This trial and other affairs prevented Madame Champlain from carrying out her resolution, and it was not until November 7th, 1645, that she entered the monastery of St. Ursula at Paris.  She first entered the institution as a benefactress, and soon after became a novice under the name of Helene de St. Augustin.  There seems to have been some difficulties with regard to her profession as a nun, and she therefore resolved to found an Ursuline monastery at Meaux.  Bishop Seguier granted the necessary permission to found the monastery, and also for her to take with her three nuns and a lay sister.  Helene de St. Augustin left Paris for Meaux on March 17th, 1648, and made her profession five months after.  As a preparation for this solemn act, she made a public confession in the presence of the community.  She also recited her faults, kneeling, and wearing a cord about her neck, and bearing a lighted taper in her hands.  Mere Helene de St. Augustin lived only six years in her convent at Meaux, and died on December 20th, 1654, at the age of fifty years, leaving the memory of a saintly life.

Eustache Boulle, the brother of Helene de St. Augustin, became a convert to Catholicism through the intervention of his sister, and entered the Minim order.  He was sent to Italy, where he lived for six years.  During his sojourn there his sister sent to him one thousand livres a year, and at her death she bequeathed to him the sum of six thousand livres, and all her chattels, together with a pension of four hundred livres for life.

All those who have carefully studied the life of Champlain, have been impressed by the many brilliant qualities which he possessed.  Some have praised his energy, his courage, his loyalty, his disinterestedness, and his probity.  Others have admired the charity which he exhibited towards his neighbours, his zeal, his practical faith, his exalted views and his perseverance.  The fact is, that in Champlain all these qualities were united to a prominent degree.

The contemporaries of Champlain did not perhaps appreciate his merits, or his heroic efforts as a founder.  This is not altogether singular, for even in the physical world one cannot rightly estimate the altitude of a mountain by remaining close to its base, but at a distance a just appreciation of its proportions may be obtained.

If the contemporaries of Champlain failed to render him justice, posterity has made amends, and Time, the sole arbitrator of fame, has placed the founder of Quebec upon a pedestal of glory which will become more brilliant as the centuries roll on.  Nearly three centuries had elapsed since the heroic Saintongeais first set foot on the soil of Canada, when, at the close of the nineteenth century, a spectacle was witnessed in the city of his foundation which proved that the name of Champlain was graven on the hearts of all Canadians.  The ceremonies attending the inauguration of the splendid monument which now adorns Quebec, have become a matter of history, and seldom could such a scene be repeated again.  France and England, the two great nations from which Canadians have descended, each paid homage to the illustrious founder; nor can we forget the noble tribute which was paid by the latest English governor, representing Her Majesty Queen Victoria, to the first French governor, representing His Majesty the King of France and of Navarre.