ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 135 



ceived, for I took you, at a distance, for a human being." 

 Snatching his victim from him, Vincent carried it in his arms 

 through Paris, assembled a crowd around him, to whom he 

 related this tale of horror, and conjured them to co-operate 

 with him in rescuing these helpless innocents from destruc- 

 tion. His appeal was heard, and he met with the most ready 

 assistance and co-operation: but soon the number of these de- 

 serted infants became so great, that all those who had hith- 

 erto assisted him, came to tell him that they must leave them 

 to their fate. Undaunted by the obstacles which surrounded 

 him, Vincent asked only for one day, and mustered an ex- 

 traordinary assembly for the following morning. Vincent 

 caused five hundred of these poor orphans to be placed in the 

 sanctuary of his church, in the arms of Sisters of Charity. 

 He then mounted his pulpit, and addressed the assembly in 

 behalf of the infants they were about to abandon, concluding 

 with an appeal to the female part of his auditors. " Now, 

 ladies, you have adopted these children; you have become 

 their mothers after grace, since their mothers after nature 

 have forsaken them. Consider if you also will abandon them 

 for ever. Cease in this moment to be their mothers, and 

 become their judges. Their life and death are in your hands. 

 I am going to take your votes and suffrages. It is time that 

 you pass judgment upon them. There they are before you. 

 If you continue your care over them, they will live; if you 

 desert them, they will all die to-morrow." The appeal was 

 not made in vain, the cause of humanity had never a greater 

 triumph. This same assembly, wiiich had met resolved to 

 forsake the children, voted by acclamation the foundation of 

 their hospital, and endowed it immediately with considerable 

 funds so electrified were they all by the eloquence of St. 

 Vincent. 



But his career of usefulness was now drawing to a close. 

 The health of St. Vincent began visibly to decline; and 

 though forced by the Archbishop of Paris to accept a carriage 

 which the Queen Regent had given to him, it was with the 

 greatest difficulty that he could be persuaded to make use of 

 it. He called it always " his shame;" and it was usually 



