THIS truly excellent and pious woman, remarkable for the influence which she exerted for good in a corrupt age and country, and for the steadfastness with which she served God amid discouragements, trials, and persecutions, was born at Montargis, a town in France, in April, 1648. According to a frequent practice in Catholic countries, she was educated at a convent, where she seems to have early shown an interest in religion. "I

loved," she says, "to hear of God, to be at church, and to be dressed in the habit of a little nun." One day, when quite a child, she told her young companions, rather boastfully perhaps, that she was ready to become a martyr for God. Her companions, wishing to try her, persuaded her that she was really called on to do so, and prepared everything as if for her execution. For some time she remained firm; but at length, overcome perhaps by her fears, she exclaimed that she was not at liberty to die without her father's consent. The girls treated this as a mere excuse, and contemptuously let her go, ridiculing her change of purpose. This cruel jest had the effect of chilling her young faith, and discouraging her devout aspirations.

Her father, M. de la Mothe, was a person of rank and influence in his native town; and he once received a visit from the exiled Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, widow of King Charles I. On this occasion his little daughter, then eight years old, was sent for from the convent; and the queen was so pleased with her, that she was anxious to keep her as a companion for her own daughter. Mi de la Mothe, however, wisely declined this tempting proposal; of which his daughter says, "doubtless it was God who caused this refusal, and who in doing so turned off the stroke which might have probably intercepted my salvation." While Mademoiselle de la Mothe remained at the convent; she was under the watchful and affectionate care of her half sister, who was a nun, and who appears to have been an excellent and pious young woman, and to have exercised a most happy influence over her, of which she speaks, in her autobiography, with much gratitude.

When about ten years old, she was removed to another convent. Here she had an opportunity, which she seems never before to have enjoyed, of studying the Bible for herself; a Bible having, for some unknown reason, been left in her room, she eagerly seized the opportunity. "I spent whole days," she says, “in reading it, giving no attention to other books or other subjects from morning to night; and having great powers of recollection, I committed to memory the historical parts entirely." This earnest study probably