated by an intemperate and barbarous zeal, the new ministers persuaded their youthful sovereign, that in persecuting the huguenotts, he would adhere to the maxims and conduct of his father. Catharine, with a temporising policy, endeavored, as interest suggested, to adjust the balance between the contending parties. The young king died suddenly, after a reign of little more than a year. While both parties courted her as the arbitress of their future fortunes, she employed, with infinite address and coolness, the measures necessary to secure to herself the first place in the government, under Charles, her son, who had scarcely attained his eleventh year.

Catharine by her subtle policy, and by her pretended favor for the different parties which divided the kingdom, was the cause of the civil wars which raged between the huguenotts and catholics, the king of Navarre, the prince of Conde, and the duke of Guise.

The royal army, in which was the queen and her son, after taking Blois, Tours, and Bourges, laid siege to Rouen, defended by Montgomery, famed in the annals of France for his fatal tournament with Henry II. The courage of Catharine was truly heroic; every day, during the siege, she exposed herself to the most imminent personal dangers. The duke of Guise, and the constable, remonstrated with her in vain on this temerity. “Why," she nobly replied, “should I spare myself more than you? Is it that I have less courage, or less interest in the event? It is true that I have less personal force, but in resolution of mind I am not inferior." Of what had not Catharine been capable, had this grandeur of sentiment been directed by proper principles! The soldiers, in imitation of the Romans, gave to her the title of "Mater Castrorum." The city was carried by assault. The king of Navarre met his fate before Rouen.

After many struggles between the contending parties, with

alternate loss and advantage, peace, so long and so ardently desired, was re-established, on terms not unfavorable to the huguenotts. Charles swore to preserve the treaty inviolate, and to protect the colonist in every benefit it promised to confer; but under these fair appearances lurked the most cruel and treacherous designs. Catharine, convinced from experience that the huguenotts were not to be subdued by force, had already planned the tragic spectacle which two years afterwards astonished Europe. A project so horribly flagitious and unprece dented, has stigmatised with indelible and deserved infamy, the comprehensive, yet detestable genius, which gave it birth. "Like some minister of an angry deity," says an ingenious and entertaining writer, "Catharine appears to have been occupied only in effecting the ruin of her people, and to have marked her course with carnage and devastation."

It becoming necessary to marry the king, who had entered his twenty-first year, Catharine solicited for him the hand of Elizabeth of England. Failing in this suit, she turned her attention to the archduchess Elizabeth, daughter of the emperor Maximilian II., a princess whose slender capacity threatened no diminution of her influence over the mind of her son.

The marriage having been celebrated, the young queen was crowned at St. Denis. Catharine displayed on this occasion the magnificence of her spirit, and the elegance of her taste. The entertainments exhibited at court were heightened by the fictions of antiquity, and embellished by the allegories of Greece and Rome. The amusements of Catharine were characterized by a genius, a spirit, and a refinement, that emulated those of more advanced periods, and were scarcely surpassed under the splendid reign of Louis XIV., the Augustan age of France. "Her extraordinary and universal genius," says the writer before quoted, "comprehended every thing in its embrace, and were equally distinguished at a cabinet or a banquet, whether directed to the destruction or delight of mankind: in her, qualities the most opposite and discordant in their nature, seem to have been blended. She was enabled, by the universality of her talents, to pass, with the easiest transition, from

the horrors of war to the dissipations of indolence and peace; and we are forced to lament, that a capacity so exalted should, from the principles by which it was actuated, produce only more general and lasting evils."

The horrid massacre of St. Bartholomew, was resolved on by Catharine, but her pernicious counsels had not yet extinguished in Charles' bosom every spark of honor, every sympathy of humanity. He paused on the threshold of an enterprise that would deliver his name with infamy to the latest posterity, and overwhelm his memory with execration and abhorrence. serving the paleness of his countenance, and the drops which hung upon his forehead, she reproached him with pusillanimity. Piqued at her contemptuous reflections, the unhappy Charles gave the orders demanded of him.

