e inhabitants of the country and the neighbouring
communes walked during a part of the night, in order to secure seats;
each anxiously sought to place his chair many hours beforehand, and
caused it to be kept, in fear that another might deprive him of it; the
churches were so full, that it was hardly possible to move in them. The
eagerness to obtain room was so great, that indecorous and even
scandalous scenes took place among the wives of the populace; they
quarrelled for chairs and seats with a ferocity, _qui les mettoit
souvent hors du cercle de la politesse civile et Chretienne_." (Perhaps,
as a townsman, he is unwilling to be more particular). "More than twenty
thousand individuals were assembled in the churches at every service;
and a circumstance which proves how admirably each missionary and
associate fulfilled his particular task is, that each parish gave the
preference to the persons attached to it, and none allowed the
superiority to its neighbouring quarter. Like mothers, who can see
nothing more perfect than the children to whom themselves have given
birth, each parishioner acknowledged no better men than the missionaries
appointed to his own church. MM. Guyon, Menoult, and Bourgin, shone as
much at St. Agricol, as MM. Ferrail and Levasseur at St. Pierre; and MM.
Gerard and Rodet in the church of St. Didier, as much as MM. Fauvet and
Poncelet in that of St. Symphorien." To the character of M.
Levasseur[32] the writer bears honourable testimony, as a young man who
had devoted time, talents, and a liberal private fortune, to the cause;
and whose exertions on this occasion impaired a naturally delicate
constitution. "From four in the morning to eight or nine at night, their
time," he says, "was for many days occupied in public or private
instruction, and in visiting the hospitals and prisons; and forty
missionaries would have been necessary to have completely accomplished
what these nine took cheerfully upon them."

[Footnote 32: "Ce vertueux jeune homme paroit deja consomme dans l'art
Evangelique; ses instructions sont aussi sublimes qu'elles sont precises
et pathetiques; il joint a ses grandes qualites un amour ardent pour les
pauvres; il consomme annuellement les revenus d'un patrimoine majeur a
de bonnes oeuvres dans les cours des Missions. Une foule de faits
attestant ses liberalites journalieres."--_Fransoy's Memoir_.]

The effects of their preaching were manifested by the number of
penitents who flocke