Agostina
A Spanish Heroine
1788 – 1857 A.D.

Agostina, the Maid of Saragossa, a Spanish heroine. During the terrible siege of the city in 1808, she traversed the streets, clad in white raiment, with loosened hair, bearing a cross, and urging resistance. When the enemy were breaking through a breach in the walls of protecting the city, she seized a lighted torch from the hand of a dying artilleryman, took his place at the cannon, and the city saved.

Lord Byron in the first canto of Childe Harold refers to her in the lines:

“Her lover sinks – she sheds no ill-timed tear;
Her chief is slain – she fills his fatal post;
Her fellows flee – she checks their base career;
The foe retires – she heads the sallying host.”

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.