then a member of the National Convention. Danton had known Mother
Marie-des-Anges; he thought her the most virtuous and enlightened woman
he had ever met. Hearing of her condemnation, he was furiously angry,
and wrote, as they said in those days, a high-horse letter to the
Revolutionary tribunal, and, with an authority no human being in Arcis
would have dared to contest, he ordered a reprieve.

The same day he mounted the tribune, and after speaking in general terms
of the "bloody boobies" who by their foolish fury compromised the future
of the Revolution, he told who and what Mother Marie-des-Anges really
was; he dwelt on her marvellous aptitude for the training of youth, and
he presented a scheme in which she was placed at the head of a "grand
national gynaecium," the organization of which was to be made the
subject of another decree. Robespierre, who would have thought the
intellect of an Ursuline nun only a more imperative reason for bringing
her under the revolutionary axe, was absent that day from the
session, and the motion was voted with enthusiasm. The head of Mother
Marie-des-Anges being indispensably necessary to the carrying out of
this decree of the sovereign people, she kept it on her shoulders, and
the headsman put aside his machine.

Though the other decree, organising the Grand National Gynaecium,
was lost sight of in the many other duties that devolved upon the
Convention, the excellent nun carried it out after her fashion. Instead
of something grand and Greek and national, she started in Arcis a
secular girl's-school, and as soon as a little quiet was restored to the
minds of the community, pupils flocked in from all quarters. Under the
Empire Mother Marie-des-Anges was able to reconstitute her Ursuline
sisterhood, and the first act of her restored authority was a
recognition of gratitude. She decreed that on every year on the 5th of
April, the anniversary of Danton's death, a service should be held
in the chapel of the convent for the repose of his soul. To those who
objected to this edict she answered: "Do you know many for whom it is
more necessary to implore God's mercy?"

Under the Restoration, the celebration of this service became a sort of
scandal; but Mother Marie-des-Anges would never hear of suppressing it,
and the great veneration which has always surrounded her obliged these
cavillers to hold their tongues. This courageous obstinacy had its
reward, under the government of July. To-day