1639.] THE URSULINES OF TOURS. 173 



marriage, and that she and all that was hers were 

 bound for the wilderness of Canada ? Happily for 

 him, he fell ill, and died in ignorance of the deceit 

 that had been practised upon him.^ 



Whatever may be thought of the quality of 

 Madame de la Peltrie's devotion, there can be no 

 reasonable doubt of its sincerity or its ardor; and 

 yet one can hardly fail to see in her the signs of 

 that restless longing for eclat, which, with some 

 women, is a ruling passion. When, in company 

 with Bernieres, she passed from Alen9on to Tours, 

 and from Toiu's to Paris, an object of attention 

 to nuns, priests, and prelates, — when the Queen 

 herself summoned her to an interview, — it may 

 be that the profound contentment of soul ascribed 

 to her had its origin in sources not exclusively of 

 the spirit. At Tours, she repaired to the Ursuline 

 convent. The Superior and all the nuns met her 



1 It will be of interest to observe the view taken of this pretended 

 marriage by Madame de la Peltrie's Catholic biographers. Charlevoix 

 tells the story without comment, but with apparent approval. Sainte- 

 Foi, in his Premieres Ursulines de France, says, that, as God had taken her 

 imder His guidance, we should not venture to criticize her. Casgrain, in 

 his Vie de Marie de I' Incarnation, remarks : — 



" Une telle conduite pent encore aujourd'hui paraitre etrange a bien 

 des personnes ; mais outre que I'avenir fit bien voir que c'etait une inspi- 

 ration du del, nous pouvons repondre, avec un savant et pieux auteur, 

 que nous ne devons point juger ceux que Dieu se charge lui-merae de 

 eonduire." — p. 247. 



Mother St. Thomas highly approves the proceeding, and says : — 



" Thus ended the pretended engagement of this virtuous lady and 

 gentleman, which caused, at the time, so much inquiry and excitement 

 among the nobility in France, and which, after a lapse of two hundred 

 years, cannot fail exciting feelings of admiration in the heart of every 

 virtuous woman ! " 



Surprising as it may appear, the book from which the above is taken 

 was written a few years since, in so-called English, for the instruction of 

 the pupils in the UrsuHne Convent at Quebec. 



15* 



