on a compliance with the request. The prince, in a superb cradle, on a carriage of state, accompanied by his nurse, with some noble matrons and lords of court, was conveyed to the camp. He was received by Solyman, who tenderly caressed him, and presented him to his sons Bajazet and Selim, with every royal honour, as a vassal of the Ottoman Porte, and the son of John Zapolita, whom he highly esteemed.
But these specious appearances proved but a cover to the insidious purposes of the Sultan, who, throwing off the mask, seized upon Buda, September 5th., 1541, and obliged Isabella to retire to Lippa, with the poor consolation of a promise, that when her son became of age, Hungary should be restored to him. In this reverse of fortune, Isabella displayed great constancy, and endeavoured to content herself with the title of Regent of Transylvania, which the rapacity of Solyman had left to her. But, having appointed as her coadjutor in the administration of the government, George Martinusias, a monk, she experienced from him a thousand mortifications, and found the title of regent but an empty honour. A rupture with Martinusias was the consequence; when, enraged at the loss of his authority, he called in the assistance of Ferdinand of Austria, who sent an army into Hungary, and compelled Isabella, in 1551, to resign Transylvania into his hands, and to retire to Cassovia. While on her journey to Cassovia, the ruggedness of the roads obliged her to descend from her carriage; when, looking back to Transylvania while the driver was extricating his wheels, and recollecting her former situation, she carved her name on a tree, with this sentence—"Sic Fata volunt"—"So Fate decrees."
Her disposition was too restless and active to allow her to remain long at Cassovia. She went to Silesia, and thence to Poland, where her mother, Bonna Sforza, resided. In the hope of regaining her power, she continued to correspond with the grandees of Transylvania; and she also again applied to Solyman. In 1556, she was, by the efforts of the Sultan, restored to Transylvania. She maintained her authority during the rest of her life, without imparting any share of it to her son, John Sigismund. She died September 5th., 1558.
Isabella was a warm Roman Catholic, and some of her regulations were directed with much severity against the heretics. She was a woman of great talents and learning. Her son, after her death, declared in favour of the Protestants.
ISABELLA II., QUEEN OF SPAIN,
Was born at Madrid, October 10th., 1830. Her father, Ferdinand the Seventh, died when she was three years and six months old; Isabella was immediately proclaimed Queen, and her mother, Maria Christina, Regent of Spain. The biography of Maria Christina will be found in its place; we need only say here, that her influence had made her daughter Queen, by persuading Ferdinand to issue his famous decree, styled pragmatic, revoking the Salic law which prohibited the rule of a female sovereign. This law, introduced into Castile by the Bourbon family on their accession to the Spanish throne, could not have had much root in the affections of a loyal people, who kept the traditionary memory of their glorious Queen, Isabella the First, still in their hearts; and this child-queen was another Isabella. There is no doubt that the bulk of the
