She died in the agonies of a lingering disease, and in her torments betrayed, by her ravings, her crimes to all.

Her constant exclamation was, "Hijo! que me caro cuestas!" _Oh, my son! you have cost me dear!_ alluding to her own son, for whose sake she had sacrificed the former children of her husband.

She died, deserted by all; for that husband, equally guilty, on hearing that her words had betrayed her, thought it policy to feign indignation at her wickedness, and refused to visit her in her dying moments.

The memory of the unnatural father is still preserved in a Spanish proverb, which alludes only to his sole good quality--liberality--in which he was extreme: in application to courtiers--who look for presents which are long coming--it is usual to say, "Ya se murio rey Don Juan." There is no end to the stories which may be told of the castle of Orthez, and those in its neighbourhood; the knights and squires of Gaston de Foix's court, when not engaged in jousts and tournaments, or in fighting in earnest, seemed never weary of telling histories which their guest, Froissart, listened to with eager attention; amongst them, the following is characteristic of his ready belief, and the credulity of the time: The Great Bear of Bearn.
Messire Pierre de Bearn, natural brother of Gaston Phoebus, was the victim of a strange malady, which rendered him an object both of fear and pity: there was a mystery attached to his sufferings which no one of the learned or inquisitive attendants who surrounded him could explain; and when Froissart inquired why it was that he was not married, being so handsome and so valiant a knight, his question was met with "the shrug, the hum, the ha," that denoted some secret.

At length, as he was not easily to be satisfied when anything romantic was on the _tapis_, he found a person to explain to him how things stood with respect to the brother of the count.
"He is, in fact, married," said the squire who undertook to resolve his doubts; "but neither his wife nor children live with him, and the cause is as follows." He then went on to relate his story: The young Countess Florence, of Biscay, was left an heiress by her father, who had died suddenly in a somewhat singular manner; his cousin, Don Pedro the Cruel, of Castile, being the only person who could tell the reason of his having been put to death.