e with them
and had to apply to the Jesuits at Amiens for help. The other
villages on the estate were visited in turn, with equal success.
Vincent used to look back in later life to this first mission sermon
as the beginning of his work for souls.

The result of all this for the preacher, however, was a certain
prestige, and his humility took alarm. Monsieur and Madame de Gondi
now treated their sons' tutor with the reverence due to a saint. His
name was on the lips of everybody; and yet, as Vincent sadly
acknowledged to himself, the work for which he had been engaged was a
failure. The "little demons" were as headstrong and violent as ever;
it was only on their parents that he had been able to make any
impression.

Fearful of being caught in the snare of worldly honors, he resolved
to seek safety in flight. Father de Berulle had sent him to the house
of Monsieur de Gondi; to him did he appeal in his distress. His work
as a tutor had been a failure, he told him; he could do nothing with
his pupils, and he was receiving honor which he in no way deserved.
He ended by begging to be allowed to work for the poor in some humble
and lonely place, and de Berulle decided to grant his wish. The
country parish of Chatillon was in need of workers, was the answer;
let him go there and exercise his zeal for souls.

The only remaining difficulty was to get away from the great house.
Dreading the outcry that he knew would follow the announcement of his
resolution, and the arguments that would be used against him, Vincent
departed, declaring simply that personal affairs called him away from
Paris.

Only when he had been already established for some time in his new
parish did it dawn on the de Gondis that his absence was not to be
merely temporary. They were in desperation. Madame de Gondi did
nothing but weep, while her husband applied to everyone whom he
thought to have any influence with Vincent to persuade him to return.
"If he has not the gift of teaching children," he wrote to a friend,
"it does not matter; he shall have a tutor to work under him. He
shall live exactly as he likes if he will only come back. Get de
Berulle to persuade him. I shall be a good man some day," ends this
great nobleman pathetically, "if only he will stay with me."

Chapter 4
THE GALLEYS

M. DE BERULLE had certainly not exaggerated matters when he said that
the parish of Chatillon-les-Dombes was in need of earnest workers.
Vincent looked ab