"It is a just punishment from heaven for my weakness," she said, "in having so far departed from the spirit of poverty, humility, and mortification in which I should always have lived, as to consent to the building of that great house. It were better to have continued living in the stable that was given us, and with which we should have been contented." It was her love of virtue, however, that made her speak thus, as the house was very far from being either great or magnificent. It was only a wooden edifice, and was too small and inconvenient for the many good works to which the Sisters applied themselves unceasingly. She soon perceived, notwithstanding all her sentiments of humility, that the building must go up again for the greater glory of God. Although then deprived of every temporal resource, with the blessing of God, and under the protection of His holy Mother, nothing seemed difficult. Obstacles only strengthened her faith and aroused her courage. She hoped against hope, and determined on the spot to put her hand to the work again, placing more confidence than ever in Jesus and _Mary_, to whom, as to a good mother, she always had recourse. Nor had she long to await the result of her confidence. Divine Providence stirred up the sympathies of the charitably-disposed, who gave her abundant means to build a large stone edifice, more solid and architectural than the former one. This second house remained intact until the great fire of 1763; and of the buildings afterwards added we shall soon have occasion to speak more fully. Sister was still laboring for the erection of the building, when M. de St. Vallier, having been consecrated in Paris, January, 1686, by M. de Laval, his predecessor, returned to Canada, accompanied by the latter prelate, who came back to end his days in the practice of the most sublime virtues of private life in the Seminary of Foreign Missions at Quebec. He always honored and esteemed Sister Bourgeois, and watched over her with singular interest. He died, as he had lived, a Saint, May 6, 1708. M. de St. Vallier devoted himself to the affairs of his diocese without intermission, and it was in the hands of this new prelate that Sister placed the copy of her rules and constitutions. He esteemed the heroic woman and her community; he noticed and admired the constancy and courage with which they endured the inconveniences resulting from their recent calamity, and he gave them many marks of confidence and esteem but regarding the _institute_ and _rules_ of the Foundress, he then entertained views different from hers. Judging of things by the light of human prudence, he thought the community could never raise itself again to the position it occupied before the fire, and wishing to prevent a multiplicity of institutions in his diocese, he formed the design of uniting the _rising community_ to the _Ursulines_ at Quebec. These ladies had already taken steps to establish themselves at Ville-Marie,