She fasted, wore a girdle lined with sharp points, slept on the floor in winter, cut off her beautiful hair, and gave up music, of which she was very fond. She had offers of marriage from a young man of great piety and immense fortune, whom she liked, but refused to marry, as she said an internal voice commanded her to do, that she might not fail in the great mission which had devolved on her.
Her strongest desire was to travel to convert mankind, but this she was prevented from doing till 1779; she then escaped from her home, and arrived safely in Paris, where she passed some time under the protection of the Duchess de Bourbon. Here she was visited by ail classes of people, and regarded as a prophetess. She predicted various events, and carried on a profound argument with the Abbé Maury, in which she came off victorious. Leaving Paris, where she had been very successful, she returned to Perigord, and went from there to Rome, to convert the pope and cardinals "to the principles of liberty and equality; of the civil constitution of the clergy; and to persuade the pope to abdicate his temporal power." Suzette preached at the different places through which she passed; but when she reached Boulogne, in October, 1792, she was ordered by the pope's legate to leave the city. She took refuge in Viterbo; but the pope had her seized, and confined in the castle of San Angelo. She was not ill-treated, however, and when the Directory, in 1796, requested her liberation, she replied that she did not wish to leave Italy till 1800, when she had predicted that there would be a sign in heaven which would open the eyes of the pope himself. But when the French took Rome, in 1798, she returned to Paris, where she was surrounded by a number of disciples, although the year 1800 passed without the sign. Her followers, many of whom were learned men, remained steadfast, however, and Suzette continued to have visions till she was seventy-four. She died in 1821. Pontard, Bishop of Paris, remained faithful to her to the last,
LACOMBE, ROSE,
One of the terrible heroines or rather furies of the French revolution, born about 1768, was an actress of high reputation, and very beautiful. She was one of the leaders in that crowd of ferocious women who attacked the Hotel-de-Ville, and obliged the king and his family to return from Versailles to Paris. She founded a club of women, in which she was the chief speaker; and joined in the attack on the Tuilleries, in which she shewed such intrepidity, that the city of Marseilles decreed to her a civic crown. She entered with her whole soul into all the scenes of savage cruelty which disgraced those times. After having been the recognised leader and orator of the republican women for some time, she suddenly lost nearly all her influence by falling violently in love with, and endeavouring with her usual reckless impetuosity, to save, but in vain, a young nobleman who was imprisoned. The latter part of her life was passed in a small shop, where she gained her livelihood by the sale of petty articles. The time or manner of her death is not known.
LAFAYETTE, MADAME.
Belonged to the noble family of Noailles, and was married, when
