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+Project Gutenberg's Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by Sutherland Menzies
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2)
+
+Author: Sutherland Menzies
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27192]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL WOMEN (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Emanuela Piasentini and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's note.                                         |
+    |                                                            |
+    |The original punctuation, language and spelling have been   |
+    |retained, except where noted at the end of the text.        |
+    |The [oe] ligature has been rendered as oe.                  |
+    |                                                            |
+    |Alternative spellings:                                      |
+    |Château: Chateau                                            |
+    |Châteauneuf: Chateauneuf                                    |
+    |Châtillon: Chatillon                                        |
+    |Claire Clémence de Maillé: Claire Clemence de Maillé        |
+    |Gondi: Gondy                                                |
+    |Guéméné: Guéménée, Guyméné                                  |
+    |heyday: heydey                                              |
+    |Hôtel, hotel: Hotel, hotel                                  |
+    |Meilleraye: Meilleraie                                      |
+    |Montrésor: Montresor                                        |
+    |Münster: Munster                                            |
+    |Orléans: Orleans                                            |
+    |Scudery: Scuderi                                            |
+    |Séguier: Seguier                                            |
+    |Sévigné: Sevigné                                            |
+    |strenuously: strenously                                     |
+    |Tallemant des Réaux: Tallement des Réaux, Tallemant de Reaux|
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+                            POLITICAL WOMEN.
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           SUTHERLAND MENZIES,
+
+                   AUTHOR OF "ROYAL FAVOURITES," ETC.
+
+
+                            IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                                VOL. I.
+
+
+                          HENRY S. KING & CO.,
+
+             65, CORNHILL, AND 12, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+                                 1873.
+
+
+
+
+                        [_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+  PART I.                                                      PAGE
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                  vii
+
+
+  BOOK I.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Anne de Bourbon (sister of the Great Condé)          3
+
+        II.--The Duchess de Longueville                          12
+
+       III. & IV.--The Duchess de Chevreuse                  17, 35
+
+
+  BOOK II.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Anne of Austria's Prime Minister and his policy     43
+
+        II.--The Duchess de Montbazon--Affair of the dropped
+             letters--The Quarrel of the rival Duchesses         66
+
+       III.--The _Importants_                                    77
+
+        IV.--Conspiracy of the Duchess de Chevreuse and the Duke
+             de Beaufort to get rid of Mazarin                   82
+
+         V.--Failure of the plot to assassinate Mazarin--Arrest
+             of Beaufort--Banishment of Madame de Chevreuse and
+             dispersion of the _Importants_                      99
+
+        VI.--Results of the quarrel between the Duchesses--Fatal
+             duel between the Duke de Guise and Count Maurice de
+             Coligny                                            110
+
+
+  BOOK III.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--The Duchess de Longueville and the Duke de la
+             Rochefoucauld                                      121
+
+        II.--La Rochefoucauld draws Madame de Longueville into
+             the vortex of politics and civil war               131
+
+       III.--The Duchess de Chevreuse driven into exile for the
+             third time                                         143
+
+        IV.--Fatal influence of Madame de Longueville's passion
+             for La Rochefoucauld--The Fronde                   149
+
+         V.--Madame de Longueville wins over her brother Condé
+             to the Fronde                                      161
+
+        VI.--The causes which led to the _coup d'état_--The
+             arrest of the Princes                              168
+
+       VII.--Madame de Longueville's adventures in Normandy--The
+           _Women's War_                                        178
+
+
+  BOOK IV.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--The Princess Palatine                              187
+
+        II.--The young Princess de Condé conducts the war in
+             the south                                          203
+
+       III.--State of Parties on the liberation of the Princes  214
+
+        IV.--The Duchesses de Longueville and de Chevreuse and
+             the Princess Palatine in the last Fronde--Results
+             of the rupture of the marriage projected between
+             the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse  221
+
+         V.--Condé, urged by his sister, goes unwillingly into
+             rebellion                                          257
+
+        VI.--Madame de Longueville coquets with the Duke de
+             Nemours                                            262
+
+
+  BOOK V.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Condé's adventurous expedition                     275
+
+        II.--Political and gallant intrigues--The Duchess de
+             Châtillon's sway over Condé--Shameful conspiracy
+             against Madame de Longueville                      290
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+IN selecting the careers of certain celebrated women who have flung
+themselves with ardour into the vortex of politics, the author's choice
+has not been so much an arbitrary one as it might seem, but rather
+guided by instances in which the adventurous game has not been
+restricted to the commonplace contentions of the public platform, or the
+private salon, but played on the grandest scale and on the most
+conspicuous arena; when Peace and War, crowns and dynasties, have
+trembled in the balance, and even the fate of a nation has been at
+stake.
+
+The untoward results of the lives thus devoted--dazzling and heroic as
+some passages in their dramatic vicissitudes may appear--point the moral
+of the futility of such pursuit on the part of the gentler sex, and
+indicate the certainty of the penalty to be paid by those who by
+venturing into the fervid, exhausting struggle, and rashly courting
+exposure to the rough blows of the battle of political life, with its
+coarse and noisy passions, have discovered too late that the strife has
+done them irreparable injury. In the cases of those selected it will be
+seen that the fierce contention has commonly involved the sacrifice of
+conjugal happiness, the welfare of children, domestic peace, reputation,
+and all the amenities of the gentle life.
+
+That clever women abound in the present day we have undeniable
+proof--many as clever, no doubt, as that famous philosopheress Madame du
+Chatelet, who managed at one and the same moment the thread of an
+intrigue, her cards at piquet, and a calculation in algebra, but who may
+still lack the qualifications indispensably necessary to make clever
+politicians. Perhaps, therefore, we might be allowed to suggest that it
+would be well for ladies who are ambitious of figuring in either or both
+spheres that politics and diplomacy are special and laborious pursuits,
+involving a great deal of knowledge as difficult, and in the first
+instance as repulsive, to acquire as Greek or chemistry. Yet, fully
+admitting their capacity to qualify themselves intellectually, and
+supposing them to attain the summit of their ambition of figuring
+successfully in public life, a grave question still arises--would they
+thereby increase or diminish their present great social influence? They
+have now more influence of a certain kind than men have; but if they
+obtain the influence of men, they cannot expect to retain the influence
+of women. Nature, it may be thought, has established a fair distribution
+of power between the two sexes. Women are potent in one sphere, and men
+in another; and, if they are conscious of the domestic sway they already
+exercise, they will not imperil it by challenging dominion in a field in
+which they would be less secure.
+
+Root and bond of the family, woman is no less a stranger by her natural
+aptitudes than by her domestic ministrations to the general interests of
+society; the conduct of the latter demands, in fact, a disengagement of
+heart and mind to which she can only attain by transforming herself, to
+the detriment of her duties and of her true influence. Ever to
+subordinate persons to things, never to overstep in her efforts the
+strict measure of the possible--those two conditions of the political
+life are repugnant to her ardent and devoted nature. Even amongst women
+in whom those gifts are met with in the highest degree, clearness of
+perception has been almost always obscured by the ardour of pursuit or
+that of patronage--by the irresistible desire of pushing to the
+extremity of success her own ideas, and especially those of her friends.
+
+Again, let us imagine political life to resemble a great game at cards,
+the rules of which have been settled beforehand, and the winnings
+devoted to the use of the greatest number; well, a woman ought never to
+take a hand in it. Her place should be at the player's elbow, to warn
+and advise him, to point out an unperceived chance, to share in his
+success, more than all to console him, should luck run against him.
+Thus, whilst all her better qualities would be brought into play, all
+her weaker would not in any wise be at stake.
+
+We would put it, therefore, to the womanly conscience--Is it not a
+hundred times more honourable to exercise, so to speak, rights that are
+legitimately recognised, though wisely limited, than to suffer in
+consideration, and often in reputation, from an usurpation always
+certain of being disputed?
+
+It has been the author's endeavour to show the truth of these
+conclusions by tracing the political career of certain well-born and
+singularly-gifted women--women whose lofty courage, strength of mind,
+keen introspection, political zeal, and genius for intrigue enabled them
+to baffle and make head against some of the greatest political male
+celebrities of modern history, without, however, winning us over to
+their opinions or their cause; women who, in some instances, after
+passing the best period of their lives in political strife, in
+fostering civil war, in hatching perilous plots, and who, having cast
+fortune and all the "gentle life" to the winds, preferred exile to
+submission, or to wage a struggle as fruitless as it was unceasing;
+until having arrived at the tardy conviction of its futility, and that
+they had devoted their existence to the pursuit of the illusory and the
+chimerical, they found at length repose and tranquillity only in
+solitude and repentance.
+
+In the stirring careers of certain among these remarkable personages, it
+will be seen that the mainspring of their political zeal was either the
+fierce excitement of an overmastering passion, an irresistible
+proclivity to gallantry, or an absorbing ambition, rather than any
+patriotic motive. This may go far to explain the singular sagacity,
+finesse, and energy displayed in their devotion to what otherwise
+appears alike mischievous and chimerical by those three high-born and
+splendidly-gifted women who figured so conspicuously in the civil war of
+the Fronde; and, though so much self-abnegation, courage, constancy, and
+heroism, well or ill displayed, may obtain some share of pardon for
+errors it would be wrong to palliate or condone, their example, it is to
+be hoped, will prove deterrent rather than contagious. La
+Rochefoucauld--a moralist, though by no means a moral man--who well knew
+the sex, had seen at work these political women of the time of the
+Fronde. That opportunity does not appear to have inspired him with an
+unbounded admiration for them from that point of view.
+
+Of the peril and mischief that fair trio inflicted upon Anne of
+Austria's great Prime Minister and the State he governed we have an
+interesting personal record. When, in 1660, Mazarin's policy, triumphant
+on every side, had added the treaty of the Pyrenees to that of
+Westphalia, the honour of the conclusion of the protracted conference
+held at the _Isle of Pheasants_ was reserved for the chief Ministers of
+the two Crowns--the Cardinal and Don Louis de Haro. The latter
+congratulated his brother premier on the well-earned repose he was about
+to enjoy, after such a long and arduous struggle. The Cardinal replied
+that he could not promise himself any repose in France, for there, he
+said, the _female_ politicians were more to be dreaded than the _male_;
+and he complained bitterly of the torments he had undergone at the hands
+of certain political women of the Fronde--notably the Duchess de
+Longueville, the Duchess de Chevreuse, and the Princess Palatine, each
+of whom, he asserted, was capable of upsetting three kingdoms.
+
+"You are very lucky here in Spain," he added. "You have, as everywhere
+else, two kinds of women--coquettes in abundance, and a very few
+simple-minded domestic women. The former care only to please their
+lovers, the latter their husbands. Neither the one nor the other,
+however, have any ambition beyond indulging themselves in vanities and
+luxuries. They only employ their pens in scribbling billet-doux or
+love-confessions, neither one nor other bother their brains as to how
+the grain grows, whilst talking about business makes their heads ache.
+Our women, on the contrary, whether prudes or flirts, old or young,
+stupid or clever, will intermeddle with everything. No honest woman," to
+use the Cardinal's own words, "would permit her spouse to go to sleep,
+no coquette allow her lover any favour, ere she had heard all the
+political news of the day. They will see all that goes on, will know
+everything, and--what is worse--have a finger in everything, and set
+everything in confusion. We have a trio, among others"--and he again
+named the three fair factionists above mentioned--"who threw us all
+daily into more confusion than was ever known in Babel."
+
+"Thank heaven!" replied Don Louis, somewhat ungallantly, "our women
+_are_ of the disposition seemingly so well known to you. Provided that
+they can finger the cash, whether of their husbands or their lovers,
+they are satisfied; and I am very glad to say that they do not meddle
+with politics, for if they did they would assuredly embroil everything
+in Spain as they do in France."
+
+It was during the minority of Louis XIV. that Mazarin had but too good
+cause to complain of the three clever and fascinating women he thus
+named to Don Louis de Haro, who through their political factions,
+intrigues, and gallantries gave Anne of Austria's Minister no rest, and
+for a long period not only thwarted and opposed him, but at intervals
+placed the State, and even his life, in imminent jeopardy.
+
+Fortunately, in our political history the instances are rare of women
+who have quitted the sphere of domesticity and private life to take an
+active part in the affairs of State. We say "fortunately;" for in our
+opinion such abstention has tended to the happiness of both sexes in
+England.
+
+In French memoirs, politics and scandal, the jokes of the _salons_ and
+the councils of the Cabinet are inextricably mixed up together, and
+reveal a political system in which the authority exercised under free
+institutions by men had been transferred to the art, the tact, and the
+accomplishments of the female sex. We therein see how much women have
+done by those subtle agencies. If France was a despotism tempered by
+epigrams, it was the life of the _salons_ which brought those epigrams
+to perfection; and the _salons_ thus constituted a sort of social
+parliament, which, though unable to stop the supplies or withhold the
+Mutiny Act, still possessed a formidable weapon of offence in the power
+of making the Government ridiculous. Such was the difference existing
+between two quite distinct modes of government; between Parliamentary
+government and closet government; between the mace of the House of
+Commons and the fan of the Duchess de Longueville. England, as we need
+hardly say, has never had a government of this description. The nearest
+approach to it which she has ever seen was under the sway of Charles the
+Second, and, accordingly, the nearest approach to French memoirs which
+our literature possesses is in the volumes of Pepys and Hamilton. To the
+almost universal exemption of Englishwomen from taking an overt part in
+political affairs a striking exception must be made in Sarah, Duchess of
+Marlborough. She is the strongest example, perhaps, in the history of
+the world--certainly in the history of this empire--of the abuse of
+female favouritism, and the most flagrant instance of household
+familiarity on the destinies of mankind. Sarah Jennings, the political
+heroine of her age, and Viceroy, as she was called, in England, had,
+however, for contemporaries two other remarkable women, who touched the
+springs of political machinery quite as powerfully as--if not more
+powerfully than, save herself, any to be found within the limits of
+Europe--Madame de Maintenon and the Princess des Ursins. In the
+respective careers of that other formidable trio of female politicians
+may be traced the important, the overwhelming, influence, which female
+Ministers, under the title of Court ladies, had obtained over the
+destinies of England, France, and Spain. At that momentous period--the
+commencement of the eighteenth century--the memoirs of a _bed-chamber
+lady_ constitute the history of Europe. The bed-chamber woman soon
+became the pivot of the political world. The influence of Mrs. Masham
+first endangered and finally overthrew the power of the great Duke of
+Marlborough. Some of the characteristics of the reign of Charles the
+Second reappeared partially and in a very unattractive form under the
+two first Georges, and have served to impart a tinge of French colour to
+the memoirs which describe their Courts. But, fortunately for England,
+neither Walpole nor his royal master were men of refined taste. It would
+have been hard for a monarch like Charles the Second, or a minister like
+Lord Bolingbroke, to resist the charms of those beautiful and sprightly
+girls who sparkle like diamonds in all the memoirs of that time. Their
+political influence was but small. George the First and his successor
+pursued their unwieldy loves and enjoyed their boorish romps in a style
+not seductive to English gentlemen. Politics were surrendered to
+Walpole; and the consequence was that, although there was plenty of
+immorality under those gracious Sovereigns, yet the feminine element of
+Court life had no longer that connection with _public policy_ which once
+for a brief space it had possessed; and the resemblance to French
+manners in this respect grew less and less, till it disappeared
+altogether with the accession of George the Third.
+
+During the reign of that domesticated paterfamilias a slight exception,
+it is true, occurred in the instance of Georgina Spencer, Duchess of
+Devonshire. Young, beautiful, amiable, and witty, and not altogether
+free from coquetry, she reckoned amongst her admirers some of the most
+distinguished men of that day. She fascinated them all without
+encouraging the pretensions of any; and notwithstanding the jealousy
+which so great a superiority necessarily excited among her own sex, and
+despite the rancour to which the inutility of their efforts to please
+her gave birth in the bosoms of certain of the men, she preserved a
+reputation for discretion beyond all suspicion. One circumstance of her
+life might indeed have cast a slur upon her fair fame if her
+irreproachable conduct, added to her natural graces, had not condoned a
+species of notoriety which opinion in England very generally reproves.
+The Duchess of Devonshire had friendly relations with the celebrated
+Charles James Fox, and that friendship had taken the tinge of party
+spirit. Fox presented himself as a candidate to represent Westminster in
+Parliament. He had two very formidable opponents, and it was thought
+that he would have succumbed in the struggle had not several amiable and
+energetic women made extraordinary efforts to procure him votes. At the
+head of these fair solicitors was the Duchess of Devonshire. A butcher
+whose vote she requested promised it to her on the condition that he
+might give her a kiss. To this she cheerfully consented, and that kiss
+added one more vote to her friend's poll. Such familiarity was far less
+shocking to our English manners than the too active and public part
+taken by a lady of distinction in politics. Very few of her countrywomen
+before her time had given occasion for a like scandal.[1]
+
+    [1] An anecdote of her has been preserved which proves how very
+    general was the impression the grace and beauty of the Duchess of
+    Devonshire made upon men in every station of society. On one
+    occasion of her being present on the racecourse at Newmarket, a
+    burly farmer who stood near her carriage, after having for some time
+    gazed at her in a species of ecstasy, exclaimed aloud, "Ah! why am I
+    not God Almighty?--she should then be Queen of Heaven!" The Duchess
+    preserved her personal charms far beyond the period of life when
+    they commonly disappear among women, though she lost one of her eyes
+    a few years before her death in 1806.
+
+The existence of those literary assemblies in France during the
+eighteenth century, the most important of which were those presided
+over by Madame du Deffand, Mdlle. de Lespinasse, and Madame Geoffrin,
+were a characteristic feature of the time. It is a notable fact that the
+abstention from politics in those assemblies indirectly tended to
+increase the power and importance of the women who frequented them.
+Alluding to their influence, Montesquieu caustically remarked that a
+nation where women give the prevailing tone must necessarily be
+talkative. Then, however, it was the men who talked and the women who
+listened. The men talked because they could do little else; women gave
+the prevailing tone because men of all classes were partly compelled,
+and partly willing, to gather around them. The nobles being excluded
+from politics--in which none but the Ministers and their creatures could
+interfere--exercising no control either as individuals or as a body,
+naturally gave themselves up to the pleasures of society. Their
+political insignificance thus increased the power and importance of
+women.
+
+To a far greater degree was their power and importance increased, on the
+contrary, during the first decade of the French Revolution, when, from
+the exceptional position they held, the _salons_ of Madame Roland,
+Madame Necker, Madame de Suard, and others were essentially
+political--that of Madame Roland being almost an echo of the Legislative
+Assembly. But women who love freedom abstractedly for its own sake, and
+are ready to suffer and die for a political principle, like Madame
+Roland, are very rarely met with.
+
+Towards the close of the century the female leaders of the hitherto
+literary and social _salons_ were so irresistibly swept into the
+whirlpool of public questions and events that they for the most part
+involuntarily became mere political partisans. Among others, but with a
+considerable modification on the score of the literary element, may be
+instanced Madame de Staël, who by descent, education, and natural bias
+was inevitably destined to aim at political power. The extent and
+prominence of that exercised by her must have been considerable, though
+certainly overrated by Napoleon, in whom, however, it excited such
+unreasonable apprehension as led him to inflict ten years' banishment
+from France upon the talented daughter of Necker.
+
+It must not be inferred that we desire to reduce women to the condition
+of a humiliating inaction. Far from it. In the position we would place
+them they could never feel, think, or act with greater interest or
+vivacity. Whilst it is desirable that every kind of artifice or intrigue
+should be interdicted from the interior of their domesticity, it is
+quite permissible for them to watch attentively important matters that
+may be occurring in public life. To that function they may bring their
+care and their solicitude, in order to follow and second continually the
+companion of their existence. "Les hommes même," says Fénelon, "qui ont
+toute l'autorité en public, ne peuvent par leurs délibérations établir
+aucun bien effectif, si les femmes ne leur aident à l'exécuter." Such
+was the legitimate influence exercised by the Princess Esterhazy, Ladies
+Holland, Palmerston, and Beaconsfield, in our day. It is no secret that
+the late lamented Viscountess Beaconsfield took the deepest interest in
+every great movement in which her illustrious husband was engaged. Such,
+too, was the case with Lady Palmerston, in reference to the great
+statesman whose name she bore. The influence of women in the politics of
+recent days is something peculiar and new. Our time has seen many women
+whose share in the politics of men was frank, unconcealed, and
+legitimate, while yet it never pretended or sought to be anything more
+than an influence--never attempted to be a ruling spirit. By following
+these examples, the women of England may make their power felt, without
+demanding to be put upon the same footing as their husbands.
+
+Woman's reign, it has been truly said, "is almost absolute within the
+four walls of a drawing-room." It is undisputed in family direction and
+in the management of children; but the cases are rare indeed where it
+extends to _public questions_ of any kind. The Frenchwoman of the
+present day is essentially a woman. Her objects are almost always
+feminine; she does not seek to go beyond her sphere; she understands her
+mission as one of duty in her house and of attraction towards the world;
+she is generally very ignorant of politics and all dry subjects, and
+shrinks from any active part in their discussion. Of course there are
+exceptions by the thousand; but the rule is that she voluntarily
+abstains from interference in outside topics, whatever be their gravity
+or their importance. She may have a vague opinion on such matters,
+picked up from hearing men talk around her, but the bent of her nature
+leads her in other ways--her tendency is towards things which satisfy
+her as a woman. It naturally follows that men do not give her what she
+does not seem to want. They consult her on matters of mutual interest,
+they ask for and often follow her advice in business; but in nine cases
+out of ten no husband would allow his wife to tell him how to vote at an
+election, or what form of government to support. This distinction is
+infinitely more remarkable in France than any analogous condition would
+be in England, because of the existence there of several rivals to the
+throne, and the consequent splitting up of the entire nation into
+adherents of each pretender. Yet even this exceptional position does not
+induce Frenchwomen to become politicians. Some few of them, of course,
+are so, and fling themselves with ardour into the cause they have
+adopted; but, fortunately for the tranquillity of their homes, the
+greater part of them have wisdom enough to comprehend that their real
+functions on the earth are of another kind.
+
+The majority of the champions of the enfranchisement of the sex have
+loudly protested against the hackneyed truisms, formerly so rife, which
+impute to women every imaginable form of silliness and frivolity; that
+they, like Alphonse Karr's typical woman, have nothing to do but
+"_s'habiller, babiller et se déshabiller_." But it will be well to
+remember the existence of another class of maxims of even greater
+weight, which dwell on the subtle influence of women, and of its
+illimitable consequences. "If the nose of Cleopatra," remarks the most
+famous of these aphorists--Pascal--"had been a hair's-breadth longer,
+the fortunes of the world would have been altered." Has the influence of
+the sex decreased since the days of the dusky beauty whose irresistible
+fascinations
+
+    "----lost a world, and bade a hero fly?"
+
+Rather, is it not infinitely more subtle, wider, and more prevailing
+than ever? No one who recognises the skill with which that immense
+influence may be exercised can listen without astonishment to the flimsy
+arguments which are usually advanced in support of the question of the
+political enfranchisement of the sex. That the results of giving this
+particular form of ability--a power which is irresistible to the highest
+intellectual refinement--the political arena for its field have not only
+proved widely injurious to women who have so exercised it, but to those
+most closely connected with them, it has been the author's object to
+show.
+
+"And what hope of permanent success," it has been cogently asked, "could
+women have if they were to enter into competition with men in callings
+considered peculiarly masculine, many of which are already overstocked?"
+We are also brought here again face to face with that evil--the
+lessening or the complete loss of womanly grace and purity. Take away
+that reverential regard which men now feel for them, leave them to win
+their way by sheer strength of body or mind, and the result is not
+difficult to conjecture. Let the condition of women in savage life tell.
+Towards something like this, although in civilised society not so
+coarsely and roughly exposed to view, matters would tend if these
+agitators for women's rights were successful. Husbands, brothers, sons,
+have too keen a sense of what they owe of good to their female relatives
+to risk its loss; or to exchange the gentleness, purity, and refinement
+of their homes for boldness, flippancy, hardness and knowledge of evil.
+
+Nature, herself, then, has disqualified women from fighting and from
+entering into the fierce contentions of the prickly and crooked ways of
+politics. There is a silent and beautiful education which Heaven
+intended that all alike should learn from mothers, sisters, and wives.
+Each home was meant to have in their gentler presence a softening and
+refining element, so that strength should train itself to be submissive,
+rudeness should become abashed, and coarse passions held in check by the
+natural influence of women. High or low, educated or uneducated, there
+is the proper work of the weaker sex. And, finally, we venture to
+address her in the words of Lord Lyttelton:--
+
+    "Seek to be good, but aim not to be great;
+      A woman's noblest station is retreat;
+      Her fairest virtues fly from public sight;
+      Domestic worth--that shuns too strong a light."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+
+
+POLITICAL WOMEN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  ANNE DE BOURBON,
+  SISTER OF THE GREAT CONDÉ, AFTERWARDS DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+THE brilliant heroine of the Fronde, of whose grace, beauty, and
+influence Anne of Austria was so jealous--not to speak of the mortal
+rivalry of the gay Duchesses de Montbazon and de Châtillon--although the
+youngest of that famous trio whom Mazarin found so formidable in the
+arena of politics, obviously claims alike from her exalted rank and the
+memorable part she played in the tragi-comedy of the Fronde, priority of
+notice among the bevy of the Cardinal's fair political opponents.
+
+Some time in the month of August, 1619, Anne Geneviève de Bourbon-Condé
+first saw the light in the donjon of Vincennes, where her parents had
+been kept State prisoners for three years previously. She was the eldest
+of the three children of Henry (II.) de Bourbon-Condé, first prince of
+the blood, and of that Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, "the beauty,
+perfect grace and majesty of her time."[1] The lovely Montmorency on
+coming to Court in her fifteenth year had sorely troubled the heart of
+the amorous soldier-king, Henry of Navarre, who had married her in 1609
+to his nephew of Condé with the covert hope of finding him an
+accommodating husband; but the latter, alike defiant and uxorious, made
+the jovial Bearnois plainly understand that he had wedded the blooming
+Charlotte exclusively for himself. The _gaillard_ monarch, however, at
+length grew so deeply enamoured that the prince, perceiving there was
+too much cause to fear the result of the constant assiduities of his
+royal uncle, fled precipitately with his young wife from France, only to
+return thither after tidings reached him of the great Henry's
+assassination. To the fair Montmorency's very decided proclivity to
+gallantry was to be attributed--if we may believe the scandal-loving
+Tallemant des Reaux--her long confinement, by the Regent Marie de'
+Medici's consent, within the gloomy fortress of Vincennes, rather than
+any reason of State for her sharing her husband's imprisonment. In fact,
+it was believed that the jealous prince procured her incarceration
+simply to keep her out of harm's way.
+
+    [1] Lenet.
+
+Deriving from her mother the threefold gifts of grace, beauty, and
+majesty, the fair Bourbon inherited also, it must be owned, a share of
+that princess's inclination to _l'honnête galanterie_. The restriction
+to a _share_ should be noted; for at no period of her heydey, not even
+during the licence of the Fronde, could Anne Geneviève be accused of
+having--as Madame de Motteville tells us the Princess de Condé
+had,--adorers "in every rank and condition of life, from popes, kings,
+princes, cardinals, dukes, and marshals of France, down to simple
+gentlemen."
+
+The mind and heart, however, of Anne de Bourbon, although predestined,
+alas! eventually to culpable passion, seemed at first but little
+inclined to the gay world--with all its blandishments and seductions,
+or even to its innocent pleasures. When quite a child she was in the
+habit of accompanying her mother in her visits to the convent of the
+Carmelites at Paris. For though still possessing great personal
+attractions, Madame de Condé had become serious and of a somewhat
+demonstrative piety. Those visits, which were frequent, strengthened
+Anne's gentle and susceptible mind in its tendency to devotion. The
+impression, too, which somewhat later the tragic fate of her uncle, the
+unfortunate Duke de Montmorency,[2] left on her memory, inspired her
+with the resolution to quit the outer world at the earliest possible
+moment, and, renouncing all its pomps and grandeurs, hide beneath the
+veil her budding attractions. Although her mother opposed an inflexible
+resistance to her embracing that holy vocation, and strove to combat by
+forcible arguments the cold and disdainful demeanour exhibited by her
+daughter when mixing in gay society, the fair girl persevered from the
+age of thirteen to seventeen in her longing to embrace the life of the
+cloister. Futile for a time were the parental arguments, unfruitful
+every effort! Anne Geneviève would not consort with worldlings,
+persisted in her distaste for mundane pleasures, and continued to
+cherish persistently her desire for conventual seclusion. At length the
+princess, in 1636, having resolved upon the adoption of more energetic
+measures, suddenly ordered her daughter to make preparations for
+appearing at a Court ball, and that, too, in three days. With what
+despair did the young princess hear the cruel sentence! What affliction,
+too, befell the Carmelite nuns when they heard of the fatal mandate.
+What a flood of sighs and tears and prayers! The good sisters gathered
+themselves together to take counsel one with another, and decided that,
+since Mdlle. de Bourbon could not avoid the wretched fate that awaited
+her, before going through the trying ordeal she should indue her lovely
+form with an undergarment of hair-cloth (commonly called a _cilice_),
+and, protected by such armour of proof, she might then fearlessly submit
+herself to all the temptations lurking beneath the ensnaring vanities of
+her Court attire. The _cilice_, however, did not, it seems, prove
+invulnerable as the ægis of Minerva, for the subtle shafts winged by
+homage and admiration pierced through that slight breast-plate to a
+heart which in truth was by nature framed to inspire and welcome both.
+The Princess de Condé rejoiced greatly at her daughter's conversion to
+more reasonable views of mundane existence. The commencement of her
+noviciate was no longer thought of, and her visits to the Carmelites
+became sufficiently rare. But it was only a deferment of that calm
+vocation, it being Anne de Bourbon's destiny to embrace it at the close
+of her feverish political career.
+
+    [2] Brought to the scaffold by Richelieu in 1632.
+
+This era of her entrance into the great world was probably the happiest,
+the most joyous of the fair Bourbon's life. Lofty distinction of birth,
+great personal beauty, and rare mental fascination, contributed to place
+her in the very foremost rank of the Court circle--in the "height of
+company"--conspicuous amongst lovely dames and distinguished men of the
+time. Her peerless loveliness at once meeting with universal
+recognition, "la belle Condé" was toasted with acclamation by courtiers,
+young and old--at Chantilly, at Liancourt, at the Louvre, and at the
+Hôtel de Rambouillet. Contemporaries of either sex have rendered
+unanimous testimony to the varied and exceptional character of her
+attractions, and we will let a woman's pen add to Petitot's pencilling
+some of those delicate traits which neither the burin nor even the vivid
+tints of the enamel have the power to convey.
+
+"Her beauty," says Mdme. de Motteville, "consisted more in the
+brilliance of her complexion"--("it had the blush of the pearl," writes
+another contemporary)--"than in perfection of feature. Her eyes were not
+large, but bright, and finely cut, and of a blue so lovely it resembled
+that of the turquoise. The poets could only apply the trite comparison
+of lilies and roses to the carnation which mantled on her cheek, whilst
+her fair, silken, luxuriant tresses, and the peculiar limpidity of her
+glance, added to many other charms, made her more like an angel--so far
+as our imperfect nature allows of our imagining such a being--than a
+mere woman." Somewhat later, the smallpox, in robbing her of the bloom
+of her beauty, still left her all its brilliancy, to repeat the remark
+of that eminent connoisseur of female loveliness, Cardinal de Retz.
+
+To sum up the general opinion of her contemporaries: Mdlle. de Bourbon
+rather charmed by the very peculiar style of her countenance than by its
+linear regularity. One of her greatest fascinations lay in an
+indescribable languor, both of mind and manner--"a languor interrupted
+at intervals," says De Retz, "by a sort of luminous awakenings, as
+surprising as they were delightful. This physical and intellectual
+indolence presented later in life a piquant contrast to her
+then"--according to Mdme. de Motteville--"somewhat too passionate
+temperament." She was of good height, and altogether of an admirable
+form. It is evident also, from the authentic portraits of her still
+extant, that she had that kind of attraction so much prized during the
+seventeenth century, and which, with beautiful hands, had made the
+reputation of Anne of Austria. In speech, we are told, she was very
+gentle. Her gestures, with the expression of her countenance, and the
+sound of her voice, produced the most perfect music. But her peculiar
+charm consisted in a graceful ease--a languor, as all her contemporaries
+expressed it--which would quickly change to the highest degree of
+animation when stirred by emotion, but which usually gave her an air of
+indolence and aristocratic _nonchalance_, sometimes mistaken for
+_ennui_, sometimes for disdain.
+
+Crediting the unvarying testimony of these and other of her
+contemporaries, the daughter of Bourbon-Condé must have been at least as
+beautiful as her mother--endowed, indeed, with almost every attribute
+and feature of female loveliness.
+
+"Beauty," remarks a philosophic panegyrist of physical perfection,
+"extends its prestige to posterity itself, and attaches a charm for
+centuries to the name alone of the privileged creatures upon whom it has
+pleased heaven to bestow it." Beauty has also its epochs. It does not
+belong to all men and to all ages to enjoy it in its exquisite
+perfection. As there are fashions which spoil it, so there are periods
+which affect its sentiment. For instance, it belonged to the eighteenth
+century to invent _pretty_ women--charming dolls--all powder, patches,
+and perfume, affecting the attractions which they did not possess under
+their vast hoops and great furbelows. Let us venture to say that the
+foundation of true beauty, as of true virtue, as of true genius, is
+strength. Shed over this strength the vivifying rays of elegance, grace,
+delicacy, and you have beauty. Its perfect type is the Venus of
+Milo,[3] or again, that pure and mysterious apparition, goddess or
+mortal, which is called Psyche, or the Venus of Naples.[4] Beauty is
+certainly to be seen in the Venus de' Medici, but in that type we feel
+that it is declining, or about to decline. Look at, not the women of
+Titian, but the virgins of Raphael and Leonardo: the face is of infinite
+delicacy, but the body evinces strength. These forms ought to disgust
+one for ever with the shadows and monkeys _à la Pompadour_. Let us adore
+grace, but not separate it in everything too much from strength, for
+without strength grace soon shares the fate of the flower that is
+separated from the stem which vitalizes and sustains it.
+
+    [3] Quatremère de Quincy, Dissertation upon the Antique Statue of
+    Venus Discovered in the Island of Milo. 1836.
+
+    [4] Millingen: Ancient Inedited Monuments. Fol. 1826.
+
+What a train of accomplished women this seventeenth century presents to
+us! They were not all politicians. Women who were loaded with
+admiration, drawing after them all hearts, and spreading from rank to
+rank that worship of beauty which throughout Europe received the name of
+French gallantry. In France they accompany this great century in its too
+rapid course; they mark its principal epochs, beginning with Charlotte
+de Montmorency and ending with Mdme. de Montespan. The Duchess de
+Longueville has perhaps the most prominent place in that dazzling
+gallery of lovely women, having all the characteristics of true beauty,
+and joining to it a charm exclusively her own.
+
+In early girlhood she had been taken, along with her elder brother, the
+Duke d'Enghien, to the Hotel de Rambouillet; and the _salons_ of the Rue
+St. Thomas du Louvre were probably the most fitting school for such a
+mind as hers, in which grandeur and finesse were almost equally
+blended--a grandeur allied to the romantic, and associated with a
+finesse frequently merging into subtilty, as indeed may be discerned in
+Corneille himself, the most perfect mental representative of that
+period.
+
+To follow step by step the course of Anne de Bourbon's life at this
+period of it through all its earliest rivalries, would involve the task
+of recording the manifold caprices of a tender, yet ambitious nature, in
+which the mind and heart were unceasingly dupes of each other. It would
+be like an attempt to follow the devious path of the light foam and
+laughing sparkle of the billow--
+
+    "In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua."
+
+Our purpose lies mainly with her political life, but ere entering upon
+it we will give a short but comprehensive view of her character in the
+words of one who, more than anybody else, had the means of judging her
+correctly--La Rochefoucauld. "This Princess," writes the Duke,
+"possessed all the charms of mind, united to personal beauty, to so high
+a degree, that it seemed as though nature had taken pleasure in forming
+in her person a perfectly finished work. But those fine qualities were
+rendered less brilliant through a blemish rarely seen in one so highly
+endowed, which was that, far from giving the law to those who had a
+particular admiration for her, she transfused herself so thoroughly into
+their sentiments that she no longer recognised her own."
+
+Now La Rochefoucauld should have been the last person to complain of
+that defect, since he was the first to foster it in the Duchess. In her
+bosom love awoke ambition, but the awakening was so sudden, in fact,
+that any difference in the two passions was never perceptible.
+
+Singular contradiction! The more we contemplate the political bias of
+Madame de Longueville the more it becomes mingled with her amorous
+caprice; but when we analyse her love more narrowly (and later on in
+life she herself made the avowal), it appears nothing else than ambition
+travestied--a desire to shine only the more magnificently brilliant.
+
+Her character, then, was entirely wanting in consistency, in self-will;
+and her mind, be it observed, however brilliant and acute, had nothing
+that was calculated to counterbalance that defect of character. One may
+possess the faculty of right perception without strength of mind to do
+that which is right. One may be rational in mind and the contrary in
+conduct--character being at fault between the two. But here the case was
+different. Madame de Longueville's mind was not, above all else,
+rational; it was acute, prompt, subtle, witty by turns, and readily
+responsive to the varying humour of the moment. It shone voluntarily in
+contradiction and subterfuge, ere exhausting itself finally in scruples.
+There was much of the Hôtel de Rambouillet in such a mind as hers.
+
+"The mind in the majority of women serves rather to confirm their folly
+than their reason." So says the author of the "Maxims;" and Madame de
+Longueville, with all her metamorphoses, was undoubtedly present before
+him when he penned the sentence. For she, the most feminine of her sex,
+would offer to him the completest epitome of all the rest. In short,
+evidently as he has made his observations upon her, she also seems to
+have drawn her conclusions from him. So the agreement is perfect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+A YOUNG Princess of the Blood so lovely, fascinating, and witty as Anne
+de Bourbon, was surely destined, it might be thought, to contract an
+early and altogether suitable matrimonial alliance. It was therefore
+somewhat surprising to find how much difficulty there was in mating her.
+Foremost among those who sought her hand was that hair-brained,
+handsome, coarse-mannered Duke de Beaufort, younger son of Cæsar de
+Vendôme, himself the bastard of the jovial Bearnois by the _Fair
+Gabrielle_.[1] Beaufort inherited his unfortunate grand-dame's
+beauty--had a Phoebus-Apollo style of head, set off with a profusion
+of long, curly, golden locks; was a young, brave, and flourishing
+gallant, and somewhat later (during the Fronde), from his blunt speech
+and familiar manners with the Parisian mob, became the idol of the
+market-women, and was therefore dubbed _Roi des Halles_. But this
+scapegrace suitor withdrew his pretensions in order to gratify, it is
+said, the handsome though decried Duchess de Montbazon, who had
+enthralled him in her flowery chains as a led-captain. On entering her
+nineteenth year Mdlle. de Bourbon was promised in marriage to the Prince
+de Joinville, son of Charles of Lorraine (Duke de Guise), but that young
+nobleman having died prematurely in Italy, no other serious matrimonial
+project seems to have been entertained until the Princess had reached
+her twenty-third year. The fortunate suitor was one of Beaufort's
+rivals--or, rather, colleagues--for that would be the more correct term
+when designating their mutual relations to the unscrupulous Duchess de
+Montbazon. The widower, Henry of Orleans (Duke de Longueville), by
+birth, dignity, and wealth was looked upon as the first match in France.
+Unfortunately, in his case, those dazzling attributes were materially
+abated through disparity of age, for he had reached the ripe maturity of
+forty-seven, whilst the bride of his choice had not yet seen half that
+cycle of summers. To be twenty-four years her senior was, for the
+husband of a youthful princess so excelling in wit and beauty, certainly
+a formidable inequality, and so Mdlle. de Bourbon seems to have thought.
+At the command, however, of her father, who intimated that his
+determination was inflexible in thus disposing of his daughter's hand,
+Anne Geneviève meekly complied, and was espoused in June, 1642, to Henri
+de Bourbon, Duke de Longueville.[2]
+
+    [1] Created Duchess de Beaufort by Henry IV.
+
+    [2] The Duke was descended from the "brave Dunois," bastard of
+    Orleans.
+
+The young Duchess found herself speedily surrounded by a swarm of
+courtiers, attracted by her sprightly and refined intelligence, her
+majestic beauty, her nonchalant and languishing grace. What more
+adorable mistress could an audacious aspirant dream of? Bold adventurers
+for such a lady's love there was no lack of; and would not many be
+encouraged with the thought that such a prize could only be defended by
+a husband already verging towards the decline of life, and whose heart,
+moreover, was believed to be in the keeping of another? The sighs of the
+suitors, however, all adventurous and calculating as they might be, were
+wasted, their hopes altogether fallacious. For six long years there was
+nothing more accorded to that crowd of often-renewed adorers save the
+smiles of an innocent coquetry. He who, during that period of honest
+gallantry, coming near to La Rochefoucauld, seems to have made the
+liveliest impression, was Coligny; and it was only slanderers who
+whispered that the young Count was happier than became the adorer of a
+heroine of the De Rambouillet school.
+
+Madame de Longueville, nevertheless, possessed the characteristics of
+her sex; she had alike its lovable qualities and its well-known
+imperfections. In a sphere where gallantry was the order of the day,
+that young and fascinating creature, married to a man already in the
+decline of life, and, moreover, with his affections engaged elsewhere,
+merely followed the universal example. Tender by nature, the senses, she
+herself says in her confessions--the humblest ever made--played no minor
+part in the affairs of the heart. But, surrounded unceasingly by homage,
+she found pleasure in receiving it. Very lovable, she centred her
+happiness in being loved. Sister of the Great Condé, she was not
+insensible to the idea of playing a part which should occupy public
+attention; but, far from pretending to domination, there was so much of
+the woman in her that she allowed herself to be led by him whom she
+loved. Whilst, around her, interest and ambition assumed so frequently
+the hues of love, she listened to the dictates of her heart alone, and
+devoted herself to the interest and ambition of another. All
+contemporary writers are unanimous on that point. Her enemies sharply
+reproach her alike for not having a fitting object in her political
+intrigues, and for being unmindful of her own interests. But they appear
+not to be aware that, in thinking to overwhelm her memory by such
+accusation, they rather elevate it, and they are assiduous to cover her
+faults and misconduct--faults which, after all, are centred in one
+alone. In short, some writers cast the greater part of the blame the
+young Duchess's conduct merits upon her husband, who, according to them,
+knew not how to make amends for his own disadvantage, on the score of
+disparity of age, by an anxious and indulgent tenderness.
+
+Before their marriage was solemnised it was stipulated that the Duke de
+Longueville should break off his _liaison_ with the Duchess de
+Montbazon--then notorious as one of the most unrestrained among the
+women of fashion at the Court of the Regent. This, however, the Duke
+unhappily failed to do.
+
+In declaring its adhesion to Mazarin at the commencement of the Regency,
+the House of Condé had drawn upon itself the hatred of the party of the
+_Importants_, though that enmity scarcely rebounded upon Madame de
+Longueville. Her amiableness in everything where her heart was not
+seriously concerned, her perfect indifference to politics at this period
+of her life, together with the graces of her mind and person, rendered
+her universally popular, and shielded her against the injustice of
+partisan malice. But outside the pale of politics she had an enemy, and
+a formidable one, in the Duchess de Montbazon. That bold and dangerous
+woman having by her fascinations enslaved Beaufort, the quondam admirer
+of Madame de Longueville, the young Duke through her intrigues became a
+favourite chief of the _Importants_. Amongst the earliest to swell the
+ranks of that faction were two other personages who had played a very
+conspicuous part during the reign of Louis XIII. The first of these,
+Madame de Montbazon's step-daughter, was the witty, beautiful, and
+errant Duchess de Chevreuse, whom Louis had judged so dangerous that he
+had expressly forbidden by his will, when on the point of death, that
+she should ever be recalled from exile to Court. By the same prohibition
+was affected the former Keeper of the Seals, the Marquis de Châteauneuf,
+who had displayed considerable talent under Richelieu, but had
+ultimately made himself obnoxious to that great Minister, after having
+given many a sanguinary proof of his devotion to him. A glance at the
+antecedents of that remarkable woman, Madame de Chevreuse, the early
+favourite of Anne of Austria, will now be necessary in order to
+understand clearly her relative position to the Queen and Mazarin at the
+commencement of the Regency, as well as to those incipient _Frondeurs_,
+the _Importants_, at the moment of her dragging the Prince de Marsillac
+(afterwards Duke de Rochefoucauld) into that party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE.
+
+
+FROM the long-sustained, vigorous, and very eminent part played by Marie
+de Rohan in opposing the repressive system of the two great Cardinal
+Ministers, her name belongs equally to the political history as to that
+of the society and manners of the first half of the sixteenth century.
+
+She came of that old and illustrious race the issue of the first princes
+of Brittany, and was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Duke de
+Montbazon, a zealous servant of Henry IV., by his first wife Madeleine
+de Lenoncourt, sister of Urbain de Laval, Marshal de Bois-Dauphin. Born
+in December, 1600, she lost her mother at a very early age, and in 1617
+was married to that audacious favourite of Louis XIII., De Luynes, who
+from the humble office of "bird-catcher" to the young King, rose to the
+proud dignity of Constable of France, and who, upon the faith of a
+king's capricious friendship, dared to undertake the reversal of the
+Queen-mother, Marie de' Medici's authority; hurl to destruction her
+great favourite, the Marshal d'Ancre; combat simultaneously princes and
+Protestants, and commence against Richelieu the system of Richelieu.
+Early becoming a widow, Marie next, in 1622, entered the house of
+Lorraine by espousing Claude, Duke de Chevreuse, one of the sons of
+Henry de Guise, great Chamberlain of France, whose highest merit was the
+name he bore, accompanied by good looks and that bravery which was
+never wanting to a prince of Lorraine; otherwise disorderly in the
+conduct of his affairs, of not very edifying manner of life, which may
+go far to explain and extenuate the errors of his young wife. The new
+Duchess de Chevreuse had been appointed during the sway of her first
+husband, _surintendante_ (controller) of the Queen's household, and soon
+became as great a favourite of Anne of Austria as the Constable de
+Luynes was of Louis _the Just_. The French Court was then very
+brilliant, and gallantry the order of the day. Marie de Rohan was
+naturally vivacious and dashing, and, yielding herself up to the
+seductions of youth and pleasure, she had lovers, and her adorers drew
+her into politics. Her beauty and captivating manners were such as to
+fascinate and enthral the least impressible who crossed her path, and
+their dangerous power was extensively employed in influencing the
+politics of Europe, and consequently had a large share in framing her
+own destiny. A portrait in the possession of the late Duke de Luynes[1]
+represents her as having an admirable figure, a charming expression of
+countenance, large and well-opened blue eyes, chesnut-tinted fair hair
+in great abundance, a well-formed neck, with the loveliest bust
+possible, and throughout her entire person a piquant blending of
+delicacy, grace, vivacity, and passion. The following summary of her
+character by the clever, caustic, but little scrupulous De Retz, graphic
+as it is, and based on a certain amount of truth, must not be
+unhesitatingly accepted, it being over-coloured by wilful
+exaggeration:--"I have never seen anyone else," says he, "in whom
+vivacity so far usurped the place of judgment. It very often inspired
+her with such brilliant sallies that they flashed like lightning, and so
+sensible withal, that they might not have been disowned by the greatest
+men of any age. The manifestation of this faculty was not confined to
+particular occasions. Had she lived in times when politics were
+non-existent, she would not have rested content with the idea only that
+they ought to have been rife. If the Prior of the Carthusians had
+pleased her, she would have become a sincere recluse. M. de Luynes
+initiated her into politics, the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of
+Holland corresponded with her upon them, and Châteauneuf amused her with
+them. She gave herself up to their pursuit because she abandoned
+herself, without reserve, to everything which pleased the individual
+whom she loved, and simply because it was indispensable that she should
+love somebody. It was not even difficult to give her a lover by setting
+an eligible suitor to pay her court with an ostensible political motive;
+but as soon as she accepted him, she loved him solely and faithfully,
+and she owned to Mdme. de Rhodes and myself that, through caprice, she
+said, she had never really loved those whom she esteemed the most, with
+the exception of the unfortunate George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
+Devotion to the passion which in her might be called eternal, although
+she might change the object of it, did not prevent even a fly from
+causing her mental abstraction; but she always recovered from it with a
+renewed exuberance which made such phases rather agreeable than
+otherwise. No one ever took less heed about danger, and never woman had
+more contempt for scruples and duties: she never recognised other than
+that of pleasing her lover."
+
+    [1] This nobleman died at Rome in December, 1867, at the age of
+    sixty-five, having gone thither to aid the Pope against the
+    Garibaldians.
+
+This epigrammatic sketch is almost worthy of the exaggerated author of
+the _Historiettes_,[2] and the reader is advised to accept only its more
+salient and truthful traits--the keen and accurate glance of Mdme. de
+Chevreuse in scanning the prevailing aspect of the political horizon,
+her dauntless courage, the fidelity and devotion of her love. Retz,
+moreover, mistakes entirely the order of her adventures; he forgets and
+then invents. In striving after epigrammatic point, he sacrifices truth
+to smartness of style, and writes as though he looked upon events in
+which the passions of the Duchess made her take part as mere trifles,
+whereas among them there were some than which none were ever of graver
+or even more tragic moment.
+
+    [2] Tallement des Réaux.
+
+Mdme. de Chevreuse, in fact, possessed almost all the qualities
+befitting a great politician. One alone was wanting, and precisely that
+without which all the others tended to her ruin. She failed to select
+for pursuit a legitimate object, or rather she did not choose one for
+herself, but left it to another to choose for her. Mdme. de Chevreuse
+was womanly in the highest possible degree; that quality was alike her
+strength and her weakness. Her secret mainspring was love, or rather
+gallantry,[3] and the interest of him whom she loved became her
+paramount object. It is this which explains the wonderful sagacity,
+finesse, and energy she displayed in the vain pursuit of a chimerical
+aim, which ever receded before her, and seemed to draw her on by the
+very prestige of difficulty and danger. La Rochefoucauld accuses her of
+having brought misfortune upon all those whom she loved;[4] it is
+equally the truth to add that all those whom she loved hurried her in
+the sequel into insensate enterprises. It was not she evidently who
+made of Buckingham a species of paladin without genius; a brilliant
+adventurer of Charles IV. of Lorraine; of Chalais a hair-brained
+blunderer, rash enough to commit himself in a conspiracy against
+Richelieu, on the faith of the faithless Duke d'Orleans; of Châteauneuf,
+an ambitious statesman, impatient of holding second rank in the
+Government, without being capable of taking the first. Let no one
+imagine that he is acquainted with Mdme. de Chevreuse from having merely
+studied the foregoing portrait traced by De Retz, for that sketch is an
+exaggeration and over-charged like all those from the same pen, and was
+destined to amuse the malignant curiosity of Mdme. de Caumartin--for
+without being altogether false, it is of a severity pushed to the verge
+of injustice. Was it becoming, one might ask, of the restless and
+licentious Coadjutor to constitute himself the remorseless censor of a
+woman whose errors he shared? Did he not deceive himself as much and for
+a far longer period than she? Did he show more address in political
+strategy or courage in the dangerous strife, more intrepidity and
+constancy in defeat? But Mdme. de Chevreuse has not written memoirs in
+that free-and-easy and piquant style the constant aim of which is
+self-elevation, obtained at the expense of everybody else. There are two
+judges of her character the testimony of whose acts must be held to be
+above suspicion--Richelieu and Mazarin. Richelieu did all in his power
+to win her over, and not being able to succeed, he treated her as an
+enemy worthy of himself.
+
+    [3] Mdme. de Motteville.
+
+    [4] Mémoires, Petitot's Collection, 2nd series, vol. li. p. 339.
+
+To revert briefly to her long-continued struggle with Richelieu, it must
+not be forgotten that for twenty years she had been the personal friend
+and favourite of Anne of Austria, and for ten years she had suffered
+persecution and privation on that account. Exiled, proscribed, and
+threatened with imprisonment, she had narrowly escaped Richelieu's grasp
+by disguising herself in male attire, and in that garb traversing France
+and Spain on horseback, had succeeded in eluding his pursuit, and after
+many adventures in safely reaching Madrid. Philip IV. not only heaped
+every kind of honour upon his sister's courageous favourite, but even,
+it is said, swelled the number of her conquests. Whilst in the Spanish
+capital she had allied herself politically with the Minister Olivarez,
+and obtained great ascendancy over the Cabinet of Madrid. The war
+between France and Spain necessarily rendering her position in the
+latter country delicate and embarrassing, she had, early in 1638, sought
+refuge in England. Charles I. and Henrietta Maria gave her the warmest
+possible reception at St. James's; and the latter, on seeing again the
+distinguished countrywoman who had some years back conducted her as a
+bride from Paris to the English shores to the arms of Prince Charles,
+embraced her warmly, entered into all her troubles, and both the English
+King and Queen wrote letters pleading in her behalf, to Louis XIII.,
+Anne of Austria, and Richelieu with regard to the restoration of her
+property and permission to rejoin her children at Dampierre. She herself
+resumed the links of a negotiation with the Cardinal which had never
+been entirely broken off, and the success of which seemed quite
+practicable, since it was almost equally desired by both. That
+negotiation was being carried on for more than a year, and when link
+after link had been frequently snapped and re-soldered, only to be once
+more broken, Richelieu at length gave his solemn word that she might
+return with perfect safety to Dampierre.
+
+On the eve of her departure from the English Court, a vessel being in
+readiness to convey her to Dieppe, where a carriage awaited her landing,
+the Duchess received an anonymous letter warning her that certain ruin
+awaited her if she set foot on the soil of France, followed by another,
+still more explicit with regard to Richelieu's designs to effect her
+destruction, from no less a person than Charles of Lorraine. This second
+warning from so reliable a source, followed shortly afterwards by other
+advice--held by her in the light of a command--enchained her to a
+foreign land. She for whom during ten long years the Duchess had
+suffered all things, braved all things, her august friend Anne of
+Austria cautioned her not to trust to appearances. Thus vanished the
+last hope of a sincere reconciliation between two persons who knew each
+other too well to discard distrust and to confide in words, of which
+neither were sparing, without requiring solemn guarantees that they
+could not or would not give.
+
+Choosing stoically, therefore, to still undergo the pangs of absence, to
+consume the noontide of the days of her attractive womanhood in
+privation and turmoil rather than risk her liberty, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+on her part did not remain idle. From the moment she felt convinced that
+Richelieu was deceiving her, attracting her back to France only to hold
+her in a state of dependence, and if need were, to incarcerate
+her--having broken with him, she considered herself as free from all
+scruple, and thought of nothing further than paying him back blow for
+blow. Her old duel with the Cardinal thus once more renewed, she formed
+in London, with the aid of the Duke de Vendôme, La Vieuville, and La
+Valette, a faction of active and adroit emigrants, who, leaning on the
+Earl of Holland, then one of the chiefs of the Royalist party and a
+general in the army of Charles of England; upon Lord Montagu, an ardent
+Papist and intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria; upon Digby and
+other men of influence at Court, maintained likewise the closest
+intelligence with the Court of Rome through its envoy in England,
+Rosetti, and especially with the Cabinet of Madrid; encouraging and
+kindling the hopes of all the proscribed and discontented, strewing
+obstacles at all points in the path of Richelieu, and accumulating
+formidable perils around his head.
+
+On the breaking out of the Civil War in England, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+repaired to Brussels, where in 1641 we find her acting as the connecting
+link between England, Spain, and Lorraine. Without attributing to the
+Duchess any especial motive beyond seconding an enterprise directed
+against the common enemy, she did not the less play an important part in
+the affair of the Count de Soissons--the most formidable conspiracy that
+had hitherto been hatched against Richelieu. Anne of Austria was
+certainly privy to the plot and lent it her aid. She might have been
+ignorant of the secret treaty with Spain; but for all the rest, and so
+far as it menaced the Cardinal, she had a perfect understanding with the
+conspirators. That high-handed Minister, by overstraining the springs of
+government, by prolonging the war, by increasing the public expenditure,
+and by oppressing all classes whilst he crushed some in particular, had
+excited a hatred so bitter and widespread that at length he governed the
+State almost entirely through terror. Whilst the grandeur of his designs
+commanded respect and veneration from a select few, his genius towered
+above the bulk of his countrymen. But that harsh rule, continuing
+unrelaxed, and so many sacrifices being perpetually renewed, at length
+wearied out the greater number, the King himself not excepted. Louis's
+reigning favourite, the Grand-Écuyer, Cinq Mars, undermined and
+blackened the Cardinal as much as possible in his royal master's
+estimation. He knew of the conspiracy of the Count de Soissons, and
+without taking a share in it, he favoured it. He might therefore be
+reckoned upon to figure in the next. The Queen, still in disgrace in
+spite of the two heirs she had given to the crown, naturally breathed
+vows for the termination of a rule which so oppressed her. Gaston, the
+King's brother, had pledged his word, however little the reliance that
+might be placed upon it; but the Duke de Bouillon, an experienced
+soldier and an eminent politician, had openly declared himself; and his
+stronghold of Sedan, situated on the frontiers of France and Belgium,
+offered an asylum whence could be braved for a long while all the power
+of the Cardinal. A widespread understanding had been established
+throughout every part of the kingdom, amongst the clergy, and in the
+Parliament. There were conspirators in the very Bastille itself, where
+Marshal de Vitry and the Count de Cramail, prisoners as they were, had
+prepared a _coup de main_ with an admirably-kept secrecy. The Abbé de
+Retz, then twenty-five, preluded his adventurous career by this attempt
+at civil war. The Duke de Guise, having effected his escape from Rheims,
+and taken refuge in the Low Countries, was about to share the dangers of
+the conspiracy at Sedan. But the greatest--the firmest--hope of the
+Count de Soissons rested upon Spain: that power alone could enable him
+to take the field from Sedan, to march upon Paris, and crush the power
+of Richelieu. He therefore despatched Alexandre de Campion, one of his
+bravest and most intelligent gentlemen, to Brussels to negotiate with
+the Spanish Ministers and obtain from them troops and money. There he
+addressed himself to Mdme. de Chevreuse, and confided to her the mission
+with which he was charged, which she hastened to second with all her
+influence. Having prevailed upon Olivarez to strenuously support those
+requirements which the Count de Soissons and the Duke de Bouillon sought
+at his hands, she despatched letters by a secret agent in the service of
+Spain to the Duke de Lorraine, entreating him not to fail her in this
+supreme opportunity of repairing her past misfortunes and of dealing a
+mortal blow to their remorseless enemy. The Duke Charles, thus solicited
+at once by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by his kinsman the Duke de Guise, by the
+Spanish Minister, and, more than all, by his own restless and
+adventurous ambition, broke the solemn compact he had so recently made
+with France, entered into an alliance with Spain and the Count de
+Soissons, and prepared with all diligence to march to the aid of Sedan.
+And whilst Mdme. de Chevreuse and the emigrants brought into play every
+engine they could lay hands on, Lamboy and Metternich set out for
+Flanders at the head of six thousand Imperialists. France--all the
+nationalities of Europe, were on the tiptoe of expectation. Richelieu
+had never been menaced with a greater danger, and the loss of the battle
+of Marfée would have proved a fatal event had not the Count de Soissons
+met his death simultaneously with his triumph.
+
+If Mdme. de Chevreuse were a stranger in 1642 to the fresh conspiracy of
+Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon against her
+relentless foe, it would have been the only one in which she had not
+taken a leading part. It is indeed more than probable that she was in
+the secret as well as Queen Anne, whose understanding with Gaston and
+Cinq Mars cannot be contested. La Rochefoucauld repeatedly remarks
+touching a matter in which he seems to have been implicated, "The
+dazzling reputation of M. le Grand (Cinq Mars) rekindled the hopes of
+the discontented; the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans united with him; the
+Duke de Bouillon and several persons of quality did the same." De
+Bouillon also declares that the Queen was closely allied with Gaston and
+the Grand-Écuyer, and that she herself had invited his concurrence. "The
+Queen, whom the Cardinal had persecuted in such a variety of ways, did
+not doubt that, if the King should chance to die, that minister would
+seek to deprive her of her children, in order to assume the Regency
+himself. She secretly instigated De Thou to seek the Duke de Bouillon
+with persevering entreaties. She asked the latter whether, in the event
+of the King's death, he would promise to receive her and her two
+children in his stronghold of Sedan, believing--so firmly persuaded was
+she of the evil designs of the Cardinal, and of his power--that there
+was no other place of safety for them throughout the realm of France."
+De Thou further told the Duke de Bouillon that since the King's illness
+the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans were very closely allied, and that it
+was through Cinq Mars that their alliance had been brought about. Now,
+where the Queen was so deeply implicated it was not likely that Mdme. de
+Chevreuse would stand aloof. A friend of Richelieu, whose name has not
+come down to us, but who must have been perfectly well informed, does
+not hesitate to place Mdme. de Chevreuse as well as the Queen amongst
+those who then endeavoured to overthrow Richelieu. "M. le Grand," he
+writes to the Cardinal,[5] "has been urged to his wicked designs by the
+Queen-mother, by her daughter (Henrietta Maria), by the Queen of France,
+by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by Montagu, and other English Papists." At length
+the Cardinal, on an early day in June, 1642, retired to Tarascon,
+ostensibly for the sake of his health, but doubtless for safety also,
+accompanied by his two bosom friends, Mazarin and Chavigny, and the
+faithful regiments of his guards. Finding himself surrounded by peril on
+all sides, and representing to Louis XIII. the gravity of the situation,
+he cited that which had been alleged of Mdme. de Chevreuse as amongst
+the most striking indications of the truth of what he stated.[6]
+
+    [5] Archives des Affaires Étrangères; FRANCE, tom. CI.
+
+    [6] Archives des Affaires Étrangères; FRANCE, tom. cii. Inedited
+    Memoir of Richelieu.
+
+But what _was_ the party in fact then conspiring against Richelieu? Was
+it not the party of former coalitions--of the League, of Austria, and of
+Spain? And Mdme. Chevreuse at Brussels, through her connection with the
+Duke de Lorraine, the Queen of England, the Chevalier de Jars at Rome,
+the Minister Olivarez at Madrid--was she not one of the great motive
+powers of that party? When, therefore, such machinery was found to be
+again in activity, it was quite reasonable to suspect the hand of Mdme.
+de Chevreuse in all its movements.
+
+The gathering cloud that now lowered so thick and threatening above the
+head of Richelieu seemed pregnant with inevitable destruction to his
+power and life. But ere long his eagle glance pierced through the
+overshadowing gloom, and the aim of Cinq Mars' dark intrigue became
+clearly revealed to his far-seeing introspection. A treachery, the
+secret of which has remained impenetrable to every research made during
+the last two centuries, caused the treaty concluded with Spain through
+the intervention of Fontrailles, and bearing the signatures of Gaston,
+Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon, to fall into his hands. From that
+instant the Cardinal felt certain of victory. He knew Louis XIII.
+thoroughly; he conjectured that he might in some access of his morbid
+and changeful humour have uttered reproachful words against his Minister
+in the favourite's ear--even expressed a wish to be rid of him, as did
+our first Plantagenet when tired of the despotism of Thomas à
+Becket--and had perhaps listened to strange proposals for effecting such
+object. But the Cardinal knew right well also to what extent Louis was a
+king and a Frenchman, and devoted by self-interest to their common
+system. He despatched, therefore, Chavigny in all haste from Narbonne
+with irrefragable evidence of the treaty made with Spain. Louis,
+thunderstricken, could scarcely believe his own eyes. He sank into a
+gloomy reverie, out of which he emerged only to give way to bursts of
+indignation against the favourite who could thus abuse his confidence
+and conspire with the foreigner. It was needless to inflame his anger,
+he was the first to call for an exemplary punishment. Not for a day, not
+for an hour, did his heart soften towards the youthful culprit who had
+been so dear to him. He thought only of his crime, and signed without an
+instant's hesitation his death-warrant. If Louis the Just spared the
+Duke de Bouillon, it was merely to acquire Sedan. If he pardoned his
+brother Gaston, he at the same time dishonoured him by depriving him of
+all authority in the State. Upon a report spread by a servant of
+Fontrailles, and which Fontrailles' memoirs fully confirm, his
+suspicions were directed towards the Queen; and no one afterwards could
+divest his mind of the conviction that in this instance, as in the
+affair of Chalais, Anne of Austria had an understanding with his
+brother, the Duke d'Orleans. What would he have done had he perused the
+statement of Fontrailles, the Duke de Bouillon's memoirs, a letter of
+Turenne, and the declaration of La Rochefoucauld? Their united testimony
+is so concordant that it is altogether irresistible. The Queen racked
+her brains to exorcise this fresh storm, and to persuade the King and
+Richelieu of her innocence. Anne went much farther; she did not confine
+herself to falsehood and dissimulation. Menaced by imminent danger, she
+went so far as to repudiate that courageous friend who had been so long
+and steadfastly devoted to her. Had fortune declared in her favour she
+would have embraced the Duchess as a deliverer. Vanquished and disarmed,
+she abandoned her. As she had protested in terms of horror against the
+conspiracy that had failed, her two young, imprudent, and ill-starred
+accomplices, Cinq Mars and De Thou, mounted the scaffold without
+breathing her name. Finding also both the King and Richelieu violently
+exasperated against Mdme. de Chevreuse, and firmly resolved to reject
+the renewed entreaties of her family to obtain her recall, Anne of
+Austria, far from interceding for her faithful adherent, warmly sided
+with her enemies; and further, to indicate the change in her own
+sentiments, and seem to applaud that which she could not prevent, she
+asked as an especial favour that the Duchess might be estranged from her
+person, and even from France. "The Queen," wrote Chavigny, Richelieu's
+Minister for Foreign Affairs, "has pointedly asked me if it were true
+that Mdme. de Chevreuse would return; and, without waiting for a reply,
+she signified to me that she should be vexed to find her presently in
+France; that she now saw the Duchess in her proper light; and she
+commanded me to pray His Eminence on her part, if he had any mind to
+favour Mdme. de Chevreuse, that it might be done without granting her
+permission to return to France. I assured her Majesty that she should
+have satisfaction on that point."[7]
+
+    [7] Archives des Affaires Étrangères, FRANCE, tom. CI.
+
+Poor Marie de Rohan! Her heart already bled from many wounds, but this
+last was the "unkindest cut of all." Her position had indeed become
+frightful, and calculated to sink her to the lowest depth of despair. No
+hope of seeing her native land again, her princely château, her
+children, her favourite daughter Charlotte! Deriving scarcely anything
+from France, deeply in debt, and with credit exhausted, she found
+herself entirely at the end of her resources. How thoroughly did the
+banished woman then realise the woes of exile--how hard it is to climb
+and descend the stranger's stair, experience the hollowness of his
+promise, and the arrogance of his commiseration. And, finally, as though
+fated to drain her cup of bitterness to the last drop, to learn that
+she, her long-loved bosom friend and royal mistress, who owed her, at
+the very least, a silent fidelity, had openly ranged herself on the side
+of fortune and Richelieu!
+
+In a condition of mental torture the most acute, resulting from such
+accumulated misfortune, Madame de Chevreuse remained for several months
+with no other support than that of her innate high-souled courage. At
+length, towards the close of that eventful year, the golden grooves of
+change rung out a joyous pæan to gladden the heart of the much-enduring
+exile. Suddenly Marie--all Europe--heard with a throb that the
+inscrutable, iron-handed man of all the human race most dreaded alike by
+States as by individuals, had yielded to a stronger power than his own,
+and had closed his eyes in death (December 4, 1642). Within a few short
+months afterwards the King also, whose regal power he had consolidated
+at such a cost in blood and suffering, followed the great statesman to
+the tomb; having entrusted the Regency, very much against his will, to
+the Queen, but controlled by a Council, over which presided as Prime
+Minister the man most devoted to Richelieu's system--his closest friend,
+confidant, and creature--Jules Mazarin.
+
+A passage in the funeral oration on Louis XIII. summed up briefly but
+significantly the result of Richelieu's gigantic efforts to consolidate
+the regal power. "Sixty-three kings," it said, "had preceded him in rule
+of the realm, but he alone had rendered it absolute, and what all
+collectively had been impotent to achieve in the course of twelve
+centuries for the grandeur of France, he had accomplished in the short
+space of thirty-three years." It was against that absolute power
+incarnate in Richelieu, which from the steps of the throne hurled men to
+the earth with its bolts rather than governed them, that Mazarin was
+destined later to encounter the reaction of the Fronde.
+
+Distrustful of leaving Anne of Austria in uncontrolled possession of
+regal authority, Louis by his last will and testament had placed
+royalty, including his brother Gaston as lieutenant-general of the
+realm, in a manner under a commission. And further, Louis did not
+believe that he could ensure quiet to the State after his death without
+confirming and perpetuating, so far as in him lay, the perpetual exile
+of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+As the pupil and confidential friend of Richelieu, Mazarin had imbibed
+both that statesman's and the late king's opinions and sentiments
+touching the influence of that eminently dangerous woman. Though he had
+never seen her hitherto, he was not the less well acquainted with her by
+repute: dreading her mortally, and cherishing a like antipathy to her
+friend Châteauneuf. He knew the Duchess to be as seductive as she was
+talented, experienced and courageous in party strife--an instance of
+which was that she could sway entirely a man of such ambition and
+capacity as the former Keeper of the Seals. Attached, moreover, in
+secret to Lorraine, to Austria, and to Spain, all this was as absolutely
+incompatible with the exclusive favour to which he aspired at the hands
+of his royal mistress as it was with all his diplomatic and military
+designs. The solemn injunctions of the late king's will, while
+denouncing Madame de Chevreuse and Châteauneuf as the two most
+illustrious victims of the close of his reign, embodied also the heads
+of the policy which it was that monarch's wish should be continued by
+Richelieu's successor. "Forasmuch," ran the will, "that for weighty
+reasons, important to the welfare of our State, we found ourselves
+compelled to deprive the Sieur de Châteauneuf of the post of Keeper of
+the Seals of France, and have him sent to the Castle of Angoulême, in
+which he has remained by our command up to the present time, we will and
+intend that the said Sieur de Châteauneuf remain in the same state in
+which he is at present, in the said Castle of Angoulême, until after the
+peace be concluded and executed; under charge, nevertheless, that he
+shall not then be set at liberty save by the order of the Queen-Regent,
+under the advice of her Council, which shall appoint a place to which he
+shall retire, within the realm or without the realm, as may be judged
+best. And as our design is to take foresight of all such subjects as may
+possibly in some way or other disturb the precautionary arrangements
+which we have made to preserve the repose and safety of our realm, the
+knowledge that we have of the bad conduct of the Lady Duchess de
+Chevreuse, of the artifices which she has employed up to this moment
+without the kingdom with our enemies, made us judge it fitting to forbid
+her, as we do, entrance into our kingdom during the war: desiring even
+that after the peace be concluded and executed she may not return into
+our kingdom, save only under the orders of the said Lady Queen-Regent,
+with the advice of the said Council, under charge, nevertheless, that
+she shall not either take up her abode or be in any place near to the
+Court or to the said Queen-Regent."
+
+Within a few days only after the decease of Louis XIII. that same
+Parliament which had enrolled his will reformed it. The Queen-Regent was
+freed from every fetter and restriction, and invested with almost
+absolute sovereignty; the ban was removed from the proscribed couple so
+solemnly denounced, Châteauneuf's prison doors were thrown open, and
+Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels triumphantly, with a cortége of
+twenty carriages, filled with lords and ladies of the highest rank in
+that Court, to return once more to France and to the side of her royal
+friend and mistress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  RETURN OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE TO COURT.
+
+
+AFTER ten years' absence from the scene of her former triumphs, social
+and political, did the brilliant Duchess then once more find herself
+safe and free in France. The _Gazette de Renaudot_--the _Moniteur_ of
+that day--recording the return of Madame de Chevreuse, on the 14th of
+June, 1643, remarks[1]:--"During such long exile, this princess has
+manifested what an elevated mind like hers can do, in spite of all those
+vicissitudes of fortune which her constancy has surmounted. The Duchess
+went to pay homage to their Majesties, during which visit she received
+so many tokens of affection from the Queen-Regent, and gave her in
+return such proofs of her zeal in everything relating to her service,
+and so much resignation to her will, that it indeed appears that length
+of time, distance, or thorny asperities can only prevail over common
+minds. Hence the great train of visitors from this Court to her daily,
+and for which her spacious hotel scarcely affords room, does not excite
+so much wonder as the fact which has been the subject of remark, that
+the fatigue consequent upon long journeys and the rigour of adverse
+fortune have worked no change in her magnanimity, nor--which is the more
+extraordinary--in her beauty."
+
+    [1] No. lxxvii. p. 579.
+
+Making due allowance for the inflated diction of the complaisant Court
+newswriter, let us endeavour to approach somewhat nearer to the truth.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse had then entered upon her forty-third year. Though
+still surprisingly well-preserved, her beauty, tried by adversity, was
+visibly on the decline. The inclination to gallantry still existed, but
+subdued, politics having gained the supremacy. She had formed the
+acquaintance of, and held political relations with, the most celebrated
+statesmen in Europe. She had figured at almost all its Courts, the
+strength and weakness of its several Governments were known to her, and
+in her wanderings, having seen "men and cities," she had acquired a
+large experience. The tried favourite hoped to find Anne of Austria the
+same as she had left her--averse to business, and very willing to allow
+herself to be led by those for whom she had a particular affection; and
+as Madame de Chevreuse had been in her youthful days paramount in the
+Queen's affection, she fully expected to exercise over her that twofold
+ascendancy which love and capacity would jointly give. More ambitious
+for her friends than for herself, she saw them already rewarded for
+their long sacrifices, replacing everywhere the creatures of Richelieu,
+and at their head, in the highest post, as first minister, him who for
+her sake had broken with the triumphant Cardinal, and had endured an
+imprisonment of ten tedious years. She did not care much about Mazarin,
+with whom she had no acquaintance, whom she had never seen, and who
+appeared to her unsupported either by the Court or the French nation,
+whilst she felt herself sustained by all that was illustrious, powerful,
+and accredited therein. She believed that she could make sure of the
+Duke d'Orleans through his wife, the beautiful Margaret, sister of
+Charles of Lorraine. She could dispose almost at will of the Houses of
+Rohan and Lorraine, particularly of the Duke de Guise and the Duke
+d'Elbeuf, like herself just returned from Flanders. She reckoned upon
+the Vendômes, upon the Duke d'Epernon, upon La Vieuville, her old
+companions in exile in England; upon the ill-treated Bouillons, upon La
+Rochefoucauld, whose disposition and pretensions were so well known to
+her; upon Lord Montagu, who had been her slave, and at that moment
+possessed the entire confidence of Anne of Austria; upon La Châtre, the
+friend of the Vendômes, and Colonel-General of the Swiss Guards; upon
+Treville, upon Beringhen, upon Jars, upon La Porte, who were all
+emerging from exile, prison, and disgrace. Among the women, her young
+stepmother and her sister-in-law seemed secure--Madame de Montbazon and
+Madame de Guéméné, the two greatest beauties of the time, who drew after
+them a numerous crowd of old and young adorers. She knew also that among
+the first acts of the Regent had been the recall to her side of the two
+noble victims of Richelieu--Madame de Senécé and Madame de Hautefort,
+whose virtue and piety had conspired so beneficially with other
+influences, and had given them an inestimable weight in the household of
+Anne of Austria. All those calculations seemed accurate, all those hopes
+well-founded; and Madame de Chevreuse left Brussels firmly persuaded
+that she was about to re-enter the Louvre as a conqueress. She deceived
+herself: the Queen was already changed, or very nearly so.
+
+To show due honour to her former favourite, however, Anne of Austria
+despatched La Rochefoucauld to greet and escort her homewards; but
+before he set out she charged him to inform the Duchess of the altered
+disposition in which she would find her royal mistress. During that
+audience Rochefoucauld did his utmost to reinstate his charming friend
+and close ally in the Queen's good graces. "I spoke to her," says he,
+"with more freedom perhaps than was becoming. I set before her Madame de
+Chevreuse's fidelity, her long-continued services, and the severity of
+the misfortunes which they had entailed upon her. I entreated her to
+consider of what fickleness she would be thought capable, and what
+interpretation might be placed upon such inconsiderateness if she should
+prefer Cardinal Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse. Our conversation was
+long and stormy, and I saw clearly that I had exasperated her." He then
+started to meet the Duchess on the road from Brussels, and found her at
+Roye, whither Montagu had already preceded him. Montagu had travelled to
+Roye to place Mazarin's homage at the feet of Madame de Chevreuse, with
+the view of bringing about at any cost an union and identity of policy
+between the old and the new favourite. He was no longer the gay and
+sprightly Walter Montagu, the friend of Holland and Buckingham, the
+enamoured knight ever ready to break a lance against all comers for a
+glance of the bright eyes of Madame de Chevreuse. Time had changed him
+as well as others: he had become a bigot and a devotee, and already
+contemplated taking orders in the Church of Rome. He still remained,
+however, attached to the object of his former adoration, but above all
+he belonged to the Queen, and consequently resigned to Mazarin. La
+Rochefoucauld--ever ready to ascribe to himself the chief share in any
+undertaking in which he figured, as well as the character of a great
+politician--asserts that he entreated Madame de Chevreuse not to
+attempt at first to govern the Queen, but to endeavour solely to regain
+in Anne's mind and heart that place of which it had been sought to
+deprive her, and to put herself in a position in which she would be able
+to protect or ruin the Cardinal, according to conduct or circumstances
+emanating from himself.
+
+The Duchess listened attentively to the advice of both her old friends,
+promised to follow it, and did so in fact, but in her own peculiar way,
+and in that of the interest of the party she had so long served, and
+which she would not abandon. As Anne of Austria seemed much pleased at
+seeing the noble wanderer again, and gave her a warm reception, Marie
+did not perceive any difference in the Queen's sentiments, and flattered
+herself that by constant assiduousness she would ere long resume that
+sway over the Regent's mind she had formerly exercised.
+
+Operating against this not unreasonable expectation of Madame de
+Chevreuse, Mazarin had a silent but potent ally in the newly-awakened
+inclination of Anne for repose and a tranquil life. The first draughts
+of almost supreme power tasted by the long-oppressed Queen were not yet
+embittered by faction and anarchy. In bygone days, insult, neglect, and
+persecution had stirred her at intervals into mental activity, and urged
+her upon dangerous courses; but now, having obtained all she aimed at,
+happy, and beginning to form attachments, she entertained a dread of
+troublesome adventures and hazardous enterprises. She therefore feared
+Madame de Chevreuse quite as much as she loved her. The astute Cardinal
+anxiously strove to foster such distrust. He looked for support from the
+Princess de Condé, then high in the Queen's favour, both through her own
+merit as well as that of the Prince her husband, but more than all
+through the brilliant exploits of her son, the Duke d'Enghien; through
+the services also of her son-in-law the Duke de Longueville, who had,
+with honourable distinction, commanded the armies of Italy and Germany,
+and by her recently-married daughter, Madame de Longueville, already the
+darling of the _salons_ and the Court. The Princess, like Queen Anne,
+had in the heyday of her beauty been fond of homage and gallantry, but
+had now grown serious, and displayed a somewhat lively piety. She held
+Madame de Chevreuse in aversion, and detested Châteauneuf, who, in 1632,
+at Toulouse, had presided at the trial and condemnation of her brother,
+Henri de Montmorency. She therefore had striven, in concert with
+Mazarin, to destroy or at least weaken Madame de Chevreuse's hold upon
+the Queen. Armed with the last will of Louis XIII., they had made it
+appear something like a fault in the Queen's eyes to disregard it so
+soon and so entirely. They had given her to understand that former days
+and associations could never return; that the amusements and passions of
+early youth were but "evil accompaniments"[2] of a later period of life;
+that now she was before all things a mother and a Queen; that Madame de
+Chevreuse, dissipated and carried away by passion, and cherishing the
+same inclination for gallantry and idle vanity as hitherto, was no
+longer worthy of her confidence; that she had brought good fortune to no
+one; and that in lavishing wealth and honour upon the Duchess the debt
+of gratitude she owed her would be sufficiently discharged.
+
+    [2] Madame de Motteville, tom. i. p. 162.--"Mauvais
+    accompagnements."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  ANNE OF AUSTRIA'S PRIME MINISTER AND HIS POLICY.
+
+
+AND now what was the actual position of Mazarin on succeeding to power
+in 1643?
+
+Richelieu had died admired and abhorred. The people, glad to be
+delivered from so heavy a yoke, obeyed with joy the incipient rule of
+the Queen-Regent. The courtiers were at first enchanted with a
+Government that refused nothing asked of it. It appeared, as one of the
+number said, that there were no more than five little words in the
+French language: "_La reine est si bonne!_"[1] The State prisons threw
+open their gates; the rights of parliaments were respected; the princes
+of the blood and the great nobles were restored to their governorships.
+There was for a season one unanimous concert of praise and thanksgiving.
+But when the princes and parliaments were desirous, as before
+Richelieu's rule, of participating in the general direction of the
+State, and especially in the distribution of place and patronage, great
+was the surprise of both at finding a steady resistance on the part of
+the Queen-Regent. To see her manifest a disposition to govern without
+them was looked upon as something scandalous. Every attempt she made
+thenceforward to retain a power which they evaded, or to repossess
+herself of that which she had imprudently suffered to escape from her
+grasp, seemed to them nothing less than a continuation of the odious
+system of Richelieu. Their exasperation was increased to the highest
+degree, therefore, when they beheld her give her entire confidence to a
+foreigner, to a Cardinal, to a creature of Richelieu. By that triple
+title Mazarin was equally hateful to the great nobles, the members of
+parliament, and the middle class. The tyranny of Richelieu had in the
+end attained to something noble by the high-handed heedlessness of all
+his acts. If the people were to be trampled on, it was a species of
+consolation that their oppressor was feared by others as well as
+themselves. But that the oppression of the doomed French nation was to
+be continued by a more ignoble hand was altogether intolerable.
+Frenchmen had begun to ask one another, who _was_ this Mazarin who had
+come to rule over them? He could not--like Richelieu--boast of his high
+birth, of descent from a long line of noble ancestors--Frenchmen. Poets
+and romancers, ye whose imaginations delight to dwell upon sudden
+downfalls and rapid rises, mark well that little lad at play upon the
+Sicilian shore near the town of Mazzara! Springing from the lowest of
+the plebeian class, his family have not even a surname. He is the son of
+one Pierre, a fisherman, whose humble hut stands yonder beneath the
+cliff. But a day will come when that lowly-born lad, joining his
+baptismal name to that of the town which sheltered his cradle, will
+become Jules de Mazarin, robed in the Roman purple, quartering his
+shield with the consular fasces of Julius Cæsar, governing France, and
+through her preparing and influencing the destinies of entire Europe.
+
+    [1] De Retz Memoirs, Petitot Collection.
+
+It was not, however, by easy steps that Richelieu's disciple and
+successor obtained a firm grasp of that plenary power which the master
+mind of the former had consolidated and long wielded so grandly and
+terribly. The Queen herself at the commencement of the Regency had not
+yet renounced her former friendships. During a considerable portion of
+her married life Anne had impatiently endured the slights and
+disparagements to which she was so long subjected, both by her husband
+and his Minister. Through engaging in divers dangerous and unsuccessful
+enterprises, she had been deprived of all influence, and was a queen
+only in name. But, a woman and a Spaniard, she had descended to
+dissimulation, and in that "ugly but necessary virtue"[2] made rapid
+progress. Up to the time of Richelieu's death she had played a double
+game--made partisans in secret, with the object of subverting the
+Cardinal's power, whilst feigning the semblance of friendship towards
+him, and did not scruple to humiliate herself on occasions, in order to
+carry her point. After that great man's decease, through rare patience,
+great caution, and a persistent line of conduct, she ultimately attained
+that for which she had been willing to make any and every sacrifice--the
+Regency. During the King's last illness, the mistrusted Queen and wife
+had profited by Mazarin's unhoped-for service, as Prime Minister, in
+prevailing over the unwillingness of the dying King to appoint her
+custodian of his son, and Regent during his minority. She regarded this,
+therefore, as a first and most important service on the part of Mazarin
+towards her, and for which she felt proportionately grateful. Such was
+the Cardinal's first stepping-stone to the good graces of Anne of
+Austria, and his twofold talent both as a laborious and indefatigable
+statesman and a consummate courtier, speedily helped to secure for him
+her entire confidence. The singular personal resemblance he bore to that
+desperate _enamorado_ of her early womanhood, the brilliant Buckingham,
+may probably also have served him as a favourable prestige. On her
+accession to power Anne did not manifest much firmness of character.
+Naturally indolent, she disliked the drudgery attendant upon business
+details, and hence continued through convenience the services of a man
+who, by taking off her hands the wearisome routine of State affairs,
+allowed her to reign at her ease.
+
+    [2] Madame de Motteville.
+
+Mazarin, moreover, had never been displeasing to her. He had begun to
+ingratiate himself during the month preceding the death of Louis
+XIII.,[3] and she named him Prime Minister about the middle of
+May--partly through personal liking, but more through political
+necessity. Far from appearing to resemble the impassive and imperious
+Richelieu, Anne perhaps might have recalled with agreeable emotion the
+words of her deceased consort when he first presented Mazarin to her (in
+1639 or 1640)--"He will please you, madame, because he bears a striking
+resemblance to Buckingham." By degrees the liking increased, and grew
+sufficiently strong to resist every assault from his enemies. At the
+same time the Minister to whom the Queen owed so much, instead of
+dictating to and presuming to govern her, was ever at her feet, and
+prodigal of that attention, respect, and tenderness to which she had
+been hitherto a stranger.
+
+    [3] Louis died May 14th, 1643.
+
+It is a delicate matter to investigate with exactitude the means by
+which Mazarin obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, and one which
+La Rochefoucauld scarcely touches upon; but it is too interesting a
+point in history to be left in the dark, and thereby to altogether
+disregard that which first constituted the minister's strength, and
+soon afterwards became the centre and key of the situation. After a long
+season of oppression, regal powers and splendour gilded the hours of
+Anne of Austria, and her Spanish pride exacted the tribute of respect
+and homage. Mazarin was prodigal of both. He cast himself at her feet in
+order to reach her heart. In her heart of hearts she was not the less
+touched by the grave accusation brought against him that he was a
+foreigner, for was not she also a foreigner? Perhaps that of itself
+proved the source of a mysterious attraction to her, and she may have
+found it a singular pleasure to converse with her Prime Minister in her
+mother tongue as a compatriot and friend. To all this must be added the
+mind and manners of Mazarin--supple and insinuating, always master of
+himself, of an unchangeable serenity amidst the gravest circumstances,
+full of confidence in his good star, and diffusing that confidence
+around him. It must also be remembered that Cardinal although he was,
+Mazarin was not a priest; that imbued with the maxims which formed the
+code of gallantry of her native land, Anne of Austria had always loved
+to please the other sex; that she was then forty-one and still
+beautiful, that her Prime Minister was of the same age, that he was
+exceedingly well-made and of a most pleasing countenance, in which
+_finesse_, was blended with a certain air of greatness. He had readily
+recognised that without ancestry, establishment, or support in France,
+and surrounded by rivals and enemies, all his strength centred in the
+Queen. He applied himself therefore above all things to gain her heart,
+as Richelieu had tried before him; and as he happily possessed far other
+means for attaining success in that respect, the handsome and
+gentle-mannered Cardinal eventually succeeded. Once master of her heart,
+he easily directed the mind of Anne of Austria, and taught her the
+difficult art of pursuing ever the same end by the aid of conduct the
+most diverse, according to the difference of circumstances.
+
+But favourable and indeed gracious as his royal mistress had shown
+herself towards him personally, and apart from any particular line of
+policy, at the outset of his premiership Mazarin had nevertheless to
+contend against a formidable host of enemies; and not the least
+redoubtable among them might be reckoned that intrepid political heroine
+the lately-banished Duchess de Chevreuse. No sooner did she again find
+herself at the side of Anne of Austria than the indefatigable Marie set
+to work with all her characteristic dash, spirit, and energy to attack
+Richelieu's system and its adherents, now directed by Mazarin.
+
+The first point she sought to carry was the return of Châteauneuf to
+office. "The good sense and long experience of M. de Châteauneuf," says
+La Rochefoucauld, "were known to the Queen. He had undergone a rigorous
+imprisonment for his adhesion to her cause; he was firm, decisive, loved
+the State, and more capable than anyone else of re-establishing the old
+form of government which Richelieu had first begun to destroy. Firmly
+attached to Mdme. de Chevreuse, she knew sufficiently-well how to govern
+him. She therefore urged his return with much warmth." Châteauneuf had
+already obtained as a royal boon that the "rude and miserable condition"
+of close incarceration under which he had groaned for ten years should
+be changed for a compulsory residence at one of his country houses.
+Mdme. de Chevreuse demanded the termination of this mitigated exile,
+that she might once more behold him free who had endured such
+extremities for the Queen's sake and her own. Mazarin saw that he must
+yield, but only did so tardily, never appearing himself to repulse
+Châteauneuf, but always alleging the paramount necessity of conciliating
+the Condé family, and especially the Princess, who, as already said,
+bore bitter enmity towards him as the judge of her brother, Henri de
+Montmorency. Châteauneuf was therefore recalled, but with that
+reservation accorded to the last clause of the King's will, that he
+should not appear at Court, but reside at his own house of Montrouge,
+near Paris, where his friends might visit him.
+
+The next step was to transfer him thence to some ministerial office.
+Châteauneuf was no longer a young man, but neither his energy nor his
+ambition had deserted him, and Mdme. de Chevreuse made it a point of
+honour to reinstate him in the post of Keeper of the Seals, which he had
+formerly held and lost through her, and which all Queen Anne's old
+friends now saw with indignation occupied by one of the most detested of
+Richelieu's creatures, Pierre Séguier. This last, however, was a man of
+capacity--laborious, well-informed and full of resources. To these
+qualifications he added a remarkable suppleness, which made him very
+useful and accommodating to a Prime Minister. He moreover had the
+support of friends who stood high in the Queen's favour, and was further
+strengthened by the opposition of the Condés and the Bishop of Beauvais
+to Châteauneuf. The Duchess perceiving that it was almost impossible to
+surmount so powerful an opposition, took another way of arriving at the
+same end. She contented herself with asking for the lowest seat in the
+cabinet for her friend; well knowing that once installed therein,
+Châteauneuf would soon manage all the rest and aggrandise his position.
+
+At the same time that she strove to extricate from disgrace the man upon
+whom rested all her political hopes, Madame de Chevreuse, not daring to
+attack Mazarin overtly, insensibly undermined the ground beneath his
+feet, and step by step prepared his ruin. Her experienced eye enabled
+her promptly to perceive the most favourable point of attack whence to
+assail the Queen, and the watchword she passed was to fan and keep alive
+to the utmost the general feeling of reprobation which all the
+proscribed, on returning to France, had aroused and disseminated against
+the memory of Richelieu. This feeling was universal--among the great
+families he had decimated or despoiled;--in the Church, too firmly
+repressed not to be unmindful of its abasement;--in the Parliament,
+strictly confined to its judicial functions, and aspiring to break
+through such narrow limits. The same feeling was still alive in the
+Queen's bosom, who could not have forgotten the deep humiliation to
+which Richelieu had subjected her, and the fate for which he had
+probably reserved her. These tactics succeeded, and on every side there
+arose against the late violence and tyranny, and, by a rebound, against
+the creatures of Richelieu, a storm so furious that Mazarin's utmost
+ability was taxed to allay it.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse likewise supplicated Anne of Austria to repair the
+long-endured misfortunes of the Vendôme princes, by bestowing upon them
+either the Admiralty, to which an immense power was attached, or the
+government of Brittany, which the head of the family, Cæsar de Vendôme,
+had formerly held--deriving it alike from the hand of his father, Henry
+IV., and as the heritage of his father-in-law, the Duke de Mercoeur.
+This was nothing less than demanding the aggrandisement of an unfriendly
+house, and at the same time the ruin of two families that had served
+Richelieu with the utmost devotion, and were best capable of supporting
+Mazarin. The Minister parried the blow aimed at him by the Duchess by
+dint of address and patience, never refusing, always eluding, and
+summoning to his aid his grand ally, as he termed it--Time. Before the
+return of Madame de Chevreuse he had found himself forced to win over
+the Vendômes, and to secure them in his interest. On Richelieu's death
+he had strenuously contributed to obtain their recall, and had since
+made them every kind of advance; but he soon perceived that he could not
+satisfy them without bringing about his own destruction. The Duke Cæsar
+de Vendôme, son of Henry IV. and _The Fair Gabrielle_, had early carried
+his pretensions to a great height, and had shown himself restless and
+factious as a legitimate prince. He had passed his life in revolts and
+conspiracies, and in 1641 had been compelled to flee to England through
+suspicion of being implicated in an attempt to assassinate Richelieu. He
+did not dare return to France until after the Cardinal's death; and, as
+may well be imagined, he came back breathing the direst vengeance.
+Against the ambition of the Vendômes Mazarin skilfully opposed that of
+the Condés, who were inimical to the aggrandisement of a house too
+nearly rivalling their own. But it was very difficult to retain Brittany
+in the hands of its newly-appointed governor, the Marshal La Meilleraie,
+in face of the claim of a son of Henry the Great, who had formerly held
+it, and demanded it back as a sort of heirloom. Mazarin therefore
+resigned himself to the sacrifice of La Meilleraie, but he lightened it
+as much as possible. He persuaded the Queen to assume to herself the
+government of Brittany, and have only a lieutenant-general over it--a
+post, of course, beneath the dignity of the Vendômes, and which would,
+therefore, remain in La Meilleraie's hands. The latter could not take
+offence at being second in power therein to the Queen; and to arrange
+everything to the entire satisfaction of a person of such importance,
+Mazarin solicited for him soon afterwards the title of duke, which the
+deceased King had, in fact, promised the Marshal, and the reversion of
+the post of Grand Master of the Artillery for his son--that same son on
+whom subsequently Mazarin bestowed, with his own name, the hand of his
+niece, the beautiful Hortense.
+
+Mazarin was so much the less inclined to favour the house of Vendôme
+from having encountered a dangerous rival in the Queen's good graces, in
+Vendôme's youngest son, Beaufort, a young, bold, and flourishing
+gallant, who displayed ostentatiously all the exterior signs of loyalty
+and chivalry, and affected for Anne of Austria a passionate devotion not
+likely to be displeasing. "He was tall, well-made, dexterous, and
+indefatigable in all warlike exercises," says La Rochefoucauld, "but
+artificial withal, and wanting in truthfulness of character. Mentally he
+was heavy and badly cultivated; nevertheless he attained his objects
+cleverly enough through the blunt coarseness of his manners. He was of
+high but unsteady courage, and was not a little envious and
+malignant."[4] De Retz does not, like La Rochefoucauld, accuse Beaufort
+of artificiality, but represents him as presumptuous and of thorough
+incapacity. His portrait of him, though over-coloured, like most others
+from the coadjutor's pen, is sufficiently faithful, but at the
+commencement of the Regency, the defects of the Duke de Beaufort had not
+fully declared themselves, and were less conspicuous than his good
+qualities. Some few days before her husband's death, Anne of Austria had
+placed her children under his charge--a mark of confidence that so
+elated him that the young Duke conceived hopes which his impetuosity
+hindered him from sufficiently disguising. Indeed, these were presumed
+upon so far as to give offence to the Queen; and, as the height of
+inconsistency, he committed at the same time the egregious folly of
+publicly enacting the led-captain in the rosy chains of the handsome but
+decried Duchess de Montbazon. It was only, however, by slow degrees that
+the Queen's liking for him abated. At first, she had proposed to confer
+upon him the post of Grand-Écuyer, vacant since the death of the
+unfortunate Cinq-Mars, which would have kept him in close attendance
+upon her, and was altogether a fitting appointment--for Beaufort had
+nothing of the statesman in him; with little intellect and no reticence,
+he was also averse to steady application to business, and capable only
+of some bold and violent course of action. The Duke had the folly to
+refuse this post of Grand-Écuyer, hoping for a better; and then,
+altering his mind when it was too late, he solicited it only to incur
+disappointment.[5] The more his favour diminished, the more his
+irritation increased, and it was not long ere he placed himself at the
+head of the Cardinal's bitterest enemies.
+
+    [4] La Rochefoucauld.
+
+    [5] Mazarin himself has furnished this fact, otherwise unknown, in
+    one of his diaries (_Carnet_, pp. 72, 73). The Cardinal-Minister was
+    in the habit of jotting down the chief events of each day in these
+    small memorandum books (_Carnets_), which he kept in the pocket of
+    his cassock.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse hoped to be more fortunate in securing the
+governorship of Havre for a very different sort of person--for a man of
+tried devotedness and of a rare and subtle intellect--La Rochefoucauld.
+She would thereby recompense the services rendered to the Queen and
+herself, strengthen and aggrandize one of the chiefs of the
+_Importants_, and weaken Mazarin by depriving of an important government
+a person upon whom he had entire reliance--Richelieu's niece, the
+Duchess d'Aiguillon. The Cardinal succeeded in rendering this
+manoeuvre abortive, without appearing to have any hand in it. And
+herein, as in many other matters, the art of Mazarin was to wear the
+semblance of merely confirming the Queen in the resolves with which he
+inspired her.
+
+In thus attributing these various designs, this connected and consistent
+line of conduct, to Madame de Chevreuse, we do not advance it as our own
+opinion, but as that of La Rochefoucauld, who must have been perfectly
+well informed. He attributes it to her both in his own affairs and in
+those of the Vendômes. Neither was Mazarin blind to the fact, for more
+than once in his private notes we read these words:--"My greatest
+enemies are the Vendômes and Madame de Chevreuse, who urges them on." He
+tells us also that she had formed the project of marrying her charming
+daughter Charlotte, then sixteen, to the Vendôme's eldest son, the Duke
+de Mercoeur, whilst his brother Beaufort should espouse the wealthy
+Mademoiselle d'Epernon, who foiled these designs, and even greater
+still, by throwing herself at four-and-twenty into a convent of
+Carmelites. These marriages, which would have reconciled, united, and
+strengthened so many great houses, moderately attached to the Queen and
+her minister, terrified Richelieu's successor. He therefore sought to
+foil them by every means in his power, and succeeded in prevailing upon
+the Queen to frustrate them in an underhand way; having found that the
+union of Mademoiselle de Vendôme with the brilliant but restless Duke de
+Nemours had caused him more than ordinary anxiety.
+
+If the intricate details of those counter intrigues of Mazarin and
+Madame de Chevreuse be followed attentively, we are at a loss to say to
+which of the two antagonists the palm for skill, sagacity, and address
+should be given. Whilst Mazarin was astute enough to make a certain
+amount of sacrifice in order to reserve to himself the right of not
+making greater--treating everyone with apparent consideration, rendering
+no one desperate, promising much, holding back the least possible
+_proprio motu_ of himself, and surrounding Madame de Chevreuse herself
+with attention and homage without suffering any illusion to beguile him
+as to the nature of her sentiments--she, on her part, paid him back in
+the same coin. La Rochefoucauld says that during these _mollia tempora_,
+Madame de Chevreuse and Mazarin actually flirted with each other. The
+Duchess, who had always intermingled gallantry with politics, tried, as
+it appears, the power of her charms upon the Cardinal. The latter, on
+his side, failed not to lavish honeyed words, and "essayoit même quelque
+fois de lui faire croire qu'elle lui donnoit de l'amour."[6] There were
+other ladies also, it seems, who would not have been sorry to please the
+handsome First Minister a little. Amongst these might be numbered the
+Princess de Guéméné,[7] one of the greatest beauties of the French
+Court, who, certainly, if only one half the stories related of her be
+true, was by no means of a ferocious disposition in affairs of
+gallantry. This lady, as well as her husband, were both favourable to
+Mazarin, in spite of all the efforts of Madame de Montbazon, and Madame
+de Chevreuse, her sister-in-law. It may be readily imagined that Mazarin
+devoted great attention to Madame de Guéméné, and did not fail to pay
+her a host of compliments, as he did to Madame de Chevreuse; but as he
+went no further, the two gay ladies were at a loss to conceive what so
+many compliments coupled with so much reserve meant. They sometimes
+asked which of the two was really the object of his admiration; and as
+he still made no further advances at the same time that he continued his
+gallant protestations, "these ladies," says Mazarin, "si esamina la mia
+vita e si conclude che io sia impotente."[8]
+
+    [6] La Rochefoucauld, Memoirs, p. 383.
+
+    [7] Anne de Rohan, wife of M. de Guéméné, eldest son of the Duke de
+    Montbazon, and brother of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+    [8] Carnet, iii. p. 39.
+
+Political intrigue had become such an affair of fashion among the Court
+dames of that day, that those of the highest rank made no scruple of
+bringing into play all the artillery of their wit and beauty whenever
+they could contribute to the success of their enterprises. Still endowed
+with those two potent gifts to an eminent degree, Madame de Chevreuse
+brought all her various influences into perfect combination, and had
+grown so passionately fond of the fierce excitement of conspiring, that
+love was to her now merely a means and political victory the end. She
+devoted literally her entire existence to it, living in the confidence
+and intimacy of the Vendômes and other noble perturbators of the hour.
+Her activity, her penetration, her energy obtained for her among the
+party of the _Importants_ the importance she coveted. It was not long,
+therefore, ere she begun to give Mazarin cause for grave anxiety. During
+the encounters resulting from this strenuous antagonism, reconciliations
+occasionally took place, in which even the Cardinal's coldness,
+caution, and his laborious occupation, could not, it is said, place him
+beyond reach of the Duchess's irresistible fascinations. But the latter,
+well aware that the _rôle_ of Mazarin's mistress would not give to her
+grasp the helm of the State, which he reserved exclusively to himself,
+preferred, therefore, rather to remain his enemy, and figure at the head
+and front of the faction antagonistic to his government.
+
+This flirting and skirmishing had gone on for some time, but at last
+natural feeling prevailed over political reticence. Madame de Chevreuse
+grew impatient at obtaining words only, and scarcely anything serious or
+effective. She had, it is true, received some money for her own use,
+either in repayment of that which she had formerly lent the Queen, or
+for the discharge of debts contracted during exile and in the interest
+of Anne of Austria. On returning to Court, one of her earliest steps was
+to withdraw her friend and _protégé_, Alexandre de Campion, from the
+service of the Vendômes, and place him in a suitable position in the
+Queen's household. Châteauneuf had been reinstated in his former post of
+Chancellor (_des Ordres du Roi_), and later his governorship of Touraine
+was restored to him on the death of the Marquis de Gèvres, who fell at
+the siege of Thionville; but the Duchess considered that that was doing
+very little for a man of Châteauneuf's merit--for him who had staked
+fortune and life, and undergone ten years' imprisonment. She readily
+perceived, therefore, that the perpetual delay of favours ever promised,
+ever deferred in the instances of the Vendômes and La Rochefoucauld,
+were so many artifices of the Cardinal, and that she was his dupe. This
+conviction put the spirited partisan upon her mettle. She began to
+titter, to mock, and to expostulate by turns, and sometimes twitted the
+minister in pert and derisive terms. This, however, betrayed a want of
+her ordinary precaution, and only served to fill Mazarin's quiver with
+shafts to be used against herself. He made the Queen believe that Madame
+de Chevreuse sought to rule her with a rod of iron; that she had changed
+her mask, but not her character; that she was ever the same impulsive
+and restless person, who, with all her talent and devotedness, had never
+worked aught but mischief around her, and was only instrumental in
+ruining others as well as herself. By degrees, underhand and hidden as
+it might be, war between the Duchess and the Cardinal declared itself
+unmistakably. The commencement and progress of this curious struggle for
+supremacy has been admirably depicted by La Rochefoucauld; and, while
+the autograph memoranda of Mazarin cast a fresh flood of light upon it,
+they enhance infinitely Madame de Chevreuse's ability by revealing to
+what an extent that Minister dreaded her.
+
+In every page of these invaluable _carnets_ he indicates her as being
+the head and mainspring of the _Importants_. "It is Madame de
+Chevreuse," he writes repeatedly, "who stirs them all up. She endeavours
+to strengthen the hands of the Vendômes; she tries to win over every
+member of the house of Lorraine; she has already gained the Duke de
+Guise, and through him she strives to carry away from me the Duke
+d'Elbeuf." "She sees clearly through everything; she has guessed very
+accurately that it is I who have secretly persuaded the Queen to hinder
+the restoration of the government of Brittany to the Duke de Vendôme.
+She has said so to her father, the Duke de Montbazon, and to Montagu.
+She has quarrelled with Montagu, in fact, because he raises an obstacle
+to Châteauneuf by supporting Séguier." "Nothing discourages Madame de
+Chevreuse; she entreats the Vendômes to have patience, and sustains them
+by promising a speedy change of scene." "Madame de Chevreuse never
+relinquishes the hope of displacing me. The reason she gives for this
+is, that when the Queen refused to put Châteauneuf at the head of the
+government, she stated that she could not do it immediately, as she must
+have some consideration for me, whence Madame de Chevreuse concludes
+that the Queen has much esteem and liking for Châteauneuf, and that when
+I shall be no longer where I am, the post is secured for her friend.
