that whensoever they rode to any journey or hosting, they should have and use for their defence English artillery, as swords, bucklers, paveses, bows, arrows, bills, cross-bows, guns, and such hand-weapons." This statute recited that divers gentles and commons "drew them to idleness and used to wear Irish habit," and also "left the defence of bows and arrows, and took them to horsemanship, and to cast darts and spears, the which was one of the greatest causes of the desolation of the land for when such persons went to the field with him who bore the King's state, when need should require, they neither could nor dare to cast dart or spear, because they had not the profound way and feat of it," the which, added the act, is a great "deceit for the King, and for any that beareth his estate, and for all the King's subjects." For the "increasing of English manners and conditions within the land, and for diminishing of Irish usage," it was ordained that every lord spiritual and temporal, and merchant, having livelihood or benefice to the yearly value of twenty marks, within the precinct of the English Pale, should ride in a saddle after the English guise, under pain of forfeiture of the horse and harness otherwise used. This penalty was not extended to persons riding, in the viceroy's company, to or from any hosting or journey in time of war.

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The Sovereign and Portreve of Kenlis, the Portreves of Trim, Navan, and Ardee, and the Bailiffs of Dundalk, were ordered to cause and compel every merchant dwelling within these towns, to wear and use gowns and cloaks;" and to leave and put away the customable using of "huks and faldings ;" and to cause the walls of their towns to be "made and ditched," and the streets paved. Under the last statute of this Parliament, William Barry, “called the Lord Barry of Munster," and John Water, merchant of Cork, were attainted of high treason, for having, of late, at several times, received letters with certain instructions from Perkin Warbeck, which they concealed and still kept secret from the knowledge of the King and his council. Water was, in 1499, executed at Tyburn with Warbeck, to whom he had faithfully adhered.

With this perhaps too lengthened extract we must close, although we had noted many other subjects to which we should have desired to call the reader's attention.

We have altogether overlooked what to many will be the most attractive portion of the volume-the personal history of the viceroys, and the many other personal and social details with which the volume abounds. Mr. Gilbert's narrative of the celebrated case of Aleix de Kyteler (Alice de Ketteler) is full of most curious interest; and of the work in general we may say, he has added largely from unpublished, and until recently, inaccessible sources, to our knowledge of what is properly the biographical branch of this important history. Of many of the viceroys who had heretofore been unknown except in name, Mr. Gilbert's sketches are wonderfully full and complete, and even of the most celebrated in the series

there are few to whose history he has not added something, or at least whose transactions he has not placed in a broader and more intelligible light. We shall look with much hopeful expectation for the continuation of this important work.

ART. III.-THE FOUNDRESS OF THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS.

Vie de Madame de Bonnault d'Houet, Fondatrice de la Société des Fidèles Compagnes de Jésus. Par M. l'Abbé F. MARTIN, Missionn. Apost., Chan. Hon. de Belley.

THE saying that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" has never been more triumphantly verified than in the religious revival in France since the first revolution. The seed that was then sown broadcast is now springing up with a vigour and redundancy of life, which is by some even deemed excessive. For example, the quick succession and rapid growth of religious congregations for every work of spiritual and corporeal mercy, is sometimes looked upon with a kind of suspicion, as if it implied too much of indvidual will, or betokened a restless craving for novelty. "Why so many different societies," we hear it said, "for doing the same work? Why cannot people be content with the old Orders?" As well might we ask, what need of beeches when we have oaks? What is the use of all the magnificent and multiform variety of the natural world? Why should not the whole earth be overspread by the monotonous shadow of a universal pine forest, instead of being clad in every beautiful variety of tint and foliage which can refresh the eye and gladden the heart of man? Why should the rocks be fringed with ferns, and the woods and meadows carpeted with flowers? Why, again, are no two leaves upon a tree alike, no two faces or two characters of men the same? The Spirit of God works no less wonderfully and sweetly in the spiritual than in the natural world. He there provides not only a remedy for every ill, a supply for every need, but a sphere also, and a home wherein every spirit may praise the Lord. Nevertheless, men grudge to see it. They would fain stamp the feeble impress of their own narrow and uniform designs upon the free action and boundless range of the creative energy of God, and say to the chainless ocean of his quickening and abounding love" Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." It is not often given to us

to behold, even in the history of the Church, such a fatherly and fostering care extended by an older to a younger religious society as was afforded by the great ungrudging generosity of the Sons of S. Benedict to the Family of S. Francis; or so sweet and brotherly a union as bound, and still binds, him and his children to the order of S. Dominic. Yet in the economy of His Providence, as marvellous in the order of grace as in that of nature, the Divine Ruler of the Church uses the timidity, and the human prudence, and even the narrow jealousy, which from time to time mingles with the true service of even faithful and devoted men, to work out His purposes of love, by stamping with His Royal signet of the cross the workers and the work on which they look with suspicion and distrust, and which He thus claims and acknowledges for His

own.

