Cambrai was a thunderbolt for this little flock.  It was the archbishopric of Paris they wished.  Cambrai they looked upon with disdain as a country diocese, the residence in which (impossible to avoid from time to time) would deprive them of their pastor.  Their grief was then profound at what the rest of the world took for a piece of amazing luck, and the Countess of Guiche was so affected as to be unable to hide her tears.  The new prelate had not neglected such of his brethren as made the most figure; they, in turn, considered it a distinction to command his regard.  Saint Cyr, that spot so valuable and so inaccessible, was the place chosen for his consecration; and M. de Meaux, dictator then of the episcopacy and or doctrine, consecrated him.  The children of France were among the spectators, and Madame de Maintenon was present with her little court of familiars.  No others were invited; the doors were closed to those who sought to pay their court.

The new Archbishop of Cambrai, gratified with his influence over Madame de Maintenon and with the advantages it had brought him, felt that unless he became completely master of her, the hopes he still entertained could not be satisfied.  But there was a rival in his way—­Godet, Bishop of Chartres, who was much in the confidence of Madame de Maintenon, and had long discourses with her at Saint Cyr.  As he was, however, of a very ill figure, had but little support at Court, and appeared exceedingly simple, M. de Cambrai believed he could easily overthrow him.  To do this, he determined to make use of Madame Guyon, whose new spirituality had already been so highly relished by Madame de Maintenon.  He persuaded this latter to allow Madame Guyon to enter Saint Cyr, where they could discourse together much more at their ease than at the Hotel de Chevreuse or Beauvilliers.  Madame Guyon went accordingly to Saint Cyr two or three times.  Soon after, Madame de Maintenon, who relished her more and more, made her sleep there, and their meetings grew longer.  Madame Guyon admitted that she sought persons proper to become her disciples, and in a short time she formed a little flock, whose maxims and language appeared very strange to all the rest of the house, and, above all, to M. de Chartres.  That prelate was not so simple as M. de Cambrai imagined.  Profound theologian and scholar, pious, disinterested, and of rare probity, he could be, if necessary, a most skilful courtier; but he rarely exerted this power, for the favour of Madame de Maintenon sufficed him of itself.  As soon as he got scent of this strange doctrine, he caused two ladies, upon whom he could count, to be admitted to Saint Cyr, as if to become disciples of Madame Guyon.  He gave them full instructions, and they played their parts to perfection.  In the first place they appeared to be ravished, and by degrees enchanted, with the new doctrine.  Madame Guyon, pleased with this fresh conquest, took the ladies into her most intimate confidence in order