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/ '

ONE OF THE JESUITS/

ALEXIS CLERC

SAILOR m\) MARTYJi

Kev. Father CHARLES ^)anIEL, S.J.

wni A i-jtEFACE m vm im. thoias s. i-BHsm, v.a

t ^

,/yc6 _ _^

/ <- New York :

D- & J. SADLIER & CO., PUBLISnEUS,

31 Barclay Street
MONTREAL: 2^5 NOTRE D.^E STREET.

1880.

PROPERTY OF THE LIBR.ARV

IIMI\/I»C(TV .'AT M / 4 ^ ' I.M i-A /"V

THIS TRANSLATION IS DEDICATED
TO TllS MKMOIIV OP

FATHER ANDREW FRANCIS MONROE. S.J.

Grand-nephew of President Monroe, Officer v; the American
Navy, and a Convert to the Catholic Faith.

Ue entered the Society of Jesus in Rome, made his novitiate in France,
was ordained Priest in Ci>.nada, and, after spending liis religious life liliu
his friend Father Clerc, chielly In ttie hiii^blo'daties of a professor,

©ica at St. JFiaiicis Xn\)ifv's ©ollcflc, "Mflu ¥ovft,

Augusts, 1871,
Aged Forty-seven Years.

A man of " a large humanity " (to use his own phrase), who made friends
everywhere, and no enemies notwithstanding his sailor-liive bluntncs?,
wonderfully upright and honorable, childlike in faith, simple in piety,
a worthy priest and an exemplary religious, he is still regretted by
those whose privilege it was to know and appreciate him.

|Hai) l)(s soul vest ill pcacc»

WITH PERMISSION OP THE AUTHOR

TRANSLA7ED FROM THE SECOND PARTS EDITION

By M. E, C. D.

COJNTEKTS.

CHAPTER f.

Alexis Clcrc before his Tvvenf- -seventh Ycar-IIis En ''""'•
trance in the Navy and his Fir«t Cruise. . . ... . .' 13

CHAPTER ir.

Sojourn in France-AnoUier Cruise-Conversion 49

CilAPTER III.

Alexis' Progress in the Christian Life-Service on Shore
— Lorient, Indret, Brest.

CHAPTER IV.
Alexis Clerc durin - the Events of 1848 jg.

CHAPTER V.
Experiments in Epistolary Controversy \ ^^^

CHAPTER VI.

Preludes of Vocation-Preparations for another Voyage. 184

CHAPTER YU

' (tiy

6 Contents^

CHAPTER VIII.

PAOE.

A Conversion on board the Caaaini 257

ciiapt1':r IX.

Shangliai and the Jesuit Mission 275

CHAPTER X.
Alexis Clcrc in the Society of Jesus — Saint- Aclicul 019

CHAPTER XI.
Vaugirard— The School Sainte Genevieve— Laval 350

CHAPTER XII.
Father Clerc and his Pupils 380

CHAPTER XIII.
Father Clerc and his old Comrades 410

CHAPTER XIV.

Father Clerc at Saint Vincent do Laon and in the Am-
bulance of Vaugirard— His Last Vows 429

CHAPTER XV.

Father Clerc Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus
Christ— Mazas— La Roquette 450

rREFACE.

It is with great pleasure that wc recomincnd to tho
Christian public this translation of Father Daniel's Life
of Alexis Clcrc. There is much in this Life which
siHjaks to tho great needs of our day. The bright ex-
ample of self-denial and heroic virtue cannot fail to
move many hearts whose aspirations arc for eternity.
The prevailing disposition of the age is altogether to
ignore God, as if his law and v.ill had nothing to do
with the end of human life or tho happiness of man-
kind. He is driven from society, from education, from
science, and from the counterfeit which the world dig-
nifies by the name of religion. Self is made the end in
the way of pleasure, avarice, or ambition. Men would
live as long as they may, and then sink into the grave
without hope of the future, or with the d(;nial of im- ,
mortality. And even where there is a certain belief in
God, what prospect for happiness has the victim of iias-
fion who has never known the discipline of obedience ?
Heaven is nothing to those who have jdaced their high-
est happiness in self-gratification. We have seen tho
fruits of unbridled passion in the hatred of God and of
all who professed obedience to his law. The ever-liv-

Preface,

■*•*

I 1

ing C .irch of Christ goes quietly on amid all the tu-
mults or tbo world and tho conflicts of evil. She alono
si)ealis tho words of truth ; she alono can heal tho
wounds of infidelity or sin. Ilcr life is above the vio-
lence of her enemies, and in this divine life she contin-
ues the mission of her great Founder, giving good for
evil, and gathering in tho waste places of earth a har-
vest for eternity. Nothing really lives that she does
not touch, and all she touches is radiant of immortality.
Dark was tho hour when the spirits of evil broke loose,
and malignant hatred of God held sway. The ago of
the martyrs returned, and patience, gentleness, pity,
and fidelity unto death were tho only answer to insati-
ate m'alice and demoniac rage. '•' Tho Good Shepherd
gave his life for tho sheep"; so in his footsteps ever
arise the children of his love to bear his cross and glad-
ly die at its foot. Tho sad days of the Commune were
days of triumph for the Church, as the blood of martyrs
is the glory of her crown.

Tho reader of this Life will learn these and many
truths which may quicken in his heart the love of faith
and all its supernatural fruits. Without faith life is
not worth living, and even in this material age sanctity
is within our reach, and tho Mother of saints has chil-
dren of whom she need not bo ashamed. The strife of
tho Commune is not over, and the red hand of infideli-
ty is not yet stayed. Even in our own beloved country
may come tho hour when law and order shall sink be-
neath tho violence of unbelief, when hatred of God
shall muko victi.us of the innocent and true, laihappy

Preface.

Franco lias yet to atoue for many sins, and while sho
suffers, the blood of licr martyrs i^eads to the Sacred
Heart for mercy.

Father Alexis Clerc was only one of many chosen
souls whom the illustrious Society of Jesus has given to
the Avorld. IIo has spoken by words of faith, mercy,
aud courage, by deeds of self-denial and i)atience, by a
life given for the salvation of souls, and by the death
of a martyr for Christ. Witli the sainted Olivaint and
his companions before the throne of the Precious Blood
lie will intercede for his brethren, for Franco ho loved
so v.'cll, and for us who will seek by his example to be
true to God and to walk in the blessed and narrow
[way of faith. It is strange that the martyrs of the
Commune arc so little known, and that the story of
their death has produced so little visible fruit. Catlio-
llics hardly realize how much they owe to these confos-
isors of the faith, while many Protestants who could not
applaud the violence of persecution are perhaps uncon-
Isciously encouraging principles which lead to the de-
nial of authority, and therefore to the reign of infl-
[delity.

The "Chamber of the Martyrs'' at Paris, with the

[relics of their sufferings and death, is a scene which

[speaks louder than any words, and sets in open light

[the two extremes of mortal conflict, the charity divino

rhich bleeds unto death, and the rage of baffled but

5till malignant passion.

May God increase our faith and give us grace, that,
["having so great a cloud of witnesses; wo may lay

Preface,

aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, and run
with patience to the fight proposed to us, looking unto
Jesus."

T. S. P.

CORPca CnsiSTi, 1379,

ALEXIS CLERO

SAILOR,
JESUIT AND HOSTAGE OF THE COMMUNE;

SHOT AT LA liOQUETTE, JMrS4, 1871.

) ,1

ill!

ALEXIS CLEKO,

CHAPTER I.

Ialf-xts ci-erc before nis twenty-seventh year — nis

ENTRANCE IN THE NAVY AND HIS FIRST CRUISE.

Alexis Clekc was born in Paris on the 12th of
iDcccmber, 1S19, in the parish of Saint Germain
rAuxerrois ; the next day he was baptized in tlie
[parish church.

lie was in every respect a true child of Paris,
[belonging to that middle class whose role was great
)ven then, but whose ambition was greater still,
md whose political importance attained its apogee
mder the monarchy of July. His education, en-
trusted to the university at an early age, was all
that it could be under the rcfjimc of the monopoly —
leither worse nor better than that of multitudes of
children of the Parisian bourgeoisie, in whose
^oung souls their professors daily inculcated in-
lifference and doubt, who saw the priest only at

■i::t

14 - Alexis Clcrc

"if

:•<•

long intervals, and considered him as a functionary
to bo employed in but two or three circumstances
of life, and after death.

Yet withal Alexis had for mother a fervent Chris-
tian, a lady belonging to an old Lyonnaise family
in which piety was hereditary. "A saiut humble
and meek" — such is his own testimony of his ■%
mother at whose knees he was taught to know
Jesus Christ, and was thus initiated into the life
of the soul. He lost this mother when ho was
only thirteen years of age. How long did he con-
tinue faithful to her example and lessons ? Some
months, a year perhaps at the most ; then he fell
into the common current and became a stranger to
ji}| all religious practices. Thirteen years were passed

in forgetfulness of God, thirteen years which oftcr-
wards he bitterly regretted.

He had not been born to be an infidel ; he even
had strong religious inclinations. " When I was
still a very little boy at school," in later years ho
,., told a friend, "I heard read from a large book

'|;l bound in calf-skin the wonderful 'Lives of the

\ Saints.' They all seemed so beautiful to me that |(

I had a great desire to imitate them, and assured-
ly, to be frank, my wish to please God and to do
great things for him was then not less real nor less
reasonable than were the aspirations of the saints."
? How came it to pass that this holy ardor was ex-
tinguished ? Alas I it is only too easily explained,
and his history is that of thousands, of millions of
children, the victims of an odious monopoly.
" The poison of the college," he adds, " soon got

before Jiis Twenty-seventh Year,

even
i was
ars he
book
of the
c that
surecl-
to do
)r less
lints."
ras ex-
ained,

Ions of
opoly
1

n got

the better, and retained it for a long time, of my
artlessness and my desire of sanctity." The way
and means of this may be readily understood.
Where was the pupil frequenting the university
establishments, such as they were at that time — I
do not enquire what they are now, and I suppose
them greatly Improved — where, I ask, was the
pupil who would not have been abused by his
fellow-pupils, and perhaps by his masters, if he
had made profession of imitating ever so slightly a
St. Stanislas or a Berchmans, or even of going to
confession and of attending church ? The masters
might not have concurred in such abuse officially ;
for, however atheistic the law was, the teaching
state could not very well proclaim itself as such.
But the professors, the heads of public instruction,
considered it no fault to attack in their lectures or
in their books the Catholic Church, the clergy, the
whole French episcopate, and many a one of them
gained applause by celebrating the obsequies of
Christianity, and by writing : " IIoiu dogmas are
exploding ! "

After the death of his pious mother, Alexis found
in his family no one to speak to him of God, to
remind him of his Christian duties. Far from
that, his father, otherwise an honorable man and
not lacking in culture of mind nor elevation of
character, was a philosopher of the old school
a Voltairean, to speak plainly — an ardent patriot
(but after a fashion that was just a little revolu-
tionary), and no detester of the songs of Beranger
nor of the pamphlets of Paul Louis Courier. If

Alexis Clcrc

iiii'

I'l:

'I;

wc may believe a playmate of our Alexis' cliild-
lioocl, one who visited the house to share his
games and from whom there were no secrets, Mr.
Clerc, drawn into the liberal movement of the
times, and extremely hostile to the government of
Charles X., did not rest a mere spectator during
the events of July, 1830 ; and when the throne,
undermined by the labors of many hands, foil for
the misfortune of France, he congratulated him-
self upon their success, and had a right to look
upon his own as among the victors. His business
affairs, for he was at the head of an important
commercial enterprise, were not improved by the
situation; during the crisis he even met with
severe losses, from which he never afterwards re-
covered. Yet his political convictions remained
unchanged ; he did not spare sacrifices for what he
deemed the good cause, and when the Sude was
established his name was among the first inscribed
on the list of stockholders. From all this may be
seen in what principles Alexis was reared and what
maxims were tauglit him ; pains were taken to in-
spire him with a high sense of honor, an immense
disinterestedness, a boundless devotion to his
country and to the sacred cause of lihertij, but
of religion there was no question, unless j^erhaps
to warn him against the encroachments of the
priesili/ ^;«?'«f_y.

Did Alexis share the passions and prejudices of
his father in religious matters ? I do not think
so, and I did not discover that it was among the
subjects of self-reproach when, after his conver-

ilil

before his Tivcnty-sci'cuth Year,

sion, ho was reviewing the years oi his youth. No,
he Imted neither tlio men nor the things of tlio
Ciuirch ; indifTeience and disdain were all he be-
lieved ho owed religion, and his philosophy, which
was entirely negative, went no further.

lie pursued his studies successfully, partly at the
College Henri IV., and partly in an institution
whore the toiichincf was after the method of Jacotot.
'•'The education which wo received in that house,"
one of his early companions writes us, " was the
ideal of an education without God. It would bo to
calumniate Mr. do S — to call him an enemy of reli-
gion, but it would be to ascribe to him a merit which*
he did not possess to say that he was even a deist.
I would not have believed the man possible had I
not hnown him. Wc got along in that school as
well as we could."

Then follows a short sketch of the young student
whoso after career was to be so laborious and so
tilled with trials to the very end :

"Alexis was idleness itself; but, thanks to his
talents, ho was one of the most disiiaguished of
tlio pupils. As to his disposition, I have never
known a more genial nor a more amiable person.
I do not think I ever saw him have a quarrel. He
was on bad terms with nobody, and there were two
or three of us who were particularly good friends
(with him."

The first placo among these intimate friends

lust be given to his brother Jules, who was not
:nore than two years his senior, and who, being bat
i\ little further advanced in the classes, had the

Alexis Clcrc

K:imo comnitlcs and acquainlimces. Their muiuul
friendship was of the most tender kind, and, later,
religion, by making on almost the same day tlic
conquest of the one and the other, drew still closer
the bonds formed by blood and by sympathy of
character.

At seventeen years of age Alexis was a bachelor
of letters. AVhat should he determine upon next ?
Commerce was not his forte ; having no taste for
examining and disputing mercantile interesls, ho
would have succeeded in that walk of life even
worse than his father did. It was thought that
•manufactures would open a field vast enough to
satisfy his longing to act, to prove himself a man.
Mr. Clerc counted among his friends a Mr. Griollet,
who superintended a woollen manufactory, and
who, to parenthesize, had just bought the chateau
of Voltaire at Forney. Alexis w-as given a posi-
tion in the factory. But the affairs of his patron
did not prosper; it became necessary to sell every-
thing, even Ferney ; and Alexis, again on his
father's hands, was once more in search of a posi-
tion and less than ever decided upon the career to
embrace.

*' It was then," says the faithful witness from
whom wo borrow these details, and who in the
kindest possible manner jdaced his souvenirs at our
disposal, *' it was then that Mr. Clerc, not knowing
what to do with a very intelligent boy who was the
object of his deepest affections, showed me the
honor of consulting me, althougii I was not more
than a few months older than Alexis. One of my

before /lis Tivcnty-scvcnih Year,

ivlativcs hud lately graduated with distinction from
tlio Pulytcclinic School. I suggested the Poly-
tcchnio. Mr. Clerc asked nio : * But whom shall
I employ to ])ro2-)arc Alexis?' I spoke of the
preparatory school where my cousin had been. IIo
stnt us, Alexis and me, to find the head of that in-
stitution. It was thus Alexis entered the estab-
lishment of Mr. do lleussc, Rue do Vaugirard, cor-
ner of tike Rue Ferou." *

There the student was the same that ho had
been during (ho course of his classical studies ;
til is we learn from one of his fellow-students who
followed him, after the interval of a year, to the
Polytechnic School, and who was destined to meet
him, thirty years later, a priest and a Jesuit pre-
paring for the supreme trials which Providence re-
served for him. We have avoided erasing from
these lines their local coloring ; this, wo are sure,
will not offend our readers, especially if they have
ever happened to frequent the society of the more
or less studious youth from whose ranks is re-
cruited the large and illustrious school our hero
proposed entering.

'' I formed his acquaintance at the Institution de
Reussc in 1839. His good disposition. Lis gay and
cheerful temperament, made him beloved by every-
body, while, at the same time, his ready compre-
l.ension of the x won him great respect among
the iauinns, (thus in student slang arc called those

* Tho luslitution de Reuiise, which 1ms nob changed its
name, is at prcaent in the Ruo du Cardinal Lemoine.

^■Uc'xis Cli'TC

who arc following ii special mathematical course in
preparation for the Polytechnic »Scliool). ]Ie was,
moreover, very strong in literary composition. An
aplitiulc for literature and mathematics are rarely
found together. lie had also a great deal of en-
thusiasm in liis cliuractcr, yet this did not exclude
a great deal of good sense."

This last touch i):iints him exactly, shows him
just as we kn^w him until the close o^his lifn.
His enthusiasm, far from being weakened or ex-
tinguished — as too often happens in proi)>')rtion as
experiences multiply — was rather quickened hy
being purified through contact with tlie holy reali-
ties of faith and with eternal hopes.

After a rapid preparation he was admitted into
the Polytechnic School with a very fair grade of
scholarship, the twenty-sixth. The same amiable
and thoroughly French qualities which had made
liim a favorite in the boarding-school and college
procured for him in this assemblage of young men of
such varied origin and character a true popularity,
which he preserved as long as he remained among
them, and which we have found still alive in the
remembrances of several of them. Their recollec-
tions of the charming gayety, the sprightly, active
temperament, the useful bon-cnfant character of
** Little Clerc " are exhaustless. They were ready
to relate to us any number of funny tricks and
fpcGches, always quite inoffensive, by which he
amused h's companions. There exists at the Poly-
tcch.nic a custom, a tradition, regarding the man-
ner of welcoming newcomers and of putting their

before his Tivcuty-scvoiih Year,

good-nature to the test. It is not a now W\\\\^ in
fc'cliOLtls, and there is miicli in it to bo asliamed of.
Athens, in knowledge and priictico of it, preceded
and i^robably surpassed Paiis, whero all throuj,h
the Middle Ages the rectors of the university had
much difficulty in protecting the new arrivals,
whose purses were liable to be drained by the pay-
ment of their bijannc. What is the cullc iVah.sorp-
lion in comparison with the bejaiaie? I leave the
expression without a parai)lirasc. Perliaps some
day it will join Injaune in llie dictionary of the
Academv.

Xevertheless, it must bo avowed the fun often
enough exceeds reasonable limits and turns into a
posiuive vexation. It Avas not so when Lit tic
Cleic (with General Thoumas, we are assnred)
was clioscn to conduct the trial. Under his man-
agement things always passed olT in a way that
was agreeable to all concerned. We have on our
desk a specimen of the problems ho proposed and
the questions he addressed to his recruits. It is a
droll document. In it Greek subtlety clasps
hands with Gallic wit, not to mention the forced
agreement of mathematical formulas tiiat caps the
climax. But there is not a word to offend or
wound, and it would seem that those who passed
through his hands were lightly tickled but not
bruised.

Thus by his popularity he acquired the right to
say anything at any time, and was sure of being
listened to. One day some ungrateful task or
other had been finished, and it was determined to

A /ex is Clerc

destroy all traces of it. So behold ourbi^ scholars
heaping up in a court-yard a mountain of papers ;
they touch a match to it, then, joining hands,
dance around it in the most hilarious fashion.
Suddenly Clerc detaches himself from the circle
and ajoproaches the burning pile. He merely
wants to light his cigar ; but they mistake his in-
tention, and the cry is started : '^ Clerc wishes to
speak ! " In a moment the dance is arrested, every
man hushes his noise and listens. Whether or no,
Clerc has to speak, to prove that he doesiiH v/ant to.

Ho entered the school in the twenty-sixth grade,
he left it in the twenty-third, a sign that he had
not quite gotten rid of his liking for laziness.
That grade gave him the right to choose among
several careers, some of them very desirable, agree-
able, and even lucrative. What was not the aston-
ishment of his companions when tliey learned that
he had chosen the navy! **A famous sailor
he'll make," said one ; " a fellow whose only voy-
age has been u])on the Seine, between Bcrcy and
Charenton !" *'Hc has the ambition to go round
the world," added another. " Does he know what
it means, he who has never been out of Paris in his
life, unless to go en concou to Versailles or Mont-
fermeil ? " And so on with a long string of jests.

The fact is, Alexis' vocation for the sea was
extremely sudden, and for a native of the Rue
Bourdonnais quite extraordinary. He made his
first trial of it, without any preparation whatever,
by a four years' cruise in the Southern seas, and by
" the conquest of the Marquesas Islands," one of

before /lis Tiventy -seventh Year, 23

his friends tells us. Wiiat had caused him to take
so singular and so unexpected a resolution ? I
strongly suspect, in tlie first place, that every sort
of administrative employment was repugnant to
him, and that he was nob willing;, at any price, to
shut himself up in an office, lie required air,
sunlight, space, elbow-room. Then he had an am-
bition, not a petty but a vast and lofty one — an
ambition to do something great, and to serve his
country by placing at her disposal his abilities, and
even, if need be, his blood and his life. It was the
beautiful ambition of youth, which believes in
glory and in magnanimous devotedness, the am-
bition which Virgil so nobly expressed by tho lips
of his Nisus :

" Aut pugnam aut aliquld jamdudum invadere magnum
Mens agitat mihi, nee placida contenta quiete est."

In the second place, if I look for exterior causes,
I discover one which acted, it seems to me, upon
our Alexis. There was among the friends of the
family an excellent woman, Madame Pages, who
took a lively interest in him, and whose name fre-
quently appears in his letters. She had a brother,
Commander Baligofc, who was captain of a corvette
that was about starting for the Southern seas.
"If you would like to bo a sailor," she said to the
young man, *'my brother will take you on his ship
and I will givo you your sword." " I desire no-
thing better," he replied. No sooner said than
done ; and it may be added that when he started on
his voyage he knew neither the object nor tho du-
ration of the expedition.

. '1

• I,

Alrxis Clcrc

There wus no time to lose. Named a midship-
man of fji'sfc class on the first day of October, 1841,
he embarked at Brest on the Trioinphante the 22d
of the same month, and found himsCif, the fiituro
ofiiocr, more of a novice than the last of tlie cabin-
boys, knowing absolutely nothing of the mar.couvrc.s
or the language of shipboard. But from the com-
mencement he showed the best points of liis nature;
full of energy and resources, joining a great deal
of decision of character to that French spirit of
good-fellowship which never makes the man the
loser, lie gained esteem and friendship directly.
Admirably well placed to judge him. Commander
Baligot, wa-iting " at sea, December 17," says : " As
to Alexis, ho is a fiuo and courageous young man,
who at the very beginning of our voyage gave
proof of his energy. I hope to find an opportunity
of showing him how much it caused me to respect
him."

An opportunity soon came, but, alas ! in a way
unexpected by that excellent man, who gave to the
young midshipman a mark of esteem and confi-
dence usually reserved for a riper age and a longer
experience. Mr. Bahgot died at sea before reach-
ing the coasts of America, appointing Alexis his
testamentary executor; and thus at the entrance
of his career our hero was deprived of the counsels
of the old officer without whom he would never
have dreamed of being a sailor. *•' Commander
Baligot," he wrote to his father (from Valpanaso,
August 19, 1842), " was, as well as I can judge,
much the best sailor I have yet seen. ... If he is

before his Twenty-seventh Year,

such a loss to the vessel, how much greater a one
to me !" And he adds, thereby making a revelation
of liis character, wliich at that period was somewhat
inclined to presumption : **Ever since I have ar-
rived at years of discretion — and long before, if
indeed I have reached those years — I have always
judged for myself — have guided myself by my own
im])ressions, have willed with my own will. This
beloved commander was so wise, so enlightened, so
noble, that, while scarcely aware of it, I allowed
him to will for mo ; ho loved me well enough to
do it. His death leaves me without purpose,
without object, without will. I am like one wan-
dering without a destination. I needed his strength.
One of my opinions was a truth to me if he shared
it. No man ever before had such power over me.'*

So it was that the young man, Avith his proud,
enthusiastic spirit, yielded himself unreservedly
and witliout calculation of the results, happy be-
yond all expression to have found at lust a man — a
character, rare thing !

But what is going to become of him whose voca-
tion for the sea was dependent on that one man,
and who had lest the support which he needed
more than anything else at the beginning of such
a novel career.

The elasticity which was in his nature, the in-
domitable energy of his will came to the rescue ;
not, however, that he experienced the same joyful
confidonce as at the moment of departure. TriaU
were hard for him to bear, and ho had plenty of
them ; he felt them keenly, but was not discou-

Alexis Clerc

raged. He askeJ himself more tliau onee if he
had not taken a false step, and if it would not be
better to turn back in time and seek another way
of employing his talents. Meanwhile lie made the
best of his position, conquering his dislike and all
the other difficulties of the calling, and taking
good care never to be downhearied.

Such is the picture of him drawn for us by an old
navy officer who was his companion in that long ex-
pedition. This gentleman, a few years younger than
our hero, was, though a graduate of the Naval
School, only a midshipman of second class, while
Clerc, a pupil of the Polytechnic, had been without
any hesitation appointed midshipman of first class.
*' He Was greatly my superior in scientific acquire-
ments," this worthy officer tells us ; " but, on the
other hand, my practical knowledge gained on the
school-ship, excelled his, and, understanding per-
fectly well that if he did not ask explanations he
would never learn the details of certain manoeuvres
which lie would bo obliged to command to the sail-
ors, ho begged me to give him some lessons. So
at night when I was on duty ho would come to mc
and I would post him about the shii^'s rigging, and
show him how to tie knots and how to * make fast'
in the usual ways ; I taught him the names of the
ropes and their proper arrangements. It was thus
that in a very short time lie was well acquainted
with all the details which he would have been ig-
norant of for ever if he had not had the humility
to ask questions of a friend."

Iq mentioning humility the Viscount de M.

before Jiis Tiventy-scvcnth Year, 27

knew very well, and was careful to add, that tho
religion of his comrade was then in a *Matent
state." Humility, that essentially Christian yirtue,
cannot bo engrafted upon an absent faith ; but tho
young sailor was preserved by his good sense from
all foolish pride.

This kind of merit, so rare in a beginner, was
singularly attractive to men of experience, and ap-
peared to them a very good sign. Mr. Nielly,
Commissioner of the Navy, wrote to Alexis' father :
'' Sir : My second son, who for six months past
has occupied the same room with your Alexis, and
is pleased with the partnership, desires me to in-
form you that his friend was well on the 10th of
November, 18J:"3; that their corvette sailed the
next day from Valparaiso for the Marquesas Islands,
where she was to be stationed for six months in
the harbor of Nouka-IIiva, then to return to Val-
paraiso ; and that, to conclude, the chest contain-
ing the balance of the effects of the late Mr. Bali-
got, captain of the corvette, is on board the go-
vernment fri2;ate Thetis in tho harbor of Brest."
Then follow some details I'elativo to the property
of Commander Baligot. Mr. Nielly terminates his
letter with these words, which must have been
very gratifying to Mr. Clcrc : '* There now remains
for me only to congratulate myself upon having
had an opportunity to address a few lines to the
father of a sailor who, young as he is, seems to
unite to talent and courage the wisdom which as-
sures to his friends and to himstit the fruits of
those two qualifications."

Alexis CI ere

A wisdom entirely human, wo must again re-
mind the reader ; at tlie time he was receiving
such praises his morals were far from being irre-
proachable, and he did not even feel the sting of
remorse. Xevertheless, the moment of grace Avas
approaching, and ere long so many natural gifts
would be transformed into Christian virtues.

The interior crisis to which he owed his salvation
commenced shortly after his departure from Val-
paraiso, at the Gambier Islands, wliich he visited
on his way to the Marquesas. God there showed
him a spectacle that made a deep impression on his
observing mind, and caused him to reflect pro-
foundly ; it was the spectacle of a growing Christi-
anity renewing the marvels of the primitive Cburcli
upon the still smoking ruins of an abject and
bloody idolatry.

The theatre where the power of the Gospel was
thus manifested -is very small, very obscure, and
almost ignored by the rest of the worlJ. We often
hear of Tahiti, the new Cytlicraj which owes to
Captain Cook, and to other navigators as little
scrupulous as he, a suspicious celebrity. But^
aside from Catholics who arc interested in mission-
ary labors and are kept informed by the ''Annals
of the Propagation of the FaitJi," who knows any-
thing more than the names, who lias ever thouglii;
of studying in its most interesting phase the his-
tory of those little islands of volcanic origin,
Mangarcva, Taravai", Aokena, Akamarou, whicu
form the archipelago of Gambier, lost in the im-
mensity of the Pacific Ocean, about three hundred

before his Tzventy-seveiith Year,

leagues from Tahiti and the same distance from
tlie Marquesas ? The first time that French mis-
sionaries, some priests belonging to the Congrega-
tion of Picpus, landed on those isles at the risk of
their lives, they found the only population to
consist of terrible cannibals, perfectly naked, war-
ring with their neighbors for the sake of feasting
upon the flesh and blood of the vanquished, joining,
in a word, the appetites of ferocious beasts to the
instincts of depraved children; and for the rest,
an enchanting country of prodigious fertility. The
narrow belt of land which surrounds each extinct
crater produces abundantly and without any culti-
vation, the cocoa-tree, the banana, and the bread-
fruit, and these furnish the islanders not only with
food and clothing, but with the timber, the roofing,
and all the furniture of their little houses. Previ-
ous to the years 1834, 1835, all that richness of soil
and beauty of climate was the empire of the devil ;
the Sun of Righteousness had not yet risen upon
those unfortunate people seated in darhness and
in the shadoio of death ; there was not a soul in all
that archipelago who was not a slave to supersti-
tion, to anthropophagy, and to the most shameful
lechery, and not a word of salvation had ever been
spoken upon those inhospitable shores. Fathers
Caret and Laval, on landing at Mangareva, tho
largest of the four islands — it measures nearly three
miles in extent — saw at the first glance what sort of
men they had to deal with, and what were the
manners of the place. The natives gave them a
kindly and even hearty welcome, bat one which

Alexis CI ere

lillli

did not inspire them with confidence. The chief
of a quite numerous population having towards
sunset offered them hospitality, they accepted a
little food, but declined sleeping in his hut, think-
ing they would be safer in the neighboring wood.
Vain precaution ! When night came they were
the objects of nameless solicitations, and (they
themselves relate) proposals contrary to tlie holiest
of virtues were made them. They fled, and were
pursued unmercifully. Then they tried to hide
themselves by crouching down among the reeds
that grew on the shore, when fire was brought into
requisition, and they were surrounded by a circle
of flames, all the outlets of which were guarded so
as to oblige them to fall into the infamous snare.
They succeeded in saving their honor and their
lives only through a miracle of Providence. Such
were the islanders of Mangareva anterior to 1834.

Very well! A few years later these same, island-
ers will be fervent Christians and civilized men ;
redoubling by their industry the fertility of a soil
already so productive ; cultivating the arts neces-
sary to the preservation or embellishment of life ;
welcoming the stranger with a true ancl helpful
charity ; practising chastity, meekness, disinterest-
edness, sincerity, gratitude, and deriving from the
love of Jesus Christ and his holy Mother the ideal
and inspiration of all the virtues.

And this was what our young sailor saw with
his own eyes on landing at the Gambler Islands
during the course of the year 1842. He was shown
a church, the first construction of masonry in

: i

before his Tzventy-sevoith Year,

Maiigareva, built of enormous blocks of coral wliicli
the natives liad torn from the bowels of the sea, as
it were, and brought on rafts a distance of five
leagues. He became acquainted witli tlie former
liigh-priest of the island, Matna, a species of giant,
not long since an antliropopbago, and now as gentle
as a lamb. Matua was among the lirst to accept
tlie good tidings, and his example determined the
king, Maputeo, his nephew, to receive baptism. In
a letter dated at Valparaiso, and written after his
return there from the Marquesas Islands, Alexis
relates to his father the strange things of which he
had been the happy witness, and communicates to
him without many comments the first impressions
produced in his sotrl by the sight of this infant
Christianity. I will quote a few passages from this
letter:

*' When we left Valparaiso we knew not the ob-
ject of our voyage. We went to the Gambler
Islands.

" It was ten years since an English government
vessel had touched there for a supply of water.
The natives fell upon the lieutenant and a sailor,
killed and ate them. They went about perfectly
naked, and were the most ferocious and savage of
all the inhabitants of Oceanica. Now here is
what WG saw : This group of islands consists of
four; we visited the principal two, Mangareva and
Aokena. The approach to them is very diflicult,
there being a great many coral-reefs to avoid ;
and as they produce nothing for commerce but
pearls and mother-of-pearl, few vessels frequent

Alexis Clcrc

%
i

them. Eight years ago two French missionaries
with two workmen established themselves tliere.
They Icarnetl the language. By their good advice
and conduct they gained the esteem and affection
of the savages ; then they undertook to convert
and civilize them. It is impossible to conceive by
what prodigies of devotedness tlicy attained this
object, and to what degree. The natives are now
all Christians ; they are honest, good, laborious, and
very i)ious.

"The high-priest who slaughtered the English-
men was one of the first converts. IIo is a tall,
stout, fine-looking man, tattooed all over, who de-
scribes with much simplicity the tricks by which he
used to work upon the credulity of his disciples.
The king was the most reluctant to be baptized,
but lie consented at last, and all the people follow-
ed his example.

*'Now the children attend school. There are
two schools, one for the girls and one for the boys ;
they learn to read, write, and cipher; religion is
taught them, and especially good principles ; Latin
is added for the boys.

** Cotton grows plentifully in these islands ; the
people have learned to spin, weave, and make gar-
ments of it, and consequently they arc now all
clothed.

"The food of all the natives of Oceanica is the
fruit of the bread-tree, prepared in a way that is
perfectly detestable to a European ; the mess is
called jt) 0^0 i.

"The missionaries have taught these people of

before Ids Tzvetify -seventh Year,

the Ganibicr Islands to prepare this fruit better,
and also to preserve supplies of it iu the earth to
prevent tlic terrible famines which a sudden tem-
pest may bring upon them.

''Finally, these good fathers have built a church,
simple, but more beautiful than many of our coun-
try cliurches — built it with the assistance of only
two mechanics. The savages brought on rafts
blocks of stone from a distance of five leagues, and
leiirned from the workman how to hew, raise, and
set tliem in place. The missionaries found in the
numerous coral-reefs that are so disastrous to navi-
gation an inexhaustible cpiarry of tho finest lime-
stone in the world. They built of this a house for
tliemselves and one for the king, and these servo
tlie inhabitants as models for the construction of
others.

'' The missionaries have not sought to obtain any
authority in the country ; they have only reformed
ic and left it in the hands of the king. It must be
a very genuine piety that inspires such conduct.
Our missionaries are very different from those of
the English. The English missionaries work for
their own country, ours for the country they are
in. The islands where there are English mis-
Eionaries become English ; those where ours are
form themselves into little states.

" We spent three days in this happy region,
among them a Sunday which was a greiit festival.
The entire ship's company, officers, midshipmen,
and men, attended. Mass in uniform. The church
was tilled with a throng of people who sang in the

Alexis CIcrc

language of the country, and to an air which be-
longed to their old religion, a hymn the missionaries
had composed for them. The harmony, simple yet
striking, produced upon me an impression such ag
I had never experienced. . . ,

"After Mass the missionaries invited us to their
house to breakfast witli the king and the high-
priest. A very frugal repast was offered us, but
with such hearty kindness I These poor people
use shells for plates ; they had bread that day, but
they are often reduced to W\q 'pupoi. What heroic
dcvotedness is that of these missionaries ! but
what a reward is not such a result! I almost
thought I was dreaming, or that I was witnessing
the reality of a chapter from the * Natchez.*

" Finally, a wonderful thing in Occanica, the
women are chaste and marriages are respected.
Since this has been, the population, which usually
decreases among savages, increases a third a year.
But I must reserve something to tell you on my re-
turn, for I shall return, perhaps. . . ."

This is all, and one would hardly sus])ect, to read
this narrative, only hero and there interspersed
with short reflections, what a deep and lasting im-
pression Alexis carried away from his visit to the
Gambler Islands. But in after life he was often
heard to refer to that date the beginning of the
work of his conversion, a work which was for a
long time a secret one and reached its comiiletion
upon another shore four years later. If he had
communicated all his thoughts to his father he
would not have been understood. And was he

before his Twcnty-siVOiiJi Year,

quite conscious liimsclf, at that time, of what
glassed in the depths of his soul ? If I do not mis-
take, it was after having seen and sincerely admir-
ed all these wonders, and during his second so-
journ at Valparaiso, that he saw himself two
steps from death, realized it, and yet had not a
single thought for eternity.

One day, to repeat what he several times related
to his friends and brothers, he was climbing up a
steep and dangerous declivity — having, perhaps,
undertaken the ascent of some one of the Chilian
mountains — when suddenly his foot slipped and he
felt himself rolling into the abys?. lie might have
lain there for ever, but fortunately he was drawn
out alive, though badly bruised. The letter from
which I have quoted above speaks of two splintera
of bone being extracted without very great d.flS-
culty, and of the assurance of a complete recovery.
Now, at the critical moment when, losing all hope,
he bade within himself a farewell to life, among
the thousand reflections that crossed his mind with
the rapidity of lightning, the most striking was
this: "It was, indeed, worth the "while, my poor
Alexis, to enter the Polytechnic School, and to go
through such a rude apprenticeship to the trade of
a sailor, only to come here in the end to break
your neck so far from your friends, and to leave
your bones in this miserable hole I " This was the
limit of his philosophy then ; but patience I the
good seed is in his soul and it will bear its fruits.

A sailor's life has this advantage — namely, that
by isolating men it ripens them, if they be ever

Alexis Ckrc

so little disposed not to dissipate by frivolity the

grave

and serious thoughts which the suhlimo

spectacles of nature must awaken in their breasts.
Man feels himself so little in comparison with the
\ast expanse of the heavens and the waters, so fee-
ble in his incessant struggle against the elements,
that, even in spite of himself, he re^nembers that
he is not master of his life, that he was not made
for himself, that his destiny is not in his own
hands, and that he is a being irresistibly impelled
towards a distant shore about which his reason can
give him only a very imperfect knowledge. How
will he not welcome the idea of a divi?ie revelation
and a Saviour, when it is presented to him in its
radiant and consoling simplicity ! His ear is
closed to the thousand noises of human throngs,
and his solitary meditation is not disturbed by the
conflict of opinions and systems. Truth, whose
mysterious voice is npvcr still, easily makes herself
heard in his heart, and takes possession of his
whole being from the moment he consents to lis-
ten.

From the day he received at the Gambler Islands
this first ray of light the young sailor became
more serious, more earnest ; and without having
lost any of the amenity of his pleasing character,
he began (this is plainly seen in his letters) to look
at life in its graver aspects, and to have a better
appreciation of his duties. His affection, always
strong, for his father and brothers was purified,
and expressed itself sometimes in touching regrets,
and sonieiimos in aspirations and desires. Ho

before his Tiventy-sevenih Year,

realized, now that lie was deprived of it, the sweet-
ness and value of the family life.

"I have before me in my secretary," ho writes
to his father, *' my library, the mere sight of which
affords me great happiness. How sweet, and at
the same time how sad it is, to gaze at these tokens
of your affection, and of that of my brothers and
friends !

" Alas I this is the cruel part of the profession ;
the old life is ended, and I shall see you perhaps
only three or four times until 1 am retired from the
service.

" To have been so close to happiness and to have
left it for ever ! Where shall I find the same
affection, and, if I could find it, would I be able
to break the bonds which bind me to the old ? No,
and 1 would not want to if I could. Ah ! my dear,
kind father, how well I understand, now that I
wasted my happiness by not enjoying more than I
(lid your affection for me, and by hiding mine from
you ! How stupid it is to rebel against what is
best, to be unwilling to yield anything, to forgive
anything ! Alone, removed from exterior events,
without anxiety about the material things of life,
we understand better how much of the true happi-
ness of life comes from the family, and how delight-
ful is constant, mutual affection. I am deprived
of it forever ; you are lost to me. What us there to
compensate me for such a loss ? Absolutely no-
thing ; and the fate of a naval officer is to become
insensible as a stone. Ho has torn himself awny
from all early affections, and he finds himself in-

'i;;i

Alexis Clcrc

'•!;

■ii!

capable and undesirotis of forming new ones only
to be in turn torn from them."

This conclusion, which nobody will bo tempted
to take seriously, was merely a whim. No, most
certainly — and Clcrc is himself the best proof of it
— the naval officer is not by profession either in-
different or insensible, and he can say with as
much truth as any other man :

" Homo sum et humani nihil a me alienum puto."

How sad poor Alexis is when, returning to Val-
paraiso after a first cruise in the Southern seas, he
finds no letter from his father or brothers, no news
from his family ! And also what an excess of joy
is his when the mail has not miscarried, and ho
sees the dear handwriting again ! **' Let me try to
express," he writes in reply, " first of all my deep
gratitude for your kind and affectionate letters.
What solicitude in my behalf ! Ah ! my dear
father, the warmth of my embraces could alone give
you an idea of how sweet to my heart are the mul-
tiplied proofs of your tender affection. Your good
advice is a kind Providence protecting a poor child
so far away from home ; it delights me, and I make
it my duty to follow it."

In answer to his father's having said that he had
accounts to render him, and that he considered
himself his debtor, Alexis writes: "I am paid,
overpaid. I feel almost angry at the idea of a
father's owing accounts to his children. I don't
want to ever hear it spoken of again."

As to the advice which the young sailor asked,

before his Tiventy-seventJi Year,

and which lie always cheerfully accepted, it was
about not only the general direction of his life, but
took in the details regarding propriety and man-
ners. Here is quite a singular example of it:
After a ts\'0 years' cruise, the time being come for
his promotion, Alexis had the very natural desire
to return to France, where, after an examination,
he would be regularly advanced to the gi'ade of
ensign, He already performed the services of an
officer, but he had not the rank — a position doubly
false for him, inasmuch as his age and his having
been a pupil of the Polytechnic School separated
him from the other cadets. . If we join to this his
eager desire to revisit his country and to embrace
his father and brothers once more, we Can without
much difficulty conceive that he would take some
steps to obtain from the commander of the squa-
dron — it was, I believe. Admiral Hamelin — per-
mission to return to France at the earliest oppor-
tunity. So far there was nothing but what was
perfectly correct, and Mr. Clerc had no fault to
find. But there had been some gossip about the
matter, and what had reached the ears of that ex-
cellent father had, from his way of looking at
things, attained in his mind enormous proportions.
His son — was it credible ? — liad written to ask an
audience of the admiral! Had written! Was
not this forgetting all his dignity, and assuming
gratuitously the airs of a beggar ? At least, I sup-
pose this was what so shocked a man in love with
the principles of '89, and so touchy about equality.
But in point of fact the affair was quite different.

Alexis CI ere

Hi:

Alexis had simply addressed himself, as was cus-
tomary, to the admiral's aid, and to the off-hand
question, " What do you want with him ? " of that
personage, had replied : " Bo good enough to
name me to him, and I presume that will be suffi-
cient to make him aware of my business." How
relieved Mr. Clerc must have felt when he
learned that his son had not been guilty of
what seemed to him a platitude ! This suscep-
tibility, which was perhaps excessive, will enable
the reader to comprehend better than any words
what must have been Alexis' education, and what
was the level of the ideas and sentiments of his
honorable family.

Alexis did not obtain his return at the end of
two years, nor even of three, and it was only dur-
ing the fourth that, weary of a cruise the results
of which were not in his eyes very magnificent, he
landed again in France. When gazing at the bare
and uninh^ibitable rocks which comi^ose almost the
whole of the archipelago of the Marquesas, musing
upon the impenetrable mystery with which the ex-
pedition was surrounded to its close, and dreaming
about the great expected results, he could not help
crying out with his Parisian nervousness: "0
mountain, what a bringing forth !'' lie perhaps
thouglit within himself that one sailor more or
less in the fleet did not matter much to the pro-
jects of colonization that were under consideration,
while it mattered very much to him, Alexis Clerc,
whether or no he remained indefinitely a simple
cadet of the first class. He said somethino- to this

before Jiis Tiveyity-seveiith Year.

effect to tlic admiral, wlio tried, without any suc-
cess, to persuade him that for the time being it
was a great deal better for him to be a cadet than
an officer, and who moreover had the want of tact
(the plirase docs not appear too strong to me) to
add : "Of all the pupils of the Polytechnic School
whom I have met in the government marine ser-
vice, I do not know one who is a sailor."

It was decidedly imprudent and really too bad to
say this to Alexis. If he had been one of those
young pedants stuffed full of equations, who
would not touch with the end of their finger the
smallest piece of rope, the lesson, if lesson there
was, would have been well given ; but we have
seen that our cadet did not deserve it in the least
degree, and tliat by his anxiety to instruct himself
and to learn his profession even from his inferiors
he had caused the best opinions to be entertained
of him. Thus it was that this quality of pupil of
the Polytechnic School, which would have ojiened
to him all the gates of a civil career, became an
obstacle to his advancement ; those studies, that
theoretical knowledge elsewhere so highly appre-
ciated, were laughed at here, and pronounced to be
merchandise only fit to throw overboard. This
gave the young man food for serious reflection ; he
took a cool survey of his position, and saw himself
in the isolation in which he had been left by the
death of the regretted Commander Baligot. No
name, no fortune, no military or naval notoriety
in his family, none of those important relations
that assist merit to rise, when they do not take

Alexis Clcrc

'9.

the place cf merit altogether. Could he rely upon
his sudden determination to bfe^ a sailor? If he
had deceived himself, would it not be better to re-,
trace his steps while there was yet time ? Upon
this point he examines himself, analyzes himself
from Head to foot, and then consults his best
frierfd' and his surest adviser, that enlightened,
father to whom he has recourse on all occasions :

"I have not, I think, a great deal of ambition
to sustain me in these continual struggles. Must
one impose silence on that pride which claims an
elevated position ? Or, on the other hand, must
one make the sacrifice, at any price save that of
honor, of all prdtcnsion to rank ? Or, again, shall
I, fulfilling all my duties with modesty, wait till
fortune deigns to think of me ? .'

"The career of ambition is difficult, uncertain,
and irritating on account of the constant disap-
pointments one me6ts with ; it is doubly so to
me, who have no guide, and who feel only rarely
that sacred fii'e which animates. men whose ambi-
tion is noble. Now, I shall never have the narrow
ambition of certain persons whom I know, who see
in elevation only elevation, and the prestige and
money that are attached to it, and do not in the
least see in it a means of exercising their talents
with advantage and success. . , , -^ -• -

"Would not the following plan be the best for
me ? To~ occupy myself quietly with th3 ideas
which I love, to nourish the sentiments which are
sweetest to me, and, fulfilling the duties of my

before J lis Twenty-seventh Year, 43

calling in tlic best possible manner, to trust the
future to happy eliiinco? "

A noble nature after all, that, even before being
transiigured by grace, understood the full value of
disinterestedness, and never sought after what was
low or unworthj^

We ate ignorant of the father's reply. Doubt-
less he reserved his counsels for the time when,
his son being returned to Paris, their mutual ex-
change of sentiments would be pleasanter and
more intimate. That time seemed always to be
postponed. Alexis told hi& friends that they
would find him greatly changed ; that having
parted from them at twenty-two, he would rejoin
them at twenty-six— ^a lon^ period ol Yde, grmide
fipatium, as Tacitus says, for men at that age* • ■

In the first part of Januajy, 1845, while going
from Arica to Islay (Peru), he Wrote to his. father
and communicated some of h)B melancho]/ reflect
tions. lie finished his letter by saying :" I pro-
pose to make, on our arrival at Gallao, whicli I
hope will be soon, new attempts to leave the ves-
sel ; but I have little hope of succeeding. I think
Iwill be able to informi you of their result in this
letter, which I shallmail only at CalUxo." Koscr-
theless, the end of this long and tedious cruise was
approaching, and, contrary to all expectation, he
was able to add to his \cttev ihU post-script ii7n :
"To-day, January 21, the corvette has reached
Callao. I have obtained the permit to return^
home on the frigate Charte, commanded by Mr.
Penaud. She sails to-morrow for Valparaiso, and

Alexis Clcrc

!iu(

thence for Franco. Tliat v/ill bo about tbc 25lli
of February, £o I shall probably be in Brest at
the beginning of July, and with you by August.
But I luivc not joined the Cliarle as an officer.
Nothing has deterred mc when there was question
of hastening my return." lie submitted, therefore,
to a final trial, and, at twenty-six years, re-
sumed the rank and service of a midshipman ; but
he was going at last to see France once more and
to embrace his father.

When he stepped on the soil of his native land
he had had four years of service at sea ; he had
yisited in America, the coasts of Brazil, of
Chili, and of Peru, and had sailed all over
Oceanica, stopping successively at the Gam-
bier Islands, the Marquesas, Tahiti, and the
New Hebrides. His experience of the sea,
which was nothing when he started, now began to
surpass that of a midshipman of the first class.
"We have proof of this in the report given of him
by Captain (since Admiral) Penaud, an officer of
merit, but who, we are told, did not sin by exces-
sive indulgence. This is his report of Alexis
Clerc : '* Active, and makes himself useful ; has a
taste for the sea, and has learned a great deal more
in practice than might be expected of a pui)il of
the Polytechnic Schooh" *

But the great result of this cruise was for him
the divine my that had penetrated his soul at the
sight of the Gambler mission — a ray whose evcr-

* Archives of the Naval Bureau.

before his Tivcnty- seventh Year» 45

increc.sin^ clearness would illumine his ^liolc life
and discover to him the straight path \\\ which
God himself guides hit5 elect. How fur had this
marvellous transformation progressed at the close of
his four years of sea service ? We know from good
authority that at the moment of leaving Valparaiso
for France he imparted to an ofUcer, with whose
Christian sentiments ho was acquainted, his desire
to become a Christian also, and begged him to give
him introductions to some friends whose example
and counsels might further so laudable a purpose.
Therefore it is certain that indifference was
b;ini:shed from his soul, and wo may regard him as
already on the right road. Wo would probably be
more edified by his interior dispositions if we could
find a letter which he sent to his father for a third
person, and to which he drew his father's attention
by the following words: "This parcel contains a
leiter for my Uncle Bourgeois, which I beg you to
forward to him. I would liko you to read it with-
out being too much astonished, and especially
without believing that I am not sincere. There
are so many recesses in the human heart that the
most opposite things may be found there."

What, then, is this revelation he makes to his
uncle of a recess of his heart which is quite vlq-^
to his own father, whom he would have share the
secret ? The reader ^vill divine it when he learns
that the Uncle Bonrf^cois was a perfect Christian,
as well as a man of quite a high order of intellect,
and occupying a certain position in the scientific
world. Alexis doubtless hoped by this means to

Alexis Clcrc

lit'"

iii

suggest to his father reflections wliicli, novel as
they were to himself, would be gladly welcomed by
his uncle, but could not without preparation bo
addressed to the one of the three who had the
greatest need to be influenced by tliem.

It seems as though the reader must now have be-
come pretty well acquainted with this young man,
not only by means of the unanimous testimony of
the companions of his childhood and youth, but
still more througli the living likeness he has left of
himself in those letters to his father from which
we have several times quoted.

His was a transparent nature, and, for the rest,
perfectly straightforward, loyal and generous to a
fault, and glowing throughout. Notwithstanding
many loct pages which will probably never bo
found, his life already appears to us like an open
book which all may read without difficulty, and
wherein the sense of things is plain without the
aid of any commentary.

In sorting his papers I came across a singular
note in an unknown handwriting, and one which
docs not reappear in his voluminous correspon-
dence. Was it scrawled by a somnambulist ? Or
is it the work of somebody who pretended to un-
ravel people's character, and read their destinies
from a few lines of their handwriting ? An honest
man will sometimes, if only for sport, lend himself
to these attempts at divination ; and if the attemj^t
happens to be successful, the paper is thrown in a
desk and preserved as a curiosity and a souvenir.

Whatever was the origin of the document to

:!!i

,i!|i!

before his Tzvcnty-scvcnth Year*

"which I refer, licrc are some paragraphs from it
that are certainly applicahle to the subject of this
biograpliy :

** Active, energetic, impressionable, irritable;
extremely enterprising, laboring with enthusiasm
and nevertheless easily discouraged. Needs to be
supported by others." Doubtless, but also know-
ing how to support himself when all exterior lielp
fails, and struggling with courage against discour-
agement.

"A great deal of spontaneity, irresolute, slow
to decide ; lively passions, anger easily roused."
Both true and false, but more the former than the
latter.

" Speecli quick and jerking at times." V^cry
good. *' Ideas eccentric and fantastic." True
again, but with this reserve : his wayward and fan-
tastic imagination was overruled by sound common
sense. " Will have quarrels and lawsuits." The
sagacity of our soothsayer is quite at fault on this
point ; Alexis could not have lavvsuits for the very
simple reason that his rather empty purse was open
to everybody, and to him who asked for two sous
he would give three, and even more.

" Marked sincerity, sometimes exaggerated."
Wonderfully correct.

" He will travel a great deal and make long voy-
ages." I suspect this was not arrived at by j^uro
and simple divination, but by an easy process of
induction.

*' A restless life and bu:incss troubles " (no more
business than lawsuits). '' Fortunate chances now

Alexis CUrc*

and then, but will not dcrlvo from tlicm nil tho ad-
van t ago possible."

** Useful and devoted to liis friends." Yes, and
wc shidl meet with more than ono proof of it.

Finally, a last stroke, and a seemingly propbetic
one: "Will encounter great and diverse i)ori!s."
How did Iho magician know this ? Probably by
means of very vague conjectures whicb might just
as well never bavc been realized.

Nevertheless, given the strong and positive char-
acter of our hero, a certain Christian philosophy
would lead to the conclusion that Providence
doubtless reserved for him trials in proportion to
his energy and courage. " God tempers the wind
to the shorn lamb" is an old proverb, and one that
is of some value, for it reassures and consoles those
who do not feel themselve3 sufQciently Will armed
for the struggles of life.

But, on the other hand, for a similar reason, to
the strong great and hard trials ! According to
this our Alexis should expect to encounter combats
and tempests.

CHAPTER II.

SOJOUR.V IS FRAXCE— ANOTHER CRUISE— CONVKRSIOX.

We know little of Alexis' sojourn in France from
October 14, 1845, to May 20, 184G, the date of a
new cmbarkiitiou.

From the moment he was with or near liis family
his correspondence fails us. Nevertheless, we are
able to relate almost in detail how he filled up that
internal of about seven months. Judging from its
results and from his reminiscence of it in his letters
afterwards, h was not time lost either with regard
to his career or to his progress towards a Christian
life.

At Toulon, having finidly succeeded in passing
his examination, he was promoted to the rank of
ensign. Then he went to Paris, and was not idle
there, as we shall see.

To be an ensign at twenty-six years of age was
not a bewildering success, and, after his experi-
ence, our young officer could not promise himself a
lapid advancement. Moreover, he still had his
doubts as to whether he had made the right choice
of a career. We do not know if it was by the ad-
vice of his father or of some friend of the family

Alexis Clerc,

that he determined, at all events, to prepare him-
self to enter on another more in harmony, perhaps,
with his antecedents — that of public instruction.
Certain it is that he set himself courageously to
the study of mathematics, and eyen became a pupil
of one of his old companions of the Polytechnic,
Mr. Joseph Bertrand, then a professor at the Col-
lege St. Louis. In three months he had obtained
the diplomas of bachelor and licentiate of the ma-
thematical sciences, and was preparing for the de-
gree of doctor, when the prospect of a new expedi-
tion re-engaged him to tlie sea for a long period.

But the preparation for his examinations was far
froAi absorbing him completely, and he undertook
at the same time studies of a very different nature,
and whicli were to give to his life quite another di-
rection.

As we have already said, he was not systemati-
cally an infidel, and the Voltairianism of his father
had never gained an empire over him. Still less
had he allowed himself to be carried away by the
absurd doctrines of Fourier, who then counted
numerous disciplas in the Polytechnic School.

Wiser on this single point than so many others,
ho had made no compact with error. But from
the age of fourteen, having never entered a church,
he had heard no mention of God, neither had he
read anything of such books as enlighten man rc-
^.a'ding his future destiny and his eternal here-
after. He had become an absolute pagan. He
needed to be educated over again. He understood
this^ and applied himself resolutely to the task.

Co?iversion.

It happened to him as to Murceau, that grand
Christian who, like our young hero, was extremely
ignorant, and impious to a degree that was some-
what aggressive, until the day when the scales fell
from his eyes. Urged by I know not what curi-
osity, or rather obedient to a first and mysterious
impulse of grace. Captain Marceau asked an eccle-
siastic of Toulon* for a book on the Catholic re-
hgion, one in which the question was thoroughly
discussed. The worthy priest gave him Duvoisin's
"Demonstration Evangelique." Marceau read it
from beginning to end, at first with a certain mis-
trust and suspicion, then with passionate interest,
while liglit penetrated deeper and deeper into his
soul. And this, his historian relates, was the
commencement of his remarkable conversion, which
preceded by several years that of Alexis Clerc.

Who was it that ])laced the same book in our
young sailor's hands ? I do not know ; but what
1 do know is that he read it with the same fruit
as Marceau, and that later he recommended it to
his friends as a remedy the efficaciousness of
Avhich he had himself experienced. It is truly a
very good book, written with all the seriousness
that characterized the old French school. Born
towards tlie middle of the eighteenth century,
Duvoisia had been a professor of the Sorbonne
before the Revolution. The Concordat made him
a bishop, and he administered the diocese of Nantes
wisely; but, for his misfortune, in 1811 he be-

* Tho Abb(5 Gilbert, vicar of St. Mary's.

^ -

Alexis Clcrc,

camo a member of the ecclesiastical commission
presided over by Cardinal Fescli, and, alas ! on
that memorable occasion he was not heroic. There
fell a blot upon his name, but this should in no-
wise detract from the value of the remarkable
apologetic treatise of vhich he was the author.
Every man desirous of instruction in that which
it is sinful to be ignorant of, will find there, in a
few pages written without pretension, but not
without warmth, though in a style that is always
moderate and discreet, all the elements of a solid
and deliberate conviction.

"Is the Christian religion a revealed religion?
This is the state of the question. It is the ques-
tion of a fact which can only be decided by facts —
that is to say, by all the proofs that are the most con-
vincing, the most easily understood, and the most
analogous to the principles and seniiments that
influence us in the ordinary course of life. The
Author of Christianity declared himself to be the
envoy of God. His disciples affirm that he justi-
fied his mission by prodigies evidently supernatu-
ral, and they oiler in proof of this not only their
testimony, but also similar prodigies worked by
them in the name of their Master. Did Jesus
Christ and his apostles work the miracles tjut are
attributed to them ? and have these miracles, with
respect to us, a degree of certainty that does not
permit a reasonable man to call them in question ? "
(" Demonstration Evangolique," p. 4. Paris, 1818.)

This is, in short, the whole question ; it is
clearly put, and, we should add, conscientiously

Conversion.

resolved — so conscientiously that in reaching the
conclusion of his book the apologist may address
God liimself, and say to him with Richard of Saint-
Victor : "God of truth ! I believe firmly all thou
liast revealed to me through Jesus, thy Son. He
alone has the words of el.ernal life, and there is no
other name under heaven by which wc can be
saved. I do not fear to v/ander in following such
a guide. But if, to suppose an impossibility, my
faith were an error, it would be thou who would
have deceived me in permitiing Christianity to bo
marked with characters whereon I recognize the
impress of thy omnipotence." *

We have desired by the foregoing paragraphs to
draw the attention of the reader to a book which
Alexis Clerc, from his personal experience after-
wards confirmed by more profound study, held in
high esteem.

Alexis also read the " Pcnsues" of Pascal, and as
he was extremely sensitive not only to the philo-
sophical range of the ideas but still more to the
beauty of the language, he infinitely enjoyed the
illustrious thinker who is undoubtedly one of our
greatest writers. Whether he compares the enter-
prise of Josus Christ with that of Mohammed, and
arrives at the conclusion that " since Mohammed
succeeded, Christianity must have perished if it had
not been sustained by a divine power " ; or whether
he says quite simply, but with the authority of an

* Domino, si error est queni credimus, a te decepti sumus ;
quouiam iis signis praedita est religio, quae nonnisi a te esse
potuerunt. — Richard of Baint Victor, quoted hy Duvolsia,
"Ddraonstratiou Evar.gcliqn ," \ . CO.

Alexis CIcrc.

immovaLlo conviction, that ho believes ** witnesses
tluit imperil their lives," Pascal, who, under dif-
ferent circumstances, would perhaps have been the
most powerful of apologists, abounds in expres-
sions that bear tlie stamp of genius and are like so
many medals commemorative of the great, divine
events which compose the entire history of Chris-
tianity. He is, however, less exact, less to be de-
pended on, when, seeming to take pleasure in
making a complete rev^^lation of the misery of
fallen man, he is filled with indignation at the im-
mense ruin, and undertakes to despoil the image
of God of whatever still remains to recall its origin.
If human reason wore as infirm as he pretends, as
fatally prone to error, we should bo forced to de-
spair of it, we should be obliged to renounce all
hope of persuading it to accept the first principles
of faith. Therefore, whatever else may be said of
it, in this part of his sublime essay Pascal is more
Janscnist than Catholic, and the painful scepti-
cism which so frequently breathes from his immor-
tal pages is not always unfraught with danger. It
was a remarkable thing ! Clerc, though the mer-
est novice in these matters, had a confused con-
sciousness of this weak side of an author of genius,
and we shall see in a letter to be referred to pre-
sently that he did not regard the "Pensees" as a
book very well suited to enlighten a certain class
of minds.

I am unable to say if it was then or afterwards
that he also read and singularly enjoyed La Bru-
y^rc's eloquent chapter on " Les Esprits Forts " •,

Cojt

version.

and as it wa3 Lis habit to communicate his likes
and preferences to the fullest extent possible, we
shall see him sharing with his friends his admira-
tion for that remarkable fragment, the apologetic
value of which is certainly nob to be disdained.

Thus, from the beginning, guided solely by his
love for the true and the beautiful, Alexis entered
on their own level the society of the great Chris-
tian spirits of the seventeenth century, and found
himself at his ease with them passably well for a
ciiild of the nineteenth educated in quite another
school. Later he did better still : he bravely ap-
proached St. Augustine and St. Thomas, conse-
crated his leisure to them,, became their disciple,
and, when necessary, their interpreter — a rare re-
solution in a man of his profession and one who did
nothing from caprice.

Nevertheless, all was not yet accomplished, and
the conversion of the heart was strangely behind
that of the intellect. In spite of the promises
which he had made himself he did not profit by
liis sojourn in Paris to obey the voice that said to
him as to the poor leper : '* Ostcndo te saccrdotL"
If he saw the pi'iests it was afar off.

At that time there were in Paris illustrious
priests — later he would know them better — whose
eloquence filled the nave of Notre Dame with an
immense auditory, young and eager for good. In
descending from the pulpit at the close of the
Lent of 1845, Father de Ravignan had said : " Rise
up, then, young men, in the midst of a sick socie-
ty, and proclaim to it your strength and your hap-

Alexis Clerc.

pincss ; let it meet yon, let it sec yon wherever evil
needs a remedy or the good consolation and. sup-
port. Display the courage of Catholic convictions
in the most advanced posts of the struggle, in the
combat of science, of philosophy, of letters, of in-
dustry, of arts, and of liberty. Let the loud voice
of Christianity resound in that chaotic confusion
of opinions and doctrines. Tell the multitudes
that you desire, that we desire, the glory and pros-
perity of the country, the development of its insti-
tutions, the free range of genius and of great
thoughts. Feel yourselves to be placed very high,
and teach those who are ignorant your language
and your faith; re-ostablisli by Christian conscience
the empire of justice, of truth, and of a holy in-
dependence. Be assured of it, you have received
more power and perpetuity than all the exhausted
experimenters in human theories."

Such vras the keynote at that date, and the
grave and austere voice of Father de Ravignan did
not sound it with the same vibrations as did Fa-
ther Lacordaire's, whicli was more in sympathy
with youth. What years were those, and what
men ! In the Chamber of Peers Montalembert
was daily at the breach, the indefatigable champion
of every great Catholic cause. The struggle con-
tinued for two years ; and if, on one side, we were
saddened by a revival of impiety which showed
itself in the periodical press, and even in the chairs
of higher instruction, we took courage when we
saw the entire episcopate guiding to the battles of
the holy war the generous sons of the Crusaders.

Conversion.

Tlie Sociei^y of Jesus was proscribed ; it had to
hide itself and play dead to humor the timidity of
the powers that were ; but it had just affirmed its
existence as it never had before since the begin-
ning of the century, in the eloquent plea of Father
de Ravignan entitled "De I'Existenceet de I'lnsti-
tut des Jesuitcs." The liberty which Father do Ha-
yiguan claimed in the name of common law, Father
Lacordairo had taken shortly before. He had
mounted the pulpit of Notre Dame clothed in the
white robe of the Dominicans, and none had dared
ask him by what right he wore the habit of his
order.

All France had its eyes fixed upon those two
illustrious religious, who, in the full zenith of the
most exalted fame, were rivals only in eloquence,
apostolic zeal, and fraternal charity. After the
appearance of Father de Ravignan's beautiful book.
Father Lacordaire, at a solemn sitting of the Cerch
Catlioliqnef presided over by the Archbishop of
Paris, cried out : " If we were in England I should
propose three cheers for Father de Ravignan."
These words were followed by unanimous applause
three times repeated.*

Can it be supposed that Clerc, who returned to
France with the intention of professing Christian-
ity, remained unmoved by those grand spectacles ?
Should I be told so I would not believe it, so con-
trary would such indifference be to what I know

♦"Life cf Father de Ravignan," by Father do Ponlevoy,
vol. i. p. 889.

Alexis Clcrc.

of his character. Novcrtheless, whatever were his
Bcntiments, ho did not then take the decisive step.
Even worse: finding himself again in the midst
of the same temptations to which he had yielded so
many times before, he experienced the same weak-
ness as in the past, and felt further than ever dis-
tant from the goal towards which tended, not-
withstanding, all the convictions of his Christian-
ized reason.

I find the avowal of this in some manuscript
notes that bear the date of a long retreat made at
Saint-Acheul after his entrance in the Society of
Jesus.

Permit me to raise this veil. Let it bo well un-
derstood that it is with all the respect due to his
venerated memory and to his glorious death, but
with the sincerity which he would have practised
himself if, a new Augustine, ho had left us the
book of his " Confessions." Ah ! well. Yes, I
believe the accusatory notes of his retreat at Saint-
Acheul, and I am not afraid to divulire here the
wanderings of his youth, which were to be trans-
formed into the triumph of infinite mercy. Like
so many other children of the world, in that in-
fected atmosphere of Paris he had early made ac-
quaintance with evil, and he had no horror of it.
The educational houses which he entered, endowed
with a dangerous precocity, were poor protectors
of his innocence, and he lent a willing ear to the
voice of his passions. Once — probably to exempt
himself from all religious practices — he had the
sad courage to call himself a Protestant ; and if he

Conversion.

then imposed upon himself some sort of restraint, it
was not virtue, for in reference to it he names him-
self a luliitcd sepulchre. But dissimulation was
loo repugnant to his nature ; he soon threw off
the bridle and would not appear other than he
was. The Polytechnic School, Brest, the Marque-
sas Islands, Valparaiso, and finally Paris whither
ho returned after having received the first impres-
sions of grace — each of these names excites his
remorse by bringing to his memory tha excesses
and the scandals of his youth.

St. Augustine, who knew something of such
matters, eloquently describes to us that state of
struggle wherein, the reason being convinced and
three-quarters submissive, the heart still hesitates
and has not the courage to break the bonds which
hold it captive under the yoke of the senses.* His
evil and frivolous inclinations emulated one an-
other in pulling him by the garment of his flesh
and murmuring in his ear: "What! thou wilt
quit us ? Then all is over, and the separation will
be eternal. Then the time has come when thou
shalt never again enjoy thy liberty."

This was the state of Alexis* soul on his return
to Paris after his cruise in the Southern seas, and
this was the reason why he, who already believed
and desired to practise, could be present at those
grand manifestations of Catholic faith which
aroused the heaviest sleepers, and take no part in
them save by his regrets joined to the sentiment of

♦ " Confessions," b. viii. e. xi,

A /ex IS a ere.

his nnwortliiness. So true it is that strength of
character is not everything, and that souls of the
most tempered metal succumb just where the little
and the weak gain the victory with the grace of
God.

During the month of May wo find Alexis again
at Toulon, in active service and getting ready for a
new voyage. His correspondence, interrupted by
his stay in Paris, reopens and gives ns light re-
garding his interior at a period that v/as very near
his conversion.

" My dear father," he writes on Sunday, the
30th of May, " I sail to-morrow, Monday, on board
the steam corvette Caiman for the station of Sene-
gal. I received my orders only AVednssduy. The
preparations for so sudden a departure, and, still
more, the certainty that I could receive no reply to
my letter, have caused me to put off writing until
to-day. I would have been very glad to have heard
from Paris, especially about the subject of the last
letter I sent you ; and as T hoped from day to day to
receive your reply, I have delayed until the last day
the last words Tvhich I cttn write to you in France.
This expedition, which I did not in the least ex-
pect, has been avoided as far as possible by every-
body ; hence, as a matter of course, it falls to my
lot. I regret that I am not to embark at least in
a ship. But the worst of all is that I am again to
go a long distance, and be absent, perhaps, a long
time. I count on a cruise of at least a year's dura-
tion ; but it is impossible to foresee anything now.
Notwithstanding all the inconveniences of this

Conversion.

voyage, I believe I have rebigned myself to it pliilo-
Bophically enougli. I am fully convinced that no-
body jiossessos sufficient sagacity to look into the
future and so far aliead. Meanwhile, I can only
say that I am hopeful. I expect quiet and iicuco
on shipboard, and that is all. That being secured, I
shall have, I hope, something to fill the time during
the cruise."

He carried books with him as usual, but his li-
brary was now renewed, and religious works filled
a large place in it. He knew not whither God was
leading him ; by an instinctive presentiment he
tried to hide away from the lash that was soon to
cut hiin to the quick.

Another letter, commenced at sea June 22, and
finished the 27tli outside the bar of Scnesral :

*' We have, my dear father, this morning, June
22, passed the Canary Ishmds without touching at
them, and to-morrow we shall have the sun in the
north. Madame Pages will probably before you
receive this have communicated to you the con-
tents of a letter I sent from Cadiz, so I need
only give you my news since that date. You al-
ready know from Madame Pages' letter that before
going to Cadiz wc landed the consul of Mogadore
at Tangier. Wc were to return for him after he
should have conferred with the consul-general of
France, and take him to his destination. We left
Cadiz on the 13th, but we met at the entrance of
the straits an extremely violent easterly wind, and
the commander judged it prudent to return to
Cadiz. That same evening v/o were anchored op-

A /ex is Chrc.

posito the city. The next day, Sunday, the 14th,
I was on watch, and had just succeeded in consol-
ing myself for being denied the pleasure of going
ashoro. There was something on shore worth
going to see: there was a bull-fight in Cadiz.
But, behold ! the commander advises me to go,
and offers to take my place on the watch. I, not
proud at all, accept. Therefore, behold again, I
am at the show ! It is decidedly a realization of
the absurd, the impossible. Where were ever seen,
even in fairy tales, commanders keeping guard for
their officers so as to let them go to bull-fights ?
It is an absurdity and an impossibility I "

He was a witness, then, of that bloody spectacle,
that butchery, the preparations for which inspired
him with only an insurmountable disgust. But
soon he was astonished to find himself captivated
by curiosity, by dramatic emotion, and finally
seized upon by the species of frenzy that carried
away the entire assemblage.

** At sight of the first two horses horribly man-
gled, I was bathed with perspiration and my heart
swelled in my breast ; I would much rather have
been at my post on the vessel. Yet, notwithstand-
ing, I remained until eight o'clock in the evening. I
saw eight bulls killed, ten horses disembowelled, and
two picadors carried away half dead. If the com-
bat had lasted twenty-four hours, I believe I would
have stayed without food or drink. Finally — can
you credit it ? — at only the second bull I applauded
the dexterous onsets both of the beast and of the
men, I hooted at the awkward ones, and I called

Conversion,

for the dogs Tvlien llie bull seemed to me too quiet.
I said to myself : * The horses are but worthless
jades, which are brought to the circus to save t!»o
trouble of taking them to the slaughter-pens ; as
to the picadors, they arc of about as much value as
their steeds.* How well I understand now the
prowess of the gladiators I How glorious it must
have been to transport a whole people with admi-
ration for one's skill, strength, and courage ! What
an intoxication of joy must have been such a vic-
tory and such applause in the full light of day !
There was an unlucky matadore ; in his place I
would have let the bull kill me, or I would have
killed him with a single blow.

" Ah ! how much cruelty and folly are hidden
and dormant in our hearts. Could I ever have
believed that I would have felt and thoLi^htas I
did at a bull-fight ? Imagine, then, that you know
yourself only until some similar test proves to you
quite the contrary !

" Yet, in spite of the disagreeable revelation, I
would return directly to see bulls killed, horses
torn to pieces, and picadors bruised and crushed,
or I would give a good deal not to have had a first
glimpse of such spectacles."

At Tangier Clerc spent an evening with the
French consul, who had invited for the occasion
all his European colleagues. Our young officer
danced, waltzed, and abandoned himself to a frank
gayety, while at the same time carefully observing
from the corner of his eye the cosmopolitan socie'y,
and making aside to himself piquant reflections on

Alexis Clerc,

the harmony that existed among the representa-
tives of the diHerent nations, thanks to the neces-
sity of agreeing together if they did not want to
live like oiuls.

Here U a shaft which he cannot refrain from
lancing as he leaves Tangier : " We have shown
this most amiable Emperor of Morocco the civility
of transporting to Mogadore half a dozen little
negroes, slaves and eunuchs destined for his
harem, and we are going to Senegal to put down
the slave-trade ! But, according to report, it is
forbidden to capture, or even to see, a slave-ship.
The result will enable me to affirm or deny the
truth of this singular mission. I think that Mr.
Billault's hubbub about his right of search is the
cause of the presence of twenty-six Government
vessels at this frightful station. If they occasion-
ally sent all such spouters on a little hard service,
I believe it would have a good effect. However, we
must wait to see before we can be quite sure."

He did well not to decide about the matter pre-
maturely. Some days later than the date of his
writing, the Caiman^ having encountered a slave-
ship, performed its duty conscientiously. As to
his bad humor about Mr. Billault and the negro-
loving orators, obstinate as they were regarding the
right of search which they talked about quite at
their ease, it was very general among seamen, and
other persons who thought they knew, to suspect
English philanthropy of not being disinterested in
claiming a right that was extremely onerous to the
authorities of the French navy.

Conversion.

On llic Toyago lie sketches the portraits of the
sliip's officers, whom generally he seems to like.
The commander, Captain Rousse, is a Provencal
already on the down-hill hide of life and regretting
a little the fig-trees and the olive-groves of his
country-seat, but good, indulgent towards his in-
feriors, and Yciy kindly disposed towards Ensign
Clerc, to whom he teaches his profession. " Yes-
terday evening he held a long conversation with me
and pointed out the best and worthiest means of pre-
ferment — that is to gay, gave me a summary of all
that it is useful to know, indicated the methods of
studying and of profitably employing the know-
ledge gained. This showed experience and kind-
heartedness. Thus you see, my dear father, I
have fallen into good hands. It is true he makes
profession of a very prosaic positivism ; but " (Clerc
adds wisely) " as he w^as led to this by the excesses
of contrary sentiments, and as he is now a very
good man, I congratulate myself upon having him
for a master. The second in rank is Mr. Esman-
gard, the lieutenant, a man pleasing in his person
and disposition. From the very first we im-
pressed one another favorably, and if the devil
does not interfere 1 shall one day have a friend in
him."

And true enough, they became friends. If I am
correctly informed, this young officer proclaimed
himself as belonging to the school of Fourier,
which then counted many members, as was evi-
dent in 1848. Clerc's conversion, which Esman-
gard was a witness of, left their affection the

,:?

Alexis CI ere.

same witlionfc bringing them nearer to one another
in their religious belicfa.

Meanwliilc Alexis did not lose his time ; he re-
flected, he studied, sometimes mathematics, some-
times political economy, and oftener still religion ;
it was plain that the last was in reality his chief
business.

One day he wrote to his brother Jules these singu-
lar lines ; the embarrassment visible in them betrays
the thought which possessed him and ruled him
in spite of himself : " I have been twisting my pen
in my fingers a quarter of an hour without daring
to write a word. In fact, it's a great bore to talk
always about one's self. I declare that if you do
not send me back change (and with interest, too)
for my gold piece, it's finished — I will write to you
no more. This condition laid down, I now con-
tinue. The little time that is left from play,
sleep, or work, I read J. B. Say and the *His-
toire des Variations.' They form a striking
enough contrast ; the one is occupied with only
material goods, and never imagines that there are
any others, and the other pays not the slightest at-
tention to aught that is not spiritual. But there
arc books that one must be acquainted with ; the
only way to do is to pick out what is good in them
and leave the rest. Then, besides, our profession
obliges us to learn from books what you civilians
learn in spite of yourselves. We must know what
views to hold on the questions of customs, com-
merce, manufactures, colonization, commercial
treaties. AVe may have to meddle in such matters,

Conversion,

and then it would be too late to begin to study
tbem \\\} ; bence the mixture in wbicb I have been
stirring recently. It is now past midnight, and
past my watch also. Good-night. I am going to
take Bossuet ; be has the privilege of keeping me
company until I fall asleep."

Again taking bis pen, he adds : "I make all
sorts of efforts to become wiser and more reli-
gions; but it is difficult, and my stay in Paris
helped to increase the obstacles. I hope that you
are on the same road, and I do not doubt that you
travel it more rapidly than I. I recommend to
you Bossuet's 'Meditations' and 'Elevations';
they are two excellent books."

The two brothers had derived from the
same sources the germ of religious indifference.
But grace acted on their hearts simultaneously,
and the hour approached when the joy felt by each
on returning to God would bo doubled by the re-
turn and the complete reconciliation of a well-
beloved brother.

Shortly before arriving at Gabon Alexis wrote
again to his father ; we must read between the
lines of this letter to guess what was passing in his
soul.

" Mr Dear Father : TVe met this morning a
poor devil of a slave-trader. We were sailing
quietly towards Gabon. We kindled the fires, and
an hour later the vessel received one of our boats. *

'■v:f|

* The slaver was, therefore, captured, and the commander
of the Caiman fulfilled his duty by preventing the transpor-
tation of the poor victims of the traffic.

Alexis CI ere.

The prize is about starting off again, and I shall
confide this letter to it.

"You know very well, dear father, that it is
only in romances that sailors lead an adventurous
life. In reality, nothing is so uniform, so regular;
it is almost a monastic life, and truly I have abso-
lutely nothing to tell you, for there has nothing
happened but the weather. But one may talk
without saying anything. "Well, then, I am in
very good health ; I am not tired, and I no longer
feel that terrible need of Paris which tormented
me so much hardly a year ago. This does not pre-
vent me from desiring and regretting it, but it is
not a suffering.

"I am always as comfortable as possible on this
ship, yet, nevertheless, I want to leave it to go with
Esmangard on a sailing vessel.

"The departure of the officer who commands
our capture of this morning leaves me, after the
lieutenant, the oldest officer on board, so that the
next capture could, if I wished, put me off and
consequently bring me back to France. What do
you think of it ? But wo should not sell the bear's
skin. . . .

"I hope to find letters at Gabon, where we shall
be in a few days. As yet I have received none. In
Paris they know not the good letters do a poor
exile. You — you are not separated !

" Do you not think there was a sort of fatality in
my embracing this mode of life ? I am not com-
plaining of it, I am almost as happy as possible ;
but it seems to me that there was something for-

Convcrsio7i.

las
the
the
md
do
ir's

eign to my will which urged me five years ago to
decide for the sea. Five years ! I have had to
count it over several times. Yes, it is five years
since I left you ; five years I I am twenty-seven
now. How quickly time passes even when one is
unhappy ! But past sorrow is a present joy ; it is
sweet to remember it.

" I am exerting all my efforts to become wise,
my dear father — that is to say, religious, for there
is no happiness outside of religion. I have great
need of counsel ; I am entirely deprived of it ; I
should find such excellent in France.

" I charge you, dear father, to embrace Jules
for me — Jules, that good and honest man ; tell
him, without wounding his modesty, that I do not
know where to find a heart as intelligent and as
devoted as his. . .

*' Farewell, dear father. I embrace you with all
my heart ; take care of yourself. If I only might
wish you a rest ! But you consider your work as
a duty. We understand you, but we would rather
htive you live for yourself a little towards the end.
Farewell, dear father ! "

At last he saw Gabon, that new sort of a pro-
mised land, an arid and mountainous coast
just on the equator. There, however, milk and
honey flowed for him ; there he tasted the joy of
feeling himself at peace with God and with his own
conscience, and when he quitted the African shore
to return to Fj'ancc he had commenced a new life.

Alexis Clcrc.

Wo have before us a letter to liis brother, dated
Wydah, January 25, 1847 : ** A missionary wlio
took passage on the Caiman at Goree tells us that
Wydah is a city of the powerful kingdom of
Dahomey. The king of this country is cele-
brated in Guinea for his palace with its walls
ornamented with human bones, and for his famous
noble-guard composed of women armed cajy-d-pie
and possessed of invincible courage." "'

In this letter, filled with warm expressions of af-
fection, there is manifest the joy of the prodigal son
restored to his father's favor. Alexis had just
learned through friends who had written to him
from Paris that his brother, touched like himself
by grace, now fulfilled all the duties of a fervent
Christian. lie offers him the hearty congratu-
lations of a man who knows the value of a sincere
conversion and is on the way to an experience of
it : " How far this kingdom is from that of the
world ! how it superabounds in goodness ! how
firm are its foundations ! It has not been given
me to witness your happiness, to associate myself
with it ; this joy is perhaps reserved for us; we will
both pray for it."

Then, thinking of the innocence of his early
childhood, guarded by a good and pious mother, it
no longer appears to him as a reproach, but rathei?
as a motive for hojiing a great deal. What could

* Latter of Father Briot, missionai-y apostolic of the Con-
gregation of i he Holy Heart of Mary, to Father Libermann,
superior of the same congregation ("Annals of the Propaga-
tion of the Faith," vol. xx. p. 334).

Conversion.

there be more toue]iin-r (-.„„ „ .
"t 'he moment when ^e IZ "' "^ "^ '>'« ''^•'''•t
fff'in toUiih and vir ue < V""'"^ l>ein.? born
'e Joi» a poor, bolv 1 ' , """'' "^°"' seek

certainly with all l^er mHit " """' "' ■""='

All his views of lifo ^ i
^y 'he sight of tl,e eternUvT^ f ?'' cmbeHi^bcd
""d ho does not tiro o7 ,? ^- '''"''" '"= "^P^ws.

"H°>v happy I ;,„f," ' J' ;° ^° K'-«at a happiness!
""^self with you onlL ^'"'™'"'^'''°fin'J
change there w^l beTn n '" ' ■*^''"" » ''»PPy
""fortunate ha 1 eu ZT^f^'^'^^" How'
wucl, wore unfortunate o ,r""^"''"°' ""'^ ^^"^

W.at a clemency it LL?,,'"^'°"f ^^"m a">iable I
pWJe and corrupUo "1, '" '""« ^'"''"•ed this
in all (his ! >' ^ ' ""'" ''«^^7 is my account

Tlie Christian Tirhmc -...i • .
'•" tho same timr taken""' ''''<=™' '"'-^' «"
'■"■«ih-ty, mistru 'of i\ T'"'-:'? '' '"'^ ^0"> =
""tlmrity of the ChurcT ' ' '"''''^ w^'ectfor the
'-■«. «»<J a salutayS; rr"^'''' % her minis-

''"fi"g teomuchtohL:'/^ "'"' "'""«"''

He wntes on tiie 1st of T?,"
■•^gret not being i„ pj ° ^f ™^'y ; " I very much

of advice. My life_/tV „ ''"? ""= «'•«■''* ' need
l-'o^forth to'fo.,:w' ;";';^:5""' ^e-o-ought
tfacod out the route Vnn ■"' ^ ''^^e not yet
-d onh-ghtened ::„ won dlTl"" "'"' "^ ^'°-
"s a Christian, of thoiZhJ, > !' "' " '"'"^ ''"■J
' ^-^"^ highest advantage. Solitude

i"'y

. i

Alexis Clerc,

may be profitable, but it may also be dangerous,
and with my Latin Bible — which I perhaps misun-
(lorstand oftener tlian I am aware of — for my only
conversation, I am exposed to many perils. I
have continual fears and doubts, and, to say noth-
ing of the thousand doctrinal errors into which I
may fall daily without knowing it, I dare not im-
pose upon myself certain obligations which might
be useless or hurtful, and I am afraid not to im-
pose them.

**St. Paul says wo must be contented with the
measure of grace granted to each one of us. I
never know whether through a guilty ambition I
desire to go beyond that, or whether through sloth
I remain behind it.

'* It may be that in a position so different from
mine you will not understand these anxieties, and
if so I congratulate you. I cannot help imagining
that you enjoy the peace promised to men of good
will. Still, I think this is not Avithout some p.4ss-
ing troubles. But I am happy when my thoughts
rest upon you ; it seems to me then that it is a re-
flection of your happiness which reaches me."

The change was complete and without relapse.
How was it brought about ? We were ignorant
until quite recently, when we met a worthy witness
of this great and consoling conversion. A spiritual
son of the Rev. Father Libermann, a missionary of
the Congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary, re-
turned from Gabon, it appears as if expressly, to
impart to us what we so greatly desired to know ;
having now gone back to his dear mission, he con-

Conversion.

hsc.
[ant
less
tual
of
re-
I, to
)w;
ton-

tinucs to evangelize the poor negroes of the African
coast.

