harsh and severe, by her infant caresses.

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From these scenes, which made a strong impression upon her mind, she conceived an aversion to marriage. My God, grant that I may never marry !' was her daily prayer. Thus early disgusted with the world, she threw all the ardor of her mind, as she advanced towards maturity, into devotion, in which she became an extravagant fanatic.

Her father, incapable of entering into these refinements, and desirous of establishing his daughter in life, promised her in marriage to a Frenchman, who demanded her hand; and, without considering the consent of Antoinette as essential to the engagement, appointed Easter-day, in 1630, for the celebration of the nuptials. The young lady fled, to avoid a measure so coercive, disguised in the habit of a hermit; but was stopped at Blacon, a village of Hainault, on suspicion of her sex. An officer of the guards had seized her, from whom she was delivered by the curate of the place, who, observing in her something extraordinary, mentioned her to the archbishop of Cambray, by whom she was sent back to her father.

Being persecuted soon after with new proposals of matrimony, she absconded a second time to avert a compulsion that appeared to her so odious.

She once more made a visit to the archbishop, and obtained his permission to form in the country a small community of young women, who, like herself, should determine to abjure the nuptial tie. She had conceived an aversion to a -cloister, having early learned, that the spirit of the Gospel must not be sought for in convents. The archbishop afterwards retracting the licence he had granted her, Antoinette retired to Liege, whence she returned privately to Lisle, where she resided many years in great privacy and simplicity.

Her patrimonial estate at length falling to her, she determined at first to reject it; but afterwards altered this resolution, for which she gave the following reasons: First, that it might not come into the hands of those who had no right to it. Secondly, that it might not be possessed by those who would make an ill use of it. Thirdly, that God had shewed her, she should have occasion for it for his glory.' This patrimony, which she wisely resolved to accept, appears to have been somewhat considerable. Her habits were simple, and her wants few; she bestowed no charities, her wealth therefore daily accumulated. John de Saulieu, the son of a peasant, became enamoured of the lady's riches, and resolved to address her. With this view, he assumed the prophetic cha

racter, but, like the oracles of old, with great wariness; and insinuated himself into the confidence of the pious Antoinette by discourses of refined spirituality. At length he threw off the mask, and avowed more earthly motives: his suit was listened to with little complacency, and somewhat severely checked. On finding his fair mistress intractable, the lover grew desperate, and obliged her to apply to the magistracy for protection. This furious enamoretta threatened, if denied admission, to break the doors and windows of his dulcinea, and to murder her, though he should be hanged for it in the market-place of Lisle. The provost, to whom the distressed damsel had recourse for protection, sent two armed men to guard her house. Saulieu, in revenge, basely attempted to blast the reputation of the woman, who had despised alike his arts and his menaces; he reported in the town that she had promised him marriage, and that she had even suffered him to anticipate its privileges. A reconciliation was, h however, soon after effected between them; Saulieu. was persuaded to retract his slanders, and to leave mademoiselle Bourignon at liberty; when a young devotee, more complacent, consoled him for his disappointment.

But our fair recluse had not yet come to the

end of her persecutions. The nephew of the curate of St. Andrew's conceived a passion for her, and, as he resided in her neighbourhood, frequently attempted to force an entrance into her house. Antoinette threatened to abandon the place, if she was not relieved from the presumption of this new and adventurous lover, whose uncle, on her complaints, drove him from his house. The passion of the young man was, by the cruelty of his mistress, converted into rage, and, in a fit of desperation, he discharged a musket through her chamber window; while he affirmed among the neighbours that she was his espoused wife. The devotees, offended by this report, threatened to affront mademoiselle Bourignon, should they meet her in the streets: the preachers were obliged to interfere, and to publish from the pulpit the innocence of the injured lady. Some time after these adventures, Antoinette was elected governess of an hospital, in which, having taken the habit and order of St. Augustin, she shut herself up in 1658. In this situation a new calamity befel her, not more horrible than strange. The hospital was infected with sorcery; all the girls who inhabited it having made a contract with the devil. The governess was taken up on this extraordinary occasion, and examined

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before the magistrates of Lisle: nothing, however, was proved against her; but, to prevent further persecution, she wisely determined to abandon her station. She then retired to Ghent, in 1662, where God discovered to her some great

-secrets.

About this period she acquired a faithful friend, who remained attached to her through life, and who left her at his death a good estate. This gentleman, whose name was de Cort, was one of the fathers of the oratory, and their superior; he was also a director of an hospital for poor children. M. de Cort was the first spiritual child of madame Bourignon, of which the following quotation may afford an explanation: "It is certainly known by all who are acquainted with Antoinette Bourigon (let wicked and impious scoffers say what they please), that when any persons received, by her conversation or writings, light and strength to forsake the world, and give themselves to God, she felt pains and throbs similar to those of a woman in child-birth, as it is said of her whom St. John saw in the 12th of the Revelations. She experienced these pains in a greater or smaller degree, in proportion as the truths she had delivered had more or less strength in their operation on the souls of these her spiritual offspring."