Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/212

This page has been validated.
190
CLA. CLE.

a book for children, entitled "My Pets." Her latest work, published in 1854, is entitled "Haps and Mishaps of a Tour in Europe."

CLAYPOLE, ELIZABETH,

Was the second and favourite daughter of the protector, Oliver Cromwell. She was born at Huntingdon, in 1629, and in 1646 married John Claypole, Esq., of a respectable family in Northamptonshire; who afterwards became master of the horse both to Oliver and his son Richard. Mrs. Claypole was invariably the friend of the oppressed, and exercised her gentle but powerful influence over her father in favour of the suffering royalists. She died at Hampton Court, August 6th., 1658, in the twenty-ninth year of her age.

CLELIA.

A young Roman girl, whose courage and patriotism entitle her to a place among the distinguished of her sex. She was one of ten virgins who were sent as hostages by the Roman Senate to Porsena. The young Clelia hated the enemies of her people, and resolved not to live among them. One day, while walking near the Tiber with her companions, she persuaded them to throw themselves with her in the river, swim to the opposite shore, and then return to Rome. Her eloquence prevailed upon them, and they all reached their home in safety, although they had to accomplish the feat amidst a shower of arrows that were poured upon them by the enemy. But the consul, Publicola, did not approve of the bold deed, and sent the poor maidens back to King Porsena's camp. Porsena was moved by the courage of the girls and the generosity of the Romans, and gave them their liberty; and to Clelia in addition, as a mark of his particular esteem, a noble charger splendidly caparisoned. Rome then erected, in the Via Sacra, an equestrian statue in honour of the fair heroine, which Plutarch mentions in his writings.

CLEMENTS, MARGARET,

Born in 1608, niece to Sir Thomas More, in whose house she was brought up, was carefully educated, and made great progress in all the liberal sciences. She corresponded with the celebrated Erasmus, who commends her epistles for their good sense and chaste Latin. About 1531 she married her tutor, Dr. John Clements. They had one daughter, Winifred, on whose education they bestowed the greatest care, and who married a nephew of Sir Thomas More—William Rastell, the greatest lawyer of his time.

Dr. Clements and his wife left England to avoid a religious persecution, and settled at Mechlin, in Brabant, where Mrs. Clement died, July 6th., 1670.

CLEOBULE, or CLEOBULINE,

Daughter of Cleobulus, Prince of Lindos, in Greece, who flourished B. C. 694, was celebrated for her enigmatical sentences, or riddles, composed chiefly in Greek verse.

CLEOPATRA,

Was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, King of Egypt. On