THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MME. DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 t 
 
 DUCHESS OF DOUDEAUVILLE, 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY OF NAZARETH. 
 
 Translated from the French. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 HOUGHTON, OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 
 Htoerfittie Press, CamfcriUge. 
 
 1878. 
 
. . 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1878, 
 Bv HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. MADEMOISELLE DE MONTMIRAIL . . 5 
 
 II. THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD . 37 
 
 III. APOSTLESHIP IN THE FAMILY ... 65 
 
 IV. DURING THE REVOLUTION ... 92 
 V. COUNSELS TO HER DAUGHTER . . . 136 
 
 VI. DEATH OF MADAME DE RASTIGNAC . 184 
 
 VII. PRIVATE LIFE 212 
 
 VIII. NAZARETH 250 
 
 IX. HOPES AND FAMILY GRIEFS . . .286 
 
 X. REST IN GOD 311 
 

LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 MADAME DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE MONTMIRAIL. 
 
 IT is not without a feeling of respectful 
 fear that we dare to raise the veil from a 
 life full of holy mysteries which humility 
 has always kept carefully hidden. , She, 
 whom the Lord had prevented with many 
 graces from her earliest years, concealed 
 so well everything which might attract 
 consideration, that her children, her inti- 
 mate friends, snatched from her only with 
 difficulty, and as if by surprise, some of 
 her sublime secrets. If, in order to win 
 from her one of these desired communica- 
 tions, you anticipated her by making a con- 
 
6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 fidence, she would answer at times with the 
 same abandonment, betraying herself un- 
 consciously, for from the simplest confes- 
 sion flashed the mild brightness which 
 reveals the precious stone. But one had 
 to be very careful that no expression of 
 admiration escaped him, else would he have 
 saddened a heart which had no inclination 
 but for hidden virtue. 
 
 We know then but little of this long ex- 
 istence, which scored by sad trials, shaken 
 by violent storms, yet remained always 
 calm and serene, because it ran on pure 
 and strong, under the eye of God. And 
 even this little that we know we cannot 
 give entire, because, to reveal the heroism 
 of this soul, its patience, its magnanimity, 
 we must discover wrongs done against her 
 of which she never spoke. 
 
 Benigne-Augustine-Frangoise le Teillier 
 de Louvois de Montmirail was born at 
 Paris the fourth of June, 1764. She was 
 daughter to the Marquis of Montmirail, a 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 7 
 
 man of great merit, and a distinguished 
 pupil of the Fathers of the Company of Je- 
 sus. He had married Mademoiselle de Bre- 
 tonvilliers, then widow of the Marquis of 
 Saint Aulain. The happiness of this sec- 
 ond union was of short duration, for after 
 aiding M. de Buffon in the composition of 
 his Natural History, the young marquis, as 
 brilliant knight as learned scholar, went 
 into the army and died there at the mo- 
 ment when he was about to taste, for the 
 second time, the sweetness of paternity. 
 This was a great family grief. All hopes 
 were then turned upon the expected child ; 
 they asked themselves if he would not be 
 heir to the name, and the numerous acces- 
 sories of his ancestors, and nothing could 
 better paint the natural and most legiti- 
 mate desires of these great lords, than a 
 speech of the Mare'chal d'Estre'es : learning 
 that the decisive hour approached, he said 
 to his servants : " If it is a boy, burst open 
 all the doors, and come and tell me; if 
 
8 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 it is a girl, let me sleep." Probably they 
 did not trouble the sleep of the old soldier, 
 for the marchioness gave birth to a second 
 daughter, who, after being a friend for her 
 sister, and the companion of her studies, is 
 to become later Madame de Montesquiou. 
 
 It was thus upon the elder daughter that 
 the hope of all returned. If, in the midst 
 of their delusion, the noble parents of this 
 dear child had caught but a glimpse of her 
 destiny, they would surely have kneeled 
 down by the cradle where slept the com- 
 forting angel, the support, the preserver of 
 her family 
 
 All that this world holds of most seduc- 
 tive seemed to combine in an offering to 
 this delicious little creature : brilliant for- 
 tune, a remarkable beauty, a princely po- 
 sition. Nothing that can dazzle was lack- 
 ing, and there was that to make one trem- 
 ble, if the elect of earth had not been first 
 of all a chosen one of heaven. The gifts 
 of grace, happily, far surpassed those of 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 9 
 
 nature; the love of God penetrated this 
 child-heart, to illuminate the first rays of 
 intelligence. From the moment that she 
 could fold her hands and lisp the names of 
 Jesus and of Mary, she did it with such 
 grace and sweetness, that one would have 
 said an angel prayed. 
 
 They had consecrated her to the blessed 
 Virgin, whose white garments she' wore. 
 When she was three years old, Madame de 
 Mancini, her grandmother, promising her- 
 self a fete in giving her the first colored 
 dress, ordered a superb frock, pink, with 
 silver spangles and fringes. Thinking to 
 delight her, they brought the frock into her 
 room with pomp, to the great admiration 
 of all the women ; but the dear child, as if 
 she knew already the bliss of wearing a ce- 
 lestial livery, fixed her great black eyes 
 sadly on the sumptuous apparel, and shed 
 abundant tears when they wished to dress 
 her in it. All the day she begged for her 
 white clothes, and they had to give them 
 back to her. 
 
io Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 One day, her maid coming to wake her 
 up, found her radiant in her little bed. 
 " Oh ! nurse," she said, " how beautiful it 
 is ! Let me see it again ; it is heaven and 
 the Holy Virgin ! How beautiful. ... I 
 shall go some day." 
 
 There were signs of predestination here. 
 Let us see how God sets about fortifying 
 the souls which He has chosen. 
 
 This infancy, so beautiful in its open- 
 ing, so rich in the gifts of heaven and of 
 earth, ran on sadly, notwithstanding: the 
 father, wise and good, was not there to 
 watch over his girls, and Madame de Mont- 
 mirail, although animated by excellent in- 
 tention, could not replace him. Young, 
 beautiful, elegantly clever, haughty, she 
 knew how to preserve a reputation beyond 
 criticism, a thing rare and difficult in her 
 position at the time when she lived. Her 
 original character presented odd contrasts. 
 Noble, generous in her dealings, she was 
 specially charitable towards the poor, to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 1 
 
 whom she always gave freely, even after 
 the emigration, when her fortune was sen- 
 sibly diminished ; but her private conduct 
 offered singular minglings, contradic- 
 tions, which are explained only by the false 
 direction given to her youth. In the bosom 
 of a parliamentary family she had imbibed 
 Jansenist principles, and withal she sur- 
 rounded herself with Jesuits. She liked the 
 great world, pleasure ; and in the country 
 she brought together the people of the 
 neighborhood nay, even the peasants, 
 and skipped about with them all the even- 
 ing, as simple and joyous as a child. She 
 thought, in the light of duty, that the dan- 
 cing should be over at ten o'clock, but find- 
 ing it to her taste that it should last until 
 midnight, she put back the clocks two hours. 
 This went on for a long time without aston- 
 ishment being evinced, when people found 
 the night so far advanced, on getting home. 
 She had an especial dress for going to 
 confession, and as at that time they were 
 
1 2 Madame de la RocJiefoucauld. 
 
 particular that the clothing should change 
 with the season, she had to have four 
 toilets entirely set apart for this pious prac- 
 tice. 
 
 On the eve of her communions, she 
 fasted and spent the day in profound re- 
 treat ; then, in setting forth for mass, she 
 would turn and say to her women : " May 
 God pardon you, young women, as I pardon 
 you." Thinking in this way to have com- 
 plied with the precept of charity, she ap- 
 proached the holy eucharist with faith. 
 
 The marchioness carried the same pe- 
 culiarity into the management of her chil- 
 dren. She took a great deal of trouble 
 about it, but her system of education was 
 severe to harshness. Mademoiselle de 
 Montmirail suffered from it more than her 
 sister. The latter, playful by nature, had 
 the art of disarming her mother by a rep- 
 artee, thus saving her from the remorse of 
 having been unjust, while little Augustine, 
 timid, fearful, embarrassed, stood speech- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 3 
 
 less through these freaks of temper which 
 she did n't understand. Her tears fell si- 
 lently, and the marchioness, feeling a re- 
 proach for her hasty behaviour, became 
 more irritated than ever. 
 
 Exaggerating the best systems of educa- 
 tion, she chose to oblige her children to eat 
 everything, and that, without exception, in 
 spite of the protest of temperament ; hence, 
 the younger was shut up a whole day with 
 a plate of carrots, and did n't leave her 
 prison until she had eaten the whole. 
 Mademoiselle Augustine had an uncon- 
 querable dislike for onions. She took 
 obediently what her mother had given her, 
 but if her will was submissive, the stomach 
 showed itself rebellious ; then pitilessly 
 they forced the poor child to take back the 
 rejected food. There was this other thing 
 that tortured her, when her mother, rais- 
 ing her voice, would say to her suddenly : 
 
 " Speak, mademoiselle, say something at 
 once." 
 
14 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 At this unseasonable order, the dear 
 little girl troubled, struck dumb, was be- 
 reft of voice and words. A second injunc- 
 tion finished the confusion of her ideas ; 
 tears got the better of her, and for her con- 
 solation the marchioness would add : 
 
 " Kneel down, miss, and stay in the mid- 
 dle of the room until you have spoken." 
 
 The child would bend her little head to 
 show herself docile, but it was often with- 
 out result ; and she related, later in life, 
 that one day, after trying her best, she had 
 been very pleased to be able to say, " There 
 are three cracks in the ceiling." She was 
 far from being deficient in intelligence, as 
 we shall see, in following this pious life. 
 
 She was greatly loved by those who sur- 
 rounded her ; her uncles, her sisters, her 
 governesses, the maids, all showed her af- 
 fection, and consoled her a little for the se- 
 verity of her mother. The Marshal d'Es- 
 trees called her Bellotte ; this truly remark- 
 able beauty might have become disastrous 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 5 
 
 to her, for she heard it incessantly praised ; 
 but at the age of six she was looking at 
 herself in the glass with satisfaction, when, 
 instead of her own charming face, she saw 
 only a death's head. Was this the effect of 
 an excited imagination, or one of the mer- 
 cies which God sometimes grants to fav- 
 oured souls ? We should not dare to say ; 
 but it is certain that at the age of seventy 
 or eighty years, the Duchess of Doudeau- 
 ville still spoke with tears of the impression 
 produced by this image of death. From 
 this moment, the fear of offending God 
 made her look upon beauty as a sad advan- 
 tage and a real danger ; this thought never 
 abandoned her, even in the midst of the 
 most brilliant successes. 
 
 Every morning the governess led the 
 two little girls into the marchioness' room, 
 whilst she made her toilet. After kissing 
 their mother's hand, they would learn their 
 lessons by her side, and were severely pun- 
 ished when they didn't know them very 
 well. 
 
1 6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Mademoiselle Augustine was only seven 
 years old when she lost her great-uncle, the 
 Marshal d'Estrees, who loved her dearly. 
 The brave soldier died like a Christian 
 hero ; when they brought him the sacra- 
 ments, in spite of keen suffering, he tried 
 to rise to receive our Lord. During this 
 time his little niece was praying with fer- 
 vour in the adjoining room ; she already 
 understood that something very solemn was 
 taking place ; that she was losing a pro- 
 tector, but already, too, she thought of eter- 
 nity. 
 
 Every year, under the charge of their 
 governess, the two children made a six 
 months' stay, or so, on an estate called 
 Binanville, near Mantes. Madame Mont- 
 mirail often went to see them, but her ap- 
 pearance was always the signal for some 
 punishment, and yet Mademoiselle Augus- 
 tine applied herself earnestly to her stud- 
 ies ; her great happiness was to hear mass 
 which a venerable Franciscan often came 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 7 
 
 to say in the chapel of the castle. He had 
 noticed the angelic child, and, touched by 
 her piety, he often interposed as mediator 
 between her and her mother. Her dolls, 
 the walks in a nice little wood, sweet 
 cakes, the milk which they drank at Jean- 
 ette's mother's farm, all these held a good 
 place in her childish recollections. They 
 were the little girls' greatest amusements. 
 Thanks to their affection, Jeanette was well 
 educated, afterwards well settled, and they 
 went to see her with great pleasure. 
 
 As soon as their age allowed a more 
 continuous application, Madame Montmirail 
 chose the best professors for her daughters, 
 adding accomplishments to their graver 
 studies. Madame Leprince de Beaumont, 
 who has composed excellent works for the 
 young, gave them lessons for three years ; 
 she became much attached to her two pu- 
 pils, and when she left them to go to Spain, 
 she wrote very affectionately to Mademoi- 
 selle Augustine, who was pleased and 
 
1 8 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 proud. A disciple of Rollin replaced this 
 excellent governess as professor of his- 
 tory, and interested the children, whose 
 taste was beginning to be formed ; he was 
 a pious man ; he interspersed his lessons 
 with sage reflections, which suited the seri- 
 ous character of Mademoiselle Augustine ; 
 he spoke often of her father, this father 
 whom she had never known, and whom 
 everybody knew and admired. Each and 
 all seemed to say that if he had lived, he 
 would have made her happy. Did these 
 praises call out deep regrets and compari- 
 sons which we can easily understand ? We 
 do not know. The dear child never com- 
 plained, and never accused anybody. Long 
 after, when, in looking back to her early 
 years, people reminded her of what she 
 must have suffered, she answered simply: 
 " My mother was virtuous ; and if it is true 
 that she was sharp and severe toward me, 
 I thank God for it as a great boon ; for, if 
 from my childhood I had found a friend in 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 19 
 
 her, with my sensitive and ardent nature I 
 should have attached myself strongly to 
 the creature." 
 
 It was, then, to keep this young heart 
 quite for Himself, to prepare it for great 
 struggles, that our Lord initiated it in suf- 
 fering on the threshold of life, revealing to 
 it the secrets of His love. 
 
 One day Madame de Montmirail sends 
 for her elder daughter, and says in a tone 
 which admits of no reply : 
 
 "You have tpld a falsehood, miss, and, 
 in consequence, you are to leave my roof 
 instantly." 
 
 Little Augustine, who had only answered 
 some foolish question simply and timidly, 
 climbs, all dazed, into a carriage, and pres- 
 ently reaches the convent door, where they 
 introduce her as a little culprit. The nuns 
 of the Visitation, greatly astonished, were 
 not long in finding in their new pupil a 
 good, sweet, and pious child, who soon won 
 their affection. At first, she mourned sadly 
 
2O Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 her sister, her nurse, her belongings ; but, 
 little by little, the atmosphere of gentle- 
 ness, of silence, of love of God, which she 
 breathed in this religious house dissipated 
 her grief, and the pious asylum became for 
 her a place of delights, whose peace and 
 sweetness were grateful to her soul. She 
 learned there the charm of friendship, for 
 despite the contrast of their characters, she 
 formed a close intimacy with Mademoiselle 
 de Sinetti. United in their studies and 
 their games, the school-girls were later 
 bound to . one another by the same ma- 
 ternal griefs, and up to a very old age, the 
 virtuous Duchess of Doudeauville sustained 
 and encouraged the brilliant Duchess of 
 Caderousse, who always felt for her friend a 
 tenderness mingled with reverence. 
 
 This sojourn at the Visitation, ten 
 months long only, was marked by a great 
 event, a memorable date whose anniver- 
 sary Madame de Doudeauville kept all her 
 life with renewed joy and gratitude. The 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 2 1 
 
 years, instead of weakening this feeling, 
 served, on the contrary, only to increase it ; 
 for, towards the end of her life, when her 
 soul seemed to begin to be indifferent to 
 the things of earth, while alive only to 
 heavenly things, it was enough to speak 
 the name of Saint John in her presence, to 
 irradiate her face and make her start with 
 joy : " Oh ! " she would say, " that is the 
 day of my first communion ! " 
 
 What took place in the heart of the 
 twelve years' child at this solemn moment ? 
 Doubtless God made her to taste marvel- 
 lously His holy presence ; for after a long 
 thanksgiving, when all the companions 
 about her had disappeared, Mademoiselle 
 de Montmirail, on her knees, saw nothing, 
 heard nothing ; she seemed transported to 
 heaven. The nun detailed to call her, not 
 daring to disturb her meditation, stopped, 
 filled with respect, before this child lost in 
 the presence of God. But as the prayers 
 still went on, fearing for her health, they 
 
22 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 decided to interrupt her. " What ! al- 
 ready ! " she said sadly, and it cost her a 
 great effort to leave her prie-Dieu. 
 
 After her communion, she felt herself 
 strongly impelled by the desire to conse- 
 crate herself entirely to her Lord. The 
 life of the convent was full of attraction 
 for her recollected soul. This calm, this 
 regular life, suited her character much bet- 
 ter than the agitation of the age. The 
 kindness of her teachers, the friendship of 
 her companions, expanded her heart, so that 
 she experienced a great sadness when her 
 mother, on the very evening of this great 
 day, announced to her that she was to re- 
 turn immediately to her house at Louvois. 
 She ventured timidly to make a request. 
 " Until now," she said, " I have thought of 
 nothing but my first communion ; if you 
 would allow me to spend three or four days 
 more here, to prepare myself for going 
 back to the world, I should be most grate- 
 ful." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 23 
 
 Madame de Montmirail willingly yielded 
 to her daughter's wish, who continued her 
 retreat with a fervour and seriousness far 
 beyond her years. Let us listen to her 
 own impressions, revealed in a moment of 
 effusion. 
 
 " All that the world esteemed seemed to 
 me despicable, and I couldn't understand 
 how one could attach himself to these 
 things. From the gallery where I was fer- 
 vently praying, I could see the nuns pros- 
 trate themselves, with their faces against 
 the ground, spending long hours before the 
 tabernacle. I thought them happy beyond 
 all expression, and in my childishness, I 
 kissed the walls of the cloister, where I 
 would fain have stayed always. I loved 
 dearly Saint Frangois de Sales, whom I 
 called our holy founder ; my desire to en- 
 rol myself among his daughters became so 
 pressing, that one day, after my meditation, 
 without understanding to what I was going 
 to engage myself, seeing only the happi- 
 
24 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 ness of belonging entirely to God, I had 
 on my lips the perpetual vow of virginity, 
 when I thought I heard distinctly these 
 words : ' No in the world, against all 
 thine inclination/ Then, trembling, and 
 bursting into tears, I answered : ' As Thou 
 wouldst have it, Lord, but let the will of 
 my mother be the expression of Thine.* 
 And it seemed to me as if I were to prac- 
 tice the virtues of the cloister, without tast- 
 ing its sweets, to apply myself to humility 
 in the midst of grandeur, to poverty in the 
 lap of riches, to mortification under the 
 outward appearance of well-being, to the 
 purest modesty amid the vanities and follies 
 of the century. This sacrifice cost me a 
 great deal ; but I could not be mistaken 
 about the will of God, and I prayed to Him 
 to aid me in conquering my repugnance." 
 
 The three days of grace having elapsed, 
 Mademoiselle Augustine, perfectly re- 
 signed, fell back under the severe and fan- 
 ciful yoke of her mother, who continued to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 25 
 
 punish her for the merest trifles ; the most 
 frequent offences came from some slight 
 omission of etiquette, from an awkward- 
 ness caused by timidity the exceeding 
 fear of that pitiless look, which paralyzed 
 the young girl, just as it had embarrassed 
 the child. For instance, eight days after 
 her marriage, she was condemned by her 
 mother to dine alone at a table of penitence, 
 in a corner of the dining-room, because 
 she had made her courtesy badly, in enter- 
 ing the drawing-room. 
 
 The torture of these sad days began in 
 the early morning, for the coiffure of this 
 period demanded a great deal of time, and 
 the maid took two hours every day for 
 arranging a superb head of hair, which 
 Mademoiselle de Montmirail would gladly 
 have committed to the scissors. An ex- 
 treme sensitiveness made of these two 
 hours a veritable martyrdom. She spent 
 them in complete immobility, while think- 
 ing of the crown of thorns. 
 
26 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Meanwhile, everybody was absorbed by 
 the marriage-plans for this beautiful and 
 rich heiress. She alone never thought of 
 them. Of suitors there could be no lack 
 for one who joined to her personal charms 
 every social advantage ; among them fig- 
 ured a Spanish grandee of the first class, 
 placed over the Duchy of Doudeauville in 
 the Boulonnais. People asked each other 
 who would be the favoured mortal chosen 
 for such an alliance. In the young ladies' 
 room great names were mentioned, the 
 most brilliant cavaliers were passed in re- 
 view. All at once the Viscount of Roche- 
 foucauld was presented to Mademoiselle de 
 Montmirail, with whom, until then, he had 
 had nothing to do. Great excitement 
 among the people of the house. What is 
 he about ? They make inquiry. He has 
 an only son, but he is still a child. Is it 
 for the sake of some nephew ? They are 
 all pretty indifferent matches. 
 
 It is really, then, for the son who is trav- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 27 
 
 elling ; they are astonished not to see him 
 return; people get lost in surmises, to 
 which^Miss Augustine is a complete stran- 
 ger. 
 
 The Viscount of Rochefoucauld-Surgeres 
 represented one of the younger branches 
 of that illustrious family, which, originally 
 from the province of Guienne, is connected 
 with the dukes of Aquitaine under the 
 Carlovingians and with the lords of Lus- 
 ignan in the time of the Crusades, when 
 the family inaugurated its coat of arms. 
 
 The branch of the Montendre-Surgeres 
 begins in the sixteenth century, in the 
 person of Louis de la Rochefoucauld, fifth 
 son of Duke Frangois, who had the honour 
 of holding over the baptismal font, King 
 Frangois I., and of giving him his name. 
 
 One day, Mademoiselle de Montmirail's 
 maid, after taking more than usual pains 
 with the hair-dressing, presents her with 
 an extraordinarily elegant dress. Sur- 
 prised, she asks what this means. 
 
28 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " But, does n't Mademoiselle know that 
 the Viscount of Rochefoucauld is to come 
 to-day, to ask her in marriage ? " 
 
 Without answering, the young girl hur- 
 ries the finishing of her toilet, and runs 
 and throws herself into her mother's lap. 
 
 " You know," she cried, " that I am un- 
 happily destined to have a great fortune. 
 I would like never to leave you, and if I 
 should have the unhappiness to survive 
 you, I would consecrate all my fortune to 
 doing good works." 
 
 " Impossible ! " replied the marchioness, 
 with icy coldness, " the Viscount of Roche- 
 foucauld is to ask you for his son ; he will 
 bring him this evening ; examine him care- 
 fully ; and if he does n't suit you, you will 
 tell me, and I will find some one else for 
 you." 
 
 " I have no investigations to make, moth- 
 er," rejoined Mademoiselle de Montmirail, 
 "and if I must marry, I accept the one 
 whom you have chosen." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 29 
 
 " Very well," said the marchioness, with 
 the same indifference, apparently without . 
 noticing her daughter's emotion. 
 
 She retired with a very full heart, but 
 decided upon the sacrifice. 
 
 In the evening the reception was mag- 
 nificent ; but imagine the general effect ! 
 Mademoiselle de Montmirail, dazzling in 
 her grace and freshness, found herself op- 
 posite to a little boy not fourteen years old, 
 thin, puny, delicate, with childish features, 
 utterly embarrassed, and still more bored 
 with the part he was made to play. On 
 learning that his marriage was at stake, he 
 exclaimed sadly, " Alas ! I shan't be able 
 to amuse myself any more." 
 
 The two heroes of the evening scarcely 
 looked at each other ; and when Madame 
 de Montmirail asked her daughter if young 
 Ambroise suited her, " As well as anybody 
 else," she answered. 
 
 There were several other solemn inter- 
 views, when the future pair exchanged not 
 
30 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 a word. What must this young girl have 
 felt so serious, of a judgment beyond 
 her years when she sought in this poor 
 little fellow timid, shame-faced, discon- 
 certed at the premature part he was play- 
 ing a counsellor, a support, the centre of 
 all her affections. But if she suffered, her 
 height and her beauty greatly alarmed poor 
 Ambroise, who hardly dared to look at her, 
 and asked himself if he was doomed to 
 spend his life in an uncomfortable con- 
 straint. 
 
 No dream of happiness, we see, presided 
 over this strange alliance. In putting her 
 seal to the most important act of her life, 
 the young girl submits to an order which, 
 she thinks, comes directly from heaven ; 
 she hears in her ears the sound of the 
 words which destroyed her dearest hopes, 
 " In the world, against all thine inclina- 
 tion." She accepts, but with the resigna- 
 tion of a generous victim. As for the child 
 of fourteen years, who tremblingly signs a 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 31 
 
 solemn contract, he executes with timidity 
 the will of his father, as he would have 
 performed a penance. 
 
 On the loth of April, 1779, were seen 
 through the open folding-doors of the Hotel 
 de Louvois, the Swiss guardsmen, in full 
 uniform, magnificent carriages, horses rich- 
 ly caparisoned, liveried servants bearing 
 bouquets of flowers, assembled in the court- 
 yard, all the stir of a magnificent fete. 
 Soon, in the midst of a brilliant cortege, 
 appeared a lovely and majestic young girl, 
 whose emotion was so keen that all the 
 delicate orange blossoms trimming her 
 dress seemed agitated by a breath of the 
 morning air. One looked in vain for the 
 hero of the fete, amid the great lords, and 
 was resigned, perforce, to find him in a lit- 
 tle boy, who, in spite of all his efforts to 
 hold up his head, hardly reached the shoul- 
 der of his fiance'e. The poor child paid 
 dearly that day for all the honours of the 
 moment, and his future happiness. As if 
 
32 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 to throw out better the smallness of his 
 stature, all the Swiss Guards were men of 
 six feet and more ; so that everybody 
 smiled who saw him, and the contrast 
 which he made to his charming companion 
 drew the attention more upon him than 
 upon her, a preference with which he 
 could very easily have dispensed. 
 
 They laughed, then, and we should per- 
 haps have had a feeling of sadness, or at 
 least of astonishment at this singular as- 
 semblage. And yet, time has proved that 
 if appearances were deceptive, as is so 
 often the case, this time, at least, the real- 
 ity was much better than the promise. 
 This child will grow truly worthy in all 
 points, in fortune, name, and in the high 
 offices which he is called upon to discharge. 
 Upright, good, loyal, refined, generous, he 
 will make the happiness of his virtuous 
 wife, so far as it is possible for a creature 
 to satisfy a heart which aspires to the di- 
 vine union only. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 33 
 
 Did not the illustrious patron saints 
 of Augustine and Ambroise agree to form 
 a holy alliance and to bless it from the 
 height of heaven ? 
 
 We may believe it when we see the 
 treasures that this brave woman heaped up 
 for eternity, and the good which she did in 
 her new family. 
 
 If even then she had been able to read 
 the heart of the timid youth who accompa- 
 nied her to the altar, she would have ad- 
 mired his having kept the integrity of his 
 faith in the midst of a thousand errors and 
 prejudices. 
 
 Fearing that they might lose him as 
 they had his two older brothers, his par- 
 ents had sent him to the country a few 
 days after his birth, where he stayed until 
 he was six years old, running wild about 
 the fields, in snow, ice, and mud, breathing 
 the pure air, and revelling in perfect liberty. 
 Their wish was to strengthen his health, 
 but Providence, to save and preserve his 
 3 
 
34 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 soul, had placed at his side an excellent 
 nurse, an honest and simple peasant, who, 
 in giving him her material care, sowed in 
 his soul the seeds of truth. She read his 
 catechism to him, to which little Ambroise 
 listened with great attention. His lively 
 imagination was kindled by the lives of the 
 saints, and his natural bravery prompted 
 him to long for martyrdom. The pious 
 nurse, alarmed at the skeptical atmosphere 
 breathed by this child, the object of her 
 tenderness, and desirous to preserve his 
 faith, made him kneel down every morning 
 with his face turned towards the village 
 church ; then, showing him the steeple, she 
 would say : 
 
 " Look at that cross ; our Lord is there. 
 He can grant us all that we ask of Him. 
 Let us pray together, and say with me : My 
 God, grant that false doctrines may never 
 corrupt my heart." 
 
 This prayer was so deeply engraved on 
 the dear child's memory, that many years 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 35 
 
 after, when a skeptical teacher, filled with 
 the false ideas of the day, intended to instil 
 the poison of incredulity into the soul of the 
 young man, under an attractive form, feel- 
 ing an instinctive fear, he opened the door 
 of his alcove, before taking his lesson, and 
 kneeling down behind the curtain, repeated 
 with faith, " My God, grant that false 
 doctrines may never corrupt my heart." 
 Thanks to this simple prayer he escaped 
 many and great dangers. 
 
 But no interchange of words had made 
 known to the young woman the disposition 
 of her new mentor ; she entered into the 
 unknown, relying only upon the Divine 
 will, which she had sought to know, and 
 from which, after the example of the Sav- 
 iour, she derived all her support. 
 
 Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld performed 
 the marriage ceremony. After a sumptu- 
 ous wedding-feast, and a magnificent party, 
 young Ambroise, now Duke de Doudeau- 
 ville, glad to see the day end in which his 
 
36 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 only pleasure had been to hear the drum 
 beat, went immediately to Versailles with 
 his tutor. As to the bride of fifteen years, 
 she was intrusted to the care of her step- 
 mother, the Viscountess de la Rochefou- 
 cauld, and continued with her during her 
 life of young girlhood. This protecting in- 
 fluence, though quite different from that of 
 Madame de Montmirail, was even less rea- 
 sonable, as we shall soon find. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD. 
 
 A NEW life in a new world opens be- 
 fore the young and charming woman, who, 
 to her great regret, occupies the thoughts 
 of a brilliant and idle public. She has 
 passed, by direct transition, from the table 
 of penance to the sumptuous spectacles of 
 court festivals. If she is sometimes in- 
 timidated by all this, if the pomp offends 
 her modesty, she is never dazzled by it, and 
 in following her over what is called the 
 theatre of her success, we shall follow her 
 happily, always through an arena of pious 
 combats, assisting towards the triumph of 
 her virtue. 
 
 The Viscountess de la Rochefoucauld, 
 proud of her daughter-in-law, insisted that 
 she should wear rich and elegant costumes 
 
38 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 to receive her wedding visits. Society at 
 that time was all infatuation ; people were 
 carried away by the idol of the day ; the 
 flame burned bright and fast, but generally 
 was very fleeting. The beauty of the young 
 duchess became the object of general ad- 
 miration ; it was the common talk ; it was 
 only, who could see her ; people crowded 
 into the drawing-rooms where she was to 
 appear, and when, at last, she was an- 
 nounced, the hostess in a loud voice would 
 order the chandelier and all the candles to 
 be lighted. Shamed by such display, she 
 would inwardly pray God to save her from 
 these dangerous honours. 
 
 In this high position, the then custom 
 demanded that a bride should be presented 
 to the public accompanied by all the wed- 
 ding train ; she must go to the opera, and 
 there, surrounded by her relatives, make a 
 low courtesy to the parterre and to the 
 boxes, which answered by applause. The 
 cheers called forth by the young duchess 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 39 
 
 were so enthusiastic, so redoubled, that 
 after the necessary acknowledgments, she 
 retired to the back of her box as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 When Madame de la Rochefoucauld pre- 
 sented her at court, the great gallery at 
 Versailles was filled with curious courtiers ; 
 they climbed up on chairs to see her the 
 better, and the murmurs- of admiration 
 which reached her ears increased her em- 
 barrassment and emotion to such a degree, 
 that after receiving a thousand tokens of 
 kindness from the king, the princes and 
 princesses, she was obliged to ask permis- 
 sion of the queen not to go to the play in 
 the evening. Several attacks of fever ex- 
 piated this fragile triumph. 
 
 A grand quadrille was announced at 
 court ; the duchess was begged to take 
 part in it ; and an invitation was a polite 
 order which one could not resist. Putting 
 aside, then, her fears and her repugnance, 
 she went to the many rehearsals indis- 
 
40 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 pen sable to the perfect execution of an en- 
 tertainment which absorbed all the elegant 
 world. We can understand what must have 
 been the license of that frivolous youth, 
 distracted with pleasure and success, dur- 
 ing the laisser-aller common to rehearsals 
 of this kind. Madame de Doudeauville 
 learned only to dance. Her grave modesty 
 held the boldest at a distance, and she 
 compelled this volatile society to admire 
 her ingenuousness and her virtue. 
 
 It was at Versailles, first of all, that this 
 famous quadrille was to take place. All 
 the assemblage of ladies, jealous of her 
 who eclipsed them without taking any 
 trouble about it, made a plot to get their 
 hair dressed before her, and to keep the 
 celebrated Leonard up to the last moment. 
 During this small feminine intrigue one of 
 the coterie slips out and goes in search of 
 the young duchess to enjoy her agitation 
 and bad temper. But what is her astonish- 
 ment when she finds her tranquilly seated, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 41 
 
 and in the pious occupation of repeating 
 vespers, for it was a Sunday. She re- 
 turns without delay, edified and discon- 
 certed at the same time. Soon after 
 Leonard arrives quite out of breath, and 
 exclaims, " Ah ! the naughty things ! they 
 have left me only five minutes. Well, for 
 all that, your hair shall be well dressed, 
 and better than theirs." And so it was. 
 
 This victory mattered little to the hum- 
 ble duchess, but she was pleased with the 
 good man's kind intention, and gave him a 
 token of her gratitude. 
 
 The success of the evening was com- 
 plete ; and while the Viscountess de la 
 Rochefoucauld was intoxicated by the hom- 
 age lavished on her daughter-in-law, she 
 herself said with pious fright, 
 
 t( Oh, mother, mother ! Do you wish 
 then to ruin me ? " 
 
 Whatever excited so much admiration 
 alarmed her delicate conscience. She 
 looked upon it as an occasion of sin. And 
 
42 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 this involuntary connivance with the devil 
 horrified her. Once, only once, having 
 heard some one say : " Her eyes are beau- 
 tiful, especially when she raises them to 
 heaven," by an instinctive movement she 
 looked up at the cornice ; but instantly, 
 seized with remorse and confusion, she 
 dropped her eyelids and reproached her- 
 self her life long for having been surprised 
 into vanity. 
 
 It was she who was chosen to beg in 
 the chapel at Versailles, on the reception 
 of the knights of the order. She acquit- 
 ted herself so well, that only a short time 
 after, contrary to the court usage, she was 
 invited to beg a second time. This innova- 
 tion was due to the presence of Paul L, on 
 whom the king wished the French ladies 
 to make a good impression. The queen 
 dispatched a messenger with all speed to 
 find the Duchess of Doudeauville, then at 
 Turny, to persuade her to come back to 
 court, and she lent her own diamonds for 
 the occasion. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 43 
 
 This was the outer life of this young 
 woman from her fifteenth to her seven- 
 teenth year. We know her tastes, her in- 
 clination to piety. Let us see, if, in the 
 family life at least, she can be compensated 
 and give free vent to the impulse of her 
 faith. 
 
 The Hotel la Rochefoucauld Surgeres 
 was at this period the rendezvous of the 
 philosophers and wits of the day. All the 
 fashionable theories were discussed there, 
 singular, or rather monstrous combina- 
 tion of distorted gospel truths and human 
 passions. Philanthropy, indifference in 
 religious matters, took the place of the 
 strong and true virtues which Christianity 
 alone can produce. Pure faith, sacred dog- 
 ma were left to the simple, the ignorant, to 
 women and children. The intelligent, the 
 strong-minded, must content themselves- 
 with a religion, vague, ideal, indefinite. 
 All the Rochefoucauld family were imbued 
 with these false doctrines, young Ambroise 
 
44 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 alone excepted ; and we understand what 
 she must have suffered, who came to this 
 society adorned even more richly with vir- 
 tue than with beauty. Her attitude, though 
 always gentle, seemed austere to this jesting 
 company, witty and pleasure-loving. Her 
 faith was attacked in pleasantry and sar- 
 casm ; without daring to address themselves 
 directly to her, they threw ridicule upon 
 her dearest beliefs. At first she was sadly 
 astonished ; her soul had not suspected 
 that there could be so much impiety in the 
 world. To amazement succeeded painful 
 sufferings. This laughing, these strange 
 words, caused her intense agony. They 
 seemed to ask her with a mocking look, 
 Where is thy God ? What torture for a 
 soul so pure, so consumed with zeal for the 
 Lord's house. 
 
 Still she was silent, for though these 
 blasphemies changed in no wise the purity 
 of her faith, she would not have been able 
 to defend it outwardly ; the studies of that 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 45 
 
 time were not deep enough to enable her 
 to combat the numerous arguments with 
 which she was plied. She felt their false- 
 ness, but she had sought in religion the 
 light for the fulfilling of her duties, and not 
 the refutation of doubts which had never 
 ruffled her mind. Her silence was set 
 down as stupidity. She felt this judgment, 
 and suffered from it, but she appeared not 
 to notice it. 
 
