Note 34 — Chapter II · HENRY II. [1547–1559.]

Brantome describes her at the age of sixty-five as being “so lovely that the most insensible person could not look upon her without emotion;” and ascribes her beauty to a bouillon she took every morning composed of “or potable et autres drogues que je ne sais pas.” De Thou says she made Henry constant to her “philtris et magicis (ut creditur) artibus.” A hideous story of her bathing in blood to preserve her beauty is told of “cette Hérodias” in the Mélange critique de Littérature, ii. p. 113. At Dijon there is a three-quarter portrait of her entirely undraped. The form is exceedingly lovely, the face a long oval, the eyes dark, eyebrows delicate, hair a bright auburn, and complexion fair.