September 19 (1640)

Monsieur,

You are justified in complaining of my laziness which apparently has kept me for so long from thanking you most humbly for all the trouble your Charity has taken for our daughters. I do not know how I let this day go by without sending the letter which I should have been honored to write to you to beg you most humbly to be so good as to convince the administrators of the hospital that we should withdraw Sister Turgis for the reasons which I set forth in my last letter.

We are grateful for their good will toward Sister Elisabeth¹, but it seems to me that this poor sister would perhaps feel better in this air. Nevertheless, I leave the matter entirely up to you. However, I assure you, Monsieur, that Sister Barbe from Richelieu has all the qualities necessary to lead this little community, although it is true that she does not write as well as Sister Turgis. She is the older sister of Sister Cecile².

I had not heard that your sister³ had lost her lawsuit. I was very edified by the truly Christian dispositions with which she awaited the results.

If Sister Turgis has not already left, I humbly beg you once again, Monsieur, to consider everything that I have asked you and to handle the matter of the two girls as you judge best. I ask your pardon for the liberty I take with your charity while I remain, Monsieur, your very humble and most obedient daughter and servant.

1. Elisabeth Martin was always ill. Mademoiselle thought about her transfer, see Letter 22.
2. Cécile Angiboust, who entered the Company of the Daughters of Charity a few years after her older sister, Barbe. She arrived at Angers in December 1639 and stayed there until October 1657. The numerous letters from Louise de Marillac that she had carefully saved allow one to follow the hospital community’s history. In 1648, she was named Sister Servant of that community. After her return to Paris in 1657, she was sent to the Petites Maisons.
3. See Letters 103, 426, 106 and 107.