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father took great pleasure in carrying her about with him; and observing her natural intrepidity, wished to make her a soldier, but died too soon; and Christina laments in her memoirs, that she was not permitted to learn the art of war under so great a master; she regretted also, during her whole life, that she never marched at the head of an army, or so much as saw a battle.

The tears which she shed, when he set out on his German expedition, were regarded as a bad omen; and she betrayed the hero himself into tears, by an act of childish simplicity. Taking leave of him, by a little compliment which she had learned by heart; she repeated it when Gustavus, being abstract in thought, did not hear; but, not content with having said her lesson, she pulled him by his sleeve to excite attention, and began to say her little speech again. At this, the father was affected, caught her in his arms, and, after pressing her to his breast for some minutes, gave her to an attendant without speaking.

The states of Sweden being assembled, after his death, the marshal of the diet proposed the crowning Christina, by virtue of a decree which had declared the daughter of the posterity of Charles IX. the father of Gustavus, capable of succeeding to the throne. She was immediately proclaimed queen; and, from this time, shewed much pleasure in appearing in her regal capacity, though only six years old.

The mind of Christina could never forget the like