Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/74

60 husband. Anne in this, as in every other instance, relented, and tolerated his insolence.

During the setting of the cabinet council, she used frequently to repair to an adjoining room, to consult him. She had no table of her own, but dined with his family. He was undoubtedly a man of very great capacity. During his whole administration, the external splendour of the Russian empire, and its internal tranquillity announced the wisdom of his measures. . A Spanish nun, who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. She was not learned; but composed, with prodigious facility, many treatises on religious matters, which are yet extant. such a people did exist, among the Scythians, there is little reason to doubt; but, whether they consisted of a separate society of women, or, that the girls of those districts were brought up in a hardy manner, and instructed in warlike exercises, may be disputed; but the last opinion seems the most probable. Much historical mention is made of their queens, particularly of Antiope. It was one of the twelve labours of Hercules, to bring the girdle, or, as others say, the scarf of this queen of the Amazons, to Euristheus, king of Mycena. He