Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/718

704 When Le Normant de Tourneau, who, in the chatacter of her presumptive father, had taken so much care of her education, was struck with the apoplexy, of which he died, long after she was in favour with the king; on the first news of his danger, she flew to D'Estiolles's, where he was, but insensible and past recovery. The violent signs she gave of affliction on this occasion were, most probably, at least for the greatest part, real and unaffected. She staid fifteen days at this place, having had the precaution to acquaint her husband with her journey, that she might not meet him there. For some years before her death she lost her charms; and the chagrin, which incessantly preyed upon her at the prospect of her blasted ambition, joined to the artifices she used to improve her beauty, increased her indisposition. Her figure was reduced almost to a skeleton; and her constitution had received a shock in the very early part of her advancement. Towards the end of March 1764, she was so thoroughly convinced of her approaching end, that she made her will; after which she wrote to her husband a very affectionate letter, acknowledging all her faults, and begging to see him, in order to be reconciled. But, whether through a just indignation, or a want of the softer feelings of humanity, he sternly declared, that, though he forgave her, he would not be prevailed upon to pay her a visit. Her royal lover shewed no such unkindness: he continued his visits constantly till two days before her death; when, having received the extreme unction, she herself declined seeing him any more. Her death happened in 1764, in the forty-third year of her age; after having reigned two-and-twenty years, without any visible abatement of her influence, sole arbitress of the counsels of one of the greatest monarchs in Europe. Her whole fortune, to the serve