 Before her marriage, she had requested 
 freedom in the exercise of her religion ; 
 they had promised it to her, and, notwith- 
 standing, all the days of abstinence became 
 days of torment to her. Alone she fasted 
 at the table of her father-in-law, and each 
 time there was a fresh scene. In vain, her 
 mother-in-law, who was very fond of her, 
 attempted to interpose between her and the 
 Viscount of Rochefoucauld ; he promised 
 to hold his tongue, but immediately began 
 again. His voice was by turns ironical and 
 impatient, and the mortifying words were 
 
46 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 accompanied by sarcasms which pierced 
 the heart of the young Christian. She 
 dreaded this time of trial to such an ex- 
 tent that a part of the night between 
 Thursday and Friday was often passed by 
 her in prayer. Bursting into tears at the 
 foot of her crucifix, she would ask for 
 courage to bear the struggle, and when the 
 hour came, she commended herself again 
 to God, and could hardly control the beat- 
 ing of her heart when she sat down to 
 table. When there, she seemed a marble 
 statue, hearing and understanding noth- 
 ing. 
 
 On entering her new family, she had got 
 permission to go to mass every day, but it 
 was not long before this one consolation 
 was refused her, on the pretext that it tired 
 the horses. She did not insist, wishing to 
 reserve the right of exacting that she 
 should be taken at least on the Sundays, 
 and days of obligation. This prudent and 
 firm attitude commanded respect, and she 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 47 
 
 had the happiness, amid so many difficul- 
 ties, never to fail in keeping a precept of 
 the church. 
 
 Looking upon a frequenting of the thea- 
 tre as dangerous, she did not wish to go, 
 and privately implored her mother-in-law to 
 come to her aid. Madame de la Rochefou- 
 
 x 
 
 cauld, wishing to please her new daughter, 
 had recourse to a hundred subterfuges to 
 postpone the theatre evenings, which came 
 three times a week. Sometimes she would 
 complain of headache, she did not feel well 
 just as they were about to set out, or per- 
 haps she did n't care about the piece they 
 were to play. In spite of these maternal 
 devices, it was necessary to go now and 
 then, when the young duchess, preoccu- 
 pied with the thought that she might be of- 
 fending God, would follow the large crowd 
 with indifference. In order not to partici- 
 pate voluntarily in the acting, she tried to 
 find some distraction, and in consequence, 
 passed for a person of very little clever- 
 
48 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 ness. Her coldness contrasted strongly 
 with the enthusiasm of her surrounding. 
 This same coldness while listening to a 
 romance was revolting. They began to 
 question her sensibility, which was most 
 painful to her. " She appreciates noth- 
 ing, she understands nothing," they said. 
 These words were accompanied by signifi- 
 cant winks and smiles of pity. The con- 
 versation would stop when she came into 
 the room, or else it would go on, as if they 
 did n't know that she had appeared ; all 
 this performance did not escape her, and 
 she had to use great self-control to seem 
 insensible to it. 
 
 She was far from being indifferent, how- 
 ever ; all noble and elevated sentiments 
 found an echo in her, and all good works 
 sympathy. 
 
 If she shut her ears to all reading which 
 attacks morals and religion, she was in- 
 terested almost too keenly in what are 
 called good novels. During the two first 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 49 
 
 years which followed on her marriage, it 
 often happened that she was taken well 
 into the night by the charm of a story. 
 Once, in the midst of a thrilling passage, 
 she heard the clock strike four in the 
 morning. There was a moral awaking. 
 Surprised at this fascination, she stops, re- 
 flects a moment, " If this reading is not 
 bad, it is at least a great waste of time," 
 and therewith she shuts the book never to 
 open it again, or any other of the same 
 kind. From that moment she always gave 
 to her intellect and her heart the simple 
 and solid food of truth. She might often 
 be seen before the tabernacle with a little 
 book which made her joy, and which she 
 put in the number of her dearest treasures. 
 Relying on the old friendship at the Jesuit 
 College, which had united her father, the 
 Marquis de Montmirail, and Alphonse de 
 Liguori, she had written to this zealous 
 apostle of the religion of Mary and of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, to ask his prayers and 
 4 
 
50 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 blessing. The answer, accompanied by a 
 copy of " Visits to the Blessed Sacrament," 
 was received with joyful gratitude. 
 
 Whilst the young woman bore with pa- 
 tience and firmness secret and incessant 
 little persecutions, the Duke of Doudeau- 
 ville, at a great distance, had the same 
 struggle to sustain, and opposed a passive 
 resistance. We find his own testimony in 
 his memoirs. 
 
 " The persons to whom I owed my re- 
 spect and confidence, had been giving me 
 for a year or two books on materialism, 
 and the worst works of Voltaire, in order 
 to shape my mind and educate my heart ; 
 moreover, there were conversations in the 
 same spirit which were to explain my read- 
 ings, and give force to them ; but it was 
 not successful, and I made no progress in 
 this kind of study. 
 
 " To escape these singular conversations, 
 and these readings, which I understood 
 very well, I gave myself the appearance of 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 5 1 
 
 not hearing, and preferred to pass for a 
 poor fool rather than to deserve the title 
 of strong-minded, so much coveted by the 
 young nobility of the time. 
 
 " As soon as I could, I would run to my 
 room, fall on my knees and pray God not 
 to let the religion be stifled and annihi- 
 lated which He alone had put into my 
 soul. It gave me content, submission, hap- 
 piness, each time that I discharged my- 
 Christian obligations, just as it has since 
 given me consolation, strength, resignation, 
 and love of my duties." 
 
 The Duke of Doudeauville adds that he 
 returned from time to time to see his 
 young wife, but as they were never left 
 alone, they could not freely exchange any 
 expression of sentiments. They tried to 
 make this good by their correspondence, 
 which grew tender, active, interesting, both 
 finding great pleasure in this commerce of 
 thoughts ; but all at once, through some in- 
 explicable whim, the Rochefoucauld family 
 
5 2 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 took alarm at the frequent letters : What 
 could these children be talking about, who 
 did n't know each other ? Was the young 
 duchess, perhaps, using too strong a Chris- 
 tian influence ? To convince themselves, 
 they opened her writing-desk during her 
 absence, and carried off, to her great regret, 
 the very innocent subject of her favorite 
 recreation. 
 
 And yet her new family desired to make 
 her happy. If they interfered with her 
 tastes, it was to give her more enjoyments ; 
 if they attacked her faith, her pious prac- 
 tices, it was to free her from false preju- 
 dices, from a servile bondage ; to raise her 
 to the level of her century. The Viscount 
 of Rochefoucauld particularly, took upon 
 himself to make over this education, which 
 he found out of date. He saw very soon that 
 he must give up the scheme, but if he must 
 needs resign himself to see by his fireside 
 a mediaeval figure, which flattered his self- 
 love in every other respect, at all events he 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 53 
 
 was very sure that no member of the house - 
 hold shared such retrograde notions. Now, 
 quite contrary to the impression of the 
 skeptical philosopher, the influence of the 
 brave woman was beginning to be felt. 
 How could one resist this vigorous sweet- 
 ness, this patient firmness joined to a good- 
 ness so true and so touching ! There was so 
 much delicacy in her demeanour, so great 
 nobleness in her sentiments, elevation in 
 her thoughts, all relations with her were so 
 easy, so pleasant, that they had to submit 
 to evidence and recognize that the heart of 
 the fervent Christian contained treasures of 
 tenderness, of devotion and fidelity. The 
 viscountess was the first to yield to this 
 mastery of virtue. She loved her daughter- 
 in-law even more than her own children. 
 Madame de Durtal, eldest sister to the 
 Duke de Doudeauville, also felt for her a 
 fond and deep affection. She was a charm- 
 ing person, full of wit and talent, but these 
 natural qualities lacked the solid basis of 
 
54 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 faith and the perfume of piety. We shall 
 see, later, how she felt herself drawn to 
 God by the power of good example. 
 
 But it was only little by little that Mad- 
 ame de Doudeauville exercised this gentle 
 sway. Before gaining the souls so dear to 
 her, her own had much to suffer, and her 
 isolation was still very complete, when they 
 announced to her that her husband would 
 soon arrive. 
 
 This tidings filled her with hope. She 
 had such a need of affection, of a legitimate 
 affection, good, simple, true, constant .... 
 was she about to experience it ? .... 
 
 She fell to dreaming of happiness as 
 her heart understood it : the conformity of 
 views and sentiments, reciprocal esteem, 
 the union in doing good, the sharing of joys 
 and sorrows ; she had much to give : what 
 would she receive in return ? The letters 
 of the young man led her to hope that he 
 had kept himself upright and pious ; but he 
 had had such bad surroundings ! That last 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 55 
 
 journey to Italy with his father, might it 
 not have changed his ideas ? All these 
 thoughts chased each other through the 
 head of the young duchess, and preoccu- 
 pied her ; she prayed much, and compelled 
 herself to appear gay. 
 
 The day being come ; when the noise of 
 wheels is heard in the court-yard they all 
 rush to greet the travellers ; the young 
 woman, agitated, well-nigh frightened, fol- 
 lows the move. The carriage stops, the 
 carriage door opens, but the poor husband, 
 under the pressure of an emotion which 
 confuses his wits, looks without seeing any- 
 thing, and stands motionless .... An ex- 
 pressive sign from his father wakes him up. 
 He gets down, opens his arms to the first 
 person he meets, and pressing him tenderly 
 to his heart, he exclaims : " My dear wife, 
 what happiness to see you again ! " It was 
 an old steward of sixty years who received 
 his fond embrace .... A few steps off, 
 the duchess, pale, astonished at the slight, 
 
56 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 looks upon the scene, of which she was 
 never able to speak with indifference, even 
 in her old age. But how can we paint her 
 despair when she sees her husband, recov- 
 ering from the mistake, place himself be- 
 fore her, and declaim in an emphatic tone, 
 with ridiculous gestures, a bit of poetry of 
 questionable taste. " Oh me ! " she says in- 
 wardly, " he will be worse than his father ! " 
 And this thought, the saddest that ever 
 crossed her soul, caused her to faint. They 
 had great difficulty in bringing her to her- 
 self again. 
 
 Being taken to her room, she received 
 the most zealous care, especially from her 
 father-in-law, the author of all this comedy, 
 who was in despair at the serious result. 
 Wishing to convince himself of the intelli- 
 gent capacity of his daughter-in-law, he 
 had amused himself by making these bad 
 verses, and had arranged the programme 
 for his son, too obedient on this occasion. 
 " If she accepts these compliments," he 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 57 
 
 said to himself, " she is a fool of the first 
 order." The ordeal was terrible, but she 
 was happy in its consequences. Monsieur 
 de la Rochefoucauld began to suspect that 
 there was as much intelligence as virtue in 
 this young woman, about whom the judg- 
 ment had been so much mistaken ; it was 
 necessary that the young man should make 
 amends for the nonsense of his father ; 
 and thus the young couple had a good and 
 frank explanation, which did more to link 
 their lives than the best endeavours of 
 months would have done. Making the 
 most of their liberty, the two had a few 
 years of happiness as complete as this 
 world can offer. 
 
 This sweet intimacy was momentarily 
 interrupted by the obligation to appear at 
 the court festivities, so brilliant during the 
 first years of the reign of Louis XVI. The 
 Tuileries, Versailles, Trianon, Marly, each 
 in turn kindled with the festive fire. Hunt- 
 ing-parties, balls, dramatic parties, concerts, 
 
58 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 amusements of all kinds, succeeded each 
 other. 
 
 Alas, it was not long before the thorns 
 hidden beneath these flowers began to be 
 cruelly felt, and already slander and cal- 
 umny mingled their voices with peals of 
 laughter in this volatile society which was 
 playing on a precipice. The Duchess of 
 Doudeauville, well received by the queen, 
 the princesses, and especially by Madame 
 Elizabeth, moved amid these gayeties with 
 grace and dignity. It was easy to see that 
 whether she won approbation or not, it was 
 all one to her. The charm which emanated 
 from her silenced the expressions of con- 
 tempt for the great youth of her husband 
 and his excessive timidity. 
 
 Thus the duke relates that, happening to 
 be one day at Marly, the king invited him 
 to sup with his family. Hardly was he 
 seated at table, when he felt himself at- 
 tacked by sleep so heavily, that, despite all 
 his efforts, he fell into a somnolent condi- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 59 
 
 tion, without speaking or moving, which 
 lasted from the beginning of the repast to 
 the end. The duchess, unable to rouse him 
 from his lethargy, busied herself so well to 
 divert attention from him, that Louis XVI., 
 who was perfectly cognizant of this grave 
 impropriety, made as though he had not 
 noticed it. 
 
 A little while after, the Duke of Dou- 
 deauville, wide-awake this time, had an op- 
 portunity, in his turn, to take his wife's 
 part. The way in which he acquitted him- 
 self reflects credit on the two. 
 
 Dining at the house of the Prince de 
 Cond6, he had the pleasure to be seated 
 next one of those presumptuous young 
 persons who have a way of speaking and 
 touching upon every subject in an arbi- 
 trary fashion, and who insist above all 
 upon distinguishing themselves by a spirit 
 of opposition. Among a hundred different 
 chance remarks, -this young man, without 
 suspecting that he was addressing her hus- 
 
60 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 band, pronounces the name of the Duchess 
 
 de Doudeauville. No interruption 
 
 He goes on : " She is a woman whose 
 charms are universally praised, but she 
 has n't enough talent to please me." And 
 the young pedant states reasons, which, 
 without calling out any words of surprise, 
 make his silent auditors smile. All at once 
 one of the guests accosts the Duke of 
 Doudeauville by name. His poor neigh- 
 bor red, confused, embarrassed, stammers, 
 attempts to retract his first assertion. 
 " Calm yourself, my dear friend," said the 
 duke, " be calm, I beg. For a woman like 
 Madame de Doudeauville, the essential 
 thing is that she should please her hus- 
 band. Console yourself, then ; your opin- 
 ion will not change mine. I find my wife 
 accomplished in every particular." 
 
 In proportion as we advance in this nar- 
 rative, which we do not fear to call the life 
 of a saint, we shall always find new proofs 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 6 1 
 
 that faith, intelligent religion, illumined 
 piety, are admirably united in her heart 
 with the tender and legitimate affections 
 which they sanctify in order that they may 
 be eternal. 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville loved very 
 dearly her sister, the Countess of Montes- 
 quiou. Brought up by a peculiar mother, 
 they had comforted each other in their 
 childish sorrows. And when married, they 
 continued to see one another as often as 
 possible. Their esteem and support in the 
 practice of duty amid numerous difficulties 
 was mutual. No cloud ever passed across 
 their friendship. 
 
 After the death of the Marquis of Cour- 
 tenvaux, their grandfather, when the will 
 was read to the two young women, Ma- 
 dame de Montesquiou being thereby ad- 
 vantaged as much as possible, Madame 
 de Doudeauville thus dispossessed of a part 
 of her rights, threw herself into her sister's 
 arms, crying: "How glad I am!" She 
 
62 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 rejoiced to see an equilibrium of fortunes 
 somewhat restored in this way. 
 
 This death of the marquis in July of the 
 year 1781, called the duchess to the suc- 
 cession of the estates of Montmirail, whose 
 title her father had inherited, without the 
 enjoyment of possession. When she went 
 to claim the estate, there were great fetes 
 throughout the country. She bore her 
 honours with charming grace, and every- 
 where showed her kindness and generosity 
 towards the poor in very truth, such a 
 chatelaine as the most brilliant poet's imag- 
 ination could paint. 
 
 Faithful to the old traditions of honour 
 and chivalry, the Duke of Doudeauville 
 had gone into the army, and was obliged 
 to leave his family often for a longer 
 or shorter time. He suffered from this 
 separation, and profited by all his free 
 moments to return to a wife whom he 
 esteemed and cherished more and more 
 each day, whose example and counsels he 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 63 
 
 felt necessary to counterbalance the per- 
 fidious insinuations of dangerous friends. 
 Invulnerable, as far as his principles were 
 concerned, he was on the point of giving 
 up religious practices, because of yielding 
 to feelings of exaggerated scrupulousness, 
 which had the more influence over him, 
 as his natural caution predisposed him to 
 anxiety. His position obliged him to take 
 part in the court fetes and amusements. 
 People were astonished to see him ap- 
 proach the sacraments in the midst of such 
 a worldly atmosphere ; it was a want of 
 respect for holy things These re- 
 flections made an impression upon him, 
 and he was going so far as to deprive him- 
 self of his paschal communion, when a free 
 and confidential talk with his wife showed 
 him the snare. She succeeded admirably 
 in defining the difference between a duty 
 of position and a simple natural tempta- 
 tion. 
 
 She who watched over the soul of her 
 
64 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 husband in this way had another mission to 
 fulfil : the wise and faithful wife was to 
 become in a still more perfect degree the 
 model mother. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 APOSTLESHIP IN THE FAMILY. 
 
 AMONG the pictures which filial piety 
 preserves with religious respect, because 
 they recall the traits of a saint and of a 
 mother, there is one which has our prefer- 
 ence, and which our eyes consider with 
 delight. It is not just yet that of the 
 venerated grandmother, but it is a much 
 finer picture than the beauty before which 
 the crowd paused in admiration ; it is the 
 young mother, beaming with happiness, 
 who carries in her arms her precious treas- 
 ure. Joy, love, tenderness, give a new 
 colouring to the habitual expression of an- 
 gelic sweetness, and the picture is per- 
 fect, for little Ernestine is like a bud close 
 to the flower. Happy in existence, she 
 rests smilingly on her mother's bosom. 
 5 
 
66 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Happy, indeed, the child placed under 
 such an aegis ! . . . . It has all the 
 blessings of earth, and all the favours of 
 heaven. She who clasps it with ecstasy in 
 her arms, who watches by its cradle, is 
 not only careful to ward off any danger 
 which threatens this frail existence, but she 
 seeks for the divine breath in the little 
 creature which the Lord has given into her 
 keeping, and then respect mingles with her 
 tenderness. To preserve innocence, to keep 
 this little heart from the attacks of evil, to 
 fill it with love and faith, this was the 
 habitual thought, the constant preoccupa- 
 tion of the Duchess of Doudeauville. She 
 knew that very early impressions, even be- 
 fore a reasonable age, are keen and lasting, 
 and therefore was very careful that her 
 daughter, and the son whom she had two 
 years after, should have only good exam- 
 ples before their eyes. Obliged to have 
 somebody to take her place at times with 
 the children, she chose with the greatest 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 67 
 
 care the individuals who were to help her 
 in developing these young intelligences, 
 and in feeding them with truth. No ridic- 
 ulous stories, no absurd tales ; and yet the 
 lively and ardent imagination of Ernestine 
 and Sosthenes had a share in the marvel- 
 lous which charms from the very cradle, 
 for the secret instinct of our future great- 
 ness causes us to look beyond the horizon. 
 But, instead of vain chimeras, the dear 
 mother, without leaving realities, trans- 
 ported her children into a world of en- 
 chantment. She showed them heaven, its 
 beauties, the place prepared, the crown 
 promised. She talked to them of the an- 
 gels, of the Blessed Virgin, and kept these 
 gracious figures before their eyes ; but, 
 above all, she represented to them the 
 child Jesus, the divine model, whose feet 
 and hands they lovingly kissed. Then 
 came the history of the saints and mar- 
 tyrs ; and as nature desires contrasts, in 
 opposition to the open heavens, instead 
 
68 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 of monsters and phantoms, the mother 
 showed them hell, the invisible enemy who 
 is incessantly prowling for us, and the 
 guardian angel charged with our protec- 
 tion. She insinuated her own sentiments 
 into the minds of the children, who re- 
 ceived from her a second life. They loved 
 all that she loved ; what she thought beau- 
 tiful enchanted them ; when she was af- 
 fected, their tears flowed, a wonderful 
 influence, whose extent Madame de Dou- 
 deauville fully realized. One might say that 
 she had in herself the destiny of her chil- 
 dren. 
 
 To preserve their simplicity, and attract- 
 ive ingenuousness, she would allow nei- 
 ther strangers nor the immediate family to 
 make idols of them, or to notice their words 
 and little ways ; but she accustomed them 
 to be nice to all, cautioning them always to 
 thank those who had done them a kind- 
 ness. She taught them to do their chari- 
 ties graciously, and to know how to deprive 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 69 
 
 themselves of a gratification in order to 
 have more to give. Their greatest reward 
 was to go to see a poor person, and give 
 him the fruit of some sacrifice. Dreading 
 for them softness and vanity, the ordinary 
 consequences of luxury and well-being, she 
 counteracted these dangerous tendencies 
 by precept and example. She made them 
 understand the necessity of putting them- 
 selves aside, and, showing them the cruci- 
 fix, she taught them gently the merit of 
 suffering, thus preparing happiness for 
 them much more surely than those blind 
 mothers who overload their children with 
 every possible indulgence, under the pre- 
 text of making them enjoy at least their 
 early years. These seek to banish any 
 shadow of annoyance, and thus weakened, 
 the children become incapable of bear- 
 ing the trials which await them. The 
 mother who is truly wise, while blunting 
 the thorn, still allows her child to feel it 
 sometimes. She shows him difficulty, aids, 
 
70 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 encourages him, and makes him feel the 
 merit and the happiness of winning a vic- 
 tory over himself. It is thus that she fits 
 him for the struggles of life. The beauti- 
 ful and touching stories of the Old and 
 New Testament served admirably as texts 
 for the teaching of Madame de Doudeau- 
 ville. These striking pictures of vice and 
 virtue, of rewards and punishments ; these 
 portrayals in glowing colours, the miracles 
 which shine out from the simplicity of the 
 first ages, all this, while giving a powerful 
 interest to the Bible tales, left an indelible 
 impression upon the mind of the dear chil- 
 dren. 
 
 It was the mother who received their 
 little confidences. Their joys and griefs, 
 troubles and delights, all were brought to 
 this heart, indulgent without weakness, and 
 they ran quickly to tell her of their naugh- 
 tiness. She educated their conscience, and 
 was always so patient, so kind, that neither 
 the brother nor sister thought of finding a 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 7 1 
 
 friend elsewhere. This filial confidence was 
 the safeguard of Mademoiselle Ernestine, 
 who had the happiness to stay under her 
 mother's protection until her marriage. 
 The revolutionary storms obliged Madame 
 de Doudeauville to be separated several 
 times from her son. 
 
 Whilst she discharged her maternal du- 
 ties in this way, she continued her apos- 
 tolic mission in her husband's family, a 
 mission which, though silent, was not the 
 less active. Her zeal for God consumed 
 her, but her perfect tact made her wait for 
 the favourable moment. Madame de la 
 Rochefoucauld was the first to yield. 
 After admiring her daughter-in-law, she 
 soon came to imitate her, and to associate 
 herself with her heartily in her practices 
 and good works. 
 
 Another person soon gave herself up to 
 this happy influence, but for a long time 
 secretly. The Countess of Durtal, at the 
 same time under the spell of virtue and 
 
72 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the influence of old prejudices, became the 
 victim of internal conflicts, which the 
 young duchess did not suspect, and of 
 which she was the principal cause. This 
 is what she says of it later : 
 
 " I loved my sister-in-law well, and was 
 much loved by her. I never ceased to pray 
 for her. When we were together, and I saw 
 her adroitly divert the impious or scandal- 
 ous conversation which she felt was disa- 
 greeable to me, I was extremely touched. 
 I longed to show her my gratitude, and to 
 speak to her of God, but was always re- 
 strained by the fear of not being skilful 
 enough to meet her objections. I felt, be- 
 sides, that a conversion of this kind is 
 oftener the effect of an internal touch of 
 grace than of controversy ; all of which 
 did not prevent me, however, from writing 
 her long letters, in which I refuted one by 
 one the errors which I had heard her ex- 
 press. I felt myself stronger with my pen 
 than I would have been in conversation ; 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 73 
 
 but as yet I had given her none of this 
 manuscript, when one day she came into 
 my room at five o'clock in the morning. 
 All in tears, she threw herself into my arms, 
 and cried, 
 
 " ' I can't hold out ; I have n't closed my 
 eyes the whole night ; everything in you 
 preaches to me except your words. Why 
 do you never speak to me of God ? ' 
 
 " I took her then to my desk, and putting 
 in her hands the voluminous pages, said, 
 
 "'Read, and judge whether I have 
 thought of you. ' ' 
 
 The ice was broken ; there were long 
 talks between the sisters, and when, a few 
 days after, Madame de Doudeauville went 
 to Luchon, she received a letter from her 
 mother-in-law, who announced to her with 
 much happiness, that the countess had 
 approached the sacrament. Madame de 
 Montagu, who was present on. the receipt 
 of this good news, saw the face of the 
 duchess suddenly covered with tears. 
 
74 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 "What is the matter ?" she said, taking 
 her hand. 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville imparted her 
 happiness, and the two friends, filled with 
 joy, went to the little neighbouring church 
 to express their gratitude to God. It was 
 a noble victory; for Madame de Durtal, 
 whose soul was brave and generous, giving 
 herself up to piety with fervour, became 
 a model of Christian virtues. Her conver- 
 sion to religion preceded by only five years 
 her truly heroic death. 
 
 The Viscount of Rochefoucauld, harder 
 to gain, had, nevertheless, come to do full 
 justice to his daughter-in-law. He showed 
 her attention, consideration, and even gave 
 her marks of particular confidence. The 
 duchess responded by kindnesses, by zeal- 
 ous little attentions full of delicacy, and 
 she was so successful, that the viscount 
 ended by finding much charm in her so- 
 ciety. This happy transformation was 
 to have a result ardently desired by the 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 75 
 
 young woman, and one which the skeptical 
 mind of Monsieur de la Rochefoucauld had 
 allowed her scarcely to hope for. On a sud- 
 den a grave malady declares itself ; danger 
 becomes imminent ; the progress of the 
 disease is so rapid that Monsieur de Dou- 
 deauville, on a visit to one of his estates at 
 the time, hastens with all speed to Paris, 
 but arrives only at the last moment ; how- 
 ever the family angel was watching by 
 the dying man, and wishing that the father 
 might be united to his children forever. 
 Thanks to her care, the viscount received 
 the last sacraments with full conscious- 
 ness, and gave evident proofs of faith and 
 of repentance. Before dying he turned to 
 his daughter-in-law, and said, in a trem- 
 bling voice, " I hope, my dear child, that 
 you are satisfied with me." 
 
 In her sorrow the duchess experienced a 
 very sweet consolation ; the Lord, in giv- 
 ing her this soul, repaid her generously for 
 the sufferings she had endured in entering 
 
76 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 her second family. She mourned her 
 father-in-law, in whom she had recognized 
 a heart upright and kind, beneath the de- 
 lusions of his mind ; but she silenced her 
 own emotion, to devote herself to the hus- 
 band, whose grief was so poignant, that 
 for twenty-four hours he could not collect 
 himself. 
 
 This death, which happened in 1789, left 
 the affairs of the family household in great 
 confusion, and left, too, a succession of 
 enormous debts, due to the bad administra- 
 tion of a steward in whom the viscount had 
 full confidence. Charged with the conduct 
 of the affairs of Madame de Doudeauville 
 as well, in the first year of her married 
 life, this incapable man had occasioned a 
 deficit of a hundred thousand francs within 
 a few months. Justly alarmed at the preci- 
 pice upon which they were hanging, the 
 duke and the duchess made a resolve 
 which proves a determination very rare at 
 the age of seventeen. Considering all dis- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 77 
 
 cussion useless, and all amendment im- 
 possible, they confided the care of their 
 property to another man of business cho- 
 sen by them, who found means to repair 
 the breach without touching their capital. 
 With the same skill, he promptly got into 
 order the estate of the Viscount of Roche- 
 foucauld. The duchess on all these oc- 
 casions had a sound judgment, and a 
 presence of mind which was remarkable ; 
 her great natural kindness of heart did not 
 prevent her from being firm in a resolu- 
 tion inspired by justice, tending to a good 
 result. 
 
 We have spoken of '89, which is to speak 
 of a year of storms. People began to trem- 
 ble. Some tried to reassure themselves ; 
 but the Duke of Doudeauville, profoundly 
 afflicted, and foreseeing only a fatal issue, 
 had the happy inspiration to separate his 
 own property from that of his wife. His 
 relatives and friends sought in vain to dis- 
 suade him from a project in which they 
 
78 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 saw no advantage to him. To give over to 
 a woman of twenty-five years a revenue of 
 more than a hundred and twenty thousand 
 francs was folly in their eyes. Despite 
 these numerous protests, the duke per- 
 sisted in his resolution, and thus saved the 
 fortune of his children. He knew well 
 that he could confidently trust the wife 
 and mother. 
 
 Being chosen bailiff of Chartres, he had 
 to preside in his office over an assembly of 
 six hundred persons, for the election of the 
 deputies to the States-General. A large 
 faction attempted to break his presidency, 
 protesting against the royal nomination. 
 He stood firm and succeeded in calming 
 their minds ; but what was his embarrass- 
 ment when, after the opening speech, they 
 demanded that the voting should be per 
 head and not per order, contrary to the 
 instructions given. To triumph over this 
 difficulty, the duke pursued a course which, 
 while it allowed him to remain faithful to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 79 
 
 his duty, raised neither murmur nor op- 
 position. "Before determining this ques- 
 tion," he said, " we must verify our creden- 
 tials, and must divide in order to hasten 
 the process. The halls are in readiness." 
 Then inviting the nobles to go out with 
 him, and the bishop to march at the head 
 of his clergy, he rose and immediately each 
 one followed his president. 
 
 The orders being thus separated, the 
 duke took great care not to bring them to- 
 gether again. Notwithstanding this ingen- 
 ious manoeuvre, the entire assembly re- 
 turned him a warm vote of thanks ; but not 
 having attained the eligible age for national 
 representative, he could not take a place in 
 the Constituent Assembly. 
 
 He was obliged, then, so to speak, to re- 
 main a dumb witness of the insane scenes 
 which were the prelude to the bloody ca- 
 tastrophe. Absolutely powerless to stop 
 the revolutionary tide, he decided to go to 
 Italy with all his family. 
 
8o Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 They went by way of Nice, and he at- 
 tempted to cross the Var by fording : it 
 was an imprudence ; let us listen while he 
 describes this perilous adventure : 
 
 " For several days people had not crossed 
 the river, for the abundant rains had trans- 
 formed it into a torrent, nearly an eighth of 
 a mile in width ; our six horses stopped, 
 unable to stem the force and rapidity of 
 the water, which came into the carriage in 
 quantity. All the efforts of our postilions 
 and guides became useless ; the danger was 
 increasing, when I saw on the bank, at a 
 little distance, six post horses which came 
 from Nice. I threw myself on the backs 
 of two men, for one would not have been 
 enough, to go in search of this unexpected 
 succour. The drivers of these horses had 
 to be much coaxed, and yielded to my en- 
 treaties only when they saw the gleam of 
 several louis which I promised them, if 
 they would come to our aid ; they had, in 
 fact, great trouble to rejoin their carriage. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 8 1 
 
 " It was also most difficult to induce my 
 guides to carry me back to the perilous 
 place from which they had brought me. 
 My wife and children were still there. I 
 wanted to save them, or perish with them ; 
 at last, after the most unheard-of efforts, 
 and by the help of God, we emerged from 
 the torrent ; we arrived soon after at Nice, 
 and thence reached Genoa." 
 
 The rank of Spanish grandee gave con- 
 siderable rights to the titled stranger in 
 this city. He enjoyed the same privileges 
 with the doge, so that it was only neces- 
 sary to mention his title, and the chains 
 were let down which prevented the pas- 
 sage of carriages in most of the streets. 
 After the hour for closing the gates, he 
 could have them opened, and he profited by 
 this to pass his evenings in the neighbor- 
 ing country-places, where the greater part 
 of the noble families were installed for the 
 fine season. The important personages re- 
 maining in Genoa, the senators and sover- 
 
 6 
 
82 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 eigns of the country would request the fa- 
 vour of accompanying the young emigrant, 
 in order to return with him after the reg- 
 ular hour. 
 
 This several months' sojourn was marked 
 by an incident which the perfect discretion 
 of the good duchess has always concealed, 
 but which her husband has revealed for the 
 purpose of doing homage to a virtue such 
 as one seldom meets with. 
 
 The life of pleasure, beneath an enchant- 
 ing sky, was not without its dangers for a 
 very active young man of twenty-five, of a 
 sensitive and impressionable nature. For 
 lack of serious occupation he sought the 
 society of agreeable companions, and the 
 long hours spent with a beautiful Italian 
 woman ended by so completely charming 
 him, that he was no longer master of his 
 imagination. A little more, and his heart 
 would not have belonged to him. 
 
 What must the pious duchess have un- 
 dergone then ? She has never alluded to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 83 
 
 the secret pain which was caused, doubt- 
 less, by the change suddenly come over 
 her husband, and of which she was per- 
 fectly conscious ; she did not speak of it ; 
 but this is what she tells us of this period 
 of her life : 
 
 "The world," she says, "had upset all 
 the ideas upon the simple and natural re- 
 lations of man and God, which I had made 
 for myself. I was sick at heart for the 
 perversity and error which I discovered. 
 It seemed to me that I was participating 
 in this impiety, and I dared no longer 
 approach the holy table. Once, my fear 
 was so great, that while in church I had 
 almost fainted. I was devoured by scru- 
 ples, which I could neither analyze nor ex- 
 plain to my confessor. I addressed myself 
 to a Jesuit father ; happily, he was a judi- 
 cious man, who never discussed. He cured 
 me by prescribing for me an act of obedi- 
 ence, which I shall always remember with 
 emotion. I was then at Genoa, and so 
 
84 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 unhappy, because of all that was taking 
 place within me, that, not content with 
 going to confession on the eve of my com- 
 munions, I returned again in the morning, 
 although I had to go a long distance for it, 
 and I could not always decide to approach 
 the holy mysteries then. One day when I 
 presented myself for a fresh absolution, my 
 confessor, instead of listening, said, ad- 
 dressing me : ' Are you fasting ? ' ' Yes, 
 my father.' ' Very well ; go to the holy ta- 
 ble ; I will give you communion." I obeyed, 
 trembling, and from that moment my ter- 
 rors ceased." 
 
 It is probable that the suffering of the 
 heart had contributed to augment and to 
 keep up this so painful condition of soul. 
 However that may be, always mistress of 
 herself, and always trusting in the divine 
 protection, the duchess changed in no re- 
 spect her demeanour towards her husband ; 
 she evinced the same tenderness towards 
 him, and if a shade of sadness passed over 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 85 
 
 her face, this tacit reproach was full of 
 sweetness ; it would have roused him who 
 merited it, most certainly, if the fascination 
 of the moment had not, as usual, thrown 
 over the danger the illusion fitted to falsely 
 reassure the conscience, " I shall go no 
 farther." 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville had too much 
 good judgment not to see the only remedy 
 needful ; she did not wish to impose it, but 
 proposed it with her ordinary gracefulness. 
 
 One day, taking advantage of a letter 
 from her sister who announced the resolu- 
 tion of going abroad, she expressed to her 
 husband the desire to join her. He, deeply 
 moved by the proposition, yielded never- 
 theless, and in the fear of missing a meet- 
 ing at Annecy, he did not defer the depar- 
 ture for a moment. But his heart is sick, 
 sad, sorrowful ; he exercises his ennui among 
 the wild and majestic mountains of Savoy, 
 without succeeding in dissipating it ; his 
 wife, not ignorant of the cause of this mel- 
 
86 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 ancholy, although up to this time she had 
 maintained a silence full of dignity and dis- 
 cretion, now addresses him with a gentle 
 serenity, saying affectionately : " You are 
 troubled ; I know it, I see it ; why not 
 speak to me ? I will share the trouble 
 with you, and may I not, perhaps, lessen 
 it?" 
 
 Much touched by these advances, the 
 duke responded, by the most entire confi- 
 fidence ; he concealed nothing, and the 
 weight which oppressed his heart painfully, 
 was immediately lightened. " This avowal," 
 he says, " solicited with so much grace and 
 received with so much indulgence, did me 
 good, and reestablished a little calm in my 
 soul ; the result was, that I did not return 
 to Genoa, in accordance with my previous 
 plan." 
 
 We understand that one must have es- 
 tablished a dwelling higher than the earth, 
 to dare thus to trouble certain waves in 
 order to calm them. Madame de Dou- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 87 
 
 deauville, in the eyes of her husband, as 
 well as of her friends, was placed in a 
 higher sphere, where human passions could 
 not reach her. 
 