Seldom have the arguments brought against the foundation of a new congregation worn a more specious appearance of reason than in the case of the society founded by the holy woman whose life is now before us. The daughters of the Sacred Heart, whose foundress has but now entered into her rest, were faithfully and successfully labouring in the same field which she was also inspired to enter. Her spiritual guides, who were also the directors of the recently-founded society, naturally inquired what purpose could be served by the foundation of another institute of which the rule and the work were to be so nearly the same; and prudently used every means of discouragement and severity which could test the spirit of the proposed foundress. Her humility and obedience were proved and perfected thereby; and the infant community struggled into life under a pressure of opposition and discouragement which must have stifled it, had it not derived its being from the Spirit of God.

The early training of the foundress of the Faithful Companions of Jesus had been a fit preparation for a noble and devoted life. Marie-Madeleine-Victoire de Bengy was the daughter of an ancient and honourable family in the province of Berri. At the period of her birth, 1781, her grandfather, the head of his ancient house, was a venerable old man, full of years and honours, the father of nineteen children, whose sons were serving their king and country with credit and distinction, in the various civil and military employments which were open in those days to the nobility alone. Sylvain-Charles-Pierre de Bengy, the third son of this venerable patriarch, married a woman of great piety and excellence. He distinguished himself in the career of arms, and was no less remarkable for his devotion to his religion than for his strength and decision of

character, and his exceeding tenderness of heart. Victoire, his eldest daughter, inherited both these gifts. In her early childhood her masterful force of will frequently gave uneasiness to her parents. It was a common saying in the family"Whatever Victoire wills must be." Happily M. and Mdme. de Bengy had judgment and decision equal, with the aid of Divine grace, to the task of turning this strong will in the right direction. The devoted and reverential affection which Victoire bore to her pious parents throughout the whole course of her life betokens the success of the firm and loving discipline which had trained her childhood for God.

She had just completed her tenth year when the revolutionary storm broke upon France. M. de Bengy did not emigrate, but determined to weather it on a retired estate far in the country, whither he was accompanied by the Abbé Claveaux, a holy priest, under whose care Victoire had received her earliest religious training, and who now prepared her for her first Communion, which she received at his hands just before he was compelled to seek safety in exile. The necessity of the times obliged the family of de Bengy to live in poverty and obscurity, for which its members had been in a measure prepared by the Christian simplicity which had marked their more prosperous days. Madame de Bengy had early accustomed her daughter to wait upon herself, and she now found her an efficient assistant in the domestic labours which her altered fortunes compelled her to perform with her own hands. The child's sweetness and brightness of spirit made her the sunbeam of the house during those days of anxiety and fear, and the constant necessity of thinking for others, of warding off every needless care from the overburdened hearts of her parents, and aiding them in the training of the younger children, endowed her with a tact and discretion beyond her years. "She saw everything, she understood everything, she guessed everything, but she was taught (or rather inspired), with a discernment far above her age, to say only what was safe to be said, and to keep silence where silence was needful; so that nothing was ever concealed from her, nor did an imprudent word ever escape her lips."

Notwithstanding every precaution, the suspicion of the authorities fell upon M. de Bengy; he was arrested and thrown into prison, in those days the almost invariable preliminary to the death of the guillotine. Madame de Bengy, in the anguish of her heart, began a novena for his deliverance, in which she called upon Victoire to join her. Tenderly as the child loved her father, there was a feeling deeper and stronger still in her young heart. "I made the novena," said

she, in later years, "with all my heart; but it was to ask of God the grace to be imprisoned with my father, and to die a martyr. If my mother," added she, "had known my intention, she would not have thanked me."

The heroic prayer was granted, but not as she intended. M. de Bengy was restored to his family, and his daughter was reserved for a lingering sacrifice far more trying than the early martyrdom she had desired.

The days of terror passed away. M. de Bengy left his place of concealment, and with his family took up his abode at Issoudun. It was here that Victoire spent the happy days of her girlhood; here she began those charitable labours which, in one form or another, were to fill her future life. The hospital at Issoudun had been given over to the care of hireling nurses by the enlightened philanthropy which had suppressed the religious orders and scattered the Sisters of Charity. Mdlle. de Bengy and two young friends likeminded with herself devoted their mornings to the care of the sick. She was far, however, at this time from bearing the character which in France is called dévote. She lived and dressed like other young ladies in the world, and danced with the energy of a true Frenchwoman, and, as she did everything else, with all her heart. It is recorded that one evening, as she left the house to go to a large party, she said to her younger sister, Angèle, "Say a 'Hail Mary' for me, that I may not miss a single dance." She was not endowed with any great degree of personal beauty; the great charm of her face consisted in its varying expression and the brilliancy of her eyes; but both in youth and age she was remarkable for a grace, sweetness, and vivacity, which made her conversation singularly attractive.

In 1804, at the age of twenty-three, Mdlle. de Bengy was married to Antoine Joseph, the eldest son of the Vicomte de Bonnault d'Houet, and went to reside with him at Bourges. Their union was as happy as it was brief. M. de Bonnault shared his wife's love for the poor. So lavish were their alms, that his father remonstrated with him upon the imprudence of an outlay disproportioned to his means. "Never fear," was the reply. I lend my money at good interest." It was soon to be repaid. One only cloud ever shadowed the few bright months which Antoine de Bonnault spent with his young wife. One day as they were reading together the life of S. Jane Frances de Chantal, they came to the relation of her husband's death, on which the author remarks, that God had doubtless shortened his life in accordance with His own purposes for S. J. Frances. A cold shudder passed over