"0 unhappy Guinea!" cried the venerated
Father Libermanu, " it scorns to me that you arc
filling up my heart. The misfortunes of those
poor souls oppress and overwhelm me." In the
month of September, 1843, he had sent to Guinea
seven missionaries, who landed at Cape Pal mas on
the 29th of the following Kovembcr. Three of
this number were soon carried off by fever or apo-
plexy, and the rest were dispersed by the fury of
the negroes. It was to fill up those vacancies, or
rather to commence anew so difficult an enterprise,
that the Fathers Briot de la Mallerio and Leberro
went on board the Caiman in the bay of Goree.
Father Leberro, who alone has survived, and whom
I saw during his stay in Paris, remembers very
well Commander Rousse and his lieutenant, Mr.
Esmangard, the intimate friend of Eusign Clerc.
Esmangard was a Fouricrite, and the other officers
made profession of indifference or else of incre-
dulity. After being some days at sea they began
to argue with the missionaries. One of these, Fa-
ther Briot de la Mallerie, had been in the navy,
and this, added to his strong character, gave him
some chance of being listened to. None lent a
more attentive and more sympathetic ear to his
discourse than the ensign, Alexis Clerc, who was
always ready to respect convictions. One day,
having himself engaged in the discussion, he sud-
denly braved his comrade Esmangard, and on the
deck of the vessel, in presence of the entire staff

A lev is CliTc,

of officers and all the passengers, he made Tvitli a
certain solemnity the following declaration : " Af-
ter all, gentlemen, the principles which a Christian
mother has instilled in the heart of her child are
the ones which remain most deeply engraven there,
and are also the ones which arc the best."

"From that moment," continned the Rev. Fa-
ther Laberre, "he seemed to enter on the true
road of conversion. lie asked Father Briot for a
catechism, doubtless to refresh his memory on the
principal truths of our holy religion, and to pre-
pare himself to practise it. At the establishment
of St. Mary in Gabon he made a general confession
and received Holy Communion. Another officer
belonging to the Caiman followed his example."

Finally a last revelation reaches us unexpectedly,
and permits us to lay hold of Clcrc in the height
of the struggle, on the eve of his last combat, and
yet again while he was still quivering from the
agony he went through before gaining the groat
victory.

He had in the navy a Christian friend, Claude
Joubert, a simple ensign, with whom he was inti-
mate on the frigate Charter which brought them
both back to France after their first cruise in
the southern seas. Since then Joubert had left
the service, not to be idle, but with the thought of
receiving Holy Orders and of one day consecrating
himself to the labors of the apostolate. An apostle
he already was, and he urged his beloved com-
panion to no longer resist grace. For the rest, he
was one of those sure friends to whom one may

,'» I

Conversion^

anil
tlic

iiulc
inti-
hem
in

left
tof
ting
ostle
om-
it, he
may

confide everything. Ho died at twenty-nine years
of age, a deacon, bearing to the tomb the secret of
those intimate conversations which had caused liim
i(i see a ves^scl of election in that soul, still the
slave of llesh and blood, that he strove to conquer
to Jesus Christ. But he had preserved the letters
he received from Gabon and other places, and be-
hold ! after thirty years they fall into our hands ;
they are full of light — of a light that illuminates
the depth of the abyss whence our new convert
escapes with a joy mingled with fear and astonish-
ment.

Clerc wrote for the first time to his friend from
*'In sight of Gabon, December 8, 1840." After
some details that would be of no interest to the
reader, he says : " I come at last to thank you for
your kind letter. How opportunely it arrived !
hew affectionate it is, and how it touches the exact
spot where I feel my disease ! my dear friend !
write to me often, even when you do not receive a
reply. The great distance, you know, may be the
cause of this, and I am very sorry to think that
you have not written since the 30th of May, and
tliat you will not write again until you have re-
ceived this letter. Do not continue this plan, dear
friend; the utility of your letters makes it your
duty to send them to me frequently. Show me
your heart, your struggles, your success. You are
ahead of me in the good path ; you owe me ex-
ample and encouragement.

" I am on board the steam corvette Ca'lmmi at
the station on the western coast of Africa. I am

Alexis CUtc,

also as happy as possible. The vessel is in per-
fect peace. I am on tlio best terms with the
captain, and the lieutenant, who is named Esman-
gard, is my friend. The men are gently and justly
governed by the lieutenant ; he is an old friend of
Desmarets. lie has no faiih ; but I shall do so
much, he has such good qualities. . . . He will re-
ceive it. My dear Joubert, it is idleness that is my
enemy now. This tranquil happiness enervates
me. I am tormented, nevertheless I do not rest
in my idleness without remorse, but I do not find
strength to will to overcome it ; I am always in
this cruel dilenwia * of not daring to frame for
myself a rule of conduct, for fear that it might be
extravagant, or that I would follow it only through
pride, and of wishing to frame one so that my ef-
forts to be good may be rewarded. I need assis-
tance; I am abandoned, am without direction. I
beg of you make me a rule ; I promise you I will
follow it exactly. . . . You pity such weakness,
but it is my state, Human respect also restrains
me. If I were sure of persevering I would not
mind it ; but I am so weak that I fear a thousand
falls, and my ostensible efforts would then appear ri-
diculous. Moreover, nowadays people pretend to be
pious through ambition, and I would die of shame
if a fault, alas I only too probable, should justify
the opinion that I had been looking out for an
epaulette among the missionaries. All this is
very trifling, is it not ? But it is just so with me.

♦We leave this word, although it is improperly used,—
Author.

Conversion,

You see I have need of you. I will pray, and per-
haps to-morrow I will have strength to go to the
missionaries. But send mc all the same a rule to
follow, one compatible with my profession. Jesus
Ciirist has promised to bo where two or three are

^fathered tosethor in his name.

But I— I

3d.-

seek him alone ; will ho come ? Perhaps I am
wandering in the paths of pride instead of advanc-
ing on the road of charity."

The first confidences of our young sailor stop
here ; they reveal all the hesitations of his will in
view of a duty that he regards as certain, and that
he would be happy to fulfil if he were more sure of
himself. lie continued in this state a long time ;
it might have been feared that grace, after having
vainly knocked at the door of his heart, would
grow weary and abandon him to a false and fatal
security. But no, it will not be thus ; God is
watching over that soul that is really generous but
sleeping, and he will not deprive himself of the
glory it will render him when once it is forever
attached to his service.

The entire month passes, and Clerc, returning
from Gabon, again writes to his friend :

" Jaituary 11, 1817.

" My dear Joubert : Just as I wrote the last
word of the preceding sheet I heard a boat being
got ready. . . . I do not know if I had any merit in it,
but without stopping to consult myself I made my
escape to the shore. I went to the priests and I
confessed on the 11th of December. I received
absolution almost moment for moment twenty-

Alfxis CI ere.

seven years after my birth, * and the same day we
sailed. Congratulate me; a difficulfcstep is taken,
and it was perhaps your letter which decided me.
1 have since made great efforts to live well, but
you know how hard it is and how much we need
help. Still, at sea one is removed from many dan-
gers ; the senses are in an almost unnatural drowsi-
ness. Truly man is like a stone on the top of a
mountain ; it is firm on its base, but if it is moved
little by little, and at last after great exertions
made to roll over once, it will continue to roll of
itself, slowly at firist ; perhaps it might then bo
possible to stop it ; but soon its course is impetu-
ous ; no obstacles can arrest it ; it passes over them
with prodigious bounds whicli augment its velocity
yet more ; it bruises, it drags after it all it en-
counters ; it precipitates itself as with an ever-in-
creasing fury even into the depths of the abyss.
Joubcrt ! let my lamentable experience serve
you as an example ; may it be one to me ! I feel
that I have not the strength meanwhile to resi
such a trial as my imagination pictures ; I pray
earnestly for help, and I endeavor to distract my
mind from those phantoms.

" A youth passed in all sorts of excesses is a very
great misfortune. You have no knowledge of those
phantoms which have so long pursued me ; I owe
it only to God's grace that I am less frequently bc-

* Cl'^rc thought ho was born on tho 11th of December, and
that is the day ho had inscribed in the Catalogue of the Pro-
vinco of Franco as the date of his birth. But we see from the
registry of his baptism, and from his record of service, that
he was born on the 12th.

CoftversioH,

7ery

[owe
be-

and
iFro-

litho
ItUat

set by them. When I cast my eyes behind mo I
am soon obliged to withdraw my gaze. What I
ask oftencst and most earnestly of God is to have a
horror of evil, to weep over my past ; I have not
yet obtained it.

''You see, my dear Joubert, how worthy of pity
my condition is. It seems to me that if it were
necessary to die for my salvation I would not hesi-
tate, yet I live with apprehension. What a crea-
ture man is ! It is easier, then, for him to sacrifice
his life than to deny his passions. Solitude is often
fatal, society almost always so. Would you be-
lieve that it is impossible for mo to spc ]d one day
without speaking ill of somebody ? I know how
strongly evil-speaking is forbidden, but it is so
common a topic that one must condemn one's self
to an absolute silence to avoid falling into it.

"I cannot understand charity. I do not know
how to love a man filled with faults ; it is
difCcnlt to detest the faults and to love the man
who delights in them. The remedy would bo to
judge nobody, but that is still more impracticable.
I search diligently, but I cannot find in myself any
possible solution of the problem. How can wo
avoid judging actions which strike us, sentiments
which people take pleasure in revealing to us ? I
know that I am myself full of faults, that I cherish
a multitude of guilty sentiments in which I de-
light, but this does not influer'^o my judgment of
others ; certainly if I had to condemn, it would ren-
der me indulgent, and I think I would never con-
demn.

" iuni'.

Alexis Clerc.

But not to judge and think : that is good or
that is lad, is beyond me — I cannot help it;
neither can I help thinking: that man is lad,
sensual, dishonest, etc. Oh ! if the yoke is easy
and the burden light, it is also very true that the
road is rough and narrow."

Finally, on the 20tli of January, before sealing
his letter, Clerc added these few words: *'I take
advantage of an unexpected opportunity of send-
ing you this letter, but it leaves a crowd of things
still unsaid. Since the lltli I have received letters
from France. God's hand is revealing itself to me,
dear Joubert. Mv brother has returned to the
bosom of the Church and has communicated. . . .
I have had a fit of the most intense aversion for
the sea. I am unsettled. If this continuance of
aversion is a sign from God to quit the profession, I
am ready ; but I do not vi ant to quit it as a coward
— that is to say, from human motives. Enlighten
me, and pray for me.

*' Adieu, dear and faithful friend ! Pray for an
unfortunate who is very often shaken by circum-
stances, and much tormented bv his own heart. I
embrace you. A. 0."

It was something admirable ; being once entered
on that narrow way which he had approached but
with fear and trembling, Clerc did not«igain fall
back, as he had so much dreaded, and as had
seemed inevitable to him when he considered only
his own weakness of which he had Imd, still quite
recently, a sad but final experience. The danger-
ous images of his past, the odious phantoms which

Conversion. o

cognised re;r:SorL"r?'''^t'' ^'"y "« '■«"
"Come to n>e ; von I JTf ^^"^'^'"^ ^»''^--

upon jou, and learn of If because I ,"^' "^^ ^"^^
luimble of heart ind vln i ^? , ""* °'«"='' "nd

souls. For^Ty^lcet .CunL "1° 'T' '° ^""^
(St. Mutt. xi. L-30) ^ ^ »>? barden light"

;■.)';

'p. I

CHAPTER III.

ALEXIS' PROGRESS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE— SERVICE ON
SHORE— L'ORIENT, INDRET, BREST.

Retuened to Franco in the summer of 1847,
Alexis is another man ; his old companions, "wit-
nesses of so unexpected a transformation, do not
in the least understand it and cannot believe their
eyes. Is it some strange eccentricity ? Is it a jest,
a wager ? Is he truly in his right senses, and how
long will it last ?

But he declares to them that it is a very serious
matter, and that, with the grace of God, he will
never change again. His neophyte's fervor recalls
the cry of Polyene to on coming forth from his
baptism :

" Aliens, mon clier Ndarque, allons aux yeux des hommes
Braver I'idolatrie et moutrer qui nous sommes. " *

Alas I in the Paris of the nineteenth century the
cry, I am a Christian ! still astonishes many pagan
ears and excites tlie rage of persecutors ; and
Clerc was one day to learn something of this.
Meanwhile he passed for a fool, or at least for a great
singularity, among people who had seen him as
much a stranger as themselves to all religious

* Let us go, my dear Nearchus, let us go in the sight of men
to defy idolatry and show who we are,

Service on Shore.

the
jan
md
ihis.
reat
as
lous

tlioiiglits. In his eyes the folly was in not believing
in Jesus Christ and in not walking in his foot-
steps; he explained himself on the subject with a
sharpness of expression well suited to disconcert
those to whom his new mode of life appeared un-
reasonable, and who came to sound his dispositions
with more of malicious curiosity than of interest
and sympathy.

On one occasion he was met by an old com-
panion, since become captain of a frigate and an
assistant professor at the Polytechnic School ; a man
of much spirit, but a sceptic and greatly puzzled
at such a change. ^' What is this report, my dear
Clerc, about your having turned Jesuit ? " Clerc
was not yet a Jesuit, but wo know what the word
means on the lips of those who are not even Chris-
tians. *' Yes, of course * I have, as every man of
heart and intelligence would if he were not an igno-
ramus." This was his answer, and " Clerc's tone,
gesture, and eyes were such that I saw there was
no chance for discussion ; I left him, promising
mvself never to return."

If he had always answered in this manner he
would not have eilected many conversions. For-
tunately, in time he acquired more control of
himself, not without effort, but with a merit as
much greater as this slightly rude frankness was
natural to his character.

He had a little circle of friends in Paris to whom
his conversion, so long waited for, was a subject of

* Of course is not in the original. — Author.

A /ex is Clerc.

fife'
I*;

much joy. The best of tlieso was his brother
Jules, who became at the same time as himself a
ferveut Catholic. Both brothers had from child-
hood been friends with a valiant writer who had
early consecrated his pen to tlie triumph of reli-
gion, and whose home was radiant with the loveli-
est virtues united in the person of a distinguished
wife whom God had brought to a knowledge of his
law by extraordinary ways. Mr. and Madame de

S (discretion forbids us to name them more

plainly) were friends in the fullest sense, and as they
followed the inspirations of faith in everything,
they celebrated in the holiest manner, by joining
him at the sacred banquet, the return of this pro-
digal son to his Father's house.

Mr. Jules Clerc had confided the care of his soul
to the Abbe de la Bouillerie, then Vicar-General
of Paris, and since successively Bishop of Car-
cassonne and Coadjutor of Bordeaux. But one of
the brothers could not have a friend or a guide
who was not also the friend and guide of the
other ; therefore, after a short stay in Paris which
sufficed to acquaint him with the valua of such a
friendship, Alexis testified for the Abbe de la
Bouillerie the same affection and filial confidence
as if he had always been his spiritual son.

He was not inclined to forget the faithful Jou-
bert, his first guide and his model in the generous
accomplishment of all the obligations of Chris-
tianity. What had become of that dear companion,
of whom he had not heard since his departure from
Gabon ? He did not know, but supposed he was

011-

ous
ris-
ion,
•om
Iwas

Service on Shore,

still with his family at Pont-de-Vaux* (Depart-
ment of Ain). It was there that he addressed a let-
ter to him on the 27th of August, 1847, heing him-
self at Lorient and still on the Caiman, for he had
spent but a very short time in Paris :

**A11 my efforts now tend to becoming Christian
and to loving God very much. I ought not to talk
to you of my efforts, because, in truth, I am very
inert, without either courage or perseverance. I
am like a ship disabled, but God, who has been so
good as to recall mc to himself, will make this poor
hulk drift towards the surest port. But I should
aid myself according to my means, and I do very
little. I must tell you what he has done for me
lately. You know me, dear friend, and you know
that I have a restless nature, active enough, not
profound at all, and tolerably inconstant. You
know also what this life on shipboard is — unoccu-
pied and trifling, leaving the whole day for idle
dreaming. I was very uneasy about being in such
a life, especially with the privation of a church
added to it. I believe that it is really dangerous.
During our last voyage I kept a sort of diary, wrote
almost every day all my disquietudes, all my fears,
and all my thoughts, so that I think I made a pretty
exact likeness of myself. My plan was to give the
manuscript to some priest, who might from read-
ing it be able immediately to advise and help me.
The life we sailors lead is so uncertain that it is

* Pont-de-Vaux was tha native place of General Jo^bcr^,
and our Claude Joubert was one of the nephews of that illus-
trious soldier.

'rr

Alexis Clerc.

prudent for us to get the start of opportunities.
But it was necessary to find a priest. My brother
sent me to see his director. I did not wait to con-
sider ; I gave him my papers, and tlie good God
Has permitted me to find liim one of the best and
most intelligent of men. He is the Abbe de la
Bouillerie, the first vicar of the Archbishop of
Paris. I did not know him at all, and I could not
have made a better choice. lie inspires me with
as much affection as respect. I only regret that,
busy as he is, I must increase his burden of cares ;
yet I take a kind of egotistical pleasure in being
allowed to.

"I do not feel in a mood to talk to you any
longer now. Consider this as a mere announce-
ment of my arrival. Inform mo of all that con-
cerns you, and rely upon my haste in answering
your letter. I am at present at Lorient on board
the Caiman.

" I need a great deal of help. I recommend
myself to your prayers. A. 0."

When this letter reached Joubert he had already
said good-by to the world, and was residing no
longer with his family, but at the Seminary of Issy
near Paris ; he had commenced at Issy the studies
which, continued the following year at the Semi-
nary of St. Sulpice, were to prepare him for the
reception of holy orders. We may judge of his
joy at seeing Clerc so well started on the right road.
Clerc had begun his letter by saying : " You con-
tributed to my conversion. I shall never forget
you." To inform his beloved comrade of the sue-

Service on Shore.

les
li-
Ihe
lis
Id.
In-
let
c-

cessful issue of liis vocation, to talk to liim of the
happiness of retreat, of the spiritual delights of the
seminary life, of his venerated directors, of his new
studies, which nourished his soul while enlighten-
ing his mind, and were in this so different from the
proud science of the world ; then to make it a duty
to find for him at Lorient a new guide, if possible
another Abbe de la Bouillerie — such was the first
inspiration of Claude Joubert, and he succeeded in
it all beyond his hopes. We would here say a
word in praise of this holy young man, of whom
the Seminary of St. Sulpice had but a glimpse ;
his memory has not entirely disappeared from there,
and one of the present directors,* who was his fel-
low-seminarian, tells us that if he had lived he
would certainly have made a zealous priest. Hum-
ble, modest, reserved, perfectly faithful to the
rules, he spoke little of his past, and it was scarcely
known in the circle of his intimate companions
that he had had the experience of a cruise in the
Southern seas.

In the beginning of September, Clerc, at last
off the Ca'imaji, was attached to the Superintend-
ence of the port of Lorient. It was his first station
on the coast of Brittany. During the three years
following he had no fixed residence, his duties
calling him by turns to Brest, to Saint Nazaire, to
Paimbceuf, and to Indret, not to speak of several
short voyages on the CajfarelU, the Caravane, and
the Duguesclin. The reader would take little in-

+ The Abb6 Sire.

m.\

;.(![

''Ill

Alexis Clcrc.

■^ !

teresfc in accompanying the young officer in these
diflerent wanderings. The special service in which
he was employed on the steamer Pelican is of a
little more consequence, and we shall have a word
to say ahout it at the proper time. The great ad-
vantage which he found in these various situations
was having time to recollect himself, and to de-
vote himself, undistracted hy worldly matters, to
prayer, study, and good wcks.

A letter, dated Lorient, Scptemhcr 17, 1847, and
addressed to his brother Jules, puts before our
eyes, so to speak, the first effort of his zeal, and
shows us a discernment not at all to be expected
from so inexperienced a missionary, It relates to a
friend — we will call him Alphonse — whom his bro-
ther and Mr. do S , together with himself, were

laboring to bring back to the right path, and to
whom they had recommended Pascal's ** Pensees"
and La Bruy^re's chapter on *' Les Esprits Ports."
Alexis disapproved the choice of this reading,
which he judged would produce but little effect,
and he endeavored to gain his two auxiliaries to
his view of the case.

**It is very true that Pascal's 'Pensues' which
first opened, the way to me, and the chajDter on
*Les Esprits Ports' which I read shortly after,
are books I regard as very good and very for-
cible, which I have no intention of attacking, and
which, on the contrary, I am ready to defei d. But
the ' Pensces' are difficult of comprehension, and,
it seems to me, would make no impression on a
mind that was not reflective. And I believe that.

Service on S/iore,

»»

cli
Ion

taking in a mass those of them which Alphonso
would read and undcrstantl, those lie would read
without iinderstandin-i, and those he would not
read at all, and regarding the impulse that now
animates him, the whole would form a very foggy
cloud, which would flee away behind him without
his so much as glancing at it once again. The
chapter on ' Lcs Esprits Forts,' — I agree that he
will be able to read it through without skipping ;
it is malicious and vivacious enough to interest him.
But, thank God ! Alphonse cannot be placed in La
Bruy ore's category oi strong minds.

"Alphonse is neither a strong mind nor a scep-
tic Alphonse — and you can tell him so from
me — belongs to none of the philosophical cate-
gories. His philosophy consists in having no
philosophy, because philosophy is a bore, and his
cliicf business is to be bored as little as possible.
Do not address yourself to his mind to convince
it; it is already convinced. The only thing is, he
docs not want to think of the matter, and he suc-
ceeds tolerably well. Supposing that you should
convince him, have you not seen him a hundred
times perfectly convinced, fully decided upon a
resolution which he has not even tried to put in
practice ? But tell him, and repeat it over and
over again, that if he is without force, strength,
there is a way to acquire it, that he must ask for it.
He knows where the good is, but he has not
strength to desire it. Tell him to ask for that
strong! h. It is not his mmd he must conquer ; it
is his passions. Be persistent in inducing him to

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

1.0

I.I

1.25

:^ 1^ 112.0

1.8

^ Illlli4

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»H,

Alexis Clerc,

make little sacriflces ; help him when ho docs well,
encourage him ; do not leave him long to himself.
Say nothing of what there may be, at the com-
mencement, sad in religion ; be as gay and as
agreeable as possible ; let him see that religion has
sweet joys, permitted pleasures ; and take special
care to pay him, as far as you can, with a reward
for every sacrifice you obtain from him. Finally,
let him feel that to become a Christian is not to
die. You will accomplish nothing with argumen-
tative blows ; you will do everything by attentions,
by persistence, and by making him feel the
sweetness of lawful pleasures. In conclusion, my
dear Jules, remind him of what I told him to en-
grave on his memory.

"I cannot conceal from you that I consider
your task a very heavy one ; but you have good
courage, and God will assist you.

" I say all this not to vex you, which I would
not for the world. If you are not convinced that
I am right about the matter, there is always for a
consulter that unfortunate Abbe de la Bouillerie
who made in us acquaintances very fatal to his
poaco and quiet."

Alexis' letter to his brother Jules terminates with
tbd following recommendation :

" I ought to have spoken to you of an old friend
of mine, an old pupil of the Polytechnic School and
a midshipman with me on board the Chartc^ who has
laid aside the cuirass and taken up the hair-cloth.
This worthy young fellow is at St. Sulpice, and I
knew nothing about it. I mucii regret not having

Service on Shore,

seen liim, and I commission you to make liis ac-
quaintance ; I think it will be an advantage to you.
His name is Claude Joubert. He will be at Issy,
at the seminary, until the lOtli of October, and
after that date at the Seminary St. Sulpice in Paris.
You will oblige me by delivering my letter to Jou-
bert yourself."

These are the contents of Alexis' letter to his old
comrade :

" I was severely punished for my delay in writ-
ing to you by being ignorant that I could see you
while I was in Paris. The occasions of our meet-
ing will perhaps be so rare that I deeply regret the
one I have let slip. It is sweet to me, it would
have been useful to mo to see you in peace and at
study. You have worked a good deal ; the numer-
ous quotations in your letter prove this. What a
charming work that must be which initiates us
into sucli grand sentimenls, into such grand ideas I
And are we not to be pitied for having so long
worn ourselves out with working at useless things ?
My dear Joubert, you have preceded me in the nar-
row way ; you have had the happiness of breaking
with the world ; j sure to always remember and
pity me. I am very often afraid of seeking to
serve two masters at once ; I wish I could be able
once and for ever to reject the tyrant and keep the
father. I wish the impossible, . . . the binding of
my will irrevocably to the good. Living in the
world, temptations may present themselves in so
many expected or unexpected ways that we need
still more help from God to save us from falling;

Alexis Clerc,

and yet in the activity of our life liow difficult it is
to find the recollection of prayer ! The danger is
especially great, it seems to me, because it is com-
posed of many very little dangers which wc do not
sufficiently dread, and our negligence in avoiding
them causes us to fall into a state of languor
wherein wc no longer feel the help of grace, and
arc no longer worthy of it. Conversation particu-
larly is a snare of this sort, especially to talka-
tive persons whose petty vanity enjoys intensely
the success of a well-said and well-placed word.
Those who love to hear themselves talk and who
arc willingly listened to, are very apt to talk non-
sense.

" I believe I told you how useful the letter I re-
ceived from you at Gabon was to me. Your last
also arrived very opportunely ; let this encourage
you not to be lazy about writing. I made haste to
find the Abbo Stevant ; I spent nearly two hours
with him, and the time was well employed. Please
thank the Abbe Pinault* for the excellent ac-
quaintance he has procured me. I know Father
Pinault by name through a little scientific dispute
which Bertrand \ had with him on the subject of
a chapter of his * Treatise on the Differential Cal-
culus.' I am very grateful to him for being in-
terested in my conversion, and for the service ho
has just rendered me, and I ask of him the per-

* Director at the Seminary of Issy. Ho was a distinguished
mathematician, formerly professor of the University and mas-
ter of the conferences at the Superior Normal School.

t Mr. Joseph Bertrand, now one of the perpetual secretaries
of the Academy of Sciences.

Service on Shore,

' 'I

rc-

last

ige

LUS

ase

ac-

al-

in-

er-

Ibed
las-

ries

mission, of which I shall avail myself when God
wills, to call to thank him in person.

"The Abbe Stovant appears to well deserve the
title of * holy priest ' which you give him. It is
touching to see these men of God blot out their
personality so completely that they never speak of
themselves directly or indirectly ; they belong en-
tirely to others ; one might say that their souls
could not go to be united to God, except they were
carried by those they have aided, encouraged, and
guided to a happy end. This is by way of telling
you that I was most cordially received. I was just
then in great perplexity, and, thanks to Abbe Sto-
vant, I am relieved of it. He seemed to me, on that
point which I found difficult, not less intelligent
and enlightened than kind and devoted.

"I got him to describe to me a day at Saint Sul-
pice. He is overflowing with pleasant memories
of that house, and regards the days he spent there
as the happiest of his life. You also tell me that
you have never tasted so much happiness. I
believe full well that what I know of it is indeed
happiness, but I must congratulate you on receiv-
ing strength to bear up under so prolonged a strain
on the mind. A single hour of rest during the
day would be insufficient amid such serious and
difficult studies, if you had not the advantage of
Ihiding in your frequent visits to the chapel re-
freshment and assistance to temper you again, as
Abbe Stovant expresses it. It is a great happiness
to pray from the fulness of one's heart, to be im-
patient at being prevented from praying, uot to

Alexis Clerc.

have to oblige one's self to pray by saying : *It is
the hour ; I must pray.' To know how to pray is
to pray with attraction, to pray with love. We
must love in order to pray, we must pray in order
to love — it is a veritable circle; it has neither be-
ginning nor end, and we cannot move around it
unless we have received a good initial impulse to
determine our motion, and unless we experience
the centripetal force that makes us describe it.
. . . My comparison is not a very happy one, but
it is very certain that we can neither love nor pray
unless God gives us the power. The whole tiling
is perhaps the history of the ten talents which in
the hands of the diligent steward increased a hun-
dred-fold. At first we receive grace to prny a lit-
tle, and if we make good use of our capital we
gain power to love a liutlo more, and consequently
to pray better, and so on. Oh ! to love God is the
great thing."

Clerc still feared at this time to bo overcome by
despair if he should have the misfortune of falling
again into his old faults ; he frankly acknowledges
this to his friend, while promising to remember
that in the most extreme cases there always remains
to the sinner a plank of salvation. Finally he
speaks of his studies ; he has undertaken to read
St, Thomas of Aquin. *' It is difl&cult for me, less
because it is written in Latin than on account of
its being full of the philosophy of Aristotle, of
which I am perfectly ignorant. But I shall succeed
in going through it, I hope.

•* To conclude," he adds, "I announce to you

Service on Shore,

lling
Qges

iibcr

lains

|y ^'^

lieacl

less
it of
le, of
Icecd

that I have engaged my brother Jules to call upon
you. I am sure you will be pleased with him ; it
is not possible to find a better creature ; he helps
everybody, loves everybody, and forgets only him-
self ; ho is a good Christian, of a rather fresh date
like myself, but he has nicely improved his time.
Ilis is a simple and upright heart ; I do not think
he is very philosophical, but he loves God and his
neighbor a great deal. As for me, I find that he
loves me a little too well.

*' I,shall soon be deprived of Abbu Stcvant, who
starts for Renncs Sunday morning.

"If you want to know about my position, my
brother will tell you. Adieu. A. C."

At Lorient Clerc found another comrade, Mr.

C , belonging also to the navy, but who at that

lime in his religious ideas was where our new con-
vert was when he left the Polytechnic School.

"He came to sec me," said Mr. C , when wo

asked for his reminiscences, "' to resume, or rather
to begin, our acquaintance. At the very first ho
told me of his conversion. The news was so unex-
pected that I did not believe it, taking it for some
pleasantry or jest, the point of which I could not
understand. At last, however, I was convinced
that he spoke seriously. From our professional
relations there soon sprang sympathy and friend-
ship, and we spent together till the close of 1847
several very agreeable months which I have always
liked to remember."

The reader will guess that he who speaks thus is
now a Christian. He attributes the happy change

c/,

Alexis Clcrc,

lo Iiis friend's inllucnco in a great degree. But his
conversion was only completed much later, and we
shall see with what ingenious zeal, with what pas-
sionate ardor, Clerc was still laboring for it, with-
out ever losing courage, several years after his en-
trance into the Society of Jesus.

Mr. C introduces us to the solitary and stu-
dious life in which Clerc found such pleasure at
Lorient, and which must have seemed very unna-
tural to those who were acquainted with his social
character and his old habits of dissipation. '* I had
rented," this faithful witness tells us, "in common
with another friend, a little house and garden ia
a suburb of Lorient. After the business of the day
was over we were accustomed to go there to spend
a few hours and breathe the fresh air. Clerc, being
added to our society, found the garden pleasant,
and, having no active service just then, he installed
himself in the little house. There he devoted all
his time to meditation and study. To our great
astonishment he read the " Summa " of St. Thomas
from morning till night ; but for all that he did
not show himself less gay or less amiable when we
went out to pass a few hours with him. I greatly
admired his virtue, his firm convictions, his aspi-
rations towards the good, and his contempt for the
things of thi^ world. Notwithstanding that, all
the efforts he made to win us over did not in the
least succeed, and despite our affection for him,
and the harmony of our intercourse, we considered
him a little cracivcd. The summer ended, winter
came, and we returned to the city; we continued

Service on Shore.

lomas
le tli<l
m we
Ireatly
aspi-
)!• the
|at, all
m the
l.im,
tdered
hvinter
Linucd

to spend our evenings together. Clerc was always
gay and cliarming, I fearlcis and earnest in dis-
cussing all that either nearly or remotely concern-
ed religion ; therefore wc had opportunities of re-
proaching his intolerance and refusing to take his
sernrions seriously. But his gayety and good nature
always prevented any bitter feeling among us."

What did these little railleries matter to Clerc ?
He would .^lave borne many more for the cause
which he loved ; and, besides, he knew how to re-
gard the dispositions of his friends. A glance at
his own past sufficed to teach him not to despair
of tliose who put themselves on the defensive, and
are even tolerably aggressive, as soon as they arc
spoken to about religion.

The reader has remarked this fact : Clerc already
studied the "8umma"of St. Thomas. With
what object ? Had he then, scarcely converted,
ideas of an ecclesiastical vocation? Oh! no; ho
did nov, look so far ahead, and he would have been
greatly surprised if any one had told him that he
would one day be sitting on the benches of a theo-
logical school. But this is what was in his mind :
Having become a Christian, and this seriously, he
deemed it quite natural, if not necessary, to give
the first place in the cultivation of his mind to the
most beautiful and the most important of all
sciences — the one which has for its object God and
the soul, our duties here below, the assistance God
gives us to fulfil them, and the reward he reserves
for our fidelity. But how should he learn that
fccience of which he felt himself so ignorant even

Alexis Clerc.

after the serious readings that had led the way to
liis conversion ? Preoccupied with this thought
one day — it was before lie left Paris — he met an
ecclesiastic in the street. lie immediately ap-
proached him, and, lifting his hat, said : "Par-
don, reverend sir"; allow me just one word in pass-
ing. Be good enough to tell mo the name of the
author who has written the best on religion." ** St.
Thomas Aquinas," was the reply. " And in which
work, if you please?" **In his 'Theological
Summa.'*' *' Thank you a thousand times." Clerc
again saluted the priest, and made all haste to
procure the "Summa" of St. Thomas.

At first he found it pretty difficult reading ; his
university philosophy had poorly prepared him to
understand that grand and profound, scholastic.
However, he did not allow himself to be discou-
raged, and little by little he familiarized himself
with a language and a method so novel to him.

This may seem strange, but it was his way, and
all who have ever lived with him will recognize
him by this characteristic. Moreover, we are giv-
ing here the personal recollections of a yenerable
priest who was his director the following year,
and who adds, speaking with a full knowledge of
his subject : " That diligent study of St. Thomas
was later of great use to him in the conversions ho
undertook, and in which it was my privilege to co-
operate."

It was no easy matter to induce his father to
accept this new direction of his ideas, and especially
these excursions into the domain of theology, a

Service on Shore.

and

nize
giv-

rable
ear,
e of
ma3
she
co-

ler to

jially

country which he esteemed to bo peopled ^vith chi-
meras, and knew only through the descriptions
given sometimes by the fine writers of the SicclCf in
which his confidence was extreme.

Mr. Clerc enquired if his son did not intend to
resume his plan, pursued before his voyage to Ga-
bon, of entering Public Instruction, or at least of
securing admittance to that career by taking the
degree of doctor of sciences. Called upon to ex-
plain himself, Alexis did so with his usual frank-
ness : ** You have asked me, dear father, if I puri)oso
carrying out the plan I started on two years ago of
having myself dubbed a doctor. I think no more
about it. You know that there remained for me,
in order to receive the degree, to propose and sus-
tain a thesis ; therefore I shall neither gain nor
lose anything by letting the project rest just where
it is as long as I desire, and I am not anxious to
pursue it. Many of the reasons that urged me no
longer exist. I no longer propose to leave the
navy, and I should do so regretfully if circum-
stances almost obliged me. Do you remember

when I was with Mr. de S ? * I tried all sorts

of trades, and found in each such difficulties that
I abandoned it directly ; it is just the same with
the one I have now, but the next would be the
same too. Decidedly, instead of changing a condi-
tion to find one to suit; his character better, it is
more reasonable in a man when ho is already fixed
to accommodate himself to circumstances. It is

*Not the intimate friend designated by the same initial.
This gentleman was the head of uii iu<ititutiou.

100

Aic.vis Cicrc.

the deceitful hope of a happiness that docs not
exist wliich is the source of so mucli useless agita-
tion. You will, perhaps, tliink me ridiculous
enough to consider as a fortunate discovery of mine
these good, plain truths, which are so simple as to
almost belong to common sense. Uowevcr, I did
not find them out all alone; they are among the
happy secrets I have learned the past year.

** Why should I not speak to you openly ?
Since a j'oar ago I am a devotee ; for the space of
a year I have made it my whole study to learn and
practise our religion. Having so much of my
time unoccupied by my duties as a sailor, I con-
sider that I am under obligations to instruct
myself in this most important matter ; and this,
my dear father, is why the x'b are left perfectly
tranquil, and why I live with huge worm-eaten
Latin books of the Middle Ages. I do not tell
you that this is very attractive ; no, it is even
sometimes very wearisome ; but all sciences are the
same — the elemen ts of them are tedious. Neverthe-
less I love this study, and it has already afforded
me more jileasurc than all the others I have pur-
sued."

Thus, ideas of faith, the sentiment of duty ful-
filled without pleasure or attraction, fixed him in
his career of a gaiior — a career to which we shall
see him growing more and more attached with an
austere and disinterested love, until the day when
he will feel himself imperiously called to a holier
vocation. Ruled by this sentiment of faith, he will
persevers iu the studies he has undertaken, not

Service on Shore.

lOI

y fui-

im in
shall
th an
when
holier
10 will
n, not

only while his service on shore assures him
abundant leisure, hut also during those remote ex-
pedition! when the cares of a commander would
have sufliccd him for occupation if he had not had
the matter so much at heart. In fact, the ** Sum-
ma " of St. Thomas of Aquin had become his night-
ly companion. Twenty years later it was worth
while hearing him talk of the Angelic Doctor.
With the understanding of his doctrine, attraction,
liking, had come, then enthusiasm; his admira-
tion was not cooled by being enlightened, and
nothing equalled his respect for the decisions of
that prince of theologians.

Meanwhile the reading of St. Thomas, engaging
as it had become for him, did not make him lose
his ground in other things; far from that, he took
more interest than before in his profession of a
sailor, and if he happened to meet among his fel-
lows or his superiors an officer of merit from whom
there was good reason to expect great usefulness in
the service of his country, he was so delighted that
he eould s«arcely eontain himself. lie had this
good fortane the following year (1848) on board
the Cajfardllj a ship which, notwithstanding its
favorable record, had to be put under repair on
account of certain faults of construction. Tlic
Caffarclliy a steam frigate, was subject to the
orders of Commander Mallet, a friend and rela-
tive of Madame Pag^s, and consequently well dis-
posed towards our ensign, who had from earliest
childhood been intimate with the Pages family.
But there was among the officers of the Cajfarelli

102

Alexis Clcrc.

another who gained Alexia* esteem and affection
at the very first. As this officer has since fully
corresponded to the promise he gave while as yet
only captain of a corvette, we will copy from a
confidential correspondence a few lines that refer
to him, judging that they will not be without in-
terest, or even profit, to men of the same profession
who may chance to read them :

" We have on board the Caffarelli a real gem.
He is the Captain (of a corvette) DIdelot, now
acting as lieutenant-commander ; * one of those
men of upright, keen, and strong character who
join to their intrinsic worth a gift of fascination
which nobody can resist. As soon as one knows
them one esteems and loves them. As the ship is
and will be managed by him, it is a real happiness
for us to ha 76 him. I will give you an example of
the way he understands the service. You know
that on a Government vessel each division of the
labor is under the special direction of an officer.
One has the artillery, another the rigging, a third
the helm ; the care of the hull and the'arrangement
of the supplies belong to another. My lot on the
Caffarelli is the engine. On many vessels things
are fixed so only in name, and in reality it is the
lieutenant com.mander who does all tho work.
On other vessels each officer attends to his charge
in obedience to the orders of the commander and
the lieutenant. It is so on onr ship. There
would be nothing unusual in this if the lieutenant

* Admiral Baron Didelot is now President of the Board of
Naval Works.

Service on Shore.

103

the
icer.

lent
the

the
rork.
[arge

and
Ihere

lant

Ird of

commander had not asked me for a plan of ap-
pointing the men for the engine, a plan for the
use of the engine itself, and a plan of a journal of
the engine. It is very clear that this does not bind
him to anything, and that he will do in these dif-
ferent respects whatever he pleases ; but it is also
clear that if he judges and decides questions, as is
his right and duty, he does it only after having
considered the suggestions he may receive from all
quarters. The officers will naturally bo led to take
interest in the general welfare, since they have been
consulted as to its direction. This is in my opin-
ion an intelligent method of acting wh^ch cannot
be in the least prejudicial to authority, and the
result of which will be the improvement of the
thing itself and the satisfaction of the officers."

It seems to us that this is not bad reasoning, and
that our ensign was being well prepared for a wise
and firm exercise of authority. Thus was being
formed in him the accomplished sailor, the skilful
officer understanding both men and his profession,
while he was at the same time growing daily into
the perfect Christian whose only ambition was to
live and die for Jesus Christ.

Let us look through his letters to his brother
Jules, letters in which he poured out his soul,
thus leaving us unconsciously a picture of his in-
terior and a history of his spiritual life ; in this
way we will assist at his progress in the practice of
Christian perfection, and may we profit by his gene-
rous example, as well as by the precious counsels
which the tenderest and most devoted fraternal

I Hi*

104

Alexis Clerc.

friendship inspired him to give when the oppor-
tunity offered.

Ilia brother had suffered some (I know not what)
wholly unexpected disappointment that had greatly
disturbed his soul. Alexis congratulates him on
this trial, which he regards as a mark of God's favor,
but he amicably blames him for not having had re-
course at the very first to the true physician and
the true remedy : " \Yhcn we find ourselves in your
case, and when all possible efforts have been made ;
when we fail by the result of circumstances quite
beyond our control ; when we have used to the ut-
most all human means, it is Almighty God who has
decided the matter. We must gracefully submit ;
there is even real cause to congratulate ourselves
that he has deigned to try us, for he exactly pro-
portions the crown of triumph to the difficulty of
the combat. The only thing to be regretted is
that you did not go immediately to the Abbe de la
Bouillerie, who would very soon have consoled you.
A man does not go to the doctor when he is well,
and it is especially when he is not at peace with
himself that he should seek the ministers of peace.
If we went to them only when we were perfectly
joyful we would never go. If we avoid the priests
in our soul-diseases, it is either because we are
ashamed to manifest them or we hope to cure our-
selves better alone. All these are snares which we
must guard against. I do not tell you this because
I regard your silence towards Abbe de la Bouillerie
as a very grave fault, I tell it only in a general way.
As is my custom, I seize by the hair all oppor-

Service on Shore,

105

tunitiea of preaching. I know well that you have
been pressed by a thousand different matters, and
that you have not had leisure to look well into
your heart. And tnen you are afraid of troubling
Abbe de la Bouillerie. . . . This last is not com-
mon sense, first because Abbe de la Bouillerie loves
you deeply and you do not annoy him, and second-
ly because if even you sliould annoy him he would
very quickly tell you that he is not at his post to be
amused, and that he would prefer that you should
visit him too often rather than not often enough.''

Beheld the idea he had already formed of the
sacred ministry and of the duties it imposes ! Let
us say it to the honor of the French clergy that it
is thus regarded by all good priests, and they are
not rare, thank God ! Clerc had experience of
this during the whole time he spent on the coast of
Brittany ; everywhere he met excellent priests, who
were at the same time the fathers of his soul and
his devoted friends, and it is owing to the kindness
of several of them whom we did not apply to in
vain, that we have been able to discover here and
there traces of our hero in spite of his frequent
changes of residence occasioned by the necessities
of the service.

About that time, probably in 1848, he made a
retreat at La Trappo do la Meilleraic, and it was
doubtless there that the possibility of a sacerdotal
vocation began for the first time to dawn upon him.
At least we infer this from his reflections upon the
choice of a state of life in a letter to his brother,
Avhose future was not yet entirely fixed.

io6

Alexis Clerc.

** My clear Jules, the choice of a career is one
of the most important things a man can be called
upon to do. Very few persons have it in their
power to exchange one for another. Yet it is
generally very seldom that a man is satisfied with
the one chosen at first ; I will say more, it is sel-
dom that he has reason to be. And if the career
you have embraced is not suitable for you, you are
vowed to unprofitable tribulations without allevia-
tion and without result. Let us put aside all that
arises from a fickle disposition or from exaggerated
desires of happiness. The cause of these bad selec-
tions is that we make them without God. Instead
of weighing the pecuniary advantages, the har-
monies with our taste and capacity, vain and fleet-
ing things I we should have no other object in view
save the supreme one, our eternal life. This life is
but the portal, the other is the temple. If, ridding
ourselves of all ambitious desires, of all desire of
fortune, of all self-pleasing, we regard our career
as the way by which we are to go to God, as the
means of pleasing him in this life, of lending our-
selves to the part he has imposed upon us, and
which we must perform with hearty good-will in
order to carry out the harmony of his eternal plans ;
and if, in our ignorance of what this part is, wo
beg him with confidence and submission to make
it known to us, ho will certainly do so. My good
Jules, you and I have acted differently, and many
others with us. Therefore our choice is certainly
bad, not perhaps because we both of us have an
employment other than the one God intended for

Service on Shore.

107

in
ms ;

[ako

mod

any

|inly

for

us, for it is in his providence to use even the de-
praved will of man for liis perfect ends, and it
belongs to him to draw good out of evil itself ; but
our choice is bad on account of the motives which
determined us to it."

After entering into certain considerations en-
tirely personal, he concludes by exhorting his bro-
ther to serve God at any cost, and to aek of him
the means of succeeding in doing this. " This is
all, and the rest is nothing. I do not need to tell
you that no matter with what energy we search for
happiness, we will not find it outside of God. His
purpose will always be accomplished, whether we
desire it or no ; all our wisdom, all our merit, con-
sists in conforming our will to his. If, after hav-
ing earnestly implored his light, this project grows
upon you more and more ; if, especially, the super-
natural motives that may urge you to it increase ; if
you feel that you will be obeying the Yoice of God, do
not hesitate a moment, and enter with confidence
upon your new career. If these precious motives
do not influence you, you will undertake a busi-
ness not bad perhaps, but indifferent. If, finally,
they are in opposition to your new ideas, and yet,
nevertheless, you execute these ideas, it will be a
great misfortune."

During a trip through Germany his brother had
a scruple about leaving unanswered the irreverent
remarks of Protestants against the Catholic reli-
gion. Taken literally, the old proverb. He lolio is
silent consents^ was the condemnation of his silence ;
nevertheless, something told him that he had not

io8

Alexis Clerc.

>^' !|:

erred iii avoiding fruitless cc ^troversies. Alexis,
who was of the same opinion, suggested to him
some yery wise reflections on the subject :

" In the first place, it is, as you think, quite use-
less to carry on arguments with Protestants. This
is one of the cases in which we ought not to fight
even for principles. I say fight; we ought not
to even discuss, Ii your Protestants want to argue,
listen to them only as far as politeness will not
permit you to do otherwise. If they viant to learn,
recommend them to read Bossuet's * Hlstoiro des
Variations.' In this way you will satisfy both
charity and prudence. But tell me, are not Ger-
man Protestants like oars ? — that is to say, if they
occupy themselves with religious matters at all, is
it not as pure deists, or, to speak more exactly, as
Socinians, and if they do not agitate dogmatic
questions, is it not because they are entirely indif-
ferent ? Do you know of any among them who
have really a religion — who pray ? . . . I would be
very much interested in hearing your judgment
formed from observation of tlie religious state of
the people of those unfortunate states.

'^It may be hard for you not to be always able
to reply to their objections and attacks. What this
costs your self-love I do not care to diminish, but
what there is in it that may wound your faith I
would like to dissipate. To begin, do you think
that the quickness of repartee which would enable
you to have the last word, is a quality of faith ?
Do you think that a most skilful man, a profound
theologian, can refute all objections on the spot ?

Service on Shore.

109

able
this
but
tb I
"link
lable
litb ?

)0t?

SL Thomas of Aqnin was once dining at the table
of St. Louis. Suddenly he cried out, * Tliat is con-
clusive acjainst the Maniclicans.* He had just
found an unanswerable argument, and he forgot
himself, like Archimedes. St. Louis, far from being
offended by this distraction and this odd outcry,
ordered his secretary to then and there take down
the precious argument. You see, then, that you
are very excusable in not being able to reply to
everything. Moreover, conversations are very bad
theological arenas. When we think of the rapidity
with which conversation glides from one subject to
another, how it is always unsystematic, superficial,
futile, we should not hesitate to proscribe from it
matters so complicated, so profound, and so neces-
sary as theological matters. Be, then, perfectly
easy on this subject."

Alexis was in continual fear lest his brother,
dragged into tlie vortex of business, as the phrase is,
would not have the necessary time for recollection,
for meditation and prayer, practices without which
he did not understand the Christian life. In the
advice he gives Jules we feel that he speaks in good
earnest from his own personal experience :

** I want to improve the opportunity of this let-
ter, which I assure you is growing much longer
than I intended, to seriously recommend you to use
every day the beads I gave you. If you have lost
them I engage to furnish you another pair. I have
a supply. The Beads is an excellent devotion
which was not invented by even the saints, but
which the Blessed Virgin herself revealed to one of

if'

Aii'xis Clerc.

her servants. It ia not only good for people who
cannot read ; it is very good, very profitable for the
most learned.

" Perhaps you have not time to say the beads all
at once. Very well, say them in several parts. If
you cannot say them entirely each day, say as much
as you can. Go to sleep in trying to finish when
you are behindhand. It is not at all displeasing to
the Blessed Virgin for us to go to sleep murmur-
ing her most sweet name, and she will not fail to
protect during the night him who has commended
himself to her with his last waking breath. Do not
be afraid of performing a mechanical devotion.
Do not say, * I am so tired that only my voice
prays ; my mind is already asleep.' In the first
place, if we pray only when we feel our heart en-
kindled we will not pray often ; in the second
place, it is by praying at first badly, mechanically,
with the voice only and half-asleep, that wc will
obtain the power to pray better."

He had this point so much at heart that, two
years later, at the moment of starting for China,
he again renewed his recommendations. How
earnest and pressing they are ! In&ta opijortuney
importu7ie, was his device.

" In Paris we may say that nobody lives reason-
ably, neither those who are rich, on account of
their manners and their luxury, nor those who are
not, on account of the superhuman efforts they
make to acquire riches. This particular character-
istic of Paris cannot have escaped you who have
travelled so extensively. Such excess is deplorable,

Service on Shore,

III

two
Uiina,
How

jason-
mt of
10 arc

they
[•acter-

bave
arable,

as I have tried to show in a letter I wrote father,
and of which ho approved, telling me that he
would endeavor to niuko you appreciate it. It does
not appear that I have gained much success ; but
to preach is my castom. However, reflect upon it
yourself, and we will see if you do not think dif-
ferently then. But I believe the trouble lies
more in the difficulty of resisting the general cur-
rent ; and, in fact, I, who in Paris have nothing to
do, am hardly able to struggle against it. On the
other hand, it is right and necessary to labor with
one's whole strength. Moreover, it is very difH-
cult to determine the time to give to leisure.
Finally, a man in business is not a Carthusian.
One should, nevertheless, guard against that im-
moderate agitation which passes for deliberate ac-
tivity, that tumult of ideas which is mistaken for
mental labor. Meanwhile, if, with the intention
of not allowing yourself to be carried away by that
species of excitement, you will observe a certain
little practice, I trust you will come out in the end
safe and sound.

" It is to consecrate a half-hour every morning
to meditation. Let it be your first act after rising ;
let nothing hinder you from it. By occupying
yourself with spiritual things during that space of
time you will not only render to God the homage
you owe him, but, in addition, you will receive all
the graces with which God rewards an action that
is pleasing to him. Advancement in piety is a
certain consequence of daily meditation. Do not
forget thdt all good counsel comes from God — all.

112

A/cvis Clcrc.

even what relates to tlio things oi' this world. It
is nuturiil that God should give it to the man who
consults him frequently and whoso ear is attentive
to his voice. Such is the fruit of meditation. If
)ou find this exercise somewhat dillicult, you must
not ho less persevering in it. The devil has nothing
so much at heart as the preventing us from medi-
tating, for nothing gives us more strength against
him. But there is a method for meditation which
greatly din-.nishcs its natural difficulties.

**It is to read the evening before, in a hook ex-
pressly for the purpose — and there are many of
them — the subject of the meditation, with the
principal points marked out. A quarter of an
hour should bo devoted every evening to taking
this prcvioucly-masticated food ; the night will
prepare it, and in the morning it can be digested
and relished without too much trouble. For tho
choice of a book and for the details of this method
consult your director."

Had he, then, already renounced the world, he
who wrote letters that reveal so much experience
of the interior life ? No, not yet; but, to tell tho
truth, ho was very near it ; he was of the num-
ber of those Christians who, conforming their
lives to the counsels of the apostle, know how
to use the world as if they used it not (I.
Cor. vii. 31). In his different stations on tho
coast of Brittany, at Lorient, Brest, Indret,
everywhere, he left this impression of a man dead
to the world, still wearing its liveries, but belong-
ing heart and soul to the valiant legion of the

Service on Shore.

113

he
lewce

the
mm-
their

how

the

Idret,
Idcad

long-
the

strongholds of iFmcl. His old companions, wlicn
they came to sec him, beheld with their own eyes,
and not without astonishment, or learned from
public report, this udmiruble change. One of
them arrived at Indret during the autumn of
1849, and requested to visit tiio manufactories.
As soon as he introduced himself as a former pupil
of the Polytechnic School every door was opened
to him. But this was not all he wanted ; ho de-
sired to sec LillU Clerc, and the hope of renewing
acquaintance with him was the chief attraction, if
not the real object, of his journey to Indret. Un-
fortunately, Clerc was for the moment engaged
with Commander Bourgois in studying on the
Loire a series of experiments relative to the differ-
ent forms of screw-propellers. The visitor was
much disappointed. To console him, an engineer
of naval constructions said to him : " Wait until
Sunday. He will certainly return for Communion.
Then you can see him as much as you want." To
his great regret, this dear comrade could not wait
for Clerc's return ; he left not a little edified by
what he had heard.

Another in Brest, frequenting the same chapel
and occupying a place very near Clerc during the
Holy Sacrifice, often remarked the fervor of his
devotion, which was especially manifest when he
came from the holy table. Back on his kneeling-
bcnch, he was lost in profound meditation, and hid
his face in his hands. If he raised his head for an
instant his cheeks were seen to be wet with tears.

There arrived in this same city a naval officer

114

Alexis Clerc.

whom Alexis when lio left Valparaiso bad request-
ed to furnish him for his return to Franco with
introductions to some Cliristian friends, members
of u Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. Know-
ing him to be attached to the port of Brest, this
officer made it his lirst business to enquire for his
old companion. IIo was told that he was absent,
and to this information was added the best of ac-
counts. ** Your friend is the most zealous of us
all, our model in everything, and the mainspring
of all our good works. If he were here, ah ! you
would already have met him escorted by a legion
of children of whom ho is the schoolmaster, or
rather the father, and to whom he distributes with
the food of the body that of the soul. Alwa3's
ready to do his utmost he allows himself but
little rest."

And in truth, according to the testimony of the
worthy ecclesiastics who were then acquainted
with all the secrets of his soul, he excelled in
equalizing his cliarity and mortification, two vir-
tues whose mutual agreement is generally profit-
able to both. The Abbe Guillet,* his pastor and
director during the whole of his sojourn at Indret,
informs us how ho apportioned his modest salaiy.
Each month he divided it into thrpe parts ; the
first was for his venerated father, the second for
the poor, and the third and smallest for his personal
maintenance. After this he still managed to save
some of his own portion for charity, and he im-

* The Abbd Guillet has recently died pastor of St. Nicholas
of Nantes.

Service on Shore.

115

the
ited

in
\ir-
ofit-
and
iret,
laiy.

the

for
onal
save

im-

kbolas

posed such privations upon himself that his supe-
rior olhccr, Commander Bourgois, fearing for his
health, had to interfere. His spirit of mortifica-
tion was so great, anotlicr member of the Breton
clergy * assures us, thiit during Lent he limited
himself to a plate of thick Trappist soup per day.

Anybody else in his place would have thought
that prudence commanded him to lay aside a few
crowns, and to amass a little sum against unex-
pected emergencies which might suddenly em-
barrass an officer in the discharge of his duties, or
even cut him short in his career. Cler"" did not
reason so ; his generosity would not bo shackled
by any calculation or any anticipation of the
future. "As to the money you are unwilling to
take," on one occasion he wrote to nis brother
who refused to draw from his purse, " remember
well that it is not mine, for you know that all, ab-
solutely all, that we do not need belongs to the
poor." All that he did not need, his superfluous
money, was all that was not rigorously necessary
for his maintenance, and God knows how little he
lived upon. He denied himself the most innocent
pleasures, even so far as to limit the replenishing
of his snuff-box, a subject about which he would
jest pleasantly, being always the first one to laugh
at his pennilessness, as ho called the excess of his
voluntary poverty.

"Now," he continued, speaking of chc money
he had vainly tried to induce his brother to ac-

* The Abbd Gudguenon, pastor of St. Martin of Morlaix.
It was in Brest that he was Clerc's spiritual director.

ii6

Aicxis Clerc.

cept, " since I have no immediate need of it, it is
superfluous ; if you, likewise, have no need of it, I
do not propose to keep it, but shall pay it to
others."

Thus, in his estimation, lie did not give, hojoaid,
to the poor, believing he fulfilled a duty of justice
in appropriating to them all he could spare. Need
we explain this matter to the reader ? The se-
verest morality does not go as far as this, and does
not claim, even for the poor, under the name of
superfluity, all we have left after we have gener-
ously provided for our own necessities. Clerc had
to rcclify his ideas of alms-giving when as a priest
it was his part to apply them to others ; still, wo
must confess that there is something beautiful in
deceiving one's self in his fasliion, and that such
self-deception is not dangerous for people of the
world, whose rigorism has no consequences save to
themselves.

We have thought that as Clerc had for a witness
of his life at that time a distinguished officer, a
capable judge of all kinds of merit, it was our
duty to seek information from so precious a source,
and this is what Admiral Bourgois, yielding to our
desires, sent us in reply : " These memories are
already far in the past. Nevertheless, I have not
forgotten that the young ensign showed at that
epoch (1849) a maturity of judgment and a con-
• scientious and prudent zeal which, joined to a
solid education and a most upright character, gave
promise of a very excellent naval officer. The de-
sire of being useful to his fellow-men by instruct-

Service on Shore,

117

Itness

ler, a
our

luTce,
our
are

e not
that
con-
to a
gave
lie dc-
truct-

ing ilicm and improving them morally was already
developed in hiiii. An elementary school compris-
ing the entire ship's crew had been established on
board the Pelican. Every evening when the ship's
sailing did not prevent, the tables were carried to
the middle-deck, and Ensign Clerc directed the
school with a patient and enlightened zeal. lie
himself gave more advanced lessons to those of the
men who aimed at becoming captains or mates in
the merchant marine service, or at promotion in
the military marine service. I have since met
several of them who profited by his instruction so
far as to make careers for themselves, and who ex-
pressed deep gratitude for the lessons which had
assisted them to do so."

These reminiscences of Admiral Bourgois agree
perfectly with his first impressions of Alexis Clerc
preserved in the notes which he sent to the Minister
of the Navy in July, 1849. Ilere is the opinion
he then had of his young and clever assistant :
**'An extremely zealous and enlightened officer.
A graduate of the Polytechnic School, he com-
bines with a wide theoretic knowledge sufficient
cxporience of a sailor's business and sufficient at-
tachment to its duties to make him in every re-
spect a remarkable officer."

As to the Abbe Guillct, who while parish priest
at Indret performed the duties of naval chaplain,
he congratulated himself on possessing in Alexis
not only an exemplary parishioner but also an
auxiliary rich in energy and resources, and whoso
greatest delight was to be employed in all sorts of

)!l

ij^fc.

Ii8

xl lexis Clerc,

• !

' !

% >

good works for the welfare of his neighbor and
the benefit of souls. Clerc already, in friendly dis-
cussions, exercised himself valiantly in wielding
the strong arms furnished him by his inexhaustible
arsenal, the " Summa Theologiae" of St. Thomas.
When his comrades brought forward objections
against religion, he would reply: **Is that all?
Truly, you are not well supplied ; I will offer you
many more." Ilereupon he would propose to them
St. Tiiomas' most serious objections to the points
attacked, and answer them as the great doctor did.
" You are right," would bs his friends' yerdict.
"If I am right you should follow my example.
You flatter yourselves that the Catholic religion is
afraid of your objections. All of them, those of
your most famous philosophers included, are only
scraps from St. Thomas, who answered them long
ago ! " If the persons whom he thus forced to
capitulate did not surrender unconditionally, the
blow was struck, and later on grace finished the
work of conversion, in which the Abbe Guillet had
the happiness of co-operating. "I had not yet
established a Conference of St. Vincent de Paul at
Indret," adds that good priest. ''One morning
Clerc came to me and said : ' I am not tranquil ; I
believe that my present position is not the one in
which God wants me. I am not worthy to be a
priest, but if the Pope should form a Catholic
army,* 1 would to-morrow carry him my epaulets
and say to him : Most Holy Father, I am your

♦Notice tho date, long anterior to the organization of the
Pontiflcal Zouaves.

Service on Shore,

119

Us-
ing
Lblo
las.
Lons

all?
you

licm

oints
dia.

diet.

nple.

ion is

)se of

f only
long

ed to
the
dthe
t liad
)t yet
lul at
irning
lil;!
me in
lo be a
Itbolic
laulets
your

o£ the

> j>

man.'" Abbo Guillet replied : "My dear friend,
I believe that you are exactly in your place; for if
it is necessary to have good priests and good re-
ligious, it is also necessary to have good Christians
in the world to edify it by their example and to
prove that in all conditions of life it is possible to
be truly Christian. Thus, in this parish you are
worth to me, you alone, a whole Conference of St.
Vincent de Paul ! "

These ideas of vocation, still very vague, assumed
consistence only little by little after several
years of service ; nevertheless, the young officer's
most intimate friends could not help perceiving his
repugnance to contract any irrevocable engage-
ment with the world, and one of his companions
who was ])ursued by the same thoughts and
touched by the same grace was even clear-sighted
enough to penetrate the projects which, as yet,
Clerc concealed from himself, and which were only
to be accomplished a long time afterwards.

While in Lorient Clerc frequented the house of
Commander Le Bobinncc, one of those old-fash-
ioned, honest Breton houses, redolent with the
perfume of all the patriarchal virtues. Mr. Le Bo-
binnec, then a ship's lieutenant and already father
of a family, had met Clerc in a naval commission
to which thcv both belon<2:ed. *'In our first inter-
view," he tells us, "I found in that young officer
such unusual distinction, joined to such great mo-
desty, that I felt drawn lo him on the spot. I saw
before me not only a fervent Christian but a thor-
oughly instructed Christian. I begged him not to

1,!

I20

Alexis Chrc.

forget that my mothcr-iu-hiw loved to receive till
the officers whom I presented to her, and that we
should esteem ourselves happy if he would kindly
give us all the leisure he had to dispose of. My
mother-in-law, a woman of great piety, appreciated
him, and included him in the number of those she
liked to call Iter children,

*' Our dear Clerc accepted this adoption with his
ordinary simplicity, and did not hesitate to fulfil
its duties with a naturalness that charmed us."

Mr. Le Bobinnec here adds: "I must refrain
from giving to the publicity of a biography many
details easier to understand than to express. Let it
suffice for me to say that whenever 1 pass through
the Rue de Sevres I enter the Jesuit Fathers'
church, and, kneeling on the marble that covers
his remains, I cannot help saying to the dear mar-
tyr : * Thou who didst watch over the cradle of my
children, do not forget them now.' "

Clcrc loved children so much ! lie seemed so
happy when lioLling them on his knees i Ilis
friends thought he would make a good father of
family, and interested themselves in preparing for
him a future suited to his tastes.

Some time later he was in Xautes knocking at
the door of one of the professors of the royal col-
lege. Letters from Lorient had announced his
visit. He found one of the most respectable of
interiors; the gentle seriousness of the Rollins and
the Lhomonds seemed to him to hover over this
family. Besides, the dot was suitable, the young
lady perfectly v/ell-bred and fully deserving of

I'lng at
il col-
jd liis
Ible of
lis and
31- this
I young
ng of

Service on Shore,

121

esteem. Although these preliminaries engaged
him to nothing whatsoever, Clcro, like a good son,
thought it his duty to write about the matter to his
father, from v/hom he kept no secrets. Ilis letter
is curious on account of the species of embarrass-
ment visible in it when he undertakes to sketch the
portrait of the lady, whose acquaintance his father
would, of course, prefer to make beforehand, since
there was a possibility that she might be his daugh-
ter-in-law some day. Conscious that he has suc-
ceeded badly in this tasi: and has given but a very
imperfect outline, he adds by way of excuse: "I
have seen her only once and for a rather short
time, and I do not notice women very much
and do not look at them very closely, especially
young ones."

It was a charming embarrassment in a man of so
little natural limidity, and who had already lived
so long. Ho was not£0 ingenuous at eighteen, but
God, by the effusion of his grace, had given him a
new heart and had renewed his youth like the
eagle's. RenovabituriLt aquikB juventus tua.

He concludes his letter with these words: *'How-
ever, I am not thinking of marrying."

This was a ray of light to his i^oor father, and
the cause of an uneasiness of which we shall find
traces in the rest of their correspondence.

A year passes — eighteen months. Clerc is now a
lieutenant and resides in Brest ; his fellow-mem-
bers of tiie St. Vincent do Paul Societv have en-
trusted to him the duties of secretary, which ho
discharges at an evening reunion with the earnest-

122

Alexis Clerc.

:;'!!(i^'

It'''"'

ness and energy ho gives to everything. A ^lew
nicmhcr arrives, an ensign. Tliis new-comer is
himself urged to quit the world hy a powerful at-
traction which will not bo long in gaining the vic-
tory, lie has since described to us his impressions
of his new acquaintance and tlic characteristic cir-
cumstances of this first meeting.

Clei'c was not handsome, at least in the Greek
sense of the word, and his face, with its sharp out-
lines, would not have offered a yery pleasing model
to a sculptor. The extreme mobility of his fea-
tures instantly betrayed all his feelings ; his eye of
fire and his vibrating voice bespoke a soul as en-
thusiastic as energetic. Short of stature, he was
that evening muffled up in a long, light overcoat
that reached half way down his legs and gave him
a sort of clerical appearance. The meeting jiassed
as usual in relating the wants of the poor persons
taken care of by the conference and in arranging
the distribution of the alms. However it came
about, our two naval ofticcrs remarked one another,
anf], after the prayer was said, they felt a need of
meeting again without witnesses.

Clerc invited his new confrere to call at his resi-
dence the next day, so that they might go together
to visit the poor. The invitation was accepted,
and at the hour riamed the nevr acquaintance was
at the rendezvous. He met Clerc at the door of his
room, which ho was just entering. The two re-
descended the stairs and walked side by side for
five minutes, exchanging a few words meanwhile.
It was sufficient to make them tliorougljly known

Service on Shore.

123

Is rcsi-
Igethcr
[cpted,
Ice was
of bis
ro rc-
idc for

Lwbile-
Ikiiowu

to one another, so much in unison were their
hearts. *'But liow is it," the ensign aslied ex
airtipfo, ** tliat with such ideas you are still in the
I avy ? "

At this unexpected apostrophe Clerc turned
shortly, drew back a step, iicld iiimself erect, and,
looking the ensign straight in the eyes, said :
" And you — why are you in the navy ? "

" Hold ! you are right," replied the other.

From that moment they were constant compa-
nions ; their vrorks, their exercises of devotion,
their common future. Vaguely foreseen, drew them
together. Sometimes they wandered to the fields,
and in the open air abandoned themselves to tlio
joy "of their hearts, talking of God quite at their
ease, and even singing in his praise some song of
the Church.

Providence reserved for them a still closer inti-
macy.

CHAPTER IV.

ALEXIS CLERC DURING THE EVENTS CP 1848.

Alexis to Uis Brother Jules.

" MAKcn 1, 1848.
" What shall I say to 3011, my clear Jules ?
Do I really know what I think ? What is tlicro
left after this tempest that at one sweep has car-
ried away men and institutions ? Where are you ?
■where will you stoj^ ? You want to overthrow a
minister, and you overthrow the monarchy ? Do
you consider that incalculable mass which you
start into motion ? Where will you find the force
to stop it ? Must there be the same old, cruel
oscillations before it stops spontaneously ? It took
but five hours to destroy a work that cost so much
labor ! Now, whence shall we derive confidence in
the thing established ? It is the tenth revolution
since '89 — intervals of five years between them !
How much money ! how much blood ! and why ?
Let us weep over a country where ten successive
Governments have not known how, even at the
last moment, to make the concession which would
have saved them ; let us weep over a country which
cannot peacefully conquer its rights.

" I regret neither Guizot nor Louis Philippe. I

134

During the Events of 1848.

125

inch

liem I

jssive

It the

roulA

/hicb

)e. I

am terrified at their fall, but I am much more ter-
rified at the immediate future, perhaps already
past for you.

"It is not a political revolution you have ac-
complished, it is a social revolution. You will say,
perhaps you say now, the cx-hoiirfjcoisie, just as
you have said the ex-nohility,

*' Behold the people, the laborer, the 2^'^'olctaire
on the escutcheon ! Will these usurpin^^ waves
rise to power, or "will they drag power down to
their level ? Yes, certainly ; if the nobility was
unjust and tyrannical towards the other classes,
the bourgeoisie was the same towards the 2^roU-
taires ; but will these be any better ? Is injustice
any different whether a hundred suffer from it or
a hundred thousand? The injustice of the lotir-
geoisie sprang from egotism and indifference ; will
not the other be from hatred and cruelty ? The
lourgcoisie had little morality and little enlighten-
ment ; but what is there to suddenly raise our new
masters to the level even of the hoiirgeoisie ?

" Your provisional Government, which has im-
provised itself — which, moreover, does not pretend
to do as in 1S30, to really coiisult the opinion
of France — proclaims the Republic ! Our vote is
already no more than a sanction. Let us not de-
ceive ourselves, and let us not be deceived by
words. There is no revolution without, as a con-
sequence, usurpation of power. My opinion, and
I believe it to be well founded, is that France is
not republican. Nevertheless, the Republic will
be accepted I do not doubt. Does this show usur-

126

Alexis Clerc.

;,.(: V*'?

[lit

pation of power — yes or no ? Facts are accom-
2JUshcdf as Guizot said. Beliold, then, France
governed by Paris ! God grant it is but provisional.
We must once more accept this fact accomplished ;
but there is another which we must not accept,
against which wo must figlit to the death if there
is a purpose of accomplishing it, or if it is being
accomplished : it is the government of Paris by
the Commune, by the clubs, by the revolutionary
army.

" You already have the Commune, the revolu-
tionary army of your twenty-five mobilized legions ;
beware of the clubs. The right of reunion, which
is just, necessary, and the dispute of which has
brought about all the trouble — the right of reunion
may easily be transformed into that of association,
of clubs. There is but a step ; is it possible that it
will not be taken ?

** I consent to the republic, but till the day of
our death let us prevent unauthorized governments
from first encompassing and then tyrannizing over
the national government."

Such were the sentiments Alexis communicated
to his brother Jules on the morrow of that revo-
lution of February 24, which had in a few hours
overthrown the establishment of July, and trans-
ferred the destinies of France to the hazardous
decision of universal suffrage. Let us acknow-
ledge that the young naval officer, who at that
time apprehended everything, was wiser and more
enlightened than many others. Because the peo-
ple, surprised at so easy a victory, acted like a

During tJic Events of 1848.

127

over

3ated
rcvo-
lours
rans-
(lous
now-
tliat
inoro
peo-
ike a

good prince ; bccaiiso they did not tear down the
crosses anil plunder t!io chiirclica as in 1830, moii
thought all was safe, and abandoned themselves to
a blind confidence which was very Sv^on to be
cruelly undeceived. It was with reason that the
Proviiiional Government, where LaniurLine sat be-
side Ledru-ltollin, in conij^any \\ith Louis Blanc,
Flocon, Albert, the icorki)i(j nicchcoticy etc., told
no good tale to our Alexis ; for it was too plain to
whoever looked at things coolly that the conces-
sions made to the revolutionary passions wero
more fit t ) exalt than to appease them. But the
fallen power was so little regretted that there v/as
a dispo^iition to forgive the emeute, provided it was
moderate. The Citizen Caussidiere himself, be-
come from the conspirator he was the evening
before prefect of police, calmed the uneasiness of
honest people, who certainly would not have se-
lected him for such an office, by promising them
in his picturesque style to make order out of dis-
order. The least indication in the masses of re-
spect for property and for religion was enthusiasti-
cally welcomed as a pledge of security, and those
who heard them have not forgotten these words of
Father Lacordaire, spoken, in allusion to one of
the episodes cf the victorious euieute from the
pulpit of Notre Dame, on Sunday, February 27 :
" Prove the existence of God to you ! AVhy, you
would have the right to call mo a parricide and
guilty of sacrilege if I should dare to undertake to
prove God I The doors of this cathedral would
open of themselves and would show you this peo-

128

Aicvis Clcrc.

pie magnificent in its wrath, bearing God even to
liis altar amidst the rcsjiect of an adoring throng."
The audience burst into applause.

Then the Journal dcs Debals, drawing a moral
from the incident, added tliis commentary: "It
is well. Let the Church take her phice like all of
lis. Let her show herself, the people will recog-
nize her. Lot her have no fear of the revolution,
to the end that the revolution may have no fear of
licr. God has surrendered the world to discussion —
Iradidit mumhim disjmtationi. Let the Church
use her arms — preaching and charity, instruction
and action. Let her help herself, and God will
help her."

At that epoch it was no small merit not to share
any of the current illusions; I do not sjieak only
of those of tho Jotirnal dcs Dehats, which com-
promised a little too much with the revolution,
but of those of the wisest and best of men, in-
fluenced, it must be allowed, by the excess of their
good faith and by their inclination to judge others
by themselves. This merit belonged to our young
sailor. We have seen how at the first, and before
any sadly instructive experiences, he denounced
tho usurpation of revolutions which demand of
universal suffrage a tardy and illusive sanction of an
accomplished fact ; and further, in the clubs of
1848, which in general made more noise than they
did harm, he already discerns the confused germs
of the fatal Commune, whoso victim he himself will
be in 1871.

Who of us oil reaching the age of manhood, has

During the Events of 1848.

129

:n to

aQOi'ul
: *'It
uU of
iccog-
Lition,
!car of
si oil —
Ihurcli
nctioii
a will

) share
k only
1 com-
lution,

311, iii-
|f their
others
young
before
unced
land of
m of an
[libs of
m they
germs
klf will

)tl, has

not found Lhimself in his turn face to face with a
successful rcvohition ?— 1815, 1830, 1818, 1852,
1871. Tlie dates are so near together that every-
body has encountered some one of them. Now
just this is the triaJ, too often tlie quicksand of our
judgment, of our character. Few pass through it
without damage, and it is a great honor not to
have been ensnared. It is good in all cases, once
the danger is past and calm re-established, to make
a severe examination of conscience on the way one
has managed one's bark during the tempest. In
offering my readers a standard of comparison, of
which Alexis' letters to his family will furnish all
the points, I shall provide them with one means
the more for thorough self-knowledge and impar-
tial self-judgment.

Living in the provinces and contemplating the
struggle from a distance, Clerc had over his
Parisian correspondents the advantage of escaping
the vertigo which it is so difficult to avoid when
one is condemned to be present in person and to
breathe day and niglit the fiery atmosphere of
revolutions. His strong religious studies, the
healthy ideas he gained from his " Summa " of St.
Thomas, were also a great preservative to him,
and with no other aid we shall see him victori-
ously overleap the pitfalls that are not sufficiently
mistrusted by certain illustrious and fervent Ca-
tholics.

One month, two months pass. It is now known
what may be expected from the Provisional Gov-
ernment, from the men of the Hotel de Vllle and

I ;

130

Alexis Clerc.

?4.

the Luxembourg. Public credit has fallen, the
national workshops have killed labor, excitement
is constantly on the increase and extends from
Paris to the departments. But the time of the
elections draws near, and France is going to use
universal suffrage to give herself a constituent as-
sembly. Things happen just right ; it is Holy
Week, and the electoral urns will be opened on Eas-
ter-day. Alexis perceives that his brother has the
political fever, and that his suffrage will wander,
to fall perhaps upon the head of Lcdru-Rollin or
of Lamennais, if not even of Pierre Leroux or of
Victor Considerant. Kow is the opportunity, or
never, for a sound fraternal correction. This is
what he writes to Jnles :

"lam truly afflicted at the position in which
you put yourself, and I beg you to reflect upon
what I am going to say to you, and to renect
seriously.

** You are most thoroughly devoted to the pub-
lic weal, and I honor you for it. But why is your
devotedness £0 vexed, uneasy, anxious, hurried. ?
You lose yourself in your bustle, your proceedings,
your speeches. Be more calm. Do you think
that if everybody had to take so much trouble to
be republican, the republic would be possible ?
Do you want a republic that so entirely monopo-
lizes the citizens that there must be slaves to pro-
vide for the material life, as was the case in the re-
publics of antiquity ? How is it your agitation,
your uneasy, hurried actions go so far as to give
you a fever, and you do not see that the system is

%\ I !

During the Events of 1848.

131

3 pub-

1 your
ried ?

|dings,
think
.ble to
isible ?

|onopo-

,0 pi'o-
tlie re-
taiioB,
,0 give
[Stem is

falso and bad ? You ought not to act this way.
I beg you to have regard to my advice. Rest
eight days without going to the club, and then
only go from time to time. Do not give up your
life to a whirlwind that absorbs it and is incapable
of producing anything good. Do you know, or do
you not know where the truth is to be found ? Is
it not in religion ? Do you not believe in the vir-
tue and enlightenment of some priests ? Go and
ask them to name your candidates ; they are
acquainted with men and they will teach you
about them; you cannot learn to know them
through your clubs. I do not wish to enter into
details, but I wish to tell you what I would have
done.

" Give up going to the club. Recover your
composure. Remember we are in Holy AVcek.
Go quite simply and ask the Committee Montalem-
bert for candidates, or go to the Abbe de la Bouil-
lerie, or to any pious manowho may possess your
confidence, and rest quietly; but, above all things,
do not at any price make a compact with evil. I
pray you let there not be on your list a single name
which your conscience does not approve. Do not
attempt to deceive yourself in this matter by ad-
vantageous combinations. Evil is evil absolutely,
and think of the part the Assembly will play."

Alas ! wishing to do himself what he so earnestly
recommends to his brother, he is greatly troubbd
to find a sufficient number of names that his con-
science can approve of. We will only say that ho
hud on his list, side by side with the names of

<'/

132

Alexis Clerc.

m li!

Father Lacorduire and the Abbe Deguerry, pastor
of the Madeleine, those of Michelet and Eerangcr.

After having copied his list for his brother,
Alexis adds: *'I do not recommend it to you;
stilly I think there is nothing in it to condemn. I
reproach myself for only thinking this, and not
being sure of it."

His scruple was perfectly justifiable. What !
this exceedingly severe censor of his brother's votes,
who would reproach him for Ledru-Rolliii and
Lamcnnais, will himself yote for Beranger and
Michelet ! Beranger, the songster of " Lisette " and
of "Dieu des bonnes Gens " ! Michelet, the calum-
niator of the clergy, who had quite recently poured
out his gall and bile in an ignoble pamphlet en-
titled '* The Priest, the Woman, and the Family ! "
Behold to what compromises men were brought by
that absurd system of voting which since the 4th of
September we have been practising again, and which
will always find warm partisans among the advo-
cates of universal suffrage ! And they call it inter-
rogating the nation !

What a disturbance of ideas there was in that
year 1848, and what a strange confusion of words
and things !

See that former disciple of Saint-Simon and
Fourier, now a good Catholic, recommending his
choice of candidateship with the double authority
of what he was and what he has become, recom-
mending it to socialists as well as to Catholics !
"My return to Christianity," he says, ^^lias never
caused me to feel the necessity of condemning the

During the Events of 1 848.

133

and

ig bis

Ihority

Iccom-

lolics !

never
\ng the

first lent of my ideas. Undoubtedly, I have re-
pudiated in the Saint-Simonistic and Fourieristic
theories all that was incompatible with Christian
truth ; but I owe to them my having recognized
long ago the necessity and also the possibility of
realizing that same truth in all social relations."
He adds : " The repuyiicaii ininciple annxds the
only obstacles that can opjjose this realization.
Therefore, 1 am rcpuhlican by a double title — as a
Christian and as a socicdist."

And his choice of candidateship, besides being
perfectly honest and in good faith, was warmly
])atroniz'jd by the Catholic committees.

Cierc, exiled to the provinces, and deprived of
the information he would have wished to have con-
cerning the Parisian electoral tickets, thought he
was acting for the best in hazarding certain names
with which he had no sympathy Avhatsoever. But if
the Catholic elector could reconcile it to his con-
science to name Michelet and Buranger, what must
be thought of the system which extorted from him
such votes ? If Alexis was a hundred leagues re-
moved from socialistic ideas, his brother did not
repel them so resolutely, and was one of those per-
sons who tried to harmonize them with Catholic
dogma to a certain degree. A subscriber to the
Ere Nouvelle, he did not disapprove of Father Lacor-
tlaire's sitting in the National Assembly not far from
Barbes and Ledru-Kollin. Alexis did all in his
power to change his views in this respect. In the
course of the month, of June ho undertook to write a
long letter of a dogmatic character to Madame do

134

Alexis Clerc.

S — , Avhoso supcriorily of mind he was not llio only
one to appreciate. This letter was evidently intended
for his brother much more than for the lady whose
well-known sentiments promised him an ally in the
cause he was trying to gain. But while he wrote
events hurried after one another, and terrible ex-
plosions of popular fury, enkindled by the secret
societies, scattered consternation and terror
throughout France. Under the influence of heart-
rending emotions which were constantly recurring,
Alexis terminates with these words, that are a vivid
description of the situation :

** I wrote you these cold pages while France
was plunged in fire and blood, and while the tele-
graphic despatches kept us in a state of fever-
ish anxiety. You will be astonished at my hav-
ing continued writing; it is because this hor-
rible war doea not touch the real question, which
will come up sooner or later. I believe 1 have as
vet no misfortune of those who are dear to me to
lament. We have enough to do to weep over the
country and to pray for her. May so terrible a
chastisement bo an expiation of our crimes, and
may it please God to accept so much heroic de-
votedness as atonement for £o much indifference
and egotism. Let us open our eyes and judge the
trees of the new doctrines by the fruits they bear.
I have the hope that in the end misfortune, which
sanctifies man, will make the nation better. Oh I
if God would order it thus, we should then indeed
be saved."

This was as yet a premature hope.

During the Events of 1848.

135

js, and
)ic cle-
Eerence
Ige the

bear.

wliicli
Ohl
I indeed

"May my blood be the last poured out!" ex-
claimed in (lying the martyred archbishop, struck
down before the biirricade of the Faubourg St.
Antoine at the moment he was bearing to the in-
surgents a message of peace. General Negrier had
fallen at the same place, and General de Brea had
been cowardly assassinated at the Barriure de Fon-
tainebleau, both after having stopped the firing of
their troops and while trying to negotiate. Five
other generals and two representatives had met
death in that horrible struggle, which was one of
the most furious that ever drenched the streets of
Paris with blood.

Clerc's fears for his family were quieted only
when his father, whose patriotic ardor was his
dread, had given him a sign of life.

"My dear father," he wrote July 1, "I thank
you very much for your letter of June 27, which I
have expected most impatiently. 1 learned from
the papers that the Faubourg du Temple held out
till the third day, and I plainly foresaw that the
neighborhood of the bridges and the few ways of
communication with the boulevard would give a
strategic importance to the quarter where you re-
side. The elder Madame Mallet received on the
28th a letter from Madame Pages, from which I
gathered that you were safe and sound ; neverthe-
less, I was anxious for direct news, and I thank you
for not having delayed sending it to me.

"I am much obliged (don't be vexed) to the
insurgents, tlie troops, and the national guard, for
having in turn kept you a prisoner in the house.

11.SV,

#r"-

136

Alexis Clerc,

I cannot sufficiently remind you that it is foolish
to go out for an airing in the midst of a civil war.
It is impossible to be calm under such critical cir-
cumstances, and if it had not been for your forced
captivity you might have exposed yourself to a
useless danger. From your account of your first
day's peregrination, I conjecture that you had many
chances of not escaping so cheaply.

" I shall read with great interest all you can re-
call of the insurgents' speeches, all you can relate
of their means and their object, so as to gain a cor-
rect knowledge of the terrible enemy that has
almost ruined the country and that it has cost so
dear to overcome.

" If you will permit some moralizing upon this
great misfortune, I refer you to my last letter.
The state is a responsible being, subject, like man,
to the law of suffering ; it follows, therefore, that
justice must be satisQcd in its regard. History in
terror registers the cause of these catastrophes;
bloody expiations are needed to wash out so many
unpunished crimes. Finally, it must be under-
stood that the hand that chastises seeks before all
to correct.

"The chastisement is terrible; France has shed
the purest of her blood. I hope that we have noth-
ing more to expiate. May the just and merciful God
grant us to change our ways and henceforth walk
in those he has marked out for us. Oh ! then
France will be reallv saved. Otherwise, if we con-
tinue our efforts to establish the foundations of so-
ciety on a clever egotism ; if that egotism.

During the Events ^/ 1848.

137

olisli
war.
1 cir-
orced
to a
: first
many

lan re-
relate
acor-
at has
cost so

on this
letter,
e man,
•e, that
tory in
•ophes ;
|o many
under-

Ifore all

las shed

Ire noth-
IfulGod
\\\ walk
1 then
|we con-
Jis of so-
[gotism,

as enlightened as you please, is to be tlie prin-
ciple of morality and of the social contract, wo
arc lost. There is no longer question of yield-
ing to the state a part of our liberty by obey-
ing the law, a part of our property by paying tlie
taxes ; we would remain in our old errors, and we
would have witnessed only the first scene of the de-
gtruction of our country.

"No; France, who has always given the world
the example of great and generous sentiments— and
this is more than her power, more than her mili-
tary genius, what makes us love her — must, ceasing
to copy English civilization which suils neither her
manners, her mind, nor her heart, abjure egotism
and let the fraternity she has graven upon her
arms be deeply graven in her heart.

