[12] See Correspondance du Roi Stanislaus-Augustus avec Madame Geoffrin, published and edited by M. Charles de Mouy.
[13] Even the princesses of royal blood conformed to this usage; the Duchesse de Bourbon née Princesse d’Orleans was educated at Penthemont.
[14] Cîteaux, a celebrated monastery situated in the diocese of Châlon-sur-Saône, five miles from Dijon, was founded in 1098 by Saint Robert. The rules of Cîteaux were drawn up in 1107. The Abbeys of La Ferté, of Pontigny, of Clairvaux, and of Morimond were termed the four daughters of Cîteaux. Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, gave his name to the monks of Cîteaux, now called Bernardines.
[15] The Cistercian nuns are as ancient an order as the monks. Saint Hourbelle, mother of Saint Bernard, and several other ladies of rank, adopted the order of Cîteaux, and were celebrated for their virtue and austerity. But they did not long retain the favour of their early piety. They acquired great wealth and, as the annals of the convent state, “their iniquity sprouted up from their fatness and their obesity.” They possessed numerous convents under the name of “Bernardines.”
[16] In this stone was enchased a large gold medal, given by H.R.H. Madame, on which was engraved in bas-relief the effigy of the Princess. On the reverse she was represented seated on two lions, holding in her right hand a medallion with the design of the church. Round this medal was inscribed the following legend: “Diis genita et genetrix Deum.”
II
The Memoirs of Hélène Massalska—Her entry at the Abbaye-aux-Bois—The dormitory—Illness of Hélène—Sister Bichon and paradise—La Grise and Mother Quatre Temps’s punishments—The order of truth—Wars of the “blues” and the “reds”—The Comte de Beaumanoir’s scullion—Madame de Rochechouart.
But it is time to let the little Princess describe in her own ingenuous and charming language the details of her admission to the Abbaye-aux-Bois. She pompously heads her copy-book with the following title, which we reproduce as it stands in the original.[17]
Memoirs of Apolline-Hélène Massalska in the Royale Abbaye de Notre-Dame-aux-Bois, rue de Sève, Faubourg Saint Germain.
“I was received on a Thursday at the Abbaye-aux-Bois. Madame Geoffrin, my uncle’s friend, took me first to the Abbess’s parlour, which is very handsome, for it is painted white with gold stripes. Madame de Rochechouart came to the parlour also, and also Mother Quatre Temps, for she is the head-mistress of the youngest class, to which I am to belong.