For this hazardous manoeuvre she was summarily
punished; and to prevent her from repeating it when the emperor returned,
her mother held her by the shoulders. This was of little avail, however,
as Ida perseveringly persisted in keeping her eyes shut.
At the age of thirteen she was induced to resume the garb of her sex,
though it was some time before she could accustom her wild free movements
to it. She was then placed in charge of a tutor, who seems to have
behaved to her with equal skill and delicacy. "He showed," she says,
"great patience and perseverance in combating my overstrained and
misdirected notions. As I had learned to fear my parents rather than
love them, and this gentleman was, so to speak, the first human being who
had displayed any sympathy and affection for me, I clung to him in return
with enthusiastic attachment, desirous of fulfilling his every wish, and
never so happy as when he appeared satisfied with my exertions. He took
the entire charge of my education, and though it cost me some tears to
abandon my youthful visions, and engage in pursuits I had hitherto
regarded with contempt, to all this I submitted out of my affection for
him. I even learned many feminine avocations, such as sewing, knitting,
and cookery. To him I owed the insight I obtained into the duties and
true position of my sex; and it was he who transformed me from a romp and
a hoyden into a modest quiet girl.
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