themselves lost an immense property. By birth Monsieur de Mortsauf was
a suitable husband for their daughter. Mademoiselle de Lenoncourt,
instead of rejecting a marriage with a feeble and worn-out man of
thirty-five, seemed satisfied to accept it. It gave her the
opportunity of living with her aunt, the Duchesse de Verneuil, sister
of the Prince de Blamont-Chauvry, who was like a mother to her.

Madame de Verneuil, the intimate friend of the Duchesse de Bourbon,
was a member of the devout society of which Monsieur Saint-Martin
(born in Touraine and called the Philosopher of Mystery) was the soul.
The disciples of this philosopher practised the virtues taught them by
the lofty doctrines of mystical illumination. These doctrines hold the
key to worlds divine; they explain existence by reincarnations through
which the human spirit rises to its sublime destiny; they liberate
duty from its legal degradation, enable the soul to meet the trials of
life with the unalterable serenity of the Quaker, ordain contempt for
the sufferings of this life, and inspire a fostering care of that
angel within us who allies us to the divine. It is stoicism with an
immortal future. Active prayer and pure love are the elements of this
faith, which is born of the Roman Church but returns to the
Christianity of the primitive faith. Mademoiselle de Lenoncourt
remained, however, in the Catholic communion, to which her aunt was
equally bound. Cruelly tried by revolutionary horrors, the Duchesse de
Verneuil acquired in the last years of her life a halo of passionate
piety, which, to use the phraseology of Saint-Martin, shed the light
of celestial love and the chrism of inward joy upon the soul of her
cherished niece.

After the death of her aunt, Madame de Mortsauf received several
visits at Clochegourde from Saint-Martin, a man of peace and of