ied
out that she must not die without her father's leave. The girls
triumphantly asserted that this was a paltry excuse, and let her go,
with the scornful assurance that God would not accept as a martyr one
who had so little of a martyr's courage.

Poor little Jeanne Marie! This unjust ordeal had a painful effect on her
joyous spirit. Child though she was, she saw clearly that, like Simon
Peter, she had been too ready and bold in her avowals of devotedness to
her Lord. She thought that by her cowardice she had offended God, and
that now there was little likelihood of winning His favour and enjoying
His support. Her health, always delicate, could not but be injured by
this unpleasant episode, and after a while she was taken home and again
left to the care of the servants. Placed a second time at the Ursuline
convent, she was happy in being under the care of her half-sister,--a
good creature, who devoted her excellent abilities to the loving
training of Jeanne in learning and piety. While here, the little girl
was often sent for by her father; and at his house, on one occasion, she
found Henrietta Maria, the widowed queen of England, who was so much
pleased with her pretty ways and sprightly answers that she tried to
induce M. de la Mothe to place his daughter in her care, intimating that
she would make her maid of honour to the princess. The father, much to
the queen's annoyance, declined the honour, and Madame Guyon, in after
years, considered that perhaps she owed her salvation to his
judicious refusal.

At this Ursuline seminary she remained, under her sister's care, until
she was ten years old, when she was taken home again, and then placed in
a Dominican convent, where she stayed eight months. Here she was left
much to herself, but was so happy as to find an abiding companion, a
heaven-sent gift, in a copy of the Bible, which had been
"providentially" left in the apartment assigned to her. "I read it," she
says, "from morning to night; and having a very good memory, I learnt by
heart all the historical parts." Whatever were the immediate results of
this close acquaintance with the Book of books, it is certain that in
after years, when the true light had shined into her soul, her early
intimacy with the Bible was of great service to her progress, and helped
to qualify her in some measure for writing her _Explanations and
Reflections_ on the sacred volume. On her return home once more her
religious state seems to ha