The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
After the taking of Rouen, and the entire expulsion of the English
from France, the king took up his winter-quarters in the Abbey of
Jumiège. Agnes hastened to the Château de Masnal la Belle, a league
distant from this abbey, for the purpose of warning the king of a
conspiracy. The king only laughed at the intelligence; but the death
of Agnes Sorel, which immediately followed, gives some grounds for
crediting the truth of the information which she communicated. At this
place Agnes, still beautiful, and in perfect health, was suddenly
attacked by a dysentery which carried her off. It is believed that she
was poisoned. Some affirm that it was effected by direction of the
Dauphin; others accuse Jacques Coeur, the king's goldsmith (as the
master of the treasury was then called), and others attribute it to
female jealousy.
The account given of her death by Monstrelet is to the following
effect: Agnes was suddenly attacked by a dysentery which could not be
cured. She lingered long, and employed the time in prayer and
repentance; she often, as he relates, called upon Mary Magdalen, who
had also been a sinner, and upon God and the blessed Virgin for aid.
After receiving the sacrament, she desired the book of prayers to be
brought her, in which she had written with her own hand the verses of
St. Barnard, and these she repeated. She then made many gifts, which
were put down in writing: and these, including alms and the payment of
her servants, amounted to 60,000 crowns. The fair Agnes, the once
proud beauty, perceiving her end approaching, and now feeling a
disgust to life proportioned to the fulness of her past enjoyment of
all its gayeties, vanities, and pleasures, said to the Lord de la
Tremouille and others, and in the presence of all her damsels, that
our insecure and worldly life was but a foul ordure. She then
requested her confessor to give her absolution, according to a form
she herself dictated, with which he complied. After this, she uttered
a loud shriek, and gave up the ghost. She died on Monday, the 9th day
of February, 1449, about six o'clock in the afternoon, in the fortieth
year of her age.
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