Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/493

This page has been validated.
LOQ. LOS. LOU.
471

to the Frondeurs, by inducing the celebrated Turenne and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld to join them. Turenne, however, soon returned to his allegiance to the king; but the duke remained faithful to the last, "à ses beaux yeux"

After the amicable termination of the civil war, the duchess was received into the favour of Louis the Thirteenth, and from that time devoted herself to literature, and united with her illustrious brothers, the great Condé, and the Prince de Condé, in encouraging rising genius. On the death of the Duke de Longueville, she left the court, and consecrated the remainder of her days to the most austere penitence. She had a house built at Port-Royal aux Champe where, although she renounced "the pomps and vanities of the world," she still retained her love for society, and the conversation of intelligent persons. The recluses at Port-Royal were all people who had acquired a high reputation while they lived in the world. Human glory followed them to their hermitage, all the more because they disdained it.

The Duchess de Longueville died April 16th., 1679, at the age of sixty-one. She left no children.

LOQUEYSSIE, MADAME DE,

A German artist residing in Dresden, has acquired great celebrity in her profession. She is an excellent copyist. In particular she counterfeits rather than copies Correggio's Magdalene so beautifully that she is paid one hundred guineas for each copy. In this department of art women are fitted to excel.

LOSA, ISABELLA,

A native of Cordova, Spain, was so illustrious for her knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, that she was honoured with the degree of D.D. When she became a widow, she took the habit of St. Clair, went to Italy, and founded there the hospital of Loretto where she ended her days, in acts of devotion and benevolence, March 5th., 1546, aged seventy-three.

LOUDON, JANE,

Whose reputation is founded chiefly on works of utility, is the daughter of Thomas Webb, Esq., of Ritwell House, near Birmingham, who, in consequence of over-speculation, became embarassed in his circumstances. Miss Webb, possessing literary talents, resolved to turn them to good account; and, in 1827, published her first work, a novel entitled "The Mummy," in which she embodied ideas of scientific progress and discovery, that now read like prophecies. Among other foreshadowings of things that were to be, was a steam plough, and this attracting the attention of Mr. John C. Loudon, whose numerous and valuable works on gardening, agriculture, etc., are so well known, led to an acquaintance, which terminated in a matrimonial connection. After her marriage, Mrs. London devoted her talents entirely to those branches of literature connected with her husband's favourite pursuits. "The Ladies' Flower Garden," "The Ladies' Country Companion," "Gardening for Ladies," "The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden," and several works of a similar character, have become standard books of reference, and attained a large circulation. It should be men-