Page 93 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

72 SOME RYKEN CORRESPONDENCE
not tell him that he intended, if at all possible, to move
out of the diocese to Bruges.
What he hoped for in the spring of 1845 was to in-
terest in his project the energetic Dean of Hasselt in
the diocese of Liege. Through an intermediary, a Father
Bogaerds, he succeeded in getting an appointment with
Dean Theodore Spaas. The meeting went ofi splendidly.
He returned to Bruges, confident that he could move the
community to Hasselt whenever he was so minded.
He then began negotiations for a possible foundation
at Courtrai, twenty-five miles to the south of Bruges and
close to the French border. Here a Father Arents was
contemplating a new school.
And then came disaster for all of Flanders. Early in
June it was evident that a blight had smuck the potato
crop and that famine was inevitable.
By July the Father Superior at "flet Walletje" was
alarmed. A continued meager diet had in one month
shown its efiect. "We have," he told the Bishop, "eaten
dry bread and drunk plain water. Several of the Brothers
have become indisposed in the stomach."
He had no hope to buoy him up. The garden at
"Het Walletje," on which the Brothers had slaved for
three years and on which he depended so much not only
for food'but also for supplementary revenue, had pro-
duced only the stench of decay.
Seldom did Theodore Ryken think in terms of defeat.
Difficulties were to his way of thinking temporary in-
conveniences which in due season would pass. But at
this hour of doom he did for a moment falter. On August
8, 1845, he wrote to Francis Dondorfi: "I regret that our
effort has failed. The owner has demanded his money,
and humanly speaking I do not know where to procure
it. But I have confidence in God and in the intercession
of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God."