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an approaching event; she had barely time to enter her own house-a piece of tapestry hangings was hastily thrown on the marble pavement of the hall, and there Napoleon was born. The tapestry represented a scene from the Iliad. Madame Bonaparte was always kind and generous; in trouble she was the advocate and protectress of the unfortunate. When Jerome incurred his brother's displeasure for his American marriage, his mother restored him to favour; and when Lucien, for a fault of the same sort, was exiled to Rome, Madame Letitia accompanied him. When Napoleon became sovereign, he allotted her a suitable income, upon which she maintained a decorous court. After the disasters of 1816, she retired to Rome, where she lived in a quiet and dignified manner, seeing nobody but her own connections, and sometimes strangers of high rank, who were very desirous of being presented to her. She never laid aside her black, after the death of Napoleon. She died February 2d, 1836, at the age of eighty-six. For several of the last years of her life she was deprived of her sight, and was bedridden. Madame Letitia was always honoured and respected by those who were able to appreciate her rare qualities.

BONTEMS, MADAME,

BORN at Paris in 1718, died in the same city, April 18th, 1768; had received from nature a good understanding, and an excellent taste, which were cultivated by a careful education. She was acquainted with the foreign languages, and it is to her that the French are indebted for the accurate and elegant translation of "Thomson's Seasons." She was the centre of an amiable and select society that frequented her house. Though she was naturally very witty, she only made use of this talent for displaying that of others. She was not less esteemed for the qualities of her heart than of her mind.

BORGHESE, MARIE PAULINE, PRINCESS, originally Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, born at Ajaccio, October 20th, 1780; went when the English occupied Corsica in 1793, to

Marseilles, where she was on the point of marrying Fréron, a member of the Convention, and son of that critic whom Voltaire made famous, when another lady laid claim to his hand. The beautiful Pauline was then intended for general Duphot, who was afterwards murdered at Rome in December, 1797; but she bestowed her hand from choice on General Leclerc, then at Milan, who had been in 1795 chief of the general staff of a division at Marseilles, and had then fallen in love with her. When he was sent to St. Domingo with the rank of captain-general, Napoleon ordered her to accompany her husband with her son. She embarked in December, 1801, at Brest, and was called by the poets of the fleet the Galatea of the Greeks, the Venus marina. Her statue in marble has since been made by Canova at Rome, a successful image of the goddess of beauty. She was no less courageous than beautiful, for when the negroes under Christophe stormed Cape François, where she resided, and Leclerc, who could no longer resist the assailants, ordered his lady and child to be carried on shipboard, she yielded only to force.

After the death of her husband, November 23d, 1802, she married at Morfontaine, November 6, 1803, the prince Camillo Borghese. Her son died at Rome soon after. With Napoleon, who loved her tenderly, she had many disputes and as many reconciliations; for she would not always follow the caprices of his policy. Yet even the proud style in which she demanded what her brothers begged, made her the more attractive to Napoleon. Once, however, when she forgot herself towards the empress, whom she never liked, she was obliged to leave the court. She was yet in disgrace at Nice, when Napoleon resigned his crown in 1814; upon which occasion she immediately appeared a tender sister. Instead of remaining at her palace in Rome, she set out for Elba to join her brother, and acted the part of mediator between him and the other members of his family. When Napoleon landed in France, she went to Naples to see her sister Caroline, and afterwards returned to Rome. Before the battle of Waterloo she placed all her diamonds, which were of great value, at the disposal of her brother. They were in his carriage, which was taken in that battle, and was shown publicly in London. He intended to have returned them to her.

She lived afterwards separated from her husband at Rome, where she occupied part of the palace Borghese, and where she possessed, from 1816, the villa Sciarra. Her house, in which taste and love of the fine arts prevailed, was the centre of the most splendid society at Rome. She often saw her mother, her brothers Lucien and Louis, and her uncle Fesch. When she heard of the sickness of her brother Napoleon, she repeatedly requested permission to go to him at St. Helena. She finally obtained her request, but the news of his death arrived immediately after. She died June 9th, 1825, at Florence. She left many legacies, and a donation, by the interest of which two young men of Ajaccio will be enabled to study medicine and surgery. The rest of her property

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she left to her brothers, the count of St. Leu and the prince of Montfort. Her whole property amounted to 2,000,000 francs.

