ke care of his letter. He then desired him to wait
awhile, as he was going to write. The good Father had the patience to
wait above three hours, without hearing from him; though he had treated
him exceedingly ill, so far as to snatch out of his hands a letter I
had given him for that worthy hermit I have mentioned. Hearing he was
not gone, but was still in the church, I went to him, and begged him to
send to see if the other's packet was ready. The day was so far gone
that he would be obliged to lodge by the way. When the messenger
arrived, he found a servant of the ecclesiastic on horseback, ordered
to go at full speed, to be at Annecy before the Father. He then
returned an answer, that he had no letters to send by him. This was so
contrived, that he might gain time to prepossess the Bishop for his
purposes. Father La Combe then set off for Annecy, and on his arrival
found the Bishop prepossessed, and in an ill humor. This was the
substance of the discourse.

BISHOP--You must absolutely engage this lady to give what she has to
the house at Gex, and make her the prioress of it.

F. LA COMBE--My lord, you know what she has told you herself of her
vocation, both at Paris and in this country. I therefore do not believe
that she will engage; nor is there any likelihood that, after quitting
her all, in the hope of entering Geneva, she should engage elsewhere,
and thereby put it out of her power to accomplish the designs of God in
regard to her. She has offered to stay with those sisters as a boarder.
If they are willing to keep her as such, she will remain with them; if
not, she is resolved to retire into some convent, till God shall
dispose of her otherwise.

BISHOP--I know all that; but I likewise know that she is so very
obedient, that, if you order her, she will assuredly do it.

F. LA COMBE--It is for that reason, my lord, that one ought to be very
cautious in the commands which they lay on her. Can I induce a foreign
lady, who, for all her subsistence, has nothing but a small pittance
she has reserved to herself, to give that up in favor of a house which
is not yet established, and perhaps never will be? If the house should
happen to fail, or be no longer of use, what shall that lady live on?
Shall she go to the hospital? And indeed this house will not long be of
any use, since there are no Protestants in any part of France near it.

BISHOP--These reasons are good for nothing. If you do not make her do
what I have