THE

LIFE OF LADY GUION,

PART FIRST.

FROM HER BIRTH 'TILL HER LEAVING FRANCE.

CONTENTS OF PART FIRST

པ་་རག་

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.

11. Her birth. At four years of age she goes with the Dutchess
of Montbason to the Benedictines. A digression of advice to mo-
thers.

111. Good education under the care of an elder sister. Her inter-

view, at her father's house, with the Queen of England, consort to

King James II. She falls into a sink, in great danger of perishing in

it. She goes with a nun of the order of St. Dominick into her con-

vent, where she fares hardly, and from thence after sometime returns

home.

IV. Her elder brother being her mother's favourite, she, little re-

garded, undergoes great hardships. She grows tall and beautiful.

Several suitors, asking her father's consent for her, are refused. A re-

port given her of a relation, going on a mission to the Indies, affects

her much. The turn of her heart to God, and diligent application to

every duty. She conceives an eager desire to be a nun.

v. She attends her father in his sickness with a dutiful zeal. A

good cousin is a service to her. Character of her mother. An ex-

cursion into the country revives her youthful vanity. It also gives her

a fondness for romances. Advantages of inward prayer, and the fa-

tal harm sustained through its neglect.

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VI. In obedience to her father, she enters with a heavy heart into

a married state, in the sixteenth year of her age. She meets with

great and daily mortifications, from the temper of her husband, (who

was twenty-two years older than herself,) of his mother, and an un-

reasonable waiting maid imposed on her by them. She lays aside ro

mances, and returns to her duties.

VII. She discourses on the usefulness and necessity of her sufferings.

Death of her good sister. She writes down her faults in order to

avoid them. Some great losses occasion her husband to go to Paris.

After some time she goes to him, and falls dangerously ill there..

VIII. Death of her mother. First a great Lady, afterwards a kins-

man of hers, speaks to her of prayer and the presence of God: after
which a religious man, from a five years solitude, is insrumental to
make her find God within herself, with wonderful effect; being the
beginning of her lasting conversion.

*. Remarks on spiritual extasies, raptures and visions.

x. She dresses wounds, and gives remedies to the sick. The word
of God has its effect in her heart, without the mediation of words.
Going to embrace an opportutity of getting indulgencies, she finds a
stop in her own mind thereto. She bids farewell to plays, dancing,
diversions, &c.

XI.

When going to confess, divine love in her soul renders her una-

ble to do it, by drawing her into a profound silence. What purgation

she had to pass through.

III. Unreasonable and outrageous behaviour of her waiting

maid, and of her husband. She makes her waiting maid a present for

it. Miraculous conduct of providence in her favour. Her first ac-

quaintance with Genevieve Granger; who proved of good service to

her. Her continual inward attention to God in the spirit of prayer.

XII. She becomes unable to say her customary vocal prayers. A

journey to Paris. Her regale at St. Cloud ends in remorse. Her dis

course with one who had been a beggar, on a bridge.

XIV. She accompanies her husband in a journey to Touraine and

Orleans, meets with a vile confessor. G. Granger encourages her

in piety.

xv. A very affecting chapter. She and her three children are dan-

gerously seized with the small pox, her husband at the same time con

fined with the gout. Death of her younger son. Barbarous cruelty of

her mother-in-law. Violent contest betwixt her and a good natured

surgeon, who wanted to save M. Guion's life, by timely bleeding her.

XVI. Her waiting maid endeavours to hinder her from going to her

worship. Her mother-in-law continues to thwart her. Her prudent

answer to her father thereupon. Her inattention to sights and sounds.

XVII. Her husband building in the country, she attends him. How

she was favoured of God in her endeavours to get to places of wor-

ship, as also to see or hear from G. Granger. Her son, encouraged

by her husband and mother-in-law, treats her with insolence. More

troubles from her husband and mother-in-law.

XVIII. Her first acquaintance with Father la Combe. Conversion

of him and of three of his order. Her crosses at home continue. Her

great charity to the poor.

Death of her

XIX. A grievous malady. A journey to Paris.

father. Early piety of her daughter, and her sudden death.

xx. Convertion and stability of the governess of a town, who had

wanted her to go to the play. A journey with her husband. Birth
of a third son. Death of G. Granger. Marriage of her brother at
Orleans, attended by her and her husband. She, through divine die

rection and assistance, seasonably defeats a malicious' and deep-kid
plot, designed to ruin her husband.

XXII. Birth of a daughter. Death of her husband, after they had
been married twelve years and four months. She regulates all affairs
which, through his long indisposition, had been left in great confusion.
She finishes a complicated affair, which is referred to her, to the sat-
isfaction of all parties. She determines not to leave her mother-in-law,
nor to part with her ill-tempered waiting maid.

XXI-XXIII. Accounts of her inward condition.
xxiv. Insolence of her waiting maid.
ecclesiastic.

Persecution from a disgusted

xxv. Considerable suitors offer to her, but in vain. She falls ill
to the last extremity.

XXVI. She is basely and unworthily treated by some of her mother-
in-law's relations. She and her mother-in-law re-united. In her ab.
sence her mother-in-law turns the waiting maid out of doors.

XXVII. The benefits of the obscure path of privation. Geneva pre-
sented to her, as the place to which she must remove, to attend on,
and to serve the divine commands.

XXVIII. The happy change, both in her inward condition, and in
her persecutors who now acknowledge their past errors, and testify
their high esteem for her.

xxix. Remarkable occurrence at Paris. A Dominican, desiring
to go on a mission to Siam, is turned from it to assist her. He first,
and she after him, speaks to the Bishop of Geneva at Paris. Being
confirmed in its being her duty, she resigns herself to go to Geneva.

xxx. Her mother-in-law's great affection for her: also the wait-
ing maid's, who after her departure dies of grief. Her great charity
shewn in sundry instances, while she is waiting for the right time of
setting off on her intended journey.