Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/467

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domestic fevers. But the gay-hearted inhabitants—then, even as now—seemed to draw from their misfortunes only zest for greater energy of work and greater pleasure in life.

THE URSULINES CONVENT.

Every ship that arrived brought accessions to the population—accessions, not immigrants, and therefore reckoned by quality, not quantity. Gay sprigs of the nobility were sent out to "la Nouvelle Orleans" to mend their morals; thrifty ones, to mend their fortunes; ambitious sons of the bourgeoisie came seeking opportunity for acquiring landed estate; old officers remained when their terms of service expired;