Pauline was very fond of Italian poetry, and took great pleasure in listening to the melancholy verses of Petrarch. Among her accomplishments, the most remarkable certainly was her dramatic talent, which she displayed in private theatricals. Her marriage with the prince Borghese had never given anything like domestic happiness; they had long been separated, when, shortly before her death, in 1825, a reconciliation was effected, and they established their residence at Florence. She was then forty-five years old, but already felt the undermining effects of her fatal malady. Pauline had led a life of pleasure and folly, but her deathbed presented a scene that is sometimes wanting at the close of better-ordered lives. She exhibited the utmost tranquillity, resignation, and courage. Calling her husband, she begged his pardon for the causes of displeasure she had given him. She wrote, with her own hands, a will in which nobody was forgotten even mere acquaintances were mentioned with appropriate bequests. She fulfilled all those duties the Roman Catholic church enjoins with every mark of the sincerest repentance, and warmest devotion. She spoke with the tenderest affection of her family, only one of whom, Jerome, was with her; she died clasping a picture of the emperor, and her last worldly thought seemed to be with him. Let us hope that this altered frame of mind proceeded from real penitence for the serious errors that stained her early days; for the truth of history compels the acknowledgment that this princess, beautiful, accomplished, high-minded, spirited, and generous, had deserved, by her ill conduct, the repugnance with which prince Camillo Borghese, for many years, regarded her. He appears to have entirely forgiven her, as he manifested a deep affliction at her death.

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BOUGNET, MADAME,

Is celebrated for her humanity during the French revolution of 1793, in concealing some of the proscribed deputies, though death was the consequence of this mark of friendship. After supporting these unfortunate men for some time, and seeing them escape from her abode only to perish on the scaffold, she was herself dragged before the tribunal of Bordeaux, and suffered death with Christian resignation.

BOURETTE, CHARLOTTE, WHOSE first husband was M. Curé, was a French poetess and lemonade-seller, called la Muse limonadière. She was born at Paris in 1714, and died there in 1784. Madame Bourette kept the Café Allemand, and was celebrated for her numerous productions in prose and verse. Her writings introduced her to the notice of several sovereigns, princes and princesses of the blood royal, and many of the most celebrated men of her time. Her poetry is careless and prosaic, but her prose compositions poetic and brilliant. She also wrote a comedy, "The Coquette Punished," which was acted with success in the Théatre Français.

M. de Fontenelle, visiting Madame Bourette, addressed to her these two lines,

"Si les dames ont droit d'introducire des modes.
En prose disonnais on doit faire les odes."
To this, the lady replied as follows:-

TO M. DE FONTENELLE.
Cher Anacréon de Neustrie,
Dont la rare et sage folie
Joint Epicure avec Zenon,
Votre visite en ma maison,
Malgré le poison de l'Envie,
En tout tems, en toute saison,
Fera le plaisir de ma vie.
Mais en ce saint tems de pardon
Que nous accorde le Saint-Père,
Quel compliment puis-je vous faie
Qui n'ait un fumet d'oraison?
L'on ne parle que de prière,
De conférence et de sermon.
Vous le sçavez, fils d'Apollon,
Je peux le dire sans mystère,
Nous parlons tout autre jargon.
Il faut donc sagement me taire,
Ou vous dire avec onction:
Vous m'avez fait faveur insigne;
Ah! seigneur, je n'étois pas digne

Que vous vinssiez dans ma maison !

BOULLOUGNE, MAGDELAINE DE,

WAS born at Paris in 1644. She painted historical pieces, but excelled in flowers and fruits She died 1710. Her sister, Genevieve, painted in the same style, and with equal merit. She died 1708, aged sixty-three.

