At length, devoured by a mutual anxiety, this affectionate pair could no longer sustain a separation. By the management of the faithful freedman, Eponina was conveyed in the darkness of the night to the retreat of her husband, and brought back, with equal secrecy, to her own house before the dawning of the ensuing day. These visits were repeated, with the same precautions, and with great peril, during seven months, till it was at last determined, as a plan which would be attended with less inconvenience, and even with less danger, that Sabinus should be conveyed by night to his own house, and kept concealed in a remote and private apartment. But this project, in its execution, was found to abound in unforeseen difficulties: the extensive household and numerous visitants of Eponina, who feared to change her manner of life, kept her in continual terror of a discovery, and harassed her mind with insupportable inquietude. Sabinus was therefore again removed to his subterranean abode, whose darkness love illumined.

The intercourse between the husband and wife thus continued for nine years, during which interval the pregnancy of Eponina afforded them at one time the most cruel alarm. But this interesting and amiable woman, by a painful but ingenious stratagem, contrived to elude suspicion and satisfy inquiry. She prepared an ointment, which, by its external application, produced a swelling of the limbs, and dropsical symptoms, and thus accounted for the enlargement of her shape. As the hour of her delivery drew near, she shut herself, under pretence of a visit to a distant province, in the cavern of her husband; where, without assistance, and suppressing her groans, she gave birth to twin-sons, whom she nurtured and reared in this gloomy retreat.

Conjugal and maternal affection thus united, while time and impunity had in some measure allayed her fears, drew her more frequently to the place which contained the objects of her cares, till her absences gave rise to curiosity and suspicion. She was at length traced to the cavern of the ill-fated Sabinus; who, being seized and loaded with irons, was, with his wife and children, conveyed to Rome.

Eponina, distracted at the consequence of her imprudence, rushed into the presence of the emperor Vespasian, and, presenting to him her children, prostrated herself at his feet.

With the eloquence of a wife and a mother, she pleaded the cause of her husband, and, after having extenuated his fault, as proceeding from the disorders of the times, rather than from personal ambition, from the calamities of civil war, and the evils of oppression, she thus proceeded to address the emperor: But we have waited, sire, till these boys shall be able to join to those of their mother their sighs and tears, in the hope of disarming your wrath by our united supplications. They come forth, as from a sepulchre, to implore your mercy, on the first day in which they have ever beheld the light. Let our sorrow, our misfortunes, and the sufferings we have already undergone, move you to compassion, and obtain from you the life of a husband and a father.' The spectators melted into tenderness and pity at the affecting spectacle; every heart was moved, every eye was moist, but that of a pitiless tyrant, deaf to the voice of nature, and inaccessible to her claims.

In vain did this heroic and admirable woman humble herself before a monster, whose heart ambition had seared, inexorable in cruelty, and stern in his resolves. To political security the rights of humanity were sacrificed, and the husband and the father coldly doomed to death.

Eponina, determined to share the fate of her husband, wiped away her tears, and, assuming an air of intrepidity, thus addressed the emperor: Be assured,' said she, in a firm and dignified tone, that I know how to contemn life. With Sabinus I have existed nine years in the bowels of the earth, with a delight and tranquillity untasted by tyrants amidst the splendors of a throne; and with him I am ready to unite myself in death, with no less cheerfulness and fortitude.'

This act of ill-timed severity threw a stain upon the character and memory of Vespasian, whose temper in other respects had not been accounted sanguinary. The generous affection and heroism of Eponina was consecrated in the admiration of future ages.

The Lives of the Roman Empresses, by Monsieur de Serviez-Plutarch.

ERINNA.

A POETESS of Teos, who composed epigrams, and a poem in the Doric dialect, consisting of three hundred verses.

She died at the early age of nineteen, during the reign of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse.

Biographium Famineum.

MARIA D'ESTRADA.

MARIA D'ESTRADA, the wife of a soldier of Fernandez Cortez, followed her husband to Mexico, where she fought by his side, and performed extraordinary exploits of valour, to the astonishment and admiration of all who beheld her.

