Margaret had long been in failing health and was growing extremely weak.
Brantôme, on the authority of his grandmother, states that when her
approaching death was announced to her, she found the monition a very
bitter one, saying that she was not yet so aged but that she might live
some years longer. She was then in her fifty-eighth year. Sainte-Marthe
relates that shortly before her death she saw in a dream a very
beautiful woman holding in her hand a crown of all sorts of flowers
which she showed to her, telling her that she would soon be crowned with
it.(1)

1 _Oraison funèbre, &c._, p. 104.

She interpreted this dream as signifying that her end was near, and from
that day forward abandoned the administration of her property to the
King of Navarre, refusing to occupy herself with any other matter than
that of her approaching end. After dictating her will she fell into her
final illness, which lasted twenty days according to some authorities,
and eight according to others. It seized her one night at Odos whilst
she was watching a comet, which it was averred had appeared to notify
the death of Pope Paul III. "It was perhaps to presage her own," naively
remarks Brantôme, who adds that while she was looking at the comet her
mouth suddenly became partially paralysed, whereupon her doctor, M.
d'Escuranis, led her away and made her go to bed. Her death took place
on December 21st, 1549, and just before expiring she grasped a crucifix
that lay beside her and murmured, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." (1)

Although the King of Navarre had not always lived in perfect accord with
his wife, he none the less keenly felt the loss he had sustained by her
death. Olhagaray represents him when deprived of Margaret as no longer