comfort and farewell on her disconsolate servant. Madame opened her eyes, and fixed them steadily on the suppliant; she then turned away her head, murmuring, Cease to trouble me; my thoughts henceforth are above.' Fearing that the intruder was about to renew his solicitations, Marguerite requested him to leave her mother in peace, through her passage to that world where children and servants would be as nothing in comparison with those glories, the immediate presence of which already filled her soul." At these words it is further stated, that "a smile passed over the features of the dying mother, as she feebly articulated, Il est ainsi, m'amye.' These are the last recorded words spoken by Louisa, and early in the morning of the 22d of September, 1531, she expired so calmly, that Marguerite, who was watching beside her, knew not the precise moment of her mother's death."

In tracing these few faint features of a remarkable character, we are not unacquainted with the fact, that history has associated the name of Louisa of Savoy with vices so gross and so numerous, that the reader, if a scrupulous and right principled mother, may not unreasonably exclaim, "Why hold up before us the example of such a woman?" Will such a mother permit the writer to ask in return,-"Have you sons of your own? Are they prepared and fitted, by every qualification which it has been in your power to encourage or bestow, for the highest position which in the ordinary course of human affairs it is possible for them to attain; and, having attained it, will they select you above all the wise and powerful men of

their acquaintance, not only to share an equal amount of honour, but to be their chosen counseller in every difficulty, alike their help in weakness and their pride in power?" If not, then there may surely be something yet to learn even from the character of Louisa of Savoy.

VII.

MOTHER OF HENRY IV.

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULÊME, the distinguished mother of Jeanne d'Albret, has already filled no inconsiderable place in these notices; her peculiar position, as a link of relationship between two remarkable women, rendering it impossible to overlook her own individual eminence, and the influence which her virtues and attainments exercised over all those with whom she was intimately associated. If, from these three generations of illustrious women, following in direct succession from Louisa of Savoy to her grand-daughter Jeanne d'Albret, we should attempt to argue in favour of the transmission of hereditary greatness of character, we should yet find ourselves at a loss to account for the vast difference in natural qualities by which these equally extraordinary women were clearly distinguished one from the other. Had their individual features of character been similar, this instance would have stood almost unrivalled in history, as an illustration of hereditary transmission; but it so happens, that, except in those tendencies of habit and taste which may great measure be referred to educational influences, there seems to have been scarcely likeness enough to mark them out as belonging to one family; and especially in their moral qualities, few women of the same

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