ive your
consent; if, on the contrary, you refuse, you will be the most miserable
girl in the world, and all sorts of mischances will happen to you.' I
replied: 'If there were no God I would fear those threats; I am
consecrated to Him.' It was replied to me: 'You will not get much help
from God; He will abandon you.' I replied: 'God is my father; He will take
care of me; I have resolved to be faithful to Him.' He said: 'I will give
you three days to think over it.' I rose and went to the Holy Sacrament
with an anxious mind. Having returned to my room, and being seated on a
chair, it was drawn from under me so that I fell on the floor. Then the
same things happened again. I heard a man's voice saying lascivious and
pleasant things to seduce me; he pressed me to give him room in my bed; he
tried to touch me in an indecent way; I resisted and prevented him,
calling the nuns who were near my room; the window had been open, it was
closed; I felt strong movements of love for a certain person, and improper
desire for dishonorable things."

She writes again, at a later period: "These impurities and the fire of
concupiscence which the evil spirit caused me to feel, beyond all that I
can say, forced me to throw myself on to braziers of hot coal, where I
would remain for half an hour at a time, in order to extinguish that other
fire, so that half my body was quite burnt. At other times, in the depth
of winter, I have sometimes passed part of the night entirely naked in the
snow, or in tubs of icy water. I have besides often gone among thorns so
that I have been torn by them; at other times I have rolled in nettles,
and I have passed whole nights defying my enemies to attack me, and
assuring them that I was resolved to defend myself with the grace of God."
With her confessor's permission, she also had an iron girdle made, with
spikes, and wore this day and night for nearly six months until the spikes
so entered her flesh that the girdle could only be removed with
difficulty. By means of these austerities she succeeded in almost
exorcising the demons of unchastity, and a little later, after a severe
illness, of which she believed that she was miraculously cured by St.
Joseph, she appeared before the world almost as a saint, herself
possessing a miraculous power of healing; she traveled through France,
bringing healing wherever she went; the king, the queen, and Cardinal
Richelieu were at her feet, and so great became the fame of her