Brantome relates, that the duchess of Angoulême, in the sixteenth
century, being awakened during the night, she was surprised at an
extraordinary brightness which illuminated her chamber; apprehending it
to be the fire, she reprimanded her women for having made so large a
one; but they assured her it was caused by the moon. The duchess ordered
her curtains to be undrawn, and discovered that it was a comet which
produced this unusual light. “Ah!” exclaimed she, “this is a phenomenon
which appears not to persons of common condition. Shut the window, it is
a comet, which announces my departure; I must prepare for death.” The
following morning she sent for her confessor, in the certainty of an
approaching dissolution. The physicians assured her that her
apprehensions were ill founded and premature. “If I had not,” replied
she, “seen the signal for death, I could believe it, for I do not feel
myself exhausted or peculiarly ill.” On the third day after this event
she expired, the victim of terror. Long after this period all
appearances of the celestial bodies, not perfectly comprehended by the
multitude, were supposed to indicate the deaths of sovereigns, or
revolutions in their governments.
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