to gain them entirely.  They communicated everything to M. de Chartres, who quietly looked on, allowed things to take their course, and, when he believed the right moment had arrived, disclosed all he had learnt to Madame de Maintenon.  She was strangely surprised when she saw the extraordinary drift of the new doctrine.  Troubled and uncertain, she consulted with M. de Cambrai, who, not suspecting she had been so well instructed, became, when he discovered it, embarrassed, and thus augmented her suspicions.

Suddenly Madame Guyon was driven away from Saint Cyr, and prohibited from spreading her doctrine elsewhere.  But the admiring disciples she had made still gathered round her in secret, and this becoming known, she was ordered to leave Paris.  She feigned obedience, but in effect went no further than the Faubourg Saint Antoine, where, with great secrecy, she continued to receive her flock.  But being again detected, she was sent, without further parley, to the Bastille, well treated there, but allowed to see nobody, not even to write.  Before being arrested, however, she had been put into the hands of M. de Meaux, who used all his endeavours to change her sentiments.  Tired at last of his sermons, she feigned conviction, signed a recantation of her opinions, and was set at liberty.  Yet, directly after, she held her secret assemblies in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, and it was in consequence of this abuse of freedom that she was arrested.  These adventures bring me far into the year 1696, and the sequel extends into the following year.  Let us finish this history at once, and return afterwards to what happened meanwhile.

Monsieur de Cambrai, stunned but not overpowered by the reverse he had sustained, and by his loss of favour with Madame de Maintenon, stood firm in his stirrups.  After Madame Guyon’s abuse of her liberty, and the conferences of Issy, he bethought himself of confessing to M. de Meaux, by which celebrated trick he hoped to close that prelate’s mouth.  These circumstances induced M. de Meaux to take pen in hand, in order to expose to the public the full account of his affair, and of Madame Guyon’s doctrine; and he did so in a work under the title of ’Instruction sur les Etats d’Oyaison’.

While the book was yet unpublished, M. de Cambrai was shown a copy.  He saw at once the necessity of writing another to ward off the effect of such a blow.  He must have had a great deal of matter already prepared, otherwise the diligence he used would be incredible.  Before M. de Meaux’s book was ready, M. de Cambrai’s, entitled ‘Maximes des Saints’, was published and distributed.  M. de Chevreuse, who corrected the proofs, installed himself at the printer’s, so as to see every sheet as soon as printed.