BOURGAIN, THÉRÉSE,

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ENGAGED at the Théatre Français, in Paris, acted the parts of heroines in tragedy, and the young artless girls in comedy. She was a native of Paris. Palissot encouraged her, and the celebrated Dumesnil, then eighty years old, gave her instructions. "Pamela," (by F. de Neufchateau), "Melanie," (by la Harpe), and "Monime," (a character in Mithridat," by Voltaire), were her most successful parts in tragedy; but in comedy she was greater. She avoided the common fault of most actresses who wish to excel in both kinds, namely, the transferring of the tragic diction to that of comedy, which latter requires, in dialogue, an easy, free, and well-supported style. If she did not reach the accomplished Mlle. Mars, her graceful vivacity, sufficiently aided by study and art, had peculiar charms. She acted also male parts, and her triumph in this kind was the Page," in the "Marriage of Figaro." She was one of the members of the Théatre Français, whom Napoleon had selected to entertain the congress of kings at Erfurt; at the demand of Alexander I., she went, 1809, to St. Petersburg, where she was much applauded as Eugenia; in Königsberg, she gave recitations before the late queen Louisa of Prussia, who rewarded her liberally; and in the same year she returned to Paris, where justice has always been done to her eminent talents.

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BOURGET, CLEMENCE DE,

A LADY born of respectable parents at Lyons. She possessed so much merit as a writer, a musician, and a poetess, that she was presented to two

monarchs, who passed through Lyons, as the greatest ornament of her native city. She died of a broken heart, in consequence of the loss of her lover, John de Peyrat, who fell at the siege of Beaurepaire, in 1561. She was the contemporary of Louise Labbé, la belle Cordiére, and was very much attached to her, but the conduct of Louise at length compelled her more exemplary friend to withdraw her friendship.

BOURIGNON, ANTOINETTE,

WAS a celebrated religious enthusiast, and founder of a sect which acquired so much importance that, under the name of the Bourignian doctrine, it is to this day one of the heresies renounced by candidates for holy orders in the Church of Scotland. She was the daughter of a Lille merchant, and was born in 1616; she was so singularly deformed at her birth, that a family consultation was held on the propriety of destroying the infant, as a monster. This fate she escaped, but remained an object of dislike to her mother, in consequence of which her childhood was passed in solitude and neglect; and the first books she got hold of chancing to be "Lives of the Early Christians" and mystical tracts, her ardent imagination acquired the visionary turn that marked her life. It has been asserted that her religious zeal displayed itself so early, that at four years of age she entreated to be removed to a more Christian country than Lille, where the unevangelical lives of the towns-people shocked her.

As Antoinette grew up, her appearance improved in a measure, and, being a considerable heiress, her deformity did not prevent her from being sought in marriage; and when she reached her twentieth year, one of her suitors was accepted by her parents. But the enthusiast had made a Vow of virginity; and on the day appointed for celebrating her nuptials, Easter-day, in 1630, she fled, disguised as a hermit. She soon after obtained admittance into a convent, where she first began to make proselytes, and gained over so many of the nuns, that the confessor of the sisterhood procured her expulsion not only from the convent but from the town. Antoinette now wandered about France, the Netherlands, Holland and Denmark, everywhere making converts, and supporting herself by the labour of her hands, till 1648, when she inherited her father's property. She was then appointed governess of an hospital at Lille, but soon after was expelled the town by the police, on account of the disorders that her doctrines occasioned. She then resumed her wanderings. About this time, she was again persecuted with suitors, two of whom were so violent, each threatening to kill her if she would not marry him, that she was forced to apply to the police for protection, and two men were sent to guard her house. She died in 1680, and left all her property to the Lille hospital of which she had been governess.

She believed that she had visions and ecstatic trances, in which God commanded her to restore the true evangelical church which was extinct. She allowed no Liturgy, worship being properly internal. Her doctrines were highly mystical, and

she required an impossible degree of perfection from her disciples. She is said to have been extraordinarily eloquent, and was at least equally diligent, for she wrote twenty-two large volumes, most of which were printed at a private press she carried about with her for that purpose. After her death, Poiret, a mystical, Protestant divine, and a disciple of the Cartesian philosophy, wrote her life, and reduced her doctrines into a regular system. She made numerous proselytes, among whom were many men of ability.

