Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

---

1856

pg 304            F. Sorin was not present where the fire was raging.  For 
             nearly an hour he remained at the western tower, expecting every 
             moment to see one or the other of the roofs take fire, and then 
             there would have been an end of Notre Dame du Lac.  The severity 
             of the cold would have left no hope of saving anything.
                  Doubtless the Blessed Virgin did not permit that all those 
             labors should be destroyed in a moment, and Notre Dame du Lac 
             continued to exist.