+Hence the hopes and illusions with which they are buoyed up." "The
+Duchess and her friends assert that the Queen will shortly send for
+Châteauneuf; and by so doing they abuse the minds of all, and prompt
+those who are looking to their future interests to pay court to her and
+seek her friendship. They make an excuse for the Queen's delay in giving
+him my place, by saying that she has still need of me for some short
+time." "I am told that Madame de Chevreuse secretly directs Madame de
+Vendôme (a pious person who has great influence over the bishops and
+convents), and gives her instructions, in order that she may not fall
+into error, and that all the machinery used against me may thoroughly
+answer its purpose." From this last entry it is clear that Madame de
+Chevreuse, without being in the smallest degree possible a _dévote_,
+knew right well how to make use of the _parti dévot_, which then
+exercised great influence over Anne of Austria's mind, and gave serious
+uneasiness to Mazarin.
+
+The Prime Minister's chief difficulty was to make Queen Anne--the sister
+of the King of Spain, and herself of a piety thoroughly
+Spanish--understand that it was necessary, notwithstanding the
+engagements which she had so often contracted, notwithstanding the
+instances of the Court of Rome and those of the heads of the episcopate,
+to continue the alliance with the Protestants of Germany and Holland,
+and to persist in only consenting to a _general_ peace in which the
+allies of France should equally find their account as well as that
+country itself. On the other side, it was continually dinned into the
+Queen's ear that it was practicable to make a separate treaty of peace,
+and negotiate singly with Spain on very fitting conditions, that by such
+means the scandal of an impious war between "the very Christian" and
+"the very Catholic" King would cease, and a relief be afforded to France
+very much needed. Such was the policy of the Queen's old friends. It was
+at least specious, and reckoned numerous partisans among men the most
+intelligent and attached to the interests of their country. Mazarin, the
+disciple and successor of Richelieu, had higher views, but which it was
+not easy at first to make Anne of Austria comprehend. By degrees,
+however, he succeeded, thanks to his judicious efforts, renewed
+incessantly and with infinite art; thanks especially to the victories of
+the Duke d'Enghien--for in all worldly affairs success is a very
+eloquent and right persuasive advocate. The Queen, however, remained for
+a considerable interval undecided, and it may be seen by Mazarin's own
+memoranda that during the latter part of May, as well as through the
+whole of June and July, the Cardinal's greatest effort was to induce the
+Regent not to abandon her allies, but to firmly carry on the war. Madame
+de Chevreuse, with Châteauneuf, defended the old party policy, and
+strove to bring over Anne of Austria to it. "Madame de Chevreuse," wrote
+Mazarin, "causes the Queen to be told from all quarters that I do not
+wish for peace, that I hold the same maxims as Cardinal Richelieu on the
+point--that it is both easy and necessary to make a separate treaty of
+peace." On several occasions he made indignant protestation against such
+arrangement, pointing out the danger with which it was fraught, and that
+it would render ineffectual those sacrifices which France had for so
+many years made. "Madame de Chevreuse," he exclaimed, "would ruin
+France!" He knew well that, intimately associated with Gaston, her old
+accomplice in all the plots framed against Richelieu, she had won him
+over to the idea of a separate peace by holding out the hope of a
+marriage between his daughter Mademoiselle de Montpensier and the
+Arch-duke, which would have brought him the government of the Low
+Countries. He knew that she had preserved all her influence with the
+Duke de Lorraine; he knew, in fine, that she boasted of having the power
+of promptly negotiating a peace through the mediation of the Queen of
+Spain, who was at her disposal. Thus informed, he entreated his royal
+mistress to reject all Madame de Chevreuse's propositions, and to tell
+her plainly that she would not listen to anything relating to a separate
+treaty, that she was decided upon not separating herself from her
+allies, that she desired a general peace, that with such view she had
+sent her ministers to Munster, who were then negotiating that important
+matter, and that it was superfluous to speak to her any more upon the
+subject.
+
+Though baffled on these different points, Madame de Chevreuse did not
+consider herself vanquished. She rallied and emboldened her adherents by
+her lofty spirit and firm resolution. The party feud went on--intrigues
+were multiplied--but up to the close of August, 1643, no change had
+taken place, though the acrimony of party feeling had become largely
+increased. Finding that she had fruitlessly employed insinuation,
+flattery, artifice, and every species of Court manoeuvre, her daring
+mind did not shrink from the idea of having recourse to other means of
+success. She kept up a brisk agitation amongst the bishops and devotees,
+she continued to weave her political plots with the chiefs of the
+_Importants_, and at the same time she formed a closer intimacy with
+that small cabal which formed in some sort the advance-guard of that
+party, composed of men reared amongst the old conspiracies, accustomed
+to and always ready for _coups de main_, who had of old embarked in more
+than one desperate enterprise against Richelieu, and who, in an
+extremity, might be likewise launched against Mazarin. The memoirs of
+the time, and especially those of De Retz and La Rochefoucauld, make us
+sufficiently well acquainted with their names and characters. The former
+mistress of Chalais found little difficulty in acquiring sole sway over
+a faction composed of second-rate talents. She caressed it skilfully;
+and, with the art of an experienced conspirator, she fomented every germ
+of false honour, of quintessential devotedness, and extravagant
+rashness. Mazarin, who, like Richelieu, had an admirable police,
+forewarned of Madame de Chevreuse's machinations, fully comprehended the
+danger with which he was menaced. No one could have been better informed
+as to his exact position than the Cardinal: and the plans of the Duchess
+and the chiefs of the _Importants_ developed themselves clearly under
+Mazarin's sharp-sightedness--either by their incessant and
+elaborately-concerted intrigues with the Queen, to force her to abandon
+a minister to whose policy she had not yet openly declared her adhesion,
+or, should it prove necessary, treat that minister as De Luynes had done
+the last Queen-mother's favourite d'Ancre, and as Montrésor, Barrière,
+and Saint-Ybar would have served Richelieu. The first plan not having
+succeeded, they began to think seriously about carrying out the second,
+and Madame de Chevreuse, the strongest mind of the party, proposed with
+some show of reason to act before the return of the young hero of
+Rocroy, the Duke d'Enghien; for that victorious soldier once in Paris
+would unquestionably shield Mazarin. It became necessary, therefore, to
+profit by his absence in order to strike a decisive blow. Success seemed
+certain, and even easy. They were sure of having the people with them,
+who, exhausted by a long war and groaning under taxation, would
+naturally welcome with delight the hope of peace and repose. They might
+reckon on the declared support of the parliament, burning to recover
+that importance in the State of which it had been deprived by Richelieu,
+and which was then a matter of dispute with Mazarin. They had all the
+secret, even overt sympathy of the episcopate, which, with Rome,
+detested the Protestant alliance, and demanded the restoration of that
+of Spain. The eager concurrence of the aristocracy could not be doubted
+for a moment; which ever regretted its old and turbulent independence,
+and whose most illustrious representatives, the Vendômes, the Guises,
+the Bouillons, and the La Rochefoucaulds were strenously opposed to the
+domination of a foreign favourite, without fortune, of no birth, and as
+yet without fame. The princes of the blood resigned themselves to
+Mazarin rather than to liking him. The Duke d'Orleans was not remarkable
+for great fidelity to his friends, and the politic Prince de Condé
+looked twice ere he quarrelled with the successful. He coaxed all
+parties, whilst he clung to his own interests. His son, doubtless, would
+follow in his father's footsteps, and he would be won over by being
+overwhelmed with honours. The day following that on which the blow
+should be struck there would be no resistance to their ascendancy, and
+on the very day itself scarcely any obstacle. The Italian regiments of
+Mazarin were with the army; there were scarcely any other troops in
+Paris save the regiments of the guards, the colonels of which were
+nearly all devoted to the _Importants_. The Queen herself had not yet
+renounced her former friendships. Her prudent reserve even was wrongly
+interpreted. As it was her desire to appease and deal gently on all
+hands, she gave kind words to everybody, and those kind words were taken
+as tacit encouragement. Anne had not hitherto shown much firmness of
+character; a certain amount of liking for the Cardinal was not unjustly
+imputed to her, and undue significance already attributed to the
+steadily increasing attachment of a few short months.
+
+Mazarin, on his own part, indulged in no illusions. He was decidedly not
+yet master of Anne of Austria's heart; since at that moment--that is to
+say, during the month of July, 1643--in his most secret notes he
+displays a deep inquietude and despondency. The dissimulation of which
+everybody accused the Queen obviously terrified him, and we see him
+passing through all the alternations of hope and fear. It is very
+curious to trace and follow out the varied fluctuations of his mind. In
+his official letters to ambassadors and generals he affects a security
+which he does not feel. With his own intimate friends he permits some
+hint of his perplexities to escape him, but in his private memoranda
+they are all laid bare. We therein read his inmost carks and cares, and
+his passionate entreaties that the Queen-Regent would open her mind to
+him. He feigns the utmost disinterestedness towards her; he simply asks
+to make way for Châteauneuf, if she has any secret preference for that
+minister. The ambiguous conduct of the Regent harasses and distresses
+him, and he conjures her either to permit him to retire or to declare
+herself in favour of his policy.
+
+This exciting contest continued with the keenest activity, but no change
+had occurred up to the end of July, and even the first days of August,
+1643, though this critical state of affairs had become greatly
+aggravated. The violence of the _Importants_ increased daily; the Queen
+defended her minister, but she also showed consideration for his
+enemies. She hesitated to take the decided attitude which Mazarin
+required at her hands, not only in his individual interest, but in that
+of his government. Suddenly an incident, very insignificant apparently,
+but which by assuming larger proportions brought about the inevitable
+crisis--forced the Queen to declare herself, and Madame de Chevreuse to
+plunge deeper into a baleful enterprise, the idea of which had already
+forced itself upon her imagination. A great scandal occurred. We allude
+to a quarrel between the two duchesses, de Longueville and de
+Montbazon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE MONTBAZON.--THE AFFAIR OF THE DROPPED LETTERS.--THE
+  QUARREL OF THE TWO DUCHESSES.
+
+
+ON declaring itself of the party of Mazarin, the house of Condé had
+drawn down the hatred of the _Importants_, though their hostility
+scarcely fell upon Madame de Longueville. Her gentleness in everything
+in which her heart was not seriously engaged, her entire indifference to
+politics at this period of her life, with the graces of her mind and
+person, rendered her pleasing to every one, and shielded her from party
+spite. But apart from affairs of State, she had an enemy, and a
+formidable enemy, in the Duchess de Montbazon. We have said that Madame
+de Montbazon had been the mistress of the Duke de Longueville, and as
+one of the principal personages of the drama we are about to relate, she
+requires to be somewhat better known.
+
+We shall pass over in silence many of her foibles, without attempting to
+excuse any. Before sketching her life, or at least a portion of it, it
+will be necessary, in order to protect her memory against an excess of
+severity, to recall certain traditions and examples for which unhappily
+her family was notorious.
+
+Daughter of Claude de Bretagne, Baron d'Avangour, she was on her
+mother's side granddaughter of that very complaisant Marquis de La
+Varenne Fouquet, who, successively scullion, cook, and maître d'hôtel of
+Henry the Fourth, "gained more by carrying the amorous King's _poulets_
+than basting those in his kitchen." Catherine Fouquet, Countess de
+Vertus, his daughter, Madame de Montbazon's mother, was beautiful,
+witty, somewhat giddy, and very gallant. Impatient of all hindrance, she
+had authorised one of her lovers to assassinate her husband; but it was
+the husband who assassinated the lover. The tragical termination of this
+rencontre does not seem to have cast a gloom over the life of the
+Countess de Vertus, for at seventy she began to learn to dance, and when
+seventy-three, married a young man over head and ears in debt.
+
+In 1628, Marie d'Avangour quitted her convent to espouse Hercule de
+Rohan, Duke de Montbazon, who was the father, by his first marriage, of
+Madame de Chevreuse and of the Prince de Guéméné. She was sixteen, and
+he sixty-one. Thorough fool as he was, the Duke did not conceal from
+himself, it is said, the conviction that such an union was fraught with
+some danger to him; but we may venture to affirm that he could not have
+foreseen all its dangers. Full of respect for the virtues of Marie de'
+Medicis, he recommended her example to his wife; then, with every
+confidence in the future, he conducted her to Court.
+
+In beauty the daughter was worthy of the mother, but in vices she left
+her far behind. Tallemant says she was one of the loveliest women
+imaginable. Her mind was not her most brilliant side, and the little
+that she had was turned to intrigue and perfidy. "Her mind," says the
+indulgent Madame de Motteville, "was not so fine as her person; her
+brilliancy was limited to her eyes, which commanded love. She claimed
+universal admiration." In regard to her character, all are unanimous. De
+Retz, who knew her well, speaks of her in these terms: "Madame de
+Montbazon was a very great beauty. Modesty was wanting in her air. Her
+jargon might, during a dull hour, have supplied the defects of her mind.
+She showed but little faith in gallantry, none in business. She loved
+her own pleasure alone, and above her pleasure her interest. I never saw
+a person who, in vice, preserved so little respect for virtue."
+Supremely vain and passionately fond of money, it was by the aid of her
+beauty that she sought influence and fortune. She, therefore, took
+infinite care of it, as of her idol, as of her resources, her treasure.
+She kept it in repair, heightened it by all sorts of artifices, and
+preserved it almost uninjured till her death. Madame de Motteville
+asserts that, during the latter part of her life, she was as full of
+vanity as if she were but twenty-five years of age; that she had the
+same desire to please, and that she wore her mourning garb in so
+charming a manner, that "the order of nature seemed changed, since age
+and beauty could be found united." Ten years before, in 1647, at the age
+of thirty-five, when Mazarin gave a comedy in the Italian style, that
+is, an opera, there was in the evening a grand ball, and the Duchess de
+Montbazon was present, adorned with pearls, with a red feather on her
+head, and so dazzling in her appearance that the whole company was
+completely charmed. We can imagine what she was in 1643, at the age of
+thirty-one.
+
+Of the two conditions of perfect beauty--strength and grace, Madame
+de Montbazon possessed the first in the highest degree. She was tall
+and majestic, and she had all the charms of embonpoint. Her throat
+reminded one of the fulness, in this particular, of the antique
+statues--exceeding them, perhaps, somewhat. What struck the beholder
+most were her eyes and hair of intense blackness, upon a skin of the
+most dazzling white. Her defect was a nose somewhat too prominent, with
+a mouth so large as to give her face an appearance of severity. It will
+be seen that she was the very opposite of Madame de Longueville. The
+latter was tall, but not to excess. The richness of her form did not
+diminish its delicacy. A moderate embonpoint exhibited, in full and
+exquisite measure, the beauty of the female form. Her eyes were of the
+softest blue; her hair of the most beautiful blonde. She had the most
+majestic air, and yet her peculiar characteristic was grace. To these
+were added the great difference of manners and tone. Madame de
+Longueville was, in her deportment, dignity, politeness, modesty,
+sweetness itself, with a languor and nonchalance which formed not her
+least charm. Her words were few, as well as her gestures; the inflexions
+of her voice were a perfect music.[1] The excess, into which she never
+fell, might have been a sort of fastidiousness. Everything in her was
+wit, sentiment, charm. Madame de Montbazon, on the contrary, was free of
+speech, bold and easy in her tone, full of stateliness and pride.
+
+    [1] Villefore, p. 32.
+
+The Duchess was, nevertheless, a very attractive creature when she
+desired to be so, and such we must conceive her to have been if we would
+take account of the admiration she excited, and not exactly like the
+person which Cousin represents her when, at the age of nearly forty, she
+had become "a Colossus"--to use Tallemant's phrase. At the same time it
+is true that, even in youth, she had less grace than strength, less
+delicacy than majesty. It is also true that she was free of speech, and
+in tone was bold and offhand; but those very defects for which she was
+remarkable only the better assured her empire over what, in modern
+parlance, would be termed the "fast" portion of the Court, and the
+sentiments to which she gave utterance revealed the most singular
+extravagance. But not a single voice protested when the Duke
+d'Hocquincourt proclaimed her _la belle des belles_. In the eyes of the
+foreigner she was the marvel which the generals who dreamed of the
+capture of Paris coveted; in other words, she was _par excellence_ "the
+booty" most desirable, on the subject of which the Duke of Weimar
+perpetrated a thoroughly German joke, which we must be pardoned for not
+repeating: Anne of Austria might have smiled at it without blushing, but
+it is too gross to risk raising a laugh by its repetition in our days.
+
+She had a great number of adorers, and of happy adorers, from Gaston
+Duke of Orleans, and the Count de Soissons, slain at Marfée, to Rancé,
+the young and gallant editor of Anacreon, and the future founder of La
+Trappe. M. de Longueville had been for some time her lover by title, and
+he afforded her considerable advantages. When he married Mademoiselle de
+Bourbon, Madame the Princess exacted--without, however, being very
+faithfully obeyed--the discontinuance of all intercourse with his old
+mistress. Hence, in that interested soul, an irritation, which wounded
+vanity redoubled, when she saw this young bride, with her great name,
+her marvellous mind, her indefinable charms, advance into the world of
+gallantry, without the least effort draw after her all hearts, and take
+possession of, or at least share that empire of beauty of which she was
+so proud, and which was to her so precious. On the other hand, the Duke
+de Beaufort had not been able to restrain a passionate admiration for
+Madame de Longueville, which had been very coldly received. He was
+wounded by it, and his wound bled for a long time, as his friend, La
+Châtre, informs us,[2] even after he had transferred his homage to
+Madame de Montbazon. The latter, as may be easily imagined, was again
+exasperated. Finally, the Duke de Guise, recently arrived in Paris,
+placed himself in the party of the _Importants_ and at the service of
+Madame de Montbazon, who received him very favourably, at the same time
+she was striving to keep or recall the Duke de Longueville, and that she
+was ruling Beaufort, whose office near her was somewhat that of a
+_cavalier servente_. Thus it will be seen that Madame de Montbazon
+disposed through Beaufort and through Guise, as through her
+daughter-in-law Madame de Chevreuse, of the house of Vendôme and that of
+Lorraine, and she employed all this influence to the profit of her
+hatred against Madame de Longueville. She burned to injure her, and was
+not long in finding an opportunity of doing it.
+
+    [2] Mémoires of La Châtre. Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 230.
+
+One day when a numerous company was assembled in her salon, one of her
+young lady friends picked up a couple of letters which had been dropped
+on the floor, bearing no signatures, but in a feminine handwriting, and
+of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read, and a thousand jokes
+perpetrated concerning them, and some effort made to discover the
+author. They were from a woman who wrote tenderly to some one whom she
+did not hate. Madame de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen from
+the pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just gone out, and that they
+were in the handwriting of Madame de Longueville. The word of command
+thus once given, the Duke de Beaufort was amongst the first to spread
+the insinuation which was a calumny, all the echoes of the party of the
+_Importants_ took it up, and Madame de Montbazon herself found pleasure
+in repeating it during several following days, so that the incident
+became the entertainment of the Court. A frivolous curiosity has very
+faithfully preserved the text of the two letters thus found at the
+Duchess's house.[3]
+
+    [3] Mémoires of Madlle. de Montpensier, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.
+
+I.
+
+     "I should much more regret the change in your conduct if I
+     thought myself less worthy of a continuation of your
+     affection. I confess to you that so long as I believed it to
+     be true and warm, mine gave you all the advantages which you
+     could desire. Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem
+     which I owe to your discretion. I have too much pride to
+     share the passion which you have so often sworn to me, and I
+     desire to punish your negligence in seeing me, in no other
+     way than by depriving you entirely of my society. I request
+     that you will visit me no more, since I have no longer the
+     power of commanding your presence."
+
+II.
+
+     "To what conclusion have you come after so long a silence?
+     Do you not know that the same pride which rendered me
+     sensible to your past affection forbids me to endure the
+     false appearances of its continuation! You say that my
+     suspicions and my inequalities render you the most unhappy
+     person in the world. I assure you that I believe no such
+     thing, although I cannot deny that you have perfectly loved
+     me, as you must confess that my esteem has worthily
+     recompensed you. So far we have done each other justice, and
+     I am determined not to have in the end less goodness, if
+     your conduct responds to my intentions. You would find them
+     less unreasonable if you had more passion, and the
+     difficulties of seeing me would only augment instead of
+     diminishing it. I suffer for loving too much, and you for
+     not loving enough. If I must believe you, let us exchange
+     humours. I shall find repose in doing my duty, and you in
+     doing yours, and you must fail in doing yours, in order to
+     obtain liberty. I do not perceive that I forget the manner
+     in which I passed the winter with you, and that I speak to
+     you as frankly as I have heretofore done. I hope that you
+     will make as good use of it, and that I shall not regret
+     being overcome in the resolution which I have made to return
+     to it no more. I shall remain at home for three or four days
+     in succession, and will be seen only in the evening: you
+     know the reason."
+
+These letters were not forgeries. They had been really written by
+Madame de Fouquerolles to the handsome and elegant Marquis de
+Maulevrier, who had been silly enough to drop them in Madame de
+Montbazon's _salon_. Maulevrier, trembling at being discovered, and at
+having compromised Madame de Fouquerolles, ran to La Rochefoucauld, who
+was his friend, confided to him his secret, and begged him to undertake
+to hush up the affair. La Rochefoucauld made Madame de Montbazon
+understand that it was for her interest to be generous on this occasion,
+for the error or fraud would be easily recognised as soon as the writing
+should be compared with that of Madame de Longueville. Madame de
+Montbazon placed the original letters in the hands of La Rochefoucauld,
+who showed them to M. the Prince and to Madame the Princess, to Madame
+de Rambouillet, and to Madame Sablé, particular friends of Madame de
+Longueville, and, the truth being well established, burned them in the
+presence of the Queen, delivering Maulevrier and Madame de Fouquerolles
+from the terrible anxiety into which they had been for some time thrown.
+
+The house of Condé felt a lively resentment at the insult offered to it.
+The Duke and Duchess de Longueville desired, it is true, the one by a
+sentiment of interested prudence, the other by a just feeling of
+dignity, to take no further notice of the matter. But the Princess,
+impelled by her high spirit, and still intoxicated by her son's success,
+exacted a reparation equal to the offence, and declared loudly that, if
+the Queen and the government did not defend the honour of her house, she
+and all her family would withdraw from the Court. She was indignant at
+the mere idea of placing her daughter in the scales with the
+granddaughter of a cook. In vain did the whole party of the
+_Importants_, with Beaufort and Guise at their head, agitate and
+threaten; in vain did Madame de Chevreuse, who had not yet lost all her
+influence with the Queen, strive earnestly in behalf of her
+mother-in-law. It did not suffice for the resentment of the Princess and
+the Duke d'Enghien that Madame de Longueville's innocence was fully
+recognised; they demanded a public reparation. Madame de Motteville has
+left us an amusing recital of the "mummeries," as she terms them, of
+which she was a witness.
+
+The Queen was in her state cabinet and the Princess beside her, in great
+emotion and looking very fierce, declaring the affair to be nothing less
+than the crime of high treason. Madame de Chevreuse, interested for a
+thousand reasons in the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was busy with
+Cardinal Mazarin arranging the composition of the apology to be made. At
+every word there was a _pour-parler_ of half an hour. The Cardinal went
+from one side to the other to accommodate the difference, as if such a
+peace was necessary for the welfare of France, and his own in
+particular. It was arranged that the criminal should present herself at
+the Princess's hotel on the morrow.
+
+The apology was written upon a small piece of paper and attached to her
+fan, in order that she might repeat it word for word to the Princess.
+She did it in the most haughty manner possible, assuming an air which
+seemed to say, "I jest in every word I utter."
+
+Mademoiselle de Montpensier gives us the two speeches made upon the
+occasion. "Madame, I come here to protest to you that I am innocent of
+the wickedness of which I have been accused: no person of honour could
+utter a calumny such as this. If I had committed a like fault, I should
+have submitted to any punishment which it might have pleased the Queen
+to inflict upon me; I should never have shown myself again in the
+world, and would have asked your pardon. I beg you to believe that I
+shall never fail in the respect which I owe to you and in the opinion
+which I have of the virtue and of the merit of Madame de
+Longueville."[4] That lady was not present at the ceremony, and her
+mother, to whom the Duchess addressed herself, made a very short and dry
+reply. This reconciliation did not deceive any one of those present; it
+was, in fact, only a fresh declaration of war.
+
+    [4] Mémoires, vol. i. p. 65.
+
+Besides the satisfaction which she had just obtained, the Princess had
+asked and had been permitted the privilege of never associating with the
+Duchess de Montbazon. Some time after, Madame de Chevreuse invited the
+Queen to a collation in the public garden of Renard. This was then the
+rendezvous of the best society. It was at the termination of the
+Tuileries, near the Porte de la Conférence, which abutted on the _Cours
+de la Reine_. In the summer, on returning from the _Cours_, which was
+the "Rotten Row" of the day, and the spot where the beauties of the time
+exercised their powers, it was customary to stop at the garden Renard
+for the purpose of taking refreshments, and to listen to serenades
+performed after the Spanish fashion. The Queen took pleasure in visiting
+this place during fine summer evenings. She desired Madame the Princess
+to partake with her the collation offered by Madame de Chevreuse,
+assuring her at the same time that Madame de Montbazon would not be
+present; but the latter person was really there, and even pretended to
+do the honours of the collation as mother-in-law of the lady who gave
+it. The Princess wished to withdraw, in order that the entertainment
+might not be disturbed: the Queen had no right whatever to detain her.
+She, therefore, begged Madame de Montbazon to pretend sickness, and by
+leaving the party, to relieve her from embarrassment. The haughty
+Duchess would not consent to fly before her enemy, and kept her place.
+The Queen, offended, refused the collation and quitted the promenade. On
+the morrow an order from the King enjoined upon Madame de Montbazon to
+leave Paris. This disgrace irritated the _Importants_. They thought
+themselves humiliated and enfeebled, and there were no violent or
+extreme measures which they did not contemplate. The Duke de Beaufort,
+smitten at once in his influence and his love, uttered loud
+denunciations, and it was reported that a plot had been formed against
+the life of Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE IMPORTANTS.
+
+
+IT is necessary, at this juncture, to have a just idea of the general
+position of political affairs in France, as well as of the attitude of
+the faction known as the _Importants_, who were then most active in
+opposing the government of Mazarin, in order to understand clearly the
+gravity of an incident which otherwise in itself might seem to be of
+little consequence.
+
+La Rochefoucauld, the historian of that party, has made us tolerably
+familiar with the men who composed it. They were a band of eccentric and
+mischievous spirits, bold of heart, ready of hand, and of boundless
+fidelity to one another. Professing to hold the most outrageous maxims,
+incessantly invoking Brutus and old Rome, and intermingling gallant with
+political intrigues, they suffered themselves to be hurried beyond the
+bounds of reason through a Quixotic idea of always pleasing the ladies.
+They had all been more or less fellow-sufferers with Anne of Austria
+during the period of her affliction and persecution by Richelieu, and
+from the commencement of her Regency, these returning exiles and
+liberated prisoners had been gathering round her until at last, formed
+into a faction, they gave themselves out as the Queen's party, and by
+adopting a high-flown, turgid, and mysterious style of phraseology, and
+assuming bombastic and braggart airs of authority, coupled with an
+affectation of capacity and profundity, obtained for themselves from the
+wits of the Court and city the nickname of _The Importants_, under which
+they figured until absorbed a few years later in the more general and
+popular designation of _Frondeurs_. Their favourite chief was the Duke
+de Beaufort, of whom we have already spoken as possessing very nearly
+the same characteristics as the rest--at once artificial and
+extravagant, with great pretensions to loyalty and patriotism,
+professing to be a man of independent action, but in fact wholly ruled
+by Madame de Montbazon, who, in her turn, was swayed by the Duchess de
+Chevreuse.
+
+On the sudden disappearance from Paris of one of the most distinguished
+of the lady leaders of the _Importants_--like a star of the first
+magnitude fallen from their system--the entire party was thrown into
+commotion, whilst the more intimate friends and admirers of the banished
+beauty raised a fierce outcry. Such an open disgrace of the young and
+beautiful Duchess sorely irritated her restless partisans. They
+considered themselves humiliated and weakened by it, and there was no
+violence or extremity to which they were not prepared to resort. Her
+slave and adorer, the Duke de Beaufort, assailed at once on the score of
+his political interest and personal gallantry, vapoured and stormed
+furiously. Thoughts of vengeance, which, like the mutterings of an
+approaching tempest, had begun to brood beneath the roof of the Hôtel de
+Vendôme, now became concentrated in a plot to get rid of Mazarin by fair
+means or foul, divers modes of its execution being earnestly discussed.
+
+In such conjunctures, the Cardinal rose to the level of Richelieu. At
+the same time he had to secure safety and success mainly through his own
+courage and patience. But he knew right well how to play his part. The
+wily minister already stood well with the Queen--had begun to seem
+necessary, or at least very useful to her, though Anne of Austria had
+not yet formally declared her approval of his policy. Mazarin
+represented to her what she owed alike to the State and the royal
+authority now seriously threatened. That she must prefer the interest of
+her son and his crown to friendships--satisfactory enough at other
+times, but which had now become dangerous. He brought before her eyes
+most indubitable proofs of a conspiracy to take his life, and entreated
+her to choose between his enemies and himself. Anne of Austria did not
+hesitate, and the ruin of the _Importants_ was decided upon.
+
+More dangerous ground could scarcely have been found whereon to post the
+_Importants_. The Duchess de Montbazon, as disreputable in morals and
+character as she was remarkable for her beauty, had attacked a young
+wife, who, having just made her appearance at the Regent's court, had
+already become the object of universal admiration. To a loveliness at
+once so graceful and dazzling that it was pronounced to be angelic,
+Madame de Longueville added great intelligence, a most noble heart, and
+was a person of all others whom it behoved the _Importants_ to
+conciliate; for her natural generosity of character had disinclined her
+to side with the party of repression, and thereby had even given some
+umbrage to the Prime Minister. At that moment, she was merely occupied
+with intellectual pursuits, innocent gallantry, and above all with the
+fame of her brother, the Duke d'Enghien; but there were, it must be
+owned, already perceptible in her mind, some germs of an _Important_,
+which, later, Rochefoucauld knew only too well how to develop. But the
+slanderous attack that had been made upon her, the disgraceful motive of
+which was sufficiently clear, revolted every honest heart. The
+ungovernable impetuosity of Beaufort on this occasion was--as it
+deserved to be--strongly stigmatised. Having formerly paid his addresses
+to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and been rejected, his conduct assumed the
+aspect of an obvious revenge. Moreover, Madame de Chevreuse's every
+effort being directed towards depriving Mazarin of supporters, she
+incited the devotees of either sex who were about the Queen to act
+against him, and Madame de Longueville was no less the idol of the
+Carmelites and the party of the _Saints_ than that of the Hôtel de
+Rambouillet. Again, the Duke d'Enghien, already covered with the laurels
+of Rocroy, and about to entwine therewith those of Thionville, was so
+evidently the arbiter of the situation, that Madame de Chevreuse
+insisted, with much force, that Mazarin should be got rid of whilst the
+young Duke was occupied with the distant enemy, and before he should
+return from the army. To wound him through so susceptible a medium as
+that of an adored sister, to turn him against herself without any
+necessity, and hasten his return, would be a silly extravagance.
+Therefore, all who had any sense among the _Importants_--La
+Rochefoucauld, La Châtre, and Campion--anxiously sought to hush up and
+terminate this deplorable affair; and Madame de Chevreuse, sedulous to
+pay court to the Queen at the same time that she was weaving a subtle
+plot against her minister, had prepared the little fête for her at
+Renard's garden with the design of dispersing the last remaining
+cloudlets of the lately-spent tempest. But the Duchess's politic purpose
+was, as we have seen, destined to fail through the insane pride of a
+woman who was as senseless as she was heartless.[1]
+
+    [1] Alexandre de Campion, in the _Recueil_ before cited, writes to
+    Madame de Montbazon:--"Si mon avis eut été suivi chez Renard, vous
+    seriez sortie, pour obéir à la Reine, vous n'habiteriez pas la maison
+    de Rochefort, et nous ne serions pas dans le péril dont nous sommes
+    menacés."
+
+Under these critical circumstances how did it behove Madame de Chevreuse
+to act? She was compelled to restrain Madame de Montbazon, but she could
+neither abandon her nor be false to herself. She resolved therefore to
+follow up energetically the formidable project which had become the last
+hope and supreme resource of her party. Through Madame de Montbazon,
+Beaufort had been dragged into it. The latter had mustered the men of
+action already mentioned, and who were wholly devoted to him. A plot had
+been devised and every measure concerted for surprising and perhaps
+killing the Cardinal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE CONSPIRACY OF THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE AND THE DUKE DE BEAUFORT TO
+  GET RID OF MAZARIN.
+
+
+ONE need not be greatly astonished at such an enterprise on the part of
+two women of high rank and a grandson of Henry the Great. At that
+stirring epoch of French history--the interval between the League and
+the Fronde--energy and strength were the distinctive traits of the
+French aristocracy. Neither court life nor a corrupting opulence had yet
+enervated it. Everything was then in extremes, in vice as in virtue. Men
+attacked and defended one another with the same weapons. The Marshal
+d'Ancre had been massacred; more than one attempt had been made to
+assassinate Richelieu; whilst he, on his side, had not been backward in
+having recourse to the sword and block. Corneille paints faithfully the
+spirit of the epoch. His Emilie is also involved in an assassination,
+and she is not the less represented as a perfect heroine. Madame de
+Chevreuse had long been accustomed to conspiracies; she was bold and
+unscrupulous. She did not gather round her such men as Beaupuis,
+Saint-Ybar, De Varicarville, and de Campion merely to pass the time in
+idle conversation. She had not remained a stranger to the designs they
+had formerly concocted against Richelieu, for in 1643 she fomented, as
+we have seen, their exaltation and their devotedness; and it was not
+unreasonable, certainly, that Mazarin should attribute to her the first
+idea of the project which Beaufort was to accomplish.
+
+At the same time it must be remembered that the _Importants_ and their
+successors the _Frondeurs_ denied this project and declared it the
+invention of the Cardinal. It is a point of the highest historical
+importance and deserves serious examination, as upon this conspiracy,
+real or imaginary, as may be determined after careful investigation,
+rests the fact whether Mazarin owed in reality all his career and the
+great future which then opened before him to a falsehood cunningly
+invented and audaciously sustained; or whether Madame de Chevreuse and
+the _Importants_, after having tried their utmost against him, now
+resolving to destroy him with the armed hand, were themselves destroyed
+and became the instruments of his triumph. The evidence available
+irresistibly leads to the latter conclusion, and we think that we shall
+be able to show that the plot attributed to the _Importants_, far from
+being a chimæra, was the almost inevitable solution of the violent
+crisis just described.
+
+La Rochefoucauld, without having indulged in the insane hopes of his
+friends and lent his hand to their rash enterprise, made it a point of
+honour to defend them after their discomfiture, and set himself to cover
+the retreat. He affects to doubt whether the plot which then made so
+much noise was real or supposititious. In his eyes, the greater
+probability was that the Duke de Beaufort, by a false _finesse_,
+endeavoured to excite alarm in the Cardinal, believing that it was
+sufficient to strike terror into his mind to force him to quit France,
+and that it was with this view that he held secret meetings and gave
+them the appearance of conspiracy. La Rochefoucauld constitutes himself
+especially the champion of Madame de Chevreuse's innocence, and
+declares himself thoroughly persuaded that she was ignorant of
+Beaufort's designs.
+
+After the historian of the _Importants_, that of the _Frondeurs_ holds
+very nearly the same arguments. Like La Rochefoucauld, De Retz has only
+one object in his Memoirs--that of investing himself with a semblance of
+capacity and making a great figure in every way, in evil as well as
+good. He is often more truthful, because he cares less about other
+people, and that he is disposed to sacrifice all the world except
+himself. In this matter it is hard to conceive the motive for his
+reserve and incredulity. He knew right well that the majority of the
+persons accused of having taken part in the plot had already been
+implicated in more than one such business. He himself tells us that he
+had conspired with the Count de Soissons, that he had blamed him for not
+having struck down Richelieu at Amiens, and that with La Rochepot, he,
+the Abbé de Retz, had formed the design of assassinating him at the
+Tuileries during the ceremony of the baptism of Mademoiselle (de
+Montpensier). The Co-adjutorship of the Archbishopric of Paris, which
+the Regent had just granted him, in consideration of his own services
+and the virtues of his father, had mollified him, it is true; but his
+old accomplices, who had not been so well treated as he, had remained
+faithful to their cause, to their designs, to their habitudes. Was De
+Retz then sincere when he refused to believe that they had attempted
+against Mazarin that which he had seen them undertake, and which he had
+himself undertaken against Richelieu? In his blind hatred he throws
+everything upon Mazarin: he pretends that he was terrified, or that he
+feigned terror. It was the Abbé de la Rivière, he tells us, who, in
+order to rid himself of the rivalry of the Count de Montrésor in the
+Duke d'Orleans' favour, must have persuaded Mazarin that there was a
+plot set on foot against him, in which Montrésor was mixed up. It was
+the Prince de Condé also who must have tried to destroy Beaufort through
+fear lest his son, the Duke d'Enghien, might engage with him in some
+duel, as he wished to do, to avenge his sister, during the short visit
+he made to Paris after taking Thionville.
+
+To the suspicious opinions of de Retz and La Rochefoucauld let us oppose
+testimony more disinterested, and before all other the silence of
+Montrésor,[1] who, whilst protesting that neither he nor his friend the
+Count de Béthune had meddled with the conspiracy imputed to the Duke de
+Beaufort, says not a single word against the reality of that conspiracy,
+which he would not have failed to ridicule had he believed it imaginary.
+Madame de Motteville, who was not in the habit of overwhelming the
+unfortunate, after having reported with impartiality the different
+rumours circulated at Court, relates certain facts which appear to her
+authentic, and which are decisive.[2] One of the best informed and most
+truthful of contemporary historians expresses not the slightest doubt on
+this head. "The _Importants_," says Monglat, "seeing that they could not
+drive the Cardinal out of France, resolved to despatch him with their
+daggers, and held several councils on this subject at the Hôtel de
+Vendôme." That opinion is confirmed by new and numerous particulars with
+which Mazarin's _carnets_ and confidential letters furnish us.
+
+    [1] Mémoires, Petitot Collection, t. lix.
+
+    [2] Mémoires, t. i., p. 184.
+
+The person whom Mazarin signalizes in his _carnets_ and letters as the
+trusted friend of Beaufort and after him the principal accused, the
+Count de Beaupuis, son of the Count de Maillé, had found means of
+sheltering himself from the minister's first searches; he had succeeded
+in escaping from France and sought an asylum at Rome under the avowed
+protection of Spain. Mazarin left no stone unturned to obtain from the
+Court of Rome the extradition of Beaupuis, in order that he might be
+legally tried. The Pope at first could not refuse, at least for form's
+sake, to have Beaupuis committed to the Castle of St. Angelo. But he was
+soon liberated, and provided with a State lodging wherein he was allowed
+to see nearly every one who came. Mazarin complained loudly of such
+indulgence. "It is all arranged," said he, "that when necessary he may
+escape, or at any rate the Duke de Vendôme is furnished with every
+facility for poisoning him, in order that with Beaupuis may perish the
+principal proof of his son's treason. If all this happened in Barbary,
+people would be highly indignant. And this is suffered to take place in
+Rome, in the capital of Christianity, under the eyes and by the orders
+of a Pope!"
+
+Failing Beaupuis, Mazarin would have liked to put his hand upon one of
+the brothers Campion, intimately connected as they were with Beaufort
+and Madame de Chevreuse, and too closely in the confidence of both not
+to know all their secrets. He himself complains, as we have seen, of
+being very badly seconded. And then he had to do with emerited
+conspirators, consummate in the art of concealing themselves and of
+leaving no trace of their whereabouts--with the active and indefatigable
+Duchess de Chevreuse, and with the Duke de Vendôme, who, in order to
+save his son, set about forwarding the escape of all those whose
+depositions might help to convict him, or kept them somehow in his own
+hands, hidden and shut up close at Anet. Mazarin was thus only able to
+arrest a few obscure individuals who were ignorant of the plot, and
+could throw no light upon it.
+
+But it is needless to exhaust existing proofs in demonstration of the
+fact that Mazarin did not enact a farce by instituting proceedings
+against the conspirators, that he pursued them with sincerity and
+vigour, and that he was perfectly convinced that a project of
+assassination had been formed against him, when the existence of that
+project is elsewhere averred, when, in default of a sentence of the
+parliament, which could not have been given in the teeth of insufficient
+evidence, neither Beaupuis, nor the Campions, nor Lié, nor Brillet
+having been arrested, better proof being extant in the full and entire
+confession of one of the principal conspirators, with the plan and all
+the details of the affair set forth in Memoirs of comparatively recent
+publication, but the authenticity of which cannot be contested. We
+allude to the precious Memoirs of Henri de Campion,[3] brother of Madame
+de Chevreuse's friend, whom that lady had introduced also to the service
+of the Duke de Vendôme, and more particularly to that of the Duke de
+Beaufort. Henri had accompanied the Duke in his flight to England after
+the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, and he had returned with him; he possessed
+his entire confidence, and he relates nothing in which he himself had
+not taken a considerable part. Henri's character was very different to
+that of his brother Alexandre. He was a well-educated man, full of
+honour and courage, not in the least given to boasting, averse to all
+intrigue, and born to make his way through life by the straightest paths
+in the career of arms. He wrote these Memoirs in solitude, to which
+after the loss of his daughter and his wife he had retired to await
+death amidst the exercise of a genuine piety. It is not in such a frame
+of mind that a man is disposed to invent fables, and there is no middle
+way. What he says is that which we must believe absolutely, or if we
+have any doubt that he speaks the truth, he must be considered as the
+worst of villains. No interested feeling could have directed his pen,
+for he compiled his Memoirs, or at least he finished them, a short time
+after Mazarin's death, without thought, therefore, of paying court to
+him by making very tardy revelations, and scarcely two years before he
+himself died in 1663. Thus it may be fairly inferred that Henri de
+Campion wrote strictly under the inspiration of his conscience. One has
+only to open his Memoirs to see confirmed, point by point, all the
+particulars with which Mazarin's _carnets_ are filled. Nothing is there
+wanting, everything coincides, all marvellously corresponds. It appears,
+indeed, as though Mazarin in making his notes had had before his eyes de
+Campion's Memoirs, or that the latter whilst penning them had Mazarin's
+_carnets_ before him: he at once so thoroughly takes up the thread and
+completes them.
+
+    [3] "Mémoires de Henri de Campion, &c.," 1807. Treuttel and Würtz.
+    Paris.
+
+His brother Alexandre, in his letters of the month of August, 1643, had
+already let slip more than one mysterious sentence. He wrote to Madame
+de Montbazon in banishment:--"You must not despair, madam, there are
+still some half-a-dozen honest folks who do not give up.... Your
+illustrious friend will not abandon you. If to be prudent it were
+necessary to renounce your acquaintance, there are those who would
+prefer rather to pass for fools all their days." Like Montrésor, he does
+not once say that there was no plot framed against Mazarin, which is a
+kind of tacit avowal; and when the storm burst, he took care to conceal
+himself, advised Beaupuis to do the same, and ends with these
+significant words:--"In embarking in Court affairs one cannot be certain
+of being master of events, and whilst we profit by the lucky ones, we
+must resolve to put up with the unlucky." Henri de Campion raises this
+already very transparent veil.
+
+He declares plainly that there was a project on foot to get rid of
+Mazarin, and that that project was conceived, not by Beaufort, but by
+Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de Montbazon. "I think," says
+he, "that the Duke's design did not spring from his own particular
+sentiment, but from the persuasion of the duchesses de Chevreuse and de
+Montbazon, who exercised entire sway over his mind and had an
+irreconcilable hatred to the Cardinal. What makes me say so, is that,
+whilst he was under that resolution, I always observed that he had an
+internal repugnance which, if I mistake not, was overcome by some pledge
+which he may have given to those ladies." There _was_, therefore, a
+plot, and its real author, as Mazarin truly said, and Campion repeats,
+was Madame de Chevreuse; if so, Madame de Montbazon was only an
+instrument in her hands.
+
+Beaufort, once inveigled, drew in also his intimate friend, Count de
+Maillé's son, the Count de Beaupuis, cornet in the Queen's horse-guards.
+To them Madame de Chevreuse adjoined Alexandre de Campion, the elder
+brother of Henri. "She loved him much," remarks the latter, and in a way
+which, added to certain ambiguous words of Alexandre, excites suspicion
+whether the elder Campion were not in fact one of the numerous
+successors of Chalais. He was then thirty-three, and his brother
+confesses that he had caught from the Count de Soissons the taste for
+and the habitudes of faction. Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion
+approved of the plot when communicated to them, "the former," says
+Henri, "believing that it would be a means for him of attaining to a
+position of greater importance, and my brother seeing therein Madame de
+Chevreuse's advantage and by consequence his own."
+
+Such were the two first accomplices of Beaufort. A little later he
+opened his mind on the subject to Henri de Campion, one of his principal
+gentlemen; to Lié, captain of his guards; and to Brillet, his equerry.
+There the secret rested. Many other gentlemen and domestics of the house
+of Vendôme were destined to take action in the affair, but were admitted
+to no confidence. The project was well conceived and worthy of Madame de
+Chevreuse. There were at most five or six conspirators--three capable of
+keeping the secret, and who did keep it. Below them, the men of action,
+who did not know what they would be called on to do; and in the
+background, the men of the morrow, who might be reckoned upon to applaud
+the blow, when it had been struck, without it being judged fitting to
+admit them to the conspiracy. At least Henri de Campion does not even
+name Montrésor, Béthune, Fontraille, Varicarville, Saint-Ybar, which
+explains wherefore Mazarin, whilst keeping his eye upon them, did not
+have them arrested. Neither does Campion speak of Chandenier, La Châtre,
+de Treville, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Guise, De Retz, nor La
+Rochefoucauld, whose sentiments were not doubtful, but who were not
+inclined to go so far as to sully their hands with an assassination. And
+that further explains the silence of Mazarin with regard to them in all
+that relates to Beaufort's conspiracy, although he did not cherish the
+slightest illusion as to their dispositions, and as to the part they
+would have taken if the plot had succeeded, or even if a serious
+struggle had taken place.
+
+The conspiracy rested for some time between Madame de Chevreuse, Madame
+de Montbazon, Beaufort, Beaupuis, and Alexandre de Campion. The final
+resolution was only taken at the end of July or in the first days of
+August, that is to say, precisely during the height of the quarrel
+between Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville, which ushered in
+the crisis and opened the door to all the events which followed. It was
+then only that Beaufort spoke of it to Henri de Campion, in presence of
+Beaupuis. Mazarin's crime was the continuation of Richelieu's system.
+"The Duke de Beaufort told me that he thought I had remarked that the
+Cardinal Mazarin was re-establishing at court and throughout the kingdom
+the tyranny of Cardinal de Richelieu, with even more of authority and
+violence than had been shown under the government of the latter; that
+having entirely gained the Queen's mind and made all the ministers
+devoted to him, it was impossible to arrest his evil designs save by
+depriving him of life; that the public weal having made him resolve to
+take that step, he informed me of it in order that I might aid him with
+my advice and personally assist in its execution. Beaupuis next 'took up
+his parable,' and warmly represented the evils which the too great
+authority of Richelieu had caused France, and concluded by saying that
+we must prevent the like inconvenience before his successor had rendered
+matters remediless." Such conclusion embodied as nearly as possible the
+views and language of _Importants_ and _Frondeurs_, of La Rochefoucauld
+and De Retz. Henri de Campion represents himself as having at first
+combatted the Duke's project with so much force that more than once he
+was shaken; but the two duchesses wound him up again very quickly, and
+Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion, instead of holding him back,
+encouraged him. Shortly afterwards, Beaufort having declared that he had
+made up his mind, Henri de Campion gave in on two conditions: "The one,"
+he tells us, "of not laying his hand on the Cardinal, since I would
+rather take my own life than do a deed of such nature. The other, that
+if the Duke should arrange that the project should be put into execution
+during his absence, I would never mix myself up in it; whereas if he
+were himself to be present, I should without scruple keep myself near
+his person, in order to defend him against any mischance that might
+happen, my duty and affection towards him equally obliging me thereto.
+He granted me those two conditions, testifying at the same time that he
+esteemed me more for having made them, and added that he would be
+present at the execution of the project, so that he might authorise it
+by his presence."
+
+The plan was to attack the Cardinal in the street, whilst paying visits
+in his carriage, commonly having with him only a few ecclesiastics,
+besides five or six lackeys. It would be necessary to present themselves
+in force and unexpectedly, stop the vehicle and strike Mazarin. To do
+that, it was necessary that a certain number of the Vendôme domestics,
+who were not in the secret, should post themselves daily, from early
+morning, in the _cabarets_ around the Cardinal's abode, which was then
+at the Hôtel de Cleves, near the Louvre. Among the domestics let into
+the secret, Henri de Campion names positively Gauseville. Over them were
+placed "the Sieurs d'Avancourt and De Brassy, Picardians, very resolute
+men and intimate friends of Lié." The pretext given out was that the
+Condés proposing to put an affront upon Madame de Montbazon, the Duke
+de Beaufort, in order to oppose it, desired to have in hand a troop of
+gentlemen well mounted and armed. Their parts were allotted beforehand.
+A certain number were to pounce upon the Cardinal's coachman, at the
+same moment that others were to open the two doors and strike him,
+whilst the Duke would be at hand on horseback, with Beaupuis, Henri de
+Campion, and others, to cut down or drive off those who should be
+disposed to resist. Alexandre de Campion was to keep near the Duchess de
+Chevreuse and at her orders; and she herself ought more than ever to be
+assiduous in her attentions to the Queen, in order to smooth the way for
+her friends, and, in case of success, draw the Regent to the side of the
+victorious.
+
+Several occasions favourable to the execution of this plan presented
+themselves. In the first instance, Henri de Campion being with his band
+in the Rue du Champ-Fleuri--one end of which joins the Rue Saint-Honoré
+and the other approaches the Louvre--saw the Cardinal leave the Hôtel de
+Cleves in his carriage with the Abbé de Bentivoglio, the nephew of the
+celebrated cardinal of that name, with a few ecclesiastics and valets.
+Campion inquired of one of them whither the Cardinal was going, and was
+answered--to visit the Marshal d'Estrées. "I saw," says Campion, "that
+if I had made use of the information, his death would have been
+inevitable. But I thought that I should be so guilty in the eyes of God
+and man that I resisted the temptation to do so."
+
+The next day it was known that the Cardinal would be present at a
+collation to be given by Madame du Vigean at her charming residence of
+La Barre, at the entrance of the valley of Montmorency, where Madame de
+Longueville was staying, and which the Queen had promised to honour
+with a visit, and who had already set out. The Cardinal was repairing
+thither, having with him in his coach only the Count d'Harcourt.
+Beaufort ordered Campion to assemble his troop and to ride after him,
+but Campion represented to the Duke that if they attacked the Cardinal
+in the company of the Count d'Harcourt, they must decide upon killing
+both, Harcourt being too generous to see Mazarin stabbed before his eyes
+without defending him, and that the murder of Harcourt would raise
+against them the entire house of Lorraine.
+
+Some days afterwards information was given that the Cardinal was engaged
+to dine at Maisons, with the Marshal d'Estrées, to meet the Duke
+d'Orleans. "I made the Duke consent," says Campion, "that should the
+minister be in the same carriage with his Royal Highness, the design
+should not be executed; but he said, that if he were alone, he must be
+killed. Early in the morning he had the horses out and kept himself in
+readiness at the Capucins with Beaupuis, near the Hôtel de Vendôme,
+posting a valet on foot in the street to tell him when the Cardinal
+should pass, and enjoining me to keep with those whom I was accustomed
+to muster at the Cabaret l'Ange, in the Rue Saint-Honoré, very near the
+Hôtel de Vendôme, and if the Cardinal journeyed without the Duke
+d'Orleans, I should mount instantly with all my men, and intercept him
+when passing the Capucins. I was," adds Campion, "in a state of anxiety
+which may readily be imagined, until I saw the carriage of the Duke
+d'Orleans pass, and perceived the Cardinal inside with him."
+
+At length, Beaufort's irritation being carried to the highest pitch by
+the banishment from court of Madame de Montbazon (which was certainly
+on the 22nd of August), goaded by Madame de Chevreuse, by passion, and
+by a false sense of honour, he became himself impatient to act. Seeing
+that, during the day, he encountered incessant difficulties of which he
+was far from divining the cause, he resolved to strike the blow at
+night, and prepared an ambuscade, the success of which seemed certain,
+and the details of which we have from Campion. The Cardinal went every
+evening to visit the Queen, and returned sufficiently late. It was
+arranged to attack him between the Louvre and the Hôtel de Cleves.
+Horses were to be in readiness in some neighbouring inn. The Duke
+himself should keep watch with Beaupuis and Campion, during the time the
+minister should be with the Queen, and so soon as he came forth, all
+three should advance and make a signal to the rest, who, in the
+meanwhile, should remain on horseback on the quay, by the river side,
+close to the Louvre. All which could be very well done at night without
+awakening any suspicion.
+
+It must be remembered that the person who furnishes these very precise
+details was one of the principal conspirators, that he wrote at
+sufficiently considerable distance from the event, in safety, and, to
+repeat it once again, with no interest, fearing nothing more from
+Mazarin, who had recently died, and expecting nothing from him. It must
+be also remembered that speaking as he has done, he accuses his own
+brother; that, without doubt, he attributes to himself laudable
+intentions and even some good actions, but that he confesses having
+entered into the plot, and that, if its execution had taken place he
+would have taken part in it, in fighting by the side of Beaufort. The
+process submitted to the parliament not having led to anything, through
+failure of evidence, Campion did not imagine that Mazarin had ever
+known "the circumstances of the plot, nor those acquainted with it to
+the very bottom, and who were engaged in it." He adds also, "that now
+the Cardinal is dead there is no longer any reason to fear injuring any
+one in stating matters as they are." He therefore does not defend
+himself; he believes himself to be sheltered from all quest, he writes
+only to relieve his conscience.
+
+From these curious revelations we further learn what importance Mazarin
+attached to the arrest of Henri Campion; and that writer's statements
+are not only substantially confirmed by various entries in the
+_carnets_, but read like a translation into French of those pages from
+the Cardinal's Italian. "They threw," he says, "into the Bastille,
+Avancourt and Brassy, where they deposed that I had mustered them on
+several occasions, on the part of the Duke de Beaufort, for the
+interests of Madame de Montbazon, as I had told them. This did not
+afford any motive for interrogating the Duke, since they owned that he
+had not spoken to them; thus he would not have failed to deny having
+given the orders which I carried to them on his part. It was then seen
+that the process against him could not be carried on before I had been
+arrested, in order to find matter whereon to interrogate him after my
+own depositions, and so thoroughly to embarrass us both that every trace
+of the affair might be discovered. The proof of this conspiracy was of
+most essential importance to the Cardinal, who directing all his efforts
+to the establishment of his government, and affecting to do so by gentle
+means, had been unfortunate enough to be constrained, in the outset, to
+use violence against one of the greatest men in the realm, for his own
+individual interest, without a conviction to prove that he was
+compelled to treat the Duke with rigour. The Cardinal, despairing of
+being able to persuade others of that of which he was entirely assured,
+had a great desire to get me into his hands. He was nevertheless of
+opinion that he must give me time to reassure myself of safety in order
+to take me with the greater facility."
+
+We may add to all this that Henri de Campion, sought after sharply, and
+closely shut up in his retreat at Anet, under the protection of the Duke
+de Vendôme, having fled from France and joined his friend the Count de
+Beaupuis at Rome, gives an account of the obstinate efforts made by
+Mazarin to obtain the extradition of the latter, the resistance of Pope
+Innocent X., the regard shown to Beaupuis when they were compelled to
+confine him in the Castle of Saint-Angelo; all of which being equally to
+be met with in the _carnets_ and letters of Mazarin and the memoirs of
+Henri de Campion, places beyond doubt the perfect sincerity of the
+Cardinal's proceedings and the accuracy of his information.
+
+Are not these, we may ask, proofs sufficient to reduce to naught the
+interested doubts of La Rochefoucauld and the passionate denials of the
+chief of the Fronde, the very clever but very little truthful Cardinal
+de Retz, the most ardent and most obstinate of Mazarin's enemies? It
+would seem, indeed, either that there is no certitude whatever in
+history, or that it must be considered henceforth as a point absolutely
+demonstrated that there was a project determined upon to kill Mazarin;
+that that project had been conceived by Madame de Chevreuse, and in some
+sort imposed by her upon Beaufort with the aid of Madame de Montbazon;
+that Beaufort had for principal accomplices the Count de Beaupuis and
+Alexandre de Campion; that Henri de Campion had entered later into the
+affair, at the pressing solicitation of the Duke, as well as two other
+officers of secondary rank; that during the month of August there were
+divers serious attempts to put it into execution, particularly the last
+one after the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, at the very end of
+August or rather on the 1st of September; and that such attempt only
+failed through circumstances altogether independent of the will of the
+conspirators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  FAILURE OF THE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MAZARIN. ARREST OF BEAUFORT,
+  BANISHMENT OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE, AND DISPERSION OF THE "IMPORTANTS."
+
+
+LET us now inquire how the last attempt against Mazarin's life--that
+nocturnal ambuscade so well planned and so deliberately set about on the
+1st of September, 1643--chanced to fail, and what was the result of such
+failure. Without stopping to discuss the conjectures of Campion on this
+point, it may suffice to state that Mazarin, who was on his guard,
+evaded the blow destined for him by not visiting the Queen during the
+evening on which it was resolved to kill him as he should return from
+the Louvre. Next day the scene was changed. A rumour spread rapidly that
+the Prime Minister had expected to have been murdered by Beaufort and
+his friends, that he had escaped, fortune having declared in his favour.
+A plot to assassinate, more especially when it fails, invariably excites
+the strongest indignation, and the man who has extricated himself from a
+great peril and seems destined to sweep all such from his path, readily
+finds adherents and defenders. A host of people who would probably have
+supported Beaufort victorious, now flocked to offer their swords and
+services to the Cardinal, and on that morning he went to the Louvre
+escorted by three hundred gentlemen.
+
+For several days previously, Mazarin had seen clearly that, cost what
+it might, he must cut his way through the knotted intricacy of the
+situation, and that the moment had arrived for forcing Anne of Austria
+to choose her part. The occasion was decisive. If the peril which he had
+just undergone, and which was only suspended over his head, did not
+suffice to draw the Queen from her incertitude, it would prove that she
+did not love him; and Mazarin knew well that, amidst the many dangers
+surrounding him, his entire strength lay in the Queen's affection, and
+that thereon depended his present safety and future fate. Whether,
+therefore, through policy or sincere affection, it was always to Anne of
+Austria's heart that he addressed himself, and at the outset of the
+crisis he had said to himself: "If I believed that the Queen was merely
+making use of me through necessity, without having any personal
+inclination for me, I would not stay here three days longer."[1] But
+enough has been said to show plainly that Anne of Austria _loved_
+Mazarin. Comparing him with his rivals, she appreciated him daily more
+and more. She admired the precision and clearness of his intellect, his
+finesse and penetration, and that extraordinary energy which enabled him
+to bear the weight of government with marvellous ease--his quick and
+accurate introspection, his profound prudence, and at the same time the
+judicious vigour of his resolves. She saw the affairs of France
+prospering on all sides under his firm and skilful hand. The Cardinal,
+it is true, was not quite a nullity, in the fierce war which had
+inaugurated the new reign so dazzlingly; but a power of no slight weight
+was manifest in the success which had followed his advent to office,
+and which proved to startled Europe that the victory of Rocroy was not a
+lucky stroke of chance. When every member of the Council was opposed to
+the siege of Thionville, and when Turenne himself, on being consulted,
+did not venture to declare his opinion on the subject, it was Mazarin
+who had insisted with an unflinching persistence that the victory of
+Rocroy should be profited by, and that France should extend her frontier
+to the Rhine. That proposition, doubtless, emanated from the youthful
+conqueror, but Mazarin had the merit of comprehending, sustaining, and
+causing it to triumph. If no first minister had ever before been so
+served by such a general, neither had general ever been so supported by
+such a minister; and thanks to both, on the 11th of August, whilst the
+chivalrous _Importants_ were exhausting their combined talents in
+putting a shameful affront upon the noble sister of the hero who had
+just served France so gloriously, and who was about to aggrandize it
+further--whilst they were displaying their vapid and turgid eloquence in
+the salons, or sharpening their poniards in gloomy council chambers,
+Thionville, then one of the chief strongholds of the Empire, surrendered
+after an obstinate defence. Thus, the Regency of Anne of Austria had
+opened under the most brilliant auspices.
+
+    [1] Entry in Carnet, iii. p. 10, in Spanish:--"Sy yo creyera lo que
+    dicen que S.M. se sierve di mi per necessidad, sin tener alguna
+    inclination, no pararia aqui tres dias."
+
+But in the height of this national glory and signal triumph, Queen Anne
+must indeed have shuddered when Mazarin placed before her all the proofs
+of the odious conspiracy formed against him. Explanations the most
+minute and confidential thereupon ensued between them. It was now more
+than ever compulsory for her to "raise the mask,"[2] to sacrifice to a
+manifest necessity the circumspection she was studious of preserving--to
+brave somewhat further the tittle-tattle of a few devotees of either
+sex, and at all events to permit her Prime Minister to defend his life.
+Up to this moment Anne of Austria had hesitated, for reasons which may
+be readily comprehended. But Madame de Montbazon's insolence had greatly
+irritated her; the conviction she acquired that numerous attempts to
+assassinate Mazarin had only by chance failed, and might be renewed,
+decided her; and it was, therefore, towards the close of August, 1643,
+when the date of that declared ascendancy, open and unrivalled, must be
+certainly fixed, of the Minister of the Queen Regent. These
+conspirators, by proceeding to the last extremities, and thereby making
+her tremble for Mazarin's life, hastened the triumph of the happy
+Cardinal; and on the morrow of the last nocturnal ambush in which he was
+marked for destruction, Jules Mazarin became absolute master of the
+Queen's heart, and more powerful than Richelieu had ever been after the
+_Day of Dupes_.
+
+    [2] "Quitarse la maschera." Carnet, ii. p. 65.
+
+The minister's _carnets_ will be searched in vain for any traces of the
+explanations which Mazarin must have had with the Queen during this
+grave conjuncture. Such explanations are not of a nature likely to be
+forgotten, and of which there is any need to take notes. An obscure
+passage, however, is to be met with, written in Spanish, of which the
+following words have a meaning clear enough to be understood: "I ought
+no longer to have any doubt, since the Queen, in an excess of goodness,
+has told me that nothing could deprive me of the post which she has done
+me the honour of giving me near her; nevertheless, as fear is the
+inseparable companion of affection, &c."[3] At this anxious moment,
+Mazarin was attacked with a slight illness, brought on by incessant
+labour and wearing anxieties, and an attack of jaundice having
+supervened, the Cardinal jotted down the following brief but highly
+suggestive memorandum:--"_La giallezza cagionata dà soverchio
+amore_."[4]
+
+    [3] Carnet, iii. p. 45.--"Mas contodo esto siendo el temor un
+    compagnero inseparabile dell'affection," &c.
+
+    [4] Carnet, iv. p. 3.
+
+Madame de Motteville was in attendance on Anne of Austria when the
+rumour of the abortive attempt at assassination brought a crowd of
+courtiers to the Louvre in hot haste to protest their devotedness to the
+Crown. The Queen, with great emotion, whispered to her trusty
+lady-in-waiting: "Ere eight and forty hours elapse you shall see how I
+will avenge myself for the evil tricks these false friends have played
+me." "Never," adds Madame de Motteville, "can the remembrance of those
+few brief words be effaced from my mind. I saw at that moment, by the
+fire that flashed in the Queen's eyes, and in fact by what happened on
+that very evening and next day, what it is to be a female sovereign when
+enraged, and with the power of doing what she pleases."[5] Had the
+cautious lady-in-waiting been less discreet, she might have added,
+"especially when that sovereign lady is a woman in love."
+
+    [5] Mémoires, vol. i. p. 185.
+
+The break-up and dispersion of the _Importants_ once decided upon, the
+first step was to arrest Beaufort, and bring him to trial. To this the
+Queen gave her consent. Of the authority Mazarin had acquired, such
+proceeding was a striking indication, and showed how far Anne of Austria
+might one day go in defence of a minister who was dear to her. The Duke
+de Beaufort had been, before her husband's death, the man in whom the
+Queen placed most confidence, and for some time he was thought destined
+to play the brilliant part of a royal favourite. In a brief space he had
+effectually thrown away his chance by his presumptuous conduct, his
+evident incapacity, and yet more by his public _liaison_ with Madame de
+Montbazon. Still the Queen had shown a somewhat singular weakness in his
+favour, and at the expiration of three short months to sign an order for
+his arrest was a great step--necessary, it is true, but extreme, and
+which was the manifest sign of an entire change in the heart and
+intimate relations of Anne of Austria. The dissimulation even with which
+she acted in that affair marks the deliberative firmness of her
+resolution.
+
+The 2nd of September, 1643, was truly a memorable day in the career of
+Mazarin, and we may say, in the annals of France; for it witnessed the
+confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by the deaths of
+Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of the party of the
+_Importants_.
+
+On the morning of the 2nd, all Paris and its Court rang with the report
+of the ambuscade laid for Mazarin the night previous, between the Louvre
+and the Hôtel de Cleves. The five conspirators who had joined hands with
+Beaufort in it had taken flight and placed themselves in safety.
+Beaufort and Madame de Chevreuse could not imitate them: flight for them
+would have been a self-denunciation. The intrepid Duchess therefore had
+not hesitated to appear at Court, and she was at the Regent's side
+during the evening of the 2nd together with another person, a stranger
+to these dark plots and even incapable of putting faith in them--a very
+different enemy of Mazarin--the pious and noble Madame de Hautefort. As
+for the Duke, careless and courageous, he had gone to the chase in the
+morning, and at his return he went, according to his custom, to present
+his homage to the Queen. On entering the Louvre he met his mother,
+Madame de Vendôme, and his sister the Duchess de Nemours, who had
+accompanied the Queen all day and remarked her emotion. They did all
+they could to prevent him going up stairs, and entreated him to absent
+himself for a while. He, without troubling himself in the slightest
+degree, answered them in the words of the doomed Duke de Guise--"They
+dare not!"--and entered the Queen's great cabinet, who received him with
+the best grace possible, and asked him all sorts of questions about his
+hunting, "as though," says Madame de Motteville, "she had no other
+thought in her mind." The Cardinal having come in in the midst of this
+gentle chat, the Queen rose and bade him follow her. It appeared as if
+she wished to take counsel with him in her chamber. She entered it,
+followed by her Minister. At the same time the Duke de Beaufort, about
+to leave, met Guitant, captain of the guard, who arrested him, and
+commanded the Duke to follow him in the names of the King and Queen. The
+Prince, without showing any surprise, after having looked fixedly at
+him, said, "Yes, I will; but this, I must own, is strange enough." Then
+turning towards Mesdames de Chevreuse and de Hautefort, who were talking
+together, he said to them, "Ladies, you see that the Queen has caused me
+to be arrested." The young nobleman then submitted to the royal mandate
+without offering the slightest resistance; slept that night at the
+Louvre, and the next morning was taken to the donjon of Vincennes, while
+a general decree of banishment was pronounced against all the principal
+members of the faction.
+
+The Vendômes were ordered to retire to Anet; and the Chateau d'Anet
+having soon become what the Hôtel de Vendôme at Paris had been, a haunt
+of the conspirators, Mazarin demanded them from the Duke Cæsar, who took
+good care not to give them up. The Cardinal was almost reduced to the
+necessity of laying siege to the château in regular form. He threatened
+to enter the place by main force and lay hands on Beaufort's
+accomplices; unable to endure the scandal that a prince even of the
+blood should brave law and justice with impunity, he had determined to
+push matters to the uttermost, and was about to take energetic measures,
+when the Duke de Vendôme himself decided on quitting France, and went to
+Italy to await the fall of Mazarin, as formerly he had awaited in
+England that of Richelieu.
+
+The arrest of Beaufort, the dispersion of his accomplices, his friends
+and his family, was the first indispensable measure forced upon Mazarin
+to enable him to face a danger that seemed most imminent. But what would
+it have availed him to lop off an arm had he left the head
+untouched--had Madame de Chevreuse remained at Court, ever ready to
+surround the Queen with attention and homage, assiduous to retain and
+husband the last remnant of her old favour, in order to sustain and
+secretly encourage the malcontents, inspire them with her audacity, and
+stir them up to fresh conspiracies? She still held in her grasp the
+scarcely-severed threads of the plot; and at her right hand there was a
+man too wary to allow himself to be again compromised by such dark
+doings, but quite ready to profit by them, and whom Madame de Chevreuse
+had sedulously exhibited not only to Anne of Austria, but to France and
+all Europe, as a man singularly capable of conducting State affairs.
+Mazarin, therefore, did not hesitate; but on the day following
+Beaufort's arrest, Châteauneuf, Montrésor, and St. Ybar were banished.
+The first-named was invited to present himself at Court, kiss the
+Queen's hand, and then betake himself to his government in Touraine.
+Richelieu's late Keeper of the Seals deemed it something to have
+escaped an open disgrace, to have resumed the eminent post he had
+formerly occupied under the Crown, and the government of a large
+province. Yet did his ambition soar far higher still: but he kept it in
+check, and merely postponed its flight for a less stormy hour--obeyed
+the Queen, skilfully remained friends with her, and likewise kept on
+very good terms with her Prime Minister--biding his time until he might
+displace him. He had to wait a long time, however; but eventually did
+not quit life without once more grasping, for a moment at least, that
+power which the indulgence of an insensate passion had lost him, but
+which an inviolable and unswerving friendship in the end restored to
+him.[6]
+
+    [6] Châteauneuf held the seals from March, 1650, when Mazarin went
+    into voluntary exile, until April, 1651. He died in 1653, at the age
+    of seventy-three.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse unhappily lacked the wisdom displayed throughout
+this fiery ordeal by Châteauneuf. She forgot for once to look with a
+smiling face upon the passing storm, in which she was too suddenly
+caught to escape altogether scatheless. La Châtre--one of her friends,
+and who saw her almost every day--relates that during the very same
+evening on which Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre, "Her Majesty told
+the Duchess that she believed her to be innocent of the prisoner's
+designs, but that nevertheless to avoid scandal she deemed it fitting
+that Madame de Chevreuse should quietly withdraw to Dampierre, and that
+after making some short sojourn there she should retire into
+Touraine."[7] The Duchess, therefore, saw plainly that she had nothing
+for it but to go at once to Dampierre; but no sooner did she arrive at
+her favourite château than, instead of remaining quiet, she began to
+move heaven and earth to save those who had compromised themselves for
+her sake. She began, indeed, to knot the meshes of a new web of
+intrigue, and even found means of placing a letter in the Queen's own
+hand. Message after message was, however, sent to hasten her
+departure--Montagu being despatched to her on the same errand, as was
+also La Porte. She received them haughtily, and deferred her journey
+under divers pretexts. It will be remembered that on going to meet the
+Duchess when on her road from Brussels, Montagu had offered her, on the
+Queen's part as well as that of Mazarin, to discharge in her name the
+debts she had contracted during so many years of exile. The Duchess had
+already received heavy sums, but was unwilling to set forth for Touraine
+until after the Queen should have performed all her promises. Marie de
+Rohan had left the Louvre and Paris, her bosom swelling with grief and
+rage, as Hannibal had quitted Italy. She felt that the Court and capital
+and the Queen's inner circle formed the true field of battle, and that
+to remove herself from it was to abandon the victory to the enemy. Her
+retreat, indeed, was an occasion of mourning to the entire Catholic
+party, as well as to the friends of peace and the Spanish alliance, but,
+on the contrary, of public rejoicing for the friends of the Protestant
+alliance. The Count d'Estrade actually went to the Louvre on the part of
+the Prince of Orange, from whom he was accredited, to thank the Regent
+officially for it.
+
+    [7] "Allontanar Cheverosa che fà mille cabelle." Mazarin's Carnet,
+    iii. 81, 82.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse made her way, therefore, to her estate of Duverger,
+between Tours and Angiers. The deep solitude that there reigned
+around her embittered all the more the feeling of defeat. She kept up,
+however, a brisk correspondence with her stepmother, Madame de
+Montbazon--banished to Rochefort; and the two exiled Duchesses mutually
+exhorted each other to leave no stone unturned towards effecting the
+overthrow of their common enemy. Vanquished at home, Madame de Chevreuse
+centred all her hopes in foreign lands. She revived the friendly
+relations which she had never ceased to cherish with England, Spain, and
+the Low Countries. Her chief prop, the centre and interposer of her
+intrigues, was Lord Goring, our ambassador at the French Court; who,
+like his ill-starred master, and more especially his royal mistress,
+belonged to the Spanish party. Croft, an English gentleman who had
+figured in the train of the Duchess some years previously, bestirred
+himself actively and openly in her behalf, whilst the Chevalier de Jars
+intrigued warily and in secret for Châteauneuf. Beneath the mantle of
+the English embassy a vast correspondence was carried on between Madame
+de Chevreuse, Vendôme, Bouillon, and the rest of the _Malcontents_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  CONSEQUENCES OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE DUCHESSES DE LONGUEVILLE AND
+  DE MONTBAZON.--FATAL DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE DE GUISE AND COUNT MAURICE
+  DE COLIGNY.
+
+
+AS has been said, the 2nd of September, 1643, had been truly a memorable
+day in the career of Mazarin, and, indeed, in the annals of France; for
+it witnessed the confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by
+the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of that dangerous
+faction the _Importants_. The intestine discords which threatened the
+new reign were thus forced to await a more favourable opportunity for
+development. They did not raise their heads again until five years
+afterwards--on the breaking out of the Fronde, in which they showed
+themselves just the same men as ever, with the same designs, the same
+politics, foreign and domestic; and after raising sanguinary and sterile
+commotions, re-appeared only to break themselves to pieces once more
+against the genius of Mazarin and the invincible firmness of Anne of
+Austria.
+
+Mazarin, therefore, who soon found himself without a rival in the
+Queen's good graces, continued steadily to carry on within and without
+the realm the system of his predecessor, and royalty, as well as France,
+reckoned upon a succession of halcyon years, thanks to the re-union of
+the Princes of the blood with the Crown, to the tactics and personal
+conduct of the Prime Minister, and to his political sagacity, seconded
+by the military genius of the Duke d'Enghien. The imprudence of Madame
+de Montbazon and her lover Beaufort in the affair of the dropped letters
+had the effect of increasing Mazarin's power incalculably, and that at
+the very moment that a splendid victory gained by the young Duke
+d'Enghien had made him and his sister paramount at Court--paramount by a
+popularity so universal that it almost made the Queen and her minister
+their _protégés_ rather than their patrons.
+
+The Duke d'Enghien had returned to Paris after Rocroy, and at the end of
+a campaign in which he had taken a very important stronghold, passed the
+Rhine with the French army, and carried the war into Germany. The Queen
+had received him as the liberator of France. Mazarin, who looked more to
+the reality than the semblance of power, intimated to the young
+conqueror that his sole ambition was to be his chaplain and man of
+business with the Queen. At a distance, the Duke d'Enghien had praised
+everything that had been done, and came from the camp over head and ears
+in love with Madlle. du Vigean, and furious that any one should have
+dared to insult a member of his house. He adored his sister, and he had
+a warm friendship for Coligny.[1] He was aware of and had favoured his
+passion for that sister. Engaged himself in a suit as ardent as it was
+chaste, he readily comprehended that his beautiful sister might well
+have been not insensible to the fervent assiduities of the brave
+Maurice, but he revolted at the thought of the amatory effusions of a
+Madame de Fouquerolles being attributed to her, and he assumed a tone in
+the matter which effectually arrested any further insinuation from even
+the most insolent and daring.
+
+    [1] Grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny, who perished in the
+    massacre of St. Bartholomew.
+
+Amongst the especial friends of Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon,
+foremost of all stood the Duke de Guise.[2] They had manoeuvred to
+secure him as well as the rest of his family to their party, through
+Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, who had espoused as his second wife a princess
+of the house of Lorraine--the lovely Marguerite, sister of Charles IV.
+and second daughter of Duke Francis. The Duke de Guise had already
+played many strange pranks and committed more than one folly, but he had
+not as yet signally failed in any serious enterprise. His incapacity was
+not patent. He had the prestige of his name, youth, good looks, and a
+courage carried even to temerity. The avowed slave of Madame de
+Montbazon, he had espoused her quarrel, and to gratify her had joined in
+propagating those calumnious reports, but without exhibiting the
+violence of Beaufort, and had remained erect, confronting and defying
+the victorious Condés.
+
+    [2] Henry, son of Charles de Guise, and grandson of the _Balafré_.
+
+Coligny had had the good sense to keep aloof during the storm, for fear
+of still further compromising Madame de Longueville by exhibiting
+himself openly as her champion: but a few months having elapsed, he
+thought that he might at last show himself, and, as a certain
+authority[3] tells us, "the imprisonment of the Duke de Beaufort having
+deprived that noble of the chance of measuring swords with him, he
+addressed himself to the Duke de Guise." La Rochefoucauld says, "the
+Duke d'Enghien, unable to testify to the Duke de Beaufort, who was in
+prison, the resentment he felt at what had passed between Madame de
+Longueville and Madame de Montbazon, left Coligny at liberty to fight
+with the Duke de Guise, who had mixed himself up in this affair." The
+Duke d'Enghien, therefore, knew and approved of what Coligny did. In
+fact, he found himself without an adversary in the affair of sufficient
+rank to justify a prince of the blood in drawing his sword against him.
+So far as regards Madame de Longueville, it is absurd to suppose that,
+desirous of vengeance, she it was who had urged on Coligny, for
+everybody ascribed to her a line of conduct characterised by great
+moderation, as contrasted with that of the Princess de Condé. Far from
+envenoming the quarrel, she wished to hush it up, and Madame de
+Motteville thus significantly alludes to that fact: "The enmity she bore
+Madame de Montbazon being proportionate to the love she bore her
+husband, it did not carry her so far but that she found it more à propos
+to dissimulate that outrage than otherwise."
+
+    [3] An inedited Memoir upon the Regency.
+
+La Rochefoucauld gives some particulars which explain what follows.
+Coligny, just risen out of a long illness, was still very much
+enfeebled, and, moreover, not very "skilful of fence." Such was his
+condition when, as the champion of Madame de Longueville, he confronted
+the Duke de Guise in mortal duel, whilst the latter, like most heroes of
+the parade-ground, possessed rare cunning at carte and tierce. With
+regard to the seconds chosen, they are in every respect worthy of
+notice. In those days, seconds were witnesses of the duel in which they
+themselves fought. Coligny selected as his second, and to give the
+challenge, as was then the custom, Godefroi, Count d'Estrades, a man of
+cool and tried courage. The Duke de Guise's second was his equerry, the
+Marquis de Bridieu, a Limousin gentleman and brave officer, faithfully
+attached to the house of Lorraine, who, in 1650, admirably defended
+Guise against the Spanish army and against Turenne, and for that brave
+defence, during which there were twenty-four days of open trenches, he
+was made lieutenant-general.
+
+It was arranged that the affair should come off at the Place Royale--the
+usual arena for those sort of encounters, and which had been a hundred
+times stained with the best blood of France. The mansions around the
+Place Royale were then tenanted by ladies of the highest rank and
+fashion, amongst the rest, Marguerite, Duchess de Rohan, Madame de
+Guéméné, Madame de Chaulnes, Madame de St. Geran, Madame de Sablé, the
+Countess de St. Maure, and many others, under the influence of whose
+bright eyes those volatile and valiant French gentlemen delighted to
+cross swords. And there many a noble form had been struck down never to
+rise again, and many a noble heart had throbbed its last. During the
+first quarter of the seventeenth century, the duel was a custom at once
+useful and disastrous, inasmuch as it kept up the warlike spirit of the
+nobles, but which mowed them down as fast as war itself, and but too
+frequently for frivolous causes. To draw swords for trifles had become
+the obligatory accompaniment of good manners; and as gallantry had its
+finished fops, so the duel had its refined rufflers. In the
+comparatively short period of a few years, nine hundred gentlemen
+perished in these combats. To stop this scourge, Richelieu issued a
+royal edict, which punished death by death, and sent the offenders from
+the Place Royale to the Place de Grève. On this head Richelieu showed
+himself inflexible, and the examples of Montmorency-Bouteville, beheaded
+with his second, the Count Deschappelles, for having challenged Beuvron
+and fought with him on the Place Royale at mid-day, impressed a
+salutary terror, and rendered infraction of the edict very rare.
+Coligny, however, braved everything; he challenged Guise, and on the
+appointed day the two noble adversaries, accompanied by their seconds,
+D'Estrades and Bridieu, met upon the Place Royale.
+
+Of this memorable duel, thanks to contemporary memoirs as well as
+various kinds of MSS., the minutest details have been preserved.
+
+On the 12th of December, 1643, D'Estrades went in the morning to call
+out the Duke de Guise on the part of Coligny. The rendezvous was fixed
+for the same day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, at the Place
+Royale. The two adversaries did not appear abroad during the whole
+morning, and at three o'clock they were on the ground. A sentence is
+ascribed to Guise which invests the scene with an unwonted grandeur, and
+arrays for the last time in bitterest animosity and deadly antagonism
+the two most illustrious representatives of the League wars in the
+persons of their descendants. On unsheathing his sword Guise said to
+Coligny: "We are about to decide the old feud of our two houses, and to
+see what a difference there is between the blood of Guise and that of
+Coligny."
+
+Coligny's only reply was to deal his adversary a long lunge; but, weak
+as he was, his rearward foot failed him, and he sank upon his knee.
+Guise advanced upon him and set his foot upon his sword, in such manner
+as though he would have said, "I do not desire to kill you, but to treat
+you as you deserve, for having presumed to address yourself to a prince
+of such birth as mine, without his having given you just cause,"--and he
+struck him with the flat of his sword-blade. Coligny, furious, collected
+his strength, threw himself backwards, disengaged his sword, and
+recommenced the strife. In this second bout, Guise was slightly wounded
+in the shoulder, and Coligny in the hand. At length, Guise, in making
+another thrust at his adversary, grasped his sword-blade, by which his
+hand was slightly cut, but, wresting it from Coligny's grasp, dealt him
+a desperate thrust in the arm which put him _hors de combat_. Meanwhile
+D'Estrades and Bridieu had grievously wounded each other.
+
+Such was the issue of that memorable duel--the last, it appears, of the
+famous encounters on the Place Royale. We thus see that, though cowed,
+the French noblesse had not been tamed by Richelieu's solemn edict. This
+last duel did very little honour to Coligny, and almost everybody took
+part with the Duke de Guise. The Queen manifested very lively
+displeasure at the violation of the edict, and the Duke d'Orleans, urged
+thereto by his wife and the Lorraine family, made a loud outcry. The
+Prince and Princess de Condé also found themselves compelled to declare
+against Coligny--doubly in the wrong, both because he had been the
+challenger and been unfortunate in the result. Proof that there was an
+understanding between Coligny and the Duke d'Enghien is evident from the
+latter not deserting the unlucky champion of his sister, that he
+received the wounded man into his house at Paris, afterwards at Saint
+Maur, and that he did not cease from surrounding him with his protection
+and care in spite of his father, the Prince de Condé. When the matter
+was referred to the Parliament, conformably to the edict, and the two
+adversaries were summoned to appear, the Duke de Guise announced his
+intention of repairing to the chamber with a retinue of princes and
+great nobles; whilst, on his side, the Duke d'Enghien threatened to
+escort his friend after the same fashion. But the initiative
+proceedings were stayed through the deplorable condition into which poor
+Coligny was known to have fallen.
+
+That unfortunate young man languished for some months, and died in the
+latter part of May, 1644, alike in consequence of his wounds and of
+despair for having so badly sustained the cause of his own house, as
+well as that of Madame de Longueville.
+
+This affair, with all its dramatic features and tragical termination,
+created an immense and painful impression not only in Paris, but
+throughout France. It momentarily awakened party feelings which had for
+some time slumbered, and suspended the festivals of the winter of 1644.
+It not only occupied the families more closely concerned and the Court,
+but forcibly affected the whole of the highest class of society, and
+long remained the absorbing topic of every saloon. It may be readily
+conceived that the story in spreading thus widely became enlarged with
+imaginary incidents one after another. At first, it was supposed that
+Madame de Longueville was in love with Coligny. That was necessary to
+give the greater interest to the narrative. From thence came the next
+invention, that she herself had armed Coligny's hand, and that
+D'Estrades, charged to challenge the Duke de Guise, having remarked to
+Coligny that the Duke might probably repudiate the injurious words
+attributed to him, and that honour would thus be satisfied, Coligny had
+thereupon replied: "That is not the question. I pledged my word to
+Madame de Longueville to fight him on the Place Royale, and I cannot
+fail in that promise."[4] There was no stopping a cavalier in such a
+chivalrous course as that, and Madame de Longueville would not have been
+the sister of the victor of Rocroy--a heroine worthy of sustaining
+comparison with those of Spain, who beheld their lovers die at their
+feet in the tournament--had she not been present at the duel between
+Guise and Coligny. It is asserted, therefore, that on the 12th of
+December she was stationed in an hôtel on the Place Royale belonging to
+the Duchess de Rohan, and that there, concealed behind a window-curtain,
+she had witnessed the discomfiture of her _preux chevalier_.
+
+    [4] Mad. de Motteville.
+
+Then, as now, it was verse--that is to say, the ballad--which set its
+seal on the popular incident of the moment. When the event was an
+unlucky one, the song was a burlesquely pathetic complaint, and always
+with a vein of raillery running through it. Such was the effusion with
+which every _ruelle_ rang, and it was really set to music, for the
+notation is still to be found in the _Recueil de Chansons notées_,
+preserved at the Arsenal at Paris. It ran thus:--
+
+  "Essuyez vos beaux yeux,
+   Madame de Longueville,
+   Coligny se porte mieux.
+   S'il a demandé la vie,
+   Ne l'en blâmez nullement;
+   Car c'est pour être votre amant
+   Qu'il veut vivre éternellement."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE AND THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+
+THAT Madame de Longueville witnessed the duel on the Place Royale seems
+to rest on no reliable authority. Such a trait is so utterly at variance
+with her character that its attribution would impute to her the manners
+of a semi-Italianised princess of the Valois race. There are besides no
+sufficient grounds for believing that her affections had for a moment
+been given to Coligny, though doubtless her innate tenderness must have
+been touched by his chivalrous love and devotion. Miossens, afterwards
+better known as Marshal d'Albret, next tried in vain to win a heart
+which had hitherto appeared insensible to the master-passion, but after
+an obstinate persistence was ultimately constrained to relinquish all
+hope. When, in 1645, M. de Longueville went as minister-plenipotentiary
+to the Congress of Münster, the young Duchess remained in Paris, her
+element being still the social sphere of the Court solely--a taste for
+political life not having yet been developed through the impulse of her
+affections. Let us here add that, notwithstanding the almost unanimous
+assertion of contemporaries at this period that even women could not
+behold Madame de Longueville without admiration, the heart of this
+preeminently gifted creature seems amidst the universal homage to have
+been proof against all and every repeated assault. Anne of Austria
+loved her but little, partly through a jealous feeling created by her
+singular beauty, partly from her great reputation for wit, and also from
+her perpetual wranglings for precedence with other princesses of the
+blood. In fact, in order to lose no tittle of the prerogatives derived
+from her birth, Madame de Longueville had obtained a royal brevet from
+the king which maintained her in the rank which she would have otherwise
+lost by her marriage. A pride so exacting does not appear to agree with
+the peculiar nonchalance that was one of her striking characteristics;
+but, later in life, when she had become devout and penitent, she took
+care to explain that seeming contradiction. "I have been defined," said
+she, "as having, as it were, two individualities of opposite nature in
+me, and that I could interchange them at any moment; but that arose from
+the different situations in which I was placed, for I was dead, like
+unto the dead, to aught which slightly affected me, and keenly alive to
+the smallest things which interested me." Reading and study were never
+among the things which stirred her into animation. Entirely occupied
+with her fascinations and individual sentiments, at no period of her
+life did she ever think of repairing the early neglect of her education.
+In this respect she was inferior, on the authority even of her
+apologists, to many ladies of the Court and city. Intoxicated as she had
+been by the fumes of the incense which flattery had wafted around her in
+the circle of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, she probably had no perception
+of her failings on that essential point. The spontaneity of her wit, her
+natural aptitude to comprehend and decide upon all sorts of questions,
+made up for her deficiency in that kind of information which is acquired
+from books and other modes of study, and often stood her in good stead,
+both on the part of her detractors and of her partisans, of the lofty
+characteristics of "great genius." M. Cousin, who is by no means severe
+as regards the errors or demerits of the Duchess, says that "she did not
+know how to write." Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de
+Motteville, however, both express the very opposite opinion. The first
+remarks, speaking of the Countess de Maure:--"The precision and the
+polish of her style would be incomparable if Madame de Longueville had
+never written." The second declares that "this lady has ever written as
+well as any one living." The fact is, so far as may be judged from those
+of her letters which have come down to us, that Madame de Longueville's
+style bore the reflex of her conversation: there are some passages very
+remarkable in their force, some phrases altogether trite and
+insignificant. This opinion is quite beside the consideration of her
+diction in a grammatical point of view. In her written as in her spoken
+language, she seems to have been impassive or to have kindled into
+animation according as her thoughts were "dead or living," to use her
+own phrase. Speaking and writing, however, are two very different
+things, both requiring an especial cultivation; and as Madame de
+Longueville was defective in anything like what is termed "regular
+education" or "sound instruction," that fact became apparent so soon as
+she took her pen in hand. Her great natural endowments shone on paper
+with difficulty, through faults of every kind which escaped her notice.
+It is really no small gift to be able to express one's sentiments and
+ideas in their natural order, and with all their true and various
+shades, in terms neither too homely nor far-fetched, or which neither
+enfeeble nor exaggerate them. It is by no means rare to meet with men in
+society remarkable for intelligence, nerve, and grace when they speak,
+but who become unintelligible when they commit their thoughts to
+writing. The fact is, that writing is an art--a very difficult art, and
+one which must be carefully learned. Madame de Longueville was ignorant
+of this, as were some of the most eminent women of her time. There
+exists unquestionable evidence to prove that the Princess Palatine was a
+person of large intelligence, who was able to hold her own with men of
+the greatest capacity. De Retz and Bossuet tell us so. Some letters of
+the Palatine, however, are extant in which, whilst there is no lack of
+solidity, refinement, and ingenuity of thought, it will be seen that
+they often abound with errors, obscure phraseology, and not unfrequently
+outrageously violate even the commonest rules of orthography. It must
+not, however, by any means be inferred from this that the Palatine had
+not a mind of the first order, but only that she had not been trained to
+render clearly and fittingly her ideas and sentiments in writing. Madame
+de Longueville had been no better taught. Therefore all that has been
+said about her on this score must be restricted, alike as to the defects
+of her education and the brilliancy of her genius. With those
+Frenchwomen who have written at once largely and loosely, it is pleasant
+to contrast their contemporaries, Madame de Sévigné and Madame la
+Fayette, both of whom always wrote well.
+
+In the first place, these two admirable ladies had received quite
+another sort of education to that of Madame de Longueville. They had had
+the advantage of being instructed by men of letters skilled in the art
+of teaching. Ménage was the chief instructor both of Mademoiselle de
+Rabutin and Mademoiselle de Lavergne--to call those accomplished
+letter-writers by their maiden names. Ménage trained them carefully in
+composition, correcting rigidly their themes, pointing out their errors,
+cultivating their happy instincts, and modelling and polishing their
+vein and style. That talented tutor appears also to have been their
+platonic adorer--more platonic indeed than he desired. In his verses he
+celebrated by turns _la formosissima Laverna_ and _la bellissima
+Marchesa di Sevigni_, and his lessons were doubtless given _con amore_.
+
+Nature had been lavish indeed in all her gifts to the latter, giving her
+a precision and solidity allied to an inexhaustible playfulness and
+sparkling vivacity. Art, in her, wedded to genius, resulted in that
+incomparable epistolary style which left Balzac and Voiture far away
+behind her, and which Voltaire himself even has not surpassed.
+
+We must now speak of him who was destined to bias, sway, and finally
+determine the future course of Madame de Longueville's life through the
+conquest of her heart and mind--La Rochefoucauld--the man who induced
+her to embark with him on the stormy sea of politics, whose irresistible
+tide swept her past the landmarks of loyalty and reputability to make
+shipwreck, amongst the rocks and shoals of civil war, of fame, fortune,
+and domestic happiness.
+
+Up to the moment of her appearance on the scene of party strife in
+connection with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had not achieved
+much _political_ notoriety. Neither had her fair fame been compromised
+by the very insignificant gallantry of a long train of court danglers,
+nor through her involuntary participation in the affair of the letters
+with Madame de Montbazon. She could scarcely fail to be touched by the
+devotion of Coligny, who had shed his blood to avenge her of the outrage
+of that vindictive woman. For a moment, it is true, she had listened
+carelessly and harmlessly to the attention of the brave and intellectual
+Miossens. Still later she compromised herself somewhat with the Duke de
+Nemours; but the only man she truly loved with heart and soul was La
+Rochefoucauld. To him she devoted herself wholly; for him she sacrificed
+everything--duty, interest, repose, reputation. For him she staked her
+fortune and her life. Through him she exhibited the most equivocal and
+most contradictory conduct. It was La Rochefoucauld who caused her to
+take part in the Fronde; who, as he willed, made her advance or recede;
+who united her to, or separated her from, her family; who governed her
+absolutely. In a word, she consented to be in his hand merely an heroic
+instrument. Pride and passion had doubtless something to do with this
+life of adventure and that contempt of peril. But of what stamp must
+have been that soul which could find consolation in all this? And, as
+often happens, the man to whom she thus devoted herself was not wholly
+worthy of her. He had infinite spirit; but he was coldly calculating,
+profoundly selfish, meanly ambitious. He measured others by himself. He
+was naturally as subtle in evil, as she was disposed spontaneously to
+virtue. Full of finesse in his self-love and in the pursuit of his own
+interest, he was, in reality, the least chivalrous of his sex, although
+he affected all the appearance of the loftiest chivalry. In his
+_liaison_ with Madame de Longueville he made love the slave of ambition.
+
+It will be necessary to touch only slightly upon his career antecedent
+to this period. Francis, the sixth seigneur and second Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, was born 15th December 1613. Little is recorded of his
+early years, he himself having given no details about them. We only know
+that he was very imperfectly educated, his father being desirous that
+he should early adopt the profession of arms. Himself enjoying royal
+favour in the highest degree, his eldest son, the young Prince de
+Marsillac, profitably felt its influence; for, as early as 1626, he
+commanded as _mestre-de-camp_ the Auvergne regiment of cavalry at the
+siege of Casal. He took an active part in the _Day of Dupes_, the period
+at which his memoirs commence. Two years previously, in 1628, he had
+married at Mirebeau a rich and beautiful heiress of Burgundy, Andrée de
+Vivonne, only daughter of André de Vivonne, Baron of Berandière and
+Chasteigneraye, Grand Falconer of France, Captain in the Guards of the
+Queen-Mother, Marie de' Medici, Councillor of State, and one of the most
+trusty followers of Henry IV. The Prince de Marsillac was at first in
+great favour at Court, notwithstanding his father's misconduct, but he
+suddenly compromised himself in a very imprudent way. Closely intimate
+with that virtuous maid-of-honour, Marie de Hautefort, whom the
+saturnine Louis XIII. loved as passionately as his peculiar temperament
+permitted, and also with Mademoiselle de Chémerault, as lovely as she
+was witty, he was by them hurried into a blind devotion to the cause of
+their unhappy mistress and queen, Anne of Austria, "the only party,"
+says he, with unusual candour, "that I ever honestly followed." And very
+soon his confidential relations with the persecuted princess became so
+marked as necessarily to excite Richelieu's suspicions, the more so that
+he ventured to speak of the Cardinal's administration in the boldest
+terms. His friends advised him to retire from Court, at least
+temporarily; but, as he wished to employ his time usefully, he joined as
+a volunteer the army of Marshal de Chastillon, who, with Marshal de la
+Meilleraye, beat Prince Thomas of Savoy at Avein. After behaving with
+distinction there, he returned, when the campaign was over, to Court,
+exhibiting a conduct still more independent, and which resulted in
+forcing him to rejoin his father at Blois.
+
+It was through the proximity of his father's château of Verteuil to
+Poitiers, where the Duchess de Chevreuse was then living in banishment
+from Court, that the Prince de Marsillac first came to ally himself with
+the illustrious political adventuress. At the time when La Rochefoucauld
+obtained political notoriety, a crisis occurred in France in national
+manners, sentiments, and feelings. The nobles, long kept under by the
+strong hand of Richelieu, were again rising into faction, and a spirit
+of intrigue had seized upon everyone.
+
+Although still young, Rochefoucauld had renounced enterprises in which
+the heart is alone concerned. No longer engrossed with love, he was
+wholly given up to ambition; and in order to avenge himself of the Queen
+and Mazarin, who had not in his opinion evinced sufficient generosity
+towards him to satisfy this later passion, he did not hesitate to fling
+himself headlong into partisan intrigue and strife which ended in civil
+war. To render himself the more formidable, he was above all desirous of
+securing to his party the master-mind of Condé; and as Madame de
+Longueville enjoyed the entire confidence of her favourite brother, and
+had great influence with him, the natural result was that in due course
+La Rochefoucauld made persistent love to the lovely Duchess. Seduced by
+the chivalrous manners and romantic antecedents of his youth, and
+yielding partly to the occasion, partly to the obstinate persistence of
+the suit, and some little perhaps to the maternal blood in her veins,
+Madame de Longueville at length surrendered her heart to the daring
+aspirant. She could no longer plead early youth as an excuse, for she
+had already numbered twenty-nine summers, and was only distant by a very
+small span from that formidable epoch in woman's life which a
+discriminating writer of the present day has happily termed the
+_crisis_. That turning point in the Duchess's career was destined to
+prove fatal to her, and the crisis was exactly such as that of which, in
+the case of another celebrated woman, M. Feillet has given a lucid
+analysis--the crisis brought about by an irresistible passion. Let us
+beware of hastily applying to Madame de Longueville that maxim of her
+cynical lover: "Women often think they still love him whom they no
+longer really love. The opportunity of an intrigue, the mental emotion
+to which gallantry gives birth, natural inclination to the pleasure of
+being beloved, and the pain of refusing the lover, together persuade
+them that they cherish a genuine passion when it is nothing more than
+mere coquetry." Better had it been both for herself and for us to
+believe that she had only so loved.
+
+The beauty and intelligence of the Duchess de Longueville formed
+certainly, at the commencement, a large share in the calculating lover's
+determination to seek a _liaison_ with the Duke d'Enghien's sister. The
+crowd of admirers was great around her, and that spectacle of itself
+served to inflame the ambition of M. de Marsillac: subsequent
+reflection, doubtless, must have redoubled his ardour to achieve the
+twofold conquest, in love and party. The Count de Miossens was then
+paying the most assiduous court to Madame de Longueville; he was very
+intimately connected with Marsillac, to whom indeed he was nearly
+related, and whom he kept well acquainted with the course of his amours.
+His suit to the lovely Duchess proving, as has been said, entirely
+unsuccessful, Miossens eventually left the field clear to Marsillac, the
+brave and simple soldier giving place to the self-seeking man of the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE DRAWN INTO THE VORTEX OF POLITICS AND CIVIL
+  WAR BY HER LOVE FOR LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+
+WE have glanced rapidly over the fairest period of Madame de
+Longueville's youth, over those years wherein the splendour of her
+success in the ranks of fashion was not obtained at the expense of her
+virtue. The time approaches in which she is about to yield to the
+manners of her age, and to the long-combatted wants of her heart. The
+love which she inspired in others, she is, in turn, about to feel
+herself, and it is to engage her, at the age of twenty-eight or
+twenty-nine, in a fatal connection, which will make her unmindful of all
+her conjugal duties, and turn her most brilliant qualities against
+herself, against her family, and against France.
+
+Let us now relate briefly what we know of Madame de Longueville from the
+moment of our last mention of her up to the commencement of 1648. There
+is nothing recorded which can authorise the supposition that before the
+close of 1647 Madame de Longueville had ever passed the limits of that
+noble and graceful gallantry which she saw everywhere held in honour,
+the praises of which she heard celebrated at the Hôtel de Rambouillet as
+well as at the Hôtel de Condé, in the great verse of Corneille and in
+the turgid effusions of Voiture. At the time of the duel between Guise
+and Coligny, in 1644, she had seen her twenty-fifth summer. Each
+succeeding year seemed only to enhance the power of her charms, and that
+power she delighted in exhibiting. A thousand adorers pressed around
+her. Coligny was, perhaps, nearest to her heart, but had not, however,
+touched it. But one cannot, with impunity, trifle with love. That tragic
+adventure of the eldest of the Châtillons perishing, in the flower of
+his youth, by the hand of the eldest of the Guises was quickly echoed by
+song and romance through every _salon_, and cast a gloom upon the
+destiny of Madame de Longueville, and gave her, at an early period, a
+fame at once aristocratic and popular, which prepared her wonderfully to
+play a great part in that other tragi-comedy, heroic and gallant, called
+the Fronde. The glory of her brother was reflected upon her, and she
+responded to it somewhat by her own success at Court and in the
+_salons_. She acquired more and more the manners of the times. Coquetry
+and witty talk formed her sole occupation. Her delicate condition not
+permitting her to accompany M. de Longueville to Münster, in June, 1645,
+she remained in Paris. It was the place above all others in which she
+delighted, and whether her heart had received some slight wound, or
+whether it was still entirely whole, it is clear that she was not very
+glad nor greatly charmed to find herself, after her accouchement in the
+spring of 1646, under the cold, grey sky of Westphalia, again beside a
+husband who was not, as Retz says, the most agreeable man to her in the
+world. It is not difficult to divine the feelings with which that petted
+beauty of the Hôtel de Rambouillet must have left Corneille, Voiture,
+and all the elegancies and refinements of life, to take up her abode at
+Munster amongst a set of foreign diplomatists only speaking German or
+Latin. To her it was doubly an exile, for her native soil was not
+merely France--but Paris, the Court, the Hôtel de Condé, Chantilly, the
+Place Royale, the Rue St. Thomas du Louvre.[1] However, there was
+nothing for it but to obey the marital summons, and to set off with her
+step-daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was already more than
+twenty years of age. The Duchess quitted Paris on the 20th of June,
+1646, with a numerous escort under the command of Montigny, lieutenant
+of M. de Longueville's guards. The entire journey from Paris to Munster
+was a continual ovation. The Duke went as far as Wesel to meet her.
+Turenne, who then commanded on the Rhine, treated her to the spectacle
+of an army drawn up in order of battle, and which he manoeuvred for
+her amusement. Was it on that occasion that the great captain, well
+known to have been always impressionable to female beauty, received the
+ardent impulse which was renewed at Stenay in 1650, and which,
+graciously but prudently acknowledged by Madame de Longueville, always
+remained a close and tender tie between them? On the 22nd of July she
+made her triumphal entry into Munster. During the entire autumn of 1646
+and the winter of 1647 she was really the Queen of the Congress. Her
+beauty and grace of manner won homage equally from the grave
+diplomatists as from the great commanders who were there assembled.
+
+    [1] In which the Hôtel de Rambouillet was situate.
+
+Although the Duchess dissembled her ennui with that politeness and
+gentleness peculiar to herself, after the lapse of a few months she had
+had enough of her brilliant exile. In the winter of 1647 there were two
+reasons for her return to France. Her father, the Prince de Condé, had
+died towards the close of December, 1646, to the great loss of his
+family and France, the consequences of which were somewhat later vividly
+felt. Moreover, Madame de Longueville had become _enceinte_, at Münster
+for the third time, and it being her mother's wish that her accouchement
+should take place near her, M. de Longueville was compelled to consent
+to his wife's departure for Paris.
+
+Her return to France, at first to Chantilly, and next to Paris, in the
+month of May, 1647, was quite another sort of triumph to that of her
+journey to the Rhine and Holland, and her sojourn at Münster. She found
+the crowd of her adorers more numerous and attentive than ever, and in
+the foremost rank her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, just fresh
+from college, was taking his first lessons of life in the wider range of
+the great world.
+
+Shortly after her accouchement, the Duchess, who during her sojourn
+amongst the plenipotentiaries charged with negotiating the treaty of
+Westphalia, had acquired a taste, there seems little doubt, for
+political discussions and speculations, first began to manifest an
+inclination to mix herself up with state affairs. There was little
+difficulty in her doing so. The mission which the Duke de Longueville
+continued to fulfil in Germany, the continued favour enjoyed by the
+Princess de Condé, the ever-increasing influence which the Duke
+d'Enghien--recently through his father's death become Prince de
+Condé--had acquired by his repeated victories, all these advantages,
+joined to the prestige of the personal charms of Madame de Longueville,
+placed this latter in a position to take the foremost part in the civil
+war about to break out.