 A stay of fifteen months in the town of 
 Annecy was pleasant to the exiles, and yet 
 more improving to their piety. The nu- 
 merous souvenirs left by Saint Francis de 
 Sales in the country and environs, living 
 witnesses of the most ardent charity, im- 
 pressed the Duke de Doudeauville. He 
 made serious and salutary reflections here ; 
 circumstances were favourable to this ; the 
 condition of France, the uncertainty and 
 gravity of events, human vicissitudes, this 
 frailty which he could already comprehend 
 and feel, all combined to make him the bet- 
 ter appreciate the wisdom of him who had 
 consecrated his life to bringing wandering 
 souls back to God. While praying by this 
 tomb, he felt, in his turn, the desire of 
 loudly declaring his faith. Until then, his 
 natural timidity made him sensitive to pub- 
 
88 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 lie opinion. He now adopted the firm res- 
 olution to proclaim himself everywhere and 
 always by faith and practice. The duchess 
 thanked God for the religious growth of 
 her husband, and herself tasted the sweets 
 of a retreat which the noisy festivities of 
 Genoa made all the more precious to her. 
 For the trial being past, the soul feels itself 
 brave and happy ; what it has suffered by 
 the grace of God, it would at no price cut 
 out of its life. Hence, while, in following 
 with interest the phases of an existence 
 which excites our admiration as much as 
 our love, we feel by the beating of our 
 heart, the extent of certain sacrifices, we 
 would never wish to tear out those pages 
 where the apogee of glory is reached to- 
 gether with the apogee of suffering. 
 
 The noble exiles had put themselves in 
 communication with the house of Sales, 
 which kept up some of the pious hospitality 
 of the holy bishop. Visits became fre- 
 quent, to the satisfaction of both families, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 89 
 
 for it did not take long to recognize the 
 merit of Madame de Doudeauville, as emi- 
 nent as it was modest. 
 
 She also made, in Savoy, the acquain- 
 tance of the Abbe of Etyola, to whom she 
 was to render an important service during 
 the French Revolution. This worthy ec 
 clesiastic, seeing her taste for the good and 
 the poor, spoke to her of a most miserable 
 woman, who, although her body was griev- 
 ously afflicted, was visited by the Lord 
 by sensible favours; for instance, after her 
 communions, when she thought herself 
 alone in the church, she would give thanks, 
 aloud, in a touching way, and she would 
 then say remarkable things, inspired, no 
 doubt, by the Holy Spirit. Madame de 
 Doudeauville went to visit her. Affected 
 by the pitiable condition of this poor crea- 
 ture, who dragged herself about on her 
 knees and elbows, she proposed to cut 
 her nails, which had grown extremely long. 
 The unfortunate woman, looking atten- 
 
90 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 tively at her whom her sad fate had so 
 moved, at first held out her hand as if 
 about to accept the service, but she drew 
 it back hastily at the moment when the 
 duchess approached with scissors, and said, 
 in a voice full of expression, " It is enough, 
 you do not despise the poor, the members 
 of Jesus Christ." 
 
 After her return to France, Madame de 
 Doudeauville learned with pleasure from 
 the Abbe d'Etyola, that this holy woman 
 had prayed for her before her death. 
 
 The short rest at Annecy, the repose in 
 prayer and in the peaceful contemplation of 
 the beauties of nature, these were a prep- 
 aration for the great struggles for which 
 every quarter of France seemed already to 
 have given the signal. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1792, the 
 Duke of Doudeauville took his way back to 
 Paris, where he wished to wind up some 
 affairs, and to inform himself of the state of 
 men's minds. His wife, full of the desire 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 91 
 
 to follow him, had begged him to ask his 
 friends if it would not be possible to re- 
 turn ; the general opinion being favourable, 
 they quitted foreign soil. But Monsieur 
 de Doudeauville, in spite of his dislike of 
 emigration, carried away by the hope of 
 saving the king and freeing his country 
 from a hateful tyranny, soon separated him- 
 self from all that he held most dear. With 
 death in his soul, he bade farewell to all 
 his own, and betook himself to the banks 
 of the Rhine, to put his sword for a time at 
 the service of a cause which he believed 
 would bring deliverance to his country. 
 But after a first sad campaign, when he 
 perceived that the powers in league con- 
 cealed ambitious designs under the avowed 
 project of delivering the king and restor- 
 ing order to France, he left the army and 
 condemned himself to a weary waiting. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DURING THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 THE Duchess of Doudeauville, whom 
 the applause of the court left indifferent, 
 and who remained calm, humble, and 
 consequently strong in prosperity, is now 
 ready to meet the perils of the revolution. 
 The events which are about to bring her 
 in contact with difficulties of every kind, 
 will reveal to us how much courage and 
 heroic charity is contained in a heart where 
 God has established his reign. Faithful to 
 her mission, we shall see her always pru- 
 dent, but yet more devoted, forgetting her 
 own danger to sustain those belonging to 
 her, to succour the unhappy, and to defend 
 the interests of religion wherever there 
 is opportunity. 
 
 At all times, when she is at liberty, we 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 93 
 
 see her by the bed-side of the sick, at the 
 prison door ; she finds the priest and ac- 
 companies him to the dying ; she saves the 
 holy eucharist from profanation, even at 
 the peril of her life. Thus, she receives 
 one day from the hands of a priest, who 
 has just administered the last sacraments, 
 and fears that he may be arrested, the 
 Pyx in which are several consecrated frag- 
 ments ; full of respect, she carries it away 
 and places it lovingly in her prie-Dieu, 
 where she has already been permitted to 
 preserve a wafer to communicate herself 
 in danger of death. In spite of the diffi- 
 culty of the times, she found means of 
 having the Blessed Sacrifice celebrated in 
 her house nearly every day. 
 
 She learns that at the Visitation, Rue du 
 Bac, after having imprisoned the chaplain, 
 they had affixed seals to the tabernacle, 
 while waiting for the priest, who had taken 
 the civic oath. Profoundly affected at the 
 thought of a profanation, in order to avoid 
 
94 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 it, she proposes removing the reserved sac- 
 rament at her own risk and peril. The 
 superior, while praising her zeal, refuses ; 
 for even if she had consented to expose 
 herself personally, she could not compro- 
 mise, as she must infallibly have done, the 
 virtuous duchess and all the nuns. 
 
 In vain is the sentence of death pro- 
 nounced against those who give an asylum 
 to the faithful priests. Madame de Dou- 
 deauville conceals in her house a German 
 ecclesiastic, and as considerate as she is 
 generous, she desires that the Abbe Vin- 
 climput should not know the price at which 
 he received his kind hospitality ; but a ser- 
 vant in the secret, fearful, no doubt, for his 
 mistress, and a little for himself, warns the 
 good priest, who exclaims : " I should be 
 wretched if my stay here should expose the 
 respected people to whom I owe every- 
 thing." Notwithstanding the solicitation 
 of the good duchess, he changed his asy- 
 lum at once ; he is arrested the next day, 
 and mounts the scaffold. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 95 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville could not be 
 forgotten. On the 28th of May, 1793, 
 whilst she is assisting at mass with her 
 mother-in-law, and Madame Durtal, they 
 tell her that the red bonnets are coming in 
 by the court-yard gate. She rises promptly, 
 goes in advance of them, and leading them 
 to the garden, keeps their attention until 
 the end of the Blessed Sacrifice. When 
 she judges there has been time for the 
 priest to escape, she enters the house with 
 her dismal visitors ; being immediately ar- 
 rested by them, as well as Madame de la 
 Rochefoucauld and the countess, her sister- 
 in-law, she is conducted to a house in the 
 Rue de Sevres, which served for barracks 
 the night before. As she is about to enter, 
 Mademoiselle Ernestine, then eleven years 
 old, throws herself into her mother's arms, 
 and refuses to be separated from her ; but 
 they tear her away with violence, and the 
 tears and supplications of the poor child 
 do not obtain for her permission even to 
 
g6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 come to see her from whom she had never 
 been separated. Her despair rends the 
 mother heart, without shaking a courage 
 raised above human attack. Madame de 
 Doudeauville leaves to her daughter, with 
 her blessing, a reassuring word, and sur- 
 mounting her own suffering, she tries to al- 
 leviate the grief of her companions. They 
 are all three put in one ruinous room, 
 where four miserable straw mattresses com- 
 prise the furniture. The courageous duch- 
 ess immediately takes two, putting one on 
 top of the other, and makes her mother and 
 sister-in-law sit down, lavishing on them 
 the most eager care. 
 
 Quite absorbed in making this abode less 
 painful, she asks and obtains for them a 
 few comforts ; and her kindness and vir- 
 tue make such an impression upon their 
 guards, that when, after a detention of eight 
 days, the noble prisoners are set at liberty, 
 there is a general rejoicing. 
 
 But Mademoiselle Ernestine tastes but 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 97 
 
 for a little while the happiness of being 
 with her mother again. These ladies, ar- 
 rested the second time, are subjected to an 
 imprisonment, less rigourous, but longer 
 than the first. For two months they had 
 to undergo visits, searching, questionings ; 
 to hear denunciations, threats of death ; 
 and all these called forth the brightness of 
 Madame de Doudeauville's virtue, without 
 once shaking it : sweet and patient, she 
 was at the same time firm and dignified ; 
 they respected while they admired her. 
 
 One night, having thrown a little water 
 out of the window, before going to bed, she 
 hears directly a racket all about her room ; 
 the guard are alarmed. "What can that 
 extraordinary noise be," say they ; "without 
 doubt the prisoner has passed out some 
 conspirator's letter." It seems, indeed, as 
 if the country may be in danger ! They 
 knock at her door, she gets up, opens it, 
 and answers quietly, " Go and look, my 
 7 
 
98 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 friends." Out of countenance, they retire, 
 and leave her to sleep in peace. 
 
 On regaining her liberty, she availed of 
 it to occupy herself with her children, and 
 to carry aid to numerous sufferers. She 
 thought to have breathed freely for awhile 
 with her mother and sister-in-law, but these 
 two ladies, three days after their deliver- 
 ance, are again arrested and shut up this 
 time with some English nuns, become 
 themselves absolute prisoners in their con- 
 vent. What contributed to save Madame 
 de Doudeauville, on this occasion, was pre- 
 cisely what should have lost her. Being in- 
 terrogated at length about her husband, she 
 answered with the most loyal frankness ; to 
 the invectives launched against the emi- 
 grant, she responded, by taking up his de- 
 fence most spiritedly, for all the repeated 
 signs from her mother-in-law, who trembled 
 at her rashness. 
 
 " You are then afflicted at his absence ? " 
 they said. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 99 
 
 "Yes, certainly." 
 
 " Then you miss him ? " 
 
 "Very much." 
 
 "Well, citizen, I see you are a good 
 woman ; we will do you no harm." 
 
 And the next day, in fact, when the 
 section heard the report of the interroga- 
 tory, instead of condemning, it applauded 
 this courageous frankness. 
 
 The wish to fulfil at the same time 
 her duty towards her daughter, her sister, 
 and her mother, inspired the generous 
 duchess with the idea of going with her 
 Ernestine to board in this community of 
 English ladies where her dear relatives 
 were staying. The superior received her 
 with open heart ; but scarcely was she in- 
 stalled, when a new and yet more terrible 
 misfortune fell upon the prisoners. 
 
 The hour of great sacrifices is for the 
 true Christian the hour of heroic virtues. 
 If nature, trembling as the cup of bitter- 
 ness approaches, attempts to put it from 
 
ioo Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the lips, and utters that cry which es- 
 caped from the tenderest love, " Let it 
 pass from me," grace adds after the exam- 
 ple, and through the strength of the Di- 
 vine Saviour, " Not my will, but Thine be 
 done." Happy the soul which loses neither 
 faith nor trust in time of trial. 
 
 On the 8th of March, 1794, the Countess 
 of Durtal, summoned to appear before the 
 revolutionary tribunal, tears herself from 
 her mother's embrace, and goes to receive 
 calmly the sentence of death. Conducted 
 to the Conciergerie, she meets there Mon- 
 sieur de 1'Aigle, her uncle, the involuntary 
 author of her arrest. Admirable design 
 of Providence ! While the count groans, 
 not over his own fate, but that of a young 
 woman whom he has compromised by an 
 insignificant letter found upon her writing- 
 table, she, sublime in her courage and piety, 
 profiting by the few hours that remain, be- 
 comes the apostle of the condemned noble- 
 man ; happy to buy, by the shedding of her 
 
Madame de la Rochefoitcauld.' 101 
 
 own blood, the happiness of bringing a 
 soul to God. She showed herself so ad- 
 mirable up to the very last moment, that 
 her guard, affected, prayed with her ; one 
 of them was converted, and averred that 
 he had never seen so beautiful a death. 
 
 These details were a consolation to 
 Madame de Doudeauville, who had made 
 fabulous efforts to force her way to the 
 Conciergerie. She was losing a sister, a 
 sweet companion, whom a conformity of 
 religious feeling had made peculiarly dear 
 for five years. She was feeling, keenly, 
 too, the grief of her mother-in-law ; but the 
 thought of eternal reunion gave to her 
 resignation a something which was really 
 celestial. 
 
 She learned soon after, with emotion, 
 that her uncle, the Marshal of Mouchy- 
 Noailles, in going to execution, had first 
 pronounced these words of a hero and mar- 
 tyr : " At the age of eighteen I mounted 
 to the assault for my king ; at eighty, I 
 can well mount the scaffold for my God ! " 
 
* * * ' 
 
 102 ' Madamt de la Rochefoucauld, 
 
 Things went on very fast in those times, 
 and it was not possible for friendship to 
 pour the balm of consolation upon the 
 deepest griefs, in peace. Madame de 
 Doudeauville sustained the Viscountess 
 de la Rochefoucauld after the death of her 
 daughter ; these ladies hoped that they 
 need no more be parted, and now a decree 
 of the Convention obliges all of the nobility 
 who are not prisoners to leave the capital. 
 This was a fresh stab for these two women, 
 each of whom seemed indispensable to the 
 other ; and yet it was not a subject of de- 
 liberation. The courageous duchess owed 
 herself before everything to her husband 
 and children ; in remaining voluntarily in 
 Paris, she would compromise an existence 
 which belonged no more to herself. They 
 separated then, notwithstanding the heart- 
 breakings. Always in presence of the di- 
 vine will, in which she read every event, 
 Madame de Doudeauville accepted with 
 equal submission good and ill, and she 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 103 
 
 knew how to communicate this feeling ad- 
 mirably to those who had to do with her. 
 Recommending her mother-in-law to the 
 superior of the community, she left her re- 
 signed, and disposed to await better days. 
 But in order to get away, it was neces- 
 sary to ask a passport, and for this, she 
 needed nine witnesses. In order to pro- 
 cure these witnesses, the good duchess who 
 knew nobody in the quarter where the con- 
 vent was, addresses herself to the gardener, 
 who brings her the nine sureties the next 
 day. Being arrived at the court of hear- 
 ing, she finds a poor blind nun the ob- 
 ject of universal mockery ; she approaches 
 her kindly, asks about the business which 
 brings her there, and seeing in her hand a 
 paper needing a signature, she leads her to 
 the clerk's office, and so delivers her from 
 
 the public ridicule Patiently she is 
 
 going to wait for her own turn, when a 
 witness of her act of charity says to the 
 officer : " I hope you will allow this citizen 
 
IO4 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 to pass who has been here for three or 
 four hours." Then they ask her quality. 
 " Ex-noble," she answers. The questioner, 
 who wishes to save her, says quickly, in a 
 low voice : " Say, instead, living on your 
 income." She understands and repeats 
 after him the assertion which in no wise 
 compromises her conscience. 
 
 The president, touched by her honesty, 
 takes her name, her address, and giving 
 her his own, begs her in any need, to have 
 recourse to him. " It was," she says, sim- 
 ply, " my beauty and my youth which made 
 him interest himself for me." 
 
 Withdrawn to the little village of Wis- 
 sous, four leagues from Paris, she contin- 
 ues her truly apostolic life, all the time 
 watching over the education of her chil- 
 dren. Several nuns of the Visitation, driven 
 from their convent, found with her an open 
 hospitality, the retirement, and almost the 
 regularity of the cloister. Mesdames de 
 Barnage and de Noland take pleasure in 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 105 
 
 giving lessons to Mademoiselle Ernestine, 
 and in fitting her to receive her first com- 
 munion. When the dear child has reached 
 her twelfth year, they transform her moth- 
 er's room into a chapel, and then, pri- 
 vately, takes place in a simple and touch- 
 ing way, the greatest act of her life. They 
 had to surround themselves with precau- 
 tions, to escape all eyes ; but the holy 
 duchess had good and faithful servants, on 
 whom she could count. 
 
 During her sojourn at Wissous, Madame 
 de Doudeauville learns that a new-born 
 baby in the village is running a great risk 
 of not receiving baptism, because the pa- 
 rents know of no faithful priest. She goes 
 to the family instantly, proposes her daugh- 
 ter Ernestine for god-mother, and asks 
 them to trust the interesting little creature 
 to her for a moment. When by her care 
 the waters of baptism have made of it a 
 child of God, she kisses it with tenderness, 
 and while giving it back to the mother, 
 watches over her little protegee from afar. 
 
io6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 This kiss, this blessing of a saint, can 
 but bring the child happiness. After the 
 death of her daughter, the pious duchess, 
 engrossed with doing in her name and to 
 her memory, the greatest possible good, 
 will not forget her who was held over the 
 baptismal font. Well brought up, and 
 afterwards respectably married, the second 
 Ernestine will show herself worthy of her 
 benefactress, who, to her dying day is to 
 count among her chief est joys the prosper- 
 ity of a family whose happiness she made. 
 She will receive from this family such sin- 
 cere tokens of gratitude, as that she will 
 require to be consoled for getting her re- 
 compense here below. 
 
 As long as a civic priest officiated in the 
 parish of Wissous, the duchess never ap- 
 peared, but went to hear a mass said pri- 
 vately by Monsieur de Bonnatier, in the 
 house of Madame de Lucy. But so soon as 
 a faithful pastor came back to the little vil- 
 lage church, she betook herself there with 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 107 
 
 all speed, and gave ornaments and vases 
 for the altar, that there might be no delay 
 in celebrating the holy offices worthily. 
 
 It was at the altar that she sought the 
 strength and consolation which she needed 
 to endure a painful suspense. In almost 
 complete ignorance of the fate of her hus- 
 band, she often asked herself if he might 
 not be in need of the necessaries of life. 
 At his departure, she had given him the 
 silver plate and her diamonds, but, might 
 not the fruits of their sale be already spent ? 
 Did he know of the death of his sister? 
 The imprisonment of his mother ? With- 
 out an answer to the thousand questions 
 called forth by a tenderness so justly 
 alarmed, she confided her grief to the God 
 of her heart, who, while He caused her to 
 pass through trial, had always marvellously 
 sustained her. 
 
 One day, after renewing her act of faith, 
 she finds that a good man has arrived, de- 
 puted by the Duke de Doudeauville, to fetch 
 
io8 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 her as well as the children. The measures 
 are well taken, he says. By means of a dis- 
 guise, she is to pass for his relative, and 
 will so cross the frontier. With what ea- 
 gerness does the duchess ask news of the 
 poor exile. What has become of him ? 
 What does he know ? Any exchange of 
 letters would have gravely endangered the 
 messenger, and it is from his lips that she 
 learns the sad regrets of the brother, and 
 the anxiety of the father and husband. 
 This is how Monsieur de Doudeauville had 
 known the death of his sister. 
 
 " One day," he says, " at Aix la Chapelle, 
 as I was reading aloud, according to my 
 custom, the English and French newspa- 
 pers in a reading-room, my hearers saw 
 me suddenly turn pale, tremble, and pres- 
 ently faint. I had read out of the corner 
 of my eye, under the article, Paris, these 
 three lines: "The citizen Durtal, and the 
 citizen de TAigle were executed yesterday, 
 in the Place of the Revolution." It was 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 109 
 
 like being struck by lightning. My sister, 
 whom I had loved so tenderly ! She was 
 a widow, and if they had killed her, I said 
 to myself, would they not also kill the wife, 
 the mother of the emigrant ? My existence 
 became a perpetual torture, or rather, I 
 ceased to live ; the post days, which I 
 awaited with a mortal impatience, brought 
 me terrible agony. I thought to find in 
 each line of the paper the condemnation of 
 those who were so dear to me. How does 
 one survive such anxiety ? 
 
 " An excellent friend of Madame de Dou- 
 deauville, on learning this tragic event and 
 my cruel position, left Brussels with her 
 husband in a kind of cart, the only car- 
 riage which their limited means allowed 
 them, and they both came to bring me the 
 one consolation which friendship can offer 
 the weeping and praying together." 
 
 This excellent friend was the Marchion- 
 ess of Montagu, a truly admirable woman, 
 who was soon to hear that her mother, 
 
1 10 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 grandmother, and sister had just swollen 
 the number of the heroic victims of the 
 revolution. 
 
 After some days of agony, the Duke of 
 Doudeauville, trembling for his wife and 
 children, had trusted to a brave Swiss the 
 mission of bringing them to him. There 
 was needed for this a sum which was con- 
 siderable in proportion to the financial con- 
 dition of the exile. He divided with his 
 mother-in-law, the Marchioness of Mont- 
 mirail, who had taken refuge in England, a 
 modest income of four thousand five hun- 
 dred francs ; but, what were all privations 
 compared with the perspective of this sword 
 constantly suspended over the heads which 
 he would fain have saved at the price of 
 his blood ? 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville, ready to brave 
 all perils if she might rejoin her husband, 
 made herself ready to start ; but with her 
 customary considerateness, before entering 
 upon the journey, she inquires whether her 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 1 1 
 
 departure can expose anybody to danger. 
 Her devoted servants assure her they 
 fear nothing, and, if it were necessary, 
 would give their lives to save hers ; but 
 her landlord, on being informed, far from 
 using the same language, declares that 
 the consequences of the flight will fall 
 upon him, and that if Madame de Dou- 
 deauville leaves his house, he will denounce 
 her. She is obliged consequently to give 
 up the journey. 
 
 A little while after, this courageous 
 woman, impelled by her generous zeal, ex- 
 posed herself to the most serious danger. 
 
 The Abbe of Etyola, whom she had 
 known at Annecy, being at Bordeaux, in the 
 thickest of the revolution, is arrested there 
 just as he is about to embark for the Brit- 
 ish Isles; the devoted duchess hears that 
 he has been detained, and that the plan is 
 to take him to Guyane. She writes in a 
 hurry to a person of her acquaintance, beg- 
 ging her to hasten and deliver the good 
 
ii2 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 abb, giving him in her name three thousand 
 francs. This unsigned note, being taken 
 to the Hotel de Mouchy, is found there 
 during a domiciliary visit. Madame de 
 Doudeauville learns the fact ; immediately 
 she calls a faithful servant and begs him 
 to accompany her to the revolutionary tri- 
 bunal. " But you don't think of doing that, 
 madame," answers the terrified man. He 
 had to follow her. Being arrived, she leaves 
 Arnolet at the door, and presents herself, 
 alone, for a hearing before the terrible Fou- 
 quier-Tainville. He pays no attention to 
 her ; standing for two hours, she waits, mo- 
 tionless, until compatriots and friends have 
 retired. Then, tete-a-tete with the accuser- 
 general, she says to him : 
 
 " I have an important affair to commu- 
 nicate to you." 
 
 " My only business is to punish the ene- 
 mies of the republic. What have you to 
 say ? This is the place for making denun- 
 ciations." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 113 
 
 " It is exactly a denunciation which 
 brings me." 
 
 " Very good ; speak citizen." 
 
 " I am about to make such an one as 
 you are not accustomed to hear ; it is my- 
 self, and myself alone whom I denounce." 
 
 " It is death that you come to meet." 
 
 " I know ; but I am fulfilling a duty." 
 
 He looks at her with surprise, and lis- 
 tens attentively. She relates her history 
 in all its details, but without naming any- 
 body, and ends by saying : " If there be 
 anybody to prosecute it is I." The fierce 
 revolutionist answers with stupefaction : 
 " Do you know that I have feeling, too ? 
 Why do you interest yourself for this 
 priest?" 
 
 " Because he is unfortunate." 
 
 "Ah, yes, I understand, and I have a 
 heart ; I have saved a good many people." 
 
 He reassures her, promising that no- 
 body shall be prosecuted ; and seeing her 
 pale and trembling with fatigue, he offers 
 
1 1 4 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 her his arm as far as the stairway. This 
 bare arm, which seemed stained with the 
 blood of numerous and innocent victims, 
 prompted a repulsive movement from the 
 poor woman, easy to understand. As it 
 was offered in kindness, she could not de- 
 cline, but she shuddered always at the rec- 
 ollection of the support accepted for those 
 few seconds. 
 
 On leaving Fouquier-Tainville, she tells 
 him her name and address, so that he might 
 find her in case of need. He assures her 
 again that the case is ended. The Abbe" 
 d'Etyola is released, in fact, receives the 
 three thousand francs, and crosses to Eng- 
 land. Shortly after, being returned to An- 
 necy, with the title of bishop, he wrote to 
 his liberator, and, to testify his gratitude, 
 sent her a reliquary containing a joint of 
 the finger of Saint Frangois de Sales, and 
 of Saint Chantal ; he knew that nothing 
 could be more acceptable. 
 
 The feeling of having a duty to discharge, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 1 5 
 
 or a service to render, gave intrepid cour- 
 age to this delicate and sensitive woman. 
 Opportunity discovered in her a strength of 
 will, a firmness of character, which, always 
 joined to the greatest modesty, ended by 
 triumphing over every difficulty. 
 
 Her estates having been put into seques- 
 tration, she insists upon her rights, and 
 energetically defends her interests, which 
 are the interests of her children and the 
 poor as well. Having learned that they in- 
 tended to sell the furniture of the Chateau 
 de Montmirail, under the pretext that the 
 husband being an emigrant, half the com- 
 mon property should be confiscated for 
 the good of the state, she went in haste, 
 proved that she was married under the 
 system of separate marriage settlements, 
 and had justice done her. 
 
 Always kind to her own, she joyfully 
 welcomed the Viscountess of Rochefou- 
 cauld, who hurried back to her after a year 
 of captivity. She often visited her sister, 
 
1 1 6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Madame de Montesquieu, who, amid so 
 many subjects for alarm, had the sorrow to 
 lose a charming little girl, so pious and 
 charitable, that she wanted to give all her 
 clothes to cover poor children. Rozamee 
 was very fond of her Aunt de Doudeau- 
 ville. A relative, in taking leave of her, 
 having said one day, "What would you 
 like me to bring back to you from Paris ? " 
 The dear child had answered quickly, 
 " Bring me back my aunt." 
 
 The good God called this little angel to 
 him at the age of eight years. She thought 
 she was going to heaven, but did not wish 
 to cause sorrow to her mother ; so, feeling 
 herself about to die, she said to her : " Go 
 away, mamma, I am going to sleep." The 
 poor mother went away, and the child never 
 awoke. Madame de Doudeauville, at the 
 news of this death, went from Wissous to 
 Maupertuis in a cart, to comfort her sister. 
 In wiping away her tears, she little thought 
 that in a few years she was about to weep 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 1 7 
 
 over the most loving and loved of daugh- 
 ters. 
 
 About this time, happily, she confided to 
 the Abbe" Legris-Duval the education of 
 her son SostKenes, who, up to that time, 
 through a succession of circumstances due 
 to the misfortunes of the times, had had 
 only indifferent masters. The new teacher, 
 equally distinguished for his qualities of 
 mind and heart, attached his young pupil 
 to him, and became the devoted friend of 
 the entire family, which he did not again 
 leave, and whose sorrows and joys he 
 shared. " He was, until his death," says 
 the Duke of Doudeauville, "the delight 
 and the edification of our home." 
 
 The virtuous duchess did not limit her 
 zealous efforts to the family circle, and 
 persons of the household. When she saw 
 a soul which ignorance or contact with im- 
 piety had plunged in gloom, she suffered, 
 and sought every opportunity to make it 
 know and taste the truth ; it was rare that 
 she was resisted. 
 
1 1 S i me de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 lame Helvetuis, after the death of a 
 daughter, fell into a profound languor ; her 
 friends tried in vain to attach her to life, 
 and as religion was a closed book to her, 
 
 'viiew not where to rest her heart. Her 
 state inspired Madame de Trans with a 
 warm interest, and she saw her often, but 
 not daring to speak the language of faith 
 herself, she sent a nun from time to time, 
 
 ik after her health. She hoped that the 
 good sister would find an opening to slip in 
 a word about God for the poor sufferer, but 
 the door of the sick-room was always 
 .ainst her, and the most frightful 
 solitude continued to reign in the heart 
 which, lacking hope, was also comfortless. 
 This double calamity, in time and eternity, 
 profoundly touched Madame de Doudeau- 
 ville, to whom Madame de Trans confided 
 her vain endeavours. Immediately she pro- 
 posed to go to see Madame Helvetius her- 
 self, dressed as a maid ; and without delay 
 she finds the house. She knocks, gives the 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 19 
 
 name of her whom she represents, and ex- 
 presses her wish to see the invalid. They 
 hesitate, are even on the point of sending 
 her away, but the half-open door has per- 
 mitted Madame Helve*tius to follow the 
 little debate between her custodian and the 
 messenger of her friend. The sweet voice 
 and the discreet language wherein a great 
 interest is manifest, inspires her with a will- 
 ingness to see the visitor ; she asks to 
 have her shown into the room, bids her sit 
 down, inspects her, is astonished, and rec- 
 ognizes that it is not a maid with whom 
 she has to do. They enter into conversa- 
 tion ; the pious duchess approaches the 
 subject of her grief with exquisite delicacy. 
 She understands, she feels, she wishes 
 
 to alleviate The sick woman, who 
 
 knows her noble visitor by reputation, has 
 soon guessed her personality, and strongly 
 moved, she cries: "You are Madame de 
 Doudeauville ! She only can talk like this." 
 Then begins intimacy ; feeling herself un- 
 
1 20 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 derstood, she whom sadness overwhelms 
 gives free vent to her tears, to her regrets ; 
 the thought of God, as the true and only 
 comforter, is not repelled ; it is still some- 
 thing that is very vague to a poor soul so 
 long lost in error ; but this first interview 
 leaves a sweet impression with her, and a 
 charm until then unknown. They agree 
 to see each other again, and little by little 
 daylight comes, light grows stronger, grace 
 more urgent. Madame de Doudeauville 
 speaks of confession, and herself finds an 
 ecclesiastic fitted for this office. The in- 
 teresting convert has such confidence in 
 her new and holy friend, that she offers to 
 make an avowal of her faults to her, before 
 telling the priest. Having found faith, 
 peace, and hope, Madame Helvetius con- 
 tinues to see Madame de Doudeauville, for 
 whom she cherishes a gratitude which may 
 be called eternal. 
 
 And now the horizon grown less black 
 in France, allowed one to begin to breathe 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 121 
 
 there. In the beginning of 1797, the ef- 
 forts of the coalition were no longer to be 
 feared. Bonaparte restored to the armies 
 their ancient prestige, and already the for- 
 eign powers humbly sued for peace. 
 
 In the interim, the nation, restored to 
 itself, burned with desire to wipe off the 
 stain of blood with which its brow was 
 stained in the gloomy days of '93. This 
 awakening of France was specially appar- 
 ent when a deputy, on the very day when 
 he entered the Cinq-Cents, solicited liberty 
 for the Catholic religion, and the abolition 
 of the laws directed against the clergy. 
 His motion was listened to without anger, 
 warmly supported by some, and on the 24th 
 of August, 1 797, the Chamber voted for the 
 new decree. 
 
 These were solemn proofs of a better 
 future. A few took advantage of this to 
 cross the frontier and see their relatives 
 and exiled friends. The courageous duch- 
 ess left Paris no later than the 3ist of 
 
122 Madame de la Rochefoiicauld. 
 
 August, in the same year, and undertook a 
 long journey, of which the account is given 
 us by Mademoiselle Ernestine, then fifteen 
 years old. 
 
 " There are circumstances in life, my 
 dear cousin, when one can neither talk with 
 those he loves, nor write to them ; but I 
 feel sure that there are none which pre- 
 vent his thinking of them." 
 
 " If misfortunes are softened by the ten- 
 der attentions of friendship, joy shared by 
 it is even more delicious. Judge, then, how 
 much I need you at this moment, to open 
 my heart to you. A witness of my sorrows, 
 why can you not be of my happiness ? I 
 wish, at least, to describe to you all that I 
 have seen, thought, and felt. 
 
 " We left Paris, as you know, on Wednes- 
 day, the 3 ist of August, at four o'clock in 
 the morning. My little note must have 
 showed you that if my mind was not quite 
 awake, at least my sentiment for you has 
 never slumbered. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 123 
 
 " I will not attempt to picture to you the 
 emotions that agitated my heart at the mo- 
 ment of departure. I was about to see 
 again a father whom I had left when a 
 little child, but for whom I had cherished 
 the tenderest feelings. You know that his 
 absence became more painful to me in pro- 
 portion as my age made me better under- 
 stand and feel it. 
 
 " Our guide did not reach the first post 
 station until an hour and a half after us. 
 Oh, how long the time seemed to me. 
 Different thoughts were suggested by my 
 imagination. I did n't know what to at- 
 tribute this delay to, and the fear of seeing 
 our journey fall through, passed quickly 
 from my head to my heart. I saw hap- 
 piness elude me at the very moment I was 
 about to seize it. At last we perceived the 
 carriage. We were soon consoled for our 
 long waiting, for whilst we were lament- 
 ing, they had been mending a wheel, which 
 would have broken in a short time, spilling 
 
124 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 us out, I don't know where. There is rea- 
 son in saying that a small evil is often the 
 cause of a great good. The next morning 
 at nine o'clock we were at Auxerre, where 
 we were to have slept the night before. To 
 remedy the delay, and regain that wretched 
 time, which, according to Sosthenes, will 
 always get lost, it was agreed that we 
 should spend the next night on the road. 
 We stopped for supper, however, for my 
 mother thought that, as we had had no 
 dinner, it was best to make one meal a 
 day. 
 
 " I shall not be able to mention all the 
 places through which we passed, but must 
 at least tell you how we had to cross for- 
 ests, whose sombre look made me shiver, 
 which woke me up a little. Arrived at 
 Auxonne in the night, they would not give 
 us horses. After a pretty lively dispute, 
 we had recourse to the municipal officers, 
 who interfered in our favor, happily, and 
 we set out at last, led by postilions in a 
 very bad humor. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 125 
 
 " Hardly do we leave the town when we 
 perceive three men following our carriage ; 
 then, of a sudden, they leave us, and run 
 after the other, already at some distance. 
 What a fright ! It is night ; we are in a 
 very solitary spot, and as fear magnifies 
 objects, I charitably informed my mother 
 that we were then in the midst of a wood. 
 
 There was n't the vestige of one For 
 
 all that, I was n't the only frightened one. 
 Judge of the situation of your cousin who 
 fears robbers in the heart of Paris, in a 
 well-closed house, and who now finds her- 
 self in the open fields, guided by dissatis- 
 fied postilions, and in a carriage where are 
 only women. Sosthenes was in the other, 
 for surely, if he had been in ours, we 
 should not have been allowed to be fright- 
 ened. 
 
 " After all we had only the apprehension 
 without the evil. At Dole, new obstacles 
 awaited us ; the gates were closed, and we 
 were forced to r,esign ourselves to passing 
 
126 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the night at an inn outside of the town. It 
 was one o'clock. Consequently, we found 
 everybody in bed and asleep. A girl came 
 and opened the door to us, however, with a 
 bad enough grace, and as the rooms were 
 taken, she lodged us in a pretty narrow pas- 
 sage, where four dirty beds were ranged in 
 a row, with their heads against the wall, 
 like a hospital, and we were very glad of 
 this fine palace. With our candle on the 
 floor, for want of a table, and our two 
 chairs, for four people, we were better off 
 than in the street. 
 
 " Monsieur Filietaz took Sosthenes into 
 his room, which was much more beautiful, 
 but, as it would seem, not a great deal 
 cleaner, for the next day, when he came 
 into our carriage, my brother brought us 
 an insect which I do not care to name, but 
 of the most unpleasant kind. 
 
 " At half past three they make us get up 
 in order to start at five, and I give myself 
 up to sorrow for losing, unnecessarily, this 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 2 7 
 
 time from sleep. We soon reach Poligny, 
 the first town of the Jura. I cannot 
 describe to you the impression made upon 
 me by this grand country, with its majestic 
 mountains. Now there are only jagged 
 rocks, frightful precipices, impetuous tor- 
 rents, gigantic pines which seem to reach 
 the sky ; then, without transition, are prai- 
 ries covered with flocks, with huts, and 
 even cultivated fields. 
 
