grace rendered sweet to me the very worst of bitters. His invisible hand supported me. Else I had sunk under so many probations. Sometimes I said to myself, All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Psal. xlii. 7. Thou hast bent thy bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. Thou hast caused all the arrows of thy quiver to enter into my reins. Lam. iii. 12. 13. It seemed to me as if every one thought he was in the right to treat me ill, and rendered service to GoD in doing it. I then comprehended that it was the very manner in which JESUS CHRIST suffered. He was numbered with the trangressors. Mark xv. 28. He was condemned by the sovereign pontiff, chief priests, doctors of the law, and judges deputed by the Romans, who valued themselves on doing justice. Happy they who by suffering for the will of GoD under all the like circumstances, have so near a relation to the sufferings of JESUS CHRIST!

FOR Six weeks after my arrival at Meaux, Į was in a continual fever, nor had I recovered from my indisposition, when I was waited on by the Bishop, who would fain have compelled me to give it under my hand, that I did not believe the Word Incarnate, (or CHRIST manifest in the flesh.) I answered him, " that through the grace "of GOD, I knew how to suffer, even to death, "but not how to sign such falsehoods." Several of the Nuns who overheard this conversation, and perceiving the sentiments of the Bishop, they joined with the Prioress, in giving a testimonial, not only of my good conduct, but of their belief in the soundness of my faith.

CHAP. XIX.

[THE Bishop of Meaux, in some days after, brings her a confession of faith, and a submission

of her books to the church, that she may sign it, promising to give her a certificate, which he had prepared; but on her delivering him her submission signed, he, notwithstanding his promise, refused to give the certificate. In some time after, he endeavoured to make her sign his pastoral letter, and acknowledge she had fallen into those errors, which he there lays to her charge, and made many demands of her of the like absurd and unreasonable nature, threatening her with those persecutions she afterwards endured, in case of non-compliance. However she continued resolute, in refusing to put her name to falsehoods. At length, after she had remained about six months at Meaux, he gave her the certificate; but finding Mad. Maintenon disapproved of the certificate he had granted, he wanted to give her. another in lieu of it. Her refusal to deliver up the first certificate enraged the Bishop, and as she understood they intended to push matters with the utmost violence, she says, "I thought,

..

though I were resigned to whatever might fall "out, yet I ought to take prudent measures to "avoid the threatening storm." Many places of retreat were offered me; but I was not free in my mind to accept of any, not to embarass any body, nor involve in trouble my friends and my family, to whom they might attribute my escape. I took the resolution of continuing in Paris, of living there in some private place with my maids, who were trusty and sure, and in general to hide myself from the view of the world. I continued thus for above five or six months. I passed the day all alone in reading, in praying to GoD, and in working. But the 27th of December, 1695, I was arrested, though exceedingly indisposed at that time, and conducted to Vincennes. I was three days in the custody of Mons. des Grez, who had

arrested

arrested me; because the King would not consent to my being put into prison; saying several times over, that a Convent was sufficient. They deceived his justice by still stronger 'calumnies. They painted me in his eyes, in colours so black, that they made him scruple his goodness and equity. He then consented to my being taken to Vincennes.

I

CHAP. XX.

SHALL not speak of that long persecution, which has made so much noise, for a series of ten years imprisonments, in all sorts of prisons, and of a banishment almost as long, and not yet ended, through crosses, calumnies and all imaginable sorts of sufferings. There are facts too odious on the parts of divers persons, which charity induces me to cover: And it is in this sense that charity covers a multitude of sins. 1 PET. iv. 8. And there are others on the part of those who, having been seduced by ill-disposed persons, are yet respected by me for their piety and other reasons, though they have shewed a zeal too bitter for things of which they had no true knowledge. The one sort I pass over in silence out of respect, and the other out of charity. What I have to say is, that from so long a train of crosses, with which my life has been filled, one may judge that the greatest were reserved till the last; and that GOD who, through an effect of his goodness, did not reject me, had no mind to leave the end of my life without a greater conformity to JESUS CHRIST. He was arraigned before all sorts of tribunals. He has done me the favour to be so too. He suffered the most violent outrages without complaining. He has conferred on me the mercy of doing the same. How could I do otherwise in the view

he

he gave me of his love and his goodness? In this resemblance of my Saviour, I regarded as favours what the world looks upon as strange persecutions. The peace and joy I had within hindered me from seeing the most violent persecutors, otherwise than as instruments of the justice of GOD, which has ever been to me so adorable and 'so amiable. I was then in prison as in a place of delight and refreshment, this general privation of all creatures giving me more room to be alone with GOD. Thus I regarded all those great apparent evils, and that universal decry, as the greatest of all benefits. I looked I looked upon it as the work of the hand of GoD, who was pleased to cover his tabernacle with the skins of beasts, to hide it from the eyes of those to whom he would not have it manifested.

I HAVE borne long and sore languishings, oppressive and painful maladies without relief. I have been also inwardly under great desolations for several months, in such sort that I could only say these words, " My God, My God, why hast "thou forsaken me?" All creatures seemed to be against me. I then put myself on the side of GOD, and of the creatures, against myself. How could I complain of what I suffered, with a love so clear from all self-interest? Should I now interest myself for myself, after having made so entire a sacrifice of whatever regards this self? No. I therefore chuse rather to consecrate all those sufferings by silence.

I HAVE defended my innocence with enough of courage and firmness, not to leave any doubt of the falsehood of the calumnies cast on persons whose prayer is fervent and love sincere. The speeches of their slanderers are rash, and con

trary

trary to every sort of truth and justice: And yet the heart, which loves God, whose conscience reproaches it with nothing, even from hence gains an increase of strength and of happiness. Persecution is a weight which always sinks and plunges the soul into GOD. What matters it if all creatures are unchained against that soul, when it is all alone in sweet communio:. with its GOD, and gives him solid testimonies of its love? So, since there is no other way of testifying to GOD that we love him, than in bearing heavy sufferings for his love, we are infinitely indebted to him when he gives us the means of doing it.

PERHAPS Some will be surprized at my refusing to give the detail of the greatest and strongest crosses of my life, after I have related those which were less. I thought it proper to tell something of the crosses of my youth, to shew the crucifying conduct which God held over me. Ithought myself also obliged to relate certain facts, to manifest their falsehood, the conduct of those by whom they had passed, and the authors of those persecutions of which I have been only the accidental object, as I was only persecuted, in order to involve therein persons of great merit; whom, being cut of their reach by themselves, they therefore could not personally attack, but by confounding their affairs with mine. I thought I owed to religion, piety, my friends, my family, and myself.

WHILE I was prisoner at Vincennes, and Monssieur De La Reine examined me, I passed my time in great peace, content to pass the rest of my life there, if such were the will of God. 1 sang songs of joy, which the maid who served me learned by heart, as fast as I made them: And

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