1643.] SUCCORS. 265 



of her Jesuit confessor, she accepted his suit, on 

 condition that she should preserve, to the hour of 

 her death, the state to which Holy Church has 

 always ascribed a peculiar merit. ^ D'Ailleboust 

 married her ; and when, soon after, he conceived 

 ' the purpose of devoting his life to the work of the 

 Faith in Canada, he invited his maiden spouse to 

 go with him. She refused, and forbade him to 

 mention the subject again. Her health was indif- 

 ferent, and about this time she fell ill. As a last 

 resort, she made a promise to God, that, if He 

 would restore her, she would go to Canada with 

 her husband ; and forthwith her maladies ceased. 

 Still her reluctance continued ; she hesitated, and 

 then refused again, when an inward light revealed 

 to her that it was her duty to cast her lot in 

 the wilderness. She accordingly embarked with 

 d'Ailleboust, accompanied by her sister, Mademoi- 

 selle Philippine de Boulogne, who had caught the 

 contagion of her zeal. The presence of these 

 damsels would, to all appearance, be rather a bm*- 

 den than a profit to the colonists, beset as they 

 then were by Indians, and often in peril of star- 

 vation ; but the spectacle of their ardor, as disin- 

 terested as it was extravagant, would serve to exalt 

 the religious enthusiasm in which alone was the^ 

 life of Villemarie. 



Their vessel passed in safety the Iroquois who 



1 Juchereau, Histoire de I'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, 276. The confessor 

 told D'Ailleboust, that, if he persuaded his wife to break her vow of con- 

 tinence, " God would chastise him terribly." The nun historian adds, 

 that, undeterred by the menace, he tried and failed. 



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