he was so tir'd of his horse, that I saw him once ready to abandon his Bucephalus, and walk a-foot at the head of the infantry.
I comforted him for his past fatigue, and freed him from any such inconveniency for the future, by giving him the easiest Nag he could have wish'd. He return'd me a thousand thanks, and was so sensible of my civility, that laying aside all cautious regards to his profession, he convers'd with me more like an honest sincere fellow-traveller, than a Jesuit[1]. I ask'd him what his opinion was of Monsieur d'Hocquincourt? "He's a worthy Gentleman," said he: "he's a good soul. He has quitted the Jansenists; and our Order is oblig'd to him: but for my part, I shall never sit at table near him, nor borrow a horse of him."
Being much pleas'd with this first freedom, I had a mind to try him farther. "Whence come," continu'd I, "the great animosities between the Jansenists and your Fathers? do they proceed from your differing in opinion about the Doctrine of GRACE?"
"What nonsense," said he, "what nonsense it is, to think that we hate one another for not having the same opinion about GRACE! 'tis neither that, nor the five Propositions, that have set us at variance; the jealousy of governing Consciences is the cause of all the mischief. The Jansenists found us in possession of the government, and had a mind to dispossess us. Now, to compass their ends, they make use of methods quite contrary to ours. We employ gentleness and indulgence, and they affect austerity and rigour. We comfort souls by the examples of God's mercy; and they frighten them by those of his justice. They would subdue by the means of
- ↑ M. de St. Evremond had studied under Father Canaye, at the College of Clermont, as I have observed in his Life.
