Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/850

834836 [sic] had sometime before broken one of her legs upon the paved stones of Orleans. She had been riding on horseback, and kept her seat as dextrously and well as she had ever done. One would have expected that the pain of such an accident would have made some alteration at least in her lovely face: but this was not the case; she was as beautiful, graceful, and handsome, in every respect, as she had always been." She is the only mistress, I believe, whose medal was struck. "M. Pierce," says l'Etoile, "sent me the model of the Duchess de Valentinois, struck in copper: on one side is her effigy, with this inscription, Diana, Dux Valentinorum clarissima; and on the reverse, Omnium victorum vici, I have conquered the conqueror of all." I believe it was the city of Lyons, where this duchess was much beloved, that caused this medal to be struck, and that the inscription applied to Henry II. who had another medal struck, in 1552, where she is represented under the figure of Diana; with these words, Nomen ad Astra. The Henry and Diana, with crescents, that is to say, the H's and D's, which were cyphered in the Louvre, are still greater proofs of the passion of this prince. She told Henry II. who wished to acknowledge a daughter he had by her, "I was born of a family, (the old counts of Poictiers) which entitled me to have had legitimate children by you; I have been your mistress, because I loved you; but I will not suffer any arrêt to declare me so." She was fond of exercise, and enjoyed uninterrupted health.

misfortunes she shared, without reproaching him