" The deplorable philosophers of the last cen-
tury and of this have succeeded, the former in dry-
ing up our hearts, the latter in insjnring us by
means of calumnies Avith hatred towards the pre-
tended happy ones of the world, and in making us
believe that <. iir destiny and our right is an un-
mixed happiness here upon earth. These doctrines
have not rested in the domain of ideology ; news-
papers and pamphlets have carried them every-
where; the "Mysteries of Paris," "The Wander-
ing Jew," and many other productions that have
made less noise have popularized them ; and I do
not doubt that the investigation which will be made
of this abominable insurrection will prove that it
was only the logical consequence of these princi-
ples. These romancers, these philosophers do not

.Sfc

138

Alexis Clerc.

fight ; they detest civil war, it is impossible to con-
vict them ; nevertheless, they are tho most guilty,
they are the true instigators of civil war. Will
they understand what they have done ? I dare not
hope it of all of them. The lUforme has given tho
generous example of regretting the malicious re-
marks it published, and for which it finds itself
severely punished."

These are certainly uncommonly exalted and just
views, and would to God they might have had some
influence on tho governing classes, who, being more
enlightened, bear before God and before history
the weight of a heavier responsibility.

The following letter touches upon a subject less
grave, but is striking enough, and besides shows
very plainly the nobility of spirit which our Alexis
knew full well how to reconcile with Christian hu-
mility. In order that it may be understood it will
be sufficient to explain that the 6'ff/r«re//i being de-
finitely withdrawn for alteration, and' Mr. Mallet
having received another command, Alexis' family
were extremely desirous that he should not bo
separated from a superior officer whose friendship he
had long since gained. Hence the efforts which Mr.
Jules Clerc made with the friend of their childhood,
Mr. Emile Mario, whose father become minister of
justice, occupied the hotel of the Place Vendomc.
Between ourselves, Alexis was not sorry for the op-
portunity of commenting upon the republican aus-
terity of his brother Jules, and finding it at fault.

" My good Jules : I do not know how to scold
you for what you have done about my sailing with

During the Events of 1848.

139

Ity,

Yill
not

the
are-
tself

just
some
more

[story

3t less
shows
Alexis
,nliu-
it will
.ng de-
[Mallet

[family
not bo
;lup be
cb l^Ir.
[dboocl,
ster of
bdome.
Itbo op-
Ian ans-
fault.
,0 scold
g with

Mr. Mallet, especially as Madame Pages advised yeu
to do it ; but I must tell you that it is with intense
displeasure that I have beard of it. How could
you do for me what your susceptibility would pre-
vent you from doing for yourself ? For pity's sake,
if I have the good fortune to possess some friends
in places above me, do not make me lose them. I
can understand that kind of contempt influential
people feel when men make stepping-stones of their
friendship and intimacy. Do you not see that
Emile Marie's position and our friendship with him
are two things completely distinct, that it is as ab-
surd as unjast to make the one a pretext for using
the other ? Probably you have no idea of the mul-
titude of solicitors that crowd round that poor
fellow, and you deprive him of the one little mo-
ment of pleasure he would have experienced in
thinking that I had not importuned him.

*^ He has much more need of a disinterested af-
fection than I have of all tho services he could
render me by his position. Aud you, my good
Jules, whose delicacy of feeling it; so exquisite,
you have done this ! What pains me most is that
your affection for me, the affection of you all in
Paris, is so voluntarily blind ; for, in the first; place,
you would not do for yourselves what you do for
me, and secondly, if you were not so greatly mis-
taken regarding my sentiments you would not do
it for me. You have been repulsed by Do Plus ; *

*This Christian friend shared all Clcrc's sentiments and the
two were worthy of one another. Later we shall be better ac-
quainted with Lim.

140

Alexis Clcrc.

I was sure you would be and I am delighted ;
Emilo ought to have treated you in the same way.
Now do not think that I set no value on friendship
and that I make it a point never to ask anything
of a friend. It is too sweet to me to be useful to
those 1 love ; but I will ask of my friends only such
things as depend upon them personally, and not
upon their public functions. The amusing side of
the affair is that you make one more old school
republican who takes up the trade of a solicitor,
and T, who am the reactionist, I act the puritan.

" I had foreseen with regard to De Plas the tricks
of which you were capable, but I acknowledge that
I did not have the subtlety to guess that you would
besiege that poor Emile for proceedings so entirely
out of his province.

"Finally, I must tell you that, according to
your own way of looking at things, you have made
a blunder. You imagine that Mr. Mallet, who is
acquainted with all Paris, who knows all the minis-
ters, has need of t^uit poov jUmile to convey a letter

to his friend N ? Truly, you must seem very

innocent to persons who know how to deal with
men. I do not mean to say that Mr. Mallet ia
not sincerely desirous of having me with him,
but there is no necessity of his resorting to such
little wire-pulling to obtain what is his right. One
of two things is the case : either he does not desire
it enough to obtain it — and this will not prevent
me from being pleased with him for having desired
it to the degree he has — or he has employed an
outlandisli manner of giving eatisfactiou to your

During the Events of 1848.

141

cd ;

»vay.

ship

Uiug

x\ to

siicli

a not

de of

chool

.citor,

Dan.
tricks
;e that
would
atircly

= to
made
kho is
minis-
letter
yery
\ with
,llet is
him,
10 such
, One
desire
)revent
[desired
Lyed an
|o your

impatience. Therefore my poor Jules has wasted
the display of his republican incorruptibility to the
doorkeepers of the Place Vendonie. It was such
an agreeable pastime for us to wax indignant over
the corruption and nepotism of our contempora-
ries I Hurry to find Emile, enter in spite of the
doorkeepers whom you have already learned how
to baffle and tell him to stay at home ; that I am
always anxious that ho should travel two leagues to
come to see me, but that I do not want him to travel
two steps to obtain for me anything whatsoever.''

The letter concludes with this advice addressed
to his brother's faith and piety :

" As for you, Jules, recollect yourself as much as
you can. I acknowledge that it is very difficult for
everybody, and that you more than other people
have the obstacles of a very busy life to contend
with ; but do what you can. Ten minutes of
prayer are worth all the politics in the world, and,
besides, prayer is the only true and sound politics,
for there is a Providence that governs us. Impress
well on your mind this beautiful saying, of Bos-
suet I believe : ^ Man vexes himself, and God leads
hini^ ; you will soon derive from it a calm of which
you have long been deprived, anda wiser judgment
of many events ; you will also interfere in my af-
fairs more to my liking ; and, finally, I hope we
shall have no more disagreements on any subject,
as is becoming to brothers and Christians. Till
we soon meet, A. Clekc."

"Do not delay going to thank Emile for his
good-will, and to dispense him from it.''

142

Alexis Clcrc.

Moanwliilo, Alexis perceived that Lis brotjier
was not sufficiently on his guard against certain
current ideas, wliicli under the vague formulas
that enveloped them favored socialism, and that
his good faith had been surprised by the affectation
of respecting his Catholic orthodoxy. The explana-
tions Jules gave only half satisGed him ; he took
them up one by one, dit^cussed them, examined
them, and made it his duty to prove that if all
veils, all equivocations are removed, these two
contraries — socialism and Christianity — arc abso-
lutely and radically irreconcilable.

There is so much reason in these pages, so much
Bcrious good sense enlightened by faith, that we
believe we shall gratify our readers by reproducing
a large part of them. Assuredly, the doctrines of
Fourier and Victcr Conaidurant, as they were pro-
fessed in 1848, have no adepts in these days, and they
may pass as superannuated in presence of less specu-
lative doctrines which have since made their mark
with a certain cdat. But the principles of the errors
whence the evil proceeds are the same, and they
all agree on one point — the denial of the superna-
tural. As to the principles wliicli Clerc opposed
to those dangerous Utopianisms, they are un-
changeable as trutli is.

It appears, then, that Mr. Jules Clerc had said :
*'I do not believe that religion ought to interfere
in a direct manner in political questions, unless to
keep constantly before our eyes the Gospel princi-
ples of morality and fraternity."

"Very good," returns Alexis ^ *'let us borrow

During the Events of 1848.

143

iljicr
[•Uiiii
lulas

that
aiion
ilana-
1 took
nincd
if all
> two

abso-

mi^cli
lat we
Jucing
ines of
re pro-
d they
spccii-
• mark
errors
a they
perna-
poped
un-
said :
Iterfere
lies 3 to
Ipriiici-

)orrow

infallible \f\ iciplcs from the religious order, and
let us build upon thcui ; we may easily deceive
ourselves in particular cases, but we have good as-
surances of truth. You are in the right ; God has
given us all that is necessary for our salvation, for
our real good, and to this end he has provided not
only in the order of grace, but also in the order of
nature ; he has laid down natural principles and
has commanded us to follow them, and if wo will
not we shall destroy instead of building up.

** I bog you to excuse the digression I am now
going to make ; it is not a direct reply to your let-
ter, but I am extremely anxious that you should
not imagine religion to have a particular domain
in which it must shut itself up, and that the pub-
lic welfare should bo ruled by its own laws. On
the contrary, religion is the universal law, and ifc
ought to be the only law, for the only end of man
is his salvation which depends solely upon religion.
Creatures, nature, societies, are, and should be,
only the means of attaining this end.

"Now, man has fallen, and by his fall ho has
lost everything in the order of grace, and this con-
cerns only religion ; further, his nature has been
corrupted, and this concerns the natural order and
society. But by the Redemption he is capable of
re-entering the state of grace and of overcoming
the corruption of liis nature. Ilenco results that
the first condition of all society is religion, and ifc
is impossible to name any society that has been left
destitute of it. Corruption being the portion of
every man, ifc is necessary that every man should

•I

(0"

I ■ li ,

144

Alexis Clcrc.

endeavor to overcome himself ; it is the greatest
service he can render society. In consequence of
this corruption society has the right of coercion
over those wlio threaten its existence. Finally,
man has on account of his fault been condemned
to labor and suffering, and He who pronounced
the sentence will maintain it.

" Very good ! Eouricr and his disciples deny
that man has fallen, and, supposing him to have
come from the hands of God just as he is, declare
him perfect, and would permit him to satisfy his
most ardent passions and his most wayward de-
sires. As a philosophy if; is easy to prove that this
system is absurd, inasmuch as it overlooks the in-
most nature of our heart, and cannot explain pre-
sent and past evil. But our faith leads us to reject
these follies. If man is bad, "w hat can he more fool-
ish than to deal with him as though he were good ?

*' I sa'.v V * on his return from Paris, and I

reproached him for having deceived you. lie de-
fended himself by saying that he had concealed
nothing from you, and that, as it is possible to
create the same system wliilc starting from dif-
ferent principles, ho had limited himself to pro-
posing to you those practical realizations without
troubling himself about the principles that might
serve as their basis in your judgment. In-i^olitical
matters, it seems, people occupy themselves a great

*One of their frionds, infcerasfced for a considerable time in
socialistic doctrines, and of whom the 4tli of September. 1870,
when the Republic was declared in Paris after the battle of
Sedan, did not lail to make a prefect.

During the Events of 1848.

145

of
ion

ncd
ico.d

Icr^y
have
clare

y ^^^^
a dc-

i this

le in-

Li pvc-

rcject

to f ool-

igood ?
and I

Ic dc-
ccalcd
^blc to
dif-
o pi'o-
itbout

ilitical
great

time in

ler, 1870,

jattle of

(Teal with facts and little with ideas. As for him,
he plainly declared to me that the two principles —
the foundations of his projects of reform — were
that man was not fallen, and that after his death
he would continue to merit eternally in anew and
different life. With these principles I agree that
he is logical enough ; can you with contrary prin-
ciples be logical ? No, I have already told you so ;
your good faith has been surprised.

"You say, 'Fourier's ideas on the organization
of society are beautiful, inasmuch as they turn in-
dividual egotism, when they do not destroy it, to
the well-being of all.' As to their heautyf we shall
see about that later; as to their falsit/j, we shall
discover that immediately. Labor must become a
2^lcasure by the attraction whicU organization luill
know lioio to attacli to it. Our conscience tells us
loudly that this cannot be ; but what reply has
Fourier to these words : ' Cursed is the earth in
thy work ; with labor and toil thou shalt eat there-
of (its fruits) all the days of thy life; thorns and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt
cat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the
earth out of which thou wast taken ; for dust thou
art, and into dust shalt thou return' (Genesis, iii.
17-19). After this shall we have the credulity to
rely upon his promises of a terrestrial paradise ?
Let us never forget this terrible sentence which
weighs upon humanity, and of which all our mo-
dern prophets w'ant to relieve us.

*' Is it beantiful to perfect gluttony to the de-

I !

ft**'

M' "
Hi"

14^

Alexis Clerc.

■ I,-:

gree of eating, I believe, six hearty meals a day ? to
permit sensuality to cast off all restraint ? to grant
to the lowest instincts satisfactions which even our
actual corruption cannot think of without blush-
ing ? You talk of the means which Fourier would
use to destroy selfishness ; but there are none others,
in his opinion, save the free development of man's
passions ! Moreover, he does not desire to destroy
selfisliness ; he would be very sorry to have it de-
stroyed, because he needs the development of ali
the heart of man contains; but he utilizes it.
That is not overstupid ; still, until now I have sup-
posed that God alone was capable of drawing good
from evil.

'* Finally, I conclude with the last phrase of
your first sheet : * Solidarity is a Christian senti-
ment, and I do not believe it will be inapplicable in
the course of time.'

" This phrase has not been well reflected. So-
lidarity is not a sentiment, it is a law by which
men arc responsible, the ones for the others, for
the good or evil they have done. The Fourieritcs
give the name of unityism to what you mean, and
three months ago you would with us have called it
charity, which certainly is, as you say, a Christian
sentiment, and so Christian that it does not exist
outside of Christianity. This makes me think that
the course o:^ time will not render it applicable if the
world does not become Christian, and that if God
grants us the grace to be Christian, it will be,
whatever the time, applicable and even applied.
You will say that I apply it very little and that all

During the Events of 1 848.

147

? to
rant
. our
usli-
rouU
liers,
nan's
estroy
it de-
of aVk
zes it.
ve snp-
ig goo^

irase of
n scnti-
cablein

pd. So-

licrs, for
lurieritcs

pan, and

[called it

Jhristian

[not exist

ink that

jlo if tl^e

it if Glo^
v^ill l»c,
applied.

that all

this is very severe ; if it wounds you, I sincerely
beg your pardon. The importance of the questions
raised by your few lines justifies, perhaps, my eager-
ness to have you examine deceptive novelties with
more deliberation."

Accurately spoken, it seems to us. Doubtless
this argumentation, borrowing all its majors from
the truths of faith, would not convert a blind dis-
ciple of Fourier, but it had its weight with the ex-
cellent Catholic to whom it was addressed. Alexis
did not ask of reason, too often straitened for de-
cisive proofs, what faith gives abundantly to who-
ever has the happiness of believing. The practical
bent of his mind is manifested in this discussion,
in which he does not seek to shine, but to convince
as a man who knows the value of souls, and to
whom the soul of his brother is especially dear.

We must note the impression which the voting
of the 10th of December, 1848, made upon him.

The election of Prince Napoleon to the presi-
dency by five millions of voices disagreeably sur-
prised him, and it required time for him to recover
from what he called "a rude shock to his political
sagacity." He had voted for Cavaignac, not
through republicanism, but through sincerity in
his acceptance of the political system legally estab-
lished, and also through a generous reaction against
the odious calumnies for which the incorruptible
general had furnished no pretext. lie experienced
an instinctive repugnance for his princely competi-
tor, who always appeared to him as the adventurer
of Boulogne and Strasbourg with blood upon his

■M'

148

Alexis Clerc,

hands. ... Wo will not repeat the extremely harsh
expressions ho nsetl to brand him ; doubtless pity
would have softened them after the immense disas-
ter wherein that man was wrecked with the fortunes
of France. But we cannot pass over this bitter cry,
too well justified by the state of prostration and
torpor to which revolutions bring us : ** My grief
is to see the whole country disown itself by mak-
ing a choice which is a refusal of choosing when
obliged to choose. It is the suicide of a great
nation ; it disowns its greatness."

But perhaps there were more avowablc motives
for the choice — for example, the love of military
glory, of which Napoleon is our symbol. The mili-
tary spirit is so deeply impressed on the French
character, it is not absurd to believe that it was it
which spoke. Upon this Alexis adds, with good
reason, what people would not understand in IS-IS
or in 1852, and what we now know only too well :
** This would bo very deplorable, very unfortunate.
If this were the signification of Louis Bonaparte,
then there would open a new era of interminable
wars with all Europe."

Another hypothesis : We are not republicans ;
they want to manage a return to the monarchy ;
in three years a new constituency will decree the
monarchy, and universal suffrage will call Henry V.
to the throne. " If this is what they want," Alexis
adds, "it is legitimate, and I will cheerfully sub-
mit. But it does not make it less deplorable that
all those monarchists should be ranged arouud
, . . such a na)}ie." ^

During the Events of 1848.

149

\ pity

disas-
:tancs

}r cry»
n and

y g^'^^^
y malv-

g when
a gTeat

motives
military

:he mill-
jTrencli

it was it

itli good
ill 1848
00 weli :

lortuuate.
napartc,
rminablc

lublicans ;

lonarcby ;
ecree the
iHeury V.
It," Aicxls
[fully suIj-
la\)lc that
Id around

Such were the politics of this fervent and in-
trepid Christian at a period when it was so diflBculb
to see clearly, and to fulfil without trouble as well
as "without weakness the duties of a good citizen.
Let us acknowledge that he was not so badly in-
spired by his inviolable attachment to Catholic
truth, whose consequences reach far beyond the
sphere assigned to it by superficial minds or those
of equivocal sincerity.

Ah ! if we were guided by principles, then the
world would not see us turning now to the right
and now to the left, and our loyalty would never
be false to itself, when even it should bepu^, to the
rudest trials by the errors and faults of a govern-
ment we had not chosen and with which we had
but little sympathy.

Ml'" ,,

(iiii'

CHAPTER V.

EXPERIMENTS IN EPISTOLARY CONTROVERSY.

In the course of March, 1848, Alexis wrote to his
father :

"My Very Dear Father: Your kind and
most affectionate letter afforded me great pleasure,
and I propose to prove my gratitude by a de-
tailed reply.

"We guessed long ago that you continued in
business only for the sake of having us enjoy your
success. We understood that tenderness which ob-
stacles could not discourage ; but it was just and
natural that our affection should be occupied with
you who forgot yourself, and that we should wish
you to enjoy repose after so laborious a life. We
perfectly understood that you were not one of
those empti/ men who, when released from the ex-
citement of a business life and reduced to them-
selves, are reduced to nothing. Your repose, which
you would well know how to hinder from being
idle, would be sweet and useful.

"It is quite true that you will not have for the
reward of your business life even the golden mean,
the sufficiency that is neither wealth nor poverty ;
allow me, to call things by their right names:
your greatness of soul will not render the priva-

150

Epistolary Controversy.

151

toliis

nd and
Pleasure,
)y a de-

inued in
ijoy your
?hicli ob-
jusfc and
jied witli
fuld ^isli
life. We
one oi
the ex-
jto them-
fse, whicli
.m being

le for tlie
ten mean,
poverty ;
It names:
Ibe priva-

tion a cruel one. Now that the ice is broken, I
want to speak what lias been in our hearts for such
a long time — admiration for tbe strength and energy
of your character, for your quiet and dignified
resignation to your bad luck. We are under obli-
gations to you, dear father, for one of the best
examples of that true greatness of soul which is
neither the insensibility of stoicism nor the pride
of the philosopher who wears a ragged cloak. If
respect has hitherto prevented us from telling you
what your sons and your friends think, it is per-
haps better to keep silence no longer if wc desire
a less reserved intercourse.

" It is not upon the chances of fortune that I
found the hoi)o of greater happiness in our family,
but upon our qualities ; I believe this is the best
foundation."

Evidently the father to whom such a son speaks
in this way has neither a small mind nor a vulgar
soul. How deeply Alexis must regret that their
mutual sympathy, so perfect on all other subjects,
does not exist in regard to religion ! Until now ho
has very rarely touched upon this delicate point, and
always with a thousand precautions and a visible
embarrassment, feeling well that between his faith
and that soul so dearly beloved there is a whole
world of prejudices. But he will keep up such re-
serve no longer; he has decided to break tiie ice. The
occasion is favorable ; his worthy father, now freed
from the bustle of a business life, is not the man
to rest idle, and what he needs henceforth to em-
ploy the leisure of his old age is a mental occu2)a-

t^i

152

Alexis Clerc.

tion suited to the height of his generous aspira-
tions. What nobler use could he make of his time
than to consecrate the larger part of it to the study
of religion, which, as Bossuet says, is " the all of
man " ? Upon this Alexis* plan is made, and with-
out further delay he begins its execution. Let us
remember that it is March, 1848. The condition
of minds at that period, the confident attitude —
too confident, without doubt — of Catholics in the
presence of a liberty whose intoxication was soon
to produce terrible effects, serves as an introduc-
tion to the subject, and leads naturally to the fol-
lowing reflections :

** I hope the cordial and spontaneous adherence
of the Catholic clergy to the- popular movement
will have calmed the enrooted susceptibilities of
which it is too often the object. I hope, also,
that the men who do not think as we do will cease
to regard us as enemies of the state and of liberty.
Our state religion was (a singular contradiction)
under suspicion in the state ; nobody is ignorant
of how mistrustful and timorous the legislator has
been in regard to it.

"Ought not these fears to be quieted since the
pulpit echoes only the word * liberty ' ? In Eome,
in Paris,* in discourses and writings years before
you stirred up revolutions, the Church seemed to
have a predilection for this theme of liberty in re-
ligion and by religion. Her orators, her most dis-
tinguished authors, devoted themselves to this

* Father Ventura, Father Lacordaire, etc.

Epistolary Controversy.

153

ispira-
8 time
! study
} all of
I with-
Leb us
[id it ion
tude —
in the
as soon
troduc-
tlie fol-

herence
)vement
ities of
»c, also,
ill cease
liberty,
liction) .
norant
tor lias

Ince tlie

Rome,

before

Imed to

ly in re-

)st dis-

Ito tills

question. In reading tliem can we help feeling
tliafc tliey are inspired "with the true Christian
spirit ? can we help seeing those accusations of a
tendency to despotism and brutish authority which
are made against their doctrine vanish in smoke ?
Oh ! the beautiful, the eternally beautiful task of
demonstrating that we owe all liberty, all political
prosperity, to the Church, even as we owe superna-
tural and moral truth to her. I possess neither
the learning nor the talents necessary to undertake
such a task ; it is reserved for some great mind.
But I am jBrmly convinced of the fact. I think, dear
father, that this vast field of study will not be
without attraction to you. Allow me to mention
some works which you can easily procure from the
public libraries and which will afford you the first
information on the subject.

" There are two ways of treating this matter.
The one is philosophical, taking facts in their
cause and studying Christian doctrine in its
relations to the civil constitution. This method of
looking at the question from above easily attains
to a majestic dignity, because it moves above events
and is unshackled by time, places, and circum-
stances ; it has, moreover, the advantage of being
brief, consequently sacred orators adopt it. You
have already enjoyed the magnificent funeral ora-
tions of Fathers Ventura and Lacordaire ; you
will not less enjoy the conferences given this year
in Notre Dame by the Abbe Bautain.

"We may also with history in our hand verify
in the facta themselves the influence of the Chris-

Kir"

154

Alexis Clerc.

tian religion upon Europe. The long era of eigh-
teen centuries may advantageously he divided into
four periods. The first extends from Jesus Christ
to the fall of the Roman Empire; the second
reaches to Luther; the third to the year 1789; and
the last io our day. As to the first of these pe-
riods, all good historians prove superabundantly
the excellence of the Christian influence ; never-
theless, in order that the result may be absolutely
unanswerable, it may perhaps be well to also read
Gibbon, who, strongly opposed to Christianity, en-
deavors to prove that it was established in the world
by purely human means.

" The second period is illustrated by two emi-
nent works, which are amply sufficient, Guizot's
* History of Civilization in France 'and 'Catholi-
cism Compared with Protestantism,* by the Abbe
James Balmes ; thus, made with a Protestant and a
Catholic, the study will be quite impartial. How-
ever, the Catholic is a Spaniard, and it will some-
times be necessary to excuse the zeal he shows for
his country.

"These two works will also throw great light
upon the third period. Nevertheless, you will
need to gain directly from the study of facts infor-
mation concerning what is not treated of in these
works ; at least, for my part, I do not know of any
other books wherein the labor is all done. Eiual-
]y, since '89, if we do not impute to her the things
awkward friends have tried to do for her, religion
will come forth stainless, and frequently resplen-
dent, from all investigations. But the fable of the

Epistolary Controversy,

155

1 eigli-
id into
Christ
second
89; and
icse pe-
ll dan tly
never-
)solutely
Iso read
,nity, en-
,be world

two emi-
, Guizot's
< Oatboli-
tlie Abbe
;ant and a
.1. How-
^ill some-
bows for

jreat ligbt
you will
icts infor-
in these
low of any
Final-
bio things
Ir, religion
ly resplen-
ible of the

* Bear and the Lover of Gardens ' shonkl not bo
forgotten by the Restoration. After liaving seen
the throne and the altar which had endured for so
long a time fall together, men thought that by
leaning the one against the other they would be
mutually supported. Grievous error ! the throne
had the support of the altar, but the altar is the
institution of God, and needs no support from hu-
man governments.* AVbether the state be monar-
chial or republican, the altar will remain for ever;
it is superior to and mightier than all revolutions.
Perhaps we needed the Restoration to remind us
that the tree of Christianity has its roots wo^ plant-
ed in the earth, and that no earthly power can
cither destroy or strengthen it."

We see how Alexis manages ^ he enters by his
father's door so as to come out by his own, and he
is extremely cautious not to frighten away that
emeritus freethinker. Plainly, it is in consequence
of these tactics, necessary, perhaps, under the cir-
cumstances, that Gibbon is permitted to figure in
such good company on a programme of apologetic
studies — Gibbon, whom Mr. Guizot had not
thought he could publish in French without ac-
companying him with notes that are a sort of re-
futation. But Alexis was not wrong in thinking

* There are in this assertion inexactitudes which Alexis will
correct after a while. Because the altar can exist quite alone
by virtue from on high, it does not follow that governments
owe it no support, no protection, and that the agreement of
the two powers is not very desirable. Besides, it must be
confessed that under the Restoration the Church had awk-
ward friends whose faults were skilfully made use of by the
revolutionary Machiavelism.

•ih'i

1 5(5

Alexis Clerc,

hi ilii'

that Mr. Guizot'a own v/orks, provided those of
Bulmes were added as a corrective, were a good
enough evangelical preparation for a mind imbued
with the wholly negative philosophy of tho eigh-
teenth century. How did Mr. Clerc receive this
overture ? Probably with rather a bad grace, and
the following letter allows us a glimpse of the pre-
judices Alexis had to deal with :

" My Dear Father : Ic is now more than eight
days since I first sat dovv^n before this sheet of jm-
per with my pen in my hand, and yet I have
written nothing. The importance I attach to what
I want to say to you, and the difficulty of saying it
well, are sufficient reasons to explain my dread of
undertaking it. But T make an effort, and, aban-
doning myself to God's grace, I will speak to you
heart to heart. Am I not addressing you, my kind
father, whose love has made so many sacrifices for
me, and after so many proofs of your love shall I
hesitate to rely upon its causing you to take in
good part what, with a good intention, I may say
that is inexact or misplaced ? Is not my object to
unite our hearts more closely by giving them a
more entire conformity one with the other ?

" I thank you for your letter of September 27,
but permit me to complain that you do not talk
about yourself, at least not enough and as I would
like. What I want is to be made a sharer of those
thoughts which we think to ourselves, which we
conceal from the indiscreet and indifferent, which
it is so sweet to communicate to a true friend.

" I look in vain among those that are about you;

Ui.

Epistolary Controversy

T57

le of
good
biicd
cigh-

this

and
5 pre-

eiglifc

)f pa-

; have

) what

^ing it

ead of
aban-

|:o Yoa
ykind
ies for
sliall I
ake in
ay say
ect to
[hem a

k 27,
)t talk

would

those

icli we

whicli

Ltyoii;

there is no one to receive your confidences, dear
fatlier. You have only your sons, but tliey are not
yet your friends, for you tell them exterior things
and not the interior. All 1 well, I beg you to
treat; us as friends ; luivc no fear, that will not
make us forget that we are your sons. I know
very well that this confidence cannot be command-
ed, it must bo given spontaneously. Perhaps,
however, the first effort will be the last, and you
will afterwards find this intimacy easy and natural.
How I wish we might seem to you worthy of it,
and that we might in every respect deservp the
beautiful title of staffs of your old ago !

"Would you deem it presumption for us to
claim that honor ? But have not we also lived
long enough to understand the questions that may
arise in a soul like yours ? What human ambition
remains to you ? Have you not had experience
enough to know that all calculations are unable to
guide man to his end ? Who better than you
knows the instability, the imimJpahility, and, to
speak candidly and like a Frenchman, the vanity
of all that our efforts exhaust themselves to attain ?
Finally, when I think of your retired life, without
material enjoyments and without distraction, I am
sure that you reflect profoundly on those great ques-
tions which only the happy can forget for a time.

"Yes, most certainly such is your secret
thought, your inmost thought, and it is what I
want from you ; the rest belongs to the kindness
to which I can respond only by gratitude ; to this
I will respond with all the powers of my being.

ill*

mmm

158

Alexis Clerc.

Ml
hi!

. 1

I' il

** Man's destiny, and the means of accomplish-
ing it — behold the double problem which weighs
upon ns until we accept the solution religion gives!
And there is no way of escaping it, of withdrawing
from it ; if we are ignorant of our destiny we will
fail to attain it, and likewise if we are ignorant of
the means of attaining it. To say that man has
no destiny is to say that he was made for nothing,
and as we cannot imagine that his Creator made
him without an object, it is to suppose him created
by nothing or by chance. Not to seek the means
of fulfilling our destiny is to suppose ^that means
have nothing to do with it, or that we will fulfil it
whatever v/e do, or compulsively, as the earth
moves round the sun ; and if we are created for an
end, our duty is then equally fulfilled by vice or
virtue, which consequently are indifferent matters.

''There certainly are some men who defend
these follies, but it is not T^ell proven that they be-
lieve what they defend.

** Nevertheless, there is no lack of light by
which to examine these capital questions, and the
number of proofs that firmly establish their solu-
tions is, m to speak, infinite. History, the sacred
writings, tradition, are the arsenal where they are
stored. One has only to enter ; each will certamly
find the reason that will determine his consent, at
least if he does not stop up the ears of his soul.

**I never forget what you said to me in talking
of Father Lacordaire— namely, that in spite of
the beauty and strength of his thoughts and the
force of his logic, there were many objections to

:iini

Epistolary Controversy.

159

oppose to him ; but that, after all, it was no easier
to oppose objections to a book than to a preacher.
It is not astonishing that we have objections to
oppose to the truths we are even surest of. Tiiere
is not one that we most thoroughly hold which is
not open to objections on sides where we are not
master of it. We must rcsigu ourselves to this and
use things as we have them, sow the wheat al-
though we are ignorant of how it shoots up, put
the bread, in the oven although we are ignorant of
how it bakes, and eat it although we are ignorant
of how it nourishes us.

" Still, we must not think that by a sort of
legerdemain the apologists get rid of difficulties, and
by artifice escape the necessity of answering them.
I am convinced of their ingenuousness and that
when asked they always conscientiously state the
difficulty just as it is, their faith, their religion
being pledged not to dissimulate. Therefore it is
with confidence I tell you that all those objections
can be answered, and that you can easily see all
it is given man to see. It will be enough for you
to simply expose your difficulties to a doctor of our
law.

*' The Church possesses men whose varied talents
and qualities render them useful to the needs of
each individual. If there are priests who are not
much of metaphysicians, nor much of orators, who
only know how to love God very much and to tell
men who already have faith how to make it fruit-
ful and draw from it a more and more lively charity,
there are also others who are more learned and

»«•'■■■

SSf

i6o

Alexis Clerc.

more philosophical than the world's scholars and
philosophers, who seem to be intended expressly for
people who seek the faith they have not, and who
EiilTer from not believing. Tlicy are acquainted
with all those objections, and know what they are
worth. Do not fear to find in them that naked
and simple faith which does not desire to sec clearly
for fear of no longer seemg at all. It is an exceed-
ingly inexact prejudice to imagine that the perfec-
tion of a Christian consists in believing without mo-
tives. Certainly we must believe — that is to say, ad-
mit — things that are not proven; but we must admit
nothing save from very powerful motives. If a
thoughtless discussion is dangerous, if it is at least
useless to raise in the minds of simple and ignorant
persons difficulties which their simplicity and ig-
norance will not allow them to solve, there is per-
haps nothing more useful than an enlightened
faith that renders a thorough account of itself, and
this may be found in numerous priests and apolo-
gists. It is what you want. I earnestly beg you,
dear father, to read the work of a Mr. Nicolas, en-
titled * Philosophical Studies upon Christianity,*
■which Jules must get for me. I hope that you
will discover in it the solidity of the foundations of
our belief.

"J cannot tell you how anxious I am that you
should share our faith. It is this violent desire
which urges me to introduce without your invita-
tion these delicate matters between ns. But should
I not excite you with my utmost strength to seek
happiness where it is to be found ? You will not

Epistolary Cotitroversy,

i6i

and
yfor

who
inted
y are
lakcd
[early

iCGCd-

iGi'fec-
itmo-
ly, ad-
admit
If a
t least
nor ant
Ind ig-
3 per-
il tened
|lf, and
apolo-
you,
,s, cn-
.nity/
,t you
ons ot

^t you
[desire
n-vita-
lliould
seek
111 not

impute all this to the vain pleasure of playing the
TV ise and learned ; you will believe, is it not so ? that
I obey the voice of my heart."

It is evident the heart only has spoken, and its
eloquence must make an imjiression on the old
man who had such positive proof of the respectful
and devoted affection of his noble son. Mr. Clerc
does not refuse to set himself to the study, and he
affirms that he has not taken sides against the
truth. To hear him, he puts no obstacle in the way
of grace.

" My dear father," Alexis wrote, " you tell me
at the first start all the best that can he told — that
you are disposed to yield to grace, that you oppose
to it neither bad will nor indifference. Ah ! my
God, this is all man can do; it is God who does
the rest, and he will certainly do it if you perse-
vere in your disposition, perhaps, and even proba-
bly, not by a miracle, but by a gentler means which
will respect your will and leave you more of the
merit of so difficult a step. Your heart, one day
docile to his inspiration, will adhere to the faith,
and objections will vanish like fog before the rays
of the sun."

But, meanwhile, objections arrive from all quar-
ters. Hero is one of them which Alexis gently
removes. Had Mr. Clerc read Jean Raynaud ?
I do not know, but, like him, ho imagined that our
planet is not the only one inhabited, and the des-
tiny of the inhabitants of the other spheres seemed
to him a problem quite inexplicable from the point
of view of Christian dogma.

:'j;l

i;i;

..['

ii ,iii

162

Alexis Clerc,

" Your opinion about the population of the other
globes," Alexis wrote, " is in nowise a sacrilege ; it
is an opinion which one is perfectly free to hold
or not to hold. But there would then exist be-
tween those intelligent beings and ourselves rela-
tions of which we are ignorant, but of which they
would not be ignorant, and there would be no diffi-
culty in that. The work of God being a whole, its
parts must be co-ordinate, and we are acquainted
with matter while it is not acquainted with us."

Mr. Clerc is a deist ; natural religion suffices
him, and whatever Father Lacordaire may say
about it, he does not conceive the necessity of a re-
velation.

"I come to your prefession of faith," Alexis
writes to him. " I also recognize that doctrine to
be as grand as it is true, and I with the whole
Church adhere to it completely. I think with you
that it has been, and that it is still, a creed adopted
by a large portion of mankind. Many Christian
philosophers have been pleased to find it in the tra-
ditions of all nations; they have drawn from it
a powerful argument in favor of a primitive re-
ligion which all the races carried away with
them when they separated from their trunk. If,
then, Father Lacordaire means by his assertion
that said doctrine is, perhaps, historically the one
which has the least consistence and vitality, that it
is an isolated fact, I am not of his opinion^ and I
range myself on your side.

" But if he means that it has never expressed it-
self by any great historical fact, that it is incapable

. iii*

Epistolary Coiitroversy.

163

of doing so, that it is inefficacious, and that it ha3
no fecundity, I range myself on his side. I see no
political or social institution that can result from
it. On the contrary, I see them resulting from all
other creeds."

We omit the developments. Alexis points out
the institutions that have sprung from theocracy,
Catholicism, etc., and he always returns to this
conclusion, one which agrees with history : Deism
is incapaUe of manifesting itself hy institutions.
Moreover, deism, as we are acquainted with it, is
not the fruit of reason alone, but owes immensely
to the Christian revelation. Therefore he deceives
himself who believes he can with impunity disdain
the help of that supernatural and divine light.

Meanwhile our young ensign receives new orders.
He embarks on the Pelican, and the little island of
Indret, in the Loire, becomes his habitual resi-
dence.

"Now," he writes to his brother, "you ask me
what the Pelican is, and what it does. Here is an
account : The Pelican is a charming little iron
steamer, not warlike in the least ; it is as useful as
it is pretty. Its business is to try the screws used,
as propellers. We are now at Indret, and we are
preparing to take some screws upon which we will
experiment at Paimba3iif. The duty that de-
volves upon mo is almost nothing, and I have
scarcely '"anything better to do than to study for
my own profit."

We shall see presently whether he wasted his
time. This change gives rise to reflections which,

'if
ii>f ■

164

Alexis Clerc.

under n, playful air, conceal a thoroughly Christian
philosophy.

"There, now, I think you are sufficiently
posted ; I have nothing more to tell you, and if
you please we will have a chat. I had made
my nest at Brest ; I had my habits, my manias
perhaps. I am beginning to be something of an
old bachelor. My life had little by little filled up
with all sorts of obligations, and, without having
anything to do, I was very busy. But you know
how it is with me ; and this is why I so much ad-
mire people who are always disengaged in spite of
the burden of their occupations, people like
Madame Pages. In fine, taking all in all, I flattered
myself that I was in quite comfortable quarters,
and I lived tranquil and happy. Why should I
not acknowledge it ? Cheaply happy, if you will,
but nevertheless happy. I would gladly give you
a detailed description if I could by word of mouth.
Behold ! suddenly I have my table cleared ; I must
construct a new existence to see it in a short time
stored away like the preceding one, in the shop
where they keep last month's moons. You will
make fun of me if I tell you that I have discovered
that all things jiass away very quickly, and if I talk
to yon of the flower of the fields. What is sure is
that sailors often have it in their power to verify
this kind of sayings.

"Again, it is sure that when one limits himself
to this conclusion he has not advanced very far,
and to be logical he must draw from it this other
consequence, which is quite as new : it is wise to

Epistolary Controversy.

i65>

provide one's self with a iiost tliafc would not be
shaken by every wind. This is very well, but the
difficulty is to find such a one.

*' I was well off at Brest, I am perhaps better
off here; nevertheless, lam completely disarranged.
What, then, would become of me if I should
meet with some misfortune ? For a long while I
have only labored to advance myself towards that
happy state wherein all these events do not affect
us, but I have not succeeded."

lie found his nest at Indret without much
trouble. There was everything for him in being
the assistant of so distinguished a man as Lieuten-
ant (now Admiral) Bourgois. Clerc appreciated
still more the advantage of finding in that officer a
great comformity of sentiments on all essenlial
points. In addition to this, the little island of
Indret was a charming abode, where he could satisfy
to his heart's content both his need of activity and
his attraction for solitude. Ilis windows looked
out upon the vast buildings appropriated to the
foundry, the forges, the tools, etc., and thence
without any other distraction ho could follow in
the diversity of their labors seven to eight hundred
workmen occupied from morning to night in con-
structing, under the direction of skilful engineers,
all the parts of the superb engines for steam navi-
gation. A po: ' ion of these workmen formed the
fixed population of the island ; the others, the
greater number of them, lived on the left bank of
the livci; .. hich was connected with the island by
a causeway. A fleet of boats transported from one

i66

Alexis Chrc.

ill 'If'

bank to tho otlicr those avIio had their dwellings
on the right bank, cither at Basse-Indrc or at
Coueron. The director and the higher function-
aries of the establishment lived in a chdtean, for
Indret possesses a chateau which goes back to the
feudal period, and which, falling into ruins, was
rebuilt by the Duke de Mcrca)ur in the closing
years of tho sixteenth century. In 1G50 the queen
regent, Anne of Austria, gave it to Abraham
Duquesne, who, with a fleet equipped at his own
expense, had routed the soldiers of La Fronde and
decided tho surrender of Bordeaux. But much
more ancient and precious memories are attached
to the visits of a holy personage to the island,
where he built himself an oratory. Hermeland,
born at Noyon, in Picardy, towards tho middle of
the seventh century, was the founder of the mon-
astery of Aindre, situated on the right bank of the
Loire, in the district that incli.ies at the present
day the parish and corporation of Basse-Indre.
Several times a year, especially in Lint, that great
lover of solitude withdrew to the little island of
Aindrette (Indret), to devote himself with full
liberty to prayer and the exercises of penance.
Such was the origin of the hermitage, which a
faithful historian describes as follows : " This con-
struction is composed of two towers close against
one another and built of rough stones admirably
cemented together. They are surmounted by an
oblong platform representing the figure 8^ to which
the visitor ascends by a staircase winding round the
monument. The platform is covered, doubtless

Epistolary Controversy,

167

for the sake of preserving it, with a thick coat of
mastic. The two towers communicate from the
interior, but each of them has a separate exterior
door. From the platform there is a magnificent
view — the Loire, the country on its right and left
banks, Coueron, Pellerin, Basse-Indre, etc. The
eye takes in an immense horizon, a vast extent of
territory, a superb sheet of water." *

Previous to 1844 Indret had no church. To as-
sist at the divine offices its inhabitants were ob-
liged to cross the broad arm of tlic Loire which
separated them from their parish of Basse-Indre,
or reach with great difficulty the market town of
Saint Jean-de-Boisseau, nearly three miles distant.
At last the necessity of bringing the helps of re-
ligion a little nearer to them was understood. A
hydraulic machine shop was converted into a
chapel, and shortly afterwards raised to a paro-
chial church. It was blessed by Monseigneur de
Herce, Bishop of Nantes, who placed it under the
invocation of St. Herraeland, the natural patron of
the island, and of St. Anne, the cherished pitroH-
ess of the Bretons.

There were scliools at Indret — a professional
school for the instruction of the young workmen,
an elementary school for the apprentices, primary
schools for the boys and girls, and finally, an
asylum. Alexis found there, as well as at Brest,
all he needed to live in imitation of St. Vincent de

* "Indret." By M. Babron, Inspector of the Administra-
tive Services of the Navy ("The Imperial Establishments of
the Fi-ench^Navy ").

i68

Alexis Clcrc.

m i

ill! ■'ii

.'*

Paul — the poor, the ignorant;, and children. To
these let us add the sick, for the marshy exhala-
tions on the banks of the Loire engender malarial
fevers which prevail in that section from spring to
autumn. Is it astonishing, now, if in that little
corner of the earth he was able to display a great
activity of zeal and charity ?

But having his correspondence before us, we
might suppose, to judge f om the length and
gravity of bis letters wherein so many questions
are brought up in turn and sometimes treated ex-
2)rofcssOy that he lived all this time like a Bene-
dictine in the furthest corner of a cell abundantly
lined with books. At all events, excursions on the
Loire occupied his thoughts less than the reading
of St. Augustine and St. Thomas.

Once, however, learning that his father had
passed long and wearisome hours at the bedside of
his sick brother, ho changes his theme and offers
an agreeable diversion by writing what follows ;

** Madame de S tells me that Jules is sick.

The disease is not dangerous, and requires princi-
pally that care should be taken to protect him
from the cold. Still, dear father, I hope you will
keep me informed. It is not very far from Nantes
to you, and I could do my part as sick-nurso.
Nevertheless, I imagine you are not too much oc-
cupied to read what you asked me about the Peli-
can.

*' The steam-screw is made exactly like a cork-
screw. Suppose a screw to be attached to a vessel,
and that the water resists it as a solid body

Epistolary Controversy.

169

would ; then the vessel will advance widi each
turn of the screw just as if it were fastened to an
ordinary one that penetrated a fixed nut. But the
water, instead of resisting the screw like a fixed
nut, yields a little to the pressure it receives,
and in ono revolution, instead of advancing its
whole thread, the screw advances only, let us say,
eighty per cent., as if it had advanced its whole
thread in a nut which had at the same time re-
coiled twenty per cent, of the thread of the screw.
In this case we say that the screw has twenty per
cent, of recoil."

He bravely pursues his demonstration, compar-
ing the pitch of the thread in the screw of the pro-
peller to that of the ordinary screw, and explain-
ing how a fraction of its thread suffices a screw to
exercise a very efficacious pressure on the water.
We will not follow him in this explanation wherein
he brings science down to the capacity of the pro-
fane, like an amiable and always gay yulgarizcr.
lie concludes with considerations upon the advan-
tages of screw vessels, especially those intended for
tow-boats. lie says: " This is what we have proved
in three voyages we have made to Brest, towing
three brigs a great deal larger than ourselves. The
Pelican kills two birds with one stone : she docs a
heavy business, while at the same time she studies
and announces results which are of the highest im-
portance."

But he does not lose sight of his principal ob-
ject, and he returns to it as soon as he can, as we
learn from the following letter :

f.ri'

!»<'

170

Aicxis Clcrc.

.1 M
\ I

"Dear Fattieii : I hope now that on r good
Jules is not only out of danger, but progressing in
a convalcsocnce wlioso tcdiousncss you are reliev-
ing. The fiiiibful watch you keep over him re-
minds me how you were once my sick-nurse.
Jules' good disposition will repay your kind care
better than I did. Tlie ill-nature of the patient
whom nothing satisfies, and who never thinks that
cnousjh is done for him, is not one of the least
troubles of the nurse.

"I have thought I might resume our serious
correspondence, and that you are not too preoc-
cupied to follow it. I have already another letter
nearly finished, which will probably be mailed to-
morrow. It is the beginning of an 'Apology for
the Patriarchs,* which I translate from St. Augus-
tine. As it will bo long, I economize time by send-
ing the translation just as ± have first written it,
perhaps a little obscure sometimes, and in any sort
of French ; there will very likely bo some miscon-
structions of the Latin text. However, I do as well
as I can. It would bo better if 1 had wholly
translated, then revised my translation ; then I
could send it to you all at once. But this would
have been an interminable job, and I do not know
if I would have had the courage to persevere. By
means of immediate and numerous forwardings I
divide my business into little portions which have
the advantage of abridging my task. I take it all
from the work against Faustus the Manichean.
You know that that heresy was perhaps the most
criminal of all, and nothing is more legitimate than

Epistolary Controversy.

171

• good
in:]; in
roUcY-
im rc-
-luirsc.
id care
patient
ks that
lie least

serious
) prcoc-
er letter
liled to-
logy for
Angns-
by send-
ttcn it,
any sort
miscon-
as well
wholly
tlicn I
3 would
ot know
ftre. By
dings I
icli lia\ e
vo it all
licliean.
be most
ate than

the severity with which St. Augustine dcnouncea
its sophisms.

" As you arc perfectly free from tlio errors of
those unfortunate pcoi)lo, altliougli they made al-
most the same objections as you on the subject
of tiic patriarclis, you will understand that you
must leave to tliem what belongs only to them
which I have not been careful to omit.

" I have equally commenced a reply to Jules,
whoso long letter proves tangibly his sanitary im-
provement."

The translation of St. Augustine is accompanied
by this short preface:

"Althongli at first sight, my dear father, your
opinion on the Gubjcct of the patriarchs maybe very
natural — and I frankly confess that I held the
same for a long lime — I have no fear that you will
preserve it after tho pica I am going to make ; and
if I am so confident, it is because I take tliis ])lca
entirely from St. Augustine, and because I shall
give you the commentary and development of that
passage of tho * Confessions ' which seemed ob-
scure to you " (1. iii. c. vii.)

The discussion then is thoroughly on foot. Mr.
Clerc reads St. Augustine's '^ Confessions " ; he also
reads the Bible ; he also reads, jien in hand, tho
*' Philosophical Studio ? " of Auguste Nicolas ; but
these readings, to which he lends himself v/ith a cer-
tain good-will, he pursues, nevertheless, with the
inveterate prejudices of a too faithful disciple of
Voltaire. Objections spring up in crowds in his
mind, renewing each moment the task of his sou

«i
tl

,f'

:.♦■■

172

Alexis Clcrc.

i'f II

i ''.11

l||!

\m\

who continues to acquit lumsclf of it witli the best
heart and the best grace in tlio world. Alexis had
not badly chosen in taking his reply from St.
Augustine's lengthy treatise against Faustus ; he
tiius convinced his father that the great doctor was
very capable of defending himself, and that his
reasoning, sometimes obscure from excessive con-
ciseness, was always just and solid, as could be
proved by referring to the writings in which he had
leisure to develop it.

Wc need not say that avc do not intend to re-
produce Alexis' translation, which fdls more than
thirty-tv/o pages of line writing, and embraces
almost forty chapters of St. Augustine's work.
Mr. Olerc is astonished at such an ardor of zeal ;
lie thinks there is a plan of doing him violence and
carrying him off by storm. Alexis has some difli-
ciilty in reassuririg him.

He writes: "Certainly what I desire more than
anything else in the world is to see you share our
religious faith, and you are sufficiently acquainted
with the Catholic religion to know that if it were
otherwise it would ^ a sign that I had lost that
faith.

'*Ycu ought, then, to perceive that I do not
take a road which seema the shortest in the world
to lead you to it. In tho ilrst place, I repeat that
I have not that pretension. To induce on your
part conscientious meditations is what 1 propose to
myself principally ; then, here and there some suc-
cess on isolated subjects. This is almost the liinit
of my ambilion. 1 know from experience how the

Epistolary Conirovcrsy.

173

he best
xis bad
)m St.
Ais; be
itor was
,bat bis
vc con-
ould be
1 be bad

d to rc-
)rc tbaii
imbraces
's work,
of zeal ;
eiicc and
mc ditll-

)rc tban
iuirc our
luaiuted
it were
lost that

do not
he worbl

l-icat til at
I on your
•oposc to
iinc snc-
Lbc liuiit
bow tbc

road you liave to travel must bo gone ov^i ; notb-
ing isfurtbcr from me tban a wish to seize upon
your will by main force. If you already felt
inclined to believe, I sbould endeavor with ull mv
efforts to determine your inclination ; but for the
present I keep myself, and desire to remain^
although it be more wearisome, in controversy.
For we who have for a longer or sbortcr time
rejected all faitli, wc cannot at once return to a
simple, uncjucstioning faith, which in some sort is
unconscious of itself, and is not aware of the dilli-
cuUies of wbat is proposed to it to believe; our
faith must ])c conscious of itself, and must not be
afraid of facing the greatest difficulties. Its merit
must consist in ai)preciating those difficulties and
surmounting them by an elToit of tbe will. All
your objections are and will be well received ; I
would, if necessary, suggest tbeni to you, to the
end that your decision, Avbich I sincerely bope will
come some day, might be enlightened, firm, and
immovable. It is impossible to understand our
mysteries perfectly. You will bave no more ob-
jections to make only wben you shall have a lively
faith. But notwithstanding tbc obscurity of the
mysteries, notwithstanding tbe difficulties of the
unanswered objections, it is probable tliat you will
Eomc day have enough light in your soul to be-
lieve."

Hero is a letter in which ho talks a little about
everything — first about marriage ; it is his least
anxiety, and his friends tease him to make known
wliat wiU be bis final resolution on tbe subject :

'•1

p!.i

1/4

Alexis Clerc.

I '1^

'* I have for the present no desire for marriage,
and I have done no more here than lend myself to
what an active friendship exacts of me. I have
not been able to go to Nantes since I wrote you,
and I sliould be greatly astonished if that plan
came to anything, for the reason, among others,
that our stay on the Loire will not probably con-
tinue much lonjier. AYith regard to IST —

vrnM

— there

is nothing to say, since I am not willing now to
contract indissoluble ties. I think you cau guess
tlie reasons without my developing them. But if I
should marry, I believe she would be a good se-
lection.*'

The great affair now is the books wherein he
can study religion :

" By my letter of Saturday you have seen that
in the matter of the books you did right, and al-
though, according to my usual fashion, I acted so
as to confuse everything, since I engaged myself
before getting your answer, all is perfectly arranged.
I had sent to buy Godescard again, but I am very
well satisfied that you have bought it. The price
they asked me here was 23 frs. and 25 centimes
($•4.05) ; it was the only one that was cheaper in
Paris ; thus it all happened right. Have the kind-
ness to order it put in a half-binding, which will
be the strongest."

So Godescard, bound or not, is in Mr. Clcrc's
hands, and only waits an opportunity to make the
journey to Indret. And just at tlie proper time
behold Commander Bourgois, who is about to take
a trij) to Paris, offers his services, *' But it is

Epistolary Controversy.

175

nagc,
self to
[ liaye
3 you,
b plan
)thers,
ly con-
- there
now to
I guess
3nfc if I
ood se-
rein be

en that
and al-
io ted so
myself
[ranged,
ini very
^c price
)ntimcs
lapcr in
]e kind-
lich will

Ci ore's
like tlio
jr time
I to take
Lit it is

rather heavy," Alexis observes ; " it would perhaps
be better not to trouble him with it."

*^ Besides," he continues, " if you would like to
read tlioso wonderful histories of the saints, I beg
you to keep them ; I have no urgent need of the
book. Moreover, I would be delighted to hear the
judgment you will pass upon men so extraordinary,
and who are as much further above the greatest
heroes than these are above the rest of mankind.
Some of them in particular were the sensible organs
of Providence in the age in which they lived, and
their lives belong to history properly so called.
Thus, Mr. Augustin Thierry has produced very
pleasing historical works while confining himself
to events connected with St. Gregory of Tours.
The lives of St. Gregory of Tours, of St. Germanus
of Paris, of St. Pretcxtatus of Rouen, of St. Hilary
of Poitiers, of St. Martin of Tours, and of the
other bishops, St. Pelix, St. Clair, St. Pasquier '•'
of Xantes, St. Cesarius of Aries, and of all the
others whose names I do not remember, is the sub-
stance of the history of France in those times of
the invasion and of the Merovingian rule; it is
there that we can best study the spirit of that mon-
archy constructed by bishops, as hives are by the
bees, according to Gibbon's expression.

*•' Whoever is acquainted with St. Tiioraas and
St. Anselm, etc., is acquainted with the whole

* Ho wasQarefiil not fco forgot thi-» bishop, who, nccirding
to tho author of the "Lil'o of Wt. Honneland," was tho
founder of tho monastery of Aindro, and placed at its bead
tho holy abbot whose bcraiita^j Is saowii in tho island of lu
drct..

«i

(•1

;,J

mm^^

176

Alexis Clerc.

4;
..ft,

liii

learning of tlie Middle Ages. St. Louis, St. Ber-
nard, St. Dominic, St. Gregory VII., sum up their
epochs. Finally, if for any reason whatsoever you
wou'ld like to read them, I bog you to keep them
(Godescfrd's ^ Lives of the Siiints' * ) until I start
on a loiig voyage.'*'

The names v/ore repeated from memory, and
somewhat confusedly, which did not agree with a
great historical exactness. Mr. Clerc, who noticed
this, was delighted to catch his son at fault, and we
may guess what was the import of his criticism by
the following reply of Alexis:

** My Dear Father : I must agree with you
as to the -carelessness with which I wrote the names
of some of the saints I mentioned. In fact, I do
not know if Godescard's work gives them the
prominence I attribute to them ; and more, I do
not know the entire life of each, and I had j^rin-
cipally in view that fecundity of the faith which
filled our beloved country wiih saints at the peri-
od when its character, is nationality, had birth.
Those grand figures present themselves, perhaps,
out of their right point of view in a work which
offers them all, and which, perhaps, was not con-
ceived as it should have been to suit you best. I
am acquainted with some of them from their mono-
graphs ; one perhaps gets a better appreciation of
their grandeur in that way. Still, I believe, after
what you tell me, that the chief reason of your
judgment comes from the mistrust witfi which a

* A French translation of Butler.

Epistolary Controversy.

1/7

miraculous occurrence always inspires you, so that
by a sort of rebound you do not accept as quite
certain even what is not miraculous. It is true
that in those histories the natural and the super-
natural are fcund closely connected, mingled, con-
founded, until it is impossible to distinguish them.
With regard to this, I refer to what I have already
written you about miracles. I gave to those pages
at the time all the conscientious study I am capable
of ; I judge of them now from a memory which is
already indistinct, and perhaps I deceive myself in
thinking they answer your present doubts. I add
— what probably may be found in some preface or
note of Godescard — that all the miracles of the
saints are not articles of faith, but those only upon
which the Court of Rome has pronounced in the
process of the canonization of the saint.* More-
over, the rules of criticism can here be rigorously
applied.

" Your parallel between the Abbot Suger and
»Sfc. Bernard may be wholly to the advantage of the
first, without my blaming your judgment in the
least, Suger being certainly very enlightened,
very wise, very prudent, and meriting very strong
praise. But that great man held St. Bernard — I
will not say in the highest esteem ; he regarded
him as a very great saint, as an oracle inspired by
God. I recollect a letter of Suger to St. Bernard
which breathes these sentiments. He also received

* An error : even those are not of faith, and,- in general,
no miracle related by historians is of faith ; but there v<^ould
be a great and culpable rashness in denying those which are
recognized as such by the Holy See.

1.9i*'

liSii^

178

Alexis Ckrc.

with humility and submission the remonstrances of
tliG Abbot of Clairvaux upon his luxury, and there-
upon reformed liis own house and his abbey. If
Su^er liimself is not a saint, I think he is what is
called in the odor of sanctity. Ho did not want
the Crusades. That was natural enough in a mi-
nister who believed he did well in exaggerating
prudence. St. Bernard preached them. It is
doing better still to scorn all human prudence, and
to trust only in God, and it is a duty to act thus
when we are sure that he commands. But that
immense fact of the Crusades is too fruitful a sub-
ject of discussion, and assuredly I shall not add
new subjects to tliose wc already have. St. Ber-
nard, Peter the Hermit, and the Popes, were not
influenced by the spirit of their contemporaries.
Tl]ey directed it ; still more, they incited it j
and not to regard them as the promoters of those
heroic enterprises is to depreciate their part in his-
tory. A minister of peace can, nevertheless, exer-
cise terrible justice. Who has said of St. Peter
that ho was the minister of vengeance and not of
of peace because he struck dead Ananias and
Saphira ? "

As he pursues his theme ideas crowd upon him,
and, almost without knowing it, Alexis fills with
his finest writing a dozen more pages, wherein,
after having expressed himself about the Crusades,
he makes an apology for the macerations of the
saints ; and he sums up his opinions in this final
conclusion : " What I want to tell you once again
is that the admirable charily of a St. Vincent de

Epistolary Controversy,

1 79

Paul is not a sanctity different from tlio austeriues
of a St. Simeon Stylites, the preaching of a St.
Bernard, or the missions of a St. Francis Xavicr ;
all these different forms of merit are fruits of the
same grace, which is their common saj'), and their
roots are planted in the same soil of benediction,
which is the love of God."

Coming from an officer of the navy who has
so much other business on his; hands, these contro-
Yersial efforts have certainly their value. They
manifest a soul nourished with the marrow of
Christianity, and one that daily meditates upon
eternal truths. Moreover, though he never makes
a parade of knowledge, still less of erudition, ho
lets us, when the occasion requires, guess at a
learning as varied as comprehensive, gathered with
discernment from the best sources. With what
competence he speaks of St. Bernard ! This will
surprise us l^ss when we learu that he has read not
only the life of the great Abbot of Clairvaux, but
also his works (part of them at least) in the origi-
nal ; we might have cited some of his letters iu
which, commissioning his father to get him a copy
of St. Bernard, he descants upon the respective
merits of the different editions like a bibliographer
Avho understands his business.

Perhaps the reader has not forgotten how he
admired in La Bruycre that chapter on "Les
Esprits Forts," where the great thinker of the
seventeenth century renders so beautiful a homage
to the learning and genius of a Leo, a Basil, a
Jerome, an Augustine, and where suddenly he

••1

^•'^

>*' . tr

■- +

.V .11

^^11! (if

I^'O

Alexis CI ere.

'.•\

! ^Ib

I !

!l i/lil

w %■&

'W\

liii

cries out : ^' A Father of the Church, a Doctor of
the Church — what titles ! what gloom in their
writings, what dryness, what cold devotion, and,
possibly, what learning ! exclaim tho.^e who have
never read them. What astonishment for all who
liave formed such erroneous ideas of the Fathers
when they discover in their works more variety and
delicacy, more polish, more richness of expression,
and stronger reasoning, brighter flashes of genius,
and more natural graces of style, than can bo
found in the greater part of the favorite modern
books which bring fame and vanity to their au-
thors I What a pleasure to love religion and to
see ?t believed, defended, explained by sucli rare
geniuses, such solid minds, especially when we be-
come aware that for extent of knowledge, for
depth and penetration, for principles of sound phi-
losophy and for their application and develop-
ment, for accuracy of conclusions, for dignity of
language, for beauty of morality and sentiments,
there is nothing, for example, that can be com-
pared to St. Augustine, save the writings of Plato
and Cicero ! "

To know religion, to lovo it, to make it loved,
and in order to constantly increase in the know-
ledge and love of it, to employ his leisure in see-
ing it Relieved, defended, cx2)lained lij siicli rare
geniuses, was the passion that guiied Clerc in the
choice of his readings, and was the reason why he
did not dread that austerity, that scholastic dry-
ness with which certain works of the holy Fathers
are impressed, and which always repel frivolous

Epistolary Controversy*

i8i

minds from them. IIo was abundantly rewarded,
not that ho could acquire by himself exact and
complete theological knowledge on all points ; he
did not cherish that ilhision, and when he dis-
coursed upon matters of faith he was very care-
ful to accompany his ideas with a reserve, and to
invoke as a last re.?ort the intervention of a more
competent judge. When he believcu the thing
pvossible, lie referred to the holy Fathers themselves ;
it was in this way that he made his father read
St. Augustine's *' Conicssions," and ho wrote to
his brother Jules : *' The attentive reading of the
* Confessions ' of St. Augustine will be for a sound
and strong mind a sort of tableau of the struggles,
the progress, and the victory of eternal truth over
the illusions of false wisdom in a great heart and
a great mind." He speaks from experience, eter-
nal truth having thus triumphed in his heart and
mind for ever. It is a fact that, after having care-
fully read all his letters and his most private notes,
those he wrote for himself alone, I have not been
able to find, from the date of his conversion, any
indication of a faith shaken, wavering, or even
only disquieted by returns of doubt, or of involun-
tary assaults of incredulity. Far from Ihat, he
goes on, to use the language of the Psalmist, //'owi
liglit to light ; the supernatural and invisible, of
whicli he possessed by faith the intimate consci-
ousness, are become the light and the food of his
soul. Most certainly this is a great grace ; it is
the reward of the efforts he made to know the
truth as thoroughly as it could be known by a

•1
0'^

-**'

^•H*

•>»

182

A /ex is Clcrc.

mind as richly endowed with natural gifts as his
yras.

God knows that wo have no intention of ad-
vising men of liis profession to devote tlicmsclvcs
as he did to the study of theology and to the read-
ing of the Fathers of the Church. In the fir&t
idacc, they would do nothing of the kind ; and, jn
the second place, of those who might attempt it,
the greater number would have neither the con-
stancy, nor especially the leisure necessary, to per-
severe in such a course. But no one should think
to exempt himself from a care about the great
questions of the future — that is, of eternity. Re-
Uect, then : "v^e are embarked on this ocean of time,
and the ship sails, always sails, without its being
possible for us to suspend or retard its progress for
a moment. Where will we be at th3 end of the
voyage — on what shore shall wo land ? Before us,
yonder whither we are hastening, is there really
only the unknown ? Yes, answers the inGdel, and
he falls asleep upon that response which contains so
little to inspire hope or courage. But the believer
says that that shore there beyond, though hidden
from our gaze, is known to us by faith, and he
affirms that God sent his own Son on earth to re-
veal the mysteries of the future life, and to guide
ns surely towards the port of salvation. It is well
worth the trouble to reflect and examine whether
those who have this faith and hope arc not in the
right. Certainly there is danger of deceiving our-
selves ; a' some given moment the error, which is
of consequence, may be for ever irreparable.

Epktolary Controversy. , 3

Clerc choso the n-ood mrf o».,i 1
of ■> T.I- ^ ^ I^^^^'^^^^^iG never repented

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CHAPTER VI.

PRELUDES OP VOCATION— PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER

VOYAGE.

January 1, 1850, Clerc was promoted to the
' rank of lieutenant. He had jnst entered hia
thirty-first year. Henceforth, thanks to his tea
years' experience of the sea, and thanks also to the
mathematical knowledge he had found a use for
in the workshops of Indret and on board the
Pelican, the career which lay before him was pleas-
ant, easy, and sure, and he lacked nothing, hu-
manly speaking, to make him satisfied with his
lot.

But his heart had aspirations for something
more, which ho thought he ought to listen to. Did
God require him to leave the navy to attach him-
self more closely to his service ? This did not yet
appear quite plain, but he was too frank to dis-
semble the thoughts that disturbed him, too faith-
ful to grj-ce not to be ready for everything.

Being in Paris in the spring of 1850, he spent
the week after Good Shepherd Sunday (second
week after Easter) in retreat, under the direction
of Fathfci de llavignan. After a mature examina-
tion he asked to be received into the Society of
Jesus, which he had long been acquainted with,

184

Prelude's of Vocation.

185

thing

Dia
liiin-
>t yet

dls-
faith-

spent
iccond
cction
,mina-
^ety of
with,

and towards which he felt drawn. But Father de
Ravignan was not a man to be hasty in decisions of
this kind. When there had been question of his
own vocation, which cut short a brilliant career
hardly commenced, being vigorously opposed by
his family, he had temporized, while his resolution
was not shaken for a moment. He thouglit Clerc
might do the same ; and, in spite of the impatient
ardor of his desires, Clerc had to wait.*

We have some notes in his handwriting bearing
the date of this retreat. First come some reflec-
tions upon the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic
belief of which wo still awaited the solemn deflni-
lion that four years later was to rejoice the hearts
of all Mary's faithful servants and children. Then
there are some considerations of a dogmatic charac-
ter on the eternal fate of the damned, and on the
infinite expiation of Jesus Christ, tlia common pa-
trimony of all mankind.

Further on, exactly in the middle of a page de-
voted to several subjects, is this invocation which
casts a light upon tiie rest : " St. Margaret of Gor-
ton a, pray for me !"

Doubtless Clerc during i is retreat read the life
of that saint, who till the age of twenty-five was a

* Before leaving the residence of the Ruo de Sfevres, whero
he had made his retreat, he whs presented to the community,
and took leave of tliem in terms which corresponded well with
the desire he had to remain if he had been allowed. The father
minister wiote in his journal cr Diarium: "April 24 — Our
young officer, Mr. Clerc, finishes his retreat and takes leave of
us after having greatly edified us. Ho warmly expressed his
gratitude for the edification he had himself receive*! and the
good he believed ho had gained from his retreat." Tliis is the
only example the Diarium Riv«s us of so special a mention, and
is a contrast with its usual laconism.

«j'

1 86

Alexis Clerc,

great sinner; and, in the sincerity of his repen-
tance, recognizing that lie had commenced lika
her, he Wishes to finish also like her, and claims
her for his patroness.

The concluding lines revolve upon these words —
love and siifferiwj. lie has understood that with-
out sorrow he cannot live in the love of God — sine
dolore non vivitur in amove — and that noble love
has with him all the qualities which the pious au-
thor of the 'Imitation" epeaks of in sncli elo-
quent terms : "Love feels no burdens, values no
labors, complains not of impossibility, because it
conceives that it may and can do all things
("Imit.," 1. iii., c. v., v. 4, Dq M'lrahili effeckt
Divini Amoris, Cballonsr's Truns.)

On returning to Brest, where his duties again
keep him, lie resumes with more fervor than over
his life of austerity and good works. He acts
towards the world as a man who expects nothing
from it, and who has burned his ships like Cortes.
The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament is come. Clerc
deems that his place is in the procession following
the footsteps of his God, and ho escorts the can-
opy, candle in hand and wearing his uniform.
This does not please everybody, and the rumor of
it reaches as far as Paris. We may imagine the
stupefaction of Mr. Clerc, with his idea that re-
ligion should be confined to the precincts of the
templo and rigorously forbidden all exterior mani-
festation. Others besides him, among them some
fervent Christians, held the same opinion, and it
took a good many hard lessons before they would

iii .'

' i

over
acts
tiling
ortes.
Clerc
)wing
1 cau-
orm.
or of
le the
t re-
t the
ani-
Bome
nd it
ould

Preludes of Vocation.

187

at last allow to Catholic worship a little place in
the open air. Those who are desirous that it
should have a large place are very bold.

Naturally Alexis is charged with exaggeration.
He defends himself but feebly, believing that he
has his faults, that he is not yet entirely rid of the
old man, and that he may spoil by mixing himself
with it the good for which he is ^.^ earnest. But
he will not admit that ho is wrong on the strength
of reproaches aimed at once against the most au-
thorized practices of the Church, and the examples
of the saints which he never loses sight of. To
be somewhat of a fool in the eyes of the world
does not displease him, for he knows that man
saves his soul and gains the heart of God by gene-
rously embracing iha folly of the cross.

We shall discover these sentiments in a letter ad-
dressed to his father from Brest :

" As to me, dear father, 1 can only approve what
you say. I have the fault of always wanting to go
ahead of others in whatever I undertake, and I
agree with you that I ought to try to correct it.
Whether the thing itself be good or bad, it is al-
ways bad to want to bo first. But you know well
that place has nothing to do with it. Vv^hether I
were in Paris, Brest, or China, I would always
have this detestable spirit of vanity. I must fight
it wherever I am, on shore or at sea. I can do so
better on shore, for I have all the spiritual
helps that I would lack at sea. Unfortunately, it
is not a small matter to conquer one's self, especi-
ally in what concerns pride.

«n"

.-'*♦•' ii

■1'

i88

Alexis Clerc.

"It is very possible that this detestable senti-
ment may have inspired a large part of my actions,
which, consequently, "were good only in appear-
ance ; but if it is necessary to purify the intention,
it is likewise necessary to persevere in what will be
very good when the intention is purified.

" I must also tell you that, if I have no servile
and necessary occupations, I have, nevertheless,
enough to do, and I am not idle. People are ready
to believe that devotees create for themselves a
sort oi farnientef of lazy idleness, where, like the
rat, they hide away from all troublesome busin^ess,
and then, in that agreeable detachment from all
the things of the world, some — the monks, who
eat well, sleep well, and hire singers to do their
chanting for them — grow fat visibly. Others,
having their minds always fixed upon one same
idea, or, rather, upon the search for a being who
does not exist, are sunk like the fakirs in the sha-
dows of an abstraction which destroys all reality.
They do me the honor to class me among the se-
cond sort — the poor fools who take the thing seri-
ously. Bntall this is not the truth. There are
some ignoble beings who throw holy things to the
dogs ; there are some religious maniacs ; there are
some vague and stubborn minds that lose them-
selves in abstractions. If they have a certain
amount of natural energy and enough pride, they
are the material of which hercsiarchs are made.
And, finally, there are some visionaries who dream
about nothing, and believe they almost see the sub-
stance of the Trinity. With God's grace and by

Freludcs of Vocation.

189

vile
ess,
ady
3S a

tlie

less,

I all

who

their

lers,

amo

who

sha-

lity.

e se-
seri-
arc
the
are
ibem-
rtain
they
adc.
ream
suh-
d by

submission to my guides, I hope to escape these
dangers for the future, even as I think I have
escaped them up to the present.

" Certainly, meditation is recommended, but
nothing is less vague ; we must always draw some
practical conclusion from it, and we must bo much
more careful to seek for an affection, a movement
of the heart towards God, than for the sublimest
mental conceptions. What can be wiser, more pru-
dent, further removed from the culpable state of
the visionary, the heresiarch, or the maniac ? Our
religion is positive ; it is not an abstraction. Our
God is not vague and undetermined ; he is inac-
cessible and infinite in his essence. It is not well
to try to scrutinize the mystery with which he hides
himself from our eyes, but in Jesus Christ he is ac-
cessible and within our reach, especially within
reach of our hearts; and all our religion consists in
imitating Jesus Clirist and in loving him.

" As to the cxcesaively exaggerated asceticism, I
am puzzled to know what I can have done to in-
spire this opinion. It can only have been derived
from some conversations. We must not attach too
much importance to these. As you know, while not
talking absolutely without reflection, I do not al-
ways weigh my words sufficiently to be sure that
with a little more reflection I will not disavow *
them. I do not just now remember what I have
said to provoke this judgment of me.

"Lee the world blame my conduct ; it is very
natural that it should, and I am not in the least in
arrears to it; for, if it blames me for seeking

.■^m'^

nJ"

.-?:'

iiiii"'

\m.

i|iL

190

Alexis Clerc.

I! J.,

neither my interest uor my pleasure, I blame it
precisely because it does seek both the one and the
other. In this matter there is no way of compro-
mising ; one sajs white and the other black; there
is only to choose, and my choice is made; but
surely this is not what you blame, you who are so
little of the world. Let the exaggeration pass,
then ; I do not say * Yes ' or * No * to it, for I am in
ignorance of what you mean by it, and I would
like to know where to lay hold of this new enemy.
It is very vague to say that one is exaggerated, but
if you will plainly designate what appears so to
you, I promise to pay serious attention to it. I
think that my conduct during my journey, and
my journey itself, proves that I am mistrustful of
my own ideas, even when they are directed towards
the purest good. Excess is not a good ; on the
contrary, it is an evil. I wish to avoid it like any
other evil. Excess in this matter springs from a
presumption which embraces more than its arm-
ful, as Montaigne says. It can hold nothing with
a firm grasp, and it speedily casts the soul into a
disgust and discouragement that render it incapa-
ble of the easiest things. But if we must have no
l^resumption we must also have no cowardice, and
we must, if we would avoid the greatest dangers,
undertake, with our confidence firmly fixed in God,
all that is possible tons. Exaggeration has in it
something personal, human, which it is easy, at
least for others, to perceive. Pure zeal has some-
thing holy which reveals its divine origin. But let
us stop here."

Preludes of Vocation,

191

the
any
om a
arm-
witli
nto a
capa-
vc no
I, and
bgers,
God,
in it
jy, at
lomc-
lut let

' Meanwliilc a new perspective begins to appear
in Ihe distance. Clcrc, on board the Dugucseliii
■which is being unrigged, writes to liis father during
the first days of August: "I am expecting a more
important expedition, which will perhaps take mo
very far away and keep me a long time ; but as no
orders have been given yet, I will defer speaking of
it more explicitly until I have something positive
to tell you."

At the same time — a singular thing — ideas of
vocation keep coming into his mind, and assume
more and more consistency. This is what afflicts
Mr. Clerc, who sees his Alexis, on the one hand
repelling all jilans of establishment, and on the
other pursuing his career with the resolution, al-
ready perhaps irrevocable, of abandoning it at the
very time it smiles upon him more brightly than
ever — a cruel thing for a father who has reposed his
dearest hopes upon the head of a tenderly-loved
son, and who sees the edifico of his happiness thus
crumbling before him.

Bat there has been nothing done as yet, and he
hopes to ward off the blow. lie begins, therefore,
by attacking his son about his present resolutions,
and about that kind of invisible wall he has put
between himself and the world, evidently in the
hope of one day reaching a positive separation.

Alexis, pressed so closely, defends himself warm-
ly, and makes it clear that ho will not yield an
inch of ground. • •

'* It was with pain," ho wrote to his father,
'* that I learned from your letter of the 3d that

V'2

■'i ' 'J

,4-^^'
^■i^

1."

192

Alexis Citrc,

what appeared to you an exaggeration of tlevotioii
was what seemed to mc pcrhiaps tepidity, and this
on account of tlio different ways in which we looL;
at things.

" Really I cannot change my conduct in those
points that are conformable with my faith. I
would much have preferred that you had found
something else to scold me for ; I could then have
proved how anxious I am to i^lease you. It was,
perhaps, the foresight that it would be impossible
for me to make a concession in that matter whicli
led you to undertake to show me that, even look-
ing at things hypothetically from my point of view,
you could see them differently. You refer to your
observations on the subject of the attempt I made
in Paris to leave the world. I have reread them
with great attention, as well as those in the present
letter. They may be reduced to two heads: the
first that celibacy is a state contrary to nature, and
the second that I have a career already secured
which I abandon. As I do not remember to have
sent you any reply, you will pardon me for this
one. If it has not the merit of persuasion it will
perhaps have for you that of novelty.

'* Marriage is for the species what food is for the
individual — it is its means of preservation. Hence
it is for the species a natural law, and it is, as your
note expresses it, the commandment which God
gave in saying to our first parents, 'Increase and
multiply.' Thus, I grant, you have quite satisfac-
torily established that marriage is a natural duty
for the species, and that consequeutly it is right.

Preludes of Voeation.

193

)tioii
lliis

tliose

1. I

[ound

I have

t was,

)ssiblc

wliicli
look-

l view,

your

[ made

. tliem

present

Ls: the
e, and
ecu red
bave
r this
it will

If or tlie

Hence

IS your

Ih God

and

itisfac-

il duty

right.

But what regards the species docs not impose an
obligation on all the individuals. Just as in an
army, where there must bo drummers and color-
bearer?, it is not necessary that all should be
drummers or color-bearers, so with regard to the
maintenance and preservation of the species, etc."

The reader sees the conscqacnco drawn : it is not
necessary that all should be fathers of family.
Bat allow us to hereupon open a parenthesis.

"\Vc are aware of the intii^ate acquaintance
Alexis kept up with St. Thomas, and his habit of
liaving recourse to the great doctor for answers to
the objections that came to him from all sides.
Ilerc we catch him i;i the act, and at the moment
he writes these lines, original enough, and even
impressed with a certain gaiety, he has his St.
Thomas open before him, either the " Theological
Summa" (2a. See., q. 152, a. 2, ad primum) or the
*' Summa '' against the Gentiles (1. iii,, c. cxxxvi.) ;
for it is there we find the distinction of the things
necessary to the preservation of the individual and
of the things necessary to the preservation of the
species, a distinction which gives rise to a reason-
ing identical with that of Alexis on the subject of
marriage, although St. Thomas does not speak of
color-bearers and drummers.

This argumentation is, moreover, irrefutable ;
and it is carious that, several years later, Mr. Jules
Simon likewise employed it in a work that takes
only into consideration natural morality. He does
not quote St. Thomas, but evidently he has read
him, and he writes in these very words : " Not-

ii."*^'

194

Aifxis Clcrc,

"wilhstautlin^' all tliat may bo said about the incli-
nation of nature, naturo not needing that all indi-
viduals sliould reproduce themselves, can permit
contincnco to bo not only possible but easy."
AVhcnco ho concludes that it is neither just nor
2)hiI(),soj>Itic((I to condemn the state of ccJibacy
(" Lc Devoir," first edition, p. 1^^).

Mr. Clcrc, who called himself a philoST)phcr, bad
then to deal with a strong opponent ; his son un-
dertook to pursue him into his own territory and
to overcome him with his own arms.

" There you have the philosophical reason,"
adJs Alexis, **'but the practice and judgment of
the Church arc much more conclusive, and you
cannot doubt that she liighly esteems celibacy. It
is not of precept, it is true, otherwise marriage
would bo forbidden, and, on the contrary, she de-
clares that marriage is a holy state ; but it is of
counsel, and better than marriage. Assuredly you
know that such always has been and always will
be the sentiment of the Church regarding this
matter. However, your knowledge of the fact will
be confirmed by reading the seventh chapter of the
First Epistle to the Corinthians.

" It is not for the sake of having a controversy
that I tell you these things, but I do not want you
to be mistaken about my sentiments. We are
both agreed that I must waif. That decision
seemed wise to you and it must be followed.

" How I would like to tell you of the magnifi-
cent hopes it allows me a glimpse of. But 1 would
wound your feelings, and, far from filling your

Frchuics of Vocation.

^95

you

13 will
this
tt AviU
)f the

)versy
it you
jc are
Icision

ignifi-

•ould

your

heart v^'ith joy, would cause you only trouble and
sorrow. Nevertheless you oiiglit, after the pru-
dence I flatter myself I liiivo shown, to believe tiiat
I will continue to be guided by it. It is probable
that I shall follow the natural course of events,
that I shall leave to God to put me, so to speak,
with his own hand where ho wants mo to be, if
that is not where I am. 1 have no purpose of
taking upon myself to quit my place by an act of
my own will.

"This leads mc to reply to your second observa-
tion : that I abandon my career. If I abandon it, it
is because I am not attaclied to it. Once this
abandonment is voluntary and Fpontaneous it can
be no misfortune. I remain a sailor with the dis-
position of not being one to-morrow if God so
pleases. I assure you that giving up the profession
for that reason appears no sacrifice to me."'

But Mr. Clerc does i.jt deem himself conquered,
and he returns to the charge as vigorously as ever,
it would seem, which perseverance procures him an
entire letter on the celibacy of the priesthood.
Ilowever, he refrains for the moment from directly
attacking his son's resolution, for the hitter adds,
after having valiantly defended his thesis: **Wo
have kept outside of the personal question, and wo
are quite agreed as to what I have to do now —
namely, remain a bachelor. You yourself consider
this very wise. By my return from this voyage
water enough will have flowed under the bridge,
and I do not look so far into the future. ^ Sufficient
for the day is the evil thereof.' " . * •, ,;> ,

c:\

4«8C

MP *y

*', 'J

«•'

. 1
i3

it*'-'

.,.^*'

.<«•

■:•

196

Alexis Clcrc.

^t is, therefore, only a truce, but one to wliicli
the long voyage now talked of promises consider-
able duration. Each of tlie combatants counts
npon resuming hostilities at some opportune time,
and gaining more euccoss than in the past.

But what about this voyage, vaguely announced,
and which rather pleases our Alexis, alihougli he
considers his naval career as nearly fiuislicd, and
although even the most legitimate ambition seems
no longer to have any hold upon him ? Evidently
this project must not only be agreeable to his
tastes, but of a nature to satisfy the secret aspira-
tions of his heart and to put no obstacle in the
way of his vocation. And truly God had arranged
everything according to his wishes in a manner
to give him entire security on that essential point,
without his having had to think of and imagine
combinations of circumstances which probably
would never have presented the same advantages.

A still recent friendship, but one on which ho
could perfectly rely — i fiiendship founded on con-
formity of views, si.'ntimGuts, and religious princi-
ples, consecrated twenty years later hy the same
vows pronounced at the foot of the same altars —
this was what providentially intervened and fur-
nished him the means of i)ursuing his generous de-
sign with an always uniform ardor along a road
apparently quite off the route, and which even
seemed to be made on purpose to take him faraway
from his goal.

It was in Brest in 18-48 that Clerc met Comman-
der Robinet dc IMas, captain of a frigate, his elder

Preludes of Vocation.

197

in years and in the service and his superior in rank,
but his equal by charity which drew them 10-
getlier. They both belonged to a cluh (such
was the language of the day) organized for the
(flicers of the different naval corps in order to
withdraw them from cafe life. Clerc, then an
ensign, was a member of the bureau and rendered
as secretary important services, as is attested by
his friend, wlio recommends ns to be silent about
the part he himself took in that good work. The
commander having been called to Paris, in the
course of the same year, to sit in the Court of Ad-
miralty, Alexis hastened to put him in communi-
cation with his father and his brother Jules, lie
wrote to his father with his expansive cordiality:
"You ought to have seen Sir. dc Plas, captain of
frigate. You would have been pleased with him,
for he is the finest specimen we could send to
Paris. It would not be prudent to buy the whole
lot from this sample. I am very lonely here since
ho is gone, and to console myself for having lost
him I have to keep thinking every moment of the
good he can do in his new and important posi-
tion."

The position of the commander became still
more important, and his influence still mc:"e ex-
tended, when the brave Admiral liomain Desfosses
appointed him chief of the council of the Minis-
ter of the Navy. It was the era of generous
projects, and of a policy more Christian than tiio
one we had lately seen at work, and whoso weak-
ness we had experienced under the monarchy of

-i«f1

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;i''^

S*'*'

.„ 1'-

1 ^ ■'

:,-!.' f

, ■i*'*

1: '

.,1«^

_,*«

1
1

iiir ''

' ■ ■ i '- *

198

Alexis Clerc.

1830. Let that triumphant return of Pius IX. to
Rome be remembered ; it was a triumph prepared
by the sword of France, and applauded in both
hemispheres not only by Catholics but by all true
friends of justice and right. How strong we felt
then ! A short time had sufficed, on almost the
day after a mad revolution, to give us back our as-
cendency and restore us to our rank among the
European powers. Neither our treasure nor our
armament was increased by the fall of Louis
Philippe ; but we marched the first in. the path of
honor, and never was our flag more respected tlian
on the day when it bowed beneath the benediction
of the Pontiff-King.

It is rot astonishing to see at such a period issu-
ing from the council of the Minister of tlie Navy
the i^lan of an expedition having for its object the
visit of the Catholic Missions, to which our brave
sailors, according to a truly national tradition,
owe a protection which had too often failed under
the last reign. Mr. de Plas, selected for this most
honorable service, wished to have Alexis with
him. We can guess how the latter welcomed the
overture made him to that effect. While waiting to
enroll himself in the holy militia, nothing could
please him better than to be, under no matter what
title, the auxiliary of the priest, and especially of
the missionary. The news being communicated
to Mr. Clerc by Eather do Rivignan, Alexis was
free to enter into explanations with his father, and
licro is what he wrote him in a letter dated Scp-
tembar 5, 1850 :

l'V%

Icould

what

Illy of

[cated

Is was

, and

Scp-

Preludcs of Vocation.

199

"I como now to the project of the voj-ago. Do
Plas, in fact, proposed this expedition to me, and,
as you may well believe, I accepted with all my
heart. Indeed, nothing could please me better. If
I am to remain a sailor, (here is nothing I could
like more than serving the Church as directly a3
possible.

