1639.] EMBAEKATION. 181 



She told the visioix to Father Dinet, a Jesuit of 

 Tours. He was at no loss for an interpretation. 

 The land of mists and mountains was Canada, and 

 thither the Virgin called her. Yet one mystery 

 remained unsolved. Who was the unknown com- 

 panion of her dream] Several years had passed, 

 and signs from heaven and inward voices had 

 raised to an intense fervor her zeal for her new 

 vocation, when, for the fh'st time, she saw Madame 

 de la Peltrie on her visit to the convent at Tours, 

 and recognized, on the instant, the lady of her 

 nocturnal vision. No one can be surprised at this 

 who has considered with the slightest attention the 

 phenomena of religious enthusiasm. 



On the fourth of May, 1639, Madame de la 

 Peltrie, Marie de ITncarnation, Marie de St. Ber- 

 nard, and another Ursuline, embarked at Dieppe 

 for Canada. In the ship were also three young 

 hospital nuns, sent out to found at Quebec a Hotel- 

 Dieu, endowed by the famous niece of Richelieu, 

 the Duchesse d'Aiguillon.^ Here, too, were the 

 Jesuits Chaumonot and Poncet, on the way to 

 their mission, together with Father Vimont, who 

 was to succeed Le Jeune in his post of Superior. 

 To the nuns, pale from their cloistered seclusion, 

 there was a strange and startling novelty in this 

 new world of life and action, — the ship, the sail- 

 ors, the shouts of command, the flapping of sails, 

 the salt wind, and the boisterous sea. The voyage 

 was long and tedious. Sometimes they lay in their 

 berths, sea-sick and woe-begone ; sometimes they 



1 Juchereau, Histoire de VHotd-Dieu de Quebec, 4, 

 ]6 