 " Although Morez is not the extreme 
 frontier, it is the place where the Custom- 
 house does its office. So we had to show 
 everything that we had. When they had 
 examined and seen all, they put leaden 
 seals upon our parcels ; with this precau- 
 tion, and the payment of a few crowns, 
 they allowed us to pass on quietly. Hardly 
 had we crossed the French boundary when 
 Monsieur Filietaz got down from his car- 
 riage, and came to tell us with the greatest 
 feeling, that we were in Switzerland. I 
 could not contain myself for joy, and I 
 
128 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 thought I saw on all the faces of the good 
 Swiss the impress of my happiness. Soon 
 we perceived Nyon. We had a small hope 
 of finding my father there. We stopped 
 at the inn, where Madame Filietaz awaited 
 her husband ; but even before embracing 
 her, he came to tell us that the person 
 whom we expected was not there. And 
 much more attentive to our interests than to 
 his own, he found horses which could take 
 us on immediately to Lausanne. Unhap- 
 pily, a fine gentleman, named Prevost, ap- 
 peared, who, while saying how sensitive he 
 was, stated in a way that was not at all 
 so, that we ought n't to dream of starting 
 that day, because we should n't arrive until 
 midnight, and should have to wake up my 
 father. My mother made up her mind to 
 this inconvenience ; but Monsieur PreVost 
 pretended that our nocturnal arrival would 
 be the town talk, which would be very 
 compromising. This reason decided every- 
 thing, and it was arranged that we should 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 129 
 
 not leave until the next day, at daybreak. 
 I was very angry with this sensitive Mon- 
 sieur PreVost, who retarded our happiness 
 so pitilessly. Finally, the longed-for morn- 
 ing came, and after being on the road for 
 a few leagues, we perceived Lausanne ; ar- 
 rived at the gates, we left the carriage, and 
 Monsieur Prevost made us cross through a 
 part of the town without saying whether 
 we were getting any nearer. He made us 
 climb a very dark stairway up to the fourth 
 story, preserving a profound silence all the 
 time. Then he opened a little door, disap- 
 peared, and I found myself in my father's 
 arms. 
 
 "Must I try to tell you what I felt? 
 No ; your heart is too delicate not to guess. 
 And, besides, to describe such sentiments 
 would be to weaken them." 
 
 The enjoyment was, indeed, very sweet, 
 
 on both sides. " The happiness which this 
 
 reunion gave me," says Monsieur de Dou- 
 
 deauville, " was beyond all description. We 
 
 9 
 
1 30 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 had been separated for five years, and I 
 had almost despaired of our meeting. 
 
 " I passed my days luxuriating in the 
 marvellous change of my situation, in lis- 
 tening to the recital of the sufferings and 
 the alarms of my dear travellers, in hearing 
 the details of all that wisdom, courage, and 
 tenderness had inspired a good mother to 
 do for the welfare of our children. 
 
 " I was never tired of hearing them re- 
 peat what they had already told me, and 
 even what I knew before their arrival ; my 
 thoughts had been so constantly turned 
 towards France and my absent family. 
 And now I had eyes, ears, and heart, only 
 to seize, understand, and make my own, so 
 to speak, that past in which I had had no 
 part." 
 
 At the end of two months they were 
 obliged to part again, for the presence of 
 Madame de Doudeauville was indispensa- 
 ble to the preservation of her numerous es- 
 tates, and her husband could not put his 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 3 1 
 
 foot on French soil without danger. They 
 said their sad good-byes. But in spite of 
 all his resolutions to wait for a signal, the 
 poor emigrant could not hold out for long, 
 and soon, aided by the passport of a Swiss 
 merchant, braving a thousand dangers, 
 thanks to skilful stratagems and the now 
 often used currency of jiaring, he arrives 
 at Orleans, where he reads aloud before a 
 large audience in a book-shop, this article 
 in a paper : " The sentence of death is 
 pronounced anew against every emigrant, 
 and if he be recognized, he shall be shot in 
 twenty-four hours' time." 
 
 More alarmed than content, the good 
 duchess hastens to greet her husband, 
 whose extreme tranquillity reassures her at 
 first. But two days after, hearing that he 
 has been denounced to the police, she begs 
 
 and conjures him to depart It is 
 
 impossible to resist her entreaty. She 
 gives the poor traveller a book of Saint 
 Frangois de Sales, to console him on the 
 
132 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 way. Wearied with so great emotion, she 
 dreams of making a retreat, and consecrates 
 ten days to repose, under the eye of the 
 Lord. That she may be the quieter, she 
 goes every morning to the Convent of the 
 Filles-Dieu, near the Saint-Denis gate, and 
 does not come back to her little family 
 until the evening. . These hours of solitude 
 recall to her those which were associated 
 with her first communion ; a mingling of 
 holy desires, of delicious transports, of pro- 
 phetic warnings, and of pious resignation. 
 Many .years have passed since, and now, in 
 the strength of age, in presence not of a 
 simple presentiment, but with the full un- 
 derstanding of sacrifice, this generous soul 
 renews the giving of her entire self, asking 
 of God in return, that His reign should 
 come, that He should be known, loved, and 
 glorified. As if to show that her offering 
 is accepted, the Holy Spirit inspires the 
 superior of the convent to give her as a 
 souvenir of the retreat, a precious relic of 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 133 
 
 the true cross and of the holy crown of 
 thorns. 
 
 A serious thought then occupied Mad- 
 ame de Doudeauville ; she began to con- 
 sider about determining the future of her 
 daughter, who had just entered her seven- 
 teenth year. The uncertainty of events 
 doubtless contributed to her making this 
 hasty resolution ; not being able to fore- 
 see how much longer the head of the 
 family would be kept away, she looked 
 about for a protector outside of the family 
 for the beloved daughter from whom she 
 would fain never have been separated. But 
 before trusting her to other hands, she 
 drew out for her some written counsels, 
 where we see with the mother's tenderness, 
 the ardent and enlightened faith of the 
 strong Christian. These counsels seem to 
 us so wise that we do not fear to reproduce 
 them entire ; first, because they may serve 
 for example and instruction, but also be- 
 cause they will make known her who die- 
 
1 34 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 tated them better than anything which we 
 could say. She advises nothing that she 
 has not practised herself in a much higher 
 degree. The reflections which she incul- 
 cates in her daughter were the habitual 
 nourishment of her soul. The sentiments 
 with which she desires to animate her filled 
 her own heart and directed her every ac- 
 tion. It is thus that she loved God and 
 her neighbor, with this difference, that she 
 gives of her plenitude what a prudent 
 discretion induces her to impose upon 
 others, with reserve ; knowing no time, no 
 repose in the exercise of virtue, she went 
 on always growing in humility and charity. 
 These counsels are addressed to an intel- 
 ligent young girl, spirited, generous, zeal- 
 ous, admirably gifted for the family and too 
 well for the world, perfectly brought up, but 
 whose accomplishments, I had almost 
 said whose qualities, are a danger, as the 
 fears expressed by her mother indicate : so 
 true is it that it is not enough that God 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 135 
 
 and those who represent Him should work 
 directly for our sanctification : it is a per- 
 sonal work ; it must be that it cost us 
 something ; and the more the Lord has 
 given, the more will He ask. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 COUNSELS TO HER DAUGHTER. 
 
 " You will think it singular, my dear Er- 
 nestine, that, having you always under my 
 eye, I should still think it necessary to 
 write to you. But I know that you will 
 have as great pleasure in receiving marks 
 of my engrossing interest in you, as I have 
 desire to multiply them. My advice, my 
 counsels, which your heart always appreci- 
 ates, even when they oppose its tastes and 
 inclinations, will have, I am sure, yet more 
 value if they are written. There are some, 
 besides, which I have reserved for a more 
 advanced age, and the new estate which 
 you are about to enter induces me to com- 
 municate them to you. 
 
 " I am about to open my heart to you, 
 then, to let you see the hopes which are 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 137 
 
 given me by all that God has done in you, 
 the virtues which I have a right to expect 
 from the germs which rejoiced me in your 
 infancy, and also from the qualities which 
 a great elevation of sentiment, joined to 
 happy gifts of intelligence, should cultivate 
 to a high degree in you. I shall not con- 
 ceal from you my apprehensions, while pre- 
 ferring that you should not suspect their 
 full extent ; for you are not yet a mother ; 
 you would not be able to understand all 
 the happiness and pain, the delights and 
 anxieties that this feeling brings. 
 
 " I will also make my confession to you : 
 it is necessary to my repose. I am far from 
 attributing to you, my child, the faults that 
 I find in you ; it is the small experience I 
 had when I began your education ; it is my 
 own shortcomings that I accuse, above 
 all my small virtue which held back God's 
 blessings from you. With this conviction, 
 judge how important I feel it to fortify you 
 against the' dangers which alarm me, and 
 
138 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 pardon me if I exaggerate a little. See 
 only the tender sentiment of a Christian 
 mother, who trembles at the moment of 
 separation from a cherished daughter. Im- 
 agine a merchant, trusting to the sea his 
 treasure, the fruit of his watchings, of his 
 toils, his only hope. He beholds at the 
 same time the haven where he would wish 
 to see it enter, and the innumerable perils 
 which may prevent. He hears on all sides 
 the noise of the waves that may engulf it ; 
 picture to yourself his agitation, his tor- 
 ture, and you will have an imperfect idea 
 of the anguish and perplexities of your 
 mother. One only thought has power to 
 calm her, and therefore, I return to it inces- 
 santly ; it is that of the religious principles 
 which I have always known to be in you, 
 and the liveliness of your faith. I will not 
 say your piety, for I do not think that that 
 name should be given to your actual way 
 of life ; but if you persevere, this precious 
 gift will be granted to you for a recom- 
 

 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 39 
 
 pense, and will make the road easy where 
 you are already walking. 
 
 " My one desire is, that you should ac- 
 custom yourself to sound practice, without 
 which your faith would soon grow weak. 
 The world and its friends would exercise 
 their empire over you ; their maxims would 
 not seem so strange to you ; little by little 
 they might please and end by seducing 
 you. Regard for public opinion, which has 
 already made some impression upon you, 
 would hasten your overthrow. .... I 
 pause, my child, and can bear no longer 
 the sight of such a misfortune ; the way 
 to avoid it is to animate your faith by the 
 study of our holy religion. Apply yourself 
 to understand what she asks of you, and 
 what she promises to you. I feel the more 
 earnestness, my child, in encouraging you 
 to enter upon this research, because it will 
 occupy you with the only method of find- 
 ing lasting happiness, and of obtaining it 
 for all who will be dependent upon you. 
 
140 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Without her heavenly succour, you may, it 
 is very true, have moments of enjoyment 
 and of pleasure, and you may cause others 
 to feel them, but the difference ! And how 
 dearly you would pay for these short sea- 
 sons of illusion ! Your enjoyments would 
 never be without anxiety, nor your pleas- 
 ures without remorse. The happiness of 
 which I speak, and which religion offers 
 to you, since it has its source in purity of 
 heart, and in the peace of soul which is 
 the happy result, can never be troubled by 
 events nor circumstances. It will spread 
 a charm over all your life. The world may 
 be overthrown, empires destroyed, men 
 may tear each other asunder, but there is 
 no human power which can take from us 
 this precious gift, and having it we can 
 bear all. It is not only the impression of 
 a sentiment which makes me use this lan- 
 guage to you, it is the fruit of my experi- 
 ence. May I be able to communicate to 
 your soul the convictions which I have 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 141 
 
 drawn from it. Whoever has gone through 
 the French revolution and survived it, can 
 no longer doubt the nothingness of the 
 things of this earth. I have seen honours, 
 titles vanish away, and with them those 
 who wore them ; the greatest and best 
 secured fortunes have been annihilated ; 
 great names trailed in the mud ; brilliant 
 reputations tarnished ; the most useful in- 
 stitutions have come to naught. At last 
 the throne and the altar were thrown down ; 
 this fine dream with which I had seen men 
 intoxicated, to which they had sacrificed 
 their health, their repose, their conscience ; 
 eight years later it had no existence. 
 
 " In this total overthrow has not my soul 
 had reason to cry aloud more than once, 
 ' Thou alone art great, O my God. Thou 
 only art stable. Thou alone meritest that 
 we should love Thee above all. Thou only 
 canst promise and give us a lasting hap- 
 piness. All human supports on which I 
 stayed myself have crumbled away. Thou 
 
142 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 only remainest to me ; but with this firm 
 prop I can endure all.' 
 
 " Give, then, to God, and undividedly, the 
 first years at your disposal. Thanks be to 
 heaven, your infancy was consecrated to 
 Him. Consecrate to Him also your youth, 
 and do not question the liberality with 
 which this God of goodness will reward 
 your sacrifices and encourage your first 
 steps. Once in the way where He would 
 have you, He will take care Himself to 
 level the obstructions which you may find 
 there, and will make easy for you the sec- 
 ond part of the precept, the love of your 
 neighbour, for then you will everywhere 
 love and respect His work, but how espe- 
 cially in the unfortunate, the needy, in that 
 portion of humanity which is stripped of all 
 temporal advantages and under which He 
 presents Himself to you, while He waits 
 to compensate it liberally one day for the 
 neglect of men. What will you not ren- 
 der to the Lord for that He has put into 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 143 
 
 your hands a means so simple and so pre- 
 cious of expiating the faults inseparable 
 from the enjoyment of a large fortune, and 
 of getting your pardon while all the time 
 yielding to the gentle inclination of your 
 heart. In your superiors you will see the 
 authority of God, and the submission, the 
 consideration which you owe them, will 
 become easy to you. 
 
 "With your inferiors your manner of 
 command will not be severe ; your rule 
 will be one of kindness. Impartiality with 
 all carefulness being your law, prejudice 
 will not influence your decisions ; self-in- 
 terest will have no access to you. You 
 will rather seek him who has less desire to 
 make himself known, and all will bless your 
 justice and your indulgence, and will give 
 honour to God for whom you act. 
 
 " In all men you will see His image ; they 
 will find you unceasingly ready to be of 
 use to them. Feeling no rivalry with your 
 equals, you will have pleasure in their 
 
144 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 advantage ; their successes will become 
 your own. Considering all as members of 
 one and the same family, destined to run 
 the same course, looking to the same end, 
 the glory of the Chief, and the happiness 
 of all, will be ever the motives that incite 
 you. In this way, how will you not cause 
 our holy religion to be cherished. And 
 who knows if God, to encourage your 
 weak efforts and to reward your sacrifices, 
 will not make use of you to arrest some 
 souls on the point of abandoning Him, or, 
 to bring back others already fallen away. 
 Ah, my child, if He grant you this favour, 
 your entire life will not suffice to thank 
 Him. How admirable is He when He 
 uses such frail instruments to work His 
 mercies, and what happiness for him whom 
 He deigns to employ ! . . . . Keep your 
 heart thus ready to do generously whatever 
 He may ask of you. But let us see now 
 what are the general and particular obsta- 
 cles which you will have to combat. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 145 
 
 " I do not pretend that religion does not 
 demand sacrifices ; I know, and I have ex- 
 perienced only too well, that we are all born 
 with a proneness to evil, which it is very 
 difficult to overcome, and that before reach- 
 ing that calm, that peace of which I have 
 spoken to you, and which may be looked 
 upon as a foretaste of heaven, one must 
 have won many victories over himself. But 
 I ask you, even if you were without relig- 
 ion, would you not experience the desire to 
 rule the passions which might have power 
 to master you ? Would you not think, you 
 who are constantly praising this human 
 courage, whose consequences are some- 
 times so disastrous ; that there is grandeur 
 of soul, nobleness, in making one's self 
 master of all his movements, or at least in 
 being able always to curb their effects ? It 
 seems to me that the greatest conqueror is 
 nothing, when compared with the simple 
 and virtuous man, whose whole study has 
 been to know himself, and his glory, to rule 
 
 10 
 
146 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 himself ; who, by the happy habit of re- 
 pressing himself, has come to have nothing 
 ill-regulated ; who, always with calmness, 
 judges healthily of things, and chooses the 
 part which he deems the better, without be- 
 ing blinded by the impetuosity of his pas- 
 sions. 
 
 "The philosophers strove to make it 
 thought that they had reached this desir- 
 able condition. Religion gives me the 
 means of arriving there at the same time 
 that she proves to me the necessity of so 
 doing ; she does more ; she knows how to 
 make me love sacrifice, by showing it to 
 me on the road to heaven. Ah ! how much 
 more does a short meditation on the life 
 and passion of our Lord accomplish, than 
 all the arguments of cold reason, which tell 
 us, indeed, what is to be done, but do not 
 give us the strength to attain to it. It is 
 at the foot of your crucifix, my child, that 
 you will learn how to taste of real good ; 
 there you will appreciate that which the 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 147 
 
 world has to offer, and you will have no 
 further pain in detaching yourself from it. 
 These illusions vanish, and when the heart 
 has once known truth, there is no other at- 
 traction for it. The cross will make you 
 feel the heaviness of the iron chains which 
 the world imposes, and the lightness of the 
 gospel yoke. May the Lord give you grace 
 to wear it always, and spare you the ago- 
 nizing regret of having wavered between 
 the world and Him. For I should never 
 be able to bear the thought that you could 
 fail to know Him, and thus make me sorry 
 that I had given you birth. Know your 
 Master, and you will have but one fear, 
 that of not doing enough for Him. After 
 your falls, seek His goodness with the same 
 confidence, which, in your early years, 
 made you come and confess the faults of 
 which I was sometimes ignorant ; through 
 your ingenuousness, you found in my ten- 
 derness the consolation and the peace which 
 you had lost. With what joy I pressed 
 
148 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 you then to my heart; often your tears 
 made my own to flow, and I had enough to 
 do in keeping them back. Well, my child, 
 may this love, this indulgence, give you a 
 feeble idea of the mercy, the tenderness of 
 God's heart. If you have found these qual- 
 ities in His weak, imperfect creature, how 
 much more may you expect of Him from 
 whom they proceed, who was the source 
 of them, and the limits of whose love for 
 you are only in His immensity. Remember 
 again, that my cares, my tenderness for you 
 seemed to increase in proportion to your 
 needs, or your infirmities ; and believe that 
 your Heavenly Father experiences the same 
 thing, but in the measure of a God. He 
 is, then, a kind Physician who knows your 
 wounds, who sounds the depth of them, 
 who measures their extent, and sees their 
 danger. He holds in His hand the reme- 
 dies for your healing, and burns with the 
 desire to apply them. One single turning 
 only towards Him suffices, that His justice 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 49 
 
 permit Him to satisfy His mercy, and then 
 He pours that salutary balm which softens 
 whatever of bitter the remedies may have 
 held, and hastens their good result. 
 
 " I confess, my child, that of all the sen- 
 timents I have experienced, that of mater- 
 nity, a sentiment which takes away from 
 none other, and yet surpasses all, has ever 
 seemed to me most fitly to represent 
 the love of God for His creatures. I con- 
 strain myself at times to think of Him as 
 my judge, but I always find my Father 
 again ! And however faithless I have been, 
 however unworthy of being in the number 
 of His children, I leave all to His love, 
 and repeat to Him unceasingly : ' It is in 
 Thee, Lord, and in Thee alone, that I have 
 put my trust ; I cannot be confounded ; I 
 have Thy word of promise.' 
 
 " May the heart of my dear child, then, 
 filled with firm hope, attach itself to Him 
 who alone can bring this hope to pass. 
 This is a happiness of which it behooves 
 
150 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 not my ignorance, my weakness to speak, 
 but of which a sensitive soul, detached 
 from worldly interests, might have, I think, 
 a faint idea. To love, and to love without 
 limit, to love through all eternity the Object 
 the most lovely, the most adorable, the 
 source of every good, to have no longer 
 cause to fear occasions of offending Him ; 
 to see as God sees, to feel as He does, to 
 be admitted to His divine intercourse, 
 what blessed happiness ! 
 
 " Oh, my dear child ; if by my example, 
 my faults, perhaps by my too great weak- 
 ness towards you, I have given you any 
 impression of religion other than the true 
 one, it is at the feet of Jesus Christ that 
 I ask your pardon for it ; it is there that I 
 pray Him that the punishments which my 
 faults merit, may not fall on you. At His 
 feet, too, I can attest that I have never 
 made other wishes for you, than those 
 which aimed at making you virtuous, and 
 assuring to you the possession of this hap- 
 piness. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 151 
 
 "I call to my mind, my child, that, 
 scarcely were you born, when I offered you 
 to God ; and in the moment when I felt 
 with transport the joy of being a mother, 
 when my sufferings seemed to me too sweet 
 since you were the price of them, when I 
 would have found it just to pay with my life 
 the happiness of giving birth to you, ah, 
 well, in that same moment I asked my God 
 not to preserve you, except you were to love 
 Him eternally. He received my sacrifice, 
 and He has left you in existence ; is it not 
 allowed me to hope that my prayer will be 
 accomplished in all its greatness ? 
 
 "I conjure Thee, O God of goodness, 
 have no regard to the weakness of her who 
 prays to Thee, but consider that she in- 
 tercedes for a child whom Thou hast given 
 her in Thy mercy ; that this child is Thine, 
 that I have never forgotten Thy right to 
 her ; I have even feared that I might claim 
 her as my own too much. Thou knowest 
 that I never asked that she should have 
 
152 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 worldly goods nor any like thing ; but only 
 this celestial dew whose preciousness I 
 knew. Pour it upon her abundantly, my 
 God. Thou only canst know how dear she 
 
 is to me Well, I accept whatever 
 
 Thou hast in store for her, so that she be 
 always faithful to Thee, and that after 
 transmitting to her children the precious 
 deposit of the faith in all its integrity, she 
 may then love Thee and praise Thee for- 
 ever." 
 
 These lines were written some months 
 before the marriage. As the decisive hour 
 approached, the wise mother specifies 
 clearly what her heart had only sketched 
 out. 
 
 " PARIS, May 15tf, 1798. 
 
 " You ask me, my dear Ernestine, to give 
 you a rule of conduct, an outline of the 
 manner in which it will be well for you to 
 mark out your time and dispose of it. I be- 
 gan by refusing you, convinced of my own 
 incompetence, and thinking it better that 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 153 
 
 you should make this rule of life for your- 
 self. Howbeit, touched by your confidence, 
 I am about to answer you, having first 
 asked for light from the Holy Spirit. This 
 practice of regulating the employment of 
 time, has been consecrated by the masters 
 of the spiritual life ; the Fenelons, the 
 Saint Francois de Sales, have always ad- 
 vised it for souls who would live Chris- 
 tianly, avoid offending God, and make some 
 progress in virtue. I doubt not that great 
 graces are connected with it. At the time 
 of my marriage, although still very young, 
 I felt this necessity, and reaped much fruit 
 from the rules planned by my fourteen 
 year's old head, and modified later by a 
 holy director. My knowledge of your char- 
 acter makes me add, my dear child, that 
 this practice is indispensable to you. 
 
 " The little aptitude you have for all that 
 comes under the head of pious practices, 
 your fear of everything that brings you 
 under subjection, the kind of prejudice you 
 
154 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 have adopted, without much knowing why, 
 against what you call little observances, 
 all this make it necessary for you to pre- 
 scribe certain habits for yourself, with the 
 resolution of being faithful to them. It is 
 precisely because you dread everything 
 that is small, that you must look at your 
 motives supernaturally, and regard it as be- 
 neath you to be guided only by your hu- 
 mour or caprice. 
 
 "The rule of life, when it has been en- 
 tered upon, will realize this aim, and will 
 procure you the advantages of which I 
 speak. All your actions will have the 
 stamp of obedience, and that is the surest 
 way of arriving, even when you don't sus- 
 pect it, at the highest perfection. But I 
 hasten to come to the details of the obliga- 
 tions which this rule will impose upon you, 
 for I see already your young courage is 
 alarmed, and though your reason has asked 
 this of me, yet your disposition fears it, 
 tells you that it is good only for religious, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 155 
 
 and makes you dread the severity. It is 
 important, then, to prove to you that Relig- 
 ion proportions herself to the weakness of 
 our age, our health, even of our character ; 
 that she asks of us only what is reasonable, 
 and does but consecrate our duties. 
 
 "EMPLOYMENT OF THE DAY. 
 
 " 1st. You will stay eight hours in your 
 bed : at your age this time for repose is 
 necessary. The hour, then, when you go 
 to bed, will determine, your hour for getting 
 up the next day ; but, except in case of 
 unusual indisposition, or extraordinary fa- 
 tigue, you will be exact in limiting yourself 
 to the eight hours. 
 
 " 2d. Your first thought in waking will 
 be for God ; you will offer your actions to 
 Him, and invoke your good angel. 
 
 " 3d. As soon as you are dressed, you will 
 say your prayer in the " Journee du Chre- 
 tien," or even a shorter one, if you know 
 it ; but keep to the one which you adopt. 
 
156 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 "4th. You will read a chapter in the 
 * Imitation/ after which you will meditate 
 for a quarter of an hour ; the two first 
 books will suit you best for the present. 
 
 " 5th. You will hear mass every day. 
 
 " 6th. You will devote from an hour to 
 an hour and a half to your breakfast, as well 
 as to the duty you owe your grandparents. 
 
 " /th. You will employ two hours in the 
 morning, either in reading history, travels, 
 or the like, or with masters- in accomplish- 
 ments ; if you wish to profit by your read- 
 ings, you will make extracts. 
 
 " 8th. You will reserve a half hour for re- 
 ligious reading, and before beginning it,you 
 will ask God for grace to get benefit from it. 
 
 " Qth. You will make your toilet before 
 dinner, striving to spend no more time over 
 it than is necessary. You might make use 
 of these moments to learn some well-se- 
 lected bits of poetry ; you would culti- 
 vate your memory, you would ornament 
 your mind and prevent being too much 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 157 
 
 taken up with fashion, so dangerous a 
 thing for the young. 
 
 " loth. I should like you to take up the 
 habit of reflecting, five minutes only, before 
 dinner, upon the way in which you have 
 spent your morning and observed your rule. 
 
 " nth. During the meal, while being as 
 pleasant as possible out of consideration 
 for your relatives, try to raise your heart to 
 God from time to time. It would be well 
 that the meal should not go over without 
 some little practice of self-denial. For 
 the present, confine yourself to repressing 
 your too numerous fancies. Set about it 
 gradually as yet, but you will find your 
 health even will be the better for it. 
 
 " 1 2th. After dinner, stay with your rela- 
 tions for two hours ; take up some needle- 
 work at this time, and try to make it agree- 
 able to others by the pleasantness of your 
 society. 
 
 " 1 3th. You will then go to your room 
 for two hours, or two hours and a half, 
 
158 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 during which you will say your beads some 
 twenty times, and one penitential psalm, so 
 that the seven psalms and the long rosary 
 will be told in the week ; the rest of the 
 time will be given to reading, writing, or 
 lessons in music or painting. 
 
 " 1 4th. The end of the evening will be 
 devoted to your friends, to society, accord- 
 ing to the tastes or the wish of your hus- 
 band. 
 
 " 1 5th. You will keep the same rules for 
 supper as for dinner. You will say your 
 prayers in the evening, make your exami- 
 nation, and after asking God to forgive the 
 faults of the day, and thanking Him for the 
 blessings received, you will try to go to 
 sleep with good thoughts of some kind. 
 
 " 1 6th. Your confessor alone can regu- 
 late the number of your communions ; I 
 should be glad, however, if you would 
 make a resolution never to be kept away 
 from the holy table, by your own fault, 
 for more than a month, and if you wish to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 159 
 
 make confession easier, you will go to the 
 confessional every fortnight. 
 
 " For three days before communion you 
 will read daily a chapter of the ' Imitation/ 
 the fourth book. You will keep a more 
 careful watch over yourself ; you will dis- 
 charge your duties with more exactness, 
 knowing that it is chiefly the disposition of 
 the heart that God asks of us. 
 
 " You will banish everything (except for 
 a legitimate reason, the wish of your hus- 
 band, for instance) that might distract you. 
 
 " You will continue the reading from the 
 ' Imitation ' for three days after, and will 
 watch yourself with the same care, in giv- 
 ing thanks. 
 
 " It would be good to let some particular 
 works of charity precede your approach to 
 the sacraments. 
 
 " This rule, good for the time being, in 
 that it is compatible with all your duties, 
 might not suit you at another time ; it 
 could then be modified. It is quite enough, 
 
1 60 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 my dear child, that you promise not to 
 change it without advice, but you would 
 do well to accept, to propose, even, any 
 change which seems reasonable to you, in 
 view of a difference of circumstances. I 
 am going to try, now, to write down for 
 you some general rules, which, while fix- 
 ing your mind on certain points, will make 
 you avoid all anxiety. 
 
 "FIRST GENERAL RULE. 
 
 "As the first of all rules, the only one to 
 which salvation is promised, is the doing 
 one's duty, it is understood that the dis- 
 tribution of your time will always be sub- 
 ject to the wish, desire, and pleasure of 
 your husband. Any time that his presence 
 may interrupt one of your exercises, you 
 will never look disturbed. You will leave 
 off your prayers promptly, even when you 
 may be finding them most comforting. 
 At all times you will be animated by the 
 desire of representing virtue to him as at- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 6 1 
 
 tractive, and to that end you will try to re- 
 form the little defects of character that are 
 still in you, and which would hinder this. 
 When your exercises shall have been inter- 
 rupted by your husband, or by something 
 independent of your will, you will have no 
 uneasiness about it, and, to avoid all confu- 
 sion, you will take up your regular pursuits 
 according to the time prescribed, at the 
 moment when you are free again. You will 
 take care, however to put the few prayers 
 directed, and the religious reading, at the 
 hour when you are used to be least inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 "To make your decision about anything 
 that you may have to do, and which may 
 not be comprised in this rule, you will ask 
 if the action or the thing that you are 
 going to undertake can be offered to God. 
 ii 
 
1 62 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 RULES FOR ALMS-GIVING. 
 
 " Every time that you receive your allow- 
 ance you will take out the portion of the 
 poor. You might fix it at a tenth of what 
 you have at your disposal. I take it for 
 granted that you would never have debts, 
 for then you could n't give away, which 
 would be the contradiction of justice. 
 
 " You will try to distribute your alms with 
 discrimination, giving the preference to the 
 old, the infirm, and those who are particu- 
 larly consecrated to God. 
 
 " If you could sometimes, without omit- 
 ting your duties, and always consulting 
 the rules of prudence, if you could yourself 
 see the sufferers, get them some comforts 
 through your interest, cause them to bless 
 religion and the God of charity, who has 
 made use of you to help them, you would 
 derive a very sweet satisfaction, and would 
 only have to guard against following a per- 
 haps too human inclination. I have no 
 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 163 
 
 doubt that you would thus sometimes add 
 to the sum set apart, what you had appro- 
 priated to a new fashion, or a superfluous 
 article of dress, and this sacrifice would 
 not be without its importance. 
 
 "RULES FOR YOUR READING. 
 
 " This subject is of interest to all ages, 
 but especially to youth, when all impres- 
 sions being more lively, a more or less 
 judicious choice might have fatal results. 
 I have no intention of speaking to you of 
 books, either against religion or morals, or 
 even of romances. Every Christian has 
 renounced these at his baptism, and the 
 principles that you now have satisfy me 
 that you would have a horror of them ; 
 but that is not enough ; resolve never to 
 read religious books without advice. A 
 book is good, useful at one time, which 
 might be dangerous at another ; and he to 
 whom God has trusted the care of your 
 soul, has grace given him to decide for you. 
 
164 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 "As to your books of instruction, or 
 pleasure, it is sufficient that you determine 
 not to choose them for yourself, and to con- 
 sult only virtuous and wise persons." 
 
 Mademoiselle Ernestine is become Mad- 
 ame la Marquise de Rastignac ; the prudent 
 mother had no wish to commit the future 
 of her daughter to a brilliant but frivolous 
 man, without principle, such as there were 
 so many of at that time ; but she made 
 choice of an upright man, serious, strongly 
 attached to his duty, and whose relig- 
 ious feeling promised well for him. 
 
 Now, notwithstanding the recent and 
 dreadful calamities, notwithstanding the 
 atrocities which Paris has just witnessed, 
 her society begins to whirl with festivities. 
 One would say, in seeing the eagerness of 
 this great world, still dyed with the blood of 
 its martyrs, that it would fain make up for 
 its sacrifices by dizzying itself in the vor- 
 tex of pleasures. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 165 
 
 The seventeen years old marchioness is 
 one of the most invited, and most feted ; her 
 literary advantages, her lively and spark- 
 ling wit, her sportive disposition, attract ad- 
 miration and praises which hide a twofold 
 snare. At this age intoxication is easy ; 
 one yields himself willingly to the happi- 
 ness of feeling himself loved, or sought, 
 .... the good and confiding nature of the 
 young woman has no suspicion of the ma- 
 lignity of a world as envious as flattering, 
 but her honest conscience hears the re- 
 proach within, " God is not satisfied 
 He asks something different." A filial out- 
 pouring consoles this soul made for virtue ; 
 she confides to her mother what many a 
 one will not own to himself. She is en- 
 couraged to find a stay as tender as it is 
 strong, and quite happy to take refuge in 
 holiness and love at the same time. 
 
 Under the impression of a sweet joy, 
 and of a real alarm, the mother responds 
 by new counsels, to which she adds the 
 most urgent solicitation. 
 
1 66 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 "MONTMIRAIL, December 28, 1799. 
 
 " The last talks with you filled me with 
 comfort, my dear Ernestine ; it is true, the 
 more satisfaction I t had in them, the more 
 is your departure made painful to me. 
 Thus, I like to tell you that they left a 
 tender impression with me, in which my 
 soul loves to rest. The light which God 
 in His mercy gives you about yourself, 
 an inestimable favour, which often one does 
 not possess until he is much older, the 
 fulness of your confidence, and more than 
 that, the teachableness of your mind ; this 
 is what fills me with hope. Yes, I rejoice, 
 my dear child, but a mother's heart passes 
 very quickly from hope to fear, and I feel 
 the need to speak for a few moments with 
 you of the different reasons which make 
 me go from the one to the other. May 
 heaven make my advice useful to you. 
 May my tenderness justify in your eyes the 
 alarm which is perhaps premature, but, I 
 believe, well founded. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 167 
 
 " You complain of a weakness in your 
 character which gives you the appearance 
 of agreeing with the person who is talking 
 with you, and which prevents your resisting 
 everything that is not absolutely bad in 
 itself ; you feel in yourself the desire to 
 please, a coquetry of mind which makes 
 you seek by preference those whom you 
 consider superior, because their appro- 
 bation is more flattering to you. You 
 are disposed towards general benevolence, 
 which might well be a virtue, and pro- 
 ceed from the goodness of your heart, but 
 that it has also for motive this immod- 
 erate desire that you have for approbation. 
 The outcome is, that regard for human 
 opinion has daily an increased empire over 
 you, and the weakness by which you allow 
 yourself to be misled prevents you from 
 freeing yourself from it. Your delicate 
 conscience warns you about the least 
 things, but the fear of being blamed and 
 thought a poor-spirited person renders you 
 
1 68 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 deaf to its voice. This combat grows pain- 
 ful to you, and then you seek to persuade 
 yourself that the question is not of the 
 first necessity ; you say to yourself, that in 
 religion one may put aside what is only 
 advised, in order to make a point only of 
 what is binding ; that in youth there would 
 be inconveniences in adopting a line of 
 conduct which one could not be sure of 
 following. You put off for a more ad- 
 vanced age practices of which you feel the 
 necessity, but which a few light words 
 cause you to neglect. You set apart God's 
 part; you limit it, and you let the world 
 take its portion and increase it in propor- 
 tion as the other diminishes. This division, 
 however, does not procure you the tran- 
 quillity which you seek, for the mercy of 
 your God pursues you ; you cannot enter 
 into yourself without blushing for your 
 weakness, without being humiliated even 
 (you have confessed as much yourself), for 
 the claim that this weakness has estab- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 169 
 
 lished upon you, and without being fright- 
 ened at the abyss into which it may plunge 
 you. .... ' But I do no harm/ do you 
 say ? Is it not a wrong, then, to refuse to 
 God what one feels that He asks ; to cheat 
 one's self of the graces that attach to 
 fidelity ; to expose himself to lose those 
 which he has, by resistance ; and lastly, 
 supposing that you do no evil, you do not 
 all the good which you ought, and to which 
 you are destined. The more God gives 
 you a horror for vice, and inclination for 
 virtue, the more He urges its practice in 
 your soul ; the greater are your pledges to 
 Him, the more guilty you are if you cease 
 to fulfil them. Do you think, dear Ernes- 
 tine, that this energy, this highness of sen- 
 timent, this strength amid so great weak- 
 ness which would make you capable of great 
 sacrifices, this gentleness, this evenness of 
 temper, this kindness, this gratitude, which 
 you express in such a touching way, do you 
 think that they should be limited to be mere 
 
1 70 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 moral qualities, and that He who has put in 
 your heart the precious germ of so many 
 virtues, has not a right to exact that they 
 shall be exercised for Him, and can you be 
 at peace so long as you prevent their use 
 and prevent them from rising to the source 
 from whence they proceed ? But let not 
 your sensibility be terrified, for these same 
 qualities will be only the more endearing 
 and lovable when they shall have been so 
 directed. 
 
