=Virginians= (_The_), a sequel to Henry Esmond. It gives the story of Colonel Esmond’s twin grandsons, George and Harry Warrington, born and brought up in Virginia. George joins Braddock’s expedition, and is reported killed, Harry goes to England. George, escaping from Indian captivity, joins his brother, whom everybody had supposed the head of the family. Harry enters the army and George marries. One of the characters introduced in the book is George Washington, whom the twins believe to be in love with their widowed mother.--W. M. Thackeray, _The Virginians_. =Virgins= (_The Eleven Thousand_). Ursul or Hörsel in Swabia, like Hulda in Scandinavia, means “the moon,” and her eleven thousand virgins are the stars. The bones shown in Cologne, as those of the eleven thousand virgins are those of males and females of all ages, and were taken from an old Roman cemetery across which the wall of Cologne ran (1106). =Virginia=, a young Roman plebeian of great beauty, coveted by Appius Claudius, one of the decemvirs, and claimed as his slave. Her father, Virginius, being told of it, hastened to the forum, and arrived at the moment when Virginia was about to be delivered up to Appius. He seized a butcher’s knife, stabbed his daughter to the heart, rushed from the forum, and raised a revolt. This has been the subject of a host of tragedies. In _French_, by Mairet (1628), by Leclerc (1645), by Campistron (1683), by La Beaumelle (1760), by Chabanon (1769), by Laharpe (1786), by Leblanc du Guillet (1786), by Guiraud (1827), by Latour St. Ybars (1845), etc. In _Italian_, by Alfieri (1783). In _German_, by Gotthold Lessing (eighteenth century). In _English_, by John Webster, entitled _Appius and Virginia_ (1654); by Miss Brooke (1760); J. S. Knowles (1820), _Virginius_. It is one of Lord Macaulay’s lays (1842), supposed to be sung in the forum on the day when Sextus and Licinius were elected tribunes for the fifth time. _Virginia_, the daughter of Mde. de la Tour. Madame was of a good family in Normandy, but, having married beneath her social position, was tabooed by her family. Her husband died before the birth of his first child, and the widow went to live at Port Louis, in the Mauritius, where Virginia was born. Their only neighbor was Margaret, with her love-child, Paul, an infant. The two children grew up together, and became strongly attached; but when Virginia was 15 years old, her wealthy great-aunt adopted her and requested that she might be sent immediately to France to finish her education. The aunt wanted her to marry a French count, and as Virginia refused to do so, disinherited her and sent her back to the Mauritius. When within a cable’s length of the island, a hurricane dashed the ship to pieces, and the corpse of Virginia was cast on the shore. Paul drooped, and died within two months.--Bernardin de St. Pierre, _Paul and Virginia_ (1788).