Lives of Celebrated Women

Charmed by all he saw and read, Mr. Kent at once made the proposal to her parents to adopt Lucretia as his own child. The proposal was in part accepted, and, in accordance with...

* * * You have, like King Ahasuerus, held forth, though not a golden sceptre, yet one more valuable,--the sceptre of friendship, if I may so call it. Like Esther, I would draw n...

In spite, however, of this reluctance, she embarked on board the _Active_, a merchant ship, for London. Of this voyage Mrs. Adams has given a most graphic and not very agreeable...

"Every Saturday we received company at 'Belle Chasse.' I established this rule to form the princes in politeness, and to accustom them to the habit of listening to conversation....

"Two months after this romantic flight, we went to Paris. I confess, to my shame, that I quitted Burgundy without regret; for childhood loves and requires change. At Paris we fo...

"I write, my dear cousin, over and above the stipulated fortnight communications, to advertise you that you will soon have the honor of seeing Picard; and, as he is brother to t...

Her husband, the Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, was a dissenting minister, descended from a family of French Protestants, who had taken refuge in England in the reign of Louis XIV. Mr...

Madame de Stael was informed of this event on the morning of the 12th, and on the 15th, having been advised of their route, she set off to join her parents. "When I reached them...

The following somewhat poetical description of the personal appearance of Lady Hester is given by a traveller, who, in 1832, was suffered to visit her--a favor rarely granted to...

Arrived at New York, the president's establishment was formed upon a scale partaking at once of simplicity and dignity. "The house was handsomely furnished; the equipages neat,...

One more tragedy, the "Inflexible Captive," completes Miss More's labors in this department of literature. She arrived at the conclusion that, by contributing plays, however pur...

As soon as she entered England, Mary addressed a letter to Elizabeth, in which she painted in glowing colors the wrongs she had endured, and implored the sympathy and assistance...

After the death of his father, Switzerland no longer became a safe place for him, and he went to Hamburg, to escape to America. But here his funds failed him, and he spent some...

Satisfied with having discharged their duty to liberty, Roland and his wife felt no regret at the loss of office. They ceased to meddle with politics, and led a retired life, wi...

On the 6th October, 1789, the mob broke into the palace of Versailles, murdered some of the bodyguards, and threatened the queen in the most frightful language. At midnight, she...

She submitted her book to the censor, and expunged such passages as were objected to. She now deemed herself safe in publishing it. Ten thousand copies were already printed, whe...

But for two years longer she enjoyed such happiness as Damocles may be supposed to have felt with the sword suspended over his head. The final blow was not struck till 1809. On...

The Countess of Nottingham, a near relation, but no friend, of Essex, being on her death-bed, entreated to see the queen, declaring that she had something to confess to her befo...

The union of Scotland to England had ever been a favorite project with English sovereigns, and the present seemed to Henry VIII. a favorable opportunity for peaceably effecting...

In the month of May, 1795, Napoleon Bonaparte came to Paris. His energies and talents had already attracted the notice of some of the leading men, especially of Barras, who had...

"Weep, O my mother! I will bid thee weep, For grief like thine requires the aid of tears; But O, I would not see thy bosom thus Bowed down to earth, with anguish so severe; I wo...

Produced by Katherine Ward and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Goo...

In the year 1792, affairs wore a very gloomy and threatening aspect in England. French revolutionary and atheistical principles seemed to be spreading wide their destructive inf...

During that period of anarchy in France, when the supreme power, which had fallen from the hands of a monarch deprived of his reason, was contended for by the rival houses of Or...