dated January 17, 1700, La Fabrique gave the Sisters suitable lots for
free sepulture, and the unrestricted use of the Chapel of the Infant
Jesus, for their private devotional exercises, which act was approved
and confirmed by M. de St. Vallier, the second Bishop of Quebec, during
one of his pastoral visitations in 1719. This church of Bon-Secours
served for many years as a convent chapel to the Hospitalieres of the
Hotel-Dieu, when their hospital and convent was burned down in 1734, and
when they were obliged to lodge their sick in the houses adjoining the
church, until their re-establishment, which did not take place for three
or four years.

We learn from a letter of Sister Bourgeois, that these same religieuses
had been previously burned out in 1695, but that their hospital escaped
the fury of the flames at that time. They sought and found a refuge with
the Sisters of the Congregation, after the second burning, issuing forth
daily to serve the sick, and returning at night to discharge the
reciprocal duties of charity, consequent upon two different communities
residing in the same house, and unavoidably crowding each other, yet no
violation of charity ever occurred, and long before the day of
separation came, an enduring friendship founded on Christ had mutually
existed between them. This famous chapel of Bon-Secours was burned, and
reduced to ashes in 1754, as was also a portion of the city of Montreal.

The war between France and England occurring about that time, the
citizens neglected to rebuild Bon-Secours, and the capture of
Ville-Marie by the English, which took place on the Feast of the
Nativity of Mary, 1760, was perhaps justly attributed to public
disorders and licentiousness (the colonists in many instances having
lost their first fervor), and was also considered a just punishment for
not having erected anew the once favored shrine of Mary. Canada having