e were better scholars than
any brought up elsewhere. There were many English and American girls,
besides Poles, Germans and West Indian Creoles. The war of 1860-64
left traces of strange animosity among the Northern and Southern
children: it was hardly credible that such a spirit could animate
young children so long removed from the immediate home influences that
would otherwise have accounted for the feeling. Among the nuns were
several English women, clever and deeply read, but softer-hearted than
most scholars who have had too much to do with the world. There was
also a sister of Pere Hyacinthe among the Assumptionists, and the
great orator himself often came to the convent-chapel to preach simple
little sermons to the school-girls. His sister was terribly crushed
by the news of his defection from the Catholic Church, and, I believe,
refused even to see him again.

A very beautiful scene which I witnessed on the 8th of December in
this convent was the renewal of the vows. The mass was celebrated in
the chapel at five in the morning, of course by gas- and candle-light.
The body of the chapel was perfectly clear, the community sat in
carved wooden stalls round the altar, the pupils assisted from the
galleries above, and hidden under the gallery was the small but very
perfect choir of nuns and children. The hymns of Pere Hermann, a
famous pianist and composer, a pupil of Liszt, a convert from Judaism,
and afterward a Carmelite friar, are very popular in France, and of
these the music chiefly consisted. At the communion the superioress
stepped forward, wearing the white woolen mantle (which with a purple
tunic is the complete dress of this order) and knelt to receive the
holy sacrament. A nun in the same costume, bearing a lighted taper and
bowing almost to the ground, stood on each side of her as the priest
communicated her, and so on till the whole sisterhood had each knelt
separately and the bowing figures, like attendant angels, had
done homage to each as the tabernacle, for a time, of the blessed
sacrament. When the mass was over each professed sister solemnly read
over the formula of her religious vows before a table on which lay
a crucifix, which each reverently kissed in token of rededication of
herself to the divine service.

The order of the Good Shepherd is one that is known throughout the
world. It has branch houses in every country. The one to which I shall
specially refer is in New York. It stands on the