There was at Tours an Ursuline nun named Mother Marie de l'Incarnation, who was very interested in New France. This was known to Madame de la Peltrie who now approached her so that shortly permission was granted by the Archbishop of Tours to Mother Marie to be joined by Mother Marie de Savonnine de St. Joseph of the same convent, and by Mother Cécile de Ste. Croix from the Ursuline convent of Dieppe. Thus it was that Madame de la Peltrie found herself at Quebec with these three and the three "Hospitalières" sent by Madame d'Aiguillon, viz.: Sisters Marie de St. Ignace, Superior, Anne de St. Bernard and Marie de St. Bonaventure. [Illustration: VENERABLE MERE MARIE DE L'INCARNATION] We must imagine the religious enthusiasm of the colonists at their arrival and the eagerness with which the two new institutions were begun, that of the hospital at Quebec and of the Ursuline convent at Sillery. But soon gloom was cast upon the little colony. Money and workmen from the Company in France were needed and they came not. The explanation is that the small sum of 300,000 _livres_, the original capital subscribed by the One Hundred Associates, was dwindling, the expenses being necessarily great, and the company of ladies and gentlemen composing it, not being as practical as they were pious, so that although they placed the commercial side of their affairs in the hands of traders, these mainly looked after their own interests rather than those of the colony. The development of the struggling institutions lately mentioned was hindered. To add to the general distress, on the 4th day of June, 1640, a fire quickly consumed the Church of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, the house of the Jesuits and the governor's chapel, which were all of resinous wood. What a loss this must have been to the handful of colonists who numbered in all in the year 1641 only 200! The mention of this number reminds us of the charter given to the Company in 1627, and the reader is advised to turn back and see how its conditions of colonization have been filled. Outside the three religious communities and the persons engaged in their service, the rest was composed of the servants of the Company engaged in commerce. To add to their other troubles the Iroquois again began their hostilities, declaring war against the French and the Hurons. In the autumn of 1640 they captured two of the French belonging to the garrison of Three Rivers. These were eventually recaptured and the governor, M. de Montmagny, offered terms of peace if they would conclude a universal peace with the Huron allies. During the night, which the Iroquois had demanded to think over this proposition, they treacherously laid plans to fall upon the French next day, in which they were routed, escaping however at night in the shadows of the woods.