" Since you have learned the same thing through
Father do R.ivignan, it must be that it is consi-
dered as fully decided upon. As for me, I have
had no news about it for a long time. Do Plas
left for Rome on the 8th of August, and I have
received nothing from him since. He undertook
this journey to obtain instructions and orders from
the Holy Father; but the matter is not yet talked
about, and nobody knows of it excepting those to
whom I have made overtures to secure their con-
currence. The vessel even has not yet been chos-
en. However, I have a strong faith that the ex-
pedition will become a fact. It' I do not deserve
tlie honor of forming a part of it, notwithstanding
the great satisfaction it would afford me, I think I
am disposed to be resigned. As you tell me, it u
best not to trust to the most flattering hopes, and
this is easy to one who is thoroughly convinced that
Providence orders all events for the greater good
of his children.

" IIow happy I should be, dear father, if you
could unite with me in appreciating this beautiful
project ! The history of our beloved country
shows it as being alwjiys in the past centuries the
shield and sword of the Church. Clovis defeated Ari-

i ■ ;:

:!1W

l;|, .,>

ii..

Sj!

|:iMMi
I" *&(

2CX)

Alexis Clerc.

auism ; Cliaries Martel, Moliammcdauism ; Mont-
fort, Maniclicism; the League, Protestantism. Since
the Crusades, in wliicli the most illustrious were
the French, the ramo of Frank is used every-
where among barbarians to signify Christian ;
and France, acce^iting this naturalization, has al-
ways taken upon herself the defence of all op-
pressed Christians.

*' Thus, our forces constantly protecting yirtuc,
devotedncss, and weakness, the namo of France
was blessed throughout the earth. It was pro-
claimed the generous and chivalric nation. Oh !
that those days might return, that we might un-
derstand what is our mission, and. how our destiny
is the grandest God has ever given to a nation I
In giving us to be the defenders of the Church, of
the Popes, of the apostles who bear his Gospel to
the confines of the earth, he has made of France the
right arm, the temporal strength of his spiritual
kingdom. There is not, there cannot be, a more
exalted destiny for a state. Onr autliority should
be universal, like that of the Pope ; it belongs to
us to protect Christians and missionaries every-
where."

When he received the assurance that the expedi-
tion would certainly be made, and that he would
belong to it, he fairly jumped for joy, and, borrow-
ing of the Blessed Virgin her song of thanksgiving,
he cried out : ^^ Miujnificat anima meet Domimim.-^
It is true that in this, as in everything else, he did
not see his ideal fully realized ; the plan of visit-
ing the Catholic Missions was subjected to extenuu-

Preludes of Vocation.

201

tions and alterations, wliich deprived it in his eyes
of a little of its grandeur and of its religious as-
pect. But enougli of its first meaning remained for
him to find in it a noble employment of his abilities,
and for him to congratulate himself upon being,
Avhilo waiting for something better, associated with
an enterprise from which much might be expected
for the prosperity of several important Christian
colonics on the coast of Africa and on the different
shores of the extreme East.

''I think," he wrote in a letter of October 19,
" the end of my waiting is near, and any day I
may receive orders to j jin the ship. It seems they
have selected a steam-vessel, the Cassini, which is
at Lorient, and it is there we will go to make pre-
parations. The cruise may not be what we would
have wished ; it may perhaps be confined to ^ndia
and China, instead of taking in the whole world. It
is probable, also, that the commander will not bo
allowed to choose his men, nor all of his offi-
cers. Finally, I fear for my part, without know-
ing anything positive, that too diplomatic an air
will be given to the expedition ; I would prefer to do
things more squarely, and to say quite stupidly that
we are going to help and protect the Jesuits. It is
true that for France diplomacy and the protection
of the Catholic religion are, to people who have seen
a little of the world, one and the same thing. I
would have liked, however, that they should not
have been afraid to proclaim our intention. Cir-
cumspection, prudence, is not my strong point,
perhaps ; I confess that I do not like these con-

g,^*4

ii'

l!!li

202

Alexis Clerc,

cessions to u misled public opinion. Still, I reas-
sure myself by thinking of the chief who is to com-
nuind us, and with whom, I am certain, tliis
worldly prudence will never degenerate into weak-
ness.

" They say the vessel is admirably adapted to the
purpose in many ways ; it is almost new ; the
boiiers are on shore being repaired, and after this
the Cassini will be ready for a long voyage. But
this will take some time, and I venture to say that
it will be about three months before we can sail.

*''Iam not quite sure what will bo my business
during this time, whether I shall be occupied with
the equipment of the ship, or shall devote myself
to acquiring the knowledge that will enable me to
bring back from so fine a voyage documents inter-
esting to science. I am ready for whatever de
Plas wishes ; in any case, I joyfully await the
moment of making myself useful. I am not too
much afraid of inaction, and ennui scarcely ever
torments me; but my uselessness weighs upon me,
and 1 am rather ashamed of living with so little
trouble."

God knows whether he was idle or not ; and as
to living with little trouble, if he was exempt from
this through the moderation of his wants, he knew
how to give himself for others ay much and more
trouble than people who are stimulated by their
own interests usually take. But this was nothing
compared to what he wished to do, he being one of
those who, after having conscientiously performed
their task, render themselves justice by saying :

.hing
ne of
rmed

Preludes of Vocation.

203

*' We tiro unprofiUiWe servants; wc Lave done
that which we ought to do" (Luke xvii. 10).

And now comes a first attemjit of Clerc, en-
dorsed by the commander of Uie Cassinl, to give
the projected expedition as Catholic a character as
possible. Alexis was acquainted with the Rev.
Father Rubillon, provincial of the Society of
Jesus in Paris, the same who has since been assis-
tant for France in Rome. With full confidence in
the zeal and charity of that worthy superior, he
writes to him under date of October 19 :

**Reveke]s^d Father: I thank you from the
depth of my heart for your most affeciionate letter.
I now undertake this long cruise with a feeling of
perfect security, and in the hope that God will
make it serve to his glory and our spiritual profit.
Commander de PhisoHcred in Rome to take on the
Cassini a delegate from the Holy Father to ex-
amine and judge of the condition and wants of the
universal kingdom. The Ministry has itself made
the same proposal to the nuncio in Paris. It is
probable that a plan which seems so advantageous
to the Church will bo accepted ; still, it is not cer-
tain. However that may bo, this delegate, who,
perhaps, will not be a Frenchman, may have visits
to make which will keep him absent from the ves-
sel for long periods, the vessel being for him only
a moans of conveyance, and you understand, Rev-
erend Father, that we want a priest for ourselves ;
therefore we have recourse to you.

**The law relative to chaplains does not apply
to vessels like ours ; we will be rejoiced at this

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misfortune if wo can derive from it the ad-
Yantage of having a Jesuit. As the Government
will have nothing to do with this choice, it will
quite willingly keep itself ignorant of what does
not concern iL

" The Father shall mess with and be provided
by the commander ; we claim all the other ex-
penses, and wo will endeavor to return him in as
good condition as when he was delivered to us. In
our difficulty of doing more and of securing to our
chaplain the same emoluments as though he were
legally and administrativchj embarked, it is only a
priest who has made a vow of poverty, and whom
his order will take back after the expedition is over,
who can suit us. This consideration will perhaps
influence the Bisl'op oi Vannes, from whom the
chaplains that sail from this port receive their
faculties, to waive his right of appointing a priest
of his diocese, and grant readily to a Jesuit Father
what could not bo accepted by a secular priest.

*^But if the exterior difficulties seem easy to
overcome, there must, however, be weighty reasons
to induce your Society to relinquish a Father for
three years to so small a number of the faithful as
compose the equipage of the Cassini — 130 men.

**Well, in the first place, the vessel will fulfil
her important misdon so much better in prcportion
as the men will be more religious, and it is certain
that their progress in piety will not be useful to
themselves alone. But the principal reason we
have to offer you is that the vessel will in reality,
as was said at first, make the tour of the world,

Frcludcs of Vocation.

205

uer

ulfil
tion
tain
il to
we
lity.

and that, consequently, the Father you will give
us as our chaplain can at the san^c time be your
visitor-general, doing for all your houses near the
coasts what, I understand, is done in your different
European provinces. Thus the Society will itself
derive some profit from what will be to us such a
very great advantage.

" Keverend Father, I address you this request in
the name of Commander do Plas ; ho will be m
Paris on the 28th of October, and will see you him-
self relative to it; but as some delay may be re-
quired to decide the matter, ho has desired me to
write to you in order not to lose time. "We expect
the yessel to bo ready to sail by the end of Decem-
ber.

"I bog you, dear and venerated Father, look
favorably upon this project, in which we are equal-
ly jealous of our own good and of that of the
Society. It is clear that the selection of a Father
for this double function of chaplain and visitor
belongs exclusively to your Very Reverend Father-
General, but de Plas has told me to mention, with-
out in any way insisting upon it, the name of
Faiher de Sainte Augele, who is, he thinks, at
Dole.

" I pray God to make you favorable to our
plan.

"Your most respectful and dutiful son in our
Lord Jesus Christ, A. Clerc."

What a spirit of faith and what a heart of an
apostle ! What respect for all proprieties, especial-
ly for the proprieties of the religious life I We

a* ' i

■^-

206

Aifxis Clerc,

iXIHIll

feel that Clerc's filial submission to his venerablo
correspoudcnt is r.ot a mere empty phrase, and
that without being bound by vows he finds in it a
foretaste of reh'gious obedience. All, however, was
not to be to the liking of Commander do Plas so ably
seconded by his lieutenant. The Cassini did not
make the tour of the world, and no Jesuit em-
barked in her. But this double disappointment
was compensated by the presence of two venerable
bishops, accompanied by several priests, and by the
services which the expedition, having once reached
Cliina, rendered to one of the most interesting of
the Jesuit missions in that extreme East.

The preparations were long and laborious. The
officers were recruited quietly, without any open
preference, and the choice was as fortunate as could
reasonably be expected, taking into account the
administrative obstacles.

" The Cassini is not yet ready to start," Alexis
wrote to his brother Jules early in November (1850);
" her boilers are still on shore, and it will be a month
before they can be put in place ; our departure
does not seem to me possible before the beginning
of January. The Cassini is a vessel very similar
to the Caiman; she has already been tried by a
voyage which did not injure her in the least and
tested the quality of all her belongings. The en-
gine is a good one, and has been thoroughly in-
spected and made equal to new.

** We will set out with a good many passengers
of all descriptions, even nuns and bishops — the
now Eishop of Bourbon, where until now there has

Preludes of Vocation,

207

^y a

len-
i li-
fers
[the
Ihas

been no bishopric, and Mgr. Verollcs, bisliop of
Mantchooria, who lias already suffered for the
faith.

"The cruise attracts many^ naval officers, and it
would seem that the shadow of cassocks, as Mr.
Hugo expresses it, does not sufficiently obscure the
future of the Cassini to make it dreaded. Not-
withstanding our little odor of Jesuitism, peo-
ple seem quite well disposed to become our asso-
ciates ; it is, however, a perfume that diffuses
itself without any effort on our part, for we live
very quietly, I and my colleague, Bernaert, and, it
even might be said, in a diplomatic reserve, if our
tranquillity were not the effect of our personal
tastes."

Tjiis Bernaert, the second lieutenant of the CV/s-
sj'«i, was aa experienced seaman and a valiant
Christian. At fifty years of age he had petitioned
to sail as supplementary officer — that is, holding
the lowest rank — but a decision of the Maritime
Prefect, which ho had noways provoked, restored
him his riglit of seniority. Not less generous than
modest, although he was without fortune, he gave
largely of the little he had ; for instance, on his ar-
rival in Cliiua he gave GOO francs to the Procurator
«f the Foreign Missions for the work of the propa-
gation of the faith, saying that he had not come
to that country to economize. He was, we are
told, an officer who only lacked the occasion to
rise to the heroic and who lived like a saint. Once
returned to private life, he withdrew to a town of
the Department du Nord (f^teenvoorde), where he

4«d

■■■"■'■■, }

208

Alexis Clcrc.

died a few years ago, leaving behind liim the re-
putation of a most upright man, and an example
which his fellow members of tlic conferences of
St. Vincent do Paul have not forgotten. Such a
man readily sympathized with Alcxi?. Before
their departure they went together every morning
to the early parochial Mass, and together they ap-
proached the holy table, a worthy preparation for
the kind of maritime crusade to which they had so
gladly consecrated themselves. Clerc went on
board the vessel every day to inspect the progress
of the work and to superintend the arrangements,
putting to profit the experienco he possessed long
since, thanks to his vovago on a ship of the same
kind, the Caiman.

A striking and instructive contrast ! When in
1847 ho was cruising off the western coast of
Africa on that steam corvette, which did a good
deal of transporting in the interest of our establish-
ments of Senegal, he felt little liking for that
kind of service, whoso monotony but poorly re-
sponded to his warlike and chivalric aspirations,
and, including in one same anathema steam and
transportation, he wrote to his father with a fa-
cetiousness that was just a little caustic: *' In short,
since I have been on board we have taken in eoal,
then loaded with baggage, burned our coal, re-
loaded, reburned coal, etc, — always the same thing
over and over again. That's the life of an officer for
you ! Now Ave are, I believe, relieved from loading
for some time, for there is nothing more to bo
loaded. If you had since my departure gained the

Preludes of Vocation,

C09

car of somC'influentiul pcrsoniige, I would tell you
how vicious it is to cni]>loy the iiiivy iu this way ;
t!)iit steam vessels require sailors to riumtigo them,
but that on board of them i:; is impossible to Inurn
anything of the profession ; that tiic young oflicers
ought not to be attached to stoam vessels, and that
using them as transports makes of their officers
mere carters, teamsters, etc." lie had tho mos!:
exalted idea of the naval service, and his predilec-
tion at that time was for navigation by sails, wit-
ness certain memoranda on the cliassc ilcsvaisseoAix
which were found among his papers. This, we
are assured, is a beautiful and ingenious mathe-
matical theory, but of which the application is im-
possible in steam navigation. However that may
be, charged on the Cassinl with the details of the
engine, lie utilized in that employment knowledge
of a quite different nature wliicii he had acquired
on the Caiman against his will, so to speak ; and
contrary to his expectations, to hum and rchurn
coal for the honor of France and in the interests of
C'ltholic missions became the great joy and, as it
v.cre, the crown of his naval career.

Thus in the last days of 1850 we find him
wholly occupied in collecting precise and detailed
technical information upon the different qualities
of combustibfes that could bo used on the Cassini.
The School of Mines affording the most abundant
resources for that study, Alexis wished to i)rofit by
them, and came to Paris for the purpose. This
journey procured him the acquaintance of a man
whose friendship, though enjoyed so late, was in-

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210

Alexis Clcrc.

finitely precious to him and marked an epoch in
Ills life. Who has not heard of Commander Mar-
ccau, that noble Christian with whom our young
lieutenant had so many points of resemblance ?
Both entered the navy through the Polytechnic
School ; both escaped a great danger, strangers as
they woro to all religious practices ; both, also,
from the time of their conversion aspired unceas-
ingly to what was most perfect, and had no other
ambition than to gain for Grod adorers in spirit and
in truth. Marcean's history is well known ; it is
simple and beautiful, like his character. A nephew
of General Marceau and sole inheritor of a name
that figures so brilliantly in our military annals, he
thought on leaving the Polytechnic to take a rank
in the army, to which his tastes called him, and
where the antecedents of his uncle seemed to pro-
mise him a splendid future. But in some sort he
was not free to follow his inclinations. A superior
officer asked him ; "How can you think of enter-
ing a career wherein a relative of the same name
has distinguished himself ? You should aim at an
independent and personal glory." Urged on all
sides to join the navy, he yielded. " And so for
tv/enty years," he remarked to a worthy priest in
1849, ^'I have been wandering over the sea with-
out either liking or disliking it. Providence had
its designs. I could not have done for the missions
the little services I have heen permitted to do if I
had not been a sailor."*

*Seo "Auguste Marcpan, Captain of Frigate, Commander
oC the Arche iCAHiance,^^ by one of his friends.

Preludes of Vocation,

211

Imander

The little services lie speaks of with sucli Chris-
tian humilit}^ would pass for great ones in the eyes
of any other than he, and if we consider what they
cost him they are simply heroic. To devote him-
self to that work, whose importance he fully under-
stood, he sacriiiced his future, his repose, his
liealth, and, to a certain point, the consideration
he enjoyed in the service. When it was known
that he had sent in his resignation in order to take
command of a merchant vessel, and that at the
very moment he was about to receive the epaulets of
a captain of corvette, it was feared he had lost his
senses. " Why, you are crazy ! " one of his friends
said to him. " Yes," he replied ; " humanly speak-
ing, I am crazy; but I hope that by faith my folly
will become wisdom, for I work by faith and for
faith." What victories had he not to gain over his
natural pride when he constituted liimsclf a beggar
and alms-collector for the Societc Erany-iiiie do
rOceanie, exposing himself to be treated as a
sharper, or but litile le?s than one, while at the
same time he was noways deceived as to the thousand
chances against the success of the enterprise ? But
there were thousands of souls to bo saved ; without
him, without the cruise he proposed to make in the
ArcJic cVAUiancCf the poor islanders of Oceanica
would have to wait a long time yet for the visit of
the missionaries, and several young Churches would
sniler. ne did not hesitate ; setting out in 184G,
he returned to France only in 1849, and when
Clerc met him in Paris it was already nearly a year
since, sick, v/orn out, aged before his time, and

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212

Alexis Clerc.

satiated with disappointments of all sorts, lie had
brcome for those who were capable of appreciating
holiness one of the grandest examples offered to
the respect and admiration of our century. Ani-
mated by the same sentiments, and fully dis-
posed for tbe same sacrifices, how greatly Alexis
must have enjoyed the conversation of the noble
sailor who had realized, in a certain degree, the ideal
that he himself, together with the commander of
the Cassini, was then cherishing ! Marceuu's great
idea was the creation of a religious navy. *•' An im-
possibility T' the world exclaims. Undoubtedly if
the Government refuses any assistance, the difficulty
will bo almost insurmountable; but if it is pro-
pitious there will not be wanting men of good will
to undertake every two or three years an expedi-
tion similar to the one whose history we are about
to fckctch ; and if the French flag should thus
travel along all the coasts of the nni verse, ap-
pearing everywhere as a sign of concord and peace,
and carrying in its folds the good news, we may be-
lieve that its glory would not be dimmed. Marceau
died ; ha spent the remnant of his failing strength
in a retreat made at Notre Dame do Liesse under
the direction of the Rev. Father Fouiilot. Here
again is an unexpected similarity. It will be in
this same community (transferred to Laon) that
Clerc, twenty years later, will pass the last year of
his life (18G9-70) in the exercises of the third pro-
bation, which are to prepare him for martyrdom.
God united them only for a moment on earth, but
lie reserved for them Eomething better than that —

Prchidcs of Vocation.

213

igtli

ho had mude tlioso two great licarts for one an-
other.. Oh ! liow Marccau must have welcomed
our Alexis when he saw liini, in his turn, landing
on the shores of eternity decorated with the stig-
mata of victory !

At the close of January, 1851, Marceau left for
Tours with his mother, and some days later Alexis
heard of the death of his friend. He hastened to
console, by sharing her grief, the poor mother whom
this separation plunged into mourning. She was
a woman of strong faith, but who had not always
been such ; by an unusual and touching exchange
of parts, she had received from her son what most
sons owe to the lessons and example of a Christian
mother. Here is her letter, which Clerc preserved
as a relic, and which we were delighted to find :

"J. M. J.

" February 18, 1851.

"It was yesterday, my dear sir, that I received
your kind letter, and before opening it I con-
jectured all its contents. The thought of you,
cf Mr. de Plas, and of good Doctor iMontargis has,
so to speak, been constantly present to my mind
ever since the fatal blow struck me. I eaw, in the
few moments that I had the pleasure of your ac-
quaintance, all the affection he bore you, and I
could not doubt of the sympathy he found in you,
and I felt a sort of consolation in thinking that
your tears would be mingled with mine. Auis I it
is not for that dear and good son I weep, for I
have the sweet confidence that he novr enjoys in
the bosom of God the happitiess he has promised

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214

Alexis Clerc,

p^fi

to his faithful servants ; hut it is for myself, the
poor old mother who liad still so much need of his
counsel and example. Nevcrthelesg I will exert all
my efforts to put in practice the example ho gave us
in his submission to the holy and adorable will of
God ; daily I ask this grace of God as the most
precious legacy of my excellent son.

*^ As I am quite sure, my dear sir, that this let-
ter will be the last you can receive from me before
your departure, I shall relate some of the circum-
stances that preceded my Augustus' death, at the
same time requesting you to communicate them to
Mr. de Plas. You two will henceforth be joined
in my memorv, and my prayers will accompany
you in the long and laborious expedition you are
about to undertake. »

"It was on Tuesday, as you know, that wc
left Paris. Your dear friend bore the ride well
enough ; only he began to suffer from the cold
about fifteen leagues from here. At last we ar-
rived, and the feeling of happiness ho experienced
in finding himself at home again seemed to make
him forget the fatigue of the journey.* Wednes-
day he was very feeble, which I thought was a na-
tural consequence of travelling. He retained some
kinds of food, others he rejected. Thursday v/as
not so bad ; he retained almost all the nourishment
he took ; still his weakness increased, and he no-
ticed it himself. The night of Thursday was a
bad one; he had frequent spells of raising blood.

• " '• - ■ '' ' ' . ■ ■

* Marceau's sister lived at Tours with his mother.

if w

Preludes of Vocation,

215

Friday was much worse, inasmuch as ne suffered
j^reatly from suffocation, and the physician whom I
had called on Wednesday had deferred coming
again until Friday, and then he did not come until
late in the evening and after I had sent for him twice.
Oh ! how I then regretted not having ashed that
kind Doctor Montargis to accompany us ; he would
not have refused me. I know he could not have
cured Augustus, but he would certainly have alle-
viated his sufferings. However, God had ordered
it otherwise, and I desire, after the example of my
dear son, to repeat : * Blessed be his holy name ! '
Friday night was not so bad as the preceding one.
He rested very well and retained the little nourish-
ment he took towards morning, but complained of
suffocation. Towards eight o'clock this increased
and he sat up. I then proposed to him to rise to
have his bed made and to refresh himself ; he con-
sented, but without seeming anxious. I arranged
everything, and during this time wo talked, his
sistei being with us. I told him I was going to
write to the doctor to ask him to come. That
seemed to please him. Ho said to me : ' You will
also write to Father Fouillot ? It is he who has
put me in this si ate, therefore he ought to pray,
and get others to pray for me.' lb was then near-
ly nine o'clock. He told me ho was ready to re-
turn to bed. I approached the fire-place to get the
shirt I had put there to warm, when my daughter
uttered a cry. I turned and saw the poor fellow
in a horrible convulsion. I tried to make him in-
hale salts and swallow some water of La Salctte ;

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my daughter sent quickl}' for the physician ; I
told her to scud also for the priest, Avho did not
delay coming. The superior of the Ladies of the
Presentation, of whom he is the chaplain, followed
him and bestowed upon my Augustus all tlie spiri-
tual and corporal help in her pov/er. The convul-
sion being over, extreme unction was administered ;
at each unction the dear boy asked pardon of God.
After Holy Communion the Sister cleansed his
moutl), ho blew his nose himself, then she made
him take two small spoonfuls of meat jelly, which
beseemed to like. After this, with that gentleness
and kindness Avhich you know belonged to him, he
looked at the Sister of Charity and said to her:
* Thank you, Sister, thank you.' This marked im-
provement continued about half an hour. I acknow-
ledge, dear sir, my son had so many times repeated
to me that Almighty God would j^erform a miracle
in his favor and cure him that just then I believed
it was to be so. But my hope was quickly destroy-
ed. A second convulsion, much more frightful
than the first, seized him, and at half-past eleven
his beautiful soul was in the presence of God.

" At that moment the gmile returned to his lips,
and his features, contracted by his horrible Euli'er-
ings, became calm and beautiful again. I saw him
the next afternoon, more than twenty-four hours
later; he was not at all changed and seemed in me-
ditation. I embraced him, saying an revoir, for I
rely upon his obtaining for me the graces I so
greatly need in order to deserve to join him some
day.

Prchides of Vocation,

217

lips,

luffer-

liim

hours

me-

forl

I so

some

"I do not doubt that these details will be pre-
cious to you and Mr. do Plas, and 1 have found in
the thought that I could thus testify my gratitude
for the affection you both bore my Augustus
strength to write them. As fcr me, dear sir,
though Almighty God has struck me in what I
held dearest, I know not how to thank him suffi-
ciently for all the graces ho has deigned to bestow
upon me, not only by preparing mo for the greatest
of sacrifices by a retreat, but also by permitting
that dear and] good son, who since his return to
France had led so wandering a life, to come to die
with ns, so that I might tai^e care of him at the
last, and might have the sweet and precious conso-
lation of praying at his tomb. There I do not
doubt I shall obtain precious graces; while praying
for myself I shall pray for you, dear sirs ; I shall
ask him to obtain for you all the graces you need,
to place you under the protection of our holy
Mother whom he loved so deeply, and to bring you
some day, if that be in the decrees of Providence,
to pray with me over his tomb.

" As there is nothing I am more anxious to do
than to satisfy your pious wishes, I send for you
and Mr. de Plas two books, two medals, four pic-
tures, and a bit of the cravat he wore in Jiis last
days ; I have selected these objects from among the
most worn of his things, as having been more used
by him, thinking that thus they would be more
precious to you. I add a copy of '■ Canticles for
the Month of Mary,' and a * Litany of the Will of
God ' which we ought after his example to try to

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make profitable ; finally, you will find in the par-
cel a tiny lock of hair.

*'I cannot conclude without mentioning the
kind, the excellent Mr. Montargis, who, after hav-
ing bestowed so much care on Augustus' body, took
such extraordinary pains the last week to procure
Masses and prayers for his soul.

" Farewell, kind friends of my son. Pray for
the aged and unfortunate mother who promises
you her sincere affection. Yours in the Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

" Mahoeau, servakt of Mary."

Marceau's mother signs herself servant of Mary,
because she belonged to the Third Order of the So-
ciety of Mary. If Marceau had lived, he would
himself have finished his days in that society,
bound by the vows of religion and consecrated by
holy orders. This was at least his ambition when
it pleased God to put an end to his exile and
crown his merits, which were far in excess of the
appreciable results of the work to which this man
of desires had sacrificed himself.

^ V

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par-

; tlic
• liav-
, took
ociire

ly for
)mises
Sacred

Cw<«*t>

RY."

Mary,
the So-
would
;ocioty,
ited by
11 when
Ic and
of the
lis man

CHAPTER VII.

ALEXIS CLERC LIEUTENANT ON BOARD THE " CASSINI "—
FROM LORIENT TO SHANGHAI.

• Ox the Gth of March, 1851, at seven o'clock in the
morning, the Cassini left the harbor of Lorient,
and, reviving an ancient custom fallen into disuse
since the first revolution, saluted with all its ar-
tillery the sanctuary of Xotre Dame de PArmor.
At the same time the missionaries who were pas-
sengers on board intoned the "Ave Maris Stella,'*
which the whole ship's company sang with marvel-
lous earnestness. Priests and sailors united in one
same thought of faith, supplicated the Star of the
Sea to be propitious to their voyage, and to bless
the very diverse enterprises which separated them
from their country — these for several years, those,
or at least the greater part of them, for the re-
mainder of their lives, which they had entirely
devoted to the salvation of souls.

It was an august and touching spectacle. On
the deck were seen two biahops — one, Mgr. Ve-
rollcs, illustrious by long labors, was returning to
his vicariate-apostolic of Mantchooria ; the other,
Mgr. Desprez (now Archbishop of Toulouse), was
on his way to inaugurate the bishopric of Saint
Denis (Island of Bourbon), that is, to take posses-
sion of that sec of which he was the first bishop.

219

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220

Alexis Clcrc,

Two vicars-gcncral, three priests of tlio Foreign
Missions, a chaplain attached to the ('an.sini,
and, finally, three nuns of St. Joseph, destined
also to carry afar the name and the good odor of
Jesus Christ, loudly proclaimed by their pres-
ence the entirely Catholic character of the ex-
pedition. The staff of officers, excellently well
chosen, exceeded somewhat the strict regulation
number, and included five lieutenants, one ad-
ministrative officer, two physicians, and six mid-
shipmen, four of whom ijad been selected from
among the best cadets of the school-ship.

Tiie Cassini, a corvette with a screw-propeller
of two hundred horse-j^ower, carried six guns and
counted one hundred and twenty men, officers in-
cluded, which equipage would, in case of necessity,
form quite a respectable military force. The Cas-
sini was bound for Bourbon and China.

The duties of chaplain (without the official title)
were discharged by the Abbe Cambier, of the
clergy of Paris, who, to join the expedition, had
voluntarily left the parish of Saint I'ierre du Gros-
Caillou, of which he was curate. Having been ap-
pointed some years since pastor of Saint Jacques
and Saint Chr'stoplie de la Villette, he in the kind-
est possible manner has loaned us the journal he
kept during that cruise of the Cassuii, solely for
the sake of pouring out his heart into the bosom
of a friend.

Furnished with the faculties which his Lordship
the Bishop of Vannes had granted him for the entire
cruise, and installed as comfortably as was possible

From Loricnt to Shanghai.

221

np-

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al lie

for
osom

in his floating parish/ the Abbo Cambicr, after
having made the acquaintance of his new flock,
formed liis first impressions, and consigned them
to liis journal as follows : *' The sailors seem young,
and wilh not much experience of the sea ; but they
will soon learn, and things will go on the better
for it if Providence deigns to favor us ever so little.
Besides, all these sailors have good faces. As they
are Bretons for the most part, the priest does not
frighten them ; they are accustomed to seeing him
close by, to listening to him and following his ad-
vice. Therefore I can expect docility from them.
The cabin-boys are only six in number, and they will
be my little pet flock. Are not these poor chil-
dren left too much to themselves and allowed to
mix too much with the crew ? At their age the free
conversations they hear may be fatal to them. To
separate the cabin boys from the men as much as
possible, to watch them with scrupulous attention,
to instruct them, would seem to me a necessary
thing. It is to be supposed they they are not neg-
lected ; experience will doubtless inform me about
this. The men number a hundred and twenty;
they will be my harvest ; may ic prove a good one !
Without any doubt I might say that it will, had I
as my only pledge and guarantee the example of
the commander and the officers. Were I not al-
ready convinced of the power of good example, I
should soon become £0 on board the Cassini. I
have said that Mr. de Plas is a good Christian ; ho
knows that ho has under his authority not only
bodies but souls, and he makes of the navy much

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222

Alexis Clcrc.

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less a means of advancement for himself than an
opportunity of (xcrcising liis cnliglitened zeal in
favor of llioso he is ajipointed to command."

Then Abbe Cambier says a word about each of
the officers : " llis first officer — that is, the one
who is called the lieutenant in command, because
ho has supreme control of all the details of tho
vessel — his lieutenant-commander, I say [we know
that it was Lieutenant Burnaert], is likewise a
Christian of the good old stamp. Ilis body is en-
feebled by long and hard service, but his heart is
young and vigorous. lie has undertaken tho
Chinese expedition only to offer his assistance to
the missionaries; his boxes are full of religious
objects which he destines for them ; one of his
intentions is to propagate the Society of St. Vin-
cent do Paul ; also to organize a conference on
board, if possible."

Abbe Cambier is careful not to forget the sub-
ject of our biography, and this is how he expresses
himself : " Lastly, I must say a few words about
the youngest lieutenant, Mr. Clerc, a pupil of the
Polytechnic School. An officer selected by the
commander, his piety and talents justify the choice.
If he continues in the navy I think his future will
be prosperous. He is but twenty-six years old,*
and is already a lieutenant. The career before
him is a long one ; he has in his favor youth,
health, and merit. I would not be surprised if he
should exchange the coat for the habit ; his fervor

♦ Clerc was then past thirty-one ; his low stature and his
habitual gayety probably made him appear younger.

From Loricnt to Shanghai,

223

is that of a religious. Undoubtcilly, the epaulets
arc very lionorable; the piicst's cassock is far nioro
so, but it must bo given by God with the voca-
lion. ..."

The worthy chaplain informs us how lie exer-
cised on board the vessel a ministry that was wholly
of peace and persuasion, that imposed on the men
1:0 constraint and no annoyance : " In the morning,
tiftrr the reveille, afc six o'clock at sea and dvo
o'clock ill harbor, I said prayers — 'Our Father,'
' Hail ]Mary,' and a prayer I had composed for
the sailors. When the furnaces were lighted I de-
scended to the engine-room and performed the
same devotions there. In the evening, after the
reading of the penalties of the day and the choice
of hammocks, I said night-prayers in the midst of
the men, all standing and with heads uncovered.
On Tuesdays at half-past one there was catechism
for the cabin-boys; Sundays Mass was celebrated
at a quarter-past ten ; it commenced with tho
'Asperges,' and in harbor there was an instruc-
tion on the Gospel of the day. At sea, at two
o'clock Sunday afternoons, I gave an instruction
to the crew. A few strokes of tho bell announced
all these exercises, and those only came who want-
ed to, even to tho morning and night prayers."

Kot only was the Christian life thus freely prac-
tised on board the Casslni, but Jesus Christy him-
self had his throne erected, as was proper, in
the place of honor. "Yes," says Abbe Cam-
bier, " we had a real chapel on our vessel — a
ehsipel perfectly appointed with altar, taberna-

^ J. i: t

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224

Alexis Clcrc.

• lib- . :

cle, crucifix, presses for the vestments; a chapel
where we had the hnppiness of possessing the Bless-
ed Sacrament. If you have occasionally visited
some vessel in one of our ports, you must be ac-
quainted with the part called the^^oo^;. It consists
of one or several rooms built on deck, either aforc-
ships or, and more frequently, aft. On ships and
frigates this poop is used as the parlor and office
of the commander. On the Cassini it was in
three divisions. The right and left were appro-
priated to the two bishops; the centre one was the
chaj)el, closed with folding-doors, which were
opened for the celebration of Mass. The interior
was finished in pine, veneered with varnished lime-
tree wood. On the front of the altar were some
symbolical ornaments carved in violet ebony.
The cruciGx that surmounted the tabernacle was
of walnut wood ; it was not cut by a sculptor, but
only by an humble joiner who plied his trade in
the port; yet it was not less a little chef-cVouvre as
well as the whole chapel. The artisans of Lorienfc
had bestowed upon this tiny chapel all their skill,
rnd success had crowned their efforts.

" If I were talking," adds the good and worthy
priest, " to a Christian without faith or under-
standing of the things of faith, I would not enter
into these details, but I know that it will be a
pleasure to you to hear them, and that my words
will find an echo in your heart. Was it not for
us all on board the Cassini a wonderful good
fortune to possess the Most Blessed Sacrament ?
Around and above us the sea and the sky displayed

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From Loricnt to SJiangJiai,

225

the power of God ; close to us, with us, the Eucha-
rist revealed his goodness and love. Is it as-
tonishing that the waves bowed down, so to speak,
before our vessel to allow it an easy and rapid pro-
gress ? Is it astonishing that peace reigned con-
stantly in our midit, and that numerous blessings
were reserved for us ? The Cassini bore in her
bosom the God of the universe, he who walked on
the Sea of Galilee, and who with a single word stilled
the tempests 1 "

The voyage was, from beginning to end, a most
pleasant one. It is true that at starting the sea,
which was rather rough, tried some of the passen-
gers, but in a little while the weather became yery
tolerable for the season, and, after a six days' sail,
on the 12th of March the vessel cast anchor off
Funchal, one of the Madeira Islands. The stay
lasted three days ; coal was taken in rapidly, and
a supply of fresh provisions permitted the Cassiui^s
company to reach the Cape of Good Hope in the
best of health. " On Eister Day * the corvette was
near enough the Cape to warrant an unusual con-
sumption of coal. The order was therefore given
to put on all her steam, and the Cassini attained
a speed of about ten miles an hour. The sea was
smooth as a lake, so nothing pi'evented the plan
of having a High Mass from being put in execution.
Mgr. Desprcz was very willing to officiate ; some
eabin-boys, nicely dressed and intelligent, wero
turned into choristers, and, thanks to the mission-

* I am hero following, or rathci' faithfully copy iug, from tho
nt)tej ot Commandei do Flas.

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A /ex is Clerc.

arics, to the nuns wlio were passengers, and to a
lieutenant who was a good musician, the singing
left nothing to be desired."

Alexis Clerc wrote from Cape Town to his fa-
ther : " We arrived here April 22 at two o'clock in
the morning, after a very fortunate voyage, during
which we escaped all bad weather and all tlie other
miseries of sea life. Easter Day was a real festival
for the ship ; the weather and the sea were perftct-
ly beautiful. It is not very difficult to touch the
simple hearts of these ^ood Bretons, but it is
sweeter to remember those happy moments than to
talk of them."

Tlie preparation of the sailors had been most
careful, and their chaplain's efforts were crowned
with complete success. "I told them," ho re-
lates, " that confession was for them the plank
of safety after shipwreck ; the word once said,
I repeated it ; they grew accustomed to hear-
ing it; it ended by sounding less harsh to their
ears, and soon after it f jund an entrance in their
hearts. When tlie thought of Confession is in the
heart, and is there in such a way that it cannot
fail of being understood, it is not long before it is
put in practice. This is precisely what happened
on our vessel. The sailors began by badgering one
another about it, and finished by confessing. Our
Holy Week was entirely taken up with piety."

Another religious solemnity awaited them at the
Cape. Mgr. Griffith was preparing for the dedica-
tion of his church ; he anticipated the ceremony
by several days, so that tho pomp might be in-

From Lorient to Shattghai.

227

Our

creased by the presence of the two bishops and of
the numerous clerfry of the Cassinu

The commanLler and his stall were also invited,
and once more showed themselves sincerely Catho-
lic.

*' Day before yesterday (Monday)," Alexis wrote
to his father,* " the bishop of the Cape dedicated
liis churcli. The Cassini took part in the festival ;
it was represented by its clergy and by a deputation
of officers and sailors. Oar two bishops and our
seven priests added greatly to the pomp of the
ceremony, and a 'Rcgina Cool i ' and an '0 Salu-
taris' were sung with very good effect. The French
consul had the first place in the ceremony ; tho
officers of the Cassini ranked with him. Ifc is
til us that everywhere, excepting at home, we are
Catholics. But how much better it is not to be so
through necessity and from political interest — as
the English are Protestants — and to bring to the
true, inborn opinions of our race that adhesion 01
tho heart which i^rovcs us to bo sons of t])ose who
founded the power and glory of France !

" The English are now establishing a regular
communication between tho Cape and England. It
will be very rapid — thirty-three or thirty-four days ;
several packets have already made the passage in that
time ; propellers are the style of vessels employed.
When the project is completed the Cape will be only

*Let us remark, once for all, tint the greater part of Alexis'
letters during this voyage being addressed to his father, we
shall not continue to mention this each time, being careful,
however, to inform the reader when they aro aiidressed to
any one else.

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228

Alexis Clcrc.

ftRi. .

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a way-station, and the packets will go on to Mauri-
tius, then to Ceylon ; others will go to New Hol-
land. AVc cannot help envying this energy and
enterprise, and, ii England's objcci; was not at the
price of such great efforts to sell her cotton-goods,
we would have to bow before a superiority laudable
in its end as well as in its means. . . . That com-
merce should be not a means of greatness, but the
greatness of a country, is impossible, and the na-
tion that applies to such small interests so con-
siderable a power will one day be judged from this
point of view."

The CctHsini left the Cupe May 3. The month
of Mary was not forgotten. Every evening, when
the sun had disappeared beneath the waves, all
gathered like one family before Mary's altar, erect-
ed in the chapel on deck, and there they prayed
with their whole hearts, and sang with loudest
voices canticles of praise to the august Mother.
Sailors and passengers were very fond of a refrain
that was remarkably appropriate to them :

" Exilds do notro patrie,

Nous voguons au milieu des flots ;
«'» Soycz notro dtoile, Mario !
Soyez aussi notre rcpo;;."*

Thus they reached Bourbon May 21. Mgr.
Desprez landed the morning of the 22d ; saluted by
the CassinCs guns, he was received on shore by the
commander of the troops of the garrison, Licuten-

*^ " Exiles from our country,"

We wander o'or tbe waves ; , .

Be thou our star, O Mary !
B3 likewise our repose."

From Lor lent to ShangJiai.

229

ant-Colonel tic Cendrccourt ; after this ho was es-
corted proccssionully to his cathedral, where ho
took possession of his sec according to the canoni-
cal forms. Alexis wrote: "Tlic ceremony was
very beautiful, both by reason of the august pomp
of our religious solemnities and of the immense
concourse of people that welcomed a new autho-
rity whose paternal tenderness and tutelary care
they foresaw without understanding it. But the
bishop's allocution, in which he traced his plan of
conduct and its object, was the crowning joy of the
festival, because it, revealed all his charity in a sim-
ple way, and showed liim by a few words what our
constant intercourse with him on shipboard had
taught us he was." A shadow, however, fell upon
the picture. Referring to a newspaper article,
"which would have been perfectly well placed
in the National,''^ Alexis adds: " IIow sad to still
see what is most exalted iu the social scale giving
an example not only of indifference to our holy
religion but of positive aggression. Is not a coun-
try where tha government, the administration of
justice, and the system of education arc anti-
Christian, very near being a pagan state ?"

Another letter turns upon the Madagascar mis-
sion and the hopes of colonization to which it gave
rise. "We feel very plainly the true ring of the
French spirit in this familiar talk :

" It would seem that they arc trying there (in
Madagascar) a new system of colonization, or, to
speak more exactly, without any system they arc
pursuing a course which the nature of things indi-

wi»«(«i"jl

KlIHi-'l j

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230

Alexis Clerc.

cates, but wliicli h new. There is no purpose of
reducing the natives to servitude, nor of destroj^ing
them by war because they are warlike ; they are to
bo taught and themselves made the colonists of
their island. There arc ut different points Jesuit
missionaries, untiring laborers, who are the means
of this new plan. It has not, I repeat, been sys-
tematically adopted ; it is followed because it is
possible. The present governor of Mayotta, who
exercises authority over the other possessions, is a
superior man who seems to thoroughly under-
stand the position. The climate of Madagascar is
murderous to Europeans ; the missionaries have
made Bourbon their hospital ; they go there weary
and feverish, stay long enough to restore health
and strength, and then return to combat until
death. Their hospital is at the same time a col-
lege ; they have there about forty young Madagas-
cans, little negroes who in spite of their color look
like good children. They teach them reading,
writing, religion, and a trade, and, once grown to
manhood, establish tliem in homes. If these people
do not love a country which sends them such de-
voted masters, who at the price of their own lives
— for the missionaries always end by leaving their
bones on these foreign shores— teach them to live
physically and morally, they are very ungrateful.
If they did but know how different are the usual
methods of colonization, what would they not say
in our praise !

"Meanwhile, in the vicinity of this college the
Sisters of St. Joseph rear to labor and virtue about

From Lorient to Shanghai.

231

forty little Madagascan girls, probably tho future
"wives of the forty boys. The plan is well under
way, and the poor islanderH, wlio are without malice
or guile, are all capable of letting themselves be
led like children when they shall see the fruits
of Christian civilization. Alas ! why are tliere so
many places in France where the sight Avould be as
novel as in Madagascar ?

"I delight in dwelling on the idea. As the
children are still in the hands of their teachers, I
speak only of my desires, of my hopes, of my
dreams if you will. But even if the success should
not correspond to the hopes it would not lessen
the merit of the enterprise. This is what I love
in our generous country : she uses her superiority
to protect, not to subjugate. Here the field is
small, it is true, but it is not less a noble use of her
power. Oiher nations may be, and are generally,
more skilful colonizers; they know not how to be,
like us, true civilizers."

Towards the middle of June the Cassini had to
think about resuming her Toyage to India and
China. The Abb6 Cambier had embarked only for
Bourbon ; for a moment, however, he hoped to be
able to defer a parting which only to think of broke
his heart. If the corvette Bury dice had arrived a
few days later the worthy chaplain would have stayed
with the Cassini as far as China. The time for the
departure of the latter vessel was very near when a
French war-vessel was signalled at the lookout of
tl:e master of the port ; an hour later a second sig-
nal indicated her number : she was the Eurydice.

T!S^

232

Aicxis Clcrc.

!BL'S.M

" I saw at a distance this corvette approaching,*'
he wrote in liis journal, "and the sight troubled
mc. What was going to happen ? ' My God,' I
murmured, *dost thou exact of mc a new sacrifice?
Grant me strength to accomplish it ! '

"June 15," Abbe Cambier continues, " towards
ten o'cloclf a boat came from tho EurydicG to the
Cassini. A midshipman climbed on board and
delivered to the commander a packet from the
commander of the station. This packet was no-
thing less than an order to pass from the Cassini
to the Eurydicc in quality of chaplain of the naval
station of La Reunion, and. that within twenty-four
hours. All objections were useless. God demand-
ed a sacrifice of me. I must obey him; would that
I hal done it in a manner more meritorious for
heaven ! Tears were shed on both sides ; as for
me, I wept the most, . . . and when the moment
of parting came it was not only tears but sobs
which my broken heart could not contain.

" The next day but one the Cassini weighed an-
chor and steamed out of the harbor of Saint Denis.
I had not the courage to witness her starting off.
When I went up on the deck of the Eurydice there
was still visible in the far distant horizon a column
of smoke. . . . That smoke came from the Cassi-
ni's engine, and there was nothing more needed to
make my tears flow afresh. I descended to my
room, and that day was one of the saddest I
ever spent from the time I was old enough to be
acquainted, with sorrow and heartaches."

These lines, which we would not have omitted,

ilhiL.

From Lor lent to Shanghai.

233

an-
nis.
off.
lerc
mn

are the highest praise of the Cassini, and they will
not be read without exciting a rospeotfiil sympathy
for their writcrj who was cupahlo of loving souls
ivith so tender and pure an affection in the Lord.

July 14 the Cassini ancliored before Achoen,
the capital of a kingdom of the same name situated
in the extreme northwest of the island of Sumatra.
The object was to obtain satisfaction for the very
inhospitable welcome given to a Neapolitan ship,
the Clernentina, whose captain and first and second
lieutenants had been victims of a terrible treachery,
accompanied by robbery and pillage.* Clerc was
sent in a boat to find the sultan and his capital.
Geographers speak of a city of twenty thousand
souls, of a fleet of five hundred sail, of an army of
sixty thousand men who, with the same number of
Hollanders, besieged Malacca. He saw no vestige
of all this, and asked himself if it were not a fic-
tion. Nevertheless, nothing is more certain than
that in the sixteenth century the sultans of Acheen
were strong enough to drive the Portuguese from
the island, and that at that epoch they received
embassies from all the states of Europe. There
is a sequel- to the talc: since the visit of the
Cassini that fallen power has restored the honor of
its flag, and quite recently the Dutch were twice
obliged to renew their efforts and reinforce their
troops to escape being compelled to retreat before
it. What our compatriots ^aw in 1851 gave them

ICviWa^

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* The thieves had stolen to the value of about twen'cy-two
thousand dollars, of which the commander of the Cassini de-
mandod the restitutiou.

234

Alexis Clcrc.

' ) f '

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no presentiment of such a revival of energy and
warlike spirit.

Clerc's first business on landing ii to procure an
interpreter ; lie finds one who knows a few words
of French, and engages him for want of a better.
Then he sets about hunting up the sultan, discov-
ers his palace not without difficulty, and obtains an
audience. Hardly has he explained the object of
his mission when the Malayan monarch com-
mands to be taken from a casket a case, and from
this case a paper certifying the cordial friendship
existing between the sublime sultan and the Empe-
ror of France, Louis Philippe. "Not exactly
knowing," Clerc says, " how to express my respect
for that sovereign document, I solemnly kissed the
paper, and to the questions asked me about the
king I was very happy to be able to reply that he
was dead ; for to make that worthy sultan under-
stand that wo discharge our kings with less cere-
mony than other people do their se>*7ants, seemed
a task too hard for me ; iie would have believed
himself to have been outwitted and that his paper
was of no value."

The next day there is a solemn audience given
to the commander of the Cassini, who is attended
by a numerous staff. When the sultan is asked
what he will do to punish the criminals who are
men of Daliia, ho replies, after repudiating all par-
ticipation in the crimes they are charged with, that
he can do absolutely nothing.

The interpreter being inefficient and the sultan
badly disposed, Oommander de Plas and his officers

From Lorient to Shanghai,

235

par-
that

■withdraw somewhak dissatisfied. The foliowinf:^
day, after an exchange of presents, the Cassini
leaves for Poulo-Pinang ; there a more skilful in-
terpreter is procured, and the supply of coal re-
plenished ; then, returning to Sumatra, the vessel
passes Acheen without stopping and drops anchor
in sight of Clouang.

"There is nowhere," Clerc writes, *' a country
more beautiful than this ; its landscape is irregu-
lar, and the richest vegetation covers all the moun-
tains to their very summits ; the trees crowd on
the sea, so to speak. "Wo passed close to the
shore. Clouang in particular is remarkable for its
beauty. The anchorage is between a rocky islet
and a high, wooded hill ; in front of us is a low
and fertile shore where a river has its outlet ; the
river, as well us the island and the country, is
named Clouang. A little distance inland other hills
rise from the plain and indicate a fertile and well-
watered country."

From Clouang they repair to Dahia, and there
the interpreter and seven men are sent on shore to
present to the rajah a letter in which the comman-
der declares that he wishes to arrest the guilty
without strikint; the innocent. The two culprits
being really found at Dahia, as soon as the inter-
preter has returned to the ship a couple of boats
are armed, and Clerc, at the head of a force of fifty
men, is charged with the capture of the Malay
chief who committed the murder. Let us leave
him to describe this little expedition himself :

"We found an extremely rapid current at the

236

Alexis Cure.

f^t%u

."'»•'.

Jliv:!

bar of the river ; the waters wore swollon by the
rains (occasioned by the southwest monsoon). For
two entire hours we etru^^glcd vainly against this
unexpected obstacle, and all the M'hile within a
pistol-shot of the shore ; but I had already seen
enough of the Malays at Acheen not to be fright-
ened at that ; moreover, the current would have
quickly carried us out of their reach if we had
needed to escape from them. During the long
struggle once 1 ran my boat on a coral reef which
forms the bar and renders the current so rapid ; I
was already just above it ; we were in the greatest
danger of being filled with water and dashed to
pieces ; the boat was tossed from side to side.
But the sailors remained calmly in their places,
and the Hand that protects the Cassini, with a sin-
gle little wave rescued the boat, which, impelled, by
the current, overleaped the bar and returned to
the assault of the river. At last we stepped on
shore. I sent six men with a midshipman to form
an ambuscade, and, having provided for the guard-
ing of the boats, I started with the rest of the men
for the fort of Kerjeroun-Siadom. To enter this
stronghold cost us only the trouble of opening or
forcing the doors ; there was nobody within. We
next went to the murderer's dwelling; again no-
body. Then I heard the reports of muskets ; my
searcli was ended. I returned uneasily to the
shore and found my ambuscade, who, in spite of
positive orders not to fire unless they were attacked,
had' levelled at the fugitive. Fortunately no
one was wounded. We crossed the. river and paid

. From Lor ic lit to SJiangJiai.

'■17

jg or
We
no-
my
the

lie of
jked,

paid

an equally unsucce l'uI visit io llio olhcr culprit,
EtaJji-Mulot. After this wc returned to the ship.
The next day before leaving wc burned the houses
of those two men." To shorten the story, when
the sultan learned what had taken place at Dahia
ho became more tractable, and shortly afterwards
he bound himself in a written agreement with tho
commander of the Cassini to pursue with all tho
means in his power the cowardly aggressors of tho
Clementina.

The Neapolitan Government, informed of what
had been done to inflict an exemplary punishment
on the criminals, sent the decoration of Saint
Georges de la Jleunion to ^Fr. de Plas and Ihe
cross of tho Merile de Naples to his lieutenant.
Alexis never wore that badge of honor, which
reached him in rranco at the moment when he
was laying aside his uniform to be clothed wiih the
livcrv of Jesus Christ.

After having again touched at Poulo-Pinangand
made a stop at Singapore, the Cassini entered the
China Sea, and towards the end of August she an-
chored in front of Macao, a city already almost en-
tirely Chinese, and the gate of tho Celestial Em-
pire. All along the route Clerc had met quite a
large number of Chinamen ; he had seen Ihem at
Bourbon and Sumatra, as well as at Poulo-Pinang
and Singapore, and ho had admired their remark-
able facility for establishing themselves according
to their own fashions and carrying China with
them everywhere. But in Macao he saw them in
gross and at home, and his observing mind regard-

<fc^*>i

•••••I 'r,.

■i ;

"Am*

••**<• »l!!»

N?i'

238

Alexis Clerc.

ing them with attentive curiosity, he was struck
with their original and somewhat grotesque phy-
siognomy. This weakness is pardonable in a tho-
rough Parisian such as he was. At the very first
glance at the Macaons ho had a veritable explosion
of hilarity, and his laughter resounded as far as
Paris.

"I want to say a few words to you about the
Celestial Empire, at the gate of which we now are.
I have not seen a great deal of it, but I have seen
persons who are better acquainted with China than
the Chinese are themselves. Father Hue, whose
work you have read, and other missionaries who
have met with similar adventures.

" In the first place, the most exact model of a
Chinaman is the representation seen on what we
call Chinese screens. It is enough to make one
die laughing to meet the originals of those comi-
cal portraits. Travellers are not all men of vera-
city, as we learn when we visit distant countries
with their descriptions in our hands ; but fortu-
nately no traveller ever invented the Chinene
queue. It must certainly be for the sake of dissi-
pating the melancholy of foreigners that they all
carry about this singular appendage. Note well,
it is not one of those littlo rat-tails such as are
worn with ailes de pigeon (a way of arranging the
hair) ; these are queues of magnificent develop-
ment and reach down to the ankles. The Chinese
are quite capable of fraud ; therefore I believe
that there are many queues ornamenting heads
other than those that raised them ; but in general

Front Lor lent to Shanghai.

239

3I of a
lat we
ke one
comi-
ycra-
.1 a tries
fortu-
liincoe
dissi-
ley all
well,
as are
g the
veloi^-
hinese
eliove
heads
eueral

the Chinese have abundant hair. Finally, whether
their 'queues belong to them or not, they turn them
into cravats when they arc in the way.

" Grotesque as he is, the Ch'naman is a keen,
active, and cconomic^il merchant, and also an arti-
san who cannot be surpassed. His character is a
most remarkable one. He lives on a little rice,
wears garments of very small cost, and, we may
say, unites in his person the most marked contrasts ;
he is lazy, and at the same time very active, very
sober, and very gluttonous, very ingenious and.
very circumscribed ; but he is especially cunning
and insinuating. A great fuss is made about the
settlement the English have accomplished at Ilong
Kong; I fear the profit of it will not be theirs.
Unquestionably, the great mandarins who, after
having enriched themselves, run the almost sure
risk of being exiled or im2)overished, if not worse,
will be only wis3 to jump into Ilong Kong, which
is so near by, and purchase a palace.

*' The English, it is true, understand coloniza-
tion perfectly, and they have discovered that its
first condition is that the colonists live in the pur-
suit of what they call comfort ; while we aro only
camped in our colonics they are regularly at home,
and they are right in a great measure ; these cli-
mates debilitate us only too soon. But in Hong
Kong they have exceeded, in my opinion, what is
vv'cll, and have built a city of palaces. A certain
commercial house, for instance, has expended in
the construction of its counting-rooms 150,000
piasters (ihc piaster is worlh here six francs

*'»■■'■.{■'.&.

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Alexis Cierc,

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twenty.five centimes). It will require an immense
business to cover such advances and the general
expenses of the future. Foreigners — English and
Americans, with scarcely an exception — are en-
gaged only in extensive commercial transactions,
and everything else is done by the Chinese. But
1 believe that these last are the white ants of the
city and that they will undermine it."

What strikes him more than all the rest is the
superiority of the Chinese in retail trade and
little tricks of trade. ** The grocers of Pans, to
whom wicked jesters have given a queer reputa-
tion, are only school-boys compared to (hem. The
skill of the Chinese in the mechanical arts is most
remarkable ; it is astonishing to sec how cheap
their bamboo work is."

But his judgment of them as a whole is less
favorable: " All these petty qualities do not con-
stitute even a petly virtue, and, in short, they are
a miserable people who never have been and never
will be able to rise from artisans to artists ; who
do not possess and never will possess virtue, mih-
tary or civil courage, and who from their petty
learning will never attain to science ; who live in
the degradation of a paganism of the most materi-
al, the narrowest, and the most foolish sort, while
for more than two hundred yearrs Catholic priests
have not ceased to evangelize them."

To this rather unflattering portrait Clerc adds
certain less disagreeable features in the following
letter, also dated from Macao (November 29, 1851):

** If there i3 an extraordinary spectacle for us, who

■•-I

From Loricnt to Shanghai.

241

ricsts

adds
>wing
.851):
L who

liusli our eagerness for adventure and our tlirsfc
for novelty to tlio horror of an} thing traditional,
it is unquestionably this immovable people, who
live in stupid adoration of custom, usage, even
when they feel and recognize it to be bad. Politi-
cally and philosophically, this is the characteristic
trait of the Chinese nation. It is also the secret
of its life, and it cannot be gainsaid that China is
a clear demonstration of the great importance of
stability in institutions. This is the cause of
China's conquest of all her conquerors. For cer-
tain persons — to whom the v/ord country signifies
but little more than the soil they tread, and who
understand country as something independent of
the glories and institutions of the past — this re-
markable example should be tlie best: proof that it
is precisely hero that the source of the longevity of
nations is to be discovered."

The life Clerc led at Macao was not at all idle ;
he knew how to find occupation everywhere, and
he had with him his books, his dear books, his
"Summa" of St. Thomas, St. Bernard's works in
Latin ; and what besides ? certainly a part of Bos-
suet's works — witness a blank-book filled with his
writing, bearing this heading, " On board the
Cassini/' and containing a very full analysis of
the '' Connaissance de Dieu et de Soi-mome."

"The Cassini" he wrote, "is, since my last let-
tor, anchored off Macao. The events which you
want me to note for you are consequently of very
little importance. Ours is the ordinary life on
shipboard — exercises of all sorts. Howcvar, I

■ I

♦at;;'.- :.
•»«:<» ■'I'l,

Sir,

:J5Mll4k

n%, 1 '
•f° ,j

Alexis Clerc.

-*',

n*m'.

.11

must tell you that I have a p;rGn,fc joy which I hope
you will share. Jt is that all tlicso labors are not
sterile, and that the ship begins, and justly, to be
proud of herself. 8he can flutter herself that no
enemy of the same size would find it a triflo to at-
tack her. I say this the more willingly because
all [the word is underlined by Clerc himself] the
honor of it belongs to the commander, v/ho is the
most accomplished of chiefs."

Like a good Christian, Commander de Plas re-
turned a large proportion of this honor to his lieu-
tenant, Clerc. AVe aro not competent to decide
this question between them, and we can only jDosi-
tively state that they lived in perfect harmony of
opinions and acts, which doubtless had a great
deal to do with the very satisfactory result whoso
merit each generously attributed to the other.

Clerc's religious zeal found ample occupation on
board of a ship where the pevsoiind was admirably
chosen, but where there were several, especially
among the younger officers and tlie cadets, wlio
needed to be strengthened in the faith and gently
drawn to practise it. Before everything else our
lieutenant preached by example, and the great
charity he showed toward his comrades inspired
them with a regard that added much efficacy to
the insinuations of his zeal. ''As soon as wo cast
anchor in a port," naval officers who sailed with
him relate, *• and permission to go on shore was
given, Mr. Clerc would otTer to replace the officer
on imtcUy so as to leave him free to take immediate
advantage of a privilege so dear to all sailors. And

From Loricnt to Shanghai,

243

ion on

lirably
ecially
, wlio
gently
se onr
great
spired
acv to
cast
L w'itii
Bre was
ofticcr
ediatc
And

"when Mr. Clerc went on shore himself, if we fol-
lowed him at a little distance we were sure to sec
him enter a clinrch directly, for his first yisit was
always to God." *

His piety was abundantly satisfied during his
stay at Macao, for the Lazarists had their procura-
torship in that city, and the Sisters of Charity had
been established there for some time. There were
also two Dominican Fathers, who acted as procura-
tors for the missions of their order in Cochin
China. Alexis was not slow in making friends
with the Spanish and French missionaries. Dur-
ing a second sojourn at Macao, the Lazarists being
gone to Ning-po (June, 1852), he formed a close
intimacy with the S])anish Fathers Ferrando and
Fuixa, and had the satisfaction of finding in them
men who joined rare learning to solid piety.

One of those religious. Father Ferrando, was
good enough to come on board the Cassini to cele-
brate Mass. He came in all weathers, and even
when the sea was very rough. Lieutenant Clerc
served the Ma?s in uniform, after having made the
boat's crew which he commanded file around. He
preserved this custom during the whole cruise,
even when there were among tlie passengers Bro-
thers of the Christian Schools quite ready to re-
place him, an employment for which their habit
seemed better suited than his. Speaking of this,
the commander of the Cassini adds very appropri-
ately : '^ The bright mind and the boundless chari-

* Testimony gatliorod by Father Tli<5bault from two of-
ficers ou board the Erigone, in 1855.

tint: IS ;»,.!■.

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■••*«ij«' ^

♦ft.' ■. ) *.

244

Alexis Clerc,

ty of Alexis Clerc, who was always anxious to oblige
liis comrades, rendered possible to him what in
others would have been perhaps the occasion of
teasing, if not of quarrels on the part of the offi-
cers. In his case there was never anything of the
kind."

Commander de Plas may easily bo suspected of
being a little partial to his beloved lieutenant,
therefore we will invoke the testimony of a much
younger man who was then a simple cadet mid-
shipman on the Cassiiii. lu early youth we are
very observing and seldom sin through excessive
indulgence.

" As soon as I had tho opportunity of knowing
Mr. Clerc," this last witness tells us, "I saw him
just as he was during the entire cruise : active and
vigilant as an officer, unalfccted and amiable in his
intercourse with all, master of himself, faithful in
the practice of his leligious duties, and this without
ostentation as well as without human respect.
His walk had tlien contracted something of his
interior dispositions ; ho had the firm step of a
man who has a great end to attain and a long road
to travel. As a general thing his eyes were mod-
estly cast down."

AVhat follows anticipates tho sojourn in China,
but that is no matter ; what we are searching for
now is the man, his character, the harmony be-
tween his sentiments and his life :

** While we were cruising about, when, on our
arrival at a port^, there was a dinner or a party
given to us, Mr. Clerc avoided attending as far as

Ihiua,
Lg for

tn our

parly

I far as

From Lorient to Shanghai.

245

was in his power. Still, if there was a duty to be
fulfilled by going to such entertainments, a service
to render, he yielded gracefully, and took his place
in society with that gayety and amiability which did
not forsake him even in the sad captivity of Maaas.
lie rarely wont on shore for amusement ; he wag
most frequently in his cabin working and reading.
It was thus he made a trial of the new life of re-
nunciation he desired to embrace."

These lines come to us from the Chartreuse of

Eeposoir, in Savoy, where Mr. S. de G , who

sends them, is, after having attained the rank of
lieutenant, finishing his career among the children
of St. Bruno. An unusual and singular coinci-
dence ! Those three sailors, of different ages and
rank, Mr. de Plas, commander of the Cassini,

Alexis Clerc, his lieutenant, and Mr. de G ,

a cadet midshipman, all three were a little sooner
or later to put off the liveries of the world and con-
secrate themselves to God in the religious state.
Two Jesuits and a Carthusian ! — not bad for a
&ingle etat-major ! Clerc was the only one of tlie
three who at that time was nearly decided upon
his vocation. He found himself, as is plain to see,
in good and worthy company ; and he was not de-
ceived when, before embarking on the Cassini, ho
told whoever wanted to know that he was going to
make a first novitiate.

Daring more than a year the Cassini was unable
to leave Macao, where she had anchorage, except
to return for long stays that were without utility
to the mission she had received when departing

Siwiti])!

-«a'

'*3'

!^^

11,

246

Alexis Clerc.

from France. Tiiis inaction, so contrary to all
they had promised themselves, to all they were
still resolved to do, was for Commander do Plas
and his generous compinions the severest of trials.
The news which reached them from the interior,
was not of a nature to calm their impatience.
China, they could not doubt, was in full revolution,
and a prey to all the evils of civil war. The in-
surgents, favored by a certain awakening of na-
tional spirit, not only held the imperial troops in
check, but gained ground every day, and menaced
the Tartar dynasty with complete ruin. On their
side the imperialists did not in anywise respect the
guarantees made so many times in favor of the
Christians, and wc had every reason to demand of
them an account of the grave and recent infrac-
tions of the late treaties. Whatever might be the
issue of the struggle, France, whose part is to pro-
tect moral interests espeeuilly. might be the arbiter
of the situation. "What England had done a few
years before m the interest of her commerce — the
immoral commerce of opium — could not a great
Catholic nation do with a hundred times more
honor for her missionaries and their neophytes ?
If we avoided interfering in the internal politics
of the Celestial Empire, there remained for us to
fulfil a duty of humanity compatible with the
strictest neutrality, and nobody in the world could
prevent us from acting as the police of the coast
where all the scum of the neighboring provinces
gathered, and where, amid the pitiful confusion of
the local authorities, there prevailed an unrestrained

From Loricnt to Shaiip/mi.

247

brigandage wliicli was free to commit all kinds of
outrages with impunity.

To command a ship of war armed with good
guns, to be able to land excellent troops the mere
sight of whom would put to flight the evil-doers,
and with all that to be, by orders, reduced to im-
mobility — it must be confessed that for French
sailors whose hearts were in the right place this
was a cruel mischance.

The commander of the Cassini could do noth-
ing, for so long as he was in the waters of Macao
all his movements depended on the commander of
the station, his superior officer. Had this last full
liberty of action, and did his instructions leave
him with hands untiad ? We are unable to say.
Let ns in passing note only this one thing : Too
often our brave sailors, after having hastened to
take an energetic part dictated by honor and duty,
have been poorly rewarded for their zeal, and the
government has not always spared them the most
painful disavowals. What is there astonishing in
their declining, when the opportunity offers, a re-
sponsibility always burdensome, and which is not
witlioiit dan^rer ? And then — another cause of
weakness — our porpitual revolutions, o«r sudden
changes of governments and ministries, is the
thing of all others the best adapted to disconcert
those who have the honor of representing France,
and managing her interests a-t some thousands ot
h agues' distance from Paris. Only just now, as
wo have seen, Alexis Clerc was greatly embarrassed
in presence of the Sultan ot Acheen, who showed

•» *■, ) 1,.,.

rv.., ,.,.

if I J*

"^:

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■inn

i
,1

248

Alexis ClerC.

w«iltifc> «

! r

i ■

W- ■:-!■

him a treaty of alliance bearing the signature of
King Louis Philippe, and he was careful not to in-
form that Asiatic monarch that Louis Philippe,
discJiarged as peoiiilG discharge a servant, had died
iu exile, leaving behind him the republic. Ah !
well, from small to great, it is always the same
thing every time we gratify our taste for revolu-
tions, and the Cassini experienced it once more
during her long anchorage at Macao ; for the re-
public of 1848, vanquished in its turn, gave place
to the empire prepared by the cotip d^ctat of De-
cember 2. To men who had received their mission
from a ministry that was serious and honest after
all, and to which the noble Admiral Remain Des-
fosses belonged, the news of what had taken place
in Paris had in it nothing encouraging, and the
first impression it produced must have been most
painful. Here is one example among many others :
In Canton and Shanghai great hopes had been
founded upon the action of an experienced diplo-
mat, ]\Ir. de Bourboulon, who was charged with
exacting the observance of the treaties agreed upon
between Prance and China, and very probably
with obtaining something more. But at the an-
nouncement of the coup d'etat this high function-
ary expressed himself in such terms that every-
body considered his recall as certain. Fortunate-
ly, when the situation was made clear, matters all
turned out for the best ; Mr. do Bourboulon re-
mained at his post, and received with the title of
minister plenipotentiary new powers which he un-
derstood making an excellent use of. But French

re of
toin-

ippc,
died

Ah I
same
jvolu-
more
le re-
place
)f De-
lission
: after
1 Des-
1 place
nd tlic
1 mosfc
)thers :
been
diplo-
d witli
dupon
:obably
;be an-
nction-
every-

From Loricnt to Shanghai.

249

diplomacy had not the less been completely
paralyzed for a time.

Alexis' first letter after the news of the coup
cVHat bears the date of February 2, 1852. Tliis is
Avhat he says on the subject :

"We heard of the coiq) d'etat of the president of
the republic only through the forciga journals,
which seemed to us very poorly informed, probably
en account of the suppression of the Parisian jour-
nals. No letter or paper has reached us. All our
packages await us at our central station, Macao,
and we shall go for them immediately.

" I would not have liked to belong to the army
of Paris during that audacious usurpation. As to
the universal suffrage which follows to absolve such
pretensions, I have not waited until now to decide
that it is a miserable criterion of right ; neverthe-
less, we must undoubtedly stand by it if the great
majority pf voters take part in it. In the chaos
and anarchy in which we are tossed about, this
suffrage seems to me, in so far as it does not attack
the divine law, the single point, not of right but
of fact, which can indicate wherein resides the go-
vernment of France. But all this, like the govern-
ment of February, whence the republic issued, is, in
my opinion, of the nature of governments of expedi-
ency which we should obey for what they are worth —
I mean so long as there is nothing better; yet, withal,
I do not acknowledge to myself the right of dis-
obedience or the duty of quitting the service un-
less their acts force one to it. I should therefore
remain in the service, even if I were in Franco

*' -Ir llf

'I Ji

■■ ■•■-.If

.Mr

t' !

A' mil

^ill!

250

Alexis Clcrc,

where my resignation woultl bo possible, instead of
being here where it is nof. But I shall not take
any outli of fidelity to this new personage.

** Jules' habit of spending the month of Decem-
ber in Germany allows me to hope until I hear
that you arc both safe and sound.

**1 do not gl^e mucli credit to the accounts wo
get, and they are too briet lor us to judge much
from them ; but, from what they say, I am quite
puzzled to know with what men the president will
govern.

*• It is my idea that this prince will be the heir of
the policy of his uncle, and that then destinies
will bo very similar ; the first was the reaction
against the Jacobins, this one is selected to combat
the socialists. There is still a fine rok for him to
play. 1 have not the confidence that he possesses
either the will or the force to fill it.'* This was
looking far ahead and seeing surely. U nfortunately
audi clairvoyance was not common. France, thirst-
ing for authority, did not limit her confidence in a
prince whose past was anything but reassuring ;
a theorist as bold as he was deep, always ready to
recommence his life of adventure by risking, now
not only his liberty or his head, but the fortune,
even the existence, of the country that had taken
him for its ruler, and hailed him as a providential
man !

A letter of March 2T contains tho following
lines : ■ ' ■

'* My Dear Father : "We are goin^ij to Macao
to take advantage of the departure of the express.

From Loricnt to SJiangJiai.

251

My last letter ia from Catavia. While there wo rc-
ceived news from Europe up to December 2C, and
heard about tho kind of consent whicii universal
suffrage has given as a sanction to the coxq) cVctat
of tlio president. The foreigners we have since
met all have the air of believing that it is an im-
provement in our condition. For us there will
bo, even if we derive profit from it, a sort of
shame in being fallen so low that it did not need a
Ca)3ur of nobler alloy to conquer us.''

And a letter of April 13 : *' You s])eak sorrow-
fully of the presidential proscri])Lions. Without
much pitying the pretended victims, I deplore that
severity dictated by the seven million five hundred
thousand votes. But I am disgusted with the kind
of spurring on certain newspapers give it. There
is no longer necessity of exciting tlie governing
power to rigor ; it is sufliciently armed not to need
the feeble support of the voice of a journalist."

A reflection slipped into the following letter is
not without value, at least as an argument ad
liomincm : ''I see by your letters tliat you deeply
regret the republican government. Wiiile reserv-
ing my personal opinion, which is of no weight in
the matter, it seems to me that tiie basis of repub-
licanism is universal suffrage, and that the most
intense republicans are the ones who, after the re-
peated votes of December and the eiectiona to tlie
Legislative Assembly, should most thoroughly re-
gard the new government as legitimate."

When he wrote these lines Clerc had just return-
ed from a voyage to Manilla, enchantcii with all ^le

■ fiC

,1^

» '

252

Alexis Clerc.

^^liH

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had seen, and in particular with a colonial govern-
ment which was not the less civilizing for being not
in the least republican.

" It is, I think, the model of all colonies estab-
lished or to be established. The Spaniards have
infused into the Tagals their dominant qualities,
attachment to the faith and the military spirit.
If we did not see the rather dark color of their
skin, we might, from the manoeuvres of the troops
and their firm tread, suppose we were looking at
European soldiers. Their bravery has been often
tested, and has never failed when they have been
under the command of Spanish officers. By a co-
incidence which may appear singular, the Spaniards
have found Mussulmans for their enemies here, and
they fight against the Moros just as they did in
their own countrv under tiie famous Isabella."
The Moros in question are only the Malays of the
Soloo (or Solo, as the Spaniards call them) Islands,
brigands of the sea, who practise piracy along all
the coasts and carry whole populations into cap-
tivity. In the last expedition of the Philippines
against these corsairs the regular troops were
joined by volunteers recruited, instructed, drilled,
headed, and commanded by their parish priest,
Father Hanez, of the Augustinians. *' They
manned a fleet," Clerc relates, "which at San
Jose was united with that of General TJrbiztondo.
I can easily imagine the joy this reunion must have
produced, and the confidenee the general must
have felt in the execution of a project in which the
people so heartily co-operated. This little cru-

ern-
y not

stab-

haye

ities,

pirit.

tlieir

roops

Qg at

often
been

J a co-

niards

e, and

did in

bella."

of tbe
ands,

Dng all

cap-
ipines
were
rilled,

priest,
They
San
tondo.
st have
1 must
icb tbe
:1c crii-

',i

From Lorient to SJian9:hai,

253

sade, thanks to the simplicity of the crusaders —
who had no suspicion of the beautiful title I give
them and whicb they deserve — and to the watch-
ful care of their pastor, o:Sercd a model of a Chris-
tian army. They performed all their religious
duties as though they were at home. When the
day of [action came. Father Hancz, who always
commanded them, led them to the assault to-
gether with Mr. Garnior (a French officer of rare
merit) ; he received a mortal wound, and expired
shortly afterwards."

At last, after long waiting, Clerc is to be re-
lieved of the burden of his uselessness. Tlie
Cassini is to go to Shanghai in company with the
Capricieuse, a sailing corvette, to which she will
serve as a tow-boat. On board the Capricleuse,
commanded by Mr. de Rocquemaurel, the com-
mander of the station, is installed the Frencli le-
gation, composed of the minister, his wife, his
secretary, and an interpreter. As to the Cassini,
she carries the procurator of the Lazarists and ten
Sisters of Charity, a pious colony to be landed at
Ning-po. Thus the horizon is brightened and a
quiet joy reigns on board; we notice the reflec-
tion of it in the following letter: "This voyage
has, on account of the charm of the amiable vir-
tues of our passengers, been the most agreeable we
have made. That perfume of holiness which the
religious communities so carefully preserve, and
which the world knows nothing of, was offered to
us, and nothing is so sweet and touching as that
entire and simple devoted ness of the Daughters of

it'tD

1^3

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254

Alexis Cierc.

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Charity. That absence of all little feminine diplo-
macy, that desire to be employed for the sake of
rendering service and not for the sake of appearing
useful, that gayety so gentle and so uniform — these
are tlie qualities which made their society a plea-
sure for each of us. As for their deep piety, their
enlightened devotion, it does not belong to me to
praise it; it is, however, the secret of all their
other qualities, the source wlience flow those lim-
pid waters, and, more exactly, the tap root which
nourishes those fertile branches."

Clerc himself satisfies here " that desire of being
employed for the sake of rendering service and not
for the sake of appearing useful," which he ad-
mired in the Daughters of Charity. He does not
tell us, and for a good reason, how their landing
was effected. But the commander of the Cassinif
who has not the same reason for keeping silence,
gives us a detailed account: '' Alexis Clerc ren-
dered immense services to the commander of the
Cassini throughout the cruise. I vv^ill only men-
tion some of the most striking. In June, 1852,
the Cassini received on board the Rev. Father
Guillet, Lazarist and superior of the Sisters of
Charity, as well as ten sisters destined for Ning-po.
The vessel had no accommodations for so many
lady passengers, but, thanks to the simplicity of the
good sisters and to the very proper courtesy of the
officers, everything passed off as well as possible,
and the Cassini was able to discharge her precious
freight at Ning-po. It was not easy to land Euro-
pean women in a large and thickly-populated

From Loricnt to Shanghai.

255

city.* A sort of uprising might even be feared
Tvlien the authorities and the population should
learn that these women were religious. It was
therefore decided that tliey should be taken on
shore at night in an unfrequented neighborhood,
where sedan-chairs could immediately conceal them
from the gaze of the curious. Alexis Clerc under-
took the operation, and was seconded by Mr. Joy-
ant de Couesnongle, his friend, the atlministrativo
officer. It was a perfect success. The rainy
weather was even a favorable circumstance, and
towards ten o'clock in the evening the sisters were
installed in the house prepared for them."

After a rough iiassage the Cassini reaches
Shanghai. Alexis announces this good news to
his father: "We arrived on the 28th (of June) at
Shanghai, the furthest north of the ports open to
Europeans, and the one through which China will
probably be the most encroached upon by Europe.
The commercial importance of this place, already
very great, is on an increase the ultimate limit
of which it is impossible to foresee. The city of
Shanghai is of the second class ; it is situated
on the Wam-pou, a branch of the Yang-(se-kiang.
The surrounding country is perfectly flat, and the
land is formed of the alluvia of the river. From
the top of a pagoda nine stories in height and
about six miles distant from Shanghai, some em-
bankments that serve as a promenade for the Eng-
lish are to be seen. These vast plains are fur-

* The population of Ning-po, or rather Ning-po-fou (for it is
a first class city), numbers Ave hundred thousand souls.

2^6

Alexis Clerc.

'r. I»

icr

rowed with an infinite number of canals. The
canals are the railroads of China ; in Europe we
have no idea of the profusion with wliich they arc
scattered about ; they are of great use as means of
irrigation. The fields are well cultivateJ,and there
is no waste land excepting what is occupied by the
tombs."

This is all ; of tlio Jesuit mission not a word.
Alexis has his reasons, doubtless, for not leading his
father prematurely upon that dangerous ground ;
for already he must have a presentiment that his
sojourn in that mission, the happy and blessed term
of BO long a voyage, will not be without result tor
the great affair of his vocation.

ill

CHAPTER VIII.

A CONVERSION ON BOARD THE " CASSINI."

BuRiXG licr long cruise in tlie China seas the
Cassuii, always having her central station at Ma-
cao, was destined to anchor three times in the har-
bor of Shanghai: in June, 1852, in March, 1853,
and, finally, .a last time in the month of Septem-
ber of the same year. lb was on these several oc-
casions that she had it in her power to offer effec-
tual protection to the European establishments,
and especially to the Frencli mission, which was
between the fire of the two armies. The inter-
esting episode that will form the subject of the
present chapter belongs to the second of these
voyages to Shanghai.

Clerc, with his attractive qualities and his burn-
ing zeal, was everywhere a great converter ; we
know already that he proved himself such at Lo-
rient and Brest, as well as at Indret. But on
board the Cassiui, in a select assembly of officers
and cadets, the opportunity of doing good to souls
was, so to speak, daily and continual ; to seize
it on the wing without making himself an annoy-
ance, to await the moment of grace for months
and even years (in doing which he was favored by
the length of the expedition)— such was the line

257

re*

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1'^

258

Alexis Clerc.

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of conduct he followed, not without success. I
find a first evidence of this in the letter sent to
me from the Chartreuse of Kcposoir, from whicli
I liave already quoted. Attached to the expedi-
tion as a passed midshipman, young Mr. do G ,

who had received a finished education, was not very
far from the kingdom of God, and though he had
for some time neglected the practice of his reli-
gion, even though his faith was darlcened, he was
fortunately neither an infidel nor a sceptic. But,
like the paralytic of the Gospel, incapable of rous-
ing himself from a fatal torpor, he awaited a
man — a man who would reach out his hand to
plunge him in the pool. Clerc was that providen-
tial man, and Mr. de G , now a Carthusian,

feels towards him an eternal gratitude.

*^I must," he writes us, "relate here a circum-
stance which gratitude will never allow me to for-
get, and explain to you how Providence made use
of Mr. Clerc to bring me back to the path of sal-
yation. For about three years I had not ap-
proached the sacraments, notwithstanding the
good examples I had before me. I had even eluded
several attempts made by a missionary father to
speak to me on the subject. Mr. Clerc, under-
standing how dangerous my position was at that
age when men too often forsake the good to
blindly follow evil, and knowing besides that my
education had been most Christian, one day
frankly accosted me and in a few words broached
the subject. He had been walking the deck with
me for a little while, when he said, with the smile

A Conversion on board the " Cassini^ 259

that enlivened liis most serious convcrjations :
*Now, toll mo how it happens that you no longer
practise your religion ? With the education you
have received and the faitli you certainly possess,
I cannot really see what restrains you.' As 1 ob-
served to him that I had doubts (a con?cqucnc%
probably, of all that rubbish of b;id reading which
people of the world indulge in without scru[)le and
without remorse), he asked quickly : * Is it honest-
ly that?' *Yes,' I replied. 'If that is all,' he
returned, * why did you not tell me before ? I will
give you something to enlighten you.' And he did
give me the 'Etudes Philosophiques' of xVuguste
Nicolas, which I read attentively. As soon as I
came to the advice to pray, I prayed, and the veil
foil. How much of that grace I certainly owe to
the prayers of Mr. Clorc ! May God give him his
reward ! Some days later I returned to the good
path, which after fifteen years led me to the shel-
ter of the cloister."

This is very simple, is it not ? But it is a great
thing in the order of salvation. All of us who
have faith, and who imagine thut we love our
neighbor as ourselves, how many similar occasions
do we not permit to escape us through want of
watching for the moments of grace, but especially
through want of appreciating the value of a soul I

All Clerc's conversions were not so easy, even
among those midshipmen of whom the greater
number, though not all, had been reared by Chris-
tian parents and masters. With such and such
ones a first overture was a very hazardous thing.

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Alexis Clcrc.

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and, the ice onco broken, care liacl to be taken not
to press tlie reluctant soul too closely or bring
about a hand-to-Land sfruirglG. Too frequently
the zeal of the priest, of the missionary, failed
completely. In his capacity of officer Clcrc had a
readier access to the midshipmen, and his regular
duties offered him precious opportunities. And
licrein is on(3 of the great secrets of the apostolate ;
nothing makes us understand it better than the
example, at cnce so sweet and so powerful, of our
Lord announcing the kingdom of God in the ci ics
and towns of Judea, See him at the well of Jacob
manifesting himself to the Samaritan woman, and
kindling in the heart of a poor sinner the thirst
for that living water that spiingeth up into life
everlasting. As he journeyed from place to place,
how many times did he not in the same way gather
up and bring back to the fold the w.ndering sheep
of the house of Israel !

It was, then, on t'hc deck of the vessel where
Clerc was on watch with another midshipman —
thia one a person who had gone far astray — that
the serious conversation took place at the con-
clusion of whicli the young man admitted himself
conquered and laid down his arms. Let us leave
him to relate in all sincerity his own history, from
the period of his fatal obduracy to the hour, for
ever blessed, when the grace against which he was
struggling triumphed over his long resistance.

THE midshipman's STORY.

** I was not so fortunate as to be brought up to

A Conversion on board the '* Cassiniy 261

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bring

cntly

failed

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And
olato ;
m tlio
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Jacob
n, and

thirst
to life

place,

gather
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)man —
— that
e con-
limseU
IS leave
from
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he was
ce.

respect tho holy Catholic religion ; still, I gained
at college the first notions of it, and it was with a
fervor which was more lively and sincere than dura-
hlc that at the aj^c of twelve and a half I received
Holy Communion for the first time. That first
time was to bo the last, at least for a long while.

**Bytho Easter which followed my first Com-
munion I was already deeply infected with human
respect, and if I approached the holy table once
during that paschal season, it was at the invitation
of the sisters of the infirmary whereat the moment
I happened to be confined, and doubtless the God
of love no longer found in my heart anything but
a pitiful little flame already too nearly burned out
to bo brightened by his presence.

"From that day the shadows grew thicker and
thicker about my soul, and from at first blushing
for a moment of simple, unafi'ccted piety 1 L^oon
came to take a miserable pride in proclaiming my
impiety by my acts as well as by my words.

** I passed from the college to a preparatory
school, then to the naval academy. Finally, at
nineteen, I joined the sea as a midshipman. God,
whose mercy and wisdom are unfathomable, had
doubtless in some sort prepared my salvation be-
fore I had begun to throw myself away ; for, from
the age of seven years, I had, without any apparent
reason, declared my intention of being a sailor.

" At the naval academy I had dreamed about
making my first voyage to the coasts of China, and
it was at my request and to satisfy this desire that
I, aa open contemner of holy things, was appointed

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262

A /ex is Clerc.

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to the Cas.nniy commanded by Mr. de Plas, and
numbering among its officers Mr. Clerc, the lieu-
tenant commander, and among its middies my

companions of the naval school, de G , now a

Carthusian. I was still a furious wolf, and yet the
Lord let mo into his fold.

" Besides do G , two or three of our mutual

companions were, if not like him, (irmly grounded
in the faith, at least regular observers of the essen-
tial duties of religion. This was to me a reason
for proclaiming my impiety louder and more
boastiugly still. Nothing but cynical jests, ob-
scene speeches, horrible blasphemies issued con-
stantly from my lips.

*' Our vessel was carrying to the island of La
Reunion Mgr. Dcsprez, the newly-appointcd bishop
of that island, with several priests and religious ;
we also had on board bound for China Mi^jr. Ve-
rolles. Bishop of Mantchooria, as well as several
priests of the Foreign Missions.

" The presence of these persons consecrated to
God irritated my anti-religious humor.

