her orders, in the gallery aux Cerfs of the palace, by three men.
Louis the Fourteenth was highly indignant at this violation of justice in his dominions; but Christina sustained her act, and stated that she had reserved supreme power over her suite, and that wherever she went she was still a queen. She was, however, obliged to return to Rome, where she soon involved herself in a quarrel with the pope, Alexander the Seventh. She then went to Sweden; but she was not well received there, and soon left for Hamburgh, and from thence to Rome. She again returned to Sweden, but met with a still colder reception than before. It is said that her journeys to Sweden were undertaken for the purpose of resuming the crown, as Charles Gustavus had died in 1660. But this can hardly be true, as her adopted religion, to which she always remained constant, would be an insuperable obstacle, by the laws and constitution of Sweden, to her re-assuming the government.
After many wanderings, Christina died at Rome, April 15th., 1689, aged sixty-three. She was interred in the church of St Peter, and the pope erected a monument to her, with a long inscription, although she had requested that these words, Vixit Christina annos LXIII., should be the only inscription on her tomb. Her principal heir was her attendant, Cardinal Azzolini. Her library was bought by the pope, who placed nine hundred manuscripts of this collection in the Vatican, and gave the rest of the books to his family. Christina wrote a great deal; but her "Maxims and Sentences," and "Reflections on the Life and Actions of Alexander the Great," are all that have been preserved. She had good business talents, and a wonderful firmness of purpose. The great defects of her character, and the errors of her life, may be traced to her injudicious education, including the dislike she felt for women, and her contempt of feminine virtues and pursuits. She should be a warning to all those aspiring females, who would put off the dignity, delicacy, and dress of their own sex, in the vain hope that, by masculine freedom of deportment and attire, they should gain strength, wisdom, and enjoyment.
CHUDLEIGH, LADY MARY,
Was born in 1656, and was the daughter of Richard Lee, Esq., of Winslade, in Devonshire. She married Sir George Chudleigh, Bart., by whom she had several children; among the rest Eliza Maria, who dying in the bloom of life, her mother poured out her grief in a poem, called "A Dialogue between Lucinda and Marissa." She wrote another poem called "The Ladies' Defence," occasioned by a sermon preached against women. These, with many others, were collected into a volume and printed, for the third time, in 1722. She published also a volume of essays, in prose and verse, in 1710, which have been much admired for their delicacy of style.
This lady is said to have written several tragedies, operas, masques, etc., which were not printed. She died in 1711, in her fifty-fifth year. She was a woman of great virtue as well as understanding, and made the latter subservient to the former. She was only taught her native language, but her great application and uncommon abilities, enabled her to figure among the literati of her time. She wrote essays upon knowledge, pride, humility, life, death, fear, grief, riches, self-love, justice, anger, calumny, friendship, love.
