Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/173

Rh her residence, if she was not delivered from this troublesome suitor. The uncle drove him from his house. Upon which he became desperate, discharged a musket through her chamber window, and gave out that she was his espoused wife. The preacher at length relieved her from the disgrace this charge brought upon her, by declaring from the pulpit, that the report was a falsehood.

In 1658, she was made governess of an hospital at Lisle, having taken the order and habit of St. Austin. But here again she fell into fresh trouble. A strange idea got abroad, that the hospital was infected with sorcery, insomuch that all the young girls in it had an engagement with the devil. Upon which the governess was taken up, and examined by the magistrates of Lisle; nothing could be proved against her. But, to prevent farther prosecutions, she retired to Ghent, in 1662. Here she supposed her spiritual blessings were increased. Many learned and pious persons took her part, particularly De Cort, the superior of the Molines, a theologist, who had been secretary to Cornelius Jansen. He engaged her to write her religious sentiments, and she composed 3 vols, intituled La Lumiere du Monde, which has been thought her best work; though she wrote many others on the same subject. These productions occasioned much dispute between the Jesuits and those who protected her. They ran at last so high, that she was equally persecuted by both parties. De Cort dying in 1660, left her his heir; but this inheritance brought her into new troubles. A multitude of law-suits were commenced to prevent her enjoying it; nor were her doctrines and religious principles spared on the occasion. She left Holland in 1671, to go into Noor Strandt.

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