+
+The Court and Paris were then occupied with festivals and diversions,
+which all were eager to share with Madame de Longueville. To please the
+Queen, Mazarin multiplied balls and operas. At a great expense he sent
+to Italy for artists, singers, male and female, who represented the
+opera of _Orpheus_, the machinery and decorations of which are said to
+have cost more than 400,000 livres. The Queen delighted in these
+spectacles. France also, as though inspired by its increasing grandeur,
+took pleasure in the magnificence of its government, and seconded it by
+redoubling its own luxury and magnificence. The pleasures of wit
+occupied the first rank. The Hôtel de Rambouillet, near its decline, was
+shedding its last rays. Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as
+in all the best circles of Paris; and it must be confessed, with her
+good qualities she had also some of the defects of the best
+_précieuses_. The following is the picture which Madame de Motteville
+has traced of her person, of the turn of her mind, of her occupation, of
+her reputation, and of that of the whole house of Condé, at this period,
+which may be considered as the most felicitous of her life: "This
+princess, who during her absence reigned in her family, and whose
+approbation was sought as though she were a real sovereign, did not
+fail, on her return to Paris, to appear in greater splendour than when
+she left it. The friendship entertained for her by the Prince, her
+brother, authorizing her actions and her manners, the greatness of her
+beauty and of her mind increased so much the cabal of her family, that
+she was not long at Court without almost entirely engrossing it. She
+became the object of all desires: her clique was the centre of all
+intrigues, and those whom she loved became also the favourites of
+fortune.... Her intelligence, her wit, and the high opinion entertained
+for her discernment, won for her the admiration of all good people, who
+were persuaded that her esteem alone was enough to give them reputation.
+If, in this way, she governed people's minds, she was not less
+successful by means of her beauty; for although she had suffered from
+the small-pox since the Regency, and although she had lost somewhat of
+the perfection of her complexion, the splendour of her charms excited a
+powerful influence upon those who saw her; and she possessed especially,
+in the highest degree, what in the Spanish language is expressed by
+those words, _donayre, brio, y bizarrie_ (gallant air). She had an
+admirable form, and her person possessed a charm whose power extended
+over our own sex. It was impossible to see her without loving her, and
+without desiring to please her." Some shadows, however, slightly tone
+down this otherwise brilliant portraiture. "She was then too much
+engrossed with her own sentiments, which passed for infallible rules
+while they were not always so, and there was too much affectation in her
+manner of speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty was attributable to
+delicacy of thought and correctness of reasoning. She appeared
+constrained, and the keen raillery exercised by herself and her
+courtiers often fell upon those who, while rendering her their homage,
+felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which ought to be
+observed in polite society, was apparently banished from hers. The
+virtues and qualities of the most excellent creatures are mingled with
+things opposed to them: all men partake of this clay from which they
+derive their origin, and God alone is perfect.... In short it may be
+said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all gallantry were
+concentrated in the family of Bourbon, of which the Prince de Condé was
+the illustrious head, and that fortune was not considered a desirable
+thing if it did not emanate from their hands."
+
+But, unhappily, frivolous pastimes, of a nature both innocent and
+dangerous, now wholly engrossed Madame de Longueville. She was
+surrounded by all the prosperities and all the felicities of this life.
+Everything conspired in her favour, or rather against her--the triumphs
+of mind as well as those of beauty, the continually increasing glory of
+her paternal house, the intoxication of her vanity, the secret
+promptings of her heart. The trial was too much for her, and she
+succumbed to it. In the enchanted circle in which she moved, more than
+one adorer attracted her attention; and one of them succeeded in winning
+her affections, according to all appearances, at the close of 1647, or
+at the commencement of 1648. She was then about twenty-nine.
+
+François, Prince de Marsillac, without being very handsome, was well
+formed and very agreeable. As De Retz says, he was not a warrior,
+although he was a very good soldier. What distinguished him especially
+was his wit. Of this he possessed an infinite fund, of the finest and
+most delicate. His conversation was gentle, easy, insinuating; and his
+manners were at once the most natural and most polished. He had a lofty
+air. In him vanity supplied the place of ambition. At an early age he
+showed a fondness for distinction and for intrigues. Profoundly selfish,
+and having succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of himself, and in
+reducing to theory his nature, his character, and his tastes, he set out
+with very contrary appearances, and those chivalrous manners affected by
+the _Importants_. One of his first connections, as we have seen, was
+with Madame de Chevreuse, who secured him to Queen Anne. When the death
+of Louis XIII. had placed the supreme authority in her hands, he
+imagined that his fortune was made. He sought successively various
+important offices which the Queen could not grant, whatever liking she
+might have entertained for him. Having tried several schemes and failed
+in all, the Queen applied herself to soothing his disappointments, by
+behaviour so tender as to retain him, as would now be said, in a
+moderate opposition, and keep him from taking part in the violence of
+Beaufort. He was not then covered with the disgrace of the _Importants_,
+though he shared it to a certain extent; and he did not cease to be, or
+seem to be, very much attached, not to the government, but to the person
+of the Queen. He looked continually for some great favour at her hands.
+These favours not arriving, he determined to procure through
+intimidation what his self-seeking fidelity had not been able to secure
+for him.
+
+It was during this state of his feelings that he met Madame de
+Longueville, on her return from Munster, surrounded by the most earnest
+admirers. The Count de Miossens, afterwards Marshal d'Albret--handsome,
+brave, full of wit and talent, as enterprising in love as in war--was
+paying her a very zealous court. La Rochefoucauld persuaded Miossens,
+who was one of his friends, that, after all, if he should overcome the
+resistance of Madame de Longueville, it would only be a victory
+flattering to his vanity, whilst that he, La Rochefoucauld, would be
+able to turn it to a very good account. This was certainly a very
+convincing and heroic reason for falling in love! We, however, do no
+more than transfer, with the utmost exactness, a statement made by
+Rochefoucauld himself, which we will now quote word for word: "So much
+unprofitable labour and so much weariness, finally gave me other
+thoughts, and led me to attempt dangerous ways in order to testify my
+hostility to the Queen and Cardinal Mazarin. The beauty of Madame de
+Longueville, her wit, and the charms of her person, attached to her all
+who could hope for her favour. Many men and women of quality strove to
+please her; and besides all this, Madame de Longueville was then upon
+such good terms with all her house, and so tenderly beloved by the Duke
+d'Enghien, her brother, that the esteem and friendship of this prince
+might be counted upon by any one who enjoyed the favour of his sister.
+Many persons vainly attempted this game, mingling other sentiments with
+those of ambition. Miossens, who afterwards became Marshal of France,
+persisted in it longest, but with similar success. I was one of his
+intimate friends, and he told me his designs. They soon fell to the
+ground of themselves. He saw this, and told me several times that he was
+about to renounce them; but vanity, which was the strongest of his
+passions, prevented him from telling me the truth, and he professed to
+entertain hopes which he had not, and which I knew that he could not
+have. Some time passed in this way; and, finally, I had reason to
+believe that I could make a more considerable use than Miossens of the
+friendship and confidence of Madame de Longueville. I made him believe
+it himself. He knew my position at Court; I told him my views, declaring
+that my consideration for him would always restrain me, and that I would
+not attempt to form a connection with Madame de Longueville without his
+permission. I will even confess that I irritated him against her in
+order to obtain it, without, however, saying anything untrue. He
+delivered her over entirely to me, but he repented when he saw the
+result of that connection."[2]
+
+    [2] Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 393.
+
+When, subdued at length by the passion shown for her by La
+Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had determined to respond to it,
+she gave herself up to him wholly--devoting herself in everything to the
+man whom she dared to love. She made it a point of honour, as doubtless
+it was a secret happiness, to share his destiny and to follow him
+without casting one backward glance--sacrificing to him all her private
+interests, the evident interest of her family, and the strongest
+sentiment of her soul, her tenderness for her brother Condé.
+
+The truthful Madame de Motteville, after noting the principal motive
+which urged La Rochefoucauld in his pursuit of Madame de Longueville,
+adds: "In all that she has since done, it is clearly seen that ambition
+was not the only thing that occupied her soul, and that the interests of
+the Prince de Marsillac there held a prominent place. For him she became
+ambitious, for him she ceased to love repose; and in order to show
+herself alive to this affection, she became too insensible to her own
+fame.... The declarations of the Prince de Marsillac, as I have already
+said, had not been displeasing to her; and this nobleman, who was
+perhaps more selfish than tender, wishing through her to promote his own
+interests, believed that he should inspire her with a desire of ruling
+the princes her brothers."[3]
+
+    [3] Mad. de Motteville, vol. ii. p. 17.
+
+Such being the sordid motives of her wooer, the oft-repeated lines,
+therefore, which he wrote with his own hand behind a portrait of the
+Duchess must be construed with a considerable abatement of their poetic
+ardour:--
+
+  "Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire à ses beaux yeux,
+  J'ai fait la guerre aux rois, Je l'aurais faite aux dieux."[4]
+
+    [4] At a later period, after he had lost his sight from a
+    pistol-shot received at the combat of the Porte St. Antoine during
+    the Fronde, and had quarrelled with the Duchess, he parodied his own
+    distich,--
+
+      "Pour ce coeur inconstant, qu'enfin Je connais mieux,
+      J'ai fait la guerre au roi; J'en ai perdu les yeux."
+
+Such a dissembler then was the coldly ambitious, egotistical, clever
+Duke de la Rochefoucauld--a man capable of sacrificing everybody to his
+own interests. Madame de Longueville, such as we have depicted her,
+could not help being the instrument of a man of like character. M.
+Cousin seems to have arrived at that conclusion, since, in designating
+that princess as _the soul of the Fronde_, he acknowledges "that she
+troubled the state and her own family by an extravagant passion for one
+of the chiefs of the _Importants_, become one of the chiefs of the
+Fronde." But M. Cousin is very nearly silent touching the Prince de
+Conti, of whom the Duchess was the sole motive-power on all occasions,
+and he merely says that this young prince submitted to be led by his
+sister in order to stand upon an equal footing with his elder brother
+whilst waiting for a cardinal's hat.
+
+Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, born in 1629, was eighteen years of
+age in 1647. He had good intellect and a not unpleasant countenance; but
+a slight deformity and a certain feebleness of constitution rendering
+him unfit for the army, he was early destined for the church. He had
+studied among the Jesuits at the college of Clermont with Molière, and
+his father had obtained for him the richest benefices, and demanded a
+cardinal's hat. While waiting for this hat dignity, Armand de Bourbon
+was living at the Hôtel de Condé, partly an ecclesiastic, partly a man
+of the world, passing his days with wits and men of fashion, and greedy
+of every species of success. The glory of his brother filled him with
+emulation, and he dreamed himself of warlike exploits. When his sister
+returned from Germany, he went to meet her, and, dazzled by her beauty,
+her grace, and her fame, he began to love her rather as a gallant than
+as a brother. He followed her blindly in all her adventures, in which
+he exhibited as much courage as volatility. When he had made his peace
+with the Court--thanks to his marriage with a niece of Mazarin, the
+beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi--he obtained the
+command-in-chiefship of the army of Catalonia, in which capacity he
+acquitted himself with great honour. He was much less successful in
+Italy. On the whole, he was far from injuring his name, and he gave to
+France, in the person of his young son, a true warrior, one of the best
+pupils of Condé, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth
+century. Constrained, through ill-health, to betake himself again to
+religion, the Prince de Conti finished, where he had begun, with
+theology. He composed several meritorious and learned works on various
+religious subjects.
+
+In 1647, he was entirely devoted to vanity and pleasure. He adored his
+sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous empire, which
+continued during several years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE DRIVEN INTO EXILE FOR THE THIRD TIME.
+
+
+WHEN in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England, the fugitive consort
+of Charles I., sought an asylum in France from the fury of the English
+parliamentarians, and went to drink the Bourbon waters, Madame de
+Chevreuse eagerly desired to see once more that illustrious princess,
+who had so warmly welcomed her when herself an exile, at the Court of
+St. James's. Queen Henrietta, too, who like her mother, Marie de'
+Medici, as well as the Duchess, was of the Spanish and Catholic party,
+would have been delighted to have mingled her tears with those of so old
+and faithful a friend. But the royal exile did not deem it right to give
+way to her inclination without Queen Anne's permission, who at that
+moment was according her such noble hospitality. Anne of Austria
+politely replied that the Queen, her sister, was perfectly free to act
+as she chose; but it was intimated to her, through the Chevalier de
+Jars, that it was inexpedient to receive the visit of a person who,
+through misguided conduct, had forfeited Her Majesty's favour. This
+fresh disgrace, added to so many others, increased the Duchess's
+irritation to the highest pitch. She redoubled her efforts to break the
+yoke that oppressed her. Mazarin watched and was made acquainted with
+all her manoeuvres. He had the comptroller of her household arrested
+in Paris, and shortly afterwards even her physician, whilst accompanying
+Madame de Chevreuse's daughter in her carriage for an airing. The
+Duchess complained bitterly of this latter proceeding in a letter which
+she contrived to have handed to the Queen. She asserted that
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced to quit the vehicle, two archers
+levelling their pistols at her breast, and shouting all the
+while--"Fire! fire!" and they threatened, after the same fashion, the
+female attendants who were with her. At the same time that she protested
+her own innocence, she did not fail to challenge Anne's sense of
+justice, with a view to neutralize the enmity of Mazarin. But the
+physician whom he had had arrested, on being flung into the Bastile,
+made avowals which opened up traces of very grave matters; and an exempt
+of the King's guards was despatched to Madame de Chevreuse with an order
+commanding her to retire to Angoulême, and the officer was even charged
+to convey her thither. At Angoulême was that strong fortress used as a
+state prison, in which her friend Châteauneuf had been confined on her
+account for ten long years. This reminiscence, ever present to the
+Duchess's imagination, terrified her sorely. She dreaded lest it should
+be the same sort of _retreat_ which they now intended for her; and the
+active-minded woman, preferring every kind of extremity to being
+imprisoned, decided upon renewing the career of a wanderer and an
+adventurer, as in 1637, and to tread for the third time the wearisome
+paths of exile.
+
+But how greatly were circumstances then changed around her, and how
+changed was she also herself! Her first exile from France in 1626, had
+proved one continuous triumph. Young, lovely, and adored by every one,
+she had quitted Nancy, leaving the Duke de Lorraine a slave
+henceforward to the sway of her charms, only to return to Paris and
+trouble the mind of the stony, impassive Richelieu. In 1637 her flight
+into Spain had, on the contrary, proved a most severe trial to her. She
+had been forced to traverse the whole of France disguised in male
+attire, brave more than one danger, endure much suffering and privation,
+only to struggle in the sequel with five consecutive years of fruitless
+agitation. But, at any rate, she then had youth to back her, and the
+consciousness of the power of that irresistible fascination which
+procured her adorers and suitors wherever she wandered, even among the
+occupants of thrones. She had faith likewise in the Queen's friendship,
+and a firm reliance that the time would come when that friendship would
+repay her for all her devotedness. But now age she felt was creeping
+upon her; her beauty, verging towards its decline, promised her
+henceforward conquests only few and far between. She perceived that in
+losing her power over Anne of Austria's heart, she had lost the greater
+portion of her prestige both in France and Europe. The flight of the
+Duke de Vendôme, shortly about to be followed by that of the Duke de
+Bouillon, left the _Importants_ without any chief of note. The Duchess
+had found Mazarin to be quite as skilful and formidable an enemy as
+Richelieu. Victory seemed to have entered into a compact with him. De
+Bouillon's own brother, Turenne, solicited the honour of serving him,
+and the young Duke d'Enghien won battle after battle for him. She knew
+also that the Cardinal had that in his hands wherewith he could condemn
+and sentence her to incarceration for the rest of her days. When,
+however, almost every one forsook her, this extraordinary woman did not
+give way to self-abandonment. As soon as the exempt Riquetti had
+signified to her the order of which he was the bearer, she adopted
+measures with her accustomed promptitude, and, accompanied by her
+daughter Charlotte, who had hastened to her mother and refused to quit
+her, she succeeded in reaching by cross-roads the thickets of La Vendée
+and the solitudes of Brittany; until, approaching within a few leagues
+of St.-Malo, she solicited an asylum at the hands of the Marquis de
+Coetquen. That noble and generous Breton gave her the hospitality which
+was due to such a woman struggling against such adversity. Marie de
+Rohan did not abuse it; and after placing her jewels in his hands for
+safety, as she had formerly done in those of La Rochefoucauld,[1] she
+embarked with her daughter in the depth of winter at St.-Malo, on board
+a small vessel bound for Dartmouth, whence she purposed crossing over to
+Dunkirk and entering Flanders. But the English parliamentarian
+men-of-war were cruising in the Channel. They fell in with and captured
+the wretched little bark, and carried her into the Isle of Wight. There
+Madame de Chevreuse was recognised; and as she was known to be a friend
+of the Queen of England, the Roundheads were not loth to subject her to
+sufficiently rough treatment; and afterwards hand her over to Mazarin.
+Fortunately, in the Governor of the Isle of Wight, she met with the
+Earl of Pembroke, whom she had formerly known. The Duchess appealed to
+his courtesy,[2] and thanks to his good offices, she obtained--but with
+no little difficulty--passports which permitted her to gain Dunkirk, and
+thence the Spanish Low Countries.
+
+    [1] Subsequently, she requested the Marquis de Coetquen to hand over
+    her jewels to Montrésor, who transferred them to a messenger of the
+    Duchess. But Mazarin was informed of everything from first to last.
+    He was aware of every tittle of the Duchess's correspondence, and
+    tried to seize with the strong hand the famous gems which had
+    formerly belonged to Marie de' Medicis' favourite foster-sister,
+    Leonora Galligaï, created Marchioness d'Ancre. On the murder of the
+    Marshal d'Ancre, these diamonds and _parures_, valued at two hundred
+    thousand crowns, with a vast amount of other property confiscated by
+    an edict of Louis XIII., were bestowed by the king on his lucky
+    favourite, De Luynes, the first husband of Marie de Rohan. Failing
+    in his attempt to possess himself of these costly gems, Mazarin
+    arrested Montrésor, and kept him upwards of a year in prison. See
+    "Memoirs of Montrésor."
+
+    [2] See her letter to the Earl of Pembroke, dated Isle of Wight,
+    29th April, 1645, in "Archives des Affaires Étrangères, France," t.
+    cvi. p. 162.
+
+The adventurous exile took up her abode for a short time at Liège, and
+applied herself to maintain and consolidate to the utmost degree
+possible between Spain, Austria, and the Duke de Lorraine, an alliance,
+which was the final resource of the _Importants_, and the last basis of
+her own political reputation and high standing. Mazarin, however, having
+got the upper hand, resumed all Richelieu's designs, and, like him, made
+strenuous efforts to detach Lorraine from his two allies. The gay Duke
+was then madly enamoured of the fair Beatrice de Cusance, Princess of
+Cantecroix. Mazarin laboured to gain over the lady, and he proposed to
+the ambitious and enterprising Charles IV. to break with Spain and march
+into Franche-Comté with the aid of France, promising to leave him in
+possession of all he might conquer. The Cardinal succeeded in winning
+over to his interest Duke Charles's own sister (the former mistress of
+Puylaurens), the Princess de Phalzbourg, then greatly fallen from her
+former "high estate," and who gave him secret and faithful account of
+all that passed in her brother's immediate circle. Mazarin required of
+her especially to keep him apprised of Madame de Chevreuse's slightest
+movement. He knew that she was in correspondence with the Duke de
+Bouillon, that she disposed of the Imperial general Piccolomini by means
+of her friend Madame de' Strozzi, and even that she had preserved
+intact her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, in spite of the charms of the
+fair Beatrice. By the help of the Princess de Phalzbourg he watched
+every step, and disputed with her, foot to foot, possession of the
+fickle Charles IV., sometimes the victor, but very often the vanquished
+in this mysterious struggle.
+
+The advantage remained with Madame de Chevreuse. Her ascendancy over
+Charles IV.--the offspring of love, surviving that passion, but more
+potent than all the later loves of that inconstant Prince--retained him
+in alliance with Spain, and frustrated Mazarin's projects. By degrees
+she became once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
+French Government. She did not always attack it from without, but
+fostered internal difficulties, which, like the heads of the hydra, were
+unceasingly springing forth. Surrounded by a knot of ardent and
+obstinate emigrants, among others by the Count de Saint-Ybar, one of the
+most resolute men of the party, she kept up the spirits of the remnant
+of the _Importants_ left in France, and everywhere added fuel to the
+fire of sedition. Actuated by strong passion, yet mistress of herself,
+she preserved a calm brow amidst the wrack of the tempest, at the same
+time that she displayed an indefatigable activity in surprising the
+enemy on his weak side. Making use alike of the Catholic and the
+Protestant party, at times she meditated a revolt in Languedoc, or a
+descent upon Brittany; at others, on the slightest symptom of discontent
+betrayed by some person of importance, she laboured to drive out
+Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  FATAL INFLUENCE OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE'S PASSION FOR LA
+  ROCHEFOUCAULD.--THE FRONDE.
+
+
+WE do not propose to enter into the labyrinth of intrigues which
+preceded the outbreak of the Fronde, but confine ourselves to an
+endeavour to trace the motives which led Madame de Longueville to throw
+herself into the centre of the malcontents and to figure as the chief
+heroine in the varied scenes of that tragi-comedy of civil war.
+
+The first Fronde was formed out of the _débris_ of the _Importants_. It
+was composed of all the malcontents who made common cause with those
+members of the parliament who were irritated by the frequent bursal
+edicts, notably that which, in 1648, created twelve new appointments of
+_maîtres de requêtes_.
+
+And now what gave birth to the Fronde, or what sustained it? What roused
+up the old party of the _Importants_, stifled for some years, it would
+seem, under the laurels of Rocroy? What separated the princes of the
+blood from the Crown? What turned against the throne that illustrious
+house of Condé, which, until then, had been its sword and shield? There
+were doubtless many general causes for all this; but it is impossible
+for us to conceal one--private, it is true, but which exercised a
+powerful and deplorable influence--the unexpected love of Madame de
+Longueville for one of the chiefs of the _Importants_, who had become
+one of the chiefs of the Fronde. Yes--sad to say--it was Madame de
+Longueville, who, joining the party of the malcontents, attracted
+thereto, at first, a part of her family, then her entire family, and
+thus precipitated it from the pinnacle of honour and glory to which so
+many services had elevated it.
+
+Scarcely had the treaty of Münster suspended the scourge of foreign war
+for France, than internal dissensions began to trouble the realm. The
+hatred which the Parliament bore to Mazarin, through his repression of
+its functions, primarily gave birth to civil war. The Duchess de
+Longueville became in the faction of the Fronde what the Duchess de
+Montpensier had been in that of the League. The former, however, did not
+at first attach so great an importance to the cause she espoused.
+Characteristically careless, she was by nature little inclined to
+agitation and intrigue. We have already shown that before her _liaison_
+with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had been a stranger to
+politics. Occupied solely with innocent gallantry and the homage of the
+most refined society of the day, she allowed herself in all else to be
+led by her father and her elder brother. But no sooner was La
+Rochefoucauld master of her heart, than she gave herself wholly up to
+him, and became a mere instrument in his hands. Having been by him
+inspired with ambition, she made it a point of honour, and doubtless a
+secret happiness, to share his destiny.
+
+It seems not improbable that the Duchess might have caught a liking for
+politics and negotiation during the conference of Munster. Certain it is
+that once plunged into the eddying tide of the Fronde, she loftily
+announced the project of remedying the general disorder of affairs. But
+she especially desired to employ therein the means which confer
+celebrity, and it is difficult to deny that ambition, although without
+determinate aim, and the desire of establishing a high opinion of her
+intellect, may have had some share in the reasons which induced her to
+embrace the party opposed to Mazarin. With herself she drew her husband
+into it, as well as the Prince de Conti, her younger brother. As for the
+elder, the victorious Condé, he at first declared for the King and the
+Queen-Regent, which greatly incensed his sister against him, and caused
+her to enter into close compact, amongst others, with the Coadjutor,
+afterwards Cardinal de Retz--that mischievous man who figured so
+conspicuously as the evil genius of the Fronde.
+
+The Gondis, who were the chief advisers of the St. Bartholomew, owed to
+that terrible exploit the result of being very nearly the hereditary
+possessors of the Archbishopric of Paris. But this last Gondi--John
+Francis Paul--owed something more: to be at the same time governor of
+Paris, and to unite both powers. With such purpose, he artfully worked
+upon the city through the curates who, distributing bread, soup, and
+every other kind of alms, carried along with them the famished masses.
+This young ecclesiastic of the de Retz family had risen into great
+favour with the serious and religious sections of the Parisian
+community. He was nephew of the Archbishop of Paris, and was himself
+Archbishop of Corinth; but as his flock in that metropolitan city were
+schismatic (except those who had turned Turks), he had leisure to assist
+his uncle in his high office, and was appointed his Coadjutor and
+successor. He preached at all the churches, held visitations at the
+convents, catechised the young, and consulted with the senior clergy on
+the management of the diocese. When he rode through the streets he was
+saluted with cheers and blessings, and the orators of the Fronde held
+him up as the pattern of all the Christian virtues. At night he put off
+his episcopal robes, disguised himself as a trooper or tradesman, and
+attended the meetings of the discontented. In a short time he had
+distributed seven or eight thousand pounds in stirring up the passions
+of the people, and was daily in expectation of being summoned by his
+patroness the Queen to exert his influence in quelling them. The
+populace, with an Archbishop-governor of Paris at their head, imagined
+that they were going to rule there as in the time of the League. This
+made them both blind and deaf to the morals and manners of the little
+prelate. A braggart, a duellist, and more than a gallant--though having
+swarthy, ugly features, turned-up nose, and short, bandy legs--yet his
+expressive eyes carried off every fault, sparkling as they were with
+intelligence, audacity, and libertinage. Few withstood this subtle
+knave, for he was wont to waive all ceremonial and spare everybody
+prefatory speeches. The ladies of gallantry--especially those whose
+lover he was--were his most indefatigable political agents. The Queen,
+at length, suspecting that the worthy Archbishop was not quite the
+simple and self-denying individual he appeared, had him watched and
+followed. Whilst he flattered himself with the anticipation that his
+assistance would be solicited at the Palais Royal, the Queen was making
+a jest of him, and Mazarin determined to strike the blow.
+
+On the 27th of August, 1648, a vast assemblage crowded the spacious
+precincts of Notre Dame, to celebrate a _Te Deum_ for the great victory
+of Lens, of which the youthful Condé had just sent home the news. When
+the multitude were dispersing, a dash was made upon two or three of the
+obnoxious councillors who had inflamed the discussions of the
+Fronde--for that civil war was fairly on foot ere Anne of Austria and
+Mazarin knew of its existence. Two of the intended prisoners escaped,
+but a surly, burly demagogue, named Broussel, was tracked to his house
+in the mechanics' quarter of Paris, and arrested by an armed force.
+Thereupon the populace rose and armed against the Court. They made an
+extraordinary stand in the streets, having raised _twelve hundred_
+barricades in the course of twelve hours. They had no further need of De
+Retz. It was, however, one of his mistresses, the sister of a president
+and wife of a city captain, who having in her house the drum belonging
+to the citizen guard of that quarter, gave the first impulse by causing
+it to be beaten. The train was thus fired and the flame of civil war
+kindled. This was called the _Day of the Barricades_.
+
+Thus, the royal power which, as wielded by Richelieu, had come to
+be considered as absolute, was attacked by three parties
+simultaneously--the great nobles, the parliamentarians, and the
+_bourgeoisie_; but, notwithstanding the dread of the common enemy, which
+united them, those parties were of different origin and conditions of
+existence, and consequently had different interests also. The great
+nobles wished to exercise power by placing themselves above the law; the
+parliament to increase its own through the law; the citizens to
+establish theirs at the expense of the law: for in their eyes the law
+was full of abuses and the royal power cruelly oppressive. All three
+parties, in order to arrive at their several ends, had, therefore,
+recourse to violence, or derived aid from it.
+
+On the return of Madame de Longueville from Münster, there was already a
+ferment in the minds of the Parisians, of which the Regent took little
+heed. The Fronde cabal was then brooding in the dark. When the
+rebellion, formed by Gondi, broke out at last under the circumstances
+just narrated, Madame de Longueville, alone of all the princesses of the
+blood, did not accompany Anne of Austria in her flight to Rueil. The
+Duchess strove her utmost to strengthen, by the concurrence of her
+entire family, the faction whose fortunes she had embraced through
+devotion to Marsillac. She did not, however, then succeed in detaching
+Condé from the Regent's party. The battle of the barricades followed
+close upon that of Lens, Condé's last victory. On his return, that
+victorious young soldier found royalty humiliated, the Parliament
+triumphing and dictating laws to the Crown; the Duke de Beaufort, with
+whom he once thought of measuring swords in defence of the honour of his
+sister, freed from his prison in Vincennes, and master of Paris by aid
+of the populace who idolized him; the vain and fickle Abbé de Retz
+transformed into a tribune of the people; the Prince de Conti into a
+generalissimo; M. de Longueville under the guidance of his wife and La
+Rochefoucauld; and the feeble Duke d'Orléans fancying himself almost a
+King, because he saw the Queen humiliated, and because the Frondeurs,
+cunningly flattering his self-love, were treating him like a sovereign.
+Condé, at a glance, saw the situation of affairs and his duty also; and
+without any hesitation he offered his sword to the Queen.
+
+Brother and sister were, therefore, about to be arrayed against each
+other in the strife of civil war, and a stormy explanation took place
+between them. It is asserted that for some time back their reciprocal
+tenderness had suffered more than one interruption; that, in 1645,
+Madame de Longueville had crossed the loves of her brother and
+Mademoiselle du Vigean; that, in 1646, Condé, seeing her too intimate
+with La Rochefoucauld, had caused her to be summoned to Münster by her
+husband. But for this we have only the authority of the Duchess de
+Nemours, her step-daughter and unsparing censor, and nothing is less
+probable. The passion of Condé for Mademoiselle de Vigean extinguished
+itself, as all contemporaries affirm. The attentions of La Rochefoucauld
+to Madame de Longueville may have preceded the embassy of Münster, but
+they were not observed until 1647, and it is at the close of this year
+that Madame de Motteville places them, while attributing them especially
+to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share the confidence of the sister
+with the brother. But it is very certain that as soon as the latter
+remarked this connection, he disapproved of it entirely; and not
+succeeding in his effort to rouse his sister from the intoxication of a
+first passion, he passed from the most ardent affection to a bitter
+discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his return from Lens, this
+connection had acquired its greatest strength, and become almost
+notorious. Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, did then
+everything possible to gain over her brother. She brought all her
+allurements to bear upon him, all her fondlings. She put into play
+everything which she thought might influence his fickle and passionate
+disposition--but failed. Neither did he succeed in gaining over her his
+accustomed ascendency. They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame de
+Longueville plunged more deeply into the Fronde, and Condé applied
+himself to giving the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson.
+
+The Queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the young King and all the
+government. Paris was under the absolute control of the Fronde. It
+stirred up the Parliament by the aid of a few ambitious councillors and
+by seditious and mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great part of
+the Parisian clergy through the Coadjutor of the Archbishop De Retz, who
+possessed and exercised all the authority of his uncle. It had
+continually at its head the two great houses of Vendôme and Lorraine,
+with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti and the Duke de
+Longueville, followed by a very great number of illustrious families,
+including the Dukes d'Elbeuf, de Bouillon, and de Beaufort, and other
+powerful nobles. It gave law in the _salons_, thanks to a brilliant bevy
+of pretty women, who drew after them the flower of the young nobility.
+In short, the army itself was divided. Turenne, with his troops, who
+were stationed near the Rhine until the perfect conclusion of the treaty
+of Westphalia, obedient to the suggestions of his elder brother, the
+Duke de Bouillon, who wished to recover his principality of Sedan, had
+just raised the standard of revolt, and was threatening to place the
+Court between his own army and that of Paris. The parliament of the
+capital had sent deputies to all the parliaments of the kingdom, and was
+thus forming a sort of formidable parliamentary league in the face of
+monarchy. Condé took command of all the troops that remained faithful,
+and everywhere opposed the insurrection. He wrote himself to the army of
+the Rhine, which well knew him, and which after the rout sustained by
+Turenne at Mariendal, had been led back by him to victory: these
+letters, supported by the proceedings of the government, succeeded in
+arresting the revolt; and Turenne, abandoned by his own soldiers, was
+obliged to fly to Holland.[1] At ease on this head, Condé marched upon
+Paris, and placed it under siege. Instead of disputing the ground, as
+he might have done, foot by foot, with the sedition, he allowed it the
+freest course, in the certainty that the spectacle of licentiousness
+which could not fail to appear would, little by little, restore to
+royalty those who had for a moment gone astray. He began by summoning,
+in the Queen's name and through his mother, all his family to
+Saint-Germain. The Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville did not dare
+disobey; but La Rochefoucauld, seeing that the Fronde was in the
+greatest peril, hastened after these two princes. Having brought them
+back to Paris, he made the Prince de Conti generalissimo--placing under
+him the Dukes d'Elbeuf and de Bouillon--and who shared authority with
+the Marshal de la Mothe Houdancourt, governor of Paris. Madame de
+Longueville excused herself to the Queen and to her mother on the
+grounds of her delicate condition, which would not permit her to
+undertake the least fatigue. In fact, Madame de Longueville, it may be
+noted, was _enceinte_ for the last time in 1648, when, it must be
+confessed, her connection with La Rochefoucauld was well known. It was
+in this condition that, willing to share the perils of her friends,
+proud also of playing a part and of filling all the trumpets of fame,
+she enacted Pallas as well as she was able. It is at least certain that
+she shared all the fatigues of the siege, that she was present at the
+reviews of the troops, at the parades of the citizen soldiery, and that
+all the civil and military plans were discussed before her. In this
+disorder and confusion, amidst the tumult of arms and vociferations of
+the insurrection, she appeared as if in her natural element. She
+encouraged, counselled, acted, and the most energetic resolutions
+emanated from her. The memoirs of the times are full, in regard to this,
+of the most curious details. The Hôtel de Longueville was continually
+filled with officers and generals; nothing was seen there but plumes,
+helmets, and swords.
+
+    [1] "History of Turenne," by Ramsay, vol. ii.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, the democratic spirit which had originated the
+Fronde was not satisfied. It beheld with displeasure all the forces of
+Paris in the hands of the brother, of the brother-in-law, and of the
+sister of him who commanded the siege. Believing very little, and with
+reason, in the patriotism of the princes, the citizens demanded some
+sureties from the chiefs who might at any time betray them, and make
+peace, at their expense, with Saint-Germain. No one seemed to know how
+to appease this clamorous multitude, without which nothing further could
+be done. It was then that Madame de Longueville showed that, if she had
+forgotten her true duties, she had retained the energy of her race and
+the intrepidity of the Condés. Under the advice of De Retz, she induced
+her husband to present himself to the Parliament and inform them that he
+had come to offer his services, as well as the towns of Rouen, Caen,
+Dieppe, and the whole of Normandy, of which he was governor; and he
+begged the Parliament to consent that his wife and two children should
+be lodged at the Hôtel de Ville as a guarantee for the execution of his
+word. His speech was received with acclamations; and while the
+deliberations were still going on, De Retz proceeded to seek the Duchess
+de Longueville and the Duchess de Bouillon, both prepared to act a part
+in the scene he proposed to display. He had already caused the proposal
+of the Duke de Longueville to be spread amongst the populace; and
+hurrying the two princesses into a carriage, dressed with studied and
+artful negligence, but surrounded by a splendid suite, and followed by
+an immense crowd to the principal quarter of the insurrection--the Hôtel
+de Ville--those lovely and interesting women were placed in the hands
+of the people as hostages with all that was most dear to them.
+"Imagine," says De Retz, "these two beautiful persons upon the balcony
+of the Hôtel de Ville; more beautiful because they appeared neglected,
+although they were not. Each held in her arms one of her children, who
+were as beautiful as their mothers." La Grève was full of people, even
+to the house tops; the men all raised cries of joy, and the women wept
+with emotion. De Retz, meanwhile, threw handfuls of money from the
+windows of the Hôtel de Ville amongst the populace, and then, leaving
+the princesses under the protection of the city, he returned to the
+Palais de Justice, followed by an immense multitude, whose acclamations
+rent the skies.
+
+On the night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville gave
+birth to her last child, a son, who was baptized by De Retz, having for
+its godfather the Provost, for its godmother the Duchess de Bouillon,
+and who received the name of Charles de Paris; the child of the Fronde,
+handsome, talented, and brave; who during his life was the troublesome
+hope, the melancholy joy of his mother, and the cause of her greatest
+grief in 1672, when he perished, at the passage of the Rhine, by the
+side of his uncle, Condé.
+
+The Prince de Conti being declared _generalissimo of the army of the
+King, under the parliament_, and the Dukes de Bouillon and Elbeuf, with
+the Marshal de la Mothe, generals under him, De Retz saw the full
+fruition of his intrigues. A civil war was now inevitable. The great and
+the little, the wise and the foolish, the rash and the prudent, the
+cowardly and the brave, were all engaged and jumbled up pell-mell on
+both sides; and the mixture was so strange, so heterogeneous, and so
+incomprehensible, that a sentiment of the ridiculous was irresistibly
+paramount, and the war began amongst fits of laughter on all sides. That
+same day Condé's cavaliers came galloping into the faubourgs to fire
+their pistols at the Parisians, whilst the Marquis de Noirmoutier went
+forth with the cavalry of the Fronde to skirmish with them, and
+returning to the Hôtel de Ville, entered the circle of the Duchess de
+Longueville, followed by his officers, each wearing his cuirass, as he
+came from the field. The hall was filled with ladies preparing to dance,
+the troops were drawn up in the square, and this mixture of blue scarves
+and ladies, cuirasses and violins and trumpets, formed, says De Retz, a
+spectacle much more common in romances than anywhere else.
+
+The serio-grotesque drama of the Fronde was thus initiated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE WINS HER BROTHER CONDÉ OVER TO THE FRONDE.
+
+
+THIS first raising of bucklers by the Frondeurs was not of long
+duration. At the conclusion of a peace between Mazarin and the
+Parliament, a perfect understanding prevailed amongst all the members of
+the Condé family. The civil dissensions, however, were sufficiently
+prolonged to exhibit the errors of all parties--even those who had
+entered therein with virtuous inclinations and intentions, ashamed of
+the stains which had tarnished them in the struggle, almost invariably
+ended by confining themselves to the narrow circle of individual
+interests, and completed their degradation by no longer recognizing any
+other motive for their conduct than that of sordid selfishness. All care
+for the public weal became extinct; men's hearts were insensible to all
+generous sympathy; their minds dead to every elevating impulse--like to
+those aromatics which, after diffusing both glow and perfume from their
+ardent brazier, lose by combustion all power of further rekindling, and
+present nothing else than vile ashes, without heat, light, or odour.
+
+The peace concluded between the Minister and the Fronde was destined to
+be of short duration. It was, properly speaking, nothing but a
+suspension of arms, and in no degree a suspension of intrigues and
+cabals. That suspension of arms, however, had been accompanied by an
+amnesty, including all persons except the Coadjutor. The other chief
+personages who had played a part in the insurrection of Paris, and who
+now proceeded to visit the Court, were by no means warmly received by
+the Queen, though Mazarin himself displayed nothing but mildness and
+humility. The Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Condé visited the city;
+and the first was received with much enthusiasm by the populace, who
+attributed to his counsels the truce of which all parties had stood so
+much in need. The Prince de Condé, whose warlike spirit had not only
+aided in stirring up the strife at first, but would have protracted it
+still further had his advice been listened to, was not looked upon with
+the same favour by the Parisians; but the Parliament sent deputations to
+them both on their arrival in the city, to compliment them on their
+efforts for the restoration of peace.
+
+During Condé's visit to Paris, a reconciliation took place between him
+and his fair sister, the Duchess de Longueville. The violent language he
+had used to her on various occasions, the imputations he had cast upon
+her character, and the harsh nature of the advice which he had given to
+her husband concerning her, were all forgotten, and she resumed her
+ascendancy over his mind so completely as in a very short time to detach
+him entirely from the side of Mazarin, and to lead him, before he
+quitted Paris, to speak publicly of the Minister in the scornful and
+contemptuous manner in which he was usually treated by the leaders of
+the Fronde.
+
+The Duchess de Longueville herself remained as strongly opposed to the
+Cardinal as ever. But though she still retained towards Anne of Austria
+that dislike which she had always felt, and which the sense of an
+inferiority of station greatly augmented in a woman of a haughty and
+ambitious character, she found herself obliged, in common propriety, to
+appear at Court on the conclusion of the Siege of Paris. The first
+visits of her husband and herself, after the insurrection, were rendered
+remarkable by the extraordinary degree of embarrassment and timidity
+shown by two such bold and fearless persons. The Duke de Longueville
+arrived first, coming from Normandy; and was followed by a very numerous
+and splendid train, as though he rested for mental support upon the
+number of his retainers. The Queen received him in the midst of her
+Court, with Mazarin standing beside her; and every one crowded round to
+hear what excuses the Duke would offer for abandoning the royal family
+at the moment of their greatest need. Longueville, however, approached
+the Regent with a troubled and embarrassed air, attempted to speak,
+became first deadly pale, and then as red as fire, but could not utter a
+word. He then turned and bowed to Mazarin, who came forward, spoke to
+him, and led him to a window, where they conversed for some time
+together in private; after which they visited each other frequently, and
+became apparent friends.
+
+The reception of the proud and beautiful Duchess at St. Germain, though
+not so public, was not less embarrassing. The Queen had lain down on her
+bed when the Duchess was announced, and, as was customary in those days,
+received her in that situation. Madame de Longueville was naturally very
+apt to blush, and the frequent variation of her complexion added
+greatly, we are told, to the dazzling character of her beauty. Her
+blushes, however, on approaching the Queen, became painful; all that she
+could utter was a few confused sentences, of which the Queen could not
+understand a word, and those were pronounced in so low a tone that
+Madame de Motteville, who listened attentively, could distinguish
+nothing but the word _Madame_.
+
+As there was no sincerity in these reconciliations, it is not surprising
+to find that ere long the conduct of the Prince de Condé gave no slight
+uneasiness to Mazarin. The Prince had, however, brought back the Court
+to Paris; but from that very day he had shown a great change in his
+attitude, and it is to the influence of La Rochefoucauld that such
+change must be attributed. At that moment, in fact, the Sieur Condé had
+become reconciled with every member of his family, and even with his
+sister's lover. He drew closer also the links between himself and the
+Duke d'Orleans, for whom he shewed great deference, say his
+contemporaries, and he began to treat Mazarin with much indifference,
+rallying him publicly, and declaring aloud that he regretted to have
+maintained him in a post of which he was so little worthy. Enjoying a
+great military reputation, feared and esteemed by the bulk of his
+countrymen, he chafed at seeing himself compromised by the unpopularity
+of the Cardinal. He thought that by drawing closer to the _Frondeurs_,
+he should rid himself of the feeling that oppressed him. In the outset,
+he had no idea of actively joining that faction, but his sister did the
+rest, and hurried him on to become the enemy of that party of which he
+had just been the saviour.
+
+It is true that, for the memorable service which he had recently
+rendered, Condé reaped scarcely any benefit; but his noble conduct
+increased the splendour of his last campaign of 1648. It added to his
+military titles those of defender and saviour of the throne, of
+pacificator of the realm, of arbiter and enlightened conciliator of
+parties. It gave the climax to his credit and to his glory.
+Nevertheless, he did not lose sight of the jealous feeling to which
+such claims gave birth, whether on the part of the Duke d'Orleans or the
+Prime Minister; and he well knew that he was exposed to one of those
+_coups d'état_, the necessity of which the Chancellor as well as himself
+had urged at Rueil. He considered himself as the head of the nobility,
+and that important body seemed to constitute all the military power of
+the State. But the French nobility was just beginning to lose its former
+independence of character in becoming more courtierlike. Instead of
+deriving from its strongholds and vassals the feeling of its strength
+and equality, it showed itself ambitious of such distinctions as the
+monarch could confer. In the indulgence of its vanity it lost sight of
+its proper pride; and if that new emulation which the Bourbons had
+excited was more easy for the sovereign to satisfy, it was more
+difficult for the chief of a party to direct. Moreover, Condé, as the
+Duchess de Nemours remarks, knew better how to win battles than
+hearts.[1] He found a dangerous pleasure, as did his sister the Duchess
+de Longueville, in braving malevolence. "In matters of consequence, they
+delighted to thwart people, and in ordinary life they were so
+impracticable that there was no getting on with them. They had such a
+habit of ridiculing one, and of saying offensive things, that nobody
+could put up with them. When visits were paid to them, they allowed such
+a scornful ennui to be visible, and showed so openly that their visitors
+bored them, that it was not difficult to understand that they did
+everything in their power to get rid of their company. Whatsoever might
+be the rank or quality of the visitors, people were made to wait any
+length of time in the Prince's antechamber; and very often, after having
+long waited, everybody was sent away without getting an interview,
+however short. When they were displeased they pushed people to the
+utmost extremity, and they were incapable of showing any gratitude for
+services done them. Thus they were alike hated by the Court, by the
+Fronde, and by the populace, and nobody could live with them long. All
+France impatiently suffered their irritating conduct, and especially
+their pride, which was excessive."[2]
+
+    [1] Duchesse de Nemours, tom., xxxiv. p. 437.
+
+    [2] The Duchess de Nemours was a daughter of the Duke de
+    Longueville, by his first wife, and as she lived with her
+    step-mother, the Duchess de Longueville, on very indifferent terms,
+    her unsparing censure must by no means be implicitly received.
+
+In looking at the faulty side of Condé's character, we must not forget
+to observe the disinterested firmness with which, without considering
+either his family or his friends, he had hitherto acted in the interests
+of the King. Happy would it have been, if, after having thus terminated
+this sad civil war, he had quitted the Court and its intrigues to seek
+other battlefields, and to finish another war somewhat more useful and
+glorious to France--that which still remained with Spain! Happy, also
+for Madame de Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, in her last
+interview with the Queen, and by the shameful _dénouement_ of the
+miserable intrigues of which she had the secret, instead of still
+serving as their instrument, she had shown her courage in resisting
+them. Happy too, if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just
+given to La Rochefoucauld, she had firmly represented to him that, even
+for his own interest, a different course was necessary; that it would be
+better to look for fortune and honours by rendering himself esteemed
+than by trying to make himself feared; that ambition as well as duty
+showed his place to be by the side of Condé, in the service of the
+State and of the King; that it was easy for him to obtain in the army
+some post where he would simply have to march forward and do his duty,
+trusting to his courage and his other merits!
+
+But even if Anne de Bourbon had been wise enough to speak thus to La
+Rochefoucauld, she would not have succeeded in gaining his ear. His
+restless spirit, his ever-discontented vanity, pursuing by turns the
+most dissimilar objects, because it selected none within its reach--that
+_undefinable something_ which, as De Retz says, was in La Rochefoucauld,
+made him abandon the high and direct roads, and led him into by-paths
+full of pitfalls and precipices. Through such perilous ways we shall see
+the infatuated woman following and aiding him in his extravagant and
+guilty designs. Receiving the law instead of giving it, she strives to
+promote the passion of another by devoting to his service all her
+coquetry as well as greatness of soul, her penetration and intrepidity,
+her attractive sweetness and indomitable energy. She undertakes to
+mislead Condé, to rob France of the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, and
+to give him to Spain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE _COUP D'ÉTAT_--THE ARREST OF THE PRINCES.
+
+
+IN the first scenes of the shifting drama, the Court had supported Condé
+in compassing the destruction of the Frondeurs; and Mazarin, with keen
+policy, instigated the Prince to every act that could widen the breach
+between him and the faction. Whichever succeeded, the party that
+succumbed would be inimical to the Minister; and in their divisions was
+his strength. But the pride and impetuosity of Condé were about this
+time excited to such a degree by opposition and irritation, that it
+approached to frenzy, and, unable to overpower at once the leaders of
+the Fronde, the vehemence of his nature spent itself upon those who were
+in reality supporting him. He still scoffed at, and openly insulted,
+Mazarin; he accused the Government of not giving him sincere assistance
+against the Fronde. He every day made enemies amongst the nobility by
+his overbearing conduct and his rash, and often illegal, acts; and at
+length the disgust and indignation of the whole Court was roused to put
+a stop to a tyranny which could no longer be borne.
+
+Anne of Austria long hesitated as to what she should do to deliver
+herself from the domination of a man whom she feared without loving: but
+at length an aggravated insult to herself, and the counsels of a woman
+of a bold and daring character, removed her irresolution. The Duchess
+de Chevreuse had been exiled from France, as we have seen, during the
+greater part of that period in which Condé had principally distinguished
+himself, and she did not share in the awe in which the Parisians held
+him. She still kept up what De Retz calls an incomprehensible union with
+the Queen, notwithstanding all her intrigues; nor did she scruple to
+hold out to Anne of Austria a direct prospect of gaining the support of
+the Fronde itself in favour of her Government, if that Government would
+aid in avenging the Fronde upon the Prince de Condé.
+
+Anne of Austria was unwilling to take a step which appeared to border
+upon ingratitude, although the late conduct of the Prince might well be
+supposed to cancel the obligation of his former services. It seems here
+necessary to say a few words upon the connection of a series of sudden
+political changes, in order that the reader may understand how such
+startling results as those we are about to narrate were brought about.
+
+The hollow treaty of peace of the 11th March, 1649, had scarcely been
+signed ere the Prince de Condé showed himself day by day more strongly
+attached to the faction which opposed the Court. Feeling his own
+importance, determined to rule; quick, harsh, and impetuous in his
+manners, he took a pleasure in insulting the Minister and embarrassing
+the Queen. There were some personal grounds for this in the strong
+dislike manifested towards his sister by Anne of Austria. That feeling
+was signally shown on the occasion of Louis XIV. completing his eleventh
+year; when a grand ball was given at the Hôtel de Ville, at which the
+young King, with all the principal members of the royal family and the
+Court, were present. The Queen's orders were received with regard to all
+the arrangements, every person of distinction being invited by her
+command, except the Duchess de Longueville. That princess, influenced by
+discontent, it is supposed, at the reception of the royal family in
+Paris, had remained at Chantilly, on the pretence of drinking some
+mineral waters in the neighbourhood. The Queen seized the same pretext
+not to invite her, replying to those who pressed her to do so, that she
+would not withdraw her from the pursuit of health; but at length the
+Prince de Condé himself, demanded that she should receive a summons; and
+his support was of too much consequence, and the bonds which attached
+him to the Court too slight, for the Queen to trifle with his request.
+
+To the surprise and dissatisfaction of most persons, however, Anne of
+Austria commanded that the ball should take place in daylight;
+acknowledging, in her own immediate circle, that it was in order to
+mortify the ladies attached to the Fronde, the principal part of whom
+employed methods of enhancing their beauty and heightening their
+complexion to which the searching eye of day was very inimical. Human
+malice, of course, took care that the Queen's motive should be
+communicated to all the higher circles of Paris; and as vanity is not
+only a more pugnacious passion, but a much more pertinacious adversary
+than any other, the words of Anne of Austria rendered many opponents
+irreconcilable, who might otherwise have been gained to her cause: the
+family of the Prince de Condé naturally being among the number.
+
+France was then able to count the cost of having created a
+hero--_expendere Hannibalem_--a prince _à la Corneille_, who carried his
+gaze to the stars, and only spoke to mortals from the summit of his
+trophies. His sister, Madame de Longueville, had also in the same
+fashion soared into the sphere of a goddess. The one and the other, in
+the empyrean, no longer distinguished their fellow mortals from such a
+height save with a smile of disdain. Great folks, as a contemporary
+tells us, kicked their heels in their antechambers for hours, and, when
+granted an audience, were received with yawning and gaping.
+
+The reconciliation effected during the preceding year was rather, as has
+been said, a truce between the parties than a solid peace. The
+Parliament had retained the right of assembling and deliberating upon
+affairs of state, which the Court had sought to prevent: and Mazarin
+remained Minister, although the Parliament, the people, and even the
+princes, had desired that he should cease to hold that office. It rarely
+happens to states in like unfortunate emergencies that among the men who
+show themselves most active and skilful in overthrowing a government
+there are found those capable of conducting one; and when such do
+appear, the chances almost always are that circumstances hinder them
+from placing themselves in the front rank. It was to Gaston, the King's
+uncle, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, that belonged, in concert with
+the Regent, the chief direction of affairs; but Gaston felt himself too
+weak and too incapable to pretend to charge himself with such a burden.
+He could never arrive at any decision, and took offence when any matter
+was decided without him. Jealous of Mazarin's influence, more jealous
+still of that of Condé, neither of the two could attempt to govern along
+with him; and nevertheless Gaston was powerful enough to command a
+party, and to hinder any one from governing without him: ready to offer
+opposition to everything, but impotent to carry anything into execution.
+If Anne of Austria had even consented to dismiss her favourite
+Minister, and overcome her repugnance to the Fronde and the Frondeurs,
+she could not have formed a government with the chiefs of that party.
+The Duke de Beaufort, its nominal head, lacked both instruction and
+intelligence. De Retz, its veritable chief--an eloquent, witty, and bold
+man, skilful in the conduct of business, in the art of making partisans;
+brave, generous, even loyal when he followed the impulses of his own
+mind and natural inclination--was without faith, scruple, reticence, or
+foresight when he abandoned himself to his passions, which urged him
+unceasingly to the indulgence of an excessive and irrational
+libertinage. Such a man could not have replaced him who for so long a
+period had informed himself of the affairs of France under a master such
+as Richelieu; who, deeply versed in dissimulation, was inaccessible to
+any sentiment that might possibly derange the calculations of his
+ambition. Besides, he, as well as Mazarin, would have had the Princes
+against him, and could not have resisted successfully their numerous
+partisans. De Retz had, through the ascendancy of his talents, great
+influence with the Parisian Parliament, but it mistrusted him; and that
+body, in its heterogeneous composition, offered rather the means for an
+opposition than strength to the Government. Condé, to whom the state
+owed its glory, and the Sovereign his safety, was therefore the sole
+prop upon which Anne of Austria might have rested; but that young hero
+had no capacity for business. He could not then have filled up the void
+which Mazarin's retirement would have created. Condé, whose natural
+pride was still further exalted by the flattery of the young nobles who
+formed his train, and who obtained the nickname of _petits maîtres_,
+only used the influence which his position gave him to wring from
+Mazarin the places and good things at his disposal, and of these he and
+his adherents showed themselves insatiable. Thus, Condé rendered himself
+formidable and odious to Mazarin, and made himself detested by the
+people as Mazarin's supporter, at the same time that by his arrogance he
+shocked the Parliament, already unfavourably disposed towards him on
+account of his rapacity and his ambition.[1]
+
+    [1] Talon, mém. t. lxii. pp. 65-105.--Montpensier.
+
+Such was the state of things, when the singular circumstances which
+attended the murder of one of Condé's domestics made that prince believe
+that the chiefs of the Fronde had conspired to assassinate him. He
+thought, by such a crime, to have found an opportunity for crushing that
+faction in the persons of its chiefs, and he instituted a process in
+parliament against the contrivers of that murder. Public report
+particularly pointed to two persons, De Retz and Beaufort; and Condé, by
+his accusation, hoped to force them to quit Paris, where they found
+their principal means of influence in the populace. But in attacking
+thus, as it were, face to face, the two most popular men of the moment,
+Condé showed no better tact than in dealing with the Prime Minister. He
+conducted himself with so much haughtiness and arrogance, that the young
+nobles who surrounded the soldier prince, when they wished to flatter
+him, spoke of Mazarin as his slave.[2]
+
+    [2] Motteville, mém. t. xxxix. p. 4.--Guy-Joly.
+
+The process went on nevertheless. Almost all the judges were convinced
+of the innocence of the accused, but Condé pretended that they could not
+be absolved without giving a deadly affront to himself. He demanded that
+at the very least the Coadjutor and Beaufort should be made to quit
+Paris under some honourable pretext, and the Princess-Dowager de Condé
+declared that it was the height of insolence in them to remain in the
+capital when it was her son's wish that they should leave it. The Queen,
+who equally detested the Prince de Condé and the Frondeurs, could
+scarcely conceal her joy at seeing them at daggers drawn with each
+other; feeling certain that the moment was at hand when their
+dissensions would restore her supremacy.
+
+Under such circumstances Condé had need of all his friends, but he
+considered that he was set at defiance, and he gave way all the more to
+his wonted pride and overbearing obstinacy. He seemed to take pleasure
+in offending Anne of Austria and Mazarin. The young Duke de Richelieu
+had been declared heir to an immense fortune, of which his aunt and
+guardian, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, was the depositary. The stronghold of
+Havre de Grâce, which the Cardinal de Richelieu had formerly held as a
+place of retreat, was by such title in the possession of the Duchess
+d'Aiguillon. Condé desired to be master of it, either for himself or for
+his brother-in-law, the Duke de Longueville. The young Duke de Richelieu
+was engaged to be married to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but the Prince
+having remarked that he had some liking for Madame de Pons, a sister of
+his own first love, managed to marry him clandestinely to her in the
+Château de Trye, lent him two thousand pistoles until he should be of
+age to enter upon possession of his property, and made him take
+possession of Havre de Grâce. The Queen was mortally offended at such a
+proceeding on the part of Condé, who had moreover threatened to throw
+into the sea those she might send to Havre to seize the fortress; but
+the Duchess d'Aiguillon's resentment was still deeper and more active.
+She was the first to tell Anne of Austria, that she would never be queen
+again until she had had the Prince de Condé arrested, assuring her that
+all the Frondeurs would lend their hands to aid her in carrying out such
+a resolution.
+
+Almost at this moment, a gentleman named Jarzé, attached to Condé,
+foolishly took it into his head that the Queen entertained a liking for
+him, and it reached her ears that Condé and his friends had amused
+themselves whilst at table over their wine with Jarzé's revelations of
+his amour with her, and that he had begun to feel certain of getting rid
+of Mazarin by that means. Mazarin himself probably became somewhat
+alarmed, as he spoke pointedly to the Queen on the subject, who
+pretended only to have contemplated the ridiculous side of her new
+adorer's gallantries. But when Jarzé next made his appearance in her
+cabinet, she rated him roundly before the whole Court upon his absurd
+fatuity, and forbade him ever to enter her presence again. The Prince de
+Condé, pretending to feel hurt at the affront put upon Jarzé, early next
+morning paid the Prime Minister a visit, and insolently demanded that
+Jarzé should be received that very evening by the Queen. Anne of Austria
+submitted to his dictation, but could not endure such humiliation
+without seeking to avenge herself. In a woman's heart every other
+species of resentment yields to that of wounded pride. A few lines
+addressed to the Coadjutor in the Queen's own handwriting, and carried
+by Madame de Chevreuse, brought to her side that wily priest and
+formidable tribune, disguised _en cavalier_. Certain negotiations,
+however, which had preceded this interview, had reached the ears of
+Condé, who went to Mazarin to denounce the treachery. The Cardinal,
+glowing with a hatred which would have stopped at nothing for its
+gratification, laughed and jested, or flattered and soothed the object
+of his concealed wrath. He turned the Archbishop of Corinth into
+ridicule when Condé blamed him for his duplicity. "If I catch him," said
+the Cardinal, "in the disguise you speak of--in his feathered hat, and
+cloak, and military boots--I will get a sight of him for your Highness;"
+and they roared at the idea of discovering the intriguer in so unfitting
+an apparel. But shortly afterwards in the wintry gloom of a January
+midnight (1650), disguised beyond the reach of detection, and guarded by
+a passport from the Cardinal himself, De Retz was admitted at midnight
+by a secret door into the Regent's room at the Palais Royal, and deep
+conference was held between the two. The conditions of agreement were
+readily stipulated. The Coadjutor with an inconceivable address and most
+extraordinary success handled the threads of the intrigues consequent
+upon such agreement. He succeeded in making himself the confidant of
+Gaston; he made him renounce his favourite, the Abbé de la Rivière; he
+engaged him in the coalition which had been just set on foot between the
+Court and the Fronde, and he obtained his assent to the arrest of the
+Princes. Everything succeeded that was agreed upon. The Queen-Regent, at
+the moment of a council being held at the Palais-Royal, gave the fatal
+order, and then withdrew into her oratory. There she made the young King
+kneel down beside her in order to invoke Heaven in concert with herself
+to obtain the happy achievement of an act of tyranny which was destined
+to produce fresh woes to the realm, and to rekindle in it the flames of
+civil war.
+
+On the morrow of the 18th of January, 1650, all Paris was electrified at
+the news of the arrest of the three Princes--Condé, Conti, and
+Longueville. That bold _coup d'état_ was effected very easily and
+unceremoniously. The Princes went voluntarily, as it were, into the
+mouse-trap, by attending a great council at the Palais Royal. Anne had
+obtained from Condé an order for the seizure and detention of three or
+four persons whose names were left in blank; and on the authority of his
+own signature, the hero of Rocroy and the other two princes, were led
+quietly down a back stair, given over to the custody of a small escort
+of twenty men under the command of Guitaut and Comminges, and by them
+conducted during the night to Vincennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE'S ADVENTURES IN NORMANDY. THE WOMEN'S WAR.
+
+
+THE heroes having thus suddenly disappeared from the scene, the
+political stage was left clear for the performance of the heroines. We
+are now about to see the women, almost by themselves, carry on the civil
+war, govern, intrigue, fight. A great experience for human nature, a
+fine historical opportunity for observing that gallant transfer of all
+power from the one sex to the other--the men lagging behind, led,
+directed, in the second or third ranks. But those women of rank, young,
+beautiful, brilliant, and for the most part gallant, were doubtless more
+formidable to the minister at this juncture than the men. The two lovely
+duchesses, De Longueville and De Bouillon, having shown during the
+preceding year of what they were capable; the Queen therefore gave
+orders for their arrest. The wary lover of the fascinating politician
+who had lately begun to scatter her blandishments equally upon all--La
+Rochefoucauld--having been apprised by the captain of his quarter that
+some blow was meditated by Mazarin, had sent twice to warn the Princes
+through the Marquis de la Moussaye, but who, as it appears, failed to
+acquit himself of that important mission. But if La Rochefoucauld's
+warning failed to reach the ears of the Princes, he was more fortunate
+in effecting the escape of Madame de Longueville. Whilst they were
+seeking to arrest him as well as La Moussaye, the Queen despatched a
+note to the Duchess by the Secretary of State, La Vrillière, begging her
+to come to the Palais Royal. Instead of going thither she went direct to
+the Hôtel of the Princess Palatine--like herself beautiful, gallant, and
+intriguing, but endowed with a superior intellect. This lady speedily
+became the head and mainspring of the princes' party--or of the _second_
+Fronde, and the Coadjutor, who directed the Old Fronde, was fain to
+recognise in her a worthy rival, and his equal in political sagacity.
+Fearing to be discovered if she remained under the roof of the princess,
+a carriage was procured, and the duchess driven in it by La
+Rochefoucauld himself to an obscure house in the Faubourg St. Germain,
+where they remained until nightfall in a cellar. Thence the Duchess and
+her lover set out for Normandy on horseback under the escort of forty
+determined men provided by the Princess Palatine. Brave and resolute as
+her brother, the sister of Condé rode northwards through that entire
+winter's night and the following day, and sought no shelter until worn
+out with excessive fatigue she reached Rouen. But the commandant, the
+Marquis de Beuvron, although an old friend of the duke, declared he
+could not serve her, and refused to raise the banner of revolt in that
+stronghold of her husband's government. Her attempt at Rouen thus
+receiving a complete check, she had some hope of being received into the
+citadel of Havre, but the Duchess de Richelieu, though her friend, was
+not so much mistress there as the Duchess d'Aiguillon, who, on the
+contrary, was full of resentment against her. Discouraged and repulsed
+on all hands, the fugitive Duchess next made her way to Dieppe, where
+she thought herself in sufficient safety to part with La Rochefoucauld,
+who left her to assist the Duke de Bouillon to raise troops in
+Angoumois. In the fortress of Dieppe, commanded by a faithful officer of
+her husband, Madame de Longueville found the rest she so much needed. In
+a brief space, with spirits recruited, she resolved to make a stand to
+the uttermost against the Queen and Mazarin, and having replaced the
+royal standard by that of Condé set about putting the citadel in a state
+of defence to resist a siege. The Queen, however, having resolved not to
+give the Duchess time to raise her husband's government of Normandy into
+revolt, on the 1st of February quitted Paris for Rouen. The band of
+gentlemen who had gathered round the beautiful Frondeuse thereupon
+melted away, and Mademoiselle de Longueville, her step-daughter,
+afterwards Duchess de Nemours, quitted her to take refuge in a convent.
+As Montigny, the commandant at Dieppe, declared that it was impossible
+to hold the fortress, the Duchess left the place by a secret portal,
+followed by her women and some few gentlemen. She held her way for two
+leagues on foot along the coast to the little port of Tourville, in
+order to reach a small vessel which she had prudently hired in case of
+need. On reaching the point of embarkation the sea was breaking so
+furiously in surf on shore, the tide being so strong and the wind so
+high, that Madame de Longueville's followers entreated her not to
+attempt to reach the vessel. But the Duchess, dreading less the angry
+waves than the chance of falling into the Regent's power, persisted in
+going to sea. As the state of the tide and weather rendered it
+impossible for a boat to get near the shore, a sailor took her in his
+arms to carry her on board, but had not waded above twenty paces when a
+huge roller carried him off his feet, and he fell with his fair burden.
+For an instant the poor lady believed that she was lost, as in falling
+the sailor lost his hold of her and she sank into deep water. On being
+rescued, however, she expressed her resolve to reach the vessel, but the
+sailors refusing to make another attempt, she found herself compelled to
+resort to some other means of escape. Horses being luckily procured, the
+Duchess mounted _en croupe_ behind one of the gentlemen of her suite,
+and riding all night and part of the following day, the fugitives met
+with a hospitable reception from a nobleman of Caux, in whose little
+manor-house they found rest, refection, and concealment for the space of
+a week.
+
+The Duchess's tumble into the sea, though a disagreeable, turned out to
+have been a lucky accident, for she now learnt that the master of the
+vessel she had been so anxious to reach was in the interest of Mazarin,
+and had she gone on board she would have been arrested. At length Madame
+de Longueville found herself once more in Havre, and having won over the
+captain of an English ship to whom she introduced herself--like Madame
+de Chevreuse--in male attire, as a nobleman who had just been engaged in
+a duel, and was obliged to leave France, she succeeded in obtaining a
+passage to Rotterdam. Thence, passing through Flanders, she reached the
+stronghold of Stenay,[1] where the Viscomte de Turenne, already
+compromised with the Court for having openly espoused the Condé party,
+had shortly before the Duchess's arrival also taken refuge.
+
+    [1] Stenay, taken from the Spaniards in 1641, had been given to the
+    Prince de Condé in 1646.
+
+It was then that the Duchess, who, under the sway of La Rochefoucauld,
+had been one of the instruments of the first Fronde war, became the
+motive power of the second and far more serious one--well named by the
+witty Parisians "the women's war." From the citadel of Stenay, of which
+she took the command, she directed the wills and actions of the men of
+her party, into which she thoroughly won over Turenne. Her
+importunities, aided by her charms, prevailed so powerfully over his
+valiant though fallible heart, that the illustrious captain, after
+having struggled painfully for some time with his conscience, allied
+himself with the Spaniards by a treaty which placed him, as well as the
+sister of the great Condé, in the pay of the enemies of his king and
+country. The treaty effectively stipulated "that there should be a
+junction of the two armies, and that the war should be carried on by the
+assistance of the King of Spain until a peace should be concluded
+between the two kings and the princes liberated. That the King of Spain
+should engage to pay over to Madame de Longueville and to Monsieur de
+Turenne two hundred thousand crowns wherewith to raise and equip troops;
+that he should furnish them with forty thousand crowns per month for the
+payment of such troops, and sixty thousand crowns per annum in three
+payments for _the table and equipages_ of Madame de Longueville and
+Monsieur de Turenne." This treaty duly signed, Madame de Longueville
+issued, in the form of a letter to his Majesty the King of France, a
+manifesto very skilfully drawn up and filled with artful complaints and
+accusations against Mazarin, with the design of soliciting through the
+one and the other an apology for her own conduct, as though it were
+possible to justify herself for having entered into a compact with the
+enemies of her country.
+
+It was during her sojourn at Stenay that she lost her mother (2nd
+December, 1650). "My dear friend," said the Princess de Condé to Madame
+de Brienne, who was with her during her last moments, "tell that 'pauvre
+miserable' who is now at Stenay the condition in which you have seen me,
+that she may learn how to die."
+
+During the whole of this period, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld gave
+constant proof of a rare fidelity. M. Cousin speaks very precisely on
+this head. "Whilst Madame de Longueville was pledging her diamonds in
+Holland for the defence of Stenay, La Rochefoucauld expended his fortune
+in Guienne. It was the most grievous and, at the same time, the most
+touching moment of their lives and their adventures. They were far away
+from each other, but they still fondly loved; they served with equal
+ardour the same cause, they fought and suffered equally and at the same
+time." Abundant proofs might be instanced of this love and devotion on
+their part. La Rochefoucauld wrote unceasingly to Stenay, and gave an
+account of everything he did. "The sole aim, then, of all the Duke's
+exertions," says Lenet, "was to please that beautiful princess, and he
+took endless care and pleasure to acquaint her with all he did for her,
+and to deliver the princess her sister-in-law (Condé's wife), by
+despatching couriers to her on the subject." He informs us moreover
+that, "in every juncture, he forwarded expresses to render account to
+the Duchess of all that respect for her made him undertake. At this
+moment, in fact, having just succeeded to his patrimonial estates
+through the death of his father, La Rochefoucauld recognised no obstacle
+in his path, but bravely went forward in the cause he had espoused and
+generously sacrificed his property in Angoumois and Saintonge. His
+ancestral château of Verteuil was even razed to the ground by Mazarin's
+orders, and when the tidings of it reached him, he received them with
+such great firmness", says Lenet, "that he seemed as though he were
+delighted, through a feeling that it would inspire confidence in the
+minds of the Bordelais. It was further said that what gave him the
+liveliest pleasure was to let the Duchess de Longueville see that he
+hazarded everything in her service." It cannot be denied, in fine, that
+the Duke at that time yielded himself up to a sentiment as deep as it
+was sincere, and which contradicts very happily and without any possible
+doubt the assertion so often hazarded that he had never loved the woman
+whom he had seduced and dragged into the vortex of politics. Madame de
+Longueville and he adored each other at this period, says M. Cousin, and
+it is pleasant to be able to cite the opinion of that eminent historian
+upon such fact; although separated by the entire length of France, they
+suffered and struggled each for the other: they had the same aim, the
+same faith, the same hope. They wrote incessantly to communicate their
+thoughts and projects, and thus sought to diminish in imagination the
+enormous distance which is between Stenay and Bordeaux.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE PRINCESS PALATINE.
+
+
+THE arrest of the Princes had singularly complicated events on the
+political stage. It had displaced all interests, and, instead of
+re-uniting parties and consolidating them, it had the effect of
+increasing their number. No fewer than five might be counted,
+represented by as many principal leaders, around which were grouped
+every species of interest and every shade of ambition.
+
+In the first place there was the party of Mazarin, alone against all the
+rest. This party had for support the ability of its chief, the
+invincible predilection, the unshakeable firmness of Anne of Austria,
+and the name of the King. Herein lay its whole strength, but that
+strength was immense. It was that which ensured the obedience of the
+enlightened and conscientious men who had great influence over the army
+and the magistrature. These men adhered to the Prime Minister through a
+sentiment of honour, and in consequence of their monarchical principles.
+Amidst the disruption of parties, they recognised no other legitimate
+authority than that of the Queen Regent; but they desired as strongly,
+perhaps, as those of the opposite parties, that Mazarin should be got
+rid of. That odious foreigner exposed them all to the public animosity
+which pursued himself. Anne of Austria frequently employed the artifices
+of her sex to avert their opposition in council, and calm their
+discontent.
+
+The party of the Princes, which the success of the enemies of France,
+during their captivity, rendered from day to day more popular and
+interesting, was composed of all the young nobility. Of its apparent
+chiefs, the one alone capable of directing it was the Duke de Bouillon.
+But to lead a party it is necessary to identify oneself with it, and
+devote oneself to it wholly; and the Duke de Bouillon had views
+peculiar, foreign, and even adverse to the interests of his party; and
+before such interest he placed that of the maintenance, or rather
+elevation, of his own house. The Duchess de Longueville, the Princess de
+Condé, La Rochefoucauld, and Turenne had neither sufficient finesse nor
+skill in intrigue to be able to direct that party and struggle
+successfully against Mazarin; but they were seconded by three men who,
+although obscure, displayed in these circumstances extraordinary talent.
+Lenet,[1] who never quitted the Princess de Condé throughout these
+troubles, but served her faithfully with his pen and advice. Montreuil,
+who, although he had never published anything, was a member of the
+French Academy and secretary to the Prince de Condé. He managed, with
+infinite address, and incessantly devising new means, to correspond with
+the Princes, and bring the vigilance of their keepers in default. And it
+was Gourville especially, who, after having worn the livery of the Duke
+de la Rochefoucauld as his valet, had become his man of business, his
+confidant, and friend. It was Gourville who, under a heavy expression of
+countenance, concealed a most subtle, most acute, and fertile
+intelligence. Persuasive, energetic, prompt, reflective; knowing how to
+gain an end by the direct road; or, under the eyes of those opposing,
+attaining it unperceived, by covert and tortuous ways. A man who never
+found himself in any situation, however desperate it might be, without
+having the confidence that he could extricate himself from it. Did the
+cleverest consider a position as lost? Gourville intervened, infused
+hope, promised to lend a hand to it, and success was immediately certain
+and defeat impossible.
+
+    [1] His memoirs give reliable details of all that relates to the
+    Condés at this period.
+
+Still Gourville was not, even on the score of ability, the foremost
+spirit of his party. The person who deserved that title was a woman--the
+celebrated Anne de Gonzagua, widow of Edward Prince Palatine. Through
+her proneness to gallantry, she did not escape the weakness of her sex;
+but through her imperturbable calmness in the midst of the most violent
+commotions, her elevated views, the depth of her designs, the accuracy
+and rapidity of her resolutions, and her skill in making everything
+conduce to a given end, she combined in its entire vigour the peculiar
+character of the statesman with the soul of a conspirator. She had been
+through life the intimate friend of the mother of Condé, and she now
+laboured with skill, wisdom, and perseverance for the liberation of the
+Princes. And such is the ascendency obtained by talent backed by an
+energetic will, that it was to her advice all the partisans of the
+Princes deferred; her hand that held the threads of their various
+intrigues. With her De Retz treated directly, and in the whole course of
+the negotiations she displayed a degree of penetration which baffled all
+the subtlety of the Coadjutor; and while she foiled his devices against
+herself, she directed them aright against their mutual opponents. By her
+activity and energy five or six separate treaties were drawn up and
+signed between the different personages whose interests were concerned,
+each in general ignorant of his comrade's participation.
+
+It would be presumptuous in any way to attempt, after Bossuet, a perfect
+portraiture of this lady, but it may be interesting to glance at the
+antecedents of her life up to this period.
+
+Charles de Gonzagua-Cleves, Duke of Mantua and Nevers, had, by his
+marriage with Catherine of Lorraine, three daughters: the oldest, Maria,
+whom he preferred to the others, or rather that his pride sought to
+elevate her alone to the highest destiny possible, was married
+successively to two Kings of Poland, Ladislas Sigismond and Jean
+Casimir. The second, Anne, who, as the Princess Palatine, became the
+political opponent of Mazarin; and the third, Benedicte, who took the
+veil and died whilst yet very young at the steps of the altar. It is the
+romantic, agitated, and changeful existence of the second with which we
+are concerned: passed in tumult and ended in silence. In it may be found
+the invaluable lesson of that admirable antithesis afforded by error and
+repentance. Bossuet, in his eloquent, fervent oration upon the life of
+that princess, was enabled to derive from a contemplation of it the
+highest instruction. He has therein retraced, with an imposing
+authority, the errors of a woman exclusively engrossed, during many
+years, with worldly interests and earthly vanities, and also made the
+emphatic denial that, in their last hours, such awakened minds but
+rarely give themselves up without profound anguish, fitful emotion, and
+mortal struggle to the contemplation of imperishable joys. Anne de
+Gonzagua experienced those extremes. She passed from incredulity and an
+irregular life to the most lively faith and exemplary conduct.
+Captivated in turn by earth and heaven, worldly and scorning the world,
+sceptical and fervent, she had long centred her pride and happiness in
+the political affairs of her epoch, until the day came when, wearied
+with ephemeral pleasures and touched by grace, she finally renounced the
+things of this life and gave herself wholly up to celestial meditation.
+
+In her earliest youth she had been placed in the convent of
+Faremoustier, where nothing was neglected that could tend to inspire her
+with a desire for cloister life. Her father, the Duke of Mantua, had
+determined that his two younger daughters, Anne and Benedicte, should
+help, by taking the veil, to augment the fortune of their elder sister.
+Benedicte submitted to her fate, but Anne soon perceived what her
+father's plan was, and in her indignation she resolved to defeat it.
+Unlike her younger sister, she had an adventurous spirit, an ardent
+imagination, a strong desire to play an active part in life. Even to
+withdraw from a mode of existence that was hateful to her, she made her
+escape from Faremoustier, and went to confide to her sister's bosom, in
+the convent of Avenai, her wrath, her _ennui_, and her hopes. For awhile
+it seemed as though conventual life was about to exercise a strange
+fascination over her. The discourse and example of her sister touched
+deeply the youthful heart which had proved rebellious to a parent's
+will. It seemed not improbable that she would yield to persuasion that
+which she had refused to compulsion. But her destiny determined
+otherwise. Events cast her upon another course; her imperfect vocation
+yielded quickly to their influence. She had been worked upon, in the
+solitude of the cloister, by that mysterious yearning for an encounter
+with those struggles which human passions involve, the experience of
+which can alone extinguish such yearning in certain souls. It was
+necessary that she should see the world, undergo its deceptions, and be
+wearied of it, in order to desire repose and be capable of appreciating
+the inestimable blessings of peace and silence and tranquillity.
+
+The Duke of Mantua dying in 1637, Anne was obliged to leave the cloister
+on business connected with the paternal succession, and appeared at
+Court with Marie, her elder sister. The turmoil of the world and its
+sensuous enjoyments speedily engrossed the young and lovely princess,
+involved her in their trammels, and only restored her to tranquillity
+and solitude after a lapse of many years; for at this time she also lost
+her sister, the youthful abbess of Avenai, and the last link which
+attached Anne to cloister life was severed by that death. An absorbing
+passion, too, was destined to confirm her relinquishment of such
+vocation. The youthful Henri de Guise was then one of the most brilliant
+gentlemen at the French Court. Grandson of the _Balafré_, his high birth
+fixed the eyes of all upon him, at the same time that his impetuous
+imagination, his profession, all the aristocratic follies of the
+day--remarkable duels, romantic loves, eccentricities, the adventures
+and elegant habits of the _grand seigneur_--had constituted him an
+oracle of fashion and the hero of every festival. He was fascinated by
+the grace and beauty of Anne de Gonzagua, and she herself, in the midst
+of that gallant Court which masked a real depravation under the thin
+varnish of an ingenious subtlety of expression,--she herself, a disciple
+of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, where questions of sentiment were
+discussed, studied, and analysed incessantly, knew not how to resist the
+gilded accents of a young, handsome, and impassioned lover. She let him
+see that she loved him. He made her a promise of marriage, signed, it is
+said, with his blood; and the affair seemed to promise a happy
+conclusion. But their mutual inclination was thwarted by Madame de
+Guise. The Duchess thought that the high dignities of the Church would
+procure greater wealth, honour, and power for her son than he could
+obtain in any other career: Henri was then Archbishop of Rheims.
+Nevertheless, he persisted in his love for Mademoiselle de Gonzagua, and
+in his design of espousing her. The overtures which he made to the
+Vatican were not in vain. He received from the Pope, with the
+authorisation to again become a layman, a dispensation which his kinship
+to Anne rendered necessary for the celebration of their nuptials. But
+the lovers did not hasten to avail themselves of such privilege,
+apparently through dread of Richelieu, who was also opposed to their
+union. Perhaps that minister, from whom nothing secret was hidden--not
+even the unshaped designs of the ambitious,--already suspected Henri de
+Guise of being favourably disposed to the interests of Spain, as well as
+contrary to those of France. Anne and Henri, therefore, contented
+themselves with the possibility which the complaisance of the Holy
+Father had given them of contracting an indissoluble bond, and with the
+oath by which they reciprocally pledged their faith. Confiding in the
+honour of the Prince whom she so ardently loved, Anne consented to
+follow him, when he quitted France in order to escape from the espionage
+of Richelieu. Disguising herself in male attire, Anne rejoined her lover
+at Besançon, according to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, at Cologne
+according to other writers; where, as elsewhere, she caused herself to
+be called "Madame de Guise"--writing and speaking of her husband, and
+defying the assurances which were constantly advanced of the illegality
+of a marriage secretly performed by a canon of Rheims in the private
+chapel of the Hôtel de Nevers. But what are promises, marriage vows, or
+even bonds written in blood?
+
+Henri not long after became unfaithful to the confiding Anne by eloping
+with a fair widow, the Countess de Bossut, whom he carried off to
+Brussels and ultimately married. Implicated in the conspiracy of the
+Count de Soissons, the turbulent churchman was present at the battle of
+Marfée, and consequently declared guilty of high treason. He therefore
+took up his abode in the Low Countries, where he quietly awaited the
+death of Louis XIII. and his minister, then both moribund, to resume his
+career at the Court of France.
+
+Thus abandoned by her volatile lover, and extremely compromised,
+Mademoiselle de Gonzagua returned to Paris, where she reassumed the
+appellation of the Princess Anne. Her grief for awhile at her
+abandonment was great, but happily for Anne de Gonzagua, she was
+possessed of youth, and, as Madame de Motteville tells us, "of beauty
+and great mental attractions." She had moreover sufficient address to
+obtain a great amount of esteem, in spite of her errors. In a few years'
+time, during which she took care to avoid fresh scandal, whatever she
+might have done "under the rose," she made a tolerably good marriage.
+Her husband, her senior by two years only, was Prince Edward, Count
+Palatine of the Rhine, son of a king without a kingdom,--the elector
+Frederick,[2] chosen King of Bohemia in 1619, but who lost his crown in
+1620, at the battle of Prague. Prince Edward, therefore, having no
+sovereignty, lived at the French Court. In 1645, then, Anne de Gonzagua
+found herself definitively settled at Paris, and it must be owned did
+not give Henri de Guise much cause to regret his faithlessness. The
+irregularities of the Princess Palatine became notorious, and assuredly
+Bossuet, in the funeral oration which he pronounced many years later, in
+the presence of one of her daughters and other relatives, whilst
+displaying a prodigal eloquence, and a mastery over all oratorical
+resource, made use of every artifice of speech, and all the elasticity
+of vague terms, in speaking of that period of her life without a
+violation of propriety, without disguising truths known to all, without
+exceeding either in blame or praise the limits imposed by good taste
+upon the reverend orator when he pronounces a panegyric upon those who
+not unfrequently have very little merited it.
+
+    [2] This unfortunate Prince had married, in 1613, Elizabeth,
+    daughter of James I. of England. The celebrated Prince Rupert and
+    Sophia, Electress of Hanover, were among the other children.
+
+During those stormy years of the civil wars, through her diplomatic
+talents, Anne de Gonzagua shone conspicuously in the front rank of
+female politicians. One can readily imagine what must have been, not in
+the first Fronde, all parliamentary as it was, but in the second,
+entirely aristocratic, in the Fronde of the Princes, the influence of a
+woman's mind at once so subtle and brilliant. It was then that Madame de
+Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, Madame de Longueville, and Mademoiselle
+de Montpensier, displayed upon the political stage the resources of
+their finesse, their dissimulation, or their courage. The Palatine did
+not fall below the level of those adventurous heroines. In the midst of
+those intrigues, of that puerile ambition, of those turnings and
+windings, perfidy, seduction, manoeuvring promises, of those
+negotiations in which Mazarin infused all his Italian cunning, the Queen
+her feminine impatience and her Spanish dissimulation, De Retz his
+genius of artist-conspirator, Condé his pride of the prince and the
+conqueror, Anne de Gonzagua handled political matters with a rare
+suppleness, humouring offended self-love, impatient ambition, haughty
+rivalries, acting as mediatrix with a wonderful amount of conciliatory
+tact, the friend of divers chiefs of parties, and meriting the
+confidence of all.
+
+It would be tedious to relate here her various negotiations, to go over
+her discourses, conversations, and numerous letters: it would involve a
+history of the Fronde, and that is not our subject. It will suffice to
+say that she obtained the esteem of all parties at a time when parties
+not only hated but strangely defied each other, and that she manifested
+a skill, a tact which Cardinal de Retz--a good judge of such
+matters--does not hesitate to praise with enthusiasm. "I do not think,"
+says he, "that Queen Elizabeth of England had more capacity for
+governing a state. I have seen her in faction, I have seen her in the
+cabinet, and I have found her in every respect equally sincere." This
+eulogium may be perhaps a little over-coloured. But Madame de
+Motteville, who also greatly admired the Palatine, probably approaches
+nearer to the truth. "This princess," she says, "like many other ladies,
+did not despise the conquests of her eyes, which were in truth very
+beautiful; but, besides that advantage, she had that which was of more
+value, I mean wit, address, capacity for conducting an intrigue, and a
+singular facility in finding expedients for succeeding in what she
+undertook." Thus spoke the Coadjutor and the Court of her. The
+parliamentary party, by the organ of the councillor Joly, confirms such
+panegyric: "She had so much intelligence, and a talent so peculiar for
+business, that no one in the world ever succeeded better than she did."
+The Princess Palatine's political dexterity cannot therefore be
+contested: the testimony of the most opposite camps are thereupon
+agreed, and it is certain that, without the least exaggeration, it may
+be said that no one at that epoch, save Mazarin, better understood the
+resources of diplomacy.
+
+It was especially after the arrest of the Princes that her zeal and
+intelligence found occasion to manifest themselves. Madame de
+Longueville, as has been said, instantly sought the aid of Anne de
+Gonzagua when she learned that her two brothers and her husband were
+prisoners. The news made her swoon, and her despair was afterwards
+pitiable. The Princess Palatine was touched by it, and promised to
+operate on behalf of the Princes. From that moment she became, without
+entering into faction and especially without failing in her duties
+towards a sovereign whom she loved, one of the most active friends of
+the prisoners. Meetings were held under her roof to deliberate upon that
+important affair, and, to compass her ends, she contrived to bring into
+play the most varied resources. She began by interesting in the Princes'
+destiny those even who might have been thought the most irreconcileable
+enemies to them. However difficult this work was of accomplishment, she
+reunited, as in a fasces, in a single will, personages widely separated
+upon other points, and surprised to find that they were pursuing the
+same object, for none of them knew the motives which influenced the
+actions of the rest. On this head, Bossuet says, with somewhat excessive
+laudation, she declared to the chiefs of parties how far she would bind
+herself, and she was believed to be incapable of either deceiving or
+being deceived. That is rather a hazardous assertion, for if she indeed
+aided in the liberation of the Princes, none of the promises she
+made--in all sincerity doubtless--became realised. But, says Bossuet
+further, and this time with more precision, "her peculiar
+characteristic was to conciliate opposite interests, and, in raising
+herself above them, to discover the secret point of junction and knot,
+as it were, by which they might be united." She had resolved to win over
+the Duke d'Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, De Retz, and the keeper of the
+seals, Chateauneuf. She therefore signed with them four different
+treaties. With the Duke d'Orleans she promised the hand of the young
+Duke d'Enghien in marriage to one of the Prince's daughters; to Madame
+de Chevreuse that of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse to the Prince de Conti;
+to De Retz, the cardinal's hat; to Chateauneuf, the post of prime
+minister. All consented to favour the princess's designs, and Mazarin,
+whom she could not convince, found himself surrounded by enemies whose
+union was formidable. That minister made allusion to the dread with
+which he was inspired when he remarked some years afterwards to Don
+Louis de Haro: "The most turbulent among the men does not give us so
+much trouble to keep him in check as the intrigues of a Duchess de
+Chevreuse or a Princess Palatine." In vain, according to his wont, did
+he again attempt to temporise. Anne de Gonzagua, who was ready to open
+fire with all her batteries, sought to terrify him by the perspective of
+a menacing future. "She caused him to be informed that he was lost if he
+did not determine upon giving the Princes their liberty, assuring him
+that if he did not do it promptly he would see, in a few days, the whole
+Court and every cabal banded against him, and that all aid would fail
+him." Mazarin, obstinate in his determination, and unwilling to believe
+that she had so thoroughly played her game as to hold in hand the
+threads of so many intrigues, begged her to defer the matter, asked time
+for reflection, and conducted himself in such a way in short that the
+princess saw clearly that he only wanted to gain time. She therefore
+hesitated no longer, but allowed those who were agitating impatiently
+around her to commence action.
+
+The party of the Princes had been dubbed by the name of the _New
+Fronde_. The old, although it had lost its energy by its union with the
+Court, preserved nevertheless its hatred to the prime minister. It was
+not in De Retz's power to neutralise wholly these hostile dispositions;
+but he could hinder them from being brought into dangerous activity. The
+Coadjutor at first with that view acted in good faith, and remained
+faithful in the first moments of the agreement which he had entered into
+with the Queen. Probably it might then have been possible to attach him
+finally to the Court party; but Mazarin could not believe that the
+Coadjutor, so fertile in tricks, so full of finesse, was capable of
+anything like frankness and generosity. In the practical experience of
+life, mistrust has its perils as well as blind confidence, and failure
+as often happens to us through our unwillingness to believe in virtue,
+as through our inability to suspect vice. Mazarin judged after himself a
+man who resembled him in many respects, but not in all. Moreover, he
+feared lest he might seek to win the Queen's affection from him; and
+that fear was not groundless. De Retz saw himself the object of the
+suspicions and afterwards of the machinations of a power which laboured
+at his destruction, whilst for that power he was compromising his
+influence and his popularity. To reacquire it, he hastened, therefore,
+to throw himself with all his adherents on the side of the Princes, and
+saw no safety but in their deliverance. This alliance of the two camps,
+so long enemies, was concluded between the Coadjutor and the Princess
+Palatine, and rendered so firm and secret by the confidence with which
+these two party chiefs inspired each other, that Mazarin, who
+unceasingly dreaded such a union, and who always suspected it, did not
+know it for certain until it revealed itself by its effects.[3]
+
+    [3] Motteville--Joly--Lenet.
+
+The parliament formed a fourth party. Not that that body was unanimous;
+but it had within itself an honourable majority which was alike inimical
+to the Frondeurs, the seditious, and the minister. The parliament
+therefore would have been disposed to unite itself to the Princes'
+party, and to lend it support; but to do so it would have been necessary
+that the chiefs of that party should renounce all alliance with the
+foreigner. Turenne and Madame de Longueville had joined with the
+Spaniards to fight against France. The young Princess de Condé, with the
+Dukes de Bouillon and de la Rochefoucauld, who had shut themselves up in
+Bordeaux, had entered into an alliance with them, and had received from
+them succour in the shape of money. The Spanish envoys in Paris
+conferred daily with the chiefs of the old as of the new Fronde.
+
+Gaston, who might have been the moderator of all these parties, formed
+by himself a fifth among them. His irresolution prevented him giving
+strength to any other of the factions, but he constituted a formidable
+obstacle to all the rest. His inclination, as well as his interest,
+should never have made him deviate from the Court party; yet he was
+always opposed to it. Impelled by his jealousy of Condé and of the prime
+minister, he acted in a manner contrary to his own wishes. He was,
+however, neither wanting in intelligence nor finesse, nor even a certain
+kind of eloquence; and the master-stroke of De Retz's address was to
+have contrived, in furtherance of the object of his designs, to set
+Gaston with the Fronde against the Princes, and afterwards for the
+Princes against Mazarin.
+
+The complication and the multiplicity of parties was as nothing in
+comparison to that of private interests, which so crossed each other and
+in so many different ways, which turned with such mobility, that, in the
+ignorance which prevailed of the secret motives of the principal actors
+in that drama so vivid, motley, and turbulent, nothing could be
+predicated of what they would do, and a looker-on might have been
+disposed at times to have pronounced them as insensates, who were rather
+their own enemies than those of their antagonists.
+
+If the libels of those times are to be credited, and especially the
+satire in verse for which the poet Marlet was sentenced to be hanged,
+the obstinacy with which the Queen exposed to danger her son's crown, by
+retaining a minister detested by all, would be naturally explained by a
+reason other than that of a reason of state. The advocate-general Talon,
+Madame de Motteville, and the Duchess de Nemours exculpate Anne of
+Austria on this head. They are three respectable and trustworthy
+witnesses; and, without any doubt, that which they said they thought.
+But the Duchess d'Orleans, Elizabeth-Charlotte, affirms in her
+correspondence[4] that Anne of Austria had secretly married Cardinal
+Mazarin, who was not a priest. She says that all the details of the
+marriage were known, and that, in her time, the back staircase in the
+Palais Royal was pointed out by which at night Mazarin reached the
+Queen's apartments. She observes that such clandestine marriages were
+common at that period, and cites that of the widow of our Charles the
+First, who secretly espoused her equerry, Jermyn. One might be disposed
+to think that the Duchess Elizabeth-Charlotte could have only followed
+some tradition, and that her assertions cannot counterbalance the
+statements of the contemporary personages above mentioned. But certain
+species of facts are often better known long after the death of the
+persons to whom they relate, than during their lifetime, or at a time
+close upon their decease; they are not entirely unveiled until there no
+longer exists any motive to keep them secret. Of the Queen's sentiments
+towards Mazarin there can be no doubt after reading a letter which she
+addressed to him under date of June 30, 1660, which is extant in
+autograph,[5] the avowal she made to Madame de Brienne in her
+oratory,[6] the confidences of Madame de Chevreuse to Cardinal de
+Retz.[7] Moreover, whatever may have been the motives of Anne of
+Austria's attachment to Mazarin, it is certain that they were
+all-powerful over her. She lent herself to every project formed by her
+minister for the increase of his power and fortune. The war in Bordeaux
+was kindled because Mazarin desired that one of his nieces should be
+united to the Duke de Candale, son of the Duke d'Epernon; and, in order
+not to let the Swiss soldiers march thither without their pay, when
+their aid was most necessary, Anne of Austria put her diamonds in
+pledge, and would not allow Mazarin to be answerable for the sum
+required to be disbursed.
+
+    [4] Mém. sur la Cour de Louis XIV. et de la Régence,
+    d'Elizabeth-Charlotte Duchesse d'Orléans, Mère du Regent. 1823,
+    p. 319.
+
+    [5] MS. Bibliothèque Nationale.
+
+    [6] Loménie de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.
+
+    [7] Retz, Memoirs, edition 1836.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  THE YOUNG PRINCESS DE CONDÉ CONDUCTS THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.
+
+
+TO generous and feeling hearts, Condé's misfortune presented all the
+characteristics of a real romance. The majority of the women therefore
+who meddled with politics were, through sympathy, of his party. The
+glory of France under lock and key! The young hero arrested for treason,
+and prisoner to whom? The foreign Cardinal Mazarin. All the spoils of
+the Condés distributed amongst the _sbires_ of the favourite,--Normandy
+to Harcourt, Champagne to L'Hospital, &c. A monstrous alliance between
+King and people. The Queen keeping the Bastille in the hands of
+Broussel's son--the highest posts bestowed upon the magistrates--a
+reversal, in fact, of everything. Did not the French nobility rise to a
+man against such a state of things?
+
+No, everything was at a standstill. Neither Condé's military clients,
+nor his numerous seigniories, nor his governments took any active part
+whatsoever. Far from it, Madame de Longueville, as we have seen, who
+thought to raise Normandy, everywhere met with a repulse in that
+province. Neither Turenne nor she could do anything save by accepting
+aid from Spain, for which Madame de Bouillon was also doing her best in
+Paris.
+
+But whilst that lovely amazon, Condé's sister, was occupied in her
+endeavours to lure the hero of Stenay into the party of revolt by
+intoxicating him with love, and wasting time in negotiation and parade,
+a succour more direct and much more energetic was given to Condé from a
+quarter he had the least expected--from his own chateau of Chantilly. He
+had there left his aged mother, his young wife, and a son seven years
+old. Mazarin hesitated to have these ladies arrested, fearing the force
+of public opinion. The mother went to hide herself in Paris, and one
+morning appeared before the Parliament, suppliant, weeping sorely,
+stooping so far as to kneel in prayer, to flattery, and even to
+falsehood. All being unavailing, she went home to die.
+
+But most astonishing was the unexpected courage of Condé's young wife,
+Claire Clemence de Maillé, that despised niece of Richelieu, whom the
+victorious soldier had married under compulsion, and whose heir was the
+son of the minister's absolute will. On the arrest of her husband she
+had been confided to the care of a man of capacity--Lenet, from whose
+"Memoirs" we have already cited. He at first conducted her and her son
+in safety from Chantilly to Montrond, a stronghold of the Condés, but
+fearing to be besieged in it, straightway to Bordeaux. The Parliament of
+Guienne had had a deadly quarrel with Mazarin for imposing upon them
+Epernon, a governor they detested, and whom the Cardinal was bent upon
+allying by marriage with his own family. Great therefore was the emotion
+of this city and parliament at seeing that young lady of two-and-twenty
+in deep mourning, with her innocent boy, who caught the brave Bordelais
+by their beards with his little hands, and besought their help towards
+the liberation of his father. The Princess's retinue enhanced not a
+little this favourable impression, formed as it was of high-born women,
+for the most part young and charming.
+
+The popular explosion was lively, as always happens among the people of
+the south. But even the narrative of Lenet shows clearly the slender
+foundation upon which this semblance of popular insurrection rested. The
+lower orders, then living in great misery, hoped to obtain through the
+Princess some opening for their foreign trade, which would better enable
+them to dispose of their wines and help them to live. Mazarin kept down
+the local Parliament, and carried everything through sheer terror.
+Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld, the Princess's advisers, recommended that
+a royal envoy should be cut to pieces. Lenet dreaded lest such an act,
+somewhat over-energetic, might render his mistress less popular. Twice
+or thrice the populace were very nearly putting the Parliament to the
+sword, the majority of which was kept under through sheer terror of the
+knife. Spain promised money, and they had the simplicity to believe her.
+She hardly gave them a pitiful alms. Meanwhile, however, Mazarin, having
+quietly occupied Normandy and Burgundy, made his way towards Guienne
+with the royal army. The Bordelais showed an intrepid front, though
+somewhat disquieted to see the soldiery about to gather the fruits of
+the vintage instead of themselves. The Princess only maintained herself
+in the place through the aid of the rabble _va-nu-pieds_, who feasted
+and danced all night at her expense, and who shouted in her ears a
+hundred ribald jests against Mazarin, compelling both herself and her
+son to repeat them. This abasement into which she had fallen made her
+desire peace for herself, and permission to leave the city, which was
+granted to her, with vague promises of liberating Condé (3rd October,
+1650).
+
+The Duchess de Bouillon had been quite as ardent in politics during the
+burlesque activity of the Fronde as Madame de Longueville; and although,
+perhaps, equally beautiful, happily she was entirely devoted to her
+domestic duties. Her husband on taking flight had been constrained to
+leave her behind in Paris, she being near her accouchement, which
+circumstance however did not prevent the Queen from giving an order for
+her arrest. Although the royal guards were already in the house, the
+Duchess contrived to effect the escape of her sons, and during that same
+day gave birth to her babe. Shortly afterwards she found a means of
+eluding the guard set over her, and would have rejoined her husband, had
+her daughter not been attacked with small-pox, but having returned home
+to nurse her, was arrested at her bedside and carried to the Bastille.
+The Duchess de Chevreuse, always gallant, in spite of waning beauty,
+constituted herself the mediatrix between the Queen and the _Frondeurs_;
+and although her daughter had openly become the mistress of the
+Coadjutor, it was already contemplated to make her the wife of the
+Prince de Conti, as a condition of the arrangement by which he should be
+set free. Beaufort still continued to be the obsequious lover of Madame
+de Montbazon, and, through her, Mazarin was kept well acquainted with
+all his secrets.
+
+No other power than that of female influence could have attached the
+French nobility to the Prince de Condé, and determined it to take up
+arms for his release. In fact, his hauteur, his brusquerie, his
+brutality even, had, in repeated instances, offended that body, and the
+Queen imagined that the bulk of the French gentry would witness his
+arrest with as much pleasure as the citizens. But the women had been
+fascinated by the _éclat_ of his four victories; they agreed to call
+him the champion, the hero of France, and it seemed to them that they
+shared his heroism in devoting themselves to his cause. As for the
+higher nobility, they were not bound by any political principle; they
+were very indifferent to the grandeur of France; very ignorant of its
+pretensions in foreign affairs, or to what it had been pledged with
+other nations. They loved war in the first place for its dangers, and in
+the second for the honours and wealth they got by fighting; but even in
+the army, far from making fidelity and obedience a rule of conduct, they
+cherished a spirit of independence and resistance to the Crown, and
+would only allow themselves to be influenced by their chivalric usages.
+They gloried in showing themselves reckless of the future, caring more
+about the glitter of the present than steady progressive advancement;
+equally prodigal of fortune as of life, they were prone to follow
+impulse rather than calculation; so that what we should perhaps call a
+reckless frivolity was looked upon by them as a sentiment invested with
+all the charm of brilliant gallantry. Those even whom neither their
+affection nor their interest summoned to the standards of the captive
+Princes, rushed gaily from the midst of their ease and festivity into
+civil war at the first prompting of their mistresses.
+
+Gaston d'Orleans, after having consented to the imprisonment of the
+Princes, only decided upon entering into the project for their
+deliverance under promise of a marriage of his daughter, the Duchess
+d'Alençon, with the boy-Duke d'Enghien, Condé's son. Turenne and La
+Rochefoucauld, too, often thought less of their glory or the success of
+their party, than of what might be agreeable to the Duchess de
+Longueville, of whose love they were so envious. More obscure
+_liaisons_, which have even escaped the anecdotic abundance of the
+memoir-writers of those days, appear also to have exercised their
+influence over the conduct of the highest personages. In a letter which
+De Retz wrote to Turenne, and which he frankly characterises as being
+remarkably silly, the Coadjutor does not disguise that amongst many
+serious motives which he gives that great warrior for inducing him to
+determine upon peace, he does not forget to hold out a hope of his
+seeing once more a little grisette of the Rue des Petits-Champs, whom
+Turenne loved with all his heart. The feeblest motives had influence
+over such men, all young and ardent as they were--the followers of
+different factions, though without prejudices, principles, convictions,
+without hatred and without affection. The women therefore naturally
+played important parts in all these events, to whom the species of
+gallantry and worship of beauty held in honour by the Hôtel de
+Rambouillet was quite familiar. Thus nothing could be expected of the
+Duke de Beaufort, even in that which concerned him closest, if not
+assured previously of the consent of the Duchess de Montbazon, who
+exercised plenary power over him. Nemours, enamoured of the Duchess de
+Chatillon, loved likewise by the Prince de Condé, warmly embraced the
+cause of that Prince, because his mistress prompted him thereto; and the
+Duchess de Nemours had moved heaven and earth to obtain Condé's
+deliverance, in the hope that he would keep sharp watch over the Duchess
+de Chatillon, and put a stop to her husband's infidelity.
+
+De Retz too, notwithstanding the superiority of his intellect, allowed
+himself to give way, through his inclination for the fair sex, to the
+commission of indiscretions and imprudences which often placed his life
+in danger, and caused his best-concerted measures to prove abortive. To
+appease the jealousy of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse he permitted himself
+to make use of a contemptuous expression concerning the Queen, which was
+repeated, and which became the cause of the violent hatred she ever
+afterwards bore him. The Princess de Guémenée, furious at having been
+abandoned, offered the Queen, if she would consent to it, to procure the
+disappearance of the Coadjutor by sending him an invitation, and then
+having him confined in a cellar of her hotel. De Retz learned that a
+design to assassinate him had been formed, and whenever he repaired to
+the Hôtel de Chevreuse, by way of precaution placed sentinels outside
+the gate of that mansion, and quite close to the Queen's sentries who
+guarded the Palais-Royal, without heeding the effect such an excess of
+insolence and scandal produced. With every kind of talent fitting to
+dominate party spirit, he failed to acquire the confidence of anyone. He
+regarded all alliance with the foreigner as odious and impolitic; and
+notwithstanding, when his embarrassments increased, he lent an ear to
+the Archduke's envoy, and even to that of Cromwell. At the same time,
+full of admiration for the Marquis of Montrose, whom he called a hero
+worthy of Plutarch, he contracted the closest friendship with the
+Scottish royalist, and aided him to the utmost of his ability in the
+efforts he was making to restore to the throne the legitimate King of
+Great Britain. De Retz, in few words, appeared anxious to show himself
+as taking pleasure in exhausting every kind of contrast. When the
+intricate plot of the drama in which he was engaged had become so
+complicated by his intrigues, that he no longer saw the possibility of
+unravelling it, he sought means to retire from the situation with the
+greatest advantage practicable for himself and friends, and to obtain
+the Cardinal's hat. The marriage of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse with the
+Prince de Conti became the essential condition of all the negotiations
+which he carried on, whether with the Court or with the Duchess de
+Chevreuse. The remembrance of an old and close friendship, the habit of
+a familiarity contracted in youth, gave the Duchess de Chevreuse a means
+of influence over that Queen, so fixed in her hatred, so inconstant in
+her friendships. Anne of Austria, who then, moreover, found herself very
+miserable through the obstacles which so many factions created, had
+partially restored the Duchess to her confidence. Madame de Chevreuse
+appeared also to have the same interests as De Retz, since, like him,
+she desired intensely the union of her daughter with a Prince of the
+blood. But she had large sums of money to recover from the Government,
+and the success of her claims depended on the decision of the prime
+minister. She therefore used her utmost tact with Mazarin, negotiating
+at the same time with him, as well as with the Old and the New Fronde.
