During the journey she made in Flanders with the king and Monsieur before her departure for England, the appearance of the young princess caused much alarm. 'She was reduced to living on milk,' writes Madame de la Fayette, 'and retired to her own room as soon as she got out of the coach, and as a rule she went to bed.... One day, when the talk fell on astrology, Monsieur said that it had been foretold that he would have several wives, and judging from the state Madame was in, he was beginning to believe it.' Madame returned from England on June 18. Her condition had become very much worse. Next day she kept her bed. 'She went into the queen's room,' wrote Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 'like a dressed-up corpse with rouge on its cheeks, and when she went out, everybody, including the queen, said that she had death written on her face.' 'On June 24, 1670,' writes Madame de la Fayette, 'a week after her return from England, Monsieur and she went to St. Cloud. The first day she went there she complained of pains in the side and abdomen, to which she was subject. Nevertheless, as it was extremely hot, she desired to bathe in the river. Monsieur Yvelin, her chief physician, did all he could to prevent her, but in spite of all he said she bathed on Friday the 27th, and on Saturday she was so ill that she did not bathe. I arrived at St. Cloud on Saturday at six o'clock in the evening. I found her in the gardens. She told me that I should think her looking cross, and that she was not at all well. She had supped as usual, and she walked in the moonlight till midnight.' The preceding lines, every detail of which is of great importance, have been neglected by the historians who have concluded she was poisoned. 'On Sunday the 29th, at dinner, Madame ate as usual, and after dinner she lay down on some cushions, as she often did when she was at liberty. She had made me place myself near her,' says Madame de la Fayette, 'so that her head was almost on me. An English painter was painting Monsieur's portrait; we were talking about all sorts of things, and meanwhile she fell asleep. During her nap she changed so considerably that after watching her for a long time I was surprised at it, and thought that her spirit must do a great deal towards adorning her countenance, since it was so pleasant when she was awake and so little attractive when she was asleep. But I was wrong in this reflection, for I had several times seen her sleeping, and had never yet seen her less lovely. When she awoke, she rose from the place where she had been lying, but with so haggard a face that Monsieur was surprised and called my attention to it. She then went away into the drawing-room, where she walked up and down for some time with Boisfranc, Monsieur's treasurer, and while talking to him, complained several times of the pain at her side.' We are coming to the moment when any poisoning must have taken place; we see already that the mischief was done.