Though wealthy, she was by no means benevolent, or even commonly charitable; and she is said to have exercised over her family and servants, "a government as cruel as that of the Sicilian court," and to have justified herself, by maintaining that anger was the love of justice and true virtue, and alleging the severities used by the prophets and apostles.

BOVETTE DE BLEMUR, JACQUELINE,

EMBRACED early a religious life, and died at Chatillon, in 1696, aged seventy-eight. She wrote several theological works.

BOVEY, CATHARINE,

MARRIED, at fifteen, William Bovey, an English gentleman of opulence and respectability in Gloucestershire. To great beauty, she added the highest degree of benevolence, and all the gentle virtues of private life; so that she is deservedly extolled by Sir Richard Steele, in his dedication of the two volumes of his Ladies' Library." She was left a widow at the age of twenty-two, and died at Haxley, in 1728, aged fifty-seven. Her maiden name was Riches.

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BRACHMAN, LOUISE,

BORN in 1778, at Rochlitz. She was an intimate friend of Schiller and Novalis, and contributed, in 1799, over the signature of Louise, a number of poems to the Musen-Almenach (Calendar of the Muses), a periodical edited by those two authors. She was of a very uneven temperament, and subject to long-continued fits of melancholy. Disappointed in two different affairs of the heart, and afterwards in some other expectations of minor importance, she committed suicide, in 1822, while on a visit to some friends in Italy, by drowning herself in the river Saale. She has written, "Poems," published in Dessau and Leipzig, 1800; "Blossoms of Romance," Vienna, 1816; "The Ordeal," "Novelettes," Scenes from Reality," and "Errors."

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BRADSTREET, ANNE,

DAUGHTER of Thomas Dudley, governor of Massachusetts from 1634 to 1650, and wife of Simon Bradstreet, is entitled to remembrance as the author of the first volume of poetry published in America. Her work was dedicated to her father, and published in 1642. The title is, "Several Poems, compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the four elements, constitutions, ages of man, sea

sons of the year, together with an exact epitome of the three first monarchies, viz: the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman Commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of their last king, with divers other pleasant and serious poems. By a Gentlewoman of New England." She received for her poetical talents the title of the Tenth Muse, and the most distinguished men of the day were her friends, and the admirers of her genius. When we examine the poetry of that period, and see the miserable attempts at rhyme, made by the male writers, we must believe Mrs. Bradstreet was as learned as her coadjutors, and vastly more poetical."

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The preface to the third edition, printed in 1658, thus sketches her character: "It is the work of a woman honoured and esteemed where she lives for her gracious demeanour, her eminent parts, her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in her place, and discreet management of her family occasions; and more so, these poems are the fruits of a few hours curtailed from her sleep, and other refreshments."

When Mrs. Bradstreet wrote her poems, she could have had no models, save Chaucer and Spenser. Milton had not become known as a writer when her work was published, and Shakspeare was not read by the Puritans of New England. On the whole, we think Anne Bradstreet fairly entitled to the place assigned her by one of her biographers, "at the head of the American poets of that time." She died in 1672, aged sixty. Mrs. Bradstreet was mother of eight children, whom she trained with great discretion.

EXTRACTS FROM "LINES," ADDRESSED TO HER

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Phoebus, make haste-the day's too long-begone!
The silent night 's the fittest time for moan.
But stay, this once-unto my suit give ear-
And tell my griefs in either hemisphere:
If in thy swift career thou canst make stay,
I crave this boon, this errand by the way:
Commend me to the man, more loved than life:
Show him the sorrows of his widowed wife;
And if he love, how can he there abide?
My interest's more than all the world beside....
Tell him the countless steps that thou dost trace
That once a day thy spouse thou mayst embrace,
And when thou canst not meet by loving mouth,
Thy rays afar salute her from the south;
But for one month, 1 see no day, poor soul!
Like those far situate beneath the pole,
Which day by day long wait for thy arise--
O how they joy when thou dost light the skies!
Tell him I would say more, but can not well;
Oppressed minds abruptest tales do tell.
Now part with double speed, mark what I say,
By all our loves conjure him not to stay!

