institution, though seconded by the Seminary of St. Sulpice, after
establishing Brothers in several villages in the environs of Montreal,
received from the court a blow from which it did not recover: the regent
forbade the masters to assume a uniform dress and to pledge themselves
by simple vows. The number of the hospitallers decreased from year to
year, and in 1731 the royal government withdrew from them the annual
subvention which supported them, however poorly. Finally their
institution, after vainly attempting to unite with the Brothers of the
Christian Doctrine, ceased to exist in 1745.

Mgr. de Laval so greatly admired the devotion of these worthy men that
he exclaimed one day: "Let me die in the house of these Brothers; it is
a work plainly inspired by God. I shall die content if only in dying I
may contribute something to the shaping or maintenance of this
establishment." Again he wrote: "The good M. Charron gave us last year
one of their Brothers, who rendered great service to the Mississippi
Mission, and he has furnished us another this year. These acquisitions
will spare the missionaries much labour.... I beg you to show full
gratitude to this worthy servant of God, who is as affectionately
inclined to the missions and missionaries as if he belonged to our body.
We have even the plan, as well as he, of forming later a community of
their Brothers to aid the missions and accompany the missionaries on
their journeys. He goes to France and as far as Paris to find and bring
back with him some good recruits to aid him in forming a community.
Render him all the services you can, as if it were to missionaries
themselves. He is a true servant of God." Such testimony is the fairest
title to glory for an institution.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] A respectfully familiar sobriquet given to Mgr. de Laval.

CHAPTER XVIII

LAST YEARS OF MGR. DE LAVAL

Illness had obliged Mgr. de Laval to hand in his resignation. He wrote,
in fact, at this period of his life to M. de Denonville: "I have been
for the last two years subject to attacks of vertigo accompanied by
heart troubles which are very frequent and increase markedly. I have had
one quite recently, on the Monday of the Passion, which seized me at
three o'clock in the morning, and I could not raise my head from my
bed." His infirmities, which he bore to the end with admirable
resignation, especially affected his limbs, which he was obliged to
bandage tightly every mornin