to find a refuge in the abbey of
Saint-Sauveur d'Evreux in Normandy, where Madame de La Rochefoucauld,
the abbess, received us free of charge.

There was at that time a lengthy disagreement between King Louis XIV.
and the Pope with regard to the nomination of abbesses, in consequence
of which two ladies Mesdames de Grieu, having been disappointed of an
expected establishment, retired to Saint-Sauveur, where they formed a
great friendship with my mother, and became devoted to her two-year-old
child. I was naturally very popular in the convent, and having a bright
disposition I was educated with the utmost care.

Chiefly with a view to giving me greater advantage, the elder Madame de
Grieu sought and at length obtained the Priory of Saint-Louis at Rouen,
and took me thither with the consent of my mother. Saint-Louis was like
a little kingdom, where I reigned as a sovereign; the abbess and her
sister had no thought but to satisfy my every fancy, and the whole
convent was forced to pay court to me. All that was done for me cost me
so little that it seemed a matter of course that I should be flattered
and served, and at an early age I had contracted all the defects which I
have since had to allow for in the great.

This extreme indulgence would have turned my defects into vices, if
devotion had not ruled my passions from the first. Religion was the one
great object before my eyes; I had been well instructed in it; I read
continually the devotional books in the convent library, and passed much
of my time in prayer and meditation. Yet my early desire to become a nun
passed gradually away, until I thought of it no more.

Mademoiselle de Silly, an amiable and cultivated young lady whose
actions were ruled by principles rather than by feelings, came to live
at Saint-Louis, and I was soon attached to her with all the ardour of a
girl's affection; her tastes became mine, and I used to read all day
beside her. She was then studying the philosophy of Descartes, and I
became absorbed in questions of that kind to the neglect of everything
else, until, fearing lest they might disturb my faith, I resolutely
banished them from my mind.

I was about fourteen years old when the convent of Saint-Louis fell into
great poverty owing to a famine which was desolating France, and the
disaffection of the nuns was centred on me as a chief cause of
unnecessary expense. Their complaints came to the archbishop of Rouen,
and abbess had difficulty