On the 3d of January, 1684, at seventy-one years of age, he felt ill and went to bed; he died next day, without being taken by surprise, as regarded either his affairs or his soul, by so speedy an end.

"O blessed flames of purgatory!" he said, as he breathed his last.

He had requested to be buried at Port-Royal des Champs; he was borne thither at night; the cold was intense, and the roads were covered with snow; the carriages were escorted by men carrying torches.

The nuns looked a moment upon the face of the saintly director, whom they had not seen for so many years; and then he was lowered into his grave.

"Needs hide in earth what is but earth," said Mother Angelica de St.Jean, in deep accents and a lowly voice, "and return to nothingness what in itself is but nothing." She was, nevertheless, heart-broken, and tarried only for this pious duty to pass away in her turn.