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202 vice of the East India Company, and was killed on the passage in an encounter with a French vessel. Her sister Camilla, with herself, were placed under the care of a maternal aunt.

In giving an account of the earlier years of her life, I cannot do better than to quote her own words as given in her autobiography, written in 1844:

“To the circumstances of her early life, to the heart-solitude of orphanship, to the absence of all sympathy with the views and characters of those among whom her childhood was thrown, to the presence of a sister who looked to her for guidance, and leaned upon her for support, Madame D'Arusmont is disposed to attribute the chosen severity of her early studies, and prematurity of her views.”

“Surrounded at all times by rare and extensive libraries, and commanding whatever masters she desired, she applied herself by turns to various branches of science, and to the study of ancient and modern