The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-01
WASHINGTON, d. c..
From Dickens's Household Words.
A QUEENS REVENGE.

The name of Gustavus Adolphus, the faitI
ful Protestant, the great General, and the goo
King Of Sweden, has been long since rendere
familiar 10 readers of history. We all kno
how this renowned warrior and monarch we
beloved by his soldiers and subjects, ho
successfully he fought through long an
fearful war, and how nobly he died on th
field Of battle. With his death, however, tn
interest of the English reader in Swedish affair
seems to terminate. Those who have followe
the narrative of his life carefully to the en-
may remember that be left behind him an onl
child-a daughter named Christina; but of tn
character of this child, and of her extraordins
ry adventures after she grew to womanhood
the public in England is for the most part en-
tirely Ignorant. La the popular historical an,
romantic literature of France, Queen Christin,
is prominent and notorious character. Ii
the literature of this country, she has hilbert,
been allowed but little chance of making he
way to the notice of the world at large.
And yet, the life of this woman is in itself ,
romance. AT six years old, she was Queen O
Sweden, with the famous Oxenstiern for guar
dian. This great and good man governed tn,
Kingdom in her name until she had livec
through her minority. Four years after hel
coronation, she of her own accord abdicateC
her rights in favor of her cousin, Charles Gus
tavus. Young and beautiful, the most learned
and most accomplished woman of her time, she
resolutely turned her back on the throne of her
Inheritance, and, publicly betraying her dislike
Of the empty pomp and irksome restraint OF
royalty, set forth to wander through civilized
Europe in the character of an Independent
traveller, who was resolved to see all varieties
OF men and manners, to collect all the knowl.
edge which the widest experience could give
her, and to measure her mind boldly against
the greatest minds of the age wherever she
went. 80 far, the interest excited by her char.
acter and her adventures is of the most pictur.
esqueiy attractive kind. There is some.
thing strikingy new in the spectacle of a
young Queen who prefers the pursuit Of
knowledge to the possession of a throne, and
who barters royal birthright for the privilege
OF being free. Unhappily, the portrait of Chris
tina cannot be painted throughout in bright
colors only. 1t is not pleasant to record of her,
that, when her travels brought her to Rome,
she abandoned the religion for which her father
fought and died. 1t is still less agreeable to
add, that she freed herself from other restraints
besides the restraint of royalty, and that, if she
was mentally distinguished by her capacities,
she was also morally disgraced by her vices
and her crimes.
The events in the strange life of Christina
especially those which are connected with her
actions and adventures in the character of
Queen errant present the freshest and the
most ample materials for biography, which
might be regarded in England as new contri.
button to cur historical literature. Within the
necessarily limited space at our command in
these columns, it is impossible to follow her,
with sufficient attention to details, through the
adventures which attended her travelling ca
reer. One, however, among the many strange
and startling passages in her life may profta-
bly, be introduced in this place. The events of
which the narrative is composed throw LIGHT lin
many ways, on the mauucro, habits, and opln-
ions, of past age, and they can, moreover, be
presented in this place in the very words of an
eye witness, who beheld them two centuries ago.
The scene is 10 Paris; the time is the close
Of the year sixteen hundred and fifty seven the
persons are the wandering Queen Christina,
her grand equerry the Marquis Monaldeschi,
and Father lie Bel ofthe Convent Of Fontaine
bleau, the witness whose testimony we are
shortly about TO cite.
Mona!deschi, as his name implies, was q"
Italian by birth. He was a handsome, accom-
plished nan. refined in his manners, supple in
his disposition, and possessed of the art of ma
king himself eminently agreeable in the society
of women. With these personal Recommended
tions, he soon won his way to the favor of
Queen Christina. Out of the long list of her
lovers, not one of the many whom she encour
aged caught so long and firm a hold of her ca
pricious fancy as Monaldeschi. The intimacy
between them probably took its rise, on her side
at least, in as deep sincerity of affection as it
was in Christmas nature to feel. On the side
of the Italian, the connection was prompted
solely by ambition AS soon as he had risen
10 the distinction and reaped all the advantages
of the position of chief favorite in the Queens
Court, he wearied of his royal mistress, and ad-
dressed his attentions secretly to q young Ro-
man LADY, whose youth and beauty powerfully
attracted him, and whose fatal influence over
his actions ultimately led to his ruin and his
death.
After endeavoring to ingratiate himself with
the Roman lady, in various ways, Monaldeschi
found that the surest means of winning her
favor lay in satisfying her malicious curiosity
on the subject of the private life and the secret
irailties OF Queen Christina. He was not a
man who was troubled by any scrupulous feel
lngs OF honor, when the interests of his own in
trgues happened to be concerned; and be
shamelessly took advantage of the position
that he held towards Christina to commit
breaches of confidence Of the most inexcusably
ungrateiul and the most meably Infamous kind
lie gave TO the Roman lady the series of the
Queens letters to himself, which contained Sc
crets that she had revealed to him in the fullest
confidence Of his worthiness TO be trusted
more than this, he wrote letters of his own tc
the new object of his addresses, in which he rdi
culed the Queens fondness for him, and sarcas
tically described her smallest personal defect.
with a heartless effrontery which the most pa
tlent and long-suffering Of women would have
found it impossible to forgive. While he wa
thus privately betraying the confidence that hat
been reposed in him, he was publicly affecting
the most unalterable attachment and the mos
sincere respect for the Queen.
For some time, this disgraceful deception
proceeded successfully. But the hour Of tn
discovery was appointed, and the instrument O
effecting it was certain Cardinal who was de
sirous of supplanting Monaldeschi in tn
Queens favor. The priest contrived to &c
possession of the whole correspondence whic
had been privately placed in the hands of tn
Roman lady, including, besides Christmas le
tiers, the letters which Monaldeschi had write
IN ridicule of his royal mistress The Who'll
collection OF documents was enclosed by tn
cardinal in one packet, and was presented b
HIM, at private audience, to the Queen.
1t is at this critical point of the story tbs
the testimony of the eyewitness whom we pr
pose to quote, begins. Father lie Bel Wa
present at the fearful execution of the Queen
vengeance on Monaldeschi, and was furnishe
with copies of the whole correspondence whic
had been distracted from the possession of th
Roman lady. Having been trusted with the 81
cret he is wisely and honorably silent through
out his narrative on the subject of Monal,
eschi's offence. Such particulars of the Ita
ian's baseness and ingratitude as have bee
presented here, have been gathered from IL
somewhat contradictory reports which we're Gu
rent at the time, and which have been preserve
by the old French collectors of historical ane
dotes Such further details Of tho extroord;.,,