The defeat of Pavia and the excessive demands of Charles V. had given the king such shocks that he had fallen seriously ill; the emperor had therefore gone to Madrid to be near him. On Wednesday, September 19, 1525, Margaret arrived in that capital. Charles received her surrounded by a numerous court, and respectfully approaching her, this politic and phlegmatic prince kissed her on the forehead and offered her his hand. Margaret, followed by the noble dames and lords of France who had accompanied her, and wearing a plain dress of black velvet without any ornament, passed between two lines of admiring courtiers. The emperor conducted her as far as the door of her brother’s apartments, and then withdrew. Margaret rushed in; but alas! what did she find? a dying man, pale, worn, helpless. Francis was on the brink of the grave, and his attendants seemed to be waiting for his last breath. The duchess approached the bed softly, so as not to be heard by the sick man; unobserved she fixed on him a look of the tenderest solicitude, and her soul, strengthened by an unwavering faith, did not hesitate; she believed in her brother’s cure, she had prayed so fervently. She seemed to hear in the depths of her heart an answer from God to her prayers; and while all around the prince, who was almost a corpse, bowed their heads in dark despair, Margaret raised hers with hope towards heaven. Prudent, skilful, decided, active, a Martha as well as a Mary, she established herself at once in the king’s chamber, and took the supreme direction. ‘If she had not come he would have died,’ said Brantôme.[431] ‘I know my brother’s temperament,’ she said, ‘better than the doctors.’ In spite of their resistance, she had the treatment changed; then she sat down at the patient’s bedside, and left him no more. While the king slept, she prayed; when he awoke, she spoke to him in encouraging language. The faith of the sister gradually dispelled the brother’s dejection. She spoke to him of the love of Christ; she proposed to him to commemorate his atoning death by celebrating the holy eucharist. Francis consented. He had hardly communicated when he appeared to wake up as if from a deep sleep; he sat up in his bed, fixed his eyes on his sister, and said: ‘God will heal me body and soul.’ Margaret in great emotion answered: ‘Yes, God will raise you up again and make you free.’ From that hour the king gradually recovered his strength, and he would often say: ‘But for her, I was a dead man.’[432]