202 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1641. 



when her rehgious susceptibilities had reached a 

 fuller development, a few such are recorded of her, 

 yet even the Abbe Faillon, with the best intentions, 

 can credit her with but a meagre allowance of 

 these celestial favors. Though in the midst of 

 visionaries, she distrusted the supernatural, and 

 avowed her belief, that, in His government of the 

 world, God does not often set aside its ordinary 

 laws. Her religion was of the affections, and was 

 manifested in an absorbing devotion to duty. She 

 had felt no vocation to the cloister, but had taken 

 the vow of chastity, and was attached, as an ex- 

 terne, to the Sisters of the Congregation of Troyes, 

 who were fevered with eagerness to go to Canada. 

 Marguerite, however, was content to wait until 

 there was a prospect that she could do good by 

 going; and it was not till the year 1653, that, 

 renouncing an inheritance, and giving all she had 

 to the poor, she embarked for the savage scene of 

 her labors. To this day, in crowded school-rooms 

 of Montreal and Quebec, fit monuments of her 

 unobtrusive virtue, her successors instruct the chil- 

 dren of the poor, and embalm the pleasant memory 

 of Marguerite Bourgeoys. In the martial figure of 

 Maisonneuve, and the fau' form of this gentle nun, 

 we find the true heroes of Montreal.^ 



Maisonneuve, with his forty men and four women, 

 reached Quebec too late to ascend to Montreal that 

 season. They encountered distrust, jealousy, and 

 opposition. The agents of the Company of the 

 Hundred Associates looked on them askance ; and 



1 For Marguerite Bourgeoys, see her life by Faillon 



