the Moslem from unbelieving eyes. Its popularity induced the writer to publish in 1838 a series of letters, descriptive of the earlier part of her journey to the East, under the title of "The River and the Desert, or Recollections of the Rhine and the Chartreuse;" after which she again took up the thread of her eastern recollections, and produced a series of short tales, connected by a slight vein of continuous narrative, to which she gave the title of "The Romance of the Harem;" and not having yet exhausted her memories of the sunny clime, she furnished the letter-press to a beautifully-illustrated work called "The Beauties of the Bosphorus."
Miss Pardoe next turned her attention to Hungary, which country she visited for the express purpose of obtaining materials for a useful and veracious, rather than an amusing book. In "The City of the Magyar, or Hungary and its Institutions," issued in 1840, it was acknowledged that she had, without the sacrifice of utility or truth, given to the world a book which possessed all the charm and excitement of a romance. Her fertile imagination and graphic powers of description were next exhibited in "The Hungarian Castle," a novel; and after this, in 1847, the first of her great historical works—"Louis the Fourteenth, or the Court of the Seventeenth Century," in which, with all the lively spirit of a French biography, we have a well-defined picture of an historical epoch. As a relief to these graver studies, there then followed two novels—"The Confessions of a Pretty Woman" and "The Rival Beauties," after which came two more historical works—"The Life of Francis the First" and "The Life of Marie de Medicis," both works of acknowledged excellence. To this long catalogue may be added a story called "Reginald Lyle," first published in a periodical; "Flies in Amber," a series of short tales; "The Jealous Wife," a novel; and a book for young people; besides numerous contributions to magazines and reviews. When we consider the amount of research necessary for the production of some of these works, and that much of the author's time has been spent in travel, we are amazed at their number and variety of character. By her more elaborate historical works Miss Pardoe has earned for herself a lasting reputation, which is enhanced by the brilliant play of imagination which the lighter productions of her genius emits.
PARTHENAY, ANNE DE,
A lady of great genius and learning, who lived in the sixteenth century. She married Anthony de Pons, Count of Marennes, and was one of the brightest ornaments of the court of Ferrara. She was a Calvinist.
Her mother was Michelli de Sorbonne, a lady of Bretagne, a woman of uncommon talents, lady of honour to Anne of Bretagne, wife to Louis the Twelfth, by whom she was appointed governess to her daughter, Renata, Duchess of Ferrara. Anne, under the superintendence of her mother, received a learned education, and made great progress in the knowledge of the languages, and in theology, and was also skilled in music. She had so great an influence over her husband, that while she lived he was distinguished as a lover of truth and virtue, and instructed himself, his officers and subjects at Pons, in the scriptures; but after her death, he
