THE persecuted and triumphant Woman, whom St. John saw in his Revelation, namely, the Church of God, or more mystically, any heroic soul, _Cruciatur_ [131] _ut pariat_; endures many convulsions and pains, in order that it may bear fruit. So the conception and development of every good work requires grace. For, in fine, without this celestial seed and germ, our hearts could not conceive nor fashion a living and fruitful organism. But when it comes time for the good work to ripen, I mean when the time of this pious birth of virtue approaches, then it seems that all conspire for the suffocation of this divine creature, then it seems necessary to experience the pains and torments which Satan arouses, and to fear a fruitless abortion, rather than to hope for a happy deliverance. The Jesuits have experienced this everywhere, and especially in regard to the beneficial results which they wished to obtain by the conversion of new France. We [132] have said before that the rendezvous had been appointed for them at Dieppe the 24th of October, for at that time the ship would be like the bird upon the branch, only waiting to fly. But very far from this; they found at Dieppe that the ship had not even been repaired. Furthermore, at their arrival there was great excitement among those of the Reformed Religion. For sieur Robin, who (as we have said) took entire charge of the shipping, had given a commission to two merchants of the Pretended[31] Faith, called du Chesne and du Jardin, to attend to the repairing and loading of the ship, under promise to remunerate them for their time and expense, and to form a partnership with them to divide the profits which would be derived from the trade in skins, and from the cod fisheries. Now the Merchants had, [133] up to that time, advanced but little in the work, I know not why: and from then on they began to delay more than ever. For they were very obstinate, swearing with their loudest oaths, that, if the Jesuits had to enter the ship, they would simply put nothing in it; that they would not refuse all other Priests or Ecclesiastics, and would even support them, but as to the Jesuits, they would not abide them.