Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/276

262 pannels of her gallery. In a word, vanity was the foible of Christina; it had already been gratified with respect to power and grandeur; and now it flowed into a new channel. She aspired at being the sovereign of the learned, and dictating in the lyceum as she had done in the senate.

When she signified her intention of resigning, Charles Gustavus, trained in dissimulation, and fearing she had laid a snare for him, rejected the proposal. The strongest arguments and reasonings were employed for several months to divert her from it; but whether she imagined she had gone too far to recede with a good grace, or that her wishes continued the same, she continued firm in her resolution, till the principal members of the state, headed by the chancellor, waited upon her with the utmost solemnity; and, as a last effort, supplicated in so pathetic a manner, that she consented to postpone her design, on condition that she should never be pressed to marry.

An unfortunate accident happened a few days after she had given her promise, which nearly occasioned her premature death. Having given orders for some ships of war to be built at Stockholm, she went to see them, and as she was going aboard, across a narrow plank, with admiral Fleming, his foot slipping, he fell, and drew her with him into the sea, which, in that place, was near 90 feet deep. The first equerry instantly threw himself into the water, laid hold of the queen's robe, and got her on shore. During this accident, her recollection and presence of mind were such, that the moment her lips were above water, she cried out, "Take care of the admiral!"

Until the year 1654, nothing memorable occurred in Sweden.