'* We were at sea on the feast of E ister. Alone
of all the ship's company I abstained from being
present at the Mass, which was celebrated with
great solemnity, and I was very proud to see my-
self the only one among so many wholly exempt
fj'om foolish prejudices and courageously ijidejjen-
dent.

*' There remained in my heart only a certain
sympathy for the sisters, probably merely because
they were women, and Almighty God was under

A Conversion on board the *' dtssint." 263

and

lieu-
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low a
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lutual
anded
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more
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igious ;

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ated to

Alone
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see my-

exempt
ndejjen-

no obligation to allow mc credit for a sentiment of
wliicli ho was not the obj'jct. Nevertheless, it
seems as though divine mercy gave itself that 2^^'^^-
tcxt for doing gentle violence to my rebellious soul,

*' When we were in the China Sea we had on board
for several days some Sisters of St. Viiicent do
Paul, who had left Macao to establish tiiemselves
at Ning-po. One day, having had occasion to land
at the same time with them on one of the islands
of the coast, I gathered some ilowers to offer them.
I have since been told that those good and holy
women began from that hour to pray for me par-
ticularly.

"It was two years since our dci3arture from
France wlien we had some reason for spending a
certain time in the waters of Canton. Comman-
der de Plas, who had had a chapel fitted up on
board and never allowed it to lack a chaplain, se-
cured the services of the Abbe Girard, a priest be-
longing to the Foreign Missions, who has since
died in Japan, and who was, at the time of which I
write, living in a floating house on the river.

" Abbe Girard, whose heart was devoured with
zoLil for the salvation of souls, felt drawn towards
me, and, as I have since learned, expressed to Mr.
CIcrc the sentiment with which I inspired him,
and the desire he conceived of attempting my con-
version. Poor Mr. Clerc, who for two years had
had leisure to become acquainted with my disposi-
tions, did not, it seems, conceal the fact that ho
saw no chance of success. Nevertheless, the Abbe
Girard, whom Almighty God had chosen as his

■a

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264

Alexis Clcrc.

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first mcssonf!;cr of mercy to mc, was not tliccon rapped;
ono dav lio drew nic into the cabin which the com-
mandcr had jilaccd afc his disposal, and under pre-
text of discoverinpf if a certain stenof^raphy which
lie knew I used was the same he had formerly
ttjught, he asked mo to translate aloud to him a
short letter which ho had written me. It was,
as yon may guess, a letter of wise advice and seri-
ous warning; it announced to mo in the name of
Divine Goodness that grace was at that moment
visiting me and offering itself to me, but that, re-
pulsed, it might never return. This announce-
ment, which had been made me many times be-
fore and had not shaken my imp:cty, did not pro-
duce much more impression on mo then ; still, I
re member that I experienced something like a mo-
ment of hesitation, something like a slight in-
terior uneasiness, a passing trouole "which I had
already occasionally felt when my lips were casting
up to God one of those terrible expressions of de-
fiance, the mere memory of which causes me to
tremble even now.

" I only noticed several years later a circumstance
wliich seems to indicate how the merciful provi-
dence of God fixes beforehand the hours when it
will make a supreme effort to become master of
our hearts; the day on which this took pdace, and
which the missionary had inscribed as the date at
the top of his letter, was precisely the one on which
I completed my twenty first year.

" Our conversation was not prolonged ; I wanted
to escape from the lyermcioiis influence which I

;■

A Conversion on board the " Cassinty 265

thought 1 had cxporicnccd for a moment, unci
shortly afterwards 1 roiid, with an indulgence in
gome horsc-lauglitcr, the good priest's charitable let-
ter to my assembled comrades.

** Wc left the latitude of Canton, and thus wcro
separated from him whom Almighty God had, as
ic were, made the confidant of his tender desires
regarding me. Abbe Girard had, it sccma, charged
Mr. Clerc to continue the vcconsinivlion of faith in
my soul — a woik the first etunc of which, against
all appearances, he did not despair of having hud.

*'I sometimes found mvsclf on watch with Mr.
Clerc and under his orders, and one evening when
we were at anchor, and there was no duty to claim
cither his or my attention, he managed to lead the
conversation to religious questions, and soon to
wrest from mc an acknowledgment of the painful
void which I had often felt in my soul ever sinco
I had allowed the faith of my first Communion to
become extinguished. In fact, it had happened to
me at the naval school when I was listening to the
astronomical lectures tliac were given us, to look
with disdain upon my existence, so petty in com-
parison with the immensiiy of the universe, and to
be seized with a profound distaste for life, no longer
having a knowledge of my soul and its eternal des-
tinies, and feeling condemned to painfully prepare
a /"//if 2^ re which, if it were not cut short by death,
would perhaps have no greater duration than the
present employed in assuring it. Even at times
the idea of suicide crocsed my brain of eighteen
years, the age of J'^yoiis unconcern.

■4tl

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266

Alexis Clerc.

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'"^ Later, on shipboard, iu the culm of the beau-
tiful tropical nights':, in the midst of immensit}-^ I
tried to fathom the unfathomable depths of tlie
starry heavens, and to divine beyond tiiat vast but
finite ex2)anse of matter the Infinite whom my soul
had lost. It was a sentiment I did not reason
about; I did not know what I sought, but I felt
that I lacked something, ci rather that I lacked
everything ; I had a career of my choice and lo
my taste ; I enjoyed, in spite of my impiety, the
esteem of my superior ofTicers and the good-will
of my comrades ; I had at home a family that
awaited my return to lavish affection upon mo
more than ever before — yet, at those moments
when, all being silent around my conscience, \i
could hear its almost extinct voice, I felt a void
within me,

**From the diiy I made the acknowledgment of
that instinctive want which I had sometimes ft It,
but had quickly tried to deceive instead of en-
deavoring to satiafy, my soul begun to chango,
to ho coiivcrk'd, to use the beautiful and appropri-
ate expression which is ap^ !ed to that moral phe-
nomenon.

*' Henceforth I had an end before mo, and I
started on my j nirney to reach it with a step that
doubtless was very uncertain, tottering, and irreso-
lute, but allowing nysetf to bo urged forward by
the energetic charity of our holy friend, wlio, as
goon as ho had seen the possibility of snatching
me from the devil, had conceived an ardent, super-
natural affection for me.

A Conversion on board t lie " Cassini.'^ 267

iiul I
tluit
rreso-
ircl by
lio, as
cliing
super-

"T Lad to tell him that I did not believe in G-'<i ;
aud in reality it was belief in God, the sentiment
of his existence, that my soul had sometimes
sought to draw from the abyss of tlie firmament.
Followinj; Mr. Clcrc's advice, I commenced to say
every night before going to sloop this singular
prayer : * My God, if thou dost exist, as is declared
to me, deign, I beseech thee, to inspire mo with
the sentiment of thy existence.'

"Who can measure the extent of God's mer-
cies ? Tliat prayer which resembled a blasphemy
was my only co-operation in the work to which our
venerated friend from that time forward conse-
crated his zeal, and the Lord waited for no more
from me. T'lat light which my soul had instinc-
tively sought while denying it, began to penetrate
the recesses of my heart. The thick darkness
which for a number of years had obscured my
vision, began to fade away before the aurora of
grace ; I felt that I was seized and carried alonr;;
by a divine current to which I had only to abandon
myself, and which transported me through new
regions. The night wherein I had so long lived
fled awijy, and the duy steadily brightened before
me. I approached objects which, seen from afar
oil and tljrough the shadows of impiety, had ex-
cited my aversion, and they grew beautiful to my
eyes. My affectionate pilot said to me : ' Soon
30U will see new horizons opening before you';
and in reality I experienced in the supernatural
order what I had felt in the inferior order when,
for the first time, I suikd towards the open sea,

ftit

268

Alexis Clerc,

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towards the blue and limpid waters oi tlic immense
and sparkling ocean. Henceforth my soul is cap-
tivated ; it no longer dreams of resisting; it lets it-
self be gently borne by the ineffable grace of that
God who, forgetting in an instant all the outrages
he has received from his creature, seems to be grate-
ful because it is willing to yield to him its love.

"Nothing of the work that was being carried on
in the depths of my soul appeared exteriorly ; my
comrades thought me still the hardened rebel they
had heard turning the tender and serious warnings
of the pious missionary into ridicule.

*'One evening I happened to be on deck when
prayers were begun according to the maiitime re-
gulation ; for two years I had never once been pre-
sent at this exercise, and, if at the moment I found
myself among the ship's company, I always has-
tened to withdraw, so as not to be obliged, to un-
cover. This evening I felt urged to make a first
act of faith, and before human respect, so long my
master, had had time (0 remind me of its ancient
rights, my cap was off my head. My comrades
(those who inntated my irrcligion) had gone, sup-
posing that I was following them. When I re-
joined them after prayers were over, a profound
astonishment was still depicted on their counte-
nances, but they had the delicacy not to allude to
what had passed. As for me, 1 was not quite at
my ease, but the step was taken ; I was like a man
who did not have courage enough to jump in the
water himself, but whom anotlier has pushed in; I
was in, and it cost me no more to stay.

Hi:-

A Conversion on hoard the " Cassini,"' 26g

" From that day faiili made rapid progress wiili-
in my soul ; the gratuitous mercy of God and the
hurning zeal of the future martyr alone acted. I
repeat it again, I was as though gently borne along
by a current that required no efforts on my part.

** I had preserved almost no notion of the reli-
gion that had illumined my childhood for so phorfc
a time. For example, I no longer knew the mean-
ing of the Trinity; I thought the Blessed Virgin
belonged to it ; my ignorance was that of a p:igan.
One day, however, I felt impelled to make the sign
of the cross. The Lord seemed to ask me for these
feeble marks of my good-will, and to await thrm
in order to lavish his graces upon me with new pro-
fusion.

*' Soon after this Mr. Clerc offered mo a medal
of the Blessed Virgin ; I accepted it, and sus-
pended it round my neck. Human respect, con-
quered a first time by surprise, now found itself in
my heart in presence of what was for it a formid-
able enemy : this was a disposition I have always
had to push without discretion the application of
my ideas or of my fancies to the extremesfc point.
This disposition, which has caused me to commit
many faults, was in this case, through divine
mercy, a powerful help to my soul.

"Two or three months before 1 had made the
cabin which my comrades and I occupied resound
with my shameless blasphemies — and now they saw
me, at the hour of the morning ablutions, uncover
my breast where the precious medal shone.

** Almighty God had armed, one against the

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270

Alexis Clerc.

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other, two caprices of my nature, and renclercd
vigorous tlic one which was, for the time being, to
assure my salvation.

"I often think, and not without being moved,
of how my comrades treated me then. Some of
them, on account of theiy religious faith, had been
the objects of my sarcasm, which they never re-
proached me foj ; others, on the contrary, had
heard me far surpass the impiety of their language,
and even when, too soon forgetful of my own past,
I became severe towards their incredulity, they
never taunted me with my previous irreligion. In
the sequel, one of the latter frequently offered to
rei^laco me when my duties would have prevented
me from attending Mass on Sundays.

"I was thus sailing on a calm and tranquil sea
when one day a terrible tempest arose in my soul.
I was again on watch with Mr. Olerc. Eight
o'clock had struck, night had set in, and we were
to remain on deck until midnight. The ship was
resting on her auchors : tlie sailors were stretched
on the jilanks asleep ; it seemed as though there
were only three of us between the heavens and the
waters — Almighty God, his faithful interpreter,
and myself. This evening Mr. Clerc began to talk
to me about confession. I trembled at the word,
and suddenly that luminous ocean, in whose midst
my soul had been delighting for some months,
seemed to grow dark. I saw my old prejudices,
which I had believed to be vanished because I had
ceased to feel them, coming back to me from all
sides. I was, as it were, surrounded with a circle

A Conversion on board the '* Cassini.'^ 2/i

of black phantoms that sought to stifle my new
faith, and my old aversions seemed to live again in
my heart and drown the supplicating Yoice of my
earnest friend. Three hours passed, he speaking
without pause, drawing from the depths of his
piety and tenderness ever-fresh arguments to tri-
umph over the repugnances which my silent man-
ner allowed him to easily conjecture. He told mo
afterwards that ho then felt that the solemn hour
liad sounded for me, and that, being without trou-
ble of my own arrived at the gates of the celestial
city, I would, if I did not enter them by an ener-
getic effort, see them close before me for ever. In
reality God ov/ed me nothing. I had done nothing
for him ; on the contrary, I owed him an account
of the graces he had lavished upon mo, and which
had brought mo thus far. My sensations were
those of a D:ian standing at the mouth of a myste-
rious dark cavern, of unknown depth, which he
believes to be infested with hideous reptiles, and
which some one is trying to persuade him to enter
alone, without light and without assistance. In an
instant tha devil, undoubtedly feeling his prey
about to escape him, had been clover enough to
restore life to all those silly imaginations I had
derived from execrable romances. Prostrate be-
neath the burden of a sort of invincible terror, my
panting soul from time to time made an effort to
rise ; then it fell back upon itself, deprived of both
sirength and courage. I know not how to express
tlio agony I suffered during those threo hours. I
was mute, and my poor friend, worn out, felt his

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heart ptiinfully wruug by the tlioiight that it was
finished with me. . Suddenly, moved by one oC
those supreme graces which doubllcss cost our Sa-
viour the most bitter pang.^ and tlie most profound
ignominies, I straightened myself up and said to
Mr. Clerc: * I will confess to-morrow.' I know not
which preponderated in his heart, surprise or joy.
I had not succeeded in driving off the phantoms
that beset me, but T had repeated interiorly, and,
as it were, stammeringly, the words the Spirit of
God dictated to my soul : ^^ly God, I cannot de-
liver myself from these aversions, but in gratitude
for what thou hast done for me I will make this
effort that is asked of me.' I have often in thought
recalled that solemn moment of my life, and it has
never been without deep emotion.

^' The next day I entered with Father Languil-
lat,* whom I had selected at the suggestion of Mr.
Clerc, tbc chaj)cl on board, and opened my soul
that had been shut up for nine years. Ah ! Cod
be thanked a thousand times for loving miserable
sinners so much !

''Father Languillat made mo promise to read
that part of Wx. Nicolas' ' Etudes ' which treats of
the Eiicharist ; and, in fact, I opened the book,
but soon closed it again. God's grace outran the
tcxf, and it seemed to me that those pages, learned
as they were, could teach me nothing more. My
heart, readier than my mind, had in a few mo-
ments plentifully drunk of the waters of divine

*No\v Bi'^hop of Sorglopoli.s aud Administrator of tlio Dio-
cese of I^l.iiikin.

A Conversion on board iJic " Cassini^ 273

knowledge. I asked to approach Holy Commu-
inon, and I deiinitL'ly rc-enlorcd the Cinistiaii life.

"Twenty ycfirs have passed since tlint day, and,
in an incessant warfare between Cod's grace and
tny miserable nature, the latter has, to my shame,
too often been victorious ; but the God of infinite
patience and generosity has never permitted that
the faith restored to my soul should bo s!jake!i. I
reUirned to the Christian life almost v/Ilhout study.
For a long time afterwards I had not the leisure to
si udy attentively that admirable science, of which
I had learned scarcely the first elements in my
childhood, and which in my youth became per-
fectly strange to me. Kotwithstanding this, the
revolts of my nature never had the power to pro-
duce the slightest trouble in my renewed faith.
For twenty years I have b^cn ruled by faith — en-
vclo[)ed, penetrated with faith — and I cannot help
being frightened at the terrible responsibility I have
incurred by not having made fruitful within me so
lively a faith, the pure gift of God.

'* During the fifteen months that followed this
most important event of my life — that is, until the
Cassini returned to France — Mr. Clerc and I lived
the intimate life of shipboard. Daily he edified
mo by his piety, his humility, Lis so courteous
charity for all. How many times wo prayed to-
gether, now in the modest cliai)el on deck or in
his cabin, now leaning over the ship's rail, letting
the invocations of the lt(jsary fall bead by bead
upon the murmuring waves the vessel scattered as
she pursued her course, each one of which, as it

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clisa})pearccl in the duikncss, seemed to mingle its
melodious ripple witli the sound of our voices !
How many times we together received the hospi-
tality of your pious and valiant brethren at Zika-
wci,* at Tsamkaleu, at Shanghai ! sweet and
imperishable memories, which I cannot recall to
him save by looking towards heaven I"

Our readers will not be displeased with us for
having reproduced in its eloquent simplicity the
recital of this fervent convert, who from that day
of grace was Clerc's friend in life aud death ; who
twenty years later witnessed his solemn profession,
made on the morning of the 19th of March, 1871,
just in the sinister dawn of the Commune ; and
who a few days afterv^ards again received a pre-
cious token of this holy friendship — a letter, the
last, written behind the bolts of Mazas.

lit* 'jf

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* Coll^■ge of tho Jesuit Fathers, near Shanghai.

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CHAPTER IX.

RHANGriAI AND TTTI3 J2SCIT MTSSTOX.

"Whex Clcrc arrived at Shanghai for tlic For-ond
timo, in the course of the month of ]\Iarch, 1853,
tiie first thing that sfriick liirn was the continued
progress of the insurrection, whose wave already
covered a considerable portion of the province of
Nankin and washed towards (he coasts a veritable
army of thieves, the refuse of all the neighboring^
provinces, that closely threatened the mission of
the Jesuit Fathers and the establishments of Eu-
ropean commerce situated on the banks of the
Wampou outside the fortified enclosure of the
Chinese city. "We arc," he wrote, "on the eve
of most important events. The famous rebels who,
since 1832, have been steadily gaining ground in
the Celcsiial Empire, in these latter days, after
occupying the provinces of Ilonan and IIoupc, have
taken possession cf a very large city, the capital
of the province, called Hantclieou, I think. -"'^ On
our arrival at Ning-po it was said that they were
besieging Nankin ; here, at Shanghai, that Nan-:
kin was taken; then, that neither of the reports
was true, and that the rebels were advancing
towards the north. There is very little i^ositivo

* Perhaps Hingtclieou, a fortified town in Honan.

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information, and the liigJicst Chinese authorities
know no more ubout tiio matter than we do.
AVliafc is certain, and what I know for myself, is
that the ino-fai, or governors, of Ning-po and
Shanghai arc in /zrcat uneasiness; these immense
citiis are absolutely drained of soldiers. In Ning-
po a band of fifly go through their drill every day;
in Shanghai there are twenty soldiers; these are
cities of perhaps 500,000 inhabitants. The winter
is cold, commerce is almost destroyed, consequent-
ly tiic misery is very great and fur beyond what we
know anylliing about in Franco ; yet these legions
of miserable creatures remain quiet, and up to the
present only their mandarins live in fear of harm.
Such a thing would be impossible in Eun^pc, where
some scoundrel would soon have the enterprise to
obtain supplies for himself by an easy pillage.

*' The situation of the authorities is so critical
that the taoiai of Shanghai, who last year was so
badly disposed towards us, and whoso malevolence
only stopped short of obliging us to go to Nankin,
has accepted as a precious favor the offer we have
made him of a refuge for himself, his family, and his
possessions, in case of the arrival of the rebels, or
of what is more to be feared, a band of robbers.

"The weakness of this vast empire is as prodi-
gious as its duration, and I believe that the in-
stinct of the ant has been somewhat divided be-
tween itself and the Chinese. But we cannot the
less be astonishe.-l at the stupidity of this gov-
ernment, so sluggish in its own defence. Being so
well a^vare of its own incapacity, why has it not

S/iauj^hai and tJic Jesuit Mission. 277

hiivc

{ittemptcd to secure some mercenary troops from
Europe ? Tlio three liundretl mobiles who arc
Oil their way to establish themselves iu America
would have suiliced to fix the victory on the em-
peror's side, and lo discipline and animate these
l)Oor soldiers. It was in reward for a similar service
that the Portufruesc were allowed to found i\Iacao.

"The reigning emperor is named Ilien-foung.
The leader of the rebels, who now assumes the same
title, is Tien-tc ; he was formerly, it is stated, a
scullion in a monastery of bonzes. What is sure
is that he is a Chinaman, and, although the Tar-
tars may be Cliincsed, the revolt against a foreign
dynasty is popular enough throughout the empire.
The rebels, it is said, do not pillage the country ;
there is no more to be feared from them than from
the legitimate mandarins, and were it not that af-
ter having occupied the cities they leave them dis-
organized and without government, so that their
own army is followed by an army of thieves, the
people would have nothing to complain of on their
account. The mandarin of Shanghai would like
to obtain from our simplicity that the Cassini
should go to Nankin to give a great moral support
to the cause of the emperor. He has not the pow-
ers any more than our commander to arrange so
weighty an affair as a defensive alliance with so
compromised an emperor; therefore he will pro-
bably have his labor for his amiable pains.

" The English and American fleets and the Cas-
sini keep near Shanghai, the north of China being
at present the theatre of events which arc probably

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decisive and of the liigliesfc imporlunce to English
commerce. Tlicre are very inllucnlial English
liouses that during the last months have not been
able to pay their employees, money u so scarce. I
■will wait till the next mail to give you other particu-
lars of these matters. This mail leaves to-morrow,
the /^Otii, and I have only tiiis evening to answer
my letter^!."

Before closing his letter Alexis adds the follow-
ing two lines : ** To-morrow the dedication of the
Catiiolic church of Shanghai takes place. It will
be a great event." >

And truly, since the ruin of the ancient missions
was completed at the close of the last century,
never had the Catholic Church displayed so much
pomp, nor asserted so loudly her right to at least
appear in the open daylight on that soil which is
always wet witli the blood of martyrs. It well be-
longed to Shanghai to uplift the cross again and to
restore to honor the altar of the living God, for
that city is the native place of ihe illustrious disci-
ple of Father Ricci, Paul Siu, a man who, clothed
with tlie first dignities of the empire, used his im-
mense influence and his remarkable talents only to
protect the missionaries, and to labor himself to
establish in his family and in his country the reign
of Jesus Christ, ki first that generous neophyte
received the fr'hers in his own residence, which
thus became the first church of Shanghai ; but
Father Cataneo having led him to observe that the
little and the poor would not readily frequent the
palace of £o high and powerful a personage, he

ShaugJiai and iJie Jesuit Mission. 279

donated for the building of a cliurcli and presby-
tery a lot of land within the enclosure of the city
and not far from the northern gate. After the
suppression of the Society of Jesus, which struck to
the heart these beautiful missions, the church was
changed into a pagoda and tiio presbytery became
at onco a public school and a convent of bonzesscs.
The Jesuits sent again inlo China by the Propa-
ganda, and returned to the diocese of Nankin,
made it a duty to protest against that spoliation,
and, thanks to the energetic support of Mr. de
Lagrene, they obtained, if not a restitution, which
was become morally impossible, at least compensa-
tions and asuitablo indemnity. The buildings con-
structed for Catholic worship were not given back,
but a quite largo piece of land washed by the
Wampou was abandoned to the fathers, and it was
upon this ground that the cathedral of St. Francis
Xavier was erected. Mgr. de Bcsi, administrator
of the diocose of Nankin, had laid the first stone
in 1848, and five years afterwards (for it did not
take less for this great work) Mgr. Maresca was to
bless it. The architect was a missionary who had
already tried his skill by building some miles from
Shanghai the chapel of the college of Zikawei. He
had without servility adopted the compact propor-
tions and the general characteristics of the Doric
order, and, conforming generously to the taste and
traditions of the country, he had suspended all
round the edifice a continuous fringe of truly
Chinese ornamentation, the style of which recalled
Gothic chapters. The cross, shooting up in the air

28o

Alexis Clcrc.

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above all the buildings of the city, was seen at a
great distance, and showed to the eyes of the infi-
dels themselves the centre of the whole mission
and the residence of the bishop. On the front the
Pope's arms were distinguishable among the other
ornaments, and the delighted neophytes stopped to
read beautiful inscriptions in Chinese characters,
which recalled a glorious past by reproducing tex-
tually those which the ancient missionaries had
engraven on the great door of the church of Pekin.
"Alexis Clerc," the commander of the Cassiniy
who betrays his own sentiments while interpreting
those of that other himself, tells us — " Alexis Clerc
had the joy of seeing this church filled with the
Chinese faithful, who had gathered in such great
numbers that it was impossible for them to kneel
during Miss. It was a touching sight — that mul-
titude of Christian boats grouped on tlie Wampou
near the church, and bearing either a floating
streamer or a white flag on which was a blue cross.
There were in these boats whole families, some of
whom had. come more than fifty leagues. Two
boats from the Cassuiiy fully armed, were stationed
in the river, to prevent, if there should be occasion,
the tumult and disorder with which the Protestants
and some Ciiinamen had threatened the fathers.
Some non-commissioned ofiicers, well-armed, were
added to the commander's staff present at the cere-
mony. The worthy Mr. de Montigny, consul of
Prance, who seemed to expect some disturbance,
brought with him a confidential servant carrying
pistols under his garments, and he would not have

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission. 28 1

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failed to use them in case of need. But, thank
God! there was only the disorder of enthusiasm and
joy. Pahn Sunday, for that was the day, nobly
inaugurated the cathedral of Shanghai."

All the time not taken up by the duties of
his position Clcrc spent with the fathers, who
liked him and already treated him as one of
themselves. Two steps fiom the city was the
seminary of Tsamkalcu, and a few miles dis-
tant the college of Zikawei — two successful at-
tempts at the education of the natives which
had most agreeable surprises in store for him.
AVhcn he visited those children, those youth of a
charming candor and docility, of a fervor that re-
minded their masters of the besj: days of St.
Acheul, Fribourg, and Brugelette, the greater
number of an intelligence very ready and accessible
to .nil that constitutes what we consider a liberal
education — when, I say, he saw them by turns at
study, in the chapel, at their recreation?, he shook
off the prejudices he could not help receiving from
the grotesque types whoso rarest examples he had
met in Macao, and conceded without difficulty that
all the natives of the Celestial Empire were not
fatally and invincibly the Chinese of the folding
screens. Those young students, rescued from infi-
delity, and destined, some to give an example of the
domestic virtues in the midst of the corruption of
paganism, others to become priests of Jesus Christ,
apostles, martyrs perhaps, appeared to him worthy
of a tender interest, and he loved them as he was
capable of loving, with all his heart, and so as — I

^'3^

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282

Alexis Clcrc.

have a proof of it before mo — to inspire iiiom with a
grateful and almost fllial affection. Tor they cer-
tainly were, if I am not mistaken, pupils of Zika-
wei or of Tsamkaleu who together signed Francis
Vuon and MatJiias Sen at the end of a Latin letter
written on red paper and accompanying some
Chinese verses — a letter whicli Clerc received after
his return to France, and whicli he deposited in his
private archives, where I found it. I read there,
among other things (in the Latin, be it well
understood), that from his first appearance in
Shanghai Alexis has not ceased to load his young
correspondents with benefits whose multitude and
magnitude are such that they cannot attempt to
express it. ' But they remember him in their
prayers, they ask God to grant him all kinds of
happiness: "a glory as high and lusting as the
mountains, a grace renewed every duy like the sun
and moon " ; and they implore him, for his part,
not to forget the unfortunate Chinese dragged in
such great numbers along the paths of error and
so hard to bring back to God. Making ss large an
allowance as we choose for rhetoric and oriental
metaphor, those gallant young men have grateful
memories, and Clerc has known how to speak to
them in a language that is understood in all coun-
tries.

One of the old laborers of the Nankin mission,
whose shattered health has brought him nearer to
us and fixed him in France, tells us that he has
preserved a delightful recollection of Lieutenant
Clerc's stav at Shanghai and Zikawei. *' In read-

ShciJig/iai and the Jesuit JMission. 2S3

ing," 113 continuos, '• the narration of tlie captivity
and dcatli of o ir fatliars (luring the C/ommune),
I said ti mysjif, tli'nkiiig ospocially of Father
Cierc : * BalioM the wortiiy cro;vning of a life whicli
I so often admired i:i Cliina twenty years ago, and
which now appears to mo like a noble prelude to
the glory of martyrdom.* When the Cassim was
anchored off Slianghai the future martyr generally
came to take part in our religious festivals. Ho
was singularly fond of finding himself domesticated
with our fathers, and of following the regulation
of the day ^vitli a punctuality and case which, ex-
cept for his officer's uniform, would have caused
him to bo taken for a fervent religious. In all my
acquaintance with the young officer I admired
from the beginning the unequivocal marks of a
mo?!t solid virtue and a most amiable piety, the
both witliout variation or intermission. Always
the same, always smiling from the effect of a genu-
ine and frank gayety, the young sailor showed
already by his words and actions that virtue and
piety were perfectly acclimated in his heart, and
they shed over his whole life so gentle a radiance
that one could not know him without experiencing
a profound sentiment of love and veneration for
his person."'

The college of Zikawei had then for superior
Father Adrien Languillat, now Bishop of Sergio-
polis and Administrator of the diocese of Nankin,
a valiant missionary, who had passed through the
prisons of Changton and looked death in the face
more than once. Clcrc was on intimate terms

a St

284

Alexis Clcrc,

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witli him and became liis spiritual son. If wo
had not known tliis from good authority, we would
liavc guessed it merely f om seeing them together
wlien, in 18C9,, Mgr. Lin;,'uillat, on his way to the
Vatican Council, spent some v/eeks in Paris, and
came to tlio School Saihte Genoviuve, where lie
found tlie lieutenant of the Cassini under a Jesuit's
habit. From morning to nlj^lit Clero liung upon
the lips of the missionary bishop, who was himself
visibly moved by this unexpected meeting after so
long a separation, and the cordiality of their inter-
course made us all exclaim : " See how they love
one another ! "

Alexis also formed a close friendship with the
superior-general of the mis^iion, who was then Fa-
ther Joseph Broullion, an energetic and impas-
sioned nature, but with a piission that is well
fitiing the h^art of an apostle having no other
object than the good of s)uh. Consumed in a
short space by the ardor of his zeal, this active and
courageous superior left precious memories in the
mission which he governed only three years. In
the course of that year, 1853, and while the Cassini
was stationed by turns at Slianghai and Macao,
Father Broullion, crossing the seas with Mr. de
Montigny, Consul-General of France, came to ex-
pose in person to our superiors of Rome and Paris
the needs of the Nankin Church, and to ask them
for reinforcements.*

* This voyage explains bow it happens that a certain letter
of Lieutenant Clerc's, which we shall give presently, is dated
from Shanghai, and addressed in Europe to the superior of
the mission of Kiaug-uan.

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission. 285

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Before starting ho made a rapid sketch of the
mission wliose interests were conlldcd to him,
added a great number of letters from his fellow-
missionaries on tlie events tbat disturtJed the Ce-
lestial Empire, and an earnest introduction which
perfectly revealed his soul of an apostle, and tho
wliole appeared in a volume (1855) undcu* this
title : *' Memoir of the Present State of tho ^lission
of Kiang-nan (1842-1855)." A few details bor-
rowed from this publication will furnish an ex;ict
idea of the spectacle Clerc had before his eyes, and
at which he gazed not as an indifferent nor merely
curious beholder.

Let us, then, picture to ourselves a province
almost as large as France, crossed from west to
eiist by a mighty river — the Yang-tse-kiang, which
sli'ps of the line have ascended as far as forty
leagues from its mouth — and watered in every di-
roetion by innumerable canals. These canals,
which are the chief means of communication, serve
also to irrigate tho rice plantations, and are ail
utilized as fisheries, a great proportion of the in-
liabitants living only on rice and fish. Such is
Kiang-nan, the capital of which is Nankin, and
uhieli is divided into two sub-provinces, Ngan-
lioei in the west and Kiang-sou in the east — that
i?, towards the coast ; tliis latter country, entirely
level, is very frequently devastated by inundations.
The totid population of Kiang-nan is estimated at
fifty millions of souls, and all these constitute only
one diocese, that of Nankin, of which the last titu-
lar was a Jesuit, Mgr. Leimbeck-IIoven, who died

-at

286

Alexis Clcrc,

\^'

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in 1T87 after the sup[)ression of liis order. Siicli
is the inherittinco the Jc<5Uils c.inio into possession
of only in 1842 — an immense fiokl left almost witli-
ont cultivation, and which they had to clear up
afresh. Of tlio fifty milhons, as yet (1853) only
seventy-two thousand are Ciiristians ; hut this
little flock is scattered over an extent of territory
out of all proportion to itsnumher. Such a Chris-
tian settlement, Ou-ho, for instance, is more than
five hundred kilometers from Shanghai ; hence the
constantly-renewed fatigue of the evangelical la-
borers, whoso zeal, moreover, would not permit
them to rest, since they deem themselves, in the
words of the apostle, ihe debtors of all men, both
pagans and Christians. And then in that coun-
try such a thing as a non practical Clirislian is
unknown. All make their Easter duty, or, more
exactly, follow the exercises of the micsion when
one is given in their district, and of course the
missionary has to work night and day. "All the
busiuessof a Christian community," Father Broul-
lion says, *'is transacted at the time of the mission.
To hold the court of a justice of the peace, to set
to rights families and households, to reconcile
enemies, to urge restitutions, to correct libertines
and opium-smokers, to promote good works, to re-
establish, to develop asiiociations of zeal and chari-
ity, to visit pagan?, to solace the unfortunate, etc. —
such is the inevitable circle in which the activity
of the missionary is displayed, not to count the
unforeseen calls upon Lis strength and prudence,
such as the dyin^ to visit at a distance, and the

Shanghai and the Jcsnit Mission. 287

Such
iesalon

car up
V) only
t this
jrritory
I Cluis-
ro til an
?nce the
lical la-

pcrinifc
1, in the
en, both
it coun-
jislian is
or, more
)u when
ursc tlic
-AU the
X Broul-

micsion.

30, to set

reconcile
iber tines
ks, to re-
nd chari-
te, etc.—
activity
ount the
prudence,
, and tlio

assaults of ilio idolaters to sustain — assaults which
come too often, alas ! to overthrow Cliiistians and
churches, missions and missionaries. With his
IJiirty yearly confessions per day the priest cannot
attend to all the details of the Christian settlement,
and happy is the one who has been able to associate
with himself an intelligent catcchist, and to create
in the heart of the iiarishes, l)y means of administra-
tors and virgins, a centre of pious industries ; with
the aid of such instruments iiis influence will peiic-
trate more deeply, and the fruits of the mission will
bo preserved after his departure. For the stay of
the missionary, very short in small placjs, is long
nowhere ; and, besides, a great many of tlic Chris-
tians arc too busy to remain within his reach more
than two or three days. Tiicse are, among others,
the fishermen, obliged by poverty to depart as soon
as they have finished their confession, received
Holy Communion, and heard the instructions of
one or two mornings. IIow can the priest detain
men who without constant labor wouM not have
their daily rice to cat ? " *

In 1853 the missionaries of Kiang-nan distribut-
ed to the faithful more than eighty-three thousand
communions, representing more than ninety-one
thousand confessions ; they baptized five thousand
four hundred and forty-five children of pagans, of
whom one hundred and ninety-seven were raised in
the orphanages of the mission, more than six hun-
dred others having been adopted by Christian fam-

* ' ' Memoir of the Present State of the Mission of Kiang
ti:ui," p. 5a.

llllir

'5t

4fc

288

Alexis Clcrc,

*><,-

"•*j

H' ■»>"

ilies. As to the adults convcitetl and baptized,
they numbered over five hundred — a liard work
that sets loose all the devils of hell ; it is Satan's
prey that is snatched from him, and if it esciq)e8
him iio is sure to take his revcnf,^o. But the apos-
tle of Jesus Christ hurries to meet persecution and
death ; if he succumbs he knows that his last hour
is the hour of victory, and that the reward pro-
nnscd him will have no end.

Fatlier Broullion concUulcs his ** Memoir" as
follows :

** We can promise those who will come to eharo
our labors plenty of fatigue, wcarincs?, contradic-
tions, and, if not the palm of martyrdom, numerous
occasions of wearing out soul and body for the
glory of God. But they will also have tlie assur-
ance of hastening by their devoted ness the final
conquest of this vast empire, which has so long re-
belled against the prcuching of the Gospel.'*

This language suited Clerc perfectly, and it
seemed to him that the call of the superior of the
mission was addressed to him personally, so great
was his attraction for all heroic sacrifices. Be
sides, he saw the missionaries at the work, living
as he did in tlieir midst, treated like one of them,
ready, if they would consent, to share their aposto-
lic fatigues, and nothing equalled the eloquence
of the facts of wliich he was the daily witness.

In the journal of the first long retreat he made
in France after his admission into the Society he
has recorded a name, that of ]\[assa, which signi-
fied to him evangelical poverty carried to the do-

S/iang/uii and the Jesuit Mission. 2Sy

Li zed,

work
iiLirn's
sciipcs

apos-
»u and
t hour
1 pro-

ir " as

) eh arc
itraUic-
nicrous
for the
assur-
lic final
ong rc-

and it
of the
so great
Be
living
)f them,
r aposto-
loquence

less.

he made
ociety he
ch signi-
the do-

privation of everything and to the sacrifice of life.
It is a souvenir brought back from Slianghai.
And, in fact, our catalogues fix tlie date of Father
Reno Massa's death as the 28tli of April, 1853. .

What an admirable example is that of the Mas-
sas I I say the Massas, because the Father Kcno
to whom Clorc's souvenir refers is not the only
one of the name, and in such a matter it would bo
easy to confound them. They were five brothers
belonging to a patrician family of Najjlc?, all five
religious of the .Society of Jesus, and all five mis-
sionaries in Kiang-iian. The Fathern Agostino,
Gaetano, Nicolo, and Ilenato, or Hen 6, Massa ar-
rived at tlie mission together in the year 18-10, and
were joined the following year by their younger
brother, Aloysius, then in his twentieth year, and
who was ordained a priest only in 1854. IMiis is
not all ; it needs another touch to finish the pic-
ture of ihis family so worthy of the most glorious
centuries of the Church, thus completing its re-
semblance to (he forever illustrious families that
produced a St. Gregory of Nazianzen and a St.
Basil of Csesarca. When they saw all their sons
departed for China, Baron Massa and his noble
wife also determined to consecrate their last ye?.rs
to God ; and perhaps at the moment I am writing
this, in the retreat of their choice, and long since
ripe for heaven, they are about to receive the crown
of the patriarchs which they have won by their
great faith.

When Clerc arrived in Shanghai the Massas were
already only four, Father Gaetano having been the

290

Alexis Clcrc.

^i*-.,

«!•

first of the brother? to be lakcn f'' ni the mission.
The inundations that dcvustatod Kiang-nan in
1850 were giicceeded by terrible misery. While the
famine lasted the residence of the bishop at Tom-
ka-lou and the college of Zikawci daily received
thousands of poor creatures, to whom rations of
ere distributed. Father Gaetano, who had
ucen a priest for four months, was devoting him-
self with his whole heart to that good work when
he learned that he was wanted at the children's
hospital; he was wet with perspiration, fasting,
and for six hours had been tormented by fever ; no
matter— he flew to his dear sick children, cured or
baptized several of them ; but ho took the epide-
mic and died of it in eight days.

In 1853 it is his brother Kenc's turn. Pestilence
had followed the inundation and famine, and its
victims strewed the roads of Ngan-hoei. Father
Beno, the missionary of Ou-ho, built some sheds (0
receive the vagrants, and labored with indefatigable
energy for the conversion of the pagans, enlight-
ened by so manv terrible lessons and enticed bv
the bait of Christian charity into the evangelical
netg. Here is what Father Bioullion tells us of his
last labors and his holy death, wliich made so deep
an impression upon Clerc :

" A witness of tho fearful suffering caused by
the scarcity of food, ho forgot his own needs, and,
that he might assist a greater number of the un-
fortunates, denied himself all but what was abso-
lutely necessary. No more fruit, no more meat, no
strengthening beverage graced his repasts ; once a

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission. 291

an itt
ilc Uie
Tom-
iccived
ons of
lO had
g liim-

iUlren's
fasting,
fcr -, no
jured or
e epide-

pstilencc

and its

Fatbcr

sheds to

faligiihle

enligtit-

ticed by

langclical

us of his

Ic so deep

Is ; onco a

day he ate a little rice and dried herbs, an insuffi-
cient and unwholesome diet, but which he re-
proached himself for if he learned that some poor
wretch in tbe neigbborhood was clying of hunger ;
he would tbon niako baste to send him the dishes
off his tabic, happy to fast to save a fellow-crea-
ture's life.

*' During a six monibs' sojourn in Ou-ho he
preached to tbc pagans several times a day. A
large number of catechumens were granted to his
zeal ; he baptized as many as tbirty-two at once,
and forty oLbcrs were awaiting tbe same grace
when he fell sick. Seventy-two children collected
by his efforts were confidtd to Christian families,
who engaged to maintain tbem. In tbe meantime
we vainly endeavored to send him aid ; he was at
a distance, and tbe insurgent army of Kuam-si
closed the route. Therefore he continued to im-
pose upon himself new privations in order to carry
on bis work. Labor and fasting exhausted his
strength. Forced to keep his bed, be no longer
got up c.\i;Li)t to celebrate Mass. Nevertbeless,
being sent for by some sick persons who were dying
of typhoid fever, ho burned to their assistance.
This was bis last effort.

"Tbc next morning he wanted to rise again to
offer the Iloly Sacrifice. * There is no priest,' he
said, * whom I can call upon to give me tbe Holy
Viaticum. I must myself consecrate, so as to die
in the arms ot our Lord.' But bis members re-
fused to obey him. Yielding to the entreaties of
his catcchist, he consented that a Chiistian physi-

^li:-

292

Alexis Clerc*

"*>,

cian slioulcl be called ; but this last, delayed by tlie
rains and the inundation, only arrived just after
the father had taken a remedy prepared by a pagan.
Either from the effect of this medicine or because
the disease had already reached its final stage, the
same day Father Rene fell into a state that pre-
ludes the agony, and recovered the use of his
tongue only in his last hour.

*^0n the vigil of St. Mark's his countenance
lighted up with intense happiness, and, fixing a
joyous gaze on his catechist, as if to communicate
to him his thoughts, he seemed to charge him with
his farewells to his brothers and his friends in the
Society of Jesus. The following day, April 25,
1853, he gave up his soul to the God whose glory
he had procured at the cost of his life. Ilis suffer-
ings, his death, his prayers inaugurated the pro-
gress of the Gospel in Ngan-hoei, even as the de-
Yotedness cf Brother Sinoquet and of the Fathers
Estcve, Gaetano (Massa), and Pacclli was a seed
of salvation for Kianc: sou."

But while Clcrc contemplates with an envious
eye the heroic devoted ness of the missionaries
struggling with pestilence and famine, behold a
new scourge is let loose upon the miff^ion — the
scourge of war — a war feebly conducted, and
wherein the combatants give proof of little disci-
pline and military bravery, but for that reason all
the more fatal to the inoffensive populations whom
it overruns and crushes without pity. Fiom
Shanghai, where the approach of the rebels is

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission, 293

)y the
uitei-
)agan.
realise
;e, the
it pi-e-
of his

enanee
ixing a
unicate
m with
, in the
)ril 25,
se glory
s suiler-
,he pro-
the de-
Fathers
a seed

envious
ionaries
ehold a
ion— the
ed, and
le disci-
cason all
lis whom
Fiom
rebels is

dreaded, and not less, perhaps, that of tlie impe-
rialists, Clero writes, June 1 :

" My dear Father : Tlic vessel which took my
last letters had the misfortune to he lost with the
mail. My package was a good big one. I am
going to try to repeat its contents very briefly.

"The great affair is the war of the rebellion. I
think I have already told you how a band of men
belonging to the province of Kiang-si passed vic-
toriously through Kiang-si, Canton, Ilonan, and
Ilou-pe, which are equal to four countries of the
siz3 of France.* Now they are in this j)rovinco of
Kiang-nan, masters of Nankin and Tchen-kiang-
fou. So far they have received no check ; but
they have established no authority in the countries
they have traversed, and consequently have left
them thoroughly disorganized, driving all the ma-
gistrates away and building up nothing, to the
triple detriment of tlie emperor, of themselves, and
especially of the inhabitants. But, looking at tho
immense extent of territory that now separates
them from their point of departure, it is plain that
theirs is the inevitable alternative of conquering or
all perishing. The number of these rebels is very
small in comparison with the enterprise, and well-
informed persons do not suppose them to be over

* Clerc deceives himself, we think. The rebels started from
Kouang-si, or Western Kouang, adjoining Kouang-tong (Can-
ton), or Eastern Kouang. Therefore our missionaries gene-
rally call them Kuam-si-jen, or men of Kouaug-si (Kuam si,
i^irtuguese orthography) ; or, quite simply, Kuamsinians.
Kiang-si, situated between Kouang-si and Kian^j-nan, w^as tho
most direct route the i isurrectiou could bavetakouto reach
Kankin. ^

3,f

294

Alexis CI ere.

. '■•S» I

five tliousancl. How can a handful of men so im-
peril a great empire ? It is not because tliey are
better armed, more able, or braver, perhaps, than
the emperor's soldiers ; but all the way from their
own province, where probably they were more nu-
merous, they have had no veritable resistance to
overcome, and their adversaries have been more
nimble in flying than in advancing,

** Assuredly, if the mobiles had been trans-
ported* to China instead of California, they might
have conquered the empire. It is astonishing that
there does not spring up some adventurer to thus
try his fortune.

'* What is certain is that this empire is rotten to
the core in its rulers, whose corruption and greed
are the scourge of the people, rendering them an
easy prey for the first who will undertake to sub-
jugate them. It is said that the emperor is as-
sembling all he has left of Tartars in the north to
march to exterminate the rebels. There is little
necessity for such great efforts ; hut the positive
fact is that the insurgents are left in quiet posses-
sion of what they occupy. They on their side have
made forced levies, and, setting one of their own
part} over every twenty-tive men, try to make sol-
diers of them.

" The rebels seem to me to have small chance of
success ; but, on the other hand, in Kiang-si (pro-
bably Kouang-si) a new uprising is talked of, and
they say that the province of Canton begins to be

* The mobiles had been mutinous.— Trans.

SJianghai and the Jesuit Mission, 295

) im-
y arc
than
tlieir

e nu-

ice to

trans-
might
ig that
LO thus

itten to
1 greed
[lem an
to Enb-
r is as-
lorth to
is little
positive
, posses-
ide have
eir own
ako sol-

lance of
-si (pro-
of, and
ns to he

extremely alarmed. Besides, the city of Amoy has
just been taken from the mandarins by some Chi-
nese belonging to a secret society, the avengers of
a member of the society who was unjustly put to
death three years ago by the governor of that city.
Finally, the pirates, more numerous than ever,
blockade Fou-tcheou-fon, the capital of Fokien.
Is the end of the empire at hand ? I do not think
so. The history of China presents many such
critical epochs. How unjust would the complaints
of European nations appear to the Chinese ! To-
day commerce is almost susjiended throughout
China ; you arc well aware in France that the Chi-
nese are an entirely commercial peoi)le ; the ruin
of several important European houses is also nearly
certain. The misery, already so great, goes on in-
creasing beyond all proportion, and driving the
people, perhaps, to every excess. Tins populous
empire is therefore threatened with the greatest
misfortunes. As to the rebels properly so called,
the uncertainty about them has appeared up to the
present time to dictate the policy of the European
powers in their regard. The governor-general of
the double province of Kiang-sou and Ngan-hoei,
cr Kiang-nan, has, in the name of the emperor,
asked all the foreign ministers for assistance
against the rebels, but nothing has resulted from
his request. The English plenipotentiary. Sir G.
Bouham, has been to Nankin, has communicated
with the Kuamsmians, and has brought back their
proclamations and some books contaming their doc-
trines. He treated with the chiefs under the

296

Alexis CI err.

^?^:^

honorary titles they assume — it is so much in har-
mony with English politics to encourage all revolu-
tions; then, after that exploit, he left for Hong-
Kong with the vessels ho brought with him.

''The American minister attempted to go to
Nankin, but the vessel ho was on board of drew
too much water; since, all the American vessels
have left for the Lieou-kieou Islands, the last ren-
dezvous before reaching Japan, whither they are
bound to open the negotiation so long talked of."

After a melancholy reference to his own inac-
tion, Olerc adds these few particulars of the charac-
ter of the insurrection :

" The rebels affect to be fulfilling a divine mis-
sion, and pretend that they blindly obey the orders
of God. Their books are a mixture of Protestant
and Mohammedan notions ; they seem to be fatal-
ists, prove their mission by their success, and de-
clare themselves perfectly resigned to yield the day
they shall have accomplished their destiny. Per-
haps Freemasonry has also something to do with
their plans. The secret societies play a certain
part in these countries, especially among the ex-
patriated Chinese, who are very numerous in Eng-
lish and Dutch Malacca.

" The Christians of Nankin have had to suffer
from these rebels ; some have been called upon to
join the army, others to perform some religious act
contrary to the faith. Many have perished. Still,
it is not yet a regular persecution. The pagans
have also perished in very great numbers. Up to
the present the Christians have been badly treated

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission. 297

rl fl

ac-

the ex-

bufc wo do not know that any have been put to
death solely on account of their religion. Never-
theless, the insurgents have done enough to pre-
vent us from wishing them any success."

A letter from ^Igr. Maresca gives more details of
this beginning of persecution, and concludes in
these terms : "Of the six hundred Christians we
counted in the cities of Nankin, Yang-tcheou, and
Tchen-Kiang, fifty have been massacred or burned,
and several have been bound and beaten. The
greater number have lost everything, and arc now
captives, exposed to all kinds of dangers to soul
and body."

There was not the least doubt but that a suffi-
cient motive for armed intervention could be
found in such facts.

Therefore Clerc restrains himself no longer ;
since he cannot act he must speak, and his words
will be heard in Paris even in the office of a minis-
ter.

In the first days of July, on board the Cassinij
which was then at anchor near Castel Peak, a little
distance from Shanghai, he takes his pen and
begins to write at the most rapid rate a " Note
oil our Position in China, in Cochin China, and in
Corea, and on the Part we might Play in those
Countries." The opening paragraphs breathe the
loftiest sentiments. I quote :

"Prance, obedient to the duty of a state not to
suffer great events which do not actually touch its
interests to transpire in the world without mani-

..:W ■;

'<• ..

•d.

festing

its presence, and without reserving its

298

Alexis Clerc.

•."*,•

,-!,:ii -
'•••

^w-

rights "when it does not actually assert them —
France, over since the opium war, maintains ia
Chinese waters naval vessels which the protection
of her commerce does not seem to require. Yet,
should the line of conduct marked out for our
diplomatic agents and our military commanders bo
dictated only by that somewhat vague and indefi-
nite idea ? Let us also obey that mysterious in-
stinct which for thirty years has been directing the
attention of civilized nations to China ; let us also
bo prepared to play in that country Vi role in
harmony with our national character and capabili-
ties. If the growing influence of England and the
United States is duo to their commerce, why
should not ours, in the want of that basis, bo
founded upon our arms enforcing justice ? France
does not derive the least of the splendor of her
military glory from the wars she has waged with-
out securing: material gain, and she scorns a policy
that would draw the sword only to dictate com-
mercial treaties.

" The empires of these vast regions are often the
theatre of unforeseen catastrophes ; palace revolu-
tions are frequent. Everybody knows how the
Bishop of Adran conquered to our country a
powerful and deserved influence in Cochin China ;
circumstances more or less similar may frequently
present themselves, and it is important that our
representatives should be able to profit by them.
At all events, the desire for a large share of influ-
ence is not in this case the inspiration only of nation-
al pride, and although such an ambition be irrepre-

SJtangJiai and the Jisuit Mission. 299

lifnsible in itself, it is justified by a nobler motive.
From Tartary almost to the peninsula of Malacca
numerous missionaries of our faith, and nearly all
Frenchmen, are evangelizing these immense and
unfortunate regions. France is the natural i)ro-
Icctorofall; the European nations recognize the
honor and charge as hers, and by a tradition which
is indestructible — since times so d'sastrous to us
have not destroyed it — these people turn their eyes
to her who in their sufferings they lose all other
hope."

Oleic is of the opinion that by prudent manage-
ment a protection may be extended to religion that
will be "neiihcr an armed proselytism of the peo-
ple, nor a usurpation of the authority of the
princes." And thereupon he undertakes to exa-
mine into the condition of those three empires of
the extreme East — China, Cochin China, and Corca.

His views on Cochin China, in particular, have a
justness which must cause them to be accepted
sooner or later, and whatever may have been tho
fate of his note, we recognize in it the thought that
dictated the course of the government wlien it
finally decided to send to those countries sulTicient
forces to gain a footing and found a lasting estab-
lishment.

"Still more recent treaties grant us important
previleges in Cochin China ; we might Justly claim
the ownership cf Tourania, ceded to France by the
Emperor Kia-long. Admiral Cecile failed in his
attempt to renew our relations with that empire,
lately our friend and ally. Admiral Lapierre wa^

ftir

'» I.

J_.

300

Alexis Clcrc.

obliged to repel by foico the answer which was
prepared for that s imc demand. If Captain L i-
pierre, who in this matter so nobly braved the dis-
grace which a certain shade of public opinion
would surely inflict uj)onhim, had served a govern-
ment like the one that has lately rewarded his ser-
vices, he would undoubtedly, after the desf ruction
of the Cochin Chinese fleet, have imposed a treaty
on the vanquished nation, and Franco would not
have allowed the executioner's axe to strike by or-
der of a blind and cruel prince her noble children,
Scheffler and Bonnard, martyred for the faith while
French vessels were cruising along the coasts or
were fruitlessly stationed at Macao."

This was using noble language and speaking
plain French. But when Clerc's note reached the
oflice of the minister, for it did arrive there,*
the government was occupied with quite an-
otlier affair — namely, the Crimean expedition.
Permit us to here add a detail which we have from
good authority. After the taking of Sebastopol it
was desired to learn what had been the rule of the
Bishop of Adran, and what rights resulted to
France from the alliance formed between King
Louis XVI. and the Emperor of Cochin China.
At the request of persons in high position, a new
note was drawn up in Paris, and it was transmitted
by Baron Cauchy, the illustrious geometrician, to
Marshal Vaillant, his confrere in the Academy of
Sciences, at the institute one day when, as usual,

♦ It is marked M'ith a stamp bearing these words : "Navy
and Colonies. Office of the minister, Ncvember 3, 1853.''

ShangJiai and the Jesuit Mission.

>alit

"Navy

i3.''

tlicy cccupicd neighboring chairs. This was tho
only placo where these two men, wliose faith and
politics were so different, could meet and to a certain
point understand one another. Several years be-
fore his death Clerc saw the accomplishment of a
wish that was so dear to his heart, and we may
judge of the joy he must have felt when in his re-
treat he learned that the French flag floated over
tho walls of Saigon.

While the role of France thus appeared to him
in all its grandeur, and he endeavored to kindle
afar the fire with which his noble heart was burn-
ing, he was, to his great dislike, obliged to leave
Shanghai once more, but not without the hope of
returning ; he could not imagine that the Cassini
would not be employed in protecting the Christian
settlements of Kiang-nan and the European inter-
ests so closely threatened by the insurgents. He
wrote from IIong-Kong July 23: " The Cassini is
repairing her boilers, and probably by the end of
August we will be in such good trim that our
cruise may easily be prolonged another two years.
Now, if France decides to interfere in China, it is
hard for me to believe that the Cassini will not be
used, since she is on the spot and will be ready for
all the various services that can be expected from
a steam vessel. Consequently I defer all hope of
returning home, and fix no limit to our stay here.
The vessels that are to relieve those now at the
station have left France, the Constantine on the
Gth of February, and the Colbert at the beginning
of March. The Constantine is expected daily, and

302

Alexis Clcrc.

•■»

•'

''•\

1 1

on licr arrival tlio Capricicusc will leave." In
short, he would willinf>ly have soeii the cruise,
Avhich had already lasted nearly three years, con-
tinued one or two years more. Behold how an
ambition loftier than that ho obeyed on entering
the navy attached him to a career from which lio
no longer expected aught for himself, but which
was always noble and grand in his eyes when it be-
came the auxiliary of civilization, or, to usa the
right word, of Christian-ty !

In the course of September the Cassini was an-
chored in the Taipa two miles from Macao, when
Mr. de Plas received from the French charge
cTciffaircs an invitation to come as quickly as possi-
ble to Shanghai, where the European establish-
ments were in the greatest danger. The vessel's
repairs were not finished, but the commander did
not hesitate ; he starLed the next day, and early in
October was at his new post,

Tiiis is what had transpired during the Cassinfs
absence from Shanghai : On the 7th of September,
at the moment it was least expected, the city was
invaded by a band of men in red garments and
armed with guns, sabres, and clubs. Before day-
break they arc masters of the gates, and at sunrise
they already occupy the tribunals and the princi-
pal guard-houses. Some mandarins are killed,
others flee ; the soldiers, to the number of a thou-
sand perhaps, hide so successfully that not a singlo
one is to be seen. At nine o'clock there is a crv in
the streets that the people have nothing to fear ;
posters appear on the walls ; they read that any

Shanghai ami the Jesuit Mission. 303

attempt on property will bo punisliod with ileath.
And in fact several wretches convicted of theft
were beheaded. Thus everything was performed
in imitation of the groat capitals of Europe ; our
Chinese rioters proved accomplished masters of tho
art, and there remained but little for them to learn
before they might cease envying tho practised, re-
volutionists of Paris.

Scarcely arrived, the commander of tho Cassiniy
conjointly with the Frcncli consul, takes efficacious
measures for the protection of the national estab-
lishments. Every evening a guard of sailors is
sent to the consulate, and some men are detached
to Tom-ka-tou and Shanghai. Tho Frencli flag is
raised on the Jesuit Fathers' house at Tom-ka-tou ;
if it is lowered it will be a signal of distress.

The rebels — a collection of Fokienese and Can-
tonese — were shut up in the fortified portion of
the city, wlience they defied the imperialists with
an audacity increased by the cowardice of their ad-
versaries. It is suspected that they were secretly
aided by Europeans clever enough to direct the
movement and interested in the success of the in-
surrection.

The commander of the Cassini relates to us a
tragicomic incident in which Clerc, always ready
for a self-sacrifice, gave proof of his presence of
mind and his habitual coolness:

"In the month of November a Chinese fleet was
ordered to cannonade the city, and took up a posi-
tion near Tom-ka-tou, just so as to draw the firing
of the insurgents in the direction of the cathedral

1 .•

304

Alexis Clcrc,

Sfe:

H'M

■■iSr

■,: : 111 i;!

and the principal residence of the Fathers. The
signal flag was lowered. After having deliberated
before God, the commander sent Alexis Clerc in
the longboat to learn what was going on, and to
put a stop to the firing in tliat part of the city, if
need be. Clerc set out. Tiie boat was saluted
with a few balls, which ni'ght very well not have
been exactly intended for it, and it arrived atTora-
ka-tou, where Father Lemaitre (since superior-gene-
ral of the mission) did not hesitate to offer himself
to treat with the Chinese admiral. That dignitary
was found at the bottom of the hold of his sliip,
the noise of the cannon being particularly dis-
agreeable to him. lie was made to understand
that if lie continued to menace, or to cause to be
menaced, the residence of Tom-ka-tou by flring on
the ramparts of the city, tlie French commander
would interpose with his cannon. Far from, being
displeased, the admiral received this summons with
joy, and gave Lieutenant Clerc and Father Lemai-
tre carte UancJia to warn the little vessels of his
fleet. The captains shared their admiral's satis-
faction, and promptly vacated the position. Cour-
nge, seconded by extreme good humor in L'eutenant
Clerc and F.ither Lemaitre, must have produced a
great effect upon the Chinese, for the balls could
just as easily have struck the negotiators as the
combatants."

Clerc decided that those sorry imperialists were
of no great account; still, d'sgraccd as they were
in his eyes, he preferred them to the rebels, consi-
dering them to be after all the representatives of

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission. 305

established order, and the defenJers, sucli as they
were, of a regular government. lie wrote to
Father Broallion, who was then in France attending
to the business of the mission : " Chinese pride,
hardy as you know it to be, cannot altogether sur-
vive such assaults. The incredible cowardice and
tiie still more incredible stupidity of the attacks
the imperialists make on the city are a cause of
confusion to themselves, and the fathers in dealing
with them really find them no longer the same
men. A few such lessons and there will be no
more of that contempt with which they have re-
garded all foreigners to struggle against. This
consideration, which is certainly of great weight,
seems to me a reason for looking at the revolts less
unfavorably, albeit they are but the involuntary
cause of this good. On the other hand, we have
learned from the letter Mgr. Mouly writes you that
in Pekin the Christians have been joersecuted and
the cross has been torn down. Father Rene's
(Massa) catcchist has confessed the faith in
tortures, and, on the point of being put to death,
he saved his life through the protection of a man-
darin whom he had converted. As for me, I
would still prefer to lay violent hands on the re-
bels ; but that h out of the question ; the plan is
to act always as though wc were in Europe, and to
be governed by an international law that is some-
what fantastic with its scruple about equity."*

■li:.-
Kllf

* Letter of November 1, 1853, publisbed by Father Broullion
in his "Memoir on the l^rt,'sent Conditlou of the Mission
of Kiang-nan." Pari?, 1S55, \). 334.

3o6

Alexis CIcrc.

'♦

Opinicns were very much dividecl. People knew
very well what to think of the Fokieneso and the
Cantonese that occupied Shanghai — regular ban-
dits skilfully organized for pillage ; but the rebels
of Kouang-si, masters of Xankin, enjoyed from afar
off more prestige, and it was asked if they were not
achieving a great revolution to the advantage of
Chinese nationality ; for, it must not be forgotten,
the reigning dynasty was of Tartar race, dated only
from the middle of the seventeenth century, and
established itself only by conquest. Among the
Europeans whose good wishes were with the insur-
rection some pretended that the accession of Tai-
ping, the emperor of the Kuam-si-jen, could not
fail to inaugurate an era of religious liberty. The
fact is, the partisans of that mysterious and ex-
tremely cunning personage loudly proclaimed them-
selves as the exterminators of idolatry, and placed
in the number of their religious books a translation
of St. Matthew and some fragments of the Bible.
On the other hand, they had torn down crosses,
persecuted and put to death a certain number of
Christians; their chiefs, it was said, practised
l)olygamy, which did not promise a very sincere
respect for evangelical morality, and did little
credit to the Puotcstant ministers, some of whom
boasted of having been the originators of the move-
ment. What should be thought of them ? Should
the insurgents, who were already marching on
Pekin, be regarded seriously and ranked as bellige-
rents by the representatives of the European
powers ? It was worth the while to be enlightened

Shanghai and the Jestiit Mission. 307

about this, and it was decided to go to Nankin to
investigate matters, so as to take sides understand-

Therefore, at ilio end of November "Commander
de Phis receives on board tlie Cassini Mr. de Bour-
boulon, Minister Plenipotentiary of France ; Mme.
de Bourboulon, Mr. de Courcj, secretary of the lega-
tion, and their suite. At the request of Mr. Edan,
consul ad interim (Mr. de Montigny having left
for France), two Jesuits, Fathers Gotteland and
C!avelin, are named to accompany the expedi-
tion.

The anchor is weighed ; the Yapg-tse-kiang is
ascended. The draught of the vessel and the
moving sandbanks necessitate a careful advance;
the travellers have leisure to gaze at the beautiful
river, the second in the world, the mouth of which
is nearly thirty leagues wide. About noon of the
3d of December they pass Kiang-iu, a city of the
third order, formerly the centre of numerous Chris-
tian settlements, nothing of which remains but the
ruins. On the 5th they arc at Tchen-kiang-fou, a
city of the second order, whoso port is formed by
the Isle of Gold and the Isle of Silver. Those
charming places, ravaged by civil war, offer only
de?olation to the beholder. Finally, on tlie Gth,
they uro in sight of Nankin. The Cassini had met
two fleets of from two to three hundred sails witli-
out experiencing any liostile demonstration. Here,
for the first time, the report of a cannon comes
from a battery protected by the ramparts, and a
ball hisses past the cars of the new arrivals. They

1- ■ i

3o8

Alexis Clcrc.

awuifc a second sliofc before responding; it is not
fired, and the explanations, wliicli tlieymake haste
to demand, are given in the politest manner. They
are satisfied fvitli them.

I will not speak of the interviews of the French
legation with the ministers of tlie Emperor Tai-
ping ; Fatlier Chivelin has left a jiicturesque and
animated description of them in a letter published
by Father Bronllion.* Mr. de Courcy, who was
present, says nothing about them in his volume
entitled *' L'Empire du Milieu." In short, the
result was little, if not nothing at all. Clerc an-
ticipated this from the commencement, and on the
return of the expedition he cpngratulated himseK'
that French diplomacy had escaped the danger of
compromising, by treating with the rebels, its own
dignity and the security of the Christians evan-
gelized by our missionaries. But he had been
profoundly moved by the spectacle of desolation
offered by that immense city of Nankin, and some
time afterwards he wrote : " We walked through
a very great part of it, and we saw neither an arti-
san working at his trade nor a merchant engaged
in liis traffic. All the houses were more or less
dilapidated, and, an extraordinary thing, those
even that were inhabited had not been repaired ;
the doors and windows were still hanging to the
hinges, but were not secured ! In my opinion there
is no longer any right of property recognized in
Nankin, and communism is realized to their hearts'

* "Memoir on the Present State of the Mission of Kiang-
nan." Appendix, p. 837.

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission.

309

ged
less
lose
ed ;

tlie
here
3(1 in
arts'

liang-

cmtciit by the experimenters. The women, sepa-
rated from their families, even from their husbands,
are in little bands penned up in the houses of one
quarter; they are under the surveillance of one of
their number, who exercises an almost military
authority. As to the men — wlicthcr it was that
the inhabitants of Nankin had taken flight, or
that it had been preferred to send thcni to the
field in order to make more sure of the city — nearly
all those we saw were very young and generally
natives of other provinces.

"All those youtlis were richly clothed in still new
silk garments j but I was more saddened by that
luxury than I would have been by poverty, for it
is the result of enormous pillage and of the prodi-
gality that belongs to brigandage.

" One can only feel the greatest pity for this
unfortunate nation oppressed by two powers, each
as bad as the other.

*' These people were created to live under the
yoke, and if they had the happiness of being sub-
jects of a good government they would not dream
of revolt, for, bad enough as that of the Tartars is,
nobody is anxious to welcome the new future dy-
nasty.

" Europe is ignorant of her power, and has no
longer enough of the spirit of chivalry to care
about doing noble deeds outside of her ow 1 terri-
tory. If these were the days of Magellan and Cor-
tez it would be deemed a joy to do as much as
possible for all these people seated in the shadow
of death."

!.q

310

Alexis Clerc.

:»ae»

"i^;?*' 8-

f^'/i

On the 18th of December, at noon, the Cassi?ii
again cast auclior before Shanghai.

*^ Thus our Nankin expedition," Father Clave-
lin writes, "was over. Nevertheless, I had to
prolong my stay on shipboard, because our good
commander desired very much to have a priest on
board the Cassi)ii iov the sclemnity of Christmas.
Christmas eve we heard the cannon rumbling far
into the night ; a ball even fell in our midst.
Yet, at the moment of beginning Mass, which all
the ship's company was present at, there was a
perfect silence ; this, joined to the recollection of
the assistants, to the novelty of the spectacle, to
the sentiments inherent in such a festival, and,
finally, to the sight of the commander, of four of-
ficers, and several non-commissioned officers and
sailors coming forward to receive with the piety
which distinguished them Holy Communion in
presence of the entire assembly — all that made, I
say, a profound impression upon me, and that feast
will never be obliterated from my memory.*'

The next day was devoted to the performance
of an act of necessary justice. Two catechists of
the mission, seized by the rebels, had been treated
as spies, and one of them cruelly tortured. The
commander of the Colbcrl, recently arrived from
France to replace the Cassmi, exacted a repara-
tion ; he was ready, in case of refusal, to discharge
his guns. The reparation was made. Lion, chief
of the rebels, sent the guilty man with execution-
ers. A pardon was granted ; the Chinese were
known to be capable of anything ; more than once

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission.

^11

nance
ts of

eated
The
from

spara-

barge
cliief

ution-
^vere

11 once

on similar occasions they had yielded np tlio inno-
cent in place of the guilty. These proceedings, as
generous as they were firm, had an excellent effect
boili for the honor of the French flag and the con-
siJeniLion shown to those over whom it extended
its efficacious jirotrction.

" It is thus," says Father Clavelin,'*' that, thanks
to the representatives of France, we enjoy a per-
fect, and, under the circumstances, truly extraor-
dinary tranquillity. May it always continue."

It was not fitting to interrupt the recital of the
services rendered by the Cassini to the mission of
Kiang-nan and the European establishments of
Shanghai ; consequently we bave so far shown our
hero only in his life of action, reserving to our-
selves to afterwards make known the interior labor
to wbicli he devoted himself that be might be
firmly decided on bis vocation when he should
return to Fnuice. It was the great affair be bad
already a first time treated of with Father de Ra-
vignau, and witb which he desired to occupy him-
self anew in the residence of Zi-ka-wei, under the
direction of an eminent and boly missionary. Fa-
ther L mguiilat, now administrator of the diocese
of Nankin.

Therefore, shortly before the Cc/ssini's depar-
ture for Nankin he put himself in retreat; be
made the " Spiritual Exercises" fervently, and pro-
ceeded with all deliberation to tbat important act
of the choice cf a state of life, to the election, to
use the language of the *' Exercises." For this St.
Ignatius gives rules of admirable wisdom, and

312

Alexis ClevSo

^>^l
'-»•*

which, fiiitlifully observed, render a misfcako im-
possible, so to speak. The first and principal is
that the eye of our intention bo simple ; that we
have no object other than the glory of God and
the salvation of our soul ; that our choice tend
solely to the attainment of tliat object. Did Clerc
observe this rule well ? We shall be able to judge;
he brought from Zi-ka-wci the sbcet on which he
put in writing the determining motives of his elec-
tion, and we have it before us ; we will make some
extracts of what is most characteristic.

Proceeding systematically, he successively lays
down four questions, which he examines and re-
solves in the following manner :

"Must I aim at perfcctiou ' *

1. This is not necessary
to salvation.

2. It is, perhaps, bej'ond
my power of perseverauce.

1. It is a much surer way
of attaining it.

2. Nothing is impossible
to God ; the days pass one
by one.

3. Not to underlako is
to be already beaten witl o it
fighting, especially if the
matter has been reflected
upon.

4. It is nobler.

5. It is more pleasing to
our Lord.

G. The interior voice of
conscience reproaching me
for relaxations which are not

* We need net remark that the left-hand column contains
the reasons against, and the right-hand column tho reasons
for an cfflrmative answer to the questions.

3. If my courage fails in
an undertaking which is
not necessary, it will there-
by be much weakened for
what is absolutely necessary.

ShcingJiai and the Jesuit lilission. 3 1 3

im-
al is
t we

and
tend
Clcrc
udgc;
z\\ lie
s tlcc-
j some

,y lays
,nd rc-

.rcr way

possible
ias3 one

rlaUfi is
wltl o It
if the
reflected

jasing to

voice of
hing me
ch are not

n contains
10 reasC)ns

sins, is the voice of our
Lord jealous of my perfec-
tion.

7. Our Lord vomits the
tepid out of his mouth.

8. lie to whom more has
been forgiven owes more
gratitude.

" Therefore I ought to aim at perfection, and I will.

" Must I enter the religious state in order to aim ai; per-
fection ?

1. I must provide for
my father's wants.

1. My brother Jules will
gladly do this by himself.
I will also be able to leave
my father sonic of my sav-
ings of this cruise.

3. I experience a great
weariness which ncitLor ser-
vice on shore nor at sea
drives away.

3. It seems to me im-
possible xiot to be con-
taminated by the social life

on board ship.

4. It is an except iou to

find the helps of religion on
shipboird.

5. I have no particular
attraction for my calling ;
so far my career does not
bind mo.

6. Our Lord gives me
strength to embrace without
difhculty poverty and chasti-
ty ; it is imprudent to risk
these gifts in the world.

1^;

314

Alexis Clerc,

7. Tending to perfection
in Ihc world would be a sin-
gular vocation ; the experi-
ence of these last four years
proves that it would be a
fault to wait longer.

8. 1 have already lost in
the matter of charity.

9. There is no perfec-
tion without obedience.

10. It is evident to me
that in religion one is much
more useful to himself and
others.

11. It is the royal road.

12. How can I help fore-
seeing the assaults of vain-
glory that will follow the
most ordinary advancement
in my career.

13. It is the haven.

14. It has been for four
years the more or less de-
finite term to which I have
aspired.

*' Therefore I ought to enter the religious state, and I will.

" What religious order must I choose ?

1. The Society of Jesus is
the most numerous and the
most securely established in
France.

3. In it one has less rea-
son to pretend to a distin-
guished position.

3. It embraces all good

Shanghai and the Jesuit Mission, 3 1 5

jction
ti fein-
xpcri-
3' ears
. be a

lost in

perfcc-
;e.

to mc
s much
eU and

road.
Ip fore-
3f vain-
low tlie
acement

for four
lesa de-
1 have

id I will.

Jesus is
and the
)Ushed in

less rea-
a distin-

all good

works, and it is only the
suggestion of the evil spirit
or of pride that can make a
man believe that it does not
employ him in his right
place.

4. It assumes the entire
responsibility of the career
it gives you ; for example,
you do not take upon your-
self to receive the priest-
hood. #

5. It takes the most admi-
rable and minute care of the
salvation and perfection of
its children.

C. It allows no compro-
mises with the rule : dispen-
sations, etc.

*' Therefore I ought 10 enter the Society of Jesus, and I
will.

'* AVhen shall I enter the Society of Jesus ?

1. To quit the Cassini
would be not only extraordi-
nary, but, I think, impossi-
ble.

2. It would be to choose
for myself a destination
among all those which the
Societj'- might give me.

3. It seems to me natu-
ral and suitable to obtain
my father's consent, at least
to myself inform him of my
determination.

4. It seems to me useless

3i6

A /ex IS Clcrc.

and dangerous to render
any oilier duties to the
world.

"Therefore, after a very few days .spent in Paris, I
ou;^ht lo go to tlie uovitiate that will have been designated
to me, and 1 will.

Alexis Clerc.

*' Given at Zi-ka--wei, October 17."

Sucli are the iinportiint and holy resolutions
Avhich Alexis had taken before God, and which he
would accomplish without delay.

We pass over iiie circumstajiccs of the return to
Franco, which would be of little interest now.
Favored on her voyage by superb weather, the
Cassini entered the harbor of LorienlJuly 5, 1854.
She happened rij^ht in the midst of preparations
for war, and, without having time to so much as
look about, was enveloped in the general commo-
tion caused by the Crimean expedition. The day
after his arrival Alexis wrote to his father :

"The port of Lorient is in twice its usual ac-
tivity, and they are making extraordinary efforts to
get the Cassini ready to start in six days for the
Baltic Sea, and to carry thither I don't knov/ what.
However, all this fine zeal does not affect me much,
for I was put on shore the day of our arrival, and
I have refused to ask to continue this new tail of
the campaign.

'* Kevertheliss, there has been some scrt of
confusion, so that to-day at four o'clock I
must return to tlie shi]>, after having been
lauded twice. Still, I consider my detachment as

Shano/iai and the Jesuit Mission, 3 1 7

cndor
3 the

WIS, 1

;uatcd
EllC.

Litions
icli lie

uni to
, wow.
r, tbc

., 1854.

rations
ucli as

om mo-
he day

ual ac-
fforts to
for tlie
\v what,
cmucli,
s;'^^, and
7 tail of

sort of
clock I
Ug been
.nient as

real, and I liopo to obtain a little permit of fifteen
days for Paris. I cannot say when I will arrive.'^

Afier so long an absence he was anxious to cm-
brace his fatlieraud his brother Jules, to congratu-
late the latter on the union he had just contracted
with a lady worthy of him, and to participate like
a good brother in that family event, with the cir-
cumstances of which hcAvas still unacquainted, de-
prived as he had been of all correspondence since
his voyage to Singapore. He cared butmiddlingly
to share the new fortune of the Cassini, which was
to be used as a transport. It was in a rather more
military manner that he would have chosen to
serve it the thing had depended upon him.

*' One must accommodate one's self to the times,"
he wrote two days later, ''and if I could be good
for anything, it is not a cruise of three years and a
half — which has notexhausted me — that would de-
ter me from serving again directly." " Madame
my sister-in law," he courteously adds, " has been
so kind as to write me a few words. I am very
grateful to her, and I hope that, being persons of
good-will, it will not be long before we are truly
brother and sister. Patience ! patience I and
everything will be arranged to please everybody."

To be brief, notwithstanding the extreme fatigue
of her crew and the bad state of her boilers, the
Ca.ssini was ordered to tow several ships and fri-
gates to Loricnt, to Brest, or to Cherbourg, after
which it was finally decided to put her out of com-
mission, and this decision was carried into effect
errly in August. Then onlyClcrc obtained per-

3i8

Alexis Clerc,

«'-ii!l!l

■&

missior to visit his father. But before starting h •)
offered bis services for the Baltic Sea ; they were
not accepted, all the positions being already filled.
Eight days later Clerc was at the Novitiate of Saint
Achcul, thus fulfilling to the letter the resolution
with which he had concluded his electioti:

"After a very few days spent in Paris I ought to
go to the novitiate that will have been designated
to me, and I will."

i!j! ill

CHAPTER X.

ALEXIS CLERC IN THE SOCIETY OP JESUS— SAINT-ACHEUL.

At last, after four years of waiting, Clcrc liad ifc
in Lis power to responil to the call of the Lord,
wliicli made itself heard in his heart in a way
that was ever stronger and more urgent. Still, all
was not done ; there were bonds to be broken be-
fore he could be received into the novitiate, and it
was not difficult to foresee that paternal opposi-
tion, singularly favored by circumstances, would
not be disarmed by the first blow. AVoiild it not
even declare itself inflexible and relentless ? Alas !
we shall see it but too plainly — this was what it
did, and it cruelly kept its word to the end.

Clcrc must have had the presentiment of the ob-
stacles that awaited him and of the rude combat
he would have to sustain when, having communi-
cated his resolution to Father de Ravignan imme-
diately on his arrival at Lorient, he received this
rather discouraging reply :

" Paris, 35 Rue de Sevres,
July 18, 1854.

" My Very Dear Friend : Your letter brings
me the sweetest consolation. May God's grace
keep you and preserve in your soul all the gifts of

319*

ii
it

320

Alexis Ckrc.

•• i« *

his goodness. Let us pniy that his will may be
perfectly accomplished in you.

" It seems to me that you ought to wait still
longer before taking a final resolution. Your re-
signation now would be ill-timed. Undoubtedly
we must expect difficulties and obstacles ; never-
theles?, let us fear nothing when we seek only the
glory of God and the welfare of our soul.

" You cannot doubt of my tender interest ; it
follows you everywhere. Farewell, then, till we
meet. Let us be united in the heart of our Lord
and in the firmest hope.

"My kind remembrances to the commander.

"X. DE EAYIGis^AN."

It is to be believed that Father de Ravignan was
satisfied with the explanations Clerc gave him
when he came to Paris, and that then, from the
opponent he had been, he declared himiself an ally
and auxiliary; it seems to us even impossible for him
to have done otherwise if the generous postulant
showed him the election ho had made at Shang-
hai, and which ten months before had received
the approbation of a religious as wise and enlight-
ened as Father Languillat. Had not the illustri-
ous and holy religious (Father de Eavignan), in his
excellent work *'0n the Existence and Institute of
the Jesuits," himself marked out the path which
he saw his young friend treading with so firm a
step ? Had he not, in treating of the election and
in recalling his own experience, written these lines,
wherein Alexis must have recognized his own
course : '' When the soul is trancpiil, when it is in

litii;!

Saint-AcJicuL

321

ight-

pcaceful possession of all its faculties, it will ba-
lance, it will weigh, the opposing motives, consult-
ing God in prayer. It will place itself in imagina-
tion on its death-bed at the feet of the Sovereign
Judge, or else in presence of an unknown person,
seen for the first time, who exposes his doubts,
asks a solution of them, and appeals for a free and
disinlcrested advice. Light is thus obtained, the
choice is determined, all the repugnances of nature
arc immolated on the altar of sacvifice. Jesus
Christ lias conquered, and the faithful disciple a
conqueror with him, sings and celebrates his vic-
tory by consecrating to the Lord his strength, his
labors, and his whole life, either in the apostolate
of the world or in the sacred army of the Church.
Grod ! I bless thee and give thee thanks; it was
thus thou didst order my life and for ever assure
my happiness." *

Tills is language U^at will be understood by who-
ever has Sfono over the same road and arrived at the
sam3 destination, but which was unintelligible to
Mr. Clerc, Sr., not only on account of his paternal
affection, which shrank from that great sacrifice,
but also, it must be acknowledged, in consequence
of the prejudices with which his mind was ob-
scured.

What passed between him and his son when the
latter announced that he wanted to be a Jesuit and
that he was going forthwith to knock at the door
of the Novitiate of Saint-Acheul ? We can easily

**'0n the Ejristonce nnrl Institute of the Jesuits," chap,
ill.— "The Election, or Choice of a State of Life."

322

Alexis Clerc.

!"!"" ' )

guess. Alexis was doubtless respectful, but he was
firm ; he bad appreciated tbe necessity and pro-
priety of obtaining bis fatber's consent if be could ;
not succeeding, be remembered tbat Jesus Cbrist
said: ^' lie that lovcth father or mother more than
me is not tvorthy of me "; and be started for Saint-
Acbeui.

He, however, left behind him tbe hope that he
would return ; for, having spent only eight days at
tbe most in Paris, be had bad time neither to re-
ceive the i:cccptance of bis resignation nor to ar-
range his little affairs like a mo,n who is soon to
die to the world and to whom things here below
will henceforth be as nothing. But when be had
once reached the threshold of the novitiate and
learned with certainty tbat he would be admitted,
reflecting on tbe assaults that awaited him in Paris
and on tbe too evident impossibility of winning
any consent from his father, be thought be ought
not again to leave the port he had entered, in order
that it might be well understood tbat his resolution
was definitive and irrevocable ; consequently be
wrote to Mr. Clerc :

"My Dear Father : I thank you for the
kindness you showed me when I communicated to
you a project which deeply afflicted you. Assuredly
I wculd be glad to spare you pain, but I feel very
sensibly that in explaining my motives I shall suc-
ceed but imperfectly. I obey the conviction tbat
I ought to take this step notwithstanding the sacri-
fices it imposes upon me. The constancy with
wbich I bave adhered to this project during four

Saint' Achciil.

Z^l

years, and amid such varied circumstances, all
suited to distract me from it as you hoped, indi-
cates sufficiently that nothing remains but to exe-
cute it. Men do not usually give so much mature
reflection to even capital resolutions, and I should
fail in a duty if, for the sake of preserving some
advantages of comfort and vanity, I should refuse
to respond to the voice of my reason enlightened
by every available means. Therefore, dear father,
believe that in this matter I am not acting under
the illusion of any impulse, under the influence of
any enthusiasm ; the few days I spent with you
must, I think, have convinced you of this. Why,
then, anticipate useless regrets, or, to speak more
exactly, why fear them ? In reality, have they
not been anticipated and averted by so much re-
flection, by the advice of experienced persons, and
by so long a temporizing.

*'I know that your displeasure springs only
from your disinterested affection, which dreads for
me an evil that I seem to be runniug into blindly;
while, on the contrary, the evil is in remaining
where I find myself out of place, and where my
conscience can no longer bo at peace. This is a
little interior mystery which you can easily pene-
trate ; the truth is, I abandon an apparent good
and a real evil, and I embrace a real good and an
apparent evil.

*' Nevertheless, although reason justifies my con-
duet, it is not of itself sufficient to dictate it ; some-
thing besides reason is required to impose even a
light sacrifice, and it is to that noble part of our

:n1

324

Alexis Clerc,

••;« "•
m '

7\^

^''\

».

'♦

mm-

soul wliicli then commands our will that I desire
to address myself, to tlic end that the love of what
is best, most perfect, may help you to bear what I
do with a generous intention.

f'l inform you, then, my dear papa, that they
consent to receive me in the novitiate ; it remains
for mo to follow faithfully the way wherein God
calls me, and for you, my dear father, to take part
in my eutrar.ce in the religious life by accepting it
as far as possible for the love of God.

*'I believe it is wisest for me not to return to
Paris, so as to avoid tlie untimely visits I would
have to make to persons who are ignorant of my
resolution, and also the monotonous representa-
tions which strangers would not fail to make me.
I feel myself already passably awkward, and I
should not know at all what air to assume ; more-
over, after euch a drawing back the leap would bo
only more difficult. The very small number of
business matters that I have left behind can be ar-
ranged by correspondence. Besides, I shall never
have been so near you ; when you choose you can
come to see me in three hours.

**May Almighty God give us strength to ac-
complish what he asks of us !

*^ Farewell, dear papa. I embrace you most ten-
derly, and I pray God to render this blow less hard
by giving you the conviction that we are obeying
his holy will. . A. Clerc.

** Saint-Acheul, August 19."

This letter, at onc3 so tender and so respectful,
filled up (he measure of that poor father's grief

Saint- Ac JicitL

325

jctful,
grief

and despair, for ifcmado him feel that the struggle
he was going to engage in wiili liis son could only
prove for both of them an inexhaustible source of
bitterness. But passion doc:5 not reason, and,
cost what it might, he was Grmly resolved to op-
pose Alexis' vocation, even at the price of the hap-
piness they had always found in the union, hither-
to so easy and natural, of their hearts. Directly
after Alexis' departure for Saint-Acheul he had
composed a note in which ho taxed his ingenuity to
find reasons to divert his son from his project.
Before it was for Alexis' own good that ho ought
to remain in the navy, now it was for the sake of
his father ; and becoming an egotist at will, he
imagined a distant future when Clcrc, having re-
tired from the service, would receive his father at
his iireside in his humble bachelor's estabMshment,
a desire which he expressed with a good deal of re-
serve, acknowledging that, to tell the trulh, it
would be diilicult lor him to bo better off tlian lie
was with his son Jules and his daughter-in-law.

But soon he has recourse to other arms which he
did not think of at first, and he adds in a i^osl-
scripUim ; '* I beg you to yet reflect that you can-
not send in your resignation at this time. It
would be cowardice to desert your post at the mo-
ment when there may be danger for you to incur."
Clerc could feci quite easy about this last point ;
his resolution, thank God, dated far enough back
for the Crimean war to have nothing to do with it.
If his offer to serve in the Baltic had been accept-
ed, he would have waited till the close of the cam-

326

Alexis Clerc.