+She turned to her own profit the influence that her connections at
+Court, with the Coadjutor, and with the Princes gave her in all the
+several factions. She was assisted in her intrigues by the Marquis de
+Laignes, a man of courage but little intellect, who, from the time of
+her exile at Brussels, had declared himself her lover in order to gain
+importance in the faction of the Fronde, which he had embraced. As
+little more of the attractions of her youth were left to Madame de
+Chevreuse, save their pristine celebrity, she had not always to
+congratulate herself upon the good humour and behaviour of De Laignes.
+The latter had been until then wholly devoted to the Coadjutor; but De
+Retz soon perceived that De Laignes entered into projects different from
+his own. At length, to have some one who could be responsible to him
+for Madame de Chevreuse, he endeavoured to substitute Hacqueville as a
+go-between in the place of De Laignes. Hacqueville was the intimate
+friend of De Retz and also of Madame de Sevigné; and seconded by Madame
+de Chevreuse and Madame de Rhodes, De Retz might have succeeded in the
+expulsion of Laignes, if Hacqueville would have consented to that
+project. No man could be more obliging than Hacqueville; but,
+notwithstanding the disposition he showed to be useful to his friends,
+he shrank from such continual immolation of himself. Probably also he
+was too honest a man to lend himself to such a procedure.
+
+Madame de Sevigné,--in every way qualified to play a distinguished part
+in the exciting game of politics,--was so entirely devoted to her
+husband and children as to be a stranger to all these intrigues; but she
+was more or less connected with the persons who seconded the Coadjutor's
+projects, and consequently with the Duchess de Chevreuse. An article in
+the "Muse Historique" of Loret shows how intimate was the connection of
+Madame de Sevigné with that Duchess. In the month of July, 1850, on
+returning from a promenade in the Cours, then the fashionable drive
+among the highest society, the Marquis and Marchioness de Sevigné gave a
+splendid supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse. The noisy manner in which
+the Frondeurs expressed their delight made this nocturnal repast almost
+assume the character of an orgie; and, for that reason, it became for
+awhile the talk of the capital. The rhyming gazetteer thus expresses
+himself on the subject:
+
+  On fait ici grand' mention
+  D'une belle collation
+  Qu'à la Duchesse de Chevreuse
+  Sevigné, de race frondeuse,
+  Donna depuis quatre ou cinq jours,
+  Quand on fut revenue du Cours.
+  On y vit briller aux chandelles
+  Des gorges passablement belles;
+  On y vit nombre de galants;
+  On y mangea des ortolans;
+  On chanta des chansons à boire;
+  On dit cent fois non--oui--non, voire.
+  La Fronde, dit-on, y claqua;
+  Un plat d'argent on escroqua;
+  On repandit quelque potage,
+  Et je n'en sais pas davantage.[1]
+
+    [1] Loret, Muse Historique, liv. i., p. 28, Letter 10.
+
+It will be seen from these details, that already the manners and customs
+of the great world reflected the licence of the civil wars, and that
+they no longer resembled those of which the Hôtel de Rambouillet still
+presented a purer model. It may be possible also that there was some
+exaggeration in Loret's description: he belonged to the Court party,
+received a pension of two hundred crowns from Mazarin, and detested the
+Fronde. His rhyming gazette was addressed to his protectress,
+Mademoiselle de Longueville, so much the more opposed to the Fronde that
+her stepmother was the heroine of that faction. Mademoiselle de
+Longueville, whose harsh strictures upon the Condé family have been
+cited, and who subsequently became the wife of the Duke de Nemours, is
+often mentioned in the writings of her time, although she was never
+mixed up in any political intrigue, nor took part in any event. Her
+immense fortune, the clearness of her judgment, the elevation of her
+sentiments, her grand airs, the severe dignity of her manners, and the
+energy of her character, constituted her during the Regency and the
+long reign of Louis XIV. a personage quite apart; who submitted herself
+to no influence whatever, social or political, and who no more permitted
+that absolute monarch to induce her to vary in her determinations, than
+to change the fashion of her external habiliments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  STATE OF PARTIES ON THE LIBERATION OF THE PRINCES--THE CARDS AGAIN
+  SHUFFLED, AND THE FACE OF THE SITUATION CHANGED.
+
+
+AT the commencement of 1651 all France clamoured for Condé's liberation.
+During the autumn Mazarin had led the Queen and the young King against
+Bordeaux, then held by the Princess de Condé, carrying--as usual when
+forced to use both means--a sword in one hand and a roll of parchment in
+the other. Failing to carry the place with the first, the Cardinal began
+to negotiate a treaty of peace, the principal item of which was full
+pardon to the citizens, and by others an agreement that the Princess and
+her son should retire to Montrond: on these terms the city yielded to
+its sovereign. The Cardinal also obtained a victory in the field against
+Turenne, who had entered the service of Spain and fired upon the
+fleur-de-lis. But with this momentary success of Mazarin's cause rose
+his pretensions and demands; and the Fronde, alarmed at his recovered
+authority, changed its tactics as its Protean genius De Retz frequently
+did his clothes--his cassock for a plumed hat and military cloak. It
+demanded the trial or liberation of the prisoners it had helped to send
+to Vincennes, without delay, and Mazarin removed them for safe custody
+to Havre. It then pronounced sentence of banishment on the obnoxious
+minister, and ordered him to quit the kingdom within fifteen days. The
+town militia kept watch and ward over the Queen, by the command of the
+Coadjutor, and hindered her flight to join the favourite. She could
+offer no further resistance to those who now called themselves the
+friends of Condé, but who were the very same persons who had fought him
+in the field a few months before. Orders were given to set the captives
+at liberty. Mazarin himself went to Havre to communicate the news of
+their freedom, and was received by them with the contempt that he might
+have expected. Condé took leave of the Cardinal with a ringing peal of
+laughter, and with joyous acclamations, and bonfires, and firing of
+guns, made his triumphal entry into Paris.
+
+Condé was now master of the situation. He found himself equally courted
+by the two other chief parties into which the State was divided--the
+Queen's, supported by the Duke de Bouillon, and the now repentant and
+pardoned Turenne--and the Fronde, which had fallen into the guidance of
+the Duke d'Orleans, the Coadjutor, and the Duchess de Chevreuse. His own
+was called "the Prince's," and comprised Rochefoucauld and other
+personal friends and military admirers. The Duke d'Orleans had gone on
+before to meet Condé as far as the plain of St. Denis, accompanied by
+the two most conspicuous representatives of the Fronde, the Duke de
+Beaufort and Retz, with the Coadjutor of Paris, and there they all
+warmly embraced. The Duke, having taken the Prince into his carriage,
+brought him in great pomp to the Palais Royal to salute the Queen Regent
+and the young King, and thence to the Palais d'Orleans, where he was
+feasted magnificently. Some days afterwards (February 25th) a royal
+ordonnance recognised the innocence of the Princes Condé, Conti, and
+the Duke de Longueville, and reinstated them in all their posts and
+governments. On the 27th this ordonnance was confirmed in Parliament
+amidst loud cheers. Condé thus found himself at the highest degree of
+power to which a subject could reach. Misfortune had enhanced his
+military glory; a long captivity, endured with an unalterable serenity
+and high-hearted gaiety, had carried his popularity to the highest
+pitch. He was the victor, and, as it were, the designated heir, of
+Mazarin, who had fled before him, and with difficulty found a refuge
+without the kingdom, on the banks of the Rhine.
+
+Thus, Anne of Austria in some sort a prisoner, and Mazarin proscribed,
+the nobility showed itself entirely devoted to the young hero whom it
+recognized as its chief. Some among them at once proposed that the Queen
+Mother should be confined in the Val-de-Grace, and that the Prince
+should himself assume the Regency, others talked even of raising him to
+the throne, but Condé did not fail to perceive that his newly acquired
+power was not so solid as it was sought to make him believe.
+
+Meanwhile, Mazarin having quitted Havre, and the inhabitants of
+Abbeville refusing him passage through their town, he found an asylum
+for a few days at Dourlens; but he was soon driven thence by the
+proceedings of the Parliament against him. He then retired to Sedan,
+where he took counsel with his friend Fabert, whom he had appointed
+Commandant there. He next proceeded to Cologne, being treated with the
+utmost distinction and hospitality in all the foreign towns through
+which he passed.
+
+Even in banishment, however, the old influence began to work. The
+Cardinal from his place of retirement governed the Queen with as
+absolute a sway as ever, and recommended her, as a keen stroke of
+policy which would neutralize all parties, to take the young King to a
+_Bed of Justice_, and cause him to declare his majority. Couriers were
+going daily between Paris and Cologne; treaties between the Fronde and
+Mazarin were intercepted or forged, and published in the capital; the
+post of Prime Minister remained unfilled, and the Duke de Mercoeur,
+notwithstanding all the thunders of Parliament, set out for Bruhl, with
+the purpose of marrying Mazarin's niece. Everything announced that the
+exile of that hated minister was but temporary, and Condé, perceiving
+the object of all these moves, prepared for war, and silently took his
+measures accordingly.
+
+The nobility, who, from the beginning of February, had begun to assemble
+in order to take part in the expulsion of Mazarin, now held their
+meetings in the monastery hall of the Cordeliers, where might be seen
+collected together as many as _eight hundred_ princes, dukes, and
+noblemen, heads of the most considerable houses in France, all partisans
+of Condé. As this numerical strength of the ennobled classes, together
+with the multiplicity of titles among them, is somewhat startling to a
+youthful English student, it may be well to remark that France had, in
+fact, three aristocracies in the course of her annals from the Crusades
+to the reign of Louis XIV. After the time of Louis XI., the
+representatives of the _first_, or old feudal aristocracy, the
+descendants of the men who were in reality the King's peers, and not his
+actual subjects, were few and far between. These were the holders of
+vast principalities, who maintained a kind of royal state in their own
+possessions, and kept high courts of judicature over life and limb in
+the whole extent of their hereditary fiefs. In the long English wars,
+from Crécy to Agincourt, the great body of them disappeared, and only
+here and there a great vassal was to be seen, distinguished in nothing
+from the other nobles, except in the loftiness of his titles and the
+reverence that still clung to the sound of his historic name. The
+_second_ aristocracy arose among the descendants of the survivors of the
+English and Italian wars. They claimed their rank, not as coming down to
+them from the tenure of almost independent counties and dukedoms, but as
+proprietors of ancestral lands, to which originally subordinate rights
+and duties had been attached. Mixed with those, we saw the Noblesse of
+the Robe, as the great law officers were called, who constituted a
+parallel but not identical nobility with their lay competitors. The
+_third_ aristocracy was now about to make its appearance, the creation
+of Court favour, and badge of personal or official service--possessors
+of a nominal rank without any corresponding duty--a body selected for
+ornament, and not for use--and incorporating with itself, not only the
+marquis and viscount, fresh from the mint of the minister or favourite,
+but the highest names in France.
+
+The aristocracy of the sword, and of ancient birth, had itself to blame
+for this degradation. Great alterations in manners or government--such
+as give a new character to human affairs--always seem brought about by
+some strange relaxation of morals, or atrocity of conduct, which makes
+society anxious for the change. The unfortunate custom in France which
+gave every male member of a noble family a title equivalent to that of
+its chief, so that a simple viscount with ten stalwart and penniless
+sons gave ten stalwart and penniless viscounts to the aristocracy of his
+country, had filled the whole land with a race of men proud of their
+origin, filled with reckless courage, careless of life, and despising
+all honest means of employment by which their fortunes might have been
+improved. Mounted on a sorry steed and begirt with a sword of good
+steel, the young cavalier took his way from the miserable castle on a
+rock, where his noble father tried in vain to keep up the appearance of
+daily dinners, and wondered how in the world all his remaining sons and
+daughters were to be clothed and fed, and made his way to Paris. There
+he pushed his fortune--fighting, bullying, gambling, and was probably
+stabbed by some drunken companion and flung into the Seine. If he was
+lucky or adroit enough, he stabbed his drunken friend and pushed _him_
+into the stream; and, after a few months of suing and importunity,
+obtained a saddle in the King's Guards, or a pair of boots in the
+Musqueteers. At this time it came out that in twenty years of the reign
+of Louis XIII. there had been eight thousand fatal duels in different
+parts of the realm. Out of the duels which were daily carried on, four
+hundred in each year had ended in the death of one of the combatants.
+When the fiercest of English wars is shaking every heart in the kingdom,
+there would be wailing and misery in every house if it were reported
+that four hundred officers had been killed in a year. Yet these young
+desperadoes were all of officer's rank, and the quarrel in which they
+fell was probably either dishonourable or contemptible. Men fought and
+killed each other for a word or a look, or a fashion of dress, or the
+mere sake of killing. Where morality is loosened to the extent of a
+disregard of life, we may be sure the general behaviour in other
+respects is equally to be deplored. There was great and almost universal
+depravity in the conduct of high and low. Vice and sensuality found
+refuge and protection even in the presence of princesses and queens.
+People residing in remote places heard only of the gorgeous licence in
+which the great and powerful lived. They knew them only during their
+visits to their ancestral homes as worn-out debauchees from the great
+city, who brought the profligacy of the purlieus of the Louvre into the
+peaceful cottages of the peasantry on their estates. It was, indeed, so
+much the fashion to be wicked, that a gentleman was hindered from the
+practice of his Christian or social duties by the fear of ridicule. The
+life of man, therefore, and the honour of woman were held equally cheap;
+and the blinded, rash, and self-indulgent nobility laid the foundation,
+in contempt of the feelings of its inferiors and neglect of their
+interests, for the terrible retribution which even now at intervals
+might be seen ready to take its course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE DUCHESSES DE LONGUEVILLE AND DE CHEVREUSE AND THE PRINCESS
+  PALATINE IN THE LAST FRONDE.--RESULTS OF THE RUPTURE OF THE MARRIAGE
+  PROJECTED BETWEEN THE PRINCE DE CONTI AND MADEMOISELLE DE CHEVREUSE.
+
+
+WE must now revert to Condé's heroic sister. Having glanced somewhat
+hastily at the brilliant part played by Madame de Longueville in the two
+first epochs of the Fronde, the war of Paris and that which illuminated
+the prison of Condé, we are now about to follow her through the third
+and last period, which commences from the deliverance of the Princes, in
+February, 1651, and only ends with the war of Guienne, in August,
+1653;--the longest, the most disastrous, and at the same time most
+obscure epoch of the civil war. It will be necessary to strip the mask
+from more than one illustrious actor in it, exhibit the reverse of the
+most showy medals, and the shadows which everywhere mingle with glory,
+genius, and even virtue itself. The character of the Duchess de
+Longueville has its charming, its sublime aspects; but, alas! it is far
+from being irreproachable. In dwelling upon the least favourable portion
+of her life, we shall often do well to remember that the errors of great
+minds sometimes subserve their perfection, by the beneficent virtue of
+the remorse to which they give rise, and that the sister of the Great
+Condé must probably have felt in all its fulness the vanity of ambition
+and of false grandeur, all the bitterness of guilty passions, in taking
+an early farewell of them, to resume the austere path of duty, to
+return, in fine, to Carmel and ascend to Port Royal.
+
+Madame de Longueville had remained at Stenay with Turenne for some time
+after her brother's and husband's liberation, both occupied in
+disengaging themselves from the engagements which they had contracted
+with Spain for the deliverance of the Princes, and with negotiating a
+truce calculated to clear the way for the much-desired general peace.
+Recalled by the pressing instances of her family, she had quitted Stenay
+on the 7th of March, before the completion of her work. On arriving in
+Paris "universal applause greeted her heroic deeds." Monsieur had
+hastened to pay her a visit with Mademoiselle Montpensier, and a train
+of ladies of the highest distinction. She went afterwards that same day
+to present her homage to their Majesties, from whom she met with the
+most gracious reception. That moment was, unquestionably, the most
+brilliant of her whole career. In 1647, after the embassy to Munster,
+her return to France and its Court had been also a veritable triumph, as
+we have attempted to show; but the power of her house and the glory of
+her brother constituted nearly all the merits of it. She only
+contributed thereto the influence of her wit and beauty. After Stenay,
+the _éclat_ which surrounded her was in some sort more personal. She had
+just displayed eminent qualities which raised her almost to the level of
+Condé. In Normandy she had exhibited herself as an intrepid adventuress,
+and a skilful politician in the Low Countries. When, during the
+imprisonment of her two brothers and her husband, her sister-in-law, the
+Princess de Condé, had been forced at Bordeaux to recognize the royal
+authority, she discovered that the destinies of her house had devolved
+upon her. She had become the head of a great party. She had treated as
+from power to power with Spain; her word had appeared a sufficient
+guarantee to the Archduke Leopold and to the Count de Fuensaldagne. She
+had held in hand such commanders as Turenne, La Moussaye, Bouteville;
+and when, after the battle of Rethel, she seemed to be on the very verge
+of destruction, she had succeeded in recovering the advantage, and in
+contributing more than any one else to the deliverance of the Princes,
+thanks to the profound negotiations carried on in her name by the
+Princess Palatine. Whilst statesmen estimated her capacity, the
+multitude admired her courage and constancy. She was, in short, in
+possession of that political rôle with which La Rochefoucauld had
+dazzled her gaze in order to conceal his own designs:--a glittering
+chimera which, mingling itself with that of love, had seduced that
+ardent and haughty soul of hers. She was then the idol of Spain, the
+terror of the Court, one of the grandeurs of her family. We shall soon
+see whether she can better sustain this new ordeal than she did the
+first, at the close of the year 1647.
+
+The Fronde gathered the fruit of its skilful conduct during the month of
+January, 1651. It was that faction which, silencing its old animosities
+and promptly extending its hand to the partisans of Condé, had
+extricated him from prison, in order to acquire and place at its head,
+together with the King's uncle, the lieutenant-general of the Kingdom,
+the first prince of the blood, the victor of Rocroi and Lens, the hero
+of the age. It carried everything before it--at Court, in parliament,
+upon the public places; it had proscribed and put to flight Mazarin; it
+held Anne of Austria a captive in her palace; already even it had
+penetrated into the cabinet in the person of the aged Chateauneuf, in
+whom ambition cherished beneath the snows of winter the vigour of youth,
+and whose capacity was scarcely inferior to his ambition. The moment had
+arrived for accomplishing the work already begun, and for putting into
+execution the plan determined upon between the Princess Palatine and
+Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+Those two strong-minded women had conceived the idea of a grand
+aristocratic league which should seat the Fronde upon an union of all
+the interests which it comprised, close the avenues of France and the
+Court to Mazarin, and under the auspices of the Duke d'Orleans and the
+Prince de Condé form a government into which the friends of both should
+enter, the most accredited representatives of every fraction of a party.
+Further, the basis of this plan was that of a double marriage: on the
+one side between the young Duke d'Enghien and one of the Duke d'Orleans'
+daughters, on the other between the Prince de Conti and the daughter of
+Madame de Chevreuse.[1] This latter marriage might be accomplished
+immediately. Condé had accepted the proposition without any difficulty.
+Madame de Longueville, far from opposing it at Stenay, had embraced the
+idea of it with so much ardour that, in a letter to the Palatine of the
+26th of November, 1650, after having weighed the different resolutions
+to be taken, she stops at this latter, and concludes thus: "_this,
+therefore, is what we must stick to_." That marriage was, in short, of a
+supreme importance: it gave the house of Condé to the Fronde for ever,
+and the Fronde to the house of Condé; for the Fronde was then Madame de
+Chevreuse. She disposed, by her daughter, of the Coadjutor, who in his
+turn disposed of the Duke d'Orleans, and by him of the parliament. It
+was Madame de Chevreuse who, in 1650, had emboldened Mazarin to lay his
+hand upon Condé, in making him see that he might strike that bold stroke
+with impunity, since she answered to him for the secret connivance of
+the Duke d'Orleans and the parliament, who were alone able to oppose it.
+Here, Mazarin had committed an immense blunder: seeing himself delivered
+from Condé, by the aid of the Fronde, having nothing more hostile to
+cope with than the latter, he had imagined himself able to turn round
+upon it, and had treated Madame de Chevreuse very cavalierly, who,
+growing cold towards the Cardinal, and no longer finding it to her
+account to serve him, had lent an ear to the propositions of Condé's
+friends, and had procured his release from prison, reconciling to him
+the Duke d'Orleans and the parliament, which at first she had stirred up
+against him. She brought, moreover, to the house of Condé the most
+politic mind of the Fronde, an audacity towering to the height of his
+designs, a consummate experience, with the support of her three powerful
+families, the houses of de Rohan, de Luynes, and Lorraine. She rendered
+sure the alliance of the Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Condé, and
+completed the ruin of Mazarin by constructing a strong government which
+probably might have succeeded ultimately in triumphing over the
+affection of the Queen. She held in hand a statesman bred in the school
+of Richelieu, and whom she judged capable of replacing Mazarin, the
+former Keeper of the Seals--Châteauneuf, already a member of the
+Cabinet. She believed herself certain of acquiring De Retz by means of
+the Cardinal's hat. She had not the least objection to make to the
+elevation of the friends of Condé, and she was ready to favour the
+ambition of La Rochefoucauld, for whom formerly, in 1643, she had so
+greatly importuned the Queen and Mazarin. Add to all this, that on
+quitting the citadel of Havre, the young Prince de Conti had not beheld
+the lovely Charlotte de Lorraine without being smitten with her charms,
+and he himself strongly desired that marriage. Who, then, prevented it?
+Who broke off the contracted engagement? Who struck at and wounded by
+the self-same blow the Palatine and Madame de Chevreuse? Who restored
+them both and for ever to the Queen and Mazarin? Who destroyed the
+Fronde by dividing it? We shall find out by-and-by, but let us merely
+say just now that it was the rupture of that marriage which again
+shuffled the cards and changed the face of the situation. In pitting
+against himself those who had so powerfully succoured him in his
+misfortune, Condé ought at least to have drawn closer to the Court and
+had a serious understanding with the Queen; but he tergiversated, and at
+the end of some months of that wavering policy, he found himself
+standing unmasked between the Court and the Fronde, both equally
+discontented with him, repeating and exaggerating the blunder committed
+by Mazarin. The greatest error during the course of a revolution is to
+believe that the support of either of the parties who are in actual
+collision may be dispensed with. At the close of a revolution the
+attempt to dominate may be tried; during the crisis a choice must be
+made. Mazarin had fallen through having tried to dominate the Fronde and
+Condé at one and the same time; Condé lost himself in thinking to
+dominate the Fronde and the Court.
+
+    [1] Retz himself has taken care to inform us of his sad _liaison_
+    with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, throughout the whole of the second
+    volume and beginning of the third of his Memoirs. Amsterdam edition,
+    1731. That unfortunate lady died suddenly of a fever, unmarried, in
+    1652. She was born in 1627.
+
+It is an historical problem very difficult to solve, as to who was the
+author of the rupture of the marriage projected between the Prince de
+Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. We are well inclined to believe
+that that individual at any rate was the chief author of the rupture to
+whom it was the most profitable. The Queen and Mazarin, who from his
+place of retirement governed her with as absolute a sway as ever, saw
+from the first the danger which threatened them from such an alliance,
+entirely unexpected as it was by both. The negotiations between Madame
+de Chevreuse, while Condé was prisoner, and Madame de Longueville at
+Stenay, had been conducted by the Palatine with such consummate skill
+and perfect secrecy that neither the Queen nor Mazarin had the slightest
+suspicion of them. When the rumour reached the ears of the Cardinal in
+his retreat at Bruhl, near Cologne, he broke out against Madame de
+Chevreuse with a violence the coarseness of which even was an
+involuntary homage rendered to the profound ability of Marie de Rohan.
+The Queen showed herself warmly opposed to it, and the ministers were
+ordered to thwart in every way the projected alliance. They began,
+therefore, to negotiate with Condé. As a result of these negotiations he
+obtained in exchange for his government of Burgundy that of Guienne, one
+of far greater importance; he was even led to indulge a hope that
+Provence would be given to the Prince de Conti instead of Champagne and
+La Brie, and the port and fortress of Blaye to La Rochefoucauld in
+augmentation of his government of Poitou, although there was not the
+slightest intention of fulfilling that hope. So states the Duchess de
+Nemours, the enemy of the Fronde and the Condés, and who, having given
+herself to the Court party, must have well known its intentions. De Retz
+likewise doubts not that the Queen combated an alliance so evidently
+opposed to her interests. Madame de Motteville, the Queen's close
+friend, avows it. In short, it is certain, and we have hereupon the
+irrefragable testimony of Madame de Motteville, that when the Queen had
+succeeded in gaining over Condé, she caused Madame de Chevreuse to be
+informed "that she desired that such marriage should not take place,
+because it had been concerted for objects inimical to the royal
+interests. This command was the cause of all these propositions falling
+through and that they were no more spoken of."
+
+But how did the Queen gain over Condé, and what part did Madame de
+Longueville play in the affair? That is certainly what neither De Retz
+could know, who was only aware of what passed in parliament, in the
+Palais d'Orléans, and the Hôtel de Chevreuse; nor the Duchess de Nemours
+and Madame de Motteville, who were not in the confidence of the Hôtel de
+Condé: they could only repeat hereupon what they had heard said in the
+Court circle, and they must be considered solely as the echoes of
+reports which it suited the Queen to spread. That is so probable that
+the one and the other, differing so widely as they did both in intention
+and feeling, tell exactly the same tale. Madame de Motteville states
+positively that Madame de Longueville, as soon as she returned from
+Stenay, advised Condé to break with the Chevreuses, and that La
+Rochefoucauld supported her in such design; and these are the motives
+which she attributes to her:--"Madame de Longueville, who had been long
+jealous of the beauty and graces of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, could
+little bear to contemplate the probability of her being raised to a rank
+even more elevated than her own, and still less, that she should obtain
+the great influence which such a person was likely to acquire over both
+her princely brothers. She had, therefore, exerted all her influence
+over Condé, and with him had been quite successful. But Conti was still
+in the height of his passion for the beautiful and fascinating girl who
+had been promised to him during his imprisonment; he supped every
+evening at the Hôtel de Chevreuse, and his affections, as well as his
+honour, were fully engaged." The Duchess de Nemours says the same thing
+in the same terms.
+
+Confidant and adviser of Madame de Longueville and of Condé, La
+Rochefoucauld alone knew the whole truth, and could have told it to
+posterity; but it was not to tell the truth that his memoirs were
+penned, only too frequently to conceal it, to set in strong relief that
+which had been well done, and slur over that which had been badly done,
+or to cast the blame of it upon others. Attentive to the study of his
+part, and to never accept a bad one, La Rochefoucauld says truly that
+the Frondeurs, eagerly pressing forwards the marriage of the Prince de
+Conti with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, and seeing it retarded, "suspected
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld of a design to
+break it off, for fear that the Prince de Conti should escape from their
+hands only to fall into those of Madame de Chevreuse and of the
+Coadjutor;" but he endeavours to give a reason for these suspicions, and
+to inform us whether they were well or ill founded. Instead of defending
+himself, and Madame de Longueville, he accuses Condé of having "adroitly
+increased the suspicions of the Frondeurs against his sister and La
+Rochefoucauld, firmly believing that so long as they held that belief,
+they would never discover the true cause of the postponement of the
+marriage." And what was that true cause? Here it is, according to La
+Rochefoucauld: it was that the Prince de Condé "not having as yet
+either concluded or broken off his treaty with the Queen, and having
+been informed that the keeper of the seals--Châteauneuf--was about to be
+dismissed, wished to await that event to conclude the marriage, if
+Cardinal Mazarin were ruined by M. de Châteauneuf, or to break it off
+and make through that his court to the Queen, should M. de Châteauneuf
+be driven away by the Cardinal."
+
+This interpretation of Condé's conduct does not do him great honour, but
+it is a very probable one. In the first place, if La Rochefoucauld knew
+how to glide so cleverly over all the ticklish points in which he could
+not appear to advantage, he did not, strictly speaking, tell lies; he
+retires rather than attacks, unless hurried away by passion, and he was
+never in a passion with Condé. And, further, the conduct which he
+attributes to Condé springs quite naturally out of the false position in
+which Condé had, by degrees, suffered himself to be placed.
+
+Altogether, we are persuaded that Condé was then sincere. His sole
+error, and it is that which marked his entire conduct during the Fronde,
+was the not having had, either on this occasion or any other, a fixed
+and unalterable object. On the 13th of April the Queen took the seals
+from Madame de Chevreuse's friend, Châteauneuf, the representative of
+the Fronde in the Cabinet, to give them to the gravest person of his
+time, the first president, Mathieu Molé, a worthy servant of the State,
+very little friendly to the Fronde, and who then was sufficiently
+favourable towards the Prince de Condé. That same day she recalled to
+the Council as Secretary of State the Count de Chavigny, who had been
+formerly minister for Foreign Affairs under Richelieu. Formed in the
+school of the great Cardinal, as well as Mazarin, ousted from place,
+crafty and resolute, feeling himself capable of bearing the weight of a
+ministry, Chavigny had beheld with a sufficiently ominous countenance,
+after the death of their common master, the sudden elevation of a
+colleague who had even begun by being his dependent. Since 1643, vanity
+had turned him aside from the high road of ambition, and he had
+entangled himself in the brakes of very complicated intrigues. In 1651,
+he passed as the friend of Condé. It was then only, if we can believe La
+Rochefoucauld, that Condé declared himself opposed to the marriage of
+his youthful brother with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse; and it was time
+that he opposed it, for that marriage was on the eve of accomplishment.
+Conti gave proof of the most ardent passion for Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; he paid her a thousand attentions which he hid from his
+friends, and particularly from his sister, for whom he ever professed to
+entertain an undivided adoration. He held long conferences with the
+Marquis de Laigues and other intimate friends of Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; it was even feared lest he should marry her without the
+necessary dispensations and without the participation of the head of his
+family. Condé, therefore, decided to act at once, and the reputation of
+the fair lady afforded him a means of attack which he employed with
+success upon his brother. He seems to have had no great difficulty in
+attaining his object. The Prince de Conti soon received proof that she
+was not by any means so immaculate as he had believed: her scarcely
+doubtful connection with the Coadjutor was placed in its true light,
+and, convinced that the object of his passion was unworthy the love of a
+man of honour, he began to look upon her with horror. He even blamed
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld for not having
+warned him sooner of what was said of her in society. From that moment
+means of breaking off the affair without acrimony were sought; but
+the interests involved were too great, and the circumstances too piquant
+not to renew and augment still more the old hatred of Madame de
+Chevreuse and the Frondeurs against the Prince de Condé, and against
+those whom they suspected of taking part in that which had just been
+done.[2]
+
+    [2] La Rochefoucauld, p. 69. Retz, tom, ii., p. 223.
+
+This testimony would justify Madame de Longueville and La Rochefoucauld
+himself for having urged Condé upon that disloyal and impolitic rupture,
+if one could believe it to be entirely sincere; but it is very difficult
+to admit that Madame de Longueville and her all-powerful adviser could
+have remained strangers to a determination so important, and there are
+many doubts and obscurities resting upon this delicate point. De Retz,
+whose introspect was so penetrating, and who does not pride himself on
+any great reserve in his judgments, knew not what opinion to
+form--Condé, Madame de Longueville, and La Rochefoucauld having
+afterwards assured him that they had had nothing to do with the rupture
+of the marriage.
+
+But whose soever was the hand that broke off the projected alliance of
+the Condés with Madame de Chevreuse, it is beyond doubt that that had
+lost Condé and saved Mazarin. All the errors which followed were derived
+from that cardinal one. In it must be discerned the first link of that
+chain of disastrous events which ended by dragging Condé into civil war.
+
+The resentment of Madame de Chevreuse may well be imagined, when she
+discovered that she had been tricked, that she had separated herself
+from Mazarin and the Queen, and had drawn Condé out of prison only to
+receive in exchange such an unpardonable outrage! Already, even a short
+time before, when the Queen ousted Châteauneuf without consulting the
+Duke d'Orleans, the wrath of the Frondeurs had been such, that at a
+council held at the Palais d'Orleans of the whole party, it was proposed
+to go, on the part of the lieutenant-general, and demand back the seals
+from Mathieu Molé. The most violent expedients were suggested, and some
+among the more hot-headed spoke of seizing their arms and descending
+into the streets. Condé, who had not yet entirely broken with the
+Frondeurs, and was present at this council with a few of his friends,
+threw cold water upon every proposal that was made, and energetically
+opposed the appeal to arms, declaring that he did not understand waging
+"a war of paving-stones and _pots de chambre_," and that he felt himself
+too much of a coward for such a campaign as that.
+
+After some time passed in sharp discussion, the Duke retired into the
+apartments of his wife with De Retz, and there a brief consultation
+ensued, in which the Duchess d'Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, and the
+Coadjutor endeavoured to persuade him to arrest the leaders of the
+opposite party, and rouse the people to insurrection. The Duke d'Orleans
+was in some degree moved; Condé, Conti, and the Duke de Beaufort and
+others, had retired into the library, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse,
+springing towards the door, exclaimed, "Nothing is wanting but a turn of
+the key! It would be a fine thing indeed for a girl to arrest a winner
+of battles!"
+
+The impetuosity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, however, alarmed the timid
+Duke d'Orleans. Had he been brought to it by degrees, he might have
+consented to the act; but her movement towards the door startled him,
+and he began to whistle,--which, as De Retz observes, was never a good
+sign. Then declaring that he would consider of the matter till the next
+morning, he walked quietly into the library, and suffered the guests to
+depart in peace whom he had been so sorely tempted to make prisoners.
+
+At the same time in the parliament all the violent measures taken
+against Mazarin were renewed: he was banished and rebanished, with
+confiscation of his possessions, and even his books and pictures were
+ordered to be sold. A decree had already been passed declaring all
+foreign cardinals incapable of serving in France, and of entering into
+the ministry. They did not stop there, and certain councillors who were
+not in the secrets of the party, and obeying only their passion,
+proposed to exclude from the ministry even the French cardinals as being
+still too dependent upon Rome. This sweeping motion was carried amid
+loud cheers, which resounded through all parts of the hall. Whereupon
+Condé laughingly remarked: "There's a fine echo." That same echo was the
+ruin of De Retz's hopes, who only so passionately desired to become a
+cardinal in order to succeed to Mazarin. Shortly afterwards the division
+between Condé and the Old Fronde was declared, and Condé applied himself
+to form an intermediate party, a new Fronde, which became sufficiently
+powerful to disquiet Madame de Chevreuse and the Coadjutor.[3]
+"Imagine," says the latter, "what the royal authority purged of
+Mazarinism would have been, and the party of the Prince de Condé purged
+of faction! More than all, what surety was there in M. the Duke
+d'Orleans!"
+
+    [3] De Retz, tom, ii., p. 205.
+
+    [4] The same, p. 214.
+
+But De Retz was not the only politician who terrified himself with the
+idea of such a future looming thus darkly for France. Mazarin dreaded
+it as much as he. His authority was almost universally thought to be for
+ever annihilated; but a small number of courtiers who could read the
+Queen's heart, judged otherwise, and owed to the skilful line of conduct
+to which they adhered under these circumstances the high fortune to
+which they attained in the sequel.
+
+There is little doubt that, in the first instance, Condé might have
+carried off the Regency from the Queen, deprived as she was of her prime
+minister, and by her own acknowledgment incapable of governing by
+herself; but then the direction of affairs belonged by right to the Duke
+d'Orleans, of whom Condé was jealous. Condé, however, preferred to keep
+the Regency in the Queen's hands, and by rendering himself formidable to
+the Government, forcing it to reckon with him. If that union of the
+Princes between themselves and the Fronde faction had subsisted, the
+re-establishment of the royal authority would have been impossible: and
+the commencement of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, who, although he
+had only completed his thirteenth year, was about, by the force of an
+exceptional law, to be declared of age, would have offered the
+spectacle, so frequent in French annals,[5] of a state a prey to the
+divulsion of factions and the horrors of anarchy.
+
+    [5] Retz--La Rochefoucauld--Joly.
+
+But for the happiness of France and the Queen-Regent, Condé was as
+unskilful in politics as he was great in war. He kept none of the
+promises he had made to the chiefs of the Fronde, the authors of his
+deliverance. The marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse, which had been the base of the treaty, and involved other
+engagements, was, as we have seen, remorselessly broken off. The Queen
+Regent, in order to succeed in bringing back her favourite minister to
+power, had the tact to conceal his advances, and therefore chose in the
+first instance to replace him by Chavigny, who was his personal enemy.
+Then she negotiated with all parties, and skilfully opposed the Fronde
+to the Prince de Condé, the latter to the Duke d'Orleans, the parliament
+to the assembly of the nobles, the aversion to Mazarin to the fear which
+the Coadjutor inspired. Her ministers, whom she abused, had only the
+semblance of power; all that was real was possessed by Mazarin. From
+Bruhl, his place of exile, he governed France; the Queen adopted no
+resolution without its having been inspired by him, or met with his
+approval. Thus hidden by the Regent's mantle, the Cardinal followed with
+vigilant eye the quarrels of the Prince de Condé and the Frondeurs,
+fomenting them and inflaming them by every means at his disposal,
+prodigalising to Condé promises which must in the highest degree have
+alarmed the Fronde, and entangling him daily more and more in the meshes
+of intricate, tortuous negotiations, until he had seen the separation,
+for which he manoeuvred, irremediably consummated. Then he stopped,
+and began insensibly even to fall back. The placing of Provence in the
+Prince de Conti's hands was deferred; and in fact it was held in reserve
+for the Duke de Mercoeur, the eldest son of the Duke de Vendôme, who
+was seeking the hand of one of Mazarin's nieces; and it was also found
+inexpedient to deprive the Duke de Saint-Simon of Blaye to give it to La
+Rochefoucauld; and a thousand other difficulties of a like nature were
+raised, which both astonished and irritated Condé. Since he broke with
+the Fronde, it was apparently to unite himself with the Queen, and the
+higher his ambition soared, the more necessary it was to cover it with
+respect and deference, in order to hasten and secure the treaty on
+foot, and to enchain the monarchy with his own fate. But the fiery Condé
+was incapable of such a line of conduct. Finding unexpected obstacles
+where previously he had met with facilities and hopeful anticipations,
+he lost his temper, and resumed the imperious tone which already, in
+1649, had embroiled him with the Queen and Mazarin.
+
+It appears also that Madame de Longueville shared in the soaring
+illusions of her brother, and that she bore but indifferently well her
+newly blown prosperity. Madame de Motteville gives us to understand so
+with her usual moderation, and the Duchess de Nemours rejoices to say so
+with all the acrimony and doubtless also the exaggeration of hatred.[6]
+It must, indeed, be owned, with the heroic instincts of Condé, Madame de
+Longueville shared also his haughty spirit. All her contemporaries
+ascribe to her an innate majesty which did not show itself on ordinary
+occasions; far from it, she was simple, amiable, adding thereto, when
+desirous of pleasing, a caressing and irresistible gentleness; but, with
+people whom she disliked, she intrenched herself in a frigid dignity,
+and Anne of Austria and she had never loved one another. A misplaced
+haughtiness towards the Queen is attributed to her. One day, says Madame
+de Nemours, she kept her waiting for two or three hours. It is very
+doubtful whether Madame de Longueville could have so far forgotten
+herself; but it is not impossible that she may have imagined, as well as
+her brother, that the fortunes of their house, having emerged more
+brilliant than ever from so rude a tempest, had no longer to dread the
+recurrence of further ill-omened shocks.
+
+    [6] Madame de Motteville, tom. iv., p. 346; Madame de Nemours,
+    p. 106.
+
+They deceived themselves: an immense peril was hanging over their heads.
+
+Immediately that Madame de Chevreuse had seen that the Queen was growing
+colder towards Condé, and did not seem disposed to keep the promises
+that had been made him, her keen-sighted animosity instantly determined
+her course of action, and being for ever separated from Condé, she again
+drew towards the Queen with an offer of her services and those of her
+entire party against the common enemy. Mazarin, recognising the error he
+had committed in giving himself two enemies at the same time, and that
+at that moment the redoubtable individual, the man who at any cost must
+be destroyed, was Condé, very quickly forgot his grudges against Madame
+de Chevreuse, and advised the acceptance of her propositions. The Queen,
+it appears, was very averse to receive De Retz, or avail herself of his
+services; she detested him almost as much as she did Condé, well knowing
+that they were the two most dangerous enemies of him without whom she
+did not believe that she could really reign. Mazarin exhorted her
+himself to flatter De Retz's ambition, and, marvellously understanding
+each other at a distance--almost as well as when in each other's
+presence,--they composed and played out in the most perfect manner a
+comedy of which De Retz himself seems to have been the dupe, and of
+which Condé was very nearly being the victim.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse has already been depicted both in good and evil, in
+her natural intelligence, quickness, keen introspection, and political
+genius, in her indomitable courage and audacity, and all that she was
+capable of undertaking in order to attain her objects. It will now be
+necessary to thoroughly understand De Retz's character, in order to
+perceive clearly the peril with which Condé was menaced.
+
+By nature yet more restless than ambitious, a bad priest, impatient of
+his condition and having long struggled to emancipate himself from it,
+Paul de Gondi had prepared himself for cabals by composing or
+translating the life of a celebrated conspirator. Then, passing quickly
+from theory to practice, he had entered into one of the most sinister
+plots framed against Richelieu, and for his first experiment he had
+accepted the task, he, a young abbé, of assassinating the Cardinal at
+the altar during the ceremony of Mademoiselle de Montpensier's baptism.
+In 1643, he had not hesitated to throw himself into the arms of the
+_Importants_; but the title of Coadjutor of Paris, which had just been
+conferred upon him as a recompense for the virtues and services of his
+father, arrested him. The Fronde seemed created altogether expressly for
+him. He shared the parentage of it along with La Rochefoucauld. In vain
+in his Memoirs does he studiedly put forward general considerations:
+like La Rochefoucauld, he was only working for himself, and at least had
+the candour to own it. Compelled to remain in the Church, De Retz
+desired to rise in it as high as possible. He aspired to a cardinal's
+hat, and soon obtained it, thanks to his inscrutable manoeuvring; but
+his supreme object was the post of prime minister, and to reach it, he
+played that double game which he so craftily concerted and so skilfully
+played out. Seeing that Mazarin and Condé were not heads of a government
+which would leave to others acting with them any great share of
+importance, he undertook to overthrow them, the one by the other, to
+carve out his way between them by them, and to raise upon their ruin the
+Duke d'Orleans, under whose name he would govern. To effect this he
+incessantly urged alike the Duke, the parliament, and the people, to
+demand, as the first condition of any reconciliation with the Court,
+the dismissal of Mazarin, and at the same time he, under a mask,
+exhibited himself as a benevolent conciliator between royalty and the
+Fronde, promising the Queen, the indispensable sacrifice accomplished,
+to smooth all difficulties, and to bring over to her the Duke d'Orleans
+by separating him from Condé. Such was the real mainspring of all De
+Retz's movements--even those seemingly the most contrary: first the
+cardinalate, then the premiership under the auspices of the Duke
+d'Orleans, associated in some sort with royalty, without Mazarin or
+Condé. He was fain to hide his secret under the guise of the public
+weal, but that secret revealed itself by the very efforts he made to
+conceal it, and it did not escape the penetration of La Rochefoucauld,
+his accomplice at the outset of the Fronde, afterwards his adversary,
+who had a perfect knowledge of his character, and who had sketched it
+with a masterly hand, as De Retz also thoroughly comprehended and
+admirably depicted La Rochefoucauld. De Retz was indeed the evil genius
+of the Fronde. He always hindered it from progressing whether led by
+Mazarin or Condé, because he merely desired to have a weak government
+which he could dominate. To arrive at that end, he was capable of
+anything--tortuous intrigues, anonymous pamphlets, hypocritical sermons
+from the pulpit, studied orations in parliament, popular insurrections
+and desperate _coups de main_. Such was the man who, towards the end of
+May, 1651, was admitted, much against her will, into the secret councils
+of Anne of Austria.
+
+Anything was to be tried, however, which might deliver her from the
+exactions of Condé. It was absolutely necessary that she should either
+grant his demands, or find some support to enable her to resist them.
+She accordingly despatched Marshal du Plessis to speak with De Retz, at
+the archbishopric, towards one o'clock in the morning, at which hour he
+generally returned from his nocturnal visits to Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. De Retz was willing to seize the opportunity of avenging
+himself upon Condé, and probably judged he might do so without bringing
+about the return of Mazarin. He accepted, then, at once the Queen's
+invitation, and flung the letter of safe-conduct which she had sent him
+into the fire, in order to show his confidence in her promises. The
+following night, at twelve o'clock, he was brought into the Queen's
+Oratory by a back staircase, and a long conversation ensued between
+them. Anne of Austria was very caressing in her manner towards the
+Coadjutor, and sought, after winning her way to his confidence, to
+embroil him with Châteauneuf, by informing him that it was that friend
+of Madame de Chevreuse who was the most opposed to his cardinalate,
+because he wanted the hat for himself. It must be remembered that France
+at that moment had the appointment of a cardinal at its disposition, and
+it had been long promised to the Prince de Conti. Anne of Austria now
+offered it to De Retz who, in reply, at the end of a long harangue,
+during which the Queen interrupted him impatiently more than once,
+assured her that he had not come there to receive favours, but to merit
+them.
+
+"What will you do for me, then?" asked the Queen. "What will you do?"
+
+"Madam," replied he, "I will oblige the Prince de Condé to quit Paris
+ere eight days are over, and will carry off the Duke d'Orleans from him
+before to-morrow night."
+
+The Queen, transported with joy, extended her hand to him saying--"Give
+me your hand on that, and the day after to-morrow you are a cardinal,
+and moreover the second amongst my friends."
+
+A few days afterwards, De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse had raised the
+entire Fronde against the Prince de Condé. The worthy archbishop had
+announced his approach to the enemy he was about to attack by a cloud of
+the same kind of libels, satires, and epigrams, which he had always
+found so efficacious in prejudicing the people of Paris against any one
+whom he thought fit to hold forth to popular odium. At the same time a
+multitude of criers and hawkers were sent through the town, spreading,
+at the very lowest price, all the sarcasms which had been composed at
+the archbishopric in the morning, to render the conduct of Condé
+ridiculous, contemptible, and hateful in the eyes of the multitude.
+
+At length, when the Coadjutor believed that everything had been
+sufficiently prepared, he made the Palatine write to inform the Queen
+that he was about to go to the parliament. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was
+with the Regent at the time she received this intimation; and the
+delight which it occasioned was so great that the virtuous and pious
+Anne of Austria caught the archbishop's mistress in her arms, and kissed
+her more than once, exclaiming, with no very great regard for decorum,
+"You rogue! you are now doing me as much good as you have hitherto done
+me harm."
+
+De Retz kept his word, and went to the parliament, but the progress
+against Condé was so slow that Mazarin, the Queen, and De Retz, began to
+revolve more summary measures, and, towards the latter part of June,
+their deliberations ended in a sinister project of again arresting or of
+assassinating Condé.
+
+This obscure affair, as yet only partially unveiled, and which probably
+will never be so entirely, is not so dark and impenetrable, however, as
+to prevent us from seeing, within the shadow thereof, fearful and
+criminal purposes, to which even the more open vices of the age are
+comparatively light. We are told by De Retz that the Marshal de
+Hocquincourt, with more frankness than the rest, proposed in direct
+terms to assassinate Condé. The Coadjutor himself, however, Madame de
+Chevreuse, and other leaders of the Fronde, but above all Senneterre,
+who had about this time obtained a great share of the Queen's
+confidence, opposed not only the bold crime proposed at first by
+Hocquincourt, but also all the schemes which he and others afterwards
+suggested, and which, though apparently more mild, were all likely to
+end in the same event.
+
+Rumours of what was meditated soon reached the Prince's ears, who then
+saw clearly the nature of his position. He perceived that he had
+quarrelled thoroughly and for ever with the Frondeurs and with the
+Queen, and that henceforth he was placed between imprisonment and
+assassination. He felt certain that this time, should he fall into the
+hands of his enemies, he would be treated far more harshly than in 1650,
+and that probably he might never see the light again. He despised death,
+but the idea of perpetual incarceration was insupportable to him, and
+that idea fastening itself by degrees on his mind caused projects to
+enter into it which until then had only momentarily crossed it.
+
+Too high-minded to quit Paris as though he were terrified, Condé
+exhibited no change in his conduct; merely confining himself to no
+longer visiting the Palais-Royal or the Palais d'Orléans, and never
+going abroad without a numerous escort of officers and retainers.
+Already for some time past foreseeing the storm that was gathering
+against him, he had taken serious measures to confront it: he had
+strengthened all the fortresses that were in his hands. He had
+despatched to Flanders the Marquis de Sillery, La Rochefoucauld's
+brother-in-law, under pretext of finally disengaging Madame de
+Longueville and Turenne from the treaties they had made with the
+Spaniards in 1650, with secret instructions to renew them, and to
+ascertain how far he might reckon on the assistance of Spain if he were
+compelled to draw the sword. The Count de Fuensaldagne did not fail,
+agreeable to the policy of his court, to promise much more than was
+asked of him, and he omitted nothing calculated to stir up Condé to have
+recourse to arms.
+
+Chance had a share in urging Condé to take a further and almost decisive
+step in the dangerous path that was opening before him. One evening,
+just as he had lain down on his bed and was chatting with Vineuil, one
+of his trusty friends, the latter received a note which directed him to
+warn the Prince that two companies of guards were advancing on the side
+of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. It was thought that those troops were
+about to invest the hôtel. Condé jumped out of bed, dressed himself,
+mounted his horse instantly, and, accompanied by a few attendants, took
+his way through the faubourg Saint-Michel. On gaining the high road, he
+heard the clatter of a somewhat strong body of horsemen approaching, and
+thinking that it was the squadron in search of him, he fell back at
+first in the direction of Meudon; then, instead of re-entering Paris,
+when day broke he sought an asylum in his château of Saint-Maur. He
+reached it on the morning of the 6th of July; and it may readily be
+guessed what the effect, in Paris and throughout the kingdom, of such a
+retreat was, and for such motives. The Princess de Condé, the Prince de
+Conti, Madame de Longueville, La Rochefoucauld, the Duke de Nemours,
+the Duke de Richelieu, the Prince's most intimate friends, and more than
+one illustrious personage, such as the Duke de Bouillon and Turenne,
+repaired immediately to Saint-Maur. In a day or two, Condé saw himself
+surrounded by a court as brilliant and as numerous as that of the King,
+and there he kept up a right royal festivity. After a while he sent a
+considerable number of officers disguised into Paris, who bestirred
+themselves in every quarter in his favour; and when he considered
+himself in a position to hold his own against both the Queen and the
+Frondeurs together, he quitted Saint-Maur and returned to his hôtel near
+the Palais d'Orléans, desiring to put a good complexion on the aspect of
+his affairs and to impose upon his enemies by that bold and high-minded
+conduct.[7] He appeared again also in the parliament, now once more
+become the battle-field of parties. De Retz, full of his own individual
+hatred, augmented by that of Madame de Chevreuse, seconded at once by
+the friends of the Duke d'Orleans and by those of the Queen, burning to
+tear from the Court and win, by serving it, the cardinal's hat, the
+object of his ardent desires, the necessary stepping-stone to his
+ambition, brought all his courage and vanity towards enacting the part
+of the Prince's enemy. And there, during the months of July and August,
+in that pretended sanctuary of law and justice, passed all those
+deplorable scenes which De Retz and La Rochefoucauld have related, and
+in which Mazarin, from his retreat on the banks of the Rhine, rejoiced
+to see his two enemies waste their strength, and work unwittingly but
+surely their common ruin and his approaching triumph.
+
+    [7] La Rochefoucauld, p. 83.
+
+A crisis was clearly inevitable. Condé could no longer perceive any
+sign of a pacific issue from the position in which he had been placed,
+or rather in which he had placed himself, and at his right hand stood
+Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti, who held no opinions
+contrary to those of his sister, urging him to cut the knot which he
+knew not how to untie. La Rochefoucauld stopped him for a moment on the
+threshold of war, entreating Condé to allow him to undertake fresh
+negotiations. The Prince consented willingly thereto. Madame de
+Longueville was opposed to it. La Rochefoucauld, speaking to her with
+that authority which his long devotion gave him, represented to her the
+terrible responsibility which she took upon herself both towards Condé
+and the State, and he obtained from her a promise that she would
+withdraw for a time from the arena of strife, and accompany her
+sister-in-law, the Princess de Condé, to Berri, and allow him to remain
+in Paris by the side of Condé in order to make a last essay towards
+conjuring the tempest.
+
+The fitting moment has now arrived to examine the conduct of Madame de
+Longueville in these grave conjunctures, the different feelings which
+animated her, and the true and lamentable motive which determined her
+thus to hurry her brother into civil war, and herself with him.
+
+Let us remember:--Anne de Bourbon exhibited extraordinary contrasts in
+her character, entirely opposite qualities which, developing themselves
+in turn according to circumstances, gave a particular impress to
+different periods of her life. She derived from nature and the Christian
+education she had received a delicate and susceptible conscience, a
+humility in her own eyes and before God that would have made her an
+accomplished Carmelite; and at the same time she was born with that
+ardour of soul which is termed ambition, the instinct of glory and of
+grandeur. This instinct, which was also that of her house and her age,
+soon obtained the mastery on emerging from her pious adolescence, and
+when she despaired of overcoming her father's resistance to the serious
+desire she had manifested of burying herself, at fifteen, in the convent
+of the Rue St. Jacques, with her already formidable beauty and the
+nascent desire to shine and to please. That desire was at once Madame de
+Longueville's strength and weakness, the principle of her coquetry amid
+the amusements of peace, as of her intrepidity in the midst of war and
+danger. Once condemned to live in the world, she transferred the dreams
+of glory which she dared not realise for herself, to gild her brother's
+wreath of laurel,--that Louis de Bourbon, almost of the same age as
+herself, the cherished companion of her infancy, so witty, so generous,
+so bold, that he was at once a friend and a master, and the idol of her
+heart, before another object had usurped the place or after he had
+abandoned it. In the first and the last portion of her life, which are
+incomparably the best, she referred everything to Condé, and Condé had a
+confidence in her altogether boundless. The suspicious and penetrating
+Mazarin had very early formed that opinion of her, and in the _carnets_,
+to which he has confided his very inmost feelings, he depicts her with
+the pen of an enemy, but of an enemy who knew her well. "Madame de
+Longueville," says he, "has entire power over her brother. She desires
+to see Condé dominate and dispose of all favours. If she is prone to
+gallantry, it is by no means that she thinks of doing wrong, but in
+order to make friends and servitors for her brother. She insinuates
+ambitious ideas into his mind to which he is already only too much
+inclined." If, in 1648, she became violently enraged against her
+brother, it was that, fascinated and misled by La Rochefoucauld, she
+thought that Condé, by serving the Court and Mazarin, was false to his
+own fame. In 1649, she had only too far contributed to make him enter by
+degrees upon that fatal path into which La Rochefoucauld had lured
+herself. Here, pride nourished the hope of one day seeing the Condés
+replace the D'Orleans. When, in 1850, a son was born to Gaston, the
+little Duke de Valois, who did not live, she fretted at an event which
+threatened to strengthen and perpetuate a house for which she had no
+affection, and in a letter which has remained inedited up to the present
+day, she allows the thoughts that had insinuated themselves into her
+heart to appear. "I think," she writes to Lenet on the 22nd August,
+1650, "that the news of the birth of M. d'Orleans' son will no more
+rejoice my sister-in-law than it has delighted me. It is to my nephew
+that we must offer our condolence." In 1651, that ambition was carried
+to its highest pitch. Madame de Longueville experienced the natural
+intoxication that the power and prosperity of her house was calculated
+to give her; and when we think of what perils she had just surmounted,
+by what homage she was surrounded on all sides, that she was then
+thirty-two, that she was in all the splendour of her beauty, and also
+under all the strength of her passions, we might well be disposed to
+pardon her that fugitive intoxication, if it had not likewise drawn down
+disastrous consequences upon herself, upon Condé, and upon her country.
+
+And here again occurs the question we have just raised. Was it Madame de
+Longueville who caused the rupture of the projected marriage between the
+Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse? If hers was the chief
+fault, we look upon it with regret, that in the eye of posterity she
+should bear the blame of such a fault. If she only yielded to the advice
+of La Rochefoucauld, we have the more excuse for her, and assert that
+the fault comes home to him. As we have seen, that affair is still
+involved in much obscurity, and since De Retz himself hesitates, we
+ought to feel well justified to hesitate in our turn. But it must be
+confessed, the suspicions of the Frondeurs and the accusations of the
+Queen's friends have such great weight that it is scarcely possible to
+avoid attributing to Madame de Longueville a sufficiently large share in
+the deplorable rupture whence so many evils sprang. Her complaisant
+biographer, Villefore, is on this point in accordance with Madame de
+Motteville. Without doubt the marriage of the Prince de Conti with
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was far from meeting with universal approval.
+The prudes of the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and Mademoiselle de Scuderi in
+particular, protested strongly against such an alliance. The old outrage
+was remembered which, in 1643, Madame de Montbazon, aided by Madame de
+Chevreuse, had dared to perpetrate upon Madame de Longueville; the
+audacious manners of the mother also, which seemed to have been
+inherited by the daughter; the equivocal reputation of the latter, the
+suspected and almost public _liaison_ which she carried on with De Retz.
+Vain objections!--which Madame de Longueville could not allege, for she
+perfectly well knew all that when at Stenay she had authorised the
+Palatine to pledge her word for hers. Other reasons for her conduct must
+therefore be sought, and the reasons can only be those which her enemies
+have given, and in the foremost place the jealousy of influence, the
+desire of retaining over her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, an
+empire that Charlotte de Lorraine would, infallibly, have deprived her.
+
+That irreparable error, in bringing about the perilous position in which
+Condé speedily found himself, necessarily led Madame de Longueville to
+the commission of another error, in some sort compulsory, and which was
+the complement of the first; it is certain that more than anyone else
+she incited her brother to take the resolution he ultimately determined
+upon adopting. La Rochefoucauld says so, and all contemporary writers
+repeat the same. We will merely make this essential remark: Madame de
+Longueville had at first very readily entered into the reconciliatory
+plans of Condé and La Rochefoucauld, and into their negotiations with
+the Court; it was only when those designs had failed, when towards the
+month of June negotiation had given place to violence, when she saw her
+brother surrounded by assassins, liable at any moment to fall under the
+blows of Hocquincourt, or to be flung again into the dungeons of
+Vincennes, it was then that trembling with fear and indignation, and ill
+as she was in health, she rushed to Saint-Maur; and that, finding there
+the flower of the aristocracy and the army assembled, she felt her
+warlike ardour of 1649 and 1650 rekindle. She thought that nothing could
+resist on the field of battle the victor of Rocroy and Lens, seconded by
+Turenne, who at Stenay had shown such a lively and tender attachment for
+her, and the sentiment of which she had never ceased to treat with all
+the exquisite tact of which she was capable. She had also great
+confidence in Spain, which was at her feet, and lavished upon her every
+kind of deference. She urged, therefore, Condé to fling further
+perfidious and useless negotiations to the winds, and to appeal to the
+fortune of arms.
+
+But to these different motives, the force of which Madame de Longueville
+summed up the value with the authority of her intelligence and
+experience, was joined another still more potent over her heart, and
+which had been the original mainspring of her resolutions and conduct.
+La Rochefoucauld alone has no right to impute it to her as a crime. For
+ourselves, we do not hesitate to make it known upon the evidence of
+irrefragable testimony; for we are not composing a panegyric of Madame
+de Longueville, but narrating certain passages of her life, in which
+that of the seventeenth century, with its grandeurs and its miseries, is
+so completely identified; and if we feel a sincere admiration for the
+sister of the great Condé, that admiration does not close our eyes to
+her errors. It is not unseemly to admire a heroine whose lofty qualities
+are mingled with weaknesses which remind us of her sex. It is, moreover,
+the first duty of history, such as we understand it, and desire to have
+it understood, not to stop at the surface of events, but to seek for
+their causes in the depths of the soul, in human passions and their
+inevitable consequences.
+
+As has been already said, Madame de Longueville did not love her
+husband. Not only was he greatly her senior, but there was nothing about
+him that responded to the ideal which that illustrious disciple of the
+Hôtel de Rambouillet had formed for herself, and which she pursued in
+vain through guilty illusions, until that which she sought and found at
+its very source--no longer in the school of Corneille and of
+Mademoiselle de Scuderi, but in that of her Saviour, in the Carmelite
+convent and at Port Royal. Never was woman less prone to gallantry by
+nature than Anne de Bourbon; but, as we have just remarked, her heart
+and her imagination created in her the necessity of pleasing and of
+being beloved; and it was that want, early cultivated by poetry,
+romances, and the theatre, and somewhat later corrupted by the example
+of the society in which she lived, which lured her far from the domestic
+hearth, and hurried her into the brilliant and adventurous career amidst
+which we find her in 1651. Then her greatest fear was to fall again into
+her husband's hands. M. de Longueville had very willingly followed his
+wife in the Fronde; his own discontentments of themselves drove him into
+it, as well as his uncertain and mobile character which led him to
+embark in novel enterprises with as much facility as it urged him to
+abandon them. In 1649 he had figured as one of the generals of Paris,
+and had raised Normandy against Mazarin. One year of imprisonment had
+cooled him, and in 1651, having recovered his government of Normandy and
+tasted some few months of that peaceful grandeur, he found it so much to
+his liking as to be not readily tempted to re-embark upon a stormy
+course of life at the age of nearly fifty-seven. Reports, only too true,
+had informed him of what until then he had only surmised
+imperfectly--the declared _liaison_ of his wife with La Rochefoucauld.
+He had been greatly irritated at it, and Condé's enemies, with De Retz
+at their head, carefully fostered his ill humour, and his daughter,
+Marie d'Orléans, afterwards Duchess de Nemours, seconded them to the
+utmost of her power.
+
+She detested her stepmother, whose faults her strong common-sense led
+her easily to scan, without her own vulgar and commonplace mind being
+capable of comprehending the Duchess's great qualities. It was
+impossible less to resemble each other. The one adored grandeur even to
+the romantic and the chimerical, the other was entirely positive and
+matter-of-fact, and absorbed with her own interest, especially in those
+relating to her property. Alienated from the Fronde through the jealous
+hatred she bore towards her stepmother, who in turn liked her almost as
+little, and probably also did not take pains enough to manage her,
+Mademoiselle turned towards the Queen, and strove to gain over her
+father to the same party. Therein she succeeded by degrees. The Duke de
+Longueville could not overtly separate himself from Condé, and at first
+promised him all he required; then he shut himself up in Normandy, and
+there followed a dubious line of conduct which neither compromised him
+with the Court party nor that of Condé. But he recalled his wife
+peremptorily, and sent her a mandate to rejoin him. That mandate was
+pressing and threatening, and it terrified Madame de Longueville. She
+knew that her husband had been informed of everything, and that he was
+wholly given up to the influence of his daughter. She feared
+ill-treatment; she felt certain at least that once in Normandy she would
+no more quit it, and that her time would be passed between an aged,
+irritated husband, and an overruling step-daughter, who would apply
+themselves in concert to retain her in the solitude of a province, and
+perhaps to make her expiate in confinement her bygone triumphs. The idea
+of the sorrowful life which awaited her in Normandy produced very nearly
+the same effect upon her as the thought of a second imprisonment upon
+the mind of Condé. She sought for a means of avoiding that which was to
+her the worst of all evils; there was an assured though dangerous
+one--war, which would prevent her from repairing to Normandy, under the
+pretext more or less specious that she could not abandon her brother.
+Such was the design she formed within herself and very soon resolved
+upon adopting, and the fresh negotiations which La Rochefoucauld
+proposed thwarted her doubly. Should those negotiations prove successful
+they would deprive her of the only pretext she had for not rejoining
+her husband in Normandy, and she thought it strange that it was La
+Rochefoucauld who would expose her to that peril. From that moment
+doubtless angry explanations took place between them. She perceived that
+La Rochefoucauld was wearied of his sacrifices, that he wished to
+reconcile himself with the Court, repair his fortunes, and taste the
+sweets of peace; whilst in the eyes of the superb princess the paramount
+consideration with him, for whom she had done so much, ought to have
+been never to forsake her, should they both together rush to certain
+ruin. But La Rochefoucauld was no longer wound up to a tone so lofty,
+worthy of the Great Cyrus and of their chivalrous love of 1648, and the
+haughty Madame[8] was deeply wounded at the discovery. Nevertheless, she
+was not insensible to what there was of reasonable in La Rochefoucauld's
+advice, and not to incur the entire responsibility of the part which her
+brother might take, she consented to follow her sister-in-law, the
+Princess de Condé, and her nephew, the Duke d'Enghien, into Berri, one
+of Condé's governments:--a journey which moreover had the advantage of
+separating her from her husband. She set out, therefore, on the 18th of
+July for Bourges, taking with her the elder of her two sons, the
+younger, Charles de Paris, born in 1649, not being able to bear the
+fatigue of the journey. M. de Longueville recalled her from Berri as he
+had from the capital, and he insisted on the return of his son in terms
+so forcible that she was compelled to comply, so far as the boy was
+concerned. Thenceforward, being alone and exposing only herself, without
+breaking with M. de Longueville, and by using all her wit to colour her
+disobedience, she eluded his orders, remained in Berri, forming in the
+depth of her heart the most ardent desire for war, but calm in
+appearance; sometimes accompanying the Princess de Condé to Montrond, at
+others making somewhat lengthened visits to the Carmelite convent at
+Bourges. And thus she awaited the issue of the negotiations, counselled
+and carried on by La Rochefoucauld, which should decide her destiny.
+
+    [8] The name she figures under in the _Grand Cyrus_.
+
+La Rochefoucauld must indeed have very earnestly longed to bring to a
+close the life of fatigue and danger which he had for three years led,
+to have been able to cherish any illusion as to the success of the steps
+he was about again to take. Where was the hope of regaining the Fronde
+which had just been outrageously deceived, after it had given itself to
+the Prince de Condé in his misfortune, and had extricated him from it?
+If La Rochefoucauld thought that the alliance of the Fronde was
+necessary, he ought to have set about it sooner and at the proper time,
+persuaded Condé and his sister to keep their word, and sealed the
+alliance agreed upon between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. He had not done so; and now that he had allowed a treacherous
+war to spring up between Condé and the Fronde, by what charm did he
+think he could suspend it? With the Queen also all negotiation was
+exhausted and superfluous. An understanding should have been come to
+with her when she was so disposed, when Condé was all-powerful, when he
+could either have more readily abased or exalted the Crown: _Tum decuit
+cum sceptra dabas_. But at the end of August, Condé, embroiled with the
+Court and with the Fronde, had nothing left save his sword. That was
+sufficient, doubtless, to make everybody tremble, but was it enough to
+inspire confidence in anyone? La Rochefoucauld obtained, therefore, on
+all sides to his advances only very vague responses. The time for
+negotiation was passed irrevocably, and whilst La Rochefoucauld
+exhausted himself in useless efforts, the Queen and the Fronde concluded
+a treaty together, with the common design of overwhelming Condé.
+
+This treaty was the work of Mazarin, the masterpiece of his political
+skill. It authorised the Frondeurs to speak against the Cardinal in
+parliament for some time forward in order to cover their secret
+understanding. The hat was assured to the Coadjutor, high posts and
+great advantages to the principal friends of Madame de Chevreuse, the
+first rank in the cabinet given to Châteauneuf, and a solid peace
+established between Mazarin and the powerful Duchess, under the
+condition that his nephew Mancini, provided for with the duchy of Nevers
+or that of Rethelois, should marry Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. The draft
+of this projected treaty fell into the hands of Condé through the bearer
+of the paquet in which it was enclosed being in the service of the
+Marquis de Noirmoutier, and the Prince caused it to be printed in order
+to ventilate and bring to light the alliance between the Frondeurs, the
+Queen, and Mazarin. Madame de Motteville, so well informed of everything
+relating to the Queen and the Cardinal, considers that treaty as
+perfectly authentic, and she gives the different articles of it, "as the
+best means for understanding the changes which were made by the Queen
+immediately after the King's majority."
+
+That majority had been declared on the 7th of September in a _Bed of
+Justice_, with all the customary pomp. As the first Prince of the blood
+did not think it possible to be present at it in safety, during that
+evening the Queen in her indignation had whispered these significant
+words to De Retz: "Either M. le Prince or I must perish."[9]
+
+    [9] Retz, tom. ii. p. 291.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  CONDÉ, URGED BY HIS SISTER, GOES UNWILLINGLY INTO REBELLION.
+
+
+ANNE OF AUSTRIA now seriously prepared to make head against Condé, and
+with that intent she rallied round her all the forces of the Fronde
+united with those of the royal army. In fine, with the firm design of
+inspiring the Fronde with perfect confidence, at the same time that the
+nomination of France to the Cardinalate had devolved upon the Coadjutor,
+the Queen again brought into the cabinet, as a sort of Prime Minister,
+the statesman of the party, the friend and instrument of Madame de
+Chevreuse, the aged but ambitious Châteauneuf, with the two-fold
+engagement to serve Mazarin in secret and to contribute to the utmost of
+his power to destroy Condé. In such arrangements, let it be thoroughly
+understood, no one was acting with good faith: De Retz and Châteauneuf
+in nowise proposed to re-establish Mazarin; Châteauneuf did not dream of
+making another man's bed, but, once having attained power, he intended
+to keep it for himself, and Mazarin was firmly resolved to dismiss
+Châteauneuf as soon as he could. But if these crafty politicians were
+ready to betray one another in everything else, there was one point on
+which they were sincerely united--the destruction of Condé. At that they
+laboured in concert, or rather vied with each other. Queen Anne
+manifested therein a fervour, a constancy, a marvellous skill, and
+succeeded in carrying off from Condé the chief supports of his great
+strength. He saw that war was inevitable, and yet, says Sismondi, he
+only yielded to it with repugnance. "You will have it so," said Condé at
+last; "but understand that if I do draw the sword, I shall be the last
+to return it to the scabbard." It was the women especially who hurried
+their admirers into the _mêlée_.
+
+Considering the nomination of the New Cabinet, with Châteauneuf at its
+head, as a veritable declaration of war, Condé went to Chantilly, and,
+it is said, had a very narrow escape from falling into an ambuscade
+which the Court had prepared for him at Pontoise.
+
+He remained for some few days at Chantilly, pensive and agitated in
+presence of the great resolution he was on the eve of taking. The
+mediation of the Duke d'Orleans, the only one he could accept, offered
+no security, the Duke instead of governing the Coadjutor and Madame de
+Chevreuse, was then governed by them. His individual inclination was to
+come to an understanding with the Queen and even with Mazarin, as he had
+very clearly shown. He had continually returned to it; but after so many
+lying words and odious plots, the execution of which alone was wanting,
+he thought he would be in a better position to treat solidly with the
+Court at the head of a powerful and victorious army, than in the midst
+of wretched intrigues, unworthy of his character, in which he
+momentarily staked his honour and his life. He never permitted the idea
+of raising himself above royalty to enter into his mind; he merely
+thought that to obtain better conditions from it it was necessary to
+render himself imposing to it, and to make himself feared. That is what
+was then passing in his mind. Civil war inspired him with horror, and we
+may learn from La Rochefoucauld,[1] who was then in his most intimate
+confidence, that he long weighed "the consequences of so grave a
+determination." Let us be chary, therefore, of accusing Condé of levity;
+let us recognise that insensibly his position had become such that he
+could neither remain in it nor quit it, in one way or another, save with
+equal danger.
+
+    [1] La Rochefoucauld, p. 76.
+
+Among the different motives which rendered Condé averse to civil war,
+the passion that he had just begun to feel for the Duchess de Châtillon
+must not be forgotten. We shall return a little further on to this
+episode in Condé's life. It is sufficient to remark here that it was
+grievous to him to quit the lovely Duchess, who then was residing very
+close to Chantilly, in the charming château of Merlon or Mello, near
+Pontoise, the enjoyment of which had been granted to her for life by the
+old Princess de Condé, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, who expired
+in her arms at Châtillon-sur-Loing, in December, 1650--a gracious grant,
+which the Prince, her son, had hastened to ratify with a somewhat
+interested generosity. Madame de Châtillon had her reasons of more than
+one kind for being opposed to the war, and in the intimate counsels of
+the Prince she urged him to an understanding with the Court. In that she
+made common cause with La Rochefoucauld, and was in open quarrel with
+Madame de Longueville. Sensible of Condé's passion without sharing it,
+she managed that lofty lover with infinite tact, at the same time that
+she was deeply enamoured of the young, handsome, and brave Duke Charles
+Amadeus of Savoy, Nemours,[2] who from his youth and adventurous
+instincts would have longed for war, and whom she alone, seconded by La
+Rochefoucauld, retained in the party of peace.
+
+    [2] Charles Amadeus had succeeded to the title and rank of his elder
+    brother, the Duke de Nemours, one of Condé's intimate friends in
+    youth, who had been killed early in action, even before Rocroy.
+    Condé had transferred to Charles Amadeus the affection which he bore
+    his brother. The young duke had married the beautiful Madlle. de
+    Vendôme, daughter of Duke Cæsar, and sister of the Dukes de
+    Mercoeur and Beaufort, and by her he had two daughters who became,
+    one the Queen of Portugal, the other the Duchess of Savoy. At the
+    death of the Duke de Nemours, in 1652, his title passed to his
+    younger brother Henri de Nemours, Archbishop of Rheims, who then
+    quitted the church, and espoused Madlle. de Longueville, the
+    authoress of the Memoirs.
+
+Everything, however, tended to precipitate Condé towards the fatal
+resolution. Prudence did not permit him to remain any longer at
+Chantilly,[3] and it behoved him to place himself beyond the risk of a
+_coup-de-main_ by withdrawing to his government of Berri, whither he had
+already sent his son, his wife, and his sister. It was, it is true, the
+road to Guienne, but he might stop there. All the population was devoted
+to him, and the tower of Bourges and the strong fortalice of Montrond
+offered him a safe asylum.
+
+    [3] La Rochefoucauld, p. 96.
+
+Condé, even after reaching Berri, still hesitated, not wishing to take
+any step before again conferring with his sister, who was then at
+Montrond with the Princess. There he held a final council, a supreme
+deliberation, at which Madame de Longueville, Conti, and La
+Rochefoucauld were present. More than one grave motive urged him to war:
+the well-founded dread of assassination or of a fresh incarceration, the
+ardent hatred of his enemies, of the Queen and the Fronde, the power of
+Châteauneuf which certainly had not been given him in vain, the
+inutility of negotiations with people who seemed decidedly to have taken
+their choice, the necessity of avoiding the fate of Henri de Guise, the
+consciousness of his strength so soon as his foot should tread the
+field of battle, the promises seemingly so sure of the Bouillons and
+many others. At the same time, his good sense, his loyalty, the scarcely
+stifled instincts of duty, and his innate aversion for anything which
+resembled anarchy, restrained him; and in that prolonged and dubious
+struggle between conflicting feelings, there were others which hurried
+him onward. Madame de Longueville, the Prince de Conti, La Rochefoucauld
+also urged him to declare himself against the Court, and Madame de
+Longueville with more vivacity than anyone else.[4] Condé still
+resisted, explaining to them all the strength of royalty, the ascendancy
+of the King's name, the weakness and treachery of factions, the bad
+faith of Spain. Then concluding by yielding, he addressed them in these
+memorable words: "You commit me to a strange line of action, of which
+you will tire sooner than I, and in which you will abandon me." He spoke
+truly as regarded Conti, and perhaps also La Rochefoucauld; but it
+remains to be seen whether Madame de Longueville, after having helped to
+drive her heroic brother into civil war, did not follow him with an
+inviolable constancy, whether she did not share, even to extremity, the
+dangers and adversities of the Prince, and whether, during his long
+exile, she reappeared for a single moment at Court or in those _salons_
+of the Louvre and the Palais Royal, which had witnessed her early
+successes, and in which her wit and beauty still promised her fresh
+triumphs.
+
+    [4] Mad. de Motteville.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE COQUETS WITH THE DUKE DE NEMOURS.
+
+
+HIS determination to unsheath the sword once taken, Condé put his plans
+into execution without throwing one glance behind him. Having collected
+together in Berri his family and chief supporters, he distributed
+amongst them the several parts they had to play in their common
+enterprise. After this, accompanied by La Rochefoucauld, he went to take
+possession of his new government of Guienne, and there raise the
+standard of insurrection, leaving in Berri his wife and son, his sister,
+the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Nemours, with the President Violé and
+others whom he nominated to important functions. He had placed his
+brother at the head of affairs there, and given the military command to
+the Duke de Nemours. But the result of these arrangements was
+disappointing to him. The Duke de Nemours undoubtedly possessed the most
+brilliant courage, but he had neither the talents nor the steadiness of
+a general. Still absorbed with his passion for Madame de Châtillon, who,
+as has been said, had long retained him in the party of peace, he found
+in Berri a counter-attraction in Madame de Longueville who drew him
+towards that of war; and it would seem that he occupied himself more
+with paying court to the lovely lady than of raising and arming soldiers
+and making Berri a focus of resistance, both political and military;
+for very speedily the Prince de Conti and he were reduced to defend
+themselves in Bourges instead of being able to operate in the open and
+make any advance. The new Minister Châteauneuf showed himself worthy of
+the confidence of Madame de Chevreuse and the Fronde. He made the Queen
+understand that it was necessary to combat the revolt foot to foot from
+its very first step, and he persuaded her to march herself with the
+young King into Berri at the head of a strong army. He nobly inaugurated
+the new ministry by that measure, which had two objects: the one direct
+and immediate, to strangle the insurrection at its birth; the other
+still more important, to set royalty at liberty far from Duke Gaston and
+the Parliament. The city of Bourges, which had shown so much enthusiasm
+on Condé's arrival, opened its gates to the King and Châteauneuf. The
+strong tower which defended the city, offering no resistance, was taken
+without a blow being struck, and instantly demolished. The Princess de
+Condé, her son, Madame de Longueville, Conti, and Nemours were forced to
+take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond. On learning that Palluan
+was advancing on that fortress, Conti and Nemours not wishing that the
+precious pledges confided to their charge should incur any risk, left
+the Marquis de Persan in Montrond, and with what remained to them of
+their faithful troops escorted the Princess, her son, and Madame de
+Longueville as far as Guienne, which they reached by the end of the
+month of October.
+
+It was during that rapid journey and their very brief sojourn in Berri
+that certain obscure relations, it would appear, were formed between the
+Duke de Nemours and Madame de Longueville, the report of which reaching
+Bordeaux, exaggerated probably by interested and malevolent underlings,
+wounded La Rochefoucauld and drove him to a violent rupture. A loyal and
+confiding explanation might have sufficed to disperse a cloud, such as
+at times will obscure the most settled friendships. La Rochefoucauld
+brewed a storm out of it which, thanks to his Memoirs, has sent its
+echoes down to posterity. His separation from Madame de Longueville was
+marked by an eagerness which excites the suspicion that he had longed
+for it.[1] He ought at least to have stopped there, but hurried away by
+an implacable resentment, he accused her, or caused her to be accused by
+Condé, of having wished to betray his interests to serve those of the
+Duke de Nemours, giving her even to understand that "if a like
+prepossession took her for another, she was capable of going to the same
+extremities if that person desired it."[2] The accusation is yet more
+absurd than odious. The Duke de Nemours was not the least in the world a
+party chief; he was a friend of Condé, whose fidelity could only be
+shaken through his love for Madame de Châtillon. To detach him from
+Madame de Châtillon was therefore to give him wholly to Condé. Moreover,
+Madame de Châtillon, like La Rochefoucauld, was for peace, she had won
+over the Duke de Nemours to it, and both together urged Condé thereto.
+To carry off the Duke de Nemours from such conspiracy and to seduce him
+to the war party, was to serve the interests of Condé like as his sister
+intended. Thus the principal and the dominant motive of Madame de
+Longueville's conduct was just the opposite of that which La
+Rochefoucauld imputed to her. Let us add further that she had always had
+a rivalry of beauty with Madame de Châtillon, and that her vanity was
+not sorry to humiliate a rival whom she did not tolerate by depriving
+her for a few days of a lover of whose attachment the latter fancied
+herself perfectly secure. Love and the senses had nothing to do with it
+in this matter. The gratification of the senses, it has already been
+remarked, did not ensnare her; she was proof against their surprises.
+Previously the Duke de Nemours had addressed his ardent homage to her,
+but all the attractions of his handsome person and his lofty bearing had
+made no impression upon her, and she only bestowed a thought on the
+amiable Duke when she had some interest to forward by reviving such
+conquest. And this is not an opinion hazarded at a venture; it is
+furnished us by a person thoroughly well informed, and who had no
+affection for Madame de Longueville; the testimony therefore is the more
+valuable: "M. de Nemours[3] previously had not much pleased her, and
+notwithstanding the attachment he appeared to entertain for her, as well
+as all the good qualities and grand airs of which he could boast, she
+had found nothing charming about him save the pleasure he showed himself
+desirous of giving her by abandoning Madame de Châtillon for herself,
+and that which she had of depriving a woman whom she did not like of a
+friend of so much consequence." Now how far had this _liaison_ of a few
+days gone? Bussy is the only contemporary who offers any reply to this
+question in the cynical light of his _Histoire amoreuse des Gaules_. But
+who would accept that satire literally? It proves only one thing, the
+unfortunate notoriety which the imprudence of Madame de Longueville
+derived from the Memoirs of La Rochefoucauld published in 1662. Before
+those Memoirs saw the light, not a word is anywhere to be found on a
+point as obscure as it is delicate. After, Bussy was delighted to repeat
+La Rochefoucauld, and Madame de Longueville has thus fallen into the
+scandalous chronicle.
+
+    [1] "La Rochefoucauld, depuis assez longtemps ayant envie de la
+    quitter, prit cette occasion avec joie."--Mad. de Nemours, p. 150.
+
+    [2] La Rochefoucauld, edition 1662, p. 198.
+
+    [3] Mad. de Nemours, pp. 149, 150.
+
+Let us abstain from defending her; although even we should be convinced
+that she knew where to stop in that dangerous game of coquetry, she is
+not the less culpable in our eyes both towards La Rochefoucauld and
+herself, and we do not hesitate to say that she went so far as to
+deserve the calumny. Doubtless she was justly hurt by the incertitude of
+La Rochefoucauld, who, after having plunged her into civil war in 1648
+with no other motive than that of his own interest, would have made her
+abandon it in 1651 through the same motive still; which at one moment
+impelled her towards the Fronde, at another brought her back to the
+Court, at the will of his fickle hopes, and linked her with Madame de
+Châtillon for the purpose of engaging Condé in negotiations the success
+of which involved their separation and procured her a prison in
+Normandy. Yes--she had grave cause of complaint against La
+Rochefoucauld. She might have quitted him, it is true, but not for
+another. She had only one means of covering, of almost condoning the
+single error of her life, which was to maintain faithful to it, or to
+renounce it for virtue and Heaven. And it is just that which Madame de
+Longueville appears to have done, if that sad and rapid episode had
+remained unknown; but there is no favourable shade for those personages
+who appear in the glaring front of the stage of this world; their
+slightest actions do not escape the formidable light of history: the
+weakness of a moment is recorded as an irredeemable error against them.
+That of Madame de Longueville, fugitive as it may have been, dubious
+even as it was, sufficed to tarnish a fidelity until then victorious
+over so many trials; it needed to be atoned for by the sincere
+conversion which was speedily about to follow it, and by five-and-twenty
+years of the severest penitence; and still further it forces us to place
+Anne de Bourbon, in the record of great sentiments and exalted loves,
+above Heloise and Mademoiselle de la Vallière.
+
+At any rate the assurance is consoling that this error, which we have
+attempted neither to conceal nor extenuate, is the single one
+perceptible in the private life of Madame de Longueville. But let us
+turn aside from these wretched instances of feminine fragility in one of
+the loftiest minds, in order to follow Condé and the march of events in
+Guienne.
+
+We will first, however, by a brief retrospect, endeavour to render the
+shifting phases of the two Fronde wars more capable of being easily
+followed.
+
+Dating from the arrest of Broussel, nothing could exceed the rapidity of
+events; the wheel of fortune had turned with such terrific mobility for
+those of her favourites who sought to attach themselves to it. The
+revolt had, in fact, broken out on the 26th of August, 1648; in January,
+1649, the Court withdrew to Saint Germain, at the risk of never
+re-entering Paris; in April, the sword of Condé imposed the treaty of
+Saint Germain, and the King returned in October. Mazarin shortly
+afterwards believed himself strong enough to arrest, in January, 1650,
+Condé, Conti, and Longueville. A year after that bold _coup d'état_ he
+was himself obliged to flee (February, 1651) from his enemies, and quit
+France. At the end of eight months, Mazarin returned with an army to the
+aid of royalty; but it required two years of negotiations, intrigues,
+and patient waiting, it needed the errors which the indecision of the
+Duke d'Orleans brought about, the rash violence of Condé, urged onwards
+by his sister, it required, indeed, the entire ruin of France ere the
+Cardinal could, after having led the young King by the hand to the very
+gates of his capital, resume that place in the Louvre which he had
+sagaciously abandoned.
+
+It is difficult to narrate occurrences in their proper order during this
+period: intrigues, broken promises, pledges given to two different
+parties at the same time, such were the smallest misdeeds of all these
+princes and prelates. As one step further in wrong-doing, they entered
+into negotiations with the foreigner, and invited armies across the
+frontier which devastated the provinces. And through what motives? Gondy
+wished to avenge his former mistress, whom Conti had rejected, and whom
+an agent of Condé, Maillard the shoemaker, had publicly insulted.
+Condé's pretensions were nothing less than dragging at his heels a squad
+of governors of towns and provinces who, at his summons, would be ever
+ready to raise the standard of revolt and to impose the will of their
+leader upon the head of the state, whether Minister, Queen, or King.
+Orleans would not yield one jot to his young cousin of the blood-royal,
+Condé; Madame de Longueville feared the severity of an outraged husband.
+The civil war, in forcing her to flee from one end of France to the
+other, or abroad, could alone delay her return to Normandy, her
+re-establishment beneath the conjugal roof, towards which she had
+conceived such an aversion.
+
+Condé accused Gondy in the Parliament chamber of being author of a
+_factum_ condemning severely the Prince's conduct. La Rochefoucauld,
+getting Gondy between two doors, treacherously seized, and was about to
+strangle him, had not the son of the first President, M. de
+Champlatreux, come to the rescue, at the very moment that one of the
+bullies in Condé's pay had drawn his dagger to despatch him.
+
+Two days afterwards (17th of September) the King had attained his
+thirteenth year, and one day beyond; and by the ordonnance of Charles V.
+became of age and capable of governing for himself.
+
+A change of ministry--Châteauneuf being recalled to head the Council and
+Molé to the Seals--deprived Condé of all hope of imposing the conditions
+of a reconciliation; therefore, as has been said, at a Council held at
+Chantilly with his chief adherents, Conti, and the Dukes de Nemours and
+La Rochefoucauld, he determined to set out for Berri. The impartial
+student who examines the conduct of the Prince de Condé is at this
+juncture compelled to draw an indictment against him, under pain of
+belying his conscience and the truth; he must concede that Condé rashly
+engaged in civil war, and exerted himself to drag France into it, solely
+because he could not endure any authority above his own. He was desirous
+of being first in the State, of disposing at will among his creatures of
+honours, dignities, strongholds, and governments. On such conditions, he
+would have consented to let Mazarin, Orleans, De Retz, or any other,
+govern the realm, for the administration of which he felt himself that
+he had neither the slightest inclination nor the smallest capacity
+(October, 1651).
+
+The Fronde is reputed, not without reason, to have been one of the most
+interesting as well as _diverting_ periods in French history; that in
+which the volatile and frivolous vivacity of the national character
+shone with irresistible comicality. How striking was the contrast
+between it in its main features and the great Civil War waged at the
+same time in our own country! Yet the Fronde had its serious--terrible
+aspect, too, in the wide-spread misery it entailed upon France, as may
+be seen from the valuable statistical researches of M. Feillet. That
+writer cites the following passage from the record of an eye-witness of
+what he describes:[4]--"No tongue can tell, no pen describe, no ear may
+hear that which we have seen (at Rheims, Châlons, Rethel, &c). Famine
+and death on all sides, and bodies unburied. Those remaining alive pick
+up from the fields the rotten oat-straw, and make bread of it by mixing
+it with mud. Their faces are quite black; they have no longer the
+semblance of human beings, but that of phantoms.... War has placed every
+one on an equality; nobility lies upon straw, dares not beg, and
+dies.... Even lizards are eaten, and dogs which have been dead perhaps
+some eight days.... Moreover, in Picardy, a band of five hundred
+children, orphans, and under seven years of age, was met with. In
+Lorraine, the famished nuns quitted their convents and became
+mendicants: the poor creatures gave themselves up to be dishonoured for
+the sake of a morsel of bread. No pity, no remorse. An execrable and
+sanguinary war upon the weak. In the heart of the city of Rheims, a
+beautiful girl was chased from street to street for ten days by the
+licentious soldiery; and as they could not catch her, they killed her by
+shooting her down. In the vicinity of Angers, Alais, and Condom, upon
+all the highways of Lorraine, women and children were indiscriminately
+outraged, and left to die drenched in their blood."
+
+    [4] La Misère dans la Fronde.
+
+What could be more _diverting_? The Duke de Lorraine--that restless
+knight-errant who preferred amusing himself with civil war to the quiet
+enjoyment of his throne--amused the noble ladies of his acquaintance
+with a recital of these pleasant incidents; his gallant army, he said,
+was quite a providence for the old women....
+
+After further pursuing his appalling statistics of the misery and
+horrors inflicted by the Fronde at a later date, M. Feillet
+remarks:--"And yet, notwithstanding all this suffering, which we have
+only cursorily sketched, at Court nothing else was thought of but fêtes
+and diversions; for the young and brilliant bevy of Mazarin's nieces had
+come to increase the circle of beauties whom the youthful King and his
+gay courtiers vied with each other in paying homage to, and
+entertaining. The warm attachment of Louis for more than one of his
+Minister's nieces, and especially Marie de Mancini, is well known. In
+imitation of their Sovereign, the youthful nobility and a large portion
+of the city gallants plunged into unrestrained dissipation--intervals of
+licentiousness ever succeeding like periods of turbulence and anarchy.
+Such heartless indifference to the sufferings of the people on the part
+of the King and his Court evoked the following couplet, which was put
+into the mouth of Louis by a contemporary pamphleteer:--
+
+"Si la France est en deuil, qu'elle pleure et soupire;
+ Pour moi, je veux chasser, galantiser et rire."
+
+But we are somewhat anticipating events, and therefore return to them in
+the order of time.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  CONDÉ'S ADVENTUROUS EXPEDITION.
+
+
+CONDÉ passed several months in Guienne, occupied with strengthening and
+extending the insurrection at the head of which he had placed himself,
+and in repulsing as far as possible in the south the royal army,
+commanded by the skilful and experienced Count d'Harcourt. Amidst very
+varied successes, he learned from different quarters the bad turn which
+the Fronde's affairs was taking in the heart of the kingdom, the
+intrigues of De Retz who held the key of Paris, and the deplorable state
+of the army on the banks of the Loire.
+
+On receiving these tidings at Bordeaux in the month of March, 1652,
+Condé saw clearly the double danger which menaced him, and immediately
+faced it in his wonted manner. Instead of awaiting events which were on
+the eve of taking place at a distance, he determined on anticipating
+them, and formed an extraordinary resolution, of a character very much
+resembling his great military manoeuvres, which at first sight appears
+extravagant, but which the gravest reason justifies, and the temerity of
+which even is only another form of high prudence. He formed the design
+of slipping out of Bordeaux, traversing the lines of Count d'Harcourt,
+to get over in the best way he might the hundred and fifty leagues which
+separated him from the Loire and Paris, to appear there suddenly, and
+to place himself at the head of his affairs.
+
+He left behind him in Guienne a force sufficiently imposing to allow of
+it there awaiting in security the successful results he was about to
+seek. In possessing himself of Agen, Bergerac, Perigueux, Cognac, and
+even for a moment of Saintes, and by pushing his conquests into Haute
+Guienne, on the side of Mont-de-Marsan, Dax, and Pau, he had made
+Bordeaux the capital of a small but rich and populous kingdom,
+surrounded on all sides by a belt of strongholds, communicating with the
+sea by the Gironde, and admirably placed for attack or defence. This
+kingdom, backed as it was by Spain, was capable of receiving continuous
+succour from Santander and St. Sebastian, and a Spanish fleet could
+approach by the Tour de Corduan, bringing subsidies and troops, whilst
+Count de Dognon's fleet, sailing from the islands of Ré and Oléron to
+join it, might easily surround and even beat the royal fleet, then
+forming at Brouage under the Duke de Vendôme. In 1650, during the
+imprisonment of the princes, Bordeaux had defended itself for more than
+six months against a considerable army with the young king at its head,
+and which was directed by Mazarin in person. Condé, and all his family
+were adored there, by reason of the hatred felt for his predecessor, the
+imperious Duke d'Epernon. The Bordeaux parliament was also equally
+involved in the Fronde as was that of Paris, with which it had allied
+itself by a solemn declaration. Under the parliament was a brave and
+ardent people, which furnished a numerous militia.
+
+Condé had named the Prince de Conti his lieutenant-general--a prince of
+the blood giving lustre to authority, dominating all rivalries, an
+appointment calculated to render obedience more easy. He was aware of
+Conti's levity, but he knew also that he was wanting neither in
+intelligence nor courage. He believed in the ascendency which Madame de
+Longueville had always exercised over her brother, and he hoped she
+would guide him still. He had confidence in that high-souled sister whom
+formerly he had so warmly loved; and although intrigues and a sinister
+influence, to which we shall shortly further allude, had diminished the
+high admiration he had had for her, and to which he later returned, he
+reckoned upon her intelligence, upon her pride, upon that lofty courage
+of which she had given so many proofs at Stenay. At his sister's side he
+left his wife Claire Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, who had behaved so
+admirably in the first Guienne war. He left her _enceinte_ with their
+second child, and with her he gave to Bordeaux and placed as it were in
+pledge in its hands, to hold the place of himself, the Duke d'Enghien,
+the hope and stay of his house, the peculiar object of his tenderness.
+So that there, he left behind him a government, he thought, which would
+look well alike in the eyes of France and of Europe.
+
+In reality, to what did Condé aspire? To constitute himself the head of
+the nobility against the Court? The nobles thought it harsh to be so
+treated. To commence another Fronde? To do that, it was necessary to
+have the parliaments under his thumb; and he had already been compelled
+to threaten the deputies of that of Aix with the bastinado. Did he look
+forward to an independent principality, as he later on desired to obtain
+from the Spaniards? Or rather did he think of snatching from the Duke
+d'Orleans the lieutenant-generalship? It is difficult to divine what may
+have passed through his capricious brain. He was constant in nothing. It
+was seen later still that he would very willingly have changed his
+religion, offering himself on the one side to Cromwell, and to become a
+protestant in order to have an English army; on the other to the Pope,
+if he would help to get him elected King of Poland.
+
+The income of the Condés in 1609 amounted to ten thousand livres, and in
+1649, besides the Montmorency estates, they held an enormous portion of
+France. First, by the Great Condé, they had Burgundy, Berri, the marshes
+of Lorraine, a dominant fortress in the Bourbonnais that held in check
+four provinces. Secondly, by Conti, Champagne. Thirdly, by Longueville,
+their sister's husband, Normandy. Fourthly, the Admiralty, and Saumur,
+the chief fortress of Anjou, were in the hands of the brother of Condé's
+wife; they fell in through his death, and were sold again by them as
+though they were a family birthright. Later still, they negotiated for
+the possession of Guienne and Provence.
+
+Amidst the cares of administration and of war, Condé carried on an
+assiduous correspondence with Chavigny, then fallen into disgrace, who
+kept him well informed of the state of affairs at Court and in Paris.
+They had assumed quite a new face during the last few months. Mazarin in
+his exile had not learned without inquietude the ever-increasing success
+of Châteauneuf. He saw him active and determined, accepted as a chief by
+all colleagues, skilfully seconded by the keeper of the seals, Molé, and
+by Marshal de Villeroi, the king's governor, an ambiguous personage,
+very ambitious at bottom, and jealous of the Cardinal's favour with the
+Queen. Châteauneuf, it is true, had only entered the Cabinet under the
+agreement of shortly recalling Mazarin; but he incessantly asked for
+fresh delay; he tried to make the Queen comprehend the danger of a
+precipitate return,--the Fronde ready to arouse itself anew, the Duke
+d'Orleans and the Coadjutor resuming their ancient opposition, and
+royalty finding itself once more without any solid support. Anne of
+Austria gradually acquiescing in these wise counsels, Mazarin, who at
+first had with difficulty restrained the impatient disposition of the
+Queen, finding her grown less eager, became alarmed: he saw that he was
+lost should he allow such a rival to establish himself.[1] Therefore,
+passing suddenly from an apparent resignation to an extraordinary
+audacity, he had, towards the end of November 1651, broken his ban,
+quitted his retreat at Dinan, and had resolutely entered France with a
+small force collected together by his two faithful friends, the Marquis
+de Navailles and the Count de Broglie, and led by Marshal Hocquincourt.
+He had by main strength surmounted every obstacle, braved the decrees
+and the deputies of the parliament, reached Poitiers where the Queen and
+young Louis the Fourteenth had eagerly welcomed him; and there, in
+January 1652, after speedily ridding himself of Châteauneuf, too proud
+and too able to be resigned to hold the second rank, he had again taken
+in hand the reins of government.
+
+    [1] Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 96.
+
+This bold conduct, which probably saved Mazarin, came also to the
+succour of Condé. The second and irreparable disgrace of the minister of
+the old Fronde had exasperated him as well as had the umbrage given him
+by the Duke d'Orleans. He thought himself tricked by the Queen, and had
+loudly complained of it. Condé's friends had not failed to seize that
+occasion to reconcile him with the Duke, and to negotiate a fresh
+alliance between them; and as previously the Fronde and the Queen had
+been united against Condé, so also at the end of January 1652, that
+Prince and the Fronde in almost its entirety were united against
+Mazarin.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse alone, with her most intimate friends, remained
+faithful to her hatred and the Queen, dreading far less Mazarin than
+Condé, and choosing between them both for once and for all with her
+well-known firmness and resolution. De Retz trimmed, followed the Duke
+d'Orleans, using tact with the Queen, so that he might not lose the hat,
+and without engaging himself personally with Condé.
+
+If Burnet is to be believed, it was at this conjunction that Condé made
+an offer to Cromwell to turn Huguenot, and embrace the faith of his
+ancestors, in order to secure the aid of the English Puritans.
+
+However that might be, it was not illusory to think that with such a
+government and the continual assistance of Spain, Bordeaux might hold
+out for at least a year, and give Condé time to strike some decisive
+blows. The resolution that he took was therefore as rational as it was
+great. It would have been a sovereign imprudence to remain in Guienne
+merely to engage Harcourt in a series of trifling skirmishes, and after
+much time and trouble take a few little paltry towns, when in the heart
+of the kingdom a treason or a defeat might irreparably involve the loss
+of everything, and condemn Bordeaux to share the common fate, after a
+more or less prolonged existence. Taking one thing with another, Guienne
+was doubtless a considerable accessory; but the grand struggle was not
+to be made there; it was at Paris and upon the banks of the Loire that
+the destiny of the Fronde and that of Condé too must be decided; it was
+thither, therefore, that he must hasten. Every day brought him tidings
+that jealousies, divisions, quarrels were increasing in the army, and he
+trembled to receive, some morning, news that Turenne and Hocquincourt
+had beaten Nemours and Beaufort, and were marching on Paris. Desirous of
+preventing at any price a disaster so irreparable, he resolved to rush
+to the point where the danger was supreme, where his unexpected presence
+would strike terror into the souls of his enemies, revive the courage of
+his partisans and turn fortune to his side. When Cæsar, on arriving in
+Greece, learned that the fleet which was following him with his army on
+board, had been dispersed and destroyed by that of Pompey, he flung
+himself alone into a fisherman's bark under cover of night to cross the
+sea into Asia to seek for the legions of Antony, and return with them to
+gain the battle of Pharsalia. When Napoleon learned in Egypt the state
+of France, from the shameful doings of the Directory, the agitation of
+parties, and that already more than one general was meditating another
+18th of Brumaire, he did not hesitate, and however rash it might appear
+to attempt to pass through the English fleet in a small craft, at the
+risk of being taken, or sent to the bottom, he dared every peril, and by
+dint of address and audacity succeeded in gaining the shores of France.
+Condé did the same, and at the end of March 1652, he undertook to make
+his way from the banks of the Gironde to the banks of the Loire, without
+other escort than that of a small number of intrepid friends, and
+sustained solely by the vivid consciousness of the necessity of that
+bold step, his familiarity with and secret liking for danger, his
+incomparable presence of mind and his customary gaiety.
+
+On Palm Sunday, 1652, Condé set forth upon his adventurous expedition.
+He was accompanied by six persons, La Rochefoucauld and his youthful
+son, the Prince de Marcillac, the Count de Guitaut, the Count de
+Chavagnac, a valet named Rochefort, and the indefatigable Gourville,
+under whose directions all the arrangements of the journey seem to have
+been contrived. The whole party were disguised as common troopers, and
+each took a false name, even amongst themselves. For some time they
+followed the Bordeaux road, and using many precautions proceeded until
+they reached Cahusac, where they encountered some troops belonging to La
+Rochefoucauld; but being anxious almost as much to avoid their own
+partizans as the enemy, Condé and his companions hid themselves in a
+barn, while Gourville went out to forage. He succeeded in procuring some
+scanty fare; and they rode on till some hours had passed after
+nightfall, when they reached a little wayside inn, where Condé
+volunteered to cook an omelet for the whole party. The hand, however,
+which could wield a truncheon with such effect, proved somewhat too
+violent for the frying-pan, and in the attempt to turn the omelet, he
+threw the whole hissing mass into the fire.
+
+The little band having reached a certain spot, quitted the main road,
+and began to traverse the enemy's lines. For eight days they encountered
+many perilous incidents and underwent incredible fatigue, riding
+throughout the same horses, never stopping more than two hours to eat or
+sleep, avoiding towns and crossing rivers as they best could; threading
+at first the gorges of the Auvergne mountains, then descending by the
+Bec d'Allier, and making their way to the Loire. The memoirs of La
+Rochefoucauld and Gourville must be consulted for the details of that
+extraordinary journey, and all the dangers it presented. No less than
+ten times did they escape being taken and slain. Their wearied horses at
+last could carry them no longer. La Rochefoucauld was tormented by the
+gout, and his son was so worn out with fatigue that he fell asleep as
+he went. Condé, whose iron frame resisted to the last, was alone
+indefatigable, sleeping and working at will, and always cheerful and
+good humoured.
+
+Upon approaching Gien, at which place the Court then was, Condé had
+twice very nearly fallen into the hands of parties sent out to take him
+alive or dead. Having escaped almost by a miracle, on the last occasion,
+soon after reaching Châtillon, he gained information that the army of
+Beaufort and Nemours lay at about eight leagues from that place, and
+hastened with all speed to join it. At length, to his great joy, he saw
+the advanced guard before him, and several of the troopers came
+galloping up with a loud "_Qui vive!_" Some of them, however, almost
+instantly recognised Condé, and shouts of joy and surprise soon made
+known through the whole army what had occurred.
+
+He found the forces of the Fronde as divided as were its chiefs. He took
+the command of it immediately; thus doing away with the principal cause
+of the jealousy existing between Nemours and Beaufort. He reviewed and
+reunited it, gave it one day's rest, seized, without striking a blow, on
+Montargis and Château-Renard, and threw himself with the utmost rapidity
+on the royal army. It was scattered in quarters distant from each other
+for the convenience of foraging, and on account of the little dread with
+which Beaufort and Nemours had inspired it. Marshal d'Hocquincourt was
+encamped at Bleneau, and Turenne a little farther off, at Briare; the
+two Marshals were to unite their forces on the morrow. Condé did not
+give them time for that: that same evening, and during the nights of the
+6th and 7th of April, 1652, he fell upon the head-quarters of
+Hocquincourt, overwhelmed them, and succeeded in routing the rest,
+thanks to one of those charges in flank which he in person ever led so
+energetically. Hocquincourt, after fighting like a gallant soldier, was
+forced to fall back for some leagues in the direction of Auxerre, having
+lost all his baggage and three thousand horse. No sooner did Turenne
+hear of the fact, than he sprang into the saddle, and marched with some
+infantry both to the assistance of his brother officer and to the
+defence of the King, who, resting secure at Gien, might have fallen into
+the hands of the rebels. As he advanced through the darkness of the
+night, the Marshal saw the quarters of Hocquincourt in one blaze of
+fire, and exclaiming, with the appreciation which genius has of genius,
+"The Prince de Condé is arrived!" he hurried on with the utmost speed.
