of Christ, who was not poor and lowly like Him. She had not as yet
informed her relations of her intention to leave the land of her birth,
that she might escape their solicitations to remain where she was known
and loved. Therefore she resolved to go to Paris on the pretext of
business. At the same time, her uncle, M. Cossard, who was guardian of
the minors of her family, and Mme. de Chuly, with whom she was residing,
had each occasion to go to Paris, and so all three travelled in the same
conveyance. This was on the 6th of February, 1653, Margaret Bourgeois
being thirty-three years old. It was thirty-six leagues from Troyes to
Paris, and when they were some distance on the road, she told them her
intention for the first time, declaring that she had left Troyes never
to return, and that she went to Paris only to take the route for Canada,
whither she was to accompany M. de Maisonneuve. Her companions supposed
she was talking to amuse either herself or them, and were not in the
least disturbed by her declaration, nor convinced of the reality, until
they arrived at Paris. Then she requested her uncle to conduct her to a
notary's office, as she had business to transact. He complied with her
request, but was astonished beyond measure when she assured him
seriously that she was going to relinquish, by a legal procedure, all
that might revert to her of the family inheritance, and place it in
_his_ hands for the benefit of the two children who were minors, knowing
that her trust would not be misplaced, as he was their guardian. She had
already made the sacrifice interiorly, many years before, by the vow of
poverty, and she now determined to make it legally, in a manner not to
be reversed. M. Cossard endeavored to dissuade his niece from such an
absurdity, as it appeared to him, but his eloquence and reasoning were
useless, and the property was deeded away. He next tried to convince her
that her vocation was chimerical, and the result of a sort of religous
enthusiasm, which would die a natural death. And lest his rhetoric
should not produce the desired effect, he started back to Troyes, where