Sunday (c. 1638)
Monsieur,
I am sending your reply to Madame Pelletier1 by Sister Turgis2. I am so wicked that I would have preferred, given her imminent departure, that this message had never been sent. Monsieur de Liancourt was here yesterday. I did not see him, but he sent me word that his wife was greatly upset by my return to Paris. My little blood-letting of yesterday put me into a sweat for the entire night which greatly relieved me, thank God, so I am now out of bed. Because I have neither the strength nor the health to go to see you in this bad weather, and I need to talk with you, I told the brother porter that I was going to beg you to take the trouble to come here. I take this liberty because of the confidence which your Charity gave me in this regard in the past and because I believe, Monsieur, that I am still, your very humble and most grateful daughter and servant.
- Madame Pelletier, undoubtedly the daughter of Madame de Herse, see Letter 126, who had married the nephew of Madame Goussault, see Letter 11. She did not continue in the Company of the Daughters of Charity.
- Elisabeth Le Goutteux, the widow Turgis, entered the Company of the Daughters of Charity in 1636. Intelligent and cultured, she helped Louise de Marillac with total devotion and replaced her during the times of her absence from the Motherhouse. Louise de Marillac entrusted to her the responsibility for the new community in Angers in 1640. She sent her there again for a few months in 1644. Sent to Richelieu in 1646, to Chars in 1647, then to Chantilly in 1648, she died after a brief illness in 1648.