Dictionnaire Historique,

ETHELFLEDA.

ETHELFLEDA, or Elfleda, eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, was wife to Ethelred earl of Mercia. After the birth of her first child, having suffered severely in child-birth, she made a vow of chastity, and devoted herself to arms. She preserved for her husband, with whom she united in acts of munificence and valour, a cordial friendship. They assisted Alfred in his wars against the Danes, whom they prevented the Welsh from succouring. Not less pious than valiant, they restored cities, founded abbies, and protected the bones of departed saints.

After the death of her husband, in 912, Ethelfleda assumed the government of Mercia; and, emulating her father and brother, commanded armies, fortified towns, and took from the Danes all hopes of re-settling in Mercia. Then carrying her victorious arms into Wales, she compelled the Welsh, after several victories, to become her tributaries. In 918 she took Derby from the Danes; and, in 920, Leicester, York, &c. Having become famed for her spirit and courage, the titles of lady and queen were judged inadequate to her merit; to these she therefore received in addition, those of lord and king.

Her courage and activity were perpetually employed in the

service of her country, till death terminated her glorious career. She died during a war with the Danes, at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, in 922, and was interred in the porch of the monastery of St. Peter, in Gloucester, which she had in concert with her husband erected. She left a marriageable daughter, named Elswina.

Ethelfleda was deeply regretted by the whole kingdom, and by none more sensibly than by her brother Edward, to whom she proved equally serviceable in the cabinet and the field. Ingulphus, the historian, gives his testimony to the courage and masculine virtues of this princess.

Biographia Britannica-Biographium Fæmineum.

EURYDICE.

EURYDICE, an Illyrian lady, is commended by Plutarch, for applying herself to study, though already advanced in years, and a native of a barbarous country, that she might be enabled to educate her children. She consecrated to the muses an inscription in which this circumstance is mentioned.

Bayle, &c.

EUSEBIA.

EUSEBIA, wife of Constance, was the protectrix of Julian, whom she raised to the rank of emperor; and, by the influence which her talents and beauty gave to her, saved him from the political fury of a prince who murdered without scruple those whom he distrusted or feared. Julian, indebted to Eusebia for life and empire, composed her eulogium.

LADY FALCONBERG.

MARY, third daughter of Oliver Cromwell, and second wife to Thomas lord viscount Falconberg, was distinguished for her talents, her spirit, and her beauty. Bishop Burnet, who styles her "a wise and worthy woman," adds, "that she was more likely to have maintained the post of protector than

either of her brothers; according to an observation respecting her, that those who wore breeches deserved petticoats better; but if those in petticoats had been in breeches, they would have held faster. After the deposition of Richard, of whose incapacity his sister was aware, she exerted herself in favour of Charles II. and is said to have greatly contributed towards the Restoration. It is certain that her husband was, by the committee of safety, sent to the Tower a short time before the return of Charles, in whose favour he held a distinguished place. Lady Falconberg was a member of the established church, and respected for her munificence and charity.

LADY ELIZABETH FANE.

It is uncertain whether this lady was the wife of Richard Fane, who married Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Stidolph, and who was living towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII.; or of sir Thomas Fane, whose first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of sir Thomas Culpeper, of Bedgebury in Kent, who engaged in the rebellion of Wyat, in the first year of the reign of Mary. Lady Elizabeth Fane was the author of several psalms, meditations, and proverbs, printed by Robert Crowland, under the following title: "Lady Elizabeth Fane's twenty-one Psalms, and one hundred and two Proverbs. London, 1550, 8vo."

Ballard's British Ladies-The Female Worthies.

FANNIA.

FANNIA, daughter of Pætus Thrasea, and grand-daughter of the celebrated Arria, was worthy of her illustrious descent. She lived under the reign of Domitian, and was distinguished for her courage and magnanimity. She followed her husband Helvidius twice into banishment; and became, a third time, herself an exile for his sake. Senecio, accused on the information of Metius Carus of having written the life of Helvidius, alleged, in his excuse, the intreaties of Fannia, who had furnished him with materials. Fannia, when sternly interrogated