the base passion of envy for the cruel treatment Sabina endured from her husband. Adrian did not feel flattered by the means which had placed him on the greatest throne in the world. He owed it to Plotina—a woman; and though he was never ungrateful to her, yet Sabina, the niece of Trajan, was really, in birth, above him; and he never forgave her for this superiority. To implicate her in some plot or crime, seemed his first desire. He set spies about her to watch her conduct, and even had the meanness to intercept and read all her letters. After the death of her aunt Plotina, he overwhelmed Sabina with his contempt and calumny. One of the historians of his reign says that he engaged "les personnes de sa cour à lui faire éprouver les plus sanglantes mortifications, et la maltraita tellement qu'elle finit par se donner la mort." And this wretch was one of the best emperors who governed Rome! That the soul of the woman had not thus lost its love of the good and the true, is proven in this sad history of Sabina; with all his scrutiny, the vindictive Adrian could never find cause of accusation against her. She was murdered, not executed.
SABLIERE, MADAME DE LA,
A French poetess, was the friend and benefactress of La Fontaine, who lived in her house for twenty years. Her husband was also a poet, and she is said to have assisted him in his writings. She was not, however, always faithful to her husband; but she expiated this sin, in the opinion of her contemporaries, by retiring to a convent, and consecrating the rest of her life to taking care of the sick. She died at Paris in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
SAINTE DES PREZ,
A pupil of Agnes de Bragelonge de Planey, lived in the thirteenth century. She was a French poetess. At the age of twelve, she fell in love with Seymour, an English gentleman, who was then thirty, and who did not reciprocate her affection till ten years after, when he married her; but she died soon after. Guillebert d'Emeville, a celebrated troubadour, was one of her suitors.
SAINTE-NECTAIRE, MAGDALENE DE,
Widow of Guy de St. Exuperi, was a Protestant heroine, who distinguished herself in the civil wars of France. After the death of her husband, she retired to her château at Miremont, in the Limousin, where, with sixty young men, well armed, she was accustomed to make excursions on the Catholic armies in her neighbourhood. In 1575, M. Mental, governor of the province, having had his detachments often defeated by Madame de Sainte-Nectaire, resolved to besiege her in her château, with fifteen hundred foot and fifty horse. Sallying out upon him, she defeated his troops; but finding, on her return, her château in possession of the enemy, she galloped to Turenne, a neighbouring town, to procure a reinforcement. Mental awaited her in a defile, but was vanquished and mortally wounded by her troops. The time of her death if not recorded.
SAINTE-PHALIER, FRANCOISE THERESE AUMILE DE,
A French lady, who wrote "The Confident Rival," a comedy, and some other poetical pieces. She died at Paris in 1757.
