i8 5 i.] 



PORT ROYAL. 



129 



The only place of shelter [for the night] was a little hovel 

 of two rooms. The woman had gone to bed, but after very 

 long solicitation she at last got up, and made us a very clean 

 bed in a very dirty room, where was a spinning-wheel, garden 

 tools, potatoes, etc." The next morning they completed the 

 survey of the various places of interest,* and on a rude stone 

 column, surmounted with an iron cross, over a large grave 

 of Port Royalists, they hung a garland which they had made of 

 wild flowers. "What different feelings you have in visiting 

 Port Royal, from the remains of any of our English abbeys. 

 How few of these are consecrated by the remembrance of any 

 persons celebrated for their piety : not one where you can 

 point to a whole body exercising a sanctifying influence — not 

 on a village but on a kingdom, not one kingdom but the world. 

 And all this was due, humanly speaking, to the firmness and 

 devotion of a girl ! " 



After returning to Paris, and "dining with the market 

 people by the Fountain of the Innocents, we took railway 

 to Fontainebleau, intending to spend two quiet days in the 

 recesses of its venerable forest. A wet morning, however, 

 drove us to the palace, where our companion was a French 

 ecclesiastic, apparently of the richer class. On seeing a picture 

 of Louis le Grand, I ventured to hint, 6 Louis le grand 

 persecuteur ! ' ' Oh no,' said my friend : 6 what do you mean ? ' 

 6 Why,' said I, 4 he not only persecuted the unfortunate 

 Huguenots, but he wreaked his bigotry even on his Catholic 

 brethren.' The priest expressed incredulous surprise. ' Pardon 

 me,' said I, 'we yesterday visited the ruins of a monastery 

 he destroyed, within a few miles of his own palace. At Port 

 Royal,' I continued, seeing him still bewildered, ' although the 

 inhabitants of it were among the most pious people that ever 

 lived.' 6 Oh, but they were Jansenists,' said he. ' Well, and 



* In 1855, Philip edited and printed at the Oberlin Press a little 

 volume (276 pages, i2mo) — " Port Royal and its Saints ; being the Select 

 Memoirs of Port Royal," by M. A. Schimmelpenninck. The fifth Edition, 

 somewhat abridged. Seep. 117. He refers in his Preface to " the original 

 autographs to which the Principal of the Jansenist College most kindly 

 admitted [him], when visiting the ruins of Port Royal." 



K 



