the cavern. At length her apprehensions were excited by her situation ; but by rubbing a poisonous ointment upon herself, she produced a swelling in her legs and arms, so that her complaint was thought to be a dropsy; she then retired to the cave, and without any medical assistance, she gave birth to a boy. For nearly nine years she continued to visit her husband in his solitude, and during that period twice became a mother. At length her frequent absences were noticed, she was watched, and her secret discovered.
Loaded with chains, Sabinus was brought before Vespasian; and condemned to die. Eponina threw herself at the feet of the emperor, and implored him to spare her husband ; and, at the same time, she presented her two children to him, who joined in the solicitation, with tears and entreaties. Vespasian, however, remained inflexible, and Eponina, rising with an air of dignity, said, "Be assured that I know how to contemn life; with Sabinus I have existed nine years in the bowels of the earth, and with him I am resolved to die." She perished with her husband about seventyeight years after the Christian era.
ESTHER, A JEWESS, mistress to Casimir III., king of Poland in the fourteenth century, from whom she obtained great privileges for her nation.
ETHELBURGA,
DAUGHTER of Ethelbert, king of Kent, married Edwin, king of Northumbria. He was a very brave and warlike prince, but a pagan when she married him. However, she won him to the Chris tian faith, as her mother Bertha had won her father Ethelbert. Thus wag Christianity planted in England by the faith and influence of woman.
ETHELDREDA, ST.,
WAS a daughter of Auna, king of tJhe East An gles, and Hereswitha his queen, and was born about 630, at Ixming, a small village in Suffolk. In 673, she founded the church and convent of Ely. Of this monastery she was constituted abbess. The convent, with its inhabitants, was destroyed by the Danes in 870.
ETHELFLEDA, or ELFLEDA,
ELDEST daughter of Alfred the Great, and sister of Edward I., king of the West-Saxons, was wife to Etheldred, earl of Mercia. After the birth of her first child, having suffered severely in child birth, she made a vow of chastity, and devoted herself to arms. She retained a cordial friend ship for her husband, with whom she united in acts of munificence and valour. They assisted Al fred in his wars against the Danes, whom they prevented the Welsh from succouring. Not less pious than valiant, they restored cities, founded abbeys, and protected the bones of departed saints.
After the death of her husband, in 912, Ethelfleda assumed the government of Mercia; and, emulating her father and brother, commanded armies, fortified towns, and prevented the Danes from re-settling in Mercia. Then carrying her victorious arms into Wales, she compelled the Welsh, after several victories, to become her tributaries. In 918, she took Derby from the Danes; and in 920,'Leicester, York, &c. Having become famed for her spirit and courage, the titles of lady and queen were judged inadequate to her merit ; to these she received, in addition, those of lord and king.
Her courage and activity were employed in the service of her country till her death, in 922, at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, where she was carrying on a war with the Danes. She left one daughter, Elswina.
Ethelfleda was deeply regretted by the whole kingdom, especially ,by her brother Edward, to whom she proved equally serviceable in the cabinet and the field. Ingulphus, the historian, speaks of the courage and masculine virtues of this princess.
EUDOCIA,
WHOSE name was originally Athenais. was the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist and philosopher. She was born about 393, and very carefully educated by her father. Her progress in every branch of learning was uncommon and rapid. Her father, proud of her great beauty and attainments, persuaded himself that the merit of Athenais would be a sufficient dowry. With this conviction, he divided, on his death-bed, his estate between his two sons, bequeathing his daughter only one hundred pieces of gold. Less sanguine in the power of her charms, Athenais appealed at first to the equity and affection of her brothers ; finding this in vain, she took re fuge with an aunt of hers, and commenced a legal process against her brothers. In the progress of the suit, Athenais was carried, by her aunts, to Constantinople. Theodosius II. at this time divided with his sister Pulcheria the care of the empire; and to Pulcheria the aunts- of Athenais appealed for justice. The beauty and intellect of the young Greek interested Pulcheria, who contrived that her brother should see her and hear her converse, without being himself seen. Her slender and graceful figure, the regularity of her features, her fair complexion, golden hair, large blue eyes, and musical voice, completely enraptured the young king. He had her instructed in the principles of the Greek church, which she embraced, and was baptized, in 421, by the name of Eudocia. She was then married to the emperor amid the acclamations of the capital, and after the birth of a daughter, received the surname of Augusta.
Amidst the luxuries of a court, the empress continued to preserve her studious habits. She composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the New Testament; also of the prophecies of Daniel and Zachariah; to these she added a canto of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of Christ; the legend of St. Cyprian; and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius.
"Her writings," says Gibbon, " which were ap-