+Having neither cavalry nor artillery, and having sent word to
+Hocquincourt to rally to him as soon as possible, he marched on in good
+order throughout that long and dark night to join the bulk of his troops
+which Navailles and Palluan were bringing up. For an instant he halted
+in a plain where there stood a rather dense wood on his left, with a
+marsh on his right. Those around Condé thought it an advantageous post;
+Condé judged very differently. "If M. de Turenne makes a stand there,"
+said he, "I shall soon cut him to pieces; but he will take good care not
+to do so."[2] He had not left off speaking when he saw that Turenne was
+already retiring, too skilful to await Condé in the plain and expose
+himself to the Prince's formidable manoeuvres. A little further off,
+he found a position much more favourable; there he firmly posted his
+force, determined to give battle. In vain did his officers urge him not
+to hazard an action, not to risk the last army which remained to the
+monarchy, and to confine himself to covering Gien whilst awaiting the
+coming of Hocquincourt. "_No_," replied he, "_we must conquer or perish
+here._"
+
+    [2] It is Tavannes who has preserved the details of this interesting
+    incident.
+
+Turenne, it is true, was very inferior in cavalry to Condé, but he had a
+powerful and well-served artillery. Having encouraged his troops to do
+their duty, he posted himself upon an eminence which he covered with
+infantry and artillery, drew up his cavalry below in a plain too narrow
+to permit of Condé deploying his own, and which could only be reached by
+traversing a thick wood and a causeway intersected by ditches and boggy
+ground. From such strong position, Condé could, in his turn, recognise
+his illustrious disciple. No great manoeuvres were then practicable,
+and as time did not permit of an attempt to turn Turenne, it was
+necessary to crush him out of hand, if that were possible, before he
+could effect a junction with Hocquincourt. The defile was the key of the
+position; and both sides fought therein with equal fierceness. Turenne
+defended himself sword in hand, and upon the six squadrons which Condé
+hurled against him he opened a battery, as they passed, with terrible
+execution, showing a courage equal to that of his heroic adversary.
+Condé, judging from what he now saw, believed the position in the hands
+of Turenne to be impregnable; and it being too late to execute any other
+manoeuvres with success during that day, he continued to cannonade the
+royalist army till the evening, without any other attempt to bring it to
+a battle.
+
+Napoleon has not spared Condé in this affair any more than other
+critics. He sums all their opinions up in one piquant phrase, which it
+appears he was unable to resist, and which made him smile in uttering
+it. "Condé," said he, "for that once, was wanting in boldness." The
+dictum is both brief and incisive, but there was no foundation for it,
+in a military point of view. There was, in truth, no want of boldness on
+Condé's part throughout that campaign: far from it, his whole line of
+conduct was a succession of audacious actions and combinations. What
+could be bolder than that forced journey of nearly ten days for more
+than one hundred and fifty miles with half-a-dozen followers to go and
+take the command of an army? What bolder than the resolution taken out
+of hand to throw himself between Turenne and Hocquincourt, to cut in two
+the royal army and to disperse one half of it before attacking the
+other? Did Condé lose a moment in marching against Turenne and pursuing
+him sword in hand? Was it his fault that he had to cope with a great
+captain, who knew how to select an excellent position, and to maintain
+himself in it with immovable firmness? In the attack of that position,
+did Napoleon mean to reproach Condé with want of boldness? Turenne, it
+is true, covered himself with glory, for he successfully resisted Condé;
+but Condé, in not having been victorious, was not in the slightest
+degree beaten. The strategy, therefore, on that occasion was
+irreproachable. As will be seen, it was in his policy only that he
+failed. Condé quitted the army at a very ill-timed moment, in our
+opinion, but that step was taken through considerations which had
+nothing to do with the science of war.
+
+To revert for a moment to this much-criticised action of Bleneau.
+Towards night, Hocquincourt appeared upon the field, having rallied a
+considerable part of his cavalry. Condé then retired, finding that his
+attempt was frustrated, and took the way to Montargis; while Turenne
+rejoined the Court, and was received by the Queen with all the
+gratitude which such great services merited. Her first words went to
+thank him for _having placed the crown a second time upon her son's
+head_.
+
+The terror and confusion which had reigned in Gien during the whole of
+the preceding night and that day may very well be conceived when it is
+remembered that the safety of the King himself, as well as the Queen,
+was at stake, and that the life of the favourite Minister might at any
+moment be placed at the mercy of his bitterest enemy, justified in
+putting him to death immediately by the highest legal authority in the
+realm. Neither were the ill-disciplined and irregular forces of Condé at
+all desirable neighbours to the troop of ladies who had followed the
+Court; and, as soon as it was known that Condé had fallen upon
+Hocquincourt, the whole of the little town was one scene of dismay and
+confusion.
+
+The royal army and that of Condé now both marched towards Paris, nearly
+upon two parallel lines. But the great distress which the Court suffered
+from want of money caused almost as much insubordination to be apparent
+amongst the troops of the King as amongst those of the rebels. Little
+respect was shown to Mazarin himself; and the young King was often
+treated with but scanty ceremony, and provided for but barely.
+
+After quitting the neighbourhood of Gien, Condé, urged by the desire of
+directing in person the negotiations and intrigues which were going on
+in Paris, left his army under the command of the celebrated Tavannes,
+and hastened to the capital. The Count de Tavannes, whom he had selected
+to fill his own place, was without doubt an excellent officer, one of
+the valiant _Petits-maîtres_[3] who, upon the field of battle, served
+as wings to the great soldier's thoughts, carried his orders everywhere,
+executed the most dangerous manoeuvres, sometimes charging with an
+irresistible impetuosity, at others sustaining the most terrible onsets
+with a firmness and solidity beyond all proof. But though the intrepid
+Tavannes was quite capable of leading the division of a great army, he
+was not able enough to be its commander-in-chief, and he had not
+authority over the foreign troops which the Duke de Nemours had brought
+from Flanders, and which he made over, on accompanying Condé to Paris,
+to the command of the Count de Clinchamp. The army, thus divided, was
+capable of nothing great. Condé alone could finish what he had begun.
+Once engaged in the formidable enterprise that he had undertaken against
+the Queen and Mazarin, there was no safety for him but in carrying it
+out even to the end. He ought, therefore, to have waged war to the
+knife, if the expression be allowable, against Turenne, conquered or
+perished, and to have constrained Mazarin to flee for good and all to
+Germany or Italy, and the Queen to place in his hands the young King. To
+do that, Condé should have had a definite ambition, an object clearly
+determined; he ought to have plainly proposed to himself to assume the
+Regency, or at least the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom in the
+place of Gaston, by will or by force, in order to concentrate all power
+in his own hands; that he might become, in short, a Cromwell or a
+William III.: and Condé was neither the one or the other. His mind had
+been perturbed by sinister dreams; but, as has been remarked, he had at
+heart an invincible fund of loyalty. Ambition was rather hovering round
+him than within himself. But whatsoever it was he desired, and in every
+hypothesis--for his secret has remained between Heaven and himself--he
+did wrong in abandoning the Loire and leaving Turenne in force there.
+That was the true error he committed, and not in wanting audacity, as
+Napoleon supposed. It was not a military but a political error--immense
+and irreparable. He might have crushed Turenne, and ought to have
+attempted it, but he let him slip from his grasp. The opportunity once
+lost did not return. Turenne until then was only second in rank; by a
+glorious resistance he acquired from that moment, and it was forced upon
+him to maintain, the importance of a rival of Condé. Mazarin grew from
+day to day more emboldened; royalty, which had been on the very brink of
+ruin, again rose erect, and the Court drew towards Paris; whilst,
+prompted by his evil genius, quitting the field of battle wherein lay
+his veritable strength, Condé went away to waste his precious time in a
+labyrinth of intrigues for which he was not fitted, and in which he lost
+himself and the Fronde.
+
+    [3] Upon the _Petits Maîtres_, see Mad. de Sablé, chap. i. p. 44.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  POLITICAL AND GALLANT INTRIGUES--THE DUCHESS DE CHÂTILLON'S SWAY OVER
+  CONDÉ--SHAMEFUL CONSPIRACY AGAINST MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+CONDÉ arrived in Paris on the 11th of April, and found everything in the
+utmost confusion. It would be impossible to follow all the petty
+intrigues, or even make allusion to all the events which affected the
+relative situations of the parties in the capital; but it may be
+observed that the tendency of both parties was to hold themselves in the
+neighbourhood of Paris. The chiefs of the Fronde hurried into the city,
+to receive the congratulations due to their exploits from the fair
+politicians who had won them to their cause. The Queen also established
+her head-quarters near the capital, to be ready for any turn of popular
+sentiment in her favour, and to hear the reports of her spies on the
+proceedings of her enemies. She knew what dances were to be given, and
+who were to attend the assemblies of the duchesses of the Fronde. On one
+occasion when Turenne knew that half the officers of Condé's army were
+engaged to a brilliant fête at the Duchess de Montbazon's, he made an
+attack on the enemy's camp, and was only repulsed by the steadiness of
+some old soldiers, who gave time for reinforcements to arrive. But the
+crisis was at hand; for each party began to be suspicious of the other
+gaining over its supporters--Mazarin lavishing promises of place and
+money, and the Duchess de Châtillon, invested with full powers by
+Condé, appearing in the opposite camp as the most irresistible
+ambassadress that ever was seen.
+
+Thus matters stood in the early summer of 1652, and "all that was most
+subtle and serious in politics," La Rochefoucauld tells us, "was brought
+under the attention of Condé to induce him to take one of two
+courses--to make peace or to continue the war; when Madame de Châtillon
+imbued him with a design for peace by means the most agreeable. She
+thought that so great a boon might be the work of her beauty, and
+mingling ambition with the design of making a new conquest, she desired
+at the same time to triumph over the Prince de Condé's heart and to
+derive pecuniary advantages from her political negotiations."
+
+We have already cursorily mentioned the Duchess de Châtillon: it is now
+indispensable, in order to thoroughly understand what is about to
+follow, to know something more of that celebrated personage.
+
+Isabella Angelique de Montmorency was one of the two daughters of that
+brave and unfortunate Count de Montmorency Bouteville, who, the victim
+of a false point of honour and of an outrageous passion for duelling,
+was decapitated on the Place de Grève, on the 21st of June, 1627. She
+was sister of François de Montmorency, Count de Bouteville, better known
+as the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg. Born in 1626, she had been
+married in 1645 to the last of the Colignys, the Duke de Châtillon, one
+of the heroes of Lens, killed in the action of Charenton in 1649. Left a
+widow at twenty-three, her rare loveliness won for her a thousand
+adorers. She was one of the queens of politics and gallantry during the
+Fronde; and even, after manifold amours, at thirty-eight could boast of
+captivating the Duke de Mecklenbourg, who espoused her in 1664. To
+beauty, Madame de Châtillon added great intelligence, but an
+intelligence wholly devoted to intrigue. She was vain and ambitious, and
+at the same time profoundly selfish, moderately scrupulous, and somewhat
+of the school of Madame de Montbazon. While both were young, she had
+smitten Condé; but he had thought no more of her after becoming absorbed
+with his love for Mademoiselle de Vigean. After that elevated passion,
+so sorrowfully terminated,[1] and after the fugitive emotion with which
+the lovely and virtuous Mademoiselle de Toussy could still inspire him,
+Condé stifled his chevalaresque instincts and bade adieu to the _haute
+galanterie_ of his youth and of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. A few
+insignificant and commonplace attachments, of which no record has
+survived, alone excepted, Madame de Châtillon only is known to have
+captivated his heart for the last time; and that _liaison_ exercised
+upon Condé and his affairs, at the epoch at which we have arrived, an
+influence sufficiently great for history to occupy itself therewith, if
+it would not be content with retracing consequences and as it were the
+outline of events which pass across the stage of the world without being
+understood, without penetrating to the true causes which are to be
+discovered in the characters and passions of mankind. And, of all
+passions, there is none at once more energetic and wide-grasping than
+love. It occupies an immense place in human life, and in the loftiest as
+well as the lowliest conditions. In our own times, we have seen it make
+and mar kings. In an earlier epoch, by detaining Antony too long in
+Cleopatra's arms at Alexandria, the formidable tempest gathered above
+his head which nearly overwhelmed him at Munda. It played a great part
+in the war which Henry IV. was about to undertake, when a sudden death
+arrested him. One can scarcely resist a smile on seeing historians for
+the most part taking no account of it, as a thing too frivolous, and
+consigning it altogether to private life, as though that which agitates
+the soul so powerfully were not the principle of that which blazes forth
+exteriorly! No, the empire of beauty knows no limitation, and in no
+instance did it show itself more potent than over those great hearts of
+which Alexander the Great, Cæsar, Charlemagne, and Henry IV. of France
+were the owners. We may well place Condé amongst such illustrious
+company.
+
+    [1] Mademoiselle de Vigean took the veil on the prince being forced
+    to marry the niece of Cardinal Richelieu.
+
+One graceful memento of Madame de Châtillon's power over Condé has
+descended to our own day. At Châtillon-sur-Loing, in what remains of the
+ancient château of the Colignys, which Isabelle de Montmorency derived
+from her husband and left to her brother, in that salon of the noble
+heir of the Luxembourgs, as precious for history as for art, wherein may
+be seen collected together, by the side of the sword of the Constable
+Anne, the likeness of Luxembourg on horseback, with his proud and
+piercing glance, as well as the full-length portrait of Charlotte
+Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Condé, in widow's weeds, there is
+also a large and magnificent picture, representing a young woman of
+ravishing beauty, with perfectly regular features, with the loveliest
+bright chestnut hair, grey eyes of the softest expression, a swan-like
+neck, of a slight and graceful figure, painted with a natural grandeur,
+and embellished with all the attractions of youth, enhanced by an
+exquisite air of coquetry. She is seated in an easy attitude. One of her
+hands, carelessly extended, holds a bouquet of flowers; the other rests
+upon the mane of a lion, whose head is drawn full-face, and whose
+flaming eyes are unmistakably the terrible eyes of Condé when seen with
+his sword drawn. Here we behold the beautiful Duchess de Châtillon at
+twenty-five or twenty-six, and very nearly such as she has taken care to
+describe herself in the _Divers Portraits_ of Mademoiselle de
+Montpensier. The head stands out wonderfully. It would be impossible to
+instance a more charming countenance, but it is somewhat deficient in
+character and grandeur, and quite different from that of Madame de
+Longueville. The latter's face was not so regularly symmetrical, but it
+wore a far loftier expression, and an air of supreme distinction
+characterised her entire person.
+
+Madame de Châtillon and Madame de Longueville had been brought up
+together, and very much attached during the whole of their early youth.
+By degrees there sprung up a rivalry of beauty between them, and they
+quarrelled thoroughly when Madame de Longueville perceived after the
+death of Châtillon, that the young and beautiful widow, at the same time
+that she was welcoming very decidedly the homage of the Duke de Nemours,
+had also evident designs upon Condé. Madame de Longueville had her own
+reasons for not being then very severe upon others, but she knew the
+self-seeking heart of the fair Duchess, and she was alarmed for her
+brother's sake. She feared lest Madame de Châtillon, having great need
+of Court favour, might retain Condé in the engagements which he had with
+Mazarin, while she herself was forced to drag him into the Fronde. The
+quarrel was renewed in 1651, as we have seen, and it was in full force
+in 1652. Madame de Châtillon and Madame de Longueville were then
+disputing for Condé's heart: the one drew him towards the Court, fully
+hoping that the Court would not be ungrateful to her; the other urged
+him more and more upon the path of war. We have related how Madame de
+Longueville, well knowing the strength of Condé's friendship for the
+Duke de Nemours, who was in the chains of the Duchess, very
+inopportunely mingled politics and coquetry in Berri, and tried the
+power of her charms upon Nemours, in order to carry him off from Madame
+de Châtillon and from the party of peace. No one ever knew how far
+Madame de Longueville committed herself on that occasion; but, as we
+have remarked, the slightest appearance was enough for La Rochefoucauld.
+As he had only sought his own advantage in the Fronde, not finding it
+therein, he began to grow tired, and asked for nothing better than to
+put an end to the wandering and adventurous life he had been for some
+years leading by a favourable reconciliation. Madame de Longueville's
+conduct in cutting him to the quick in what remained of his tender
+feelings for her, and especially in the most sensitive portion of his
+heart--its vanity and self-love--gave him an opportunity or a pretext,
+which he seized upon with eagerness, to break off a _liaison_ become
+contrary to his interests. Thus, in April, 1652, when he returned to
+Paris with Condé, and there found Madame de Châtillon, he entered at
+once into all her prejudices and all her designs, as he afterwards owned
+to Madame de Motteville:[2] he placed at her service all that was in him
+of skill and ability, and descended to the indulgence of a revenge
+against Madame de Longueville wholly unworthy of an honourable man, and
+which after the lapse of two centuries is as revolting to every
+right-minded person as it was to his contemporaries.
+
+    [2] Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 132. "M. de la Rochefoucauld m'a
+    dit que la jalousie et la vengeance le firent agir soigneusement, et
+    qu'il fit tout ce que Mad. de Châtillon voulut."
+
+Madame de Châtillon was not contented with carrying off the giddy and
+inconstant Duke de Nemours from his new love, then absent; she exacted
+at his hands the public and outrageous sacrifice of her rival. The
+reprisals of feminine vanity did not stop there: the ambitious and
+intriguing Duchess went further, she undertook to ruin Madame de
+Longueville in her brother's estimation. With that object she set
+herself, with the assistance of La Rochefoucauld, to decry her in every
+way to him, and sought even to persuade him that his sister was not
+attached to him as she made it appear, and that she had promised the
+Duke de Nemours to serve him at his expense; whilst Madame de
+Longueville had never dreamed in any way of separating Nemours from
+Condé, but only from her, Madame de Châtillon, purposely to engage him
+more deeply in Condé's interests, in the light that she understood them.
+
+Madame de Longueville's policy was very simple, and it was the true one,
+the Fronde once admitted. Assuredly, it would have been better alike for
+Madame de Longueville, for Condé, and for France not to have entered
+upon that fatal path by which the national greatness was for ten years
+arrested, and through which the house of Condé very nearly perished;
+but, after having embraced that sinister step, no other alternative
+remained to a firm and logical mind than to resolutely pursue its
+triumph. And that triumph, in Madame de Longueville's eyes, was the
+overthrow of Mazarin, a necessary condition of the domination of Condé.
+Such was the end pointed out to her by La Rochefoucauld when engaging
+her in the Fronde at the beginning of 1648, and she had never lost sight
+of it. It was to attain it that she had flung herself into the Civil
+War, and that she had ended by dragging therein her brother; that,
+worsted at Paris in 1649, she had striven in 1650 to raise Normandy;
+that she had risked her life, braved exile, made alliance with a foreign
+enemy, and unfurled at Stenay the banner of the Princes. In 1651, she
+had advised the resumption of arms, and now she maintained the
+impossibility of laying them down, and that, instead of losing himself
+in useless negotiations with the subtle and skilful Cardinal, it was
+upon his sword alone that Condé should rely. She thought him incapable
+of extricating himself advantageously from the intrigues by which he was
+surrounded, and therefore urged him towards the field of battle. She had
+always exercised a great sway over him, because he knew that her heart
+was of like temper to his own; and if passion had not blinded him, he
+would have rejected with disdain the odious accusations they had dared
+to raise against her, as he had done in 1643, in the affair of the
+letters attributed to her by Madame de Montbazon: he would have easily
+recognised that Madame de Châtillon, Nemours, and La Rochefoucauld would
+not have joined to blacken her in his eyes, as a vulgar creature ever
+ready to betray him for the latest lover, save in the manifest design of
+embroiling them both, of securing him, and of making him subserve their
+particular views. Nemours alone knew what had taken place during that
+journey from Montrond to Bordeaux, and the man who is base enough to
+constitute himself the denouncer of a woman to whom he has paid the
+warmest homage, is not very worthy of being believed on his word.
+Besides Nemours has not himself spoken, but Madame de Châtillon and
+Rochefoucauld, who have attributed to him certain sentiments, and we
+know with what motive.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a conspiracy more disgraceful than that
+formed at this juncture against Madame de Longueville; and that feature
+in it the more shameful perhaps was that La Rochefoucauld himself boasts
+of having invented and worked this machinery, as he terms it. The three
+conspirators were dumb, but through different but equally despicable
+reasons. Madame de Châtillon desired singly to govern Condé, and alone
+to represent him at Court, in order to reap the profits of the
+negotiation. Nemours was desirous of pleasing Madame de Châtillon, and
+looked forward also to have his share in the great advantages promised
+him; and, lastly, La Rochefoucauld was actuated by a pitiless spirit of
+revenge, and in the hope of a reconciliation necessary to his own
+immediate fortunes.
+
+But here arose a delicate point, if we may speak of delicacy in such a
+matter: in the whole cabal, the least odious was, after all, the Duke de
+Nemours, more frivolous than perfidious, and who was deeply smitten with
+Madame de Châtillon. He loved her, and was beloved. The return of the
+Prince de Condé, with his well-declared pretensions, caused him cruel
+suffering, and his rage threatened to upset the well-concerted scheme.
+The lovely lady herself could not sometimes help being embarrassed
+between an imperious prince and a jealous lover. Happily the future
+author of the _Maxims_ was at hand. La Rochefoucauld took upon himself
+to arrange everything in the best way possible. It was not very
+difficult for him to direct Madame de Châtillon how to manage Condé and
+Nemours both at once, and to contrive in such a way that she might
+secure them both. He made the moody Nemours comprehend that, in truth,
+he had no reason to complain of an inevitable _liaison_, "qui ne lui
+devoit pas être suspecte, puisqu'on voulait lui en rendre compte, et ne
+s'en servir que pour lui donner la principale part aux affaires." At the
+same time, "he urged M. le Prince to occupy himself with Madame de
+Châtillon, and to give her in freehold the estate of Merlon." In such a
+fashion, thanks to the honest intervention of La Rochefoucauld, a good
+understanding was kept up, and the conspiracy went quietly forwards.
+Condé had no mistrust whatever. A veil had been cast over his eyes; his
+martial disposition lulled asleep in the lap of pleasure and in a
+labyrinth of negotiations, and cradled in the hope of an approaching
+peace.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  AIGUILLON, Duchess d', her resentment against Condé for forcing her
+      young nephew Richelieu into a clandestine marriage, i. 174.
+
+  ANCRE, Marshal d', assassinated, i. 17.
+
+  ANET, Château d', a haunt of conspirators against Mazarin, i. 105.
+
+  ANNE OF AUSTRIA, Queen of Louis XIII. of France, her reception of Mad.
+      de Chevreuse on her return from exile, i. 39;
+    her dread of adventures and enterprises, 39;
+    Mazarin's entire ascendancy over her, 47;
+    hesitates to take a decided attitude between Mazarin and his
+      enemies, 65;
+    evidence of her love for Mazarin, 100;
+    her Regency opens under most brilliant auspices, 101;
+    the conspiracy to take Mazarin's life determines her to adopt his
+      policy, 102;
+    orders the arrest of Beaufort, 104;
+    her lively displeasure at the duel between Guise and Coligny, 116;
+    her jealous feeling against Madame de Longueville, 122;
+    retires before the Fronde to St. Germain, 155;
+    her endeavour to mortify the ladies of the Fronde by giving a
+      day-light ball, 170;
+    her delight at seeing Condé and the Frondeurs at daggers drawn, 174;
+    secretly confers with De Retz relative to the arrest of Condé, Conti
+      and Longueville; gives the fatal order for that _coup d'état_,176;
+    orders the arrest of the Duchesses de Longueville and de
+      Bouillon, 178;
+    quits Paris for Rouen to confront Madame de Longueville, 180;
+    the affirmation of the Duchess d'Orleans that the Queen had secretly
+      married Mazarin, 201;
+    evidence of such marriage, 202;
+    finds herself in some sort a prisoner on the proscription of
+      Mazarin, 216;
+    seriously prepares to make head against Condé, 257;
+    her fervour, constancy, and marvellous skill manifested towards
+      weakening Condé, 258;
+    the great danger of herself, the King, and Mazarin at Gien, 287.
+
+  ANNE-GENEVIÈVE DE BOURBON-CONDÉ, Duchess de Longueville, her birth and
+      parentage, i. 1;
+    her desire for conventual seclusion, 5;
+    her great personal beauty, 7;
+    her character, 10;
+    suitors for her hand, 12;
+    married to the Duke de Longueville, 13;
+    her conduct towards a crowd of adorers, 14;
+    has a formidable enemy in the Duchess of Montbazon, 66;
+    the quarrel between the rival Duchesses in the affair of the dropped
+      letter, 71;
+    public apology made her by Madame de Montbazon, 74;
+    unoccupied with politics at this juncture, 79;
+    error of the _Importants_ in not conciliating her, 79;
+    scandalised by Coligny's championship of her in the duel with
+      Guise, 117;
+    said to have witnessed the duel from behind a window-curtain, 118;
+    verses on the occasion, 118;
+    Miossens (afterwards Marshal d'Albret) tries in vain to win her
+      heart, 121;
+    her two individualities of opposite natures, 122;
+    her defective education, 122;
+    character of her epistolary style, 123;
+    the different kind of education given by Ménage to Madame de Sevigné
+      and Madame de la Fayette, 124;
+    the conquest of her heart and mind by La Rochefoucauld, 125;
+    _résumé_ of her life (up to 1648), 131;
+    queen of the Congress of Munster, 133;
+    acquires a taste for political discussions and speculations, 134;
+    Madame de Motteville's portrait of her at this period (1647), 135;
+    she sacrifices everything for La Rochefoucauld, 140;
+    exercises a somewhat ridiculous empire over her brother Conti, 142;
+    fatal influence of her passion for La Rochefoucauld, 149;
+    throws herself into the first Fronde, 149;
+    ultimately involves in it every member of her family, 150;
+    arrayed against her brother Condé in civil war, 154;
+    she shares all the fatigues of the siege of Paris, 157;
+    her energy and intrepidity, 158;
+    is given up as a hostage to the Parliament by her husband, 159;
+    gives birth to Charles de Paris, _the Child of the Fronde_, in the
+      Hotel de Ville, 159;
+    is reconciled to Condé, resumes her ascendancy over him, and
+      detaches him from Mazarin, 162;
+    her embarrassment on reappearing at Court, 163;
+    the perilous path she is led into by her infatuation for La
+      Rochefoucauld, 166;
+    undertakes to mislead Condé and give him over to Spain, 167;
+    the Queen orders her to be arrested; she escapes to Normandy with La
+      Rochefoucauld, 179;
+    her adventures in Normandy. She raises the standard of revolt at
+      Dieppe, 180;
+    pursued by the Queen, she assumes male attire and reaches Rotterdam
+      and Stenay, 181;
+    becomes the motive power of "_the Women's War_" or _Second_
+      Fronde, 182;
+    the message from her dying mother, 183;
+    her gracious reception by their Majesties on her return from
+      Stenay, 222;
+    the most brilliant period of her career, 223;
+    the idol of Spain, the terror of the Court, and one of the grandeurs
+      of her family, 223;
+    her motives for opposing the marriage of her brother with
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, 228;
+    urges Condé to cut the knot, and make war upon the Crown, 246;
+    her conduct, feelings and motives examined at this juncture, 247;
+    was she the cause of the rupture of Conti's projected marriage, 248;
+    peremptorily commanded to join her husband in Normandy, 253;
+    she perceives a change in La Rochefoucauld's feelings, 254;
+    follows the Princess de Condé into Berri, 254;
+    the Duke de Nemours pays court to her, 262;
+    certain obscure relations between them drives La Rochefoucauld to a
+      violent rupture, 264;
+    a rivalry of beauty leads her to humiliate Madame de Châtillon, 265;
+    how Madame de Longueville fell into "the scandalous chronicle," 266;
+    her grave cause of complaint against La Rochefoucauld, 266;
+    Madame de Châtillon attempts to ruin her in Condé's estimation, 296;
+    her fatal policy in the Fronde arrests the national greatness for
+      ten years, and nearly ruins the House of Condé, 296;
+    the disgraceful conspiracy formed against her, 298.
+
+  ARISTOCRACY in France, its constitution in the reign of Louis XIV.,
+      i. 217.
+
+
+  BEAUFORT, Francis de Vendôme, Duke de (called the "King of the
+      Markets"), a suitor for the hand of Anne de Bourbon, 12;
+    a leader of the _Importants_, 15;
+    a rival of Mazarin in the Queen's good graces, 52;
+    his character as sketched by La Rochefoucauld, 52;
+    becomes the led-captain of Madame de Montbazon, and the bitterest
+      enemy of Mazarin, 53;
+    his spite against Madame de Longueville, 71;
+    his conduct in the affair of the dropped letters, 73;
+    insinuates that they were from Coligny, 71;
+    irritated at the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, he enters into a
+      plot against Mazarin, 76;
+    the ungovernable impetuosity of his vengeance against Madame de
+      Longueville strongly stigmatised, 80;
+    prepares an ambuscade to slay Mazarin, 95;
+    the plot fails, 99;
+    is arrested and imprisoned at Vincennes, 105;
+    released by the Fronde and becomes master of Paris, 154;
+    Madame de Montbazon exercises plenary power over him, 208;
+    becomes one of the most conspicuous leaders of the Fronde, 215.
+
+  BEAUPUIS, Count de, detected plotting against Mazarin, escapes to
+      Rome, 86;
+    his denunciation of the evils of Richelieu's inordinate authority,
+      91.
+
+  BEAUTY IN WOMAN, true definition of, 8.
+
+  BOUILLON, de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duke de, conspires against
+      Richelieu, 25;
+    one of the party of the _Malcontents_, 109;
+    joins Condé at Saint-Maur, 245.
+
+  BOUILLON, Duchess de, given up as a hostage to the Fronde, 159;
+    quite as ardent in politics as Madame de Longueville, 206;
+    arrested by the Queen's order at her daughter's bedside, and thrown
+      into the Bastille, 206.
+
+  BRIDIEU, Marquis de, acts as second to Guise in duel with Coligny,
+      113.
+
+  BUCKINGHAM, George Villiers, Duke of, his political correspondence
+      with Madame de Chevreuse, 19.
+
+  BURNET, Bishop, his assertion of Condé's offer to Cromwell to turn
+      Protestant, 280.
+
+  BUSSY-RABUTIN, Count de, value of his satire of Madame de
+      Longueville, 265.
+
+
+  CAMPION, Alexandre de, his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, 28;
+    his censure of Madame de Montbazon's conduct, 80.
+
+  CAMPION, Henri de, attributes the conception of the plot to destroy
+      Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de
+      Montbazon, 89;
+    he stipulates with Beaufort that he should not strike Mazarin, 92;
+    sought for by Mazarin, he takes refuge at Anet, and afterwards at
+      Rome, 97.
+
+  CANTECROIX, Beatrice de Cusance, Princess de, Charles, Duke de
+      Lorraine madly enamoured of, 147.
+
+  CAUMARTIN, Madame de, a portrait of Madame de Chevreuse sketched by De
+      Retz to please the malignant curiosity of, 21.
+
+  CHÂTEAUNEUF, Charles de l'Aubépine, Marquis de, released from an
+      imprisonment of ten years, 34;
+    why detested by the Princess de Condé, 40;
+    restored to office through Madame de Chevreuse, 57;
+    banished to Touraine, 106;
+    bides his time for displacing Mazarin, and holds the seals on the
+      Cardinal going into exile, 107;
+    deprived of them by the Queen, 230;
+    restored to office to serve Mazarin in secret, 257;
+    nobly inaugurates his ministry by marching with the Queen and young
+      King into Berri, 263;
+    Mazarin learns with inquietude his ever-increasing success, 278;
+    again displaced by Mazarin, 279.
+
+  CHÂTILLON, Isabelle Angelique de Montmorency, Duchess de (sister of
+      the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg), the Great Condé's passion
+      for her, 259;
+    she urges Condé to an understanding with the Court, 259;
+    manages her lofty lover with infinite tact, 259;
+    is deeply enamoured of the young Duke de Nemours, 259;
+    invested with full powers as an ambassadress by Condé, 291;
+    her desire to triumph over Condé's heart, 291;
+    her antecedents and character, 292;
+    the important consequences of her liaison with Condé, 292;
+    a portrait of her at twenty-five described, 293;
+    causes of her quarrel with Madame de Longueville, 294;
+    she exacts from Nemours the public and outrageous sacrifice of her
+      rival, 296;
+    attempts to ruin Madame de Longueville in Condé's estimation, 296;
+    her embarrassment between an imperious Prince and a jealous
+      lover, 298.
+
+  CHAVIGNY, Count de, his career, 231.
+
+  CHEVREUSE, Marie de Rohan, Duchess de, her illustrious lineage, 17;
+    marries, first, Charles de Luynes, and afterwards Claude de
+      Chevreuse, 17;
+    as great favourite of Anne of Austria her extensive influence over
+      the politics of Europe, 18;
+    her personal characteristics, 18;
+    summary of her character by Cardinal de Retz, 19;
+    cause of her failure as a great politician, 20;
+    her adventures in exile, 22;
+    her great ascendancy over the cabinet of Madrid, 22;
+    seeks refuge in England, 22;
+    Richelieu's designs to effect her destruction, 23;
+    acts as the connecting link between England, Spain and Lorraine
+      during the Civil War in England, 24;
+    negotiates with Olivarez for the destruction of Richelieu, 26;
+    was she a stranger to the conspiracy of 1642? 26;
+    abandoned by the Queen on its discovery, 30;
+    her frightful position, 31;
+    her perpetual exile decreed by the will of Louis XIII., 32;
+    is dreaded by Mazarin, 33;
+    her triumphant return to Court, 34;
+    her position and political influence, 36;
+    the new relations between her and the Queen, 39;
+    she attacks Richelieu's system as adopted by Mazarin, 48;
+    procures the return of Châteauneuf to office, 49;
+    pleads for the Vendôme princes, 50;
+    manoeuvres to secure the governorship of Havre for La
+      Rochefoucauld, 53;
+    the skill, sagacity, and address of her counter-intrigues, 55;
+    tries the power of her charms on Mazarin, 55;
+    devotes her whole existence to political intrigue and conspiracy,
+      56;
+    want of precaution in her attacks upon Mazarin, 58;
+    her curious struggle for supremacy with the Prime Minister, 58;
+    the head and mainspring of the _Importants_, 58;
+    her tactics to displace Mazarin in favour of Châteauneuf, 59;
+    she organises a _coup-de-main_ to destroy Mazarin, 62;
+    arranges with the Cardinal the composition of Madame de Montbazon's
+      apology, 74;
+    her politic purpose of a fête to the Queen foiled by the insane
+      pride of Madame de Montbazon, 76;
+    her efforts to deprive Mazarin of supporters, 80;
+    her share in Beaufort's plot, 82;
+    Madame de Montbazon only an instrument in her hands, 89;
+    her behaviour on the failure of the plot, 106;
+    recommended by the Queen to withdraw from Court, 107;
+    carries on a vast correspondence under the mantle of the English
+      embassy with Lord Goring, Croft, Vendôme, and Bouillon, and the
+      rest of the _Malcontents_, 109;
+    her irritation at being prohibited from visiting the Queen of
+      England, 143;
+    Mazarin watches her every movement, 144;
+    ordered to retire to Angoulême, she goes for a third time into
+      exile, 144;
+    her bark is captured by the English Parliamentarians and she is
+      carried into the Isle of Wight, 146;
+    Mazarin has Montresor arrested in hopes of possessing himself of her
+      costly jewels, 146;
+    applies herself to maintain an alliance between Spain, Austria and
+      Lorraine--the last basis of her own political reputation, 147;
+    preserves her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, 148;
+    frustrates Mazarin's projects to win over the Duke, 148;
+    becomes once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
+      government, 148;
+    constitutes herself the mediatress between the Queen and the
+      Frondeurs, 206;
+    partially restored to the Queen's confidence, 210;
+    assisted in her political intrigues by the Marquis de Laigues, 210;
+    a splendid supper given to her by Madame de Sevigné, 211;
+    forms a plan with the Princess Palatine of a grand aristocratic
+      league against Mazarin, 224;
+    the Fronde in 1651 was Madame de Chevreuse, 225;
+    she procures Condé's release from prison, 225;
+    her resentment at the rupture of her daughter's marriage, 232;
+    she raises the entire Fronde against Condé, 242;
+    opposes the schemes to assassinate Condé, 243;
+    Châteauneuf, her friend and instrument, is made Prime Minister, 257;
+    remains staunch to the Queen and Mazarin through the last Fronde,
+      280.
+
+  CHEVREUSE, Charlotte Marie de Lorraine, Mademoiselle de, her projected
+      marriage with the Prince de Conti, 224;
+    supreme importance of such marriage, 225;
+    disastrous results of its rupture, 232;
+    impetuously proposes to turn the key upon Condé, Conti and Beaufort
+      at the Palais d'Orleans, 233;
+    her suspected and almost public _liaison_ with De Retz, 249;
+    dies suddenly of a fever, unmarried, 224.
+
+  CINQ MARS, Henri de, undermines Richelieu with Louis XIII., 25;
+    his death-warrant, 29.
+
+  COLIGNY, Count Maurice de (grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny),
+      an adorer of Madame de Longueville, 14;
+    the dropped letters falsely attributed to him, 71;
+    as champion of Madame de Longueville, he challenges the Duke de
+      Guise, 113;
+    fatal result of the duel, 117;
+    dies of his wounds and of despair, 117;
+    scandalous verses on the occasion, 118.
+
+  COETQUEN, Marquis de, hospitably receives Madame de Chevreuse when
+      exiled, 146.
+
+  CONDÉ, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de, arbiter of the political situation
+      after Rocroy, 80;
+    his furious anger at Madame de Montbazon's insult to his sister,
+      111;
+    hailed by the Queen as the liberator of France, 111;
+    receives into his house Coligny wounded in duel with Guise, 116;
+    the state in which he found Paris after his victory of Lens: he
+      offers his sword to the Queen, 154;
+    applies himself to giving the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson, 155;
+    marches upon Paris and places it under siege, 156;
+    the climax of his fame and fortune as defender and saviour of the
+      throne, 164;
+    he tyrannises over the Court and government, 168;
+    he insults Mazarin and embarrasses the Queen, 169;
+    his want of capacity for business, 172;
+    his train of _petits-maîtres_, 172;
+    on the murder of one of his servants he tries to crush the Fronde
+      leaders, 173;
+    forces the young Duke de Richelieu to marry clandestinely
+      Mademoiselle de Pons, 174;
+    wounds the Queen's pride by compelling her to receive Jarzé whom she
+      had banished for fatuously believing that she had loved him, 175;
+    arrested on the authority of his own signature and imprisoned at
+      Vincennes, 177;
+    what constituted the strength of the Princes' party in the Second
+      Fronde, 188;
+    the majority of the women who meddled with politics were, through
+      sympathy, of his party, 203;
+    his aged mother supplicates in vain for his release, and returns
+      home to die, 204;
+    his liberation effected by no other power than that of female
+      influence, 206;
+    he treats Mazarin with contempt at Havre, and on his release becomes
+      master of the situation, 215;
+    is courted by both the Fronde and Queen's party, 215;
+    eight hundred princes and nobles partisans of Condé, 217;
+    his sole error not having a fixed and unalterable object, 230;
+    applies himself to form a new Fronde, 234;
+    resumes the imperious tone which had previously embroiled him with
+      the Queen and Mazarin, 237;
+    Hocquincourt proposes to assassinate Condé, 243;
+    he retreats to St. Maur and holds a Court there, 245;
+    reappears in Parliament, 245;
+    Châteauneuf and Mazarin labour to destroy him, 257;
+    he narrowly escapes an ambuscade at Pontoise, 258;
+    motives which rendered him averse to civil war, 259;
+    his final determination to unsheath the sword, 260;
+    raises the standard of revolt in Guienne, 262;
+    his adventurous expedition, 275;
+    to what did Condé aspire? 277;
+    his inconstancy--offers himself to Cromwell and to become Protestant
+      to have an English army, 278-280;
+    the income and possessions of his family, 278;
+    he escapes for the tenth time being taken and slain, 282;
+    takes command of the Fronde forces and throws himself upon the royal
+      army, 283;
+    routs Hocquincourt and attacks Turenne unsuccessfully, 285;
+    unjust accusation of Napoleon I. that Condé wanted boldness at
+      Bleneau, 286;
+    he leaves the army and hastens to Paris, 287;
+    in abandoning the Loire he commits an immense and irreparable
+      error, 289;
+    invests Madame de Châtillon with full powers as an ambassadress,
+      291;
+    imbued by her with a design for peace by means the most
+      agreeable, 291;
+    a graceful memento of her power over him still existing in the
+      ancient Château of the Colignys, 293;
+    Madame de Châtillon and Madame de Longueville dispute for Condé's
+      heart, 294;
+    the overthrow of Mazarin a necessary condition of the domination of
+      Condé, 296;
+    is advised by his sister to rely upon his sword alone, 297.
+
+  CONDÉ, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Bourbon
+      (mother of the Great Condé and Madame de Longueville), her
+      influence with Anne of Austria, 39;
+    her detestation of Madame de Chevreuse, 40;
+    tries to destroy her hold upon the Queen, 40;
+    her lively resentment at the insult to her daughter in the affair of
+      the dropped letters, 73;
+    demands a public reparation from Madame de Montbazon, 74;
+    her demeanour during the "mummeries" of the apology, 74;
+    obtains the privilege of never associating with Madame de
+      Montbazon, 75;
+    supplicates in vain for Condé's release, and returns home to die,
+      204.
+
+  CONDÉ, Claire Clemence de Maillé, Princess de Bourbon (daughter of the
+      Duke de Brézé, and wife of the Great Condé), shut up in Bordeaux
+      with the Dukes de Bouillon and de Rochefoucauld during "the
+      Women's War," 200, 204;
+    only maintains herself in Bordeaux through the aid of the rabble
+      _va-nu-pieds_, 205;
+    forced to take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond, 263.
+
+  CONTI, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de (brother of the Great Condé), his
+      extravagant adoration of his sister, Madame de Longueville, 141;
+    marries Anne Marie Martinozzi, niece of Mazarin, 142;
+    declared _generalissimo_ of the army of the king, 159;
+    the problem as to who was the author of the rupture of his marriage
+      with Madame de Chevreuse, 227;
+    his ardent passion for her, 231;
+    is made lieutenant-general in Guienne by Condé, 276;
+    finishes, where he begun life, with theology, 142.
+
+  CORNEILLE, Pierre, his _Emilie_ painted as a perfect heroine, 82.
+
+
+  FIESQUE, Gillona d'Harcourt, Countess de, 195.
+
+  FOUQUEROLLES, Madame de, her terrible anxiety lest she should be
+      compromised by the dropped letters, 73;
+    confides the secret to La Rochefoucauld, 73;
+    the letters are burnt in the Queen's presence, 73.
+
+  FRONDE, the, what gave it birth and sustained it, 149;
+    _Day of the Barricades_, 153;
+    the royal power attacked by three parties simultaneously, 153;
+    the adherents of the Fronde, 156;
+    initiation of the Civil War, 159;
+    sordid selfishness of the Frondeurs, 161;
+    carries everything before it in 1651, 223;
+    brief retrospect of the two Fronde wars, 267;
+    one of the most interesting as well as diverting periods in French
+      history, 269;
+    contrast between its main features and the contemporary civil war in
+      England, 270;
+    the wide-spread misery it entailed on France, 270.
+
+
+  GUISE, Henri, Duke de Guise (grandson of the _Balafré_), espouses the
+      cause of Madame de Montbazon in the affair of the dropped
+      letters, 73;
+    confronts and defies the victorious Condés, 112;
+    fights a duel with Coligny, the champion of Madame de
+      Longueville, 115;
+    his insulting words on unsheathing his sword, 115;
+    result of the duel on party feeling in France, 117;
+    his _liaison_ with Anne de Gonzagua, 193;
+    becomes unfaithful to her and elopes with the Countess de
+      Bossuet, 194.
+
+  GUYMÉNÉ, Anne de Rohan, Princess de (sister-in-law of Madame de
+      Chevreuse, and daughter-in-law of Madame Montbazon), her numerous
+      crowd of old and young adorers, 37;
+    her flirtation with Mazarin, 56;
+    furious at having been abandoned by De Retz, offers the Queen to get
+      him confined in a cellar, 209.
+
+
+  HACQUEVILLE, Monsieur de, refuses to be a go-between of De Retz and
+      Madame de Chevreuse, 211.
+
+  HAUTEFORT, Marie de (afterwards Duchess de Schomberg), influence of
+      her piety and virtue, 37;
+    witnesses the arrest of Beaufort, 105.
+
+  HENRIETTA MARIA, Queen of Charles I. of England, her warm reception of
+      Madame de Chevreuse, 22;
+    seeks an Asylum in France from the Parliamentarians, 143;
+    asserted to have secretly married her equerry, Jermyn, 202.
+
+  HOCQUINCOURT, Charles de Monchy, Marshal d', proclaims Madame de
+      Montbazon "la belle des belles," 70;
+    is beaten by Condé at Bleneau, 284.
+
+  HOLLAND, Henry Rich, Earl of, his political correspondence with Madame
+      de Chevreuse, 19;
+    encourages the faction of Vendôme, Vieuville, and La Valette, 23.
+
+
+  IMPORTANTS, the--Rochefoucauld's account of that faction, 77;
+    irritated by the banishment of their fascinating lady-leader, Madame
+      de Montbazon, they plot to murder Mazarin, 78;
+    their ruin decided upon by the Queen and Mazarin, 79;
+    their error in not conciliating Madame de Longueville, 79;
+    was the plot real or imaginary--a point of the highest historical
+      importance, 83;
+    failure of the plot and ruin of the faction, 104.
+
+
+  JOINVILLE, Prince de (son of Charles de Lorraine), suitor for the hand
+      of Anne de Bourbon, 12.
+
+
+  LAIGUES, Marquis de, declares himself a lover of Madame de Chevreuse
+      to gain political importance, 210.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Duchess de, see ANNE DE BOURBON.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Marie d'Orleans, see Duchess de NEMOURS.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Henry de Bourbon, Duke de, marries Anne de Bourbon, 13;
+    titular lover of Madame de Montbazon, 70;
+    plenipotentiary at the Congress of Munster in 1645, 132;
+    gives up the Duchess as a hostage to the Fronde, 159;
+    raises Normandy against Mazarin, 158;
+    he imperatively commands the Duchess to join him in Normandy, 253.
+
+  LORET, his rhyming description of the supper given by Madame de
+      Sevigné to Madame to Chevreuse, 212.
+
+  LORRAINE, Charles IV., Duke of, involved in the conspiracy of Soissons
+      through Madame de Chevreuse, 26;
+    prefers amusing himself with civil war to the quiet enjoyment of his
+      throne, 271.
+
+  LOUIS _the Just_ (XIII. of France), signs the death warrant of his
+      favourite, Cinq Mars, 29;
+    his decree of exile against Madame de Chevreuse, 33.
+
+  LOUIS XIV., his majority declared, 256.
+
+  LUYNES, Charles de, Favourite of Louis XIII., marries Marie de Rohan
+      (afterwards Duchess de Chevreuse), 17
+
+  LUYNES, the (late) Duke de, aided the Pope against the Garibaldians,
+      18.
+
+
+  MAULEVRIER, the Marquis de, writer of the dropped letters addressed to
+      Madame de Fouquerolles, 13.
+
+  MAZARIN, Jules, Cardinal, succeeds Richelieu as Prime Minister, 32;
+    his origin, 44;
+    is hated by the nobles, parliament, and middle classes, 44;
+    installed in office, 45;
+    his first service to Anne of Austria, 45;
+    his striking personal resemblance to Buckingham, 46;
+    how he obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, 47;
+    applies himself to gain her heart, 47;
+    finds a formidable opponent to his policy in Madame de
+      Chevreuse, 48, 54;
+    is terrified by her matrimonial projects, 54;
+    flirts with Madame de Chevreuse, 55;
+    his attentions to Madame de Guyméné, 56;
+    his difficulty to make the Queen comprehend his policy towards
+      Spain, 60;
+    declares that Madame de Chevreuse would ruin France, 61;
+    forewarned of a conspiracy to destroy him, 62;
+    the great families opposed to him, 63;
+    his anxieties and perplexities, 64;
+    the relations between him and the Queen, 64;
+    his intervention in the quarrel of the rival Duchesses, 74;
+    his resolution in confronting the plot of the _Importants_, 79;
+    did Mazarin owe all his great career to a falsehood cunningly
+      invented and audaciously sustained? 83;
+    the plan of the attack upon him, 92;
+    escapes assassination from Beaufort's nocturnal ambuscade, 99;
+    compels the Queen to choose her part by addressing himself to her
+      heart, 102;
+    becomes absolute master of the Queen's heart, 102;
+    banishes the conspirators and arrests Beaufort, 106;
+    his tactics and political sagacity, 111;
+    first introduces Italian Opera at the French Court, 135;
+    concludes a peace with the Fronde parliament, 161;
+    insulted by Condé, 169;
+    what constitutes the strength of his party in the _Second_
+      Fronde, 187;
+    goes into Guienne with the royal army, 205;
+    banished by the Fronde, 215;
+    treated with contempt by Condé at Havre, 215;
+    with difficulty finds a refuge at Bruhl, 216;
+    in his exile governs the Queen as absolutely as ever, 217;
+    his immense blunder (in 1650), 225;
+    rebanished and his possessions confiscated, 234;
+    governs France from Bruhl, 236;
+    foments quarrels between Condé and the Fronde, 236;
+    composes with the Queen a political comedy of which De Retz became
+      the dupe and Condé very nearly the victim, 238;
+    the draught of his treaty with the Fronde, the masterpiece of his
+      political skill, falls into Condé's hands, 256;
+    alarmed at the success of Châteauneuf, he breaks his ban, and
+      returns to France, 279;
+    Condé and the Fronde united against him, 280;
+    to gain supporters lavishly promises place and money, 290.
+
+  MEDICI, Marie de (Queen of Henry IV. and mother of Louis XIII.), her
+      imprisonment of Charlotte de Montmorency, 2;
+    conspires against Richelieu, 28.
+
+  MIOSSENS, Count de (afterwards Marshal d'Albret), tries unsuccessfully
+      to win the heart of Madame de Longueville, 122;
+    gives place to La Rochefoucauld, 130.
+
+  MONTAGU, Lord, the intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria, and
+      slave of Madame de Chevreuse, 24;
+    Anne of Austria's confidence in him, 37;
+    his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, 38;
+    becomes a bigot and a devotee, 38.
+
+  MONTBAZON, Hercule de Rohan, Duke de (father of Madame de Chevreuse
+      and the Prince de Guyméné), marries at sixty-one Marie d'Avangour
+      aged sixteen, 67;
+    recommends the example of Marie de Medici to his young wife and
+      takes her to Court, 67.
+
+  MONTBAZON, Marie d'Avangour, Duchess de, called by d'Hocquincourt "la
+      belle des belles," the youthful stepmother of Madame de Chevreuse,
+      her parentage and antecedents, 67;
+    married at sixteen to a husband of sixty-one, 67;
+    her personal and mental characteristics, 68;
+    contrast in manners between her and Madame de Longueville, 69;
+    her numerous adorers; the Duke de Beaufort her titular lover, 70;
+    her malignant hatred of Madame de Longueville, 71;
+    employs her influence over the houses of Vendôme and Lorraine to the
+      injury of her rival, 71;
+    the affair of the dropped letters, 71;
+    the party of the _Importants_ espouse her cause, 73;
+    she is compelled to make a public apology before the Queen and
+      Court, 74;
+    the pretended reconciliation only a fresh declaration of war, 75;
+    her conduct at the collation given the Queen by Madame de
+      Chevreuse, 76;
+    is banished by the King's order, 76;
+    she inveigles Beaufort into a plot to destroy Mazarin, 89.
+
+  MONTESPAN, Françoise-Athenais de Rochechouart Mortemart, Duchess de,
+      her fame as a beauty, 9;
+    relations to her of the Dukes de Longueville and Beaufort, 14.
+
+  MONTPENSIER, Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans (known as _La Grande
+      Mademoiselle_), daughter of Gaston, Duke d'Orleans and cousin of
+      Louis XIV., preserves the text of the dropped letters, 72;
+    gives the two speeches made on the occasion of Madame de Montbazon's
+      reparation, 74.
+
+  MOTTEVILLE, Frances Bertaut, Madame de, her amusing recital of the
+      "mummeries" in the affair of the dropped letters, 74;
+    her account of the Queen's reception of the news of the abortive
+      attempt to kill Mazarin, 103;
+    her portrait of Madame de Longueville, 135;
+    the principal motive which urged La Rochefoucauld to woo the
+      Duchess, 140.
+
+
+  NEMOURS, Marie d'Orleans, Duchess de (daughter of Henri, Duke de
+      Longueville), her harsh censure of the pride and impracticability
+      of the Condés, 165;
+    quits Madame de Longueville to take refuge in a convent, 180;
+    moves heaven and earth for the release of Condé that he might keep
+      watch over the Duchess de Châtillon, 208;
+    her character, 212;
+    the enemy of the Fronde and the Condés, 227;
+    her detestation of Madame de Longueville, 252.
+
+  NEMOURS, Charles Amadeus, of Savoy, Duke de, prompted by the Duchess
+      de Châtillon, his mistress, embraces the cause of Condé, 208;
+    pays court to Madame de Longueville instead of making active war in
+      Berri, 262;
+    the obscure relations between them at this juncture, drives La
+      Rochefoucauld to a violent rupture with Madame de Longueville,
+      264.
+
+
+  ORLEANS, Gaston, Duke d' (brother of Louis XIII.), conspires against
+      Richelieu, 25;
+    his incapacity to govern, 171;
+    his jealousy of the influence of Condé and of Mazarin, 171;
+    makes De Retz his confidant, who obtains his assent to the arrest of
+      the Princes, 176;
+    becomes the head of a fifth party in the Second Fronde, 200;
+    consents to the liberation of the Princes on promise that his
+      daughter should marry Condé's son, 207;
+    governed by De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse, 258.
+
+
+  PETITS-MAÎTRES, the train of Condé called, their character, 288.
+
+  PALATINE, Anne de Gonzagua, Princess (widow of Edward Prince
+      Palatine), peculiarities of her epistolary style, 124;
+    her large intelligence, solidity, refinement and ingenuity of
+      thought, 124;
+    becomes the head and mainspring of the Princes' party, or Second
+      Fronde, 179;
+    the formidable political opponent of Mazarin, 179;
+    her extraordinary political and diplomatical ability, 189;
+    her antecedents, 190;
+    her _liaison_ with Henri de Guise under a promise of marriage, 193;
+    disguised in male attire she joins her lover at Besançon, 193;
+    abandoned by the volatile de Guise, who elopes with the Countess de
+      Bossuet, she returns to Paris, 194;
+    is married to Prince Edward, Count Palatine of the Rhine, 194;
+    by her conciliatory tact she obtains the esteem of all parties in
+      the Fronde, 196;
+    De Retz's eulogium and Madame de Motteville's opinion of her, 196;
+    she operates on behalf of the imprisoned Princes, and negotiates
+      four different treaties for their deliverance, 198;
+    an alliance with the two camps concluded by her with De Retz, 224;
+    she conducts with consummate skill the negotiation between Madame de
+      Chevreuse and Madame de Longueville, 227.
+
+  PHALZBOURG, Princess de (sister of Charles IV. of Lorraine), acts as a
+      spy over Madame de Chevreuse in the interest of Mazarin, 147.
+
+  POLITICAL INTRIGUE, an affair of fashion among the ladies of Anne of
+      Austria's Court, 56.
+
+
+  RAMBOUILLET, Hotel de, 9.
+
+  RETZ, John Francis Paul Gondi, Cardinal de, the evil genius of the
+      Fronde, 151;
+    his influence over the Parisians as Coadjutor, 151;
+    his character--ladies of gallantry his chief political agents, 152;
+    his conspicuous merits and faults, 172;
+    his master-stroke of address, 201;
+    his best concerted measures abortive through his inclination for the
+      fair sex, 208;
+    fails to acquire the confidence of anyone--is threatened with
+      assassination, 209;
+    lends an ear to Cromwell and contracts a close friendship with
+      Montrose, 209;
+    has the same interests with Madame de Chevreuse in securing the
+      union of her daughter with Conti, 210;
+    an analysis of his character, antecedents, and aspirations, 293;
+    admitted unwillingly into the secret councils of the Queen, 240;
+    his midnight interview with Anne of Austria, 241;
+    holds the key of Paris, 275;
+    he trims and follows the Duke d'Orleans, 280.
+
+  RICHELIEU, Cardinal de, his government through terror, 24;
+    conspiracy to destroy him, 26-30;
+    result of his efforts to consolidate the regal power, 32.
+
+  RICHELIEU, Duke de, engaged to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but forced
+      by Condé to marry clandestinely when under age, Mademoiselle de
+      Pons, 174.
+
+  ROCHEFOUCAULD, Francis, second Duke de la--his career as Prince de
+      Marsillac, 127;
+    his character of the Duchess de Longueville, 10;
+    his advice to Madame de Chevreuse, 39;
+    Madame de Fouquerolles confides to him the secret of the dropped
+      letters, 73;
+    he delivers her and her lover from their terrible anxiety, 73;
+    seeks to hush up and terminate the quarrel of the rival Duchesses,
+      80;
+    constitutes himself the champion of Madame de Chevreuse's innocence
+      of Beaufort's plot, 83;
+    allies himself with that illustrious political adventuress, 128;
+    desirous of securing to his party the master-mind of Condé to avenge
+      himself of the Queen and Mazarin, 128;
+    makes persistent love to Madame de Longueville and wins her
+      heart, 129;
+    his cynical maxim on the love of certain women, 129;
+    his personal and mental characteristics, 137;
+    the way in which he superseded Miossens as the lover of Madame de
+      Longueville, 139;
+    his sordid motive as her wooer, 140;
+    his restless spirit and ever discontented vanity, 167;
+    effects the escape from Paris of Madame de Longueville, 178;
+    gives proof of a rare fidelity through the whole of "the Women's
+      War," 183;
+    his ancestral château of Verteuil razed to the ground by Mazarin's
+      orders, 183;
+    his conduct at this time contradicts the assertion that he never
+      loved the woman he seduced and dragged into the vortex of
+      politics, 184;
+    his version of the true cause of the rupture of the marriage between
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and Conti, 229:
+    grows weary of a wandering and adventurous life, 255;
+    the report of certain obscure relations existing between Nemours and
+      Madame de Longueville drives him to a violent rupture with the
+      Duchess, 264;
+    his accusation more absurd than odious, 264;
+    to indulge his revenge against Madame de Longueville, he enters into
+      all Madame de Châtillon's designs, 295;
+    directs her how to manage Condé and Nemours both at once, 298.
+
+
+  SCUDERY, Mademoiselle de, and the prudes of the Hotel de Rambouillet
+      protest strongly against the marriage of Conti with Mademoiselle
+      de Chevreuse, 249.
+
+  SEGUIER, Pierre, Keeper of the Seals, his character, 49.
+
+  SEVIGNÉ, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de, gives a splendid
+      supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse, 211.
+
+  SOISSONS, Count de, his conspiracy to destroy Cardinal de Richelieu,
+      25.
+
+  ST. MAURE, Countess of, the polish and precision of her epistolary
+      style, 123.
+
+
+  TAVANNES, Count de, a valiant _petit-maître_ to whom Condé gives
+      command of the army after Bleneau, 257.
+
+  TURENNE, Marshal de, raises the standard of revolt in behalf of the
+      Fronde, 156;
+    is won over to make a treaty with Spain by Madame de Longueville,
+      182;
+    thanked by the Queen after Bleneau, for having placed the crown a
+      second time on her son's head, 287;
+    achieves the importance of being a rival of Condé, 289;
+    attacks the enemy's camp when half the officers of Condé's army were
+      at Madame de Montbazon's fête, 290.
+
+
+  VIGEAN, Mademoiselle de, Condé's love for, 292.
+
+  VENDÔME, Duke Cæsar de, the faction of, with La Vieuville and La
+      Valette, when emigrants in England, 23;
+    his pretensions and agitated life, 51;
+    decides to exile himself in Italy and await the fall of Mazarin,
+      106.
+
+  VITRY, Marshal de, prepares with Count de Cramail a _coup-de-main_
+      against Richelieu, 25.
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
+
+
+
+
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |Transcriber's Note                                                |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |The following changes were made to the original text [correction  |
+  |in brackets]:                                                     |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |Page   16: (afterwards Duke de Rochefoucald [Rochefoucauld])      |
+  |Page   33: Angoulêsme [Angoulême], until after the peace be       |
+  |Page   43: French language: ["]_La reine est si bonne!_"          |
+  |Page   79: royal authority now seriously theatened [threatened].  |
+  |Page   85: oppose testimony more distinterested [disinterested],  |
+  |Page   85: confidental [confidential] letters furnish us.         |
+  |Page  146: _varures_ [parures], valued at two hundred thousand    |
+  |Page  157: troops, at the parades of the citizen soldiery.[,]     |
+  |Page  165: exposed to one of those _coups d'êtat_ [d'état],       |
+  |Page  179: the Secretary of State, La Veillière [Vrillière],      |
+  |Page  184: firmness,["] says Lenet, "that he seemed as though     |
+  |Page  202: Footnote 6: Leomeni[Loménie] de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.|
+  |Page  231: to look upon her with horror. "[removed]He even blamed |
+  |Page  232: From that moment means of of[removed] breaking off     |
+  |Page  232: and obscurities resting upon this deli- [delicate]     |
+  |Page  234: missing anchor for Footnote 4                          |
+  |Page  269: La Rouchefoucauld [Rochefoucauld], getting Gondy       |
+  |Page  269: Rouchefoucauld [Rochefoucauld], he determined to set   |
+  |Page  279: his ban, quitted his retreat at Dinan, and and[removed]|
+  |Page  282: went out to forage. He suceeded[succeeded] in procuring|
+  |Page  303: her personal characteristics, 18:[;]                   |
+  |Page  310: attack's[attacks] the enemy's camp when half           |
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by 
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by Sutherland Menzies
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2)
+
+Author: Sutherland Menzies
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27192]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL WOMEN (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Emanuela Piasentini and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1 id="booktitle">POLITICAL WOMEN.</h1>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+<h1>POLITICAL WOMEN.</h1>
+
+
+<p class="title">
+<small>BY</small><br />
+
+<big>SUTHERLAND MENZIES,</big><br />
+
+<small>AUTHOR OF &#8220;ROYAL FAVOURITES,&#8221; ETC.</small><br /></p>
+
+
+<p class="title">IN TWO VOLUMES.<br />
+
+VOL. I.</p>
+
+
+<p class="title"><span class="smcap">Henry S. King &amp; Co.</span>,<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">65, Cornhill, and 12, Paternoster Row, London.</span><br />
+
+1873.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center">[<i>All rights reserved.</i>]</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.</h2>
+
+<hr class="minor" />
+
+<table class = "toc" summary = "table of contents">
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>PART I.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="number" colspan = "3">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
+<td></td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>BOOK I.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">CHAP.  I.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Anne de Bourbon (sister of the Great Cond&eacute;)</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">II.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchess de Longueville</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">III. &amp; IV.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchess de Chevreuse</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>BOOK II.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">CHAP.  I.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Anne of Austria&#8217;s Prime Minister and his policy</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">II.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchess de Montbazon&mdash;Affair of the dropped letters&mdash;The Quarrel of the rival Duchesses</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">III.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The <i>Importants</i></td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">IV.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Conspiracy of the Duchess de Chevreuse and the Duke de Beaufort to get rid of Mazarin</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">V.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Failure of the plot to assassinate Mazarin&mdash;Arrest of Beaufort&mdash;Banishment of Madame de Chevreuse and dispersion of the <i>Importants</i></td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">VI.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Results of the quarrel between the Duchesses&mdash;Fatal duel between the Duke de Guise and Count Maurice de Coligny</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>BOOK III.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">CHAP.  I.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchess de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">II.</td>
+<td>&mdash;La Rochefoucauld draws Madame de Longueville into the vortex of politics and civil war</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">III.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchess de Chevreuse driven into exile for the third time</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">IV.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Fatal influence of Madame de Longueville&#8217;s passion for La Rochefoucauld&mdash;The Fronde</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">V.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Madame de Longueville wins over her brother Cond&eacute; to the Fronde</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">VI.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The causes which led to the <i>coup d&#8217;&eacute;tat</i>&mdash;The arrest of the Princes</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">VII.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Madame de Longueville&#8217;s adventures in Normandy&mdash;The <i>Women&#8217;s War</i></td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>BOOK IV.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">CHAP.  I.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Princess Palatine</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">II.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The young Princess de Cond&eacute; conducts the war in the south</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">III.</td>
+<td>&mdash;State of Parties on the liberation of the Princes</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">IV.</td>
+<td>&mdash;The Duchesses de Longueville and de Chevreuse and the Princess Palatine in the last Fronde&mdash;Results of the rupture of the marriage projected between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">V.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Cond&eacute;, urged by his sister, goes unwillingly into rebellion</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">VI.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Madame de Longueville coquets with the Duke de Nemours</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="book" colspan = "3"><big>BOOK V.</big></td>
+</tr>
+
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">CHAP.  I.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Cond&eacute;&#8217;s adventurous expedition</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="chapter">II.</td>
+<td>&mdash;Political and gallant intrigues&mdash;The Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon&#8217;s sway over Cond&eacute;&mdash;Shameful conspiracy against Madame de Longueville</td>
+<td class="number"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<hr class="minor" />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> selecting the careers of certain celebrated women who have flung
+themselves with ardour into the vortex of politics, the author&#8217;s choice
+has not been so much an arbitrary one as it might seem, but rather
+guided by instances in which the adventurous game has not been
+restricted to the commonplace contentions of the public platform, or the
+private salon, but played on the grandest scale and on the most
+conspicuous arena; when Peace and War, crowns and dynasties, have
+trembled in the balance, and even the fate of a nation has been at
+stake.</p>
+
+<p>The untoward results of the lives thus devoted&mdash;dazzling and heroic as
+some passages in their dramatic vicissitudes may appear&mdash;point the moral
+of the futility of such pursuit on the part of the gentler sex, and
+indicate the certainty of the penalty to be paid by those who by
+venturing into the fervid, exhausting struggle, and rashly courting
+exposure to the rough blows of the battle of political life, with its
+coarse and noisy passions, have discovered too late that the strife has
+done them irreparable injury. In the cases of those selected it will be
+seen that the fierce contention has commonly involved the sacrifice of
+conjugal happiness, the welfare of children, domestic peace, reputation,
+and all the amenities of the gentle life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That clever women abound in the present day we have undeniable
+proof&mdash;many as clever, no doubt, as that famous philosopheress Madame du
+Chatelet, who managed at one and the same moment the thread of an
+intrigue, her cards at piquet, and a calculation in algebra, but who may
+still lack the qualifications indispensably necessary to make clever
+politicians. Perhaps, therefore, we might be allowed to suggest that it
+would be well for ladies who are ambitious of figuring in either or both
+spheres that politics and diplomacy are special and laborious pursuits,
+involving a great deal of knowledge as difficult, and in the first
+instance as repulsive, to acquire as Greek or chemistry. Yet, fully
+admitting their capacity to qualify themselves intellectually, and
+supposing them to attain the summit of their ambition of figuring
+successfully in public life, a grave question still arises&mdash;would they
+thereby increase or diminish their present great social influence? They
+have now more influence of a certain kind than men have; but if they
+obtain the influence of men, they cannot expect to retain the influence
+of women. Nature, it may be thought, has established a fair distribution
+of power between the two sexes. Women are potent in one sphere, and men
+in another; and, if they are conscious of the domestic sway they already
+exercise, they will not imperil it by challenging dominion in a field in
+which they would be less secure.</p>
+
+<p>Root and bond of the family, woman is no less a stranger by her natural
+aptitudes than by her domestic ministrations to the general interests of
+society; the conduct of the latter demands, in fact, a disengagement of
+heart and mind to which she can only attain by transforming herself, to
+the detriment of her duties and of her true influence. Ever to
+subordinate persons to things, never to overstep in her efforts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> the
+strict measure of the possible&mdash;those two conditions of the political
+life are repugnant to her ardent and devoted nature. Even amongst women
+in whom those gifts are met with in the highest degree, clearness of
+perception has been almost always obscured by the ardour of pursuit or
+that of patronage&mdash;by the irresistible desire of pushing to the
+extremity of success her own ideas, and especially those of her friends.</p>
+
+<p>Again, let us imagine political life to resemble a great game at cards,
+the rules of which have been settled beforehand, and the winnings
+devoted to the use of the greatest number; well, a woman ought never to
+take a hand in it. Her place should be at the player&#8217;s elbow, to warn
+and advise him, to point out an unperceived chance, to share in his
+success, more than all to console him, should luck run against him.
+Thus, whilst all her better qualities would be brought into play, all
+her weaker would not in any wise be at stake.</p>
+
+<p>We would put it, therefore, to the womanly conscience&mdash;Is it not a
+hundred times more honourable to exercise, so to speak, rights that are
+legitimately recognised, though wisely limited, than to suffer in
+consideration, and often in reputation, from an usurpation always
+certain of being disputed?</p>
+
+<p>It has been the author&#8217;s endeavour to show the truth of these
+conclusions by tracing the political career of certain well-born and
+singularly-gifted women&mdash;women whose lofty courage, strength of mind,
+keen introspection, political zeal, and genius for intrigue enabled them
+to baffle and make head against some of the greatest political male
+celebrities of modern history, without, however, winning us over to
+their opinions or their cause; women who, in some instances, after
+passing the best period of their lives in political strife,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> in
+fostering civil war, in hatching perilous plots, and who, having cast
+fortune and all the &#8220;gentle life&#8221; to the winds, preferred exile to
+submission, or to wage a struggle as fruitless as it was unceasing;
+until having arrived at the tardy conviction of its futility, and that
+they had devoted their existence to the pursuit of the illusory and the
+chimerical, they found at length repose and tranquillity only in
+solitude and repentance.</p>
+
+<p>In the stirring careers of certain among these remarkable personages, it
+will be seen that the mainspring of their political zeal was either the
+fierce excitement of an overmastering passion, an irresistible
+proclivity to gallantry, or an absorbing ambition, rather than any
+patriotic motive. This may go far to explain the singular sagacity,
+finesse, and energy displayed in their devotion to what otherwise
+appears alike mischievous and chimerical by those three high-born and
+splendidly-gifted women who figured so conspicuously in the civil war of
+the Fronde; and, though so much self-abnegation, courage, constancy, and
+heroism, well or ill displayed, may obtain some share of pardon for
+errors it would be wrong to palliate or condone, their example, it is to
+be hoped, will prove deterrent rather than contagious. La
+Rochefoucauld&mdash;a moralist, though by no means a moral man&mdash;who well knew
+the sex, had seen at work these political women of the time of the
+Fronde. That opportunity does not appear to have inspired him with an
+unbounded admiration for them from that point of view.</p>
+
+<p>Of the peril and mischief that fair trio inflicted upon Anne of
+Austria&#8217;s great Prime Minister and the State he governed we have an
+interesting personal record. When, in 1660, Mazarin&#8217;s policy, triumphant
+on every side, had added the treaty of the Pyrenees to that of
+Westphalia, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> honour of the conclusion of the protracted conference
+held at the <i>Isle of Pheasants</i> was reserved for the chief Ministers of
+the two Crowns&mdash;the Cardinal and Don Louis de Haro. The latter
+congratulated his brother premier on the well-earned repose he was about
+to enjoy, after such a long and arduous struggle. The Cardinal replied
+that he could not promise himself any repose in France, for there, he
+said, the <i>female</i> politicians were more to be dreaded than the <i>male</i>;
+and he complained bitterly of the torments he had undergone at the hands
+of certain political women of the Fronde&mdash;notably the Duchess de
+Longueville, the Duchess de Chevreuse, and the Princess Palatine, each
+of whom, he asserted, was capable of upsetting three kingdoms.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are very lucky here in Spain,&#8221; he added. &#8220;You have, as everywhere
+else, two kinds of women&mdash;coquettes in abundance, and a very few
+simple-minded domestic women. The former care only to please their
+lovers, the latter their husbands. Neither the one nor the other,
+however, have any ambition beyond indulging themselves in vanities and
+luxuries. They only employ their pens in scribbling billet-doux or
+love-confessions, neither one nor other bother their brains as to how
+the grain grows, whilst talking about business makes their heads ache.
+Our women, on the contrary, whether prudes or flirts, old or young,
+stupid or clever, will intermeddle with everything. No honest woman,&#8221; to
+use the Cardinal&#8217;s own words, &#8220;would permit her spouse to go to sleep,
+no coquette allow her lover any favour, ere she had heard all the
+political news of the day. They will see all that goes on, will know
+everything, and&mdash;what is worse&mdash;have a finger in everything, and set
+everything in confusion. We have a trio, among others&#8221;&mdash;and he again
+named the three fair factionists above mentioned&mdash;&#8220;who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> threw us all
+daily into more confusion than was ever known in Babel.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank heaven!&#8221; replied Don Louis, somewhat ungallantly, &#8220;our women
+<i>are</i> of the disposition seemingly so well known to you. Provided that
+they can finger the cash, whether of their husbands or their lovers,
+they are satisfied; and I am very glad to say that they do not meddle
+with politics, for if they did they would assuredly embroil everything
+in Spain as they do in France.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was during the minority of Louis XIV. that Mazarin had but too good
+cause to complain of the three clever and fascinating women he thus
+named to Don Louis de Haro, who through their political factions,
+intrigues, and gallantries gave Anne of Austria&#8217;s Minister no rest, and
+for a long period not only thwarted and opposed him, but at intervals
+placed the State, and even his life, in imminent jeopardy.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, in our political history the instances are rare of women
+who have quitted the sphere of domesticity and private life to take an
+active part in the affairs of State. We say &#8220;fortunately;&#8221; for in our
+opinion such abstention has tended to the happiness of both sexes in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>In French memoirs, politics and scandal, the jokes of the <i>salons</i> and
+the councils of the Cabinet are inextricably mixed up together, and
+reveal a political system in which the authority exercised under free
+institutions by men had been transferred to the art, the tact, and the
+accomplishments of the female sex. We therein see how much women have
+done by those subtle agencies. If France was a despotism tempered by
+epigrams, it was the life of the <i>salons</i> which brought those epigrams
+to perfection; and the <i>salons</i> thus constituted a sort of social
+parliament, which, though unable to stop the supplies or withhold the
+Mutiny Act, still pos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span>sessed a formidable weapon of offence in the power
+of making the Government ridiculous. Such was the difference existing
+between two quite distinct modes of government; between Parliamentary
+government and closet government; between the mace of the House of
+Commons and the fan of the Duchess de Longueville. England, as we need
+hardly say, has never had a government of this description. The nearest
+approach to it which she has ever seen was under the sway of Charles the
+Second, and, accordingly, the nearest approach to French memoirs which
+our literature possesses is in the volumes of Pepys and Hamilton. To the
+almost universal exemption of Englishwomen from taking an overt part in
+political affairs a striking exception must be made in Sarah, Duchess of
+Marlborough. She is the strongest example, perhaps, in the history of
+the world&mdash;certainly in the history of this empire&mdash;of the abuse of
+female favouritism, and the most flagrant instance of household
+familiarity on the destinies of mankind. Sarah Jennings, the political
+heroine of her age, and Viceroy, as she was called, in England, had,
+however, for contemporaries two other remarkable women, who touched the
+springs of political machinery quite as powerfully as&mdash;if not more
+powerfully than, save herself, any to be found within the limits of
+Europe&mdash;Madame de Maintenon and the Princess des Ursins. In the
+respective careers of that other formidable trio of female politicians
+may be traced the important, the overwhelming, influence, which female
+Ministers, under the title of Court ladies, had obtained over the
+destinies of England, France, and Spain. At that momentous period&mdash;the
+commencement of the eighteenth century&mdash;the memoirs of a <i>bed-chamber
+lady</i> constitute the history of Europe. The bed-chamber woman soon
+became the pivot of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> political world. The influence of Mrs. Masham
+first endangered and finally overthrew the power of the great Duke of
+Marlborough. Some of the characteristics of the reign of Charles the
+Second reappeared partially and in a very unattractive form under the
+two first Georges, and have served to impart a tinge of French colour to
+the memoirs which describe their Courts. But, fortunately for England,
+neither Walpole nor his royal master were men of refined taste. It would
+have been hard for a monarch like Charles the Second, or a minister like
+Lord Bolingbroke, to resist the charms of those beautiful and sprightly
+girls who sparkle like diamonds in all the memoirs of that time. Their
+political influence was but small. George the First and his successor
+pursued their unwieldy loves and enjoyed their boorish romps in a style
+not seductive to English gentlemen. Politics were surrendered to
+Walpole; and the consequence was that, although there was plenty of
+immorality under those gracious Sovereigns, yet the feminine element of
+Court life had no longer that connection with <i>public policy</i> which once
+for a brief space it had possessed; and the resemblance to French
+manners in this respect grew less and less, till it disappeared
+altogether with the accession of George the Third.</p>
+
+<p>During the reign of that domesticated paterfamilias a slight exception,
+it is true, occurred in the instance of Georgina Spencer, Duchess of
+Devonshire. Young, beautiful, amiable, and witty, and not altogether
+free from coquetry, she reckoned amongst her admirers some of the most
+distinguished men of that day. She fascinated them all without
+encouraging the pretensions of any; and notwithstanding the jealousy
+which so great a superiority necessarily excited among her own sex, and
+despite the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> rancour to which the inutility of their efforts to please
+her gave birth in the bosoms of certain of the men, she preserved a
+reputation for discretion beyond all suspicion. One circumstance of her
+life might indeed have cast a slur upon her fair fame if her
+irreproachable conduct, added to her natural graces, had not condoned a
+species of notoriety which opinion in England very generally reproves.
+The Duchess of Devonshire had friendly relations with the celebrated
+Charles James Fox, and that friendship had taken the tinge of party
+spirit. Fox presented himself as a candidate to represent Westminster in
+Parliament. He had two very formidable opponents, and it was thought
+that he would have succumbed in the struggle had not several amiable and
+energetic women made extraordinary efforts to procure him votes. At the
+head of these fair solicitors was the Duchess of Devonshire. A butcher
+whose vote she requested promised it to her on the condition that he
+might give her a kiss. To this she cheerfully consented, and that kiss
+added one more vote to her friend&#8217;s poll. Such familiarity was far less
+shocking to our English manners than the too active and public part
+taken by a lady of distinction in politics. Very few of her countrywomen
+before her time had given occasion for a like scandal.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The existence of those literary assemblies in France during the
+eighteenth century, the most important of which were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> those presided
+over by Madame du Deffand, Mdlle. de Lespinasse, and Madame Geoffrin,
+were a characteristic feature of the time. It is a notable fact that the
+abstention from politics in those assemblies indirectly tended to
+increase the power and importance of the women who frequented them.
+Alluding to their influence, Montesquieu caustically remarked that a
+nation where women give the prevailing tone must necessarily be
+talkative. Then, however, it was the men who talked and the women who
+listened. The men talked because they could do little else; women gave
+the prevailing tone because men of all classes were partly compelled,
+and partly willing, to gather around them. The nobles being excluded
+from politics&mdash;in which none but the Ministers and their creatures could
+interfere&mdash;exercising no control either as individuals or as a body,
+naturally gave themselves up to the pleasures of society. Their
+political insignificance thus increased the power and importance of
+women.</p>
+
+<p>To a far greater degree was their power and importance increased, on the
+contrary, during the first decade of the French Revolution, when, from
+the exceptional position they held, the <i>salons</i> of Madame Roland,
+Madame Necker, Madame de Suard, and others were essentially
+political&mdash;that of Madame Roland being almost an echo of the Legislative
+Assembly. But women who love freedom abstractedly for its own sake, and
+are ready to suffer and die for a political principle, like Madame
+Roland, are very rarely met with.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the close of the century the female leaders of the hitherto
+literary and social <i>salons</i> were so irresistibly swept into the
+whirlpool of public questions and events that they for the most part
+involuntarily became mere political partisans. Among others, but with a
+considerable modification on the score of the literary element, may be
+instanced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> Madame de Sta&euml;l, who by descent, education, and natural bias
+was inevitably destined to aim at political power. The extent and
+prominence of that exercised by her must have been considerable, though
+certainly overrated by Napoleon, in whom, however, it excited such
+unreasonable apprehension as led him to inflict ten years&#8217; banishment
+from France upon the talented daughter of Necker.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be inferred that we desire to reduce women to the condition
+of a humiliating inaction. Far from it. In the position we would place
+them they could never feel, think, or act with greater interest or
+vivacity. Whilst it is desirable that every kind of artifice or intrigue
+should be interdicted from the interior of their domesticity, it is
+quite permissible for them to watch attentively important matters that
+may be occurring in public life. To that function they may bring their
+care and their solicitude, in order to follow and second continually the
+companion of their existence. &#8220;Les hommes m&ecirc;me,&#8221; says F&eacute;nelon, &#8220;qui ont
+toute l&#8217;autorit&eacute; en public, ne peuvent par leurs d&eacute;lib&eacute;rations &eacute;tablir
+aucun bien effectif, si les femmes ne leur aident &agrave; l&#8217;ex&eacute;cuter.&#8221; Such
+was the legitimate influence exercised by the Princess Esterhazy, Ladies
+Holland, Palmerston, and Beaconsfield, in our day. It is no secret that
+the late lamented Viscountess Beaconsfield took the deepest interest in
+every great movement in which her illustrious husband was engaged. Such,
+too, was the case with Lady Palmerston, in reference to the great
+statesman whose name she bore. The influence of women in the politics of
+recent days is something peculiar and new. Our time has seen many women
+whose share in the politics of men was frank, unconcealed, and
+legitimate, while yet it never pretended or sought to be anything more
+than an influence&mdash;never attempted to be a ruling spirit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> By following
+these examples, the women of England may make their power felt, without
+demanding to be put upon the same footing as their husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Woman&#8217;s reign, it has been truly said, &#8220;is almost absolute within the
+four walls of a drawing-room.&#8221; It is undisputed in family direction and
+in the management of children; but the cases are rare indeed where it
+extends to <i>public questions</i> of any kind. The Frenchwoman of the
+present day is essentially a woman. Her objects are almost always
+feminine; she does not seek to go beyond her sphere; she understands her
+mission as one of duty in her house and of attraction towards the world;
+she is generally very ignorant of politics and all dry subjects, and
+shrinks from any active part in their discussion. Of course there are
+exceptions by the thousand; but the rule is that she voluntarily
+abstains from interference in outside topics, whatever be their gravity
+or their importance. She may have a vague opinion on such matters,
+picked up from hearing men talk around her, but the bent of her nature
+leads her in other ways&mdash;her tendency is towards things which satisfy
+her as a woman. It naturally follows that men do not give her what she
+does not seem to want. They consult her on matters of mutual interest,
+they ask for and often follow her advice in business; but in nine cases
+out of ten no husband would allow his wife to tell him how to vote at an
+election, or what form of government to support. This distinction is
+infinitely more remarkable in France than any analogous condition would
+be in England, because of the existence there of several rivals to the
+throne, and the consequent splitting up of the entire nation into
+adherents of each pretender. Yet even this exceptional position does not
+induce Frenchwomen to become politicians. Some few of them, of course,
+are so, and fling themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> with ardour into the cause they have
+adopted; but, fortunately for the tranquillity of their homes, the
+greater part of them have wisdom enough to comprehend that their real
+functions on the earth are of another kind.</p>
+
+<p>The majority of the champions of the enfranchisement of the sex have
+loudly protested against the hackneyed truisms, formerly so rife, which
+impute to women every imaginable form of silliness and frivolity; that
+they, like Alphonse Karr&#8217;s typical woman, have nothing to do but
+&#8220;<i>s&#8217;habiller, babiller et se d&eacute;shabiller</i>.&#8221; But it will be well to
+remember the existence of another class of maxims of even greater
+weight, which dwell on the subtle influence of women, and of its
+illimitable consequences. &#8220;If the nose of Cleopatra,&#8221; remarks the most
+famous of these aphorists&mdash;Pascal&mdash;&#8220;had been a hair&#8217;s-breadth longer,
+the fortunes of the world would have been altered.&#8221; Has the influence of
+the sex decreased since the days of the dusky beauty whose irresistible
+fascinations</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;&mdash;&mdash;lost a world, and bade a hero fly?&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Rather, is it not infinitely more subtle, wider, and more prevailing
+than ever? No one who recognises the skill with which that immense
+influence may be exercised can listen without astonishment to the flimsy
+arguments which are usually advanced in support of the question of the
+political enfranchisement of the sex. That the results of giving this
+particular form of ability&mdash;a power which is irresistible to the highest
+intellectual refinement&mdash;the political arena for its field have not only
+proved widely injurious to women who have so exercised it, but to those
+most closely connected with them, it has been the author&#8217;s object to
+show.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And what hope of permanent success,&#8221; it has been cogently asked, &#8220;could
+women have if they were to enter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span> into competition with men in callings
+considered peculiarly masculine, many of which are already overstocked?&#8221;
+We are also brought here again face to face with that evil&mdash;the
+lessening or the complete loss of womanly grace and purity. Take away
+that reverential regard which men now feel for them, leave them to win
+their way by sheer strength of body or mind, and the result is not
+difficult to conjecture. Let the condition of women in savage life tell.
+Towards something like this, although in civilised society not so
+coarsely and roughly exposed to view, matters would tend if these
+agitators for women&#8217;s rights were successful. Husbands, brothers, sons,
+have too keen a sense of what they owe of good to their female relatives
+to risk its loss; or to exchange the gentleness, purity, and refinement
+of their homes for boldness, flippancy, hardness and knowledge of evil.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, herself, then, has disqualified women from fighting and from
+entering into the fierce contentions of the prickly and crooked ways of
+politics. There is a silent and beautiful education which Heaven
+intended that all alike should learn from mothers, sisters, and wives.
+Each home was meant to have in their gentler presence a softening and
+refining element, so that strength should train itself to be submissive,
+rudeness should become abashed, and coarse passions held in check by the
+natural influence of women. High or low, educated or uneducated, there
+is the proper work of the weaker sex. And, finally, we venture to
+address her in the words of Lord Lyttelton:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;Seek to be good, but aim not to be great;<br />
+A woman&#8217;s noblest station is retreat;<br />
+Her fairest virtues fly from public sight;<br />
+Domestic worth&mdash;that shuns too strong a light.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> An anecdote of her has been preserved which proves how very
+general was the impression the grace and beauty of the Duchess of
+Devonshire made upon men in every station of society. On one occasion of
+her being present on the racecourse at Newmarket, a burly farmer who
+stood near her carriage, after having for some time gazed at her in a
+species of ecstasy, exclaimed aloud, &#8220;Ah! why am I not God
+Almighty?&mdash;she should then be Queen of Heaven!&#8221; The Duchess preserved
+her personal charms far beyond the period of life when they commonly
+disappear among women, though she lost one of her eyes a few years
+before her death in 1806.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="BOOK_I" id="BOOK_I"></a>BOOK I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title"><big>PART I.</big></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span><br /></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><big>POLITICAL WOMEN.</big></h1>
+
+
+
+<hr class='double' />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">ANNE DE BOURBON,<br />
+SISTER OF THE GREAT COND&Eacute;, AFTERWARDS DUCHESS DE
+LONGUEVILLE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> brilliant heroine of the Fronde, of whose grace, beauty, and
+influence Anne of Austria was so jealous&mdash;not to speak of the mortal
+rivalry of the gay Duchesses de Montbazon and de Ch&acirc;tillon&mdash;although the
+youngest of that famous trio whom Mazarin found so formidable in the
+arena of politics, obviously claims alike from her exalted rank and the
+memorable part she played in the tragi-comedy of the Fronde, priority of
+notice among the bevy of the Cardinal&#8217;s fair political opponents.</p>
+
+<p>Some time in the month of August, 1619, Anne Genevi&egrave;ve de Bourbon-Cond&eacute;
+first saw the light in the donjon of Vincennes, where her parents had
+been kept State prisoners for three years previously. She was the eldest
+of the three children of Henry (II.) de Bourbon-Cond&eacute;, first prince of
+the blood, and of that Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, &#8220;the beauty,
+perfect grace and majesty of her time.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The lovely Montmorency on
+coming to Court in her fifteenth year had sorely troubled the heart of
+the amorous soldier-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>king, Henry of Navarre, who had married her in 1609
+to his nephew of Cond&eacute; with the covert hope of finding him an
+accommodating husband; but the latter, alike defiant and uxorious, made
+the jovial Bearnois plainly understand that he had wedded the blooming
+Charlotte exclusively for himself. The <i>gaillard</i> monarch, however, at
+length grew so deeply enamoured that the prince, perceiving there was
+too much cause to fear the result of the constant assiduities of his
+royal uncle, fled precipitately with his young wife from France, only to
+return thither after tidings reached him of the great Henry&#8217;s
+assassination. To the fair Montmorency&#8217;s very decided proclivity to
+gallantry was to be attributed&mdash;if we may believe the scandal-loving
+Tallemant des Reaux&mdash;her long confinement, by the Regent Marie de&#8217;
+Medici&#8217;s consent, within the gloomy fortress of Vincennes, rather than
+any reason of State for her sharing her husband&#8217;s imprisonment. In fact,
+it was believed that the jealous prince procured her incarceration
+simply to keep her out of harm&#8217;s way.</p>
+
+<p>Deriving from her mother the threefold gifts of grace, beauty, and
+majesty, the fair Bourbon inherited also, it must be owned, a share of
+that princess&#8217;s inclination to <i>l&#8217;honn&ecirc;te galanterie</i>. The restriction
+to a <i>share</i> should be noted; for at no period of her heydey, not even
+during the licence of the Fronde, could Anne Genevi&egrave;ve be accused of
+having&mdash;as Madame de Motteville tells us the Princess de Cond&eacute;
+had,&mdash;adorers &#8220;in every rank and condition of life, from popes, kings,
+princes, cardinals, dukes, and marshals of France, down to simple
+gentlemen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The mind and heart, however, of Anne de Bourbon, although predestined,
+alas! eventually to culpable passion, seemed at first but little
+inclined to the gay world&mdash;with all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> its blandishments and seductions,
+or even to its innocent pleasures. When quite a child she was in the
+habit of accompanying her mother in her visits to the convent of the
+Carmelites at Paris. For though still possessing great personal
+attractions, Madame de Cond&eacute; had become serious and of a somewhat
+demonstrative piety. Those visits, which were frequent, strengthened
+Anne&#8217;s gentle and susceptible mind in its tendency to devotion. The
+impression, too, which somewhat later the tragic fate of her uncle, the
+unfortunate Duke de Montmorency,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> left on her memory, inspired her
+with the resolution to quit the outer world at the earliest possible
+moment, and, renouncing all its pomps and grandeurs, hide beneath the
+veil her budding attractions. Although her mother opposed an inflexible
+resistance to her embracing that holy vocation, and strove to combat by
+forcible arguments the cold and disdainful demeanour exhibited by her
+daughter when mixing in gay society, the fair girl persevered from the
+age of thirteen to seventeen in her longing to embrace the life of the
+cloister. Futile for a time were the parental arguments, unfruitful
+every effort! Anne Genevi&egrave;ve would not consort with worldlings,
+persisted in her distaste for mundane pleasures, and continued to
+cherish persistently her desire for conventual seclusion. At length the
+princess, in 1636, having resolved upon the adoption of more energetic
+measures, suddenly ordered her daughter to make preparations for
+appearing at a Court ball, and that, too, in three days. With what
+despair did the young princess hear the cruel sentence! What affliction,
+too, befell the Carmelite nuns when they heard of the fatal mandate.
+What a flood of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> sighs and tears and prayers! The good sisters gathered
+themselves together to take counsel one with another, and decided that,
+since Mdlle. de Bourbon could not avoid the wretched fate that awaited
+her, before going through the trying ordeal she should indue her lovely
+form with an undergarment of hair-cloth (commonly called a <i>cilice</i>),
+and, protected by such armour of proof, she might then fearlessly submit
+herself to all the temptations lurking beneath the ensnaring vanities of
+her Court attire. The <i>cilice</i>, however, did not, it seems, prove
+invulnerable as the &aelig;gis of Minerva, for the subtle shafts winged by
+homage and admiration pierced through that slight breast-plate to a
+heart which in truth was by nature framed to inspire and welcome both.
+The Princess de Cond&eacute; rejoiced greatly at her daughter&#8217;s conversion to
+more reasonable views of mundane existence. The commencement of her
+noviciate was no longer thought of, and her visits to the Carmelites
+became sufficiently rare. But it was only a deferment of that calm
+vocation, it being Anne de Bourbon&#8217;s destiny to embrace it at the close
+of her feverish political career.</p>
+
+<p>This era of her entrance into the great world was probably the happiest,
+the most joyous of the fair Bourbon&#8217;s life. Lofty distinction of birth,
+great personal beauty, and rare mental fascination, contributed to place
+her in the very foremost rank of the Court circle&mdash;in the &#8220;height of
+company&#8221;&mdash;conspicuous amongst lovely dames and distinguished men of the
+time. Her peerless loveliness at once meeting with universal
+recognition, &#8220;la belle Cond&eacute;&#8221; was toasted with acclamation by courtiers,
+young and old&mdash;at Chantilly, at Liancourt, at the Louvre, and at the
+H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet. Contemporaries of either sex have rendered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+unanimous testimony to the varied and exceptional character of her
+attractions, and we will let a woman&#8217;s pen add to Petitot&#8217;s pencilling
+some of those delicate traits which neither the burin nor even the vivid
+tints of the enamel have the power to convey.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Her beauty,&#8221; says Mdme. de Motteville, &#8220;consisted more in the
+brilliance of her complexion&#8221;&mdash;(&#8220;it had the blush of the pearl,&#8221; writes
+another contemporary)&mdash;&#8220;than in perfection of feature. Her eyes were not
+large, but bright, and finely cut, and of a blue so lovely it resembled
+that of the turquoise. The poets could only apply the trite comparison
+of lilies and roses to the carnation which mantled on her cheek, whilst
+her fair, silken, luxuriant tresses, and the peculiar limpidity of her
+glance, added to many other charms, made her more like an angel&mdash;so far
+as our imperfect nature allows of our imagining such a being&mdash;than a
+mere woman.&#8221; Somewhat later, the smallpox, in robbing her of the bloom
+of her beauty, still left her all its brilliancy, to repeat the remark
+of that eminent connoisseur of female loveliness, Cardinal de Retz.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the general opinion of her contemporaries: Mdlle. de Bourbon
+rather charmed by the very peculiar style of her countenance than by its
+linear regularity. One of her greatest fascinations lay in an
+indescribable languor, both of mind and manner&mdash;&#8220;a languor interrupted
+at intervals,&#8221; says De Retz, &#8220;by a sort of luminous awakenings, as
+surprising as they were delightful. This physical and intellectual
+indolence presented later in life a piquant contrast to her
+then&#8221;&mdash;according to Mdme. de Motteville&mdash;&#8220;somewhat too passionate
+temperament.&#8221; She was of good height, and altogether of an admirable
+form. It is evident also, from the authentic portraits of her still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+extant, that she had that kind of attraction so much prized during the
+seventeenth century, and which, with beautiful hands, had made the
+reputation of Anne of Austria. In speech, we are told, she was very
+gentle. Her gestures, with the expression of her countenance, and the
+sound of her voice, produced the most perfect music. But her peculiar
+charm consisted in a graceful ease&mdash;a languor, as all her contemporaries
+expressed it&mdash;which would quickly change to the highest degree of
+animation when stirred by emotion, but which usually gave her an air of
+indolence and aristocratic <i>nonchalance</i>, sometimes mistaken for
+<i>ennui</i>, sometimes for disdain.</p>
+
+<p>Crediting the unvarying testimony of these and other of her
+contemporaries, the daughter of Bourbon-Cond&eacute; must have been at least as
+beautiful as her mother&mdash;endowed, indeed, with almost every attribute
+and feature of female loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Beauty,&#8221; remarks a philosophic panegyrist of physical perfection,
+&#8220;extends its prestige to posterity itself, and attaches a charm for
+centuries to the name alone of the privileged creatures upon whom it has
+pleased heaven to bestow it.&#8221; Beauty has also its epochs. It does not
+belong to all men and to all ages to enjoy it in its exquisite
+perfection. As there are fashions which spoil it, so there are periods
+which affect its sentiment. For instance, it belonged to the eighteenth
+century to invent <i>pretty</i> women&mdash;charming dolls&mdash;all powder, patches,
+and perfume, affecting the attractions which they did not possess under
+their vast hoops and great furbelows. Let us venture to say that the
+foundation of true beauty, as of true virtue, as of true genius, is
+strength. Shed over this strength the vivifying rays of elegance, grace,
+delicacy, and you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> beauty. Its perfect type is the Venus of
+Milo,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> or again, that pure and mysterious apparition, goddess or
+mortal, which is called Psyche, or the Venus of Naples.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Beauty is
+certainly to be seen in the Venus de&#8217; Medici, but in that type we feel
+that it is declining, or about to decline. Look at, not the women of
+Titian, but the virgins of Raphael and Leonardo: the face is of infinite
+delicacy, but the body evinces strength. These forms ought to disgust
+one for ever with the shadows and monkeys <i>&agrave; la Pompadour</i>. Let us adore
+grace, but not separate it in everything too much from strength, for
+without strength grace soon shares the fate of the flower that is
+separated from the stem which vitalizes and sustains it.</p>
+
+<p>What a train of accomplished women this seventeenth century presents to
+us! They were not all politicians. Women who were loaded with
+admiration, drawing after them all hearts, and spreading from rank to
+rank that worship of beauty which throughout Europe received the name of
+French gallantry. In France they accompany this great century in its too
+rapid course; they mark its principal epochs, beginning with Charlotte
+de Montmorency and ending with Mdme. de Montespan. The Duchess de
+Longueville has perhaps the most prominent place in that dazzling
+gallery of lovely women, having all the characteristics of true beauty,
+and joining to it a charm exclusively her own.</p>
+
+<p>In early girlhood she had been taken, along with her elder brother, the
+Duke d&#8217;Enghien, to the Hotel de Rambouillet; and the <i>salons</i> of the Rue
+St. Thomas du Louvre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> were probably the most fitting school for such a
+mind as hers, in which grandeur and finesse were almost equally
+blended&mdash;a grandeur allied to the romantic, and associated with a
+finesse frequently merging into subtilty, as indeed may be discerned in
+Corneille himself, the most perfect mental representative of that
+period.</p>
+
+<p>To follow step by step the course of Anne de Bourbon&#8217;s life at this
+period of it through all its earliest rivalries, would involve the task
+of recording the manifold caprices of a tender, yet ambitious nature, in
+which the mind and heart were unceasingly dupes of each other. It would
+be like an attempt to follow the devious path of the light foam and
+laughing sparkle of the billow&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+&#8220;In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Our purpose lies mainly with her political life, but ere entering upon
+it we will give a short but comprehensive view of her character in the
+words of one who, more than anybody else, had the means of judging her
+correctly&mdash;La Rochefoucauld. &#8220;This Princess,&#8221; writes the Duke,
+&#8220;possessed all the charms of mind, united to personal beauty, to so high
+a degree, that it seemed as though nature had taken pleasure in forming
+in her person a perfectly finished work. But those fine qualities were
+rendered less brilliant through a blemish rarely seen in one so highly
+endowed, which was that, far from giving the law to those who had a
+particular admiration for her, she transfused herself so thoroughly into
+their sentiments that she no longer recognised her own.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Now La Rochefoucauld should have been the last person to complain of
+that defect, since he was the first to foster it in the Duchess. In her
+bosom love awoke ambition, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> the awakening was so sudden, in fact,
+that any difference in the two passions was never perceptible.</p>
+
+<p>Singular contradiction! The more we contemplate the political bias of
+Madame de Longueville the more it becomes mingled with her amorous
+caprice; but when we analyse her love more narrowly (and later on in
+life she herself made the avowal), it appears nothing else than ambition
+travestied&mdash;a desire to shine only the more magnificently brilliant.</p>
+
+<p>Her character, then, was entirely wanting in consistency, in self-will;
+and her mind, be it observed, however brilliant and acute, had nothing
+that was calculated to counterbalance that defect of character. One may
+possess the faculty of right perception without strength of mind to do
+that which is right. One may be rational in mind and the contrary in
+conduct&mdash;character being at fault between the two. But here the case was
+different. Madame de Longueville&#8217;s mind was not, above all else,
+rational; it was acute, prompt, subtle, witty by turns, and readily
+responsive to the varying humour of the moment. It shone voluntarily in
+contradiction and subterfuge, ere exhausting itself finally in scruples.
+There was much of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet in such a mind as hers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The mind in the majority of women serves rather to confirm their folly
+than their reason.&#8221; So says the author of the &#8220;Maxims;&#8221; and Madame de
+Longueville, with all her metamorphoses, was undoubtedly present before
+him when he penned the sentence. For she, the most feminine of her sex,
+would offer to him the completest epitome of all the rest. In short,
+evidently as he has made his observations upon her, she also seems to
+have drawn her conclusions from him. So the agreement is perfect.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Lenet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Brought to the scaffold by Richelieu in 1632.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Quatrem&egrave;re de Quincy, Dissertation upon the Antique Statue
+of Venus Discovered in the Island of Milo. 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Millingen: Ancient Inedited Monuments. Fol. 1826.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A young</span> Princess of the Blood so lovely, fascinating, and witty as Anne
+de Bourbon, was surely destined, it might be thought, to contract an
+early and altogether suitable matrimonial alliance. It was therefore
+somewhat surprising to find how much difficulty there was in mating her.
+Foremost among those who sought her hand was that hair-brained,
+handsome, coarse-mannered Duke de Beaufort, younger son of C&aelig;sar de
+Vend&ocirc;me, himself the bastard of the jovial Bearnois by the <i>Fair
+Gabrielle</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Beaufort inherited his unfortunate grand-dame&#8217;s
+beauty&mdash;had a Ph&#339;bus-Apollo style of head, set off with a profusion
+of long, curly, golden locks; was a young, brave, and flourishing
+gallant, and somewhat later (during the Fronde), from his blunt speech
+and familiar manners with the Parisian mob, became the idol of the
+market-women, and was therefore dubbed <i>Roi des Halles</i>. But this
+scapegrace suitor withdrew his pretensions in order to gratify, it is
+said, the handsome though decried Duchess de Montbazon, who had
+enthralled him in her flowery chains as a led-captain. On entering her
+nineteenth year Mdlle. de Bourbon was promised in marriage to the Prince
+de Joinville, son of Charles of Lorraine (Duke de Guise), but that young
+nobleman having died prematurely in Italy, no other serious matrimonial
+project seems to have been entertained until the Princess had reached
+her twenty-third year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> The fortunate suitor was one of Beaufort&#8217;s
+rivals&mdash;or, rather, colleagues&mdash;for that would be the more correct term
+when designating their mutual relations to the unscrupulous Duchess de
+Montbazon. The widower, Henry of Orleans (Duke de Longueville), by
+birth, dignity, and wealth was looked upon as the first match in France.
+Unfortunately, in his case, those dazzling attributes were materially
+abated through disparity of age, for he had reached the ripe maturity of
+forty-seven, whilst the bride of his choice had not yet seen half that
+cycle of summers. To be twenty-four years her senior was, for the
+husband of a youthful princess so excelling in wit and beauty, certainly
+a formidable inequality, and so Mdlle. de Bourbon seems to have thought.
