The expedition being concluded, and the Abbess safely deposited in the hands of the civil officers, the General assembled the community, and declared to the nuns, that he was about to establish a thorough reform in the monastery; and with that view, that he should place over them a vicegerent, whom they should obey as their Abbess, until the nomination of a new superior.*

He then went to Port Royal, to acquaint the M. Angelique with his design, and to give her his official commission to undertake the reform, and the temporary superiority of the monastery of Maubuisson.*

Although the M. Angelique accepted with perfect submission the irksome and unthankful task thus unexpectedly imposed upon her; she left her prioress to govern in her absence; established her sister, the Mere Agnes, sub-prioress; and selected

* See Besogne, i. p. 80 to 98. 23. Clemencet, i. p. 73 to 83.

Poulain, i. p. 20 to

three nuns to take with her to Maubuisson, and to assist her in establishing the reform.*

The Abbot of Citeaux, who continued at Port Royal in order himself to conduct the M. Angelique and her companions to their new habitation, witnessed the sincere grief which her departure occasioned amongst her own community, and the tears which were shed by all those who had been under her direction.*

M. de Citeaux first conducted Madame de Port Royal for a week to her father's house, whilst he himself went to Maubuisson, in order to dispose the nuns to receive their new superior, which they were most extremely reluctant to do, as soon as they were informed who she was. *

The General and the Mere Angelique happened to arrive at Maubuisson during the time when the nuns were in the choir reciting the office. The indecent precipitation with which it was hurried over, was

*See note, page 83.

a very sufficient specimen to their new superior of what she had to expect in this house, so unworthy the name of a monastery.*

Service being over, and the doors of inclosure being opened, the Abbot entered with the M. Angelica, and presented her to the whole assembled community. They received her respectfully, but with the utmost coldness.*

The M. Angelica, on the other hand, whose childhood had been spent in the monastery of Maubuisson, met them with the utmost frankness and cordiality, embracing several of them, whom she recognized as being amongst her former companions.*

It will now be necessary to present the reader with a brief sketch of the state in which the M. Angelica found the monastery of Maubuisson at the time she assumed its direction.*

The community consisted of two and twenty nuns, almost all of whom might be

* See note, page 83.

said to be destitute of every distinction which should mark the members of a religious order, excepting dress.**

Most of them, indeed, had embraced a monastic life contrary to their inclinations.*

Their ignorance was gross indeed. They were scarcely acquainted with the first rudiments of Christianity.*.

And the Bernardine monk, whose negligence awfully profaned the sacred and holy office of their confessor, took not the least pains to give them any instruction. He contented himself with hearing whatever they pleased to tell him, or indeed suggesting their confession himself, by repeating a list of sins, and urging them to say yes or no to each. Nay, such was the grievous state of irreligion in this unholy community, and to so fearful a length did their blasphemous profanation extend, and their irreverence for the most sacred institutions of their religion, that they at length imagined

* See note, page 83.

the expedient of drawing up three or four protocols of confession, which, when they could no longer defer attending the confessional, they mutually lent each other.*

The sacred offices of divine service were performed with the most indecent negligence, indevotion, and precipitation; to afford more space for the vain and dissipated amusements in which they consumed the whole of those lives, they had solemnly vowed exclusively to dedicate to the service of God.*

Their hours were mostly spent in diversions of a frivolous nature, with secular company, who had at all times free access to this degraded community.*

Cards, games of chance, and theatrical performances, were amongst their most usual amusements. Frequently they gave entertainments, and parties not always of the most select society, in the spacious arbors of the magnificent gardens belonging to the monastery; and often their Abbess

See note, page 83.