1640.] DAUVERSIERE'S DOUBTS. 197 



Their scheme was ripening fast, when both Olier 

 and Dauversiere were assailed by one of those 

 revulsions of spirit, to which saints of the ecstatic 

 school are naturally liable. Dauversiere, in par- 

 ticular, was a prey to the extremity of dejection, 

 uncertainty, and misgiving. What had he, a fam- 

 ily man, to do with ventures beyond sea'? Was it 

 not his first duty to support his wife and children ] 

 Could he not fulfil all his obligations as a Christian 

 by reclaiming the wicked and relieving the poor at 

 La Fleche 1 Plainly, he had doubts that his voca- 

 tion was genuine. If we could raise the curtain of 

 his domestic life, perhaps we should find him beset 

 by wife and daughters, tearful and wrathful, in- 

 veighing against his folly, and imploring him to 

 provide a support for them before squandering his 

 money to plant a convent of nuns in a wilderness. 

 How long his fit of dejection lasted does not ap- 

 pear ; but at length ^ he set himself again to his 

 appointed work. Olier, too, emerging from the 

 clouds and darkness, found faith once more, and 

 again placed himself at the head of the great enter- 

 prise.^ 



There was imperative need of more money ; and 

 Dauversiere, under judicious guidance, was active 

 in obtaining it. This miserable victim of illusions 

 had a squat, uncourtly figure, and was no proficient 

 in the graces either of manners or of speech : hence 

 his success in commending his objects to persons 



1 Faillon, Vie de iP^^ Mance, Introduction, xxxv. 



■■^ Faillon ( Vie de M. Olier) devotes twenty-one pages to the history 

 of his fit of nervous depression. 



17* 



