Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/346

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GAU. GAY. GEN.

shone conspicuous in herself. Her income being small, she practised economy to enable her to gratify her dearest wish, and procure for him a complete education; while her maternal tenderness did not dispense with implicit obedience; and strict admonitions, or yet stricter discipline, were employed to correct the faults of childhood and youth.

This cherished son William, (afterwards the distinguished judge Gaston, of North Carolina,) graduated at Princeton, taking the highest honours of the institution. When he returned home, before his mother embraced or welcomed him, she laid her hands on his head, as he knelt before her, and breathed forth the feelings of her soul in the exclamation—"My God I thank thee!"

GAUSSEM, JEANNE CATHARINE,

A celebrated French actress, who, for thirty years enjoyed the applause of the audience in the principal French theatres. She retired from the stage in 1664, and died at Paris in 1767, aged fifty-six years.

GAY, SOPHIE,

Was born in Paris, where she now resides. She is a writer of considerable talent and great industry, and has long been a favourite with French novel readers. None of her works have been translated into English, nor are the French editions often met with in America. Her style is pleasing; she describes a drawing-room circle with liveliness; her dialogues are natural and appropriate, and she sometimes rises to the pathetic. "Anatole" is, perhaps, her most finished production. "La Duchess de Chateroux," "Marie Louise d'Orleans," "Salons Celebres," "Souveniers d'une Vielle Femme," have all enjoyed a very favourable reputation. But greater interest has attached to the name of Madame Sophia Gay from her motherhood than her authorship. Her celebrated daughter, Delphine, now Madame Emile Girardin, is the living page which enlarges as well as reflects the genius of Sophie Gay.

GENEVIEVE, DUCHESS OF BRABANT,

Was born in the year 700. She was married to Siegfreid, and shortly after her marriage (732) her husband was called to the field by his sovereign, Charles Martel. He left his wife in the care of Golo, the captain of his castle. When Golo, who loved Genevieve, saw that she repulsed him, he wrote to the duke that Genevieve had been unfaithful, and would shortly become the mother of an illegitimate child. Siegfried, who put full confidence in Golo, ordered him to have the mother and child killed. But the servants to whose hands the wicked man confided that deed had compassion on the poor innocent woman, and left her in the woods, where a doe supplied her with milk for the child. The animal accompanied her for five years, till one day, on the 6th. of January, 767, pursued by Siegfried, she fled to the cave, where the husband found both his wife and child. An explanation took place, and she became the cherished wife of his bosom.

GENEVIEVE, ST.,

The patroness of the city of Paris, was born in 423, at Manterre,