exhibition of the power of Heaven and the outrage done upon the good
Sisters of St. Jean by the administration, of which unfortunately my son
is at the head. I say unfortunately, since it is the spirit of
independence and pride in him which has resisted all the warnings
offered by Divine Providence, and which refuses even now to right the
wrongs of the Sisters of St. Jean; though, if it may be permitted to me
to say it, as his mother, it was very fortunate in the late troubles
that Martin Dupin found himself at the head of the Commune of
Semur--since who else could have kept his self-control as he
did?--caring for all things and forgetting nothing; who else would, with
so much courage, have entered the city? and what other man, being a
person of the world and secular in all his thoughts, as, alas! it is so
common for men to be, would have so nobly acknowledged his obligations
to the good God when our misfortunes were over? My constant prayers for
his conversion do not make me incapable of perceiving the nobility of
his conduct. When the evidence has been incontestible he has not
hesitated to make a public profession of his gratitude, which all will
acknowledge to be the sign of a truly noble mind and a heart of gold.

I have long felt that the times were ripe for some exhibition of the
power of God. Things have been going very badly among us. Not only have
the powers of darkness triumphed over our holy church, in a manner ever
to be wept and mourned by all the faithful, and which might have been
expected to bring down fire from Heaven upon our heads, but the
corruption of popular manners (as might also have been expected) has
been daily arising to a pitch unprecedented. The fêtes may indeed be
said to be observed, but in what manner? In the cabarets rather than in
the churches; and as for the fasts and vigils, who thinks of them? who
attends to those sacred moments of penitence? Scarcely even a few ladies
are found to do so, instead of the whole population, as in duty bound. I