She was then in her fifty-eighth year. Sainte-Marthe
relates that shortly before her death she saw in a dream a very
beautiful woman holding in her hand a crown of all sorts of flowers
which she showed to her, telling her that she would soon be crowned with
it.(1)
1 _Oraison funebre, &c._, p. 104.
She interpreted this dream as signifying that her end was near, and from
that day forward abandoned the administration of her property to the
King of Navarre, refusing to occupy herself with any other matter than
that of her approaching end. After dictating her will she fell into her
final illness, which lasted twenty days according to some authorities,
and eight according to others. It seized her one night at Odos whilst
she was watching a comet, which it was averred had appeared to notify
the death of Pope Paul III. "It was perhaps to presage her own," naively
remarks Brantome, who adds that while she was looking at the comet her
mouth suddenly became partially paralysed, whereupon her doctor, M.
d'Escuranis, led her away and made her go to bed.
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