he
messenger went to him and asked him for it. He denied I had given it to
him, saying, "Her brain is disordered which makes her imagine it." The
man came back to me and told me his answer. The persons in my chamber
bore witness that I had given it to him. Yet all signified nothing; it
could not be got out of his hands; but on the contrary, he insulted me,
and caused others also to do it, though I was so weak that I seemed to
be at the very gates of death.

They told me they only waited for my recovery to cast me into prison.
He made his brethren believe that I had treated him ill. They wrote to
me that it was for my crimes that I suffered and that I should put
myself under the control of Father La Mothe, otherwise I should repent
it; that I was mad and ought to be bound; and was a monster of pride,
since I would not suffer myself to be conducted by Father La Mothe.
Such was my daily feast in the extremity of my pain; deserted of my
friends, and oppressed by my enemies; the former being ashamed of me,
through the calumnies which were forged and industriously spread; the
latter let loose to persecute me; under all which I kept silence,
leaving myself to the Lord.

There was not any kind of infamy, error, sorcery, or sacrilege, of
which they did not accuse me. As soon as I was able to be carried to
the church in a chair, I was told I must speak to the prebend. (It was
a snare concerted between Father La Mothe and the Canon at whose house
I lodged). I spoke to him with much simplicity and he approved of what
I said. Yet, two days after they gave out that I had uttered many
things, and accused many persons; and from hence they procured the
banishment of sundry persons with whom they were displeased, persons
whom I had never seen or of whom I never heard. They were men of honor.
One of them was banished, because he said my little book is a good one.
It is remarkable that they say nothing to those who prefixed their
approbations, and that, far from condemning the book, it has been
reprinted since I have been in prison, and advertisements of it have
been posted up at the Archbishop's palace, and all over Paris. In
regard to others, when they find faults in their books, they condemn
the books and leave the person at liberty; but as for me, my book is
approved, sold and spread, while I am kept a prisoner for it.

The same day that those gentlemen were banished, I received a letter de
cachet, or sealed order to repair to the C