Ob

The dreadful work of death commenced; the massacre continued for a week, and more than five thousand persons of every rank, perished. Their bodies floated on the Seine, passing in the view of the tyrant, under the windows of the Louvre. Catharine de Medicis, the demon of this destruction, beheld, without pity or compunction, the misery of which she had been the cause; having gazed on the head of Admiral Coligni, which was presented to her, with savage delight, she sent it to Rome as the most acceptable present to the sovereign pontiff. The number of Calvinists put to death in the various provinces, is estimated from twenty-five to forty thousand persons.

This bloody tragedy had such an effect on the mind of Charles, that he did not long survive it. He expired in his twenty-fifth year, May 30th, 1574. The crown descended to his brother Henry, then king of Poland. Catharine acted as regent until his arrival, and their meeting at Lyons was tender and affecting. No alteration was made by Henry in the cabinet, in which the queen mother held a distinguished place.

The weakness of the king's subsequent conduct, which drew on him the contempt of the nation, threw Catharine into a profound melancholy: she foresaw the ruin of the state, which she knew not how to avert. Her remonstrances and entreaties had lost all influence over the mind of Henry, who was sunk in

debauchery and the most abject superstition. He was deserted by his subjects, and alike contemned both by catholics and huguenotts. He involved himself with both in the most fatal contentions; the kingdom was divided by factions, and torn by intestine wars. In vain were all the endeavors of Catharine to rouse the mind of her degenerate son, and to inspire him with a portion of her own vigor and capacity. She alternately sought by negotiation and address to allay the violence of all parties, and heal the wounds of the state.

Her death took place at the castle of Blois, January 5th, 1588, in the seventieth year of her age.

The memory of Catharine has been, by the protestant historians, uniformly execrated and branded with infamy; and the part she took in the fatal massacre of St. Bartholomew, has left upon her name an indelible stain.

CONSTANCE, daughter of Conan, duke of Brittany, was wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of Henry II., king of England. She was contracted by him while they were both in the cradle, and by her right Geoffrey became duke of Brittany. By him she had two children, Eleanor, called the maid of Brittany, and Arthur, who was born after the death of his father. She afterwards married Ralph Blundeville, earl of Chester; from him she was divorced, and again married Guy, brother to the Viscount Thouars. She had by him a daughter, named Alix, whom the Bretons elected for their sovereign. She died in 1202.

LAURA CRETA, an Italian lady, was born in 1669. She was learned in the languages and philosophy. She married Peter Lereni, but with him she was not destined to live long. He died in eighteen months after their union. She refused to enter into a second connection, but devoted herself to her studies. She held a correspondence with most of the great scholars and philosophers in Europe, who were happy in forming an acquaintance, through the medium of letters, with one of most learned women of the age, and of the world. She died in the flower of her age, and was lamented throughout Christendom.

But by the jealousies of many of modern times, the writings of highly educated females have not had a fair chance to see new editions. This jealousy, thank Heaven, is now departing from the literary horizon of Europe.

CORINNA, a poetess, was born at Thebes, or, according to some writers at Tanagra. She was distinguished for her skill in lyric verse, as well as remarkable for her personal attractions. She was the rival of Pindar, while he was in the prime of his youth and in zenith of his fame, and gained a victory over him, according to some Greek writers no less than five times, but all agree that she did so once, She wrote in the Eolic dialect, which it is said gave her a great advantage over Pindar, who wrote in the Doric, particularly as she had an Æolic auditory. She was not vain of her success, for she gave Pindar some wholesome criticism upon moderating the ardor of his imagination. Most of her productions have been lost in the lapse of ages; a few fragments only have survived, but enough to show what was the power of her abilities, and of her mastery over rhythm. Even Pindar has been but little more fortunate, for but a small portion of his poetry is extant.

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MARIA CUNITIA, or CUNITZ, a lady of great learning and genius, was born in Silesia about the beginning of the seventeenth century, and became celebrated for her extensive knowledge in many branches of learning, particularly in mathematics. and astronomy, upon which she wrote several ingenious treatises; one of which under the title of Urania Propitia," printed in 1650, in Latin and German, she dedicated to Ferdinand III., emperor of Germany. In this work are contained astronomical tables, of great care and accuracy, founded upon Kelper's hypotheses. She acquired languages with amazing facility; and understood Polish, German, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. With equal care she acquired a knowledge of the sciences, history, physic, poetry, painting music, both vocal and instrumental, were familiar to her; and yet they were no more than her amusements.