Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/429

Rh infamy, if, without the least regard to the laws of equity, you persist in your wicked resolution of plundering those of their lives and fortunes who have given you no just cause of offence."

Struck with the justness of her speech, and offended at its boldness, the triumvirs ordered the women to be driven away; but the populace growing tumultuous, they were afraid of an insurrection, and reduced the list of those who should be taxed to four hundred. Alexander's Hist. of Women.

so highly distinguished for her poetical talents, as to be ranked among the first of the French poets. She was well versed in Latin, Italian, and Spanish, in each of which she wrote with facility and elegance. She attached herself more particularly to the study of her own language and the rules of French poetry, her taste for which commenced at an early age; and though she possessed great beauty, both of face and figure, and was perfectly elegant and pleasing in her manners, she seemed ambitious only of acquiring that kind of admiration which flatters great minds.

But with all these advantages, Madame des Houlieres was far from being happy. Her works breathe every where murmurs against fortune. In 1651, at the age of eighteen, her parents married her to M. des Houlieres, lieutenant-colonel in the service of the Prince of Conde, who was obliged shortly after to accompany that