■ • > ■

1 U

"i5»

..■^*'

ivi'iii;;

paigu to send in liis resignation, and that not
through fear of dishonor, which couhl not attacii
to liim, but from an exalted idea of military duty.
"We liavcah'catiy seen in Cliina, as we shall sec later
at La Roquette, whether he was a man to bargain
about his life and to retreat before bullets and
balls.

Mr. Clerc concluded with an adjuration and a
threat : " I adjure you by all the authority a father
can have over his son to defer your intention, at
least until the close of the war.

" If you do not listen to my prayer, write me no
more ; all intercourse between you and me will be
at an end."

This certainly was a terrible assault ; but Clerc
had foreseen all, was prepared for all ; for tlic
love of him who on the cross endured an incom-
prensible abandonment by his Heavenly Father he
from that moment resigned himself to be, if such
were God's will, denied and rejected by his father
according to the flesh.

Father de Ravignan was then at Saint- Acheul ;
he frequently came there in the autumn to seek
the solitude that was always dear to him, and in
labor and prayer to renew his strength as in the
days when, still obscure, he there consecrated the
first fruits of his talents and zeal to the teaching
of theology. Mr. Clerc, who knew very well that
the counsels of the eminent religious had already
prolonged by four years his son's stay in the world,
wrote to him in strict confidence, expecting thus to
obtain that Alexis, relinquishing Irs ideas of

Saint-AcJicid,

227

seek
id in
1 tho

the
bing

that
ready
orld,
lusto
IS of

vocation, would return to Paris. He doubtless
flattered himself that he had found an infallible
means of conquering his son's obstinacy. Vain
hope ! Here is what Father dc Kavignan replied :
" Saint-Aciieul, August 24, 1854.

*' Sir : I understand perfectly the allliction of a
father's heart, and I sympathize with you. But
you must, likewise, understand that in a question
as serious as this of your son'f^, I, wc all, can only
leave him to himself, lie is free to-day, he will
be free during the whole time of his novitiate (two
years), if he remains ; he will contract no engage-
ments by the vows of religion until after the two
years have elapsed. He will thus have leisure to
examine his vocation and to decide with tho full
knowledge of what he is doing. At his age, with
his experience of the world, he is in less danger of
illusion than many others. Conscience, the con-
viction of the soul in the presence of God, are
what is most sacred and most to be respected ; and
all authorities, as well as all sentmients, 1 dare to
say it, should bow before a conscientious determi-
nation of which God alone is the judge.

"I hope, sir, that you will kindly accept my
excuses for not being able to do what you desire. I
offer with my most sincere good wishes the as-
surance of my high esteem.

"X. DE Eavigxax."

Mr. Clerc did not yield ; he had sworn to be irre-
concilable, and he wa?. It was for him a point of
honor and a sort of cngugement of conscience ; his
political and religious liberalism, his lofty patriot-

3^8

A /ex is Clerc,

'^-

ism, bis paternal ambition, iind even bis affection
wbicb bo believed outraged, al! conspired to
strcngtben bini in tbat determined and aggressive
opposition wliicl) from tlic commencement left no
room to bopc for peace or truce.

Bcbold wbat combats and bcartrendings, so
keenly felt by a delicate soul, met Clerc on bis en-
trance to tbe religious life ! At tbc first step bo
felt bimself assailed in bis dearest affections, and, a
Yoluntary victim, tberc was notbing for bim to do
but to bend beneatb tbe cross wliicli be was lo
carry all bis life.

Tie wits as yet only in bis first probation. Tbus
is called a period of from ten to twelve days de-
voted to a reciprocal confidence, tbe postulant
making bimself known, wbilc at tbc same time be-
coming acquainted witli tbe constitutions of tbo
Society; as is evident, a necessary confidence to
avoid on botb sides all misunderstandings, all sur-
prise in so important a matter. Fatber Alexander
jMallet, master of novices, and in that c.qoacity
cbarged with examining Clerc's dispositions, bis
greater or less fitness for the life and employments
of tbe Society, was a truly interior man, austere
and gentle, of frail constitution and sickly appear-
ance, not without warmth of benrt when there was
question of the good of souls and tbc interests of
God's glory, but very sligbtly accessible to cntbu-
siasm, and particularly attentive to keep himself
on his guard as well as to caution others against
even generous illusions. It is plain that if this
character suited Clerc ib was especially by its con-

Saint- Aclicul.

329

trasts with his own, by the advantap^e it was to him
to find ill his spiritual ^nido qualities with which
he perhai:)s was not liimsclf jirovided in the same
degree. Before admitting him to the novitiate,
Father Millet, who, strictly speaking, might have
relied on Father LanguiJlat, and simply and solely
confii'mcd the election Clerc had made a Zi-kawci,
cither to put the eagerness of his desires to the
proof or to obtain more light on a subject about
which there can never be too mucli, directed him
to make a new election in regular form during his
probation.

"We may be allowed to mention by the way that
this shows plainly enough whether we catch sub-
jects on the wing to enroll them in spite of them-
selves, or by main force, under our banner, and
whether the compdh inirarc with which we are
so mncli reproached, is truly our motto. Clerc
wa^" certainly not a subject to be disdained ; let
us say more, he was by reason of his antecedents
a particularly precious recruit for a religious
order that was at that very time opening mili-
tary and naval preparatory schools. Nothing of
all that, however, caused the superiors to think
that they might lightly treat the great affair of
vocation.

Clerc made a new election. As may be readily
supposed, it was not notably different from the
first, at least in its foundation ; but under the
stroke of trial and contradiction the resolution to
forsake all in order to belong to Jesus C'nrlst is
emphasized with a redoubled energy that has its

330

Alexis CUrc.

•»«i *•.

El!?

[rvji

liliP

value antl iis eloquence. AVe will quote some of
the most remarkable passages :

To tlie first question he puts himself : *' Shall T
follow the counsels or only the precepts ? " lie
makes the following replies : " It would be a
shameful relapse to keoj) on!/ to the precepts after
having already tried for a long time to follow the
counsels.

" It is a very cowardly relapse to yield without
fighting solely through fear of the battle.

**It is an unpardonable contempt of God's
grace, which has for some time enabled me to
walk without much difHculty in the way of his
counsels.

"How great an assurance of salvation is the
way of the counsels ! For me to choose any other
is like choosing perdition.

" Do I owe less after the grace of so extraordi-
nary a conversion ?

"Finally, I wish to follow the counsels because
I love God and desire to serve him to my utmost.

"I feel strength to do it, with the grace of our
Lord.

" I desire with all my heart, with all my mind,
and with all my strength, to serve now and all the
days of my life the Lord my God, my most merci-
ful, most amiable, and most sweet Saviour, by en-
deavoring, with the help of his holy grace, to imi-
tate him by showing the most entire docility to his
counsels and inspirations. Amen.

" This way of the counsels is the way of our Lord

Saint- Ac Juul.

U I
lie

ifter

tbo

bout

3locVs
10 to
a bis

is tbo
otbcr

aortli-

ecanse
nost.
of our

miiul,
all tbo
merci-
by on-
to iiui"
to bis

Jesus : Qui vult post me venire, ahncget seine/ ij)-
ston ct tollat cntcein sncnn."*

To tbo second question : " Ongbt I to cmbraco
tho religious life, or remain in tbo world ? " bo re-
plies :

"Tbo renunciation of my position is a little sa-
crifice ; I desire to offer ii: to Almigbty God.

"Tbo virtues are pr.ictised in tbo religious life ;
in tbo world tbey are at tbo most only meditated.

" Experience proves to mo tbat for tbree years I
bavo been daily going backwards.

" Tbere are mucb greater dangers on sboro.

"Hereafter tbero will also bo greater ones on
sbipboard, wbere I sball bo engaged in more impor-
tant and bonorable employments."

In fact, Clerc, on bis return from Cliina, liad
been proposed for a command and for tbo Legion
of Honor. Tbo rigbt moment for making a Utile
sacrifice to God was precisely tben ; later tbe sa-
crifice would doubtless bavo been sometbing more,
but to defer for tbat motive would bavo been to
tempt God and to presume too mucb on bis own
strengtb.

Otber reasons for embracing tbo religious life :

''Holy obedience, wbicli I bavo poorly practised
on sbipboard, I desire tbat boncefortb you sbould
be my supremo ruler, and I bopo to practise you
better wben I sball be under obligation to do so
continually, because tben you will be to me a strict
law and not a work of supererogation.

* If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross (Matt. xvi. 2i).

332

Alexis Clcrc.

m'k

\\\'

I
I ■

■'Kill

i!li

ill^

" The good example I may give — the only plau-
sible reason they urge for my remaining in the
world — is greater by my abandoning all things for
the sake of serving God better."

Third question : " What order shall I enter ? "

Ecply : ^'The Soeiety of Jesus.

*'I believe it the best suited to procure my spiri-
tual profit.

*^ It always employs each of its subjects to the
greatest possible advantage, so as to give him the
satisfaction of doing more for the glory of God
than he could outside the Society.

** It rightly calls itself the Society of Jesus, be-
cause its members live in the presence and in the
society of Jesus, on whom they daily meditate.

" It is justly called the Comimny of Jesus, be-
cause Jesus is the captain who leads it to combat,
and because with him it suffers persecution and
contempt.

"Finally, I love the Society.

'^Accordingly, I desire to enter the Society of
Jesus.

*' I would advise a man in my position, a stranger
to me in all besides, to abandon everything and to
enter the novitiate with the firm intention of after-
wards making his vows.

*' I desire to be able on the day of my death and
on the Day of Judgment, to congratulate myself
upon having this day forsaken the world for the
Society of Jesus. "A. Clerc.

*' Saint-Aciieul, Feast of St. Augustine, 185-1,"

"The thought of laboring for the glory of God

Sai)it-AclieiiL

lU and
myself
or the

jERC.

1854."
of God

by procuring the salvation of my neighbor h:is
scarcely ever crossed my mind without moving my
heart and inspiring mc with zeal. I have most
usually banished this thought as being not yet sea-
sonable, while at the same time finding pleasure in
believing that it would be some day."

Uow was it possible to resist such manifest signs
of vocation and such iierscveriug desires ? There-
fore the superiors resisted no longer, and that very
day, the Feast of St. Augustine, the doors of the
novitiate opened to Alexis. llis youth had re-
sembled that of the Bishop of Ilipjio; he promised
himself to imitate that great penitent in the sin-
cerity of his conversion and the ardor of his chari-
ty. Dating from that 2Sth of August, he is no
longer of the worlJ, and he finds his chief delight
in seeking to be forgotten. Ilis discharge reached
him towards the middle of September (it is dated
the 15th) ; he begged his brother to settle his lit-
tle business mattcis. The small sum of money that
was still due him (doubtless the last payment of
his officer's salary) he several times offered to his
father ; Mr. Clerc, faithful to his threat of absolute
estrangement, refused it. Alexis then offered it
to the Society to indemnify it for tlic expenses it
would incur on his account during his novitiate
and studies.

Here, then, begins a new life which has nothing
striking about it, nothing exterior, a life huhloiin
God icith JcHus ChrUt, so hidden that worldlings
look upon it as a death, and it horrilies ti;cm like
tiie tomb. Ko mori' voyages, no more distant cxpe-

, !

;;'f-:

334

Alexis Clerc.

lit

I IT

ditions ; the uniform, which in France always enjoys
such a prestige, rejjlaced by a poor cassock — that is
to say, by a vesture which the Avorld has little honor
for and does not always tolerate ; finally, occupa-
tions which recall to tlie religious the humility of
Nazareth, but which for that saaie reason refuse to
furnish matter for a detailed narrative ; wherefore,
the Evangelists themselves employed only a few
lines to relate the infancy and the first thirty years
of the Saviour Jesus.

Still, we are able to penetrate into Clerc's in-
terior, thanks to some private notes he preserved
of his novitiate, and which contain his true history
and the faithful portrait of his soul during that
period. In addition to these, we have the recol-
lections of the i)ersons who were then his compa-
nions, recollections that arc necessarily very vague,
since the humble novice took all the pains he
could to efface himself, as it were, and succeeded
admirably.

The first trial he had to go through — the first
experiment, to use the language of the institute —
was to make the ^' Spiritual Exercises " of St. Igna-
tius during a space of thirty days ; to shut himself
up, so to speak, after the example of the founder
of the Society, in the grotto of Manresa, and there
to consider his last end, his duties towards his
Creator and his God, the enormity of sin and all
the evils that follow it, the malice of the sinner,
his own errors, the faults personal to him (Alexis)
during the whole course of his life, and, as though
this conversion was the first, to wash all his past

Saint- Acheul.

335

in the tears of a sincere contrition and in the wa-
ters of penance. But, after these meditations of
tlie purgative life, which take up the first week,
all the rest of the time is devoted to the contem-
plation and imitation of Jesus Christ. The dis-
ciple of St, Ignatius considers our amiable Saviour
as his king and captain ; lie responds to his call,
ranges himself under his standard, and places his
happiness and his pride in following him as closely
as possible. Xow, there are souls more or less va-
liant even among those who thus attach themselves
to the Lord Jesus; they embrace his cross with
more or less fervor, they are more or less courage-
ous in throwing off the livery of the world to clothe
themselves with that of a crucified God. It is in
this that Clerc signalizes himself from the very
first and shows himself bravo among the brave.
The greatest self-abnegation, continual mortifica-
tion — such are the practical means proposed to
those who are ambitious to rise to the holy folly
of the cross. Abnegation, mortification, and espe-
cially continual aJjncgatioUy these words are harsh,
and they terrify nature ; we can reconcile ourselves
to the words and the thing only by a generous
abandonment, an unreserved fidelity to the grace
that urges us not to remain but half way.

Let us see if Clerc was truly faithful, or if he
capitulated with the enemy. There is still another
election for him to make — tlie choice of the degree
of perfection which he desires to attain with the
help of God's grace.

,.i.j

33<5

Alexis Clerc.

Hy.

t;* III'

" I protest before the divine Miijc !ity oi; God, be-
fore the Blessed Virgin and all the Heavenly Court,
that I neither liave nor desire to have in this elec-
tion any intention other than that of choosing
■what will be most pleasing to God, and most use-
ful to my perfection in the state to which grace has
called mc.

*• Feeling, and having several times felt, a most
filial confidence in the goodness of God, who will
aid. me to accomplish what he counsels me, a most
lively charity urging me to bo generous towards
God and to labor for my perfection with strength
and ardor, and my soul finding in this disposition
tranquillity and peace in God our Lord ; while the
opposite disposition plunges my soul into darkness,
troub^le, low and gross attractions, disquietude of
emotions and temptations ; while it casts mistrust
upon my vocation, my perseverance therein and
the graces God will grant me to persevere ; while
it renders my soul idle, tepid and melancholy, and
as though separated from Jesus Christ our Lord ;
— I desire literally, according to Rule 12, io scch
i)i ilic Lord tJie greatest ahierjation of mijsclf, and,
as far as I shall he able (that is, as far as possi-
ble) continual mortification in all tJunc/s.

"I understand by abnegation a perfect obedi-
ence, an entire sacrifice of my own opinions in my
intercourse with my brethren, the desire not to dis-
tinguish myself in anything, a perfect obedience to
and a perfect observance of Rule 13 : In exerccn-
diSj etc. . . Si quideni injunctwnfucrit tU in ms sc

Saint- Ac JiciiL

337

il, l-;c-
;>ourt,
s clcc-
ooslng
st usc-
icc lias

a most
ho Avill
a most
,0 wards

treiigili
posiLion
hile tbc
xikuess,
•tudo of
nistrust
leiu and
wliilc
ly, and
Lord ;
io seek
Ify and,
s possi-

|fc obetli-
is in my
It todis-
[icncc to

excrccn-
ill exs so

cxerccat ; * which T bhall beg the father master to
be good enough to assign mc.

" I understand by continual mortification in all
things tlic unintcrruptoJ suffering of the body-in
some part and in all manners : therefore, to wear
the chain constantly, to fast yviLhont intermission
and to do violcnco to my taste, to sleep on the floor
and all dressed or on a plank in my bed, to take the
discipline every day at least during an Ave, and more
if I feel the devotion up to as many as three with-
out asking special permission. This is what I de-
sire to do and without retrenching anything of it,
with God's grace and the father master's permis-
sion, in spite of the revolts of the flesh and the ar-
tifices of the devil.

^•'Moreover, knowing by experience that my con-
science reproaclics me for all relaxations of mortifi-
ciition, to do less would bo to turn a deaf car to
grace ; grace will accomplish what certainly I alone
would not dare to undertake, nor even to propose
lo myself.

" Having then 2")rayed to our Lord Jesus Christ
with all my heart, I consider:

" 1. All that the masters of the spiritual life say
ni general about mortification.

" 2. That it is especially recommended in the be-
ginning of the religious life.

" 3. That I, more than any one else, have need
of it to wash av^ay my past sins.

••'This Rule 13 regards Iho oxcrciso of lowly and humi-
liiitin?^ employ rnonls, and is tlio uuo wborein St. I,';Datiua
counsels bis children lo seek with mo^it eagerness those that
arc most ropu;jaant to nature.

i !

'4!,

338

Alexis CI ere.

"4. That it is a duty of gratitude for benefits as
^rcat as they are unmerited.

^' 5. That it is the best way of imitating our
Lord.

" G. That it is, according to Rule 12, the
best means of attaining to that love of contempt
and tliat horror of the world wliicli is the spirit of
the Society.

*^7. That if a single thing be granted to sen-
suality, my soul will instantly take advantage of it ;
that, consequently, my mortification must be con-
tinual and in all things.

" Besides, there is nothing inconvenient in this
regime. 1. Because I am sufliciently robust. 2.
Because it contains nothing in itself that can in-
jure the healtJi. 3. Because, having neither charge
nor employment in the novitiate, I can endure
some discomfort without inconvenience.

** 8. That this mortification will help me very
much to attain abnegation which is more difiicuU.

" 9. That is enables one to attain almost at onco
to the practice of Rule 29.

" 10. That the declaration of Jesus to religious
is formal: * Qui viiU 2^ost mo venire, ahncget seme-
iipsiim et tolled cruceni suain.'"-'''

Behold the crucified life which Clerc joyfully
embraces for the love of Jesus Christ ! Willi a
matchless sincerity towards God and towards him-
self, he declares wiir to the death against self-love,
and at the first blow cuts himself off from the

* "If any man will como after mc, let him deny himself niicl
talio up his croso."— (Luke ix. 2o).

Sairit-AcliciiL

339

its as

g our

J, tbo

itempt

:itof

to sen-
fc of it ;
1)0 con-

t ill tins
aist. /«•
t can in-
!!• charge
endure

luc Tcry

laimcuu-.

It at 011C3

-get seme-

joyfully

'ay i ill ft

lards liim-
solf-loYC,

from tlie
himself and

slightest satisfactions, so as to leave nature no
lioi)c. This is not all : in order to make more
sure of himself in this difficult enterprise, and to
in some sort constrain himself to the execution of
these heroic resolutions, he will engage himself hy
a vow; but, joining prudence to generosity, he will
make only a temporary vow which ho will renew
every month, the whole, bo it well understood,
with the approbation of his superior and spiritual
director, the master of novices.

"Thou knowcst, my God," he writes in his jour-
nal, " that I have the intention of engaging my-
self by a vow made on the first Friday of each
month, to follov/ during that month the rule of
mortificution that shall be definitely approved by
the father master. I offer these mortifications to
thee, to thy S.icrcl Heart encircled with thorns
and pierced with a lance, to the Immaculate Heart
transfixed with a sword of sorrow of Mary, thy
holy Mother. I pray thee, if thou dost accept this
offering, to make me feel a lively compassion for
thy passion, a deep hatred of my sins, and a great
love for thy infinite goodness."

His prayer is heard, and in proportion as he mo-
ilitatcs on the passion of the S.iviour Jesus he feels
growing with his love his desire of resembling that
Saviour in all things — in his agony and abandon-
ment, in his mock endurance of the rage let loose
against him, in hh abasement and opprobriums.

" Jcsiis hcfore Ilcrod. — Resolved to ask of Jesus
neither a miracle, nor a singular grace, nor rare
consolatiyn.s, nor a new state of soul. These are

' H

34-0

Ah'xis Clcrc.

only desires spiiii^in^ from cariosity, sensuality,
and pride. I ask, Jesus ! to combat these three
concupiscences, and to receive thy graces and fa-
vors in order to love and serve thee better.

*' Eesolved not to speak to satisfy my own curi-
osity nor a vain curiosity in others; to clothe my-
self with the white robe of Ilerod, to bo the play-
thing^ of his whole band.

*'0 my God ! wc cannoh strike down our pride
except by humiliations ; therefore send them to
thy proud servant. Order that in spite of all his
pains he may make a ridiculous Exemphcin, and
that he may be covered witli confusion. And let
it be the same for the ToniJ' Give me only tlio
grace to profit by thy fatherly lessons. Jesns !
let me always look upon tlicc clothed with that
white robe, thine eyes cast down, and thy lips pre-
serving an unbroken silenco."

Here is how he converses the following day with
Jesus condemned to death :

^•'How far wilt thou follow me and imitate me ?
How many strokes of the scourge art thou willing
to receive for my sake ? Wilt thou also be bound
and despoiled of thy garments ? Wilt thou go so
far as to shed a few drops of blood ? How many ?
Wilt thou clothe thyself with the purple manlle ?
Dost thou desire also to feel some thorns of my
crown ? — I desire, Jesus ! to go as far as thoii
Vv^ilt call me. I have no wish to turn aside a single

* The Toni, as well as the Exemplum Mariinum (preaching
on some example relating to the devotion to Marj"), are ora-
torical exercises customary in the noviliates.

Saint-Achcul.

341

laliiy,
three

ad fa-

L cuvi-
.10 my-
pVay-

Li' pritlo
hem to
all liis
[?n., and
And let
only tlio
) Jesus 1
itb ilii^t
lips pvc-

day witli

ate mc ?

^vining
be bonnd
lou go so
w many ?

man lie ?

ns of my

as tliou

,e a single

stroke nor. to avoid a single thorn thou dost destine
for me. I desire to sufier and to be hnmbled for
thee as much as is thy will. Thou dost give
strength to do what thou dost ask, therefore I beg
thee to ask a great deal of mo. Oh ! to snffer for
thee, my Jesus, to be covered with opprobrium for
tliy sake, but to love thee ! Behold my happiness.
To love thee, to love thee ! Give mc to love thee,
and then do with me what tliou wilt. * ximorcm
ini solum cum gratia tua inllti clones, d (Jives sum
satis, nee aliiid quidquam iiUra2)Osco.'^' *

After he has so generously taken part in the
mysteries of the passion and death of the Saviour
of men, Jesus crowns his desires, and with an in-
finite sweetness permits him to sliarc all the joyi3
cf his glorious resurreclion.

" Lovest thou me ? " These words which Jesus,
come forth from the tomb, addresses to St. Peter,
he also hears them, he replies to them ; and, Jesus
again speaking to him, there is another loving dia-
logue between the faithful disciple and the well
beloved of his heart.

" ' Lovcst thou me ' ?— Lord ! I owe thee my
life, my preservation, the light of my reason, my
faith, my baptism, my pardon after ten thousand
mortal offences, my vocation, and still more, thy
love which completely embraces mc. Oh ! yes.
Lord, I love thee ; I call thee to witness that I
love thee. Thou knowest that I love thee, thou

(prcacbmS
vy), aro ora-

*"Give me only thy love and thy grace, and I am rich
t^nnugb and ask fornothing more." — Tvords of (he ^•Suscipe,^' a
prayer of St. Ignatius.

342

A lexis Clcrc.

Tvho knowcst all things. And as reparation for so
many crimes, dost thou exact only this testimony of
my love ? Alas ! my God, why is it that I cannot
love thee more ? But if it bo true that to love is
to wish to love, my Lord ! then, truly, I love
thee, for I wish to love thee with all my soul, with
all my strength, and with all my heart. I do not
want to have a thought, an intention, a power, an
affection in my being that is not thino and for
thee. Is it possible that thou art so good as to be
so anxious for the love of such a miserable crea-
ture, and that thou hast done so much to gain his
love ? What advantage dost thou draw from it ?— >
Only thy love. — This is the last, the highest mark
of thy love, Lord, that thou dost desire nothing
else but my love ! But it is not all yet : as the
price of my love thou dost give me to feed thy
lambs, and thou art pleased to clothe me with the
priesthood — that is to say, I am to bo raised even
to that sublime dignity of performing acts which are
all divine, such as consecrating and absolving. And
if I bve thee, thou wilt come into mo, and by me
and with me continue thy mediation, thy redemp-
tion, and thy omnipotent and glorious holocaust. —
Silence. — Consume my heart with thy love. — What
ii question ! Lovest tlioio me ? "

Such were Clerc's sentiments at the close of his
long retreat made at Saint-Aclieul under the di-
rection of Father Mallet in December, 1854. His
whole novitiate was the putting in practice of the
resolution he took at the commencement, and we
know from good authority that if later in the col-

Saint- Acheul.

343

for ?o
lony o[
cannot
love is
I love
1, witli
do not
;ver, an
,nd for
s to be
lo crca-
;ain his
m it ?— '
3t mark
nothing
as the
eed thy
ntli the
icd even
hich are
[ig. And
dby me
edemp-
caust. —
.—What

e of his
the di-

54. His

e of the
and wc

I the col-

leges where ho had to spend his strength in all
varieties of employment, he was not permitted
that frequent use of exterior mortification, he
never ceased to treat his body with extreme se-
verity.

Tlie house of Saint-Achenl, before the first re-
volution an abbey of Gcnovcvans (Piogular Canons
of St. Genevieve attached to the adjoining old ca-
thedral), and from 1814 to 1828 a celebrated and
flourishing college, was after many vicissitudes be-
come one of the most important establishments be-
longing to the Society in France, and it then
counted, as it does now, three distinct communities
united under the authority of one superior, and
forming in reality only one great family composed
of resident fathers, juvenists, and novices. The
resident fathers were occupied with the duties of
the sacred ministry, being confessors, preachers,
and missionaries in the neighboring towns and
rural districts; some, advanced in years or bur-
dened with infirmities, limited themselves to
preaching by example, and nobody, whatever they
themselves might say and think about it, regarded
those invalids of the apostolate as useless servants.
The juvenists, or young scholastics recently come
from the novitiate, were prepared by a year or two
of rhetoric for teaching grammar and belles-lettres
in the colleges ; they were older than the novices,
if not always in years, at least by seniority in the
religious life. Finally, the novices, to the number
of fifty, of whom from thirty to forty were priests
or scholastics and the rest coadjutor brothers, made

1 1

:' i:.'f

344

Alexis Clcrc.

i«i ■■•■

it '

»» •'

\% ■

lli!^

iiuder a special direction the first apprenticeship
to the duties of their vocation ; in that large fami-
ly Ihey held the place of children ; hut they "svero
not, as may he readily supposed, spoiled children,
although they were the ohji'cts of the tendercst in-
terest and the most paternal solicitude. The Latin
language has a charming word, rcimerascerG^ to hc-
como a child again ; the word is in Cicero, hut the
thing is met only among Christians, and it is espe-
cially in novitiates that it is seen to flourish and
prosper. Happy childhood of the soul that with
docility ahandons itself to all the inspirations of
grace, to the good pleasure of God manifested to
it hy the voice of superiors ! Amirible simplicity !
Innocence regained and ceaselessly rejuvenated in
the blood of the Divine Lamb ! Aud with that the
joy, the inmost satisfaction of heart, whicli is the
jdedge and foretaste of the happiness of heaven !
Oh ! how well one then understands the words of
tlic Divine Master presenting little children to his
disciples: "The kingdom of heaven is for such
as these" (Mitt. xix. 14).

Clerc found in the novitiate all he had sought
for so long, and he there practised freely, from
morning to night, the religious virtues for which
ho hungered and thirsted — poverty, chastity, obe-
dience, mortification of the senses, recollection in
God, forgetf ulncss and annihilation of self in order
to be closely united to God. When he wished to
humble and abase himself, opportunities were not
wanting, and he seized them with the eagerness of
a mi.?er who has discovered a treasure. Although

Saint-AcJicul.

345

I ''

souglit

meditation tand spiritiuil reading fill the largest
place in tno novice's daily regulation, there is also
onco or twice a day a considerable time reserved
for manual labors — sweeping the dormitories and
corridors, scrubbing the house from top to bottom,
aiding the coadjutor brothers in the domestic
offices, the refectory, the infirmary, the kitchen,
etc. Behold, certainly, in a numerous community
a rich field for the exercise of hwlij and liumiliating
cniploijmcnls, and when one well knows how to
cultivate it, as did our humble and fervent novice,
he finds a now haryest to reap every day.

One of his fellow-novices writes us the follow-
ing: "I remember the novitiate was greatly
edified at seeing that naval officer as simple and
fervent as any one else, if not more so. One day
in particular he gave mo a sort of admiring sur-
prise when lie hurried to our admonitor * and re-
quested as a favor to bo named for a work of
the most ungrateful and humble description. If I
remember right, a i-)ouring rain had inundated a
d:irk and foul hole ; it; was necessary to wade in
the dirty water, soak it up, etc. The lieutenant
considered the unpleasant job as belonging quite
naturally to him, and he solicited the appointment
with a thorough juvenile ardor which but partial-
ly concealed an intense desire of humiliation."

One of his room-mates (for each nov' " does not
have a room to himself) discovered one night the
secret of ono of his sufferinjrs which did not enter

*Tho brother charged with distributing the employments
to the other novices. n

\i, ! -<,

fii

34^

Alexis Clcrc.

»• ■

into tlio programme of mortificaiioiis ho had
written out (luring his retreat. IIavin<j heard a
groan that was evidently forced from him by pain,
the novice interrogated him, and Clerc, pressed by
questions, was obliged to explain and confess that
liis trouble was already of long standing, for ho
had contracted it at college. Falling backwards
in some Tiolent exercise, he had received a large
wound which had never perfectly healed, and in
wliicli there were still splinters of bone. When he
felt them at the surface he did not apply to the
surgeon or the inlirmarian, but extracted them
himself as well as ho could ; in that way he had
not much to do in order to suffer constantly, ac-
cording to his resolution, in some part of his
body.

There is but one voice about his gaiety, his good
humor, the charm of his society, and the affability
of his character — natural qualities always notice-
able in him, but purified, ennobled, and perfected
by grace.

The more clear-sisfhted saw therein an abundant
source of merits and the proof of the strong hand
with which he ruled himself; for that peace ho
visibly enjoyed, and which was reflected from his
whole person, was the price of his victories.

" In thinking of him," wg are told by one who at
that time observed him closely,* "1 am reminded
jof the robust gaiety, rohusiam alacrilatcm, Father
Sacchini speaks of somewhere, and which renders

* This witness was tho socm.s, or assistant of the master of
novJcos, and presided at some of the exercises of the novitiate.

Saint-Ac/icul.

347

had
rd a

id by
that
)!• ho
vards
largo
lid in
iciihc
,0 the
thcia
c bad
y, ac-
of bis

s good
ability
iioticc-
fccied

Lindtjnfc
cr band
ace bo
om bis

who at

minded

I^\ithcr

renders

naster of
ovitiate.

its i")os?5Cs:oi' capable of taking very powerful
doses of penance and biimiliation."

It was indeed so : the happiness of belonging
unreserycdlj to God, the intoxication of tho sacri-
fice, was the principle of that charming gaiety, of
that uniform amiability, assisted, besides, by choice
mental gifts and by the resources of a memory
adorned w^ith a great variety of knowledge. But
whoever could have penetrated into his interior
would soon have discovered that that joy, while
being most g nuine and unaffected, was not in-
compatible with suffering, and would have been
led to admire still more that constant serenity by
learning that Clerc bore in his heart an open
and always bleeding wound, ever since the day his
father had sworn to have nothing ia common with
him so long as he should sec him remaining in the
Society.

Clerc wrote to his father several times from tho
novitiate of Saint-Acheul ; he never received a
reply; it appears his letters were not read or
even opened ; the multiplied testimonies of his
filial tenderness seemed to be scorned and set at
naught. "When he found that all his efforts at re-
conciliation were a dead loss, ho wrote no more,
and contented himself with praying and mourning
in silence.

But now his silence is complained of. Still
more, a communication is made to Father do
Kaviguan, who, persuaded that Clerc is in fault,
and has undertaken to treat his father stiffly,
writes to tho father master that he highly dist

' . I

348

Alexis Clcrc.

111

iJii I

approves of such a coiu'so, and tliat Alexis would
do well to show himself more affectionate for the
future.

When the contents of Father do Ravignan's
letter were communicated to him, Clerc experienced
a sudden joy, believing it all meant a revival of
paternal tenderness. But the illusion was of short
duration. A new letter of tlie novice addressed to
Mr. Clerc had the same fate as the preceding ones.
Not knowing what to think nor what to decide,
Alexis finally had recourse to his brother for an ex-
planation. In order not to aggravate the situation,
he again takes rather a playful tone. What must
he not have suffered when he received but another
proof of the uselessness of his efforts and of the
infl.'xibility of his father, who was still resolved to
repel his advances and to refuse him the most or-
dinary marks of interest and sympathy ?

'^ IlL'rc, now,^' he writes to his brother, May G,
1855, '^ is an enigma which I propose to your sa-
gacit}'. I am a subject of scandal in tho Society.
If this were because I am what I am, very imper-
fect and a bad example, there would bo nothing
wonderful in it, and you could have soon guessed
that I am almost exactly the same that you have
known me. But it is for quite another reason : I
am a bad son; I never write to my father, and,
behold, good souls sjy that the Jesuits destroy even
fdial love. Finally the story, through whom and
how I know nothing at all, reaches Father de Ra-
vignan ; he writes to the reverend father master,
and I am called on to explain myself — but I was

Saint-Achctil.

349

the

an's
iced
l1 of
iliort
id to

311 CS.

cido,
n cx-
Ltion,
must
other
)f the
ed to
st or-

lay G,
ur sa-
oclety.
aipcr-
thing
ucsscd
11 have
ison: I
r, and,
oy even
Dm and
de Ila-
master,
it I was

not clever enough for that. At last, I figure to
myself that my prayers have worked a miracle, and
that iiaternal tenderness read in secret the letters
it did not open before the world. Immediately I
write in mv finest handwriting]: tlie letter whoso
sad fate you have related to me. So the poor little
thing passed in its integrity into the wastepaper-
hasket, and I am again living in hopes.

'^ What is to be done ? Is it credible, as Father
de Havignan writes, that our father complains of
my silence when it is he who will not listen to me ?
And where can I discover the author of the tale ?
At all events, I tell you about it so as to explain
my letter, and so that you may set the facts right
if need be."

The matter was soon explained ; it was not Mr.
Clerc who had complained of the silence the novice
of Saint-Acheul observed towards his family, but
Alexis' sister-in-law, Madame Jules Clerc, and her
remarks being heard by a friend of Alexis' child-
hood, Alexander (whom we have elsewhere called
Mr. de S . . .), then officiously reported to Father do
Ravignan, with whom Alexander was intimately
acquainted, had produced tliat imhrogUo to the in-
nocent authors of which Clerc graciously granted
a full amnesty.

^' Well, it is you, little sister," ho wrote when he
had at last solved the enigma, "it is you who are
the artisan of this letter business. If you had not
had the simplicity to acknowledge it, I should
never have guessed it. However, be assured I
have not been vexed with anybody, and, on the con-

\nm "

350

Alexis Clerc.

ulll

«; ill

■*.:ir

III

trary, as I believe I wrote Jules, I bad for tbe time
a grcafc joy, imai^ining tbat my letters would give
my fatber pleasure and tbat it would be in my
power to be agreeable to bim in somctbing.

**The part of tJie afiair wbicb I admire most
is tbe good faitb of Alexander, wbo believes you
quite simply witbout making any allowance for
tbe little exaggerations sanctioned by custom, and
tben goes seriously to relate tbe story to Fatber de
Itavignan, as if be could not just as well bave
written it to me bimself. Perbaps you wanted to
bave mo scolded ? Very well ! to punisli your
malice, let me inform you tbat I was not."

Always ready to pour out bis beart to bis brotber
Jules, Alexis did not weary of talking to bim about
tbe bappincss of bis vocation: '^I will tell you
tbat, for myself, time passes with incredible rapidi-
ty., and tbat it is only by consulting tbe almanac
that I can believe it will soon be eleven months
since I came to this bouse of benediction.
bappy time ! Would I ever bave thougbt tbat I
could become young again with tbe young ? IIcw
can I ever bo sufficiently thankful to God for the
grace of so beautiful a vocation?''

Clerc, aged thirty-six years, was almost tbe dean
of tbe novitiate; witb the exception of two or
three priests wbo were bis iseniors by a very little,
all counted twelve, fifteen, or cigbteen years less
than bo. His voyages added to bis experience ; be
was a Nestor in tbat youthful world, but a Nestor
who yielded to none in good humor and frank
gaiety. A delightful conversationalist, tbcy loved

Saint-Achcul.

351

to make him talk, and he was never at a loss for
matter. As the fable says :

" Quiconquo a beaucoup vu
Peut avoir beaucoup retenu." *

AYlio Lad seen more than he ? He had seen the
inside of things, had been an acute observer, and
had forgotten nothing, for he was endowed with a
most excellent memory. Snch a one is a great re-
source in the recreations of a novitiate, where the
world's noises do notpcnetrato and where the news-
papers are not read. With him one could at will
visit India, Oceanica, and better still, China.
China ! it was the Society itself, it was the family
that one found there. In the mission Clerc had
visited how many missionaries there were who had
come from that same novitiate of Saint-Acheul, and
in whose footsteps each novice was burning to walk !
But in those conversations, whicli procured his
brothers a very innocent amusement, Clerc feared
there might bo for him a hidden danger; his
humility was alarmed at the ro/e, modest as it
was, which he had to assume when he thus con-
tributed to the recreations his souvenirs of his
sailor life.

He reflected upon it seriously during the retreat
he made at the close of his first year of novitiate ;
he examined himself, and doubtless found matter
for reform. Ho put the following resolutions in
writinj

* Whoever has seen much has had the power of remeDibering
much.

\j...: ..jiw^ u„

352

Alexis Clcrc,

V...

4! I

"llesolutions : To keep myself in the back-
ground ; to keep my things and papers in order.

'• Under the first head I see five points for par-
ticular examination :

"1. Not to be the first to speak of myself, and if
it is not i^ossible to avoid relating some story, to
endeavor not to exhibit myself as an important actor,
but rather to lose myself among the other person-

ages.

"2. Not to draw others to talk about it and to
make me talk about it.

*' 3. To gently give way for others to display
their wit.

"4. To speak in a moderate tone and with few
gestures, without trying too much to speak well
and to pass for a lively and agreeable talker.

"5. To refrain from some witty sayings which
would be very apropos."

More than once his thoughts turn to China,
where he had witnessed such great examples of ab-
negation, and where it seems to him splendid op-
portunities for self-annihilation arc ojGfered to the
missionary.

^' Our Lord will teach mo to endure the cold
and the hardslups of all kinds and not to com-
plain. The Word is made a child, infans — Deum
infantcm. . . . Oh ! that I might for thy sake,
Jesus, go there to stammer Chinese instead of
the language I speak with so much vanity !

*' Thou dost not lot mo feel, Lord ! the wound
of the triple sword. There is a poverty that can
be carried so far as to die of want, like Father

Savit'Achnti

353

Hone Massa,* and there is a spirliual poverty of
praises, honors. . . , Poverty is the renunciation of
all exterior goods ; by it I offer everything to God.

" Chastity is the immolation of the body. I know
well it cannot exist without that immolation. It is,
among' other defiaitions, the continual observance
of the rules of modesty ; tlieso are a prison for us,
an impregnable fortress for a precious treasure.

"Obedience, it shall be that of the judgment, to
the point where God has so lovingly put me to the
test to practise it, and where I have so greatly
failed.

" I desire all this coldly. Jesus ! inspire mo
W'ith the sentiments of thy Sucred Heart, that I
may perfectly make a perfect offering.*'

And so as to truly feel tlie wound of the triple
stuordj as he expressed it, lie asked, and to all ap-
pearances obtained, permission to pronounce the
three vows of devotion, the vows of poverty, chas-
tity, and obedience, on the 9tli of September, 1855,"
the feast of Blessed Peter Claver of the Society of
Jesus.

Wiieti we sec liim thus reproaching himself eg
earnestly for being inclined to put himself forward
in conversation, andfor tallangof his exploits and
achievements, one is led to ask if this fault was
really very prominent in him, and if it was a mat-
ter in which he had ample room for reform. ' k
opportunity of gaining light ou this point present-

* See in Chapter IX. the details of the death of Father
Ren(5 Massa, missionary of Kiang-nan. Clerc, who was then
in Shanghai, hal been among tho ilr.sfc to hear tlieni.

'<)

354

Alexis Clerc,

h^'S'I

. „J 'm

ed itself without any of our Beekiug, and wo now
know how much to believe of his self-accusations.
At Saint-Acheul Clorc made his hitclicn c:q)erimcnt
under a brother cook who is still living, and of
whom we ourselves have an excellent recollection.
To explain to the profane a language they are un-
familiar with, we will state quite simply that
Clcrc, like all the other novices, was for an entire
month assistant cook, and as such occupied from
morning to night under the orders of the head
cook, leading meanwhile the life of the lay
brothers. Questioning about the dear and vene-
rated novice the first witnesses of his religious life,
of whom the number has singularly decreased since
1855, we naturally addressed ourselves to this
brother cook, and to refresh his memory we said
to him : *' It wasn't every day that you had lieu-
tenants subject to your orders ? "

Would the reader ever guess the good brother's
reply ? We will content ourselves with repeating :
" What I remember about Father Clerc is having
seen hi make indelible ink for marking the linen
and show the wardrobe-keeper how to use it, and
all with the best grace in the world and without
any pretension. His care to be unnoticed was pre-
cisely what most astonished me when, long after he
had left Saint-Acheul, I learned what he had been
in the world ; to the best of my recollection not a
single word about navigation escaped him."

Thus, for an entire month, living with those
good brothers, spending with them the hours of
recreation, when, through a very natural deference

Saint-AcJieul,

355

they left the honors of the conversation to him, ho
WHS sufficiently master of himself to refrain from
tlie least expression which might cause his com-
panions to suspect what he had been in the world ;
and, if he had to speak of the China mission some-
times, as is likely enough, nothing betrayed that
he had seen with his own eyes what he related, nor
that ho had ever worn the epaulet of an officer of
the navy.

Now we are, thank God, sufficiently enlightened
regarding his foolish vanity, and his incurable de-
sire to be noticed.

CHAPTER XL

VAUGIRAUD— THE SCHOOL SAINTE GENEVIEVE— LAVAL.

We may believe that after such a novitiate Clerc
had laid the foundations of a solid and perfected
virtue. The Society had not completed its work of
forming him, but it could begin to require some
services of him. At the commencement of the
scholastic year 1S55-185G he was sent to the Collego
of the Immaculate Conception at Vaugirard to
perform the duties of surveillant, at the same time
that he prepared himself by following a comple-
mental course to undergo an examination in all the
branehes of philosophy.

It was his apprenticeship to his college life, his
dehut in the great work of education to which he
was to consecrate eight more years. Of the four-
teen years ui life that remained to him, he passed
nine in the colleges; add to these four years of
theology (18G1-18G5), and that second novitiate of
a year which we call the third probation (1809),
you will have the epitome of his religious life, and
you can count all the marches of the obscure and
laborious route by which he ascended to tho height
of his heroic and glorious sacriQce.

That great art of effacing himself, which he had

356

Vaugirard.

357

learnctl in iho novitiate, and of wliicli ho was already
an accomplished master, did not abandon liiui dur-
ing all those years; and although it in nowiac en-
croached upon the originality of his character, still
it is easy to understand that the task of the bio-
grapher whose hero hides himself as much as
possible is Angularly simplified.

Let not tlie reader be alarmed ; wo shall invent
nothing to make up for our penury, and the la-
conism it imposes upon us is of itself elofpient
enough to i)revent us fmrn having any desire to
remedy it. In addition, the interior fire with
which wo have seen him burning during his re-
treats bursts out on certain occasions a :d casts a
bright light here and there. This is amp y ruf-
ficient to complete our information on :i su 'cct
wherein there is no question of satisfy.: ;.t a v n
curiosity, but of responding to the pious interest
that attaches to the intimate knowledge of a beau-
tiful and holy soul.

A venerable reiigio< s, v ho was Cere's spiritual
guide and the depositary of the secrets of his con-
science during the single year he passed at the
College of Vaugirard, furnishes us this portrait
from life which reproduces especially the interior
physiognomy of our beloved brother : ^^ Father
Alexis Clerc was beloved by God and men. God
was to him a tender and merciful Father, a kind
and devoted Friend. lie had no other ideas of his
God. Therefore his prayers were usually a filial
conversation with him, a pouring out of love and
gratitude. Ilis happiness in loving our Lord and

358

Ali'xis Clcrc,

Ik *■

being loved by liim was reflected on his counte-
nance and gavo him an expression of sweet and
calm joy. Thence, also — that is, from his relations
with Cotl — sprang his charity and zeal for men.
His whole life, like that of his Divine Master, was
spent in doing good. To sacriflce himself, to ren-
der eervico to others, to teacli his pupils, to con-
solo the unhappy, to convert sinners, to awaken
repentance in their hearts and give them jieaco of
conscience — these were his delights. All who
came in contact with him felt at their case, and
their hearts dilated ; they loved him because ho
himself loved much, for an ardent love of God
had added a new warmth to the natural kindness of
his heart and the frank loyalty of his character."

This portrait seems to us perfectly truthful, par-
ticularly where it depicts that powerful attraction
Clerc exercised over souls, that gift of winning love
by loving much himself, and all for the greater
spiritual good of his neighbor and the greater glory
of God, which ho never lost sight of. We can
testify that it is he exactly, just such as wo knew
him, such as he lingers in the memory of those
who had the ha^^piness of living with him.

Of course Clerc was not allowed to continue in
his college life all the mortifications he had im-
posed upon himself in the novitiate ; he had to
give up, among others, sleeping upon a board, and
he was directed to bo more saving of his strength,
which he would need for the studies he must pur-
sue on his own account, and for the humble duties
with which ho was charged among the pupils. Ho

Vaugirard.

359

compensated for this by other victories over him-
self, jind always treated rudely enough, cavalierly
enough, if I may daro so to speak, his poor body
which he had for a long while held in slavery.

His residence at Vaugirard brought him nearer
to his family, and ho saw the dearest of his wishes
realized in the watchful and devoted alTcction that
surrounded his father's old age. Yet even in tiiis,
doubtless joy was not always unmixed. Accord-
ing to a beautiful thought of St. Clirysostom, God
u pleased to mingle blessings and ills in the lives
of the just, and thus ho forms a woof of admirable
variety. *

Wiiile Clerc was at Saint-Achcul a son had been
born to his brother Jules and named Alexis after
hij uncle, and the brightest hopes were already
founded upon the little creature. But God had
only lent the babe. lie took it back, scarcely al-
lowing him whose name it would have perpetuated
in the family time to smile upon it once or twice.
Uncle Alexis, who fortunately had Christian hearts
to deal with, hastened to dry the tears that flovvetl
for the loss of that dear first-born. *' Mj dear and
good Jules," he wrote, ''I know how deep is a
father's affection, and I sympathize with the great
sorrow you feel for the loss of that beautiful child.
Parents do not measure their love by the qualities of
their children ; still the loss of those tliat are the
most promising is more to be regretted. I was able
to judge myself tliat Alexis promised a great deal.

* Turn fie advnrsis, turn ox prosperig, justorum vitam quasi
admirabili varietato coutexit.

360

Alexis Clcrc.

5
I --5'

. . .»

" Fciii]), wliicli docs not permit 11s to doubt of tho
sovereign und cti-rnal happiness already i)03£e?sed
by that dear little soul, is the only motive of con-
solation I can oiler to its parents. Jilay your hearts
find therein, if not full consolation, at least some
alleviation."

Wlio would not have thought that Air. Clcrc,
pleased at having his son so near liim, would have
reconciled himself to a vocation v/hicli did not
make it necessary for them to be separated ? If
Alexis had been captain of a frigate, he would
l^robably have spent the years he passed at Vau-
girard or Paris in £ai!ing over the seas, in visiting
anew Africa, China, or Ocoanica, and who knows
if he would ever have seen his father again ? But
no ! the father could not bo persuaded to sec the
son a Jesuit, and, cruel to himself, ho went so far
as to refuse, when it was offered him, tho solace of
the son's prcsenc?. A letter from Alexis to his
brother reveals this painful situation to us. He
wrote from Vaugirard December 20, 185G : *' My
good Jules, wiU you ask our father if he will allow
nic to embrace him on NewYear's day, and, in case
he consents, let me know the hour when it will be
most convenient to you to have me call ? Also, in
case my request should not be granted, do nob
ncglec*; to inform me how you purpose spending
that df.y, so that if possible I may pay you my
jiumble respects as younger brother. . . ."

Lot us anticipate some years, so as to drain this
chalice to the dregs.

Ordained priest in the course of September,

riiir

Vaugirard.

\(n

I the

con-
icarfcs
£omc

Clcrc,

liavG

d not

Y»'ould
t Vau-
isiting
knows
? But
SCO the
; £0 far
)lacc of
to his
. lie

1 ullow
in case
will be

Also, ill
do not

pcndin-
you my

l-ain this

(lembcr,

1859, Fatlior Clcrc was lo celebrate his first IMat.s
on the 2Gtii of that month in the public chapel of
the School Saintc-Genevieve. He wrote his father
a letter dictated by the liveliest faith, but at the
same time glowing with his filial tenderness:

"I beg you most earnestly, my dear father, not
to be absent, so that you may all be united at the
foot of the altar where I shall iiave the incompre-
hensible honor of offering to God omnipotent his
only Son, like himself God omnipotent, an obla-
tion infinitely pleasing to the Father and Iho
source of all the graces he bestows upon men ; the
honor of immohiting the Victim that satisfies for
the sins of the world, of renewing the sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary, lie it is who
is the reconciliation of God with sinners. There
is no debt, noolTencc which God docs not remit to
him who presents as satisfaction and reparation
the blood of Jesus Christ, who has made himself
our bondsman. Can you turn away your eyes from
the proof of this which iiC offers you — a proof so
well suited to touch your heait, since it is in your
son that he causes the munificence rf his pardons
to be displayed ? Will you not see the signal honor
to which he raises me ? After having drawn mo
from the shame and abasement of sin, ho places
me among the princes of his people. God is more
jealous, more i)roud of his mercy than of his other
attributes ; he wants to show you how he propor-
tions his graces to our needs.

''Come and adore our Lord Jesus Christ repos-
ing in my hands; the good Jesus, after having ex-

\62

Alexis Clcrc.

:'f.' :i

hanstcd his blood in F:uffcring for iitj, coiilJ only
satisfy Lis love by giving iiimseJf to us, in a man-
ner as perfect as it is wonderful, in the Iloly
Eucharist.

^' Come, my dear father, and receive the first
blessing from my hands ; come and witness the
grandeur, the majesty of the religion that without
humiliating the father enables the son to bless
him.

" It is to me a need and a duty of gratitude and
love to invite you to these heavenly joys, and to
communicate to you the first fruits of the graces
and benedictions God wills to shed abroad by my
hands. May you one day bo filled with them !

*'I conjure you yet once more, my dear father,
to give to this august and solemn festival the com-
l)letion, necessary to my heart, of your presence."

Undoubtedly Mr. Clerc was moved while read-
ing these words, full of an emotion proceeding from
the innermost depths of a soul that had not ceased
to be dear to him. ISTcverthelcss he stood firm
and resisted the inspirations of his own heart.
He did not attend the first Mass of his son.

Clerc was no longer in Paris, but in our house
of Laval, pursuing his theology, when his father
died, December 30, 1SG3. The old man, who sank
insensibly, without, however, having in anything
altered his habits, had expired without any crisis,
without any agony, with none of Lis children near
him, and in a Avay so unexpected that no priest
assisti'd at his last hour. Alexia' grief was mute;
it was long since I he measure of it had been full,

Vaiigirard*

363

only

Holy

B first
ss the
itlioiit
) bless

clc and

and to

3 graces

. by my

' f atlicr,

he com-

cncc."

read-
ujy from
ceased
od firm
n heart.

ar house
13 fatV.er
,vho sank
mything
iiy crisis,
Iren near
no priest
as ninte;
been i«ll>

and his soul had not dared to liope. He could not
prevent himself from reflecting painfully upon I lie
causes, unfortunately too common, which had
kept the eyes of his worthy father closed to the
light of Ciiristianity. Later, doubtless, what ho
learned from the lips of his brother tempered the
cruel bitterness of his lirst regrets. Mr. Clerc had
only apparently persevered in his insensibility to
the truths of faith ; with time and under the in-
fluence of pious family examples that haughty
courage had weakened, and towards his last days
he prayed ; tliey heard him reciting earnestly and
in impressive tone?, dwelling upon each petition,
the Lord's Prayer. How can wo believe that grace,
without which it is impossible to invoke the Lord
Jesus, was a stranger to those sentiments border-
ing so closely on the avowal and repentance that
call for pardon ?

On the occasion of a still more sudden and far
otherwise alarming death,* had not Father de
Ravignan said : *'\Ve are unablo to penetrate the
secrets of divine mercy; we can neither know nor
aflirm what passes in the last moments of a cruel
and mysterious agony ; but Christians, living un-
der the law of hope no less than under that of
faith and love, we ouglit constantly to rise from
the depths of our griefs to the thought of the in-
finite goodness of the Siviour. Hero below there
is no limit, no impossibility between grace and the

* That of the Duke of Orleans, the eldest son of King Louis
Philippe. Sie llio "Life ot Father c'c RavigL an," l>y Father
A. de Ponlevoy, Taris, 1860, vol. i. p. 2-11.

■il;^

3^H

Alexis Clcrc,

soul so long as there remains a breath of life. . . .
Wo shall one clay become aeqiuiintcd with those
ineffable wonders of divine morey ; wc must
never cease to implore it with profound confi-
dence.'

Clcrc must have found motives of consolation
and bono in these words of bis holy friend. "We
have others, we who now know what God reserved
for him himself. Before the tribunal of that great
God, to whom all things are eternally present, and
who considers what is not yet as thoiigli it were,
the blood of tlie son already cried for mercy for the
father.

On the 1st of January of the following year,
after having offered the Holy SacriGce for the soul
of his poor father, Alexis, addressing bis Xew
Year's wishes to his brother and sister-in-law, ex-
pressed his deep gratitude to them for tl'o nffcc-
tionatc care they had lavished on tho old man in
bis last days, and for the sacrifices they bad bad to
make to bis humor, his tis'es and still more to
bis opinions. "May God reward," be said, in
speaking of bis sister-in-law, " tbe extreme gentle-
ness she has not ceased to slu w since she entered
our family I I believe that l.c children, tbe source
of so sweet a happiness, are be sure token tlmt
God has accepted so many coiicesfions made to t:,e
love of peace. Ah ! well, then,

' Princcsse. ci: qui le Cicl mit un esprit si deux,'*

raise those dear little treasures, 'a sweet and

* Princess to whom Heaven has given so sweet a soul.

School Saint e-Gcncvicve,

3^^5

I those

; must

confi-

;olation

a. Wo

reserved
at great
3nt, anil
it were,
y for the

nor year,
the soul
liis Kew
-law, ex-
,]<o nffcc-
d man in
id had to
more to
said, in
lie genth>-
ic entered
he source
oken tluit
ade to tie

sweet and
et a soul.

frail hoii:,^ in the love of Jesus Christ and of
the Blessed Virgin. If we had not, your Jiushand
and I, learned the truths of faith at the knees of a
woman who was aUo very gentle and very Chris-
tian, after years of forgetfulness, the grace of God
might perhai)s have knocked in vain at the door of
our hearts, and you would not to-chiy havo near
yours that upripht, loyal, pure, strong heart which
you know how to understand and love."

Lot us now retrace our step?. We have nothcen
willing to separate these pages that show us in
Alexis the good son and the good hrother ; but
they aie posterior in date to the point where we
left his biography — that is, to tlie scholastic yeur
185C-1857, which he spent entirely at the CcUcge
of Vaugirard.

The following year, appointed professor of mathe-
matics in the School Saiute-Genevieve, he entered
upon that course of teaching which was to occup}^
almost exclusively and to the end, his active years.
Naturally his place was there ; his previous studies
as well as his mental gifts, his quality of old jmpil of
the Polytechnic School, his title of licentiate of the
mathematical sciences, all recommended him for
that employment, and by assigning him anotlier our
superiors would havo seemed to poorly justify the
reputation they have of putting each man at the
post that suits him best, and which he is best fitted
to occui^y.

It is true they might have first sent him to study
his theology, so that having to follow a four years'
course he could have passed his last examinations

366

Alexis Clerc.

^ •

g; - .,N

r^ f

^> ■• '"f

S •• w

5**-

J 1:

afc the age of about forty-one — a ratlier mature age,
and one that it was a little nnusnal to sec on the
benches. But the School Saintc-Gencvieve, newly
established, needed jirofessors, and it is self-evident
that in those beginnings there was no great variety
of choice. Several of the persons who would have
succeeh'd there required preparation; Clerc was
already prepared and ready to take ; they took him
without as'ving him if another destination would not
be more ajreeablc. Others besides him made the
same sacrifice, and made it joyfully. It is the
honor and strength of our Institute that in sucli
eases individual interests retire before the superior
interest oT the glory of God.

When that preparatory school, which is now
f ourishing and even celebrated, was seen to open
very modestly in our house of the Eue Lhomond
(formerly Rue dcs Postes), tliere were not wanting
people to warn us that certain failure awaited us.
These people added that if we had succeeded in
our colleges in making bachelors of letters, we
would perhaps be less fortunate in teaching the
sciences, and that in any case the struggle would be
a sharp one. Truly, the enterprise was bold and
somewhat hazardous. The similar establishments
with which we would have to compete had in their
favor (some of them at least) a half century of
existence and success, reputation, acquired ex-
perience, wealth, and a numerous corps of teachers
perfectly trained, while we had nothing of the
sort. However, those obstacles were surmounted,
and we even did not have to w^ait long for success.

ScJiool Saintc-Gcnevicve.

\67

3 age,

n iUe
newly
v'ident
variety
i have
re was
)k liin^
aid not
ide the
13 the
in sxicli
superior

is now
to open
ihomond
wanting
aited ns.
eeded in
ters, we
hing the
would he
bold and
ishments
d in their
entury of
uired ex-
f teachers
tig of the
rmounted,
or success.

By what means did the new-comers achieve so re-
spcctahle a place heside their formidable conipeLi-
tors ? By self-devotion — a self-devotion such as
all human motives combined could not inspire. To
sacriCce their time and tastes, their health, their
strength, and the vigor of their youth, witliout pos-
sible compensation in this world — this is what re-
ligious have been able to do by the grace of their
vocation, what God has blessed, and to-day we be-
hold its fruits. Wo do not refer only to the results
of the examinations, to the pupils admitted to the
Polytechnic School, Saint-Cyr, the Xaval, Central,
Agricultural Schools, etc.; they may now be counted
by hundreds and thousands ; they fill the armies of
sea and land, not to mention the civil careers where
they do not take the lowest ranlc. But the bloody
battles of our la^c wars proved that they joossessed
merits far more precious to their country than pro-
fessional knowledge and high mental culture. A
hundred of those noble young men slain by the
enemy, and fallen 'vvith their arms in their hands,
are the worthy crown of masters who also knew
how to shed their blood for a cause not less beauti-
ful, or rather for the same cause, masters and
pupils having but one cry and one device : God
and the country I \

There, at Sainte-Genevievc, Clcrc met among his
new colleagues Father Leon Ducondray, then a
simple surveillant, who later became his superioi'.

+ See "Souvenirs of the School Samte-Genevieve. Notices
of the pupils slain by the eneui}'." By the Rev. Father Chau-
veau, S.J. 3 vols, in 18.

3^8

Alexis CI ere.

and of whom he was the companion in death.
How suited they were to one anotlier ! With an
ardor more restrained and less readily enkindled,
there was in Father Ducondray the same abnega-
tion, the same active and joyous generosity, the
same devotedness to the common cause. His vo-
cation, less extraordinary in certain aspects, had
nevertheless cost him more than one sacrifice. A
doctor of laws, of high birth, possessor of a hand-
some fortune, endowed with noble faculties en-
hanced by the perfect elegance of his person and
manners, he might have aspired to the most
distinguished position in the world and in the
higher walks of public life where he would natu-
rally have entered. He preferred to live poor
and unknown for the love of Jesus Christ, and at
the ago of twenty-five he left all — his brilliant fu-
ture and an admirable mother justly proud of such
a son — to enter the Society of Jesus. The supe-
riors were not slow in discovering his merit, but
they made no haste to put him on a pinnacle.
After two years of novitiate, after another year
consecrated to the study of philosophy and the
preparation for an examination, they assigned him
the humble but important duties of a surveillant,
too like those which God confides to his angels for
a true religious to despise them. In his discharge
of them he displayed a rare maturity and a re-
markable clear-sightedness. *'IIe was,*' some one
who knew him well has said, ** a surveillant of im-
posing presence." I can well believe it. As he
walked in the presence of God he possessed liis

ScJiool Saint c- Genevieve,

path,
.li an
died,
aega-
', tlio
is vo-
1, had

c. A
band-
ies en-
)n and
2 most
in tlie
1 natu-
e poor
[ and at
ant fn-
of sncli
supe-
rit, but
innaclo.
ler year
and the
ncd bim
eillant,
ngels for
iscbarge
nd a rc-
£ome one
nt of ini-
:. As be
essed bis

soul in peace, and a certain calm dignity never
forsook bim. Tbcrefore nobody was astonisbcd
when, still yoimpf, bis theology being completed,
lie was named xentor. IIo was in every respect
equal to Ills position, and, having to face uncom-
mon difficulties that would have disconcerted a less
valiant soul, he triumphed over them by his sub-
lime abnegation and the greatness of his faith.
Clerc also knew at the School Saintc-Genevieve
Father Caubert, who, on the fatid May 2G, 1871,
accompanied Father Olivaintand Father de Bengy
to the last combat, and fell with them under the
shooting of the Rue llaxo. To-day one same tomb
reunites them all, and together thoy repose glori-
ously at the foot of the Altar of the Martyrs.

Thus we sec how the future martyr of La Ro-
quetto found himself in his element in the com-
pany of souls of the same metal, the same quality
as his own ; and he proved to himself that he was
not deceived when, fleeing from the world and
dreading the contagion of its vices, he said on the
day of his election : *' The common life in a re-
ligious community carries you, almost without
your being aware of it, to the opposite virtues,
and by good example encourages you to all the
others."

The eight years he passed at the School Sainte-
Uenevieve may be summed up in two words : ho
effaced himself more and n.ore and ho devoted
himself without reserve. Bjfore as well as after
his theology charged with a class of the second or
third grade, he did not shine more than others

370

Alexis Clcrc,

* I

■5

whoso knowlodgc was not nearly so extensive nor
so jirofouncl. One of his superiors, like him a
impil of the Polytechnic School, consitlerod his
course ainwsl too learned. From the entirely prac-
tical point of view of the preparation for the ex-
aminations, this is not an encomium. It may bo
that liis essentially quick and intuitive mind had
some difficulty in regulating its steps so as to ren-
der it easy for all to follow. He made up for this
fault by an nnvar}i!ig kindiiess of manner that sot
Ijis jiupils perfectly at their case, and allowed them
to ask of him, in season and out of season, all the
explanations they wanted. Some lines from his
hand show us in what a truly supernatural spirit,
with what detachment from self and. humble ac-
quiescence in the will of God, he accepted, in its
plenitude, however repugnant to nature and how-
ever ungrateful it might be, the task obedience
imposed upon Lim in the rather varied duties he
IkkI to perform at Sainte-Gcnevieve's:

**Tiie employment I received with indifference
seems to me the most desirable in the house :

"Teaching the sciences useful to the temporal
career of the children.

** Teaching the truths of religion, and finally
teaching virtue.

" For the first and second points I need to labor;
for the third, to be closely united with Jesus
Christ — I shall strive for thi.-", and I shall explain
the life of our Lord to the sodality.

*'My instructions will be less didactic, more
conversational.

School Saiiiic- Goicvicvc,

371

*MVitli regard to extra duties, I wisli to Ijo like
the old man's stick."

Thus Fdtlicr Clerc, then a priest, was that year :
1, professor of mathematics (teaching the sciences
useful to the tcrnpoiMl career of the children) ; 2,
charged with a catcciiism class (teaching the
truths of religion) ; 3, director of a sodality, and
that was principally where he had lo leach virtue.
Bi'sides all this, he was called upon for certain
corvees, or extra duties, which did not fall under
any of these three heads, and of which the com-
plete enumeration is impos3;ble, since they were
composed especially of accidental and unforeseen
requirements. To take tho pupils to walk, not
always, bo it well understood, in the finest of
weather; on the days of dismissal to accompany
them to the railroad depots ; on the opening days
to survey the parlors, courts and corridors, etc.,
etc. — all that has nothing to do with teaching ma-
thematics, and it is not to the honorable professors
of our lyceums that wo need Jiddress ourselves for
the performance of such work. They intrench
themselves in their classes, as is their right : {<uin}i
cuique. Only would to God that this surveillance
of every moment wherein the good deportment and
the morality of tho pupils are concerned to the
highest degree, were not abandoned to subordi-
nates destitute of authority as well as of personal
dignity, and incapabl3 of inspiring youth with the
respect they do not always have lor themselves !
This, it must be admitted, is one of the plague-
spots in laic education, and it is vain to seek a re-

! 1

I ;
i i

1 ■

,.^..

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-S)

t/-

1.0

I.I

130

128 |2 5

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1.25 ■ 1.4

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.<<^

372

Aiiwis CIcrc,

medy outside of the sentiments faitli plants in
the heart of the religious and the priest. With
zeal for souls and with religious obedience, all be-
comes easy, and that which everywhere else is es-
teemed petty and contemptible is ennobled by the
loftiness of the object and the grandeur of the re-
sult. Ah ! there is no doubt but that, humanly
speaking, it is a pretty disagreeable business to
conduct a ^qiiad of youth on a promenade, espe-
cially through the streets and boulevards of Paris,
where there are unfortunate contacts and splashes
of more than one sort to be dreaded for them. But
one docs not become a religious, and in particular
a Jesuit, to have a good time, and if a man has the
holy passion of glorifying God and saving souls by
mortifying himself, he will find therein the means
with all the chances in the world of escaping the
assaults of vain glory and the surprises of self-love.
If it costs a little — and it will sometimes co?t a
good deal to nature — at least it is not trouble wast-
ed and the result is sure in the long run. In spile
of the levity of their age, the young understand by
instinct that if a man of merit, after so many other
sacrifices, gives up for their sake his rest and his
case, it is because he expects much of them, and,
touched by such devotedness, they labor to render
themselves worthy of it. It is for them the seed
of better sentiments, and certain ones of them will
tell you that thus they were won, without exactly
knowing how, to duty and virtue. Never from the
height of his chair, wlicre, however, he gave proof
of science, talent, and zeal, did the most accom-

School Sa in te- Gene via 'c.

373

plislied professor gain sucli an influence over tliem.
But they saw that same professor descend to their
level, enter, so to speak, into their everyday school
life, perhap? join in tlicir games, wear himself out
from morning to night in making himself all to
all. There is no more to be said ; they know with
what a true and sure friend they have to deal, and
it will be very difficult for them to resist his en-
treaties when he shall ask as his only reward that
t:iey perform their duty conscientiously, that they
think in sober earnest of becoming not only honest
men, but good men, true and solid Ciiristians.

Behold hov; great is the importance of those
humble and fatiguing corvccs in a house of Chris-
ti n education ! St. Ignatius says that the obe-
dient religious is like a stick in an old man's hand.
Father Clcrc, making the most meritorious appli-
cation (f this to himself, desires to be liJce a stick
for the corvees. Those who saw him at he work
say that he acquitted himsell: of it with tlie best
grace in the worh"" Therefore he was universally
beloved and respected by his pupils.

If he thus devoted himself with his whole heart
to what related only to exterior discipline, what
was he in his catechism class, in his sodality,
where he taught not mathematics but virtue and
religion ?

Ilia sodality was composed of future pupils of
the Polytechnic School ; they wore the head, the
elite of the School Sainte-Genevieye, and as in gene-
ral they joined the distinction of talent to the au-
thority of virtue and character, their example was

374

Alexis Clcrc.

very powerful in llic house, and it depended upon
them in some sort to lead t!ie rest of their com-
panions in the good path. Father Clerc applied
himself to strengthening their faith, to arming it
against the dangers that would soon assail it, to
inspiring them with a sincere, manly, and generous
virtue, a tender devotion towards Jesus Christ and
his holy Mother, and to putting under the care of
t'le Virgin Immaculate all tlie treasures the purity
of a hoart of twenty years promises to mature age.
His sodalists venerated him as a saint, and loved
him as iho best of fathers. "He gave all his
heart to his sodality," s:iid the Rev. Father de Pon-
levoy, w!io, visiting the School Sainte-Genevieve in
the capacity of Provincial, was particularly watch-
ful of all that belonged to the service of God, and
could not he indifferent to a spectacle so consoling
to his fiiih. "I was present at the reunions
several times," he added, " to preside over them.
It is impossible to describe the joy that reflected,
from Father Clerc's person when he was in the
midst of all his children."

His children — that is the right word, and what
we shall see of the affectionate relations that were
formed between them and him, and continued
always intimate and confiding long after their en-
trance in the world, will show how deep was liis
influence on the hearts that had once been touched
by the flame of his charity and zeal.

Lot us now say a few words about the four
years Father Clerc consecrated to the study of
dogmatic theology (18G1-18G5), and which he

Laval,

375

passed at the scholasticate of Laval, where he is
afifectionately romemberecl.

At tlio age of forty-one he once more took his
l)liice on the benches, and this, wo may believe,
most cheerfully, happy to obey his superiors, and
happy beyond all expression to find his St. Thomas
af?aiu and to hold lonpf and studious conversations
with him. I sav St. Thomas ? It was the whole
school that came to visit him, and he welcomed
them most gladly. Now Suarcz, and now Tolctus
or Fonscca — his note-books show this — in turn oc-
cupied his learned leisure, and he abandoned him-
self without constraint to the inclination he had
always felt for scholasticism. We must note this
as a feature of his character, and it, is not the least
attractive. lie had in everything a horror, if I may
dare so to speak, of the quod justum, and he in-
clined to all that he judged not only useful with a
practical and immetliate utility, but with a nobly
supererogatory one ; and as he had put a certain
luxury in his use of corporal mortifications, he put
it likewise in his studies, always following that
generous impetus which we have remarked in him
from the first of his novitiate, persuaded that there
should be nothing mediocre in the service of God.

Study was not his sole occupation. He was a
priest ; he exercised either in Laval or in the
neighboring towns some of the functions of the
evangelical ministry, and even gave missions in the
country districts. But it was especially to the
laboring youth of the city that he consecrated the
first fruits of his zeal, and hero is what has been

37^

Alexis Clerc.

written to us on this subject by a friend who, hap-
pening to be in Laval, was kind enongli to ques-
tion in our interest the still vivid recollections pre-
served there, and to send us the facts he gathered
from the surest sources :

" The members of the Conference of St. Vincent
dc Paul still gladly remember Father Cierc's first
efforts as catechist of the apprentice?. His in-
structions were solid and perfectly adapted to his
auditory ; he knew especially how to captivate
them by interesting narrations. Consequently the
young men loved to hear him, and several havo
since declared that they found a powerful help in
his advice.

" Another still more important work assigned
him by his superiors did not permit him to con-
tinue his catechism classes. I refer to the CEuvre
de Beauregard. To withdraw young persons from
the dangerous pleasures of the city by furnishing
them with innocent amusements — such was the
idea which presided at the foundation of that cha-
ritable institution. On Sundays and holydays the
young workmen are assembled in a house pleasant-
ly situated. There they attend Mass and Vespers,
rest among jo}'ous companions from tlie labors of
the week, and in the evening return to their
families. They are generally remarked for their
peaceful habits and their industry. Ilovy different
from those poor workmen who exhaust their
strength in debauchery, and wearily resume their
interrupted labor !

'^ Father Clerc was not slow in making himself

Laval,

3/7

con-
uvre
I'om
shing
tho
cha-
1 tho
asant-
spers,
3rs of
their
their
lerent
their
their

imself

beloved by all — by the president and the young
men. He took part in all their games, so as to
animate thom by his example. Ilia skill was jho-
vcrbial. He challenged the strongest, and often
allowed himself to be beaten, so as to give his an-
tagonists the honor and pleasure of victory. When
inclement weather prevented the noisy band from
enjoying its sport in (lie field, Father Clerc was the
ctnire around whicli it gathered ; and then began
a story of palpitating interest, an interminable
story, with a plot that grew more or less compli-
cated according to tho duration of the bad weather.
All listened wioh the greatest attention, and even
frequently, notwithstanding the return of clear
skies, the narrator yielded to tho gentle violence
that was done him, and brought tho tale to a
happy denouement,

"If there was question of an administrative
measure, his advice was generally adopted as tlie
best. Was it necessary to employ severity against
an unruly spirit, Father Clerc interceded for the
culprit : his heart was so merciful ! Did a boy de-
serve to be expelled, tho father was only with dif-
ficulty induced to consent ; he wanted them to
wait, for to his way. of thinking it was a soul the
more that would be lost."

AVe know, besides, and from an equally sure
source, that tiie zeal he expended in this work — in
the pursuit of souk — frequently had the sweetest
and most consoling results. His amiable plaj/ful-
ness had gained him all hearts, but his influence
Vr'as especially great over such of those young per-

3;8

Alexis Clcrc.

'^.l

sons as wore approaching a maturer ago, and some
of them, docile to his counsels, made remarkable
progress in virtue. One among them at the age of
twenty-six commenced his classical studies so as to
enter holy orders. What was not Father Clerc's
ardor in seconding his design ? What measures ho
took, what fatigue he endured ! He did not rest
until he had lorocuved for the young man, as far as
was in his power, the necessary assistance for pur-
suing his studies and sujiplying the place of his
daily earnings.

So it was that within the limits of what was pos-
sible, and without allowing his zeal for theology to
be cooled. Father Clerc during his stay at Laval
spent his happiest leisure hours in the practice of
that ingenious and active charity with the secrets
of which he had long been acquainted, and which
had caused it to be said of him at Tndrct, while he
was still an officer of the navy, that he alone was
worth a whole Conference of St. Vincent de Paul.

And now, in concluding this chapter, one of the
shortest of this biography wherein we have chiefly
at heart exact veracity, may we be permitted a re-
flection ? . •

Here, then, gathered into a very few pages, is all
of interest we have been able to glean concerning
that considerable portion of the religious life of
our beloved brother comprised between the end cf
his novitiate and the beginning of his third proba-
tion — that is to say, in thirteen full years, of which
he passed one at Vaugirard, eight at the School
Siinte-Genevieve, and the other four at Laval.

Laval,

379

Assnredly, from a merely liuman point of view,
it is very little and unimportant, and, even so,
we may perhaps bo reproached for having, in our
brevity, insisted too much upon certain details.
Still, the author of the "Imitation" tells us in
fitting words : ''It is no small matter to dwell in
monasteries or in a congregation, and t(f live with
our brethren without reproach, and to persevere
faithfully until death."* But when the death
which crowns so holy a life is that of a martyr,
what think you of it ? Was it not worth the while to
enquire about the hidden or but slightly-shining
merits to which God in his wisdom reserved the
incomparable honor of that supreme victory ?

This is why, having to unroll those thirteen
years of religious life, where day succeeds day wilh-
out changing the routine of occupations or varying
the employment of the hours, we have not deemed
that we ought, for the sake of pleasing the worldly,
to omit incidents small and vulgar in appearance,
but wherein a practised eye will discern by the
li^ht of faith the grand characters of a virtue proof
to the rudest combats and equal to all sacrifices,

*Non est parvum iti monastoriis vel in congregatione
habitare, et ihi sine querela conversari, < t usque ad mortem
fidelis persoverare ("Imit.," 1. i. cap. xvii.)

CHAPTER XII.

FATHER CLEBC AND HIS PUPILS.

"We have not said all there is to be said about
the professorship of Father Clcrc. "Wo must look
at its fruits. "By their fruits you shall ki)ow
them " (Matt. vii. 16). There was something very
beautiful about his relations with his pupils. A
devoted professor, devoured with the wish of being
useful to those committed to his charge, he loved
and he was loved ; he gave himself to them, and
they gave themselves to him as youth knows how
to give, without bargaining and witliout dreaming
of taking back the gift. This is what we lerrii
from numerous letters he carefully preserved in his
private archives as so many souvenirs of an ever
precious past. Was it not very allowable for him,
in the evenings of his laborious and full days, to
rest himself in the shade of those young and fresh
friendships, and to breathe the perfume that ex-
haled from the hearts of liia dear pupils ?

"We have breathed it after him, and we are em-
balmed with it. Perfect stranger as we were to
the circumstances mentioned iu these letters whose
writers were unknown to us, we have not been able
to escape a sympathetic emotion while penetrating

880

Father CUrc and his Pupils.

;Si

about

t look

know

g very

Is. A
[being
5 loved
m, and
vs bow
earning
c lerrn
1 in bis
m ever
)!' bim,

lays,

id f resli
bat ex-
are em-
wero to
•s wbosc
eeii able
etrating

much further than wo liad hoped to, into tlie inner
Ij/c of that class that was Father Clerc's delight
and that had so great a resemblance to a closely-
united family.

We do not think wc arc indiscreet in unfolding
some of the pages of this correspondence, whoso
gravest conlidences need have no fear of revela-
tion. They are flowers gathered in Father Clerc's
garden and of which we would weave him a crown.
His old pupils will not be displeased that the world
should learn that if ho was all tenderness towards
them, he had not, thank God ! ingrates to deal
with.

It was in October, 18G1, the time of the reopen-
ing of the school ; Father Clerc had the preceding
year been the professor of the cours ties inarms (a
course preparatory to the Naval School), boys of
about fifteen years of age and the youngest of
all in the School Sainte-Genevieve.* They are no
sooner arrived than they are eager to throw them-
selves into the arms of their excellent master.
But, alas ! his room is empty, and they are told
that he has been gone from the house some weeks;
he is now at Laval, where be will spend several
years. What a bitter deception for them ! What
regrets ! what complaints ! One would have sup-
posed they were victims of treason, and that a base
advantage had been taken of their absence. How
was it that the father-provincial, the author of
this change, had not consulted them ? Then, the

♦ This section has since been transferred to Brest im the im-
mediate neighborhood of the school-ship.

;S2

Alexis Cterc.

;>.i

first emotion passed, they reflect that there is still
some communication possible between Paris and
Laval, and each boy takes up his pen to write to
his old master. If I may judge by the samples I
hayc before me, the postal service had a great deal
to do about the end of that particular October.

"My kind and dear father,'* this one writes, **I
do not mean that the others shall write to you and
your little (jars [he is a Breton] not, and that you
should think ho only remembers those who arc
present. I earnestly assure you I shall all my life
remember your kindness to me. I was very sorry
to leave Paris without being able to say good-by to

you ; if Father P , who took mo to the depot,

had not prevented me from going to your room, I
ghould not have left so," etc., etc.

All use nearly the same language, but each con-
siders himself as under special obligations. " licv-
crend Father," says another, who believes liimsclf
behindhand, " it is very shameful for me to bo the
last to write to you, you who showed me so much
kindness last year, although sometimes you did
look cross at me, and dry bread alone, or with
in'unes, made me remember that there must be no
talking during recitation. But all that, I know
very well, was to make me work and gain as much
as possible for the next year. It was only with
deep astonishment mixed with regret that I
learned of your departure ; for, after all our ac-
quaintance with one another, I would much rather

liavo you than Father X , whom I did not

know," ot-c. ...

Father Clcrc and Jiis Pupils.

;83

J still
ito to

[)lC3 I

t deal
er.

2S, "I

)U and
it you
ho arc
ny life
^ sorry
1-by to
depot,
foom, I

cli con-
" llcv-
lunsclf
1)0 the
niuch
you did
or "Nvitli
be no
I know
las mucli
ly Willi
lliat I
our ac-
li rather
did not

Meanwhile, let us remark, the pupils soon
grew accustomed to the new professor, and they
congratulated themselves ou the solidity and clear-
ness of his manner of teaching, and none of them
thonght of paying court to Father Clerc by telling
him that ho was not well replaced.

llerc is another correspondent, who mingles a
little malice with his expressions of regret :

**I have no need to tell you all the sorrow I ex-
perienced when I learned that you had left us. Ifc
is unfortunate for us, the sailors ; but I think, how-
ever, that you ought not to be sorry, not for having
!cft us, but for having left the business of jirofessor,
which, according to report (I cannot speak from ex-
perience), is not the most interesting, especially
when one has many mediocre pupils."

The comi^limcnt is not of the most flattering to
Messrs. the sailors, bat the observation in its gene-
rality does not lack justice.

"Was Father Clcrc, then, for ever lost to them ?
No ; in accordance with the custom of the house,
they might hope to see him at the time of the semi-
annual examinations, when he would come to share
tlie labors of his former colleagues. Besides, Laval
was on the road to Brest, on the road to the scliool-
ship, and, once appointed naval cadets,, his pupils
on repairing to their post had a fine opportunity of
stopping to call on him.

*' Reverend Father," writes one of those fortu-
nate competitors who had just read his name in
the official list, ''you must know the result of the
examinations ; so my letter is to reply to your kind

( I

3'^ 4

Alexis Clcrc,

invitation. Wc are to start September 28, by the
morning train that readies Laval at 2.13. It will
be a great pleasure for me to see you, but I would
not like you to incommode yourself on my account
if you aro occupied." The same boy will soon
write from the school-sliip and give news of his
companions, adding the names and qualities of the
ehip's officers, the most of whom arc old comrades
of Father Clcrc.

One of those who felt most keenly the unexpect-
ed departure that caused so much regret was a
new-comer, until then a pu[)il of Vaugirard, who
consequently knew the father only by reputation,
but who had begun to rejoice several months be-
fore at the prospect of preparing for the Naval
School under his guidance. Courageously employ-
ing a part of liis vacation in bringing himself up
to tiie level of the course he was to follow, he sub-
mits to his future professor his daily regulation, in
which work was wisely combined with the rest and
amusements of the season ; and after having given
this unequivocal proof of his good will, he con-
cludes by saying : *'This letter. Reverend Father,
is doubtless very dull, very cold, and very insignili-
cant in itself ; it is not the style of a student of
humanities ; but, at least, be persuaded of the re-
spect and devotedness (t^nice- he has not yet been
able to learn to know ycu, that is, to love you) of
your grateful and loving son." This app<>ars like
a slight contradiction in terras ; but we see that the
boy's heart got the start of him, so sure he was of
the sort of man he was writing to, and so certainly

Father Clcrc and his Pupils.

J^3

jy tlic
It will
■would
ccount
11 soon
of his
s of ilic
)mi*adcs

[icxpect-
t was a
ard, who
lutation,
3 nibs be-
lie Naval
^ cmploy-
imself up
\r, be sub-
ilation, in
3 rest aud
ing given
1, be con-
A Fatb'ir,
r insignifi-
tudeut of
of tbe re-
t yet been
vo you) of
pears lii^'G
ee tbat ibc
be was of
o certainly

did bo rccognizo in iKlvance the father in the fu-
ture professor.

Being arrived at the Sebool Stiinte-Gencvieve too
late to become liis pupil, be does not deem liimself
released from obligations towards Father Clerc,
and be writes to him again: *' Itcvcrend Futhcr,
probably you have not expected to receive a note
fi'om mo. Still, I have believed it my duty to
thank you for tlie favors you liavc done me, and
bearing all my fellow-pupils extol your kindness to
tbcni makes me want to tell you bow I have pro-
fited by tbat you have shown mc.*' Here follows
an account of his vacation work, in which be faith-
fully observed Father Clerc's instructions. But
the poor child cannot say enough about the kindness
of the father, and, dwelling on what his new com-
panions have told him, ho adds ingenuously:

'' 11 lias sjioken to mo about you in a way that

has given me a great deal of pleasure, for I have
understood that both limes I saw you I was not de-
ceived, and that you are truly a very good father.'*
lie who wrote these lines died at twenty-three years
of ago, an ensign of the navy. Fallen in the very
first of the career which smiled upon his youthful
ambition, but doubtless preserved by that prema-
ture end from the corruption of tbe world, the lit-
tle we know of him attaches us to his memory, and
niukcs us love him as he himself loved tbe excellent
master ho had bad but a glimpse of.

This is enough to shew us tbat the affection with
which Father Clorc inspired bis pupils was inti-
mate, deep, serious, and — need we say it? — Chris-

386

cllcxis Clcrc.

tian before all els?. When days of trial come those
young men will know where to seek consolation,
and they vrill find it quite natural to conflde to him
not only the little disappointments of their school
life, but also the cruel misfortunes that overthrow
their plans for the future, and the still more ir-
reparable lo:scs that plunge their families into

mourning.

Hero is a letter which we copy with real plea-
sure, being unable to doubt that he wlio wrote it
was the worthy pupil of such a master :

*' School Sainte-Genevieve,
Tuesday, October 25, 18G1.

*' Reverend and very Dear Father: I beg
your pardon for troubling you, but a very power-
ful motive prompts me to write. All our family,
and especially my beloved father, has just met
with a cruel affliction. My grandfather, my fa-
ther's father, lias died suddenly, without having
had time to make any preparation for that terrible
change. This dear grandfather died last Monday,
October 17, we do not know at what hour, for the
servant, on entering his room in the morning,
found him inanimate and stretched on the floor.
The day before he had been as gay, in as good
spirits, as usual ; l.e had received a visit of two
hours, had played a game of billiards, and had sat
up till ten o'clock in the evening laughing and
playing cards. Alas ! he did not think of the
great misfortune that was going to befali us. It
is to be believed that ho had not a moment of
agony, and that he was not conscious when he died ;

Father Clcr: and J lis Pupils.

