LXXIV.
To a Visitation Superior.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1627.
Thank you, my dear daughter, for praying for my son. With his death,[A] most truly, came to me not a feeling of death so much as of life for the soul of my child, and God has given me a very clear light and a very tender gratitude for His mercy towards this soul. Alas! not one of the fears that used to come upon me of his dying in one of those duels into which his friends enticed him but was harder to bear than has been this good and Christian death. And although it has deeply affected me, yet the consolation in the thought that my son has given his blood for the Faith outweighs the sorrow. Besides, dear daughter, it is a long time now since I have given him and everything to Our Lord, by whose goodness I hope to obtain the grace no more to desire aught save to see Him dispose of all things to His liking in time and in eternity.
[A] The death of the Baron de Chantal is related by a contemporary historian in the following terms: "Chantal was chosen to head the first squadron of Volunteers, which at this time comprised the whole flower of the Court, and finding himself under orders to defend the Isle of Ré against the English on July, 22nd, 1627, held his post with such tenacious courage during six hours, although he had received twenty-six pike wounds, of which he died two hours later, that the heroism of his death was the subject of universal praise, and all mourned him as his valour merited. He was thirty-one years of age. The end of this gallant gentleman was as Christian as it was self-sacrificing. On the morning of the combat he prepared himself by the reception of the Sacraments, and breathed his last in sentiments of the most sincere piety. The following day Toitas claimed his body from the English General, and it was then embalmed and buried in the Isle of Ré, his heart having been sent to his sorrowing widow, who had it buried with honour in the church of the Minims in Paris, from whence it was afterwards removed to the Church of the Visitation Monastery, Rue St. Antoine."
LXXV.
To Mother Jeanne Hélène de Gérard, Superior at Embrun.
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy,
14th September, 1627.