Italian, and Latin languages, in the last of which she composed many poems, were almost as familiar to her as the French. Many of her poetical pieces have reached the present times.
GUNILDA, sister of Sweyn, King of Denmark,
Was given as a hostage for the treaty of peace made between him and Ethelred. She embraced christianity, married Pulling, one of the principal lords of the English court, and settled in this country; when in the general massacre of the Danes, under the direction of the victorious Edric, Gunilda fell a victim. The throats of her husband and children were cut before her eyes, and they then killed her by strokes with a lance. She died with all the firmness of a philosopher, lamenting almost equally the executioners and the victims. "God will punish you," said she coldly to the latter, "and my brother will revenge my death." Sweyn did revenge her, and England sunk beneath the Danish yoke.
She was sent, when only seven years of age, to the convent of the Ursulines, where she was taken care of by one of her half sisters. At eight years of age, the confessor of the queen-mother of England, widow of Charles I. presented her to that princess, who would have retained her, had not her parents opposed it, and
