[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 23 



cannot .submit to constraint. Loss of liberty makes liim sad, and sadness 

 makes him sick. We have more experience on this head than anyone 

 else, and we freely confess that we have not civilized one in a hundred. 

 jSTevertheless, if it be the will of our Sovereign, we shall attempt the 

 task." On the other hand, she can find no words too strong to explain 

 how successful the nuns were in converting them. " Quatre d'entre elles 

 communièrent à Pâques; elles s"y préparèrent avec tant de désir de 

 s'unir à Notre-Seigneur, que, dans l'attente de le recevoir, elles s'écriaient : 

 ' Ah ! quand sera-ce que Jésus nous viendra baiser au cœur.' " ' Thérèse 

 la Huronne' was faithful through three years of captivity with the 

 implacable Iroquois, during which she openly confessed to her fellow- 

 prisoner. Father Jogues, though she saw him tortured in a way that 

 might have shaken many a stout heart. These five were Indian girls 

 who had been a considerable time under convent influences But the 

 full-grown braves and squaM's, once converted, were quite as staunch. 

 1'he baptismal rite appealed to them with peculiar force, as the condi- 

 tions under which its liturgy originally reached full growth in the fourth 

 and fifth centuries were being reproduced in Canada. The Indians, like 

 most early converts, came straight from ingrained adult Paganism. 

 And so their initiation was very difl'erent from the short and simplified 

 ceremony through which the infant heir of Christian ag^s is takeji to-day. 

 TTie Ursulines often gave the first instruction to the audientes. After- 

 wards came the inunediate preparation of the compétentes: a lenten 

 education in tiie new supernatural, in which great emphasis was laid 

 on exorcising the demons of the old. The command dœmonia ejicit& 

 was never forgotten. And no sooner were the heathen demons cast out 

 by many ritual solemnities, than the Jesuits warned the catechumen 

 against the myrmidons of Satan, who took the warpath against unwary 

 Christians. The good Fathers believed in object-lessons, and several 

 times sent urgent messages to France for pictures of still more terrifying 

 devils. Finally, the brave was baptized, during the regenerating joys 

 of Easter, and sent forth, with the armour of Christ fast girt upon him 

 by all the symbols of the Church. 



La Mère Marie often encouraged the braves to give their own views 

 on Christianitj' : " et lorsque j'entends parler le bon Charles Pigarouich, 

 Noël ISTégabaniat ou Trigalin je ne quitterais pas la place pour entendre 

 le premier prédicateur de l'Europe.'' Xo legitimate means of conversion 

 were neglected. She nursed the sick, quite in the spirit of lAike, the 

 beloved physician. And though there probably were some " blanlœt 

 Christians " in that as in other ages, yet she never had cause to regret 

 her continual hospitality. " Comme la faim est Thorloge qui leur fait 

 juger de Theure du repas, il nous faut songer à ceux qui peuvent sur- 



