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96 EUGENIE DE GUERIN.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
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Guerin name famous . Of their possessions , however , there remained onlthe Chateau du Cayla to M . Joseph de Guerin , the father of
y Eugenie . The mother ' s maiden name was Fontenelles , also an ancient family of Languedoe .
The Chateau Cayla is situated in the department of Tarn , Languedoc . It is a small hamlet connected with the parish of Andillaey
where is the church attended "b y the family . The nearest town of any consequence seems to be Gaillac , about twelve miles distant ,
where the family had relatives and dear friends , and where Eugenie spent much of her first years . Then they had intercourse with
families at Alby and also at Toulouse , where was the college for the boys . Of these there were two , the eldest being Erembert ( called
Eran in the family ) . Then came a daughter , Marie ( called familiarly Mimi ) andlast born , Maurice , the Benjamin , the pet
, , and delight of them all . Of his birth his sister thus speaks , writing after his death : —
" On just such a day there came into the world a brother , whom I much love and much weep for . Alas ! the two often go together . I
have seen his coffin in the same room and place where , very young I remember seeing his cradle , when they brought me from Gfaillac _,
on purpose for his baptism . This baptism was more full of pomp and festivitthan that of any other among us . I played a good
deal , and went y away next morning , loving dearly the little newborn child . I was five years old . Two years afterwards I came
back , bringing him a little robe of my making . I put it on , and led him by the hand along the Common towards the north , where he
made a few steps alone—the first , and I with great joy announced to my _mother' MauriceMaurice has walked alone ! ' "
Six years afterwards , this , precious mother died , commending her youngest boy to Eugenie's care .
"It is sixteen years to-night , " writes Eugenie , in 1835 , " since my mother died . Her ill-ness was long ; her spirit most patient .
I never remember a murmur escaping her , nor a cry , ever so low a oneunder her grievous pains . No Christian could suffer more
meekl , y . It was easy to see that she had learnt her lesson before the Cross . She smiled on her deathbed as a martyr under his
sufferings . Her face never lost its serenity , and even in agony she seemed to be thinking festal thoughts . This astonished me ,
who knew how much she must be suffering , and who myself wept at the slightest trouble , and had no idea what resignation can do in
suffering . So , when she told me she was going to die , I looked at herand her lacid look made me believe that it could not be so .
She , did die , p however , on the 2 nd of April ( 1819 ) , at midnight , while I was sleeping at the foot of her bed . Her gentle death did
not arouse me , —never soul departed more tranquilly . It was my
father figure in I heard tears _; I was carried priest into . I another saw the room candles . "—( pp ghted . 50 , 51 pale . )
96 Eugenie De Guerin.
96 _EUGENIE DE GUERIN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1863, page 96, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041863/page/24/
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