lO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



do St. Jovseph, an Ursuline who also had read the Relations des Jésuites 

 with awakening devotion to the same cause. Her whole family — dc la 

 Troche de Savonnières — rose in horrified protest against the idea of her 

 going out to the dreadful heathen wilderness. But the three women stood 

 together; and presently arrived in Paris, where the wildest rumours 

 about their proposed Canadian mission had preceded them. They became 

 the vogue; and when the Archbishop refused to let a Parisian IJrsuline 

 go with them, he was besieged by great ladies, headed by the Duchesse 

 d'Aiguillon ; and when he fled the capital to escape this importunity, the 

 Queen hei-self pursued him with royal messengers, though all in vain. 

 La Mère Marie had a long audience of the Queen, who seemed much 

 interested in this daring religious venture beyond the outer seas. Anne 

 of Austria might welj. have sighed for some of the peace of mind which 

 the Ursuline leader wore like a suit of living armour, for her own life 

 was the unhappy sport of a king and two great worldly cardinals. The 

 King treated her with cold neglect, Richelieu pressed her with unwelcome 

 amorous advances, and Mazarin, whom she really loved, used her heart 

 as a stepping-stone to power. Her harmless flirtation with Buckingham, 

 told with such gusto in the immortal Trois Mousquetaires, was turned 

 to malicious account by Richelieu when first presenting Mazarin at court: 

 "Your Majesty will like him, he has quite the air of a second 

 Buckingham." 



Several troubles beset La Mère Marie while still in Paris. M. de 

 Bemières fell seriously HI, and her son came to implore her not to leave 

 for Canada. The young man had been leading la vie à vingt ans for a 

 few months, though Ms wild oats would have made a very absurd little 

 handful in the eyes of any genuine viveur. The mother's influence soon 

 prevailed, and he afterwards became the Benedictine, Dom Claude 

 Martin, of pious memory. But new troubles followed M. de Bernières' 

 recover}^ and the arrival of the party at Dieppe. The de la Troche 

 family sent post-haste to arrest the daughter they thought so mad. The 

 trading company of New Franice^aid they had no more room left aboard 

 their vessels. And the third Ursuline had not yet been found. But La 

 Mère Marie persuaded the alarmed family to let La Mère de St. Joseph 

 go, with th^ir blessing on her undertaking, Madame de la Peltrie char- 

 tered a vessel of her own. And a most devoted third nun was found in 

 La Mère de Ste. Croix, who joined from the convent at Dieppe. 



On the 4th of May, 1639, the little flotilla set sail with ten pas- 

 sengers for the service of God in Canada: three Jesuits, three Hospi- 

 talières to found the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec, our three Ursulines, and 

 Madame de la Peltrie. They had hardly cleared the harbour when a 

 new danger appeared, in the form of a hostile Spanish fleet coming up the 