 " In the picture that I have just drawn, 
 my child, it seems to me that you cannot 
 fail to recognize yourself ; for it is the 
 faithful portraiture of all that the frank- 
 ness of your confidence has revealed to me, 
 and it is on this confession that I base my 
 hopes ; when an evil is acknowledged, it is 
 very near being cured. There needs, then, 
 only a strong, persevering will to bring 
 about the remedy, and you will ask this of 
 Him whom you pray so earnestly not to 
 abandon you. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 171 
 
 " I must tell you, joyfully, that in writ- 
 ing I feel all my fears vanish ; my mission 
 to you is full of consolation. If I had to 
 open your eyes to yourself, to combat your 
 illusions, I could be uneasy, because of the 
 feebleness of my parts ; but here the mercy 
 of God has done all. I speak to a soul 
 which knows its own misery, which be- 
 wails the gulf towards which that misery 
 is drawing it, whilst a powerful hand holds 
 it back, to which, doubtless, it will not fail 
 to surrender itself. If I had to undeceive 
 you about the enchanting fascination of all 
 earthly things, your great youth and the 
 perils to which you are exposed might 
 alarm me ; but happy, happy mother, I have 
 only to congratulate myself ; scarcely have 
 you tasted these delights when you feel 
 their hollowness and insufficiency. Your 
 heart finds nothing here that can satisfy 
 it. You examine men, you have already 
 passed judgment upon them ; you say that 
 they are nearly all foolish, and that the 
 
172 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 number of the wise is very small ; how is 
 it to be thought, then, that you could sac- 
 rifice your conscience, your peace of mind, 
 your eternal happiness, to acquire the es- 
 teem of people whom you scorn, and of 
 a world whose corruption horrifies you ? 
 And why, setting aside the powerful rea- 
 sons which I doubt not will determine you, 
 should you not prefer the approval of that 
 small number, which assuredly you admit 
 to have chosen the better part, since you 
 style them wise ? Besides, would it not be 
 easy to prove to you that they who have 
 done most to merit a vain esteem have 
 never won it ? 
 
 " The world, inconsistent in its conduct, is 
 not always so in its judgments, and do you 
 know who are the people towards whom its 
 railleries and sarcasms are most surely di- 
 rected ? It is those weak characters, those 
 narrow minds which, belonging neither 
 to God nor the world, go on floating in 
 their uncertainty, not doing the good they 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 173 
 
 love, nor avoiding the evil that they fear. 
 They lay themselves open to ridicule by 
 their inconsistencies, and reap, as the fruit 
 of their pains, only the general scorn due to 
 the cowardice of their behaviour. There- 
 fore, humanly speaking, what is necessary 
 to get men's esteem ? To be in harmony 
 with one's self, to be virtuous, and believe 
 that this worldling who vents his malignity 
 in mocking, if he finds you beyond attack, 
 does homage in his soul to the principles 
 against which he inveighs only because 
 they are his condemnation. Your personal 
 interest, then, is found to be at one with 
 religion ; it teaches you to despise men's 
 judgments, while you see that this is the 
 surest way to get their esteem. Religion 
 asks no more, but she is not content with 
 so stingy a reward. What encouragements 
 does she not offer. ! What hopes ! What 
 arguments of every kind ! Ah, my child, 
 lift yourself for a moment above all that is 
 created ; behold the heavenly treasures, 
 
1 74 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 and then, if it be possible, be ambitious for 
 the earthly ! See the crown which awaits 
 you, which is promised to your courage, 
 to your perseverance, and then estimate 
 the frivolities, the toys with which men 
 amuse themselves here below. Fill yourself 
 with love of your God, and you will quickly 
 know how to value the esteem and the 
 friendship of men. Go into your own heart, 
 and you will find Him there. He calls you, 
 He entreats you, He awaits you, and gives 
 to you a feeling of unchangeable peace 
 whenever you have recourse to Him, and 
 submit yourself to his divine will. You 
 will try in vain to find peace elsewhere. 
 " What, then, holds you back, my dear 
 Ernestine ? Your mind is convinced, yea, 
 more, it is enlightened ; your heart is 
 touched ; you blush for your weakness ; 
 should you still yield te it ? What have 
 you to put in the balance ? The jests of 
 those who will not have the strength to 
 imitate you, .... the railing of a few god- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 175 
 
 less ones, .... no, such puerile fear will 
 not make you hesitate henceforward ; you 
 will not set yourself up as a preacher ; this 
 role has not devolved upon you, and in 
 sooth you would not have acquired this 
 right ; but a firm behaviour and constant, 
 in harmony with your principles, this will 
 be your mission ; you will join with it, ac- 
 cording to your possibility, all the attrac- 
 tion that gayety, amiability, and simplicity 
 can offer, to make it more efficacious. The 
 gentle, quiet, and reserved manner in which 
 you will receive all the bad jokes launched 
 against you will soon take away all desire 
 to make them. You will give no handle 
 against you, because all will be regulated 
 and consistent. This conduct, sustained 
 for two or three years only, will gain for 
 you complete liberty ; the world will weary 
 of persecuting you. Certain of being able 
 to gain nothing, it will exercise its mis- 
 chievousness upon others, whom your ex- 
 ample will, perhaps, help to sustain. You 
 
1 76 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 will be greatly astonished, at the end of a 
 few years of oblivion, to see those same 
 persons who may have seemed to treat 
 you as a mean-spirited and narrow per- 
 son, seek you out, consult you in puzzling 
 situations, prop themselves by the reputa- 
 tion you have acquired, and feel honoured 
 by any interest which you may take in 
 
 them But, my child, why fall back 
 
 upon human motives, which I am quite 
 willing should encourage and sustain you 
 for the moment, but which are not made 
 for a soul like yours. If you needed simi- 
 lar incentives, could I forget that your atti- 
 tude towards me, your confidence, your 
 sentiments, give me the most powerful that 
 I could offer you, and that to speak to you 
 of my happiness, my satisfaction, would be 
 to decide you ? But, far be it from me to stop 
 you there ; your heart, moreover, speaks 
 
 to you, mine feels it only too deeply 
 
 No, my child, we will both have purer and 
 more powerful motives, and the mother of 
 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 177 
 
 Ernestine will show herself worthy of her 
 confidence, by teaching her to know the 
 only real good, the only interest for which 
 one should sacrifice everything. Run the 
 race that is open to you, but never lose 
 from sight the eternity which ends it ; let 
 all your actions which tend toward this 
 goal be hallowed and animated by this 
 hope. Ah, my child, there is the happi- 
 ness which my heart solicits for you, that 
 for which I would lay down my life, my re- 
 pose ; it is there that I desire to possess 
 you, and to find you again, no more to leave 
 you." 
 
 This language was understood by the 
 lovely young woman, so truly worthy of her 
 mother, in spite of the sensible difference 
 of their characters. There was the same 
 elevation and generosity of sentiment. The 
 Lord had placed them side by side ; one 
 to call out abundantly the treasures of wis- 
 dom contained in the maternal heart ; the 
 other to bring a counterpoise to all the 
 
 12 
 
178 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 seductions of mind and heart, for, notwith- 
 standing a precocious maturity, notwith- 
 standing the light of faith which illumi- 
 nates certain souls at a tender age, and 
 makes them say with the wise man, even 
 before having made the experiment, " Van- 
 ity of vanities, all is vanity, except to love 
 God and to serve Him ; " it is rare that 
 youth is exempt from sweet illusions, and 
 gracious and very natural hopes which may 
 perfectly agree with the purest longings 
 and the holiest affections. 
 
 Soon a new happiness and new duties 
 came to fill this new existence, where life 
 seemed to run over. 
 
 Madame de Rastignac received her little 
 Zenaide with transports of love, and she re- 
 solved to bring her up, as she had been 
 herself brought up by the most watchful 
 and devoted of mothers. To complete her 
 joy, she heard at the same time, that her 
 father was hastening towards France. For, 
 in fact, Monsieur de Doudeauville, impa- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 79 
 
 tient to see his family, had set forth on the 
 first news of the fall of the Directory (i8th 
 Brumaire, '99), without waiting for the de- 
 cree of armistice expected from the first 
 consul by all the emigrants ; but the diffi- 
 culties of the journey this time were en- 
 countered in the foreign countries, which, 
 defeated by Bonaparte, now distrusted all 
 the French. By the aid of his title of 
 Spanish grandee, under the name of Am- 
 brosio, born a quarter of an hour's distance 
 from Madrid (the Castle of Madrid in the 
 Bois de Bologne being only half a league 
 from Paris), the Duke of Doudeauville, 
 without telling falsehoods, traversed Aus- 
 tria and Italy as a Spaniard. He got as 
 far as Lyons, from whence he intended to 
 proceed the next day, when a letter from 
 his wife stopped him : being anxious, she 
 begs him to wait for regular papers before 
 finishing his journey. He submits, not 
 without a struggle, for when one has nearly 
 reached a long desired goal, minutes be- 
 
180 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 come hours. After eight days of unbea* 
 able waiting, receiving nothing, he decides 
 to take up his journey, and, with the per- 
 versity one often sees in the affairs of this 
 poor world, hardly has he left Lyons when 
 the good duchess reaches it ; to make the 
 greatest speed, she has travelled night and 
 day. Arrived at the hotel, she eagerly 
 asks for Monsieur Ambrosio. 
 " Madame will surely breakfast." 
 " Dear me, no ; I only want Monsieur 
 Ambrosio ! " Seeing the surprise of the 
 landlady, Madame de Doudeauville adds in- 
 stantly, " this gentleman is my husband." 
 To satisfy her impatience, they turn over 
 the leaves of the strangers' book, and tell 
 her that after staying for ten days in Ly- 
 ons, Monsieur Ambrosio has just left 
 
 Much annoyed, and not understanding this 
 conduct, which a lost letter explained, the 
 noble traveller exclaims : "How strange it 
 is, .... and what could he do here ? " 
 The landlady, misunderstanding the feel- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 181 
 
 ing which agitates her, thinks it her duty to 
 say : " Be reassured, madam, he led a per- 
 fectly correct life here. He went to walk 
 a great deal, but alone with his little dog." 
 In spite of her disappointment, Madame de 
 Doudeauville cannot help laughing, and an- 
 swers that she is not uneasy on that score. 
 Then she asks for post-horses, and hastens 
 her departure. 
 
 The meeting takes place at Macon. Ig- 
 noring her fatigue and poor health, in 
 order not to delay the happiness of them 
 all, the happy duchess wishes to continue 
 her journey : very soon the whole family 
 is reunited. 
 
 Holy Scripture says of the virtuous 
 woman : " The heart of her husband doth 
 safely trust in her, so that he shall have no 
 need of spoil. She considereth a field and 
 buyeth it. Her children rise up and call 
 her blessed ; her husband also, and he 
 praises her." The application is easy ; not 
 only had Madame de Doudeauville pre- 
 
1 82 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 served by her courage all her property, 
 but, says the duke, " She had beautified it 
 by her cares, and improved it by a wise 
 administration. 
 
 "The first time that she conducted me 
 to one of our estates, she presented it to 
 me like a conquest, with a sweet and mod- 
 est pride, which became her well. I, who 
 had for long despaired of seeing myself in 
 these mourned-for places ; I whose am- 
 bition in my days of exile had been to be 
 able to retain my gardener's house thus, I 
 thought I dreamed in finding myself rein- 
 stated as master. 
 
 " The benevolent fairy to whom I owed 
 the preservation of this beautiful domain 
 had paid me the delicate attention of 
 appointing as steward my valet de chambre, 
 whom I had sent back to France eight 
 years before. 
 
 "This excellent man, who had been 
 with me from my tenderest childhood, em- 
 braced me with transport, while he wept 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 183 
 
 with emotion. His tears called forth my 
 own. 
 
 " This was only the prelude to what I 
 was to experience in Paris, on finding again 
 my mother, my children, some relatives, 
 and devoted friends. It was a joy, a whirl, 
 an intoxication ! " 
 
 Alas ! a few pages farther on we read : 
 "The happiness which I tasted with my 
 own dear ones, was not to be of long 
 duration." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DEATH OF MADAME DE RASTIGNAC. 
 
 UP to this time, as we have seen, suf- 
 fering has not been lacking to the pre- 
 cious existence whose course we love to 
 follow ; as the charming young child, the 
 gracious young woman, the brilliant court 
 lady in whatever situation we consider 
 her, we see always those shades of earth, 
 which an ignorant hand would wish to ban- 
 ish, but without which we have beneath our 
 eyes only the flat representation of fleet- 
 ing enjoyment. 
 
 For the Duchess of Doudeauville, these 
 shadows, these trials, were always growing 
 heavier ; during the torture of the Rev- 
 olution, she trembled for the beings most 
 dear to her ; she felt every fear, every ap- 
 prehension ; only the Lord was almost con- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 185 
 
 tented that she should foresee and accept 
 the greatest sacrifices. A visible angel to 
 all her own, she was marvellously guarded 
 and defended in her turn by a celestial 
 protector. But at last the sword must 
 pierce through her soul, and like the Virgin 
 of Sorrows, towards whom she feels drawn, 
 she finds her appointed place at the foot 
 of the cross ; we shall see her there, brave 
 and generous, bow to the hand of God. 
 She has braved the scaffold, but she is to 
 have her martyrdom still, one which all 
 mothers will understand. 
 
 In the very midst of festivities, and in 
 the intoxication of the tenderest joys, Ma- 
 dame de Rastignac suddenly feels a serious 
 failing of health ; a persistent cough, ac- 
 companied by fever, a general condition of 
 weakness, sad symptoms of a grave disease, 
 these cause alarm in a family whose de- 
 light she is ; for, if she gave to the world 
 her gayety and the graces of her mind, she 
 reserved her whole heart for her own people. 
 
1 86 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Relying on the good air of Montmirail as 
 the best remedy, her mother takes her there 
 in the course of July, 1802 ; but instead of 
 being checked, the malady becomes more 
 evident, and, towards the end of August, 
 they hasten back to Paris, where they can 
 find all the resources of art. Madame de 
 Doudeauville then installs herself in her 
 daughter's room ; for nearly three months 
 she passes her days there, and often her 
 nights too, hanging upon the beating of her 
 heart, watching in her face the progress of 
 an illness of whose gravity she has a pre- 
 sentiment, while with all her might she 
 clings to the faintest ray of hope. But 
 the Lord does not permit a long truce to 
 those whom He has chosen to glorify Him 
 more especially. To the sacrifices which 
 each day exacts, He adds harder trials ; 
 He makes them drink, at times, of the deep 
 waters of tribulation ; and that which is an 
 alarm to the erring or slumbering soul is 
 a recompense to the faithful soul, become 
 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 187 
 
 the spouse, the friend ; to whom the Lord 
 says, as once to his favoured disciples : 
 " Can ye drink of my cup ? " 
 
 Let us follow the mother and daughter 
 in this last struggle, where they rival each 
 other in faith, self-abnegation, and generos- 
 ity. A letter of Monsieur 1'Abbe" Legris- 
 Duval has left us a document upon these 
 last hours, precious for its touching edifi- 
 cation. Profoundly anxious, but always 
 mistress of herself, Madame de Doudeau- 
 ville, so soon as she perceives the danger, 
 desires that the minister of the Lord should 
 come to aid, sustain, console, and if it 
 needs must be, to prepare for her depar- 
 ture the child of her love. What she pro- 
 poses is very simple ; the priest has always 
 had his place at the fireside ; he is a fam- 
 ily friend, and as such he comes to talk 
 with the invalid, to speak to her of the 
 many graces attached to suffering, of the 
 merits which she may acquire. These 
 strengthening words are welcomed by a 
 
1 88 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 spul accustomed from its infancy to read in 
 the great book of the Divine Will. 
 
 " In loving my mother," says Madame de 
 Rastignac, " I learned to love virtue. I 
 always thought it the voice of God that I 
 heard when she spoke, and in obeying her, 
 I felt it to be His will that I did." 
 
 The beginnings of the disease were 
 marked by the terror due to vague and sad 
 presentiments ; then she invoked God, and 
 afterwards, turning towards her mother, she 
 said to her : " Stay with me ; near you I 
 have never been afraid of anything." And 
 she slept tranquilly in this safe-keeping. 
 
 The hope of entire and quick recovery 
 came quickly to this ardent nature prone 
 to confidence, then the fears returned. She 
 hid them carefully from her mother, her 
 father, her husband ; but at times she al- 
 lowed others to see her forebodings. Feel- 
 ing herself more ill, she said one day: 
 
 " I am resigned to all God may will, but 
 I confess that it would cost me much to 
 give up life." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 189 
 
 " That is natural," said some one, " at 
 twenty-one years, with all the advantages 
 that insure happiness." 
 
 " No," she said, laughing, " these are no 
 ties ; you don't understand me." 
 
 " But you are a wife and a mother ! " 
 
 " Ah, I feel that more keenly than ever ! 
 And I am a daughter." These last words, 
 pronounced in an accent of tenderness and 
 grief, were heart-rending. 
 
 She who in infancy had found her hap- 
 piness in relieving the poor, whose greatest 
 pleasure had been to give, provided that 
 her charities were kept secret, she who had 
 always been kind and devoted to her pa- 
 rents, friends, and servants, forgot herself 
 up to the last moment, in busying herself 
 with thought for others. Six weeks before 
 her death, a prey to the sharpest sufferings, 
 she had set her mind upon writing to her 
 husband who was kept away from her in 
 spite of himself. She feared that the sight 
 of a strange handwriting might cause him 
 uneasiness. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Her condition now forbidding her to 
 keep long any one position or to make any 
 movement without acute pain, the desire 
 of practising patience, and the fear of af- 
 flicting those about her, arrested every com- 
 plaint, stifled every sigh, and when, sur- 
 prised by the violence of the suffering, she 
 let a groan escape her, she would temper 
 the impression thus made by a smile, a re- 
 assuring word. Each one received tokens 
 of her goodness ; her servants rendered 
 her no service that she did n't show her 
 satisfaction. To distract her father from 
 his alarm, she would cast about her for any- 
 thing that might interest him. As soon 
 as her husband returned, they had good 
 talks together. They spoke of the future, 
 and especially of a plan made for mutual 
 sanctification. 
 
 Every day the invalid begged her mother 
 to read a chapter from the Gospel to her, on 
 which she made comments ; and after the 
 reading she would kiss the holy book re- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 191 
 
 spectfully. " At what are you astonished," 
 she said to those who saw her, " is it not 
 the word of God?" 
 
 On the soth of October, thinking her 
 not ill enough to receive the Holy Viati- 
 cum, Monsieur LeVis brought her the com- 
 munion at midnight*. The next day, the 
 joy and sensible improvement of the sick 
 woman attested her happiness. 
 
 " How good the Lord is," she said, " can 
 one ever love Him enough ? How He re- 
 pays us for our sacrifices ! Could I refuse 
 Him one ? . . . . We make so many for 
 the world ! Let Him dispose of me as He 
 will, I am sure that it will always be for 
 my good." 
 
 She even came to cherish her sufferings. 
 " I should be sorry to have less pain," she 
 often said ; " Jesus Christ bore much greater 
 suffering." She made it a rule to accept 
 what was offered to her, in spite of any re- 
 pugnance, in memory of the vinegar and 
 myrrh given to her Saviour. 
 
192 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 In the early days of November a new 
 consultation pronounced the disease in- 
 curable. Her father was present. The 
 mother, at the daughter's side, awaited the 
 answer, in mortal apprehension ; they took 
 care not to bring it to her. But the silence 
 revealed everything. .Without asking any 
 questions, as soon as the doctors are gone, 
 she hastens to the foot of the altar, her 
 ordinary refuge ; here she meets her hus- 
 band, and reads in his tear-stained eyes 
 the terrible decree, offers with him her sac- 
 rifice, calls the Virgin of Sorrows to her 
 aid, and returns to her daughter with a 
 face of perfect calmness. In respect to her 
 silence, the invalid, who knows that her 
 fate has been decided, asks no question, 
 and when they try to sound her thoughts, 
 she is content to answer, "I am in the 
 hands of Providence, as it were in my 
 mother's arms." 
 
 However, in spite of the forebodings in- 
 tensified at intervals, Madame de Rastig- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 193 
 
 nac, as is often the case in this disease, 
 hoped for a cure. God allows these alter- 
 nations to give the dying person the merit 
 of the sacrifice, and yet not to have him 
 always facing a weight too crushing for his 
 weakness. Being warned by her confessor, 
 Monsieur Levis, she seemed astonished to 
 be so near her end, but, as always, her 
 thought was for her mother. She feared 
 that this presage of the last sacraments 
 might give her a mortal blow ; and, lest 
 another should wound this heart whose 
 tenderness she knew, she would give to no 
 one the charge of preparing her. 
 
 This woman of twenty, before whom the 
 tomb is opening, and who can hardly speak, 
 is about then to encourage her mother to 
 see her die. Calling her to her bedside, 
 as soon as the confessor is gone, she says 
 to her, " Monsieur LeVis has proposed to 
 me to receive the sacraments in a day or 
 two ; do you not think it would be for my 
 13 
 
1 94 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 edification ? Extreme Unction never does 
 harm." 
 
 With her soul torn within her, but calm 
 and tranquil in appearance, the mother 
 says in answer everything that religion and 
 tenderness can inspire at such a moment. 
 The sick woman being reassured, then al- 
 lows her heart to speak freely : " I did not 
 think myself so ill ; the veil has just been 
 torn away ; I must die ; this news having 
 moved me, I had need of you to set myself 
 right." 
 
 Let us hear the answer, worthy of the 
 mother of the Maccabees : " My daughter, 
 if God sees in your heart the submission 
 of Isaac, and in mine the faith of Abra- 
 ham, perhaps He will turn aside the sword ! 
 .... But let us call to our mind Jesus 
 Christ, His obedience, His self-devotion." 
 
 " O my mother ; my only friend, you 
 know why I should regret life ; . . . . but 
 fear nothing, your daughter will be worthy 
 of you." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 195 
 
 She was indeed so, for a little after she 
 added in a steady voice : " Before you go 
 out of the room, the sacrifice must be made 
 with the perfection that God demands. 
 .... Mother, my sacrifice is accom- 
 plished Let us bless God, calm- 
 ness is restored. But if any trace of emo- 
 tion be visible, they might be afflicted. 
 Let us read a chapter in the ' Imitation.' " 
 They opened at hazard, and fell upon this 
 chapter : " On the royal road of the holy 
 cross." The mother emphasizes these 
 words, " In the cross is the strength of 
 soul ; in the cross, the joy of the mind, the 
 consummation of virtue, the perfection of 
 holiness. If you bear the cross with a good 
 heart, it will carry you on and conduct you 
 to the longed-for goal, where you will cease 
 to suffer." 
 
 "Take up your cross, then, and follow 
 Jesus, and you will attain to eternal life." 
 
 The invalid, encouraged, enraptured, 
 cries with transport : " What a treasure is 
 
196 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the cross ! .... It is very true, that death 
 is a gain, and suffering an actual good." 
 
 Remembering, then, some trifling details 
 of which she had spoken to her mother, 
 she imparts them to her, and adds : " I 
 thank God in dying, that I have never had 
 a single thought which was unknown to 
 you." 
 
 Leaving her daughter peaceful and full 
 of confidence, the poor mother, broken by 
 the effort which she had just made, re- 
 tires for a moment. Pale, with choking 
 breath, she was heard to say, from time to 
 time, without shedding a tear : " I hope no 
 longer ; my daughter is going to die." 
 
 Aware of her danger, the sick woman 
 wished to know the exact degree. On the 
 next day she asked to speak alone with the 
 physician. The conversation was a kind 
 of interrogatory, and in questioning the 
 doctor most eagerly, she watched his eyes, 
 his expression, his smallest movement. 
 The answer was a sentence which his hu- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 197 
 
 manity wished in vain to mitigate. She 
 heard it, without being troubled, and with- 
 out moving, .... while the physician, his 
 heart heavy, his mind struck by so great 
 youth, trouble, and courage united, declared 
 that he could not recover from the impres- 
 sion during the entire day. 
 
 The moments grew precious ; the sick 
 woman spoke to the Abbe" Legris-Duval, on 
 that very day, of the blessedness of re- 
 ceiving the sacraments. 
 
 "It will be to-morrow," she added. 
 
 " To-morrow ? Your mother, your hus- 
 band know about it ; they would surely 
 wish that this sad duty were discharged as 
 soon as possible. The waiting will be cruel 
 to these loving hearts." 
 
 " You are right ; I do not wish to make 
 them suffer; I shall cost them sorrow 
 enough. It shall be this evening. I wish 
 to spare the feelings of my relatives this 
 scene, but I have begged my mother to be 
 here ; it would be too hard for her to keep 
 
198 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 away. Besides, I need her presence ; she 
 is my good angel ; she is my life ; I could 
 indeed believe I have .never done anything 
 well without her ; I owe to her cares the 
 prolonging of my days, and to her virtues 
 my salvation." 
 
 At the news of the ceremony which was 
 to take place, the whole household seemed 
 to have been struck by a sentence of death. 
 The old servants wept as if they were going 
 to lose one of their own children ; conster- 
 nation is spread abroad ; but by the sick- 
 bed peace reigns. Fear and anxiety seem 
 banished from this sanctuary, where the 
 constancy of the mother and the resigna- 
 tion of the daughter have triumphed. How 
 grand they are, both of them, in these last 
 moments. The mother, on her knees, con- 
 trols her tears, and allows only accents of 
 faith to escape from her heart, uniting her 
 prayers with those of the church ; offer- 
 ing the hands of the daughter herself for 
 the Extreme Unction. She, peaceful and 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 1 99 
 
 perfectly collected, responds to the prayers 
 with a steady voice. 
 
 "This is the body of your Saviour," says 
 the priest to her ; " do you believe this ? " 
 
 " Ah ! how I believe it ! " she cries ; and 
 these words were emphasized with such 
 fervour of love, that those who heard wept 
 in repeating them. 
 
 After the ceremony the fever abated, the 
 rest of the day was calm, her powers seemed 
 to take on more life, but the next day the 
 condition became so alarming, that more 
 than once they thought the last moment 
 had come. With her eyes fixed upon the 
 crucifix, the sick woman repeated lovingly : 
 " I unite my sufferings to Thine, my Sav- 
 iour. Thy merits are infinite; they will 
 supply my insufficiency." 
 
 Towards evening she asked for the Abbe 
 Legris-Duval. " Be my interpreter to my 
 mother when I shall be no more," she said 
 to him. " Conjure her to live after I am 
 gone, in spite of her sorrow ; express to 
 her this, my last wish." 
 
2OO Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " You feel very ill, then ? " 
 
 " Yes, very ill." 
 
 " The poor mother ! . . . . But you will 
 pray God to comfort her ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes ; but soothe you her grief ; per- 
 suade her to take care of herself." 
 
 " Your mother has ties and duties left 
 which are dear to her ; she will attend to 
 her health, you may be sure ; but at all 
 events, if we must ask it of her, who can do 
 it better than you ? Speak to her yourself ; 
 we shall be sure of being heard, if we recall 
 to her what her dying daughter has said." 
 
 " This very evening, I will get her prom- 
 ise to live and act as mother towards my 
 little girl. I hope that she will find Er- 
 nestine again in Zenaide. Monsieur de 
 Rastignac has already begged her to adopt 
 the child, and she has consented. How 
 happy is my daughter ; she will be brought 
 up by my mother." 
 
 There was more conversation ; she added 
 in conclusion : " What will you do for me 
 when I am dead ? " 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 201 
 
 " I shall mourn for you, as all will do who 
 know you, and I shall pray God for you." 
 
 " And I ? I shall be busy for you all 
 in heaven." 
 
 " You are sure of going there, then ? " 
 
 " I have that confidence. I abandon my- 
 self entirely to God, and I am without so- 
 licitude." 
 
 A sinking condition followed. Madame 
 de Doudeauville came in haste, and being 
 alone with her mother, the sufferer, with a 
 touching confidence, implores her to keep 
 up for the sake of all her dear ones. She 
 bequeaths to her her dear Zdnaide. She 
 then begs that they will ask the Abb6 Le- 
 gris-Duval to come back again, as she de- 
 sires to dictate her last wishes to him. 
 
 " Never," says he, " had I seen her more 
 herself, or more lovely, and yet she was in 
 a kind of agony. Cold sweats, continual 
 sinkings, hiccoughings, announced the su- 
 preme moment." She asked him to take 
 her writing-desk, and added : 
 
2O2 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " I wish to make my will, for, I am of 
 age ; I am twenty-one years old." 
 
 " A will, madame ? I am not a notary ; 
 I do not know the proper form." 
 
 "It is only some provision for my pa- 
 rents, and for Monsieur de Rastignac ; I 
 have never had anything to do but to make 
 my desires known to them ; besides, I will 
 sign, .... if I can, for I am very weak. 
 I would like to say that I leave the world 
 with resignation, but grieving deeply for 
 my family, arrange all that." 
 
 The dying woman, recalling then all the 
 memories, all the affections of her life, 
 expressed herself with so much ardour, 
 that her secretary could hardly follow her. 
 " How many tears I shall cause my mother ! 
 And what a sacrifice to leave her ! She has 
 always made me so happy! People have 
 said that my education was too severe. 
 
 How little they knew my mother If 
 
 I had to complain, it would be of too much 
 happiness ; perhaps I was too much accus- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 203 
 
 tomed to fulfil my duties, through senti- 
 ment for her. She has known how to make 
 everything agreeable to me, through my 
 one idea of pleasing her. It is the truth ; 
 
 you have witnessed this yourself 
 
 Promise me to repeat to her often, that she 
 made the happiness of her daughter, and if 
 I have caused her pain, implore her to par- 
 don me." 
 
 Afterwards she spoke of her father ; 
 she compassionated his misfortunes : " So 
 young to have been banished from his peo- 
 ple for ten years, and to come back to his 
 family only to see his daughter die before 
 his eyes ! It will make him very unhappy ! 
 My brother Sosthenes will take my place 
 to him ; he will do better than I. Tell him 
 that I counted on his good heart, and that 
 this idea comforted me in dying. Tell 
 Monsieur de Rastignac that I wished to 
 live to make him happy." Then she spoke 
 of her aunt, Madame de Montesquieu, whom 
 she loved very much, because she had al- 
 ways told her the truth. 
 
204 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 At the end, she wished to sign, but the 
 good duchess had to be called, to place the 
 writing-desk comfortably. Her daughter 
 hastened to prepare her. "Mother," she 
 said, laughing, " I am very weak ; that 
 must be the case when one makes his will ; 
 my hand trembles ; I think I am losing my 
 memory, too. How must I write la Roche- 
 foucauld ? " And she continued to laugh. 
 
 Sustaining her daughter with one hand, 
 and steadying the paper with the other, 
 the courageous mother peacefully dictated 
 each letter of the signature. 
 
 This last night was cruel ; all the house 
 were up. The sick woman seeing a servant 
 come into her room, said to him : " Why 
 don't you go to bed ? I would rather not 
 disturb anybody." 
 
 At the moment when her mother is her 
 only support, she entreats her to go and 
 take some rest ; on her refusing, she insists. 
 Then the poor mother goes, but only to 
 hide herself in the corner of the room. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 205 
 
 She stays there for two whole hours, not 
 daring to move, scarcely breathing, for fear 
 of being perceived. At last, she allows 
 herself to be torn away, as her daughter 
 seems better ; but a moment or two after, 
 she comes in again. " Mother," says the 
 dying one, " the hour is come. Shall we 
 both have courage ? " 
 
 The Abb Legris-Duval, coming in at v 
 that moment, stands dumb with admiration 
 before the picture presented to him. The 
 expiring one has already put on the celes- 
 tial glory of a transported serenity. Her 
 mother stands at her side, her eyes riveted 
 on her daughter. She is calm, but affect- 
 ing in her intense expression of maternal 
 anguish. She is great in all the majesty of 
 religion and misfortune. Addressing her- 
 self to the priest, the young woman says : 
 
 " I am about to die ; will you promise not 
 to leave me until the end ? " 
 
 " Ah, madame, I should have asked that 
 of you as a favour." 
 
206 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " Nor you, either, my good mother ? " A 
 gentle embrace assures her. She adds : 
 "Let us make an act of renunciation as 
 perfect as possible. My God, I surrender 
 into Thy hands my soul and my life. I 
 abandon all my interests to Thy love ; do 
 with me as it pleases Thee. I unite my 
 sufferings and my death to that of Jesus 
 Christ, in whom alone I hope." 
 
 Having thus expressed her own feeling, 
 she asks them to pray with her, and repeats 
 the acts of love and of faith pronounced by 
 the priest, as if already she felt herself in 
 the sensible presence of her God. While 
 the witnesses of these last moments with- 
 drew to give free course to their tears, the 
 mother, always completely self-controlled, 
 stays by her daughter, joins in her act of 
 sacrifice, and' makes her repeat it. 
 
 All the house being assembled for the 
 prayers of those in extremity, the sick 
 woman turns to her father, and collecting 
 all her strength, asks aloud for a last 
 blessing. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 207 
 
 He springs towards his daughter, em- 
 braces and blesses her. " Father, spare 
 me," she says to him ; " I feel too much the 
 sacrifices I have to make." 
 
 Her mother, on her knees, betrays her- 
 self this time ; her tears flow. " Preserve 
 your courage," says Ernestine to her ; " we 
 shall need it to the end." The husband, the 
 brother, also, have their turn, and receive 
 the last farewell which is only a rendezvous 
 for heaven. Hope was so vivid, that it 
 already transported the dying one to the 
 happy term of exile. " Shall I be in heaven 
 soon ? Is life about to end ? When shall 
 I see my God?" Then moderating her 
 desire, she added : " Let us not yield our- 
 selves to impatience ; that would be giving 
 place to temptation." She confided to the 
 minister of Jesus Christ, with simplicity, 
 her slightest imperfections, and when she 
 could no longer make herself quite heard, 
 her mother interpreted her confession. 
 
 In the morning, when the Holy Sacrifice 
 
208 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 is offered with her intention, she renews 
 her own sacrifice, her sufferings being ex- 
 treme. " I am making my purgatory," she 
 says, joyfully, as she keeps her eyes fixed 
 upon the crucifix, and upon an image of the 
 Blessed Virgin, which she kisses in turn, 
 pronouncing the name of Jesus and Mary. 
 Her last words were for her God and for 
 her who had taught her to love Him. Feel- 
 ing her tongue stiffen, she turns and says 
 in a dying voice : " Mother, forgive me and 
 bless your daughter." 
 
 Although she had received the holy Via- 
 ticum three days before, Monsieur Levis, 
 thinking that so great faith and generosity 
 authorized a dispensation, proposes to ad- 
 minister the Holy Communion again. " It 
 is all that I desire," she says, with trans- 
 port. They make haste ; the time is short. 
 For a moment her eyelids drop ; she seems 
 to lose the use of her senses ; but scarcely 
 is she in the presence of Him who has 
 said " I am the resurrection and the life," 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 209 
 
 when her eyes open, and she is conscious 
 of her privilege. She had feared that she 
 might not be able to swallow the wafer, but 
 with an impulse full of simple frankness, 
 she cries : " Mother, I was able to receive 
 it." These were her last words. At the 
 same moment she lost consciousness, but 
 without agitation or effort. Her condition 
 was more like the peace of a soul lost in 
 sweet contemplation, than the last failing 
 of nature. 
 
 While those who stood by, bathed in 
 tears, asked each other whether she was in 
 heaven or on earth, the dying woman bends 
 her head towards her mother, and gives up 
 her soul so gently, that Monsieur Levis is 
 the first to perceive it. 
 
 But the pious duchess, on her knees, 
 motionless, watches still for a movement, a 
 breath. She calls Ernestine ; no one dares 
 to answer. At last, Monsieur Levis, with- 
 out saying a word, draws the crucifix from 
 the daughter's hands, and places it in those 
 
2 io Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 of the mother. How touching, how sub- 
 lime was this afflicted mother Not a 
 
 murmur, not a cry, but a torrent of tears, 
 hitherto restrained, now suddenly deluges 
 this cross. She seizes it, embraces it, and 
 pressing it to her lips, seems to wish that 
 she too might leave her last sigh there. 
 
 A moment after she rises, approaches 
 her daughter, puts her mouth a hundred 
 times to the half open mouth, the lifeless 
 eyes, questions her with her gaze, embraces 
 her again, and sits down to see her better, 
 and to satisfy her hunger for the last time 
 with this heart-rending spectacle. 
 
 After a moment of silence, Monsieur de 
 Doudeauville proposes to his wife to with- 
 draw. " I will do what you like," she an- 
 swers, " though I am better off here than 
 anywhere else." A few more minutes hav- 
 ing gone by, he insists anew, and entreats 
 her to go away. She gets up then, goes 
 towards the bed, falls on her knees, makes 
 a short prayer, again embraces those dear 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 211 
 
 remains, and without a gesture or a cry, 
 leaves her daughter forever. 
 
 Having gone down to her family, she 
 receives them with touching sweetness. 
 But the measure of her strength is spent. 
 Soon she loses consciousness and falls into 
 a sort of delirium, succeeded by profound 
 exhaustion ; and yet in the intensest mo- 
 ment of her grief she keeps the expres- 
 sion and the feeling of complete resigna- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE. 
 
