ay remarkable that had befallen me. I did it. It is a
crime to publish secrets of the King; but it is a good thing to declare
the favors of the Lord our God, and to magnify His mercies.

As the outcry against me became more violent, and Madame Maintenon was
moved to declare against me, I sent to her through the Duke of
Beauvilliers, requesting the appointment of proper persons to examine
my life and doctrines, offering to retire into any prison until fully
exculpated. My proposal was rejected. In the meantime, one of my most
intimate friends and supporters, Mons. Fouquet, was called away by
death. I felt his loss very deeply, but rejoiced in his felicity. He
was a true servant of God.

Determined to retire out of the way of giving offense to any, I wrote
to some of my friends, and bade them a last farewell; not knowing
whether I were to be carried off by the indisposition which I then had,
which had been a constant fever for forty days past, or to recover from
it.

Referring to the Countess of G. and the Duchess of M., I wrote, "When
these ladies and others were in the vanities of the world, when they
patched and painted, and some of them were in the way to ruin their
families by gaming and profusion of expense in dress, nobody arose to
say anything against it; they were quietly suffered to do it. But when
they have broken off from all this, then they cry out against me, as if
I had ruined them. Had I drawn them from piety into luxury, they would
not make such an outcry. The Duchess of M. at her giving herself up to
God, thought herself obliged to quit the court, which was to her like a
dangerous rock, in order to bestow her time on the education of her
children and the care of her family, which, till then, she had
neglected. I beseech you, therefore, to gather all the memorials you
can against me; if I am found guilty of the things they accuse me of, I
ought to be punished more than any other, since God has brought me to
know Him and love Him, and I am well assured that there is no communion
between Christ and Belial."

I sent them my two little printed books, with my commentaries on the
Holy Scriptures. I also, by their order, wrote a work to facilitate
their examination, and to spare them as much time and trouble as I
could, which was to collect a great number of passages out of approved
writers, which showed the conformity of my writings with those used by
the holy penmen. I caused them to be transcribed by the