In the course of time, sufficient interest had developed in this work so that enough money was forthcoming to enlarge the scope. Vincent gathered together the pious women who had acted as his assistants and addressed to them that touchante allocution, sometimes quoted as a model of eloquence.[433] The house in the Faubourg Saint-Victor was soon found to be too small, and the Château de Bicêtre was obtained from the king.
The place was not found suitable on account of the vivacité de l’air and the children were transferred to the Faubourg Saint-Lazare, then in 1672 to the Cité, near Notre Dame, where they remained up to the Revolution. Then they were assigned the ancient abbaye of Port Royal and the maison de l’Oratoire, located in the southern part of Paris.
The success of the new undertaking was so great that even Louis XIII. became interested and donated four thousand francs per year to the charity. Inasmuch as in the long history of the child’s fight for a place in the government, this was the first recognition by a government since the Roman emperors, it is interesting to read Louis’s own statement in the preamble of the letters patent relating to this gift:
“Having been informed by persons of great piety, that the little attention which has been given up to the present to the nourishing and care of the parentless children exposed in the city and outskirts of Paris has been the cause of death, and even has it been known that they have been sold for evil purposes, and this having brought many ladies to take care of these children, who have worked with so much zeal and charitable affection that their zeal is spreading, and wishing so much to do what is possible under the present circumstances,[434] we have,” etc.
The example of Louis was followed in 1641 by his widow, Anne of Austria, who made an annual gift of 8000 francs. She had become regent and, speaking in the name of the young King, said that “imitating the piety and the charity of the late King, which are truly royal virtues, he adds to this first gift, another annual gift of 8000 francs. Thanks to what has already been given and the charity of individuals, the greater number of the infants rescued have been raised, and there are now more than four hundred living.”
In June, 1670, Louis XIV. made the children’s hospital one of the institutions of Paris, and authorized it to discharge the functions and enjoy the privileges of such an institution.
“As there is no duty more natural,” he declared, “and none that conforms more to the idea of Christian charity than to care for the unfortunate children who are exposed—their feebleness and their misfortune making them doubly worthy of our compassion ... considering also that their protection and safeguarding is to our advantage inasmuch as some of them may become soldiers, others workmen, inhabitants of the colonies,” etc.[435]
The edict declared that while the expenses of the institution had reached forty thousand francs a year, the royal donation could not exceed twelve thousand francs, and the King exhorted the women of charity who had done so much, to continue their notable work.
This royal recognition of the great institution at Paris was not without evil effect in the provinces. The nobles and the civic authorities of rural communities, wishing to get rid of the burden of the infants deserted within their jurisdiction, had the unfortunates taken to Paris.[436] They were usually carried there by men who were driving in on other business, and as many stops were made between the starting point and the destination, and as the drivers were more interested in other things than in the infant baggage, for which they were paid in advance, the mortality greatly increased.
“There was hardly a town in the kingdom,” said Latyone,[437] “where abandoned children were admitted freely and without information being requested. In the towns that were not too far from Paris, they were carried thirty and forty leagues, at the risk of having them die on the way; and the hospital at Paris was overcrowded and in debt.”