Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/767

 "Valentine passed in France, were spent in the midst of festivals, and all kinds of amusements. Although her husband was unfaithful to her, he surrounded her with all splendour and luxury suited to her rank and station. She occupied herself principally in taking care of her children, and in literary pursuits, for which she, as well as her husband, had a decided taste.

The insanity of her brother-in-law, Charles the Sixth, affected Valentine deeply, and she exerted herself to the utmost to calm his paroxysms, and console him for the negligence of his wife. Charles, in his turn, became very much attached to her; he called her his well-beloved sister, went every day to see her, and in the midst of his ravings could always be controlled by her. Her power over the unhappy monarch seemed to the ignorant populace so supernatural, that she was accused of using sorcery, and, to prevent disagreeable consequences, her husband sent her, in 1396, to the duchy of Orleans.

This exile, so painful to Valentine, terminated in 1398, when she was recalled to Paris; after this time she lived principally at Blois, superintending the education of her sons, till the death of Louis d'Orleans, who was assassinated by the Duke of Burgundy, in 1407. Unable to avenge his death, she died of a broken heart, in 1408, aged thirty-eight, recommending to her children, and to John, Count of Dunois, the natural son of her husband, the vindication of their father's reputation and glory.

VALERIA, of the Emperor Dioclesian, who had abdicated the throne in 305, was married to Galerius, on his being created Caesar, about 292. Galerius became Emperor of Rome in 305, and died in 311. He recommended Valeria, and his natural son Candidien, whom he had caused Valeria to adopt, as he had no other, to Licinius, his friend, whom he had raised to be emperor. Valeria was rich and beautiful, and Licinius wished to marry her; but Valeria, to avoid this, fled from the court of Licinius, with her mother Prisca and Candidien, and took refuge with Maximin, one of the other emperors. He had already a wife and children, and as the adopted son of Galerius, had been accustomed to regard Valeria as his mother. But her beauty and wealth tempted him, and he offered to divorce his present wife if she would take her place. Valeria replied, "That still wearing the garb of mourning, she could not think of marriage, that Maximin should remember his father, the husband of Valeria, whose ashes were not yet cold; that he could not commit a greater injustice than to divorce a wife by whom he was beloved; and that she could not flatter herself with better treatment; in fine, that it would be an unprecedented thing for a woman of her rank to engage in a second marriage."

This reply roused Maximin's fury. He proscribed Valeria, seized upon her possessions, tortured some of her officers to death, and took the rest away from her, banished her and her mother, and caused several ladies of the court, friends of theirs, to be executed on a false accusation of adultery. Valeria, exiled to the deserts of Syria, found means to inform Dioclesian of her misery; and he sent to Maximin, desiring the surrender of his daughter, but in vain: the unhappy father died of grief. At length Prisca and Valeria