hung over the parlour door," and, on entering this room on
their return from church, the string of the picture broke, "and the
picture, which was painted on wood, fell on the lady's shoulder and
cracked in the fall. This made her ladyship reflect on her promise,
and drew some tears from her eyes."

CHAPTER XII.

ROMANCE OF DISGUISE.

PISANIO to IMOGEN:
You must forget to be a woman; change
Command into obedience: fear and niceness--
The handmaids of all women, or, more truly,
Woman its pretty self, into a waggish courage:
Ready in gibes, quick answered, saucy, and
As quarrelsome as the weasel; nay, you must
Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek
Exposing it--but, Oh! the harder heart!
Alack! no remedy! to the greedy touch
Of common-kissing Titan, and forget
Your laboursome and dainty trims.
"_Cymbeline_," ACT III., SC. 4.

That a woman, under any circumstances, should dismiss her proper
apparel, it has been remarked, "may well appear to us as something
like a phenomenon." Yet instances are far from uncommon, the motive
being originated in a variety of circumstances. A young lady, it may
be, falls in love, and, to gain her end, assumes male attire so that
she may escape detection, as in the case of a girl, who, giving her
affections to a sailor, and not being able to follow him in her
natural and recognised character, put on jacket and trousers, and
became, to all appearance, a brother of his mess. In other cases, a
pure masculinity of character "seems to lead women to take on the
guise of men. Apparently feeling themselves misplaced in, and
misrepresented by, the female dress, they take up with that of men
simply that they may be allowed to employ themselves in those manly
avocations for which their taste and nature are fitted." In
Caulfield's "Portraits of Remarkable Persons," we find a portrait of
Anne Mills, styled the female sailor, who is represented as standing
on what appears to be the end of a pier and holding in one hand a
human head, while the other bears a sword, the instrument doubtless
with which the decapitation was effected. In the year 1740, she was
serving on board the _Maidstone_, a frigate, and in an action between
that vessel and the enemy, she exhibited such desperate and daring
valour as to be particularly noticed by the whole crew. But her
motives for assuming the male habit do not seem to have