264: VILLEMAKIE. [1613. 



path. They planted it on the highest crest, and 

 all knelt in adoration before it. Du Peron said 

 mass ; and Madame de la Pel trie, always romantic 

 and always devout, received the sacrament on the 

 mountain- top, a spectacle to the virgin world out- 

 stretched below. Sundry relics of saints had been 

 set in the wood of the cross, which remained an 

 object of pilgrimage to the pious colonists of 

 Villemarie.^ 



Peace and harmony reigned within the little fort ; 

 and so edifymg was the demeanor of the colonists, 

 so faithful were they to the confessional, and so 

 constant at mass, that a chronicler of the day ex- 

 claims, in a burst of enthusiasm, that the deserts 

 lately a resort of demons were now the abode of 

 angels.^ The two Jesuits who for the time were 

 then- pastors had them well in hand. They dwelt 

 under the same roof with most of their flock, who 

 lived in community, in one large house, and vied 

 with each other in zeal for the honor of the Virgin 

 and the conversion of the Indians. 



At the end of August, 1643, a vessel arrived at 

 Villemarie with a reinforcement commanded by 

 Louis d'Ailleboust de C oulonges, a pious gentleman 

 of Champagne, and one of the Associates of Mont- 

 real.^ Some years before, he had asked in wedlock 

 the hand of Barbe de Boulogne ; but the young 

 lady had, when a child, in the ardor of her piety, 

 taken a vow of perpetual chastity. By the advice 



1 Vimont, Relation, 1643, 52, 53. 



2 Ve'ritables Motifs, cited by Faillon, I. 458, 454. 



3 Cliaulmer, 101 ; Juchereau, 91. 