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How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend,
How soon 't may be thy lot to lose thy friend,
We both are ignorant; yet love bids me
These farewell lines to recommend to thee,
That when that knot 's untied that made us one,
I may seem thine, who in effect am none.
And if I see not half my days that's due,
What Nature would, God grant to yours and you;
The many faults that well you know I have
Let be interred in my oblivious grave;

If any worth or virtue is in me,
Let that live freshly in thy memory;

And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harms,

Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine armis: And when thy loss shall be repaid, with gains, Look to my little babes, my dear remains.

EXTRACTS FROM "CONTEMPLATIONS."
Then higher on the glistering sun I gaz'd,
Whose beams were shaded by the leavie tree,
The more I look'd, the more I grew amaz'd,
And softly said, what glory 's like to thee?
Soul of this world, this Universe's eye,
No wonder, some made thee a deity;
Had I not better known, (alas) the same had I.
Thou as a bridegroom from thy chamber rushest,
And as a strong man, joyes to run a race,
The morn doth usher thee, with smiles and blushes,
The earth reflects her glances in thy face.
Birds, insects, animals with vegetive,

Thy heart from death and dulness doth revive:
And in the darksome womb of fruitful nature dive.

Thy swift annual, and diurnal course,
Thy daily straight, and yearly oblique path,
Thy pleasing fervour, and thy scorching force,
All mortals here the feeling knowledge hath.
Thy presence makes it day, thy absence night,
Quaternal seasons caused by thy might:
Hail creature, full of sweetness, beauty and delight.
Art thou so full of glory, that no eye
Hath strength, thy shining rayes once to behold?
And is thy splendid throne erect so high?
As to approach it, can no earthly mould.
How full of glory then must thy Creator be,
Who gave this bright light lustre unto thee!
Admir'd, ador'd for ever, be that Majesty.

Silent alone, where none or saw, or heard,
In pathless paths I lead my wandering feet,
My humble eyes to lofty skyes I rear'd
To sing some song, my mazed Muse thought meet.
My great Creator I would magnifie,
That nature had, thus decked liberally:
But Ah, and Ah, again, my imbecility!

I heard the merry grasshopper then sing,

The black clad cricket, bear a second part,

They kept one tune and plaid on the same string,
Seeming to glory in their little art.

Shall creatures abject, thus their voices raise?
And in their kind resound their Maker's praise:
Whilst I as mute, can warble forth no higher layes.

When present times look back to ages past,

And men in being fancy those are dead,

It makes things gone perpetually to last,

And calls back months and years that long since fled.

It makes a man more aged in conceit,

Than was Methuselah, or 's grand-sire great:
While of their persons and their acts his mind doth treat.

*

When I behold the heavens as in their prime,
And then the earth (though old) still clad in green,
The stones and trees, insensible of time,
Nor age nor wrinkle on their front are seen;
If winter come, and greenness then do fade,

A Spring returns, and they more youthful made;

But man grows old, lies down, remains where once he 's laid.

By birth more noble than those creatures all,
Yet seems by nature and by custome cursed,
No sooner born, but grief and care make fall
That state obliterate he had at first.
Nor youth, nor strength, nor wisdom spring again,
Nor habitations long their names retain,
But in oblivion to the final day remain.

Shall I then praise the heavens, the trees, the earth.
Because their beauty and their strength last longer?
Shall I wish their. or never to had birth,
Because they're bigger, and their bodyes stronger?

Nay, they shall darken, perish, fade and dye,
And when unmade, soever shall they lye,
But man was made for endless immortality.

"ELEGY" ON THE DEATH OF A GRANDCHILD WHO DIED IN 1665.

Farewell, dear child, my heart's too much content,
Farewell, sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye,
Farewell, fair flower, that for a space was lent,
Then ta'en away into eternity.

Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate,
Or sigh, the days so soon were terminate,
Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state?

By nature, trees do rot when they are grown,
And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall,
And corn and grass are in their season mown,

And time brings down what is both strong and tall. But plants new set, to be eradicate,

And buds new blown, to have so short a date,
Is by His hand alone, that nature guides, and fate.

