the garrison to make a sally on the enemy; the generals seconded her spirit, and gallantry; the troops, assured of the assistance of heaven, poured impetuously on the dispirited English; their ranks were mowed down, their redoubts forced, and those whom the sword spared were carried into captivity.

On one occasion the French gave way, and Joan was left nearly alone. Compelled at length to join the deserters, she displayed on high the sacred banner; while with her voice, her countenance, and her gestures, she animated her recreant followers, led them back to the charge, turned the fortune of the field, and overpowered the enemy. When wounded, on another occasion in the neck, by an arrow, she retired for a moment, and exclaimed, as with her own hand she extracted the weapon, “It is glory, and not blood, which flows from this wound." The wound having been quickly dressed, she returned to head the assailants, and to plant her victorious standard on the enemy's ramparts. At an attack on Jergeau, she descended into the fosse, where she was beaten to the ground, by a blow on her head from a stone, but quickly recovering herself, the assault was carried, and Suffolk made prisoner.

Joan had now accomplished one part of her mission, in raising the siege of Orleans; the crowning of Charles at Rheims only remained to be effected, on which she now insisted. Charles, accompanied by the victorious female, at the head of twelve thousand men, set out for Rheims; every town opened its gates to him as he passed. The ceremony of his coronation was then performed; Joan stood by his side, in complete armor, displaying her sacred banner, and the people shouted with tumultuous joy.

The English, supported by the duke of Burgundy, laid seige to the town of Compeigne, into which Joan threw herself. The garrison, who with her assistance believed themselves invincible, received her with transports of joy. Here, however, her good fortune forsook her, and after performing prodigies of valor, and losing her horse under her, she was compelled to surrender to the enemy. The Burgundians, into whose hands she had fallen, sold her to the English, for ten thousand livres. It is believed the French officers, jealous of the glory of the

maid, had designedly exposed her to this fatal catastrophe. Such is human gratitude, and the fate of merit; and such the recompense awarded to the benefactors of their species. She was tried for sorcery and magic, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; and to be fed, during life, on bread and water. The trial was a mockery on justice.

Both the French and English might now have been convinced, that the opinion of divine influence, which had so much encouraged the one and depressed the other, was without foundation. But the barbarous vengeance of Joan's enemies, was not yet satisfied. Near four months she was continually harassed by questions, and persecutions, the most ridiculous and absurd; she was asked, whether at the coronation of Charles, she had not displayed a standard, consecrated by magical incantation. “Her trust," she replied, "was in the image of the Almighty impressed on the banner; and that she, who had shared the danger of the field, was entitled to partake of the glory at Rheims. During these examinations she betrayed no weakness, nor gave to her persecutors any advantage; she disgraced not the heroism she had displayed in the field. At length she was excommunicated, and all pardon, all mercy refused to her. Crowned with a paper, on which were inscribed the terms, “apostate, heretic, and idolatress," and guarded by soldiers, she was delivered over to the stake, which had been erected for the purpose in the marketplace of Rouen.

On the right hand of the scaffold, on which she was exposed to the savage fury of the people, were stationed the clergy, and on the left the secular officers. In this situation she was, with solemn mockery, interrogated on the principles of her faith; principles, which appeared to differ in no respect, from those of her merciless persecutors. She was at the conclusion informed, "that the meek and merciful ministers of the gospel had, for the execution of their sentence, handed her over to the secular powers."-Dieu soit bene! "Blessed be God!" exclaimed the sufferer, as she placed herself on the pile. Her body was quickly consumed, and her ashes scattered to the winds. Thus perished this heroic woman, June 14th, 1431; to whom, (it is justly ob

served by Mr. Hume,) "the more liberal and generous superstitions of the ancients would have erected altars."

In 1454, a revision of the sentence of Joan was demanded by her mother; and the memory of Joan was fully cleared of every imputation which could tend to its dishonor, by the bishop of Paris, under a commission by pope Nicolas V. Monuments were erected to her honor, in Orleans, at Rouen, and various parts of France. Some years after her decease, Joan was, by a bull of pope Calixtus III., declared a martyr to her religion, her country, and her king.

