the year 1526, and shewed, even when a child, marks of an extraordinary mind. In 1543, she married Cosmos the First, a Medici. Her husband was only twenty-four years old, though already six years a ruling prince. He had ascended the throne of Tuscany after the assassination of Alexander, in the year 1533, and found himself now constantly engaged in active hostilities with the Strozzi, the hereditary enemies of his house. Bloody and terrible were the battles fought in this struggle; but Eleonore never left the side of her husband, even during the hottest encounters of the fight. Her extraordinary courage contributed greatly to the termination of the war; for, one day while riding with an escort of only fifteen horsemen, she met the leader of the hostile forces, Philip Strozzi, with a force of forty-five horsemen, reconnoitering the camp. Without a moment's hesitation, she threw herself upon them, cut them to pieces, and made Strozzi prisoner. Philip knew that no prisoner had hitherto been spared, and, in order to escape an ignominious death upon the scaffold, committed suicide in prison. This sad event induced Eleonore to prevail upon her husband to promise that henceforth he would spare the lives of his prisoners. Eleonore also accompanied her husband in the war between Charles the Fifth and Francis the First, and was actively engaged in the storming and taking of Sienna. She afterwards urged her husband to have himself crowned a king, but in this he failed. Pius the Fifth finally changed his title, Duke of Florence, into that of Grand-duke of Tuscany.
Eleonore's ambition being now satisfied, she devoted the rest of her life to encourage education, the fine arts, and benevolent institutions. The exact time of her decease is not known
ELGIVA,
A beautiful English Princess, who married Edwy, King of England, soon after he ascended the throne, in 955. She was within the degree of kindred prohibited by the canon law; and the savage Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, excited a disaffection against the king in consequence. The rebellious party seized the queen, and branded her in the face with a red-hot iron, hoping to destroy her beauty, then carried her into Ireland to remain there in exile; while Edwy consented to a divorce. Elgiva, having completely recovered from her wounds, was hastening to the arms of her husband, when she fell into the hands of her enemies, and was barbarously murdered.
ELISABETH,
Wife of Zacharias, and the mother of John the Baptist. St. Luke says that she was of the daughters of, Aaron, of the race of priests. Her ready faith, and rejoicing acknowledgment of the "Lord" shew the warm soul of a pious woman. "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost;" that is, inspired to understand that her young cousin, Mary the virgin, would become the mother of the Messiah. Thus was the Saviour foretold, welcomed and adored by a woman, before he had taken the form of humanity. This tender sensibility to divine truth, when mysteriously manifested, has never been thus fully understood, and fondly cherished, by any man. Do not these examples shew, conclusively, that the nature of woman is most in harmony with heavenly things? See St. Luke, chap. i.
