the reason that most of the babies were
unbaptized. It was a question of saving souls as well as bodies, and
every effort was made to empty the Couche. The Ladies, often at the
cost of real self-denial, gave every penny they could afford; Louis
XIII and his Queen, Anne of Austria, contributed liberally. In ten
years' time Vincent's institution had grown to such an extent that it
was able to open its doors to all the foundlings in Paris.

Four thousand children had been adopted and cared for, and the numbers
were still increasing; finances had been stretched to the breaking
point; there came a moment when it seemed impossible to meet the
expenses any longer. The Thirty Years' War was raging, and the eastern
provinces of France, which had served as a battlefield for the
nations, were reduced to the utmost misery. There were many other
claims on the purses of the Ladies of Charity; the time had come when
it looked as if there was nothing to be done but sorrowfully give up
an undertaking that was altogether beyond their power.

But the very thought of such a possibility nearly broke Vincent's
heart; he determined to make one last effort, and, gathering the
Ladies together, laid the case before them in all simplicity.

"I ask of you to say only one word," he said to them: "will you go on
with the work or no? You are perfectly free; you are bound by no
promise. Yet, before you decide, reflect for one moment on what you
have done, and what you are doing. Your loving care has preserved the
lives of a very great number of children, who without your help would
have been lost in time as well as eternity; for these innocent
creatures have learned to know and serve God as soon as they were able
to speak. Some of them are beginning to work and to be
self-supporting. Does not so good a beginning promise yet better
results?

"Ladies, it was pity and charity that moved you to adopt these little
ones as your children. You were their mothers by grace when their
mothers by nature had deserted them. Are you going to abandon them
now? If you cease to be their mothers you become their judges; their
lives are in your hands. I will now ask you to give your votes: it is
time for you to give sentence and to make up your minds that you have
no longer any mercy to spare for them. If in your charity you continue
to take care of them, they will live; if not, they will certainly die.
It is impossible to deny what your own experience must tell you