At Angers

From Saint Martin, February 24, 1640

Monsieur,

Your Charity has once again added to my already heavy debt of gratitude to you by depriving yourself of your footman to furnish this comfort for me¹. I had thought of thanking you for this and for all the other benefits² I have received from you. However, I must avow, Monsieur, that expressions of gratitude for the benefits bestowed on me by persons such as yourself, whom I greatly esteem, seem so beyond the requirements of politeness that I rarely express them. This is what renders me speechless, Monsieur, at a time when I am particularly obliged to give proof of my gratitude to you. Please forgive me, for I am so foolish that

I behave the same way with God, whose innumerable gifts to me inspire within me more admiration than thanksgiving.

Accept my silence then, Monsieur, because I cannot act otherwise. Allow me to tell you, however, that 1 have never been more indebted to anyone than I am to you. Thus I remain, Monsieur, your very humble daughter and most obedient servant.

P.S. I believe, Monsieur, that you asked me to send you the formula for rose syrup as well as the method for administering it to the sick. I am enclosing it. Please excuse the deficiencies. Our Master, the loving Doctor, whom I have asked to aid you will make up for them.

1. Louise de Marillac left Angers in the carriage of Monsieur l’abb£ de Vaux of Angers.
2. Ill when she arrived in Angers, she stayed in the Abbé de Vaux’s home for a few weeks before joining her sisters at the Hospital of Saint-Jean.