+At the command, however, of her father, who intimated that his
+determination was inflexible in thus disposing of his daughter&#8217;s hand,
+Anne Genevi&egrave;ve meekly complied, and was espoused in June, 1642, to Henri
+de Bourbon, Duke de Longueville.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The young Duchess found herself speedily surrounded by a swarm of
+courtiers, attracted by her sprightly and refined intelligence, her
+majestic beauty, her nonchalant and languishing grace. What more
+adorable mistress could an audacious aspirant dream of? Bold adventurers
+for such a lady&#8217;s love there was no lack of; and would not many be
+encouraged with the thought that such a prize could only be defended by
+a husband already verging towards the decline of life, and whose heart,
+moreover, was believed to be in the keeping of another? The sighs of the
+suitors, however, all adventurous and calculating as they might be, were
+wasted, their hopes altogether fallacious. For six long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> years there was
+nothing more accorded to that crowd of often-renewed adorers save the
+smiles of an innocent coquetry. He who, during that period of honest
+gallantry, coming near to La Rochefoucauld, seems to have made the
+liveliest impression, was Coligny; and it was only slanderers who
+whispered that the young Count was happier than became the adorer of a
+heroine of the De Rambouillet school.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Longueville, nevertheless, possessed the characteristics of
+her sex; she had alike its lovable qualities and its well-known
+imperfections. In a sphere where gallantry was the order of the day,
+that young and fascinating creature, married to a man already in the
+decline of life, and, moreover, with his affections engaged elsewhere,
+merely followed the universal example. Tender by nature, the senses, she
+herself says in her confessions&mdash;the humblest ever made&mdash;played no minor
+part in the affairs of the heart. But, surrounded unceasingly by homage,
+she found pleasure in receiving it. Very lovable, she centred her
+happiness in being loved. Sister of the Great Cond&eacute;, she was not
+insensible to the idea of playing a part which should occupy public
+attention; but, far from pretending to domination, there was so much of
+the woman in her that she allowed herself to be led by him whom she
+loved. Whilst, around her, interest and ambition assumed so frequently
+the hues of love, she listened to the dictates of her heart alone, and
+devoted herself to the interest and ambition of another. All
+contemporary writers are unanimous on that point. Her enemies sharply
+reproach her alike for not having a fitting object in her political
+intrigues, and for being unmindful of her own interests. But they appear
+not to be aware that, in thinking to overwhelm her memory by such
+accusation, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> rather elevate it, and they are assiduous to cover her
+faults and misconduct&mdash;faults which, after all, are centred in one
+alone. In short, some writers cast the greater part of the blame the
+young Duchess&#8217;s conduct merits upon her husband, who, according to them,
+knew not how to make amends for his own disadvantage, on the score of
+disparity of age, by an anxious and indulgent tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>Before their marriage was solemnised it was stipulated that the Duke de
+Longueville should break off his <i>liaison</i> with the Duchess de
+Montbazon&mdash;then notorious as one of the most unrestrained among the
+women of fashion at the Court of the Regent. This, however, the Duke
+unhappily failed to do.</p>
+
+<p>In declaring its adhesion to Mazarin at the commencement of the Regency,
+the House of Cond&eacute; had drawn upon itself the hatred of the party of the
+<i>Importants</i>, though that enmity scarcely rebounded upon Madame de
+Longueville. Her amiableness in everything where her heart was not
+seriously concerned, her perfect indifference to politics at this period
+of her life, together with the graces of her mind and person, rendered
+her universally popular, and shielded her against the injustice of
+partisan malice. But outside the pale of politics she had an enemy, and
+a formidable one, in the Duchess de Montbazon. That bold and dangerous
+woman having by her fascinations enslaved Beaufort, the quondam admirer
+of Madame de Longueville, the young Duke through her intrigues became a
+favourite chief of the <i>Importants</i>. Amongst the earliest to swell the
+ranks of that faction were two other personages who had played a very
+conspicuous part during the reign of Louis XIII. The first of these,
+Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s step-daughter, was the witty, beautiful, and
+errant Duchess de Chevreuse, whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> Louis had judged so dangerous that he
+had expressly forbidden by his will, when on the point of death, that
+she should ever be recalled from exile to Court. By the same prohibition
+was affected the former Keeper of the Seals, the Marquis de Ch&acirc;teauneuf,
+who had displayed considerable talent under Richelieu, but had
+ultimately made himself obnoxious to that great Minister, after having
+given many a sanguinary proof of his devotion to him. A glance at the
+antecedents of that remarkable woman, Madame de Chevreuse, the early
+favourite of Anne of Austria, will now be necessary in order to
+understand clearly her relative position to the Queen and Mazarin at the
+commencement of the Regency, as well as to those incipient <i>Frondeurs</i>,
+the <i>Importants</i>, at the moment of her dragging the Prince de Marsillac
+(afterwards Duke de <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Rochefoucald'">Rochefoucauld</ins>) into that party.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Created Duchess de Beaufort by Henry IV.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The Duke was descended from the &#8220;brave Dunois,&#8221; bastard of
+Orleans.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">From</span> the long-sustained, vigorous, and very eminent part played by Marie
+de Rohan in opposing the repressive system of the two great Cardinal
+Ministers, her name belongs equally to the political history as to that
+of the society and manners of the first half of the sixteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>She came of that old and illustrious race the issue of the first princes
+of Brittany, and was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Duke de
+Montbazon, a zealous servant of Henry IV., by his first wife Madeleine
+de Lenoncourt, sister of Urbain de Laval, Marshal de Bois-Dauphin. Born
+in December, 1600, she lost her mother at a very early age, and in 1617
+was married to that audacious favourite of Louis XIII., De Luynes, who
+from the humble office of &#8220;bird-catcher&#8221; to the young King, rose to the
+proud dignity of Constable of France, and who, upon the faith of a
+king&#8217;s capricious friendship, dared to undertake the reversal of the
+Queen-mother, Marie de&#8217; Medici&#8217;s authority; hurl to destruction her
+great favourite, the Marshal d&#8217;Ancre; combat simultaneously princes and
+Protestants, and commence against Richelieu the system of Richelieu.
+Early becoming a widow, Marie next, in 1622, entered the house of
+Lorraine by espousing Claude, Duke de Chevreuse, one of the sons of
+Henry de Guise, great Chamberlain of France, whose highest merit was the
+name he bore, accompanied by good looks and that bravery which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> was
+never wanting to a prince of Lorraine; otherwise disorderly in the
+conduct of his affairs, of not very edifying manner of life, which may
+go far to explain and extenuate the errors of his young wife. The new
+Duchess de Chevreuse had been appointed during the sway of her first
+husband, <i>surintendante</i> (controller) of the Queen&#8217;s household, and soon
+became as great a favourite of Anne of Austria as the Constable de
+Luynes was of Louis <i>the Just</i>. The French Court was then very
+brilliant, and gallantry the order of the day. Marie de Rohan was
+naturally vivacious and dashing, and, yielding herself up to the
+seductions of youth and pleasure, she had lovers, and her adorers drew
+her into politics. Her beauty and captivating manners were such as to
+fascinate and enthral the least impressible who crossed her path, and
+their dangerous power was extensively employed in influencing the
+politics of Europe, and consequently had a large share in framing her
+own destiny. A portrait in the possession of the late Duke de Luynes<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+represents her as having an admirable figure, a charming expression of
+countenance, large and well-opened blue eyes, chesnut-tinted fair hair
+in great abundance, a well-formed neck, with the loveliest bust
+possible, and throughout her entire person a piquant blending of
+delicacy, grace, vivacity, and passion. The following summary of her
+character by the clever, caustic, but little scrupulous De Retz, graphic
+as it is, and based on a certain amount of truth, must not be
+unhesitatingly accepted, it being over-coloured by wilful
+exaggeration:&mdash;&#8220;I have never seen anyone else,&#8221; says he, &#8220;in whom
+vivacity so far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> usurped the place of judgment. It very often inspired
+her with such brilliant sallies that they flashed like lightning, and so
+sensible withal, that they might not have been disowned by the greatest
+men of any age. The manifestation of this faculty was not confined to
+particular occasions. Had she lived in times when politics were
+non-existent, she would not have rested content with the idea only that
+they ought to have been rife. If the Prior of the Carthusians had
+pleased her, she would have become a sincere recluse. M. de Luynes
+initiated her into politics, the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of
+Holland corresponded with her upon them, and Ch&acirc;teauneuf amused her with
+them. She gave herself up to their pursuit because she abandoned
+herself, without reserve, to everything which pleased the individual
+whom she loved, and simply because it was indispensable that she should
+love somebody. It was not even difficult to give her a lover by setting
+an eligible suitor to pay her court with an ostensible political motive;
+but as soon as she accepted him, she loved him solely and faithfully,
+and she owned to Mdme. de Rhodes and myself that, through caprice, she
+said, she had never really loved those whom she esteemed the most, with
+the exception of the unfortunate George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
+Devotion to the passion which in her might be called eternal, although
+she might change the object of it, did not prevent even a fly from
+causing her mental abstraction; but she always recovered from it with a
+renewed exuberance which made such phases rather agreeable than
+otherwise. No one ever took less heed about danger, and never woman had
+more contempt for scruples and duties: she never recognised other than
+that of pleasing her lover.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This epigrammatic sketch is almost worthy of the exag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>gerated author of
+the <i>Historiettes</i>,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and the reader is advised to accept only its more
+salient and truthful traits&mdash;the keen and accurate glance of Mdme. de
+Chevreuse in scanning the prevailing aspect of the political horizon,
+her dauntless courage, the fidelity and devotion of her love. Retz,
+moreover, mistakes entirely the order of her adventures; he forgets and
+then invents. In striving after epigrammatic point, he sacrifices truth
+to smartness of style, and writes as though he looked upon events in
+which the passions of the Duchess made her take part as mere trifles,
+whereas among them there were some than which none were ever of graver
+or even more tragic moment.</p>
+
+<p>Mdme. de Chevreuse, in fact, possessed almost all the qualities
+befitting a great politician. One alone was wanting, and precisely that
+without which all the others tended to her ruin. She failed to select
+for pursuit a legitimate object, or rather she did not choose one for
+herself, but left it to another to choose for her. Mdme. de Chevreuse
+was womanly in the highest possible degree; that quality was alike her
+strength and her weakness. Her secret mainspring was love, or rather
+gallantry,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and the interest of him whom she loved became her
+paramount object. It is this which explains the wonderful sagacity,
+finesse, and energy she displayed in the vain pursuit of a chimerical
+aim, which ever receded before her, and seemed to draw her on by the
+very prestige of difficulty and danger. La Rochefoucauld accuses her of
+having brought misfortune upon all those whom she loved;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> it is
+equally the truth to add that all those whom she loved hurried her in
+the sequel into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> insensate enterprises. It was not she evidently who
+made of Buckingham a species of paladin without genius; a brilliant
+adventurer of Charles IV. of Lorraine; of Chalais a hair-brained
+blunderer, rash enough to commit himself in a conspiracy against
+Richelieu, on the faith of the faithless Duke d&#8217;Orleans; of Ch&acirc;teauneuf,
+an ambitious statesman, impatient of holding second rank in the
+Government, without being capable of taking the first. Let no one
+imagine that he is acquainted with Mdme. de Chevreuse from having merely
+studied the foregoing portrait traced by De Retz, for that sketch is an
+exaggeration and over-charged like all those from the same pen, and was
+destined to amuse the malignant curiosity of Mdme. de Caumartin&mdash;for
+without being altogether false, it is of a severity pushed to the verge
+of injustice. Was it becoming, one might ask, of the restless and
+licentious Coadjutor to constitute himself the remorseless censor of a
+woman whose errors he shared? Did he not deceive himself as much and for
+a far longer period than she? Did he show more address in political
+strategy or courage in the dangerous strife, more intrepidity and
+constancy in defeat? But Mdme. de Chevreuse has not written memoirs in
+that free-and-easy and piquant style the constant aim of which is
+self-elevation, obtained at the expense of everybody else. There are two
+judges of her character the testimony of whose acts must be held to be
+above suspicion&mdash;Richelieu and Mazarin. Richelieu did all in his power
+to win her over, and not being able to succeed, he treated her as an
+enemy worthy of himself.</p>
+
+<p>To revert briefly to her long-continued struggle with Richelieu, it must
+not be forgotten that for twenty years she had been the personal friend
+and favourite of Anne of Austria, and for ten years she had suffered
+persecution and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> privation on that account. Exiled, proscribed, and
+threatened with imprisonment, she had narrowly escaped Richelieu&#8217;s grasp
+by disguising herself in male attire, and in that garb traversing France
+and Spain on horseback, had succeeded in eluding his pursuit, and after
+many adventures in safely reaching Madrid. Philip IV. not only heaped
+every kind of honour upon his sister&#8217;s courageous favourite, but even,
+it is said, swelled the number of her conquests. Whilst in the Spanish
+capital she had allied herself politically with the Minister Olivarez,
+and obtained great ascendancy over the Cabinet of Madrid. The war
+between France and Spain necessarily rendering her position in the
+latter country delicate and embarrassing, she had, early in 1638, sought
+refuge in England. Charles I. and Henrietta Maria gave her the warmest
+possible reception at St. James&#8217;s; and the latter, on seeing again the
+distinguished countrywoman who had some years back conducted her as a
+bride from Paris to the English shores to the arms of Prince Charles,
+embraced her warmly, entered into all her troubles, and both the English
+King and Queen wrote letters pleading in her behalf, to Louis XIII.,
+Anne of Austria, and Richelieu with regard to the restoration of her
+property and permission to rejoin her children at Dampierre. She herself
+resumed the links of a negotiation with the Cardinal which had never
+been entirely broken off, and the success of which seemed quite
+practicable, since it was almost equally desired by both. That
+negotiation was being carried on for more than a year, and when link
+after link had been frequently snapped and re-soldered, only to be once
+more broken, Richelieu at length gave his solemn word that she might
+return with perfect safety to Dampierre.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of her departure from the English Court,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> a vessel being in
+readiness to convey her to Dieppe, where a carriage awaited her landing,
+the Duchess received an anonymous letter warning her that certain ruin
+awaited her if she set foot on the soil of France, followed by another,
+still more explicit with regard to Richelieu&#8217;s designs to effect her
+destruction, from no less a person than Charles of Lorraine. This second
+warning from so reliable a source, followed shortly afterwards by other
+advice&mdash;held by her in the light of a command&mdash;enchained her to a
+foreign land. She for whom during ten long years the Duchess had
+suffered all things, braved all things, her august friend Anne of
+Austria cautioned her not to trust to appearances. Thus vanished the
+last hope of a sincere reconciliation between two persons who knew each
+other too well to discard distrust and to confide in words, of which
+neither were sparing, without requiring solemn guarantees that they
+could not or would not give.</p>
+
+<p>Choosing stoically, therefore, to still undergo the pangs of absence, to
+consume the noontide of the days of her attractive womanhood in
+privation and turmoil rather than risk her liberty, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+on her part did not remain idle. From the moment she felt convinced that
+Richelieu was deceiving her, attracting her back to France only to hold
+her in a state of dependence, and if need were, to incarcerate
+her&mdash;having broken with him, she considered herself as free from all
+scruple, and thought of nothing further than paying him back blow for
+blow. Her old duel with the Cardinal thus once more renewed, she formed
+in London, with the aid of the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me, La Vieuville, and La
+Valette, a faction of active and adroit emigrants, who, leaning on the
+Earl of Holland, then one of the chiefs of the Royalist party and a
+general in the army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> of Charles of England; upon Lord Montagu, an ardent
+Papist and intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria; upon Digby and
+other men of influence at Court, maintained likewise the closest
+intelligence with the Court of Rome through its envoy in England,
+Rosetti, and especially with the Cabinet of Madrid; encouraging and
+kindling the hopes of all the proscribed and discontented, strewing
+obstacles at all points in the path of Richelieu, and accumulating
+formidable perils around his head.</p>
+
+<p>On the breaking out of the Civil War in England, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+repaired to Brussels, where in 1641 we find her acting as the connecting
+link between England, Spain, and Lorraine. Without attributing to the
+Duchess any especial motive beyond seconding an enterprise directed
+against the common enemy, she did not the less play an important part in
+the affair of the Count de Soissons&mdash;the most formidable conspiracy that
+had hitherto been hatched against Richelieu. Anne of Austria was
+certainly privy to the plot and lent it her aid. She might have been
+ignorant of the secret treaty with Spain; but for all the rest, and so
+far as it menaced the Cardinal, she had a perfect understanding with the
+conspirators. That high-handed Minister, by overstraining the springs of
+government, by prolonging the war, by increasing the public expenditure,
+and by oppressing all classes whilst he crushed some in particular, had
+excited a hatred so bitter and widespread that at length he governed the
+State almost entirely through terror. Whilst the grandeur of his designs
+commanded respect and veneration from a select few, his genius towered
+above the bulk of his countrymen. But that harsh rule, continuing
+unrelaxed, and so many sacrifices being perpetually renewed, at length
+wearied out the greater number, the King himself not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> excepted. Louis&#8217;s
+reigning favourite, the Grand-&Eacute;cuyer, Cinq Mars, undermined and
+blackened the Cardinal as much as possible in his royal master&#8217;s
+estimation. He knew of the conspiracy of the Count de Soissons, and
+without taking a share in it, he favoured it. He might therefore be
+reckoned upon to figure in the next. The Queen, still in disgrace in
+spite of the two heirs she had given to the crown, naturally breathed
+vows for the termination of a rule which so oppressed her. Gaston, the
+King&#8217;s brother, had pledged his word, however little the reliance that
+might be placed upon it; but the Duke de Bouillon, an experienced
+soldier and an eminent politician, had openly declared himself; and his
+stronghold of Sedan, situated on the frontiers of France and Belgium,
+offered an asylum whence could be braved for a long while all the power
+of the Cardinal. A widespread understanding had been established
+throughout every part of the kingdom, amongst the clergy, and in the
+Parliament. There were conspirators in the very Bastille itself, where
+Marshal de Vitry and the Count de Cramail, prisoners as they were, had
+prepared a <i>coup de main</i> with an admirably-kept secrecy. The Abb&eacute; de
+Retz, then twenty-five, preluded his adventurous career by this attempt
+at civil war. The Duke de Guise, having effected his escape from Rheims,
+and taken refuge in the Low Countries, was about to share the dangers of
+the conspiracy at Sedan. But the greatest&mdash;the firmest&mdash;hope of the
+Count de Soissons rested upon Spain: that power alone could enable him
+to take the field from Sedan, to march upon Paris, and crush the power
+of Richelieu. He therefore despatched Alexandre de Campion, one of his
+bravest and most intelligent gentlemen, to Brussels to negotiate with
+the Spanish Ministers and obtain from them troops and money. There he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+addressed himself to Mdme. de Chevreuse, and confided to her the mission
+with which he was charged, which she hastened to second with all her
+influence. Having prevailed upon Olivarez to strenuously support those
+requirements which the Count de Soissons and the Duke de Bouillon sought
+at his hands, she despatched letters by a secret agent in the service of
+Spain to the Duke de Lorraine, entreating him not to fail her in this
+supreme opportunity of repairing her past misfortunes and of dealing a
+mortal blow to their remorseless enemy. The Duke Charles, thus solicited
+at once by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by his kinsman the Duke de Guise, by the
+Spanish Minister, and, more than all, by his own restless and
+adventurous ambition, broke the solemn compact he had so recently made
+with France, entered into an alliance with Spain and the Count de
+Soissons, and prepared with all diligence to march to the aid of Sedan.
+And whilst Mdme. de Chevreuse and the emigrants brought into play every
+engine they could lay hands on, Lamboy and Metternich set out for
+Flanders at the head of six thousand Imperialists. France&mdash;all the
+nationalities of Europe, were on the tiptoe of expectation. Richelieu
+had never been menaced with a greater danger, and the loss of the battle
+of Marf&eacute;e would have proved a fatal event had not the Count de Soissons
+met his death simultaneously with his triumph.</p>
+
+<p>If Mdme. de Chevreuse were a stranger in 1642 to the fresh conspiracy of
+Gaston, Duke d&#8217;Orleans, Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon against her
+relentless foe, it would have been the only one in which she had not
+taken a leading part. It is indeed more than probable that she was in
+the secret as well as Queen Anne, whose understanding with Gaston and
+Cinq Mars cannot be contested. La Rochefou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>cauld repeatedly remarks
+touching a matter in which he seems to have been implicated, &#8220;The
+dazzling reputation of M. le Grand (Cinq Mars) rekindled the hopes of
+the discontented; the Queen and the Duke d&#8217;Orleans united with him; the
+Duke de Bouillon and several persons of quality did the same.&#8221; De
+Bouillon also declares that the Queen was closely allied with Gaston and
+the Grand-&Eacute;cuyer, and that she herself had invited his concurrence. &#8220;The
+Queen, whom the Cardinal had persecuted in such a variety of ways, did
+not doubt that, if the King should chance to die, that minister would
+seek to deprive her of her children, in order to assume the Regency
+himself. She secretly instigated De Thou to seek the Duke de Bouillon
+with persevering entreaties. She asked the latter whether, in the event
+of the King&#8217;s death, he would promise to receive her and her two
+children in his stronghold of Sedan, believing&mdash;so firmly persuaded was
+she of the evil designs of the Cardinal, and of his power&mdash;that there
+was no other place of safety for them throughout the realm of France.&#8221;
+De Thou further told the Duke de Bouillon that since the King&#8217;s illness
+the Queen and the Duke d&#8217;Orleans were very closely allied, and that it
+was through Cinq Mars that their alliance had been brought about. Now,
+where the Queen was so deeply implicated it was not likely that Mdme. de
+Chevreuse would stand aloof. A friend of Richelieu, whose name has not
+come down to us, but who must have been perfectly well informed, does
+not hesitate to place Mdme. de Chevreuse as well as the Queen amongst
+those who then endeavoured to overthrow Richelieu. &#8220;M. le Grand,&#8221; he
+writes to the Cardinal,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> &#8220;has been urged to his wicked designs by
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> Queen-mother, by her daughter (Henrietta Maria), by the Queen of
+France, by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by Montagu, and other English Papists.&#8221;
+At length the Cardinal, on an early day in June, 1642, retired to
+Tarascon, ostensibly for the sake of his health, but doubtless for
+safety also, accompanied by his two bosom friends, Mazarin and Chavigny,
+and the faithful regiments of his guards. Finding himself surrounded by
+peril on all sides, and representing to Louis XIII. the gravity of the
+situation, he cited that which had been alleged of Mdme. de Chevreuse as
+amongst the most striking indications of the truth of what he
+stated.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>But what <i>was</i> the party in fact then conspiring against Richelieu? Was
+it not the party of former coalitions&mdash;of the League, of Austria, and of
+Spain? And Mdme. Chevreuse at Brussels, through her connection with the
+Duke de Lorraine, the Queen of England, the Chevalier de Jars at Rome,
+the Minister Olivarez at Madrid&mdash;was she not one of the great motive
+powers of that party? When, therefore, such machinery was found to be
+again in activity, it was quite reasonable to suspect the hand of Mdme.
+de Chevreuse in all its movements.</p>
+
+<p>The gathering cloud that now lowered so thick and threatening above the
+head of Richelieu seemed pregnant with inevitable destruction to his
+power and life. But ere long his eagle glance pierced through the
+overshadowing gloom, and the aim of Cinq Mars&#8217; dark intrigue became
+clearly revealed to his far-seeing introspection. A treachery, the
+secret of which has remained impenetrable to every research made during
+the last two centuries, caused the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> treaty concluded with Spain through
+the intervention of Fontrailles, and bearing the signatures of Gaston,
+Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon, to fall into his hands. From that
+instant the Cardinal felt certain of victory. He knew Louis XIII.
+thoroughly; he conjectured that he might in some access of his morbid
+and changeful humour have uttered reproachful words against his Minister
+in the favourite&#8217;s ear&mdash;even expressed a wish to be rid of him, as did
+our first Plantagenet when tired of the despotism of Thomas &agrave;
+Becket&mdash;and had perhaps listened to strange proposals for effecting such
+object. But the Cardinal knew right well also to what extent Louis was a
+king and a Frenchman, and devoted by self-interest to their common
+system. He despatched, therefore, Chavigny in all haste from Narbonne
+with irrefragable evidence of the treaty made with Spain. Louis,
+thunderstricken, could scarcely believe his own eyes. He sank into a
+gloomy reverie, out of which he emerged only to give way to bursts of
+indignation against the favourite who could thus abuse his confidence
+and conspire with the foreigner. It was needless to inflame his anger,
+he was the first to call for an exemplary punishment. Not for a day, not
+for an hour, did his heart soften towards the youthful culprit who had
+been so dear to him. He thought only of his crime, and signed without an
+instant&#8217;s hesitation his death-warrant. If Louis the Just spared the
+Duke de Bouillon, it was merely to acquire Sedan. If he pardoned his
+brother Gaston, he at the same time dishonoured him by depriving him of
+all authority in the State. Upon a report spread by a servant of
+Fontrailles, and which Fontrailles&#8217; memoirs fully confirm, his
+suspicions were directed towards the Queen; and no one afterwards could
+divest his mind of the conviction that in this instance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> as in the
+affair of Chalais, Anne of Austria had an understanding with his
+brother, the Duke d&#8217;Orleans. What would he have done had he perused the
+statement of Fontrailles, the Duke de Bouillon&#8217;s memoirs, a letter of
+Turenne, and the declaration of La Rochefoucauld? Their united testimony
+is so concordant that it is altogether irresistible. The Queen racked
+her brains to exorcise this fresh storm, and to persuade the King and
+Richelieu of her innocence. Anne went much farther; she did not confine
+herself to falsehood and dissimulation. Menaced by imminent danger, she
+went so far as to repudiate that courageous friend who had been so long
+and steadfastly devoted to her. Had fortune declared in her favour she
+would have embraced the Duchess as a deliverer. Vanquished and disarmed,
+she abandoned her. As she had protested in terms of horror against the
+conspiracy that had failed, her two young, imprudent, and ill-starred
+accomplices, Cinq Mars and De Thou, mounted the scaffold without
+breathing her name. Finding also both the King and Richelieu violently
+exasperated against Mdme. de Chevreuse, and firmly resolved to reject
+the renewed entreaties of her family to obtain her recall, Anne of
+Austria, far from interceding for her faithful adherent, warmly sided
+with her enemies; and further, to indicate the change in her own
+sentiments, and seem to applaud that which she could not prevent, she
+asked as an especial favour that the Duchess might be estranged from her
+person, and even from France. &#8220;The Queen,&#8221; wrote Chavigny, Richelieu&#8217;s
+Minister for Foreign Affairs, &#8220;has pointedly asked me if it were true
+that Mdme. de Chevreuse would return; and, without waiting for a reply,
+she signified to me that she should be vexed to find her presently in
+France; that she now saw the Duchess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> in her proper light; and she
+commanded me to pray His Eminence on her part, if he had any mind to
+favour Mdme. de Chevreuse, that it might be done without granting her
+permission to return to France. I assured her Majesty that she should
+have satisfaction on that point.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>Poor Marie de Rohan! Her heart already bled from many wounds, but this
+last was the &#8220;unkindest cut of all.&#8221; Her position had indeed become
+frightful, and calculated to sink her to the lowest depth of despair. No
+hope of seeing her native land again, her princely ch&acirc;teau, her
+children, her favourite daughter Charlotte! Deriving scarcely anything
+from France, deeply in debt, and with credit exhausted, she found
+herself entirely at the end of her resources. How thoroughly did the
+banished woman then realise the woes of exile&mdash;how hard it is to climb
+and descend the stranger&#8217;s stair, experience the hollowness of his
+promise, and the arrogance of his commiseration. And, finally, as though
+fated to drain her cup of bitterness to the last drop, to learn that
+she, her long-loved bosom friend and royal mistress, who owed her, at
+the very least, a silent fidelity, had openly ranged herself on the side
+of fortune and Richelieu!</p>
+
+<p>In a condition of mental torture the most acute, resulting from such
+accumulated misfortune, Madame de Chevreuse remained for several months
+with no other support than that of her innate high-souled courage. At
+length, towards the close of that eventful year, the golden grooves of
+change rung out a joyous p&aelig;an to gladden the heart of the much-enduring
+exile. Suddenly Marie&mdash;all Europe&mdash;heard with a throb that the
+inscrutable, iron-handed man of all the human race most dreaded alike by
+States as by individuals,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> had yielded to a stronger power than his own,
+and had closed his eyes in death (December 4, 1642). Within a few short
+months afterwards the King also, whose regal power he had consolidated
+at such a cost in blood and suffering, followed the great statesman to
+the tomb; having entrusted the Regency, very much against his will, to
+the Queen, but controlled by a Council, over which presided as Prime
+Minister the man most devoted to Richelieu&#8217;s system&mdash;his closest friend,
+confidant, and creature&mdash;Jules Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>A passage in the funeral oration on Louis XIII. summed up briefly but
+significantly the result of Richelieu&#8217;s gigantic efforts to consolidate
+the regal power. &#8220;Sixty-three kings,&#8221; it said, &#8220;had preceded him in rule
+of the realm, but he alone had rendered it absolute, and what all
+collectively had been impotent to achieve in the course of twelve
+centuries for the grandeur of France, he had accomplished in the short
+space of thirty-three years.&#8221; It was against that absolute power
+incarnate in Richelieu, which from the steps of the throne hurled men to
+the earth with its bolts rather than governed them, that Mazarin was
+destined later to encounter the reaction of the Fronde.</p>
+
+<p>Distrustful of leaving Anne of Austria in uncontrolled possession of
+regal authority, Louis by his last will and testament had placed
+royalty, including his brother Gaston as lieutenant-general of the
+realm, in a manner under a commission. And further, Louis did not
+believe that he could ensure quiet to the State after his death without
+confirming and perpetuating, so far as in him lay, the perpetual exile
+of Madame de Chevreuse.</p>
+
+<p>As the pupil and confidential friend of Richelieu, Mazarin had imbibed
+both that statesman&#8217;s and the late king&#8217;s opinions and sentiments
+touching the influence of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> eminently dangerous woman. Though he had
+never seen her hitherto, he was not the less well acquainted with her by
+repute: dreading her mortally, and cherishing a like antipathy to her
+friend Ch&acirc;teauneuf. He knew the Duchess to be as seductive as she was
+talented, experienced and courageous in party strife&mdash;an instance of
+which was that she could sway entirely a man of such ambition and
+capacity as the former Keeper of the Seals. Attached, moreover, in
+secret to Lorraine, to Austria, and to Spain, all this was as absolutely
+incompatible with the exclusive favour to which he aspired at the hands
+of his royal mistress as it was with all his diplomatic and military
+designs. The solemn injunctions of the late king&#8217;s will, while
+denouncing Madame de Chevreuse and Ch&acirc;teauneuf as the two most
+illustrious victims of the close of his reign, embodied also the heads
+of the policy which it was that monarch&#8217;s wish should be continued by
+Richelieu&#8217;s successor. &#8220;Forasmuch,&#8221; ran the will, &#8220;that for weighty
+reasons, important to the welfare of our State, we found ourselves
+compelled to deprive the Sieur de Ch&acirc;teauneuf of the post of Keeper of
+the Seals of France, and have him sent to the Castle of <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Angoul&ecirc;sme'">Angoul&ecirc;me</ins>, in
+which he has remained by our command up to the present time, we will and
+intend that the said Sieur de Ch&acirc;teauneuf remain in the same state in
+which he is at present, in the said Castle of Angoul&ecirc;me, until after the
+peace be concluded and executed; under charge, nevertheless, that he
+shall not then be set at liberty save by the order of the Queen-Regent,
+under the advice of her Council, which shall appoint a place to which he
+shall retire, within the realm or without the realm, as may be judged
+best. And as our design is to take foresight of all such subjects as may
+possibly in some way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> or other disturb the precautionary arrangements
+which we have made to preserve the repose and safety of our realm, the
+knowledge that we have of the bad conduct of the Lady Duchess de
+Chevreuse, of the artifices which she has employed up to this moment
+without the kingdom with our enemies, made us judge it fitting to forbid
+her, as we do, entrance into our kingdom during the war: desiring even
+that after the peace be concluded and executed she may not return into
+our kingdom, save only under the orders of the said Lady Queen-Regent,
+with the advice of the said Council, under charge, nevertheless, that
+she shall not either take up her abode or be in any place near to the
+Court or to the said Queen-Regent.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Within a few days only after the decease of Louis XIII. that same
+Parliament which had enrolled his will reformed it. The Queen-Regent was
+freed from every fetter and restriction, and invested with almost
+absolute sovereignty; the ban was removed from the proscribed couple so
+solemnly denounced, Ch&acirc;teauneuf&#8217;s prison doors were thrown open, and
+Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels triumphantly, with a cort&eacute;ge of
+twenty carriages, filled with lords and ladies of the highest rank in
+that Court, to return once more to France and to the side of her royal
+friend and mistress.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> This nobleman died at Rome in December, 1867, at the age of
+sixty-five, having gone thither to aid the Pope against the
+Garibaldians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Tallement des R&eacute;aux.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Mdme. de Motteville.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> M&eacute;moires, Petitot&#8217;s Collection, 2nd series, vol. li. p.
+339.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Archives des Affaires &Eacute;trang&egrave;res; <span class="smcap">France</span>, tom. CI.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Archives des Affaires &Eacute;trang&egrave;res; <span class="smcap">France</span>, tom. cii.
+Inedited Memoir of Richelieu.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Archives des Affaires &Eacute;trang&egrave;res, <span class="smcap">France</span>, tom. CI.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">RETURN OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE TO COURT.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> ten years&#8217; absence from the scene of her former triumphs, social
+and political, did the brilliant Duchess then once more find herself
+safe and free in France. The <i>Gazette de Renaudot</i>&mdash;the <i>Moniteur</i> of
+that day&mdash;recording the return of Madame de Chevreuse, on the 14th of
+June, 1643, remarks<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>:&mdash;&#8220;During such long exile, this princess has
+manifested what an elevated mind like hers can do, in spite of all those
+vicissitudes of fortune which her constancy has surmounted. The Duchess
+went to pay homage to their Majesties, during which visit she received
+so many tokens of affection from the Queen-Regent, and gave her in
+return such proofs of her zeal in everything relating to her service,
+and so much resignation to her will, that it indeed appears that length
+of time, distance, or thorny asperities can only prevail over common
+minds. Hence the great train of visitors from this Court to her daily,
+and for which her spacious hotel scarcely affords room, does not excite
+so much wonder as the fact which has been the subject of remark, that
+the fatigue consequent upon long journeys and the rigour of adverse
+fortune have worked no change in her magnanimity, nor&mdash;which is the more
+extraordinary&mdash;in her beauty.&#8221;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Making due allowance for the inflated diction of the complaisant Court
+newswriter, let us endeavour to approach somewhat nearer to the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse had then entered upon her forty-third year. Though
+still surprisingly well-preserved, her beauty, tried by adversity, was
+visibly on the decline. The inclination to gallantry still existed, but
+subdued, politics having gained the supremacy. She had formed the
+acquaintance of, and held political relations with, the most celebrated
+statesmen in Europe. She had figured at almost all its Courts, the
+strength and weakness of its several Governments were known to her, and
+in her wanderings, having seen &#8220;men and cities,&#8221; she had acquired a
+large experience. The tried favourite hoped to find Anne of Austria the
+same as she had left her&mdash;averse to business, and very willing to allow
+herself to be led by those for whom she had a particular affection; and
+as Madame de Chevreuse had been in her youthful days paramount in the
+Queen&#8217;s affection, she fully expected to exercise over her that twofold
+ascendancy which love and capacity would jointly give. More ambitious
+for her friends than for herself, she saw them already rewarded for
+their long sacrifices, replacing everywhere the creatures of Richelieu,
+and at their head, in the highest post, as first minister, him who for
+her sake had broken with the triumphant Cardinal, and had endured an
+imprisonment of ten tedious years. She did not care much about Mazarin,
+with whom she had no acquaintance, whom she had never seen, and who
+appeared to her unsupported either by the Court or the French nation,
+whilst she felt herself sustained by all that was illustrious, powerful,
+and accredited therein. She believed that she could make sure of the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> his wife, the beautiful Margaret, sister of
+Charles of Lorraine. She could dispose almost at will of the Houses of
+Rohan and Lorraine, particularly of the Duke de Guise and the Duke
+d&#8217;Elbeuf, like herself just returned from Flanders. She reckoned upon
+the Vend&ocirc;mes, upon the Duke d&#8217;Epernon, upon La Vieuville, her old
+companions in exile in England; upon the ill-treated Bouillons, upon La
+Rochefoucauld, whose disposition and pretensions were so well known to
+her; upon Lord Montagu, who had been her slave, and at that moment
+possessed the entire confidence of Anne of Austria; upon La Ch&acirc;tre, the
+friend of the Vend&ocirc;mes, and Colonel-General of the Swiss Guards; upon
+Treville, upon Beringhen, upon Jars, upon La Porte, who were all
+emerging from exile, prison, and disgrace. Among the women, her young
+stepmother and her sister-in-law seemed secure&mdash;Madame de Montbazon and
+Madame de Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;, the two greatest beauties of the time, who drew after
+them a numerous crowd of old and young adorers. She knew also that among
+the first acts of the Regent had been the recall to her side of the two
+noble victims of Richelieu&mdash;Madame de Sen&eacute;c&eacute; and Madame de Hautefort,
+whose virtue and piety had conspired so beneficially with other
+influences, and had given them an inestimable weight in the household of
+Anne of Austria. All those calculations seemed accurate, all those hopes
+well-founded; and Madame de Chevreuse left Brussels firmly persuaded
+that she was about to re-enter the Louvre as a conqueress. She deceived
+herself: the Queen was already changed, or very nearly so.</p>
+
+<p>To show due honour to her former favourite, however, Anne of Austria
+despatched La Rochefoucauld to greet and escort her homewards; but
+before he set out she charged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> him to inform the Duchess of the altered
+disposition in which she would find her royal mistress. During that
+audience Rochefoucauld did his utmost to reinstate his charming friend
+and close ally in the Queen&#8217;s good graces. &#8220;I spoke to her,&#8221; says he,
+&#8220;with more freedom perhaps than was becoming. I set before her Madame de
+Chevreuse&#8217;s fidelity, her long-continued services, and the severity of
+the misfortunes which they had entailed upon her. I entreated her to
+consider of what fickleness she would be thought capable, and what
+interpretation might be placed upon such inconsiderateness if she should
+prefer Cardinal Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse. Our conversation was
+long and stormy, and I saw clearly that I had exasperated her.&#8221; He then
+started to meet the Duchess on the road from Brussels, and found her at
+Roye, whither Montagu had already preceded him. Montagu had travelled to
+Roye to place Mazarin&#8217;s homage at the feet of Madame de Chevreuse, with
+the view of bringing about at any cost an union and identity of policy
+between the old and the new favourite. He was no longer the gay and
+sprightly Walter Montagu, the friend of Holland and Buckingham, the
+enamoured knight ever ready to break a lance against all comers for a
+glance of the bright eyes of Madame de Chevreuse. Time had changed him
+as well as others: he had become a bigot and a devotee, and already
+contemplated taking orders in the Church of Rome. He still remained,
+however, attached to the object of his former adoration, but above all
+he belonged to the Queen, and consequently resigned to Mazarin. La
+Rochefoucauld&mdash;ever ready to ascribe to himself the chief share in any
+undertaking in which he figured, as well as the character of a great
+politician&mdash;asserts that he entreated Madame de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> Chevreuse not to
+attempt at first to govern the Queen, but to endeavour solely to regain
+in Anne&#8217;s mind and heart that place of which it had been sought to
+deprive her, and to put herself in a position in which she would be able
+to protect or ruin the Cardinal, according to conduct or circumstances
+emanating from himself.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess listened attentively to the advice of both her old friends,
+promised to follow it, and did so in fact, but in her own peculiar way,
+and in that of the interest of the party she had so long served, and
+which she would not abandon. As Anne of Austria seemed much pleased at
+seeing the noble wanderer again, and gave her a warm reception, Marie
+did not perceive any difference in the Queen&#8217;s sentiments, and flattered
+herself that by constant assiduousness she would ere long resume that
+sway over the Regent&#8217;s mind she had formerly exercised.</p>
+
+<p>Operating against this not unreasonable expectation of Madame de
+Chevreuse, Mazarin had a silent but potent ally in the newly-awakened
+inclination of Anne for repose and a tranquil life. The first draughts
+of almost supreme power tasted by the long-oppressed Queen were not yet
+embittered by faction and anarchy. In bygone days, insult, neglect, and
+persecution had stirred her at intervals into mental activity, and urged
+her upon dangerous courses; but now, having obtained all she aimed at,
+happy, and beginning to form attachments, she entertained a dread of
+troublesome adventures and hazardous enterprises. She therefore feared
+Madame de Chevreuse quite as much as she loved her. The astute Cardinal
+anxiously strove to foster such distrust. He looked for support from the
+Princess de Cond&eacute;, then high in the Queen&#8217;s favour, both through her own
+merit as well as that of the Prince her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> husband, but more than all
+through the brilliant exploits of her son, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien; through
+the services also of her son-in-law the Duke de Longueville, who had,
+with honourable distinction, commanded the armies of Italy and Germany,
+and by her recently-married daughter, Madame de Longueville, already the
+darling of the <i>salons</i> and the Court. The Princess, like Queen Anne,
+had in the heyday of her beauty been fond of homage and gallantry, but
+had now grown serious, and displayed a somewhat lively piety. She held
+Madame de Chevreuse in aversion, and detested Ch&acirc;teauneuf, who, in 1632,
+at Toulouse, had presided at the trial and condemnation of her brother,
+Henri de Montmorency. She therefore had striven, in concert with
+Mazarin, to destroy or at least weaken Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s hold upon
+the Queen. Armed with the last will of Louis XIII., they had made it
+appear something like a fault in the Queen&#8217;s eyes to disregard it so
+soon and so entirely. They had given her to understand that former days
+and associations could never return; that the amusements and passions of
+early youth were but &#8220;evil accompaniments&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> of a later period of
+life; that now she was before all things a mother and a Queen; that
+Madame de Chevreuse, dissipated and carried away by passion, and
+cherishing the same inclination for gallantry and idle vanity as
+hitherto, was no longer worthy of her confidence; that she had brought
+good fortune to no one; and that in lavishing wealth and honour upon the
+Duchess the debt of gratitude she owed her would be sufficiently
+discharged.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> No. lxxvii. p. 579.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Madame de Motteville, tom. i. p. 162.&mdash;&#8220;Mauvais
+accompagnements.&#8221;</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BOOK II.</h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span><br /></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">ANNE OF AUSTRIA&#8217;S PRIME MINISTER AND HIS POLICY.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">And</span> now what was the actual position of Mazarin on succeeding to power
+in 1643?</p>
+
+<p>Richelieu had died admired and abhorred. The people, glad to be
+delivered from so heavy a yoke, obeyed with joy the incipient rule of
+the Queen-Regent. The courtiers were at first enchanted with a
+Government that refused nothing asked of it. It appeared, as one of the
+number said, that there were no more than five little words in the
+French <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'language: La'">language: &#8220;<i>La</i></ins> <i>reine est si bonne!</i>&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The State prisons threw
+open their gates; the rights of parliaments were respected; the princes
+of the blood and the great nobles were restored to their governorships.
+There was for a season one unanimous concert of praise and thanksgiving.
+But when the princes and parliaments were desirous, as before
+Richelieu&#8217;s rule, of participating in the general direction of the
+State, and especially in the distribution of place and patronage, great
+was the surprise of both at finding a steady resistance on the part of
+the Queen-Regent. To see her manifest a disposition to govern without
+them was looked upon as something scandalous. Every attempt she made
+thenceforward to retain a power which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> they evaded, or to repossess
+herself of that which she had imprudently suffered to escape from her
+grasp, seemed to them nothing less than a continuation of the odious
+system of Richelieu. Their exasperation was increased to the highest
+degree, therefore, when they beheld her give her entire confidence to a
+foreigner, to a Cardinal, to a creature of Richelieu. By that triple
+title Mazarin was equally hateful to the great nobles, the members of
+parliament, and the middle class. The tyranny of Richelieu had in the
+end attained to something noble by the high-handed heedlessness of all
+his acts. If the people were to be trampled on, it was a species of
+consolation that their oppressor was feared by others as well as
+themselves. But that the oppression of the doomed French nation was to
+be continued by a more ignoble hand was altogether intolerable.
+Frenchmen had begun to ask one another, who <i>was</i> this Mazarin who had
+come to rule over them? He could not&mdash;like Richelieu&mdash;boast of his high
+birth, of descent from a long line of noble ancestors&mdash;Frenchmen. Poets
+and romancers, ye whose imaginations delight to dwell upon sudden
+downfalls and rapid rises, mark well that little lad at play upon the
+Sicilian shore near the town of Mazzara! Springing from the lowest of
+the plebeian class, his family have not even a surname. He is the son of
+one Pierre, a fisherman, whose humble hut stands yonder beneath the
+cliff. But a day will come when that lowly-born lad, joining his
+baptismal name to that of the town which sheltered his cradle, will
+become Jules de Mazarin, robed in the Roman purple, quartering his
+shield with the consular fasces of Julius C&aelig;sar, governing France, and
+through her preparing and influencing the destinies of entire Europe.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, by easy steps that Richelieu&#8217;s<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> disciple and
+successor obtained a firm grasp of that plenary power which the master
+mind of the former had consolidated and long wielded so grandly and
+terribly. The Queen herself at the commencement of the Regency had not
+yet renounced her former friendships. During a considerable portion of
+her married life Anne had impatiently endured the slights and
+disparagements to which she was so long subjected, both by her husband
+and his Minister. Through engaging in divers dangerous and unsuccessful
+enterprises, she had been deprived of all influence, and was a queen
+only in name. But, a woman and a Spaniard, she had descended to
+dissimulation, and in that &#8220;ugly but necessary virtue&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> made rapid
+progress. Up to the time of Richelieu&#8217;s death she had played a double
+game&mdash;made partisans in secret, with the object of subverting the
+Cardinal&#8217;s power, whilst feigning the semblance of friendship towards
+him, and did not scruple to humiliate herself on occasions, in order to
+carry her point. After that great man&#8217;s decease, through rare patience,
+great caution, and a persistent line of conduct, she ultimately attained
+that for which she had been willing to make any and every sacrifice&mdash;the
+Regency. During the King&#8217;s last illness, the mistrusted Queen and wife
+had profited by Mazarin&#8217;s unhoped-for service, as Prime Minister, in
+prevailing over the unwillingness of the dying King to appoint her
+custodian of his son, and Regent during his minority. She regarded this,
+therefore, as a first and most important service on the part of Mazarin
+towards her, and for which she felt proportionately grateful. Such was
+the Cardinal&#8217;s first stepping-stone to the good graces of Anne of
+Austria, and his twofold talent both as a laborious and indefatigable
+statesman and a consummate courtier, speedily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> helped to secure for him
+her entire confidence. The singular personal resemblance he bore to that
+desperate <i>enamorado</i> of her early womanhood, the brilliant Buckingham,
+may probably also have served him as a favourable prestige. On her
+accession to power Anne did not manifest much firmness of character.
+Naturally indolent, she disliked the drudgery attendant upon business
+details, and hence continued through convenience the services of a man
+who, by taking off her hands the wearisome routine of State affairs,
+allowed her to reign at her ease.</p>
+
+<p>Mazarin, moreover, had never been displeasing to her. He had begun to
+ingratiate himself during the month preceding the death of Louis
+XIII.,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and she named him Prime Minister about the middle of
+May&mdash;partly through personal liking, but more through political
+necessity. Far from appearing to resemble the impassive and imperious
+Richelieu, Anne perhaps might have recalled with agreeable emotion the
+words of her deceased consort when he first presented Mazarin to her (in
+1639 or 1640)&mdash;&#8220;He will please you, madame, because he bears a striking
+resemblance to Buckingham.&#8221; By degrees the liking increased, and grew
+sufficiently strong to resist every assault from his enemies. At the
+same time the Minister to whom the Queen owed so much, instead of
+dictating to and presuming to govern her, was ever at her feet, and
+prodigal of that attention, respect, and tenderness to which she had
+been hitherto a stranger.</p>
+
+<p>It is a delicate matter to investigate with exactitude the means by
+which Mazarin obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, and one which
+La Rochefoucauld scarcely touches upon; but it is too interesting a
+point in history to be left in the dark, and thereby to altogether
+disregard that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> which first constituted the minister&#8217;s strength, and
+soon afterwards became the centre and key of the situation. After a long
+season of oppression, regal powers and splendour gilded the hours of
+Anne of Austria, and her Spanish pride exacted the tribute of respect
+and homage. Mazarin was prodigal of both. He cast himself at her feet in
+order to reach her heart. In her heart of hearts she was not the less
+touched by the grave accusation brought against him that he was a
+foreigner, for was not she also a foreigner? Perhaps that of itself
+proved the source of a mysterious attraction to her, and she may have
+found it a singular pleasure to converse with her Prime Minister in her
+mother tongue as a compatriot and friend. To all this must be added the
+mind and manners of Mazarin&mdash;supple and insinuating, always master of
+himself, of an unchangeable serenity amidst the gravest circumstances,
+full of confidence in his good star, and diffusing that confidence
+around him. It must also be remembered that Cardinal although he was,
+Mazarin was not a priest; that imbued with the maxims which formed the
+code of gallantry of her native land, Anne of Austria had always loved
+to please the other sex; that she was then forty-one and still
+beautiful, that her Prime Minister was of the same age, that he was
+exceedingly well-made and of a most pleasing countenance, in which
+<i>finesse</i>, was blended with a certain air of greatness. He had readily
+recognised that without ancestry, establishment, or support in France,
+and surrounded by rivals and enemies, all his strength centred in the
+Queen. He applied himself therefore above all things to gain her heart,
+as Richelieu had tried before him; and as he happily possessed far other
+means for attaining success in that respect, the handsome and
+gentle-mannered Cardinal eventually succeeded. Once master of her heart,
+he easily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> directed the mind of Anne of Austria, and taught her the
+difficult art of pursuing ever the same end by the aid of conduct the
+most diverse, according to the difference of circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>But favourable and indeed gracious as his royal mistress had shown
+herself towards him personally, and apart from any particular line of
+policy, at the outset of his premiership Mazarin had nevertheless to
+contend against a formidable host of enemies; and not the least
+redoubtable among them might be reckoned that intrepid political heroine
+the lately-banished Duchess de Chevreuse. No sooner did she again find
+herself at the side of Anne of Austria than the indefatigable Marie set
+to work with all her characteristic dash, spirit, and energy to attack
+Richelieu&#8217;s system and its adherents, now directed by Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>The first point she sought to carry was the return of Ch&acirc;teauneuf to
+office. &#8220;The good sense and long experience of M. de Ch&acirc;teauneuf,&#8221; says
+La Rochefoucauld, &#8220;were known to the Queen. He had undergone a rigorous
+imprisonment for his adhesion to her cause; he was firm, decisive, loved
+the State, and more capable than anyone else of re-establishing the old
+form of government which Richelieu had first begun to destroy. Firmly
+attached to Mdme. de Chevreuse, she knew sufficiently-well how to govern
+him. She therefore urged his return with much warmth.&#8221; Ch&acirc;teauneuf had
+already obtained as a royal boon that the &#8220;rude and miserable condition&#8221;
+of close incarceration under which he had groaned for ten years should
+be changed for a compulsory residence at one of his country houses.
+Mdme. de Chevreuse demanded the termination of this mitigated exile,
+that she might once more behold him free who had endured such
+extremities for the Queen&#8217;s sake and her own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> Mazarin saw that he must
+yield, but only did so tardily, never appearing himself to repulse
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf, but always alleging the paramount necessity of conciliating
+the Cond&eacute; family, and especially the Princess, who, as already said,
+bore bitter enmity towards him as the judge of her brother, Henri de
+Montmorency. Ch&acirc;teauneuf was therefore recalled, but with that
+reservation accorded to the last clause of the King&#8217;s will, that he
+should not appear at Court, but reside at his own house of Montrouge,
+near Paris, where his friends might visit him.</p>
+
+<p>The next step was to transfer him thence to some ministerial office.
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf was no longer a young man, but neither his energy nor his
+ambition had deserted him, and Mdme. de Chevreuse made it a point of
+honour to reinstate him in the post of Keeper of the Seals, which he had
+formerly held and lost through her, and which all Queen Anne&#8217;s old
+friends now saw with indignation occupied by one of the most detested of
+Richelieu&#8217;s creatures, Pierre S&eacute;guier. This last, however, was a man of
+capacity&mdash;laborious, well-informed and full of resources. To these
+qualifications he added a remarkable suppleness, which made him very
+useful and accommodating to a Prime Minister. He moreover had the
+support of friends who stood high in the Queen&#8217;s favour, and was further
+strengthened by the opposition of the Cond&eacute;s and the Bishop of Beauvais
+to Ch&acirc;teauneuf. The Duchess perceiving that it was almost impossible to
+surmount so powerful an opposition, took another way of arriving at the
+same end. She contented herself with asking for the lowest seat in the
+cabinet for her friend; well knowing that once installed therein,
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf would soon manage all the rest and aggrandise his position.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At the same time that she strove to extricate from disgrace the man upon
+whom rested all her political hopes, Madame de Chevreuse, not daring to
+attack Mazarin overtly, insensibly undermined the ground beneath his
+feet, and step by step prepared his ruin. Her experienced eye enabled
+her promptly to perceive the most favourable point of attack whence to
+assail the Queen, and the watchword she passed was to fan and keep alive
+to the utmost the general feeling of reprobation which all the
+proscribed, on returning to France, had aroused and disseminated against
+the memory of Richelieu. This feeling was universal&mdash;among the great
+families he had decimated or despoiled;&mdash;in the Church, too firmly
+repressed not to be unmindful of its abasement;&mdash;in the Parliament,
+strictly confined to its judicial functions, and aspiring to break
+through such narrow limits. The same feeling was still alive in the
+Queen&#8217;s bosom, who could not have forgotten the deep humiliation to
+which Richelieu had subjected her, and the fate for which he had
+probably reserved her. These tactics succeeded, and on every side there
+arose against the late violence and tyranny, and, by a rebound, against
+the creatures of Richelieu, a storm so furious that Mazarin&#8217;s utmost
+ability was taxed to allay it.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse likewise supplicated Anne of Austria to repair the
+long-endured misfortunes of the Vend&ocirc;me princes, by bestowing upon them
+either the Admiralty, to which an immense power was attached, or the
+government of Brittany, which the head of the family, C&aelig;sar de Vend&ocirc;me,
+had formerly held&mdash;deriving it alike from the hand of his father, Henry
+IV., and as the heritage of his father-in-law, the Duke de Merc&#339;ur.
+This was nothing less than demanding the aggrandisement of an unfriendly
+house,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> and at the same time the ruin of two families that had served
+Richelieu with the utmost devotion, and were best capable of supporting
+Mazarin. The Minister parried the blow aimed at him by the Duchess by
+dint of address and patience, never refusing, always eluding, and
+summoning to his aid his grand ally, as he termed it&mdash;Time. Before the
+return of Madame de Chevreuse he had found himself forced to win over
+the Vend&ocirc;mes, and to secure them in his interest. On Richelieu&#8217;s death
+he had strenuously contributed to obtain their recall, and had since
+made them every kind of advance; but he soon perceived that he could not
+satisfy them without bringing about his own destruction. The Duke C&aelig;sar
+de Vend&ocirc;me, son of Henry IV. and <i>The Fair Gabrielle</i>, had early carried
+his pretensions to a great height, and had shown himself restless and
+factious as a legitimate prince. He had passed his life in revolts and
+conspiracies, and in 1641 had been compelled to flee to England through
+suspicion of being implicated in an attempt to assassinate Richelieu. He
+did not dare return to France until after the Cardinal&#8217;s death; and, as
+may well be imagined, he came back breathing the direst vengeance.
+Against the ambition of the Vend&ocirc;mes Mazarin skilfully opposed that of
+the Cond&eacute;s, who were inimical to the aggrandisement of a house too
+nearly rivalling their own. But it was very difficult to retain Brittany
+in the hands of its newly-appointed governor, the Marshal La Meilleraie,
+in face of the claim of a son of Henry the Great, who had formerly held
+it, and demanded it back as a sort of heirloom. Mazarin therefore
+resigned himself to the sacrifice of La Meilleraie, but he lightened it
+as much as possible. He persuaded the Queen to assume to herself the
+government of Brittany, and have only a lieutenant-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>general over it&mdash;a
+post, of course, beneath the dignity of the Vend&ocirc;mes, and which would,
+therefore, remain in La Meilleraie&#8217;s hands. The latter could not take
+offence at being second in power therein to the Queen; and to arrange
+everything to the entire satisfaction of a person of such importance,
+Mazarin solicited for him soon afterwards the title of duke, which the
+deceased King had, in fact, promised the Marshal, and the reversion of
+the post of Grand Master of the Artillery for his son&mdash;that same son on
+whom subsequently Mazarin bestowed, with his own name, the hand of his
+niece, the beautiful Hortense.</p>
+
+<p>Mazarin was so much the less inclined to favour the house of Vend&ocirc;me
+from having encountered a dangerous rival in the Queen&#8217;s good graces, in
+Vend&ocirc;me&#8217;s youngest son, Beaufort, a young, bold, and flourishing
+gallant, who displayed ostentatiously all the exterior signs of loyalty
+and chivalry, and affected for Anne of Austria a passionate devotion not
+likely to be displeasing. &#8220;He was tall, well-made, dexterous, and
+indefatigable in all warlike exercises,&#8221; says La Rochefoucauld, &#8220;but
+artificial withal, and wanting in truthfulness of character. Mentally he
+was heavy and badly cultivated; nevertheless he attained his objects
+cleverly enough through the blunt coarseness of his manners. He was of
+high but unsteady courage, and was not a little envious and
+malignant.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> De Retz does not, like La Rochefoucauld, accuse Beaufort
+of artificiality, but represents him as presumptuous and of thorough
+incapacity. His portrait of him, though over-coloured, like most others
+from the coadjutor&#8217;s pen, is sufficiently faithful, but at the
+commencement of the Regency, the defects of the Duke de Beaufort had not
+fully declared themselves, and were less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> conspicuous than his good
+qualities. Some few days before her husband&#8217;s death, Anne of Austria had
+placed her children under his charge&mdash;a mark of confidence that so
+elated him that the young Duke conceived hopes which his impetuosity
+hindered him from sufficiently disguising. Indeed, these were presumed
+upon so far as to give offence to the Queen; and, as the height of
+inconsistency, he committed at the same time the egregious folly of
+publicly enacting the led-captain in the rosy chains of the handsome but
+decried Duchess de Montbazon. It was only, however, by slow degrees that
+the Queen&#8217;s liking for him abated. At first, she had proposed to confer
+upon him the post of Grand-&Eacute;cuyer, vacant since the death of the
+unfortunate Cinq-Mars, which would have kept him in close attendance
+upon her, and was altogether a fitting appointment&mdash;for Beaufort had
+nothing of the statesman in him; with little intellect and no reticence,
+he was also averse to steady application to business, and capable only
+of some bold and violent course of action. The Duke had the folly to
+refuse this post of Grand-&Eacute;cuyer, hoping for a better; and then,
+altering his mind when it was too late, he solicited it only to incur
+disappointment.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The more his favour diminished, the more his
+irritation increased, and it was not long ere he placed himself at the
+head of the Cardinal&#8217;s bitterest enemies.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse hoped to be more fortunate in securing the
+governorship of Havre for a very different sort of person&mdash;for a man of
+tried devotedness and of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> rare and subtle intellect&mdash;La Rochefoucauld.
+She would thereby recompense the services rendered to the Queen and
+herself, strengthen and aggrandize one of the chiefs of the
+<i>Importants</i>, and weaken Mazarin by depriving of an important government
+a person upon whom he had entire reliance&mdash;Richelieu&#8217;s niece, the
+Duchess d&#8217;Aiguillon. The Cardinal succeeded in rendering this
+man&#339;uvre abortive, without appearing to have any hand in it. And
+herein, as in many other matters, the art of Mazarin was to wear the
+semblance of merely confirming the Queen in the resolves with which he
+inspired her.</p>
+
+<p>In thus attributing these various designs, this connected and consistent
+line of conduct, to Madame de Chevreuse, we do not advance it as our own
+opinion, but as that of La Rochefoucauld, who must have been perfectly
+well informed. He attributes it to her both in his own affairs and in
+those of the Vend&ocirc;mes. Neither was Mazarin blind to the fact, for more
+than once in his private notes we read these words:&mdash;&#8220;My greatest
+enemies are the Vend&ocirc;mes and Madame de Chevreuse, who urges them on.&#8221; He
+tells us also that she had formed the project of marrying her charming
+daughter Charlotte, then sixteen, to the Vend&ocirc;me&#8217;s eldest son, the Duke
+de Merc&#339;ur, whilst his brother Beaufort should espouse the wealthy
+Mademoiselle d&#8217;Epernon, who foiled these designs, and even greater
+still, by throwing herself at four-and-twenty into a convent of
+Carmelites. These marriages, which would have reconciled, united, and
+strengthened so many great houses, moderately attached to the Queen and
+her minister, terrified Richelieu&#8217;s successor. He therefore sought to
+foil them by every means in his power, and succeeded in prevailing upon
+the Queen to frustrate them in an underhand way;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> having found that the
+union of Mademoiselle de Vend&ocirc;me with the brilliant but restless Duke de
+Nemours had caused him more than ordinary anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>If the intricate details of those counter intrigues of Mazarin and
+Madame de Chevreuse be followed attentively, we are at a loss to say to
+which of the two antagonists the palm for skill, sagacity, and address
+should be given. Whilst Mazarin was astute enough to make a certain
+amount of sacrifice in order to reserve to himself the right of not
+making greater&mdash;treating everyone with apparent consideration, rendering
+no one desperate, promising much, holding back the least possible
+<i>proprio motu</i> of himself, and surrounding Madame de Chevreuse herself
+with attention and homage without suffering any illusion to beguile him
+as to the nature of her sentiments&mdash;she, on her part, paid him back in
+the same coin. La Rochefoucauld says that during these <i>mollia tempora</i>,
+Madame de Chevreuse and Mazarin actually flirted with each other. The
+Duchess, who had always intermingled gallantry with politics, tried, as
+it appears, the power of her charms upon the Cardinal. The latter, on
+his side, failed not to lavish honeyed words, and &#8220;essayoit m&ecirc;me quelque
+fois de lui faire croire qu&#8217;elle lui donnoit de l&#8217;amour.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> There were
+other ladies also, it seems, who would not have been sorry to please the
+handsome First Minister a little. Amongst these might be numbered the
+Princess de Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> one of the greatest beauties of the French
+Court, who, certainly, if only one half the stories related of her be
+true, was by no means of a ferocious disposition in affairs of
+gallantry. This lady,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> as well as her husband, were both favourable to
+Mazarin, in spite of all the efforts of Madame de Montbazon, and Madame
+de Chevreuse, her sister-in-law. It may be readily imagined that Mazarin
+devoted great attention to Madame de Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;, and did not fail to pay
+her a host of compliments, as he did to Madame de Chevreuse; but as he
+went no further, the two gay ladies were at a loss to conceive what so
+many compliments coupled with so much reserve meant. They sometimes
+asked which of the two was really the object of his admiration; and as
+he still made no further advances at the same time that he continued his
+gallant protestations, &#8220;these ladies,&#8221; says Mazarin, &#8220;si esamina la mia
+vita e si conclude che io sia impotente.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>Political intrigue had become such an affair of fashion among the Court
+dames of that day, that those of the highest rank made no scruple of
+bringing into play all the artillery of their wit and beauty whenever
+they could contribute to the success of their enterprises. Still endowed
+with those two potent gifts to an eminent degree, Madame de Chevreuse
+brought all her various influences into perfect combination, and had
+grown so passionately fond of the fierce excitement of conspiring, that
+love was to her now merely a means and political victory the end. She
+devoted literally her entire existence to it, living in the confidence
+and intimacy of the Vend&ocirc;mes and other noble perturbators of the hour.
+Her activity, her penetration, her energy obtained for her among the
+party of the <i>Importants</i> the importance she coveted. It was not long,
+therefore, ere she begun to give Mazarin cause for grave anxiety. During
+the encounters resulting from this strenuous antagonism, reconciliations
+occasionally took place, in which even the Cardi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>nal&#8217;s coldness,
+caution, and his laborious occupation, could not, it is said, place him
+beyond reach of the Duchess&#8217;s irresistible fascinations. But the latter,
+well aware that the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of Mazarin&#8217;s mistress would not give to her
+grasp the helm of the State, which he reserved exclusively to himself,
+preferred, therefore, rather to remain his enemy, and figure at the head
+and front of the faction antagonistic to his government.</p>
+
+<p>This flirting and skirmishing had gone on for some time, but at last
+natural feeling prevailed over political reticence. Madame de Chevreuse
+grew impatient at obtaining words only, and scarcely anything serious or
+effective. She had, it is true, received some money for her own use,
+either in repayment of that which she had formerly lent the Queen, or
+for the discharge of debts contracted during exile and in the interest
+of Anne of Austria. On returning to Court, one of her earliest steps was
+to withdraw her friend and <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, Alexandre de Campion, from the
+service of the Vend&ocirc;mes, and place him in a suitable position in the
+Queen&#8217;s household. Ch&acirc;teauneuf had been reinstated in his former post of
+Chancellor (<i>des Ordres du Roi</i>), and later his governorship of Touraine
+was restored to him on the death of the Marquis de G&egrave;vres, who fell at
+the siege of Thionville; but the Duchess considered that that was doing
+very little for a man of Ch&acirc;teauneuf&#8217;s merit&mdash;for him who had staked
+fortune and life, and undergone ten years&#8217; imprisonment. She readily
+perceived, therefore, that the perpetual delay of favours ever promised,
+ever deferred in the instances of the Vend&ocirc;mes and La Rochefoucauld,
+were so many artifices of the Cardinal, and that she was his dupe. This
+conviction put the spirited partisan upon her mettle. She began to
+titter, to mock, and to expostulate by turns, and sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> twitted the
+minister in pert and derisive terms. This, however, betrayed a want of
+her ordinary precaution, and only served to fill Mazarin&#8217;s quiver with
+shafts to be used against herself. He made the Queen believe that Madame
+de Chevreuse sought to rule her with a rod of iron; that she had changed
+her mask, but not her character; that she was ever the same impulsive
+and restless person, who, with all her talent and devotedness, had never
+worked aught but mischief around her, and was only instrumental in
+ruining others as well as herself. By degrees, underhand and hidden as
+it might be, war between the Duchess and the Cardinal declared itself
+unmistakably. The commencement and progress of this curious struggle for
+supremacy has been admirably depicted by La Rochefoucauld; and, while
+the autograph memoranda of Mazarin cast a fresh flood of light upon it,
+they enhance infinitely Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s ability by revealing to
+what an extent that Minister dreaded her.</p>
+
+<p>In every page of these invaluable <i>carnets</i> he indicates her as being
+the head and mainspring of the <i>Importants</i>. &#8220;It is Madame de
+Chevreuse,&#8221; he writes repeatedly, &#8220;who stirs them all up. She endeavours
+to strengthen the hands of the Vend&ocirc;mes; she tries to win over every
+member of the house of Lorraine; she has already gained the Duke de
+Guise, and through him she strives to carry away from me the Duke
+d&#8217;Elbeuf.&#8221; &#8220;She sees clearly through everything; she has guessed very
+accurately that it is I who have secretly persuaded the Queen to hinder
+the restoration of the government of Brittany to the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me.
+She has said so to her father, the Duke de Montbazon, and to Montagu.
+She has quarrelled with Montagu, in fact, because he raises an obstacle
+to Ch&acirc;teauneuf by supporting S&eacute;guier.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>&#8221; &#8220;Nothing discourages Madame de
+Chevreuse; she entreats the Vend&ocirc;mes to have patience, and sustains them
+by promising a speedy change of scene.&#8221; &#8220;Madame de Chevreuse never
+relinquishes the hope of displacing me. The reason she gives for this
+is, that when the Queen refused to put Ch&acirc;teauneuf at the head of the
+government, she stated that she could not do it immediately, as she must
+have some consideration for me, whence Madame de Chevreuse concludes
+that the Queen has much esteem and liking for Ch&acirc;teauneuf, and that when
+I shall be no longer where I am, the post is secured for her friend.
+Hence the hopes and illusions with which they are buoyed up.&#8221; &#8220;The
+Duchess and her friends assert that the Queen will shortly send for
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf; and by so doing they abuse the minds of all, and prompt
+those who are looking to their future interests to pay court to her and
+seek her friendship. They make an excuse for the Queen&#8217;s delay in giving
+him my place, by saying that she has still need of me for some short
+time.&#8221; &#8220;I am told that Madame de Chevreuse secretly directs Madame de
+Vend&ocirc;me (a pious person who has great influence over the bishops and
+convents), and gives her instructions, in order that she may not fall
+into error, and that all the machinery used against me may thoroughly
+answer its purpose.&#8221; From this last entry it is clear that Madame de
+Chevreuse, without being in the smallest degree possible a <i>d&eacute;vote</i>,
+knew right well how to make use of the <i>parti d&eacute;vot</i>, which then
+exercised great influence over Anne of Austria&#8217;s mind, and gave serious
+uneasiness to Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>The Prime Minister&#8217;s chief difficulty was to make Queen Anne&mdash;the sister
+of the King of Spain, and herself of a piety thoroughly
+Spanish&mdash;understand that it was necessary, notwithstanding the
+engagements which she had so often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> contracted, notwithstanding the
+instances of the Court of Rome and those of the heads of the episcopate,
+to continue the alliance with the Protestants of Germany and Holland,
+and to persist in only consenting to a <i>general</i> peace in which the
+allies of France should equally find their account as well as that
+country itself. On the other side, it was continually dinned into the
+Queen&#8217;s ear that it was practicable to make a separate treaty of peace,
+and negotiate singly with Spain on very fitting conditions, that by such
+means the scandal of an impious war between &#8220;the very Christian&#8221; and
+&#8220;the very Catholic&#8221; King would cease, and a relief be afforded to France
+very much needed. Such was the policy of the Queen&#8217;s old friends. It was
+at least specious, and reckoned numerous partisans among men the most
+intelligent and attached to the interests of their country. Mazarin, the
+disciple and successor of Richelieu, had higher views, but which it was
+not easy at first to make Anne of Austria comprehend. By degrees,
+however, he succeeded, thanks to his judicious efforts, renewed
+incessantly and with infinite art; thanks especially to the victories of
+the Duke d&#8217;Enghien&mdash;for in all worldly affairs success is a very
+eloquent and right persuasive advocate. The Queen, however, remained for
+a considerable interval undecided, and it may be seen by Mazarin&#8217;s own
+memoranda that during the latter part of May, as well as through the
+whole of June and July, the Cardinal&#8217;s greatest effort was to induce the
+Regent not to abandon her allies, but to firmly carry on the war. Madame
+de Chevreuse, with Ch&acirc;teauneuf, defended the old party policy, and
+strove to bring over Anne of Austria to it. &#8220;Madame de Chevreuse,&#8221; wrote
+Mazarin, &#8220;causes the Queen to be told from all quarters that I do not
+wish for peace, that I hold the same maxims as Cardinal Richelieu on the
+point&mdash;that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> it is both easy and necessary to make a separate treaty of
+peace.&#8221; On several occasions he made indignant protestation against such
+arrangement, pointing out the danger with which it was fraught, and that
+it would render ineffectual those sacrifices which France had for so
+many years made. &#8220;Madame de Chevreuse,&#8221; he exclaimed, &#8220;would ruin
+France!&#8221; He knew well that, intimately associated with Gaston, her old
+accomplice in all the plots framed against Richelieu, she had won him
+over to the idea of a separate peace by holding out the hope of a
+marriage between his daughter Mademoiselle de Montpensier and the
+Arch-duke, which would have brought him the government of the Low
+Countries. He knew that she had preserved all her influence with the
+Duke de Lorraine; he knew, in fine, that she boasted of having the power
+of promptly negotiating a peace through the mediation of the Queen of
+Spain, who was at her disposal. Thus informed, he entreated his royal
+mistress to reject all Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s propositions, and to tell
+her plainly that she would not listen to anything relating to a separate
+treaty, that she was decided upon not separating herself from her
+allies, that she desired a general peace, that with such view she had
+sent her ministers to Munster, who were then negotiating that important
+matter, and that it was superfluous to speak to her any more upon the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Though baffled on these different points, Madame de Chevreuse did not
+consider herself vanquished. She rallied and emboldened her adherents by
+her lofty spirit and firm resolution. The party feud went on&mdash;intrigues
+were multiplied&mdash;but up to the close of August, 1643, no change had
+taken place, though the acrimony of party feeling had become largely
+increased. Finding that she had fruitlessly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> employed insinuation,
+flattery, artifice, and every species of Court man&#339;uvre, her daring
+mind did not shrink from the idea of having recourse to other means of
+success. She kept up a brisk agitation amongst the bishops and devotees,
+she continued to weave her political plots with the chiefs of the
+<i>Importants</i>, and at the same time she formed a closer intimacy with
+that small cabal which formed in some sort the advance-guard of that
+party, composed of men reared amongst the old conspiracies, accustomed
+to and always ready for <i>coups de main</i>, who had of old embarked in more
+than one desperate enterprise against Richelieu, and who, in an
+extremity, might be likewise launched against Mazarin. The memoirs of
+the time, and especially those of De Retz and La Rochefoucauld, make us
+sufficiently well acquainted with their names and characters. The former
+mistress of Chalais found little difficulty in acquiring sole sway over
+a faction composed of second-rate talents. She caressed it skilfully;
+and, with the art of an experienced conspirator, she fomented every germ
+of false honour, of quintessential devotedness, and extravagant
+rashness. Mazarin, who, like Richelieu, had an admirable police,
+forewarned of Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s machinations, fully comprehended the
+danger with which he was menaced. No one could have been better informed
+as to his exact position than the Cardinal: and the plans of the Duchess
+and the chiefs of the <i>Importants</i> developed themselves clearly under
+Mazarin&#8217;s sharp-sightedness&mdash;either by their incessant and
+elaborately-concerted intrigues with the Queen, to force her to abandon
+a minister to whose policy she had not yet openly declared her adhesion,
+or, should it prove necessary, treat that minister as De Luynes had done
+the last Queen-mother&#8217;s favourite d&#8217;Ancre, and as Montr&eacute;sor, Barri&egrave;re,
+and Saint-Ybar would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> have served Richelieu. The first plan not having
+succeeded, they began to think seriously about carrying out the second,
+and Madame de Chevreuse, the strongest mind of the party, proposed with
+some show of reason to act before the return of the young hero of
+Rocroy, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien; for that victorious soldier once in Paris
+would unquestionably shield Mazarin. It became necessary, therefore, to
+profit by his absence in order to strike a decisive blow. Success seemed
+certain, and even easy. They were sure of having the people with them,
+who, exhausted by a long war and groaning under taxation, would
+naturally welcome with delight the hope of peace and repose. They might
+reckon on the declared support of the parliament, burning to recover
+that importance in the State of which it had been deprived by Richelieu,
+and which was then a matter of dispute with Mazarin. They had all the
+secret, even overt sympathy of the episcopate, which, with Rome,
+detested the Protestant alliance, and demanded the restoration of that
+of Spain. The eager concurrence of the aristocracy could not be doubted
+for a moment; which ever regretted its old and turbulent independence,
+and whose most illustrious representatives, the Vend&ocirc;mes, the Guises,
+the Bouillons, and the La Rochefoucaulds were strenously opposed to the
+domination of a foreign favourite, without fortune, of no birth, and as
+yet without fame. The princes of the blood resigned themselves to
+Mazarin rather than to liking him. The Duke d&#8217;Orleans was not remarkable
+for great fidelity to his friends, and the politic Prince de Cond&eacute;
+looked twice ere he quarrelled with the successful. He coaxed all
+parties, whilst he clung to his own interests. His son, doubtless, would
+follow in his father&#8217;s footsteps, and he would be won over by being
+overwhelmed with honours. The day follow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>ing that on which the blow
+should be struck there would be no resistance to their ascendancy, and
+on the very day itself scarcely any obstacle. The Italian regiments of
+Mazarin were with the army; there were scarcely any other troops in
+Paris save the regiments of the guards, the colonels of which were
+nearly all devoted to the <i>Importants</i>. The Queen herself had not yet
+renounced her former friendships. Her prudent reserve even was wrongly
+interpreted. As it was her desire to appease and deal gently on all
+hands, she gave kind words to everybody, and those kind words were taken
+as tacit encouragement. Anne had not hitherto shown much firmness of
+character; a certain amount of liking for the Cardinal was not unjustly
+imputed to her, and undue significance already attributed to the
+steadily increasing attachment of a few short months.</p>
+
+<p>Mazarin, on his own part, indulged in no illusions. He was decidedly not
+yet master of Anne of Austria&#8217;s heart; since at that moment&mdash;that is to
+say, during the month of July, 1643&mdash;in his most secret notes he
+displays a deep inquietude and despondency. The dissimulation of which
+everybody accused the Queen obviously terrified him, and we see him
+passing through all the alternations of hope and fear. It is very
+curious to trace and follow out the varied fluctuations of his mind. In
+his official letters to ambassadors and generals he affects a security
+which he does not feel. With his own intimate friends he permits some
+hint of his perplexities to escape him, but in his private memoranda
+they are all laid bare. We therein read his inmost carks and cares, and
+his passionate entreaties that the Queen-Regent would open her mind to
+him. He feigns the utmost disinterestedness towards her; he simply asks
+to make way for Ch&acirc;teauneuf, if she has any secret preference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> for that
+minister. The ambiguous conduct of the Regent harasses and distresses
+him, and he conjures her either to permit him to retire or to declare
+herself in favour of his policy.</p>
+
+<p>This exciting contest continued with the keenest activity, but no change
+had occurred up to the end of July, and even the first days of August,
+1643, though this critical state of affairs had become greatly
+aggravated. The violence of the <i>Importants</i> increased daily; the Queen
+defended her minister, but she also showed consideration for his
+enemies. She hesitated to take the decided attitude which Mazarin
+required at her hands, not only in his individual interest, but in that
+of his government. Suddenly an incident, very insignificant apparently,
+but which by assuming larger proportions brought about the inevitable
+crisis&mdash;forced the Queen to declare herself, and Madame de Chevreuse to
+plunge deeper into a baleful enterprise, the idea of which had already
+forced itself upon her imagination. A great scandal occurred. We allude
+to a quarrel between the two duchesses, de Longueville and de
+Montbazon.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> De Retz Memoirs, Petitot Collection.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Madame de Motteville.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Louis died May 14th, 1643.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Mazarin himself has furnished this fact, otherwise
+unknown, in one of his diaries (<i>Carnet</i>, pp. 72, 73). The
+Cardinal-Minister was in the habit of jotting down the chief events of
+each day in these small memorandum books (<i>Carnets</i>), which he kept in
+the pocket of his cassock.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, Memoirs, p. 383.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Anne de Rohan, wife of M. de Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;, eldest son of the
+Duke de Montbazon, and brother of Madame de Chevreuse.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Carnet, iii. p. 39.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESS DE MONTBAZON.&mdash;THE AFFAIR OF THE DROPPED
+LETTERS.&mdash;THE QUARREL OF THE TWO DUCHESSES.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> declaring itself of the party of Mazarin, the house of Cond&eacute; had
+drawn down the hatred of the <i>Importants</i>, though their hostility
+scarcely fell upon Madame de Longueville. Her gentleness in everything
+in which her heart was not seriously engaged, her entire indifference to
+politics at this period of her life, with the graces of her mind and
+person, rendered her pleasing to every one, and shielded her from party
+spite. But apart from affairs of State, she had an enemy, and a
+formidable enemy, in the Duchess de Montbazon. We have said that Madame
+de Montbazon had been the mistress of the Duke de Longueville, and as
+one of the principal personages of the drama we are about to relate, she
+requires to be somewhat better known.</p>
+
+<p>We shall pass over in silence many of her foibles, without attempting to
+excuse any. Before sketching her life, or at least a portion of it, it
+will be necessary, in order to protect her memory against an excess of
+severity, to recall certain traditions and examples for which unhappily
+her family was notorious.</p>
+
+<p>Daughter of Claude de Bretagne, Baron d&#8217;Avangour, she was on her
+mother&#8217;s side granddaughter of that very complaisant Marquis de La
+Varenne Fouquet, who, successively scullion, cook, and ma&icirc;tre d&#8217;h&ocirc;tel of
+Henry the Fourth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> &#8220;gained more by carrying the amorous King&#8217;s <i>poulets</i>
+than basting those in his kitchen.&#8221; Catherine Fouquet, Countess de
+Vertus, his daughter, Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s mother, was beautiful,
+witty, somewhat giddy, and very gallant. Impatient of all hindrance, she
+had authorised one of her lovers to assassinate her husband; but it was
+the husband who assassinated the lover. The tragical termination of this
+rencontre does not seem to have cast a gloom over the life of the
+Countess de Vertus, for at seventy she began to learn to dance, and when
+seventy-three, married a young man over head and ears in debt.</p>
+
+<p>In 1628, Marie d&#8217;Avangour quitted her convent to espouse Hercule de
+Rohan, Duke de Montbazon, who was the father, by his first marriage, of
+Madame de Chevreuse and of the Prince de Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;. She was sixteen, and
+he sixty-one. Thorough fool as he was, the Duke did not conceal from
+himself, it is said, the conviction that such an union was fraught with
+some danger to him; but we may venture to affirm that he could not have
+foreseen all its dangers. Full of respect for the virtues of Marie de&#8217;
+Medicis, he recommended her example to his wife; then, with every
+confidence in the future, he conducted her to Court.</p>
+
+<p>In beauty the daughter was worthy of the mother, but in vices she left
+her far behind. Tallemant says she was one of the loveliest women
+imaginable. Her mind was not her most brilliant side, and the little
+that she had was turned to intrigue and perfidy. &#8220;Her mind,&#8221; says the
+indulgent Madame de Motteville, &#8220;was not so fine as her person; her
+brilliancy was limited to her eyes, which commanded love. She claimed
+universal admiration.&#8221; In regard to her character, all are unanimous. De
+Retz, who knew her well, speaks of her in these terms: &#8220;Madame de
+Montbazon was a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> great beauty. Modesty was wanting in her air. Her
+jargon might, during a dull hour, have supplied the defects of her mind.
+She showed but little faith in gallantry, none in business. She loved
+her own pleasure alone, and above her pleasure her interest. I never saw
+a person who, in vice, preserved so little respect for virtue.&#8221;
+Supremely vain and passionately fond of money, it was by the aid of her
+beauty that she sought influence and fortune. She, therefore, took
+infinite care of it, as of her idol, as of her resources, her treasure.
+She kept it in repair, heightened it by all sorts of artifices, and
+preserved it almost uninjured till her death. Madame de Motteville
+asserts that, during the latter part of her life, she was as full of
+vanity as if she were but twenty-five years of age; that she had the
+same desire to please, and that she wore her mourning garb in so
+charming a manner, that &#8220;the order of nature seemed changed, since age
+and beauty could be found united.&#8221; Ten years before, in 1647, at the age
+of thirty-five, when Mazarin gave a comedy in the Italian style, that
+is, an opera, there was in the evening a grand ball, and the Duchess de
+Montbazon was present, adorned with pearls, with a red feather on her
+head, and so dazzling in her appearance that the whole company was
+completely charmed. We can imagine what she was in 1643, at the age of
+thirty-one.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two conditions of perfect beauty&mdash;strength and grace, Madame de
+Montbazon possessed the first in the highest degree. She was tall and
+majestic, and she had all the charms of embonpoint. Her throat reminded
+one of the fulness, in this particular, of the antique
+statues&mdash;exceeding them, perhaps, somewhat. What struck the beholder
+most were her eyes and hair of intense blackness, upon a skin of the
+most dazzling white. Her defect was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> nose somewhat too prominent, with
+a mouth so large as to give her face an appearance of severity. It will
+be seen that she was the very opposite of Madame de Longueville. The
+latter was tall, but not to excess. The richness of her form did not
+diminish its delicacy. A moderate embonpoint exhibited, in full and
+exquisite measure, the beauty of the female form. Her eyes were of the
+softest blue; her hair of the most beautiful blonde. She had the most
+majestic air, and yet her peculiar characteristic was grace. To these
+were added the great difference of manners and tone. Madame de
+Longueville was, in her deportment, dignity, politeness, modesty,
+sweetness itself, with a languor and nonchalance which formed not her
+least charm. Her words were few, as well as her gestures; the inflexions
+of her voice were a perfect music.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The excess, into which she never
+fell, might have been a sort of fastidiousness. Everything in her was
+wit, sentiment, charm. Madame de Montbazon, on the contrary, was free of
+speech, bold and easy in her tone, full of stateliness and pride.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess was, nevertheless, a very attractive creature when she
+desired to be so, and such we must conceive her to have been if we would
+take account of the admiration she excited, and not exactly like the
+person which Cousin represents her when, at the age of nearly forty, she
+had become &#8220;a Colossus&#8221;&mdash;to use Tallemant&#8217;s phrase. At the same time it
+is true that, even in youth, she had less grace than strength, less
+delicacy than majesty. It is also true that she was free of speech, and
+in tone was bold and offhand; but those very defects for which she was
+remarkable only the better assured her empire over what, in modern
+parlance, would be termed the &#8220;fast&#8221; portion of the Court, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+sentiments to which she gave utterance revealed the most singular
+extravagance. But not a single voice protested when the Duke
+d&#8217;Hocquincourt proclaimed her <i>la belle des belles</i>. In the eyes of the
+foreigner she was the marvel which the generals who dreamed of the
+capture of Paris coveted; in other words, she was <i>par excellence</i> &#8220;the
+booty&#8221; most desirable, on the subject of which the Duke of Weimar
+perpetrated a thoroughly German joke, which we must be pardoned for not
+repeating: Anne of Austria might have smiled at it without blushing, but
+it is too gross to risk raising a laugh by its repetition in our days.</p>
+
+<p>She had a great number of adorers, and of happy adorers, from Gaston
+Duke of Orleans, and the Count de Soissons, slain at Marf&eacute;e, to Ranc&eacute;,
+the young and gallant editor of Anacreon, and the future founder of La
+Trappe. M. de Longueville had been for some time her lover by title, and
+he afforded her considerable advantages. When he married Mademoiselle de
+Bourbon, Madame the Princess exacted&mdash;without, however, being very
+faithfully obeyed&mdash;the discontinuance of all intercourse with his old
+mistress. Hence, in that interested soul, an irritation, which wounded
+vanity redoubled, when she saw this young bride, with her great name,
+her marvellous mind, her indefinable charms, advance into the world of
+gallantry, without the least effort draw after her all hearts, and take
+possession of, or at least share that empire of beauty of which she was
+so proud, and which was to her so precious. On the other hand, the Duke
+de Beaufort had not been able to restrain a passionate admiration for
+Madame de Longueville, which had been very coldly received. He was
+wounded by it, and his wound bled for a long time, as his friend, La
+Ch&acirc;tre,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> informs us,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> even after he had transferred his homage to
+Madame de Montbazon. The latter, as may be easily imagined, was again
+exasperated. Finally, the Duke de Guise, recently arrived in Paris,
+placed himself in the party of the <i>Importants</i> and at the service of
+Madame de Montbazon, who received him very favourably, at the same time
+she was striving to keep or recall the Duke de Longueville, and that she
+was ruling Beaufort, whose office near her was somewhat that of a
+<i>cavalier servente</i>. Thus it will be seen that Madame de Montbazon
+disposed through Beaufort and through Guise, as through her
+daughter-in-law Madame de Chevreuse, of the house of Vend&ocirc;me and that of
+Lorraine, and she employed all this influence to the profit of her
+hatred against Madame de Longueville. She burned to injure her, and was
+not long in finding an opportunity of doing it.</p>
+
+<p>One day when a numerous company was assembled in her salon, one of her
+young lady friends picked up a couple of letters which had been dropped
+on the floor, bearing no signatures, but in a feminine handwriting, and
+of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read, and a thousand jokes
+perpetrated concerning them, and some effort made to discover the
+author. They were from a woman who wrote tenderly to some one whom she
+did not hate. Madame de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen from
+the pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just gone out, and that they
+were in the handwriting of Madame de Longueville. The word of command
+thus once given, the Duke de Beaufort was amongst the first to spread
+the insinuation which was a calumny, all the echoes of the party of the
+<i>Importants</i> took it up, and Madame de Montbazon herself found plea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>sure
+in repeating it during several following days, so that the incident
+became the entertainment of the Court. A frivolous curiosity has very
+faithfully preserved the text of the two letters thus found at the
+Duchess&#8217;s house.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
+
+<p class="title"><small>I.</small></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I should much more regret the change in your conduct if I
+thought myself less worthy of a continuation of your
+affection. I confess to you that so long as I believed it to
+be true and warm, mine gave you all the advantages which you
+could desire. Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem
+which I owe to your discretion. I have too much pride to
+share the passion which you have so often sworn to me, and I
+desire to punish your negligence in seeing me, in no other
+way than by depriving you entirely of my society. I request
+that you will visit me no more, since I have no longer the
+power of commanding your presence.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p class="title"><small>II.</small></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;To what conclusion have you come after so long a silence?
+Do you not know that the same pride which rendered me
+sensible to your past affection forbids me to endure the
+false appearances of its continuation! You say that my
+suspicions and my inequalities render you the most unhappy
+person in the world. I assure you that I believe no such
+thing, although I cannot deny that you have perfectly loved
+me, as you must confess that my esteem has worthily
+recompensed you. So far we have done each other justice, and
+I am determined not to have in the end less goodness, if
+your conduct responds to my intentions. You would find them
+less unreasonable if you had more passion, and the
+difficulties of seeing me would only augment instead of
+diminishing it. I suffer for loving too much, and you for
+not loving enough. If I must believe you, let us exchange
+humours. I shall find repose in doing my duty, and you in
+doing yours, and you must fail in doing yours, in order to
+obtain liberty. I do not perceive that I forget the manner
+in which I passed the winter with you, and that I speak to
+you as frankly as I have heretofore done. I hope that you
+will make as good use of it, and that I shall not regret
+being overcome in the resolution which I have made to return
+to it no more. I shall remain at home for three or four days
+in succession, and will be seen only in the evening: you
+know the reason.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>These letters were not forgeries. They had been really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> written by
+Madame de Fouquerolles to the handsome and elegant Marquis de
+Maulevrier, who had been silly enough to drop them in Madame de
+Montbazon&#8217;s <i>salon</i>. Maulevrier, trembling at being discovered, and at
+having compromised Madame de Fouquerolles, ran to La Rochefoucauld, who
+was his friend, confided to him his secret, and begged him to undertake
+to hush up the affair. La Rochefoucauld made Madame de Montbazon
+understand that it was for her interest to be generous on this occasion,
+for the error or fraud would be easily recognised as soon as the writing
+should be compared with that of Madame de Longueville. Madame de
+Montbazon placed the original letters in the hands of La Rochefoucauld,
+who showed them to M. the Prince and to Madame the Princess, to Madame
+de Rambouillet, and to Madame Sabl&eacute;, particular friends of Madame de
+Longueville, and, the truth being well established, burned them in the
+presence of the Queen, delivering Maulevrier and Madame de Fouquerolles
+from the terrible anxiety into which they had been for some time thrown.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Cond&eacute; felt a lively resentment at the insult offered to it.
+The Duke and Duchess de Longueville desired, it is true, the one by a
+sentiment of interested prudence, the other by a just feeling of
+dignity, to take no further notice of the matter. But the Princess,
+impelled by her high spirit, and still intoxicated by her son&#8217;s success,
+exacted a reparation equal to the offence, and declared loudly that, if
+the Queen and the government did not defend the honour of her house, she
+and all her family would withdraw from the Court. She was indignant at
+the mere idea of placing her daughter in the scales with the
+granddaughter of a cook. In vain did the whole party of the
+<i>Importants</i>, with Beaufort and Guise at their head, agitate and
+threaten;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> in vain did Madame de Chevreuse, who had not yet lost all her
+influence with the Queen, strive earnestly in behalf of her
+mother-in-law. It did not suffice for the resentment of the Princess and
+the Duke d&#8217;Enghien that Madame de Longueville&#8217;s innocence was fully
+recognised; they demanded a public reparation. Madame de Motteville has
+left us an amusing recital of the &#8220;mummeries,&#8221; as she terms them, of
+which she was a witness.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen was in her state cabinet and the Princess beside her, in great
+emotion and looking very fierce, declaring the affair to be nothing less
+than the crime of high treason. Madame de Chevreuse, interested for a
+thousand reasons in the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was busy with
+Cardinal Mazarin arranging the composition of the apology to be made. At
+every word there was a <i>pour-parler</i> of half an hour. The Cardinal went
+from one side to the other to accommodate the difference, as if such a
+peace was necessary for the welfare of France, and his own in
+particular. It was arranged that the criminal should present herself at
+the Princess&#8217;s hotel on the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>The apology was written upon a small piece of paper and attached to her
+fan, in order that she might repeat it word for word to the Princess.
+She did it in the most haughty manner possible, assuming an air which
+seemed to say, &#8220;I jest in every word I utter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mademoiselle de Montpensier gives us the two speeches made upon the
+occasion. &#8220;Madame, I come here to protest to you that I am innocent of
+the wickedness of which I have been accused: no person of honour could
+utter a calumny such as this. If I had committed a like fault, I should
+have submitted to any punishment which it might have pleased the Queen
+to inflict upon me; I should never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> have shown myself again in the
+world, and would have asked your pardon. I beg you to believe that I
+shall never fail in the respect which I owe to you and in the opinion
+which I have of the virtue and of the merit of Madame de
+Longueville.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> That lady was not present at the ceremony, and her
+mother, to whom the Duchess addressed herself, made a very short and dry
+reply. This reconciliation did not deceive any one of those present; it
+was, in fact, only a fresh declaration of war.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the satisfaction which she had just obtained, the Princess had
+asked and had been permitted the privilege of never associating with the
+Duchess de Montbazon. Some time after, Madame de Chevreuse invited the
+Queen to a collation in the public garden of Renard. This was then the
+rendezvous of the best society. It was at the termination of the
+Tuileries, near the Porte de la Conf&eacute;rence, which abutted on the <i>Cours
+de la Reine</i>. In the summer, on returning from the <i>Cours</i>, which was
+the &#8220;Rotten Row&#8221; of the day, and the spot where the beauties of the time
+exercised their powers, it was customary to stop at the garden Renard
+for the purpose of taking refreshments, and to listen to serenades
+performed after the Spanish fashion. The Queen took pleasure in visiting
+this place during fine summer evenings. She desired Madame the Princess
+to partake with her the collation offered by Madame de Chevreuse,
+assuring her at the same time that Madame de Montbazon would not be
+present; but the latter person was really there, and even pretended to
+do the honours of the collation as mother-in-law of the lady who gave
+it. The Princess wished to withdraw, in order that the entertainment
+might not be disturbed: the Queen had no right whatever to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> detain her.
+She, therefore, begged Madame de Montbazon to pretend sickness, and by
+leaving the party, to relieve her from embarrassment. The haughty
+Duchess would not consent to fly before her enemy, and kept her place.
+The Queen, offended, refused the collation and quitted the promenade. On
+the morrow an order from the King enjoined upon Madame de Montbazon to
+leave Paris. This disgrace irritated the <i>Importants</i>. They thought
+themselves humiliated and enfeebled, and there were no violent or
+extreme measures which they did not contemplate. The Duke de Beaufort,
+smitten at once in his influence and his love, uttered loud
+denunciations, and it was reported that a plot had been formed against
+the life of Mazarin.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Villefore, p. 32.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> M&eacute;moires of La Ch&acirc;tre. Petitot Collection, vol. li. p.
+230.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> M&eacute;moires of Madlle. de Montpensier, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> M&eacute;moires, vol. i. p. 65.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE IMPORTANTS.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is necessary, at this juncture, to have a just idea of the general
+position of political affairs in France, as well as of the attitude of
+the faction known as the <i>Importants</i>, who were then most active in
+opposing the government of Mazarin, in order to understand clearly the
+gravity of an incident which otherwise in itself might seem to be of
+little consequence.</p>
+
+<p>La Rochefoucauld, the historian of that party, has made us tolerably
+familiar with the men who composed it. They were a band of eccentric and
+mischievous spirits, bold of heart, ready of hand, and of boundless
+fidelity to one another. Professing to hold the most outrageous maxims,
+incessantly invoking Brutus and old Rome, and intermingling gallant with
+political intrigues, they suffered themselves to be hurried beyond the
+bounds of reason through a Quixotic idea of always pleasing the ladies.
+They had all been more or less fellow-sufferers with Anne of Austria
+during the period of her affliction and persecution by Richelieu, and
+from the commencement of her Regency, these returning exiles and
+liberated prisoners had been gathering round her until at last, formed
+into a faction, they gave themselves out as the Queen&#8217;s party, and by
+adopting a high-flown, turgid, and mysterious style of phraseology, and
+assuming bombastic and braggart airs of authority, coupled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> with an
+affectation of capacity and profundity, obtained for themselves from the
+wits of the Court and city the nickname of <i>The Importants</i>, under which
+they figured until absorbed a few years later in the more general and
+popular designation of <i>Frondeurs</i>. Their favourite chief was the Duke
+de Beaufort, of whom we have already spoken as possessing very nearly
+the same characteristics as the rest&mdash;at once artificial and
+extravagant, with great pretensions to loyalty and patriotism,
+professing to be a man of independent action, but in fact wholly ruled
+by Madame de Montbazon, who, in her turn, was swayed by the Duchess de
+Chevreuse.</p>
+
+<p>On the sudden disappearance from Paris of one of the most distinguished
+of the lady leaders of the <i>Importants</i>&mdash;like a star of the first
+magnitude fallen from their system&mdash;the entire party was thrown into
+commotion, whilst the more intimate friends and admirers of the banished
+beauty raised a fierce outcry. Such an open disgrace of the young and
+beautiful Duchess sorely irritated her restless partisans. They
+considered themselves humiliated and weakened by it, and there was no
+violence or extremity to which they were not prepared to resort. Her
+slave and adorer, the Duke de Beaufort, assailed at once on the score of
+his political interest and personal gallantry, vapoured and stormed
+furiously. Thoughts of vengeance, which, like the mutterings of an
+approaching tempest, had begun to brood beneath the roof of the H&ocirc;tel de
+Vend&ocirc;me, now became concentrated in a plot to get rid of Mazarin by fair
+means or foul, divers modes of its execution being earnestly discussed.</p>
+
+<p>In such conjunctures, the Cardinal rose to the level of Richelieu. At
+the same time he had to secure safety and success mainly through his own
+courage and patience. But he knew right well how to play his part. The
+wily minister<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> already stood well with the Queen&mdash;had begun to seem
+necessary, or at least very useful to her, though Anne of Austria had
+not yet formally declared her approval of his policy. Mazarin
+represented to her what she owed alike to the State and the royal
+authority now seriously <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'theatened'">threatened</ins>. That she must prefer the interest of
+her son and his crown to friendships&mdash;satisfactory enough at other
+times, but which had now become dangerous. He brought before her eyes
+most indubitable proofs of a conspiracy to take his life, and entreated
+her to choose between his enemies and himself. Anne of Austria did not
+hesitate, and the ruin of the <i>Importants</i> was decided upon.</p>
+
+<p>More dangerous ground could scarcely have been found whereon to post the
+<i>Importants</i>. The Duchess de Montbazon, as disreputable in morals and
+character as she was remarkable for her beauty, had attacked a young
+wife, who, having just made her appearance at the Regent&#8217;s court, had
+already become the object of universal admiration. To a loveliness at
+once so graceful and dazzling that it was pronounced to be angelic,
+Madame de Longueville added great intelligence, a most noble heart, and
+was a person of all others whom it behoved the <i>Importants</i> to
+conciliate; for her natural generosity of character had disinclined her
+to side with the party of repression, and thereby had even given some
+umbrage to the Prime Minister. At that moment, she was merely occupied
+with intellectual pursuits, innocent gallantry, and above all with the
+fame of her brother, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien; but there were, it must be
+owned, already perceptible in her mind, some germs of an <i>Important</i>,
+which, later, Rochefoucauld knew only too well how to develop. But the
+slanderous attack that had been made upon her, the disgraceful motive of
+which was suffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>ciently clear, revolted every honest heart. The
+ungovernable impetuosity of Beaufort on this occasion was&mdash;as it
+deserved to be&mdash;strongly stigmatised. Having formerly paid his addresses
+to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and been rejected, his conduct assumed the
+aspect of an obvious revenge. Moreover, Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s every
+effort being directed towards depriving Mazarin of supporters, she
+incited the devotees of either sex who were about the Queen to act
+against him, and Madame de Longueville was no less the idol of the
+Carmelites and the party of the <i>Saints</i> than that of the H&ocirc;tel de
+Rambouillet. Again, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien, already covered with the laurels
+of Rocroy, and about to entwine therewith those of Thionville, was so
+evidently the arbiter of the situation, that Madame de Chevreuse
+insisted, with much force, that Mazarin should be got rid of whilst the
+young Duke was occupied with the distant enemy, and before he should
+return from the army. To wound him through so susceptible a medium as
+that of an adored sister, to turn him against herself without any
+necessity, and hasten his return, would be a silly extravagance.
+Therefore, all who had any sense among the <i>Importants</i>&mdash;La
+Rochefoucauld, La Ch&acirc;tre, and Campion&mdash;anxiously sought to hush up and
+terminate this deplorable affair; and Madame de Chevreuse, sedulous to
+pay court to the Queen at the same time that she was weaving a subtle
+plot against her minister, had prepared the little f&ecirc;te for her at
+Renard&#8217;s garden with the design of dispersing the last remaining
+cloudlets of the lately-spent tempest. But the Duchess&#8217;s politic purpose
+was, as we have seen, destined to fail through the insane pride of a
+woman who was as senseless as she was heartless.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Under these critical circumstances how did it behove Madame de Chevreuse
+to act? She was compelled to restrain Madame de Montbazon, but she could
+neither abandon her nor be false to herself. She resolved therefore to
+follow up energetically the formidable project which had become the last
+hope and supreme resource of her party. Through Madame de Montbazon,
+Beaufort had been dragged into it. The latter had mustered the men of
+action already mentioned, and who were wholly devoted to him. A plot had
+been devised and every measure concerted for surprising and perhaps
+killing the Cardinal.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Alexandre de Campion, in the <i>Recueil</i> before cited,
+writes to Madame de Montbazon:&mdash;&#8220;Si mon avis eut &eacute;t&eacute; suivi chez Renard,
+vous seriez sortie, pour ob&eacute;ir &agrave; la Reine, vous n&#8217;habiteriez pas la
+maison de Rochefort, et nous ne serions pas dans le p&eacute;ril dont nous
+sommes menac&eacute;s.&#8221;</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE CONSPIRACY OF THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE AND THE DUKE DE
+BEAUFORT TO GET RID OF MAZARIN.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">One</span> need not be greatly astonished at such an enterprise on the part of
+two women of high rank and a grandson of Henry the Great. At that
+stirring epoch of French history&mdash;the interval between the League and
+the Fronde&mdash;energy and strength were the distinctive traits of the
+French aristocracy. Neither court life nor a corrupting opulence had yet
+enervated it. Everything was then in extremes, in vice as in virtue. Men
+attacked and defended one another with the same weapons. The Marshal
+d&#8217;Ancre had been massacred; more than one attempt had been made to
+assassinate Richelieu; whilst he, on his side, had not been backward in
+having recourse to the sword and block. Corneille paints faithfully the
+spirit of the epoch. His Emilie is also involved in an assassination,
+and she is not the less represented as a perfect heroine. Madame de
+Chevreuse had long been accustomed to conspiracies; she was bold and
+unscrupulous. She did not gather round her such men as Beaupuis,
+Saint-Ybar, De Varicarville, and de Campion merely to pass the time in
+idle conversation. She had not remained a stranger to the designs they
+had formerly concocted against Richelieu, for in 1643 she fomented, as
+we have seen, their exaltation and their devotedness; and it was not
+unreasonable, certainly, that Mazarin should attri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>bute to her the first
+idea of the project which Beaufort was to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time it must be remembered that the <i>Importants</i> and their
+successors the <i>Frondeurs</i> denied this project and declared it the
+invention of the Cardinal. It is a point of the highest historical
+importance and deserves serious examination, as upon this conspiracy,
+real or imaginary, as may be determined after careful investigation,
+rests the fact whether Mazarin owed in reality all his career and the
+great future which then opened before him to a falsehood cunningly
+invented and audaciously sustained; or whether Madame de Chevreuse and
+the <i>Importants</i>, after having tried their utmost against him, now
+resolving to destroy him with the armed hand, were themselves destroyed
+and became the instruments of his triumph. The evidence available
+irresistibly leads to the latter conclusion, and we think that we shall
+be able to show that the plot attributed to the <i>Importants</i>, far from
+being a chim&aelig;ra, was the almost inevitable solution of the violent
+crisis just described.</p>
+
+<p>La Rochefoucauld, without having indulged in the insane hopes of his
+friends and lent his hand to their rash enterprise, made it a point of
+honour to defend them after their discomfiture, and set himself to cover
+the retreat. He affects to doubt whether the plot which then made so
+much noise was real or supposititious. In his eyes, the greater
+probability was that the Duke de Beaufort, by a false <i>finesse</i>,
+endeavoured to excite alarm in the Cardinal, believing that it was
+sufficient to strike terror into his mind to force him to quit France,
+and that it was with this view that he held secret meetings and gave
+them the appearance of conspiracy. La Rochefoucauld constitutes himself
+especially the champion of Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s innocence, and
+declares<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> himself thoroughly persuaded that she was ignorant of
+Beaufort&#8217;s designs.</p>
+
+<p>After the historian of the <i>Importants</i>, that of the <i>Frondeurs</i> holds
+very nearly the same arguments. Like La Rochefoucauld, De Retz has only
+one object in his Memoirs&mdash;that of investing himself with a semblance of
+capacity and making a great figure in every way, in evil as well as
+good. He is often more truthful, because he cares less about other
+people, and that he is disposed to sacrifice all the world except
+himself. In this matter it is hard to conceive the motive for his
+reserve and incredulity. He knew right well that the majority of the
+persons accused of having taken part in the plot had already been
+implicated in more than one such business. He himself tells us that he
+had conspired with the Count de Soissons, that he had blamed him for not
+having struck down Richelieu at Amiens, and that with La Rochepot, he,
+the Abb&eacute; de Retz, had formed the design of assassinating him at the
+Tuileries during the ceremony of the baptism of Mademoiselle (de
+Montpensier). The Co-adjutorship of the Archbishopric of Paris, which
+the Regent had just granted him, in consideration of his own services
+and the virtues of his father, had mollified him, it is true; but his
+old accomplices, who had not been so well treated as he, had remained
+faithful to their cause, to their designs, to their habitudes. Was De
+Retz then sincere when he refused to believe that they had attempted
+against Mazarin that which he had seen them undertake, and which he had
+himself undertaken against Richelieu? In his blind hatred he throws
+everything upon Mazarin: he pretends that he was terrified, or that he
+feigned terror. It was the Abb&eacute; de la Rivi&egrave;re, he tells us, who, in
+order to rid himself of the rivalry of the Count de Montr&eacute;sor in the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>&#8217; favour, must have persuaded Mazarin that there was a
+plot set on foot against him, in which Montr&eacute;sor was mixed up. It was
+the Prince de Cond&eacute; also who must have tried to destroy Beaufort through
+fear lest his son, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien, might engage with him in some
+duel, as he wished to do, to avenge his sister, during the short visit
+he made to Paris after taking Thionville.</p>
+
+<p>To the suspicious opinions of de Retz and La Rochefoucauld let us oppose
+testimony more <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'distinterested'">disinterested</ins>, and before all other the silence of
+Montr&eacute;sor,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> who, whilst protesting that neither he nor his friend the
+Count de B&eacute;thune had meddled with the conspiracy imputed to the Duke de
+Beaufort, says not a single word against the reality of that conspiracy,
+which he would not have failed to ridicule had he believed it imaginary.