BRAMBATI, EMILIA,

Or Bergamo, was the wife of Ezechiello Solza, distinguished for her poetic talent, and for her eloquence. She became the pleader for the life of her brother, condemned to death by the Tribunal of Venice, and drew tears from the eyes of all the bystanders. Some of her poems remain.

BRAMBATI, ISOTTA,

OF Bergamo, was a good classical scholar, and understood all the polite languages of Europe. She wrote poetry with great elegance; and is said to have managed several law-suits, pleading them herself, in the Senate of Milan, with consummate ability, and, what is more extraordinary, without being thought ridiculous. She was the wife of Girolamo Grumelli. She died in 1586. Some of her letters and poems were published by Comir Ventura, in Bergamo, in 1587.

BRATTON, MARTHA,

A NATIVE of Rowan county, N. Carolina, married William Bratton, of South Carolina, and, during the Revolution, a colonel in the American army. While her husband was engaged with his troops away from home, Mrs. Bratton was often left to defend herself and the stores entrusted to her charge. At one time, she blew up the ammunition left under her care, when she saw that otherwise it would fall into the hands of the enemy, and boldly avowed the deed, that no one else might suffer for her act. When threatened with instant death by a British soldier, if she persisted in refusing to give information concerning her husband's retreat, she continued firm in her resolution. Being rescued by the intervention of an officer, she repaid the obligation by saving him from death, when taken prisoner by the American party, and by entertaining him at her house till he was exchanged. She died in 1816.

BREESE, MARY,

A SINGULAR character, was born at Lynn, in Norfolk, England, in 1721. She regularly took out a shooting license, kept hounds, and was a sure shot. She died in 1799. By her desire, her dogs and favourite mare were killed at her death and buried in the grave with her.

BREGY, CHARLOTTE SAUMAISE DE CHAZAN, COMTESSE DE,

NIECE of the learned Saumaise (Salmasius), was one of the ladies of honour to queen Anne of Austria. She was distinguished for her beauty and wit, both of which she preserved to an advanced age; she died at Paris, April 13th, 1693, aged seventy-four. She wrote a collection of letters and verses in 1688, in which we meet with many ingenious thoughts; her poems turn almost entirely on metaphysical love, which employed her mind more than her heart. But there are several pieces on other subjects. In one of them, she gives the following portrait of herself: "I am fond of praise; and therefore return it with interest to those from whom I receive it. I have a proud and scornful heart; but this does not prevent me from being gentle and civil. I never oppose the opinions of any; but I must own that I never adopt them to the prejudice of my own. I may say with truth that I am naturally modest and discreet, and that pride always takes care to preserve these qualities in me. I am indolent; I never seek pleasure and diversions, but when my friends take more pains than I do to procure them for me, I feel myself obliged to appear very gay at them, though I am not so in fact. I am not much given to intrigue; but if I were involved in one, I think I should certainly conduct myself off with prudence and discretion. I am constant, even to obstinacy, and secret to excess. In order to form a friendship with me, all advances must be made by the other party; but I amply compensate this trouble in the end; for I serve my friends with all the warmth usually employed in selfish interests. I praise and defend them, without once consenting to what I may hear against them. I have not virtue enough to be free from all desire of the goods of fortune and honours; but I have too much for pursuing any of the ways that commonly lead to them. I act in the world conformably to what it ought to be, and too little according to what it is." Her personal appearance she also describes as attractive; which all contemporary writers confirm, and therefore she might mention it without vanity. She corresponded with Henrietta, queen of England; with Christina of Sweden; and with most of the illustrious characters of Europe.

BRENTANO, SOPHIA,

(HER maiden name was Schubart,) was born in the year 1770, at Altenburg. She married, when quite a young girl, F. E. K. Thereau, professor at the University of Jena; in 1804, she was divorced from him, and married, in 1805, the author Clem. Brentano, with whom she lived in Frankford, and afterwards in Heidelberg, where she died in 1806. As a poetess, she evinced a lively and highly cultivated imagination, great harmony in versification, combined with a high polish in her compositions. She published two volumes of poetry, at Berlin, 1800,"Amanda and Edward," at Frankfort, 1803, Spanish and Italian novellettes, in 1804, and various other minor tales.

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