Z^7

those
atioii,
,0 liim
scliool
L-throw
Lorc ir-
is iuto

J plca-
/rote it

lEYE,
3G1.

r: I beg
y powcr-
r family,
just met

fcl-

t liavmg
terrible
MoBcliiy,
r, for the
movniiig,
Itlie floor.
\\ as good
it of two
id had silt

il^ us.

mciit of

for after his death, when lie had been replaced
on his bed, those who had the happiness of see-
ing him have told mo that he looked like a hand-
some old man asleep. His face was calm, and his
features not altered in the least; he must have
risen to get something in his room, and then have
fallen on the flcor by a sudden stroke of apoj)lcxy.
Such a death was very dreadful and cruel to him
as well as to his children. Papa hiid seen him
only a fortnight before, and it was a mouth since
my aunt had last seen him ; as for my uncle, ho
was with my grandfather, but he had no more con-
solation than the rest of us, since, after having left
his father well the evening before, he next saw him
lifeless and without having had a word of conso-
lation or farewell from his lip?. It is also very
terrible and very cruel for me, for I cannot tell you
how fond I was of that beloved grandfather ; how-
ever, in the midst of all this grief, we have some
cause for consolation, and we hojie in the mercy of
God. Fortunately, my grandfather was a very
practical Christian from the age of seventy-two,
the age when he made his First Communion.
From that time he went regularly to confession
and communion, and he has always been sur-
rounded by poor families who owed their happiness
and comfort to him. All this leads us to hope
thai God has called him to himself to reward him
for his useful and honorable life. This death, al-
though very fearful, is perhaps another mercy of
God, who wished to spare my dear grandfather the
sufferings and agony of dcatli which he feared £o

'1|!

388

Alexis Clcrc.

much. We confidently hope and "we also pray very
earnestly for rest for his soul. I will ask you,
then, my very dear father, to be so kind as to say a
Mass for him, and not to forget him in your daily
prayers. We recommend him most especially to
you, -.vhoso prayers arc so powerful with God.
Your well-beloved child, R. P. L."

It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the sentiments
thiit dictated this letter, signed with one of the most
lesprcted names of the upper Parisian bourgeoisie.

Bat who is this young invalid, matured before his
time by suffering, whoso candidly exposes the state
of his soul, and who dates his letters from a little
town of the Cote d'Or ?

Wo had vainly sought for his name in the cata-
logue of the school Sainte-Genevieve, and we had
asked ourselves where ho had imbibed so fervent a
faith, when we had the inspiration to write to the

parish priest of S ; in whose arms, according

to all probability, he breathed his last sigh.

Directly everything was explained, and some of
Father Clerc's letters, preserved by a mourning
family, soon reached us, and showed us to what an
efiScacious and sure direction ho submitted that
soul predestined to the cross and to the crown of
innocence.

Louis (we suppress the name of his honorable
family), early become a pupil of the College of
Montgre, directed by the Jesuit Fathers, had con-
ceived an affection for his masters which never
altered. Towards the close of his studies, ex-
periencing a strong attraction for the religious life,

Father Clerc and his Pupils.

389

,y very
i yo«,
10 say a
r daily
ially to
li God.

>. L."

itiments

bhe most
rgeoislc.
leforc Ins
the state
a a little

the cata-
d we bad
fervent a
to the
iccording

some of
tnourni"g
^0 what an
fitted that

crown of

lionorahle
College of
had con-
hich uevcr
;tudies, cx-
ligious lif(?»

lie resolved to enter tho novitiate ; neither the
railleries of certain friends nor tho formal opposi-
tion of his father could turn him from this purpose,
which he earnestly pursued. His father helievcd he
could overcome his constancy by launching him in
the world, and exacted that ho should go through

his law course. By advice of tho cure of S ,

Louis asked to be at least permitted to study in
Paris, where he would have more liberty to frequent
the Jesuit Fatncrs' house, and to confide the inte-
rests of his soul to them. It was thus he met
Father Clerc, and we may judge of the welcome ho
received, from this little note which he treasured
until bis death :

" My Dear Child : You are still playing at
hide-and-seek ; since you have not caught me, you
should continue to seek for me. I had already
last week granted what you ask, so I repeat it; but
I do not dispense you from finding me when you
come to the house for that purpose, and when I
am not gone out. Yours very affectionately in our
Lord, Al. Clerc, S.J.

'* Paris, June 12, 18G7."

In the month of November Louis is at home,
and writes in his turn :

*' IiEVERE:N"D Father: Ever since 1 left Paris
my thoughts have frequently travelled in search of
you. How many times I have paid you those
charming visits when you lavished upon me the
treasures of your friendship, your wisdom, and
your piety 1 I have preserved the most precious
memories of those happy moments, and my re-

390

Alexis Clerc.

grets for having lost them daily grow more bitter.
I would like to tell you how grateful 1 am for
your kindncs3, for your unlimited devotednes?,
your inexhaustible charity. But I would be
ashamed to attempt to acquit myself of the debt
I owe you by sterile thanks. I would rather re-
main all my life your debtor, because T can only
completely liberate myself in heaven. Meanwhile,
I shall pray God io repay you a hundred-fold for
that sweet peace you have given me, those conso-
lations you have never refused to my importuni-
ties, and, in short, all those spiritual advantages I
have gained from your good advice, your excellent
direction."

Poor young man ! attacked by an unknown
malady, he does not feel strong enough to under-
take the journey to Paris ; at the most he hopes to
go to Dijon in a month to resume, if possible, his
interrupted studies.

" My Dear and very Dear Child " (Father
Clerc replies, letter of December IG, 18G7): " What
is the meaning of this bad health, and are you not
going to overcome it at last like a man ? Is it a
new sickness, ov a continuation of that of last
year ? You do not tell me enough about it ; I
fear lest it may still be your bowels. It is hard to
know how to reach so deep a disease, and it causes
trouble in the whole svstem, even when it is not
Yery violent. I believe in the efficacy of mineral
waters for these maladies ; think of this next sea-
son ; and also in that of a good regime — a very
regular life and physical exercise."

Father Clcrc and his Pupils,

391

jitter,
m for
dness,
Id 1)0
} debt
iier rc-
11 only
1 while,
old for
conso-
lortuni-
itagcs I
Lcellent

nknown
, under-
hopes to
ible, bis

(Father

: " What

you not

Is it a

of last
ut it ; I

hard to
it causes
it is not

mineral
lext sea-
— a very

Here follow some hygienic counsels which be-
token the most tender interest.

" Having left this bad Paris," lie continues,
"you ought not to bo sick ;. perhaps you have car-
ried about the germs of this disease these last two
years. I would like for all that to see you again.
Must I wait till 18C9 ? As well say till Doomsday.
If there is question of a sojourn depending on a
great project, you do not say so ; and in truth
your letter is too short, and leaves me everything to
ask.

" I say everything ; that is too strong, and is
grumbling without due cause, for your kind little
letter tells mo that you lovo mo. There is nothing
so sweet as to know that our love is returned. I
love you too tenderly, my very dear child, not to
derive a great joy from the expression of your af-
fection,

'' How pleasant your visits were to mc, and how
it delighted my heart to receive the communica-
tions of yours ! There was in our intercourse, for
me not only the pleasure and sweetness of a lively
affection satisfied ; there was also the joy of as-
sisting you in your good intentions, and of reas-
suring a delicate and alarmed conscience. What
consolation your desire of truth, your docility, your
confidence gave me ! Dear and beloved child of
my heart, may God bless you and preserve you in
fervor and fidelity !

" 1 am wonderfully well, and teach mathematics
more and more ; our school of the Rue des Postcs
prospers perfectly. I cannot tell you how excel-

392

Alexis Clerc.

Ill

lent our pupils are, especially those of the first di-
vision ; their industry, docility, piety, almost ex-
ceed my desires; I beiicve wo do not desire what
we do not hope for, and I believe my hopes are
surpassed. After God's grace, it is to tlie pru-
dence, piety, and firmness of our father rector (Fa-
ther Ducoudray) that we owe this.

*' Farewell, my dear child. I shall have a big
intention for you next Thursday and on the Feast
of the Holy Innocents. I now embrace you and
love you tenderly in the Sacred Heart 01 our Lord.

"Al. Clerc, S.J."

In the spring of the following year the young
invalid believes himself born again to new life and
strength. He has just been delivered, he says, from
his terrible enemy, the taenia, or tapeworm, and he
makes haste to communicate this good news to the
worthy friend whose tender anxiety he desires to re-
lieve. This friend had commenced a letter in which
he is prodigal of counsels to hasten the sick boy's
recovery. It terminates with the expression of the
liveliest joy : " Yes, you are going to again become
active, gay, vigorous, and I shall see you in the
flower of youth. Certainly, I thank God with a
glad heart for having preserved and cured my dear
child for me. Further, I shall say Mass in thanks-
giving for this blessing ; and, in order that you
may unite your intention with mine, I fix Sunday,
May 24, the Feast of Our Lady of Help, as the day.

" You want a letter for the Ascension. You shall
have it also ; and if you had asked that it might

Father Clcrc and Jiis Pupils.

393

:st di-
sb ex-
what
es are
) pru-
)r (Fa-

a big
; Feast
II and
[• Lord.
3.J."

young
iifc and
rs, from
and he
s to the
cs to re-
w which
:k boy's
n of tbe
become
in the
with a
my dear
thanks-
hat you
Sunday,
the day.

Ton shall
it might

carry you all my interest in your welfare, all my
good wishes for you, all my blessings upon you,
you should have thiit too, for I put them nil in it,
and these words of our Lord besides : * Yado
pararo vobis locum,' * for you to occni»y that
Thursday you will spend in your room."

A whole month passes and the poor boy has not
yet regained his strength ; nevertheless he writes
(letter of June 23, 18G8) :

" Reverend Father: Your kind letter of last
month gave me such pleasure that it is to you I
address the first lines I am able to write. I was
very greatly tormented by the enemy you know of,
and to deliver me from him it was necessary to as-
sault him so rudely that I am even now scarcely
convalescent. My strength is only beginning to
return, and does not allow of my writing you more
than a few words, which are very insignificant on
account of their brevity. But at least I shall have
thanked you, I shall have recommended myself
anew to your prayers, and I shall have repeated
the expression of my most sincere affection and my
filial devotedness, etc.

''Your child in our Lord, " Louis C."

" My Dear Louis " (Father Clerc replies, letter
of July 2, 18G8) : "I am astonished and distressed
to learn of the severe struggle you have gone
through. I had not supposed it would bo so long
or so terrible, and I imagined the difficulty was
rather in recognizing the enemy than in coriquer-

♦" I go to prepare a place for you."

I i

394

Alexis Clcrc.

ing liim. ]^[o^o than a, montli elapsed between the
Ascension and tlic 23d of June, and while you
were a prey to the greatest sufferings, and your
life was threatened, I was resting in the confidence
that your convalescence, already decided, Vi'as pro-
gressing to a perfect recovery.

"This time, at least, are you thoroughly rid of
the head of the hydra ? Have his terrible fangs let
go their hold ? At your age health is rapidly re-
gained; and, surrounded as you are with care and
affection, your happiness at returning to life, great
as it is of itself, will receive new charms from the
road you pass along and the hands that support
your feeble steps.

" Oh ! I am very sure you have been patient and
resigned, gentle, if I may so speak, towards suffer-
ing. It is, perhaps, more difficult during conva-
lescence to preserve one's self from the exactions
of sensuality. Can you see a mother, a sister
hovering about you, anxious, attentive, without
claiming, without in'ovoking, their devotion ? It
Avould be better to meekly await it, and £ometimes
to deny it to yourself.

"It is likewise difficult to limit the multitudi-
nous little cares bestowed upon our body, our
health, to what are necessary (these are a duty) or
even useful (these arc also in order), without seek-
ing all the delicacies good only to satisfy our sen-
suality.

" If I tlius preach to you (oj^portunef importune,
as St. Paul says) it is because I know well to whom
I am writing, and that my condolences no more

Father Clcrc and his Pupils,

395

en the
lo you
1 your
Pidcnco
[IS pro-
rid of
ugs let
dly rc-
ire and
e, great
•om the
support

ient and
s suffer-
conva-
xactions
a sister
without

on? It
me times

ultitudi-
)dy, our

duty) or
lout seck-

our sen-

nportune,
to whom
no more

than my hopes addressed to the lieart of my
friend, will not be enough for the heart of my
dear son in our Lord.

" Do not fail, as soon as you can go to church,
to receive Holy Communion. As for me, I will
cflcr Holy Mass for you in thanksgiving, and also
for the intention of your full and prompt re-
covery, and this on Thursday, July 8.

*'I shall, then, see you again, as it were, reno-
vated, risen from the dead with a new life, stron-
ger, more robust than before, and also with a soul
made perfect by suffering.

**0 my very dear son ! all is good for those who
love God. DiUncntihus Dcum omnia co-02)crantur
in honnm. I iirmly believe it I God, who is good
even towards the wicked, has a special affectionate
and paternal providence for those who love him.

*' When we await all thing3, when wc receive all
things as coming from his hand, can there be any-
thing fatal in our destiny ? No, neither sickness
nor death. lie destines you for heaven, and he
leads you there by the road you necd.^'

What strength, and at the same time what gen-
tleness ! The young man was worthy of these
counsels, which reached him most seasonably, as
we shall see, on Jbho eve of the supremo trials that
were in reserve for him.

A letter, Louis' last, written at two different
times (September 10 and 11), reminds us of the
plaintive accents of King Ezechias : ** In the
midst of my days I shall go to the gates of the
tomb. .

39<5

d lex is Cierc.

^M<

** My kind father, it is nges since I ha?e written
to you, and during all this time God knows how
often I have thought of you. Until just now I
have been incapable of holding a pen. My health
has passed through many trying phases, and I
scarcely know how it is tliat I am still in this
world. I shall, however, endeavor to tell you by
taking breath several times, if necessary.

"I have not forgotten that you offered to con-
tinue to be my spiritual guide. I do not know if
you understood that I accepted ; but without any
doubt your last letter contained counsels so pre-
cious, so exceedingly appropriate to my needs, that
God alone could have inspired you with them.

*' I am going to ask you for still more, my kind
father. If you but knew what good your kind
words do mc !

'* I have a great remorse. It will presently be
my ninth month of illness ; what a grace this is
that God has been pleased to grant me! But I
liave profited by it so little that I have religiously
preserved all my faults, and I am no more ready
to die than on the first day. My God, forgive me !
Father, help mc ! I must be ready to die. Death
is at my door ; I must save my soul at any
cost. ..."

Here the poor invalid stops, being too weak to
write more ; but the next day he adds :

" I am no more than a skeleton. Persons who
have not seen me for some time do not recognize
mc. . . " Then he enumerates his miseries — mise-
ries of the disease increased by the remedies — and

Father Clcrc and his Pupils.

397

itten
how

LOW I

ealtli
nd I
I tliis
ou by

> con-
low if
it any
io prc-
s, that
n.

y kind
X kind

tlv be
this is
But I
giously

ready
VG mc I

Dcatli
at any

weak to

)ns wlio
icognizo
! — mise-
es — and

lie begs in tlic most touching manner for tlio lielp
ho needs to bear tlic burden that weighs upon liim,
and to turn to God alone with a confident and sub-
missive heart.

Was this letter answered ? Some words pen-
cilled on the back and margins indicate the nature
of the reply Father Clcrc intended to make ; but
this reply has not been found, and who knows if
death, more prompt, did not anticipate it ?

But we have the certainty that death was gentle
to that privileged soul, so gentle 'itself and so
hnmble. A witness of its passage to a better life,

the cure of S , writes ns : *'That beautiful

soul was ripe for heaven." Alluding to Louis'
vocation and his desire of the religious life, he
adds:

*' God was not willing to lend you our dear
Louis, as he lent you his model, Louis do Gon-
zaga.'*

It is true the virtuous young man had not been
able to cross the threshold of the novitiate, and he
had not before dying received from us the sweet
name of brother; but God, in withdrawing him
from the world that was not worthy of him, placed
him in heaven in the virginal choir of the Louis
de Gonzagas, the Stanislaus Kostkas, and tho
Berchmans, and it was there Father Clcrc found
his dear child again, to lose him no more, when he,
in liis turn, went to take possession of the glory
he had won at the price of his blood.

Let us now return to his dear little sailors who
had so large a share in his solicitude, excited.

';'M':|!

I !

398

Alexis Clerc.

dou'otlGss, by tliG remembrance of the dangers he
himself ran in the career he saw them entering
"while still so young, sometimes so innocent, and
always so inexperienced.*

We have rcmarl^ed one among them who was
evidently the object of a quite special interest on
the part of his professor, and whose correspon-
dence, begun at the school Saintc-Genevieve, con-
tinued on board the school-ship, and far longer
than, that, and through all the vicissitudes of his
sailor's life was uniformly filial and confiding.
Not to be indiscreet, we asked his permission to
make use of his letters ; he desired to see them first,
and, in returning the package to us, he heartily
thanks us for the pleasure we afforded him. *' In
looking over these pages," he writes, "I went back
to the happiest period of my youth. During the
short space of an hour I lived again those two
years of my stay at the Eue des Postes — years so
fleeting, so full, and so fruitful. I found again
my companions of other days, my professors, all
friends. ..."

And here, his recollections crowding upon him,
he let his pen run on. Why should not the reader
share the pleasure we experienced in perusing his
letter so overflowing with sincere emotion ? Fa-
ther Clerc will be seen therein as he appeared to
his pupils, in the spontaneity and unconstraint of

♦In the second period of his professorship (1867-9) Father
Clerc also sent pupils to the "Ecole Centrale." But these young
men, not being gone from Paris, visited him frequently and
did not write to him ; consequently they have left few traces
in the bundle of his correspondence.

Father Clerc and his Pupils,

399

rs ho
ering
;, and

was
est on
cspon- ,
3, con-
longer
! of his
.fiding.
sion to
m first,
learlily
. *' In
lit back
■ing the
)se two
^ears so
d again
^ors, all

on him,
e reader
Ismg his
II? Fa-
eared to
raint of

-9) Father

lese young

aently and

few traces

his amiable and charming character. lie in \/hosc
favor we will now be silent for a little space left
Saint-Barbara and arrived at the school Saintc-
Gcnevieve while still a child; ho has since been
an ensign in the navy; to-day, returned to civil
life, he has his own hearth-stone, whero we wish
him sons that will resemble him. The man has
])reserved the good sentiments of his young years,
and this is the most beautiful homage he could
render to the memory of his dear and veneratf^d
master.

** Behold me,'" he writes ns, "knocking for the
first time art the door of the school, and timidly
soliciting a place among the children of the house.

*' It was vacation, . . . the hive was silent. In
the distance in the long corridors black robes pass
and disappear, . . . then other black robes which
seem to me gigantic shadows.

"Must it ba said (bah ! at fourteen years) ? — I
was almost afraid. Suddenly I find myself in pre-
sence of the superior, Rev. Father Turquand.
That beautiful countenance framed in white hair
inspired respect; peace and serenity were reflected
from it, and the sight alone did good. What did
he say to me ? What did I reply ? I never quite
knew, troubled as I was ; all I understood was
that I must pass an examination.

"Oh ! even now all my terror comes back to me.
The father-superior had mc taken into a study-
hall; the door was closed; I had before mc an im-
mense blackboard, beside me one of those black
robes I had seen in the corridors. I dropped my

ii!

400

Alexis CI ere.

eyes, not daring to look either at the robe or (he
board, when I heard a yery pleasant, frank voice
say : * Well, my child, jou want to be one of our
pupils ? '

" I was little accustomed to that kindly tone \\\
the colleges where I had been. Those words, * my
child,' £0 new to me, made a singular impression
npon me ; I would have liked to find words to
thank him who pronounced them, but none came
to my lips. He, however, continued, gently ques-
tioning mo about what I had done up to then,
what were my tastes, my pleasures, etc. He did
not ask me if I was strong in mathematics ; they
required of me, he said, only good conduct and good
will ; they would answer for the rest. . . .

" in proportion as he spoke I felt more reas-
sured. I raised my eyes ; I had never seen a more
open, a more loyal countenance. The forehead
was high, the glance full of intelligence. I felt my-
self in the presence of a superipr man ; but what
was most striking in that physiognomy was bene-
volence, kindness ; it shone in every feature. I
ftlt myself attracted by an extraordinary symj^athy.
I am ignorant of what impression I then made
myself, but the conversation insensibly took a turn
more full of kindness on the one side, and of confi-
dence and unreserve on the other. I say conversa-
tion — read confession ; at the end of half an hour
I had oi)ened all my heart.

"And when this was finished, the father, taking
me by the hand, led me back to the father supe-
rior ; he said a few words to him in a low tone,

Father Clerc and his Papils.

401

or tlie
L voice

of 0\U'

tone \\\
s, ' my
)ression
ords to
10 came
ly qucs-
3 then,
He did
!S ; they
.nd good

)rc reas-
1 a more
forehead
feltmy-
ut what
^as benc-
urc. I
mpathy.
in made
)k a turn

of confi-
Donversa-

an liour

}r, taking
her supc-
low tone,

and, smiling at me, went out. Father Tnrquand
then informed me that Father Clerc consented to
admit me to his ctass, and that from that day I
was a member of the school.

"I was enchanted. But what delighted me
most was to think that I was to bo in the class of
Father Clerc ! — of that father I had just left ; . . .
that I could see him and hear him every day.

** Such as he appeared to me in that first in-
terview, such I always found him afterwards —
straightforward, simple, and indulgent. AVc — 'the
children,' as he called us — we worshipped him.
What a joy it was when out of class-time he camo
among us, and how we surrounded him ! Did he
descend to the court during a recreation, imme-
diately WG ran to him, we tried to speak to him,
we forced him to reply to us. Sometimes he was
obliged to be angry in order to make us keep on
playing ; then he would threaten to leave the
court. Most frequently he pretended to take an
immense interest in a famous game of ball or of
gymnastics. Oh ! then there was excitement, in-
credible animation ; it was a contest to see who
could strike the most splendid blows, who would
risk the most perilous feats,

" Later, when he left the class, worn out with
fatigue and labor (as well as macerations of all
sorts, for that man, so kind to others, was pitiless
to himself), when, on returning after the vacation,
we learned that Father Clerc had gone, there was
a general consternation. I know who shed most
sincere tears."

r ■'■i w

402

Alexis Clerc.

Soon tliG heart overflows, and our dear corre-
spondent recalls, now his comrades fallen on the
battle-field, now his masters immolated by the
Commune. "Father Clerc, Father Ducoudray,"
he cries, " dear and holy victims, is it thus you
must crown a life of abnegation and devotedness ?

** my Father Clerc ! you used often to say to
mo : ' When I am no longer able to educate young
persons and make them Frcnclimcn and men of
worth, the dearest wish of mv heart is to bo sent
as a missionary to China, to die for my God and
his holy religion.' Ah ! who could have foreseen
that this wish would be so soon accomplished ?"

I have allowed the man to speak, and surely no
one will take it amiss ; but now let us go back
twelve or fourteen years and see how the child
expressed himself after that cruel departure of Fa-
ther Clerc.

After some excuses and explanations about his
having been prevented from writing by an accident
of some sort, he says: *' I earnestly hope that if
you come to Paris this year, or if I return to
Angers next year, we shall see one another. It
would be such a pleasure to me to tell you in words
how grateful I am for all the kindnesses you
lavished upon me during the year just passed !
And I must tell you that I am not the only one
who has regretted you, and that each boy looked
very sorrowful when he learned that you had left
all your children."

Then follow details about the changes in the
house, the new professor wlio does not trifle, the

Father Clcrc and his Pupils.

403

I j

: corre-
011 tlio
by the
udray,"
lus you
idncss ?
) say to
,e young
men of
bo sent
3rod and
foreseen

icd?"
surely no
go back
the child
re of Fa-

ibout his
L accident
ic that if
return to
)ther. It

in words
tsscs you
passed !

only one
oy loolied
had left

tres in the
iripy the

studies to which each one applies himself with all
his heart. Had not Father Clerc promised that
they would succeed ?

In the following letter the young correspondent,
who is a choir-boy, cannot say enough about the
ceremonies of All Saints' day ; which proves (by
way of parenthesis) that such little duties offer an
innocent and agreeable diversion to sludics which
are extremely dry and suggest nothing to the
heart. Then he adds : "Finally, my dear father,
you ask me for particulars. What shall I tell you ?
That I have grown a great deal, and that this
makes me begin to think of the day when I shall
have to leave this house ? I foresee that I shall be
very sad, for this is the first time I have felt that I
loved the people with whom I lived, and that I
have felt myself loved in return. For after all
what is a college ? An assemblage of individuals
who come there to pursue their studies, and who
believe themselves obliged to quarrel with every-
body. Here, on the contrary, besides the pupils
being on good terms Vv^ith one another, the fathers
on their side do all they can to make themselves
beloved by their pupils. How would it be possible
for concord not to reign in the house ? But it is
you, my dc^r father, whom I ought to thank and
love more than all the rest ; for, pariah as I was,
it was you who first drew me to you ; therefore
rest assured I shall always be grateful to you, and
afar as well as near, I shall always in my prayers
include your name among those that are dearest to
me. But will you not come back to Paris ? " etc.

•fi

404

Alexis Clerc.

Here are some lines from the next letter:
" When shall I be able to date my letters from
the Borda 9 When eonelude them with these
pompous words : Done i?i iJie harbor of Brest, on
hoard the school-ship ? We must wait patiently ;
is it not so, dear father ? and especially work — I
do both,'

• •••• • •••

"You recommend, ns, dear father, to live on
good terms and in harmony with one another ; I
assure you this recommendation is superfluous this
year. How pleased you would be to see your chil-
dren forming but one family at gymnastics and the
other games ! "

III,

"Perhaps, dear father, you were astonished at

my saying I read P 's letter. ... But I must tell

you that your letters are grabbed by everybody,
and almost read to pieces. As soon as one of us
has received a letter from you, it goes the rounds
af the whole division ; we form a circle to hear it ;
then, from the pupils, your orders of the day go
sometimes to the fathers. So, derr father, do not
he saving of your kind letters, which are «,lways
full of good advice, and still more of affection."

The child is about to enter into retreat ; he begs
a Mass for his intention, and this in tlio most
earnest words. After Christmas, another descrip-
tion of a beautiful religious solemnity with this
final reflection : "I assure you, dear father, that
it is a very touching sight to see all the pupils, the
entire college, approaching the Holy Table on

Father CUrc and his Pupils,

405

:'S from
y tlicse
\'cst, on
Liently ;
;vork — I

live on
)ther ; I
lous this
)ur chil-
1 and tlie

isbcd at
piust tell
erybody,
ne of us

rounds
hear it ;
e day go
L', do not
re always
3tion."

he begs
tlio most

dcscrip-
with this
:her, that
)upils, the
Table on

great feasts." Aud so on during tlie whole year,
thanks to this amiable correspondent, the old pro-
fessor knows all that happens to his dear pupils,
their progress more or le^^s rapid, the place of each in
the quarterly classing, the d'scourngement of this
one, the sickness of another, etc., etc. Thcii
comes the long-wished-for day when a first letter
bears at the top : Borda, Ilarhor of Brest, and be-
gins in the following manner: ''My dear father,
you have heard that I was accepted, and now I
have to thank you for your part in my success.
Indeed, if you had ceased to encourage me, if you
had not constantly shown me a truly paternal
kindness, I would have been disheartened the first
year, and I should not be able to-day to date my
letter from the Bovda. Accept, then, the assur-
ance of my deep gratitude, and add to all your
favors the pardon of my negligence." A little
further on in the same letter we read : " On arriv-
ing here I went to see the Jesuit Fathers. I made

the acquaintance of Father L ; he is the one my

correspondent named to me, for I knew nobody
here. . . . Notwithstanding my joy, I did not bid

Father C (his professor at the Scliool Sainte-

Genevieve) good-by without some sadness at leav-
ing that house where I had spent two years, most
certainly the best of my life." On board the
school-ship the correspondence continues, filled
with details about the old pupils of Father Clerc,
who watches over them from a distance as he did
when with tlicm. For instance, he learns — for-
tunate conjuncture — that the former commander

I !i

4o6

Alexis Clcrc.

of the Cassini is now in the harbor of Brest on
board the Turcnne, which is subject to his orders ;
behold a true friend for those dear children, and
that friend makes no delay in takhig Father CIcrc's
place toward them. "Allow me to thank you,"
one of them writes to him_. **for an acquaintance
you have enabled mo to make, and which is very
valuable to me. I refer to Mi. do Plas. He is a
very charming and a yery distinguished man, a
true officer of the navy. Seyeral times he has sent

his boat for D , P , T , and me, and we

have dined on board the Turcnne and spent a de-
lightful evening."

Another quotation (and it will bo the last), from
a letter written on board the Magenta. In a trip
to Paris the naval cadet had spent a few moments
in the house of the Rue dcs Postes; he had found
Father Clerc there, and the visit had awakened old
feelings which he could not restrain : '' In walking
with you through that house where I spent two
such quiet and. happy years, I imagined myself
tliree years younger. I beheld myself again com-
pletely absorbed by those grave occupations which
then were the only ones that had the privilege of
keeping me awake at night, ball-playing and espe-
cially gymnastic?!. How many times when you were
trying to get an important demonstration through
my head, my rebellious spirit was dreaming of a
new perilous leap !

"How many times since I left it, have I had
cause to regret that hospitable house in an inner

Father Clcrc and his Pupils,

407

I •

ircst on
orders ;
•en, and
c Clcrc's
k you,"
lintancc
is very
He ia a
man, a
has sent
^, and we
ent a de-
ist), from
In a trip
moments
lad found
kcncd old
a walking
pent two
myself
ain com-
Dns wliicli
iyilege of
and cspc-
1 you were
througli
Ining of a

ave I liad
an inner

room of which the sombre robe of the priest gave
so kind a welcome to the somewhat stained uni-
form of the little Barbiste ! . . . The gamin be-
came a youth. lias the youth turned out a man P
I know not (perhaps you can tell him, Kevercnd
Father, you who know him so well) ; but what I
do know is that of the gamin there remain only
the memory and tho attachment to those who so
cordially extended him their hand."

We will add nothing ; such testimonies, ren-
dered so bountifully in the freedom and unreserve
of th^ most intimate intercourse, may be left with-
out a commentary. Where can sincerity be found
if not in such letters ? One is tempted to apply
to them these words of Holy Scripture : Ex
oreiufanthtm . . . pcrfecistilcmdem. Yes, verilj'',
the mouths of children or of very young persons,
the lips that are yet strangers to disguise and flat-
tery, could alone have given to these praises, which
I have only gathered up, that perfect truthfulness
as well as that charm which pervades them.

But we must not terminate this chapter, conse-
crated to Father Ckrc and his pupils, without
mentioning those among them who, after having
loved him so much, proved by dying for the honor
and defence of their country that they were capa-
ble of understanding that heroic soul and of enter-
taining sentiments as exalted as were his.

The first is Roland du Luart, who, struck by
three balls, fell (December 18, 18G4) at Etla, near
Oajaca, during the campaign in Mexico where he
had displayed the most brilliant valor. On learn-

4o8

Alexis Clcrc,

ing of tlic arrival of liis son's body at Saint Na-
zairc, Count Luarfc immediately besouglit the
presence of Fatiier Clerc, wliom he invited to pro-
nounce a few words at the funeral ceremony.
" There are only too many lessons enclosed in that
coffin," replied Father Clerc, and he hastened to
gratify the pious >vishes of his dear Roland's father
and mother.

Three others -^vatered with their blood the soil of
France invaded by the stranger.

At Gravelotto (August 16, 1870) Louis Coutu-
rier, an officer under General Bataille, had his
arm pierced by a ball, but did not discontinue his
service under the fire of the enemy until a shell
burst beneath his horse, which was killed at the
same time that he himself fell, fatally wounded in
the abdomen. Carried from the field on an ambu-
lance, he died two days later, after having piously
received the last sacraments and while pressing the
crucifi,: to his heart.

At Freteval (December 14, 1870) Maurice de
Boyason, who had five brothers in active service
during that lamentable war : one of them fell when
he did. An ensign of the navy, Maurice had just
returned from the disastrous and useless Baltic ex-
pedition when ho met his old professor at Cher-
bourg. "I regret," ho wrote to his parents, **not
being able to follow the retreat he is giving, but I
go to see him fcequcntlj, and I think wo are very
well satisfied with one another." He marched at
the head of a company of marine fusiliers in that
heroic affair of Freteval, where Commander Collet

Father Clcrc and his Pupils.

.109

lint Ka-
rht tl\o
[ to pro-
rcmony.
I in that
tencd to
l's fatber

ho soil of

is Coutu-
, had lii3
itinue bis
til a slicll
cd at tbe
ounded in
an anibu-
|ng piously
ressing tbe

laiu'ico de
live service

fellwbcn
le had just

Baltic ex-

►r at Cher-

l-ents, **not

[iving, hut I

we are very

..larched at

[iers in that

mdci Collet

fell witli bis skull sliattcrcd, and Maurice at his
side, a ball buried in bis lungs.

Finally, at tbe bloody battle of Mans (January
11, 1871) Maurice du Bourg, a hero of Castelfi-
dardo and Montana, who bad been one of the first
to respond to tbe call of Pius IX., and bad re-
mained until tbe 20th of September, faithful to tlic
noble pontifical banner. He was leading to the
fray bis dear zouaves, now tbe Volunteers of tbe
West, when he was struck in tbe forehead by a ball
at tbe moment be was trying to carry the plain of
Avours, occupied by tbe Prussians. By his Cbris-
tian virtues as well as by his cbivalric valor he was
truly of tbe race of the Catheliucaus, tbe Lescures,
and tbe Bouchamps.

Such were Fatber Clerc's pupils. I speak, be it
well understood, only of tbe dead.

As for those who, thanks be to God, are stiil f .11
of life and ambition, I dedicate to them these
pages, of which they have furnished me the mat-
ter, and wherein several of tbem will recognize
themselves. May they all find therein the charm
that attacbes to the memory of tbe happiest and
purest days : to revive, if need be, their better feel-
ings ; to excite them to good by the example of
those dear departed ones ; and especially, never
to become for any of them a reproach.

CHAPTER XIII.

FATHER CLERC AND UIS OLD COMRADES.

Ji'

Great was tlio astouishmciit of Fatlicr Clerc's
comracles, who, liaving known him only in his life
of dissipation and pleasure, after long years £ud-
denly found him a priest and a Jesuit. Quantum
miitatus ah ilJo ! This was the first impression,
and some of them never got over it. Yet the
greater number, even more pleased than surprised,
gradually became accustomed to his new vesture
and his new mode of life. Enchanted to prove by
the evidence of their own eyes that he had lost
none of his spirit, his gayety, his old amiability,
they soon said : '* He is not changed, he is still the
same," and the old intimacv revived of itself from
the very first interview. What Clcrc had become
by leaving the world did not lessen their confi-
dence, rather the contrary ; and if by chance Ihcy
put his good-will to the test, then especially they
congratulated themselves on having in him a sure,
devoted, and most useful friend. Accordingly,
with very few exceptions, all were glad to visit
him. The known earnestness of his religious con-
victions did not render him inaccessible to these

who had not the happiness of sharing them. I

410

Father Clcrc and his Old Comrades. 41 1

r Clerc's
iiiliisliic

rears £Vi<l-
Quantinn
npvcssioii,
Yet the
surprisccl,
3W \csturc
,0 prove l)y
e had lost
amiabllUy,
is still the
itself from
ad become
.heir confi-
•hance llicy
[ccially they
iiim a sure,
ccorelinsl^''
[lad to y\^
aigious cou-
ple to these
U tlieni. 1

nnglit uamo sucli a savant, liis close friciul from
the lime they first met, companions in promotion
at the Polytechnic ; certainly a very distinguished
man, but one who has the reputation, merited, I
believe, of being extremely indulgent to the leaders
of free thought. I am very sure that Clerc, who
was frankness itself, did not spare him censure on
that score; nevertheless, their friendship never
cooled, and lasted until the bloody days of tho
Commune. Having himself offered such a long
resistance to grace before yielding to its empire,
he despaired of nobody, and, whatever was tho
eagerness of his desire, he knew how to wait. More
than once the conquest of souls dear to him was
the reward of his charitable and engaging lon-
ganimity.

The reader, perhaps, remembers Mr. C , one

of the two comrades with whom, on his return
from Gabon, Clcrc shared for several months the
enjoyment of a little dwelling and garden situated
in one of the suburbs of Lorient.* A Christian of
so fresh a date applying himself to the reading of
Saint Thomas was a matter of astonishment to
the two friends, who at first thought him deranged,
tried which could best tease him about his religions
ideas, engaged him in discussions half-serious and
half-playful, and, finding they could make no im-
pression upon him, ended by nicknaming him Lifile
Monh. Meanwhile Mr. C was not quite as in-
sensible as ho thought himself to that example,

* We mentioned Mr. C in chapter iii.

^^^MM

412

Alexis Clcrc.

wliicli lie met with all tlio appearances of a jeering
scepticism, and he owned later that he was in-
fluenced in spite of himself. That was in 1847.
Towards the close of 1850 the Cassini, destined
for China, being in the harbor of Lorient, Olcrc
goes there to superintend the preparations for her
departure ; he meets his old friend again, and this
time he Ijrwgs Mm very near Christian irutli.
Four more years pass ; Clerc returns from China,
finds Mr. C married, and cannot refuse the hos-
pitality offered him by the young household. Their
relations are more intimate and cordial than ever;
Clerc announces that he shall leave Lorient only to
enter the novitiate of the Society of Jesus. "Why,
that is suicide ! " cries Mr. C , and he en-
deavors to prove to his friend that life is not so bad
after all, and that it is a shame for him to renounce
the many joys it still promises him. As a final
argument he adduces his own example, and shows
the two pretty children that have been born to
him during his friend's last voyage. He is an-
swered at first rather feebly, and with a certain em-
barrassment, as if there was little hope of making
him understand. But soon, in a walk the two
friends take together, the ice is broken. Clerc
gives free course to his thoughts, his most private
sentiments, and he expresses himself with a capti-
vating eloquence. Mr. C has never forgotten

that memorable conversation "of Saint Christo-
pher's bridge," which revealed to him all the lofti-
ness of that beautiful soul. What was it, then,
ithat Clerc said to his friend? "That man's

L jeering
was in-
in 1847.
destined
it, Clcrc
3 for lior
, and tV.is
171 irutli'
m. Cliina,
;c the lios-
Id. Their
.lian ever ;
>nt only to
s. "Wiiy,
nd lie GU-
,not so bad
,0 renoi^nce
As a final
and shows
en born to
He is un-
certain cm-
of making
k the two
en. Clevc
ost private
ith a capti-
T forgotten
.ut Christo-
ai the lofti-
as it, ilien,
Ihat man's

Father Clerc and Jiis Old Comrades, 413

destiny on earth is to aspire to the highest good,
and that for his part he means to do this to the
utmost of his power; that undoubtedly the joys
Mr. C has been telling him of have their se-
duction, but that they do not tempt him ; that he
desires good for its own sake, and that it exists only
in Grod. There is his hope, his ambition ; all else is
nothing to him ; accordingly, he yields himself
without reserve to the love of the sovereign good,
cf God, of infinite perfection."

In relating this conversation to us Mr. C

S.IVS : " I am trying to give you the key-note of it ;
it was aspiration towards the pure love of God. I
had read such things in the * Lives of the Saints,'
hut hitherto I had believed them only partially ;
this time I saw them with my own eyes, and doubt
was henceforth impossible to me. I had the good
sense to admire that enthusiasm and that virtue. I
understood that Clerc could do no better than
walk in the path ho had chosen, and from that
moment I was convinced that he would become a
saint."

Before starting for the novitiate Clerc, leaving

liis uniform and baggage in Mr. C 's house,

gave his sword to little Paul, the eldest of his dear
friend's sons.*

In the month cf December Mr. C wrote to

Salnt-Acheul : " I will acknowledge to you, my
■dear Clerc, that your ^horfc stay in my house and
the determination you took have given me a great

* This weapon has since passed into the possession of a cap-
t.:in of a frigate, who preserves it as a relic.

■ ' l.'l

1 ■
^ i.

■ I

414

Alexis Clcrc.

deal to reflect; upon and have slightly disturbed the
quiet I enjoyed." The thought of eternity was
laying hold of that soul accustomed to think only of
the interests and joys of this world. Eight days
later another letter begins thus : "I have just been
most cruelly tried ! My Paul, my fine and cherish-
ed boy, has been taken from us in the midst of his
beauty and strength.'' And in four months Paul's
brother was no more ! " Oh ! " cries the poor
father, " the happy days I spent in my little house
with my beautiful children, my dear wife, and you,
my kind friend ! Now my two little ones are sleep-
ing side by side in the cemetery."

What a lesson ! Was it understood ? !N"o, not
quite, in the beginning. The correspondence con-
tinues through fifteen years — that is, from Alexis'
entrance into the novitiate until the eve of the sad
events that placed the seal on his heroism. He
does not spare counsels, exhortations, even re-
proaches ; but how they all come from his heart !
Who could be offended at those earnest and press-
ing appeals, proofs of a boundless friendship ? He
accuses himself of having been harsh and caustic
in a conversation they had in Paris, and the re-
sult of which was decisive. Mr. C does not

complain ; he renders full justice to his friend and
thanks him for his frankness. Father Clcrc re-
turns to the subject again with much humility for
his own faults, but he is rejoiced : the soul of his
friend is saved. " My dear friend," ho writes, " it
is a sure mark of friendship on your part to have
written me of the great change which God has ope-

Father Clcrc and his Old Comrades. 4 1 5

)ecl the
ity was
only of
[it clays
ist l)eeii
sbcrish-
jt of Ms
IS Paul's
be poor
■le lionso
and you,
ire sleep-

Ko, not
ence con-
II Alexis'
)f the sad
ism. He
even rc-
Liis heart !
pd press-
1-)? He
caustic

the re-
does not
•iend and
Clcrc rc-
imility for
;oul of bi3
tes, "it
to have
has ope-

rated in your soul ; you judged rightly of the joy
it woukl afford me. I join with you in thanking
God, and on the 12tli of November I will say, for
your intention and in gratitude for what God has
clone for you, 'a Mass of thanksgiving.

" Since our last interview I have not thought of
our long and painful conversation without sorrow,
and I much feared that God in his goodness, seeing
that you wandered away from him in prosperity,
would bring you back by adversity. Fortunately he
has not needed to do that; and it is better, not
only on account of the trouble you escape, but be.
cause of the greater generosity of a spontaneous
conversion,

** When I sidd on leaving you — and it was to con-
clude our conversation with as little unpleasant-
ness as possible — that ho who followed in good faith
no matter what read would be saved provided ho
always conformed his conduct to what he believed
to be the truth, I acknowledge I had not the hope of
seeing your good faith yield to the first ray of truth
without a longer combat ; but you prove this pro-
position still more strongly. You prove it in the
sense in which it should bo most frequently (if not
always) understood : namely, that God soon shows
the truth to those who seek it.

"Our discussion was difficult, painful on both
sides, harsh on mine ; God knows, however, that
even then I had for you the heart of a friend ; I do
not regret it, because friendship ought not to be a
weak condescension, and because the result has
been so happy.

a.,:

1', ;i

4i6

Alexis Clerc.

"Now that you share my faith, you understand
how the certainty with which I spoke of what re-
gards it could not help rendering my assertions
decisive, absolute ; I tiiink that in talking with
you I defended what is merely matter of opinion
only with much restriction and with a disposition
to yield readily. But it is useless to apologize for
a line of proceeding which you judge favorably. I
believe that before dismissing this subject I ought
to tell you in few words the judgment I then form-
ed of you. You are no longer the same man, and
I speak only with a good intention.

" All just ideas in metaphysics, in religion, in
morality, in politics, I will say even in history, had
suffered shipwreck in your soul. There was but
one left. Fortunately it was an important one ; with
it all others could be reconquered : it was the idea
of the last end. Upon that one thing, in a natural
point of view, you always spoke correctly. It will
be an interesting study for you to discover if it had
the influence I believe it had upon the great change
which has taken place in your soul.

" Your letter of November ist does you the
highest honor : Qui se Ji urn ilia f, exaltahitur. And
in truth you wrote it in the spirit which animated
St. Augustine when he composed his * Confessions ' ;
that anxiety to repair the evil one has done, to re-
treat, to acknowledge our proud weaknesses, is a
proof of generosity. If men are forced to forget
wrongs that are so sincerely acknowledged, so
heartily regretted, Almighty God knows how to
turn them into merits. Once again, errois coukl

Fat he 7' Clcrc and his Old Comrades. 417

erstand
?bat re-
sertions
ig witli
opinion
position
9gize for
L-ably. I
i I ought
ten form-
nan, and

ligion, in
itory, bad
Q was but
bne ; with
s the idea
a natural
It will
r if it bad
?at chauge

you the
\ur. And

animated
[fcssions ' ;
lone, to re-
lesses, is a

to forget
ledgcd, so
Iws bow to
jrois could

not bo more nobly confessed ; your confession is so
bearty, so prompt, so complete, that you may see
in it one of those special graces which God grants
but seldom."

Now will we see with what good-natured play-
fulness and what ingenious grace Fatber Oleic
urges his friend, who defends himself as well as he
can, to tend to perfection always and everywhere ?
Perfection I he wants it not only in things relating
to God's service, but even in such as pass for in-
different, and which common opinion banishes to a
sphere where Christianity has uo ri<?ht of inspec-
tion. Mr. C had said, we shall know present-
ly in what sense : " I am always a hussar, but I no
longer love the sabretacbe." * His friend returns
the words with comments :

** * I am always a hussar, but I no longer love tbe
sabretache.'

" My dear Fhiend and Brother in our Lord :
Behold my text, and I might cboose a better one ;
however, we will develop it with a certain freedom.

"The inclination we have for novelty is a par-
ticular grace of God, and since beginnings are
always difficult, it was worthy of Ilim who gently
conducts all things to their end to implant that
sentiment in our hearts. Afterwards, when things
have lost that attraction of novelty, God has again
most kindly arranged that habit should also have a

*It is unnecessary to explain, unless perhaps to a few un-
initiated readers, that the sabretache is a sorfc of flat pocket

that hangs beside the sabre of certain cavalry men. Mr. C

defended his own case by attacking that part of a hussar'3
equipment the utility of which is rather questionable.

.' I

1 :i

•J \

'M;

4i8

Alexis Clerc.

iif -'

sweetness which will make us accomplish them
•willingly. Who can help admiring so wise and
fatherly a providence ?

** Let US leave the yonng hussar to love his
sabretache, and the old cuirassier to no longer
feel the chafing of the armor to which he is con-
demned.

" But you understand that there is something
better than the vain-glory of the first and the in-
sensibility of the second.

" You may tell mc as mucli as you like that you
"were not made for perfection ; I know what to
think about it, and I shall always tell you what I
think.

" In the way of a sermon I am going to give you
a sample of my philosophical studies of last year.*
You are not made for perfection. Dislinguo : To
attain it, concedo. To desire it, to tend to it, nego.
And you do desire it most certainly.

"Let us return to the sabretache: Are there,
then, no motives possible for our acts other than
puerility and insensibility ? Our "will is our own
and we can render it very perfect. What would
you think of the hussar who should love the sin-
gular object in question because it is a sign that he
serves his country and his king, that he belongs to
a select corps which in battle is exposed to the
greatest dangers ? From a human point of view is
he not at least a sage, if not a hero ?

" But if he regards his sabretache as the seal of

♦ Father Clerc had just been reviewing his philosophy at
Vaugirard.

Father Clerc and his Old Comrades. 419

them
so and

ave liis
longer
is con-

ne tiling
the in-

ihat you
what to
. what I

give you
st year.*
pio: To
) it, nego.

re there,
her than
our own
at would
the sin-
n that ho
)elongs to
ed to tho
of view is

seal of

losophy at

the servitude God imposes upon him through the
medium of his superiors, and loves it as such, is 110
not a saint ?

"There was a young man in the Society named
John Borchmans, the cause of whose beatification
is now in process ; * he loved his dear cassock so
much that he always hissed it before putting it on.
We take the pious practice from him. Is not this,
for us, loving the sahretache in tlie right way ?

"However, one cannot always nor every day
love the sahretaclie, jct a real hussar docs not for
that carry it the less and is not the less a good
hussar.

" You have no longer a natural attraction, taste,
for your profession; you feel all its difficulties and
charges ; no illusion continues to conceal them
from you. Thi^ is because you are capable of per-
severing in it through higher motives — namely, for
the sake of serving your country, especially of
serving God disinterestedly just there where he
has put you ; for tho sake of accomplishing tho
rude mortification and the patient sanctification of
labor by which man attains his last end.

" This is so true that if it should be proposed to
you to go back to the illusions that procured you
certain consolations, you would refuse, and would
prefer your present sufferings. The true, the
noble, the great — this is what the heart of man re-
quires. Let us rejoice ; we shall one day possess
the truth, the majesty, the immensity of God.

* It has since been decided.

■. !

v .

420

A/cxis Clcrc.

" My sermon is fmislicd and I see you smiling ;
he will have to lower his jorctensions, think you ?
Do not be afraul, I am not so strong in act as in
word; still I am in earnest when I speaJf, but I
will admit, if you wish, that I animate myself, that
I intoxicate myself, with my own words. What
else would you have us do ? Let us derive the
least possible Jiarm from our miseries ; let us get
drunk with love, enthusiasm, for what is perfect;
we will always fall far enough back in practice.
Let us permit our aspirations to rise, to incessant-
ly rise even to the throne of God ; his goodness
will, perhaps, answer our imperfect prayers."

In sending us these letters, pious and cherished
relics of which wo are only the depositary, Mr.
C adds a few words about the winning quali-
ties of his holy friend, qualities that were height-
ened by the generosity and grandeur of his Chris-
tian sentiments : *' That beauty of soul and that
grandeur of virtue did not in the least lessen tbe
amiability, the playfulness of his character, and I
have always considered him since his last stay at
Lorient as an elect soul whom 1 admired while being
just as much at ease with him as before. Ho
evinced for me and mine an extraordinary friend-
ship, greater than I could have merited, although
I loved him dearly. I have sometimes read that
the saints have on earth had similar friendships ;
it is thus that I regard ours, and 1 firmly believe
he continues it towards us in heaven. He was very
fond of the two little children I lost in 1854, and
I would like to send you the letter he wrote their

Father Clcrc and his Old Comrades, 42 1

litig ;
you?
as in
bub I
:, that
What
76 the
us get
jrfect ;
■actice.
essant-
)0clnes8

erished

rv, Mr.

f quali-

I height-
Ohris-

nd that
sen tbe
, and I
stay at

Lie being
e. Ho
friend-
Ithough
3ad that
id ships ;
^ belicYC
was very
54, and
te their

mother to console her, but we haye mislaid it for
the moment. I think ho is with thcni, and that
all three protect our family. I always believed
that Clerc would have a magnificent death. I was
not deceived, and I can picture to myself his joy
at giving his life for Jesus Christ."

Who would recognize from such language the
man that had bo much difficulty in treating serious-
ly the admirable change which religion had
worked in his friend ? May we not also say of

Mr. C ^Quantum midatus ah illol And is he

not, in his turn, become a very consoling example
of the so patient goodness of God and of the omni-
potence of grace ?

Another example, not of conversion, but of the
salutary and gentle influence Father Clcrc exercised
over those who, haying known him in the world,
deemed themselves happy to find him again just
what his new vocation had made him.

One day at Laval he received the visit of two
comrades, both old navy officers. "These gentle-
men," a person acquainted v/ith the incident tells
us, "left the house charmed with his amiable sim-
plicity, his gayety, and his gracious holiness."
One of the two visitors, M. de Vauguion, could
almost call himself Father Clcrc's neighbor, the
Chateau des Alleux (near Cosse, Maycnne), where
he resided, being only a few hours from Laval.
As he urged the father to return his visit, the lat-
ter, in order to harmonize the inclinations of his
zeal with the duties of friendship, went to Lcs
Alleux and divided his time between the chdteau

I I

,1 ■

I M ■

! i'

i I

422

Alexis Clerc,

and tho parish where he gave a mission. Ilardly
had he returned to Laval when he was called back
to his friend, who was seized with a dangerous at-
tack of inflammation of the lungs. Father Clcrc
almost flies to Les Alleux, and entering the sick
man's room, says simply : ** I have come to hcl^
you sanctify your illness." The offices of liis
ministry are gladly accepted, and, after having
reconciled that beloved soul, he departs greatly
consoled by the encouraging dispositions in whicli
he leaves it perhaps on the very threshold of etemi-

ty. .

M. de Vauguion recovered. In 1870, beholding
France invaded, he returned to tho service, dis-
played a brilliant valor in the fuce of the enemy,
and showed himself at u.i times and in all places ar-
dent in the accomplishment of duty; but he received
in the camps the germs of the disease to which ho
was to fall a victim. Named a deputy to the Na-
tional Assembly, he was at his post at Versailles
when, April 11, 1871, he was forced to take to his
bed. During this illness, which was his last, he
one day anxiously enquired : ** And Father Clerc —
provided he is not in the hands of those creatures
of the Commune — how I would like to hear from
him !'"' Enquiries were made, and it was learned
that the father was confined at Maz^s. The friend
to whom he could no longer bring the supreme
consolations, terminated his exile with sentiments
of most fervent piety on tho 20th of April. Clerc
had still a month to spend behind the bars. Lot
us note a circumstance that has a claim to a place

FatJicr Clcrc and Jus Old Comrades, 423

lardly
I Lack
»us at-
Clcrc
le sick

licli
of l»i3
haying
greatly

1 wbicU
; etemi-

liolditig
ice, cli3-
cneniy,
)laccs ar-
received
hicU V.c
ilic Na-
crsaiV.cs
e to Ilia
last, he
Clerc—
reatures
ar from
Is learned
he friend
supreme
ntimcnts
]. Clerc
Ts. Let
a place

among these piong souvenirs. The Chdtoau dcs
Alleux visited by tlic fatlicr in 1805 has since been
appropriated to a uso wortby of the exalted and
Cliristian sentiments of its former master, and to-
day it shelters a little colony formed of our bro-
tlier3 driven from the jn'ovince of Venice, who aro
preparing by a life of recollection and study for
tiie labors of ihe apostolate.

For many reasons the commander of the Cassini,
become captain of a ship, was, in Father Cicrc's
eyes, something more and better than a comrade,
and the cordiality of their intercourse never made
the former lieutenant forget the distance which
honorable grades of service put between him and
liis respected chief. During long years, in writing
to him ho only addressed him as '* my dear com-
mander " ; but a day came when he called him by the
sweeter name of ''brother": Mr. de Plas had be-
come his brother by entering the novitiate of the
Society of Jesus.

Here, in placing in my hands fifteen years of
correspondence, I am begged to observe the great-
est discretion. I shall make this a law, and shall
be very careful not to disturb by an untimely pub-
licity a life which, after having been well-known
to the world, desires to shroud itself in darkness
and silence.

The commander honored in his old lieutenant
the quality of religions, and the sacerdotal character
with which he saw him clothed. The confidence ho
had always had in him was consequently increased,
and he did not disdain to consult him when there was

!• i 1.

. ;,!i

i •
j

1
i

■

J i

■ i ■'
1 '^

* <•

'■■■

424

Alexis CUrc.

^,r ■

"'V

question of liis interior or of certain duties inherent
to his position, and of which he believed with rea-
son Father CI ere was a good judge.

'J'ho Italian alliance, for instance, led him to
foresee certain occasions when his conscience might
he at varianco with the exigencies of military obe-
dience. **I have nearly recovered my peace of
Eoul," he wrote, *' since I have followed your ad-
vice; still, there come to me severe squalls of dis-
gust at my career when I think that circumstances
might have called me to figure at the banquets and
fetes of the roi galanttiomo in Naples. I am sure,
though, that when God sends mo trials of that
sort he will make known to me what he wishes mo
to do. It appears that some of our officers have
taken steps to avoid the honor of being decorated
by th.e soi-disant King of Italy ; I am very glad of
it." The father replied to him: "I think you
might very well ask for a command in Chinese
waters, and I advise you to do so. I think also
that they will not misunderstand you, and that
they will not appoint you to the Mediterranean
squadron."

Although M. de Plas, living in La Charente, was
not as near Laval as M. de Vauguion, he obtained
a visit from the father, who stayed with him at
Puychein, and thence evangelized the parish of
Saint-Iiomain. On receiving the promise of this
visit the commander wrote :

"Dear Fkiend axd Heverend Father : It is
about fourteen years aince, to my proposition of
making a cruise among the Catholic mission?, you

nlicrcnt
itU rca-

liiin to
3C uiiglit
ury obc-
peucc of
^our acl-
Is of tlis-
tiistances
[uets tind
am sure,
of that
fislics mo
3ers liavo
ilecoratcu.
y glad of
'link you
Chinese
link also
and that
erranean

rente, was
obtained

:li liim at
parish of

ise of tliis

lEE : It is
(osition of
sion?, you

Father Clcrc and his Old Comrades. 425

replied: * Magnificat auimn mca Dominum^ ;
your kind letter has brought to my lips thiit be-
ginning of the Blessed Virgin's beautiful canticle."

Wo can guess what were their conversation?, in
whicii spiritual matters always had tlic largest
pUicc . Ideas of a religious vocation liad vigorously
assailed ]\r. de Plas when he saw one of his most
intimate friends, M. <.lo Cuers, abandon the service
to enter the con;T!recjation of which he became the
superior-general. Several retreats not having
brought him suflicient light. Father Clerc could
only advise him to accept the employments of his
rank, wherein opportunities would not be wanting
for him to preach by example ; it was thus he be-
came flag-master of Admiral Bouot-Willaumcz on
board the SoJfcrino, and miijor of the fleet at
Iloehefort. Meanwhile years were added to years,
and the time would soon arrive for the commander
to retire ; his inclinations for the religious life had
only grown stronger, but he feared that his age
was an obstacle to the realization of his wishes.
Father Clerc then said to him : '• You are well
versed in the ' Spiritual Exercises ' of St. Ignatius,
you are acquainted with his rules for election; you
can apply them to the decision I propose to you."
He proposed to M. de Plas to enter the Society of
Jesus, provided he could obtain a dispensation of
age; tliis dispensation, Father Clerc thought,
would not be refused to a postulant of such stand-
ing.

The election was made, the decision taken, the
dispensation asked and obtained ; and some time

'.I \

I \

426

Alexis CIe7-c.

afterwards ibe commantler, whoso last ties to the
world were broken, conld write to his friend from
the novitiate of Angers: *' Even as you told me,
and promised me, so to ppeak, I find here great
peace, and God repays me most generously for the
little share of good will I brought him." Father Do
Plas' novitiate, com.mcneedat Angers, was finished
in Rome ; and there he received from his friend .
outpourings of the heart like this: "I frankly ac-
knowledge that I also am most anxious that we
should meet again. It is such a joy to me to think
of you since 1 know that you are in the Society ; I
am certain that you congratulate yourself every
day more and more for the favor God has granted
you, that j^ou bless God from the depths of your
heart, and every dny love him more and more ;
and this affords me sweet consolation." A visit to
the port of Cherbourg during the Lent he preached
in one of the parishes of the city, suggests these
rcflecticns upon a past which neither the one nor
the other is tempted to regret : *^ I have visited
your Solferino. It is already an old tub ; the new-
fashioned wonders give me but little desire to re-
commence. After 3"our career, which was so diffi-
cult and so complete, you come to seek, instead of
the rest, the honor you have gained, labor and con-
tempt in the Society. my very dear com-
mander I let us yet once moro rejoice that God
gives you intelligence of wliat so few men can un-
derstand."

In connection with Clerc's sojourn in Brest we
had a glimpse of a midshipman whom he met at

to the
i from
Id me,
great
for the
ther Dc
Qnishcd
3 fricud .
iildy ac-
tliat wc
to think
ciety ; I
If every
granted
of your
d more ;
L visit to
preached
3ts these
one nor
visited
the new-
re to rc-
s so difTi-
nstead of
and con-
cur com-
hat God
can un-

Brest wc

ic met at

FatJier Clerc and his Old Comrades. 427

the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, and who,
enlightened by Lis ov/n secret simihir aspirations,
irnnicdiatelv discerned in Clerc the still hidden
gcnn of the religions vocation.* At that time more
fortunate than Clerc, Jers shackled by family cir-
cumstances, that midshipman was the fnvt to ]uit
oif the uniform ; he entered the Sociely of Jesus
while his friend was on the China expedition. But
Clerc was not slow in rejoining him. Living un-
der the same roof and eating at the same table,
they together bore in Paris and Laval the amiable
and sweet 5011:0 of the Lord. Sometimes separated
and sometimes united, according as obedience dis-
posed of them for the greater glory of God, they
ceased not to congratulate themselves upon having
been faithful to the rendezvous in the army of the
Lord they had given one another while they still
belonged to the army of the world.

Has not the reader been struck as wo were ?
From the humble and pious Joubert, who one day
belook himself to Saint Sulpice and at twent}'-
nine years of age died a deacon, to the commander
of the Ca.'?sini, how many graces of vocation fell
around Clerc upon officers of all ranks !t It re-
minds us of what he used to sny : " Wo are the
children of sainfs, we Frenchmen especially, moro

♦Chapter iii. p. 86.

t Let us recall a few names : Commaixlor Marconiu, who
wiKhed to become a Marist ; M. de Cuers, who die 1 superior-
general of the Priests of theBless'^d Sacrament ; M. do G ,

ttitit midshipman won by Father Clerc to the practice r.f his
religion, and who writes to us frum the Chartrvu.so of Kepo-
soii'. We might add the Abbd de Brozli>', wlio was one it
ili,> rflicers of the Solferino ut tho sanio t;mo with Commander
do Plas.

428

Alexis Clerc.

fJi'i'Sv

fill

■J I

truly, perhaps, than any other people of Christen-
dom, and there are few among ns who have not the
blood of saints in their veins."

When the ardor of this generous blood is en
.'iindled we are capable of all kinds of devotedness,
of all sorts of heroism. If the laws, if the admin-
istrative customs of these days did not restrain the
expansion of the Christian life, we should see on
this fertile soil that has so many times been wa-
tered by the blood of martyrs, the grand monas-
tic and chivalric vocations of the old ages of faith
flourishing again under a new form. This would
be the regeneration, better still, the resurrection,
of France.

'ii!<;:

'istcn-
ot the

is en
;dnesb,
[idmin-
ain the

see on
een wa-
rn on as-
oi faith
s would
'rection,

«i!

CHAPTER XIV.

FATHKR CLERC AT SAINT VINCENT DE LAON AND IN THE AM-
BULANCE OF VAUGIRARD— HIS LAST VOWS.

Fatheh Clero was fifty years of age and fifteen
of religions life when, in the month of October,
18G9, his superiors sent him to the house of Saint
Vincent at Liion to make that third probation
which the Society of Jesus reserves for its children
in the midst of their career, and by which it com-
pletes the formation in them of the interior man
before admitting them to their last vovrs.

St. Ignatius placed our ideal high, and l.c has
spared nothing to bring us as near to it as possible.
That holy founder has been justly represented as
"an artisan bending eagerly over his work to fash-
ion and perfect it ; examininj^: it, then retouch-
ing and repolishing, and yielding it to its destina-
tion only when he has exhausted all the resources
of a patient and laborious art." *

Behold, then, after long years consecrated partly
to study and partly to teaching the divine and hu-
man sciences, the religious, already a priest and in
his full maturity, called to a school still higher
than those he has passed through — the school of

* Father de Ravifrnan on the " Existence and Institute of tha
JesuitF," chap. ii. § 3, " TLe Third Probation."

4.29

?1 • J

in i,

i) , . 1 ! -
11 i.i i:

430

A /ex is Clcrc,

the heart {scUoJa affeckis). The word is charining",
and it was invented by St. Ignatius himself, who
had the bowels of a father as well as the genius of
a legislator.

This scJwIa affod^is is, then, a new novitiate, or
as well say a new childhood, by reason of its pupils'
simplicity of heart and docility in allowing them-
selves to be guided ; but also a manly and vigorous
school that exacts of its disciples an active and
spontaneous co-operation in the interior work of
which thelv will is the indispensable instrument
and their religious perfection tlie object.

On the threshold of this second novitiate there is
again the long retreat, the "Spiritual Exercises"
during thirty days. This time it is no more the
milk of babes, but the bread of the strong. With
what generosity Father Clerc entered on the way that
was marked out for him ! He was acquainted with
it already, having for years diligently studied the
'^ Exercises " ; but he was cautious about directing
himself and relying on his own prudence. The
notes we have before us attest his eagerness to
have recourse to the lights of the father instructor ;
they show us also his combats, his fidelity in strug-
gling against desolation and dryness to the degree
of doubling the hour of meditation, if it happened
to him to experience only trouble and anxiety
therein ; and, finally, they reveal his extraordinary
mortification, for which he obtained that year a
latitude that had been refused him when he bore
the fatigues of the professorship. He was allowed
to take the disc:pline every day except Sundays

Saint Vincent dc Laon.

431

inning,
;lf, wlio
iiiius of

tiatc, or
s pupils'
ig thom-
yigorous
stive and
■ work of
strument

Le there is
Ixcrciscs "
more ilic
ig. Will)
e way that

mtcd willi
,udicd tlio
; directing
ncc. The
rrcrness to
nstructor ;
y in striig-
;lie degree
, happened
id anxiety
raordinary
.lat year a
n he hore
as allowed
t Sundays

and festivals, and to fast tlircc times a week. lie.
would have liked to fast contiuuallv.

The reproaches ho addresses himself (we will do
well not to helieve them literally deserved) hetokcn
an ardent desire of attaining, with God's grace, the
highest possible degree of i)urity of intention.

He asks himself if honors are an end worthy
of him. *^ Honors? — Shall I labor to be praised,
to liave it said of mo that 1 am skilful and intelli-
gent, or some other flattering thing ? What a re-
compense ! Yani vanam. Those who are vain
have received a yain reward. Henceforth I must
not permit myself to he allured by the sweetness of
praise. Contentment with self? — Still vainer and
more dangerous. I have scarcely ever sought any-
thing else. To find peace and interior joy in one's
duty is good ; hut to seek our own satisfaction in
our works is had and illusive. Now, this is my
case only too often, and, provided I have fulfilled
my charge, I give little thought to God's service or
my neighbor's welfare. What vanity, since such
work is fruitless ! I myself am its principle and its
end ; it is an occupation, not a work. It would bo
worse still to take delight in our virtue. Thank
God, I do not think I am such a fool as that ! I
have so little material for illusion on that sub-
ject."

A little further on he says : *' Wh.at profit have
I derived from so much even painful labor ?
What I nothing else than being forgotten ? Ah I
my God, let not all of it perish. And what ad-
vantage has it been to others ? How small and

mm\

III

432

Alexis Clcrc.

rare are its fruits ! OIi ! if I had but Tivificrl my
activity by union with God, by prayer, by abnega-
tion, and by making cvcrvtliing conduce to the
glory of God ! "

It is only saints who judge themselves thus.
Has not the Holy Spirit said: '* The just is first
accuser of himself"? But he adds immediately :
*' His friend comethand shall search him " (Prov.
xviii. 17). We have, then, a right to examine the se-
vere judgment our holy brother passed upon him-
self.

The ardor of his love for Jesus Christ bursts
forth at these words of the holy old man Simeon :
^^ Quia vlderunt oculi mci salutare iiiuvi ! '^ — For
my eyes have seen thy salvation. *' I implore
thee, my God! command this light to shine
upon my soul. Thou art the sun, thou art splen-
dor ; let thy radiance dazzle my eyes, so that hence-
forth they can sec naught else ; let every other love
bo extinguished, every desire stifled, CYcry curiosity
destroyed. What need has he to learn and know
new things who knows eternal truth ? What is
there beautiful and seductive to him who has had
a glimpse of thy beauty ? A single ray of thy
glory can effect all this in our souls. We can live
afterwards, but we are as though dead; we see
without seeing, we hear without hearing, or, bet-
ter, we see and hear Jesus in all things and every-
where."

But now the light grows dim to his eyes. He
listens, he hears nothing ; none of those words in
which are recognized the accents of the Beloved.

Saint Vincent de Laon,

433

ficd my
abuega-
I to tbo

^es tluis.
st is first
cdialely :
1 " (Prov.
.ne the sc-
ipon bitn-

ist bursts
1 Simeon :
m 1 "—For
I implore
t to sliiue
art splen-
Aiat beiicc-
^ other love
-y curiosity
I and know
What is
ho has had
ray of tby
We can live
ad; we see
ng, or, bet-
and every-

,s eyes. -Li^
►se words in
ho Beloved.

The following page, no Hues of which I am willing
to suppress, is the faithful picture of a soul burn-
ing with the desire of perfection, but at the same
time humbly submissive to God, who is master of
his gifts :

**I earnestly beg for a bright I'ght by which to
regulate the future, a profound sentiment of the
desire of serving God by that means ; it seems to
me I have done all that is possible to obtain
it, that I have neglected absolutely nothing of
what was prescribed, recommended, and of what I
believed I could do on my side — fidelity, prayer,
mortifications. I have omitted nothing, and yet I
have not obtained that abundant grace. It is
nevertheless according to Christian wisdom, since I
ask only to know what God desires of me, and
since it is with the most intense desire, and, I be-
lieve, with entire good will, that I say : Quid mo
vis facere? — What wilt thou have me to do ? (St.
Paul's words at the moment of his conversion.
Acts ix. G). Moreover, that desire, good in itself,
is likewise good for me, who would receive from h
so powerful an excitation, so strong an impulse.
Yes, Lord, I ask a grace of conversion that will
make of me from this day a thoroughly nc ; man.

"Perhaps the Lord answers me :

" ' Is not the power of making the long retreat as
well as thou couldst a great grace which I have
given thee ? Is not this eager desire thou dost ex-
perience another ? Qui hiicrit, sit let adhuc —
Whosoever drinketh shall thirst again.

*' ' Thou wouldstbe satisfied : and dost thou not

I '

1..

434 Alexis Clerc.

know that tlmt would be a misfortune ? Dost
tliou not know what I ask of tlice, and if thou
Ivnowcst it why dost thou desire more light ? I give
Ihce the measure that is suitable for thee. I wish
to see thee walking with the imperfect light which
I ccmmuniciite to thee ; is faith, then, without
obscurity ? Is it less certain for being obscure ?

" ' Ilast thou not to counsel and calm thee my
servant, to whom I will that thou shoulJst frankly
open thy heart ? Is it not more excellent for thee
to be obliged to have recourse to him, than if thou
shouldst walk in confidence ? Wouldst thou not
be exposed to walking very soon in confidence in
thyself ?

" *Is not this the regular and paternal order of
my supernatural providence ? and why demand a
revelation which is not necessary ?

" * Extraordinary graces would make thee vain,
and the first answer to thy prayer is to correct thy
eelf-love instead of giving it nourishment.

" ' Besides, hast thou not sti'ength sufficient to
walk in the execution of thy resolutions ?

" *Tiiey are good, wise, taken in the sincere in-
tention of my service, and under my inspiration
certain though concealed ; canst thou doubt that I
will aid thee to accomplish them ?

** ' Thou dost hope much from a great move-
ment of love whichl might give thee. In the first
jDlace that movement would be fleeting, and in tho
second place it would leave thee ytill in need of
my continual help.

" ' This help, which would always be necessary

Saint Vincent dc La on.

435

> Dost
if tliou

Igivo

I wish

it wbicli
Y^itbout

jcurc ?
tbce my
t frankly

for tlieo
n if thou

tlioti not
[idence in

1 order of
demand a

,liec yain,
orrect tLy

fficient to

Ibincero in-
nspiration
,ubt that I

Ireat movc-
lln the first
land in tlio
in need of

|c necessary

to thee, shall always be sufficient; I will always
give it to tbce.

" * Thou wisbest to feel it ; but dost thou feci
the help by wbicb I sustain all tliy faculties, tliy
whole being, by which I concur in all thy acts ?
Such is my conduct — very strong and very gentle,
as well in the order of grace as in the order of na-
ture.

" ' Moreover, is not the state thy soul has been
in for twenty-five days a grace thou canst easily
enough authenticate ? Is it a doubtful sign of my
assista:icc ?

" 'Thou wouldst like more ; but when I should
have given thee more, wouldst thou not want still
more ? Since thou knowest that thou dost act
with mo and by me in thy resolutions, that should
suffice thee, and thou shouldst blindly confide thy-
self to my love (it shall be done).

" * What more beautiful device could I give thee
tlian * Fro conic mco, 2^cr i2)S2tvi cor mcum^ ct cum
ipso, ct in ijjso ' — * For my heart, by my heart, with
it and in it' ?

" * Thy desire pleases me. Pray earnestly to my
Ilcart, to that of my Mother, and leave me to
answer thy prayer in my own good time.' "

** All for the Heart of Jesus, by that Heart, with
it and it it" — such, then, was Father Clerc's watch-
- v,ord on coming out of his long retreat. Finding
Limself in the scJwol of the heart, it was not a bad
inspiration for him to take for master, model, and
support, the Heart of his God. Kovembcr 25 ho
pronounced in the hands of the father instructor

43^

Aicxis Clcrc,

an Act of Consecration to the S:icrcd Ilcarb of
Jesus,* "for which I rejoice in the Lord," ho
wrote, "giving thanks a thousand times to the
goodness of God and to the tenderness of the Sa-
cred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ." He places
his resolutions under the auspices of that adorable
Heart, and they consist in nothing less than that
perfect abnegation which sums up the whole sci-
ence of the saints, and which St. Ignatius entitles
tliG third degree of humility. " In this matter," he
wrote, *' there can be no deliberation about what is
necessary ; wo must strongly resolve, and then exe-
cute, cost ^vhat it may. Now, this necessity is
found for mo in the third degree of humility and
in the eleventh rule of the Summary,! and I de-
sire to have it always present to my mind." As to
the motives of his coMsccration to the Sacred Heart,
I confine myself to this one : "I believe that this
devotion gives a right to an immediate effusion of
the Sacred Heart of our Lord into our hearts."

Fifteen years before, when making at Saint
Acheul his first long retreat, he had taken these
same generous resolutions. It is his merit and his
honor to have renewed them with a thorough
knowledge of all they comprehend, and with a sir,-
cerity that shows especially in the means by which
he ensures their execution.

It is easy to imagine how he passed that year

*See Appendix.

+ Iq the "Third Degree of Humility "and the "Eleventh
Rule of the Summary " St. Ignatius inculcates the doctrine oi!
desiring and asking for humiliations for the sake of imitutiug
our hord.—Note of Translator.

Slim Vincent dc Laon,

437

Lcart o£
ird," lie

; to tllO

the Sa-
Lc places
adorable
[laii Uiat
bole sci-
3 cnlitlcs
ittcr," ho
it wbat 13
tben exe-
icessity is
nility and
and I dc-
L" As to
:cd Heart,

tbat tbis
fEusion of
carts."

at Saint
ikcn tbcse

it and bis

tborougb

witb a sin-
s by vv'bicb

tbat year

e "Eleventh

■le doctrine ot

of imitutiug

devoted entirely to tbe exercises of tlio interior life,
and to works in wbicli zeal displays itself only un-
der tbe bumblcst forms. Tbe fatber instructor ad-
mired bis docility, rendered more meritoiious by
bis age. lie writes us: "IIo was always found
ready not only to cxcciito (be commands given
bim, but to anticipate tbe wishes of tbosc wbo licld
tbo place of God in bis regard." As to bis bretb-
rcn, tbey were at once ediDcd and cbarmed, and
that virtue, so austere in its foundation?, left tbo
pleasantest impression upon tbcm all. One of
them writes us : *' It was my privilege to spend
witb bim tbe year wbicli preceded bis glorious
dcatb, the good year of tbe third probation. No-
body appreciated better than bo tbat favor wbicb
tbe Society grants its cbildrcn. Twenty times was
be beard congratulating bimself on tbo fact tbat
an old man lihc him could enjoy sucb a year. He
was a model for eacli one of us. Notwithstanding
bis fifty years of age, be bad all the simplicity, I will
add, even tbe graces and amiability, of tbo religious
cbildbood. He would ask like a child all tbo little
permissions prescribed by tbe rule. To bim tbey
were none of tbem little. He knew, be bad a pre-
sentiment, perbaps, tbat by a continual abnegation
in little things be was preparing bimself for tbe
greatest — for tbe apostolatc, for martyrdom. He
was always ready for any service, and he seemed to
take pleasure in cliargiug bimself witb some extra
employment or some disagreeable task. Of a lively
imagination and a sprigbtly disposition, be was a
very deligbtful talker, and bis narratives were en-

438 Alexis Clerc.

chanting. I think no one ever tired of his conver-
sation, which united the useful and the agreeable.
His information was extremely varied, and he
joined to a great deal of wit an exquisite good
sense which enabled him to form a just apprecia-
tion of things. Need wc add that during the
hours of recreation and promenade all were glad to
be near him ? Full of charity for persons, ho had
no toleration for error, which he had the gift of dis-
covering under no matter what disguise. The rec-
tifcudo of his judgment made him abhor as by in-
-^ stinct that mixture of principles called liberal Ca-
tJioIicisvi, and more than once 1 have heard him
stigmatize that deplorable system of conciliation as
energetically as has since our Holy Father Pope
Pius IX., in saying that it is a vcrital'le scourge.^*
In the house of St. Vincent they occupied them-
selves but little with politics, and they had only a
very vague knowledge of what was transpiring in
the exterior world. Still, they could not be igno-
l|i^ rant of the commotion excited by the Council of the

Vatican ; and in the anticipation of an approach-
ing struggle between the Revolution and the
Church they could not be sure of the part that
would be taken by the imperial government, jeal-
ous of reviving its prestige even at the price of the
most compromising alliances. But they were very
few who saw therein a peril and menace to the
peace of Europe. We remember how in the month
of April, 1870, under the liberal and pacific minis-
try of M. Emile Oilivier, all was couUiir de rose ;
and who then thought of the black clouds tliat

The Ambulance of Vaugirard, 439

311 ver-

eublc.

ad he

5 good

precia-

ig tllG

^lad to

bo had

, of dis-

'ho rcc-

5 by in-

\n(l Ga-

ird him

[ition as

31- Pope

urge."

d them-
only a
ring ill

be igno-
ilof the
proach-

md the
larfc that
nt, jeal-
e of the
ere very
to the
le month
ic minis-
de rose;
Lids that

were seen in the liorizon on the morrow of Sadowa ?
Father Clerc did not sliare t'he general ilhision ; he
foresaw the approaching tempest, and from that
moment predicted it. One of liis old comrades
having come to St. Vincent to see liim, they spoke
of the (]iilerent careers which young men might
enter. The father pronounced in favor of tlie mili-
tary career, and as his friend did not immediately
agree with him, ho said : "There is going to be a
general breaking up, when and how I know not,
but certainly there will be one before long." Upon
which his interlocutor adds: ** AVithout having
much faitli in the then existing order of things, I
did not suppose I was listening to a prophecy that
would so soon be verified."

Four months after this conversation we were not
only in full tide of war, but in full tide of hreahinfj
lip, and beaten blow after blow at Wissembourg
and at Reichshollon while awaiting the catastrophe
of Sedan. Under such circumstances Father
Clerc's place was at the camps or in the ambu-
lances ; he was first sent to Cherbourg to prepare
the sailors for the struggle by reconciling them to
God ; after which he was assigned his post of de-
votedness and peril in the ambulance of the college
of Vaugirard, and he did not leave it during the
enti • iege. He was there joined by his old com-
maiiJer, now Father De Plas, and both reaped in
the exercise of charity what they had together sown
in their Chinese expedition.

Father Clerc directed the ambulance, and he
profited by his position to make himself the servant

440

Alexis Clerc.

of all and to secure a largo sliarc of the roughest
and most mortifying hospital employments. Then
was seen what treasures of abnegation ho had
amassed during the course of his religious life. I
speak from the testimony of ocular witnesses, wlio,
without any intention of watching, did pot lose
sight of him, and still preserve tlio impression of
the admirable example he daily gave them.

His daily regulation was as follows : At half-past
five he ascended to the altar and celebrated f'le Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, and after his thanksgiving
went down to the ambulance, where he commenced
by reciting his breviary. That done, ho belonged
entirely to liis dear wounded soldiers. He first
visited the most suffering, consoled them, distribut-
ed little comforts — in a word, rendered them all the
services the tenderest charity could suggest. Then
he pursued his visits, going from bed to bed, ad-
dressing a kind good-morning to each, informing
himself of the needs of the body as well as of the
soul, always ready to satisfy both.

The hour of repast being come, he recited the
Bcnedlcitc, to which the jiatients responded. After
this he pub on an apron, joined the servants, and
distributed the yegetablos, soup, etc. ; then, as a
tender mother would have done for her child, he
assisted those to cat whoso wounds prevented them
from using their limbs.

When he had himself taken his meal he almost
always came to the ambulance to pass his recrea-
tion, to the great delight of the invalids.

The afternoon was a repetition of the morning ;

The Avihnlance of Vmigirard. /!ifAf\

•ouglicst
. Then

ho liad
3 life. I
3es, wlio,

pot lose
L'cssion o£

1.
half -past

I t^e Holy
,iiksgiving
)inmenced
3 belonf^ed
lie first
, distribiit-
iiem all tlio
est. Then

bed, ad-
inform mg

1 as of tho

recited the
led. After
•vants, and
then, as a
}!' child, he
■en ted them

il he almost
his recrea-

morning ;

and this routine, so cruel to nature, was renewed
every day, unless after some engagement the father
judged his presence more useful outside than in
the ambulance. Then he went to the scene of ac-
tion to administer the sacraments to the dying,
and to relieve and encourairo the wounded who

were awaiting the college omnibus. He was seen at
Champigny and at Bagneux exposing himself to a
lively fire without showing the least sign of ner-
vousness. At Bagneux the fighting was in the
village itself. When the omnibus returned for the
second time it did not bring back Father Clcrc.
Very uneasy, the father rector has himself con-
ducted immediately to the place where Father
Clerc disappeared, and this at the risk of falling
in the midst of the enemy, who have, it is said, re-
taken the village that was carried in the morning
by the French, who now fight while retreating.

They arrive ; they anxiously hurry over the still
smoking battle-field. What is not the surprise
and joy of father rector and his companions when,
after a quarter of an hour's search, they find
Father Clcrc seated on a rock and reciting his
breviary as tranquilly as if in his own room !

Wlien the wounded arrived at the ambulance, ho
himself stanched the blood that flowed from their
wounds, and with a sponge bathed their lacerated
and blood-stained members. He also washed their
feet, happy to imitate in that his Divine Master,
not by a mere ceremony, but by repeated acts in
which humility and charity had for their insepara-
ble companion a most meritorious mortification.

442

Alexis Clcrc.

He cliangcd ilicir linen and bandages, spared no
pains to ju'ocure them some alleyiation, and with
his own hands several times a day dressed the most
repulsive sores.

How tonehed those poor fellows were ! It would
have needed a heart of bronze to resist so much
ciiarity ; and, thank God ! our soldiers are not so
constructed. We are told of one of them, Renau-
din, a native of Paris, and a blacksmith by trade :
After only fifteen days of service he had his thigh
fractured at Champigny, and was left seven or
eight hours moaning ou the battle-field. Father
Clerc took a special interest in him and induced
him to approach the sacraments several times'.
There was no service too abject for him to render
this poor boy. '^ You do not know," the. latter
said one day to another father—*^ you do not know
how good Father Clerc is. He has done for me
what my own father would never have done.**
Emotion overcame him. He could not continue
his meal, and not knowing how to express himself,
he repeated, weeping: "If you knew how I love
him ! " A few days afterwards ho died in the best
of dispositions.

Father Clerc confessed, almost unaided, the twQ
hundred patients of the ambulance. On Satur-
days and the vigils of feasts, he exhorted them to
perform their Christian duties, and one by one
they were seen going to kneel at his feet, where
they received pardon. On Sundays, attentive to
having them hear Mass, he so arranged as to
make it easy, and even pleasant, for them. In

TJic A mbnlance of J \mgirard.

443

reel no
d willi
lg most

b would

iiiucii
not so
Rcnau-

y trade :

is tbigli

seven or

leather

induced

,1 timcc'.

to render

Llie . latter

not know

e for me

done."

continue

Is himself,
w I love

111 tlic best

., tlic tWQ

hi Satur-

Ll them to

jc by one

[eet, where

ttentive to

red as to

ftliem. In

the midst of so many gloomy days came Christmas
eve, and all of a sudden it grew luminous in the
college chapel with a light which had seemed to
have for ever disappeared, and which was the
sweetest of surprises to the poor victims of the
furies of war. Thanks to the co-operation of a
certain number of pupils who still frequented the
school as day scholars, and for whom caro had been
taken to prepare bed;?, tlie Midnight Mass was cele-
brated with a solemnity modified, it is true, but
very unexpected under these sad circumstances;
and singing, accompanied by organ, violoncello, and
flute, was heard during the sacred rite. Besides
the kind friends wlicso ingenious charity multiplied
the resources and almost the pleasures of the am-
bulance, there were noticed among the worship-
pers Admiral de Montaignac, who commanded the
fourth division and had his headquarters in the
college, tlic son of the admiral, and several officers
of his staff. At the moment of Communion the
pupils, through a delicate sentiment, spontaneously
gave place to the soldiers who had had the honor
of shedding their blood for France. It was not
without emotion that they saw Father Clcrc sup-
porting to the communion rail two young men of
eighteen years of age, who, much weakened by
their wounds, walked one on each side of him, lean-
ing on his arm. The other patients, retained by
the gravity of their illness upon beds of suffering,
were not deprived of the heavenly food ; they
could not come to kneel at the foot of the rltar,
but our Lord went to them, preceded by the long

444

Aiexis Clcrc.

procession of llieir comrades currying lighted candles
as they marched in good order in two straight
lines ; and when the touching and pious ceremony
•was over, all those hearts of youth and of soldiers
were but one, and nothing was wanting to the
miraculous serenity of tliat night, when the peace
of heaven was given onco more to men of good
will.