+Madame de Motteville, who was not in the habit of overwhelming the
+unfortunate, after having reported with impartiality the different
+rumours circulated at Court, relates certain facts which appear to her
+authentic, and which are decisive.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> One of the best informed and most
+truthful of contemporary historians expresses not the slightest doubt on
+this head. &#8220;The <i>Importants</i>,&#8221; says Monglat, &#8220;seeing that they could not
+drive the Cardinal out of France, resolved to despatch him with their
+daggers, and held several councils on this subject at the H&ocirc;tel de
+Vend&ocirc;me.&#8221; That opinion is confirmed by new and numerous particulars with
+which Mazarin&#8217;s <i>carnets</i> and <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'confidental'">confidential</ins> letters furnish us.</p>
+
+<p>The person whom Mazarin signalizes in his <i>carnets</i> and letters as the
+trusted friend of Beaufort and after him the principal accused, the
+Count de Beaupuis, son of the Count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> de Maill&eacute;, had found means of
+sheltering himself from the minister&#8217;s first searches; he had succeeded
+in escaping from France and sought an asylum at Rome under the avowed
+protection of Spain. Mazarin left no stone unturned to obtain from the
+Court of Rome the extradition of Beaupuis, in order that he might be
+legally tried. The Pope at first could not refuse, at least for form&#8217;s
+sake, to have Beaupuis committed to the Castle of St. Angelo. But he was
+soon liberated, and provided with a State lodging wherein he was allowed
+to see nearly every one who came. Mazarin complained loudly of such
+indulgence. &#8220;It is all arranged,&#8221; said he, &#8220;that when necessary he may
+escape, or at any rate the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me is furnished with every
+facility for poisoning him, in order that with Beaupuis may perish the
+principal proof of his son&#8217;s treason. If all this happened in Barbary,
+people would be highly indignant. And this is suffered to take place in
+Rome, in the capital of Christianity, under the eyes and by the orders
+of a Pope!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Failing Beaupuis, Mazarin would have liked to put his hand upon one of
+the brothers Campion, intimately connected as they were with Beaufort
+and Madame de Chevreuse, and too closely in the confidence of both not
+to know all their secrets. He himself complains, as we have seen, of
+being very badly seconded. And then he had to do with emerited
+conspirators, consummate in the art of concealing themselves and of
+leaving no trace of their whereabouts&mdash;with the active and indefatigable
+Duchess de Chevreuse, and with the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me, who, in order to
+save his son, set about forwarding the escape of all those whose
+depositions might help to convict him, or kept them somehow in his own
+hands, hidden and shut up close at Anet. Mazarin was thus only able to
+arrest a few obscure individuals who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> were ignorant of the plot, and
+could throw no light upon it.</p>
+
+<p>But it is needless to exhaust existing proofs in demonstration of the
+fact that Mazarin did not enact a farce by instituting proceedings
+against the conspirators, that he pursued them with sincerity and
+vigour, and that he was perfectly convinced that a project of
+assassination had been formed against him, when the existence of that
+project is elsewhere averred, when, in default of a sentence of the
+parliament, which could not have been given in the teeth of insufficient
+evidence, neither Beaupuis, nor the Campions, nor Li&eacute;, nor Brillet
+having been arrested, better proof being extant in the full and entire
+confession of one of the principal conspirators, with the plan and all
+the details of the affair set forth in Memoirs of comparatively recent
+publication, but the authenticity of which cannot be contested. We
+allude to the precious Memoirs of Henri de Campion,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> brother of
+Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s friend, whom that lady had introduced also to the
+service of the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me, and more particularly to that of the
+Duke de Beaufort. Henri had accompanied the Duke in his flight to
+England after the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, and he had returned with him;
+he possessed his entire confidence, and he relates nothing in which he
+himself had not taken a considerable part. Henri&#8217;s character was very
+different to that of his brother Alexandre. He was a well-educated man,
+full of honour and courage, not in the least given to boasting, averse
+to all intrigue, and born to make his way through life by the
+straightest paths in the career of arms. He wrote these Memoirs in
+solitude, to which after the loss of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> his daughter and his wife he had
+retired to await death amidst the exercise of a genuine piety. It is not
+in such a frame of mind that a man is disposed to invent fables, and
+there is no middle way. What he says is that which we must believe
+absolutely, or if we have any doubt that he speaks the truth, he must be
+considered as the worst of villains. No interested feeling could have
+directed his pen, for he compiled his Memoirs, or at least he finished
+them, a short time after Mazarin&#8217;s death, without thought, therefore, of
+paying court to him by making very tardy revelations, and scarcely two
+years before he himself died in 1663. Thus it may be fairly inferred
+that Henri de Campion wrote strictly under the inspiration of his
+conscience. One has only to open his Memoirs to see confirmed, point by
+point, all the particulars with which Mazarin&#8217;s <i>carnets</i> are filled.
+Nothing is there wanting, everything coincides, all marvellously
+corresponds. It appears, indeed, as though Mazarin in making his notes
+had had before his eyes de Campion&#8217;s Memoirs, or that the latter whilst
+penning them had Mazarin&#8217;s <i>carnets</i> before him: he at once so
+thoroughly takes up the thread and completes them.</p>
+
+<p>His brother Alexandre, in his letters of the month of August, 1643, had
+already let slip more than one mysterious sentence. He wrote to Madame
+de Montbazon in banishment:&mdash;&#8220;You must not despair, madam, there are
+still some half-a-dozen honest folks who do not give up.... Your
+illustrious friend will not abandon you. If to be prudent it were
+necessary to renounce your acquaintance, there are those who would
+prefer rather to pass for fools all their days.&#8221; Like Montr&eacute;sor, he does
+not once say that there was no plot framed against Mazarin, which is a
+kind of tacit avowal; and when the storm burst, he took care to conceal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+himself, advised Beaupuis to do the same, and ends with these
+significant words:&mdash;&#8220;In embarking in Court affairs one cannot be certain
+of being master of events, and whilst we profit by the lucky ones, we
+must resolve to put up with the unlucky.&#8221; Henri de Campion raises this
+already very transparent veil.</p>
+
+<p>He declares plainly that there was a project on foot to get rid of
+Mazarin, and that that project was conceived, not by Beaufort, but by
+Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de Montbazon. &#8220;I think,&#8221; says
+he, &#8220;that the Duke&#8217;s design did not spring from his own particular
+sentiment, but from the persuasion of the duchesses de Chevreuse and de
+Montbazon, who exercised entire sway over his mind and had an
+irreconcilable hatred to the Cardinal. What makes me say so, is that,
+whilst he was under that resolution, I always observed that he had an
+internal repugnance which, if I mistake not, was overcome by some pledge
+which he may have given to those ladies.&#8221; There <i>was</i>, therefore, a
+plot, and its real author, as Mazarin truly said, and Campion repeats,
+was Madame de Chevreuse; if so, Madame de Montbazon was only an
+instrument in her hands.</p>
+
+<p>Beaufort, once inveigled, drew in also his intimate friend, Count de
+Maill&eacute;&#8217;s son, the Count de Beaupuis, cornet in the Queen&#8217;s horse-guards.
+To them Madame de Chevreuse adjoined Alexandre de Campion, the elder
+brother of Henri. &#8220;She loved him much,&#8221; remarks the latter, and in a way
+which, added to certain ambiguous words of Alexandre, excites suspicion
+whether the elder Campion were not in fact one of the numerous
+successors of Chalais. He was then thirty-three, and his brother
+confesses that he had caught from the Count de Soissons the taste for
+and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> habitudes of faction. Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion
+approved of the plot when communicated to them, &#8220;the former,&#8221; says
+Henri, &#8220;believing that it would be a means for him of attaining to a
+position of greater importance, and my brother seeing therein Madame de
+Chevreuse&#8217;s advantage and by consequence his own.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Such were the two first accomplices of Beaufort. A little later he
+opened his mind on the subject to Henri de Campion, one of his principal
+gentlemen; to Li&eacute;, captain of his guards; and to Brillet, his equerry.
+There the secret rested. Many other gentlemen and domestics of the house
+of Vend&ocirc;me were destined to take action in the affair, but were admitted
+to no confidence. The project was well conceived and worthy of Madame de
+Chevreuse. There were at most five or six conspirators&mdash;three capable of
+keeping the secret, and who did keep it. Below them, the men of action,
+who did not know what they would be called on to do; and in the
+background, the men of the morrow, who might be reckoned upon to applaud
+the blow, when it had been struck, without it being judged fitting to
+admit them to the conspiracy. At least Henri de Campion does not even
+name Montr&eacute;sor, B&eacute;thune, Fontraille, Varicarville, Saint-Ybar, which
+explains wherefore Mazarin, whilst keeping his eye upon them, did not
+have them arrested. Neither does Campion speak of Chandenier, La Ch&acirc;tre,
+de Treville, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Guise, De Retz, nor La
+Rochefoucauld, whose sentiments were not doubtful, but who were not
+inclined to go so far as to sully their hands with an assassination. And
+that further explains the silence of Mazarin with regard to them in all
+that relates to Beaufort&#8217;s conspiracy, although he did not cherish the
+slightest illusion as to their dispositions, and as to the part they
+would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> taken if the plot had succeeded, or even if a serious
+struggle had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>The conspiracy rested for some time between Madame de Chevreuse, Madame
+de Montbazon, Beaufort, Beaupuis, and Alexandre de Campion. The final
+resolution was only taken at the end of July or in the first days of
+August, that is to say, precisely during the height of the quarrel
+between Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville, which ushered in
+the crisis and opened the door to all the events which followed. It was
+then only that Beaufort spoke of it to Henri de Campion, in presence of
+Beaupuis. Mazarin&#8217;s crime was the continuation of Richelieu&#8217;s system.
+&#8220;The Duke de Beaufort told me that he thought I had remarked that the
+Cardinal Mazarin was re-establishing at court and throughout the kingdom
+the tyranny of Cardinal de Richelieu, with even more of authority and
+violence than had been shown under the government of the latter; that
+having entirely gained the Queen&#8217;s mind and made all the ministers
+devoted to him, it was impossible to arrest his evil designs save by
+depriving him of life; that the public weal having made him resolve to
+take that step, he informed me of it in order that I might aid him with
+my advice and personally assist in its execution. Beaupuis next &#8216;took up
+his parable,&#8217; and warmly represented the evils which the too great
+authority of Richelieu had caused France, and concluded by saying that
+we must prevent the like inconvenience before his successor had rendered
+matters remediless.&#8221; Such conclusion embodied as nearly as possible the
+views and language of <i>Importants</i> and <i>Frondeurs</i>, of La Rochefoucauld
+and De Retz. Henri de Campion represents himself as having at first
+combatted the Duke&#8217;s project with so much force that more than once he
+was shaken; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> the two duchesses wound him up again very quickly, and
+Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion, instead of holding him back,
+encouraged him. Shortly afterwards, Beaufort having declared that he had
+made up his mind, Henri de Campion gave in on two conditions: &#8220;The one,&#8221;
+he tells us, &#8220;of not laying his hand on the Cardinal, since I would
+rather take my own life than do a deed of such nature. The other, that
+if the Duke should arrange that the project should be put into execution
+during his absence, I would never mix myself up in it; whereas if he
+were himself to be present, I should without scruple keep myself near
+his person, in order to defend him against any mischance that might
+happen, my duty and affection towards him equally obliging me thereto.
+He granted me those two conditions, testifying at the same time that he
+esteemed me more for having made them, and added that he would be
+present at the execution of the project, so that he might authorise it
+by his presence.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The plan was to attack the Cardinal in the street, whilst paying visits
+in his carriage, commonly having with him only a few ecclesiastics,
+besides five or six lackeys. It would be necessary to present themselves
+in force and unexpectedly, stop the vehicle and strike Mazarin. To do
+that, it was necessary that a certain number of the Vend&ocirc;me domestics,
+who were not in the secret, should post themselves daily, from early
+morning, in the <i>cabarets</i> around the Cardinal&#8217;s abode, which was then
+at the H&ocirc;tel de Cleves, near the Louvre. Among the domestics let into
+the secret, Henri de Campion names positively Gauseville. Over them were
+placed &#8220;the Sieurs d&#8217;Avancourt and De Brassy, Picardians, very resolute
+men and intimate friends of Li&eacute;.&#8221; The pretext given out was that the
+Cond&eacute;s proposing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> put an affront upon Madame de Montbazon, the Duke
+de Beaufort, in order to oppose it, desired to have in hand a troop of
+gentlemen well mounted and armed. Their parts were allotted beforehand.
+A certain number were to pounce upon the Cardinal&#8217;s coachman, at the
+same moment that others were to open the two doors and strike him,
+whilst the Duke would be at hand on horseback, with Beaupuis, Henri de
+Campion, and others, to cut down or drive off those who should be
+disposed to resist. Alexandre de Campion was to keep near the Duchess de
+Chevreuse and at her orders; and she herself ought more than ever to be
+assiduous in her attentions to the Queen, in order to smooth the way for
+her friends, and, in case of success, draw the Regent to the side of the
+victorious.</p>
+
+<p>Several occasions favourable to the execution of this plan presented
+themselves. In the first instance, Henri de Campion being with his band
+in the Rue du Champ-Fleuri&mdash;one end of which joins the Rue Saint-Honor&eacute;
+and the other approaches the Louvre&mdash;saw the Cardinal leave the H&ocirc;tel de
+Cleves in his carriage with the Abb&eacute; de Bentivoglio, the nephew of the
+celebrated cardinal of that name, with a few ecclesiastics and valets.
+Campion inquired of one of them whither the Cardinal was going, and was
+answered&mdash;to visit the Marshal d&#8217;Estr&eacute;es. &#8220;I saw,&#8221; says Campion, &#8220;that
+if I had made use of the information, his death would have been
+inevitable. But I thought that I should be so guilty in the eyes of God
+and man that I resisted the temptation to do so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next day it was known that the Cardinal would be present at a
+collation to be given by Madame du Vigean at her charming residence of
+La Barre, at the entrance of the valley of Montmorency, where Madame de
+Longueville was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> staying, and which the Queen had promised to honour
+with a visit, and who had already set out. The Cardinal was repairing
+thither, having with him in his coach only the Count d&#8217;Harcourt.
+Beaufort ordered Campion to assemble his troop and to ride after him,
+but Campion represented to the Duke that if they attacked the Cardinal
+in the company of the Count d&#8217;Harcourt, they must decide upon killing
+both, Harcourt being too generous to see Mazarin stabbed before his eyes
+without defending him, and that the murder of Harcourt would raise
+against them the entire house of Lorraine.</p>
+
+<p>Some days afterwards information was given that the Cardinal was engaged
+to dine at Maisons, with the Marshal d&#8217;Estr&eacute;es, to meet the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans. &#8220;I made the Duke consent,&#8221; says Campion, &#8220;that should the
+minister be in the same carriage with his Royal Highness, the design
+should not be executed; but he said, that if he were alone, he must be
+killed. Early in the morning he had the horses out and kept himself in
+readiness at the Capucins with Beaupuis, near the H&ocirc;tel de Vend&ocirc;me,
+posting a valet on foot in the street to tell him when the Cardinal
+should pass, and enjoining me to keep with those whom I was accustomed
+to muster at the Cabaret l&#8217;Ange, in the Rue Saint-Honor&eacute;, very near the
+H&ocirc;tel de Vend&ocirc;me, and if the Cardinal journeyed without the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans, I should mount instantly with all my men, and intercept him
+when passing the Capucins. I was,&#8221; adds Campion, &#8220;in a state of anxiety
+which may readily be imagined, until I saw the carriage of the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans pass, and perceived the Cardinal inside with him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At length, Beaufort&#8217;s irritation being carried to the highest pitch by
+the banishment from court of Madame<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> de Montbazon (which was certainly
+on the 22nd of August), goaded by Madame de Chevreuse, by passion, and
+by a false sense of honour, he became himself impatient to act. Seeing
+that, during the day, he encountered incessant difficulties of which he
+was far from divining the cause, he resolved to strike the blow at
+night, and prepared an ambuscade, the success of which seemed certain,
+and the details of which we have from Campion. The Cardinal went every
+evening to visit the Queen, and returned sufficiently late. It was
+arranged to attack him between the Louvre and the H&ocirc;tel de Cleves.
+Horses were to be in readiness in some neighbouring inn. The Duke
+himself should keep watch with Beaupuis and Campion, during the time the
+minister should be with the Queen, and so soon as he came forth, all
+three should advance and make a signal to the rest, who, in the
+meanwhile, should remain on horseback on the quay, by the river side,
+close to the Louvre. All which could be very well done at night without
+awakening any suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that the person who furnishes these very precise
+details was one of the principal conspirators, that he wrote at
+sufficiently considerable distance from the event, in safety, and, to
+repeat it once again, with no interest, fearing nothing more from
+Mazarin, who had recently died, and expecting nothing from him. It must
+be also remembered that speaking as he has done, he accuses his own
+brother; that, without doubt, he attributes to himself laudable
+intentions and even some good actions, but that he confesses having
+entered into the plot, and that, if its execution had taken place he
+would have taken part in it, in fighting by the side of Beaufort. The
+process submitted to the parliament not having led to anything, through
+failure of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> evidence, Campion did not imagine that Mazarin had ever
+known &#8220;the circumstances of the plot, nor those acquainted with it to
+the very bottom, and who were engaged in it.&#8221; He adds also, &#8220;that now
+the Cardinal is dead there is no longer any reason to fear injuring any
+one in stating matters as they are.&#8221; He therefore does not defend
+himself; he believes himself to be sheltered from all quest, he writes
+only to relieve his conscience.</p>
+
+<p>From these curious revelations we further learn what importance Mazarin
+attached to the arrest of Henri Campion; and that writer&#8217;s statements
+are not only substantially confirmed by various entries in the
+<i>carnets</i>, but read like a translation into French of those pages from
+the Cardinal&#8217;s Italian. &#8220;They threw,&#8221; he says, &#8220;into the Bastille,
+Avancourt and Brassy, where they deposed that I had mustered them on
+several occasions, on the part of the Duke de Beaufort, for the
+interests of Madame de Montbazon, as I had told them. This did not
+afford any motive for interrogating the Duke, since they owned that he
+had not spoken to them; thus he would not have failed to deny having
+given the orders which I carried to them on his part. It was then seen
+that the process against him could not be carried on before I had been
+arrested, in order to find matter whereon to interrogate him after my
+own depositions, and so thoroughly to embarrass us both that every trace
+of the affair might be discovered. The proof of this conspiracy was of
+most essential importance to the Cardinal, who directing all his efforts
+to the establishment of his government, and affecting to do so by gentle
+means, had been unfortunate enough to be constrained, in the outset, to
+use violence against one of the greatest men in the realm, for his own
+individual interest, without a conviction to prove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> that he was
+compelled to treat the Duke with rigour. The Cardinal, despairing of
+being able to persuade others of that of which he was entirely assured,
+had a great desire to get me into his hands. He was nevertheless of
+opinion that he must give me time to reassure myself of safety in order
+to take me with the greater facility.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We may add to all this that Henri de Campion, sought after sharply, and
+closely shut up in his retreat at Anet, under the protection of the Duke
+de Vend&ocirc;me, having fled from France and joined his friend the Count de
+Beaupuis at Rome, gives an account of the obstinate efforts made by
+Mazarin to obtain the extradition of the latter, the resistance of Pope
+Innocent X., the regard shown to Beaupuis when they were compelled to
+confine him in the Castle of Saint-Angelo; all of which being equally to
+be met with in the <i>carnets</i> and letters of Mazarin and the memoirs of
+Henri de Campion, places beyond doubt the perfect sincerity of the
+Cardinal&#8217;s proceedings and the accuracy of his information.</p>
+
+<p>Are not these, we may ask, proofs sufficient to reduce to naught the
+interested doubts of La Rochefoucauld and the passionate denials of the
+chief of the Fronde, the very clever but very little truthful Cardinal
+de Retz, the most ardent and most obstinate of Mazarin&#8217;s enemies? It
+would seem, indeed, either that there is no certitude whatever in
+history, or that it must be considered henceforth as a point absolutely
+demonstrated that there was a project determined upon to kill Mazarin;
+that that project had been conceived by Madame de Chevreuse, and in some
+sort imposed by her upon Beaufort with the aid of Madame de Montbazon;
+that Beaufort had for principal accomplices the Count de Beaupuis and
+Alexandre de Campion; that Henri de Campion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> had entered later into the
+affair, at the pressing solicitation of the Duke, as well as two other
+officers of secondary rank; that during the month of August there were
+divers serious attempts to put it into execution, particularly the last
+one after the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, at the very end of
+August or rather on the 1st of September; and that such attempt only
+failed through circumstances altogether independent of the will of the
+conspirators.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> M&eacute;moires, Petitot Collection, t. lix.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> M&eacute;moires, t. i., p. 184.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> &#8220;M&eacute;moires de Henri de Campion, &amp;c.,&#8221; 1807. Treuttel and
+W&uuml;rtz. Paris.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">FAILURE OF THE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MAZARIN. ARREST OF
+BEAUFORT, BANISHMENT OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE, AND DISPERSION
+OF THE &#8220;IMPORTANTS.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Let</span> us now inquire how the last attempt against Mazarin&#8217;s life&mdash;that
+nocturnal ambuscade so well planned and so deliberately set about on the
+1st of September, 1643&mdash;chanced to fail, and what was the result of such
+failure. Without stopping to discuss the conjectures of Campion on this
+point, it may suffice to state that Mazarin, who was on his guard,
+evaded the blow destined for him by not visiting the Queen during the
+evening on which it was resolved to kill him as he should return from
+the Louvre. Next day the scene was changed. A rumour spread rapidly that
+the Prime Minister had expected to have been murdered by Beaufort and
+his friends, that he had escaped, fortune having declared in his favour.
+A plot to assassinate, more especially when it fails, invariably excites
+the strongest indignation, and the man who has extricated himself from a
+great peril and seems destined to sweep all such from his path, readily
+finds adherents and defenders. A host of people who would probably have
+supported Beaufort victorious, now flocked to offer their swords and
+services to the Cardinal, and on that morning he went to the Louvre
+escorted by three hundred gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>For several days previously, Mazarin had seen clearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> that, cost what
+it might, he must cut his way through the knotted intricacy of the
+situation, and that the moment had arrived for forcing Anne of Austria
+to choose her part. The occasion was decisive. If the peril which he had
+just undergone, and which was only suspended over his head, did not
+suffice to draw the Queen from her incertitude, it would prove that she
+did not love him; and Mazarin knew well that, amidst the many dangers
+surrounding him, his entire strength lay in the Queen&#8217;s affection, and
+that thereon depended his present safety and future fate. Whether,
+therefore, through policy or sincere affection, it was always to Anne of
+Austria&#8217;s heart that he addressed himself, and at the outset of the
+crisis he had said to himself: &#8220;If I believed that the Queen was merely
+making use of me through necessity, without having any personal
+inclination for me, I would not stay here three days longer.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> But
+enough has been said to show plainly that Anne of Austria <i>loved</i>
+Mazarin. Comparing him with his rivals, she appreciated him daily more
+and more. She admired the precision and clearness of his intellect, his
+finesse and penetration, and that extraordinary energy which enabled him
+to bear the weight of government with marvellous ease&mdash;his quick and
+accurate introspection, his profound prudence, and at the same time the
+judicious vigour of his resolves. She saw the affairs of France
+prospering on all sides under his firm and skilful hand. The Cardinal,
+it is true, was not quite a nullity, in the fierce war which had
+inaugurated the new reign so dazzlingly; but a power of no slight weight
+was manifest in the success which had followed his advent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> to office,
+and which proved to startled Europe that the victory of Rocroy was not a
+lucky stroke of chance. When every member of the Council was opposed to
+the siege of Thionville, and when Turenne himself, on being consulted,
+did not venture to declare his opinion on the subject, it was Mazarin
+who had insisted with an unflinching persistence that the victory of
+Rocroy should be profited by, and that France should extend her frontier
+to the Rhine. That proposition, doubtless, emanated from the youthful
+conqueror, but Mazarin had the merit of comprehending, sustaining, and
+causing it to triumph. If no first minister had ever before been so
+served by such a general, neither had general ever been so supported by
+such a minister; and thanks to both, on the 11th of August, whilst the
+chivalrous <i>Importants</i> were exhausting their combined talents in
+putting a shameful affront upon the noble sister of the hero who had
+just served France so gloriously, and who was about to aggrandize it
+further&mdash;whilst they were displaying their vapid and turgid eloquence in
+the salons, or sharpening their poniards in gloomy council chambers,
+Thionville, then one of the chief strongholds of the Empire, surrendered
+after an obstinate defence. Thus, the Regency of Anne of Austria had
+opened under the most brilliant auspices.</p>
+
+<p>But in the height of this national glory and signal triumph, Queen Anne
+must indeed have shuddered when Mazarin placed before her all the proofs
+of the odious conspiracy formed against him. Explanations the most
+minute and confidential thereupon ensued between them. It was now more
+than ever compulsory for her to &#8220;raise the mask,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> to sacrifice to a
+manifest necessity the circumspection she was studious of preserving&mdash;to
+brave somewhat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> further the tittle-tattle of a few devotees of either
+sex, and at all events to permit her Prime Minister to defend his life.
+Up to this moment Anne of Austria had hesitated, for reasons which may
+be readily comprehended. But Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s insolence had greatly
+irritated her; the conviction she acquired that numerous attempts to
+assassinate Mazarin had only by chance failed, and might be renewed,
+decided her; and it was, therefore, towards the close of August, 1643,
+when the date of that declared ascendancy, open and unrivalled, must be
+certainly fixed, of the Minister of the Queen Regent. These
+conspirators, by proceeding to the last extremities, and thereby making
+her tremble for Mazarin&#8217;s life, hastened the triumph of the happy
+Cardinal; and on the morrow of the last nocturnal ambush in which he was
+marked for destruction, Jules Mazarin became absolute master of the
+Queen&#8217;s heart, and more powerful than Richelieu had ever been after the
+<i>Day of Dupes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The minister&#8217;s <i>carnets</i> will be searched in vain for any traces of the
+explanations which Mazarin must have had with the Queen during this
+grave conjuncture. Such explanations are not of a nature likely to be
+forgotten, and of which there is any need to take notes. An obscure
+passage, however, is to be met with, written in Spanish, of which the
+following words have a meaning clear enough to be understood: &#8220;I ought
+no longer to have any doubt, since the Queen, in an excess of goodness,
+has told me that nothing could deprive me of the post which she has done
+me the honour of giving me near her; nevertheless, as fear is the
+inseparable companion of affection, &amp;c.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> At this anxious moment,
+Mazarin was attacked with a slight illness,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> brought on by incessant
+labour and wearing anxieties, and an attack of jaundice having
+supervened, the Cardinal jotted down the following brief but highly
+suggestive memorandum:&mdash;&#8220;<i>La giallezza cagionata d&agrave; soverchio
+amore</i>.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
+
+<p>Madame de Motteville was in attendance on Anne of Austria when the
+rumour of the abortive attempt at assassination brought a crowd of
+courtiers to the Louvre in hot haste to protest their devotedness to the
+Crown. The Queen, with great emotion, whispered to her trusty
+lady-in-waiting: &#8220;Ere eight and forty hours elapse you shall see how I
+will avenge myself for the evil tricks these false friends have played
+me.&#8221; &#8220;Never,&#8221; adds Madame de Motteville, &#8220;can the remembrance of those
+few brief words be effaced from my mind. I saw at that moment, by the
+fire that flashed in the Queen&#8217;s eyes, and in fact by what happened on
+that very evening and next day, what it is to be a female sovereign when
+enraged, and with the power of doing what she pleases.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> Had the
+cautious lady-in-waiting been less discreet, she might have added,
+&#8220;especially when that sovereign lady is a woman in love.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The break-up and dispersion of the <i>Importants</i> once decided upon, the
+first step was to arrest Beaufort, and bring him to trial. To this the
+Queen gave her consent. Of the authority Mazarin had acquired, such
+proceeding was a striking indication, and showed how far Anne of Austria
+might one day go in defence of a minister who was dear to her. The Duke
+de Beaufort had been, before her husband&#8217;s death, the man in whom the
+Queen placed most confidence, and for some time he was thought destined
+to play the brilliant part of a royal favourite. In a brief space he had
+effectually thrown away his chance by his pre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>sumptuous conduct, his
+evident incapacity, and yet more by his public <i>liaison</i> with Madame de
+Montbazon. Still the Queen had shown a somewhat singular weakness in his
+favour, and at the expiration of three short months to sign an order for
+his arrest was a great step&mdash;necessary, it is true, but extreme, and
+which was the manifest sign of an entire change in the heart and
+intimate relations of Anne of Austria. The dissimulation even with which
+she acted in that affair marks the deliberative firmness of her
+resolution.</p>
+
+<p>The 2nd of September, 1643, was truly a memorable day in the career of
+Mazarin, and we may say, in the annals of France; for it witnessed the
+confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by the deaths of
+Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of the party of the
+<i>Importants</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 2nd, all Paris and its Court rang with the report
+of the ambuscade laid for Mazarin the night previous, between the Louvre
+and the H&ocirc;tel de Cleves. The five conspirators who had joined hands with
+Beaufort in it had taken flight and placed themselves in safety.
+Beaufort and Madame de Chevreuse could not imitate them: flight for them
+would have been a self-denunciation. The intrepid Duchess therefore had
+not hesitated to appear at Court, and she was at the Regent&#8217;s side
+during the evening of the 2nd together with another person, a stranger
+to these dark plots and even incapable of putting faith in them&mdash;a very
+different enemy of Mazarin&mdash;the pious and noble Madame de Hautefort. As
+for the Duke, careless and courageous, he had gone to the chase in the
+morning, and at his return he went, according to his custom, to present
+his homage to the Queen. On entering the Louvre he met his mother,
+Madame de Vend&ocirc;me, and his sister the Duchess de Nemours, who had
+accompanied the Queen all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> day and remarked her emotion. They did all
+they could to prevent him going up stairs, and entreated him to absent
+himself for a while. He, without troubling himself in the slightest
+degree, answered them in the words of the doomed Duke de Guise&mdash;&#8220;They
+dare not!&#8221;&mdash;and entered the Queen&#8217;s great cabinet, who received him with
+the best grace possible, and asked him all sorts of questions about his
+hunting, &#8220;as though,&#8221; says Madame de Motteville, &#8220;she had no other
+thought in her mind.&#8221; The Cardinal having come in in the midst of this
+gentle chat, the Queen rose and bade him follow her. It appeared as if
+she wished to take counsel with him in her chamber. She entered it,
+followed by her Minister. At the same time the Duke de Beaufort, about
+to leave, met Guitant, captain of the guard, who arrested him, and
+commanded the Duke to follow him in the names of the King and Queen. The
+Prince, without showing any surprise, after having looked fixedly at
+him, said, &#8220;Yes, I will; but this, I must own, is strange enough.&#8221; Then
+turning towards Mesdames de Chevreuse and de Hautefort, who were talking
+together, he said to them, &#8220;Ladies, you see that the Queen has caused me
+to be arrested.&#8221; The young nobleman then submitted to the royal mandate
+without offering the slightest resistance; slept that night at the
+Louvre, and the next morning was taken to the donjon of Vincennes, while
+a general decree of banishment was pronounced against all the principal
+members of the faction.</p>
+
+<p>The Vend&ocirc;mes were ordered to retire to Anet; and the Chateau d&#8217;Anet
+having soon become what the H&ocirc;tel de Vend&ocirc;me at Paris had been, a haunt
+of the conspirators, Mazarin demanded them from the Duke C&aelig;sar, who took
+good care not to give them up. The Cardinal was almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> reduced to the
+necessity of laying siege to the ch&acirc;teau in regular form. He threatened
+to enter the place by main force and lay hands on Beaufort&#8217;s
+accomplices; unable to endure the scandal that a prince even of the
+blood should brave law and justice with impunity, he had determined to
+push matters to the uttermost, and was about to take energetic measures,
+when the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me himself decided on quitting France, and went to
+Italy to await the fall of Mazarin, as formerly he had awaited in
+England that of Richelieu.</p>
+
+<p>The arrest of Beaufort, the dispersion of his accomplices, his friends
+and his family, was the first indispensable measure forced upon Mazarin
+to enable him to face a danger that seemed most imminent. But what would
+it have availed him to lop off an arm had he left the head
+untouched&mdash;had Madame de Chevreuse remained at Court, ever ready to
+surround the Queen with attention and homage, assiduous to retain and
+husband the last remnant of her old favour, in order to sustain and
+secretly encourage the malcontents, inspire them with her audacity, and
+stir them up to fresh conspiracies? She still held in her grasp the
+scarcely-severed threads of the plot; and at her right hand there was a
+man too wary to allow himself to be again compromised by such dark
+doings, but quite ready to profit by them, and whom Madame de Chevreuse
+had sedulously exhibited not only to Anne of Austria, but to France and
+all Europe, as a man singularly capable of conducting State affairs.
+Mazarin, therefore, did not hesitate; but on the day following
+Beaufort&#8217;s arrest, Ch&acirc;teauneuf, Montr&eacute;sor, and St. Ybar were banished.
+The first-named was invited to present himself at Court, kiss the
+Queen&#8217;s hand, and then betake himself to his government in Touraine.
+Riche<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>lieu&#8217;s late Keeper of the Seals deemed it something to have
+escaped an open disgrace, to have resumed the eminent post he had
+formerly occupied under the Crown, and the government of a large
+province. Yet did his ambition soar far higher still: but he kept it in
+check, and merely postponed its flight for a less stormy hour&mdash;obeyed
+the Queen, skilfully remained friends with her, and likewise kept on
+very good terms with her Prime Minister&mdash;biding his time until he might
+displace him. He had to wait a long time, however; but eventually did
+not quit life without once more grasping, for a moment at least, that
+power which the indulgence of an insensate passion had lost him, but
+which an inviolable and unswerving friendship in the end restored to
+him.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse unhappily lacked the wisdom displayed throughout
+this fiery ordeal by Ch&acirc;teauneuf. She forgot for once to look with a
+smiling face upon the passing storm, in which she was too suddenly
+caught to escape altogether scatheless. La Ch&acirc;tre&mdash;one of her friends,
+and who saw her almost every day&mdash;relates that during the very same
+evening on which Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre, &#8220;Her Majesty told
+the Duchess that she believed her to be innocent of the prisoner&#8217;s
+designs, but that nevertheless to avoid scandal she deemed it fitting
+that Madame de Chevreuse should quietly withdraw to Dampierre, and that
+after making some short sojourn there she should retire into
+Touraine.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The Duchess, therefore, saw plainly that she had nothing
+for it but to go at once to Dampierre; but no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> sooner did she arrive at
+her favourite ch&acirc;teau than, instead of remaining quiet, she began to
+move heaven and earth to save those who had compromised themselves for
+her sake. She began, indeed, to knot the meshes of a new web of
+intrigue, and even found means of placing a letter in the Queen&#8217;s own
+hand. Message after message was, however, sent to hasten her
+departure&mdash;Montagu being despatched to her on the same errand, as was
+also La Porte. She received them haughtily, and deferred her journey
+under divers pretexts. It will be remembered that on going to meet the
+Duchess when on her road from Brussels, Montagu had offered her, on the
+Queen&#8217;s part as well as that of Mazarin, to discharge in her name the
+debts she had contracted during so many years of exile. The Duchess had
+already received heavy sums, but was unwilling to set forth for Touraine
+until after the Queen should have performed all her promises. Marie de
+Rohan had left the Louvre and Paris, her bosom swelling with grief and
+rage, as Hannibal had quitted Italy. She felt that the Court and capital
+and the Queen&#8217;s inner circle formed the true field of battle, and that
+to remove herself from it was to abandon the victory to the enemy. Her
+retreat, indeed, was an occasion of mourning to the entire Catholic
+party, as well as to the friends of peace and the Spanish alliance, but,
+on the contrary, of public rejoicing for the friends of the Protestant
+alliance. The Count d&#8217;Estrade actually went to the Louvre on the part of
+the Prince of Orange, from whom he was accredited, to thank the Regent
+officially for it.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse made her way, therefore, to her estate of Duverger,
+between Tours and Angiers. The deep solitude that there reigned around
+her embittered all the more the feeling of defeat. She kept up, however,
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> brisk correspondence with her stepmother, Madame de
+Montbazon&mdash;banished to Rochefort; and the two exiled Duchesses mutually
+exhorted each other to leave no stone unturned towards effecting the
+overthrow of their common enemy. Vanquished at home, Madame de Chevreuse
+centred all her hopes in foreign lands. She revived the friendly
+relations which she had never ceased to cherish with England, Spain, and
+the Low Countries. Her chief prop, the centre and interposer of her
+intrigues, was Lord Goring, our ambassador at the French Court; who,
+like his ill-starred master, and more especially his royal mistress,
+belonged to the Spanish party. Croft, an English gentleman who had
+figured in the train of the Duchess some years previously, bestirred
+himself actively and openly in her behalf, whilst the Chevalier de Jars
+intrigued warily and in secret for Ch&acirc;teauneuf. Beneath the mantle of
+the English embassy a vast correspondence was carried on between Madame
+de Chevreuse, Vend&ocirc;me, Bouillon, and the rest of the <i>Malcontents</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Entry in Carnet, iii. p. 10, in Spanish:&mdash;&#8220;Sy yo creyera
+lo que dicen que S.M. se sierve di mi per necessidad, sin tener alguna
+inclination, no pararia aqui tres dias.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> &#8220;Quitarse la maschera.&#8221; Carnet, ii. p. 65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Carnet, iii. p. 45.&mdash;&#8220;Mas contodo esto siendo el temor un
+compagnero inseparabile dell&#8217;affection,&#8221; &amp;c.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Carnet, iv. p. 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> M&eacute;moires, vol. i. p. 185.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Ch&acirc;teauneuf held the seals from March, 1650, when Mazarin
+went into voluntary exile, until April, 1651. He died in 1653, at the
+age of seventy-three.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> &#8220;Allontanar Cheverosa che f&agrave; mille cabelle.&#8221; Mazarin&#8217;s
+Carnet, iii. 81, 82.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">CONSEQUENCES OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE DUCHESSES DE
+LONGUEVILLE AND DE MONTBAZON.&mdash;FATAL DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE
+DE GUISE AND COUNT MAURICE DE COLIGNY.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> has been said, the 2nd of September, 1643, had been truly a memorable
+day in the career of Mazarin, and, indeed, in the annals of France; for
+it witnessed the confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by
+the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of that dangerous
+faction the <i>Importants</i>. The intestine discords which threatened the
+new reign were thus forced to await a more favourable opportunity for
+development. They did not raise their heads again until five years
+afterwards&mdash;on the breaking out of the Fronde, in which they showed
+themselves just the same men as ever, with the same designs, the same
+politics, foreign and domestic; and after raising sanguinary and sterile
+commotions, re-appeared only to break themselves to pieces once more
+against the genius of Mazarin and the invincible firmness of Anne of
+Austria.</p>
+
+<p>Mazarin, therefore, who soon found himself without a rival in the
+Queen&#8217;s good graces, continued steadily to carry on within and without
+the realm the system of his predecessor, and royalty, as well as France,
+reckoned upon a succession of halcyon years, thanks to the re-union of
+the Princes of the blood with the Crown, to the tactics and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> personal
+conduct of the Prime Minister, and to his political sagacity, seconded
+by the military genius of the Duke d&#8217;Enghien. The imprudence of Madame
+de Montbazon and her lover Beaufort in the affair of the dropped letters
+had the effect of increasing Mazarin&#8217;s power incalculably, and that at
+the very moment that a splendid victory gained by the young Duke
+d&#8217;Enghien had made him and his sister paramount at Court&mdash;paramount by a
+popularity so universal that it almost made the Queen and her minister
+their <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i> rather than their patrons.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke d&#8217;Enghien had returned to Paris after Rocroy, and at the end of
+a campaign in which he had taken a very important stronghold, passed the
+Rhine with the French army, and carried the war into Germany. The Queen
+had received him as the liberator of France. Mazarin, who looked more to
+the reality than the semblance of power, intimated to the young
+conqueror that his sole ambition was to be his chaplain and man of
+business with the Queen. At a distance, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien had praised
+everything that had been done, and came from the camp over head and ears
+in love with Madlle. du Vigean, and furious that any one should have
+dared to insult a member of his house. He adored his sister, and he had
+a warm friendship for Coligny.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> He was aware of and had favoured his
+passion for that sister. Engaged himself in a suit as ardent as it was
+chaste, he readily comprehended that his beautiful sister might well
+have been not insensible to the fervent assiduities of the brave
+Maurice, but he revolted at the thought of the amatory effusions of a
+Madame de Fouquerolles being attributed to her, and he assumed a tone in
+the matter which effect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>ually arrested any further insinuation from even
+the most insolent and daring.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the especial friends of Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon,
+foremost of all stood the Duke de Guise.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> They had man&#339;uvred to
+secure him as well as the rest of his family to their party, through
+Gaston, Duke d&#8217;Orleans, who had espoused as his second wife a princess
+of the house of Lorraine&mdash;the lovely Marguerite, sister of Charles IV.
+and second daughter of Duke Francis. The Duke de Guise had already
+played many strange pranks and committed more than one folly, but he had
+not as yet signally failed in any serious enterprise. His incapacity was
+not patent. He had the prestige of his name, youth, good looks, and a
+courage carried even to temerity. The avowed slave of Madame de
+Montbazon, he had espoused her quarrel, and to gratify her had joined in
+propagating those calumnious reports, but without exhibiting the
+violence of Beaufort, and had remained erect, confronting and defying
+the victorious Cond&eacute;s.</p>
+
+<p>Coligny had had the good sense to keep aloof during the storm, for fear
+of still further compromising Madame de Longueville by exhibiting
+himself openly as her champion: but a few months having elapsed, he
+thought that he might at last show himself, and, as a certain
+authority<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> tells us, &#8220;the imprisonment of the Duke de Beaufort having
+deprived that noble of the chance of measuring swords with him, he
+addressed himself to the Duke de Guise.&#8221; La Rochefoucauld says, &#8220;the
+Duke d&#8217;Enghien, unable to testify to the Duke de Beaufort, who was in
+prison, the resentment he felt at what had passed between Madame de
+Longueville<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> and Madame de Montbazon, left Coligny at liberty to fight
+with the Duke de Guise, who had mixed himself up in this affair.&#8221; The
+Duke d&#8217;Enghien, therefore, knew and approved of what Coligny did. In
+fact, he found himself without an adversary in the affair of sufficient
+rank to justify a prince of the blood in drawing his sword against him.
+So far as regards Madame de Longueville, it is absurd to suppose that,
+desirous of vengeance, she it was who had urged on Coligny, for
+everybody ascribed to her a line of conduct characterised by great
+moderation, as contrasted with that of the Princess de Cond&eacute;. Far from
+envenoming the quarrel, she wished to hush it up, and Madame de
+Motteville thus significantly alludes to that fact: &#8220;The enmity she bore
+Madame de Montbazon being proportionate to the love she bore her
+husband, it did not carry her so far but that she found it more &agrave; propos
+to dissimulate that outrage than otherwise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>La Rochefoucauld gives some particulars which explain what follows.
+Coligny, just risen out of a long illness, was still very much
+enfeebled, and, moreover, not very &#8220;skilful of fence.&#8221; Such was his
+condition when, as the champion of Madame de Longueville, he confronted
+the Duke de Guise in mortal duel, whilst the latter, like most heroes of
+the parade-ground, possessed rare cunning at carte and tierce. With
+regard to the seconds chosen, they are in every respect worthy of
+notice. In those days, seconds were witnesses of the duel in which they
+themselves fought. Coligny selected as his second, and to give the
+challenge, as was then the custom, Godefroi, Count d&#8217;Estrades, a man of
+cool and tried courage. The Duke de Guise&#8217;s second was his equerry, the
+Marquis de Bridieu, a Limousin gentleman and brave officer, faithfully
+attached to the house of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> Lorraine, who, in 1650, admirably defended
+Guise against the Spanish army and against Turenne, and for that brave
+defence, during which there were twenty-four days of open trenches, he
+was made lieutenant-general.</p>
+
+<p>It was arranged that the affair should come off at the Place Royale&mdash;the
+usual arena for those sort of encounters, and which had been a hundred
+times stained with the best blood of France. The mansions around the
+Place Royale were then tenanted by ladies of the highest rank and
+fashion, amongst the rest, Marguerite, Duchess de Rohan, Madame de
+Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;, Madame de Chaulnes, Madame de St. Geran, Madame de Sabl&eacute;, the
+Countess de St. Maure, and many others, under the influence of whose
+bright eyes those volatile and valiant French gentlemen delighted to
+cross swords. And there many a noble form had been struck down never to
+rise again, and many a noble heart had throbbed its last. During the
+first quarter of the seventeenth century, the duel was a custom at once
+useful and disastrous, inasmuch as it kept up the warlike spirit of the
+nobles, but which mowed them down as fast as war itself, and but too
+frequently for frivolous causes. To draw swords for trifles had become
+the obligatory accompaniment of good manners; and as gallantry had its
+finished fops, so the duel had its refined rufflers. In the
+comparatively short period of a few years, nine hundred gentlemen
+perished in these combats. To stop this scourge, Richelieu issued a
+royal edict, which punished death by death, and sent the offenders from
+the Place Royale to the Place de Gr&egrave;ve. On this head Richelieu showed
+himself inflexible, and the examples of Montmorency-Bouteville, beheaded
+with his second, the Count Deschappelles, for having challenged Beuvron
+and fought with him on the Place Royale at mid-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>day, impressed a
+salutary terror, and rendered infraction of the edict very rare.
+Coligny, however, braved everything; he challenged Guise, and on the
+appointed day the two noble adversaries, accompanied by their seconds,
+D&#8217;Estrades and Bridieu, met upon the Place Royale.</p>
+
+<p>Of this memorable duel, thanks to contemporary memoirs as well as
+various kinds of MSS., the minutest details have been preserved.</p>
+
+<p>On the 12th of December, 1643, D&#8217;Estrades went in the morning to call
+out the Duke de Guise on the part of Coligny. The rendezvous was fixed
+for the same day, at three o&#8217;clock in the afternoon, at the Place
+Royale. The two adversaries did not appear abroad during the whole
+morning, and at three o&#8217;clock they were on the ground. A sentence is
+ascribed to Guise which invests the scene with an unwonted grandeur, and
+arrays for the last time in bitterest animosity and deadly antagonism
+the two most illustrious representatives of the League wars in the
+persons of their descendants. On unsheathing his sword Guise said to
+Coligny: &#8220;We are about to decide the old feud of our two houses, and to
+see what a difference there is between the blood of Guise and that of
+Coligny.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Coligny&#8217;s only reply was to deal his adversary a long lunge; but, weak
+as he was, his rearward foot failed him, and he sank upon his knee.
+Guise advanced upon him and set his foot upon his sword, in such manner
+as though he would have said, &#8220;I do not desire to kill you, but to treat
+you as you deserve, for having presumed to address yourself to a prince
+of such birth as mine, without his having given you just cause,&#8221;&mdash;and he
+struck him with the flat of his sword-blade. Coligny, furious, collected
+his strength, threw himself backwards, disengaged his sword, and
+recommenced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> the strife. In this second bout, Guise was slightly wounded
+in the shoulder, and Coligny in the hand. At length, Guise, in making
+another thrust at his adversary, grasped his sword-blade, by which his
+hand was slightly cut, but, wresting it from Coligny&#8217;s grasp, dealt him
+a desperate thrust in the arm which put him <i>hors de combat</i>. Meanwhile
+D&#8217;Estrades and Bridieu had grievously wounded each other.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the issue of that memorable duel&mdash;the last, it appears, of the
+famous encounters on the Place Royale. We thus see that, though cowed,
+the French noblesse had not been tamed by Richelieu&#8217;s solemn edict. This
+last duel did very little honour to Coligny, and almost everybody took
+part with the Duke de Guise. The Queen manifested very lively
+displeasure at the violation of the edict, and the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, urged
+thereto by his wife and the Lorraine family, made a loud outcry. The
+Prince and Princess de Cond&eacute; also found themselves compelled to declare
+against Coligny&mdash;doubly in the wrong, both because he had been the
+challenger and been unfortunate in the result. Proof that there was an
+understanding between Coligny and the Duke d&#8217;Enghien is evident from the
+latter not deserting the unlucky champion of his sister, that he
+received the wounded man into his house at Paris, afterwards at Saint
+Maur, and that he did not cease from surrounding him with his protection
+and care in spite of his father, the Prince de Cond&eacute;. When the matter
+was referred to the Parliament, conformably to the edict, and the two
+adversaries were summoned to appear, the Duke de Guise announced his
+intention of repairing to the chamber with a retinue of princes and
+great nobles; whilst, on his side, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien threatened to
+escort his friend after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> same fashion. But the initiative
+proceedings were stayed through the deplorable condition into which poor
+Coligny was known to have fallen.</p>
+
+<p>That unfortunate young man languished for some months, and died in the
+latter part of May, 1644, alike in consequence of his wounds and of
+despair for having so badly sustained the cause of his own house, as
+well as that of Madame de Longueville.</p>
+
+<p>This affair, with all its dramatic features and tragical termination,
+created an immense and painful impression not only in Paris, but
+throughout France. It momentarily awakened party feelings which had for
+some time slumbered, and suspended the festivals of the winter of 1644.
+It not only occupied the families more closely concerned and the Court,
+but forcibly affected the whole of the highest class of society, and
+long remained the absorbing topic of every saloon. It may be readily
+conceived that the story in spreading thus widely became enlarged with
+imaginary incidents one after another. At first, it was supposed that
+Madame de Longueville was in love with Coligny. That was necessary to
+give the greater interest to the narrative. From thence came the next
+invention, that she herself had armed Coligny&#8217;s hand, and that
+D&#8217;Estrades, charged to challenge the Duke de Guise, having remarked to
+Coligny that the Duke might probably repudiate the injurious words
+attributed to him, and that honour would thus be satisfied, Coligny had
+thereupon replied: &#8220;That is not the question. I pledged my word to
+Madame de Longueville to fight him on the Place Royale, and I cannot
+fail in that promise.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> There was no stopping a cavalier in such a
+chivalrous course as that, and Madame de Longueville would not have been
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> sister of the victor of Rocroy&mdash;a heroine worthy of sustaining
+comparison with those of Spain, who beheld their lovers die at their
+feet in the tournament&mdash;had she not been present at the duel between
+Guise and Coligny. It is asserted, therefore, that on the 12th of
+December she was stationed in an h&ocirc;tel on the Place Royale belonging to
+the Duchess de Rohan, and that there, concealed behind a window-curtain,
+she had witnessed the discomfiture of her <i>preux chevalier</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Then, as now, it was verse&mdash;that is to say, the ballad&mdash;which set its
+seal on the popular incident of the moment. When the event was an
+unlucky one, the song was a burlesquely pathetic complaint, and always
+with a vein of raillery running through it. Such was the effusion with
+which every <i>ruelle</i> rang, and it was really set to music, for the
+notation is still to be found in the <i>Recueil de Chansons not&eacute;es</i>,
+preserved at the Arsenal at Paris. It ran thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;Essuyez vos beaux yeux,<br />
+Madame de Longueville,<br />
+Coligny se porte mieux.<br />
+S&#8217;il a demand&eacute; la vie,<br />
+Ne l&#8217;en bl&acirc;mez nullement;<br />
+Car c&#8217;est pour &ecirc;tre votre amant<br />
+Qu&#8217;il veut vivre &eacute;ternellement.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny, who perished in
+the massacre of St. Bartholomew.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Henry, son of Charles de Guise, and grandson of the
+<i>Balafr&eacute;</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> An inedited Memoir upon the Regency.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Mad. de Motteville.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BOOK III.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE AND THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">That</span> Madame de Longueville witnessed the duel on the Place Royale seems
+to rest on no reliable authority. Such a trait is so utterly at variance
+with her character that its attribution would impute to her the manners
+of a semi-Italianised princess of the Valois race. There are besides no
+sufficient grounds for believing that her affections had for a moment
+been given to Coligny, though doubtless her innate tenderness must have
+been touched by his chivalrous love and devotion. Miossens, afterwards
+better known as Marshal d&#8217;Albret, next tried in vain to win a heart
+which had hitherto appeared insensible to the master-passion, but after
+an obstinate persistence was ultimately constrained to relinquish all
+hope. When, in 1645, M. de Longueville went as minister-plenipotentiary
+to the Congress of M&uuml;nster, the young Duchess remained in Paris, her
+element being still the social sphere of the Court solely&mdash;a taste for
+political life not having yet been developed through the impulse of her
+affections. Let us here add that, notwithstanding the almost unanimous
+assertion of contemporaries at this period that even women could not
+behold Madame de Longueville without admiration, the heart of this
+preeminently gifted creature seems amidst the universal homage to have
+been proof against all and every repeated assault.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> Anne of Austria
+loved her but little, partly through a jealous feeling created by her
+singular beauty, partly from her great reputation for wit, and also from
+her perpetual wranglings for precedence with other princesses of the
+blood. In fact, in order to lose no tittle of the prerogatives derived
+from her birth, Madame de Longueville had obtained a royal brevet from
+the king which maintained her in the rank which she would have otherwise
+lost by her marriage. A pride so exacting does not appear to agree with
+the peculiar nonchalance that was one of her striking characteristics;
+but, later in life, when she had become devout and penitent, she took
+care to explain that seeming contradiction. &#8220;I have been defined,&#8221; said
+she, &#8220;as having, as it were, two individualities of opposite nature in
+me, and that I could interchange them at any moment; but that arose from
+the different situations in which I was placed, for I was dead, like
+unto the dead, to aught which slightly affected me, and keenly alive to
+the smallest things which interested me.&#8221; Reading and study were never
+among the things which stirred her into animation. Entirely occupied
+with her fascinations and individual sentiments, at no period of her
+life did she ever think of repairing the early neglect of her education.
+In this respect she was inferior, on the authority even of her
+apologists, to many ladies of the Court and city. Intoxicated as she had
+been by the fumes of the incense which flattery had wafted around her in
+the circle of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet, she probably had no perception
+of her failings on that essential point. The spontaneity of her wit, her
+natural aptitude to comprehend and decide upon all sorts of questions,
+made up for her deficiency in that kind of information which is acquired
+from books and other modes of study, and often stood her in good stead,
+both on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> the part of her detractors and of her partisans, of the lofty
+characteristics of &#8220;great genius.&#8221; M. Cousin, who is by no means severe
+as regards the errors or demerits of the Duchess, says that &#8220;she did not
+know how to write.&#8221; Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de
+Motteville, however, both express the very opposite opinion. The first
+remarks, speaking of the Countess de Maure:&mdash;&#8220;The precision and the
+polish of her style would be incomparable if Madame de Longueville had
+never written.&#8221; The second declares that &#8220;this lady has ever written as
+well as any one living.&#8221; The fact is, so far as may be judged from those
+of her letters which have come down to us, that Madame de Longueville&#8217;s
+style bore the reflex of her conversation: there are some passages very
+remarkable in their force, some phrases altogether trite and
+insignificant. This opinion is quite beside the consideration of her
+diction in a grammatical point of view. In her written as in her spoken
+language, she seems to have been impassive or to have kindled into
+animation according as her thoughts were &#8220;dead or living,&#8221; to use her
+own phrase. Speaking and writing, however, are two very different
+things, both requiring an especial cultivation; and as Madame de
+Longueville was defective in anything like what is termed &#8220;regular
+education&#8220; or &#8220;sound instruction,&#8221; that fact became apparent so soon as
+she took her pen in hand. Her great natural endowments shone on paper
+with difficulty, through faults of every kind which escaped her notice.
+It is really no small gift to be able to express one&#8217;s sentiments and
+ideas in their natural order, and with all their true and various
+shades, in terms neither too homely nor far-fetched, or which neither
+enfeeble nor exaggerate them. It is by no means rare to meet with men in
+society<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> remarkable for intelligence, nerve, and grace when they speak,
+but who become unintelligible when they commit their thoughts to
+writing. The fact is, that writing is an art&mdash;a very difficult art, and
+one which must be carefully learned. Madame de Longueville was ignorant
+of this, as were some of the most eminent women of her time. There
+exists unquestionable evidence to prove that the Princess Palatine was a
+person of large intelligence, who was able to hold her own with men of
+the greatest capacity. De Retz and Bossuet tell us so. Some letters of
+the Palatine, however, are extant in which, whilst there is no lack of
+solidity, refinement, and ingenuity of thought, it will be seen that
+they often abound with errors, obscure phraseology, and not unfrequently
+outrageously violate even the commonest rules of orthography. It must
+not, however, by any means be inferred from this that the Palatine had
+not a mind of the first order, but only that she had not been trained to
+render clearly and fittingly her ideas and sentiments in writing. Madame
+de Longueville had been no better taught. Therefore all that has been
+said about her on this score must be restricted, alike as to the defects
+of her education and the brilliancy of her genius. With those
+Frenchwomen who have written at once largely and loosely, it is pleasant
+to contrast their contemporaries, Madame de S&eacute;vign&eacute; and Madame la
+Fayette, both of whom always wrote well.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, these two admirable ladies had received quite
+another sort of education to that of Madame de Longueville. They had had
+the advantage of being instructed by men of letters skilled in the art
+of teaching. M&eacute;nage was the chief instructor both of Mademoiselle de
+Rabutin and Mademoiselle de Lavergne&mdash;to call those accomplished
+letter-writers by their maiden names. M&eacute;nage trained them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> carefully in
+composition, correcting rigidly their themes, pointing out their errors,
+cultivating their happy instincts, and modelling and polishing their
+vein and style. That talented tutor appears also to have been their
+platonic adorer&mdash;more platonic indeed than he desired. In his verses he
+celebrated by turns <i>la formosissima Laverna</i> and <i>la bellissima
+Marchesa di Sevigni</i>, and his lessons were doubtless given <i>con amore</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Nature had been lavish indeed in all her gifts to the latter, giving her
+a precision and solidity allied to an inexhaustible playfulness and
+sparkling vivacity. Art, in her, wedded to genius, resulted in that
+incomparable epistolary style which left Balzac and Voiture far away
+behind her, and which Voltaire himself even has not surpassed.</p>
+
+<p>We must now speak of him who was destined to bias, sway, and finally
+determine the future course of Madame de Longueville&#8217;s life through the
+conquest of her heart and mind&mdash;La Rochefoucauld&mdash;the man who induced
+her to embark with him on the stormy sea of politics, whose irresistible
+tide swept her past the landmarks of loyalty and reputability to make
+shipwreck, amongst the rocks and shoals of civil war, of fame, fortune,
+and domestic happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the moment of her appearance on the scene of party strife in
+connection with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had not achieved
+much <i>political</i> notoriety. Neither had her fair fame been compromised
+by the very insignificant gallantry of a long train of court danglers,
+nor through her involuntary participation in the affair of the letters
+with Madame de Montbazon. She could scarcely fail to be touched by the
+devotion of Coligny, who had shed his blood to avenge her of the outrage
+of that vindictive woman. For a moment, it is true, she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> listened
+carelessly and harmlessly to the attention of the brave and intellectual
+Miossens. Still later she compromised herself somewhat with the Duke de
+Nemours; but the only man she truly loved with heart and soul was La
+Rochefoucauld. To him she devoted herself wholly; for him she sacrificed
+everything&mdash;duty, interest, repose, reputation. For him she staked her
+fortune and her life. Through him she exhibited the most equivocal and
+most contradictory conduct. It was La Rochefoucauld who caused her to
+take part in the Fronde; who, as he willed, made her advance or recede;
+who united her to, or separated her from, her family; who governed her
+absolutely. In a word, she consented to be in his hand merely an heroic
+instrument. Pride and passion had doubtless something to do with this
+life of adventure and that contempt of peril. But of what stamp must
+have been that soul which could find consolation in all this? And, as
+often happens, the man to whom she thus devoted herself was not wholly
+worthy of her. He had infinite spirit; but he was coldly calculating,
+profoundly selfish, meanly ambitious. He measured others by himself. He
+was naturally as subtle in evil, as she was disposed spontaneously to
+virtue. Full of finesse in his self-love and in the pursuit of his own
+interest, he was, in reality, the least chivalrous of his sex, although
+he affected all the appearance of the loftiest chivalry. In his
+<i>liaison</i> with Madame de Longueville he made love the slave of ambition.</p>
+
+<p>It will be necessary to touch only slightly upon his career antecedent
+to this period. Francis, the sixth seigneur and second Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, was born 15th December 1613. Little is recorded of his
+early years, he himself having given no details about them. We only know
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> he was very imperfectly educated, his father being desirous that
+he should early adopt the profession of arms. Himself enjoying royal
+favour in the highest degree, his eldest son, the young Prince de
+Marsillac, profitably felt its influence; for, as early as 1626, he
+commanded as <i>mestre-de-camp</i> the Auvergne regiment of cavalry at the
+siege of Casal. He took an active part in the <i>Day of Dupes</i>, the period
+at which his memoirs commence. Two years previously, in 1628, he had
+married at Mirebeau a rich and beautiful heiress of Burgundy, Andr&eacute;e de
+Vivonne, only daughter of Andr&eacute; de Vivonne, Baron of Berandi&egrave;re and
+Chasteigneraye, Grand Falconer of France, Captain in the Guards of the
+Queen-Mother, Marie de&#8217; Medici, Councillor of State, and one of the most
+trusty followers of Henry IV. The Prince de Marsillac was at first in
+great favour at Court, notwithstanding his father&#8217;s misconduct, but he
+suddenly compromised himself in a very imprudent way. Closely intimate
+with that virtuous maid-of-honour, Marie de Hautefort, whom the
+saturnine Louis XIII. loved as passionately as his peculiar temperament
+permitted, and also with Mademoiselle de Ch&eacute;merault, as lovely as she
+was witty, he was by them hurried into a blind devotion to the cause of
+their unhappy mistress and queen, Anne of Austria, &#8220;the only party,&#8221;
+says he, with unusual candour, &#8220;that I ever honestly followed.&#8221; And very
+soon his confidential relations with the persecuted princess became so
+marked as necessarily to excite Richelieu&#8217;s suspicions, the more so that
+he ventured to speak of the Cardinal&#8217;s administration in the boldest
+terms. His friends advised him to retire from Court, at least
+temporarily; but, as he wished to employ his time usefully, he joined as
+a volunteer the army of Marshal de Chastillon, who, with Marshal de la
+Meilleraye, beat Prince<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> Thomas of Savoy at Avein. After behaving with
+distinction there, he returned, when the campaign was over, to Court,
+exhibiting a conduct still more independent, and which resulted in
+forcing him to rejoin his father at Blois.</p>
+
+<p>It was through the proximity of his father&#8217;s ch&acirc;teau of Verteuil to
+Poitiers, where the Duchess de Chevreuse was then living in banishment
+from Court, that the Prince de Marsillac first came to ally himself with
+the illustrious political adventuress. At the time when La Rochefoucauld
+obtained political notoriety, a crisis occurred in France in national
+manners, sentiments, and feelings. The nobles, long kept under by the
+strong hand of Richelieu, were again rising into faction, and a spirit
+of intrigue had seized upon everyone.</p>
+
+<p>Although still young, Rochefoucauld had renounced enterprises in which
+the heart is alone concerned. No longer engrossed with love, he was
+wholly given up to ambition; and in order to avenge himself of the Queen
+and Mazarin, who had not in his opinion evinced sufficient generosity
+towards him to satisfy this later passion, he did not hesitate to fling
+himself headlong into partisan intrigue and strife which ended in civil
+war. To render himself the more formidable, he was above all desirous of
+securing to his party the master-mind of Cond&eacute;; and as Madame de
+Longueville enjoyed the entire confidence of her favourite brother, and
+had great influence with him, the natural result was that in due course
+La Rochefoucauld made persistent love to the lovely Duchess. Seduced by
+the chivalrous manners and romantic antecedents of his youth, and
+yielding partly to the occasion, partly to the obstinate persistence of
+the suit, and some little perhaps to the maternal blood in her veins,
+Madame de Longueville at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> length surrendered her heart to the daring
+aspirant. She could no longer plead early youth as an excuse, for she
+had already numbered twenty-nine summers, and was only distant by a very
+small span from that formidable epoch in woman&#8217;s life which a
+discriminating writer of the present day has happily termed the
+<i>crisis</i>. That turning point in the Duchess&#8217;s career was destined to
+prove fatal to her, and the crisis was exactly such as that of which, in
+the case of another celebrated woman, M. Feillet has given a lucid
+analysis&mdash;the crisis brought about by an irresistible passion. Let us
+beware of hastily applying to Madame de Longueville that maxim of her
+cynical lover: &#8220;Women often think they still love him whom they no
+longer really love. The opportunity of an intrigue, the mental emotion
+to which gallantry gives birth, natural inclination to the pleasure of
+being beloved, and the pain of refusing the lover, together persuade
+them that they cherish a genuine passion when it is nothing more than
+mere coquetry.&#8221; Better had it been both for herself and for us to
+believe that she had only so loved.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty and intelligence of the Duchess de Longueville formed
+certainly, at the commencement, a large share in the calculating lover&#8217;s
+determination to seek a <i>liaison</i> with the Duke d&#8217;Enghien&#8217;s sister. The
+crowd of admirers was great around her, and that spectacle of itself
+served to inflame the ambition of M. de Marsillac: subsequent
+reflection, doubtless, must have redoubled his ardour to achieve the
+twofold conquest, in love and party. The Count de Miossens was then
+paying the most assiduous court to Madame de Longueville; he was very
+intimately connected with Marsillac, to whom indeed he was nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+related, and whom he kept well acquainted with the course of his amours.
+His suit to the lovely Duchess proving, as has been said, entirely
+unsuccessful, Miossens eventually left the field clear to Marsillac, the
+brave and simple soldier giving place to the self-seeking man of the
+world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE DRAWN INTO THE VORTEX OF POLITICS
+AND CIVIL WAR BY HER LOVE FOR LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have glanced rapidly over the fairest period of Madame de
+Longueville&#8217;s youth, over those years wherein the splendour of her
+success in the ranks of fashion was not obtained at the expense of her
+virtue. The time approaches in which she is about to yield to the
+manners of her age, and to the long-combatted wants of her heart. The
+love which she inspired in others, she is, in turn, about to feel
+herself, and it is to engage her, at the age of twenty-eight or
+twenty-nine, in a fatal connection, which will make her unmindful of all
+her conjugal duties, and turn her most brilliant qualities against
+herself, against her family, and against France.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now relate briefly what we know of Madame de Longueville from the
+moment of our last mention of her up to the commencement of 1648. There
+is nothing recorded which can authorise the supposition that before the
+close of 1647 Madame de Longueville had ever passed the limits of that
+noble and graceful gallantry which she saw everywhere held in honour,
+the praises of which she heard celebrated at the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet as
+well as at the H&ocirc;tel de Cond&eacute;, in the great verse of Corneille and in
+the turgid effusions of Voiture. At the time of the duel between Guise
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> Coligny, in 1644, she had seen her twenty-fifth summer. Each
+succeeding year seemed only to enhance the power of her charms, and that
+power she delighted in exhibiting. A thousand adorers pressed around
+her. Coligny was, perhaps, nearest to her heart, but had not, however,
+touched it. But one cannot, with impunity, trifle with love. That tragic
+adventure of the eldest of the Ch&acirc;tillons perishing, in the flower of
+his youth, by the hand of the eldest of the Guises was quickly echoed by
+song and romance through every <i>salon</i>, and cast a gloom upon the
+destiny of Madame de Longueville, and gave her, at an early period, a
+fame at once aristocratic and popular, which prepared her wonderfully to
+play a great part in that other tragi-comedy, heroic and gallant, called
+the Fronde. The glory of her brother was reflected upon her, and she
+responded to it somewhat by her own success at Court and in the
+<i>salons</i>. She acquired more and more the manners of the times. Coquetry
+and witty talk formed her sole occupation. Her delicate condition not
+permitting her to accompany M. de Longueville to M&uuml;nster, in June, 1645,
+she remained in Paris. It was the place above all others in which she
+delighted, and whether her heart had received some slight wound, or
+whether it was still entirely whole, it is clear that she was not very
+glad nor greatly charmed to find herself, after her accouchement in the
+spring of 1646, under the cold, grey sky of Westphalia, again beside a
+husband who was not, as Retz says, the most agreeable man to her in the
+world. It is not difficult to divine the feelings with which that petted
+beauty of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet must have left Corneille, Voiture,
+and all the elegancies and refinements of life, to take up her abode at
+Munster amongst a set of foreign diplomatists only speaking German or
+Latin. To her it was doubly an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> exile, for her native soil was not
+merely France&mdash;but Paris, the Court, the H&ocirc;tel de Cond&eacute;, Chantilly, the
+Place Royale, the Rue St. Thomas du Louvre.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> However, there was
+nothing for it but to obey the marital summons, and to set off with her
+step-daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was already more than
+twenty years of age. The Duchess quitted Paris on the 20th of June,
+1646, with a numerous escort under the command of Montigny, lieutenant
+of M. de Longueville&#8217;s guards. The entire journey from Paris to Munster
+was a continual ovation. The Duke went as far as Wesel to meet her.
+Turenne, who then commanded on the Rhine, treated her to the spectacle
+of an army drawn up in order of battle, and which he man&#339;uvred for
+her amusement. Was it on that occasion that the great captain, well
+known to have been always impressionable to female beauty, received the
+ardent impulse which was renewed at Stenay in 1650, and which,
+graciously but prudently acknowledged by Madame de Longueville, always
+remained a close and tender tie between them? On the 22nd of July she
+made her triumphal entry into Munster. During the entire autumn of 1646
+and the winter of 1647 she was really the Queen of the Congress. Her
+beauty and grace of manner won homage equally from the grave
+diplomatists as from the great commanders who were there assembled.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Duchess dissembled her ennui with that politeness and
+gentleness peculiar to herself, after the lapse of a few months she had
+had enough of her brilliant exile. In the winter of 1647 there were two
+reasons for her return to France. Her father, the Prince de Cond&eacute;, had
+died towards the close of December, 1646, to the great loss of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> his
+family and France, the consequences of which were somewhat later vividly
+felt. Moreover, Madame de Longueville had become <i>enceinte</i>, at M&uuml;nster
+for the third time, and it being her mother&#8217;s wish that her accouchement
+should take place near her, M. de Longueville was compelled to consent
+to his wife&#8217;s departure for Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Her return to France, at first to Chantilly, and next to Paris, in the
+month of May, 1647, was quite another sort of triumph to that of her
+journey to the Rhine and Holland, and her sojourn at M&uuml;nster. She found
+the crowd of her adorers more numerous and attentive than ever, and in
+the foremost rank her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, just fresh
+from college, was taking his first lessons of life in the wider range of
+the great world.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after her accouchement, the Duchess, who during her sojourn
+amongst the plenipotentiaries charged with negotiating the treaty of
+Westphalia, had acquired a taste, there seems little doubt, for
+political discussions and speculations, first began to manifest an
+inclination to mix herself up with state affairs. There was little
+difficulty in her doing so. The mission which the Duke de Longueville
+continued to fulfil in Germany, the continued favour enjoyed by the
+Princess de Cond&eacute;, the ever-increasing influence which the Duke
+d&#8217;Enghien&mdash;recently through his father&#8217;s death become Prince de
+Cond&eacute;&mdash;had acquired by his repeated victories, all these advantages,
+joined to the prestige of the personal charms of Madame de Longueville,
+placed this latter in a position to take the foremost part in the civil
+war about to break out.</p>
+
+<p>The Court and Paris were then occupied with festivals and diversions,
+which all were eager to share with Madame de Longueville. To please the
+Queen, Mazarin multiplied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> balls and operas. At a great expense he sent
+to Italy for artists, singers, male and female, who represented the
+opera of <i>Orpheus</i>, the machinery and decorations of which are said to
+have cost more than 400,000 livres. The Queen delighted in these
+spectacles. France also, as though inspired by its increasing grandeur,
+took pleasure in the magnificence of its government, and seconded it by
+redoubling its own luxury and magnificence. The pleasures of wit
+occupied the first rank. The H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet, near its decline, was
+shedding its last rays. Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as
+in all the best circles of Paris; and it must be confessed, with her
+good qualities she had also some of the defects of the best
+<i>pr&eacute;cieuses</i>. The following is the picture which Madame de Motteville
+has traced of her person, of the turn of her mind, of her occupation, of
+her reputation, and of that of the whole house of Cond&eacute;, at this period,
+which may be considered as the most felicitous of her life: &#8220;This
+princess, who during her absence reigned in her family, and whose
+approbation was sought as though she were a real sovereign, did not
+fail, on her return to Paris, to appear in greater splendour than when
+she left it. The friendship entertained for her by the Prince, her
+brother, authorizing her actions and her manners, the greatness of her
+beauty and of her mind increased so much the cabal of her family, that
+she was not long at Court without almost entirely engrossing it. She
+became the object of all desires: her clique was the centre of all
+intrigues, and those whom she loved became also the favourites of
+fortune.... Her intelligence, her wit, and the high opinion entertained
+for her discernment, won for her the admiration of all good people, who
+were persuaded that her esteem alone was enough to give them reputation.
+If, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> this way, she governed people&#8217;s minds, she was not less
+successful by means of her beauty; for although she had suffered from
+the small-pox since the Regency, and although she had lost somewhat of
+the perfection of her complexion, the splendour of her charms excited a
+powerful influence upon those who saw her; and she possessed especially,
+in the highest degree, what in the Spanish language is expressed by
+those words, <i>donayre, brio, y bizarrie</i> (gallant air). She had an
+admirable form, and her person possessed a charm whose power extended
+over our own sex. It was impossible to see her without loving her, and
+without desiring to please her.&#8221; Some shadows, however, slightly tone
+down this otherwise brilliant portraiture. &#8220;She was then too much
+engrossed with her own sentiments, which passed for infallible rules
+while they were not always so, and there was too much affectation in her
+manner of speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty was attributable to
+delicacy of thought and correctness of reasoning. She appeared
+constrained, and the keen raillery exercised by herself and her
+courtiers often fell upon those who, while rendering her their homage,
+felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which ought to be
+observed in polite society, was apparently banished from hers. The
+virtues and qualities of the most excellent creatures are mingled with
+things opposed to them: all men partake of this clay from which they
+derive their origin, and God alone is perfect.... In short it may be
+said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all gallantry were
+concentrated in the family of Bourbon, of which the Prince de Cond&eacute; was
+the illustrious head, and that fortune was not considered a desirable
+thing if it did not emanate from their hands.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But, unhappily, frivolous pastimes, of a nature both inno<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>cent and
+dangerous, now wholly engrossed Madame de Longueville. She was
+surrounded by all the prosperities and all the felicities of this life.
+Everything conspired in her favour, or rather against her&mdash;the triumphs
+of mind as well as those of beauty, the continually increasing glory of
+her paternal house, the intoxication of her vanity, the secret
+promptings of her heart. The trial was too much for her, and she
+succumbed to it. In the enchanted circle in which she moved, more than
+one adorer attracted her attention; and one of them succeeded in winning
+her affections, according to all appearances, at the close of 1647, or
+at the commencement of 1648. She was then about twenty-nine.</p>
+
+<p>Fran&ccedil;ois, Prince de Marsillac, without being very handsome, was well
+formed and very agreeable. As De Retz says, he was not a warrior,
+although he was a very good soldier. What distinguished him especially
+was his wit. Of this he possessed an infinite fund, of the finest and
+most delicate. His conversation was gentle, easy, insinuating; and his
+manners were at once the most natural and most polished. He had a lofty
+air. In him vanity supplied the place of ambition. At an early age he
+showed a fondness for distinction and for intrigues. Profoundly selfish,
+and having succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of himself, and in
+reducing to theory his nature, his character, and his tastes, he set out
+with very contrary appearances, and those chivalrous manners affected by
+the <i>Importants</i>. One of his first connections, as we have seen, was
+with Madame de Chevreuse, who secured him to Queen Anne. When the death
+of Louis XIII. had placed the supreme authority in her hands, he
+imagined that his fortune was made. He sought successively various
+important offices which the Queen could not grant, whatever liking she
+might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> entertained for him. Having tried several schemes and failed
+in all, the Queen applied herself to soothing his disappointments, by
+behaviour so tender as to retain him, as would now be said, in a
+moderate opposition, and keep him from taking part in the violence of
+Beaufort. He was not then covered with the disgrace of the <i>Importants</i>,
+though he shared it to a certain extent; and he did not cease to be, or
+seem to be, very much attached, not to the government, but to the person
+of the Queen. He looked continually for some great favour at her hands.
+These favours not arriving, he determined to procure through
+intimidation what his self-seeking fidelity had not been able to secure
+for him.</p>
+
+<p>It was during this state of his feelings that he met Madame de
+Longueville, on her return from Munster, surrounded by the most earnest
+admirers. The Count de Miossens, afterwards Marshal d&#8217;Albret&mdash;handsome,
+brave, full of wit and talent, as enterprising in love as in war&mdash;was
+paying her a very zealous court. La Rochefoucauld persuaded Miossens,
+who was one of his friends, that, after all, if he should overcome the
+resistance of Madame de Longueville, it would only be a victory
+flattering to his vanity, whilst that he, La Rochefoucauld, would be
+able to turn it to a very good account. This was certainly a very
+convincing and heroic reason for falling in love! We, however, do no
+more than transfer, with the utmost exactness, a statement made by
+Rochefoucauld himself, which we will now quote word for word: &#8220;So much
+unprofitable labour and so much weariness, finally gave me other
+thoughts, and led me to attempt dangerous ways in order to testify my
+hostility to the Queen and Cardinal Mazarin. The beauty of Madame de
+Longueville, her wit, and the charms of her person, attached to her all
+who could hope for her favour. Many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> men and women of quality strove to
+please her; and besides all this, Madame de Longueville was then upon
+such good terms with all her house, and so tenderly beloved by the Duke
+d&#8217;Enghien, her brother, that the esteem and friendship of this prince
+might be counted upon by any one who enjoyed the favour of his sister.
+Many persons vainly attempted this game, mingling other sentiments with
+those of ambition. Miossens, who afterwards became Marshal of France,
+persisted in it longest, but with similar success. I was one of his
+intimate friends, and he told me his designs. They soon fell to the
+ground of themselves. He saw this, and told me several times that he was
+about to renounce them; but vanity, which was the strongest of his
+passions, prevented him from telling me the truth, and he professed to
+entertain hopes which he had not, and which I knew that he could not
+have. Some time passed in this way; and, finally, I had reason to
+believe that I could make a more considerable use than Miossens of the
+friendship and confidence of Madame de Longueville. I made him believe
+it himself. He knew my position at Court; I told him my views, declaring
+that my consideration for him would always restrain me, and that I would
+not attempt to form a connection with Madame de Longueville without his
+permission. I will even confess that I irritated him against her in
+order to obtain it, without, however, saying anything untrue. He
+delivered her over entirely to me, but he repented when he saw the
+result of that connection.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>When, subdued at length by the passion shown for her by La
+Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had determined to respond to it,
+she gave herself up to him wholly&mdash;devoting herself in everything to the
+man whom she dared to love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> She made it a point of honour, as doubtless
+it was a secret happiness, to share his destiny and to follow him
+without casting one backward glance&mdash;sacrificing to him all her private
+interests, the evident interest of her family, and the strongest
+sentiment of her soul, her tenderness for her brother Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>The truthful Madame de Motteville, after noting the principal motive
+which urged La Rochefoucauld in his pursuit of Madame de Longueville,
+adds: &#8220;In all that she has since done, it is clearly seen that ambition
+was not the only thing that occupied her soul, and that the interests of
+the Prince de Marsillac there held a prominent place. For him she became
+ambitious, for him she ceased to love repose; and in order to show
+herself alive to this affection, she became too insensible to her own
+fame.... The declarations of the Prince de Marsillac, as I have already
+said, had not been displeasing to her; and this nobleman, who was
+perhaps more selfish than tender, wishing through her to promote his own
+interests, believed that he should inspire her with a desire of ruling
+the princes her brothers.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such being the sordid motives of her wooer, the oft-repeated lines,
+therefore, which he wrote with his own hand behind a portrait of the
+Duchess must be construed with a considerable abatement of their poetic
+ardour:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;Pour meriter son c&#339;ur, pour plaire &agrave; ses beaux yeux,<br />
+J&#8217;ai fait la guerre aux rois, Je l&#8217;aurais faite aux dieux.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a><br />
+</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such a dissembler then was the coldly ambitious, egotistical, clever
+Duke de la Rochefoucauld&mdash;a man capable of sacrificing everybody to his
+own interests. Madame de Longueville, such as we have depicted her,
+could not help being the instrument of a man of like character. M.
+Cousin seems to have arrived at that conclusion, since, in designating
+that princess as <i>the soul of the Fronde</i>, he acknowledges &#8220;that she
+troubled the state and her own family by an extravagant passion for one
+of the chiefs of the <i>Importants</i>, become one of the chiefs of the
+Fronde.&#8221; But M. Cousin is very nearly silent touching the Prince de
+Conti, of whom the Duchess was the sole motive-power on all occasions,
+and he merely says that this young prince submitted to be led by his
+sister in order to stand upon an equal footing with his elder brother
+whilst waiting for a cardinal&#8217;s hat.</p>
+
+<p>Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, born in 1629, was eighteen years of
+age in 1647. He had good intellect and a not unpleasant countenance; but
+a slight deformity and a certain feebleness of constitution rendering
+him unfit for the army, he was early destined for the church. He had
+studied among the Jesuits at the college of Clermont with Moli&egrave;re, and
+his father had obtained for him the richest benefices, and demanded a
+cardinal&#8217;s hat. While waiting for this hat dignity, Armand de Bourbon
+was living at the H&ocirc;tel de Cond&eacute;, partly an ecclesiastic, partly a man
+of the world, passing his days with wits and men of fashion, and greedy
+of every species of success. The glory of his brother filled him with
+emulation, and he dreamed himself of warlike exploits. When his sister
+returned from Germany, he went to meet her, and, dazzled by her beauty,
+her grace, and her fame, he began to love her rather as a gallant than
+as a brother. He followed her blindly in all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> her adventures, in which
+he exhibited as much courage as volatility. When he had made his peace
+with the Court&mdash;thanks to his marriage with a niece of Mazarin, the
+beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi&mdash;he obtained the
+command-in-chiefship of the army of Catalonia, in which capacity he
+acquitted himself with great honour. He was much less successful in
+Italy. On the whole, he was far from injuring his name, and he gave to
+France, in the person of his young son, a true warrior, one of the best
+pupils of Cond&eacute;, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth
+century. Constrained, through ill-health, to betake himself again to
+religion, the Prince de Conti finished, where he had begun, with
+theology. He composed several meritorious and learned works on various
+religious subjects.</p>
+
+<p>In 1647, he was entirely devoted to vanity and pleasure. He adored his
+sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous empire, which
+continued during several years.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> In which the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet was situate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 393.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Mad. de Motteville, vol. ii. p. 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> At a later period, after he had lost his sight from a
+pistol-shot received at the combat of the Porte St. Antoine during the
+Fronde, and had quarrelled with the Duchess, he parodied his own
+distich,&mdash;
+</p>
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;Pour ce c&#339;ur inconstant, qu&#8217;enfin Je connais mieux,<br />
+J&#8217;ai fait la guerre au roi; J&#8217;en ai perdu les yeux.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE DRIVEN INTO EXILE FOR THE THIRD
+TIME.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England, the fugitive consort
+of Charles I., sought an asylum in France from the fury of the English
+parliamentarians, and went to drink the Bourbon waters, Madame de
+Chevreuse eagerly desired to see once more that illustrious princess,
+who had so warmly welcomed her when herself an exile, at the Court of
+St. James&#8217;s. Queen Henrietta, too, who like her mother, Marie de&#8217;
+Medici, as well as the Duchess, was of the Spanish and Catholic party,
+would have been delighted to have mingled her tears with those of so old
+and faithful a friend. But the royal exile did not deem it right to give
+way to her inclination without Queen Anne&#8217;s permission, who at that
+moment was according her such noble hospitality. Anne of Austria
+politely replied that the Queen, her sister, was perfectly free to act
+as she chose; but it was intimated to her, through the Chevalier de
+Jars, that it was inexpedient to receive the visit of a person who,
+through misguided conduct, had forfeited Her Majesty&#8217;s favour. This
+fresh disgrace, added to so many others, increased the Duchess&#8217;s
+irritation to the highest pitch. She redoubled her efforts to break the
+yoke that oppressed her. Mazarin watched and was made acquainted with
+all her man&#339;uvres. He had the comptroller of her household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> arrested
+in Paris, and shortly afterwards even her physician, whilst accompanying
+Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s daughter in her carriage for an airing. The
+Duchess complained bitterly of this latter proceeding in a letter which
+she contrived to have handed to the Queen. She asserted that
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced to quit the vehicle, two archers
+levelling their pistols at her breast, and shouting all the
+while&mdash;&#8220;Fire! fire!&#8221; and they threatened, after the same fashion, the
+female attendants who were with her. At the same time that she protested
+her own innocence, she did not fail to challenge Anne&#8217;s sense of
+justice, with a view to neutralize the enmity of Mazarin. But the
+physician whom he had had arrested, on being flung into the Bastile,
+made avowals which opened up traces of very grave matters; and an exempt
+of the King&#8217;s guards was despatched to Madame de Chevreuse with an order
+commanding her to retire to Angoul&ecirc;me, and the officer was even charged
+to convey her thither. At Angoul&ecirc;me was that strong fortress used as a
+state prison, in which her friend Ch&acirc;teauneuf had been confined on her
+account for ten long years. This reminiscence, ever present to the
+Duchess&#8217;s imagination, terrified her sorely. She dreaded lest it should
+be the same sort of <i>retreat</i> which they now intended for her; and the
+active-minded woman, preferring every kind of extremity to being
+imprisoned, decided upon renewing the career of a wanderer and an
+adventurer, as in 1637, and to tread for the third time the wearisome
+paths of exile.</p>
+
+<p>But how greatly were circumstances then changed around her, and how
+changed was she also herself! Her first exile from France in 1626, had
+proved one continuous triumph. Young, lovely, and adored by every one,
+she had quitted Nancy, leaving the Duke de Lorraine a slave
+henceforward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> to the sway of her charms, only to return to Paris and
+trouble the mind of the stony, impassive Richelieu. In 1637 her flight
+into Spain had, on the contrary, proved a most severe trial to her. She
+had been forced to traverse the whole of France disguised in male
+attire, brave more than one danger, endure much suffering and privation,
+only to struggle in the sequel with five consecutive years of fruitless
+agitation. But, at any rate, she then had youth to back her, and the
+consciousness of the power of that irresistible fascination which
+procured her adorers and suitors wherever she wandered, even among the
+occupants of thrones. She had faith likewise in the Queen&#8217;s friendship,
+and a firm reliance that the time would come when that friendship would
+repay her for all her devotedness. But now age she felt was creeping
+upon her; her beauty, verging towards its decline, promised her
+henceforward conquests only few and far between. She perceived that in
+losing her power over Anne of Austria&#8217;s heart, she had lost the greater
+portion of her prestige both in France and Europe. The flight of the
+Duke de Vend&ocirc;me, shortly about to be followed by that of the Duke de
+Bouillon, left the <i>Importants</i> without any chief of note. The Duchess
+had found Mazarin to be quite as skilful and formidable an enemy as
+Richelieu. Victory seemed to have entered into a compact with him. De
+Bouillon&#8217;s own brother, Turenne, solicited the honour of serving him,
+and the young Duke d&#8217;Enghien won battle after battle for him. She knew
+also that the Cardinal had that in his hands wherewith he could condemn
+and sentence her to incarceration for the rest of her days. When,
+however, almost every one forsook her, this extraordinary woman did not
+give way to self-abandonment. As soon as the exempt Riquetti had
+signified to her the order of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> he was the bearer, she adopted
+measures with her accustomed promptitude, and, accompanied by her
+daughter Charlotte, who had hastened to her mother and refused to quit
+her, she succeeded in reaching by cross-roads the thickets of La Vend&eacute;e
+and the solitudes of Brittany; until, approaching within a few leagues
+of St.-Malo, she solicited an asylum at the hands of the Marquis de
+Coetquen. That noble and generous Breton gave her the hospitality which
+was due to such a woman struggling against such adversity. Marie de
+Rohan did not abuse it; and after placing her jewels in his hands for
+safety, as she had formerly done in those of La Rochefoucauld,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> she
+embarked with her daughter in the depth of winter at St.-Malo, on board
+a small vessel bound for Dartmouth, whence she purposed crossing over to
+Dunkirk and entering Flanders. But the English parliamentarian
+men-of-war were cruising in the Channel. They fell in with and captured
+the wretched little bark, and carried her into the Isle of Wight. There
+Madame de Chevreuse was recognised; and as she was known to be a friend
+of the Queen of England, the Roundheads were not loth to subject her to
+sufficiently rough treatment; and afterwards hand her over to Mazarin.
+For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>tunately, in the Governor of the Isle of Wight, she met with the
+Earl of Pembroke, whom she had formerly known. The Duchess appealed to
+his courtesy,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> and thanks to his good offices, she obtained&mdash;but with
+no little difficulty&mdash;passports which permitted her to gain Dunkirk, and
+thence the Spanish Low Countries.</p>
+
+<p>The adventurous exile took up her abode for a short time at Li&egrave;ge, and
+applied herself to maintain and consolidate to the utmost degree
+possible between Spain, Austria, and the Duke de Lorraine, an alliance,
+which was the final resource of the <i>Importants</i>, and the last basis of
+her own political reputation and high standing. Mazarin, however, having
+got the upper hand, resumed all Richelieu&#8217;s designs, and, like him, made
+strenuous efforts to detach Lorraine from his two allies. The gay Duke
+was then madly enamoured of the fair Beatrice de Cusance, Princess of
+Cantecroix. Mazarin laboured to gain over the lady, and he proposed to
+the ambitious and enterprising Charles IV. to break with Spain and march
+into Franche-Comt&eacute; with the aid of France, promising to leave him in
+possession of all he might conquer. The Cardinal succeeded in winning
+over to his interest Duke Charles&#8217;s own sister (the former mistress of
+Puylaurens), the Princess de Phalzbourg, then greatly fallen from her
+former &#8220;high estate,&#8221; and who gave him secret and faithful account of
+all that passed in her brother&#8217;s immediate circle. Mazarin required of
+her especially to keep him apprised of Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s slightest
+movement. He knew that she was in correspondence with the Duke de
+Bouillon, that she disposed of the Imperial general Piccolomini by means
+of her friend Madame<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> de&#8217; Strozzi, and even that she had preserved
+intact her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, in spite of the charms of the
+fair Beatrice. By the help of the Princess de Phalzbourg he watched
+every step, and disputed with her, foot to foot, possession of the
+fickle Charles IV., sometimes the victor, but very often the vanquished
+in this mysterious struggle.</p>
+
+<p>The advantage remained with Madame de Chevreuse. Her ascendancy over
+Charles IV.&mdash;the offspring of love, surviving that passion, but more
+potent than all the later loves of that inconstant Prince&mdash;retained him
+in alliance with Spain, and frustrated Mazarin&#8217;s projects. By degrees
+she became once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
+French Government. She did not always attack it from without, but
+fostered internal difficulties, which, like the heads of the hydra, were
+unceasingly springing forth. Surrounded by a knot of ardent and
+obstinate emigrants, among others by the Count de Saint-Ybar, one of the
+most resolute men of the party, she kept up the spirits of the remnant
+of the <i>Importants</i> left in France, and everywhere added fuel to the
+fire of sedition. Actuated by strong passion, yet mistress of herself,
+she preserved a calm brow amidst the wrack of the tempest, at the same
+time that she displayed an indefatigable activity in surprising the
+enemy on his weak side. Making use alike of the Catholic and the
+Protestant party, at times she meditated a revolt in Languedoc, or a
+descent upon Brittany; at others, on the slightest symptom of discontent
+betrayed by some person of importance, she laboured to drive out
+Mazarin.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Subsequently, she requested the Marquis de Coetquen to
+hand over her jewels to Montr&eacute;sor, who transferred them to a messenger
+of the Duchess. But Mazarin was informed of everything from first to
+last. He was aware of every tittle of the Duchess&#8217;s correspondence, and
+tried to seize with the strong hand the famous gems which had formerly
+belonged to Marie de&#8217; Medicis&#8217; favourite foster-sister, Leonora
+Galliga&iuml;, created Marchioness d&#8217;Ancre. On the murder of the Marshal
+d&#8217;Ancre, these diamonds and <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'varures'"><i>parures</i></ins>, valued at two hundred thousand
+crowns, with a vast amount of other property confiscated by an edict of
+Louis XIII., were bestowed by the king on his lucky favourite, De
+Luynes, the first husband of Marie de Rohan. Failing in his attempt to
+possess himself of these costly gems, Mazarin arrested Montr&eacute;sor, and
+kept him upwards of a year in prison. See &#8220;Memoirs of Montr&eacute;sor.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> See her letter to the Earl of Pembroke, dated Isle of
+Wight, 29th April, 1645, in &#8220;Archives des Affaires &Eacute;trang&egrave;res, France,&#8221;
+t. cvi. p. 162.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">FATAL INFLUENCE OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE&#8217;S PASSION FOR LA
+ROCHEFOUCAULD.&mdash;THE FRONDE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> do not propose to enter into the labyrinth of intrigues which
+preceded the outbreak of the Fronde, but confine ourselves to an
+endeavour to trace the motives which led Madame de Longueville to throw
+herself into the centre of the malcontents and to figure as the chief
+heroine in the varied scenes of that tragi-comedy of civil war.</p>
+
+<p>The first Fronde was formed out of the <i>d&eacute;bris</i> of the <i>Importants</i>. It
+was composed of all the malcontents who made common cause with those
+members of the parliament who were irritated by the frequent bursal
+edicts, notably that which, in 1648, created twelve new appointments of
+<i>ma&icirc;tres de requ&ecirc;tes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And now what gave birth to the Fronde, or what sustained it? What roused
+up the old party of the <i>Importants</i>, stifled for some years, it would
+seem, under the laurels of Rocroy? What separated the princes of the
+blood from the Crown? What turned against the throne that illustrious
+house of Cond&eacute;, which, until then, had been its sword and shield? There
+were doubtless many general causes for all this; but it is impossible
+for us to conceal one&mdash;private, it is true, but which exercised a
+powerful and deplorable influence&mdash;the unexpected love of Madame de
+Longueville for one of the chiefs of the <i>Importants</i>, who had become
+one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> of the chiefs of the Fronde. Yes&mdash;sad to say&mdash;it was Madame de
+Longueville, who, joining the party of the malcontents, attracted
+thereto, at first, a part of her family, then her entire family, and
+thus precipitated it from the pinnacle of honour and glory to which so
+many services had elevated it.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had the treaty of M&uuml;nster suspended the scourge of foreign war
+for France, than internal dissensions began to trouble the realm. The
+hatred which the Parliament bore to Mazarin, through his repression of
+its functions, primarily gave birth to civil war. The Duchess de
+Longueville became in the faction of the Fronde what the Duchess de
+Montpensier had been in that of the League. The former, however, did not
+at first attach so great an importance to the cause she espoused.
+Characteristically careless, she was by nature little inclined to
+agitation and intrigue. We have already shown that before her <i>liaison</i>
+with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had been a stranger to
+politics. Occupied solely with innocent gallantry and the homage of the
+most refined society of the day, she allowed herself in all else to be
+led by her father and her elder brother. But no sooner was La
+Rochefoucauld master of her heart, than she gave herself wholly up to
+him, and became a mere instrument in his hands. Having been by him
+inspired with ambition, she made it a point of honour, and doubtless a
+secret happiness, to share his destiny.</p>
+
+<p>It seems not improbable that the Duchess might have caught a liking for
+politics and negotiation during the conference of Munster. Certain it is
+that once plunged into the eddying tide of the Fronde, she loftily
+announced the project of remedying the general disorder of affairs. But
+she especially desired to employ therein the means which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> confer
+celebrity, and it is difficult to deny that ambition, although without
+determinate aim, and the desire of establishing a high opinion of her
+intellect, may have had some share in the reasons which induced her to
+embrace the party opposed to Mazarin. With herself she drew her husband
+into it, as well as the Prince de Conti, her younger brother. As for the
+elder, the victorious Cond&eacute;, he at first declared for the King and the
+Queen-Regent, which greatly incensed his sister against him, and caused
+her to enter into close compact, amongst others, with the Coadjutor,
+afterwards Cardinal de Retz&mdash;that mischievous man who figured so
+conspicuously as the evil genius of the Fronde.</p>
+
+<p>The Gondis, who were the chief advisers of the St. Bartholomew, owed to
+that terrible exploit the result of being very nearly the hereditary
+possessors of the Archbishopric of Paris. But this last Gondi&mdash;John
+Francis Paul&mdash;owed something more: to be at the same time governor of
+Paris, and to unite both powers. With such purpose, he artfully worked
+upon the city through the curates who, distributing bread, soup, and
+every other kind of alms, carried along with them the famished masses.
+This young ecclesiastic of the de Retz family had risen into great
+favour with the serious and religious sections of the Parisian
+community. He was nephew of the Archbishop of Paris, and was himself
+Archbishop of Corinth; but as his flock in that metropolitan city were
+schismatic (except those who had turned Turks), he had leisure to assist
+his uncle in his high office, and was appointed his Coadjutor and
+successor. He preached at all the churches, held visitations at the
+convents, catechised the young, and consulted with the senior clergy on
+the management of the diocese. When he rode through the streets he was
+saluted with cheers and blessings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> and the orators of the Fronde held
+him up as the pattern of all the Christian virtues. At night he put off
+his episcopal robes, disguised himself as a trooper or tradesman, and
+attended the meetings of the discontented. In a short time he had
+distributed seven or eight thousand pounds in stirring up the passions
+of the people, and was daily in expectation of being summoned by his
+patroness the Queen to exert his influence in quelling them. The
+populace, with an Archbishop-governor of Paris at their head, imagined
+that they were going to rule there as in the time of the League. This
+made them both blind and deaf to the morals and manners of the little
+prelate. A braggart, a duellist, and more than a gallant&mdash;though having
+swarthy, ugly features, turned-up nose, and short, bandy legs&mdash;yet his
+expressive eyes carried off every fault, sparkling as they were with
+intelligence, audacity, and libertinage. Few withstood this subtle
+knave, for he was wont to waive all ceremonial and spare everybody
+prefatory speeches. The ladies of gallantry&mdash;especially those whose
+lover he was&mdash;were his most indefatigable political agents. The Queen,
+at length, suspecting that the worthy Archbishop was not quite the
+simple and self-denying individual he appeared, had him watched and
+followed. Whilst he flattered himself with the anticipation that his
+assistance would be solicited at the Palais Royal, the Queen was making
+a jest of him, and Mazarin determined to strike the blow.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th of August, 1648, a vast assemblage crowded the spacious
+precincts of Notre Dame, to celebrate a <i>Te Deum</i> for the great victory
+of Lens, of which the youthful Cond&eacute; had just sent home the news. When
+the multitude were dispersing, a dash was made upon two or three of the
+obnoxious councillors who had inflamed the discussions of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> the
+Fronde&mdash;for that civil war was fairly on foot ere Anne of Austria and
+Mazarin knew of its existence. Two of the intended prisoners escaped,
+but a surly, burly demagogue, named Broussel, was tracked to his house
+in the mechanics&#8217; quarter of Paris, and arrested by an armed force.
+Thereupon the populace rose and armed against the Court. They made an
+extraordinary stand in the streets, having raised <i>twelve hundred</i>
+barricades in the course of twelve hours. They had no further need of De
+Retz. It was, however, one of his mistresses, the sister of a president
+and wife of a city captain, who having in her house the drum belonging
+to the citizen guard of that quarter, gave the first impulse by causing
+it to be beaten. The train was thus fired and the flame of civil war
+kindled. This was called the <i>Day of the Barricades</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, the royal power which, as wielded by Richelieu, had come to be
+considered as absolute, was attacked by three parties
+simultaneously&mdash;the great nobles, the parliamentarians, and the
+<i>bourgeoisie</i>; but, notwithstanding the dread of the common enemy, which
+united them, those parties were of different origin and conditions of
+existence, and consequently had different interests also. The great
+nobles wished to exercise power by placing themselves above the law; the
+parliament to increase its own through the law; the citizens to
+establish theirs at the expense of the law: for in their eyes the law
+was full of abuses and the royal power cruelly oppressive. All three
+parties, in order to arrive at their several ends, had, therefore,
+recourse to violence, or derived aid from it.</p>
+
+<p>On the return of Madame de Longueville from M&uuml;nster, there was already a
+ferment in the minds of the Parisians, of which the Regent took little
+heed. The Fronde cabal was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> then brooding in the dark. When the
+rebellion, formed by Gondi, broke out at last under the circumstances
+just narrated, Madame de Longueville, alone of all the princesses of the
+blood, did not accompany Anne of Austria in her flight to Rueil. The
+Duchess strove her utmost to strengthen, by the concurrence of her
+entire family, the faction whose fortunes she had embraced through
+devotion to Marsillac. She did not, however, then succeed in detaching
+Cond&eacute; from the Regent&#8217;s party. The battle of the barricades followed
+close upon that of Lens, Cond&eacute;&#8217;s last victory. On his return, that
+victorious young soldier found royalty humiliated, the Parliament
+triumphing and dictating laws to the Crown; the Duke de Beaufort, with
+whom he once thought of measuring swords in defence of the honour of his
+sister, freed from his prison in Vincennes, and master of Paris by aid
+of the populace who idolized him; the vain and fickle Abb&eacute; de Retz
+transformed into a tribune of the people; the Prince de Conti into a
+generalissimo; M. de Longueville under the guidance of his wife and La
+Rochefoucauld; and the feeble Duke d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans fancying himself almost a
+King, because he saw the Queen humiliated, and because the Frondeurs,
+cunningly flattering his self-love, were treating him like a sovereign.
+Cond&eacute;, at a glance, saw the situation of affairs and his duty also; and
+without any hesitation he offered his sword to the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Brother and sister were, therefore, about to be arrayed against each
+other in the strife of civil war, and a stormy explanation took place
+between them. It is asserted that for some time back their reciprocal
+tenderness had suffered more than one interruption; that, in 1645,
+Madame de Longueville had crossed the loves of her brother and
+Mademoiselle du Vigean; that, in 1646, Cond&eacute;, seeing her too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> intimate
+with La Rochefoucauld, had caused her to be summoned to M&uuml;nster by her
+husband. But for this we have only the authority of the Duchess de
+Nemours, her step-daughter and unsparing censor, and nothing is less
+probable. The passion of Cond&eacute; for Mademoiselle de Vigean extinguished
+itself, as all contemporaries affirm. The attentions of La Rochefoucauld
+to Madame de Longueville may have preceded the embassy of M&uuml;nster, but
+they were not observed until 1647, and it is at the close of this year
+that Madame de Motteville places them, while attributing them especially
+to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share the confidence of the sister
+with the brother. But it is very certain that as soon as the latter
+remarked this connection, he disapproved of it entirely; and not
+succeeding in his effort to rouse his sister from the intoxication of a
+first passion, he passed from the most ardent affection to a bitter
+discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his return from Lens, this
+connection had acquired its greatest strength, and become almost
+notorious. Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, did then
+everything possible to gain over her brother. She brought all her
+allurements to bear upon him, all her fondlings. She put into play
+everything which she thought might influence his fickle and passionate
+disposition&mdash;but failed. Neither did he succeed in gaining over her his
+accustomed ascendency. They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame de
+Longueville plunged more deeply into the Fronde, and Cond&eacute; applied
+himself to giving the new <i>Importants</i> a harsh lesson.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the young King and all the
+government. Paris was under the absolute control of the Fronde. It
+stirred up the Parliament by the aid of a few ambitious councillors and
+by seditious and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great part of
+the Parisian clergy through the Coadjutor of the Archbishop De Retz, who
+possessed and exercised all the authority of his uncle. It had
+continually at its head the two great houses of Vend&ocirc;me and Lorraine,
+with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti and the Duke de
+Longueville, followed by a very great number of illustrious families,
+including the Dukes d&#8217;Elbeuf, de Bouillon, and de Beaufort, and other
+powerful nobles. It gave law in the <i>salons</i>, thanks to a brilliant bevy
+of pretty women, who drew after them the flower of the young nobility.
