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 The popular wish was for her cousin, Charles Gustavus, who moreover appears from his own account to have desired to marry her from motives independent of ambition. She made light of his affection, and told him he talked “nonsense—a chapter from a romance.” The result was his positive rejection; but at the same time the queen resolved to abdicate the throne in his favor. She forthwith demanded that the diet should name her cousin successor to the throne. Oxenstiern and Torstenson in vain entreated her to abandon this purpose. The resolution naming her cousin successor to the throne was passed; and Oxenstiern, when obliged to sign it, declared that he would rather sign his own death warrant. He foresaw her abdication. One year later she made known this purpose. An independent life in other lands was now Christina's great desire, which was quickened by a fear that if she delayed, her renunciation of the crown would lose the lustre she wished to shed upon it through its perfect spontaneity. It began to be thought that the act might soon be forced upon her by the machinations of her enemies. A revolt was threatened, and Christina, desiring to quell this, and to abdicate voluntarily thereafter, allowed another diet to assemble without communicating to them her resolution. She carried out her purpose in the manner indicated; but the remainder of her reign was employed as though she had determined not to be regretted. Every species of abuse and license became her daily practice. The public treasure was squandered most dishonestly. She declared she would rather see the devil than her secretary with despatches. Months elapsed without her holding a council of state. She created in all 460 new nobles, among them the court tailor. The court was crowded with dancers, comedians, and singers. Ballets, in which the queen danced, and lascivious entertainments of every description, occupied the time of court and council. Public discontent began to rise to a formidable pitch, and at length Christina, in the 28th year of her age, announced that the time had arrived when she should carry out her purpose of abdication. The diet, assembled at Upsal, offered the usual remonstrances, but at length acceded, the high chancellor adding, “If this is to be, then the sooner the better.” The solemn act of renunciation was to be on June 6, 1654, and the interim appears to have been spent by Christina in coming to terms in regard to her future allowance of money. The diet assigned her an income of 240,000 rix dollars a year; but before the matter could be definitely settled, it produced some altercation between the queen and council. At the ceremony of abdication Christina appeared in robes of state, with crown and sceptre, and after an address of farewell laid aside, one after the other, the various regalia. Descending then from the throne, she desired to see her successor, Prince Charles, take her place immediately. She

begged him to mount to the royal chair. This he would not do in her presence; but after attending Christina to her chamber, he returned to the great hall, and was crowned forthwith. Oxenstiern wept as the queen departed. “She is daughter still of our great Gustavus,” he exclaimed. Twelve ships of war had been equipped to convey her across the Baltic; but she took her way by land to Denmark, dismissing all her Swedish attendants except four. On reaching a brook which then formed the southern boundary of Sweden, she alighted from her carriage, and leaping across it, she cried out, “Now I am free and out of Sweden, which I trust never to see again.” Her country, however, soon became more estranged from her than she from it. Twice she revisited it, and on both occasions she was received and dismissed with distrust, if not with contumely. Carrying with her everything curious or valuable from the palace of her fathers, she abandoned her country as the abode of ignorance and barbarism. She travelled through Germany in the dress of a man, after having embraced the Catholic religion secretly at Brussels. Her public renunciation of Lutheranism was made soon after at Innspruck. The Catholics regarded the fact as a great triumph, while the Protestants were shocked at the conduct of the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. She was cordially welcomed by the pope, Alexander VII., and at her confirmation by him adopted the name of Alexandra. In 1656 she went to Paris, where she was received with much and various sensation. Her talents and learning were the wonder of that capital. The learned men of Europe continued to be her subjects, as it were; but she seemed to become more and more unsexed. Her masculine air and libertine conversation kept women of delicacy at a distance. Ninon de l'Enclos was the only woman in Paris whom she noticed with any marks of esteem. She offered to mediate between France and Spain; but Mazarin declined the offer, and, under various pretexts, caused her visit to Paris to be shortened as much as possible. In 1657 she returned, and the contempt with which she had now come to be regarded was changed to detestation and horror by a murder which she caused to be perpetrated at Fontainebleau, in the great gallery, almost in her own presence. Monaldeschi, her grand equerry and favorite, was believed by her to have betrayed her confidence. She sent for him, showed him a priest, and told him to prepare for death. The Italian, overcome with terror, cast himself at her feet and begged for mercy; but she, inexorable, ordered Sentinelli, the captain of her guards, to put him to death. The order was executed on the spot. The court of Louis XIV. expressed its displeasure at the act, and during two months she did not show herself publicly in Paris; but the crime was allowed to pass, not only without punishment, but without inquiry. In 1658 she returned to Rome, where she