those holy women appeared to ratify these promises by their presence,
and when nothing would come of it, nothing would work, when, quite worn
out, she burst into tears, the Lord calmly bade her be still and take
patience.

"Meanwhile, she was living amid a howling storm of recrimination and
threats. The clergy persecute her, the Archbishop of Lyon, the Cardinal
de Richelieu, aims only at hindering the completion of her abbeys on his
lands; she cannot even manage her Sisterhood, since we find her
wandering in search of a protector or an assistant; they are torn by
divisions, and their insubordination is such that at length she is
compelled to return in hot haste, and, with many tears, expel the
contumacious sisters from the cloister.

"It really seems as though no sooner had she built up a monastic wall
than it split and fell; nothing would hold. In short, the Order of the
Incarnate Word was born rickety and died a dwarf. It lingered in the
midst of universal apathy, and survived till 1790, when it was buried.
In 1811 one Abbe Denis revived it at Azerables in la Creuse, and since
then it has struggled on for better for worse, scattered through about
fifteen houses, one of these at Texas in the New World.

"There is no doubt of it," Durtal concluded; "we are far enough from the
strong sap which Saint Theresa and Saint Clare could infuse into the
centennial growth of their mighty trees!

"To say nothing of the fact that Jeanne de Matel, who has never been
canonized like her two sisters, and whose name remains unknown to most
Catholics, intended to found an order of men as well as women; she did
not succeed, and the attempts since made in our day by the Abbe Combalot
to carry her plan into effect have been equally vain!

"Now, what is the reason? Is it because there are too many and various
communities in the Church? Why, new foundations are set on foot and
flourish every day! Is it by reason of the poverty of the monasteries?
Nay, for indigence is the great test of success, and experience shows
that God only blesses the most destitute convents and abandons the
others! Is it, then, the austerity of the rule? But this was very mild;
it was that of Saint Augustine, which yields to every compromise, and at
need accepts every shade of practice. The sisters rose at five in the
morning; the diet was not restricted to Lenten fare excepting at the
Paschal season, but one fast day was enjoined in the week, and even that
was co