84 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



race to be taught there — within a few short steps of where Marie de 

 l'Incarnation used to gather so many round the famous ash tree. She 

 is a new-comer; and the convent is ahnost a= strange to her as to the 

 visitors who cluster round. One of them knows some words of her native 

 tongue. Her eyes look far out beyond her surroundings as she answers. 

 Is it only a freak in the association of ideas that always makes certain 

 Indian languages set your fancy wandering among wind-swept pines and 

 " the voice of many waters " ? 



But there are so many things to see! The corridors seem unending; 

 they are so long, so many; weather-beaten grey outside, solid through, 

 and through, as if they had grown, rough-hewn, from the rock of Quebec 

 and had been hand-cliiselled afterwards, just to humanize them. Every 

 window gives a glimpse of golden-tinged block-tin roofs, with a steep 

 pitch and studded with little pointed windows. The stairways are in- 

 numerable. One is called after St. Augustine — a great hero in all con- 

 vents — ^and on the landing is a statue of St. Joseph wliich was placed 

 there in commemoration at tlie jubilee of 1689. The Blessed Virgin 

 Mary, of course, watches over the Community Hall, in her quality of 

 Perpetual Superior. A bell is ringing — ^it is the same one that is rung 

 at four o'clock every morning of the year. You confess that the last 

 time you heard it at that hour you were coming home from a dance. 

 " What different worlds there are in this one," says the nun beside 

 you ; and then adds quickly, " but innocent pleasures are very good 

 for refreshing the mind — we take a great deal of pleasure in our gar- 

 den." Another nun, with a turn for ornithology, regrets that as the 

 town spreads further and further, all round the convent, the birds get 

 fewer and fewer. " They would come back if they could ; this is their 

 eanctuary." 



These things excite your own interest. But what interests the nuns 

 most of all? Probably tlie Chapel of the Saints. A very ancient and 

 highly venerated statue of Our Lady of Great Power stands benignant 

 in the centre of the altar. The whole breadth of the wall on either side 

 is covered with pictures and relics. In every other niche, too, there are 

 relics in pious plenty. Some of them were added during the life-time 

 of La Mère Marie, like those of the martyrs, Justus, Modestus and Felix, 

 which her son, Dom Claude Martin, sent out in 1662. An Ursuline of 

 Metz sent a relic of St. Ursula herself. All that is mortal of St. Clement 

 is here, by pei"mission of Pope Innocent XL In 1674 the collection 

 was already so rich that it was decided to build a special chapel in its 

 honour. Since then it has increased enormously in value to the devotee. 

 Here are the trophies of the Holy War, of the war from which there is 

 no discharge but death, the war against the Powers of Darkness and 



