He made many objections to
Sister Frances, as being an improper person to have the spiritual
guidance of these young people; but as he was unable to give any just
reason for his dislike, Madame de Fleury persisted in her choice, and was
at last obliged to assert, in opposition to the domineering abbe, her
right to judge and decide in her own affairs. With seeming politeness,
he begged ten thousand pardons for his conscientious interference. No
more was said upon the subject; and as he did not totally withdraw from
her society till the revolution broke out, she did not suspect that she
had anything to fear from his resentment. His manners and opinions
changed suddenly with the times; the mask of religion was thrown off; and
now, instead of objecting to Sister Frances as not being sufficiently
strict and orthodox in her tenets, he boldly declared that a nun was not
a fit person to be intrusted with the education of any of the young
citizens--they should all be _des eleves de la patrie_. The abbe, become
a member of the Committee of Public Safety, denounced Madame de Fleury,
in the strange jargon of the day, as "_the fosterer of a swarm of bad
citizens, who were nourished in the anticivic prejudices_ de l'ancien
regime, _and fostered in the most detestable superstitions, in defiance
of the law_." He further observed, that he had good reason to believe
that some of these little enemies to the constitution had contrived and
abetted Monsieur de Fleury's escape.
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