26 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



venir, et tenir de la sagamité toujours prête." On the contrary, she 

 found a genuine aid to conversion even in the serio-comedy of a regular 

 festin de gala. " Pour traiter splendidement soixante ou quatre-vingts 

 de nos sauvages on y emploie environ un boisseau de pruneaux noirs, 

 quatre pains de six livres pièce, quatre mesures de farine de pois ou de 

 blé d'Inde, une douzaine de chandelles de suif, deux ou trois livres de 

 gros lard, afin que tout soit bien gras, car c'est ce qu'ils aiment. Voilà 

 ces pauvres gens contents et ravis d'aise, bien qu'il y ait pamii eux des 

 capitaines qui, à leur égard, passent pour des princes et des personnes de 

 qualité. Ce festin, qui leur sert tout ensemble de boire et de manger, 

 est im de leurs plus magnifiques repas; c'est ainsi qu'on les gagne, et 

 qu'à la faveur d'un attrait matériel, on les attire à la grâce de Jésus- 

 Christ." 



The arrivai of the Marquis de Tracy inaugurated a more sheltered 

 life for the inhabitants of Quebec. But La Mère Marie was beginning 

 to sink under the strain of the terrible years that went before. Gradually 

 she was forced to give up her activities, one by one. But what she could 

 do she did with a will. She could no longer teach the Indians under the 

 old tree in the garden; so she had them brought indoors. She wrote a 

 sacred history and a glossary in Algonquin, and a catechism for her old 

 fierce enemies, the Iroquois. Her relations with these last blood-thirsty 

 braves had gone through every phase. She had received their ambas- 

 sadors with all due honour, and made an attempt to convert them. She 

 had stood guard against them when tJiey threatened Quebec. And now, 

 having rightly drawn the sword at the proper time, she was again trying 

 tlie persuasive arguments of the Church. 



In 1671 she received a great shock in the death of her life-long 

 friend. Madame de la Pcltrie was suddenly struck down with pleurisy 

 fcarly in November: she took the news that iifc was fatal with perfect 

 calmness ; called in the Intendant Talon, to witness her will, and thanked 

 him with as much grace as if he had been paying her a visit of state. 

 M. de Bernières, nephew of her old protector in France, gave her the 

 last rites; and, on the evening of the 19th, as the Angelus was sounding 

 across the square from the parish church, she died, munnuring the words 

 so oft<en on her lips during her illness — LœtaPus sum in his quœ dicta 

 sunt mihi; in dvmum Domini ihimus.— I îuas glad ivken they said, we 

 will go into the house of the Lord. 



The following Easter, the year Frontenac first came out to Canada, 

 La Mère Marie was in the throes of a mortal malady herself. She had 

 all the girls in tlie convent called into the infirmary to receive her last 

 benediction, which she gave to each one separately as they knelt beside 

 her. She entrusted her last message for her son to Mère St. 



