Lucretia Borgia, famous in romance and song for her poisoning propensities, was a daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and sister of Cesare Borgia. She married Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, in 1493, but being a woman of haughty disposition and evil temper, their life was anything but a happy one; and after living together for four years, Alexander dissolved the marriage, and gave her to Alphonso II of Naples. Two years had barely passed before her second husband was assassinated by hired ruffians of Cesare Borgia. So Lucretia took unto herself a third husband in the person of Alphonso d'Este, a son of the Duke of Ferrara. She led a wild and unhappy life, and was accused of poisoning, and almost every form of crime, although it is stated by several modern historians that many of these charges were unfounded. Although tradition has inflicted her with a bad character, she is said to have been a liberal patroness of art and literature in her time. She died in 1523. In 1536 the Dauphin, eldest son of Francis I, died suddenly, and suspicion attached to Sebastian Montecucculi, a Ferrarese, who held the part of cup-bearer--bribed, as was supposed by Catherine of Medicis in order to secure the crown to her husband, Henry, Duke of Orleans, who became Dauphin in consequence of his elder brother's death. The story of the Countess of Somerset, who was tried with others for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in the reign of James I, forms an interesting episode in the history of romantic poisoning. Robert, Earl of Essex, son of Queen Elizabeth's favourite, and who afterwards became Commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary forces, married, at the age of fourteen, Frances Howard, a younger daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, the bride being just a year younger than her husband. The match had been arranged and brought about through the influence of relatives, who thought it expedient that the youthful bridegroom should be sent off to travel on the Continent immediately after the marriage had taken place, and he remained away for three or four years. During this period the countess, who was brought up at court, developed into a very beautiful woman, but seems to have been equally unprincipled and capricious. On the return of the earl from his travels, she shrank from all advances on his part, and showed the utmost repugnance to her husband on all occasions. Their dispositions were entirely different. He loved retirement, and wished to live a quiet country life, while she, who had been bred at court, and accustomed to adulation and intrigue, refused to leave town. The King about this time had a number of young men of distinguished appearance and good looks attached to the court, and of these, one Robert Carr, at length became an exclusive favourite. Between him and the self-willed young countess there sprang up an attachment, which, at least on her side, amounted to infatuation. Her opportunities for meeting her lover were short and rare, and in