Letter XII. To Madame de Chantal

On the death of his mother, and her last moments.

nth March, 1610.

But, O my God, must we not, my dearest child, in all and everywhere adore this supreme Providence, whose counsels are holy, good, and most loveable? And here has it pleased him to withdraw from this world our best and dearest mother, to hold her, as I believe most assuredly, in his own presence and in his right hand. Let us confess, my well-beloved daughter, let us confess that God is good, and his mercy endureth for ever;* all his wills are just, and his judgment is right, -\ his will is always good,% and his ordinances most amiable.

• Ps. cxxxv. f Ps. cxviii. 137.

% Rom. xii. 2.

And as for me, I confess, my child, that I feel a great pain in this separation, for this is the confession I ought to make of my own weakness, after making that of the divine goodness. But still, my child, it has been a tranquil pain, though sharp; for I have said with David: / was dumb, and I opened not my mouth because thou hast done it* Without doubt, if it had not been so, I should have cried " stop" under this blow, but I do not feel that I should dare to cry out, or to express unwillingness under the strokes of this paternal hand, which, in truth, thanks to his goodness, I have learnt to love tenderly from my youth.

But you would perhaps like to know how this good woman ended her days. Here is a little account of it; for it is to you I speak; to you, I say, to whom I have given the place of this mother in my memento at Mass, without taking from you the place you had. I could not do it, so firmly do you hold what you hold in my heart, and thus you are there first and last.

This mother, then, came here this winter; and, during the month she stayed, she made a general review of her soul, and renewed her desires of living well with very much affection, and went away entirely contented with me, having got from me, as she said, more consolation than she had ever done. She continued in this state of joy till Ash Wednesday, when she went to the parish church of Thorens, where she confessed and communicated with great devotion, and heard three Masses and Vespers. In the evening, being in bed, and not being able to sleep, she had read to her by her maid three chapters of the Introduction, to entertain herself with good thoughts, and had the Protestation marked to make it next morning; but God was satisfied with her good will, and arranged in another way; for when morning came, and this good lady was getting up and having her hair done, she was taken suddenly with an effusion on the chest {catarrhe), and fell as if dead.

My poor brother, your son, who was still asleep, runs in as soon as he is told of it, in his night-dress, and lifts her up and walks her about and helps her with essences, imperial- waters, and other things which are judged proper in such accidents, so that she wakens up and begins to speak, but almost unintelligibly, as the throat and the tongue were affected.

They come here to call me; and I go instantly. with the doctor and the apothecary, who find her in a lethargy, and paralysed in half her body; but lethargic in such sort that she was still easy to rouse up; and in these moments of entire consciousness, she showed perfect clearness of mind, either by the words she tried to say, or by the movement of her good hand, that is, the hand of which she still had the use: for she spoke very appositely of God and her soul, and took the cross herself, feeling for it (because she on a sudden became blind) and kissed it. She took nothing without making the sign of the cross over it, and so she received the Holy Oil.

On my arrival, all blind and drowsy a3 she was, she embraced me tenderly, and said: " It is my son and my father, this;" and kissed me, clasping me with her arm, and kissed my hand before anything else. She remained in the same state nearly two days and a half, after which we could not properly rouse her, and on the 1st of March she yielded her soul to our Lord, gently and peaceably, and with a dignity and beauty greater than perhaps she ever had, remaining one of the loveliest dead I have ever seen.

For the rest, I must also tell you that I had the courage to give her the Last Blessing, to close her eyes and her mouth, and to give her the last kiss of peace at the instant of her departure; after which my heart swelled greatly, and I wept over this good mother more than ever I have done since I have been in the Church; but it was without spiritual bitterness, thank God. This is all that happened.

But I cannot help declaring the excellently good disposition of your son/" who has so extremely obliged me by the care and pains he has taken for this mother: and with such heart that I say if he had been some stranger, I should be forced to hold him and swear him (le jurer) for my brother. I know not whether I am mistaken, but I find him very greatly changed for

• The Baron de Thorens, brother of St. Francis, and son-in-law of Madame de Chantal.

the better, both as to the world, and principally as to his soul.

Well then, my dear child, we must make our resolution about this, and ever praise God, even if it pleased him to visit us even more heavily. And now, if you find it suitable, you will come here for Palm Sunday; I say here, because it is not right that you should spend the good days in the country. Your little room will expect you; our little table, and our little and simple fare will be prepared and offered with good heart, I mean with my heart, which is entirely yours

Now I run over the chief points of your letter. Our poor little Charlotte is happy in leaving the earth before she has properly touched it. Alas! we must still weep a little over it; for have we not a human heart, and a sensitive nature? Why not weep a little over our departed, since the Spirit of God not only allows it, but invites us to it. I have regretted her, the poor little child, but with a less sensible grief, because the great feeling of the separation from my mother took away almost all the sting from the feeling of this second pain, the news of which arrived whilst we still had my mother's body in the house. May God be praised also in this matter. God giveth, God taketh away, may his holy name be blessed.