Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/160

 Bona was not only gifted with the feminine qualities of domestic affection and a well-balanced intellect; in the hottest battles, her bravery and power of managing her troops were quite remarkable; of these feats there are many instances recorded. She was, however, destined to lose her husband without possibility of recovering him; he died in 1468. When this intrepid heroine, victor in battles, and, rising above all adversity, was bowed by a sorrow resulting from affection, she declared she could not survive Brunoro. She caused a tomb to be made, in which their remains could be united; and, after seeing the work completed, she gradually sank into a languid state, which terminated in her death.

BRUNTON, MARY, Authoress of "Self-Control" and "Discipline," two novels of superior merit, was born on the 1st of November, 1778. She was a native of Burrey, in Orkney, a small island of about five hundred inhabitants, destitute of tree or shrub. Her father was Colonel Balfour, of Elwick, and her mother was niece of Field-marshal Lord Ligonier, in whose house she had resided before her marriage. Mary was carefully educated, and taught French and Italian by her mother. She was also sent to Edinburgh; but when she was sixteen her mother died, and the whole care of the family devolved on her. At the age of twenty she married the Rev. Mr. Brunton, minister of Bolton, in Haddingtonshire. In 1803, Mr. Brunton was called to Edinburgh, and there his wife had an opportunity of meeting literary persons, and of cultivating her mind. "Self-Control," her first novel, was published anonymously in 1811. The first edition was sold in a month, and a second and third called for. Her next work was "Discipline," a novel of the religious class, to which "Self-Control" belonged. She died in 1818, leaving an unfinished novel called "Emeline," afterwards published with a memoir of the authoress, by her husband.

Her private character was in harmony with her writings; she taught all within the circle of her influence, by her amiable deportment, how beautiful are the characteristics of the true christian lady, as she now teaches the readers of her excellent works the theory of the loveliness of virtue.

BUCHAN, COUNTESS OF. of the Earl of Fife, crowned Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, at Scone, March 29th., 1306, in place of her brother, whose duty it was, but whose fears prevented him from performing it. She was taken prisoner by Edward the First of England, and, for six years confined in a wooden cage, in one of the towers of Berwick castle.

BUCHAN, ELSPETH, the daughter of John Simpson, the keeper of an inn at Fitmy Can, which is the half-way house between Banff and Portsoy, in the north of Scotland; where he was still living in 1787 at the age of ninety. His daughter Elspeth, or Elizabeth, was born in 1738; and when she was twenty-one was sent to Glasgow to find herself a place. She there entered into the service of Mr. Martin, one of the principal proprietors of the delft-work manufactory. She was not long in this situation before she married Robert Buchan, one