Prophetic vision

Ah! how joyous were these family feasts! How far I was then from foreseeing the trials awaiting my dear King when seeing him so happy! One day, however, God showed me in a truly extraordinary vision the living image of the trial He was pleased to prepare for us in advance.⁴²

Papa was on a trip for several days and was not expected to return for two more days. It could have been two or three o’clock in the afternoon; the sun was shining brightly and all nature seemed to be rejoicing. I was all alone at the window of an attic which faced the large garden; I was looking straight ahead, my mind occupied with joyful thoughts, when I saw a man dressed exactly like Papa standing in front of the laundry which was just opposite. The man had the same height and walk as Papa, only he was much more stooped. His head was covered with a sort of apron of indistinct color and it hid his face. He wore a hat similar to Papa’s. I saw him walking at a regular pace along my little garden. Immediately a feeling of supernatural fright invaded my soul, but in an instant I reflected that sure Papa had returned and was hiding to surprise me; then I called out very loudly—“Papa! Papa!”—my voice trembling with emotion. But the mysterious personage, appearing not to hear, continued his steady pace without even turning around. Following him with my eyes, I saw him go toward the grove that divides the wide path in two, and I waited to see him reappear on the other side of the tall trees, but the prophetic vision had vanished! All this lasted but an instant but was engraved so deeply on my heart that today, after fifteen years, it is as present to me as though I were still seeing the vision before my eyes.

Marie was with you, Mother, in a room adjoining the one where I was; hearing me call Papa, she experienced fright also, feeling, as she told me later, that something extraordinary must have happened. Without allowing me to see her emotion, she ran to me and asked what possessed me call Papa, who was still at Alençon. I told her what I had just seen. To calm me down, Marie said it was no doubt Victoire who hid her head in her apron to frighten me, but when asked about it, Victoire said she hadn’t left her kitchen. Besides, I was very sure I’d seen a man and this man had Papa’s appearance. Then all three of us went behind the screen of trees, but when we found no mark indicating the passage of anyone, you told me to think no more about it.

It was not within my power to think no more about it. Very often my imagination presented again the mysterious scene I had witnessed. Very often, too, I tried to lift the veil that was hiding its meaning from me because I kept in the bottom of my heart the conviction that this vision had a meaning which was one day to be revealed to me. That day was a long time in coming; but after fourteen years God Himself tore away the mysterious veil.