[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 19 



intense mid-winter cold. La Mère Mane issued her orders as calmly as 

 if going through her regular routine. She went all over the building 

 to make sure that everyone was safe, paused one reverential moment 

 before the altar, and then walked out as the flames met behind her. 



Next day the Hurons assembled in full council to see how they could 

 help the " Paleface Virgin Saints." To their grief they found that the 

 whole merchantable wealth of their nation now consisted in two long 

 strings of porcelain beads, each containing twelve hundred. But, headed 

 by their chief, they went in procession to the Hôtel-Dieu, where they 

 were received by La Mère Marie, surrounded by her Ursulines, the 

 Hospitalières, and Father Kaguenaii, who records the address delivered 

 by Taiearonk. ''"' Saintly sisters, you see here but the walking corpses 

 of a mighty nation, which is no more. In the country of thé Hurons we 

 have been eaten and gnawed to the bone by famine, war and fire. Alas ! 

 your misfortune recalls our own, and with your tears we mingle ours. In 

 V)ur old home the custom was to give one present to unfortunates like 

 you, to dry their tears, and then another to fortify their hearts anew. 

 All that we have we offer you. First, a string of beads to comfort you, 

 and root your feet so firmly in this land that all your friends across the 

 great water will never be able to draw them out and take you away. And 

 next, another string, to plant a new House of Christ to outgrow the old 

 one, and be a place of prayer and teaching for our children." After the 

 chief had ended there was a long, sad silence, before La Mère Marie 

 responded in words which breathe the very spirit of the Book of Euth. 

 She told the Hurons how she never would desert them, but fill her days 

 with willing servdce for their need, and how, when she died, her body 

 would remain among them in Quebec, as her heart and soul did while 

 she was alive. 



Other friends pressed to her aid. Father Vignal, her chaplain, 

 though now an old man, set to work on the Ursuline farm near the 

 famous Plains of Abraham, and was rewarded by a bountiful harvest, 

 which fed the teachers and scholars for the succeeding winter. Madame 

 de la Peltrie sheltered the whole community in her own house, which 

 was no more luxurious than the convent, though she was a very rich 

 woman. The Governor, the Jesuits, in fact, the whole colony, did every- 

 thing in their power. But their power fell far short of their good wiU. 

 Men were scarce, money scarcer ; so La Mère Marie and her zealous nuns 

 cleared away the débris with their own hands, and prepared the site for 

 rebuilding. The new convent rose quickly from the ruins of the old. 

 Within a year the nuns were back: all, except La Mère de St. Joseph, 

 whose delicate frame at last had given way under repeated hardships. 



