May God in His infinite goodness recompense you by an abundance of spiritual and temporal blessings for the loss you have sustained in the death of a son,[A] tidings of which have reached me. I know that you will have received this visitation of God with a patient and loving submission to His good pleasure, for in this valley of tears we must expect many afflictions and but few consolations. Keep lifting up your thoughts to Eternal Life, where alone is to be found true repose. Into it cast all your heart and all your hopes, and teach the little one (Gabrielle[B]) this lesson while she is still young. FOOTNOTES: [A]Madame de Toulonjon unhappily lost several of her children at birth. [B]Gabrielle de Toulonjon married her cousin, de Bussy Rabutin, of unenviable celebrity. Needless to say, the union was not for her a happy one. LXXI. _To the Same._ Vive [+] Jésus! ANNECY, 1627. MY VERY DEAR DAUGHTER, May the sweet Saviour fill you and all those dear to you with His holy love. I do not know whether you have received my last letter in answer to your confidential one. I am looking out for good news. The tender love I bear you cannot but make me a little anxious. However, I trust that God in His love will support you and bring you safely through. Now that a satisfactory peace[A] is, thank God, concluded, I hope to have the consolation of seeing you this year. Nevertheless, dearest daughter, do not let yourself be taken up too much with this hope, so that if divine Providence should put obstacles in the way you may not be greatly upset; for beyond everything I want you to love His holy guidance, and He is so good that He always arranges what is best for His children, one of whom you most assuredly are. How I long to impress upon you this truth, that nothing can happen except by the order and disposition of the Eternal Will. I salute dear Gabrielle. Ever your Mother, etc. FOOTNOTE: [A]A temporary peace made, during the Thirty Years' War, with the Huguenots in May, 1626, and called the Peace of Monzon. LXXII. _To Mother Marie-Adrienne Fichet, Superior at Rumilly._ Vive [+] Jésus! ANNECY, 1627. [The first lines are illegible.]