JANE AUSTEN, a highly gifted and sensible novelist, was born on the sixteenth of December, 1775, at Steventon, in the county of Hantz, Eng., for which parish, her father was rector for upwards of forty years. At the age of seventy, he resided with his family at Bath, and upon his death, his widow and two daughters retired to Southampton, and ultimately, in, 1807, to Chawton, in the same county. It was during her residence in the last mentioned place, that Miss Austen composed the novels, which for ease, nature, and a complete knowledge of the features which distinguish the domesticity of the English country gentry, are very highly estimated. The principal of these productions, are, "Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," and " Emma." Two more, published after her death, entitled, "Northenger Abbey," and "Persuasion," which were however, her most early attempts. The praise-worthy object of Miss Austen, in all her works was to advocate the superiority of sound principles, unsophisticated manners, and undesigning rectitude, to more splendid and artificial pretensions; and within the sphere of her delineation she eminently succeeded. At the same time her discrimination was acute, her humor easy, and spontaneous, and her power of creating an interest in her character, by slight and reiterated touches, extraordinary. This amiable and accomplished lady, whose personal and mental attractions were otherwise of a high order, died of a decline, on the eighteenth of July, 1817, in her forty-second year; and her virtues are held in sweet remembrance.

JOAN D'ALBERT, queen of Navarre, daughter of Henry D'Albert and Margaret of Valois, was born in 1528. At eleven years of age, she was married, contrary to her own inclinations and those of her parents, to the duke of Cleves, by the authority of Francis I., but the marriage was afterwards declared null. In 1548, she married Anthony of Bourbon, duke of Vendome. She was the mother of Henry IV. of France. On the death of her father, in 1555, she became queen of Navarre, and her husband took the title of king. They favored the reformed religion, and would probably have openly professed it, had they not feared the resentment of the French king, Henry II. After his death they declared their conversion to Calvinism, which religion Joan afterwards zealously protected. Anthony, on the other hand, a weak and fickle man, renounced his new faith, and commanded against the protestants in the civil war, in which he was killed at the siege of Rouen, in 1562. Joan, who was ill treated by him after his change, left the court of France, and returned to Bearn. She not only established the protestant religion in her states, but abolished popery, and seized the ecclesiastical property, which she applied to the maintenance of the reformed clergy, and the schools. Her catholic subjects several times revolted, and a plot was formed to deliver her and her children into the hands of the king of Spain; but she defeated all their conspiracies, and maintained her royal authority. In 1568, she quitted her states to join the chiefs of the French protestants; and at Cognac had an interview with the prince of Conde, to whom she presented her son, then fifteen years old, with her jewels, as devoted to the service of the cause. She withdrew to Rochelle, whence she wrote a pathetic letter to Elizabeth, queen of England, describing the calamities and oppressions which had induced the protestants to take up arms. During her absence, the catholics of Bearn again revolted, but were put down by her general, the count of Montgomery. Her prudence was lulled by the flattering proposal of Charles IX., to marry his sister to her son; and she came to Paris to prepare for the nuptials. In the midst of them, she was seized with a disease, of which she died, June, 1572, in her forty-fourth year. Her

death was not without suspicion of poison, which, if not contradicted by the circumstances, would be rendered sufficiently credi ble by the character of that court, which soon after acted the horrible tragedy of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew's.

CHARLOTTE D'ALBERT was the wife of Cæsar Borgia, whose misfortunes she shared without reproaching him of his vices. She was pious, sensible, witty, and had much genius for poetry. Her husband was guilty of almost every crime known to human nature, while she was practising every virtue that adorns her sex.

ALDRUDE, Countess of Bertinoro, in Romagna, has been highly celebrated by Italian writers, for the loveliness of her person, the courtesy of her manners, and the superiority of understanding, with which she was blessed. Her fortune was princely,.. her munificence extensive, and she was universally beloved and admired; but the circumstance which peculiarly handed her down to posterity, is the military ardor which glowed in her breast. Anconia, a city situated on the Adriatic sea, was besieged, in the year 1167; and, though the inhabitants bravely repelled the attacks of their enemies, famine reduced them to the utmost distress. As the fort was blockaded, no hopes could be entertained of succor. In this situation, they determined to apply to William, son of Marcheitto degh Adelarde, for relief; and three of their nobles contrived to elude the vigilance of their enemies, and reached Ferrara in a small ship. William generously consented to afford them the succor they demanded, and hastened into Lombardy to assemble his troops; but advised them likewise, to implore the aid of the countess of Bertinoro, who had a large body of troops at her command. Moved with compassion for the unfortunate Anconians, the amiable countess promised the assistance which they solicited, and assembling her troops, united them to William's. When they arrived near Anconia, she addressed them in the following words:-" Fortified and encouraged by the favor of heaven, I have, contrary to the custom of my sex, determined to address you in a plain exhortation, which, though it may not be flattering to your ears,