"What can you expect, Monsignor ?" laughingly said a lady well disposed to the Jansenists; "God is just; it is the stones of Port-Royal tumbling upon your head." The tombs were destroyed; some coffins were carried to a distance, others left and profaned; the plough passed over the ruins; the hatred of the enemies of Port-Royal was satiated.

A few of the faithful, preserving in their hearts the ardent faith of M.de St.Cyran, narrowed, however, and absorbed by obstinate resistance, a few theologians dying in exile, and leaving in Holland a succession of bishops detached from the Roman church,--this was all that remained of one of the noblest attempts ever made by the human soul to rise, here below, above that which is permitted by human nature.

Virtues of the utmost force, Christianity zealously pushed to its extremest limits, and the most invincible courage, sustained the Jansenists in a conscientious struggle against spiritual oppression; its life died out, little by little, amongst the dispersed members.

The Catholic church suffered therefrom in its innermost sanctuary.

"The Catholic religion would only be more neglected if there were no more religionists," said Vauban, in his Memoire in favor of the Protestants.