[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 31 



instant in prayer, " seeking in every way to, appease the divine Judge- 

 ment and obtain the favour of God for their countiy." And the towns- 

 folk thought these intercessions had been accepted, when contrary winds 

 so delayed Phips that Frontenac arrived first and flung back defiance 

 at the summons to surrender : — " I have no answer to give, except from 

 the mouth of my cannon." Phips at once began his bombardment, and 

 the convent received its baptism of fire. " The first day a cannon-ball 

 burst through a , shutter and finally lodged at the bedside of one of our 

 boarders; another cut a piece of her apron off one of our sisters. 



Others fell in tlie garden and court-yard 



Our house was crowded with women and children, so that 

 we could hardly pass to and fro, but had to take our food standing and 

 in haste, like the Israelites when they ate the Pasolial Lamb. . . , We 

 lent our picture of the Holy Trinity to be hung on the steeple of the 

 cathedral, to show under whose protection we were fighting." On the 

 21st: — Trafalgar day — the festival of St. Ursula was duly observed. 

 Father de la Colombière seized the opportunity to extol the heroism of 

 the virgin martyrs as worthy of present imitation. And Bishop St. 

 Valier had just intoned, with vibrant solemnity, Maria Mater gratiœ. . . . 



Et mortis liorâ 



when the hush that followed the benediction was suddenly rent by the 

 crash of artillery. But, this time, Phips was only covering his retreat; 

 and Quebec went wild with exultant joj. Frontenac became a hero of 

 the people, and has remained so ever since. The church built beside the 

 St. Lawrence, on the site of Champlains Ahitacion, became Notre Dame 

 de la Victoire. And, three thousand miles away, in famous France, 

 Le Roi Soleil, in the hey-day of his European renown, commanded a 

 special medal to be struck in commemoration of this Canadian feat of 

 arms — Keheca liberata, MDCXC, Francia in nova orbe victrix. 



The 18th century opened with famine, pestilence and war. Fever 

 and small-pox carried off a fourth of the population of Quebec. Funeral 

 knells became so frequent and so depressing to the spirits of the living 

 that they were forbidden altogether. Five epidemics in eleven years 

 scourged the to^^^l and turned the convent into a hospital. The Jjast 

 was in 1711, the year Sir Hovenden Walker's armada made its disastrous 

 attempt against New France. The convent resounded with the noise of 

 warlike preparations, close beside the cloisters. The nuns again prayed 

 fervently for the French arms. And the British expedition, ill found 

 and badly led, retired discomfited and alarmed by the many ship- 

 wrecks it suffered far down tlie Kiver. Notre Dame de la Victoire was 

 henceforth called Notre Dame des Victoires. Two years later the Treaty 

 of Utrecht freed Bishop St. Valier from the Tower of London, where he 



