retired with her foster-daughter, Henrietta Sercy, who was now alone left to her, to Altona. This was in 1794, and there, in monastic solitude, this once gay and brilliant woman devoted herself entirely to literature. She wrote about this time a novel, "The Chevaliers du Lygne," printed in Hamburg, 1795, which contains many republican expressions and very free descriptions. It was afterwards republished in Paris, but with many alterations. The same year, (1795,) Madame de Genlis wrote a sort of autobiography, which is amusing, but not very reliable. Between her own vanity and the license usually granted to French vivacity and sentiment, the portrait she has drawn of herself is very highly coloured and flattering. At the close of this work is a rather remarkable letter to her eldest pupil, Louis Philippe, in which she exhorts him not to accept the crown of France, even though it should be offered him, because the French republic seemed to rest upon moral and just foundations.
When Napoleon was placed at the head of the government, Madame de Genlis returned to France, and received from him a house; and in 1805, a pension of six thousand francs. He ever treated her with respect and favour; and she corresponded with him. But on the return of the Bourbons, she forgot her obligations to the Emperor, and welcomed the restoration of her early friends. This was not strange; but she even stooped to join in the detraction of the exiled Corsican, which was not creditable to her heart or mind.
For the last thirty years of her life, her inexhaustible genius continued to pour forth a great variety of works. The whole number of her productions consists of nearly one hundred volumes, and are characterized by great imagination, and purity of style. She died at Paris, in December, 1830.
GENTILESCHI ARTEMISIA,
Was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, an Italian historical and landscape painter, who was born at Pisa, but came to London where he died. Artemisia resided in London for some time with her father, where she painted the portraits of several of the royal family, and many of the English nobility. She died in Italy, in 1642. One of her paintings represents Judith killing Holofornes; it is a picture of deep and terrible passion; the other is the Temptation of Susanna, a work of much ease, softness, and grace. Her talents gained her a wide reputation; and her private life was excellent.
GEOFFRIN MARIE THERESA RODET,
Born in 1699. She was a woman alike distinguished by her qualities of mind and heart, who, during half a century, was the ornament of the most polite and cultivated societies in Paris. An orphan from the cradle, she was educated by her grandmother, and early accustomed to think and judge justly. She afterwards became the wife of a man, of whom nothing can be said, excepting that he left her in possession of a considerable fortune, which she employed partly in assisting the needy, partly in assembling around her a select circle of distinguished persons. Her benevolence was exerted in a touching and delicate manner. An attentive study of mankind, enlightened by reason and justice, had taught Madame Geoffrin that men are more weak and vain than wicked; that it