Sucli arc the souvenirs of the ambulance of Vau-
girard. Wc are farther told that, in spite of the
extraordinary cold of that cruel v/inter, Father
Clerc would never kindle a lire in liis room ; that
during the entire cicge he gave himself not a day
nor an hour of respite, never going out excepting
to carry assistance to the dying and the wounded.
These details, certainly very incomplete, do not the
less give us an idea of an uncommon virtue, and
those who furnished them were careful to add ?
" Having no suspicion that he was an elect of the
Lord for martyrdom, wc did not pay any very great
attention to his actions, which were always fall of
abnegation ; and then lie was so humble that he
always found means to have them pass unper-
ceivcd." Was it not precisely this Avhich rendered
tliem more holy and more precious in God's sight ?

lie left the ambulance of Vaugirard only to go to
the School Saint-Gcnevieve to prepare himself by
an eight days' retreat for pronouncing his last
vows, the date of which ceremony was fixed for the
1st of March.

This was his last retreat. After the wave of the
Commune had passer!, wc found in his room which

candles
straight
remony
soldiers
to the
le peace
of good

of Vau-
B of the
Father
fm ; that
lot a day
ixccpting
vouiided.
not the
rtue, and

to add :
ict of the

cry great

ys fall of
that he
unper-

rcndercd

s sight ?
y to go to
imself by

his last
ed for the

ave of the
)om which

IJ'iS Las if Vozvs.

445

for two months, had been occupied by the Feder-
ates, some sheets of paper disdained by them, and
still bearing the imprint of their heels, on which
our beloved brother had written his thoughts and
resolutions up to the eve of liis solemn profession.

What humility in the reproaches he addresses him-
self regarding the six months tliat have jast elapsed,
and during which he was the admiration of those
who saw him daily at his work ! *' Why," ho says,
" did I not regalate and arrange my life better while
I was employed in the ambulance ? . . .
How changeable I have been ! how inconsistent !
What a way to keep my resolutions of the Third
Year ! Truly I am ashumcd and almost surprised."

Then, alluding to a converstJtion with Father
Ducoudrav, who seconds his love of humiliation and
confirms him in the lowly opinion he has of him-
scir : " The disorder of my actions is not, as good
father rector says, lach of order. On the con-
trar}', all in my life has its order, its place, hours,
means. Everything is foreseen and ordered by the
rules, the employment, the superior, or election ;
when all that is accounted for there remains very
little else. Mine is not the insubordination and
want of discipline of a troop of mobiles ; it is the
insubordination and irregularity of a trained army,
and disorder is introduced into my life not through
want of rule or of knowledge, but by weariness of
restraint, and by the indifference and inattention
of the heads — that is, of my will." Fortunately
we know that on such subjects he must not bo
taken at his word.

44^

Alexis Clcrc.

■h.-^SL

I will copy the lasb i)agc inspired by the medita-
tion of the Two Standards :

" Our Lord presents us his cross, saying : In hoc
s{(j)io vmccs — Under this standard thou shalt con-
quer. We may imagine him discoursing with us :

" ' That contempt which thou dost hold in such
horror, hast thou not merited it by thy sins ? And
when thou didst offer to suffer everything to expi-
ate them, didst thou except the shame which is
their just wages ?

" ' What is due thee for thy bad inclinations, for
thy weaknesses and relaxations ? Where are thy
merits andthyyirtues, thy services, thy great deeds?
Wilt thou not that all justice be accomplished ? Dost
thou not need to be thus kept in thy place and is
it not necessary to master thy vanity and pride ?

"'Must thou not abase thyself before God?
And this is what thou dost in abasing thyself before
the outrage he sends thee by men. Dost thou not
desire to render him a worship worthy of him ?
Do something great for his honor. Wilt thou not
imitate me ? It is my voice that urges theo, it is
my hand that presents theo the cross ; I have
borne it before thee, and I did so to encourage theo
and sliow theo an example. I give it to thee ; as it
is my triumph and my glory, it will also be thine.
And as it is the pledge of my love for thee, it will
be the pledge of thy love for me.*

" crux ! dona orux ! " *

♦ This is the salutation the Apostle St. Andrew addressed to
tbe cross upon which he was about to die. Father Clerc will
repeat these words at Mazas in saluting the walls of his cell.

His Last Voius.

447

medita-

: In hoc
alb con-
ith US :
. ill such
3 ? And
to expi-
wliicli is

tions, for

) arc thy

at deeds?

ed? Dost

ice and is

pride ?

)rc God?

lelf before
thou not
of him ?
thou not

thee, it is
I have

I rage tbco
,hee ; as it
he thine.

ee, 1

it will

—ddressed to
jr Clerc will
)f his cell.

Animated with these sentiments of profound humi-
lity and of passionate love for Jesus crucified, he
made his solemn profession on Sunday, the 19lh of
March and the feast of St. Joseph, in the hands of
Father Ducoudray, rector of the School Saintc-
Gcnevicve, whose blood was to minglo with his in
the immolation of the 24tli of May.

The Commune was already on foot. The pious
friends who took part in that private festival cele-
brated on the morning of Sunday, Iiad some difficul-
ty in regaining their residence through the barri-
cades erected on the sides of the hill Sainte-Gene-
vievo to cut off the approaches of the Pantheon to
the regular troops. The evening before, the assas-
sins of Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas
had preluded in the Rue des Hosiers the summary
executions of La Roquette and the Rue Ilaxo.

Notwithstanding the excitement in the streets
and each day's uncertainty of the morrow, the
fervent religious set himself to work to prepare the
course of special mathematics with which he had
been charged. After various arrangements, which
came to naught, it was decided that the opening of
the classes prevented by the insurrection should
take place April 12, in the country house of Athis.
Father Clerc, who remained in Paris until ho
should be nec^ % argued ill from what ho saw
around him. : the lack of discipline of the troops,
of which ho had been so often a witness during the
siege ; the weakness of the government that at such
a moment doiiUed its oiun right ; the demoraliza-
tion, the want of harmony and of conviction and

448 Alexis Clcrc,

energy among npriglit men, all saddened him pro-
foundly, and he was among those who were not
deceived about the gravity of the evil which was
upon us long before it burst out in the disorganiza-
tion of the public authority. lie was sometimes
heard to say : *•' Morianmr m simjjUcitate nostra —
Let us die in our simplicity. . . . There is nothing
left but to die; tlierc is no longer any room for
honest people here below." The playful tone in
whicli ho spoke these words in nowiso concealed
their bitterness.

Towards the end of the month a devoted lady,
who had been unable to assist at the ceremony of
the 19th, came to i)ay him a visit of apology and
politeness. As she had had to cross several bar-
ricades to reach the house, she atked him : '* Fa-
ther, do you not fear for your houses and your
persons in Paris?" '^Yes, indeed, madame," he
I replied ; " I fear as much more as Paris is m.oro

guilty ; it- needs to be purified by blood. ... Al-
mighty God fehould take the blood of forty of us."

He did not bargain, as is plain to see, and ho
supposed that others had the same ardor for sacri-
fice with which ho was burning. Perhaps God
took only choice victims, so as to reduce the number
without diminishing the value of the holocaust.
Who knows ? . . .

a T^o days before his imprisonment," says one of
his colleagues of the School Sainte-Genevieve, ''I
was struck by his persistence in keeping in his
room, and my impression was that foreseeing his
life v/as in danger, he congratulated himself on

His Last Vozus.

449

having it to offer to God. I bogged him to take
precautions ; his reply gave mc reason to believe
that he desired to make the sacrifice of his life."

In fact, he had always had that desire, perhaps
even with the presentiment of the kind of death
that was reserved for him.

Enumerating all that Ave ought to cheerfully ac-
cept iu order to correspond to the genuine military
spirit of the Society of Jesus, he wrote :

"A dangerous post . . . wearisome— brilliant
. . . obscure— bullets . . . sickness.''

And he was persuaded that God would spare him
the trial of sickness.

There remained, then, the bullets. But at the
moment when he threw those words on paper (No-
vember, 18G9) who could have anticipated the Com-
mune of 1871 and the fusillade of La Eoquette ?

CHAPTER XV.

FATHER CLEUC PRISONER AND VICTIM FOR LOVE OF JESUS
CHRIST— MAZAS— LA ROQUETTE.

"We have now reached the part of this cherished
and sacred task where we have hefore us a guide
whose authority is great, and whom we shall follow
step by step. "Who is not acquainted with the
*'Acts of the Captivity and Death of Fathers
Olivainfc, Ducoudray, Caubert, Clerc, and De
Bengy," by Father Armand do Ponlevoy ? One
cannot read those truthful pages, written by the
sympathetic witness of a bloody immolation, with-
out thinking of the era of the persecutions and
of the catacombs. There are found the most of
the letters Father Clcrc wrote in the confine-
ment of the Concierge rie and Mazas ; I shall
only need to reproduce them. Still, having to
occupy himself with the five hostages at once,
Father de Ponlevoy has neglected several docu-
ments of real interest, but which would have
made his remarkably clear narration too com-
plicated. So he has left me something to glean.
I gladly gather up a few ears, which will not be the
least ornament of my sheaf.

Father de Ponlevoy observed everything from
Versailles, where the unanimous advice of his con-
sultcrs had fixed him so that he might continue to

450

K OF JESUa

clierishcd
us a guide
iiall follow
I witli the
f Fathers
. and De

i^oy

One

ten by the
,tion, with-
utions and
he most of
confinc-
; I shall
having to
at once,
eral docu-
fvould have
too com-
ng to glean.
1 not be the

^thing from
e of his con-
i continue to

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 45 1

correspond with all the religious of whom he wjis
superior. It was to Versailles that Fathers Oliv-
aiut and Ducoudray, and the other hostages, wrote
to him from their prison. He replied, but his let-
ters never reached them. What he suffered dur-
ing that time is unutterable. Tlie wounds of Jiia
heart bled for three years longer, and then he died,
a \ictim of his boundless devotcdncss and his pa-
ternal anguish, alas ! too often renewed.

Here, in all their simplicity, are the incidents
just as he presents them in the *' Acts." I ahridge his
recital :

After twelve o'clock on the night of the Monday
in Holy Week, that is, in the first hour of Holy
Tuesday, April 4, the School Sainte-Genevieve is
completely surrounded by a battalion of National
Guards armed to the teeth. They knock with re-
doubled blows at the door of No. 18. The brother
porter gets up and says that he will go for the keys,
deposited, as customary, in the father rector's
room ; the door will then be opened in a moment.
That moment appears long to our braves ; the
bugle sounds three times by way of summons, and
a general discharge upon all the windows alarms
the neighborhood. Father Ducoudray very soon
untlerstood that all protest was useless ; his per-
fectly cool and dignified manner caused tliose mis-
creants to exclaim : '* What a man ! and what
energy of character ! " During the night the house
was thoroughly ransacked. They pretended they
were searching for arms ; they found none. Their
especial desire was the cash-box ; it had been drain-

Ili'

452

Ah'. vis Clcrc,

C(l by tlio expenses of tho siege. Then they set
about securing persons whom the} retained as lios-
lages ; and that was *ho recompense of the care be-
stowed for six months on tho wounded in the am-
bulance of the scliool.

At five o'clock tho bugle gives tho signal of de-
parture for tho Prefecture of Police, and tlic pris-
oners file olf between two lines of National Guards.
At their head and a little distance from the others
walks the father rector; then follow Fathers Fer-
dinand Billot,* Emilo Chauveau, Alexis Clerc,
Anatolo de Bengy, Jean Bellanger, Theodore de
Regnon, and Jeau Tanguy, and Brothers Benoifc
Darras, Gabriel Dedebat, Rene Piton, Pierre Lc
Fallier, and seven domestics. On the top of the
bridge Saint Michel, near the entrance to the city,
Father Diicoudray turns, and with a radiant look
says to Father Chauveau, who is nearest to him :
**Ah! well, llant gaudentcs ; is it not so?"
" AVhat did he say to you ? " tho uneasy guards ask
Father Chauveau. Tho latter repeats the suspect-
ed phrase. "God knows liow much the guards
understood of it," adds the historian. True imita-
tors of the apostles, they indeed went . . . re-

* Father Billot has just been taken from tho School Sainte-
Genevieve after more than twenty years of professorship. Ho
is a great loss. He was hifjhly esteemed by the illustrious
Cauchy, his first teacher, who evf'U thought of bequeathing
him his unpublished works, some of which needed a continua-
tor rather than an editor. Endowed with superior penetra-
tion and possessing extensive learning of more than one sort,
he could with honor have filled a chair of theology. He carries
with him the regrets of a crowd of young men whose hearts
he won by his gentle virtue, while by his devotedness ho
facilitated their admission to the Polytechnic School.

Prisoner and Vict wi for Love of Jesus, 453

1 tlicy set
icd as hos-
iie care be-
lli tlic iim-

gnal of cle-
id tlio pris-
nil Guards.
: the others
'atbers Fer-
Icxis Clcrc,
'hcodoro de
hers Benoit
, Pierre Le
top of the
s to the city,
adiant look
■est to him:
not so ? "
y guards ask
the suspect-
the guards
True imita-
. . rc-

School Sainte-
ofessorship. Ho
the illustrious
o£ bequeathing
ided a continiia-
iperior penetra-
e than one sort,
ogy. He carries
jii whose hearts
devotedness uo
School.

joiciufj tluit llinj iccre acroinifcd vorthy to snffer
reproach for the name of Jesus" (Acts v. 41).

Arrived at the Prefecture of Police, the bugles
sound loudly to announce the success of the expe-
dition and the ricli prize that has been secured. I
spare tlic reader tlic gross abuse that -svelcomes the
captives, and the hasty interrogatory to which
Father Ducoudray is put. The father rector is
shut up alone in a cell of the Conciergerie; the
otliers are led to the Prison du Depot, and crowded
v/ilh thirty men into a large room used hitherto
for the disreputable women the police pick up at
night in the gutters of the capital.

When he found himself thus separated from the
rest, Father Diicoudray, through religious spirit
and love of the common life, asked and obtained
the privilege of having at least one of his brethren
for a companion. lie named Father Alexis Clerc,
who gladly responded to that call which summoned
liim to death. As soon as ihey were together they
organized a little supply service in favor of their
brothers, deprived like themselves of the most nec-
essary articles, and each of them despatched notes,
wliich reached their destination, and on which may
still be seen the stamp and endorsement of the
prison officers. Father Clerc wrote to his ever-dc-
vo;ed brother, and was not long in receiving, ac-
cording to his request, towels, handkerchiefs, and
wrought-iron spoons, the apparition of all which
caused a sudden flash of joy in the common hall.
"Cleanliness being a great consolation to a pris-
oner," Father Clerc hastened to thank his sister-

1 'll.

iti

454

A /ex is Clcrc,

I
I

imi

i i'i

ill-law, who ill the absence of hsr hnsband hiul
provided everything ; liis religious brethren blessed
the attentive charity which procured them those
humble gifts and doubled their value.

*'A j'lilor of the Depot of the Prefecture,
charged witli visiting the two recluses in their
common cell, gave these details of how they lived
together : *They want for nothing, are gay and
appear very happy, and pray together almost con-
tinually/ Father Ducoudray had frequently ex-
pressed this wish to one of his most intimate con-
fidants: * Ah ! if you and I could ascend some
mountain with our crucifix, we would know how
to pray to God ! ' The wish was granted." *

But that prison was too good for our dear cap-
tives, who were able therein to still find a reflection
of the religious life and to breathe the perfume of
fraternal charity ; con^cqaently they only passed
through it. Thursday vcning, April G, a prison
carriage, divided into compartments carefully
closed and separated one from another, bore them
and his Grace the Archbishop of Paris and Presi-
dent Bonjean from oho Conciergerio to Mazas.
Father de Bc'igv, brought from the common hall,
was also a part of the load, and a cell awaited him
in the prison of Mazas. Later (April 13) the same
prison received Father Olivaint and Father Cau-
bert, arrested in our house of the Rue de Sevres on
the evening of April 'i. April 18 two other Jesuits

* "Acts of the Captivity and Death of tho Rev. Frs. P. Oli-
vaint, L. Ducoudray, J. Caut)crt, A. Clerc, and A. de Bengy,"
by Fr. A. do Ponlevoy, eleventh edition, page 58. Our refer-
ences are always to this edition.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 45 5

•en blessed
hem tliosc

Prefecture,
s ill Uieir
they lived
le gay and
almost con-
qucntly cx-
liimatc con-
.scend some
. know liow

,ed." *

ir dear cap-
d a reflection
3 perfume of
only passed
G, a prison
t3 carefully
r, bore tbcm
IS and Presi-
c to Mazas.
[onimon hall,
awaited him
1 13) the same
leather Cau-
de Sevres on
[other Jesuits

«lev. Frs. P. Oli-
Id A. de Bengy,
58. Ourre£ei-

were likewise confined at Mazas, but they escaped
death. As to the sixteen inmates of Ihc School
Sainte-Gcnevievo, father?, brothers, and servants,
who were left in the common hall of the Concicr-
gerie, for some time their fate was uncertain.
Then there was a moment of indulgence at the
Hotel de Ville, under the influence of v/hich they
were released, April 12, after nine days of im-
prisonment.

Behold, then. Father Clerc entirely se^iarated
from his brethren and shut up in his narrow cell
of the prison Oi. Mazas ! Assuredly the habitation
is not a cheerful one. It begins to bo pretty well
known, so many honest; people had, thanks to the
Commune, leisure to make a personal study of it,
and have since published exact descriptions. It is
certain, however, that our dear prisoner did not
there lose the joy of his soul ; on the contrary, he
experienced an unutterable dilatation of heart. He
saw our Lord's cross glowing upon those naked
and cold walls, and he cried out as he entered,
bona Cnixf

Then he remembered that there, as well as in Lis
cell of the Kue Lhomond, he had his duty to fuHil.
He was professor of special mathematics, and the
classes were to be reopened at the country house of
Athis. Will he ever rejoin them ? It is very
doubtful ; but no matter, his duty for the moment
is to prepare his course, and forthwith he sets him-
self to the work. In the first letter he addresses
to his brother Julos he asks not only for a Bible
and a breviary, but also for books of analytic geu-

.1"

456

Alexis Clerc.

mcirv, and asks for them ^villi an carTicstncss as
muck more meritorious as tbose subjects with
which he has been surfeited have now less attrac-
tion for liim. One of his religious brothers, "who
knew him well, has gone so far as to say that that
anticipatory preparation of his classes in his cell at
Mazas was neither more nor less than a heroic act.
" I am in good health," he remarks in concluding
his letter, ''am quite contented, and, with those
books, shall indefinitely bid defiance to the ennui
which has not yet presented itself." Imagine, if
you can, a man more easily contented.

The feast of Easter (April 9) comes, and the
poor prisoner's most sensible privations are not
tliose confinement inflicts upon nature. But the
'' Alleluia " which sings Christ's victory over death
does not the less resound in the depths of his heart,
and, borrowing the language of the niartyrology
for the day, he writes to his beloved brother :

*' My Dear Jules : To-day is the feast of feasts,
the Christian Passover, the day the Lord has
made ! For us there was neither Mass to say nor
to hear, but there was joy and peace in the Lord.

*' As the good things you have sent are much
more plentiful than I need, your intention of com-
ing to the assistance of my companions in captivity
is manifest to me, and, if I am happy to express
my gratitude for your fraternal friendship, I am
far more so to thank you for your charity ; it is
the most excellent of all the virtues, and the one
which will be replaced by nothing more excellent
even in heaven. Therefore I not only thank you,

Prisoner and 'Viciiiu for Love of fczus. 437

cstncss us
ccts witli
;ss attrac-
A\ers, wlio
J that that
his cell at
heroic act.
concluding
with those
tho ennui
Imagine, if

cs, and the
)ns arc not
•c. But the
y over death
o£ his heart,
martyrology
jother :
\cid offcasls,
\i6 Lord A^'-^
lss to say nor
11 tho Lord.
Lt are rcucli
[ition of com-
s in captivity
,py to express
:udship, I ^^
charity ; it i^
and the one
Lore cxcclleut
ly thank you,

but I congratulate you, because I know that God
will not leave you without a reward for your zeal
in providing for the wants of those who suffer for
his name.

" It is to me a new and lively consolation to sec
you associated with our tribulation. I am not only
happy and proud of it on my own account, but
abo en yours ; and I hope that it is for you and
your family the first of a series of graces more abun-
dant than ever, which God will bestow upon you.

''' Do not worry about me any longer ; place your
family in safety — that is the most urgent duty.
Besides, I have no want to make known to you. I
have sufficient linen, and I have money to procure
me food.

" This morning I was ready to take my break-
fast ; your packages arrived just in time ; I did
lionor to all of them. That oi:)portuno conjunc-
ture is one of the thousand delicacies of the provi-
dence of our Father who is in Heaven. May he bo
blessed for it, and may tho instrument ho has
chosen as tho channel of his beueQts to me be
likewise blessed ! I am unwilling to ask of the
prefecture permission to take books to my cell,
not through fear of a refusal, nor to spare myself
tlie trouble of being grateful, but for better and
higher reasons. Besides, with the Bible I have the
wherewithal to nourish my soul for a longer time
than I shall be in jirison, even though I should
stay till I die of oid age. I hope that Charles,
who teaches me to meet misfortune patiently, will
at last learn of me to bear it with our Lord ; he

i,i!

i,ii:

458

Alexis Chrc.

"would then find the Eccrefc of siilicring joyfully
and with fruit." ^=

After this letter there is a long silence, and it is
not till fifteen days la^er (Saturday, April 2^) that
Father Clerc succeeds in having the following lines
reach his brother. They issue from a prison si-
lent as the tomb, and whoso echoes are awakened
only by the cannonaJe : " The cannon arc heard
thundering night and day ; so the forts are being
disputed, and we, after the Prussians, are besieging
Paris ; but the Prussians would have had to work
a good while yet to take it by main force. I con-
clude from this — and you see that my sources of
information are not numerous — I conclude, never-
tlieless, that the siege and my detention will not
finish to-morrow. I have amusement for some
days still in the book you gave me, but I would
like to have another."

Here follows a new request for mathematical
works. But these will not suffice to fill up the
leisure that may yet be prolonged several weeks.
" If you can get me the * Theological Sumnaa of
St. Thomas,'" he adds, *'I shall be supplied for a
long time." So in his prison ho means to resume
his habits of labor, and renew that assiduous in-
tercourse with St. Thomas which, in his life as an
officer, even distant expeditions did not interrupt.
The letter concludes with these words :

* Mr. Charles Clerc is an elder brother, who has spent a great
part of his life in England, and with whom our readers hnve
not yefc had the opportU"icy of becoming acquainted. We
are iiappy to hero offer him the homage of our respectful syai-
patln*.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 459

joyfully

and it is
1 22) lliat
iwiug li^cs
prison si-
awakened
I arc heard
3 are being
,'e besieging
ad to work
:ce. I con-
j sources of
lude, never-
ion will not
lit for some
but I would

natbematical
fill up tae
3Ycral weeks,
il Summa of
lupplied for a
Ins to resume
jassiduous in-
jliis life as an
[lot interrupt.

has spent a great

mr readers b^^e

acquainted. ^^J

r respectful syai-

" Have you not answered me ? Has your rejily
to my last letter not been given mo ? I know no-
thing about it. . Thoy talk of the cloister of con-
vents of nuns ; this of Mazas is not to be dis-
dained.

*' I bog you not to compromise yourself in any-
thing for me ; what I ask you for is of abundance
and not of necessity. So do not go and get your-
self incarcerated for the sake of helping me ; that
would serve nobody, and you are not as well situ-
ated as I am to take it patiently."

April 25 he writes again in a tone of affectionate
reproach: "You might perhaps not leave me in
such ignorance. You should not conspire with
the whole system of prison cells to preserve silence
around me. Since I know absolutely nothing of
what is going on outside, it is impossible for me
to know less ; and though one of your letters should
not reach me, or should be mutilated, it would
still inform me of as much as if you had written
nothing in it.

"For instance, I would like to know if our com-
panions of the Conciergerie have been released ; if
other fathers have been arrested and their houses
pillaged j if our Preparatory School has opened
somewhere ; if the little boys are still at the college.
And I do not think I will be prevented from
learning this. It is what interests me most.

" Perhaps also you may be able to learn if it is
a determined thing that, contrary to the usage of
the prison, we are to see nobody, and finally if
they think of taking any steps against us."

460

Alexis Clerc,

1$:

Insistin/y upon liis requests for books — requests
prompted by tlio rather long period that probably
remains for him to spend in solitude — he says :
"The *Siimma' of St. Thomas is a book which
you will have to borrow — in ordinary times I could
easily tell you where, but now I do not know.
Every priest who is a little learned or studious cer-
tainly has it in his library. Every library that is
not exclusively frivolous contains it likewise, and a
librarian who is a little obliging would lend it to
you for a poor prisoner.

''I am in want of nothing, unless it be that,
the i^rison regulations no longer allowing a chap-
lain, we have neither Mass nor sacraments. I am
sure prisoners never desired them so much.

" I pray to God, I study, I read, I write a little,
and I find that time passes quickly oven at Mazas.

" There truly are such things as presentiments; I
believe I never travelled on the Vincennes rail-
road without looking at this prison and saying to
myself that perhaps I would bo its inmate some
day. When the Prison de la Sante was building,
I made a careful visit of it, and had the same idea
constantly in my mind. But, not to exaggerate
my presentiments, I should add that I imagined
my incarceration would be brought about by the
regular and official means of a certain Monsieur
Bonjean, a magistrate of the old Parliaments,
while the fact is that that same poor Monsieur
Bonjean is less astonished to find himself in prison
than to be there with the Jesuits. Fortune ! I
may also say, Commune ! behold thy freaks."

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus, 461

requests
probably
he says:
3k ^Yllicll
s I could
)t know,
lious cer-
ry that is
'ise, and a
lend it to

t be tbat,
ig a chap-
its. I am
ch.

ite a little,
at Mazas.
.timents; I
icnnes rail-
saying to
.mate some
,s building,
same idea
exaggerate

I imagined
lOut by the

II Monsieur
'arliaments,
r Monsieur

|elf in prison
I^ortune 1 I
iv freaks."

In truth the meeting was a singular one, and M.
Bon jean had doubtless no more anticipated it than
Father Clerc. And at La Eoquette how much
cause that magistrate had to congratulate himself
upon a proximity which permitted him to open
his soul to the very Jesuit who, with good reason,
was astonished at having him for a companion in
captivity !

Fatlicr Clerc soon received the details he was
anxious for regarding the fate of his confreres and
of the Jesuit establishments ; and amidst so much
bitterness he experienced some consolation in
learning that the educational works which were
particularly dear to him were being continued as
completely as possible, in spite of the horiiblo
struggle that was plunging Paris in fire and blood.
The pupils of the School Sainte-Genevievc were re-
assembled at Athis, those of Vaugirard at Saint-
Germain-en-Laye, and his brother Jules had a
hand in the latter installation. Thanks to a species
of salvage organized through his efforts, the fathers
were able to remove from the College of Vaugi.
rard, as from a vessel stranded on the coast, a por-
tion of the school properties they had the most
need of at Saint-Germain, and which otherwise
would have been the prey of the Commune. The
two nephews of the prisoner of Mazas, Alexis and
Henri Clerc, young pupils of Vaugirard, con-
tinued their studies at Saint-Germain, where they
soon received the most touching tokens of their
uncle's affection.

''Well and good," he replies, after having re-

4^2

Alexis CI ere.

Jll

B'lt

ceived this news (letter of April 28) ; ''tliat is the
way to write. In two words you inform mo of
everything that most interests me. Now my igno-
rance of all that is transpiring is much less painful.

" Take no more steps to see me, for I fear these
will draw something disagreeable upon you, and I
have no hope of their being successful. This door
■will be opened by a hand other than yours, and if
it does not open at all we shall know how to resign
ourselves.

" You will cheerfully accept the compliments
■which are paid you for me. I am happy and proud
to suffer something for the name I bear. You
are sufficiently aware that the blow did not sur-
prise me, that I did not seek to avoid it, and that
I desire to support it.

'^I do not hope for the deliverance of which you
speak, and I do not know that we need apprehend
anything from fear, anger, or their necessity of
further committing themselves. The less I am
master of myself, the more I am in the hands of
God ; what he decrees will come to pass, and he
will enable me to do what he wills that I shoukl.
Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat — I can do all
things in Him who strengthens me."

Eight days later he at last received a visit from
his brother. Jules did not come alone ; a cou-
rageous woman, who had already given j^roof of
devotedness at the ambulance of Yaugirard, having
obtained a permit to see the prisoner through the
grates of Mazas, had brought Mr. Jules Clcrc as
an escort.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 463

at is ibe
n mc of
my igno-
, painful,
ear these
ou, and I
riiis door
rs, and if
to resign

npliments
and proud
jar. You
a not Eur-
:, and that

which you
apprehend
lecessity of
less I am
e hands of
.ss, and he
t I shoulO.
|l can do all

visit from
me ; a cou-
kn proof of
jard, having
through the
les Clerc as

The conversation was as gay as it could have
been in tlie parlor of Vaugirard or of the School
Sainte-Genovievc. It was marked by an incident
which, to borrow the expression of Faf^ or dc
Ponlevoy, did not lack a chivalric stamp. Tlie in-
terview having been procured, by grac: of ncjiotism,
through the credit of a high dignitary of the Com-
mune, .Father Clerc was told that that powerful
personage would deign to come himself to Mazas
to propose to Father Clerc to include him in a
negotiation of exchange of prisoners. "But at
the mere idea of such a treaty the former naval
officer, who was a judge of honor, sprang from his
chair. * Be calm, we bog you,' the visitors said to
him, ' and especially if the offer is made you do
not compromise yourself; some misfortune will
befall you if you do.' *AVhat misfortune ? What
have I to fear ? We cannot bo worse off than at
the Conciergerie and at Mazas.' ' I beg your par-
don, father, I beg your pardon. . . . You mis-
take ; worse can befall you.' * Ah ! ' he cried with
a start, * then we should be shot ! What good
fortune I . . . Straight to Paradise ! ' And he
looked radiant, with his arms extended and his
eyes raised to heaven."

He was delighted to learn that the establishments
of the Eue Lhomond and the Rue Vaugirard were
successfully reorganized at Athis and Saint-Ger-
main, and that the Commune had released, among
others, tv/o of his confreres who were absolutely
necessary for the special coiirsrs which, he thought,
could very well do without him for sometime yet.

464

Ah'.vis CIcrc.

The next day ho wrote to liis brollier : *' I am
truly joyful since yestcrduy. Tlie news you brouglit
me was so good, and the evil might bo much
fxreatcr. The upshot of the matter is our works
arc impeded, but we shall not be altogether pre-
vented from continuing them. Yet what gives
ir. othe most pleasure is to see you rendering ser-
vice to M. Gravoueillo,* and you understand that,
while perfectly appreciating the service itself,
what especially touches mo is the excellence of the
good work you thus do. Our Lord always rewards
what is done for him ; he is generous enough not
to allow himself to be exceeded in generosity by
any one. I am proud of you.

"I told you that they let us have the news-
papers.! I have read three, have written I don't
know how many letters, and have not opened a
mathematical book to-day. AVhat dissipation I "

This letter bears the date of May 5. On the
Cth, before sending it, he adds these lines, which
prove how little he cherished illusions : ** They are
filling up their prison. I believe the hour of their
most evil counsels will be the hour of their greatest
reverses."

He did not fail to discharge his debt of gratitude
towards the devoted woman who had surmounted
so many obstacle! in order to visit him and afford
him the pleasue of his brother's visit.

♦ The Rev. Father Gi'avoueille, rector of the College of
Vaugirard.

+ This relaxation of the prison discipline was probably due
to the same influence which procured for Father Clerc the
wAt of bis brother and the person mentioned in connection
with it.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jcsns. 465

<' I am

brougnt
be mucli
ur \vorlv-5
Uier prc-
.lat gives
ering £cr-
and tliat,
,ce itself,
nee of the
ys rewards
nougli not
ucrosiiy by

the news-
ten I don't
opened a
pation :
5. On the
ine?, wbicli
'' They are
our of their
iieir greatest

lof gratitude
Isurniounted
and afford

Le College of

Is probably due
Itber Clerc tbo
in connectiou

"It is not enough," he wrote to lier, " to have
thanked you once ; I owe you too mucli, and I
wish to thank you again.

*•' To do so I will tell you of the joy your uncx-
poctcd visit gave mc. I supposed you were in the
country, and meanwhile you returned to Paris.
Thrusting yourself into the jaws of the wolf, you
forced the gates of this impenetrable prison. Bo
very sure that I can form some estimate of all it
must have cost you, of all the weariness and fatigue
of such efforts, and of the multiplied journeys to
Versailles, to Paris, and to Saint-Germain. But
charity, says St. Paul, *is kind, sceketh not her
own, hopeth all things, and endureth all things.'
Consequently it overcomes all obstacles. It was
you, then, who were to break down this barrier
that stood firm in spite of all my brother's efforts
for a month — for I had been in prison just one
month when I had the pleasure of seeing you.
This was right: charity, which is better, should
be mightier than fraternal friendship. AVhat an
attention on your part, and what trouble you took
to hunt up my brother and wait for him that you
might bring him to me.

'•'Eemark how God commences in this world to
justify his providence, and ask yourself if the hor-
rors of these days have not a reason for being, in
that they call forth such amiable and delicate de-
votedness.

" I must tell you once again what a consolation
it was, after this month of absolute separation, and
of hearing incessantly night and day the thunder

IMAGE EVALUATION
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i/j

1.0

I.I

11.25

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JA IIIIII.6

^;.

fc>>^

466

Alexis Clerc,

of cannon — what a consolation it was to see beloved
friends and to learn news of such interest. More-
over, all the news you brought me was good. The
blows that have struck us have only partially in-
jured us ; our colleges are hardly incommoded by
them ; while a few of us, suffering for the name of
Jesus, will render the labors of the rest more effica-
cious and more fruitful.

" So I have brought back into my cell a yery
joyous heart. The mortiflcation of the solitary
life is but a little thing to a man accustomed to
silence and study, and whose life has been mostly
passed in his religious cell. But ignorance regard-
ing such great interests is very painful, and all pos-
sible resignation to the will of God neither can
nor ought to make us indifferent to them.

'* What, then, shall I do to show you some grati-
tude ? 1 will continue my office towards you, to
excite you to fidelity to your resolutions, and espe-
cially to bring you ever nearer to our Lord, not
only spiritually by prayer and the practice of all
your duties, as well as by your works of charity,
but to draw you closer to him corporally by the
Iloly Communion. Here tliere is no confession,
no Mass even on Sundays. Wo are lodged, fed ;
that is enough for animals. Profit by the sacra-
ments whicli are offered you.

" Can you explain to me why we who are capa-
ble, and so readily capable, of generous and affec-
tionate sentiments, arc so cold towards our Lord ?
Has he not the most generous, the most delicate,
and the tenderest of hearts ? There is nothing of

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 467

beloved
More-
a. The
ially in-
Loded by
name of
)re effica-

ell a very
3 solitary
stomed to
len mostly
ice regard-
nd all pos-
leitber can

lome grati-
■ds you, to
I, and cspe-
Lord, not
Iclice of all
of charity,
ally by tlie
confession,
odged, fed ;
|y the sacra-

Lo are capa-
Is and affec-
Is our Lord ?
lost delicate,
[3 nothing of

good in any man which is not far more excellent in
him. We must love him with all our strength."

At the same time he writes to Father Chauveau,
who he knows now is at liberty and engaged in
procuring for his brotliers still in confinement the
comforts compatible with the prison regulations :
" I have nothing to suffer except from ignorance
of what is going on. I have books, and between
prayer, reading, and study, the time passes almost
as quickly as elsewhere ; as for linen and aliment,
charity does not permit us to want. Let nobody
be the least uneasy about mc.

**Ihave heard something said of proposals of
exchange. Ahsit! I will none of it. I bear the
situation pretty patiently, and shall as long as
need be. There are so many reasons for refusing
an cxchangn. Oh! no.

" Bid the charitable hand that feeds us to be
less prodigal of its benefits to me. It may be flat-
tering to it, but is rather shameful to me : I am
(jroiving fat ! Will I bo able to leave my ceil when
the hour of deliverance shall come ? My cell,
horrors I is it a coop ? Truly, I ^'' ^ not require so
many things."

While it was still easy for him to correspond
with persons outside the prison, he addressed two
letters, foreseeing doubtless that they would be
the last, to his two young nephews, Alexis and
Henri, members of the little colony which had plant-
ed its tent at Saint Germaiu-en-Laye while await-
ing the restoration of the College of Vaugirard.
After the example of the Divine Master, having

4C8

Alexis Clcrc.

loved Ids own, he loved tlicm nnio the end (John
xiii. 1). His affection for them all, of which we
have discovered so many proofs in his letters to his
brother, never expressed itself in terms more ear-
nest and tender. To little Henri, a child of ten
years of age, ho writes :

" My Dear Little Hej^ri : I learn from your
papa that you are very good and very attentive,
therefore ho is pleased with you, and your dear
mamma is, and all of us, including your masters.
Do not be discouraged because you are not at the
head of your class ; you are not the first boy in the
class, but you are not the biggest boy either.

" You cannot be learned before having studied ;
and since you do study, you will become learned.
Have confidence; you know very well that farmers
sow in October to reap in August.

"Everything is going on first rate; do not bo
sad and discontented when wo are all satisfied.

'* To love our Lord dearly, to love the Blessed
Virgin dearly, to perform your tasks faithfully,
and to behave yourself well, is all you need. With
that one should progress proudly and happily.

** With time you will grow in stature, in know-
ledge, in wisdom, and in graces. This is what is
wished you by your affectionate uncle in our
Lord, "Al. Clerc, S.J."

" Mazas, May 8, 1871."

The same day he wrote to little Henri's elder
brother, who in baptism had received the name of
his uncle :

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus, 469

(Jolin
aicli -sve
rs to liis
lore car-
Id of ten

•om your
ittentivc,
our dear
• masters,
lot at the
boy ia ^^^
her.

g studied ;
ac learned,
lat farmers

do not bo
,tisfied.
lihe Blessed

faithfully.

ccd. AVi^^^

appily*
te, in know-
is is what is
icle in our
:rc, S.J»'

llenri'a elder
the name of

" Mazas, Monday, ^lay S, 1871.

"My DEAR NEPHEW Alexis: Your father has
brought me news of yon, and, as it is good, I desire
(0 congratulate you ; I am obliged to do it in writ-
ing from my prison. He has told me of your suc-
cess in your class, of your meriting the cross twice
and also the ribbon, and of your docility being
satisfactory to your masters. That is what makes
a good scholar !

"As a good scholar fulfils all his duties well, ho
satisfies his masters and himself; ho has no re-
proaches to dread, therefore he is confident ; he
has no fault to conceal, therefore he is frank ; ho
has only compliments to receive, therefore he is
agreeable ; and he is disposed to like everybody, as
everybody is disposad to like him.

" It should not be enough for you to be a good
scholar and an amiable child ; you must also be a
holy child. God should have the place i-n your
heart which belongs to him — that is, the first place.
This is why what rejoiced me most was to learn
that you show yourself as pious as you are good and
industrious, and that you are first in Catechism
class. You are thinking seriously of your First
Communion, and are preparing for it with all the
f/ctention you arc capable of. Your two sisters
have given you a good example ; you mean to fol-
low it, and to leave a similar one to little Henri ;
that is the way piety increases in families and
strengthens the bonds which unite them.

"However, you must in this, as well as in your
studies and your conduct, moderate too great an

< I'

ill

4/0

Alexis Clerc.

eagerness to do well and to sncceed. What a joy
it is for U3, my dear Alexis, especially for your
kind father and your tender mother, to have only
this danger to dread for you ! Still, it is to be
dreaded.

" It is, perliaps, by forming your heart to a piety
earnest but gentle, ambitious of pleasing God but
asking of him the means of doing so, jealous of
loving our Lord a great deal but asking him to
give you that love, that you will learn to expect
more (in other things, too) of God than of yourself,
and, as an instance, to join in your labor and your
good conduct ardor to moderation. It is not, you
understand perfectly, my dear child, that your zeal
should bo diminished — to regulate it and to direct
it prudently, is to strengthen and not to weaken it.

"I am confident, therefore, that you are going
to make an excellent First Communion, and that
our Lord, giving himself to you entirely, more gencr
rous to you than you will have been to him, will
load you with blessings, and especially will fill your
heart with an ineffaceable love for him ; I shall
not fail to pray that you may worthily perform that
great act, and that you may draw from it abundant
graces.

'•Farewell, my dear child ! Your uncle, a pri-
soner for the name of Jesus, who affectionately em-
braces you in Jesus' Heart. Al. Clerc, S.J."

The very day Father Clerc assumed that beauti-
ful title, *' Prisoner for the Name of Jesus," to the
end that it might be still better justified in the
eyes of all, the Commune ordered to be promulgat-

Prisoner and Victim for Love of jfesus. 471

t a joy
r your
7C only
3 to be

. a piety

>od but

ilous of

him to

o expect

yourself,

lud your

not, you

your zeal

to direct

vcakeu it.

are going
and tbat

lore gene-

bim, TV ill

1 fill your

, I sball

form tliat

abundant

iclc, a pri-
lately cm-
|c, S.J."
liat beauti-

is," to tbe
Ifiod in the

)romul gat-

ed at Mazas a new decree, in virtue of which the
parlor was suppressed for the priests and main-
tained only for the laics. Citizen Garreau had
jus*, been appointed director of Mazas. Tins new
rule was, it was aptly said, *' the largess of his joy-
ous accession." *

But there is a Visitor whom the Commune will
not keep back ; it is he who said to his apostles :
I will not leave yoii oiyhans ; I will come to you.
And again : If a.uij one love me . . . my Fa-
ther will love him J and we will come to him and will
make oar abode with him (John xiv. 18, 23).
Everything is being prepared for this august and,
teyond all others, consoling visit, and wo are now
approaching the scene which to the eyes of faith
is the most interesting in this revived drama of the
catacombs that is to find its catastrophe in martyr-
dom. Let us leave ihe narration to the author of
the "Acts," who was ignorantof nothing that then
transpired, and whoso heart would have guessed,
if need had been, everything tliat was accomplished
by a charity capable of braving all iDerils and sur-
mounting all obstacles :

" May 15th. — In the midst of the month conse-
crated to Mary there dawns at last a beautiful day,
a day of grace and joy, and the harbinger of another,
henceforward near, of sacrifice and glory. The
CLiplivcs of Mazas did not cease repeating to heaven
and earth : Veni, Domine Jcsu ! — Ah ! come. Lord
Jesus. Etiamvenio cito! — 'Yes,' was the reply,

» "Acts oC the Captivity," etc., p. 118.

4/2

Alexis Clerc,

■ i

'behold I come.' Suddenly the gates burst open;
the prisoners did not go forth, but Jesus entered.

" However, in the morning of that blessed day
tiie Desired had not yet appeared,

** Fatlier Clerc wrote with his ordinary cheerful-
ness : * Your little message affords me much con-
solation and joy ; I am very thankful for it, and I
beg you to continue, as you know how to do, this
kind assistance. You give me reason to hope for
greater. Be it so ! God is so good to us !

" * I continue to study mathematics and prepare
my class ; and when one has performed his exer-
cises of piety the day has vanished. I catch a
glimpse of a ray of light, and I hope for better
times for our unfortunate country. For the pre-
sent I am ever quite content to be in prison, so
have no uneasiness about me. May God bless you
for your charity ! My compliments and affection-
ate wishes to all our friends in our Lord.

" * Oh ! how separation makes us feel where our
heart has fixed its love !'

** Father Olivaint, likewise warned, wrote to
Father Lcfebvre : * What a providence it is that
you have been able to remain down there ! How
manifest it is to me that the Lord has directed all !
I am at the forty-first day of my retreat. From
to-day I shall meditate only on the Eucharist.'

" Meanwhile everything was ready, within as
well as without, for Jesus' entrance into the prison.
First of all it had been necessary to inform the
captives themselves of the ingenious and bold un-
dertaking. As every letter sent from or received

Prisoner ami Victim for Love of jfcsus. 473

open ;
tcrecl.
3ed day

cli cou-
t, and I
do, this
liope for
I

•

I prepare

his cxor-
catch a

:or better

• the pi'c-

prison, so
bless you
affection-

^here our

■wrote to

It is that

\ How

lirected all I
From

Jiarist.'

,'ithin as
Ithe prison.
|inform the
bold un-
received

at jSIazas was opened and read, it l!ad been con-
trived to slip noU^s m the dough of the rolls sent
to the prisoners before putting them in the oven.
The tenor of these mysterious notes was as follows :
* Circumstances are very grave ; have

courage

To-morrow you will receive the supreme consola-
tion'; and at the foot ; 'You will receive a vessel
filled with milk, and at the boitom you will find
what I annonncc to you.' The warning was re-
ceived and understood, and the reply was sent from
i^fazas : We shall Ic very (jlad to have the little pot
of cream. It was then thought that the delicate
operation might be safely proceeded with. A
priest's hand deposited four consecrated Hosts in
an inner box completely lined with a corporal, and
then enclosed in a second box with another little
corporal and the silk bag with cord attached to
suspend from the neck. The whole was placed in
the hermetically-sealed false bottom of a pot quite
filled with cream. There were only three of these
pots — namely, for Father 01iv£?int, Father Ducou-
dray, and Father Clerc ; this time those who
planned the aflfair had not known how to manage
it in the quarter of the prison where Father Cau-
bert and Father de Bengy were confined.

" Towards the middle of the day the little j^ots
and the little boxes* expected and so earnestly de-
sired arnved at Mazas; half-past twelve was the
propitious hour when all the prisoners were in
their cells. The employees were obliging and

♦ These are the enigrmaticnl expref sions which Father Oli-
vaint made use of iu a preceding letter.

474

Alexis Clerc.

eager, astonished themselves at finding their sad role
mitigated : at the prison gate a generous feo was
bestowed upon them, and the most gracious wel-
come invited them to enter the cells. *Ah ! be-
hold our good messengers,* Father Clerc did not
fail to exclaim on seeing them.

"From that day our three privileged captives
bore upon their breasts, as upon a living altar, the
God of their heart and their portion for eternity.
The holy undertaking being at last completed, each
of them must immediately give some notification.

** In the evening of the 15th of May Father Oli-
vaint hastened to send this little message of ac-
knowledgment : *I did not expect anything more
to-day. My surprise, and I may say my consolation,
were only the greater. 1 thank you again ! — a big,
an enormous thank you !

" 'In my retreat I have been occupied for a long
time with the Holy Ghost ; now 1 am going to
meditate upon the Eucharist.*

" The joy of the 15th of May could not be with-
out a morrow. On the IGth there was at Mazas
but one cry of gratitude. Father Clerc writes to
one of his brothers : *

" * My Dear Emile : Supposing your almost
aiwcious uneasiness about what was sent to us this
morning, I have done all I could to relieve you of
it. I have written a letter on the subject to my
brother, and I believe it has already been sent. At
the same time I fear lest my brother may not be in
Paris, and lest ho may not fully understand the
* Father Emile Chauveau.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 475

' sad role
feo was
)U3 wel-
Ah ! l)C-
3 did not

captives
altar, the

etcrnily.
eted, each
ification.
ather Oli-
ige of ac-
hing more
onsolation,
n !— a big,

for a long
going to

ot be with-
g at Hazns
c writes to

our almost
to us this
leve you of
)3ect to my
en sent. At
ay not be in
erstand the

importance of the commission I gave him, as I
wrote it in words of double meaning. So at all
events I will prepare this little message for you.

"* Everything reached us in perfect order and
was arranged with admirable art and skill. T pre-
fer to leave it to your i)iety to picture my joy,
rather than attempt to do so with my pen. But I
think I may say with full assurance that I defy
all that may now happen. There is no more pri-
son, there is no more solitude for me, and I am
confident that if our Lord permits the wicked to
satisfy all their hatred and to prevail for a few
hours, he will prevail ever them at the very mo-
ment of their triumph, and will glorify his name by
the weakest and vilest instrument.

'**Let us bless God with all our strength, be-
cause his benefits to us are redoubled. Farewell.
Fax ct osciilnm in C/ui'sfo.*

" 'Alexis Ciiristophe Clerc, S.J.f

'''P.S. — Bearing our Lord upon my heart, I
was touched, while saying Vespers, with the prayer
of the good Paschal Baylon. J: Oh I how differently

* I wish you peace and embrace you in our Lord.

+ It is well known that the name Cliristophttr signifies the
Christ-bearer.

t It was, indeed, the vigil of I he feast of St. Pascal Baylon,
a religious of the Order of St. Francis, celebrated for bis de-
votion to the Blessed Eucharist. Here is the prayer : *' Dpai9,
quibeatunt Paschalem, Confessorevx tuum, inirifica erga Cor-
poris et Sanguinis tui aacra mysteria dilectione decorasti ;
concede propitius, ut quam tile ex hoc divino conviviospiritua
percepit phiguedinem, camdem et nos percipere mereamur''^
—"Lord, who didst endow thy blessed confessorj Paschal,
with an admirable love towards the sacred mysteries of thy
Body and Blood, vouchsafe to grant ustho grace that our gouIs,
like bis, may bo strengthened and enlarged by that divine ban-
quet" ("Breviar. Roman.," May 17).

4/6

Aivxis Citrc,

f .

he would have appreciated and given thanks for
the great favor our Lord lias bestowed upon his
unworthy servant/

"But here, written on tiic same day and for the
same purpose, is Father Clerc's last letter, and in
very truth his JV?/;ic dimiltis :

*' ' Ah ! my God, how good thou art ! And how
true it is that the mercy of thy Heart shall never
fail !

** ^Andycu — what gratitude, what thanksgivings,
do wo not owe you ? After having a thousand and
a thousand times repeated the expression of my
imperishable gratitude, and after having offered
you on a new claim the feeble services of a heart
at least sincere and devoted, it remains to me to
vrish that the gift you make mo may be always
made to you, and especially in days of trial.

" * I had not dared to conceive the hope of such
a blessing — to possess our Lord, to have him for
the companion of my captivity, to bear him upon
my heart and to repose upon his, as he permitted
his beloved John ! Yes, it is too much for me,
and what never entered my thoughts. Yet it is a
fact. But is it not true that all men and all the
saints together would never have dared to conceive
of the Holy Eucharist ? Oh I how good, how
compassionate, how kindly attentive is the God of
the Eucharist !

"'Does it not seem as though he still makes us
this reproach : Hitherto you have not ashed any-
thing in my name : ash, and you shall receive 9 I
have him without having asked him ; I possess

inks for
ipon his

\ for tlio
:, and in

Andliow
lall never

ksgivings,
usand and
ion of my
ng offered
of a beart
3 to nic to
be always

Irial.

>pc of such
|ve liim for
him i^pon
permitted

|ch for me,
Yet it is a

land all the
to conceive
good, how
the God of

til makes ns
asked any-
receive ? 1
J I possess

Prisoner and I 'iiiini for Love of Jisns, 477

him and I sliall nevermore abandon liim, and my
desire of possessing liim, cxtinguiahed Ihrourrli
lack of hope, is rckintlled, and will but increase in
proportion as tiie possession shall endure.

** * Ah ! prison, dear prison, tliou mIiosc walls I
kissed while saluting thee : Jhna cnix ! AVliat a
treasure thou hast won mc I Tiiou art no longer a
l)rison, thou art a chapel. Thou art no longer
even a solitude, since I am no more alone among
tliy shadows, and my Lord and my King, my Mas-
ter and my God, dwells with mc. It is no longer
only in thought that I approach him, it is no lon-
ger only by grace that he approaches me, but he is
really and corporally come to find and console the
poor prisoner. He wishes to keep him comp:iny ;
he wishes it, and can he not do it, since he is om-
nipotent ? But what marvels it has cost him to
accomplish his wish ! And you arc a part of those
marvels of the tenderucs:S of the Heart of Jesus for
his unworthy servant.

** * Oh \ never end, my prison, that art worth to
me the bearing of my Lord upon my heart, not as
a sign, but as the reality of my union with him.
During the first days I begged our Lord with great
caruesrncss to call me to a more excellent testimo-
ny of his name. The worst days are not yet
passed ; on the contrary, they are approaching, and
thoy will be soT bad that the goodness of God will
be constrained to abridge them ; we are nearing
them very fast. I had the hope that God would
give me the strength to die well ; to-day my hope
is become a true and steady confidence. It £eems

478

Alexis Clerc.

to me I can do all tilings in Him who strengthens
me and who ./ill accompany me even unto death.
Will he ask my death ? All I know is that if he
docs not ask it, I shall have a regret which only
submission to his will can soften.

" * But if he does ask it, how large will be your
share in that blessing of strength he will have lent
me ! ' "

What is there for us to add ? A priest, reading
this letter from his pulpit to the faithful, compared
it to the epistles of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Yes,
certainly the resemblance is striking. It is because
the same God dwelt in both and inspired them with
the same fervor ; and if Clerc had had, like that
illustrious martyr, to explain himself before the
judges, he would have spoken the same language:
" I am a priest of Jesus Ciirist, to whom I sacri-
fice daily, and now I desire to sacrifice myself by
dying for his glory as he died for my love."

The great succor our prisoners had received on
May 15 was renewed eight days later in a truly
providential manner, but a few hours before they
were transferred from the prison of Mazas to that
of La Rcquette. I borrow this page also from the
author of the " Acts " :

"Monday, the 22d, towards noon, two weak
and courageous women, on foot and with a burden
they shared between them, under* a burning sky
travel for an hour over the broad, desolate districts
which are trodden only by the patrols of the Com-
mune. Where are they going ? To Mazas. And
what do they carry ? The God of martyrs. This

»»

I \1

Prisoner and Victivt for Love of Jesns. ^"jg

rcngthens

I to death,
that if he
fbicli only

II be your
1 have lent

st, reading
I, compared
.och. Yes,
:t is because
1 them with
,d, like that
i before the
le language :
lom I eacri-
e myself by

ove."
leceived on

X in a truly
before they
azas to that
dso from the

In, two weak

nth a burden

burning sky

[olate districts
^ of the Com-
iMazas. And
krtyrs. Tliis

time all precautions had been taken, the distribu-
tion was complete ; each of our prisoners received
four Hosts wrapped in a corporal as in a winding-
sheet, duly enclosed in a little box, with the gilk
bag furnished with a cord to be suspended around
the neck. By coming at such an hour the Lord
Jesus seemed to repeat to his servants his words of
olden days : Itcrum vcnio ct accijnam vos ad
meipsum — " I come again, not to remain with you,
but to take you to myself."

Thus each already bore about him his Viaticum,
and at the approach of the last combat it was in
their power to offer to several of their companions
in captivity the great charity of breaking with
them the Bread of the Strong.

That very day quite late in the evening they
were crowded into carts and driven to La Roquetto,
the prison of the condemned. On their arrival
nothing was ready to receive them ; they were
kept a long while in a sort of waiting-room fur-
nished with wooden benches fixed ogaiust tho
walls. The Archbishop of Paris was there seated
like the others on his bench between President
Bonjean and M. Deguerry, cure of the Madeleine.
The latter bavin;? addressed the prelate by his
honorary title, a guard rudely calls out to him :
'* Citizens, there are no lords here." At the same
moment one of the prisoners (a witness says it was
Father Clerc) rises from his place, and, kneeling
before monseigneur, kisses his hand and asks his
blessing. Then, having noticed the feeble ap-
pearance of tho unfortunate archbishop, he opens

48o

Alexis Clcrc.

a little parcel he has under his arm aud offers him
some provisions saved from Mazas.

Finally they are conducted to their cells, where
they find the entire furniture consists of only
a bed, composed of a straw mattress and one
blanket. Fathers Ducoudray and Clerc, again
together, were put in the fourth seccion on the
first story, not far from the .nrchbishop and M.
Deguerry. After the first night spent in his new
prison. Father Clerc informed his brother of his
change of domicile in a note significantly laconic,
written beneath the eyes of the turnkeys and
agents of the Commune :

" My dear Jules : Yesterday, Monday, the
22d, we were removed from our late residence, and
wo are now at La Roquette, probably for greater
safety. Last night I ISaw the moon and the stars,
and I am writing to you on the ledge of my win-
dow under the blue sky. I have neither table nor
chair. The life of man can be greatly simplified.

" We are ignorant of our new conditions of ex-
istence ; they seem not to include an isolation as
complete as at Mazas.

" Grande Roquette, Fourth Section, Ko. 6."

In reality there is no longer the isolation of the
cellular system. From his window, which now opens
about breast-high and gives free entrance to (he
air and sun, the prisoner perceives at first running
round the building a broad enough road which serves
as a i)lace for walking and recreation. Beyond, his
eyes encounter one of the two high walls between
which runs a second road, where in two days he will

Prisoner and Viciiifi for Love of yesus. 48 1

ffers liioi

Is, where

of only

and one
re, again
)ii on the
p and M.
n his now
her of his
ly laconic,
nkeys and

onday, the
idcnce, and
for greater
d the stars,
of my win-
r table nor
simpVifiecl.
tions of cx-
isolation as

In, No. 6."
[ation of the
ph now opens
:ance to the
Irst running
I which serves

Beyond, his

rails hetween

days be wii^

meet his death. By an arrangement, which is the
same throughout the prison, his cell, adjoining that
of President Bonjean, is separated from it by only a
thin partition, which likewise divides the common
window. At a given signal the two prisoners can
meet almost face to face, and there is nothing to
prevent them from holding the most private conver-
sations — a providential circumstance, as we shall sec.

When the weather permitted, the prisoners de-
scended twice a day for a promenade in tiie first
road. They met there for the first time on Tues-
day, between eight and nine o'clock, while the em-
ployees of the prison were doing the morning work
in their poor cells. The outpourings of heart of
those hours, each one of which might be their last,
the happiness felt at meeting again after so long a
separation, especially by those whom the bonds of
religious brotherhood more closely united, may be
better imagined than expressed. If the "Ecce
quam bonum'' could not bo sung in such a place,
the sentiment to which it responds was not the less
present in every heart. What unanimity in our
beloved brothers' generous acceptance of the great-
est of sacrifices, and in their ardent wishes for the
unfortunate country of which they would not de-
spair ! There reigns a wonderful harmony in their
words, piously collected by the author of the
" Acts.'* I will repeat a few of them, taken either
from their letters written at Mazas, or from those
memorable conversations of La Roquette when
their voices were heard for the last time.

To the sound of the cannon that shook his cell

•'.!• J

482

A /ex is C/erc,

Father Olivainfc wroto : "Those friglitiiil cannon
that thunder inccGsantly ! Oh ! liow they worry
nie ; but how, also, they remind m^ to pray for our
poor country ! If the giving of my miserable life
would put an end to all the trouble, how quickly I
would make the sacrifice ! "

More composed. Father Caubert did not cease to
pray for France and for Paris, and he had hope of
a better future. " I have the conviction that it
will not be long before all hearts will understand
one another and unite in one same spirit of concord
and charity." To a celebrated advocate who visited
him in his prison, he said : "This is a very great
trial for the country, and will save it." And as
his visitor exi)rcssed his doubts cf such a result,
*' For me, I have no doubt," Father Caubert added.
** I am sure, I believe firmly, that France will come
forth regenerated, more Christian, and consequent-
ly stronger than she has ever been before."

Did not Father Clerc on his side write : " I dis-
tinguish a ray of light, and I have the hope of
better times for our unhappy country " ?

*' Ibcmt gaiidentes! ..." were the first words
that escaped the lips of Father Ducoudray at the
moment of his arrest. He repeated them at the
Conciergerie, and his joy in suffering for Jesus
Christ never failed him. From his cell in Mazas
he wrote : " From the first day of my arrival here
I have kept myself ready for all sacrifices, for I
have the sweet and strong confidence that if God
makes of us, priests and religious, hostages and
victims, it is ix\\\y inodmm fidei, in odium nominis

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 483

cannon

y worry
y for our
ruble life
pickly I

t cease to
d hope of
)n that it
nderstand
of concord
vho visited
very great
" And as
»,li a result,
bert added,
e will como
sonsequent-

Idis-

Ire.
te:
the liope of

•

first words

id ray at tlie

tbem at tlic

ig for Jesus

jU in Mazas

arrival bere
[jrifices, for I

that if God

Ibostagcs and

Hum noniviis

Christi Jcsu — in hatred of (he faith, in hatred of
the name of Jesus Christ.'' On the very day of liis
death he was heard at La Roquette to repeat: "^ If
we are shot, it is certain to mo that it will be in
hatred of tlic friilli. At tliat rate our purgatory
will not be long." Father de Bengy expressed
himself on the s:imc subject: ''God likes us to
offer our gifts to him with a joyous heart, and as
there is no gift more considerable than that of life,
we must render it perfect by making it joyfully."
Do we need to recall Father Olivaiut's sentiments ?
Already for many years he had sighed but for mar-
tyrdom. One day, hearing a sermon on the Japa-
nese martyrs, he was seized with unutterable trans-
ports. It seemed to him that his breast oj^encd
and that streams of blood flowed from it. Think-
ing then that perhaps he would be a martyr, he
could no longer contain his joy. Wo have heard
Father Clerc: " I have earnestly begged our Lord
to call me to a more excellent testimony of his
name. ... It seems to mo that I can do all
things in Him who strengtheneth me, and who
will accompany me even to death. Does he ask
mv death ? What I know is that if he does not ask
it I shall have a regret which only submission to
his will can soften."
. Now we are not astonished when an ocular wit-
ness tells us: "I saw all your fathers and I heard
tliem talk ; they were calm and smiling in the
evening of their life as though it was the dawn
of a beautiful day. Father de Bengy had lost
nothing of his cang-froid and gayety ; Father Cau-

484

Alexis Clerc.

bcrfc of liis pleasant and modest rccollec.ion ; Fa-
ther Clerc of his generous cheerfulness ; Father
Ducoudray of his simple and dignified manliness ;
Father Olivaint of his quick energy and his radiant
peace."

But we remember the DiviiVG Gu??c they had re-
ceived, and who was invisible in their midst. Each
one of them bore him upon his heart. That was
the secret of their invincible strength and their un-
alterable serenity.

It is known that they did not keep the heavenly
gift for themselves alone. Those days were to all
the hostages an admirable preparation for death ;
the priests confessed one another and heard the
confessions of the laymen ; laymen and priests, ex-
pectinj^ to die from one moment to the next, held
themselves in readiness to appear before God and
to make the sacrifice of their lives generously.

There was among all the rest one soul which in-
finite mercy confided more particularly to the zeal
and charity of Father Clerc — the soul of President
Bonjoan, his next-cell neighbor. ]5y very good
right the president did not pass for a friend of the
Jesuits, and his ultra-parliamentary gallicanism had
made some noise in the discussions of the Senate.
But gallicanism, indeed I What was it at such a
moment ? Seen near to, the Jesuit appeared to
him, before everything else, a priest carrying par-
don in his hands and having the power to pro-
nounce in the name of Jesus Christ the words of
eternal life. At bottom those t^vo souls were coii-
stitutcd to understand one another, for they both

Prison fr and Victim for Love of Jesus. 485

possessed in ihe highest degree the religion of
duty, aiid would admit of no compromise in mat-
ters of honor. If Father Clerc indignantly re-
jected the idea of an excliange of prisoners between
Paris and Versailles, of which his friends wished
to assure him the benefit, the president also had
some of the same sort of magnanimous delicacy,
and he was in reality a victim of his fidelity to
what he regarded as one of the duties of liis charge.
Absent from Paris when the Commune seized the
city without striking a blow, the courageous mag-
istrate immediately returned to his post without
much hope of serving the cause of order, and
knowing perfectly well to what he exposed him-
self.* Arrested as early as the 21st of March while
leaving his court-room, he had spent two whole
months at Mazas, and, notwithstanding his ad-
vanced age (sixty-seven years), he bore the rigors of
the prison discipline without showing any signs of
weakness. There was question at one time of re-
leasing him on parole, which would have enabled
him to go to Xormandy for a visit of a few hours
to Madame Bonjean. The only fear then of him-
self and Madame Bonjean was lest it might hap-
pen to him to involuntarily break the parole given,
and the noble woman wrote : " I pharc to such a
degree your apprehension lest: some accident inde-
pendent of your will should oblige you to some in-

* M. Devienne, first president of the Court of Appeal, beinf^
absent and sick. M. Boaiean, the senior of the presidents of the
chamber, became in reality the head of that important body
and the first representative of the entire judiciary of Paris.

486

Alexis CI ere.

Toluntary infraction of your promise given, that I
hardly dare wish you to run such a terrible risiv.
But how few people understand the nobility of
such a scruple ! "

As one virtue never exists alone, tlie president
forgave his enemies with all his heart, and during
the first days of his captivity he signed a writing
wherein we read : " Do not seek to discover the
names of those who detain me here contrary to all
justice and all reason ; and especially never try
to draw upon them any direct or indirect ven-
geance."

Finally, we will quote this advice, which he ad-
dressed to his children four days before his death :
" Let not the persecution I suffer, and the bloody
death which from one moment to another may
terminate my laborious life, be to you a cause of
discouragement. Do not say : * Of what advan-
tage to our father was that long fidelity to all his
duties ? Why did he not do like so many others
who, less austere, less rigid, understood how to
shield themselves from danger and are now enjoy-
ing a happy old age ?' Oh ! no, do not say thus,
and give no heed to those who address such lan-
guage to you ; for my part, I who have never
deceived any one, I who still less would deceive my
children at this solemn moment, 1 declare to you
that, miserable as may be the end which seems
destined for me, I would at no price have acted
otherwise than I have, and this is because the
chief good, my dear children, is peace of con-
science ; and because that inestimable good can

\'^ t-

Prisoner and Victim for Love of j^isns. 4S7

exist only for him who is able to say : I have done
my duty.'*

He did it to the end, not only as an upright
magistrate and a good citizen, but also as a Chris-
tian faithful to his baptismal engagements. So
much nobility of character could not but inspire
Father Clerc with a lively sympathy, and nodonbL
he knew how to make himself understood by the
president when he had to treat with him of tlic
greatest and most sacred of all duties. Their con-
versations, commenced at the common window,
were prolonged during the time of promenade, and
the other prisoners respected an intimacy the na-
ture of which they easily enough conjectured. Be-
sides, M. Bonjeau practised no concealment, and
we refer to his own testimony for our information.
During the recreation of the day (May 23), which
was usually taken in the 6rst roaJ, the archbishop,
fatigued by long walking, as there was no place to
sit, Icaucd against the baluster of the little stair-
case leading to the corridor of the first story. One
of his vicars general and M. Bon jean approached
him; the latter, M. Bonjeun, looked radiant. "Eh
bien ! monseioneur," he said to the prelate, ** who
would ever have thought that I, the gallican,
would, be converted by a Jesint ?" *

Father Clcrc had just made his last conquest,
had just harvested the last joy of his sacerdoal zeal.

The sun of the 24th of May rose in splendor over
the citv, which all night long ha,d been illuminated

The Ads," p. 170.

488

Ali'xis Clerc.

by the fl:imc3 of groat conflagrations. Paris wr.s
burning . . . ; its palaces and monuments, satu-
rated with petroleum by the hands of the insur-
gents, taught us what civilization without God ia
callable of. In proportion as the regular army
gained ground, as the iron circle was narrowed
around the Commune at bay, the struggle, growing
bloodier and more violent, was concentrated in the
arrondisscmen !s near L i Roquette. Two steps from
the prison, on the heights of POsre Lachaise, batteries
of heavy artillery thundered and vomited inces-
sraitly over all the districts of that section a rain
of iron and fire. Father Clerc must have remem-
bered his own words : The hour of tlieir most evil
counsels ivill he ilud of their greatest reverses. From
the earliest dawn of that day, lamentable for our
unfortunate country, but so glorious to him, he
prepared himself for the combat. Did he not pos-
sess in his prison Ilim who is the Strength of mar-
tyrs? He fed himself with his sacred flesh, and,
doubtless careful to husband the treasure of the
sacred species, he was able not only to prolong his
thanksgiving, but to continue his adoration the
whole day.

That sumo mornin?T Father Olivaint carried the
Blessed Eucharist to the Archbishop of Paris, and
the cuie of the Madeleine received it from the hand
of Father de Bengy. The young ecclesiastic, who
had Father Ducoudray for his neighbor, and who sur-
"vivedhim, knew positively that he also bore upon his
breast the Blessed Sacrament, and communicated
himself in his cell._ The two customary recreations

;

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus, 489

took place just as the day before ; they were grave
witiiout the least cloiii)t, but tlie heart still found
cause to dilate while breathing in that reunion of
brothers the aroma of charity. M. Amodru and
M. Lamazou, of the clcrpy of Paris, have described
tiio generous and indulgent sentiments which ani-
mated the archbishop and the euro cf the Made-
leine, who as yet did riot anticipate so tragic an
issue, incapable as they were of believing in so
much hatred. No word has come to us gathered
in that last hour from the lips of Father Clcrc ;
we only know that his frequent i^tc-iX ictcs with
President Bon jean were noticed, as well as the truly
filial respect he showed the archbishop on every
occasion. Uenceforth his history blends with that
of the five hostages who suffered death with him,
and it is for the author of the " Acts " to relate to
us how that day was finished by tiie bloody immo-
lation wherein our generous combatant so joyfully
gained the palm of martyrdom :

**The Commune, intrenched then in the may-
oralty of the eleventh arrondissement, had no more
strength but for crime; alas ! it still had too much
for that. It orders as urgent the execution in a
body of all the hostages of La Roquet to. At six
o^clock in the evening over sixty prisoners are to be
shot by way of reprisal. The keeper of the prison
finds means to start difficulties regarding the mat-
ter rather than the form of this extreme measure
of desperate men who have nothing more to lose.
They parley, and, after some going and coming be-
tween La Roquetto and the mayoralty of the elev-

490

Alexis Clerc.

en til arrondisscmcnt, the Commune consents only to
decimate the sixty on tlie express condition of itself
selectini>' its viclims of profcrcnco. At all hazards
it will have priests— thoso men who have been a
luiisanco in the worUl for eighteen hundred years;
and^ through a singular association, the name of
President Bonjoan is l.kewise on the list. Nearly
two hours are spent in these dread negotiations.

*' Ik was tlien about eight o'clock in the evening.
A'.! the prisoners were in their cells and the only
conversations were with Heaven. Suddenly a con-
fused noise is heard in tho distance, growing
move and more distinct ; voices of men and boys,
outcries, and laughter still more ferocious, mingle
wiili the din of arms. Ik was the approach of tlio
doers of great deeds : for six victims not less than
fifty executioner?, Avengers of the Republic and
Garibaldians, soldiers of all arms and National
Guards of all costumes, and tliose terrible bovs
known as the gamins of Paris. At thtir head
marched a blond man with a moustache like a
brush. * Citizens,* he said, addressing his band,
'you know how many of us are missing — six.
Shoot six of them !' The detachment penetrates
that corridor of the first story,, fourth division,
where our dear captives are, passes along its whole
length, and ranges itself at the opposite extremity
at the head of the little winding staircase which
leads to the inner road ; on the passage each pris-
oner had in advance received through his open
grating an iirsult and a sentence of death.

"Then a personage performing the part of her-

Prisoner and Victim for Loi'C of jfcsus, 491

iild ill II loud voice summons tlic prisoners to hold
themselves ready iind to each respond as \\\i nanio
is culled. Tills said, the fatal H^'. in his hand, ho
immediately «innouncc3 with the same qualifying
title for all, and following the numerical order of
the cells, the names of the tix condemned by the
Commune. Accordingly as his name is pronounced
a door opens and a, victim gives himstif up. ^I.
Bonjean, M. Degucrry, ^l. Cicrc, M. Ducoudniy,
M. Allard, and M. Dai boy are successively called.

*' The Abbe Gard, the ordinary witness of Fa-
ther Ducoudray in his cell, here adds a detail I
am anxious to preserve : 'I was in bed "Wednes-
day evening when they came to make tlie call.
AVhen Faihcr Ducoudray was named he must have
been at prayer and did not hear; he remained quiet
for at least half a minute, and I had to warn him.
Then I heard him throw himself upon his knees,
and doubtless he consumed the sacred species he
still bore upon his liearf. 1 askeel him to leave
mo a particle, but he replied: ^'Ko, no," whence
I understood that all was consumed.'

** Now all the summoned are present. The
archbiiliop anel his companions, preceded and fol-
lowed by the frightful escort, pass and descend
one by one the narrow and dark staircase, and at
the foot find themselves in that same road wher^
but just now they were ttdving their recreation.

"Behold them, then, finally at the mercy of
savage impiety and a more than brutal insolence.
One of the officers of that ignoble baud even had
to interfere, and, compassionate after his fashion,

I, #-

492

Alexis CI ere.

* Comrades/ ho cried, ' wc liavc sometliinj? better
to do than to abuse them ; wo liave to shoot them.
This is the order of tlic Cominnne.'

" So great was the irregularity and confusion of
those days that the place of execution l;ad not even
been fixed. Any place v/as good enough for shed-
ding blood. Therefore they were on the point of
doing their work there in that very jdac?. But it
was suggested that it was very near the prison,
under the windov/s even of the prisoners ; there
would be too many witnesses of the crime. It
w^is true; from all those windows, on all the
stories, the eye looks into tlie first road, and the
prisoners left in their cells would from above assist
at that death scene, would hear all, see all. It was
decided, to pass into the second road, where there
would bo a screen of two high walls. They start ;
a corporal beads the procession ; behind him walk
those who are to die, grouped thus : Monseigncnr
the Aiciibishop of Paris gives his arm to ]\I.
Bonjean ; Father Ducoudray and Father Clere
accompany and support on each side the venerable
cure of the Madeleine, burdened with his eighty
years ; and last comes the Abbe Alhird ; tiieii
around and behind the armed men and boys in a
sort of crowd. As this line began to move one
of the prisoners at a window of the first story
shook his handkerchief in sign of farewell; Father
Ducoudray turned and saluted him with a gesture.
He was then seen to open his cassock and lay liis
liand upon his breast, doubtless to indicate that
they were going to bo shot.

Prisoner and Vi^'tini for Love of Jesus. 493

" At tlic extremity of the first road there was a
necessary halt; Ihe gate leading into the second
had to be forced. From (hat point the victims
disappeared, and the only witnesses of the rest of
the tragedy were those who will not come forward
to testify : the executioners themselves. All that
is known is that they had still to walk the whole
length of thg second road, in a contrary direction
to their course on the first, as far as the southeast
angle. It is also related that the generous Father
Alexis Clerc, who had so earnestly desired to ren-
der to the name of Jesus the most excellent testi-
mony, that of blood, opened his cassock and pre-
sented his heart to welcome death. And, finally,
it is inferred from the deep marks of the stray balls
that the victims were ranged in a lino at the foot
of the high outer wall.

"^Meanwhile, what anxious expectation in the
cells of the prison ! On their knees the inmates
prayed, listened, scarcely breathing. They heard.
a round of musketry, then some detached sliots,
and cries of *Vivc la Commune!^ It was over;
there were no longer victims, but martyrs !

"Towards midnight there was a great noise
around the prisoners. Was it another hostile visi-
tation ? Soon the gratings at the extremities of
tlie corriflor and the gates of all the avenues were
closed with a crash, and these words, pronounced
in a tono of authority, were distinguishable: 'II;
they come back I forbid their admittance ! ' It was
merely a putting off for a time.

494

Alexis Clerc,

iLai]|l

"A little later there was a dull rnmbling along
the second road ; they were removing the six bleed-
ing corpses. The bodies, thrown rather than laid
in a small hand-cart, arrived at the Cemetery of
Pore Lachaise about three o'clock in ^.lie morning ;
and there, without coffins, without any ceremony,
they were hurried pell-mell into the common grave
at the end of a long trench opened in the south-
east corner of the cemetery, close against the wall
of enclosure."

AVhen the hideous Commune was crushed and
our troops occupied the Cemetery of Pere Lachaise,
haste was made to find the bodies of the victims ;
they were discovered beneath about three feet of
earth soaked by +,he recent rains, were defiled with
bloody mud and greatly disfigurecJ, but still i)er-
fectly recognizable. After they all were placed in
cofiins, the cemete-ry chapel temporarily received
M. Bon jean and M. Allard, and while a guard of
honor accompanied his grace the archbishop and
M Deguerry as far as the archiepiscopal palace.
Fathers Ducoudray and Clerc, likewise escorted by
soldiers, were borne to our residence in the Rue de
Sevres and deposited in the church, in the chapel
dedicated to the Japanese Martyrs. There they
were soon rejoined by Fathers Olivaint, Caubert,
and Dc Bcngy, massacred on Friday, May 26, toge-
ther witli forty other hostages — priests and soldiers
— in the court of the Cite Vinccnnes, Rue Ilaxo.

I will not describe the funeral, celebrated on
Wednesday, May 31, amid an emotion easy to be
imagined ; the allocution addressed to the vast

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 495

assembly by the venerable M. Ilamon, cure of St.
Sulpice, from whose trembling lips cscuped the
word Martyrs ; and, finally, the eloquent and
touching oration pronounced at jho Cemetery of
Mont Parnasse by Count Eugene do Germiny in
the name of all the pujjils of Fathers Oiivaint and
Ducoudray. This should be sought in the " Acts,"
if the reader has not already perused them, and no
line of it should be passed over.

The bodies of our dear victims repose to-day in
the Chapel of the ^Martyrs, beneath the pavement
of the sanctuary, and under the altar steps, a sen-
timent easy of explanation having been unwilling
to permit them to be left any longer in our ordi-
nary place of sepulture without any distinguishing
mark. Now, at least, the faithful may cover their
tombs with garlands of immortelles and fresh
flowers, to say nothing of our own advantage in
having our house filled, by the near presence of
their precious remains, with the svyeet fragrance of
sacrifice.

Five broad slabs of marble, ornamented with in-
scriptions in the style of the Catacomb?, indicate
the spot occupied by each. Upon one of the five,
at the extreme right (Epistle side), we read :

mo lACaT IN PACE p

ALEXIV3 CLERC

DOMO PARISIIS

PHESBYT211 SOCIETATIS JESV

NATVS ANNOS LI MENSES V DIES XIII

LIBELS PVSO SANGVINE FIDSM SIGNAVIP

IX KAL. IVN. A.D. MDJCCLXXI

496

Alexis Cicrc,

WhicI), iianslated, is :

HERE RESTS I^^ THE PEACE OP CHRIST

ALEXIS CLERC,

PARISIAN BY BIRTH,

PRIEST OF THE SOCIETY OF JESU3,

AGED LI. YEARS V. MONTHS XIIL D^ YS.

GLADLY HE SIGNED THE FAITH WITH HIS BLOOD

THE 24TII OF MAY, OF THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MDOCCLXXT.

Verily, the author of this inscription was rightly
inspired, and he wonderfully discerned Father
Clerc's distinctive characteristic* Lihens, gladly
— it is, indeed, a word well chosen ! See you not
our generous martyr en his way to death, opening
his Ycstmenfc to welcome the balls to his heart, and
overjoyed to render to Jesus Christ, as he had so
earnestly desired, the most excellent testimony ?

His beautiful death has been described ero this,
and has excited universal admiration ; henceforth,
thank God ! it will be known that it was Ihe crown
of a life not less beautiful^ a life hidden in God
with Jesus Christ. Did not one of his friends pre-
dict : " Clerc will die a magnificent death " ? All
those who observed him a little closely might have
suspected something of the inner realities of his
life ; but none had that intimate acquaintance
with him which we have acquired in following him
step by step for a period of about thirty years.
Froai the time of his conversion to a sincere Ca-
tholic life he walktd ever by the straightcst path,
and the obstacles he surmounted were not small.

* The flvo inscriptions are the work of Father Victor de
Bucl<, ih3 eminent Bolliudisr.

Prisoner and Victim for Love of Jesus. 497

BLOOD
IDCCCLXXI.

vasriglitly
ed Fiitlicr
ens, gladly
je you not
1), opening
; heart, and
he had so
stimony ?
fd ere ibis,
henceforth,
the crown
en in God
friends pre-

lath"? All
might have
Jitics of his
Icquaintancc
bowing him

,hirty years.

sincere Ca-
htcst path,

\q not smaU.

Ither Victor de

What a victory was that of his vocation I Opposed
to the utmost by his own father, he sustained the
lude assault without show or noise, hut with what
generosity and perseverance ! We liave torn aside
the veil of his religious life: we see perpetual sacri-
fice. Everywhere wo are conscious < f the man of
a great heart and a great faith who goes boldly
ahead with all sails set. Whither will he not
go when it is the Holy Spirit that fills the canvas ?

I seem to hear issuing from his tomb these worJs
by which ho exhorts iis in onr turn to fight the
good fight: May Godfjive you all a heart to tvor-
sJiip him, and to do his will 2L'ith a great heart and
a willing mind (2 Machab. i. 3).

You, young men, whom he so tenderly loved in
our Lord, you will sometimes meditate on the
counsels he gave those of your age and on the ex-
ample he left to us all. Young, he struck on the
rock of the passions, and h-'s wanderings were i)ro-
bably greater than yours. But a superabundant
expiation made a new man of him, and you hav3
seen with what holy ardor he was devoured. What-
ever may have been the first steps of your life, tiiere
is still time for you to make a noble use of your
strength ; nothing is lost with God's help ; and — I
say it to others besides you — the laborers of the
eleventh hour may receive the wages of the whole
day, provided they redeem by their diligence the
time they have foolishly squandered.

Our narration is ended ; still, we have yet to add
a word which finds its place naturally here and
which the reader doubtlesj expects.

498

Alexis Clerc,

WesaiJ jusfc now that public piety instinctively
felt that those remains deposited in the Chapel of
the Martyrs were themselves relics of niartyrt\
And ever since a spontaneous impulse has brought
the faithful to that sanctuary of benediction. It is
not as yet the exterior worship the Church forbids
until she has authorized it, but it is interior and
private veneration, the prayer of the heart which
does not even always ascend to the lips; and it
seems as though Heaven justifies such confidence
by extraordinary, we may say miraculous, graces.

Not fur from the chapel a hall open to the pious
visitor offers to his regard the furniture of the five
cells ccoupicd by the hostages at Mazus; the bed,
the table, the chair, nothing is wanting ; there are
also added certain articles of private use of cacii of
tliem, such as the half-burned breviary of Father
Olivaint and liis instruments of penance. On a
table apart may be seen some marble tablets, the
inscriptions on which bear witness to the petitions
addressed to the victims of La Roquette and the
Rue Ilaxo, and the favors obtained.

Besides these, there is in the last edition of the
*' Acts," by the Rev. Father de Ponlevoy, a very
full account of several cures which must bo attri-
buted to their intercession, since science is power-
less to explain them. Five of the most remarkable
of these facts have been submitted to the regular
canonical process before a commission appointed
by the ordinary. The competent authority has
been appealed to, and its deciiion is confidently

Prisoner and Victim for Love of fesus. 499

awaited. To Rome alone it belongs to pronouuco
in the cause of the servants of God.

But without "judging anything in advance, may
we not already indulge the hope that a day will
come when ihe Church will place upon her altars,
with his four companions, Alexis Clcrc, sailor, Je-
suit, and hostage of the Commune, put to death in
hatred of the faith ?

Then the glory of his sanctity will be reflected
upon Catholic schools and upon tiie French navy.
The navy which gave this valiant soldier to the
Society of Jesus and to the Church, may with good
riijht honor hi in as one of her most attractive mo-
dels and of her most beloved projectors.

THK KXI).

APPEKDIX,

FATHER CLERC S ACT OF COXSECRATIOX TO THE
SACRED HEART OF JESUS.

COXSECRATIO

Sacratissimo Cordi D. N. J. C.

DoMETE Jesu Christi, qui
dixisti : "Discite a me quia
mitis sura et humilis corde,"
ut cor incum secundum Cor
tuum facere digneris ; ego
Alexius Clerc, omnimodo in-
diguissimus, me totum om-
niaque me:i ad Sacratissi-
muDi et amabile nimis Cor
tuum devoveo, et consacro.

A tua erjjo immensa boni-

CONSECRATIOX

To the Most Sacred Heart of
0. L. J. C.

Lord Jesus Christ, who
hast said: "Learn of me,
because I am meek and hum-
ble of hearf," in order that
thou mayest be pleased to
make my heart like unto thy
Heart, 1, Alexis Clerc, in
every way most unworthy,
do devote and consecrate
myself and all that is mine
to thy most holy and more
than lovable Heart.

Therefore I humbly be-

tate et dementia, per Sane- seech thy infinite goodness
tissimae Cor Immaculatum and mercy, by the Immacu-

Virginis Marise peto suppli-
citer. ut hoc holocaustum in
odorem suavitatls admittas,
et ut largitus es ad hoc desi-
derandum et offerendum, sic

late Heart of the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary, that
thou wilt vouchsafe to admit
this holocaust in an odor cf
sweetness, and what thou

etiam ad explendum per ip- hast given me the grace to
Eum Cor tuum, et cum ipso desire and offer, so also, by

501

502

187 i?'

Appendix.

ct in ipso graliara uberem
largiaris. Amen.

the merits of thy divine
Heart itself, with it and in
it, thou wilt bestow on me
a plentiful grace to fulfil
Amen.

Rev. Fr. Dorr, the Instructor of the Third Year,has heard
and approved my resolution, and I have pronounced this
Act of Consecration in his hands, November 25, 1869 ; for
which I rejoice in the Lord, giving thanks a thousand times
to the goodness of God and to the tenderness of the Sacred
Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Note. — The jnilitary chaplains and other priests who
passed all their time in the ambulances during the siege or
Paris, allowed their beards to grow. The portrait of Father
Clerc placed at the beginning of this translation is a good
likeness, and represents him precisely as he appeared in the
ambulance of Vaugirard during the terrible winter of
1870-71.

f thy divine
with it and in
bestow on me
jrace to fulfil

Ycar,ha9 heard
renounced this
!r 25, 1869 ; for
thousand times
iS of the Sacred

ler priests who
ing the siege or
jrtrait of Father
alion is a good
appeared in the
rible -winter of