de Maisonneuve assisted Jean Mance in building a wing of 60 by 24 feet for the nurses, who were _still wanting_, and whose services it was time to secure, as the number of patients was constantly increasing. The ladies of the Hotel Dieu at Quebec, on hearing of the crowded state of the hospital, presented themselves as nurses, and two remained in Ville-Marie a considerable length of time to watch how matters would be arranged. Even the French court approved of them as nurses, but Providence ordained otherwise, as at that very time the Associates in France were making their _own_ arrangements, and disappointed those who wished to press the matter in Montreal. There existed at La Fleche a new congregation of Hospital Sisters, partly secular, who by simple vows added the service of the sick to the ordinary duties of a religious community. They were in their first fervor, the members applying themselves with zeal and edification to serve the poor invalids in the Hotel Dieu of St. Joseph, lately established in their city. Dauversiere, who was acquainted with their piety, asked and obtained a few Sisters to go to Ville-Marie and establish the Hotel Dieu of Canada. As soon as his proposal was made known, these pious women strove who should be first to claim the sacred honor of expatriating themselves for the cause of charity, and sacrifice life, if necessary, in a strange land, among wild savages who would most likely, in return, confer on them the crown of martyrdom. The French emigrants of those days had no other idea of the Canadian mission, and prepared themselves accordingly. On the 20th of May, 1656, the community pledged itself to send four of its zealous souls, who awaited the time of their embarkation with eagerness, but from some cause or other did not leave France until 1660. On their arrival at Ville-Marie, Jean Mance received them with every mark of esteem and affection that Christian charity could inspire. She put them in immediate possession of that portion of the hospital set apart for them, reserving to herself only the administration of the funds for the poor and destitute, a duty which she discharged faithfully, and with solid benefit to the recipients, the rest of her life. The new Sisters were little more than a secular congregation, until 1666, when Pope Alexander VII. approved of them as a religious order, by a bull dated January 8th, 1666, in which strict enclosure was enjoined, and a religious dress appointed to be worn.