. In the meantime he deceitfully palliated the malignity of his
heart, writing letters full of esteem to Father La Combe, and some to
me of tenderness, "desiring him to bring his dear sister, and to serve
her in her infirmities, and in the hardships of so long a journey; that
he should be sensibly obliged to him for his care;" with many other
things of the like nature.

I could not resolve to depart without going to see my good friend, the
Marchioness of Prunai, notwithstanding the difficulty of the roads. I
caused myself to be carried, it being scarcely possible to go otherwise
on account of the mountains. She was extremely joyful at seeing me
arrive. Nothing could be more cordial than what passed between us. It
was then that she acknowledged that all I had told her had come to
pass. A good ecclesiastic, who lives with her, told me the same. We
made ointments and plasters together, and I gave her the secret of my
remedies, I encouraged her, and so did Father La Combe, to establish an
hospital in that place; which was done while we were there. I
contributed my mite to it which has ever been blest to all the
hospitals, which have ever been established in reliance on Providence.

I believe I had forgotten to tell, that the Lord had made use of me to
establish one near Grenoble, which subsists without any other fund than
the supplies of Providence. My enemies made use of that afterward to
slander me, saying that I had wasted my children's substance in
establishing hospitals, though, far from spending any of their
substance, I had even given them my own. All those hospitals have been
established only on the fund of divine Providence, which is
inexhaustible. But so it has been ordered for my good, that all our
Lord has made me to do His glory has ever been turned into crosses for
me.

As soon as it was determined that I should come into France, the Lord
made known to me, that it was to have greater crosses than I ever had.
Father La Combe had the like sense. He encouraged me to resign myself
to the divine will, and to become a victim offered freely to new
sacrifices. He also wrote to me, "Will it not be a thing very glorious
to God, if He should make us serve in that great city, for a spectacle
to angels and to men?" I set off then with a spirit of sacrifice, to
offer myself up to new kinds of punishments, if pleasing to my dear
Lord. All along the road something within me repeated the very words of
St. Paul, "I go bound