o their assistance, for, as they sat by the
river bank upon their trunks, alone and friendless, a young man chanced
to pass by, and seeing them so forlorn, offered his services and went in
search of shelter for them. Soon he found an honest German who willingly
took them in, but he had no bed to offer them, except the one in which
his wife had died of yellow fever a fortnight previously, and of which
not even the sheets had been changed. From this place Mother Duchesne
found means of making her distress known to the Abbe Maenhaut, Cure of
the church in the town, and in later years Rector of the Cathedral of
New Orleans. He came promptly to her assistance, and had her removed to
the hospitable home of a family of the name of Davis. Complete rest and
change of air restored her health, and in a few weeks she reembarked for
St. Louis on the steamer Cincinnati. On their way up they passed by a
steamboat tied up and partially wrecked, in charge of three men. It was
the Hecla, the boat from which she had landed at Natchez. Then it was
that she could see how providential had been the change she had made.
The yellow fever had continued its ravages on the unfortunate boat, and
on a little island nearby could be seen the graves of thirteen of its
victims. Moreover, the boilers had exploded and several men had been
severely injured. At last, after another delay of two weeks, caused by
the grounding of the Cincinnati, Mother Duchesne and her companion
reached St. Louis, after an absence of five months. The account of this
terrible journey contained in Mother Duchesne's letters to Mother Barat
is such as might come from the pen of a saint. There is not a word of
complaint, and no regrets for herself, save for the Communions and
Masses she had lost.

On her return to Florissant she found the school greatly diminished and
in a state of insubordination; this latter condition prevailed not only
among the pupils, but also among the orphans, of whom she always had
several in the house, and whom she educated and provided for entirely.
Her firm hand soon reestablished order, but it was not in her power to
remove what had been the cause of the state of disturbance, in which she
had found the school. The times were very hard; there was little money
in circulation, and Bishop Dubourg had been obliged to borrow in order
to finish his new cathedral, which the rapid increase of the population
rendered necessary. The great bishop's administrative ab