yourself to live
with him."

Kind order! she followed it but too well:--sweet custom!--With such a
man, who animated everything by his personal charm, who simplified and
facilitated the most arduous things, she did not walk, but fly, between
heaven and earth, into the tepid regions of divine love. So much
seduction, sanctity, and liberty at once--it was too much for her poor
heart!

St. Simon tells us by what method of espionage and treason Godet proved
the presence of Quietism in Saint-Cyr. There was no need of so much
cunning. La Maisonfort was so pure as to be imprudent. In the
happiness of this new spirituality, into which she entered with her
whole soul, she said much more than was required of her.

Fenelon, suspected as he had then become, was still left with her, till
she had made the important step. They waited till, under his
influence, and in spite of her own protestations and tears, she had
taken the veil, and heard the fatal grate shut behind her.

Two meetings were held at Saint-Cyr, to decide on the destiny of the
victim. Godet, supported by the Lazarists, Thiberge, and Brisacier,
decided she should be a nun, and Fenelon, who was a member of this fine
council, made no opposition. She herself has informed us, that, during
the deliberation, "she retired before the holy sacrament in a strange
agony; that she thought she should have died of grief, and that she
passed the whole of the night in a flood of tears."

The deliberation was merely a matter of form; Madame de Maintenon was
resolved; and obey they must. Nobody at that time was more at her
command than Fenelon. It was then the decisive crisis of Quietism.
The question was no less than to know whether its doctor, writer, and
prophet, unpalatable as he was to the king, who, however, did not yet
thoroughly know him, would be able to acquire, before his doctrine
burst forth, that position of a great prelate in the church, to which
all his supporters were hurrying him. Hence sprung his unlimited
devotedness to Madame de Maintenon, and the sacrifice of poor
Maisonfort to her omnipotent will. Fenelon, who knew perfectly well
how little she was inclined to this vocation, sacrificed her, certainly
not to his personal interests, but for the advancement of his doctrines
and the aggrandizement of his own party.

As soon as she had taken the veil, and was immured for ever, he became
more and more distant; for she was frankness itself, and by her
im