If her own account may be believed, she did not invent
it. After her death, as I have read in Florentius of Buda, there
was found a statement of the manner in which she came by it,
written in her own hand, on a fly-leaf of her breviary, to the
following effect:- Being afflicted with a grievous disorder at the
age of seventy-two, she received the medicine which was called her
water, from an old hermit whom she never saw before or afterwards;
it not only cured her, but restored to her all her former beauty,
so that the King of Poland fell in love with her, and made her an
offer of marriage, which she refused for the glory of God, from
whose holy angel she believed she had received the water. The
receipt for making it and directions for using it, were also found
on the fly-leaf. The principal component parts were burnt wine and
rosemary, passed through an alembic; a drachm of it was to be taken
once a week, "etelbenn vagy italbann," in the food or the drink,
early in the morning, and the cheeks were to be moistened with it
every day. The effects according to the statement, were wonderful-
-and perhaps they were upon the queen; but whether the water has
been equally efficacious on other people, is a point which I cannot
determine. I should wish to see some old woman who has been
restored to youthful beauty by the use of L'eau de la Reine
d'Hongrie.
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