A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Eusebia

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EUSEBIA,

Abbess of St. Cyr, or St. Saviour, at Marseilles, is said by French writers to have cut off her nose, like the Abbess of Coldingham, in this country, to secure herself from ravishers, and her nuns are said to have followed her example. This took place in 731, when the Saracens invaded Provence. The catastrophe of the tale in both countries is, that the ladies were murdered by the disappointed savages. These tales may not be wholly true, yet that they were considered probable, shews the awful condition of society in those dark ages.