Why she carried a bundle? "Because, as I expected to go to prison, I wanted a change of clothes." Two knives were found in her bundle—she was asked if she intended to assassinate Robespierre? She said, "No; that she always carried a knife, and in this case had taken the second by mistake; but that they might think as they pleased about it." Being asked who were her accomplices, she denied having any, or the existence of any plot. An old aunt of Cecile's, an ex-nun, together with her father and brothers, were involved in her condemnation. Cecile, dragged to the scaffold, never wavered an instant in her firmness; this girl of twenty met death with the resolution and unmoved demeanour of a stoic.
RENEE DE FRANCE, DUCHESS OF FERRARA,
Born at Blois, in 1510, was the daughter of Louis the Twelfth and Anne of Brittany. She was married, in 1527, to Hercules the Second, of Este, Duke of Ferrara. She was a princess of great capacity and thirst for knowledge, and much interested in the religious controversies of the times. Calvin, who went in disguise, from France to Italy to see her, brought her over to his opinions,-and her court at Ferrara became the refuge of all those suspected of heresy. Her conduct so displeased the court of France, that the king, Henry the Second, sent the following instructions to the Duke of Ferrara:—
"If the duchess persists in her errors, she must be separated from all conversation; her children must be taken from her; and all her domestics, who are greatly suspected of heresy, must be prosecuted. With regard to the princess herself, the king refers to the prudence of her husband."
Her four children were, therefore, successively taken from her and brought into France, to be educated in the Roman Catholic faith. After the duke's death, in 1559, the princess returned to France, to reside in her castle of Montargis. The Duke of Guise having summoned her to deliver up some Protestants who had taken refuge with her, she replied, "That she would not deliver them, and that if he should attack the castle, she would be the first to place herself in the breach, to see if he would dare to kill a king's daughter." She was obliged to send away four hundred and sixty persons, to whom she had given asylum; she parted from them in tears, after providing for the expenses of their journey. This princess died at Montargis, in 1575. She was slightly deformed in her person, but elegant manners and graceful eloquence more than compensated for this disadvantage.
REYBAUD, MADAME CHARLES,
Is the nomme de plume of Mademoiselle H. Arnaud. She resides in Paris. Why she should have chosen to put away her own name, and give the celebrity of her genius to a fictitious one, has never been made known; but such is the fact. She need not have done this in order to secure the success of her works, which have been received with great favour by the Parisian public.
Madame Reybaud has published over twenty novels and tales, none of which have failed. Her most striking qualities are the unity and perfectness with which she constructs and finishes her
