RICH, FRANCES.
Youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, was born in December, 1638. She was probably handsome, as she received many splendid offers of marriage; among others, one from Charles the Second himself, then in exile. Cromwell refused, saying that "Charles would never forgive the death of his father." The Duke d'Enghien, eldest son of the Prince de Condé was another suitor of Frances Cromwell. On the 11th. of November. 1667, she married Robert Rich, grandson and heir to Robert, Earl of Warwick, the protector settling £16,000 on his daughter. Mr. Rich died three months after the marriage, and some time after, Mrs. Rich married Sir John Russel, by whom she had several children. She died January the 27th., 1721, at the age of eighty-four.
RIEDESEL, FREDERICA, BARONESS DE,
Was the daughter of Masson, the Prussian minister of state, and was born in Brandenborgh in 1746. In 1763, she married Lieutenant-Colonel Baron de Riedesel, who was appointed, in 1777, to the command of the Brunswick forces in the British service in America, and his wife accompanied him there with her three young children. She was with that part of the army commanded by General Burgoyne, during all their disasters, till the defeat at Saratoga, exposed often to privations and dangers from which many of the soldiers would have shrunk. After the capitulation of Burgoyne, Riedesel, who was taken prisoner, was sent to Cambridge, and afterwards to Virginia, but in 1779, was allowed to go to New York. His wife accompanied him in all his wanderings. In 1780, General Riedesel was exchanged; in 1781, they went to Canada; and in 1783, they returned to Germany, where the husband died, in 1800. After this event, the baroness resided in Berlin, where she died, in 1808. She founded there an asylum for military orphans, and an alms-house for the poor in Brunswick.
RIGBY, MISS,
Has not contributed as much to our current literature as many other English authoresses—but the few volumes for which the world is indebted to her, place her in the very first class among writers of tales and travels. It chanced that the elder sister of this lady married an Esthonian baron, who has established his residence on his family estates;—she was induced to visit this expatriated relative, and hence we obtained "Letters from the Baltic," published in 1841. This work at once made its way with the public and reviewers. Solid information and novelty of description conveyed in the most graceful style, brightened by wit, animated by the enthusiasm of an artistic taste, such are the attractive qualities of "Letters from the Baltic." We know of no other book that gives so clear, so true, and so detailed an account of life in the Russian Empire. "Russia, the country where the learned man wastes his time, the patriot breaks his heart, and the rogue prospers," such is her concluding observation on quitting St. Petersburg. In 1846 appeared "Livonian Tales;" they are three in number, and all well written.
RISTORI, ADELAIDE,
Is a tragic actress, whose powerful delineations of passion have
