would have nobody know it; but that the Devil would be before
me in all the places I should go to; that I was going to a town, where
I would scarce be arrived, before he would stir up the whole town
against me, and would do me all the harm he possibly could. What had
obliged me to conceal my departure, was my fear of being loaded with
visits, and testimonies of friendship from a number of good persons,
who had a very great affection for me.

I embarked then upon the Rhone, with my maid and a young woman of
Grenoble, whom the Lord has highly favored through my means. The Bishop
of Grenoble's Almoner also accompanied me, with another very worthy
ecclesiastic. We met with many alarming accidents and wonderful
preservations; but those instant dangers, which affrighted others, far
from alarming me, augmented my peace. The Bishop of Grenoble's Almoner
was much astonished. He was in a desperate fright, when the boat struck
against a rock, and opened at the stroke. In his emotion looking
attentively at me, he observed that I did not change my countenance, or
move my eyebrows, retaining all my tranquillity. I did not so much as
feel the first emotions of surprise, which are natural to everybody on
those occasions, as they depend not on ourselves. What caused my peace
in such dangers as terrify others, was my resignation to God, and
because death is much more agreeable to me than life, if such were His
will, to which I desire to be ever patiently submissive.

A man of quality, a servant of God, and one of my intimate friends had
given me a letter for a knight of Malta, who was very devout, and whom
I have esteemed since I have known him, as a man whom our Lord designed
to serve the order of Malta greatly, and to be its ornament and support
by his holy life. I had told him that I thought he should go thither,
and that God would assuredly make use of him to diffuse a spirit of
piety into many of the knights. He has actually gone to Malta, where
the first places were soon given him. This man of quality sent him my
little book of prayer and printed at Grenoble. He had a chaplain very
averse to the spiritual path. He took this book, and condemning it at
once, went to stir up a part of the town, and among the rest a set of
men who called themselves the seventy-two disciples of St. Cyran. I
arrived at Marseilles at ten o'clock in the morning, and that very
afternoon all was in a noise against me. Some went to speak to the
bishop, telli