days later all the sick were well, and the following week
she was able to reopen the school. Another great sorrow was the intense
sufferings of Mother Octavie Berthold, one of her first companions, whom
a cruel malady was now hurrying to the grave, and who died a holy death
in November of that same year. During these years, likewise, she heard
of the closing of her beloved convent of Sainte Marie d'en Haut, in
Grenoble, while at the same time there was question of closing those of
Florissant and St. Charles. Under the weight of these crosses and many
others, her affliction was indescribable. In a letter to Mother Barat
she gives vent to the anguish of her soul, and with touching humility
expresses the fear that her sins are the cause of so many calamities.

But Mother Duchesne was too heroic a soul ever to be discouraged. She
set herself to work anew with unflinching fortitude, and went on with
the building of an addition to her house. The next year, 1834, had
opened prosperously with thirty-two boarders, when the cholera broke out
afresh, and the bankruptcy of several business houses in St. Louis
reduced their number to one-third. Just at this time Mother Aude was
called to France, and received orders to visit all the houses before
leaving, that of St. Louis included. A few months later Mother Duchesne
was removed to Florissant, while Mother Thieffry took her place at St.
Louis. We may mention here that the new Superior did not find a way of
overcoming the difficulties of the situation, and several years more
went by before the St. Louis house entered upon an era of prosperity.

Mother Duchesne resumed her old life at Florissant--a life of prayer,
toil and self-immolation. She could be seen engaged in the hardest labor
of the house, the stables and the grounds, cooking, washing the dishes,
scouring the kitchen utensils, chopping wood, working in the garden with
hoe and spade, like an industrious field laborer, sweeping and cleaning
in the house, and, in fact, taking upon herself, according to her
invariable custom, all that was hardest and most repulsive to nature.
She took care of the sick herself, and would let no one else sit up with
them at night, on the plea that the others needed their rest more than
she did. She took entire charge of the sacristy, which, like the care of
the sick, was for her a labor of love. She made the morning call and
night visit, directed the different schools, and took a share in the
teach