Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 20.djvu/37

 not take it from me ." Thus, in the most indifferent actions of his childhood, his unconquerable spirit would frequently discover some traces of those heroic qualities which characterize great souls, and which plainly indicated what sort of a man he would one day prove.

He was but eleven years of age when he lost his mother, who expired on the fifth of August, 1693. The disease of which she died was supposed to be owing to the bad usage she had received from her husband, and to her own endeavors to conceal her vexation. Charles XI. had, by means of a certain court of justice, which was called the Chamber of Liquidations, and erected by his sole authority, deprived a great number of his subjects of their wealth. Crowds of citizens ruined by this chamber, nobility, merchants, farmers, widows, and orphans, filled the streets of Stockholm, and daily repaired to the gate of the palace to pour forth their unavailing complaints. The queen succored these unhappy people as much as lay in her power; she gave them her money, her jewels, her furniture, and even her clothes; and when she had no more to give them, with tears in her eyes she threw herself at her husband's feet, beseeching him to have pity on his wretched subjects. The king gravely answered her, "Madam, we took you to bear us children, not to give us advice." And from that time he treated her with a severity that is said to have shortened her days.

He died four years after her, on the fifteenth