CHAPTER XXXI.

Continued and increased opposition at Grenoble.

Conversation with a distinguished preacher. Effect of the publication of the Short Method of Prayer. Conversation with a poor girl, who had been spiritually aided and blessed through her efforts. Increased violence against her. State of her feelings. Advised by her friends to go to Marseilles. Descends the Rhone. Incidents in their voyage down the river. Arrives at the city of Marseilles. Excitement occasioned by her arrival there. Kind treatment of the Bishop of Marseilles. Opposition from others. Conversion of a priest. Acquaintance with a knight of the Order of Malta.

Her interviews with M. Francois Malaval. Leaves Marseilles for Nice. Disappointed in going from Nice to Turin, she sails for Genoa, Reflections made by her in connection with her exposure on the ocean. Departs for Verceil.

Troubles at Genoa.

Met by robbers. Other trying incidents.

THE opposition to her labors in Grenoble, the commencement of which has already been mentioned, increased. It assumed different shapes, and was characterized by more or less of violence, as it was prosecuted by different persons. In some cases persons came to her, for the purpose of exposing her views, and of counteracting them by argument. At one time, she says, she was visited by a distinguished preacher of the city, a man of profound learning. She says, "he had carefully prepared himself on a number of difficult questions, which were to be proposed to me for my answer. It is true, that in some respects they were matters far beyond my reach; but I laid them before the Lord, and He

enabled me to answer them promptly and satisfactorily, almost as much so as if I had made them the subjects of long study. My help was in the Lord, and in that wisdom which he gives to those who fully trust in him. This person was not only apparently convinced and satisfied, but went away, so far as could be judged, with a perception and experience of the love of God such as he had not known before."

2. The excitement, which existed against her, arose partly from religious conferences and other personal religious efforts, and partly and perhaps in a still higher degree, from her book on Prayer. This work, the Short Method of Prayer, had hardly been published, when some pious persons purchased fifteen hundred copies of it, and distributed them in the city and its neighborhood. The effect was very great. "God," she says, "had made me the instrument of great good; but Satan, who takes no pleasure in God's works, was greatly enraged. I saw clearly that the time had come, when he would stir up a violent persecution against me. But it gave me no trouble. Whatever I may be made to suffer by his attacks, I am confident that all will ultimately tend to God's glory."

3. "Among the subjects of the divine operation, during this time of religious interest, was a poor girl, who earned her livelihood by her daily labor; a girl of great truth and simplicity of spirit, and one who, in her inward experience, was much favored of the Lord. At the time of which I am now speaking, she came to me one day, and said, 'Oh my mother, what strange things have I seen!' [Referring probably to some dream which she had recently experienced.] I asked what they were. Alas,' said she, 'I have seen you like a lamb in the midst of a troop of fierce wolves. I have seen a frightful multitude of people of all ranks and robes, of all ages, sexes, and conditions, priests, friars, mar

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ried men, maids and wives, with pikes, halberts, and drawn swords, all eager for your instant destruction. On your part, you stood alone, but without surprise or fear. I looked on all sides to see whether any would come to assist and defend you, but I saw not one.'

4. "Some days after this poor girl had spoken to me, those persons, who through envy were raising private batteries against me, broke forth furiously. Injurious and libellous statements began to be circulated. Some individuals, without any personal knowledge of me, wrote against me. Some said, that I was a sorceress, that it was by some magic power that I attracted souls, and that everything in me was diabolical. Others said, that, if I did some charities, it was because I coined, and put off false money; with many other gross accusations equally false, groundless, and absurd.

"But, amid all this, my soul, full of earnest desires, thirsted, if I may so express it, for the salvation of my fellow beings. It seemed to me, that I felt just as Christ felt when he entered into his apostolic state; that is to say, when he came out of his thirty years' retirement, and full of the Holy Ghost, began to preach publicly the way of salvation. He said to his disciples at a certain time, With desire I have desired, in other words, I have exceedingly desired, to eat the passover with you. Such was my desire; so great that when I could not speak, I wrote; and when I could not write, nor impart my strong desires in any other way, my system was overcome in the strength of my feeling, and I sunk under it."

5. But the providences of God seemed to indicate, that her mission at Grenoble, which had been so strikingly characterized by manifestations of the divine power, was ended. So violent was the tempest of indignation against her, that even her tried friends, anxious for her personal safety, advised her to leave. Camus, bishop of Grenoble, a man of learning and piety, was friendly to her. He was a Doctor of the

Sorbonne, and not long after was appointed Cardinal* by Pope Innocent II.; but he was not able, though obviously of favorable dispositions, to restrain the hostile movement, which now existed.

His Almoner, probably with the concurrence of the bishop himself, advised her strongly to leave the city and seek refuge in Marseilles, till the storm should be over. The Almoner gave as a reason for recommending the city of Marseilles as the place to which under the existing circumstances she should flee, that it was his native place, that there were many persons of merit there, and that he thought from his knowledge of the situation of things she would be favorably received. Looking to the Lord for direction, she felt it her duty to comply with these suggestions.

6. Leaving her daughter under the care of her favorite maid-servant, in the Religious House where she was placed on their first arrival, and taking with her another girl to supply her place about her own person, she left the city as secretly as possible; influenced in leaving in this manner, not more by a desire to defeat the machinations of her enemies, than by a fear of being burdened with the visits and lamentations of her friends. It was early in the Spring of the year 1686,– if we are allowed to deduce our chronology, not always from the statements made, which are sometimes inconsistent with each other, but from a comparison and adjustment of statements, - that she thus finished her mission at Grenoble, and again went out, not knowing, like the patriarch of old, "whither she went." Accompanied by two females, one of them the girl who has just been mentioned, and by the Almoner of Bishop Camus, and another very worthy ecclesiastic, she took the route along the banks of

* See Memoirs of the Court of France, from the year 1684 to the year 1720, by the Marquis de Dangeau. Vol. I. p. 76.

the river Isere, till it mingles with the Rhone, a little above the ancient city of Valence. At Valence they all embarked upon the Rhone in one of the numerous boats, that were employed in navigating its waters.

They had descended about three miles from the city, when they became satisfied that the boat, (which they had taken in the expectation of overtaking another larger one, but were disappointed in it,) would not answer their purpose. It was too small; and they were under the necessity of returning. As the boat was heavily laden, and it was difficult to ascend the river with it, the passengers all left it and went back on foot, with the exception of Madame Guyon, who was unable to walk so long a distance, and a young lad who was supposed to be competent to take the boat back. Owing either to the violence of the river, or his want of skill and strength, or perhaps both, he found it a very difficult thing to do it. At one time he ceased his efforts entirely; and leaving the boat to the merey of the waves, sat down and burst into tears, saying that they must both be drowned, Madame Guyon, seeing the imminent hazard to which they were exposed, went to him; and by remonstrating with him and encouraging him, induced him to resume his efforts. After four hours of hard labor, they reached the city; and her companions having arrived by land, they immediately took another boat more suited to their purpose.

Nothing is said of their stopping at any of the numerous towns and cities which adorn the banks of the Rhone. Beaucaire and Tarascon with their wealth and activity, Avignon with its benevolent institutions, Arles with its amphitheatre and obelisk and other remains of high antiquity, -all ceased to have attractions for those, who felt that they had no home in any place where Christ, preached in his simplicity, was likely to be excluded.

7. The navigation of the Rhone, which is one of the most