Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/688

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SAL. SAM.

SALE, LADY,

Wife of Sir Robert Sale, has distinguished herself greatly for the noble courage with which she bore the dangers and sufferings incident to the terrible war in Afghanistan, the generous assistance she rendered to others, and the calm good sense and unshaken faithfulness which characterize her record of the siege of Cabul and the retreat and destruction of the British army. Her work, was published in 1843—"A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan." The book must be read to form a correct idea of Lady Sale's character, and of the heroic fidelity to duty which lives in the soul of a woman. Sir Robert Peel said, when addressing Parliament on the subject of that war, "We are now acknowledging military services; but I never should excuse myself, if, in mentioning the name of Sir Robert Sale, I did not record my admiration of the character of a woman who has shed lustre on her sex—Lady Sale, his wife."

SALOME,

Wife of Zebedee, and mother of James the Greater, and John the Evangelist. She was one of those holy women who attended and ministered to our Saviour in his journeys. She requested of Jesus that her two sons might sit one on his right, and the other on his left hand. Mark xv. 40. She followed Christ to Calvary, and did not forsake him at the cross. She was one of those women who came early on Sunday morning with perfumes to embalm the body of Christ.

SALVIONI, ROSALBA MARIA,

Was born at Rome in 1658. She studied the art of painting under Sebastian Copea, but devoted herself wholly to portraiture, which she excelled. She died in 1708.

SAMSON, DEBORAH,

Was the child of very poor parents, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. She was received into a respectable family, where she was kindly treated, but where her education was entirely neglected. She, however, contrived to teach herself to read and write; and, as soon as she was able, earned money enough to pay for her own schooling for a short time. When she was about twenty, the Revolutionary war in America commenced; and Deborah, disguising herself in man's apparel, and going to the American camp, enlisted, in 1778, for the whole term of the war, under the name of Robert Shirtliffe. Accustomed to out-door labour, she was enabled to undergo the same fatigues and exercises as the other soldiers. Her fidelity and zeal gained her the confidence of the officers, and she was a volunteer in several hazardous enterprises. She was twice wounded, at first in the head, and afterwards in the shoulder; but she managed to preserve the secret of her sex unsuspected However, she was seized with a brain-fever in Philadelphia, and the physician who was attending her discovered her sex, and took her to his own spouse. When her health was restored, her commanding officer, to whom the physician had revealed his discovery, ordered her to carry a letter to General Washington. Certain now of a fact of which she had before been doubtful, that her sex was known, she