82 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



Powerful 

 Temptation 



Heroic 

 Resistance 



A Vision 



A Galley 

 Described 



hearted maiden, he felt that it would be considered as a 

 sign of abjuration of his own faith, and heroically 

 declined it. That evening she came to his prison bring- 

 ing a priest, and declared her object to be his conversion. 

 "This," said Amadee, "was a trial that God alone 

 enabled me to go through. Once I became faint from 

 emotions, and I was on the point of yielding. I preased 

 the soft, delicate hand, that I held, to my lips again and 

 again, and tried to release it, but I could not let it go. 

 The priest saw my yielding spirit. ' That hand may be 

 youj^-s,' he said, 'for all eternity, by renouncing youi' heresy 

 and embracing the true religion.' Did God put those 

 words into his mouth to nerve me with com^age ? ' No,' 

 I exclaimed, with new resolution ; ' it might be mine for 

 this life, but I should purchase it by an eternity of misery. 

 Let me rather die a galley-slave, at peace with my own 

 conscience and my God.' Yet, when I saw her no more, 

 when the last glimpse of her sweet and sorrowful face was 

 gone, when even her white dress could no longer be dis- 

 cerned, I sat down and wept aloud. At length the agony 

 of my soul began to yield to a still, small voice within, I 

 grew calm, and thought I was dying. ' God hears my 

 prayers, ' said I ; ' He has sent His angels to minister to 

 me, to conduct me to the realms of bliss.' Shall I confess 

 it ? The face of the sweet Catholic girl was ever before 

 me. She seemed to emit a radiance of light through my 

 prison. I know not whether my dream was a sleeping or 

 waking one, but methought she leaned over me, and, 

 raising the hand I had resigned, said in a soft, silver 

 voice, 'Thou hast won this for eternity.' How often, in 

 successive years, when chained to the oar, have I heard 

 that voice and seen the beautiful vision ! God ministers 

 to us by His holy angels ! " 



When he arrived at his destination he was placed on 

 board a galley called the Reureuse, of which he gives the 

 following description: "Ours was a hundred and fifty 

 feet long and fifty broad, with but one deck, wliich cov- 



