ô ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



a moment, and she only remained outside the cloister for the next twelve 

 years in order that her son should be old enough to be left with the 

 Jesuits before she made her vows. Never for a moment did she relax 

 her self-imposed ascetic rules for the mortification of the flesh. She 

 literally clothed herself in sack-cloth, and practised so many other phy- 

 sical discomforts that her spiritual directors always had great difficulty 

 in keeping her penitential macerations within due bounds. During four 

 years she lived in utter self-abasement, as the servant of the servants at 

 her brother-in-law's. This relative, who was at the head of a great for- 

 warding business, was only too glad to promote her at the suggestion of 

 her director; and she suddenly passed from below the menials to the 

 local superintendence of six;ty horses and a hundred men. For eight 

 years the business prospered exceedingly ; and she completed an appren- 

 ticeship in practical affairs which served her well during her pioneering 

 life in Canada. 



But none of these alien years of suofcessful business management 

 saw any worldling interlude in her religious life. They were, indeed, 

 only more steps up the Scala Sancta of her soul. Her visions were 

 no longer childlike dream-s, but such as led her Spanish prototype, St. 

 Theresa, through the seven abodes of the spiritual castle — el Castillo 

 Interior o las Moradas — ^and so toward divine espousal with the Son of 

 Man. On the eve of the Incarnation, in 1620, she had recommended 

 herself to God's providence in her usual formula — In te Domine speravi, 

 non confundar in œternum — and had set out for her daily work. Then, 

 as she walked beside the city moat, came the flash of apparition. Her 

 whole being stood at gaze ; while the panorama of her past was unrolled 

 before her, with all her sins standing out in the shamed dark, against the 

 accusing whiteness of the light of truth; and with the life-blood of 

 her crucified Saviour pulsing to her feet. 



The vision over, she entered the nearest church and begged the 

 first priest she met to hear her full confession. Returning next day for 

 absolution she determined that her true conversion was to be counted 

 from this anniversary of the Incarnation; a circmii stance which sug- 

 gested her name in religion. La Mère j\larie de l'Incarnation. 



Some years after, in a re-birth of unquestioning hope, she was at 

 last caught up again within the highest rapture of heavenly delight; 

 as once before, in her first dream-vision when a child. Je conversais 

 familièrement avec Notre-Seigneur, et mon cœur s'élançait par un mouve- 

 ment extraordinaire vers ce bonheur que je ne pouvais comprendre. 

 Jésus-Christ me dit distinctement ces paroles: Sponsaho te mihi in 

 fide, sponsaho te mihi in perpetuum — Je t'épouserai dans la foi, je 

 t'épouserai pour jamais. 