 JUST as one cannot prevent at times a 
 feeling of sadness in seeing the season de- 
 cline, so, when arrived at the middle of its 
 course, cold often enters the poor human 
 heart, which measures by its own experi- 
 ence the value of all good here below. 
 But let us not pity the heart, for at this 
 moment a rich and abundant harvest is 
 preparing; if the autumn has not the 
 charms and perfumes of the fresh season, 
 it has others no less agreeable, and more 
 precious for their usefulness. 
 
 Howbeit the second part of the exist- 
 ence of Madame de Doudeauville exhibits 
 less brilliant features, it is not less rich in 
 miracles of grace and holiness. Her mis- 
 sion continues ; the past has given her an 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 213 
 
 irresistible empire over her own people ; 
 in her constant labour to keep herself in 
 the background, whilst devoting herself 
 to the happiness of all about her, she 
 has become sovereign of the hearts which 
 willingly suffer an ascendency exercised 
 with so great love and modesty ! The 
 sight of her recalls the canticle of her who 
 is her model, " My soul doth magnify 
 the Lord, .... He hath regarded the 
 lowliness of his handmaiden ! " In truth, 
 while a thanksgiving is always on her lips, 
 even after the greatest sacrifices, it seems 
 as if the breath of vanity had no power to 
 touch her. The blow just fallen has left 
 in her heart a profound impression of sad- 
 ness ; the image of her daughter, ever be- 
 fore her eyes, brings her yet oftener to the 
 foot of the cross ; it is not distraction that 
 is wanted by this truly afflicted mother ; 
 she has need to unite her sorrow with that 
 of Calvary. 
 
 One of the dominant thoughts of the 
 
214 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 virtuous duchess since the Revolution has 
 been to contribute with all her power to 
 set up the overturned altars, to restore the 
 pious monuments to their proper destina- 
 tion, and the parishes to their legitimate 
 pastors. As soon as calm was somewhat 
 established, on going to live on her fa- 
 vourite estate, whose name she had borne 
 before her marriage, she hastened to take 
 the necessary steps with the authorities, 
 sparing neither trouble nor sacrifice of all 
 kinds, to put a faithful priest in the place 
 of the intruder who was supplying the 
 church of Montmirail. Thanks to her 
 care, and, above all, to her liberality, the 
 new cure" also entered the vicarage, which 
 had been transformed for several years 
 into barracks. 
 
 Whilst she was herself negotiating all 
 these affairs, and before they had arrived 
 at a happy conclusion, she bought at Mont- 
 Han, a suburb of Montmirail, the remains 
 of an old Benedictine priory. She desired 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 2 1 5 
 
 in this way to save the church from total 
 destruction, to have a sure place where the 
 Catholic worship would be exercised, and 
 to make an honourable amend to the Lord 
 for the outrages committed during the 
 Revolution. Another reason which deter- 
 mined her to buy this priory, was the piti- 
 able state in which she found the asylum 
 founded by the lamented John de Mont- 
 mirail ; the sick poor were in uncom- 
 fortable premises, given into hired hands, 
 without any true comfort for soul or body. 
 Madame de Doudeauville formed the proj- 
 ect of appropriating the greater part of the 
 buildings of Montl^an to this hospital. 
 
 In the time of the Gondi de Retz, the 
 Castle of Montmirail had sheltered Saint 
 Vincent de Paul, then tutor to the famous 
 cardinal ; and the admirable founder of 
 Saint-Lazan, and of the Sisters of Charity, 
 did not forget the little town of Brie, in 
 the first attempts at religious establish- 
 ments, which he planned at that time. 
 
2 1 6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Faithful to these sacred and honourable 
 memories, the virtuous duchess confided 
 the new asylum to the intelligent and 
 devoted care of Sisters of Charity. She 
 added to it a little free school and a work 
 room for poor orphans ; but it was not 
 without great difficulty that she realized 
 her holy plans. 
 
 It was in the very midst of this zealous 
 work, that the good God afflicted her in 
 the most sensible manner by calling to 
 Himself her beloved daughter. This sad 
 event made her resolve to reserve for her- 
 self the part of the church which for sev- 
 eral years had been a pilgrimage of the 
 Blessed Virgin ; to repair it, consecrate it 
 to the cross, and to have a vault hollowed 
 out to receive her Ernestine. She wished 
 to have her near herself ; to pray over her 
 tomb for the consummation of her happi- 
 ness ; to find there the inspiration to do 
 any good work, and from the hope of re- 
 union to draw the courage needed to be 
 faithful to all that grace demands. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 217 
 
 While pursuing her plan, her heart is 
 again saddened by a grievous loss. After 
 being detained at Paris, to hasten the wind- 
 ing up of some business, she made great 
 speed to rejoin her mother-in-law, whom 
 she had left at Montmirail unwell. She set 
 forth then, as fast as possible, with her hus- 
 band. On the way an accident to the car- 
 riage having made the good duchess fear 
 for a moment that her son was crushed to 
 death, she experienced such a shock that 
 her health was shaken by it for a long 
 time. This was only the beginning of the 
 troubles of this sad journey, As they 
 approached home, the embarrassment of, 
 the castle-servants, their hesitation in an- 
 swering the eager questions of the duke 
 
 and duchess, increased their anxiety 
 
 Their presentiments were only too well 
 founded ; the viscountess had just expired 
 in her easy-chair, without any suspicion 
 on her part or on the part of those about 
 her that she was near her end. The 
 
218 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 heart already wounded is more sensitive to 
 fresh grief, and Madame de Doudeauville 
 mourned with her husband a real mother, to 
 whom the heavy trials borne together had 
 knit her very closely. Amid her tears, there 
 remained the great, the one consolation, of 
 thinking that the sudden death had not 
 been unexpected. From contact with her 
 daughter-in-law, Madame de la Rochefou- 
 cauld had become as remarkable for piety as 
 she had always been for natural goodness. 
 
 Now the project of making of Montlean 
 a place of burial had raised many difficul- 
 ties. Madame de Doudeauville encoun- 
 tered opposition where she least expected 
 it ; but she followed up her undertaking 
 with as much firmness as moderation, and 
 finally triumphed over every obstacle. 
 
 On the 1 4th of September, 1804, the 
 chapel of Montlean was solemnly opened. 
 Monsieur 1'Abbe" Legris-Duval, in an elo- 
 quent discourse, announced the permission 
 given by the sovereign pontiff to dedicate 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 2 1 9 
 
 the altar to the Cross, and to celebrate 
 there the two feasts of the Invention and 
 Exaltation with full octave and rites. 
 
 Two days after, the remains of Madame 
 de Rastignac were brought from Paris 
 and deposited in the vaults at Montlean ; 
 they laid there, too, the body of the Vis- 
 countess of Rochefoucauld and the heart 
 of the Marshal of Estr6es. 
 
 Monsieur de Doudeauville was then trav- 
 elling in Italy with his son and his son-in- 
 law ; the virtuous duchess, who ordered all 
 the preparations for the ceremony, gives 
 him the account in this simple and touch- 
 ing description : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, To-day the trans- 
 portation of our beloved daughter is to 
 take place. Pardon the details that I am 
 going to give you, but I feel in my poor 
 heart that they will interest you. I had 
 not dared to mention the idea that pos- 
 sessed me, thinking it would be impos- 
 
22O Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 sible ; but nevertheless I asked Arnolet, 
 who from his attachment wished to be one 
 of the witnesses, to assure himself of the 
 condition in which she was. His manner 
 of answering, after seeking information, 
 showed me, that at the end of a year, it 
 was probable that nothing would remain. 
 But, to the astonishment of all, they found 
 her as she was at the moment of her death, 
 without the smallest sign of corruption, 
 without odour. Arnolet recognized her per- 
 fectly. They uncovered her face only, but 
 on changing her from one bier to another, 
 it was proved that the whole body was 
 equally well preserved. Why could n't I 
 have seen her once more ! They said she 
 had a beatific expression. If that, coupled 
 with the heroic sentiments of her last mo- 
 ments, could give me the certainty of her 
 present happiness, it seems to me I should 
 be less unhappy. I shall have then in my 
 possession, and you after me, and then our 
 son, this precious deposit. May we all 
 meet again in heaven ! " 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 221 
 
 The new church, by its form, and the 
 distribution of the daylight, recalled some- 
 what the image and solitude of the tomb. 
 On the left of the little nave was a chapel 
 dedicated to our Lady of Pity. In the mid- 
 dle of the sanctuary, raised five steps, was 
 the altar, surrounded by funeral emblems, 
 allowing one to see partially, beyond, a 
 heap of rough stones covered with moss ; 
 and from this rustic mound uprose a cross 
 formed of a pine trunk in the bark. This 
 cross in the darkness caught the sombre 
 light of a sepulchral lamp which the altar 
 hid from view. Under the sanctuary was 
 the vault destined for the burying. It was 
 to the foot of this cross that the duchess 
 often came to renew the sacrifice of all that 
 she held dearest, and to fortify her soul by 
 the contemplation of the sufferings and 
 humiliations of the divine heart of Jesus. 
 
 The interest which she gave to sacred 
 worship did not prevent her from directing, 
 with admirable wisdom, her family affairs ; 
 
222 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 and her always increasing inclination for 
 the mysteries of the Passion changed in no 
 wise the charm of her intercourse and the 
 sweetness of her relations with all. Good, 
 devoted, vigilant, she takes in all her duties 
 as wife, mother, lady of the manor, head of 
 the house ; her eyes reach as far as her 
 heart, and are never disturbed by passion. 
 She has but one desire, to do good, to 
 relieve, to heal, to comfort,' to preserve, to 
 edify. This is the continual object of her 
 thoughts, and mainspring of her actions. 
 Grace has so penetrated her heart that she 
 makes no distinction between express com- 
 mand and simple counsel ; the most perfect 
 has become to her an imperious necessity. 
 With what tender solicitude does she 
 watch over little Zenaide, doubly dear by 
 the ties of nature and as the sacred legacy 
 of her dying daughter. She begins again 
 with this child the task she had so well 
 accomplished in the early years of her mar- 
 riage, and fearing that the atmosphere of 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 223 
 
 mourning might sadden the years which 
 crave life and gayety, she gives her a com- 
 panion in her games and her studies. 
 Therese Perardel was just the same age 
 with Mademoiselle de Rastignac, and hav- 
 ing been brought up with her, she never 
 left her, and became for the grandmother, 
 as well as for the little girl, a friend as 
 discreet as devoted, in whom they both 
 placed the most entire confidence. 
 
 It is a difficult thing to hold all the 
 powers of the soul in such perfect equi- 
 librium that the discharge of one duty 
 should never interfere with the fulfilment 
 of another, and that a strong affection 
 should not sometimes become exclusive ; 
 but this was not the case with the virtuous 
 duchess. Monsieur de Doudeauville has 
 kept carefully the letters which she ad- 
 dressed to him during the different jour- 
 neys which he took after the death of his 
 daughter. We see in this correspondence 
 the model wife who has perfect intelligence 
 
224 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 of her duty ; full of deference, she con- 
 sults her husband on every occasion, and 
 when she imparts her own ideas, she does 
 it with so much tact and delicacy that she 
 guides his decision while appearing only to 
 ask his opinion. 
 
 " I hope you will not disapprove my little 
 journey," she writes, "for in all that I do 
 I seek to divine your wishes." 
 
 She is very attentive to the rules of the 
 church, and knows admirably well how to 
 couple the respect due to them with the 
 considerations claimed by the health of her 
 husband. She writes to him thus : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, One thing at 
 which I absolutely take exception is your 
 resolution to fast while you are taking the 
 waters. I request you to consult the doctor 
 upon this point, and to do what he shall 
 tell you. You have manifested your faith 
 in a high degree by observing the laws of 
 abstinence up to this day. I am convinced 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 225 
 
 that you would do yourself real harm in 
 continuing this longer. I do not know 
 whether my letter will .reach you. But 
 what I know very well is that I am always 
 troubled about your health, and that the 
 consciousness of having been once mis- 
 taken is reassuring neither for the present 
 nor for the future, and justifies the anxiety 
 of every moment. I have a grudge against 
 my son, a little one against his wife, too ; 
 a great one agajnst Raphael, and finally 
 against everybody, except the doctor if he 
 has cured you." 
 
 In looking over these letters it is pleas- 
 ant to find this good mingling of warmest 
 piety and tenderest sentiment. 
 
 " How happy you are to have been at 
 Anne"cy ! I would give all the rest of your 
 journey for this one excursion, but not the 
 pleasure which I should have had in mak- 
 ing it with you. How many moments of 
 rapture have I spent by the tomb of your 
 15 
 
226 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 favourite saint ! And how useful was his 
 intercession in restoring peace to my soul, 
 and in freeing it from the noxious vapours 
 in which the sojourn at Genoa had envel- 
 oped it ! What delicious expeditions among 
 the poor those were ! How many lessons 
 I received ! And what examples of virtue 
 were given me ! God permitted this, and 
 the remembrance will always be dear to 
 me ! . . . . I feel moved in thinking of it, 
 for my poor heart, torn with sorrow, does 
 not keep back my soul from enjoying with 
 transport all that connects it with its God ; 
 and this is the happiness of the Christian ! 
 Taste it, my dear friend ; may all whom we 
 love share it with us, and may we one day 
 in heaven drink in long draughts from this 
 fountain of delights." 
 
 As the courageous duchess had preserved 
 the family property during the Revolution, 
 at the peril of her life, Monsieur de Dou- 
 deauville was desirous that she should keep 
 the administration of it. But if she ac- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 227 
 
 cepts the trouble of managing the fortune, 
 she wishes to leave the honour and the chief 
 enjoyment of it to her husband, to whom 
 she submits the details of any changes 
 that are contemplated ; of any measures 
 that are to be taken. She awaits his de- 
 cisions, she makes a point of what he or- 
 ders, and if a discussion arises between 
 them, they wish mutually to yield the right 
 of settling the question. 
 
 This woman, so superior in all points, 
 was endowed, as we have had occasion to 
 see, with a great spirit of order and ad- 
 ministration. She entered into the smallest 
 details ; revised the greater part of her ac- 
 counts herself ; made calculations ; acted 
 in concert with her farmers : it was impos- 
 sible to deceive her. Her charity as well 
 as her justice prompted her to this wise 
 vigilance. She looked upon herself as the 
 trustee of a property belonging to her 
 children and to the poor. She who was 
 so careful to avoid waste, and any needless 
 
228 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 expense, not only carried on her house on 
 a footing suitable to her rank, but showed 
 herself truly great whenever there was an 
 opening for succouring or obliging others. 
 She united two qualities as precious as 
 they are rarely joined : perfect order and 
 inexhaustible generosity. Extremely deli- 
 cate in any question of interest, she was 
 always disposed to give a judgment against 
 herself when there was the slightest doubt ; 
 she would then say to her men of business : 
 
 " I beg you, gentlemen, not to cause 
 me to enter purgatory for a question of 
 money." 
 
 The following letter reveals at the same 
 time the just mind, the clear sight, of a 
 woman who, undazzled by a brilliant for- 
 tune, wishes to limit her expenses to her 
 income, and the delicacy of a heart which 
 knows how to make an important sacrifice 
 very gracefully. 
 
 " You will never find me severe, when 
 there is a question of giving pleasure to 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 229 
 
 others, and particularly to your friends ; 
 you are quite free, besides, to use your for- 
 tune as you please, and you will never see 
 me do otherwise than applaud or keep 
 silence ; but I will tell you frankly that if 
 we are rich, we are very embarrassed rich 
 people. If we do not limit our charities 
 and our expenses, we shall leave debts, or 
 we shall encroach on our capital, which 
 is the same thing, and which agrees neither 
 with our principles nor with our affection 
 for our children. All these reflections come 
 to me from my present occupation with 
 your affairs, and from the fright occasioned 
 me by the incalculable number of our ex- 
 penses, which are always on the increase. 
 
 I doubt whether Monsieur de N will 
 
 be able to pay back the fifteen thousand 
 francs ; but I shall share the pleasure you 
 will have in giving them." 
 
 In following the correspondence, we 
 soon have the secret of these considerable 
 payments ; besides the share of the poor, a 
 
230 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 large set-off from the income, are numer- 
 ous pensions for those who have rendered 
 services, and for certain persons fallen 
 from opulence into want. Madame de 
 Doudeauville had a particular regard for 
 this kind of misfortune. As for the ser- 
 vants, they formed such an integral part 
 of the family that, once admitted into the 
 house, they stayed there until their last 
 breath. In their old age they were plied 
 with delicate attentions, and the best care 
 was lavished upon them in their sicknesses 
 or infirmities. 
 
 Where shall we find more faith, more 
 delicacy and charity, than in the following 
 lines, written by the pious duchess to her 
 husband : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIEND, Your man from 
 Verneuil has arrived ; he is interesting, 
 and very glad to enter your service. But 
 you had n't told me that his wife is very 
 ill. I was confounded when I saw a poor 
 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 231 
 
 dropsical woman arrive, just on the point 
 of being tapped ; but I thanked Heaven, 
 and said to myself that it is by this sign 
 we should recognize that they are designed 
 for us." 
 
 Such generous sentiments should excite 
 gratitude and unfailing fidelity; in fact, 
 never were these so true and so oft re- 
 peated words better realized than at the 
 castle of Montmirail : " Good masters make 
 good servants." 
 
 One cannot read without emotion a page 
 in his memoirs when the Duke of Dou- 
 deauville, recalling the terrible invasion of 
 1814, comes back to what concerns his own 
 castle, and gives all the honour of its pres- 
 ervation to the courageous devotion of his 
 servants. But let us quote his own words : 
 " If our castle is still standing, whilst the 
 greater part of the neighbouring houses 
 have been pillaged and destroyed, it is to 
 the courage of our people that we owe it. 
 
232 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 Being detained at Paris, we relied entirely 
 upon them to take the proper care of defend- 
 ing our interests ; the principal responsibil- 
 ity fell upon an old family nurse who was in 
 my house in the capacity of housekeeper. 
 Her name was Langlois. For about two 
 months she never went to bed, and in spite 
 of her sixty years, she was obliged to meet 
 the exigencies of the numerous daily vis- 
 itors. Once, for instance, her energy was 
 put to a severe test. Some Cossacks hav- 
 ing been killed in crossing the country, 
 their regiment came the next day to burn 
 Montmirail ; by dint of supplication, a com- 
 mutation of the penalty was obtained. Six 
 hours of pillage in the town, two hours at 
 the castle, were judged a sufficient expia- 
 tion for the blood shed. The inhabitants 
 on all hands had fled into the woods. Our 
 housekeeper alone dared to stay at her 
 post. Presenting herself bravely before 
 the forty Cossacks who came to execute 
 the order given out, she asked them what 
 they wanted. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 233 
 
 " ' To plunder ! ' they answered, with a 
 laconicism worthy of Sparta. 
 
 " ' Very well ; I will show you the way 
 and open the doors for you/ she said, with- 
 out losing her head. She did it, though, to 
 prevent all disorder. 
 
 " In the two hours' duration of this per- 
 formance, she remained among the men, 
 restraining them as best she might, allow- 
 ing nothing to be broken, and even pre- 
 venting them from carrying off the most 
 precious things. This admirable conduct 
 and rare courage left their mark upon the 
 memory of the strangers, and eight or ten 
 years after, a prince royal of Prussia asked 
 one of my relatives, at Saint Petersburg, 
 if this good lady, who kept them all re- 
 spectful, was still in existence. She could 
 not save from destruction, however, our 
 poor merino sheep. She had found some 
 protectors whom she placed herself, like a 
 general, so that they called her General 
 Langlois. But the soldiers had invented a 
 
234 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 new kind of fishery which they found much 
 to their taste. They had partly taken up 
 the tiling of the lofts above the sheep 
 yard, and through the holes made in the 
 floor they let down ropes, with which they 
 fished up the rams and the sheep, and were 
 highly pleased with their succulent catch ; 
 we lost at this game nearly two hundred 
 merinos, but the originality of the inven- 
 tion made us laugh. 
 
 " Once Napoleon dined at our castle ; 
 another time he slept there. This night 
 came near costing us dearly. Finding 
 his chamber too small for his big maps, 
 he wished to have what he called the par- 
 tition knocked away ; but our good Lang- 
 lois resisted him as she did everybody else, 
 and the partition, which was nothing less 
 than a wall three feet thick, was saved. 
 
 "Though the Cossacks fell upon all 
 whom they met, and made them act as 
 guides, sometimes causing them to perish 
 through fatigue and beating, my poor stew- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 235 
 
 ard, Gallet, in spite of his seventy years, 
 explored our farms, his stick in his hand, 
 and cast about him for ways to ward off or 
 remedy the devastations. 
 
 " As to my valet de chambre, Raphael, 
 the faithful companion of my exile, he gave 
 me new proofs of his devotion. In a letter 
 which chanced to reach me, he informed 
 me, ' They are fighting in the town, they 
 are fighting in the courts of your castle ; 
 the balls reach the chamber where I am 
 writing. I do not know what will be our 
 fate ; but be sure that to the last we shall 
 show ourselves worthy of such good mas- 
 ters. I would only recommend to you my 
 poor children.' 
 
 " We sent word to them in every way, 
 to leave everything, to give up everything, 
 assuring them that we would much rather 
 lose all than to make them run such ter- 
 rible risk, or even to leave them exposed to 
 such trial. Not one of them yielded to our 
 prayers ; and even the servants whom we 
 
236 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 had at Paris begged us to let them go and 
 aid their comrades to save our property. 
 How much touched we were, and thrilled, 
 by such proofs of attachment, and how 
 they made amends for all our losses ! " 
 
 In her practice, the virtuous duchess 
 looked upon the little and great domestic 
 vexations as a particular mark of favour, 
 which, in calling for the exercise of charity, 
 quietly increase the number of humble 
 and solid virtues. Reproving the persons 
 placed under her control with gentle firm- 
 ness, she chose with good discernment the 
 suitable time and way for giving directions ; 
 but she bore with unchanging patience the 
 tempers, the natural imperfections, and 
 even the faults of character which she 
 considered incorrigible. She never com- 
 plained of them, and her example as well 
 as her advice won the others over to this 
 mutual support, indispensable to the pres- 
 ervation of the union of hearts. Her pres- 
 ence of itself dissipated any cloud arisen 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 237 
 
 between two persons ; her expression of se- 
 renity made the peace of heaven pass into 
 all who approached her ; they felt that she 
 was continually in the presence of her 
 God. But her inexhaustible kindness did 
 not prevent her from being dignified and 
 imposing, especially if she had a lesson to 
 give. A civic priest, having introduced 
 himself into her house, in spite of the pro- 
 test, found the duchess alone, seated in the 
 parlour ; she did not rise to receive him, 
 and she did not offer him a seat ; but he, 
 retorting by insolence, took one without 
 ceremony. She rose immediately, and lis- 
 tened, standing, grave and cold, to what he 
 had to say ; disconcerted by this attitude, 
 which was a more expressive reproach than 
 a long speech, the unhappy man made 
 haste to get away. 
 
 During the entire time of the intrusion, 
 she never appeared at any of the parish 
 offices, and had mass said in her oratory 
 by some faithful priest. 
 
238 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 She took great heed never to scandalize 
 any one, according to the counsel of the 
 Apostle, who exhorts us to consider the 
 weak. Whilst she was at work on the 
 ornaments for the church, she would often 
 occupy her spare hours on Sunday in ex- 
 amining the week's work, and in compar- 
 ing it with the design, which she composed 
 herself. One day, when she was thus sit- 
 ting before her frame, surrounded by pa- 
 pers and pencils, she received a call from 
 the wife of one of her farmers. Fearing 
 that the sight of these instruments of work 
 might scandalize the good woman, she 
 tried to make her distinguish that this was 
 not a servile work -and contrary to God's 
 law ; but she soon perceived that she was 
 not and never would be understood, for 
 each of her explanations received invari- 
 ably the same answer : " Yes, madame, I 
 see very well, each one works in his own 
 way." 
 
 The pencils were forthwith laid aside, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 239 
 
 and never reappeared except on fete days or 
 Sundays. 
 
 It was not by accident, or circumstance, 
 and still less through caprice, that the good 
 duchess applied herself to handiwork ; in 
 all points like the virtuous woman, she 
 understood plying her needle adroitly, and 
 never lost an instant's time. The poor and 
 the churches called out her zeal in this di- 
 rection. The persons admitted to her inti- 
 macy found her always occupied, and her 
 work was a great help to her in escaping 
 from conversation when she saw fit. She 
 was at times seen to be deep in her em- 
 broidery, and then all at once to come to 
 the front, bringing back to the paths of 
 charity those who were straying from it. 
 As soon as she took up the thread of talk, 
 they smiled pleasantly, seeing what she 
 would make of it, for her reputation was 
 thoroughly established. 
 
 This assiduity in work induced her hus- 
 band to address to her the following verses, 
 
240 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 which we shall quote to show the esteem 
 and veneration in which he held her: 
 
 With virtues and charms well adorned, 
 And all without any pretension, 
 
 My wife has still her head turned 
 By this strange as it is a proud passion. 
 
 She delighteth to work without measure, 
 This the object of all her desires ; 
 
 While others run after pleasure, 
 To work hard and well she aspires. 
 
 In the name of all the others 
 On this point I a little must pause, 
 
 Full oft for the many are bothers, 
 Of which thread and needle are cause. 
 
 For ourselves let us not go too fast, 
 And at least say no word of blame, 
 
 Of merits the day is not past, 
 Good embroidery in fine point earns fame. 
 
 And therein is wisdom, in fact, 
 For in all points what does not the man 
 
 Who gets and who uses with tact 
 The very best canvas he can? 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 241 
 
 In winning approval from all 
 My wife in all points does succeed, 
 
 Which a very hard work we would call, 
 Though to get it she takes but small heed. 
 
 Of her kinsfolk and eke of her sex, 
 Her talent, that brilliantly shines, 
 
 Makes the ornament constant and complex, 
 Because taste with the rest she conjoins. 
 
 If everything please in her person, 
 It is so in her work and her mind ; 
 
 There is none wiser or better than this one, 
 For her first fault I never shall find. 
 
 In spite of my talent for satire, 
 Her point of my chief predilection, 
 
 I must say, to be frank in this matter, 
 Is the very fine point of perfection. 
 
 As the Duke of Doudeauville was fond 
 of poetry, and found nothing comparable 
 with his wife, he took advantage of the 
 slightest circumstance to express his sen- 
 timents to her in verse. Thus, on the 
 least of St. Augustine, he composed and 
 distributed about him couplets adapted to 
 16 
 
242 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the occasion, where each found his compli- 
 ment ready for him. The good duchess 
 lent herself gracefully to these demonstra- 
 tions, which were not naturally quite to 
 her taste ; but one year these compositions 
 were multiplied to such an extent that from 
 morning till night she had the gratification 
 of hearing her praises sung by everybody 
 who encountered her. This day was so 
 painful that she conjured her husband not 
 to subject her to such a penance again ; 
 and he then decided that all his attentions 
 of this kind should come in future from 
 the mouths of the, little children, who, as 
 she advanced in age, were multiplied about 
 her. 
 
 The real pleasure of this generous chate- 
 laine was, on the fete days, to procure some 
 indulgence for the poor of the country. 
 This was her great delight ; she could only 
 be happy in the happiness of others, as we 
 shall see in the following passage : 
 
 " I must tell you, my dear friend, that 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 243 
 
 being once established here, I should be 
 very sorry to leave the place ; the same 
 reasons which have attached me to it for 
 many years exist and will exist until my 
 last breath ; but they are all concentrated 
 in a very narrow and very gloomy place. 
 For the rest of the habitation, it has be- 
 come for me what any place in the uni- 
 verse would be. I believe, that is to say, 
 it is animated only by the more or less 
 happiness which I see those I love enjoy, 
 for my heart alone is not dead in me ; this 
 is said only once in passing, and never to 
 be alluded to. I do not wish to think 
 aloud on the subject." 
 
 This dark and sombre place we know 
 already ; unable to get there as often as 
 her inclination prompts, the good duchess 
 has in a secluded part of her garden a 
 little hermitage, simple and solemn, where 
 she loves to retire ; therefore, when, profit- 
 ing by the permission she has generously 
 given, the inhabitants of Montmirail come 
 
244 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 to walk under the magnificent shade trees 
 of the park, they know that no one must 
 force his way through a certain green belt ; 
 this is the retreat of the holy duchess. 
 There, seated on the trunk of a tree, she 
 has watched the ruins of Montlean rise 
 again in the distance ; and while a dwelling 
 for the God of the Eucharist and a place 
 of repose for her beloved daughter were 
 preparing, she has meditated long upon 
 the instability of the things of earth. 
 These reflections, while they incite in her 
 the desire to reach the end of her exile, 
 make her wish more ardently for the per- 
 fect accomplishment of the Divine Will. 
 
 But let us take care not to imagine 
 that the inhabitants of the castle and their 
 guests had anything to suffer on account 
 of this charm of solitude which the holy 
 duchess felt ; nobody did the honours of a 
 friendly hospitality better than she ; one 
 was sure to breathe a beneficent air in the 
 lands of Montmirail in every respect. If 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 245 
 
 one was always edified by the noble and 
 virtuous attitude of the mistress of the 
 house; if, after talking with her, one felt 
 himself nearer to God, one had never to 
 fear tedious exhortations ; a word, an im- 
 pulse of the heart, revealed casually the 
 ardour of her faith ; but she did not 
 preach ; only, there was in her so great 
 compassion for all suffering, that without 
 any direct advance, one felt impelled to 
 open his heart to her. Then, she was sure 
 to drop a word which one could not for- 
 get ; he came back to her as to a vivify- 
 ing spring. The young Viscountess de la 
 Rochefoucauld, particularly, enjoyed and 
 made the most of such good society. In 
 1806 Monsieur Sosthenes had married the 
 only daughter of Duke Mathieu de Mont- 
 morency. "She was," says Monsieur de 
 Doudeauville, " more adorned by her sweet 
 piety than by the beauties of her person." 
 Married at sixteen years, of a timid 
 character, she was happy to find in her 
 
246 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 mother-in-law a gentle and wise adviser ; 
 she hid nothing from her and told her her 
 most private troubles with entire confi- 
 dence. The good duchess loved and es- 
 teemed her much, and took pleasure in 
 praising her. She had only to say to her, 
 " My daughter, it is a duty ! " All was 
 ended, no more objection, repugnance 
 ceased, and the young woman gave herself 
 warmly to that which cost her most. 
 
 A close friendship linked the Dukes of 
 Doudeauville and Montmorency, and when 
 the latter, in 1811, was banished from Paris 
 for having visited Madame de Stae'l, who 
 had saved his life, it was in the Castle of 
 Montmirail, with his friend, that he passed 
 pleasantly his three years of exile. Ma- 
 dame de Montesquieu, in favour with Napo- 
 leon, had obtained this mitigation of his 
 proscription. She was then governess to 
 the King of Rome, " much against her 
 will," says her brother-in-law. It was upon 
 Madame de Doudeauville that the emperor 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 247 
 
 had first cast his eye to bring up his son, 
 but having sounded the ground prudently 
 first, he saw at once that he must not ex- 
 pose himself to a refusal, and he made 
 choice of Madame de Montesquieu. Let 
 us borrow from the memoirs of the Duke 
 of Doudeauville one sketch which proves 
 the firmness of character of this worthy 
 sister of our virtuous duchess : 
 
 "The Countess of Montesquiou enjoyed 
 great credit and consideration from the 
 head of state. She made no use of it ex- 
 cept to be helpful to others, and kind to 
 those who knew her. 
 
 "The way in which she came to this 
 place is curious enough, and deserves to 
 be related. They spoke of her for it, but 
 nothing was decided upon. She was at 
 Trianon, at a little distance from Bona- 
 parte. He wished only seven or eight per- 
 sons at his table. Not expecting to be 
 summoned, she had begged the chamber- 
 lain in waiting not to forget her two dishes 
 
248 Mtdmme de U RocJufoiuambL 
 
 of fish, for it was a Friday; bat aflat 
 NapoleoD had her fold that she was to dine 
 with him, and in fact, he pot her at his 
 
 - i. - - ?>r'l -~>~ -rT 
 
 saw with grief and 
 
 '.'.-'. ~ ~. t.'r ~ "i.5- ~. '.'..'.'. 7. ^ 7rr7'i-T 
 
 ingneigfaboarlooiedatberand said 
 
 2L ^VRQKOi m DQK IDC GOC&IQS9QD. OK HMV^ 
 CtlSOCS ttftJut SDC Udlu. IdlQCSwCQ. 2QDDC3DP OH 
 
 the imperial table. She thought that her 
 
 ^_ * ^5 * ~~"i ~ _!.. 2. 1-2-^*1 zr I "3.7". 
 
 priety ; bat she ale, all alone; the 
 
 they brought her, none the less. Napo- 
 
 kon still looked at her and said nothing. 
 
 ~ Busybody was convinced that tins act 
 
 n his 
 
 Two days after she leteived her 
 scovcnness to the Kin? of 
 
 7-t z.-:.t::: :: 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 249 
 
 one of the guests at this dinner, had not 
 the same courage. He said, a few days 
 after, to one of the children of Madame de 
 Montesquiou, ' I admired your mother, but 
 did not dare to imitate her, though I hold 
 the same principles. She showed a char- 
 acter which filled me with shame and 
 envy.'" 
 
 In all Napoleon's court, there was only 
 Madame de Montesquiou who had the cour- 
 age to speak frankly to him. One morn- 
 ing, when he came with Berthier to pay the 
 young prince a visit, he said, taking his 
 hand, 
 
 " I hope it will know how to give a sword 
 thrust some day!" 
 
 " And I hope," said the governess, " that 
 it will have learned first how to scatter 
 many blessings." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NAZARETH. 
 
 WHEN Madame de Doudeauville saw the 
 different works established at Montlean 
 prosper in the hands of the Sisters of Char- 
 ity, her indefatigable zeal projected the 
 creation of still another : not far from the 
 church, she had reserved to herself a mod- 
 est habitation ; she brought together, there, 
 a few nuns whom the Revolution had scat- 
 tered, and she made for them a little board- 
 ing-school, composed for the greater part 
 of children of good families, ruined by the 
 misfortunes of the times. 
 
 Monsieur Legris-Duval was their first 
 superior. He gave them in writing, not 
 rules, for each one had her own, but very 
 wise principles of conduct, designed to 
 establish union and charity among them. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld, 251 
 
 The new community took the name of the 
 Ladies of Peace. 
 
 In spite of the diversity of minds which 
 must exist among persons of totally differ- 
 ent orders, the house acquired a good repu- 
 tation abroad, and under the direction of 
 the excellent Abbe Legris-Duval, the pu- 
 pils imbibed principles of sound piety. 
 
 Like Madame de Maintenon formerly 
 at Saint Cyr, so here the good duchess was 
 the soul of the school, and she impressed 
 upon the education the simple and solid 
 seal of her strong and gentle virtue, in- 
 spiring the pupils with a spirit of order, of 
 economy, of love of work, with the senti- 
 ment of duty. She desired to prepare 
 them for serious women, useful and pleas- 
 ant in the family circle, capable of sacrifice 
 and of influence for good. 
 
 As long as the Abb6 Legris-Duval lived, 
 whose forbearance knew no bounds, the 
 community seemed to be on good terms 
 with one another; but after his death, each 
 
252 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 nun wishing to make her primitive rule the 
 predominant one, the pleasant relations 
 came to an end. At the urgent request of 
 the good duchess, Monsieur Frayssinous, 
 and after him Father Roger, tried in vain 
 to pacify the Ladies of Peace. 
 
 These two men of large experience, 
 struck with the wise and elevated views of 
 Madame de Doudeauville, and despairing 
 that they should ever see her attain her 
 ends with such a diversity of minds, ad- 
 vised her not to permit the community to 
 extend, but rather to let it die out grad- 
 ually. 
 
 The superior, who had asked for author- 
 ity to make a new building, and was dis- 
 pleased at being refused, secretly planned 
 her departure, and passed over into a neigh- 
 bouring diocese with her little colony. 
 
 This retreat, which was not to be re- 
 gretted, caused the good duchess, notwith- 
 standing, great embarrassment, the ordi- 
 nary signal for providential succour. She 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 253 
 
 might have placed her young prot6ge"es in 
 another establishment simply, and have 
 given the house at Montl6an up to some 
 other purpose ; but it seemed to her that 
 the good God asked the continuation of 
 this work. She had just married her grand- 
 daughter, Mademoiselle de Rastignac, to 
 the Count of Rochefoucauld, and being 
 thus left without a child about her, she 
 was very fond of going to see her little 
 scholars. Then, from this tomb where she 
 sought her pious inspirations, she fancied 
 she could hear a pressing invitation to per- 
 petuate, as far as possible, her mission to 
 the young. 
 
