CHAPTER VI--THE LITTLE CONVENT

  In this enclosure of the Petit-Picpus there were three perfectlydistinct buildings,--the Great Convent, inhabited by the nuns, theBoarding-school, where the scholars were lodged; and lastly, what wascalled the Little Convent. It was a building with a garden, in whichlived all sorts of aged nuns of various orders, the relics of cloistersdestroyed in the Revolution; a reunion of all the black, gray, and whitemedleys of all communities and all possible varieties; what might becalled, if such a coupling of words is permissible, a sort of harlequinconvent.

  When the Empire was established, all these poor old dispersed and exiledwomen had been accorded permission to come and take shelter under thewings of the Bernardines-Benedictines. The government paid them a smallpension, the ladies of the Petit-Picpus received them cordially. It wasa singular pell-mell. Each followed her own rule, Sometimes the pupilsof the boarding-school were allowed, as a great recreation, to pay thema visit; the result is, that all those young memories haveretained among other souvenirs that of Mother Sainte-Bazile, MotherSainte-Scolastique, and Mother Jacob.

  One of these refugees found herself almost at home. She was a nun ofSainte-Aure, the only one of her order who had survived. The ancientconvent of the ladies of Sainte-Aure occupied, at the beginning of theeighteenth century, this very house of the Petit-Picpus, which belongedlater to the Benedictines of Martin Verga. This holy woman, too poor towear the magnificent habit of her order, which was a white robe witha scarlet scapulary, had piously put it on a little manikin, which sheexhibited with complacency and which she bequeathed to the house ather death. In 1824, only one nun of this order remained; to-day, thereremains only a doll.

  In addition to these worthy mothers, some old society women had obtainedpermission of the prioress, like Madame Albertine, to retire into theLittle Convent. Among the number were Madame Beaufort d'Hautpoul andMarquise Dufresne. Another was never known in the convent except bythe formidable noise which she made when she blew her nose. The pupilscalled her Madame Vacarmini (hubbub).

  About 1820 or 1821, Madame de Genlis, who was at that time editing alittle periodical publication called _l'Intrépide_, asked to be allowedto enter the convent of the Petit-Picpus as lady resident. The Ducd'Orléans recommended her. Uproar in the hive; the vocal-mothers wereall in a flutter; Madame de Genlis had made romances. But she declaredthat she was the first to detest them, and then, she had reached herfierce stage of devotion. With the aid of God, and of the Prince, sheentered. She departed at the end of six or eight months, alleging as areason, that there was no shade in the garden. The nuns were delighted.Although very old, she still played the harp, and did it very well.

  When she went away she left her mark in her cell. Madame de Genlis wassuperstitious and a Latinist. These two words furnish a tolerably goodprofile of her. A few years ago, there were still to be seen, pasted inthe inside of a little cupboard in her cell in which she locked up hersilverware and her jewels, these five lines in Latin, written withher own hand in red ink on yellow paper, and which, in her opinion,possessed the property of frightening away robbers:--

  Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: Dismas et Gesmas, media est divina potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix, infima, Gesmas; Nos et res nostras conservet summa potestas. Hos versus dicas, ne tu furto tua perdas.15

  These verses in sixth century Latin raise the question whether thetwo thieves of Calvary were named, as is commonly believed, Dismas andGestas, or Dismas and Gesmas. This orthography might have confounded thepretensions put forward in the last century by the Vicomte de Gestas, ofa descent from the wicked thief. However, the useful virtue attached tothese verses forms an article of faith in the order of the Hospitallers.

  The church of the house, constructed in such a manner as to separate theGreat Convent from the Boarding-school like a veritable intrenchment,was, of course, common to the Boarding-school, the Great Convent, andthe Little Convent. The public was even admitted by a sort of lazarettoentrance on the street. But all was so arranged, that none of theinhabitants of the cloister could see a face from the outside world.Suppose a church whose choir is grasped in a gigantic hand, andfolded in such a manner as to form, not, as in ordinary churches, aprolongation behind the altar, but a sort of hall, or obscure cellar, tothe right of the officiating priest; suppose this hall to be shut off bya curtain seven feet in height, of which we have already spoken; in theshadow of that curtain, pile up on wooden stalls the nuns in the choiron the left, the school-girls on the right, the lay-sisters and thenovices at the bottom, and you will have some idea of the nuns of thePetit-Picpus assisting at divine service. That cavern, which was calledthe choir, communicated with the cloister by a lobby. The church waslighted from the garden. When the nuns were present at services wheretheir rule enjoined silence, the public was warned of their presenceonly by the folding seats of the stalls noisily rising and falling.