A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Foix, (Margaret de)
FOIX (MARGARET DE), Duchess d'Epernon.
In 1588, the chiefs of the League determining to ruin the duke d'Epernon, rendered him suspected at court, and obtained an order to take him from the castle of Angoulême, of which he was governor. The magistrate charged with the execution of this act, to obtain his purpose in forcing the duke to surrender, seized the duchess, and conducted her to the principal gate of the citadel, in order that she might entreat him to acquiesce, or that her danger might lead him to submit.
Careless of their threats, she exhorted her husband to persevere in defending himself; declaring, that if he yielded on her account, it would occasion his death, and she was determined not to survive him whom she loved more than life itself. The magistrate, astonished at her courage, deliberated what to do, when she was rescued from them, and re-entered the castle in triumph to her husband, who received her with transports of joy.