beneath its wrinkles and the mask of
saffron-tinted pallor which time and the austerities of a cloister have
placed upon it. Carrying very lightly the weight of her corpulence and
also that of her seventy-six years, she is lively, alert, and frisky
to a degree that shames the youngest of us. For fifty years she has
governed in a masterly manner her community, which has always been the
most regular, the best organized, and also the richest society in the
diocese of Troyes. Admirably fitted for the training of youth, she
has long conducted a school for girls, which is famous throughout the
department of the Aube and adjacent regions. Having thus superintended
the education of nearly all the daughters of the best houses in the
province, it is easy to imagine the influence she has acquired among the
aristocracy,--an influence she probably intends to use in the electoral
struggle she has promised to take part in.

On the other hand, it appears that this really extraordinary woman
is the sovereign disposer of the votes of the democratic party in the
arrondissement of Arcis. Until now, the existence of that party in Arcis
has been considered problematical; but it is actually, by its nature,
active and stirring, and our candidate proposes to present himself
under its banner. Evidently, therefore, the support the good mother has
promised will be useful and important.

I am sure you will admire with me the--as one might say--bicephalous
ability of this old nun, who has managed to keep well with the nobility
and the secular clergy on the one hand, and on the other to lead with
her wand the radical party, their sworn enemy. Admirable for her charity
and her lucid intellect, respected throughout the region as a saint,
exposed during the Revolution to a dreadful persecution, which she bore
with rare courage, one can easily understand her close relations with
the upper and conservative classes; but why she should be equally
welcome to democrats and to the subverters of order would seem, at
first, to pass all belief.

The power which she undoubtedly wields over the revolutionary party took
its rise, madame, in a struggle which they formerly had together. In
1793 that amiable party were bent on cutting her throat. Driven from
her convent, and convicted of harboring a "refractory" priest, she was
incarcerated, arraigned before the Revolutionary tribunal, and condemned
to death. The matter was reported to Danton, a native of Arcis, and