1639-42.] THE SUPERIOR OF THE URSULINES. 185 



It was three years later before the Ursulines and 

 then- pupils took possession of a massive convent 

 of stone, built for them on the site which they still 

 occupy. Money had failed before the work was 

 done, and the interior was as unfinished as a bain.^ 

 Beside the cloister stood a large ash-tree ; and it 

 stands there still. Beneath its shade, says the 

 convent tradition, Marie de I'lncarnation and her 

 nuns instructed the Indian children in the truths 

 of salvation ; but it might seem rash to affirm that 

 then teachings were always either wise or useful, 

 since Father Vimont tells us approvingly, that they 

 reared their pupils in so chaste a horror of the 

 other sex, that a little girl, whom a man had play- 

 fully taken by the hand, ran crying to a bowl of 

 water to wash off the unhallowed influence.^ 



Now and henceforward one figure stands nobly 

 conspicuous in this devoted sisterhood. Marie de 

 I'lncarnation, no longer lost in the vagaries of an 

 insane mysticism, but engaged in the duties of 

 Christian charity and the responsibilities of an 

 arduous post, displays an ability, a fortitude, and 

 an earnestness which command respect and admi- 

 ration. Her mental intoxication had ceased, or 

 recurred only at intervals; and false excitements 

 no longer sustained her. She was racked with 

 constant anxieties about her son, and was often in 



1 The interior was finished after a year or two, with cells as usual 

 There were four chimneys, with fireplaces burning a hundred and sev- 

 enty-five cords of wood in a winter ; and though the nuns were boxed 

 up in beds which closed like chests, Marie de I'lncarnation complains 

 bitterly of the cold. See her letter of Aug. 26, 1644. 



2 Yimont, Relation, 1642, 112 (Cramoisy). 



16* 



