y to the
formation of the character, reminds us of that magician who collected
the mangled limbs which had been dispersed up and down, reunited them
into the human form, and reanimated them with the breathing and
conscious spirit of life.

Constance of Bretagne was the only daughter and heiress of Conan IV.,
Duke of Bretagne; her mother was Margaret of Scotland, the eldest
daughter of Malcolm IV.: but little mention is made of this princess in
the old histories; but she appears to have inherited some portion of the
talent and spirit of her father, and to have transmitted them to her
daughter. The misfortunes of Constance may be said to have commenced
before her birth, and took their rise in the misconduct of one of her
female ancestors. Her great-grandmother Matilda, the wife of Conan III.,
was distinguished by her beauty and imperious temper, and not less by
her gallantries. Her husband, not thinking proper to repudiate her
during his lifetime, contented himself with disinheriting her son Hoel,
whom he declared illegitimate; and bequeathed his dukedom to his
daughter Bertha, and her husband Allan the Black, Earl of Richmond, who
were proclaimed and acknowledged Duke and Duchess of Bretagne.

Prince Hoel, so far from acquiescing in his father's will, immediately
levied an army to maintain his rights, and a civil war ensued between
the brother and sister, which lasted for twelve or fourteen years.
Bertha, whose reputation was not much fairer than that of her mother
Matilda, was succeeded by her son Conan IV.; he was young, and of a
feeble, vacillating temper, and after struggling for a few years against
the increasing power of his uncle Hoel, and his own rebellious barons,
he called in the aid of that politic and ambitious monarch, Henry II. of
England. This fatal step decided the fate of his crown and his
posterity; from the moment the English set foot in Bretagne, that
miserable country became a scene of horrors and crimes--oppression and
perfidy on the one hand, unavailing struggles on the other. Ten years of
civil discord ensued, during which the greatest part of Bretagne was
desolated, and nearly a third of the population carried off by famine
and pestilence. In the end, Conan was secured in the possession of his
throne by the assistance of the English king, who, equally subtle and
ambitious, contrived in the course of this warfare to strip Conan of
most of his provinces by successive treaties; alienate the Breton