setting forth the services which the Indian princess had rendered to himself and the colony, which secured her the friendship of the queen. Pocahontas survived but little more than a year after her arrival in England. She died in 1617, at Gravesend, when about to embark for her native land, at the age of twenty-two or three. She left one son, who was educated in England by his uncle, and afterwards returned to Virginia, where he became a wealthy and distinguished character, from whom has descended several well-know families of that state.
Pocahontas has been the heroine of fiction and of song; bat the simple truth of her story is more interesting than any ideal description. She is another proof to the many already recorded in this work, of the intuitive moral sense of woman, and the importance of her aid in carrying forward the progress of human improvement.
Pocahontas was the first heathen who became converted to Christianity by the English settlers; the religion of the Gospel seemed congenial to her nature; she was like a guardian angel to the white strangers who had come to the land of the red men; by her the races were united; thus proving the unity of the human family through the spiritual nature of the woman; ever, in its highest development, seeking the good and at "enmity" with the evil; the preserver, the inspirer, the exemplar of the noblest virtues of humanity.
POICTIERS, DIANA DE, DUCHESS OF VALENTINOIS,
Was born March 31st., 1500. When her father, the Count of St Vallier, was condemned to lose his head for favouring the escape of the constable Bourbon, Diana obtained his pardon by throwing herself at the feet of Francis the First. St Vallier was, however, sentenced to perpetual confinement; and the horror he experienced at this fate brought on a fever, of which he died.
Diana de Poictiers married, in 1521, Louis de Breze, grand-marshal of Normandy; by him she had two daughters, whom she married very advantageously. She must have been at least thirty-five years of age, when the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry the Third, of France, at the age of seventeen became deeply attached to her; and she maintained her ascendency over him till his death, in 1559. Henry seemed to delight in giving testimonies of his attachment, both in public and private. The palaces, public edifices, and his own armour, were all ornamented with "the moon, bow and arrows," the emblems and device of his mistress. Her influence, both personal and political, was carried to an unbounded extent She may be said to have divided the crown with her lover, of whose counsel she was the directing principal, and of whose attachment she was the sole object. The young queen, Catharine de Medicis, not inferior in genius, taste, and beauty, to Diana, was obliged to act a subordinate part.
Diana was made Duchess de Valentinois in 1549. In 1552, she nursed the queen in a dangerous illness, notwithstanding their bitter feeling towards each other. She preferred the interest of the state to the aggrandizement of her family; and she loved the glory of her king. Her charities were immense; and every man distinguished for genius was sure of her support. Yet she did not always make a good use of her power; for she persuaded Henry to break the truce with Spain, which was the source of many evils to France.
