134 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 



tressed countrymen; and so unbounded was his liberality, 

 that, at the termination of their calamities, a general proces- 

 sion was ordered to beseech the Almighty to preserve the 

 life of their benefactor, and to shower His choicest blessings 

 upon the saviour of their province. When the wars of the 

 Fronde afterwards ravaged the other provinces of France, 

 they also experienced his tender care, and he caused immense 

 sums of money to be transmitted to them. 



FREDERICK. 



But where did he get so much wealth to distribute, for you 

 said that he was very poor? 



First, by the irresistible force of his eloquence and his ex- 

 ample; by the universal opinion entertained of his sanctity; 

 by the universal confidence which he inspired; and, lastly, by 

 means of that holy assembly which met every week in his 

 church of St. Lazare, to deliberate upon the wants of their 

 fellow-creatures, and to adopt the best means of relieving 

 them. In these assemblies were all the great and virtuous 

 of the Kingdom pontiffs, princes, magistrates, the Regent 

 Anne, of Austria, the Queen of Poland, and all the rich 

 and the charitable, who laid their treasures at the feet of 

 Vincent, confident that they \vould be applied to the best 

 purposes. 



A traveller upon earth, a sojourner, as we all are, Vincent 

 felt the necessity of redoubling his exertions as he drew 

 nearer the close of his pilgrimage, and his good works mul- 

 tiplied in proportion as he had the less time to execute them. 

 The Foundling Hospital next called forth his generous exer- 

 tions. Returning, on one occasion, from a mission, Vincent 

 found under the walls of Paris, a wretched infant, whose 

 limbs a beggar was on the point of distorting, in order to 

 make the little sufferer an object of commiseration, and con- 

 sequently of gain, to its inhuman master. "Barbarian!" 

 exclaimed St. Vincent, as he rushed upon him. " I am de- 