 This meditative soul, which learned a 
 lesson from everything, and which passed 
 from reflection to practice, always increas- 
 ing its circle of well-doing and felt a need 
 to associate itself with the movement of 
 regeneration which was everywhere man- 
 ifested. Knowing that one must build 
 the edifice from the foundation, she was 
 
254 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 rejoiced at the enthusiasm with which 
 some of the old and some of the new re- 
 ligious bodies gave themselves up to the 
 work of the education of young girls ; but 
 for this important task she had her own 
 idea, her private thoughts, the fruit of ex- 
 perience. 
 
 If, as she had said to her daughter, that 
 fallen grandeur, those ruined fortunes, that 
 complete overthrow which she had wit- 
 nessed, induced her to exclaim, " God only 
 is stable ! " she drew from the uncertainty 
 of the times and of things this other con- 
 clusion : the necessity of strengthening the 
 character, of preparing a young girl early 
 in life to endure reverses, not only in a 
 spirit of faith, but also with intelligent and 
 practical courage. She wished her to be 
 initiated little by little, as far as her age 
 allowed, into the details of domestic life, so 
 that if some day the young girl should 
 find herself obliged to serve herself, and to 
 come to the aid of her people, she would 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 255 
 
 not feel herself demeaned, and would not 
 be strange to the work which Holy Scrip- 
 ture has so highly praised. 
 
 To attain this end, Madame de Dou- 
 deauville wished to offer, to the families 
 whom modern luxury terrified, establish- 
 ments more apart from the great world, 
 where, in giving complete and distinguished 
 instruction to their children, the special 
 care should be to bring them up in antique 
 and noble simplicity, to inspire them with 
 serious tastes, to give them the habit of 
 work, and in a word to fit them for good 
 mothers of families and wise heads of 
 houses. 
 
 To these principles of education the 
 pious duchess joined a strict estimate of 
 the religious life, which she wished to be 
 perfect in its spirit, and very simple in ex- 
 terior practice. 
 
 We remember with what ardour she 
 sighed for the cloister in childhood and in 
 youth. She wished to give herself up en- 
 
256 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 tirely. God, while accepting her offering, 
 had kept her still in the world, and fixed 
 her there against all her inclinations, but 
 He did not leave sterile the first and holy 
 desire of His generous servant. He pre- 
 destined and prepared her a long time 
 back to found a new community ; whilst 
 grace made to flourish in this elect soul 
 the humble and lovely virtues of which the 
 Holy Family has given us the example in 
 the little hamlet of Nazareth, Providence 
 allowed her to face all the difficulties of 
 life, in order to offer to the young girls 
 whose education filled her mind, an ac- 
 complished model of what they were to be 
 for the family and for society. 
 
 Father Roger, who was endowed with 
 a particular talent for discerning divine 
 inspiration, thought to recognize it clearly 
 when the holy duchess confided to him her 
 plan of a foundation. Without foreseeing 
 how she would be able to accomplish it, he 
 advised her to preserve her little school. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 257 
 
 Then she made a real sacrifice in separat- 
 ing herself for the time from Mademoiselle 
 Therese, her reader and secretary, in order 
 that she might take the direction of the 
 few boarders left by the Ladies of Peace, 
 until God manifested His will. 
 
 The little building was not to be made 
 from the old stones ; the vigorous chisel of 
 Father Roger was to work on new stones. 
 Let us say a word about this holy religious, 
 sent by Providence to the venerable found- 
 ress to be the soul of the work which she 
 was planning. 
 
 Father Roger, born at Coutances, in ' 
 1763, studied at Paris with application and 
 piety, and received holy orders there. Dur- 
 ing the revolutionary storm he exiled him- 
 self in Germany, where some young eccle- 
 siastics of his acquaintance made him enter 
 the society of the Fathers of the Sacred 
 Heart, which became later that of the 
 Fathers of Faith. 
 
 When, towards 1800, his superiors sent 
 17 
 
258 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 him back to France, Lyons opened a great 
 field for his talents and zeal. He filled 
 the little city with fervent associations, 
 which, imbued with his zeal, continue 
 to give themselves to works of mercy in 
 the obscurity of humble and silent devo- 
 tion. 
 
 In 1808 a new storm having driven the 
 holy missionary back to his natal city, he 
 raised from its ruins, and wisely governed 
 the seminary of Coutances ; but as soon 
 as the Company of Jesus was reestablished, 
 in 1814, he abandoned his post, and has- 
 tened to Paris to solicit admission. After 
 his first vows, he discharged the important 
 function of Novice Master ; then for twelve 
 years, from 1818 to 1830, while established 
 in Paris, he gave himself with all the ardour 
 of his zeal to the exercise of the holy min- 
 istry, embracing in his immense charity all 
 classes of society. Following the counsel 
 of the apostle, he made himself all things 
 to all men, if he might gain them for Jesus 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 259 
 
 Christ. The poor, especially they of the 
 Faubourg Saint Marceau, were the particu- 
 lar objects of his favour. His compassion- 
 ate heart could not approach distress with- 
 out feeling the yearning to relieve it, and 
 seeking the means to do it. "He was," 
 says Father Guidee, " a man of lively and 
 active faith, excellent in counsel ; a con- 
 summate director in the road to God ; 
 always full of simplicity and directness ; 
 attracting, charming all who approached 
 him, by his cheery and affable demeanour, 
 and gaining all hearts by his obliging kind- 
 ness." 
 
 Let us add to these outlines of exact 
 truth, the witness of a priest who had 
 known him well : 
 
 " I don't know that I can tell you more 
 than you already know concerning good 
 Father Roger. I shall always recall with 
 emotion his wise counsels, and shall ever 
 bless divine Providence for having brought 
 me into communication with him 
 
260 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 During my retreats he said things to me 
 that were really flashes of fire. 
 
 " I think I can see him now arrive in the 
 evening at my house, after a fatiguing day ; 
 giving himself up readily to his natural 
 gayety, he would say a kind word to warm 
 the heart and put one at ease; then he 
 would seat himself in his easy-chair, and 
 when there, would talk to me of the good 
 God with a faith, simplicity, and love which 
 I have never found in any other. What 
 faith it was ! . . . . If Saint Paul would 
 know only the cross, Father Roger would 
 know only his Credo. What simplicity ! 
 .... To go straight to God by the short- 
 est road, that was his maxim. What love 
 for Jesus ! . . . . What clear intelligence 
 of the mysteries ! . . . . How often have 
 I seen him weep in speaking of that Jesus 
 whom he loved so well ! . . . . How 
 many times have I thrown myself at the 
 foot of my crucifix after talking with him. 
 Then, what a holy liberty he took in telling 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 261 
 
 the great and the world's people, not the 
 truth which flatters, but that which illu- 
 mines ! What tact in stealing into a 
 heart in order to open it and gain it for 
 Jesus Christ ! 
 
 "With his naturally ardent and active 
 character, the holy man could not have 
 attained to this perfect affability, to this 
 even and amiable kind-heartedness which 
 all admired, without many efforts. One 
 found him always ready to listen, to say 
 the word which instructs, which comforts 
 or reassures. Nothing can give an idea of 
 the tone of his voice in speaking of the 
 loving kindness of our Lord. I cannot for- 
 get the expressiveness with which he said 
 to a person troubled by excessive fear at 
 the approach of her communion : ' But, my 
 good daughter, what has Jesus done, that 
 you should fear Him so much ? ' 
 
 " This compassion for those who suffer, 
 this longing to come to their aid, made 
 him beloved by all. Who could ever say 
 
262 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 how much this good father was loved and 
 revered by the working class, by children, 
 and the poor ? " 
 
 So soon as the pious duchess learned to 
 know Father Roger, she put herself un- 
 der his guidance ; the savour of his words 
 was pleasant to her soul for those words 
 which escaped from a heart burning with 
 a love of God, were full of strength and 
 unction. This kind of spirituality answered 
 to the inclination she had always had for 
 the hidden life ; hence she consulted this 
 wise director in all her works, and he, on 
 his side, held his penitent in particular 
 esteem. 
 
 By a providential coincidence, at about 
 the same time when the Duchess of Dou- 
 deauville placed herself under the direction 
 of Father Roger, she entered also into so- 
 cial relations and into association in good 
 works with Mademoiselle Elisa Rollat, 
 who was destined to be the first superior 
 of Nazareth. These ladies became very 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 263 
 
 closely attached. With a great difference 
 of character, they had marked features of 
 resemblance : an ardent and generous piety, 
 the love of duty, the desire of perfection, 
 zeal for good ; each sought the other with 
 equal eagerness. But the perfect tact of 
 Mademoiselle lilisa Rollat always recog- 
 nized, even in the closest intimacy, the 
 proper distinction of age and position. 
 She had for the duchess a deference full 
 of veneration. On the other hand the pious 
 duchess, who silently admired her, showed 
 her the fullest confidence ; she loved the 
 frank gayety, under which a very serious 
 mind was hidden. With Mademoiselle ^li- 
 sa, she allowed her faith and piety to speak 
 without constraint, sure of finding a com- 
 plete conformity of sentiment. When these 
 ladies left Paris for the country, a continu- 
 ous correspondence supplied the place of 
 their conversations. In this simple free- 
 dom of speech, Madame de Doudeauville 
 lets the secret of her humble and strong 
 
264 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 virtue sometimes slip out. A few passages 
 from her letters will help us to know her 
 more fully. 
 
 " I leave on Thursday. Sad for think- 
 ing that I am going far from the resources 
 which my weakness needs. But God is 
 everywhere, and He lets Himself be found 
 when one seeks Him purely and simply ; 
 ask for me that I may meet Him. May 
 He alone be our study ; may His Divine 
 Will find no obstacle in our souls ; or at 
 least may His love triumph over them. 
 These, dear filisa, are the prayers that I 
 make for you, and whose fulfilment I beg 
 you to petition for me ; that will be more 
 difficult, but difficulties do not dishearten 
 me. 
 
 " Adieu ! I miss your visits and read- 
 ings, much ; you have inspired me with 
 a real friendship, of that kind which life 
 does not end." 
 
 Ten days after, she sends her news of 
 herself. " Here I am in the most profound 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 265 
 
 solitude. I find myself well thus, and too 
 much to my taste. My character being 
 independent, that which brings me into 
 subjection at every moment must be more 
 useful for me, and perhaps it may be only 
 on account of my tendency to indepen- 
 dence that I love solitude ; at least, I enjoy 
 it when God sends it to me ; I would like 
 to make a better use of it, but I believe I 
 ought never to seek it, for it makes me too 
 happy. 
 
 " The correspondence of Ze"naide is 
 charming ; her children are delightful. 
 Little Alfred pronounced the name of God 
 yesterday for the first time. 
 
 " My health has been poor for a fortnight, 
 so that I am positively stupid. God wills 
 it, and I will it with Him. Let us love, 
 dear filisa, this Divine Will, for the accom- 
 plishment of which our good Master came 
 on earth. 
 
 " Adieu. It is at the foot of the cross 
 that I like to find myself with you. I have, 
 
266 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 however, the weakness to wish that you 
 may not have crosses too painful to bear." 
 
 Father Roger was still another tie be- 
 tween these two souls ; and hence, after a 
 short stay which he made at Montmirail, 
 the good duchess writes to her friend, 
 
 "I think, dear filisa, that I shall give 
 you pleasure in sending you news of the 
 person who interests you ; his health is 
 better since he reached here. People think 
 he has much mind, eloquence, and eleva- 
 tion, and withal charming simplicity. My 
 son loves him extravagantly. Monsieur de 
 Doudeauville fancies him much, and my 
 daughter-in-law appeals to him and wishes 
 that he might be here whenever she is. 
 He has had a great success, then, in our 
 family circle, such as holiness and virtue 
 will always have. He is so good, one finds 
 there is so much to be gained from him ! 
 His lively faith has made a deep impres- 
 sion on me. 
 
 " You sent us some very nice hymns ; 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 267 
 
 The Cross, Solitude, The Blessed Virgin, 
 The Love of God, have been sung in the 
 parlour several times, to the satisfaction of 
 all. If you could compose one on faith, it 
 would give great pleasure to my daughter- 
 in-law, and to me also. 
 
 " Let us seek God, dear filisa ; let us 
 seek Him purely. Let us love Him with 
 all the capacity He has given us to love 
 Him with. Let us love Him in His crea- 
 tures, but let it be for Him. Let us seek 
 the cross, humiliations. Let us give our- 
 selves up to His good pleasure, and let us 
 abide in peace. This is what I desire for 
 you as for myself, and I see, without jeal- 
 ousy, that you will arrive at it before I 
 shall. 
 
 " Since you want me to tell you about 
 my health, I will say that it is not any too 
 good, and I may be obliged to give up to 
 it for two or three days. To do enough 
 without doing too much, is a thing almost 
 impossible for me to achieve, with my char- 
 acter. 
 
268 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " Adieu, dear filisa ; I always forget my- 
 self when I am chatting with you. It is 
 one proof the more that I am not morti- 
 fied, that I seek my enjoyment ; but that is 
 allowed us, you know ; we must get benefit 
 from- it, if in our pleasures we thank Him 
 who has united our hearts in His love." 
 
 When the Ladies of Peace went away, 
 the good duchess expresses her disappoint- 
 ment to Mademoiselle Iilisa, but, as always, 
 her faith prevails over every other senti- 
 ment. 
 
 " Yesterday I received a letter from Ma- 
 dame de Saint Ambroise, who informs me, 
 after a six months' silence, that all her little 
 
 colony are going to M . They are 
 
 going there to found a house, with the sav- 
 ings of seventeen years ; and mine stands 
 with its four walls, and the poor children 
 without a mistress. May God be praised ! 
 .... Thank Him for this new cross, and 
 ask Him to make us to know His will. 
 There are painful things in connection with 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 269 
 
 all this, many I feel very sensibly ; but 
 since I have done nothing to bring about 
 this unfortunate result, I look upon it as a 
 permission of Heaven. I adore, and hold 
 my peace." A little while after, her sadness 
 changed to joy ; the pious duchess foresaw 
 that her friend might some day become the 
 foundation-stone of which she had need. 
 
 " Dear ^lisa, your last letter, so good, so 
 amiable and touching, gives me much to 
 think about ; perhaps my imagination goes 
 too fast and too far ; but, however that 
 may be, it gives me hopes, which, if they 
 are ever realized, will crown my wishes. I 
 should be all the happier, because I have 
 asked for nothing, and the will of God 
 would then begin to manifest itself in fa- 
 vour of an enterprise which till now has 
 seemed a foolishness." 
 
 The hope is confirmed ; the project of 
 the foundation becomes a common work. 
 Being too much occupied to write himself, 
 Father Roger sends his counsel and sug- 
 
270 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 gestions through Mademoiselle filisa to the 
 holy founder. The commission is a deli- 
 cate one, but the tact of the one and the 
 virtue of the other smooth all difficul- 
 ties. 
 
 " Once for all, don't be uneasy, dear 
 filisa ; nothing that you say can trouble me. 
 I know your motives too well ; moreover, it 
 is not my nature to attach too much im- 
 portance to little things ; and then, when I 
 am sure of a person, he has the right to 
 say anything to rne. I desire in your 
 correspondence confidence, frankness, and 
 simplicity. You satisfy me in all these 
 points, and amuse me besides by your gay- 
 ety. Why, then, do you take such precau- 
 tions about telling me that in Father Ro- 
 ger's opinion I am managing badly with 
 
 Mademoiselle C ? The contrary would 
 
 surprise me ; but for me to be making 
 a mistake is so natural ! . . . . Never fear 
 giving me pain on such an occasion as 
 this." .... Always ready to find edifica- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 271 
 
 tion in, and to render justice to true de- 
 votion, Madame de Doudeauville, happy in 
 seeing at the work a future member of the 
 community of Nazareth, expresses her joy 
 to Mademoiselle lilisa. 
 
 "I feel the need of telling you all my 
 friendship for you, from time to time, and 
 yield yet more to the necessity of speaking 
 to you of our business matters. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Mouroux doubtless keeps 
 you informed of the good order of the 
 house, but what she is certain not to have 
 spoken to you about, is the perfect way in 
 which she acquits herself in her new po- 
 sition. She is overburdened, I am sure, 
 for she has the care of everything, and yet 
 does not look ,so very busy ; there is al- 
 ways the same serenity. I assure you 
 that she is very virtuous ; the more one 
 knows her, the more precious qualities one 
 discovers in her, and the more heartily one 
 thanks Heaven for having sent her to us. 
 She is an angel whom God sustains, and 
 
272 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 who does the children great good. But be 
 quite easy in your mind, she has no sus- 
 picion of my opinion of her ; I intended 
 this should be so, but, moreover, Father 
 Roger also recommended it strongly." 
 
 These letters are dated 1820 to 1821. 
 Whilst Providence prepares the way for 
 Mademoiselle Rollat, and disposes every- 
 thing for the foundation of Nazareth, the 
 holy duchess is again fastened to the cross. 
 For some time her sight had been sensibly 
 failing ; one day when she was reading her 
 prayers in the chapel at Montlean, it 
 had seemed to her as if a veil were passed 
 before her eyes ; the characters of the book 
 getting confused, she shut it, made her 
 sacrifice, accepted all its consequences, and 
 appeared amid her family neither troubled 
 nor afflicted by it. For two years she 
 had to deny herself all reading, and could 
 write only with great precaution. Having 
 become totally blind in 1821, in spite of 
 the urgency of her husband she did not 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 273 
 
 wish the operation for cataract to take 
 place; this was the way God had taken, 
 she said, to withdraw her from the things 
 of this world. What she did not say, but 
 what she understood very well, was, that 
 blindness, while keeping her constantly de- 
 pendent, would also necessitate the per- 
 petual sacrifice of her own will. What an 
 exercise of patience for an active person, 
 always accustomed to direct all the affairs 
 of her house ! 
 
 But in seeing her always serene, one 
 would not suspect that it was a trial to her 
 to ask, to wait for a guide ; she is so happy 
 to do the will of the Master, and to have 
 a shadow of likeness to Him ! Were the 
 divine eyes not veiled by the bandage on 
 the day of the Passion ?.'... It is at 
 this moment, when, more than ever, she 
 needs her secretary and confidante, that she 
 deprives herself of her services for the 
 good of the little school at Montlean. 
 Without laying any stress upon what must 
 18 
 
2 74 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 have inconvenienced her, she is content to 
 write to Mademoiselle Elisa : 
 
 " I shall miss Therese on account of my 
 blindness, but one must not count his 
 sacrifices." 
 
 This little foundation has become the 
 work of her heart. She occupies herself 
 very much with it, while being entirely sub- 
 missive to what God shall decide. Her 
 purity of intention is always so perfect 
 that, in spite of her desire to attach to her- 
 self capable persons, she writes : 
 
 " Mademoiselle C has taken a great 
 
 friendship for me; we have passed eight 
 days together. I have discovered sundry 
 good qualities in her ; she might be very 
 useful to us, and as she has grown fond of 
 me, she seemed to regret her first refusal. 
 I saw very well that she wished to bring 
 about my saying, 'You would give me 
 pleasure if you were to remain/ Not 
 finding sufficient ground for bringing God's 
 blessing upon it, I let her go. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 275 
 
 "And here we are in great embarrass- 
 ment. In the eyes of reason, we are doing 
 many inconsistent things, but how good it 
 is to put this aside sometimes, this hu- 
 man reason ! . . . . Monsieur Roger has 
 assured me that it must needs be that peo- 
 ple should ridicule us." 
 
 In 1822 Mademoiselle filisa Rollat find- 
 ing herself at liberty, the community at 
 Montlean began to get into shape. It 
 would be an error to consider the holy 
 duchess as a simple temporal founder of 
 this little society ; full of the spirit with 
 which she desired to see it animated, she 
 constantly practised the virtues which were 
 to distinguish the nuns of Nazareth. If 
 Father Roger, overpowered with work and 
 charged with important labours, gives all 
 his care, and devotes long hours to these 
 few persons, joined together to imitate the 
 laborious and hidden life of the Holy Fam- 
 ily, it is that he has been struck by the 
 living light diffused in a soul, whose holi- 
 
276 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 ness he admires so greatly as to exclaim : 
 " I really do not know how God will man- 
 age to make her pass twenty-four hours in 
 purgatory ! " 
 
 He is astonished, with reason, to find 
 in a woman of the world such just ideas 
 of the religious vocation, and these are 
 not general notions ; she has her private 
 thoughts, her project ; though the exterior 
 plan is not designed, she sees clearly the 
 end to be attained and the kind of perfec- 
 tion ; one would say that the Holy Spirit 
 had been long preparing her for it, since 
 in her meditations she has always felt her- 
 self drawn to contemplate the hidden life 
 of Jesus of Nazareth. She had spoken of 
 it so much with her children and grand- 
 children that Mademoiselle Zdnaide, cer- 
 tain of pleasing her, had had the thought- 
 fulness to offer her as a specimen of her 
 first work a picture of the Holy Family, 
 copied after Caracci. In truth, another Di- 
 vine Mystery had also great charm for the 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 277 
 
 pious duchess ; she went alternately from 
 Jesus the child of Nazareth, to Jesus on the 
 Cross, and she would have liked to join in 
 outward form what harmonized so well in 
 her own soul ; but as it was to be a house 
 for education, the name of Nazareth had 
 the preference, Nazareth at the foot of 
 the Cross, having the Cross for the founda- 
 tion, the cradle and support. 
 
 Finding, then, in the holy founder every 
 sort of helpfulness, at Montle"an they are 
 not content with receiving her with all 
 respect and gratitude, but they consult her 
 on every point, and initiate her in all the 
 details ; she is called upon to examine sub- 
 jects, to pronounce upon difficult cases, and 
 she treats each question with as much wis- 
 dom as humility. 
 
 She knows the religious and the pupils ; 
 she watches the progress of her little pro- 
 tegees, takes much interest about their fu- 
 ture, and tries to make one for them ; she 
 is a mother and a saint for all the children 
 of Nazareth. 
 
278 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 On the holidays she comes, full of friend- 
 liness, to encourage their games, and to 
 preside over their little literary meetings. 
 Her gentle gravity is never a restraint, for 
 nobody knows better, that childhood needs 
 a full liberty of expression. 
 
 She had inspired her husband with the 
 same feelings of interest and affection for 
 the new community. Both of them agree- 
 ing that a house of education should not 
 be placed next door to a hospital, and that 
 the chapel should not be common to the 
 pupils and the patients, they had made 
 fresh sacrifices to transfer the sisters of 
 charity to Montmirail, in order to leave to 
 Nazareth the buildings and all the depen- 
 dencies of the ancient priory. To this do- 
 nation their zeal for religious worship had 
 induced them to add a government an- 
 nuity, for the support of the church. 
 
 The relations of the community with 
 the Duke of Doudeauville were as simple 
 as they were pleasant. He felt as much 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 279 
 
 interest in the prosperity of the establish- 
 ment as his wife, 1 and seized every occa- 
 sion to testify to Mademoiselle Rollat his 
 good will and devotion. He encouraged 
 the studies, distributed the prizes, and pro- 
 vided amusements for the pupils. Thus, 
 whenever the feast of Saint Augustine 
 came round, he did them the honours of 
 a grand lunch, with that perfect urbanity 
 which distinguished him until the end of his 
 days. His presence and protection never 
 caused the smallest embarrassment, for, in 
 his respect for the religious rule, he would 
 inquire the convenient time, would arrive 
 on the instant, and had for every occasion 
 the appropriate graciousness which doubles 
 the value of a service. The good duchess 
 was happy in seeing his interest in her 
 
 1 The details of the community and the boarding- 
 school of Nazareth are naturally reserved for the life 
 of the Reverend Mother Rollat, the first superior of the 
 society, which will be a separate work, a sort of continu- 
 ation and supplement of this. 
 
280 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 community, and he, on his side, delighted 
 to give his wife this sweet satisfaction. 
 
 It was especially in times of difficulty 
 that the generous founder came to the aid 
 of Nazareth. When, in 1830, Father Ro- 
 ger, obliged to take up the road of exile, 
 trembles for the fate of this little religious 
 family, which the Revolution has deprived 
 of all its resources, the good duchess ap- 
 pears to him as his real Providence. He 
 writes to her and renews his thanks more 
 than his charges. 
 
 " MADAME LA DUCHESSE, At Lyons 
 I heard of the sad days of Paris ; all my 
 anxiety is for you, and for my dear sister 
 Rollat, of whom I eagerly desire tidings. 
 
 " Oh, how fortunate one is at this time 
 to have a crucifix ; to know, as you have 
 known for long, how to read the ineffable 
 book and to find there a sovereign rem- 
 edy for so great hardships, sorrows, and 
 afflictions, which plunge the soul into an 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 281 
 
 ocean of bitterness ! Happy she who lives 
 by faith, and who, peacefully occupied by 
 domestic matters, leaves to God the care of 
 directing for His glory the divers events 
 which agitate governments. She lives in 
 peace amid convulsions, and finds her re- 
 pose in the accomplishment of the divine 
 will. The Lord, always good and full of 
 pity, will preserve under the wings of His 
 Providence the poor little creature, who in 
 her anxiety and alarm looks upon herself 
 as lost, and yet wishes to have no other 
 resource and asylum than the divine heart 
 of Jesus. How well I love to see these 
 amiable sentiments, which you share so 
 fully with her, in my good sister, and how 
 happy I should be if I might take part in 
 your conversations ! Be assured, madam, 
 that I am in heart in the very midst of you 
 all, and that I do not cease to present you 
 both to the Lord." 
 
 When the terrible scourge of 1832 makes 
 
282 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 its appearance, the good father reassures 
 and strengthens them. 
 
 " I know your feeling, madam, enough 
 to be persuaded that even amid epidemic 
 disease you will lose neither your peace of 
 soul nor repose of heart. You are too re- 
 signed to the will of God to wish anything 
 different from that which He wills. Be- 
 sides, He does not need the cholera to take 
 from us a life which belongs to Him, and of 
 which He is master. Let us live peacefully 
 and without anxiety. Say this, please, to 
 Mademoiselle Rollat ; I do not wish that 
 any one should be able to offer to one of 
 my daughters the reproach which our Lord 
 addressed to Saint Peter : ' O thou of little 
 faith, wherefore dost thou doubt ? ' 
 
 " Give yourselves up to Him ; and above 
 all put no faith in the multitude of prophe- 
 cies which agitate the mind, excite the im- 
 agination, and prevent each one from doing 
 what God asks of him. 
 
 " May the Lord preserve you long, mad- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 283 
 
 am, for the happiness of your own family 
 and of that which you have adopted ; may 
 He give me the blessing to see you again, 
 and to continue with you the excellent 
 work which we have undertaken." 
 
 But alarm quickly fills the father's heart, 
 and he who has reassured and comforted, 
 has need to be consoled in his turn: 
 
 " Since I wrote to you, Madame la 
 Duchesse, I feel an always increasing anx- 
 iety, and want extremely to get news of 
 you, of your excellent family, and of our 
 dear house of Nazareth. I can truly say 
 my soul is profoundly sad, and that my 
 Allelujah cannot bring it the semblance 
 of joy. To my troubles and sorrows of 
 mind I join fear and anguish while think- 
 ing of your griefs, of the danger which you 
 run in the midst of this plague which is 
 ravaging Paris, and in calling to my mem- 
 ory so many who are dear to me, especially 
 my sister at Nazareth and her children. 
 We are really now beneath the Cross, and 
 
284 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 we feel its heavy weight. Let us often re- 
 peat our Lord's prayer in the Garden of 
 Olives. But in charity soothe my suffer- 
 ings in telling me about your own. I 
 would rather know than be ignorant of 
 them, and I hope that God will give me 
 grace to be resigned to His holy will." 
 
 After so much suffering, at last they 
 have the pleasure of meeting ; but the holy 
 founder is absent. Father Roger wishes 
 that she should have her share in the com- 
 mon rejoicing. 
 
 " MADAME LA DUCHESSE, You have 
 already learned, through Mademoiselle Rol- 
 lat, the kind reception I had on my arrival 
 at Montmirail, from all, even the inhabit- 
 ants, but most particularly from the fam- 
 ily at Nazareth, who, without distinction 
 of person or rank, religious and pupils, 
 rushed in a body to meet me in the court- 
 yard, and expressed their joy in such a 
 sweet way, so respectful and so reserved, 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 285 
 
 that I recognized the peace of the Spirit of 
 God, and was affected and edified by it. 
 What a comfort it is to a father to meet, 
 after long absence, his dear children in the 
 Lord ! . . . . The next day was celebrated, 
 as was right, by a solemn mass in honour of 
 Saint Joseph, and by that joyful merriment 
 which belongs to a great holiday. May 
 all the good that you have done in this 
 house come back to you, Madame la 
 Duchesse, and to your excellent family ! " 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOPES AND FAMILY GRIEFS. 
 
 WHILST the pious duchess scattered 
 abroad the charm and perfumes of virtue 
 in all her relations and acts of life, the 
 Duke of Doudeauville, since his return 
 from emigration, pursued, amid political 
 commotions, a career of devotion to his 
 country and to the cause of the unfortu- 
 nate. By turns, and at times simultane- 
 ously, president of the Council General of 
 the Marne and director of the Committee 
 of Primary Instruction of the Seine, he 
 sits in the Chamber of Peers, and takes his 
 place amongst the managers of the deaf 
 and dumb institutions and the hospitals of 
 Paris ; he embraces in his sympathy every 
 kind of suffering, and flies to the succour 
 of the poor, the aged, and the orphan. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 287 
 
 Being nominated Postmaster-general in 
 1821, afterwards Minister of State, and 
 member of the Privy Council, he becomes 
 in 1824 Minister of the King's Household. 
 It was the position that suited his character 
 best, and it got him opportunity of aiding 
 thousands of sufferers. Amid his multi- 
 farious occupations, which all had to do 
 with the welfare of the nation, he took 
 upon himself the duty of presiding over 
 the sessions where the poor petitioners 
 were heard. Once, seeing him spent with 
 fatigue and teased with fever, people ad- 
 vised him to forego this self-imposed task. 
 "It is not indispensable that my health 
 should be preserved," he answered, " but it 
 is that the unfortunate should not be kept 
 waiting." 
 
 His kindness of heart was never weak- 
 ness, however, and if he were eager to 
 oblige, it was never at the expense of a 
 firm, just, and clear conscience. He greatly 
 appreciated the care given to education, 
 
288 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 and felt all the weight of this heavy re- 
 sponsibility. Having the chief direction 
 of the pages, he discovered, with great 
 pain, that the innocence of the new-com- 
 ers was in danger from some of the older 
 pages. Immediately, without consideration 
 for name or position, he sends away the 
 culprits, and resists their supplications as 
 well as the warnings that he will incur the 
 royal displeasure. This is his account of 
 his interview with Charles X. : 
 
 " The king called for me the next day, 
 and said to me, ' Duke of Doudeauville, 
 what did you do yesterday ? ' 
 
 " ' Sire, my duty.' 
 
 '"You were terribly severe/ 
 
 " ' I was only just/ 
 
 " ' You have lost five interesting children/ 
 
 " ' I have only punished them as they 
 deserved, and besides, I did it as gently 
 as was possible/ 
 
 " ' What severe punishment for a foolish 
 joke ! ' 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 289 
 
 " ' A joke ! Sire, such a one as corrupts 
 youth, poisons places of education, and 
 makes parents wretched ! ' 
 
 " ' You should at least have notified me/ 
 
 " ' I had not the time, for there was not 
 a moment to lose, and my responsibility, 
 as well as the morals of the nice boys in- 
 trusted to me, was gravely implicated.' 
 
 " ' If you had spoken to me, I should have 
 said to the parents, Your children are be- 
 having very badly, and I shall send them 
 home if they do not conduct themselves 
 better in a month's time.' 
 
 " ' Ah ! Your majesty will find me very 
 presumptuous, but I congratulate myself a 
 hundred times that I said nothing about it, 
 for my good youths would have been un- 
 done, and the house, too.' 
 
 " ' For all that, if such a thing had hap- 
 pened, you should have acquainted me 
 with it before taking any action.' 
 
 " ' Sire,' I answered, bowing, ' I should 
 obey your majesty before anything else ; 
 19 
 
290 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 thus, when the house is on fire, I will come 
 and ask your permission to put out the 
 flames.' 
 
 " The king was good enough not to be 
 displeased by my answer," adds the Duke 
 of Doudeauville. 
 
 Before the fall of royalty, the minister 
 had thought fit to resign. Though retired 
 from public affairs, he was still the de- 
 fender, the friend of the unfortunate ; and, 
 whether at Paris or Montmirail, his little 
 children and other works of benevolence 
 divided his heart and time. 
 
 In connection with the Ladies of Peace, 
 we have spoken of the death of the Abbe" 
 Legris-Duval. This family friend had gone 
 to sleep in the Lord in 1819, deeply re- 
 gretted, not only by the family of the cas- 
 tle, but by the inhabitants of Montmirail, 
 his piety and kindly charity making him 
 beloved by all who knew him.. 
 
 On his death-bed, he had promised the 
 holy duchess to plead the cause of her son 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 291 
 
 and daughter-in-law with God, for that 
 they were so saddened by having no child. 
 Some months after his decease, she writes 
 to Mademoiselle Rollat: 
 
 "The viscountess gives us for the first 
 time in thirteen years very sweet hopes ; 
 one scarcely dares to believe in them, but 
 I am full of confidence. I pray you to 
 thank Heaven, and to ask for this child a 
 living and active faith. It is the prayer 
 that I make before all others, and God is 
 too good not to hear me favourably." 
 
 The hopes were realized, and Heaven was 
 generous, for the Viscountess of Roche- 
 foucauld in a few years became the mother 
 of six children, who formed a graceful 
 crown about her. 
 
 To the great satisfaction of their venera- 
 ble grandmother, their education was in- 
 trusted to Monsieur Bernier, a virtuous 
 priest, capable of training the gentleman 
 and the Christian. The two eldest, Messrs. 
 Stanislas and Sosthenes, stated in their 
 
292 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 earliest youth, that this was what they in- 
 tended to be one day. 
 
 Their best time, that of the fine season, 
 was passed at Montmirail ; all was regu- 
 lated to promote duty and pleasure, and the 
 good grandmother looked forward to the 
 moment which brought her little angels to 
 her, as the sweetest in her day. Nothing 
 could be more touching than to see them, 
 on the signal for their recess, surround her 
 arm-chair, and respectfully kiss her aged 
 hand. The holy duchess would smile with 
 that indescribable expression of maternal 
 tenderness which she always retained. 
 
 "Well, my little children," she would 
 say, "has Monsieur 1'Abbe told you very- 
 pretty stories to-day ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, grandmother, very pretty and 
 very old too ; but they are perfectly true 
 stories ; perhaps you don't know them, or 
 maybe you learned them when you were 
 little ? " 
 
 " Perhaps I did ; tell them to me.' 1 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 293 
 
 And then would come the always new 
 story of Adam and Eve, and of Abraham, 
 to which the grandmother would listen at- 
 tentively, the more that the little narrator 
 would put a great deal of warmth into his 
 action and omit no detail. 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville took a partic- 
 ular interest in the education of the eldest 
 little girl, whose vigorous and ardent nature 
 gave no presage of her premature death. 
 There was such an exuberance of life in 
 her, that the governess, while recognizing 
 her rich qualities, was often puzzled to pro- 
 vide for this activity, and this imperious 
 demand for motion and novelty. The good 
 duchess would then interfere, and it was 
 curious to see her sweet, calm face close 
 to the bubbling ardour which she tried to 
 quiet, while giving it at the same time the 
 necessary food. The convent games served 
 as .encouragements and rewards. 
 
 Next to Mademoiselle Elizabeth came lit- 
 tle Marie, whom a sad event placed wholly 
 
294 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 under her grandmother's control. The 
 mother of this delightful family died holily 
 in 1834. At the news of danger, the good 
 duchess hastened to Paris. When they an- 
 nounced to the sick woman that her mother 
 was coming to see her, 
 
 " What mother ? " she asked. 
 
 " Madame de Doudeauville." 
 
 " Oh, that one : that is the mother of my 
 heart," she answered, and a gleam of joy 
 passed over her face. This sweet presence 
 seemed a safeguard to her on the threshold 
 of eternity. 
 
 After receiving the last Sacraments, she 
 wanted to bless all her children, and 
 counted them. Noticing that one was 
 missing, she asked for it ; the good grand- 
 mother then had the presence of mind to 
 cross the hands of the dying woman on 
 the head of one of the children already 
 blessed, and thus spared her the grief of 
 knowing that her little angel was no more. 
 At the moment when she was asking for 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 295 
 
 him on earth, he was preceding her and 
 calling her to heaven, having yielded up his 
 last breath a few hours before his mother, 
 in his little bed, which she wished to keep 
 next to her's. 
 
