"Petite Paternôtre blanche, que Dieu dit, que Dieu fit, que Dieu mit en
Paradis. Au soir, m'allant coucher, je trouvis [_sic_] trois anges à
mon lit couches, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie au
milieu qui me dit que je m'y couchis, qui rien ne doutis. Le bon Dieu
est mon père, la bonne Vierge est ma mère, les trois apôtres sont mes
frères, les trois vierges sont mes sœurs. La chemise ou Dieu fut né,
mon corps en est enveloppé; la Croix Sainte Marguerite à ma poitrine
est écrite. Madame la Vierge s'en va sur les champs. Dieu pleurant,
recontrit M. St. Jean. Monsieur St. Jean, d'où venez-vous? Je viens
d'_Ave Salus._ Vous n'avez vu le bon Dieu, si est? Il est dans l'arbre
de la Croix, les pieds pendans, les mains clouans, un petit chapeau
d'épine blanche sur la tête. Qui la dira trois fois au soir, trois fois
au matin, gagnera le Paradis à la fin."
CHAPTER VI.
THE LITTLE CONVENT.
There were within the walls of Little Picpus three perfectly distinct
buildings,--the great convent inhabited by the nuns, the schoolhouse
in which the boarders were lodged, and, lastly, what was called the
little convent. The latter was a house with a garden, in which all
sorts of old nuns of various orders, the remains of convents broken up
in the Revolution, dwelt in common; a reunion of all the black, white,
and gray gowns of all the communities, and all the varieties possible;
what might be called, were such a conjunction of words permissible, a
hotch-potch convent. Under the Empire all these dispersed and homeless
women were allowed to shelter themselves under the wings of the
Bernardo-Benedictines; the Government paid them a small pension, and
the ladies of Little Picpus eagerly received them. It was a strange
pell-mell, in which each followed her rule. At times the boarders were
allowed, as a great recreation, to pay them a visit, and it is from
this that these young minds have retained a recollection of Holy Mother
Bazile, Holy Mother Scholastica, and Mother Jacob.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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