Page 128 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

YEAR OF PJVOLUTIONS IO7
like something the local gendarmes could handle, but
they did not. For several years it had been whispered
in revolutionary circles that the assassination of the
French king would touch ofi a European conflagration.
Within forty-eight hours of the time the workers and
students started their demonstrating, a Republic had
been proclaimed, twenty-three demonstrators had been
shot, King Louis Philippe, after abdicating in favor of
his grandson, had escaped to England. Similar outbreaks
followed in Italy, in the Germanies, and in Austria-
Hungary. Within three weeks Metternich, the symbol
of the Europe that had been, fled from Vienna ro Eng-
land. Belgium had ties with France, and the exiled Louis
Philippe, father-in-law of the King of Belgium, had been
a good friend in the days of the revolt from Holland.
In the list of names which Brother Ryken presented
at the Town Hall, he had indicated that Michael Van
den Boorn was on the sick list. Van den Boorn was now
regarded as incurable. The sick man, a martyr in his
sufierings, prayed for death. He asked to be in heaven
for the feast of the Assumption. He died on llth.
July
In the midst of these difficulties, Brother Ryken had
succeeded in whipping into shape a 1,500-word outline
of his proposition. He had someone translate it into
English and on July 3rd he dropped it in the mail,
addressed in care of Dr. Wiseman.
Ryken's proposal was that in rerurn for slight assist-
arl.ce (27 pounds English money with clothing supplied
for the first two years) he would train in Bruges eiclu-
sively for the English mission all the candidates sent him
by the bishops. He outlined a four-year course: a year
in the novitiate to absorb the fundamentals of the re-
ligious life; a second year spenr partly in the noviriare
and partly in study; the third and fourth years, with
the exception of the time devoted to their religious