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 Brantôme, 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. Her death took place
on December 21st, 1549, and just before expiring she grasped a crucifix
that lay beside her and murmured, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” (1)
Although the King of Navarre had not always lived in perfect accord with
his wife, he none the less keenly felt the loss he had sustained by her
death. Olhagaray represents him when deprived of Margaret as no longer
showing the same firm purpose of life, but as sad, discontented, and
altering his plans at every trifle.(2) He gave orders that Margaret’s
remains should be interred in the Cathedral of Lescar, some four and a
half miles from the Château of Pau, with which it is said to have
been at that time connected by a subterranean passage. Several of the
Navarrese sovereigns had already been buried there, for the See was a
kind of primacy, the Bishops being _ex-officio_ presidents of the States
of Bearn.(3)
1 M. Lalanne, in his edition of Brantôme’s works, maintains
that Margaret did not die at Odos, near Tarbes, but at
Audaux, near Orthez, basing this contention on the fact that
Brantôme calls the castle “Audos in Bearn,” and that Odos is
in Bigorre. Tradition, however, has always pointed to the
latter locality, though, on the other hand, it is stated
that less than half a century after Margaret’s death Odos
was nothing but a ruin, and had long been in that condition.
In 1596 Henry IV. gave the property to John de Lassalle, by
whose descendants the château was restored (Bascle de
Lagrèze’s _Chateau de Pau, &c._).