Yet she made great progress in her studies.  She learned to read the classical authors of Greece and Rome, and became a great admirer of the heroes and poets of old times.  Then, as for active exercises, she could ride on horseback as well as any man in her kingdom.  She was fond of hunting, and could shoot at a mark with wonderful skill.  But dancing was the only feminine accomplishment with which she had any acquaintance.

She was so restless in her disposition, that none of her attendants were sure of a moment’s quiet, neither day nor night.  She grew up, I am sorry to say, a very unamiable person, ill-tempered, proud, stubborn, and, in short, unfit to make those around her happy, or to be happy herself.  Let every little girl, who has been taught self-control, and a due regard for the rights of others, thank heaven that she has had better instruction than this poor little queen of Sweden.

At the age of eighteen, Christina was declared free to govern the kingdom by herself, without the aid of a regency.  At this period of her life, she was a young woman of striking aspect, a good figure and intelligent face, but very strangely dressed.  She wore a short habit of gray cloth, with a man’s vest over it, and a black scarf around her neck, but no jewels, nor ornaments of any kind.

Yet, though Christina was so negligent of her appearance, there was something in her air and manner that proclaimed her as the ruler of a kingdom.  Her eyes, it is said, had a very fierce and haughty look.  Old General Wrangel, who had often caused the enemies of Sweden to tremble in battle, actually trembled himself, when he encountered the eyes of the queen.  But it would have been better for Christina if she could have made people love her, by means of soft and gentle looks, instead of affrighting them by such terrible glances.

And now I have told you almost all that is amusing or instructive, in the childhood of Christina.  Only a few more words need be said about her; for it is neither pleasant nor profitable to think of many things that she did, after she grew to be a woman.

When she had worn the crown a few years, she began to consider it beneath her dignity to be called a queen, because the name implied that she belonged to the weaker sex.  She therefore caused herself to be proclaimed king, thus declaring to the world that she despised her own sex, and was desirous of being ranked among men.  But in the twenty-eighth year of her age, Christina grew tired of royalty, and resolved to be neither a king nor a queen any longer.  She took the crown from her head, with her own hands, and ceased to be the ruler of Sweden.  The people did not greatly regret her abdication; for she had governed them ill, and had taken much of their property to supply her extravagance.