E.
EBBA, (Abbess of Coldingham, in Ireland),
Hearing of an invasion of the Danes, who put every thing to fire and sword, and committed the most horrid barbarities, Ebba persuaded the nuns of her monastery to save themselves from the violence of these barbarians, by disfiguring their faces, so as to become objects of horror rather than of love. Persuaded by her eloquence and example, the whole community cut off their noses and upper lips. When the Danes came and saw them in this state, they were so enraged that they set fire to the convent, and these martyrs to chastity perished in the flames.
Eleanor was scarcely sixteen at the death of her father, and possessed of the most consummate beauty, elegance of manner, and vigour of mind. He had destined her for the eldest son of the king of France, afterwards Lewis VII. whom accordingly she married in 1137. Ten years after she accompanied her husband to the Holy land, where her conduct gave room for the suspicions he began to entertain; and violent dissentions took place between them. These were fomented by her uncle, the prince of Antioch, who had little re-
