Letter from Claude de Ramezay, 4 October 1721.

I have the honour of informing the Conseil that a fire occurred on the nineteen of June at the Hospital of this city; this fire, due to The height of the church and bell tower, reached the neighbouring houses, Causing a major Fire in this area, there being one hundred thirty-eight houses with stone chimneys that burned not counting the stores and other buildings; if I had not cut off the path of The fire, by using hooks to pull down the roof of a house, so as to extinguish it, we all risked Perishing in this mishap which incurred a loss of more than one million to the merchants and bourgeois of this city; since most of them were able to save Their merchandise, they propose to re-establish themselves in the near future and to have houses constructed that will be more beautiful than their previous ones; there are but five or six persons who will not recover from their losses and the widows of two late officers, deceased Sieurs Puygibau and clerin are of the number who will not be able to rebuild without the assistance of the Conseil. The hospitaller Sisters have lost all of Their furnishings and Linens, and Sieur benoits who fulfils his duties

as major surgeon with dignity has also lost all of his tools, and we had great difficulty in saving one Sister who was ill and in the Infirmary. Messieurs the marquis de Vaudreuil, the bishop and Monsieur the Intendant had the Sisters lodged at the general hospital of the late Sieur charon where they [did] find for little expense a place to stay and a hall for the ill, but the hospitaller brothers have difficulty hosting them there.[...]