Ambroise Paré was at Peronne, and it did not occur to the Duc de Guise to send for him.
The king lay in an unconscious state for four days.
On the fifth day he came to himself sufficiently to give some orders,—notably to command that his sister's marriage should be celebrated at once.
He saw the queen also, and made certain suggestions to her concerning his children and the affairs of the kingdom.
Then fever seized him; he became delirious, and suffered torments.
At last, on the 10th of July, 1559, on the day following that on which, in accordance with his last wish, his weeping sister Marguerite had married the Duke of Savoy, Henri II. breathed his last, after eleven long days of agony.
The same day Madame Diane de Castro took her departure, or rather her flight, for her old home,—the Benedictine convent at St. Quentin, which had been reopened after the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis.
[4]"Mémoires de Vincent Carloix," secretary to Monsieur de Vieilleville.