 Griefs were now multiplying for the holy 
 duchess. In 1833, she lost her son-in- 
 law, Monsieur de Rastignac, who had not 
 married again ; in 1834, her daughter-in- 
 law, and a grandson ; in 1835, her sister, 
 the Countess of Montesquieu ; and a few 
 days after, while still bathed in tears, she 
 was called to shed more over Mademoi- 
 selle Elizabeth, who, in full health, was car- 
 ried off by typhoid fever at the age of 
 fifteen. 
 
 Each of these losses made a fresh wound 
 in a heart which, wholly God's, was still the 
 heart of the family. When a twig is broken 
 from the branch, it leaves a sad incision 
 there. Father Roger understands this, and 
 the faithful friend sends words of true com- 
 fort to the afflicted saint. 
 
296 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 "MADAME LA DUCHESSE, I unite my- 
 self to you, before the Lord, with all the 
 affection of my heart, and share deeply 
 the sorrows which yours is feeling. But 
 your faith tells you that every cross is a gift 
 from God, and that, in a submissive and 
 resigned soul, it will necessarily produce 
 an abundance of ineffable graces, and of 
 blessings for this life and for eternity. 
 You know better than any one, madam, 
 what the Christian would become if he had 
 not this support, which St. John of the 
 Cross calls the ' strong staff/ that sustains 
 us. It is the Cross that has saved the world, 
 it is that which preserves it in shap- 
 ing the elect souls. It is the daily bread 
 of the just, the most solid food of the real 
 disciple of Jesus Christ. The more bitter 
 and sensible it is, the more it is like that 
 which our Divine Master and Saviour bore 
 for love of us. The very sign of the cross 
 is a blessing, and by the strongest reason- 
 ing, the reality of the cross must be very 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 297 
 
 blessing. The more one is bound to it, 
 the more should he deem himself happy. 
 I pause, madam, for it does not belong to 
 the words of man to heal the heart; it is 
 the work of the Comforting Spirit which 
 is in you." 
 
 The infirmities of age are now added to 
 the suffering of the heart, and augment the 
 merit of patience. Father Roger under- 
 stands and admirably touches upon the 
 privileges of this precious condition. 
 
 "I easily conceive, madam, that though 
 in very good company, your soul should feel 
 almost in a desert, without the power of 
 opening or communicating itself. It has an 
 inner language which is not that of the day, 
 and which can only be exercised in perfect 
 silence. Oh ! how eloquent is this solitude, 
 this forsaking of the creature, this language 
 of the heart ! What inexpressible things 
 does it not say to the heart of Jesus ! 
 
 " Do not let us complain of being weak 
 
298 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 and of seeing our strength and activity 
 fail ; our body must decay, to tend towards 
 the dust from whence it came, and whither 
 it will return, whilst the spirit should la- 
 bour diligently to raise itself/ more and 
 more towards heaven, which is its true 
 dwelling-place. 
 
 " Do not then think, madam, that you 
 are growing old. Do as I do, who seem 
 to be growing young : the more we ap- 
 proach the end, the more joy and vigour 
 we should show. Our great distresses 
 should not disturb us, for that is what be- 
 longs to us, our real attribute ; they are 
 absorbed in the Divine Mercy, by the mer- 
 its of Jesus Christ, oui only resource and 
 our only hope. 
 
 " We will say no more about our being 
 joined together in prayer, for this has been 
 a settled thing for a long time past. 
 
 " Do you know the other day I did not 
 like to leave Paris without embracing the 
 two dear children, Stanislas and Sosthenes. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 299 
 
 I wish to add here a word for Mademoiselle 
 Marie, whose little letter I received with 
 much pleasure. Providence, who has given 
 into your hands the education of this dear 
 little girl, will also give you everything 
 which is necessary to develop her happy 
 disposition, and to confirm her in the love 
 of true virtue. May she always be very 
 merry." 
 
 This little girl, of whom the holy re- 
 ligious speaks here, and to whom he 
 addresses a word or two in nearly all 
 his letters, had been, since her mother's 
 death, entirely under the care of the good 
 duchess, who was engrossed in preserving 
 her innocence and developing her inclina- 
 tion to piety. Father Roger heard her 
 first confession, and whenever he could, he 
 did himself the pleasure of explaining her 
 catechism to her. The good results which 
 she got from this had such an influence 
 upon her whole conduct, that the kind 
 grandmother abridged her conversations 
 
300 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 with the reverend Father, that he might 
 give a bit more of his time to his little girl 
 In the chapel and among the poor the dear 
 child found her chiefest pleasures ; and her 
 greatest recreation was to do a charity. 
 When she was entering her tenth year, her 
 Grandmother de Montmorency, thinking 
 to give pleasure, sent her as a birthday gift 
 a magnificent cloak lined with ermine ; but 
 when they opened the box at Montmirail, 
 the child burst into tears. They were all 
 astonished, and called her attention to the 
 beauty of the garment ; but she said, still 
 crying : " What good will it do me ? I 
 have a plenty of cloaks for myself already, 
 but I have nothing to cover the poor who 
 are cold. Ah, if my grandmother had 
 only sent me the money that this fur cost, 
 I should have been able to do a great 
 many charities." 
 
 Monsieur Georges de la Rochefoucauld, 
 her great grandson, was growing up by the 
 side of the venerable grandmother together 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 301 
 
 with Mademoiselle Marie. The two chil- 
 dren were nearly of the same age, and had 
 the same pious and charitable tastes. They 
 were very fond of each other, understood 
 one another remarkably well, and in their 
 recess the question was, who could dress 
 the little chapels best. To please them, all 
 the inhabitants of the castle would go and 
 sing Christmas carols before the manger in 
 the parlour. They made pleasant company 
 for the good grandmother, who went over 
 her reminiscences to instruct without tir- 
 ing them. She had many stories to tell, 
 histories of the Revolution of thrilling in- 
 terest, but in which she always put herself 
 in the background, in order to bring out 
 her relatives, friends, and servants, and 
 above all, the action of Providence. She re- 
 called her fears, dangers, and privations : 
 as how one evening in the time of the 
 famine, being sad at having only one egg 
 to divide between her two children, she 
 had prayed, and had felt much comforted, 
 
302 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 when, on breaking the egg to have it 
 cooked, she had found in it two yolks, 
 which, under the circumstances, made a 
 real meal. They hung upon her words ; 
 she mingled with her narrative short but 
 telling reflections, adapted to the capacity 
 of her little audience, making them appre- 
 ciate the usefulness of being able to wait 
 upon one's self, of learning to be content 
 with little, and the importance of being 
 ready for every event. 
 
 The children would interrupt her by a 
 hundred exclamations : " You saw all those 
 dreadful things ! . . . . You had no maid ! 
 .... You suffered all that ?".... 
 
 Who does not know the power of con- 
 trast over the young imagination ; the pri- 
 vations of which their aged grandmother 
 spoke seemed the more palpable, because, 
 very naturally, the children compared them 
 with the well-being that surrounded them. 
 Then came their indignation against the 
 authors of such great evils, those who nad 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 303 
 
 killed such good relations, for in the 
 Rochefoucauld family were counted thir- 
 teen victims of the Revolution. To this ve- 
 hemence the charitable grandmother would 
 answer in the words of our Lord on the 
 cross : "They know not what they do ;" and 
 she would add, humbly : " My children, if 
 the good God had not helped me, I should 
 have done even as they." Whilst Made- 
 moiselle Marie, grave and sweet, struggled 
 to understand how she who was goodness 
 personified could ever have been so wicked, 
 Monsieur Georges, less serious than his 
 cousin, would laugh roguishly, and taking 
 advantage of his grandmother's blindness, 
 would make signs to the others that he did 
 n't believe a word of it ; but from time to 
 time, to cheer the conversation, when some 
 new crime was spoken of, he would say: 
 " You would have been capable of doing the 
 same thing, would n't you, grandmother ? " 
 Delighted to hear her repeat her act of 
 humility, he would multiply his incredulous 
 
304 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 protestations, and his gestures of reverent 
 devotion. 
 
 The old manor-house, which had been 
 honoured by the long sojourn of Saint Vin- 
 cent de Paul, had now the privilege of shel- 
 tering a future apostle and martyr to the 
 faith. Monsieur Olivaint, tutor to Mon- 
 sieur Georges, was now beginning with 
 modest gravity and intelligent devotion, his 
 mission to youth. 
 
 That power of fascination which made 
 the ministry of the fervent Jesuit so fruit- 
 ful, was very happily felt during his stay in 
 Montmirail : the soul of all good works, he 
 organized there the Society of Saint Vin- 
 cent de Paul. Such a character soon won 
 the esteem and admiration of the pious 
 duchess, while he experienced in her pres- 
 ence the respect that holiness induces. 
 This holiness was to go on growing to the 
 end, and to nourfsh itself at the fountain 
 of sacrifice ; the death of Father Roger, 
 which happened in 1839, while depriving 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 305 
 
 Madame de Doudeauville of an excellent 
 friend and experienced guide, also took from 
 her her powerful auxiliary in the foundation 
 at Nazareth. 
 
 She had to make a great act of faith, 
 that she might not tremble for the future 
 of a little society hardly formed. The holy 
 religious, a fortnight before his death, had 
 written to her the following letter : 
 
 " MADAME LA DUCHESSE, I must in- 
 demnify myself for having been so long 
 without writing to you, but it would be dif- 
 ficult for me to tell you all I should like 
 at this moment. So many things come 
 into the mind at the end of one year, and 
 the beginning of another ! As there is 
 nothing stable in this lower world, and as 
 the greater part of mankind, even Chris- 
 tians, find only those things fortunate that 
 affect their temporal affairs favourably, I 
 see very few who flatter themselves that 
 the year has been in accordance with their 
 
 20 
 
306 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 wishes. For me, while seeing ground for 
 alarm and fears, I do not give up the hope 
 of having a truly good year, and I wish 
 you the same. Your soul, madam, is too 
 firmly established in the way of faith, and 
 in the love of the divine will, for you not to 
 find all things very good. What new hap- 
 piness does the Holy Family prepare for 
 us this year ? It is a secret, but whatever 
 it be, it will be great, for it will be in the 
 ordering of Providence, and it will turn to 
 the good of your dear Nazareth." 
 
 The good duchess needed to have learned 
 to judge quite differently from the world, 
 in order to bear the trials that succeeded ; 
 the charming child whose precocious holi- 
 ness was her comfort, attacked by a linger- 
 ing but incurable disease, after having 
 given edification to her family and all the 
 servants, passed away piously on the day of 
 the feast of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 A letter from Mother Rollat gives us 
 some precious details of this death* 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 307 
 
 "Poor little Marie yielded to her long 
 sickness on the 8th of December. She 
 died as she had lived, with the piety and 
 sweetness of an angel. Her happiness is 
 not doubtful ; even her present happiness 
 is hardly so ; but nevertheless pray and ask 
 prayers for her, for we do not know the 
 judgments of God. She received the Holy 
 Viaticum twice, and Extreme Unction on 
 the evening before her death, and all with 
 perfect consciousness up to the last mo- 
 ment She kissed with touching tenderness 
 the true cross and the medal of the Blessed 
 Virgin. A little before her death, they had 
 placed near her bed a statue of that dear 
 mother ; she gazed at it with an ineffable 
 smile ; all at once, as if ravished in ecstasy 
 she cried, holding out her arms to the holy 
 image, ' Ah, how beautiful she is ! How 
 beautiful she is ! ' Then, moving her lips to 
 pronounce the name of Mary, she breathed 
 her last. They kept her for twenty-four 
 'hours, the face uncovered, and she remained 
 
308 Madame de la Rochefoucaiild. 
 
 as beautiful as an angel. After taking her 
 to the parish church, they brought her to 
 our own to be deposited in the family tomb. 
 In spite of the weight of the leaden coffin, 
 the congregation of religious would not 
 give to others the consolation of carrying 
 it. All the town followed ; there had to be 
 guards at the door of our chapel, the court 
 and even the main road being crowded. The 
 family wished no ceremony ; the public grief 
 and lament of the poor were more touch- 
 ing and beautiful than you can imagine. 
 
 " Madame la Duchesse is to be admired 
 for the courage with which she bears a, to 
 her, irreparable loss. This child was the 
 delight of her life, and the object of her 
 constant occupation. She stayed by her 
 bed until the last breath, without shedding 
 a tear, without the least sign of weakness ; 
 then, having prayed, she went peacefully to 
 mass and made her communion. It was 
 only when her two little grandsons, Mon- 
 sieur Stanislas and Monsieur Sosthenes 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 309 
 
 threw themselves into her arms as she 
 came back from service, that she could 
 weep." 
 
 To crown all these trials, the Lord called 
 to Himself, on the 2d of June, 1841, the 
 honourable and virtuous Duke de Dou- 
 deauville. For two years he had suffered 
 with heroic patience acute and almost con- 
 stant pain, using the small intervals which 
 his disease allowed him, to interest himself 
 for the poor, and all that concerned the 
 good of the country. 
 
 His uprightness, devotion, and pious res- 
 ignation had impressed upon his face, worn 
 with illness, a truly patriarchal stamp ; one 
 felt himself before a man of virtue. 
 
 As, during the last months of his illness, 
 he could not go to church, Monseigneur, 
 the Bishop of Chalons had authorized the 
 ordinary at Nazareth to celebrate the Holy 
 Sacrifice every Sunday in the chamber of 
 the noble old man. It was a favour which 
 he appreciated, who in the midst of the 
 
310 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 greatest occupation, had made out a list 
 of the benedictions given in the churches of 
 Paris, in order to be able to receive every 
 day in the week a benediction of the Holy 
 Sacrament. He whom he had loved to 
 visit came now to visit him, and entirely 
 given up to the happiness of this Presence, 
 he took no more interest in the affairs of 
 this world. Thus, when the good duchess, 
 to whom he had often expressed the desire 
 of seeing his son marry for second wife 
 Mademoiselle Vertillac, came to tell him 
 the happy conclusion of this marriage plan, 
 he stopped her by a sign, and said to her 
 distinctly, " I wish to know nothing more 
 of the things of earth." 
 
 It was with this sentiment of lively faith 
 that he received the last sacraments. The 
 entire population crowded to honour his 
 funeral service, and do homage to a gen- 
 erous benefactor. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 REST IN GOD. 
 
 WE approach the end of this long ex- 
 istence, where fidelity grew with trial, and 
 love with fidelity. Before seeing it close, 
 calm and serene, according to the promise 
 of Holy Scripture, like the evening of a 
 beautiful day, we wish to reproduce a por- 
 trait sketched by friendship, and preserved 
 among the family relics. 
 
 " In the old Castle of Montmirail lives 
 the octogenarian whom all approach with 
 veneration. Age has not changed her reg- 
 ular, noble, imposing features ; it has but 
 added to the majesty of this fine face; it 
 has only replaced the charms of youth by 
 those of grace and virtue. 
 
 "Strangers admitted to the antique 
 manor ; all you who approach with emotion 
 
312 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 the lady of the mansion ; you who know the 
 purity, the uprightness of this long life, so 
 well filled by the accomplishment of every 
 duty and the exercise of all the virtues, 
 you are ambitious of the honour of pressing 
 your lips to that venerable hand which has 
 only opened to give or bless ; this hand, on 
 which children and grandchildren come to 
 put their kisses, .... but your emotion 
 is doubled when you see that this expres- 
 skm of respect and tenderness is the only 
 sign now by which the old lady can rec- 
 ognize her son and grandsons. Sight is 
 lacking to this lovely soul, for the expres- 
 sion of benevolence and kindness. 
 
 " If the fine eyes of the Duchess of Dou- 
 deauville have ceased to see the light, her 
 mind is clear-sighted, and her intellectual 
 faculties have kept their youth. Born with 
 a very lively imagination, and a very ardent 
 soul, her reason has always been so power- 
 ful, that she early learned to modify and 
 restrain her flights of impulse. 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 3 1 3 
 
 " If her severity was ever great towards 
 all that was not perfectly pure, elevated, 
 worthy, and Christian, she had for the sin- 
 ner whom she was trying to bring home, 
 extreme indulgence, one might almost say, 
 a particular charm. 
 
 " Her exterior is calm ; but her words 
 are full of warmth and enthusiasm when 
 she addresses those she loves, or indeed 
 the unhappy whom she would comfort. 
 
 " She had successes without having 
 sought them ; admirers without deigning to 
 receive their homage ; she has sometimes 
 excited envy, but neither calumny nor slan- 
 der has ever dared to attack her ; for the 
 excessive severity that she practised to- 
 wards herself did not hinder her from 
 judging others with charity. Who could 
 have wished then to look for the weak side 
 of so fine a character ? . . . . 
 
 "It was in religion that all the force of 
 her soul took refuge ; it is to religion that 
 she owed the lessons which enabled her to 
 
314 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 walk with a firm step to the end of her 
 honourable life 
 
 " The rudest trials, during the horrors of 
 the Revolution, put to the test her heroic 
 courage, whilst neither threat nor danger 
 could make her yield or draw back one 
 step. She compelled those who were about 
 to send her to the scaffold, to admire her. 
 The most cruel sufferings impaired her 
 health, without being capable of shaking 
 her resignation. 
 
 "The Duchess of Doudeauville has even 
 more loving kindness than sweetness, and 
 her heart is very tender, though her sen- 
 sitiveness has nothing feminine. If she 
 has never sought to shine in the world, 
 to make up for it, she is the charm of her 
 intimate circle. 
 
 " Her mind is universally just, and her 
 judgments are always based on considera- 
 tions of a superior order. 
 
 " She is fond of serious reading ; an ele- 
 vated mind attracts her, a generous senti- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 3 1 5 
 
 ment touches her, and misfortune elicits all 
 her sympathy. 
 
 "That is the Duchess of Doudeauville, 
 with certain contrasts of character, of mind 
 and heart, in addition, which give the more 
 piquancy to her personality. 
 
 " May this model woman, so worthy of 
 admiration, be long spared to those who 
 love and venerate her, for the edification 
 and example of the world ! " 
 
 Between these grand lines, so admirably 
 drawn, let us read above everything else, 
 the saint ; let us not forget that faith and 
 love of God have put into exercise all the 
 faculties of a superior nature, which, with- 
 out the compass of religion, might have 
 wandered into vain theories, like so many 
 others, and whose life might have run out 
 in unfruitfulness, whilst dreaming of the 
 most generous devotion. How many good 
 works ; how many souls saved through her 
 medium ! What constant edification there 
 has been for all who came near her ! One 
 
3 1 6 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 might say that every step has been marked 
 by a good deed. Do not let us deceive 
 ourselves ; grace alone can effect such mir- 
 acles, and to be such as she to the very 
 end, without ever contradicting one's self, a 
 pattern of duty and apostle of love, one 
 must know well how to draw strength from 
 the source of holiness and infinite goodness. 
 It was by prayer, by habitual prayer, that 
 this woman filled her soul with the treas- 
 ures which she poured out about her ; this 
 was the secret of her power. Prayer, union 
 with God, the understanding of sacrifice, 
 this is what made her invincible. Thanks 
 be to God, the spiritual life knows no pause ; 
 the soul goes on always mounting, de- 
 taching itself more and more from earthly 
 ties ; all conspires towards the great work, 
 whose merit grows in proportion as the 
 will has greater efforts to make, and finds 
 itself less seconded by nature. 
 
 Now that the duchess can do no more, 
 actively, her heart makes up for the lack of 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 3 1 7 
 
 everything. Condemned to physical pow- 
 erlessness, she likes to keep herself in con- 
 tinual dependence, not only upon the di- 
 vine will, but also upon the creature. 
 
 How many times, when eager to hear 
 letters read which bring her very dear 
 news, has she repressed this natural im- 
 pulse and waited patiently until her secre- 
 tary came to offer her services. 
 
 She gets up very early, and, not to dis- 
 turb the household, she walks, leaning on 
 the arm of an old servant, to hear mass 
 at Montlean, nearly every day. In spite of 
 the injunctions of her children and the 
 example they have set of most respectful 
 deference towards the holy old lady, the 
 persons attached to her particular service 
 have adopted towards her an exacting man- 
 ner, which she apparently does not notice, 
 and even encourages by her promptness in 
 submitting to all their arrangements. It is 
 not through weakness that she does this ; 
 she has never been familiar with them, and 
 
3 1 8 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 has always preserved the most perfect dig- 
 nity, but she makes herself subject, through 
 a spirit of humility and mortification. 
 
 This virtuous characteristic is especially 
 remarkable, when, at nine o'clock regularly, 
 old Marie comes to the drawing-room 
 to lead her to her bed-room. One of the 
 habitual visitors at the chateau, seeing the 
 promptness with which she always rose, 
 after this summons, took it into his head, 
 for several days, to turn the conversation 
 upon a particularly interesting subject, and 
 to make it very animated at the moment 
 when this good but brusque woman came 
 to call her mistress. He did not succeed 
 in detaining her : one only time, however, 
 he accomplished making her hesitate for a 
 moment or two. Marie had time to repeat, 
 " Madame la Duchesse, it is nine o'clock." 
 In getting up to follow her, the holy woman 
 addressed a word of excuse to her. 
 
 When she goes to the convent, as she 
 does not wish to trouble the regular silence 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 3 1 9 
 
 of the corridors, she has asked to be noti- 
 fied when she enters them, and this Marie 
 does rather roughly, hitting her on the 
 shoulder several times, without drawing 
 any sign of displeasure from the venerable 
 duchess. Far from complaining, she ex- 
 cuses all this bluntness, and speaks of the 
 people of the castle only to praise their 
 devotion and good qualities. 
 
 Her toilet, while always very simple, is 
 for all that worthy of her ; she would not 
 wish to sadden those about her by the 
 smallest omission of the conventionalities. 
 She has, however, a great desire to be eco- 
 nomical, so that she may be able to give 
 more to the needy. In one of her visits to 
 the convent, happening not to have with 
 her her ordinary adviser, she begs the su- 
 perior to tell her plainly whether the gar- 
 ment she wears may be mended again. 
 
 A poor woman seriously ill, having died 
 one day from the consequences of a long 
 walk which she took in order to catch the 
 
320 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 duchess' carriage, that she might bring her 
 suffering to her notice, the respected old 
 lady not only has the three orphans whom 
 she leaves brought up, but, touched by the 
 frightful accident, and not being able to see 
 for herself, takes care to be informed every 
 time she drives out, whether there are any 
 poor persons in the neighborhood. 
 
 Towards the end of 1841 this worthy 
 mother of Nazareth and of the poor had a 
 keen sorrow to bear, which again threw into 
 relief her burning charity. For many years, 
 having given over to her husband all her 
 income, she had reserved to herself only 
 an allowance for her dress and her maid. 
 It was from this sum that she stole her 
 charity money, wishing to leave no mark 
 of it. Monsieur de Doudeauville attached 
 his name to all the well known schemes 
 of benevolence. " One must give an ex- 
 ample," he would say, " when one has a title 
 and a fortune." 
 
 The pious duchess saw him pursue this 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 32 1 
 
 course with pleasure, in accordance with 
 the advice of the Apostle : " Let your light 
 shine before men;" but so far as she her- 
 self was concerned, she clung to practising 
 the words of the Divine Master : " Let not 
 thy left hand know what thy right hand do- 
 eth." She liked particularly to help those 
 poor people who are ashamed to beg. When 
 her husband rallied her upon the subject, 
 she contented herself with smiling, and 
 casting a look at the Holy Family. 
 
 As she had seen, during the years which 
 followed the Revolution of 1830, the tem- 
 poral embarrassment of the house of Naz- 
 areth (which would not have been able to 
 support itself, but that Monsieur de Dou- 
 deauville came several times to its aid), 
 like a provident and wise woman, she 
 wished to secure the means of existence to 
 this community, without encroaching in 
 any way upon the family property ; for this 
 end she economized privately, and put into 
 the hands of her agent what she called her 
 
 21 
 
322 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 reserve fund, which would end by being 
 quite an important sum. The good found- 
 er had full confidence in this arrange- 
 ment, when one day her confidential ad- 
 viser arrives at Montmirail, asking for a 
 private interview. She begs Mademoiselle 
 Therese to go for a walk in the park ; then 
 
 Monsieur L , finding himself alone with 
 
 her, throws himself at her feet, and says, 
 sobbing : 
 
 " Madame la Duchesse, before going to 
 La Trappe, where my confessor has ordered 
 me to end my days, I come to beg you to 
 free me from the obligation of restitution, 
 on account of the impossibility of my re- 
 pairing the wrong I have done." " What ? " 
 asks the holy duchess, " you have done me 
 a wrong ? .... Is it only towards me ? " 
 " Yes, madam, and since that time I am 
 deprived of the Sacraments, and shall be 
 so unless your generosity forgive me all 
 my debt." "Rise, sir, rise quickly," she 
 answers, with emotion, " I give you what 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 323 
 
 you have taken from me." " But, Madame 
 la Duchesse, a considerable sum is in ques- 
 tion ; it is that which you ordered me to 
 hold in reserve. I have played at the 
 Bourse, and have lost all ! " 
 
 The unhappy man had just gone out, 
 and his words were still sounding in the 
 troubled mind of the venerable dowager, 
 when Mademoiselle Therese returned. The 
 face of the holy woman was disturbed, 
 the redness of her face, the altered sound 
 of her voice, all revealed an internal agita- 
 tion which she in vain sought to conceal. 
 To the reiterated questions of her confi- 
 dante, she at last answers by communicat- 
 ing to her the scene which had just taken 
 place. Then, stopping suddenly, "The"- 
 rese," she said, "I have been wanting in 
 
 delicacy : I assured Monsieur L that 
 
 I would remit his debt, that I pardoned 
 him, and I ought not to have made his 
 fault known. Promise me never to speak 
 of it to anyone whatever." She had to 
 
324 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 agree to this to calm the alarmed conscience 
 of the pious duchess, who, in spite of her 
 assurances, repeated several times : " My 
 God, I have not been able to imitate Thee ; 
 to reveal the fault which one pardons is 
 not to pardon graciously." 
 
 This opening of her heart to her com- 
 panion comforted her for all that, and 
 as soon as she was convinced that the 
 secret would be kept inviolate, she took 
 measures to protect the honour of her 
 agent. Having summoned him again, she 
 had him tear up everything in his accounts 
 which had any bearing upon the lost sum. 
 She confided to him the design she had of 
 endowing Nazareth, the great distress she 
 felt at its being impossible for her to do 
 it after this, and for all reparation she re- 
 quested him to tell Mademoiselle Rollat 
 himself all that had taken place. " It is 
 Nazareth you have wronged, sir ; it is to 
 Nazareth that in the future you should 
 give whatever you and your mother can 
 dispense with." 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 325 
 
 And, regarding this error as a momen- 
 tary surprise, a passing temptation, she 
 left to him the care of her moneys, and 
 even doubled his salary, on the plea of his 
 having a greater responsibility since the 
 death of Monsieur de Doudeauville. 
 
 The stipulated confession was certainly 
 made to Mademoiselle Rollat, who was se- 
 riously ill at the time, for Monsieur L 
 
 having asked, in the name of the founder, 
 to see her privately, she sent away her hos- 
 pital nurse, in order to talk freely with him. 
 But after the visit nothing betrayed the 
 trouble which the first superior of Nazareth 
 must have felt ; nobody in the house heard 
 from her mouth a word which related to 
 this grave confidence ; and the secret, faith- 
 fully kept by the three confidants, would 
 have been buried with them in the tomb, if 
 the unhappy agent, again being guilty, had 
 not himself made confession of his fault, 
 and of the generous pardon he had ob- 
 tained. 
 
326 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 In seeing the resignation of Mademoi- 
 selle Rollat and her unshaken trust, the 
 holy founder must have comforted herself 
 more easily, and been willing, with her, to 
 commit entirely to the care of Providence 
 the temporal future of Nazareth, which she 
 had so greatly desired to secure. 
 
 The Lord soon asked a new sacrifice of 
 her ; she learned that the illness of Made- 
 moiselle Rollat was incurable, and in the 
 middle of April, 1842, she made haste to 
 return to Montmirail, to hold yet a little 
 communion with her. This holy friend- 
 ship, begun under pious relations, had 
 grown with the fellowship of labour and 
 sufferings ; trials, sacrifices, and contem- 
 plations of the supernatural linked these 
 two souls closely ; thus the venerable duch- 
 ess was sadly afflicted by the great sepa- 
 ration ; but, attached to the work of Naz- 
 areth for itself, she continued to give it 
 tokens of her maternal care as touching as 
 they had ever been, and one can say that 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 327 
 
 until her last moment she had a tender 
 solicitude for the little society. 
 
 But now her strength failed rapidly. 
 Her hearing became less keen ; she walked 
 with difficulty ; exterior life receded from 
 her little by little, but her soul's life grew 
 apace. 
 
 She had a presentiment that the activity 
 of her intelligence was about to desert her ; 
 she prepared herself for this new suffering, 
 and said one day : " I have made my sacri- 
 fice ; all that the good God shall will." 
 
 A little after, she fell ill ; an attack some- 
 what like apoplexy reduced her to a sort of 
 physical prostration. Seated in her easy 
 chair, almost motionless, one would have 
 supposed she had no thought for anything, 
 if she had not fully revived to answer when 
 they spoke to her of God, of her children, 
 or of Nazareth ; then she would smile, or 
 make an exclamation which disclosed the 
 vitality of her intelligence and her heart. 
 
 Father Varin came frequently to confess 
 
328 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 her, and give her the Holy Communion. 
 One day, as he was about to go, having dis- 
 charged his office, the Duchess of Roche- 
 'foucauld, stopping him, gave him a book on 
 those of the Tyrol who had received the 
 Stigmata : " My father," said she, " what do 
 you think of these stories ; are they not 
 very miraculous ? " For an answer the holy 
 religious, raising his eyes to heaven, cried, 
 " Ah ! madam, for me the marvel of mar- 
 vels is to see this woman of eighty years, 
 whose career has been crossed by every 
 trial, ready to appear before God, and to 
 present to Him her baptismal innocence." 
 There came a time when the two holy old 
 people had not the strength to* raise their 
 voices and make each other understand ; 
 then Father Lefebvre had to take the place 
 of Father Varin. As the holy duchess ex- 
 pressed no regret at this change, those 
 about her thought that she had hardly per- 
 ceived it, and had not remarked the greater 
 interval which they had seen fit to observe 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 329 
 
 between her Communions, now reduced to 
 one a week. But when, on a journey, the 
 superior of Nazareth, stopping at Paris, 
 told her that she had met Father Varin, 
 and that he would soon come to visit her, 
 they were astonished to see the pious in- 
 valid join her hands, and with tears in her 
 eyes, answer, with great emotion : " Oh, 
 perhaps he will give me back the frequency 
 of my Communions ! " Full of regret at 
 not having surmised the suffering of such 
 a privation, they begged Father Lefebvre 
 to give oftener to the saintly dowager the 
 God of her heart, her life, and her conso- 
 lation. 
 
 A few days before her death she seemed 
 to rally, her strength revived ; they hoped 
 to keep her among them for a little longer ; 
 but she, feeling her end approach, asked for 
 the last sacraments herself, and as a prep- 
 aration, desired that they should repeat 
 aloud the evening prayers ; noticing that 
 they omitted the one she daily said for the 
 
330 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 holy father, she asked for it. Father Pon- 
 levoy, who was present at the ceremony of 
 Extreme Unction, himself said the prayer 
 for the dying. The expiring woman gave, 
 to the last, sensible signs of fervour. 
 
 Her children surrounded her. They 
 hoped to get a word from her, an ex- 
 pression of tenderness. The Duchess of 
 Rochefoucauld, leaning towards her, said 
 affectionately : " Mother, do you still love 
 Zenaide very much ? " No answer ; the 
 dying woman seemed no longer to hear. 
 Having several times repeated the same 
 question, and always without success, she 
 had the inspiration to ask : " Do you love 
 the good God ? " A " Yes ! " spoken with 
 strength, made it understood by all that 
 from henceforward she wished to be occu- 
 pied only by thoughts of heaven. 
 
 On the 24th of January, 1849, sne die d 
 quietly at Paris, at eleven o'clock at night, 
 in her eighty-fifth year. Her soul, detach- 
 ing itself without effort from its earthly 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld, 331 
 
 prison, to fly to the bosom of the God 
 whom it had so much loved, left to the 
 material shell its majestic impress. One 
 felt a religious respect in the presence of 
 the temple where the Spirit of the Lord 
 had so long rested. Children and grand- 
 children, friends and servants, wept at the 
 departure of the saint, the treasure of all ; 
 but each, amid his tears, said those words 
 of the church : " Blessed are they who die 
 in the Lord ! " 
 
 The venerated remains, being immedi- 
 ately transported to Montmirail, were de- 
 posited in the vault at Montlean, near those 
 whose guardian she had been here below 
 At the approach of the funeral procession, 
 from all the environs the people poured 
 spontaneously towards Montmirail, or- 
 phans, old men, entire families, who had 
 felt the succour of the holy duchess, swelled 
 a glorious cortege. Monseigneur de Prilly, 
 Bishop of Chalons, associated his personal 
 sorrow with the public mourning. The 
 
33 2 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 letter which he addresses on the occasion 
 to the chaplain of Nazareth is a short and 
 beautiful funeral oration, which we wish to 
 reproduce here to close this admirable life. 
 " My dear friend, I come to you, for I 
 feel that you have great need of consola- 
 tion at Montlean, after having lost the ven- 
 erable and generous founder who was the 
 glory and the chief ornament of the place. 
 If she did not pray for us in heaven, if 
 she had not left us her revered memory, 
 the treasure of her example, this loss 
 would truly be irremediable and irrepara- 
 ble. There would remain for us only bit- 
 terness and profound desolation, and we 
 should be excusable if we gave ourselves up 
 to discouragement ; but let us take heart. 
 Madame la Duchess de Doudeauville is 
 still in our midst ; she lives here, she will 
 live here always, her memory will be eter- 
 nal. Ah, if we are not all saints, nothing 
 will have been wanting on God's part, and 
 we shall be without excuse, having had for 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 333 
 
 so long such a beautiful example before our 
 eyes. They say, and I easily believe it, 
 that when Monseigneur d'Hermopolis would 
 speak of Madame la Duchesse, it was only 
 in exclamations of admiration and venera- 
 tion ; he could not express the sentiments 
 with which so excellent and holy a person 
 inspired him, a person superior to all 
 those whose virtues we now esteem, and 
 whom we see, notwithstanding, giving great 
 examples to the world. This illustrious and 
 admirable woman raised herself so much 
 above them that she seemed, one can al- 
 most say, of another nature than the chil- 
 dren of men. As much by the power of 
 grace as by her fidelity in corresponding to 
 it, she was quite by herself in the fulness 
 of all virtue ; in piety, gentleness, friend- 
 liness ; in amiable and lovely humility ; in 
 a word, in all the qualities which transform 
 into angels the poor children of Adam, 
 to make them in advance inhabitants of 
 heaven. 
 
334 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 " It is a great and inestimable favour 
 when it pleases God to give such examples 
 on the earth. We should profit by them 
 as much as we can, and not stay behind 
 when we see to what degree we can raise 
 ourselves, and advance in the road of vir- 
 tue by constant efforts and daily labour. 
 
 " They will pray much at Nazareth and 
 elsewhere for Madame la Duchesse, and 
 they will do well, for it is a duty, but we 
 must invoke her prayers. I should not be 
 surprised if miracles were done at her 
 tomb. As for me, I shall often think of 
 her in my perplexities. She was a person 
 of great judgment, and a lady of good 
 counsel. Louis XVIII. set a high value 
 upon her advice, and consulted her often. 
 I shall do the same, and shall be the bet- 
 ter for it ; she will always be living for me. 
 
 " The details which have been given me 
 of the funeral ceremony were very touch- 
 ing ; the memory of them will be pre- 
 served. We shall recall the affecting fare- 
 
Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 335 
 
 wells made to this admirable woman by 
 the parish of Montmirail, as they wet with 
 their tears the coffin which is to encamp 
 among you until the resurrection day. It 
 is a real relic that you possess ; may she 
 cover you with her protection ! I ask it 
 of the holy duchess for you all. Let us 
 make ourselves worthy of her kindness in 
 taking her for our model. 
 
 " May the Lord deign to bless Montl6an, 
 this house, the work of her hands, which 
 was so dear to her. May this precious es- 
 tablishment prosper, and be ever an asy- 
 lum, a school of holiness and virtue ! . . . . 
 
 " The heart of the daughters of Naza- 
 reth has rest and joy in the remembrance 
 of her whom Providence inspired to create 
 their little society. 
 
 "Happy in finding in her memory a 
 model and encouragement, we make but 
 one prayer over the tomb where admira- 
 tion is mingled with gratitude : ' That pur- 
 suing from the heights of heaven her noble 
 
336 Madame de la Rochefoucauld. 
 
 mission, she, whom zeal constrained here 
 below, may now intercede to multiply the 
 number of Christians who walk through 
 life by means of the radiant beams of the 
 faith, and that she may obtain the grace of 
 fidelity for the humble religious family 
 which she has so holily and generously 
 loved!" . 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
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 i I II