's death she became still
more strict in her habits, and devoted to the service of the poor a
large part of her fortune.

Amongst other charities which she assisted was the female orphanage, of
which we have already spoken as having been cared for by Canon Roland,
and after his death by M. de la Salle. She conceived the idea of
establishing something of the same kind for boys in her native town of
Rheims, and she consulted Canon Roland on the subject. Ultimately she
engaged a devout layman, named Adrien Nyel, who had experience of poor
schools in Rouen, promised him maintenance for himself and a young
assistant, gave him a letter of introduction to her relative M. de la
Salle, and sent him to Rheims to open a school there for poor boys.

This school, which was commenced in 1679, was the germ of the great
system of _Ecoles Chretiennes_. Its success led a pious lady in Rheims
to wish to establish another of the same kind in a different part of the
town. She consulted M. de la Salle, who had become patron of the first
school, on the subject; and thus he became, without any special wish or
intention of his own, drawn into the work of the education of poor boys.
His own account of the matter is worth quoting:--

'It was,' he wrote, 'by the chance meeting with M. Nyel, and
by hearing of the proposal made by that lady [to whom
reference has been made], that I was led to begin to
interest myself about boys' schools. I had no thought of it
before. It was not that the subject had not been suggested
to me. Many of M. Roland's friends had tried to interest me
about it, but it took no hold of my mind, and I had not the
least intention of occupying myself with it. If I had ever
thought that the care which out of pure charity I was taking
of schoolmasters would have brought me to feel it a duty to
live with them, I should have given it up at once; for as I
naturally felt myself very much above those whom I was
obliged to employ as schoolmasters, especially at first, the
bare idea of being obliged to live with such persons would
have been insupportable to me. In fact, it was a great
trouble to me when first I took them into my house, and the
dislike of it lasted for two years. It was apparently for
this reason that God, who orders all things with wisdom and
gentleness, and who does not force the inclinations of men,
when He willed to