Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/171

 to her purposes. By an eloquence, soft, insinuating, and powerful, she prevailed over her friends; while, by ensnaring them in their own devices, she made her enemies subservient to her views. Such was the fascination of her manners, that the prejudices of those by whom she was hated, yielded, in her presence, to admiration and delight. Nothing seemed too arduous for her talents; inexhaustible in resource, whatever she undertook she found means to accomplish.

Majestic, beautiful, animated, eloquent, and insinuating, Bianca Capello commanded all hearts; a power of which the coldness and tranquillity of her own enabled her to avail herself to the utmost. Though she early lost that beauty which had gained her the heart of the capricious Francis, the powers of her mind enabled her to retain to the last an undiminished ascendency over him.

We learn from this example of perverted female influence the great need of judicious education for the sex. Had Bianca Capello been, in early youth, blessed with such opportunities of acquiring knowledge, and receiving the appreciation her genius deserved, as were the happy lot of Laura Bassi, what a difference would have been wrought in the character and history of this brilliant Venetian lady!

CAPILLANA, princess, who, having become a widow very young, retired from court to the country, about the time that Pizarro appeared on the coast. Capillana received kindly the persons he had sent to reconnoitre, and expressed a desire to see the general Pizarro came, and an attachment soon sprang up between them. He endeavoured to convert Capillana to the Christian faith, but for some time without success; however, while studying the Spanish language, she became a Christian. On the death of Pizarro, in 1541, she retired again to her residence in the country. In the library of the Dominicans of Peru, a manuscript of hers is preserved, in which are painted, by her, ancient Peruvian monuments, with a short historical explanation in Castilian. There are also representations of many of their plants, with curious dissertations on their properties.

CAREW, LADY ELIZABETH, of a dramatic piece entitled "Mariam, the fair Queen of Jewry," which was published in 1613; lived in the reign of James the First of England. Lady Carew is supposed to have been the wife of Sir Henry Carew: and the works of several of her contemporaries are dedicated to her. There is not much of dramatic interest in "Mariam," but a fine vein of sentiment and feeling runs through it; one of the choruses on Revenge of Injuries, has often been quoted; and is worthy of a place in any collection of standard poetry, for its noble and generous simplicity.

CAREY, ALICE and PHŒBE, , within the last few years, written poetry that justly places them among the gifted daughters of America. The lyre seems to obey their hearts as the Æolian harp does the wind, every impulse gushing out in song. The father of these ladies was a native of Vermont, who removed to Ohio whilst it was a territory. The