+In short, the army itself was divided. Turenne, with his troops, who
+were stationed near the Rhine until the perfect conclusion of the treaty
+of Westphalia, obedient to the suggestions of his elder brother, the
+Duke de Bouillon, who wished to recover his principality of Sedan, had
+just raised the standard of revolt, and was threatening to place the
+Court between his own army and that of Paris. The parliament of the
+capital had sent deputies to all the parliaments of the kingdom, and was
+thus forming a sort of formidable parliamentary league in the face of
+monarchy. Cond&eacute; took command of all the troops that remained faithful,
+and everywhere opposed the insurrection. He wrote himself to the army of
+the Rhine, which well knew him, and which after the rout sustained by
+Turenne at Mariendal, had been led back by him to victory: these
+letters, supported by the proceedings of the government, succeeded in
+arresting the revolt; and Turenne, abandoned by his own soldiers, was
+obliged to fly to Holland.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> At ease on this head, Cond&eacute; marched upon
+Paris, and placed it under siege. Instead of disputing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> ground, as
+he might have done, foot by foot, with the sedition, he allowed it the
+freest course, in the certainty that the spectacle of licentiousness
+which could not fail to appear would, little by little, restore to
+royalty those who had for a moment gone astray. He began by summoning,
+in the Queen&#8217;s name and through his mother, all his family to
+Saint-Germain. The Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville did not dare
+disobey; but La Rochefoucauld, seeing that the Fronde was in the
+greatest peril, hastened after these two princes. Having brought them
+back to Paris, he made the Prince de Conti generalissimo&mdash;placing under
+him the Dukes d&#8217;Elbeuf and de Bouillon&mdash;and who shared authority with
+the Marshal de la Mothe Houdancourt, governor of Paris. Madame de
+Longueville excused herself to the Queen and to her mother on the
+grounds of her delicate condition, which would not permit her to
+undertake the least fatigue. In fact, Madame de Longueville, it may be
+noted, was <i>enceinte</i> for the last time in 1648, when, it must be
+confessed, her connection with La Rochefoucauld was well known. It was
+in this condition that, willing to share the perils of her friends,
+proud also of playing a part and of filling all the trumpets of fame,
+she enacted Pallas as well as she was able. It is at least certain that
+she shared all the fatigues of the siege, that she was present at the
+reviews of the troops, at the parades of the citizen <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'soldiery.'">soldiery</ins>, and that
+all the civil and military plans were discussed before her. In this
+disorder and confusion, amidst the tumult of arms and vociferations of
+the insurrection, she appeared as if in her natural element. She
+encouraged, counselled, acted, and the most energetic resolutions
+emanated from her. The memoirs of the times are full, in regard to this,
+of the most curious details. The H&ocirc;tel de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> Longueville was continually
+filled with officers and generals; nothing was seen there but plumes,
+helmets, and swords.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding all this, the democratic spirit which had originated the
+Fronde was not satisfied. It beheld with displeasure all the forces of
+Paris in the hands of the brother, of the brother-in-law, and of the
+sister of him who commanded the siege. Believing very little, and with
+reason, in the patriotism of the princes, the citizens demanded some
+sureties from the chiefs who might at any time betray them, and make
+peace, at their expense, with Saint-Germain. No one seemed to know how
+to appease this clamorous multitude, without which nothing further could
+be done. It was then that Madame de Longueville showed that, if she had
+forgotten her true duties, she had retained the energy of her race and
+the intrepidity of the Cond&eacute;s. Under the advice of De Retz, she induced
+her husband to present himself to the Parliament and inform them that he
+had come to offer his services, as well as the towns of Rouen, Caen,
+Dieppe, and the whole of Normandy, of which he was governor; and he
+begged the Parliament to consent that his wife and two children should
+be lodged at the H&ocirc;tel de Ville as a guarantee for the execution of his
+word. His speech was received with acclamations; and while the
+deliberations were still going on, De Retz proceeded to seek the Duchess
+de Longueville and the Duchess de Bouillon, both prepared to act a part
+in the scene he proposed to display. He had already caused the proposal
+of the Duke de Longueville to be spread amongst the populace; and
+hurrying the two princesses into a carriage, dressed with studied and
+artful negligence, but surrounded by a splendid suite, and followed by
+an immense crowd to the principal quarter of the insurrection&mdash;the H&ocirc;tel
+de Ville&mdash;those lovely and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> interesting women were placed in the hands
+of the people as hostages with all that was most dear to them.
+&#8220;Imagine,&#8221; says De Retz, &#8220;these two beautiful persons upon the balcony
+of the H&ocirc;tel de Ville; more beautiful because they appeared neglected,
+although they were not. Each held in her arms one of her children, who
+were as beautiful as their mothers.&#8221; La Gr&egrave;ve was full of people, even
+to the house tops; the men all raised cries of joy, and the women wept
+with emotion. De Retz, meanwhile, threw handfuls of money from the
+windows of the H&ocirc;tel de Ville amongst the populace, and then, leaving
+the princesses under the protection of the city, he returned to the
+Palais de Justice, followed by an immense multitude, whose acclamations
+rent the skies.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville gave
+birth to her last child, a son, who was baptized by De Retz, having for
+its godfather the Provost, for its godmother the Duchess de Bouillon,
+and who received the name of Charles de Paris; the child of the Fronde,
+handsome, talented, and brave; who during his life was the troublesome
+hope, the melancholy joy of his mother, and the cause of her greatest
+grief in 1672, when he perished, at the passage of the Rhine, by the
+side of his uncle, Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince de Conti being declared <i>generalissimo of the army of the
+King, under the parliament</i>, and the Dukes de Bouillon and Elbeuf, with
+the Marshal de la Mothe, generals under him, De Retz saw the full
+fruition of his intrigues. A civil war was now inevitable. The great and
+the little, the wise and the foolish, the rash and the prudent, the
+cowardly and the brave, were all engaged and jumbled up pell-mell on
+both sides; and the mixture was so strange, so heterogeneous, and so
+incomprehensible, that a sentiment of the ridiculous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> was irresistibly
+paramount, and the war began amongst fits of laughter on all sides. That
+same day Cond&eacute;&#8217;s cavaliers came galloping into the faubourgs to fire
+their pistols at the Parisians, whilst the Marquis de Noirmoutier went
+forth with the cavalry of the Fronde to skirmish with them, and
+returning to the H&ocirc;tel de Ville, entered the circle of the Duchess de
+Longueville, followed by his officers, each wearing his cuirass, as he
+came from the field. The hall was filled with ladies preparing to dance,
+the troops were drawn up in the square, and this mixture of blue scarves
+and ladies, cuirasses and violins and trumpets, formed, says De Retz, a
+spectacle much more common in romances than anywhere else.</p>
+
+<p>The serio-grotesque drama of the Fronde was thus initiated.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> &#8220;History of Turenne,&#8221; by Ramsay, vol. ii.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE WINS HER BROTHER COND&Eacute; OVER TO THE
+FRONDE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> first raising of bucklers by the Frondeurs was not of long
+duration. At the conclusion of a peace between Mazarin and the
+Parliament, a perfect understanding prevailed amongst all the members of
+the Cond&eacute; family. The civil dissensions, however, were sufficiently
+prolonged to exhibit the errors of all parties&mdash;even those who had
+entered therein with virtuous inclinations and intentions, ashamed of
+the stains which had tarnished them in the struggle, almost invariably
+ended by confining themselves to the narrow circle of individual
+interests, and completed their degradation by no longer recognizing any
+other motive for their conduct than that of sordid selfishness. All care
+for the public weal became extinct; men&#8217;s hearts were insensible to all
+generous sympathy; their minds dead to every elevating impulse&mdash;like to
+those aromatics which, after diffusing both glow and perfume from their
+ardent brazier, lose by combustion all power of further rekindling, and
+present nothing else than vile ashes, without heat, light, or odour.</p>
+
+<p>The peace concluded between the Minister and the Fronde was destined to
+be of short duration. It was, properly speaking, nothing but a
+suspension of arms, and in no degree a suspension of intrigues and
+cabals. That suspen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>sion of arms, however, had been accompanied by an
+amnesty, including all persons except the Coadjutor. The other chief
+personages who had played a part in the insurrection of Paris, and who
+now proceeded to visit the Court, were by no means warmly received by
+the Queen, though Mazarin himself displayed nothing but mildness and
+humility. The Duke d&#8217;Orleans and the Prince de Cond&eacute; visited the city;
+and the first was received with much enthusiasm by the populace, who
+attributed to his counsels the truce of which all parties had stood so
+much in need. The Prince de Cond&eacute;, whose warlike spirit had not only
+aided in stirring up the strife at first, but would have protracted it
+still further had his advice been listened to, was not looked upon with
+the same favour by the Parisians; but the Parliament sent deputations to
+them both on their arrival in the city, to compliment them on their
+efforts for the restoration of peace.</p>
+
+<p>During Cond&eacute;&#8217;s visit to Paris, a reconciliation took place between him
+and his fair sister, the Duchess de Longueville. The violent language he
+had used to her on various occasions, the imputations he had cast upon
+her character, and the harsh nature of the advice which he had given to
+her husband concerning her, were all forgotten, and she resumed her
+ascendancy over his mind so completely as in a very short time to detach
+him entirely from the side of Mazarin, and to lead him, before he
+quitted Paris, to speak publicly of the Minister in the scornful and
+contemptuous manner in which he was usually treated by the leaders of
+the Fronde.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess de Longueville herself remained as strongly opposed to the
+Cardinal as ever. But though she still retained towards Anne of Austria
+that dislike which she had always felt, and which the sense of an
+inferiority of station<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> greatly augmented in a woman of a haughty and
+ambitious character, she found herself obliged, in common propriety, to
+appear at Court on the conclusion of the Siege of Paris. The first
+visits of her husband and herself, after the insurrection, were rendered
+remarkable by the extraordinary degree of embarrassment and timidity
+shown by two such bold and fearless persons. The Duke de Longueville
+arrived first, coming from Normandy; and was followed by a very numerous
+and splendid train, as though he rested for mental support upon the
+number of his retainers. The Queen received him in the midst of her
+Court, with Mazarin standing beside her; and every one crowded round to
+hear what excuses the Duke would offer for abandoning the royal family
+at the moment of their greatest need. Longueville, however, approached
+the Regent with a troubled and embarrassed air, attempted to speak,
+became first deadly pale, and then as red as fire, but could not utter a
+word. He then turned and bowed to Mazarin, who came forward, spoke to
+him, and led him to a window, where they conversed for some time
+together in private; after which they visited each other frequently, and
+became apparent friends.</p>
+
+<p>The reception of the proud and beautiful Duchess at St. Germain, though
+not so public, was not less embarrassing. The Queen had lain down on her
+bed when the Duchess was announced, and, as was customary in those days,
+received her in that situation. Madame de Longueville was naturally very
+apt to blush, and the frequent variation of her complexion added
+greatly, we are told, to the dazzling character of her beauty. Her
+blushes, however, on approaching the Queen, became painful; all that she
+could utter was a few confused sentences, of which the Queen could not
+understand a word, and those were pronounced in so low a tone that
+Madame de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> Motteville, who listened attentively, could distinguish
+nothing but the word <i>Madame</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As there was no sincerity in these reconciliations, it is not surprising
+to find that ere long the conduct of the Prince de Cond&eacute; gave no slight
+uneasiness to Mazarin. The Prince had, however, brought back the Court
+to Paris; but from that very day he had shown a great change in his
+attitude, and it is to the influence of La Rochefoucauld that such
+change must be attributed. At that moment, in fact, the Sieur Cond&eacute; had
+become reconciled with every member of his family, and even with his
+sister&#8217;s lover. He drew closer also the links between himself and the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans, for whom he shewed great deference, say his
+contemporaries, and he began to treat Mazarin with much indifference,
+rallying him publicly, and declaring aloud that he regretted to have
+maintained him in a post of which he was so little worthy. Enjoying a
+great military reputation, feared and esteemed by the bulk of his
+countrymen, he chafed at seeing himself compromised by the unpopularity
+of the Cardinal. He thought that by drawing closer to the <i>Frondeurs</i>,
+he should rid himself of the feeling that oppressed him. In the outset,
+he had no idea of actively joining that faction, but his sister did the
+rest, and hurried him on to become the enemy of that party of which he
+had just been the saviour.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that, for the memorable service which he had recently
+rendered, Cond&eacute; reaped scarcely any benefit; but his noble conduct
+increased the splendour of his last campaign of 1648. It added to his
+military titles those of defender and saviour of the throne, of
+pacificator of the realm, of arbiter and enlightened conciliator of
+parties. It gave the climax to his credit and to his glory.
+Nevertheless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> he did not lose sight of the jealous feeling to which
+such claims gave birth, whether on the part of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans or the
+Prime Minister; and he well knew that he was exposed to one of those
+<i>coups d&#8217;<ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads d'&ecirc;tat'">&eacute;tat</ins></i>, the necessity of which the Chancellor as well as himself
+had urged at Rueil. He considered himself as the head of the nobility,
+and that important body seemed to constitute all the military power of
+the State. But the French nobility was just beginning to lose its former
+independence of character in becoming more courtierlike. Instead of
+deriving from its strongholds and vassals the feeling of its strength
+and equality, it showed itself ambitious of such distinctions as the
+monarch could confer. In the indulgence of its vanity it lost sight of
+its proper pride; and if that new emulation which the Bourbons had
+excited was more easy for the sovereign to satisfy, it was more
+difficult for the chief of a party to direct. Moreover, Cond&eacute;, as the
+Duchess de Nemours remarks, knew better how to win battles than
+hearts.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> He found a dangerous pleasure, as did his sister the Duchess
+de Longueville, in braving malevolence. &#8220;In matters of consequence, they
+delighted to thwart people, and in ordinary life they were so
+impracticable that there was no getting on with them. They had such a
+habit of ridiculing one, and of saying offensive things, that nobody
+could put up with them. When visits were paid to them, they allowed such
+a scornful ennui to be visible, and showed so openly that their visitors
+bored them, that it was not difficult to understand that they did
+everything in their power to get rid of their company. Whatsoever might
+be the rank or quality of the visitors, people were made to wait any
+length of time in the Prince&#8217;s antechamber; and very often, after having
+long waited,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> everybody was sent away without getting an interview,
+however short. When they were displeased they pushed people to the
+utmost extremity, and they were incapable of showing any gratitude for
+services done them. Thus they were alike hated by the Court, by the
+Fronde, and by the populace, and nobody could live with them long. All
+France impatiently suffered their irritating conduct, and especially
+their pride, which was excessive.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p>
+
+<p>In looking at the faulty side of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s character, we must not forget
+to observe the disinterested firmness with which, without considering
+either his family or his friends, he had hitherto acted in the interests
+of the King. Happy would it have been, if, after having thus terminated
+this sad civil war, he had quitted the Court and its intrigues to seek
+other battlefields, and to finish another war somewhat more useful and
+glorious to France&mdash;that which still remained with Spain! Happy, also
+for Madame de Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, in her last
+interview with the Queen, and by the shameful <i>d&eacute;nouement</i> of the
+miserable intrigues of which she had the secret, instead of still
+serving as their instrument, she had shown her courage in resisting
+them. Happy too, if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just
+given to La Rochefoucauld, she had firmly represented to him that, even
+for his own interest, a different course was necessary; that it would be
+better to look for fortune and honours by rendering himself esteemed
+than by trying to make himself feared; that ambition as well as duty
+showed his place to be by the side of Cond&eacute;, in the service of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+State and of the King; that it was easy for him to obtain in the army
+some post where he would simply have to march forward and do his duty,
+trusting to his courage and his other merits!</p>
+
+<p>But even if Anne de Bourbon had been wise enough to speak thus to La
+Rochefoucauld, she would not have succeeded in gaining his ear. His
+restless spirit, his ever-discontented vanity, pursuing by turns the
+most dissimilar objects, because it selected none within its reach&mdash;that
+<i>undefinable something</i> which, as De Retz says, was in La Rochefoucauld,
+made him abandon the high and direct roads, and led him into by-paths
+full of pitfalls and precipices. Through such perilous ways we shall see
+the infatuated woman following and aiding him in his extravagant and
+guilty designs. Receiving the law instead of giving it, she strives to
+promote the passion of another by devoting to his service all her
+coquetry as well as greatness of soul, her penetration and intrepidity,
+her attractive sweetness and indomitable energy. She undertakes to
+mislead Cond&eacute;, to rob France of the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, and
+to give him to Spain.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Duchesse de Nemours, tom., xxxiv. p. 437.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> The Duchess de Nemours was a daughter of the Duke de
+Longueville, by his first wife, and as she lived with her step-mother,
+the Duchess de Longueville, on very indifferent terms, her unsparing
+censure must by no means be implicitly received.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE <i>COUP D&#8217;&Eacute;TAT</i>&mdash;THE ARREST OF THE
+PRINCES.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the first scenes of the shifting drama, the Court had supported Cond&eacute;
+in compassing the destruction of the Frondeurs; and Mazarin, with keen
+policy, instigated the Prince to every act that could widen the breach
+between him and the faction. Whichever succeeded, the party that
+succumbed would be inimical to the Minister; and in their divisions was
+his strength. But the pride and impetuosity of Cond&eacute; were about this
+time excited to such a degree by opposition and irritation, that it
+approached to frenzy, and, unable to overpower at once the leaders of
+the Fronde, the vehemence of his nature spent itself upon those who were
+in reality supporting him. He still scoffed at, and openly insulted,
+Mazarin; he accused the Government of not giving him sincere assistance
+against the Fronde. He every day made enemies amongst the nobility by
+his overbearing conduct and his rash, and often illegal, acts; and at
+length the disgust and indignation of the whole Court was roused to put
+a stop to a tyranny which could no longer be borne.</p>
+
+<p>Anne of Austria long hesitated as to what she should do to deliver
+herself from the domination of a man whom she feared without loving: but
+at length an aggravated insult to herself, and the counsels of a woman
+of a bold and daring character, removed her irresolution. The Duchess
+de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> Chevreuse had been exiled from France, as we have seen, during the
+greater part of that period in which Cond&eacute; had principally distinguished
+himself, and she did not share in the awe in which the Parisians held
+him. She still kept up what De Retz calls an incomprehensible union with
+the Queen, notwithstanding all her intrigues; nor did she scruple to
+hold out to Anne of Austria a direct prospect of gaining the support of
+the Fronde itself in favour of her Government, if that Government would
+aid in avenging the Fronde upon the Prince de Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>Anne of Austria was unwilling to take a step which appeared to border
+upon ingratitude, although the late conduct of the Prince might well be
+supposed to cancel the obligation of his former services. It seems here
+necessary to say a few words upon the connection of a series of sudden
+political changes, in order that the reader may understand how such
+startling results as those we are about to narrate were brought about.</p>
+
+<p>The hollow treaty of peace of the 11th March, 1649, had scarcely been
+signed ere the Prince de Cond&eacute; showed himself day by day more strongly
+attached to the faction which opposed the Court. Feeling his own
+importance, determined to rule; quick, harsh, and impetuous in his
+manners, he took a pleasure in insulting the Minister and embarrassing
+the Queen. There were some personal grounds for this in the strong
+dislike manifested towards his sister by Anne of Austria. That feeling
+was signally shown on the occasion of Louis XIV. completing his eleventh
+year; when a grand ball was given at the H&ocirc;tel de Ville, at which the
+young King, with all the principal members of the royal family and the
+Court, were present. The Queen&#8217;s orders were received with regard to all
+the arrangements, every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> person of distinction being invited by her
+command, except the Duchess de Longueville. That princess, influenced by
+discontent, it is supposed, at the reception of the royal family in
+Paris, had remained at Chantilly, on the pretence of drinking some
+mineral waters in the neighbourhood. The Queen seized the same pretext
+not to invite her, replying to those who pressed her to do so, that she
+would not withdraw her from the pursuit of health; but at length the
+Prince de Cond&eacute; himself, demanded that she should receive a summons; and
+his support was of too much consequence, and the bonds which attached
+him to the Court too slight, for the Queen to trifle with his request.</p>
+
+<p>To the surprise and dissatisfaction of most persons, however, Anne of
+Austria commanded that the ball should take place in daylight;
+acknowledging, in her own immediate circle, that it was in order to
+mortify the ladies attached to the Fronde, the principal part of whom
+employed methods of enhancing their beauty and heightening their
+complexion to which the searching eye of day was very inimical. Human
+malice, of course, took care that the Queen&#8217;s motive should be
+communicated to all the higher circles of Paris; and as vanity is not
+only a more pugnacious passion, but a much more pertinacious adversary
+than any other, the words of Anne of Austria rendered many opponents
+irreconcilable, who might otherwise have been gained to her cause: the
+family of the Prince de Cond&eacute; naturally being among the number.</p>
+
+<p>France was then able to count the cost of having created a
+hero&mdash;<i>expendere Hannibalem</i>&mdash;a prince <i>&agrave; la Corneille</i>, who carried his
+gaze to the stars, and only spoke to mortals from the summit of his
+trophies. His sister, Madame de Longueville, had also in the same
+fashion soared into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> sphere of a goddess. The one and the other, in
+the empyrean, no longer distinguished their fellow mortals from such a
+height save with a smile of disdain. Great folks, as a contemporary
+tells us, kicked their heels in their antechambers for hours, and, when
+granted an audience, were received with yawning and gaping.</p>
+
+<p>The reconciliation effected during the preceding year was rather, as has
+been said, a truce between the parties than a solid peace. The
+Parliament had retained the right of assembling and deliberating upon
+affairs of state, which the Court had sought to prevent: and Mazarin
+remained Minister, although the Parliament, the people, and even the
+princes, had desired that he should cease to hold that office. It rarely
+happens to states in like unfortunate emergencies that among the men who
+show themselves most active and skilful in overthrowing a government
+there are found those capable of conducting one; and when such do
+appear, the chances almost always are that circumstances hinder them
+from placing themselves in the front rank. It was to Gaston, the King&#8217;s
+uncle, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, that belonged, in concert with
+the Regent, the chief direction of affairs; but Gaston felt himself too
+weak and too incapable to pretend to charge himself with such a burden.
+He could never arrive at any decision, and took offence when any matter
+was decided without him. Jealous of Mazarin&#8217;s influence, more jealous
+still of that of Cond&eacute;, neither of the two could attempt to govern along
+with him; and nevertheless Gaston was powerful enough to command a
+party, and to hinder any one from governing without him: ready to offer
+opposition to everything, but impotent to carry anything into execution.
+If Anne of Austria had even consented to dismiss her favourite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+Minister, and overcome her repugnance to the Fronde and the Frondeurs,
+she could not have formed a government with the chiefs of that party.
+The Duke de Beaufort, its nominal head, lacked both instruction and
+intelligence. De Retz, its veritable chief&mdash;an eloquent, witty, and bold
+man, skilful in the conduct of business, in the art of making partisans;
+brave, generous, even loyal when he followed the impulses of his own
+mind and natural inclination&mdash;was without faith, scruple, reticence, or
+foresight when he abandoned himself to his passions, which urged him
+unceasingly to the indulgence of an excessive and irrational
+libertinage. Such a man could not have replaced him who for so long a
+period had informed himself of the affairs of France under a master such
+as Richelieu; who, deeply versed in dissimulation, was inaccessible to
+any sentiment that might possibly derange the calculations of his
+ambition. Besides, he, as well as Mazarin, would have had the Princes
+against him, and could not have resisted successfully their numerous
+partisans. De Retz had, through the ascendancy of his talents, great
+influence with the Parisian Parliament, but it mistrusted him; and that
+body, in its heterogeneous composition, offered rather the means for an
+opposition than strength to the Government. Cond&eacute;, to whom the state
+owed its glory, and the Sovereign his safety, was therefore the sole
+prop upon which Anne of Austria might have rested; but that young hero
+had no capacity for business. He could not then have filled up the void
+which Mazarin&#8217;s retirement would have created. Cond&eacute;, whose natural
+pride was still further exalted by the flattery of the young nobles who
+formed his train, and who obtained the nickname of <i>petits ma&icirc;tres</i>,
+only used the influence which his position gave him to wring from
+Mazarin the places and good things at his disposal, and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> these he and
+his adherents showed themselves insatiable. Thus, Cond&eacute; rendered himself
+formidable and odious to Mazarin, and made himself detested by the
+people as Mazarin&#8217;s supporter, at the same time that by his arrogance he
+shocked the Parliament, already unfavourably disposed towards him on
+account of his rapacity and his ambition.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of things, when the singular circumstances which
+attended the murder of one of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s domestics made that prince believe
+that the chiefs of the Fronde had conspired to assassinate him. He
+thought, by such a crime, to have found an opportunity for crushing that
+faction in the persons of its chiefs, and he instituted a process in
+parliament against the contrivers of that murder. Public report
+particularly pointed to two persons, De Retz and Beaufort; and Cond&eacute;, by
+his accusation, hoped to force them to quit Paris, where they found
+their principal means of influence in the populace. But in attacking
+thus, as it were, face to face, the two most popular men of the moment,
+Cond&eacute; showed no better tact than in dealing with the Prime Minister. He
+conducted himself with so much haughtiness and arrogance, that the young
+nobles who surrounded the soldier prince, when they wished to flatter
+him, spoke of Mazarin as his slave.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p>
+
+<p>The process went on nevertheless. Almost all the judges were convinced
+of the innocence of the accused, but Cond&eacute; pretended that they could not
+be absolved without giving a deadly affront to himself. He demanded that
+at the very least the Coadjutor and Beaufort should be made to quit
+Paris under some honourable pretext, and the Princess-Dowager de Cond&eacute;
+declared that it was the height of inso<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>lence in them to remain in the
+capital when it was her son&#8217;s wish that they should leave it. The Queen,
+who equally detested the Prince de Cond&eacute; and the Frondeurs, could
+scarcely conceal her joy at seeing them at daggers drawn with each
+other; feeling certain that the moment was at hand when their
+dissensions would restore her supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>Under such circumstances Cond&eacute; had need of all his friends, but he
+considered that he was set at defiance, and he gave way all the more to
+his wonted pride and overbearing obstinacy. He seemed to take pleasure
+in offending Anne of Austria and Mazarin. The young Duke de Richelieu
+had been declared heir to an immense fortune, of which his aunt and
+guardian, the Duchess d&#8217;Aiguillon, was the depositary. The stronghold of
+Havre de Gr&acirc;ce, which the Cardinal de Richelieu had formerly held as a
+place of retreat, was by such title in the possession of the Duchess
+d&#8217;Aiguillon. Cond&eacute; desired to be master of it, either for himself or for
+his brother-in-law, the Duke de Longueville. The young Duke de Richelieu
+was engaged to be married to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but the Prince
+having remarked that he had some liking for Madame de Pons, a sister of
+his own first love, managed to marry him clandestinely to her in the
+Ch&acirc;teau de Trye, lent him two thousand pistoles until he should be of
+age to enter upon possession of his property, and made him take
+possession of Havre de Gr&acirc;ce. The Queen was mortally offended at such a
+proceeding on the part of Cond&eacute;, who had moreover threatened to throw
+into the sea those she might send to Havre to seize the fortress; but
+the Duchess d&#8217;Aiguillon&#8217;s resentment was still deeper and more active.
+She was the first to tell Anne of Austria, that she would never be queen
+again until she had had the Prince de Cond&eacute; arrested,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> assuring her that
+all the Frondeurs would lend their hands to aid her in carrying out such
+a resolution.</p>
+
+<p>Almost at this moment, a gentleman named Jarz&eacute;, attached to Cond&eacute;,
+foolishly took it into his head that the Queen entertained a liking for
+him, and it reached her ears that Cond&eacute; and his friends had amused
+themselves whilst at table over their wine with Jarz&eacute;&#8217;s revelations of
+his amour with her, and that he had begun to feel certain of getting rid
+of Mazarin by that means. Mazarin himself probably became somewhat
+alarmed, as he spoke pointedly to the Queen on the subject, who
+pretended only to have contemplated the ridiculous side of her new
+adorer&#8217;s gallantries. But when Jarz&eacute; next made his appearance in her
+cabinet, she rated him roundly before the whole Court upon his absurd
+fatuity, and forbade him ever to enter her presence again. The Prince de
+Cond&eacute;, pretending to feel hurt at the affront put upon Jarz&eacute;, early next
+morning paid the Prime Minister a visit, and insolently demanded that
+Jarz&eacute; should be received that very evening by the Queen. Anne of Austria
+submitted to his dictation, but could not endure such humiliation
+without seeking to avenge herself. In a woman&#8217;s heart every other
+species of resentment yields to that of wounded pride. A few lines
+addressed to the Coadjutor in the Queen&#8217;s own handwriting, and carried
+by Madame de Chevreuse, brought to her side that wily priest and
+formidable tribune, disguised <i>en cavalier</i>. Certain negotiations,
+however, which had preceded this interview, had reached the ears of
+Cond&eacute;, who went to Mazarin to denounce the treachery. The Cardinal,
+glowing with a hatred which would have stopped at nothing for its
+gratification, laughed and jested, or flattered and soothed the object
+of his concealed wrath. He turned the Archbishop<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> of Corinth into
+ridicule when Cond&eacute; blamed him for his duplicity. &#8220;If I catch him,&#8221; said
+the Cardinal, &#8220;in the disguise you speak of&mdash;in his feathered hat, and
+cloak, and military boots&mdash;I will get a sight of him for your Highness;&#8221;
+and they roared at the idea of discovering the intriguer in so unfitting
+an apparel. But shortly afterwards in the wintry gloom of a January
+midnight (1650), disguised beyond the reach of detection, and guarded by
+a passport from the Cardinal himself, De Retz was admitted at midnight
+by a secret door into the Regent&#8217;s room at the Palais Royal, and deep
+conference was held between the two. The conditions of agreement were
+readily stipulated. The Coadjutor with an inconceivable address and most
+extraordinary success handled the threads of the intrigues consequent
+upon such agreement. He succeeded in making himself the confidant of
+Gaston; he made him renounce his favourite, the Abb&eacute; de la Rivi&egrave;re; he
+engaged him in the coalition which had been just set on foot between the
+Court and the Fronde, and he obtained his assent to the arrest of the
+Princes. Everything succeeded that was agreed upon. The Queen-Regent, at
+the moment of a council being held at the Palais-Royal, gave the fatal
+order, and then withdrew into her oratory. There she made the young King
+kneel down beside her in order to invoke Heaven in concert with herself
+to obtain the happy achievement of an act of tyranny which was destined
+to produce fresh woes to the realm, and to rekindle in it the flames of
+civil war.</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow of the 18th of January, 1650, all Paris was electrified at
+the news of the arrest of the three Princes&mdash;Cond&eacute;, Conti, and
+Longueville. That bold <i>coup d&#8217;&eacute;tat</i> was effected very easily and
+unceremoniously. The Princes went voluntarily, as it were, into the
+mouse-trap, by attend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>ing a great council at the Palais Royal. Anne had
+obtained from Cond&eacute; an order for the seizure and detention of three or
+four persons whose names were left in blank; and on the authority of his
+own signature, the hero of Rocroy and the other two princes, were led
+quietly down a back stair, given over to the custody of a small escort
+of twenty men under the command of Guitaut and Comminges, and by them
+conducted during the night to Vincennes.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Talon, m&eacute;m. t. lxii. pp. 65-105.&mdash;Montpensier.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Motteville, m&eacute;m. t. xxxix. p. 4.&mdash;Guy-Joly.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE&#8217;S ADVENTURES IN NORMANDY. THE WOMEN&#8217;S
+WAR.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> heroes having thus suddenly disappeared from the scene, the
+political stage was left clear for the performance of the heroines. We
+are now about to see the women, almost by themselves, carry on the civil
+war, govern, intrigue, fight. A great experience for human nature, a
+fine historical opportunity for observing that gallant transfer of all
+power from the one sex to the other&mdash;the men lagging behind, led,
+directed, in the second or third ranks. But those women of rank, young,
+beautiful, brilliant, and for the most part gallant, were doubtless more
+formidable to the minister at this juncture than the men. The two lovely
+duchesses, De Longueville and De Bouillon, having shown during the
+preceding year of what they were capable; the Queen therefore gave
+orders for their arrest. The wary lover of the fascinating politician
+who had lately begun to scatter her blandishments equally upon all&mdash;La
+Rochefoucauld&mdash;having been apprised by the captain of his quarter that
+some blow was meditated by Mazarin, had sent twice to warn the Princes
+through the Marquis de la Moussaye, but who, as it appears, failed to
+acquit himself of that important mission. But if La Rochefoucauld&#8217;s
+warning failed to reach the ears of the Princes, he was more fortunate
+in effecting the escape of Madame de Longueville.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> Whilst they were
+seeking to arrest him as well as La Moussaye, the Queen despatched a
+note to the Duchess by the Secretary of State, La <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Veilli&egrave;re'">Vrilli&egrave;re</ins>, begging her
+to come to the Palais Royal. Instead of going thither she went direct to
+the H&ocirc;tel of the Princess Palatine&mdash;like herself beautiful, gallant, and
+intriguing, but endowed with a superior intellect. This lady speedily
+became the head and mainspring of the princes&#8217; party&mdash;or of the <i>second</i>
+Fronde, and the Coadjutor, who directed the Old Fronde, was fain to
+recognise in her a worthy rival, and his equal in political sagacity.
+Fearing to be discovered if she remained under the roof of the princess,
+a carriage was procured, and the duchess driven in it by La
+Rochefoucauld himself to an obscure house in the Faubourg St. Germain,
+where they remained until nightfall in a cellar. Thence the Duchess and
+her lover set out for Normandy on horseback under the escort of forty
+determined men provided by the Princess Palatine. Brave and resolute as
+her brother, the sister of Cond&eacute; rode northwards through that entire
+winter&#8217;s night and the following day, and sought no shelter until worn
+out with excessive fatigue she reached Rouen. But the commandant, the
+Marquis de Beuvron, although an old friend of the duke, declared he
+could not serve her, and refused to raise the banner of revolt in that
+stronghold of her husband&#8217;s government. Her attempt at Rouen thus
+receiving a complete check, she had some hope of being received into the
+citadel of Havre, but the Duchess de Richelieu, though her friend, was
+not so much mistress there as the Duchess d&#8217;Aiguillon, who, on the
+contrary, was full of resentment against her. Discouraged and repulsed
+on all hands, the fugitive Duchess next made her way to Dieppe, where
+she thought herself in sufficient safety to part with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> La Rochefoucauld,
+who left her to assist the Duke de Bouillon to raise troops in
+Angoumois. In the fortress of Dieppe, commanded by a faithful officer of
+her husband, Madame de Longueville found the rest she so much needed. In
+a brief space, with spirits recruited, she resolved to make a stand to
+the uttermost against the Queen and Mazarin, and having replaced the
+royal standard by that of Cond&eacute; set about putting the citadel in a state
+of defence to resist a siege. The Queen, however, having resolved not to
+give the Duchess time to raise her husband&#8217;s government of Normandy into
+revolt, on the 1st of February quitted Paris for Rouen. The band of
+gentlemen who had gathered round the beautiful Frondeuse thereupon
+melted away, and Mademoiselle de Longueville, her step-daughter,
+afterwards Duchess de Nemours, quitted her to take refuge in a convent.
+As Montigny, the commandant at Dieppe, declared that it was impossible
+to hold the fortress, the Duchess left the place by a secret portal,
+followed by her women and some few gentlemen. She held her way for two
+leagues on foot along the coast to the little port of Tourville, in
+order to reach a small vessel which she had prudently hired in case of
+need. On reaching the point of embarkation the sea was breaking so
+furiously in surf on shore, the tide being so strong and the wind so
+high, that Madame de Longueville&#8217;s followers entreated her not to
+attempt to reach the vessel. But the Duchess, dreading less the angry
+waves than the chance of falling into the Regent&#8217;s power, persisted in
+going to sea. As the state of the tide and weather rendered it
+impossible for a boat to get near the shore, a sailor took her in his
+arms to carry her on board, but had not waded above twenty paces when a
+huge roller carried him off his feet, and he fell with his fair burden.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+For an instant the poor lady believed that she was lost, as in falling
+the sailor lost his hold of her and she sank into deep water. On being
+rescued, however, she expressed her resolve to reach the vessel, but the
+sailors refusing to make another attempt, she found herself compelled to
+resort to some other means of escape. Horses being luckily procured, the
+Duchess mounted <i>en croupe</i> behind one of the gentlemen of her suite,
+and riding all night and part of the following day, the fugitives met
+with a hospitable reception from a nobleman of Caux, in whose little
+manor-house they found rest, refection, and concealment for the space of
+a week.</p>
+
+<p>The Duchess&#8217;s tumble into the sea, though a disagreeable, turned out to
+have been a lucky accident, for she now learnt that the master of the
+vessel she had been so anxious to reach was in the interest of Mazarin,
+and had she gone on board she would have been arrested. At length Madame
+de Longueville found herself once more in Havre, and having won over the
+captain of an English ship to whom she introduced herself&mdash;like Madame
+de Chevreuse&mdash;in male attire, as a nobleman who had just been engaged in
+a duel, and was obliged to leave France, she succeeded in obtaining a
+passage to Rotterdam. Thence, passing through Flanders, she reached the
+stronghold of Stenay,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> where the Viscomte de Turenne, already
+compromised with the Court for having openly espoused the Cond&eacute; party,
+had shortly before the Duchess&#8217;s arrival also taken refuge.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that the Duchess, who, under the sway of La Rochefoucauld,
+had been one of the instruments of the first Fronde war, became the
+motive power of the second<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> and far more serious one&mdash;well named by the
+witty Parisians &#8220;the women&#8217;s war.&#8221; From the citadel of Stenay, of which
+she took the command, she directed the wills and actions of the men of
+her party, into which she thoroughly won over Turenne. Her
+importunities, aided by her charms, prevailed so powerfully over his
+valiant though fallible heart, that the illustrious captain, after
+having struggled painfully for some time with his conscience, allied
+himself with the Spaniards by a treaty which placed him, as well as the
+sister of the great Cond&eacute;, in the pay of the enemies of his king and
+country. The treaty effectively stipulated &#8220;that there should be a
+junction of the two armies, and that the war should be carried on by the
+assistance of the King of Spain until a peace should be concluded
+between the two kings and the princes liberated. That the King of Spain
+should engage to pay over to Madame de Longueville and to Monsieur de
+Turenne two hundred thousand crowns wherewith to raise and equip troops;
+that he should furnish them with forty thousand crowns per month for the
+payment of such troops, and sixty thousand crowns per annum in three
+payments for <i>the table and equipages</i> of Madame de Longueville and
+Monsieur de Turenne.&#8221; This treaty duly signed, Madame de Longueville
+issued, in the form of a letter to his Majesty the King of France, a
+manifesto very skilfully drawn up and filled with artful complaints and
+accusations against Mazarin, with the design of soliciting through the
+one and the other an apology for her own conduct, as though it were
+possible to justify herself for having entered into a compact with the
+enemies of her country.</p>
+
+<p>It was during her sojourn at Stenay that she lost her mother (2nd
+December, 1650). &#8220;My dear friend,&#8221; said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> Princess de Cond&eacute; to Madame
+de Brienne, who was with her during her last moments, &#8220;tell that &#8216;pauvre
+miserable&#8217; who is now at Stenay the condition in which you have seen me,
+that she may learn how to die.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of this period, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld gave
+constant proof of a rare fidelity. M. Cousin speaks very precisely on
+this head. &#8220;Whilst Madame de Longueville was pledging her diamonds in
+Holland for the defence of Stenay, La Rochefoucauld expended his fortune
+in Guienne. It was the most grievous and, at the same time, the most
+touching moment of their lives and their adventures. They were far away
+from each other, but they still fondly loved; they served with equal
+ardour the same cause, they fought and suffered equally and at the same
+time.&#8221; Abundant proofs might be instanced of this love and devotion on
+their part. La Rochefoucauld wrote unceasingly to Stenay, and gave an
+account of everything he did. &#8220;The sole aim, then, of all the Duke&#8217;s
+exertions,&#8221; says Lenet, &#8220;was to please that beautiful princess, and he
+took endless care and pleasure to acquaint her with all he did for her,
+and to deliver the princess her sister-in-law (Cond&eacute;&#8217;s wife), by
+despatching couriers to her on the subject.&#8221; He informs us moreover
+that, &#8220;in every juncture, he forwarded expresses to render account to
+the Duchess of all that respect for her made him undertake. At this
+moment, in fact, having just succeeded to his patrimonial estates
+through the death of his father, La Rochefoucauld recognised no obstacle
+in his path, but bravely went forward in the cause he had espoused and
+generously sacrificed his property in Angoumois and Saintonge. His
+ancestral ch&acirc;teau of Verteuil was even razed to the ground by Mazarin&#8217;s
+orders, and when the tidings of it reached him, he received them with
+such great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'firmness, says'">firmness,&#8221; says</ins> Lenet, &#8220;that he seemed as though he were
+delighted, through a feeling that it would inspire confidence in the
+minds of the Bordelais. It was further said that what gave him the
+liveliest pleasure was to let the Duchess de Longueville see that he
+hazarded everything in her service.&#8221; It cannot be denied, in fine, that
+the Duke at that time yielded himself up to a sentiment as deep as it
+was sincere, and which contradicts very happily and without any possible
+doubt the assertion so often hazarded that he had never loved the woman
+whom he had seduced and dragged into the vortex of politics. Madame de
+Longueville and he adored each other at this period, says M. Cousin, and
+it is pleasant to be able to cite the opinion of that eminent historian
+upon such fact; although separated by the entire length of France, they
+suffered and struggled each for the other: they had the same aim, the
+same faith, the same hope. They wrote incessantly to communicate their
+thoughts and projects, and thus sought to diminish in imagination the
+enormous distance which is between Stenay and Bordeaux.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Stenay, taken from the Spaniards in 1641, had been given
+to the Prince de Cond&eacute; in 1646.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BOOK IV. </h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span><br /></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE PRINCESS PALATINE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> arrest of the Princes had singularly complicated events on the
+political stage. It had displaced all interests, and, instead of
+re-uniting parties and consolidating them, it had the effect of
+increasing their number. No fewer than five might be counted,
+represented by as many principal leaders, around which were grouped
+every species of interest and every shade of ambition.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place there was the party of Mazarin, alone against all the
+rest. This party had for support the ability of its chief, the
+invincible predilection, the unshakeable firmness of Anne of Austria,
+and the name of the King. Herein lay its whole strength, but that
+strength was immense. It was that which ensured the obedience of the
+enlightened and conscientious men who had great influence over the army
+and the magistrature. These men adhered to the Prime Minister through a
+sentiment of honour, and in consequence of their monarchical principles.
+Amidst the disruption of parties, they recognised no other legitimate
+authority than that of the Queen Regent; but they desired as strongly,
+perhaps, as those of the opposite parties, that Mazarin should be got
+rid of. That odious foreigner exposed them all to the public animosity
+which pursued himself. Anne of Austria frequently employed the artifices
+of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> sex to avert their opposition in council, and calm their
+discontent.</p>
+
+<p>The party of the Princes, which the success of the enemies of France,
+during their captivity, rendered from day to day more popular and
+interesting, was composed of all the young nobility. Of its apparent
+chiefs, the one alone capable of directing it was the Duke de Bouillon.
+But to lead a party it is necessary to identify oneself with it, and
+devote oneself to it wholly; and the Duke de Bouillon had views
+peculiar, foreign, and even adverse to the interests of his party; and
+before such interest he placed that of the maintenance, or rather
+elevation, of his own house. The Duchess de Longueville, the Princess de
+Cond&eacute;, La Rochefoucauld, and Turenne had neither sufficient finesse nor
+skill in intrigue to be able to direct that party and struggle
+successfully against Mazarin; but they were seconded by three men who,
+although obscure, displayed in these circumstances extraordinary talent.
+Lenet,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> who never quitted the Princess de Cond&eacute; throughout these
+troubles, but served her faithfully with his pen and advice. Montreuil,
+who, although he had never published anything, was a member of the
+French Academy and secretary to the Prince de Cond&eacute;. He managed, with
+infinite address, and incessantly devising new means, to correspond with
+the Princes, and bring the vigilance of their keepers in default. And it
+was Gourville especially, who, after having worn the livery of the Duke
+de la Rochefoucauld as his valet, had become his man of business, his
+confidant, and friend. It was Gourville who, under a heavy expression of
+countenance, concealed a most subtle, most acute, and fertile
+intelligence. Persuasive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> energetic, prompt, reflective; knowing how to
+gain an end by the direct road; or, under the eyes of those opposing,
+attaining it unperceived, by covert and tortuous ways. A man who never
+found himself in any situation, however desperate it might be, without
+having the confidence that he could extricate himself from it. Did the
+cleverest consider a position as lost? Gourville intervened, infused
+hope, promised to lend a hand to it, and success was immediately certain
+and defeat impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Still Gourville was not, even on the score of ability, the foremost
+spirit of his party. The person who deserved that title was a woman&mdash;the
+celebrated Anne de Gonzagua, widow of Edward Prince Palatine. Through
+her proneness to gallantry, she did not escape the weakness of her sex;
+but through her imperturbable calmness in the midst of the most violent
+commotions, her elevated views, the depth of her designs, the accuracy
+and rapidity of her resolutions, and her skill in making everything
+conduce to a given end, she combined in its entire vigour the peculiar
+character of the statesman with the soul of a conspirator. She had been
+through life the intimate friend of the mother of Cond&eacute;, and she now
+laboured with skill, wisdom, and perseverance for the liberation of the
+Princes. And such is the ascendency obtained by talent backed by an
+energetic will, that it was to her advice all the partisans of the
+Princes deferred; her hand that held the threads of their various
+intrigues. With her De Retz treated directly, and in the whole course of
+the negotiations she displayed a degree of penetration which baffled all
+the subtlety of the Coadjutor; and while she foiled his devices against
+herself, she directed them aright against their mutual opponents. By her
+activity and energy five or six separate treaties were drawn up and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+signed between the different personages whose interests were concerned,
+each in general ignorant of his comrade&#8217;s participation.</p>
+
+<p>It would be presumptuous in any way to attempt, after Bossuet, a perfect
+portraiture of this lady, but it may be interesting to glance at the
+antecedents of her life up to this period.</p>
+
+<p>Charles de Gonzagua-Cleves, Duke of Mantua and Nevers, had, by his
+marriage with Catherine of Lorraine, three daughters: the oldest, Maria,
+whom he preferred to the others, or rather that his pride sought to
+elevate her alone to the highest destiny possible, was married
+successively to two Kings of Poland, Ladislas Sigismond and Jean
+Casimir. The second, Anne, who, as the Princess Palatine, became the
+political opponent of Mazarin; and the third, Benedicte, who took the
+veil and died whilst yet very young at the steps of the altar. It is the
+romantic, agitated, and changeful existence of the second with which we
+are concerned: passed in tumult and ended in silence. In it may be found
+the invaluable lesson of that admirable antithesis afforded by error and
+repentance. Bossuet, in his eloquent, fervent oration upon the life of
+that princess, was enabled to derive from a contemplation of it the
+highest instruction. He has therein retraced, with an imposing
+authority, the errors of a woman exclusively engrossed, during many
+years, with worldly interests and earthly vanities, and also made the
+emphatic denial that, in their last hours, such awakened minds but
+rarely give themselves up without profound anguish, fitful emotion, and
+mortal struggle to the contemplation of imperishable joys. Anne de
+Gonzagua experienced those extremes. She passed from incredulity and an
+irregular life to the most lively faith and exemplary conduct.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+Captivated in turn by earth and heaven, worldly and scorning the world,
+sceptical and fervent, she had long centred her pride and happiness in
+the political affairs of her epoch, until the day came when, wearied
+with ephemeral pleasures and touched by grace, she finally renounced the
+things of this life and gave herself wholly up to celestial meditation.</p>
+
+<p>In her earliest youth she had been placed in the convent of
+Faremoustier, where nothing was neglected that could tend to inspire her
+with a desire for cloister life. Her father, the Duke of Mantua, had
+determined that his two younger daughters, Anne and Benedicte, should
+help, by taking the veil, to augment the fortune of their elder sister.
+Benedicte submitted to her fate, but Anne soon perceived what her
+father&#8217;s plan was, and in her indignation she resolved to defeat it.
+Unlike her younger sister, she had an adventurous spirit, an ardent
+imagination, a strong desire to play an active part in life. Even to
+withdraw from a mode of existence that was hateful to her, she made her
+escape from Faremoustier, and went to confide to her sister&#8217;s bosom, in
+the convent of Avenai, her wrath, her <i>ennui</i>, and her hopes. For awhile
+it seemed as though conventual life was about to exercise a strange
+fascination over her. The discourse and example of her sister touched
+deeply the youthful heart which had proved rebellious to a parent&#8217;s
+will. It seemed not improbable that she would yield to persuasion that
+which she had refused to compulsion. But her destiny determined
+otherwise. Events cast her upon another course; her imperfect vocation
+yielded quickly to their influence. She had been worked upon, in the
+solitude of the cloister, by that mysterious yearning for an encounter
+with those struggles which human passions involve, the experience of
+which can alone extinguish such yearning in certain souls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> It was
+necessary that she should see the world, undergo its deceptions, and be
+wearied of it, in order to desire repose and be capable of appreciating
+the inestimable blessings of peace and silence and tranquillity.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Mantua dying in 1637, Anne was obliged to leave the cloister
+on business connected with the paternal succession, and appeared at
+Court with Marie, her elder sister. The turmoil of the world and its
+sensuous enjoyments speedily engrossed the young and lovely princess,
+involved her in their trammels, and only restored her to tranquillity
+and solitude after a lapse of many years; for at this time she also lost
+her sister, the youthful abbess of Avenai, and the last link which
+attached Anne to cloister life was severed by that death. An absorbing
+passion, too, was destined to confirm her relinquishment of such
+vocation. The youthful Henri de Guise was then one of the most brilliant
+gentlemen at the French Court. Grandson of the <i>Balafr&eacute;</i>, his high birth
+fixed the eyes of all upon him, at the same time that his impetuous
+imagination, his profession, all the aristocratic follies of the
+day&mdash;remarkable duels, romantic loves, eccentricities, the adventures
+and elegant habits of the <i>grand seigneur</i>&mdash;had constituted him an
+oracle of fashion and the hero of every festival. He was fascinated by
+the grace and beauty of Anne de Gonzagua, and she herself, in the midst
+of that gallant Court which masked a real depravation under the thin
+varnish of an ingenious subtlety of expression,&mdash;she herself, a disciple
+of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet, where questions of sentiment were
+discussed, studied, and analysed incessantly, knew not how to resist the
+gilded accents of a young, handsome, and impassioned lover. She let him
+see that she loved him. He made her a promise of marriage, signed, it is
+said, with his blood; and the affair seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> promise a happy
+conclusion. But their mutual inclination was thwarted by Madame de
+Guise. The Duchess thought that the high dignities of the Church would
+procure greater wealth, honour, and power for her son than he could
+obtain in any other career: Henri was then Archbishop of Rheims.
+Nevertheless, he persisted in his love for Mademoiselle de Gonzagua, and
+in his design of espousing her. The overtures which he made to the
+Vatican were not in vain. He received from the Pope, with the
+authorisation to again become a layman, a dispensation which his kinship
+to Anne rendered necessary for the celebration of their nuptials. But
+the lovers did not hasten to avail themselves of such privilege,
+apparently through dread of Richelieu, who was also opposed to their
+union. Perhaps that minister, from whom nothing secret was hidden&mdash;not
+even the unshaped designs of the ambitious,&mdash;already suspected Henri de
+Guise of being favourably disposed to the interests of Spain, as well as
+contrary to those of France. Anne and Henri, therefore, contented
+themselves with the possibility which the complaisance of the Holy
+Father had given them of contracting an indissoluble bond, and with the
+oath by which they reciprocally pledged their faith. Confiding in the
+honour of the Prince whom she so ardently loved, Anne consented to
+follow him, when he quitted France in order to escape from the espionage
+of Richelieu. Disguising herself in male attire, Anne rejoined her lover
+at Besan&ccedil;on, according to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, at Cologne
+according to other writers; where, as elsewhere, she caused herself to
+be called &#8220;Madame de Guise&#8221;&mdash;writing and speaking of her husband, and
+defying the assurances which were constantly advanced of the illegality
+of a marriage secretly performed by a canon of Rheims in the private<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+chapel of the H&ocirc;tel de Nevers. But what are promises, marriage vows, or
+even bonds written in blood?</p>
+
+<p>Henri not long after became unfaithful to the confiding Anne by eloping
+with a fair widow, the Countess de Bossut, whom he carried off to
+Brussels and ultimately married. Implicated in the conspiracy of the
+Count de Soissons, the turbulent churchman was present at the battle of
+Marf&eacute;e, and consequently declared guilty of high treason. He therefore
+took up his abode in the Low Countries, where he quietly awaited the
+death of Louis XIII. and his minister, then both moribund, to resume his
+career at the Court of France.</p>
+
+<p>Thus abandoned by her volatile lover, and extremely compromised,
+Mademoiselle de Gonzagua returned to Paris, where she reassumed the
+appellation of the Princess Anne. Her grief for awhile at her
+abandonment was great, but happily for Anne de Gonzagua, she was
+possessed of youth, and, as Madame de Motteville tells us, &#8220;of beauty
+and great mental attractions.&#8221; She had moreover sufficient address to
+obtain a great amount of esteem, in spite of her errors. In a few years&#8217;
+time, during which she took care to avoid fresh scandal, whatever she
+might have done &#8220;under the rose,&#8221; she made a tolerably good marriage.
+Her husband, her senior by two years only, was Prince Edward, Count
+Palatine of the Rhine, son of a king without a kingdom,&mdash;the elector
+Frederick,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> chosen King of Bohemia in 1619, but who lost his crown in
+1620, at the battle of Prague. Prince Edward, therefore, having no
+sovereignty, lived at the French Court. In 1645, then, Anne de Gonzagua
+found herself definitively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> settled at Paris, and it must be owned did
+not give Henri de Guise much cause to regret his faithlessness. The
+irregularities of the Princess Palatine became notorious, and assuredly
+Bossuet, in the funeral oration which he pronounced many years later, in
+the presence of one of her daughters and other relatives, whilst
+displaying a prodigal eloquence, and a mastery over all oratorical
+resource, made use of every artifice of speech, and all the elasticity
+of vague terms, in speaking of that period of her life without a
+violation of propriety, without disguising truths known to all, without
+exceeding either in blame or praise the limits imposed by good taste
+upon the reverend orator when he pronounces a panegyric upon those who
+not unfrequently have very little merited it.</p>
+
+<p>During those stormy years of the civil wars, through her diplomatic
+talents, Anne de Gonzagua shone conspicuously in the front rank of
+female politicians. One can readily imagine what must have been, not in
+the first Fronde, all parliamentary as it was, but in the second,
+entirely aristocratic, in the Fronde of the Princes, the influence of a
+woman&#8217;s mind at once so subtle and brilliant. It was then that Madame de
+Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, Madame de Longueville, and Mademoiselle
+de Montpensier, displayed upon the political stage the resources of
+their finesse, their dissimulation, or their courage. The Palatine did
+not fall below the level of those adventurous heroines. In the midst of
+those intrigues, of that puerile ambition, of those turnings and
+windings, perfidy, seduction, man&#339;uvring promises, of those
+negotiations in which Mazarin infused all his Italian cunning, the Queen
+her feminine impatience and her Spanish dissimulation, De Retz his
+genius of artist-conspirator, Cond&eacute; his pride of the prince and the
+conqueror,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> Anne de Gonzagua handled political matters with a rare
+suppleness, humouring offended self-love, impatient ambition, haughty
+rivalries, acting as mediatrix with a wonderful amount of conciliatory
+tact, the friend of divers chiefs of parties, and meriting the
+confidence of all.</p>
+
+<p>It would be tedious to relate here her various negotiations, to go over
+her discourses, conversations, and numerous letters: it would involve a
+history of the Fronde, and that is not our subject. It will suffice to
+say that she obtained the esteem of all parties at a time when parties
+not only hated but strangely defied each other, and that she manifested
+a skill, a tact which Cardinal de Retz&mdash;a good judge of such
+matters&mdash;does not hesitate to praise with enthusiasm. &#8220;I do not think,&#8221;
+says he, &#8220;that Queen Elizabeth of England had more capacity for
+governing a state. I have seen her in faction, I have seen her in the
+cabinet, and I have found her in every respect equally sincere.&#8221; This
+eulogium may be perhaps a little over-coloured. But Madame de
+Motteville, who also greatly admired the Palatine, probably approaches
+nearer to the truth. &#8220;This princess,&#8221; she says, &#8220;like many other ladies,
+did not despise the conquests of her eyes, which were in truth very
+beautiful; but, besides that advantage, she had that which was of more
+value, I mean wit, address, capacity for conducting an intrigue, and a
+singular facility in finding expedients for succeeding in what she
+undertook.&#8221; Thus spoke the Coadjutor and the Court of her. The
+parliamentary party, by the organ of the councillor Joly, confirms such
+panegyric: &#8220;She had so much intelligence, and a talent so peculiar for
+business, that no one in the world ever succeeded better than she did.&#8221;
+The Princess Palatine&#8217;s political dexterity cannot therefore be
+contested: the testimony of the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> opposite camps are thereupon
+agreed, and it is certain that, without the least exaggeration, it may
+be said that no one at that epoch, save Mazarin, better understood the
+resources of diplomacy.</p>
+
+<p>It was especially after the arrest of the Princes that her zeal and
+intelligence found occasion to manifest themselves. Madame de
+Longueville, as has been said, instantly sought the aid of Anne de
+Gonzagua when she learned that her two brothers and her husband were
+prisoners. The news made her swoon, and her despair was afterwards
+pitiable. The Princess Palatine was touched by it, and promised to
+operate on behalf of the Princes. From that moment she became, without
+entering into faction and especially without failing in her duties
+towards a sovereign whom she loved, one of the most active friends of
+the prisoners. Meetings were held under her roof to deliberate upon that
+important affair, and, to compass her ends, she contrived to bring into
+play the most varied resources. She began by interesting in the Princes&#8217;
+destiny those even who might have been thought the most irreconcileable
+enemies to them. However difficult this work was of accomplishment, she
+reunited, as in a fasces, in a single will, personages widely separated
+upon other points, and surprised to find that they were pursuing the
+same object, for none of them knew the motives which influenced the
+actions of the rest. On this head, Bossuet says, with somewhat excessive
+laudation, she declared to the chiefs of parties how far she would bind
+herself, and she was believed to be incapable of either deceiving or
+being deceived. That is rather a hazardous assertion, for if she indeed
+aided in the liberation of the Princes, none of the promises she
+made&mdash;in all sincerity doubtless&mdash;became realised. But, says Bossuet
+further, and this time with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> more precision, &#8220;her peculiar
+characteristic was to conciliate opposite interests, and, in raising
+herself above them, to discover the secret point of junction and knot,
+as it were, by which they might be united.&#8221; She had resolved to win over
+the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, De Retz, and the keeper of the
+seals, Chateauneuf. She therefore signed with them four different
+treaties. With the Duke d&#8217;Orleans she promised the hand of the young
+Duke d&#8217;Enghien in marriage to one of the Prince&#8217;s daughters; to Madame
+de Chevreuse that of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse to the Prince de Conti;
+to De Retz, the cardinal&#8217;s hat; to Chateauneuf, the post of prime
+minister. All consented to favour the princess&#8217;s designs, and Mazarin,
+whom she could not convince, found himself surrounded by enemies whose
+union was formidable. That minister made allusion to the dread with
+which he was inspired when he remarked some years afterwards to Don
+Louis de Haro: &#8220;The most turbulent among the men does not give us so
+much trouble to keep him in check as the intrigues of a Duchess de
+Chevreuse or a Princess Palatine.&#8221; In vain, according to his wont, did
+he again attempt to temporise. Anne de Gonzagua, who was ready to open
+fire with all her batteries, sought to terrify him by the perspective of
+a menacing future. &#8220;She caused him to be informed that he was lost if he
+did not determine upon giving the Princes their liberty, assuring him
+that if he did not do it promptly he would see, in a few days, the whole
+Court and every cabal banded against him, and that all aid would fail
+him.&#8221; Mazarin, obstinate in his determination, and unwilling to believe
+that she had so thoroughly played her game as to hold in hand the
+threads of so many intrigues, begged her to defer the matter, asked time
+for reflection, and conducted himself in such a way in short that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> the
+princess saw clearly that he only wanted to gain time. She therefore
+hesitated no longer, but allowed those who were agitating impatiently
+around her to commence action.</p>
+
+<p>The party of the Princes had been dubbed by the name of the <i>New
+Fronde</i>. The old, although it had lost its energy by its union with the
+Court, preserved nevertheless its hatred to the prime minister. It was
+not in De Retz&#8217;s power to neutralise wholly these hostile dispositions;
+but he could hinder them from being brought into dangerous activity. The
+Coadjutor at first with that view acted in good faith, and remained
+faithful in the first moments of the agreement which he had entered into
+with the Queen. Probably it might then have been possible to attach him
+finally to the Court party; but Mazarin could not believe that the
+Coadjutor, so fertile in tricks, so full of finesse, was capable of
+anything like frankness and generosity. In the practical experience of
+life, mistrust has its perils as well as blind confidence, and failure
+as often happens to us through our unwillingness to believe in virtue,
+as through our inability to suspect vice. Mazarin judged after himself a
+man who resembled him in many respects, but not in all. Moreover, he
+feared lest he might seek to win the Queen&#8217;s affection from him; and
+that fear was not groundless. De Retz saw himself the object of the
+suspicions and afterwards of the machinations of a power which laboured
+at his destruction, whilst for that power he was compromising his
+influence and his popularity. To reacquire it, he hastened, therefore,
+to throw himself with all his adherents on the side of the Princes, and
+saw no safety but in their deliverance. This alliance of the two camps,
+so long enemies, was concluded between the Coadjutor and the Princess
+Palatine, and rendered so firm and secret by the confidence with which
+these two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> party chiefs inspired each other, that Mazarin, who
+unceasingly dreaded such a union, and who always suspected it, did not
+know it for certain until it revealed itself by its effects.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p>
+
+<p>The parliament formed a fourth party. Not that that body was unanimous;
+but it had within itself an honourable majority which was alike inimical
+to the Frondeurs, the seditious, and the minister. The parliament
+therefore would have been disposed to unite itself to the Princes&#8217;
+party, and to lend it support; but to do so it would have been necessary
+that the chiefs of that party should renounce all alliance with the
+foreigner. Turenne and Madame de Longueville had joined with the
+Spaniards to fight against France. The young Princess de Cond&eacute;, with the
+Dukes de Bouillon and de la Rochefoucauld, who had shut themselves up in
+Bordeaux, had entered into an alliance with them, and had received from
+them succour in the shape of money. The Spanish envoys in Paris
+conferred daily with the chiefs of the old as of the new Fronde.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston, who might have been the moderator of all these parties, formed
+by himself a fifth among them. His irresolution prevented him giving
+strength to any other of the factions, but he constituted a formidable
+obstacle to all the rest. His inclination, as well as his interest,
+should never have made him deviate from the Court party; yet he was
+always opposed to it. Impelled by his jealousy of Cond&eacute; and of the prime
+minister, he acted in a manner contrary to his own wishes. He was,
+however, neither wanting in intelligence nor finesse, nor even a certain
+kind of eloquence; and the master-stroke of De Retz&#8217;s address was to
+have contrived, in furtherance of the object of his designs, to set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+Gaston with the Fronde against the Princes, and afterwards for the
+Princes against Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>The complication and the multiplicity of parties was as nothing in
+comparison to that of private interests, which so crossed each other and
+in so many different ways, which turned with such mobility, that, in the
+ignorance which prevailed of the secret motives of the principal actors
+in that drama so vivid, motley, and turbulent, nothing could be
+predicated of what they would do, and a looker-on might have been
+disposed at times to have pronounced them as insensates, who were rather
+their own enemies than those of their antagonists.</p>
+
+<p>If the libels of those times are to be credited, and especially the
+satire in verse for which the poet Marlet was sentenced to be hanged,
+the obstinacy with which the Queen exposed to danger her son&#8217;s crown, by
+retaining a minister detested by all, would be naturally explained by a
+reason other than that of a reason of state. The advocate-general Talon,
+Madame de Motteville, and the Duchess de Nemours exculpate Anne of
+Austria on this head. They are three respectable and trustworthy
+witnesses; and, without any doubt, that which they said they thought.
+But the Duchess d&#8217;Orleans, Elizabeth-Charlotte, affirms in her
+correspondence<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> that Anne of Austria had secretly married Cardinal
+Mazarin, who was not a priest. She says that all the details of the
+marriage were known, and that, in her time, the back staircase in the
+Palais Royal was pointed out by which at night Mazarin reached the
+Queen&#8217;s apartments. She observes that such clandestine marriages were
+common at that period, and cites that of the widow of our Charles the
+First, who secretly espoused her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> equerry, Jermyn. One might be disposed
+to think that the Duchess Elizabeth-Charlotte could have only followed
+some tradition, and that her assertions cannot counterbalance the
+statements of the contemporary personages above mentioned. But certain
+species of facts are often better known long after the death of the
+persons to whom they relate, than during their lifetime, or at a time
+close upon their decease; they are not entirely unveiled until there no
+longer exists any motive to keep them secret. Of the Queen&#8217;s sentiments
+towards Mazarin there can be no doubt after reading a letter which she
+addressed to him under date of June 30, 1660, which is extant in
+autograph,<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> the avowal she made to Madame de Brienne in her
+oratory,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> the confidences of Madame de Chevreuse to Cardinal de
+Retz.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> Moreover, whatever may have been the motives of Anne of
+Austria&#8217;s attachment to Mazarin, it is certain that they were
+all-powerful over her. She lent herself to every project formed by her
+minister for the increase of his power and fortune. The war in Bordeaux
+was kindled because Mazarin desired that one of his nieces should be
+united to the Duke de Candale, son of the Duke d&#8217;Epernon; and, in order
+not to let the Swiss soldiers march thither without their pay, when
+their aid was most necessary, Anne of Austria put her diamonds in
+pledge, and would not allow Mazarin to be answerable for the sum
+required to be disbursed.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> His memoirs give reliable details of all that relates to
+the Cond&eacute;s at this period.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> This unfortunate Prince had married, in 1613, Elizabeth,
+daughter of James I. of England. The celebrated Prince Rupert and
+Sophia, Electress of Hanover, were among the other children.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Motteville&mdash;Joly&mdash;Lenet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> M&eacute;m. sur la Cour de Louis XIV. et de la R&eacute;gence,
+d&#8217;Elizabeth-Charlotte Duchesse d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans, M&egrave;re du Regent. 1823, p. 319.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> MS. Biblioth&egrave;que Nationale.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <ins class="correction"
+  title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Leomeni'">Lom&eacute;nie</ins> de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Retz, Memoirs, edition 1836.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE YOUNG PRINCESS DE COND&Eacute; CONDUCTS THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To</span> generous and feeling hearts, Cond&eacute;&#8217;s misfortune presented all the
+characteristics of a real romance. The majority of the women therefore
+who meddled with politics were, through sympathy, of his party. The
+glory of France under lock and key! The young hero arrested for treason,
+and prisoner to whom? The foreign Cardinal Mazarin. All the spoils of
+the Cond&eacute;s distributed amongst the <i>sbires</i> of the favourite,&mdash;Normandy
+to Harcourt, Champagne to L&#8217;Hospital, &amp;c. A monstrous alliance between
+King and people. The Queen keeping the Bastille in the hands of
+Broussel&#8217;s son&mdash;the highest posts bestowed upon the magistrates&mdash;a
+reversal, in fact, of everything. Did not the French nobility rise to a
+man against such a state of things?</p>
+
+<p>No, everything was at a standstill. Neither Cond&eacute;&#8217;s military clients,
+nor his numerous seigniories, nor his governments took any active part
+whatsoever. Far from it, Madame de Longueville, as we have seen, who
+thought to raise Normandy, everywhere met with a repulse in that
+province. Neither Turenne nor she could do anything save by accepting
+aid from Spain, for which Madame de Bouillon was also doing her best in
+Paris.</p>
+
+<p>But whilst that lovely amazon, Cond&eacute;&#8217;s sister, was occupied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> in her
+endeavours to lure the hero of Stenay into the party of revolt by
+intoxicating him with love, and wasting time in negotiation and parade,
+a succour more direct and much more energetic was given to Cond&eacute; from a
+quarter he had the least expected&mdash;from his own chateau of Chantilly. He
+had there left his aged mother, his young wife, and a son seven years
+old. Mazarin hesitated to have these ladies arrested, fearing the force
+of public opinion. The mother went to hide herself in Paris, and one
+morning appeared before the Parliament, suppliant, weeping sorely,
+stooping so far as to kneel in prayer, to flattery, and even to
+falsehood. All being unavailing, she went home to die.</p>
+
+<p>But most astonishing was the unexpected courage of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s young wife,
+Claire Clemence de Maill&eacute;, that despised niece of Richelieu, whom the
+victorious soldier had married under compulsion, and whose heir was the
+son of the minister&#8217;s absolute will. On the arrest of her husband she
+had been confided to the care of a man of capacity&mdash;Lenet, from whose
+&#8220;Memoirs&#8221; we have already cited. He at first conducted her and her son
+in safety from Chantilly to Montrond, a stronghold of the Cond&eacute;s, but
+fearing to be besieged in it, straightway to Bordeaux. The Parliament of
+Guienne had had a deadly quarrel with Mazarin for imposing upon them
+Epernon, a governor they detested, and whom the Cardinal was bent upon
+allying by marriage with his own family. Great therefore was the emotion
+of this city and parliament at seeing that young lady of two-and-twenty
+in deep mourning, with her innocent boy, who caught the brave Bordelais
+by their beards with his little hands, and besought their help towards
+the liberation of his father. The Princess&#8217;s retinue enhanced not a
+little this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> favourable impression, formed as it was of high-born women,
+for the most part young and charming.</p>
+
+<p>The popular explosion was lively, as always happens among the people of
+the south. But even the narrative of Lenet shows clearly the slender
+foundation upon which this semblance of popular insurrection rested. The
+lower orders, then living in great misery, hoped to obtain through the
+Princess some opening for their foreign trade, which would better enable
+them to dispose of their wines and help them to live. Mazarin kept down
+the local Parliament, and carried everything through sheer terror.
+Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld, the Princess&#8217;s advisers, recommended that
+a royal envoy should be cut to pieces. Lenet dreaded lest such an act,
+somewhat over-energetic, might render his mistress less popular. Twice
+or thrice the populace were very nearly putting the Parliament to the
+sword, the majority of which was kept under through sheer terror of the
+knife. Spain promised money, and they had the simplicity to believe her.
+She hardly gave them a pitiful alms. Meanwhile, however, Mazarin, having
+quietly occupied Normandy and Burgundy, made his way towards Guienne
+with the royal army. The Bordelais showed an intrepid front, though
+somewhat disquieted to see the soldiery about to gather the fruits of
+the vintage instead of themselves. The Princess only maintained herself
+in the place through the aid of the rabble <i>va-nu-pieds</i>, who feasted
+and danced all night at her expense, and who shouted in her ears a
+hundred ribald jests against Mazarin, compelling both herself and her
+son to repeat them. This abasement into which she had fallen made her
+desire peace for herself, and permission to leave the city, which was
+granted to her, with vague promises of liberating Cond&eacute; (3rd October,
+1650).<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Duchess de Bouillon had been quite as ardent in politics during the
+burlesque activity of the Fronde as Madame de Longueville; and although,
+perhaps, equally beautiful, happily she was entirely devoted to her
+domestic duties. Her husband on taking flight had been constrained to
+leave her behind in Paris, she being near her accouchement, which
+circumstance however did not prevent the Queen from giving an order for
+her arrest. Although the royal guards were already in the house, the
+Duchess contrived to effect the escape of her sons, and during that same
+day gave birth to her babe. Shortly afterwards she found a means of
+eluding the guard set over her, and would have rejoined her husband, had
+her daughter not been attacked with small-pox, but having returned home
+to nurse her, was arrested at her bedside and carried to the Bastille.
+The Duchess de Chevreuse, always gallant, in spite of waning beauty,
+constituted herself the mediatrix between the Queen and the <i>Frondeurs</i>;
+and although her daughter had openly become the mistress of the
+Coadjutor, it was already contemplated to make her the wife of the
+Prince de Conti, as a condition of the arrangement by which he should be
+set free. Beaufort still continued to be the obsequious lover of Madame
+de Montbazon, and, through her, Mazarin was kept well acquainted with
+all his secrets.</p>
+
+<p>No other power than that of female influence could have attached the
+French nobility to the Prince de Cond&eacute;, and determined it to take up
+arms for his release. In fact, his hauteur, his brusquerie, his
+brutality even, had, in repeated instances, offended that body, and the
+Queen imagined that the bulk of the French gentry would witness his
+arrest with as much pleasure as the citizens. But the women had been
+fascinated by the <i>&eacute;clat</i> of his four victories; they agreed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> call
+him the champion, the hero of France, and it seemed to them that they
+shared his heroism in devoting themselves to his cause. As for the
+higher nobility, they were not bound by any political principle; they
+were very indifferent to the grandeur of France; very ignorant of its
+pretensions in foreign affairs, or to what it had been pledged with
+other nations. They loved war in the first place for its dangers, and in
+the second for the honours and wealth they got by fighting; but even in
+the army, far from making fidelity and obedience a rule of conduct, they
+cherished a spirit of independence and resistance to the Crown, and
+would only allow themselves to be influenced by their chivalric usages.
+They gloried in showing themselves reckless of the future, caring more
+about the glitter of the present than steady progressive advancement;
+equally prodigal of fortune as of life, they were prone to follow
+impulse rather than calculation; so that what we should perhaps call a
+reckless frivolity was looked upon by them as a sentiment invested with
+all the charm of brilliant gallantry. Those even whom neither their
+affection nor their interest summoned to the standards of the captive
+Princes, rushed gaily from the midst of their ease and festivity into
+civil war at the first prompting of their mistresses.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston d&#8217;Orleans, after having consented to the imprisonment of the
+Princes, only decided upon entering into the project for their
+deliverance under promise of a marriage of his daughter, the Duchess
+d&#8217;Alen&ccedil;on, with the boy-Duke d&#8217;Enghien, Cond&eacute;&#8217;s son. Turenne and La
+Rochefoucauld, too, often thought less of their glory or the success of
+their party, than of what might be agreeable to the Duchess de
+Longueville, of whose love they were so envious. More obscure
+<i>liaisons</i>, which have even escaped the anecdotic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> abundance of the
+memoir-writers of those days, appear also to have exercised their
+influence over the conduct of the highest personages. In a letter which
+De Retz wrote to Turenne, and which he frankly characterises as being
+remarkably silly, the Coadjutor does not disguise that amongst many
+serious motives which he gives that great warrior for inducing him to
+determine upon peace, he does not forget to hold out a hope of his
+seeing once more a little grisette of the Rue des Petits-Champs, whom
+Turenne loved with all his heart. The feeblest motives had influence
+over such men, all young and ardent as they were&mdash;the followers of
+different factions, though without prejudices, principles, convictions,
+without hatred and without affection. The women therefore naturally
+played important parts in all these events, to whom the species of
+gallantry and worship of beauty held in honour by the H&ocirc;tel de
+Rambouillet was quite familiar. Thus nothing could be expected of the
+Duke de Beaufort, even in that which concerned him closest, if not
+assured previously of the consent of the Duchess de Montbazon, who
+exercised plenary power over him. Nemours, enamoured of the Duchess de
+Chatillon, loved likewise by the Prince de Cond&eacute;, warmly embraced the
+cause of that Prince, because his mistress prompted him thereto; and the
+Duchess de Nemours had moved heaven and earth to obtain Cond&eacute;&#8217;s
+deliverance, in the hope that he would keep sharp watch over the Duchess
+de Chatillon, and put a stop to her husband&#8217;s infidelity.</p>
+
+<p>De Retz too, notwithstanding the superiority of his intellect, allowed
+himself to give way, through his inclination for the fair sex, to the
+commission of indiscretions and imprudences which often placed his life
+in danger, and caused his best-concerted measures to prove abortive. To
+appease the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> jealousy of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse he permitted himself
+to make use of a contemptuous expression concerning the Queen, which was
+repeated, and which became the cause of the violent hatred she ever
+afterwards bore him. The Princess de Gu&eacute;men&eacute;e, furious at having been
+abandoned, offered the Queen, if she would consent to it, to procure the
+disappearance of the Coadjutor by sending him an invitation, and then
+having him confined in a cellar of her hotel. De Retz learned that a
+design to assassinate him had been formed, and whenever he repaired to
+the H&ocirc;tel de Chevreuse, by way of precaution placed sentinels outside
+the gate of that mansion, and quite close to the Queen&#8217;s sentries who
+guarded the Palais-Royal, without heeding the effect such an excess of
+insolence and scandal produced. With every kind of talent fitting to
+dominate party spirit, he failed to acquire the confidence of anyone. He
+regarded all alliance with the foreigner as odious and impolitic; and
+notwithstanding, when his embarrassments increased, he lent an ear to
+the Archduke&#8217;s envoy, and even to that of Cromwell. At the same time,
+full of admiration for the Marquis of Montrose, whom he called a hero
+worthy of Plutarch, he contracted the closest friendship with the
+Scottish royalist, and aided him to the utmost of his ability in the
+efforts he was making to restore to the throne the legitimate King of
+Great Britain. De Retz, in few words, appeared anxious to show himself
+as taking pleasure in exhausting every kind of contrast. When the
+intricate plot of the drama in which he was engaged had become so
+complicated by his intrigues, that he no longer saw the possibility of
+unravelling it, he sought means to retire from the situation with the
+greatest advantage practicable for himself and friends, and to obtain
+the Cardinal&#8217;s hat. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> marriage of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse with the
+Prince de Conti became the essential condition of all the negotiations
+which he carried on, whether with the Court or with the Duchess de
+Chevreuse. The remembrance of an old and close friendship, the habit of
+a familiarity contracted in youth, gave the Duchess de Chevreuse a means
+of influence over that Queen, so fixed in her hatred, so inconstant in
+her friendships. Anne of Austria, who then, moreover, found herself very
+miserable through the obstacles which so many factions created, had
+partially restored the Duchess to her confidence. Madame de Chevreuse
+appeared also to have the same interests as De Retz, since, like him,
+she desired intensely the union of her daughter with a Prince of the
+blood. But she had large sums of money to recover from the Government,
+and the success of her claims depended on the decision of the prime
+minister. She therefore used her utmost tact with Mazarin, negotiating
+at the same time with him, as well as with the Old and the New Fronde.
+She turned to her own profit the influence that her connections at
+Court, with the Coadjutor, and with the Princes gave her in all the
+several factions. She was assisted in her intrigues by the Marquis de
+Laignes, a man of courage but little intellect, who, from the time of
+her exile at Brussels, had declared himself her lover in order to gain
+importance in the faction of the Fronde, which he had embraced. As
+little more of the attractions of her youth were left to Madame de
+Chevreuse, save their pristine celebrity, she had not always to
+congratulate herself upon the good humour and behaviour of De Laignes.
+The latter had been until then wholly devoted to the Coadjutor; but De
+Retz soon perceived that De Laignes entered into projects different from
+his own. At length, to have some one who could be responsible to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+for Madame de Chevreuse, he endeavoured to substitute Hacqueville as a
+go-between in the place of De Laignes. Hacqueville was the intimate
+friend of De Retz and also of Madame de Sevign&eacute;; and seconded by Madame
+de Chevreuse and Madame de Rhodes, De Retz might have succeeded in the
+expulsion of Laignes, if Hacqueville would have consented to that
+project. No man could be more obliging than Hacqueville; but,
+notwithstanding the disposition he showed to be useful to his friends,
+he shrank from such continual immolation of himself. Probably also he
+was too honest a man to lend himself to such a procedure.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Sevign&eacute;,&mdash;in every way qualified to play a distinguished part
+in the exciting game of politics,&mdash;was so entirely devoted to her
+husband and children as to be a stranger to all these intrigues; but she
+was more or less connected with the persons who seconded the Coadjutor&#8217;s
+projects, and consequently with the Duchess de Chevreuse. An article in
+the &#8220;Muse Historique&#8221; of Loret shows how intimate was the connection of
+Madame de Sevign&eacute; with that Duchess. In the month of July, 1850, on
+returning from a promenade in the Cours, then the fashionable drive
+among the highest society, the Marquis and Marchioness de Sevign&eacute; gave a
+splendid supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse. The noisy manner in which
+the Frondeurs expressed their delight made this nocturnal repast almost
+assume the character of an orgie; and, for that reason, it became for
+awhile the talk of the capital. The rhyming gazetteer thus expresses
+himself on the subject:</p>
+
+<p class="poemnoi">
+On fait ici grand&#8217; mention<br />
+D&#8217;une belle collation<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>Qu&#8217;&agrave; la Duchesse de Chevreuse<br />
+Sevign&eacute;, de race frondeuse,<br />
+Donna depuis quatre ou cinq jours,<br />
+Quand on fut revenue du Cours.<br />
+On y vit briller aux chandelles<br />
+Des gorges passablement belles;<br />
+On y vit nombre de galants;<br />
+On y mangea des ortolans;<br />
+On chanta des chansons &agrave; boire;<br />
+On dit cent fois non&mdash;oui&mdash;non, voire.<br />
+La Fronde, dit-on, y claqua;<br />
+Un plat d&#8217;argent on escroqua;<br />
+On repandit quelque potage,<br />
+Et je n&#8217;en sais pas davantage.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen from these details, that already the manners and customs
+of the great world reflected the licence of the civil wars, and that
+they no longer resembled those of which the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet still
+presented a purer model. It may be possible also that there was some
+exaggeration in Loret&#8217;s description: he belonged to the Court party,
+received a pension of two hundred crowns from Mazarin, and detested the
+Fronde. His rhyming gazette was addressed to his protectress,
+Mademoiselle de Longueville, so much the more opposed to the Fronde that
+her stepmother was the heroine of that faction. Mademoiselle de
+Longueville, whose harsh strictures upon the Cond&eacute; family have been
+cited, and who subsequently became the wife of the Duke de Nemours, is
+often mentioned in the writings of her time, although she was never
+mixed up in any political intrigue, nor took part in any event. Her
+immense fortune, the clearness of her judgment, the elevation of her
+sentiments, her grand airs, the severe dignity of her manners, and the
+energy of her character, constituted her during the Regency and the
+long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> reign of Louis XIV. a personage quite apart; who submitted herself
+to no influence whatever, social or political, and who no more permitted
+that absolute monarch to induce her to vary in her determinations, than
+to change the fashion of her external habiliments.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Loret, Muse Historique, liv. i., p. 28, Letter 10.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">STATE OF PARTIES ON THE LIBERATION OF THE PRINCES&mdash;THE CARDS
+AGAIN SHUFFLED, AND THE FACE OF THE SITUATION CHANGED.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the commencement of 1651 all France clamoured for Cond&eacute;&#8217;s liberation.
+During the autumn Mazarin had led the Queen and the young King against
+Bordeaux, then held by the Princess de Cond&eacute;, carrying&mdash;as usual when
+forced to use both means&mdash;a sword in one hand and a roll of parchment in
+the other. Failing to carry the place with the first, the Cardinal began
+to negotiate a treaty of peace, the principal item of which was full
+pardon to the citizens, and by others an agreement that the Princess and
+her son should retire to Montrond: on these terms the city yielded to
+its sovereign. The Cardinal also obtained a victory in the field against
+Turenne, who had entered the service of Spain and fired upon the
+fleur-de-lis. But with this momentary success of Mazarin&#8217;s cause rose
+his pretensions and demands; and the Fronde, alarmed at his recovered
+authority, changed its tactics as its Protean genius De Retz frequently
+did his clothes&mdash;his cassock for a plumed hat and military cloak. It
+demanded the trial or liberation of the prisoners it had helped to send
+to Vincennes, without delay, and Mazarin removed them for safe custody
+to Havre. It then pronounced sentence of banishment on the obnoxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+minister, and ordered him to quit the kingdom within fifteen days. The
+town militia kept watch and ward over the Queen, by the command of the
+Coadjutor, and hindered her flight to join the favourite. She could
+offer no further resistance to those who now called themselves the
+friends of Cond&eacute;, but who were the very same persons who had fought him
+in the field a few months before. Orders were given to set the captives
+at liberty. Mazarin himself went to Havre to communicate the news of
+their freedom, and was received by them with the contempt that he might
+have expected. Cond&eacute; took leave of the Cardinal with a ringing peal of
+laughter, and with joyous acclamations, and bonfires, and firing of
+guns, made his triumphal entry into Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Cond&eacute; was now master of the situation. He found himself equally courted
+by the two other chief parties into which the State was divided&mdash;the
+Queen&#8217;s, supported by the Duke de Bouillon, and the now repentant and
+pardoned Turenne&mdash;and the Fronde, which had fallen into the guidance of
+the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, the Coadjutor, and the Duchess de Chevreuse. His own
+was called &#8220;the Prince&#8217;s,&#8221; and comprised Rochefoucauld and other
+personal friends and military admirers. The Duke d&#8217;Orleans had gone on
+before to meet Cond&eacute; as far as the plain of St. Denis, accompanied by
+the two most conspicuous representatives of the Fronde, the Duke de
+Beaufort and Retz, with the Coadjutor of Paris, and there they all
+warmly embraced. The Duke, having taken the Prince into his carriage,
+brought him in great pomp to the Palais Royal to salute the Queen Regent
+and the young King, and thence to the Palais d&#8217;Orleans, where he was
+feasted magnificently. Some days afterwards (February 25th) a royal
+ordonnance recognised the innocence of the Princes Cond&eacute;, Conti, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+the Duke de Longueville, and reinstated them in all their posts and
+governments. On the 27th this ordonnance was confirmed in Parliament
+amidst loud cheers. Cond&eacute; thus found himself at the highest degree of
+power to which a subject could reach. Misfortune had enhanced his
+military glory; a long captivity, endured with an unalterable serenity
+and high-hearted gaiety, had carried his popularity to the highest
+pitch. He was the victor, and, as it were, the designated heir, of
+Mazarin, who had fled before him, and with difficulty found a refuge
+without the kingdom, on the banks of the Rhine.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, Anne of Austria in some sort a prisoner, and Mazarin proscribed,
+the nobility showed itself entirely devoted to the young hero whom it
+recognized as its chief. Some among them at once proposed that the Queen
+Mother should be confined in the Val-de-Grace, and that the Prince
+should himself assume the Regency, others talked even of raising him to
+the throne, but Cond&eacute; did not fail to perceive that his newly acquired
+power was not so solid as it was sought to make him believe.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Mazarin having quitted Havre, and the inhabitants of
+Abbeville refusing him passage through their town, he found an asylum
+for a few days at Dourlens; but he was soon driven thence by the
+proceedings of the Parliament against him. He then retired to Sedan,
+where he took counsel with his friend Fabert, whom he had appointed
+Commandant there. He next proceeded to Cologne, being treated with the
+utmost distinction and hospitality in all the foreign towns through
+which he passed.</p>
+
+<p>Even in banishment, however, the old influence began to work. The
+Cardinal from his place of retirement governed the Queen with as
+absolute a sway as ever, and recom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>mended her, as a keen stroke of
+policy which would neutralize all parties, to take the young King to a
+<i>Bed of Justice</i>, and cause him to declare his majority. Couriers were
+going daily between Paris and Cologne; treaties between the Fronde and
+Mazarin were intercepted or forged, and published in the capital; the
+post of Prime Minister remained unfilled, and the Duke de Merc&#339;ur,
+notwithstanding all the thunders of Parliament, set out for Bruhl, with
+the purpose of marrying Mazarin&#8217;s niece. Everything announced that the
+exile of that hated minister was but temporary, and Cond&eacute;, perceiving
+the object of all these moves, prepared for war, and silently took his
+measures accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>The nobility, who, from the beginning of February, had begun to assemble
+in order to take part in the expulsion of Mazarin, now held their
+meetings in the monastery hall of the Cordeliers, where might be seen
+collected together as many as <i>eight hundred</i> princes, dukes, and
+noblemen, heads of the most considerable houses in France, all partisans
+of Cond&eacute;. As this numerical strength of the ennobled classes, together
+with the multiplicity of titles among them, is somewhat startling to a
+youthful English student, it may be well to remark that France had, in
+fact, three aristocracies in the course of her annals from the Crusades
+to the reign of Louis XIV. After the time of Louis XI., the
+representatives of the <i>first</i>, or old feudal aristocracy, the
+descendants of the men who were in reality the King&#8217;s peers, and not his
+actual subjects, were few and far between. These were the holders of
+vast principalities, who maintained a kind of royal state in their own
+possessions, and kept high courts of judicature over life and limb in
+the whole extent of their hereditary fiefs. In the long English wars,
+from Cr&eacute;cy to Agincourt, the great body of them dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>appeared, and only
+here and there a great vassal was to be seen, distinguished in nothing
+from the other nobles, except in the loftiness of his titles and the
+reverence that still clung to the sound of his historic name. The
+<i>second</i> aristocracy arose among the descendants of the survivors of the
+English and Italian wars. They claimed their rank, not as coming down to
+them from the tenure of almost independent counties and dukedoms, but as
+proprietors of ancestral lands, to which originally subordinate rights
+and duties had been attached. Mixed with those, we saw the Noblesse of
+the Robe, as the great law officers were called, who constituted a
+parallel but not identical nobility with their lay competitors. The
+<i>third</i> aristocracy was now about to make its appearance, the creation
+of Court favour, and badge of personal or official service&mdash;possessors
+of a nominal rank without any corresponding duty&mdash;a body selected for
+ornament, and not for use&mdash;and incorporating with itself, not only the
+marquis and viscount, fresh from the mint of the minister or favourite,
+but the highest names in France.</p>
+
+<p>The aristocracy of the sword, and of ancient birth, had itself to blame
+for this degradation. Great alterations in manners or government&mdash;such
+as give a new character to human affairs&mdash;always seem brought about by
+some strange relaxation of morals, or atrocity of conduct, which makes
+society anxious for the change. The unfortunate custom in France which
+gave every male member of a noble family a title equivalent to that of
+its chief, so that a simple viscount with ten stalwart and penniless
+sons gave ten stalwart and penniless viscounts to the aristocracy of his
+country, had filled the whole land with a race of men proud of their
+origin, filled with reckless courage, careless of life, and despising
+all honest means of employment by which their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> fortunes might have been
+improved. Mounted on a sorry steed and begirt with a sword of good
+steel, the young cavalier took his way from the miserable castle on a
+rock, where his noble father tried in vain to keep up the appearance of
+daily dinners, and wondered how in the world all his remaining sons and
+daughters were to be clothed and fed, and made his way to Paris. There
+he pushed his fortune&mdash;fighting, bullying, gambling, and was probably
+stabbed by some drunken companion and flung into the Seine. If he was
+lucky or adroit enough, he stabbed his drunken friend and pushed <i>him</i>
+into the stream; and, after a few months of suing and importunity,
+obtained a saddle in the King&#8217;s Guards, or a pair of boots in the
+Musqueteers. At this time it came out that in twenty years of the reign
+of Louis XIII. there had been eight thousand fatal duels in different
+parts of the realm. Out of the duels which were daily carried on, four
+hundred in each year had ended in the death of one of the combatants.
+When the fiercest of English wars is shaking every heart in the kingdom,
+there would be wailing and misery in every house if it were reported
+that four hundred officers had been killed in a year. Yet these young
+desperadoes were all of officer&#8217;s rank, and the quarrel in which they
+fell was probably either dishonourable or contemptible. Men fought and
+killed each other for a word or a look, or a fashion of dress, or the
+mere sake of killing. Where morality is loosened to the extent of a
+disregard of life, we may be sure the general behaviour in other
+respects is equally to be deplored. There was great and almost universal
+depravity in the conduct of high and low. Vice and sensuality found
+refuge and protection even in the presence of princesses and queens.
+People residing in remote places heard only of the gorgeous licence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> in
+which the great and powerful lived. They knew them only during their
+visits to their ancestral homes as worn-out debauchees from the great
+city, who brought the profligacy of the purlieus of the Louvre into the
+peaceful cottages of the peasantry on their estates. It was, indeed, so
+much the fashion to be wicked, that a gentleman was hindered from the
+practice of his Christian or social duties by the fear of ridicule. The
+life of man, therefore, and the honour of woman were held equally cheap;
+and the blinded, rash, and self-indulgent nobility laid the foundation,
+in contempt of the feelings of its inferiors and neglect of their
+interests, for the terrible retribution which even now at intervals
+might be seen ready to take its course.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">THE DUCHESSES DE LONGUEVILLE AND DE CHEVREUSE AND THE
+PRINCESS PALATINE IN THE LAST FRONDE.&mdash;RESULTS OF THE
+RUPTURE OF THE MARRIAGE PROJECTED BETWEEN THE PRINCE DE
+CONTI AND MADEMOISELLE DE CHEVREUSE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> must now revert to Cond&eacute;&#8217;s heroic sister. Having glanced somewhat
+hastily at the brilliant part played by Madame de Longueville in the two
+first epochs of the Fronde, the war of Paris and that which illuminated
+the prison of Cond&eacute;, we are now about to follow her through the third
+and last period, which commences from the deliverance of the Princes, in
+February, 1651, and only ends with the war of Guienne, in August,
+1653;&mdash;the longest, the most disastrous, and at the same time most
+obscure epoch of the civil war. It will be necessary to strip the mask
+from more than one illustrious actor in it, exhibit the reverse of the
+most showy medals, and the shadows which everywhere mingle with glory,
+genius, and even virtue itself. The character of the Duchess de
+Longueville has its charming, its sublime aspects; but, alas! it is far
+from being irreproachable. In dwelling upon the least favourable portion
+of her life, we shall often do well to remember that the errors of great
+minds sometimes subserve their perfection, by the beneficent virtue of
+the remorse to which they give rise, and that the sister of the Great
+Cond&eacute; must probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> have felt in all its fulness the vanity of ambition
+and of false grandeur, all the bitterness of guilty passions, in taking
+an early farewell of them, to resume the austere path of duty, to
+return, in fine, to Carmel and ascend to Port Royal.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Longueville had remained at Stenay with Turenne for some time
+after her brother&#8217;s and husband&#8217;s liberation, both occupied in
+disengaging themselves from the engagements which they had contracted
+with Spain for the deliverance of the Princes, and with negotiating a
+truce calculated to clear the way for the much-desired general peace.
+Recalled by the pressing instances of her family, she had quitted Stenay
+on the 7th of March, before the completion of her work. On arriving in
+Paris &#8220;universal applause greeted her heroic deeds.&#8221; Monsieur had
+hastened to pay her a visit with Mademoiselle Montpensier, and a train
+of ladies of the highest distinction. She went afterwards that same day
+to present her homage to their Majesties, from whom she met with the
+most gracious reception. That moment was, unquestionably, the most
+brilliant of her whole career. In 1647, after the embassy to Munster,
+her return to France and its Court had been also a veritable triumph, as
+we have attempted to show; but the power of her house and the glory of
+her brother constituted nearly all the merits of it. She only
+contributed thereto the influence of her wit and beauty. After Stenay,
+the <i>&eacute;clat</i> which surrounded her was in some sort more personal. She had
+just displayed eminent qualities which raised her almost to the level of
+Cond&eacute;. In Normandy she had exhibited herself as an intrepid adventuress,
+and a skilful politician in the Low Countries. When, during the
+imprisonment of her two brothers and her husband, her sister-in-law, the
+Princess de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> Cond&eacute;, had been forced at Bordeaux to recognize the royal
+authority, she discovered that the destinies of her house had devolved
+upon her. She had become the head of a great party. She had treated as
+from power to power with Spain; her word had appeared a sufficient
+guarantee to the Archduke Leopold and to the Count de Fuensaldagne. She
+had held in hand such commanders as Turenne, La Moussaye, Bouteville;
+and when, after the battle of Rethel, she seemed to be on the very verge
+of destruction, she had succeeded in recovering the advantage, and in
+contributing more than any one else to the deliverance of the Princes,
+thanks to the profound negotiations carried on in her name by the
+Princess Palatine. Whilst statesmen estimated her capacity, the
+multitude admired her courage and constancy. She was, in short, in
+possession of that political r&ocirc;le with which La Rochefoucauld had
+dazzled her gaze in order to conceal his own designs:&mdash;a glittering
+chimera which, mingling itself with that of love, had seduced that
+ardent and haughty soul of hers. She was then the idol of Spain, the
+terror of the Court, one of the grandeurs of her family. We shall soon
+see whether she can better sustain this new ordeal than she did the
+first, at the close of the year 1647.</p>
+
+<p>The Fronde gathered the fruit of its skilful conduct during the month of
+January, 1651. It was that faction which, silencing its old animosities
+and promptly extending its hand to the partisans of Cond&eacute;, had
+extricated him from prison, in order to acquire and place at its head,
+together with the King&#8217;s uncle, the lieutenant-general of the Kingdom,
+the first prince of the blood, the victor of Rocroi and Lens, the hero
+of the age. It carried everything before it&mdash;at Court, in parliament,
+upon the public places; it had proscribed and put to flight Mazarin; it
+held Anne of Aus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>tria a captive in her palace; already even it had
+penetrated into the cabinet in the person of the aged Chateauneuf, in
+whom ambition cherished beneath the snows of winter the vigour of youth,
+and whose capacity was scarcely inferior to his ambition. The moment had
+arrived for accomplishing the work already begun, and for putting into
+execution the plan determined upon between the Princess Palatine and
+Madame de Chevreuse.</p>
+
+<p>Those two strong-minded women had conceived the idea of a grand
+aristocratic league which should seat the Fronde upon an union of all
+the interests which it comprised, close the avenues of France and the
+Court to Mazarin, and under the auspices of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans and the
+Prince de Cond&eacute; form a government into which the friends of both should
+enter, the most accredited representatives of every fraction of a party.
+Further, the basis of this plan was that of a double marriage: on the
+one side between the young Duke d&#8217;Enghien and one of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans&#8217;
+daughters, on the other between the Prince de Conti and the daughter of
+Madame de Chevreuse.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> This latter marriage might be accomplished
+immediately. Cond&eacute; had accepted the proposition without any difficulty.
+Madame de Longueville, far from opposing it at Stenay, had embraced the
+idea of it with so much ardour that, in a letter to the Palatine of the
+26th of November, 1650, after having weighed the different resolutions
+to be taken, she stops at this latter, and concludes thus: &#8220;<i>this,
+therefore, is what we must stick to</i>.&#8221; That marriage was, in short, of a
+supreme<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> importance: it gave the house of Cond&eacute; to the Fronde for ever,
+and the Fronde to the house of Cond&eacute;; for the Fronde was then Madame de
+Chevreuse. She disposed, by her daughter, of the Coadjutor, who in his
+turn disposed of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, and by him of the parliament. It
+was Madame de Chevreuse who, in 1650, had emboldened Mazarin to lay his
+hand upon Cond&eacute;, in making him see that he might strike that bold stroke
+with impunity, since she answered to him for the secret connivance of
+the Duke d&#8217;Orleans and the parliament, who were alone able to oppose it.
+Here, Mazarin had committed an immense blunder: seeing himself delivered
+from Cond&eacute;, by the aid of the Fronde, having nothing more hostile to
+cope with than the latter, he had imagined himself able to turn round
+upon it, and had treated Madame de Chevreuse very cavalierly, who,
+growing cold towards the Cardinal, and no longer finding it to her
+account to serve him, had lent an ear to the propositions of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s
+friends, and had procured his release from prison, reconciling to him
+the Duke d&#8217;Orleans and the parliament, which at first she had stirred up
+against him. She brought, moreover, to the house of Cond&eacute; the most
+politic mind of the Fronde, an audacity towering to the height of his
+designs, a consummate experience, with the support of her three powerful
+families, the houses of de Rohan, de Luynes, and Lorraine. She rendered
+sure the alliance of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans and the Prince de Cond&eacute;, and
+completed the ruin of Mazarin by constructing a strong government which
+probably might have succeeded ultimately in triumphing over the
+affection of the Queen. She held in hand a statesman bred in the school
+of Richelieu, and whom she judged capable of replacing Mazarin, the
+former Keeper of the Seals&mdash;Ch&acirc;teauneuf, already a member of the
+Cabinet. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> believed herself certain of acquiring De Retz by means of
+the Cardinal&#8217;s hat. She had not the least objection to make to the
+elevation of the friends of Cond&eacute;, and she was ready to favour the
+ambition of La Rochefoucauld, for whom formerly, in 1643, she had so
+greatly importuned the Queen and Mazarin. Add to all this, that on
+quitting the citadel of Havre, the young Prince de Conti had not beheld
+the lovely Charlotte de Lorraine without being smitten with her charms,
+and he himself strongly desired that marriage. Who, then, prevented it?
+Who broke off the contracted engagement? Who struck at and wounded by
+the self-same blow the Palatine and Madame de Chevreuse? Who restored
+them both and for ever to the Queen and Mazarin? Who destroyed the
+Fronde by dividing it? We shall find out by-and-by, but let us merely
+say just now that it was the rupture of that marriage which again
+shuffled the cards and changed the face of the situation. In pitting
+against himself those who had so powerfully succoured him in his
+misfortune, Cond&eacute; ought at least to have drawn closer to the Court and
+had a serious understanding with the Queen; but he tergiversated, and at
+the end of some months of that wavering policy, he found himself
+standing unmasked between the Court and the Fronde, both equally
+discontented with him, repeating and exaggerating the blunder committed
+by Mazarin. The greatest error during the course of a revolution is to
+believe that the support of either of the parties who are in actual
+collision may be dispensed with. At the close of a revolution the
+attempt to dominate may be tried; during the crisis a choice must be
+made. Mazarin had fallen through having tried to dominate the Fronde and
+Cond&eacute; at one and the same time; Cond&eacute; lost himself in thinking to
+dominate the Fronde and the Court.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is an historical problem very difficult to solve, as to who was the
+author of the rupture of the marriage projected between the Prince de
+Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. We are well inclined to believe
+that that individual at any rate was the chief author of the rupture to
+whom it was the most profitable. The Queen and Mazarin, who from his
+place of retirement governed her with as absolute a sway as ever, saw
+from the first the danger which threatened them from such an alliance,
+entirely unexpected as it was by both. The negotiations between Madame
+de Chevreuse, while Cond&eacute; was prisoner, and Madame de Longueville at
+Stenay, had been conducted by the Palatine with such consummate skill
+and perfect secrecy that neither the Queen nor Mazarin had the slightest
+suspicion of them. When the rumour reached the ears of the Cardinal in
+his retreat at Bruhl, near Cologne, he broke out against Madame de
+Chevreuse with a violence the coarseness of which even was an
+involuntary homage rendered to the profound ability of Marie de Rohan.
+The Queen showed herself warmly opposed to it, and the ministers were
+ordered to thwart in every way the projected alliance. They began,
+therefore, to negotiate with Cond&eacute;. As a result of these negotiations he
+obtained in exchange for his government of Burgundy that of Guienne, one
+of far greater importance; he was even led to indulge a hope that
+Provence would be given to the Prince de Conti instead of Champagne and
+La Brie, and the port and fortress of Blaye to La Rochefoucauld in
+augmentation of his government of Poitou, although there was not the
+slightest intention of fulfilling that hope. So states the Duchess de
+Nemours, the enemy of the Fronde and the Cond&eacute;s, and who, having given
+herself to the Court party, must have well known its intentions. De Retz
+likewise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> doubts not that the Queen combated an alliance so evidently
+opposed to her interests. Madame de Motteville, the Queen&#8217;s close
+friend, avows it. In short, it is certain, and we have hereupon the
+irrefragable testimony of Madame de Motteville, that when the Queen had
+succeeded in gaining over Cond&eacute;, she caused Madame de Chevreuse to be
+informed &#8220;that she desired that such marriage should not take place,
+because it had been concerted for objects inimical to the royal
+interests. This command was the cause of all these propositions falling
+through and that they were no more spoken of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But how did the Queen gain over Cond&eacute;, and what part did Madame de
+Longueville play in the affair? That is certainly what neither De Retz
+could know, who was only aware of what passed in parliament, in the
+Palais d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans, and the H&ocirc;tel de Chevreuse; nor the Duchess de Nemours
+and Madame de Motteville, who were not in the confidence of the H&ocirc;tel de
+Cond&eacute;: they could only repeat hereupon what they had heard said in the
+Court circle, and they must be considered solely as the echoes of
+reports which it suited the Queen to spread. That is so probable that
+the one and the other, differing so widely as they did both in intention
+and feeling, tell exactly the same tale. Madame de Motteville states
+positively that Madame de Longueville, as soon as she returned from
+Stenay, advised Cond&eacute; to break with the Chevreuses, and that La
+Rochefoucauld supported her in such design; and these are the motives
+which she attributes to her:&mdash;&#8220;Madame de Longueville, who had been long
+jealous of the beauty and graces of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, could
+little bear to contemplate the probability of her being raised to a rank
+even more elevated than her own, and still less, that she should obtain
+the great influence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> which such a person was likely to acquire over both
+her princely brothers. She had, therefore, exerted all her influence
+over Cond&eacute;, and with him had been quite successful. But Conti was still
+in the height of his passion for the beautiful and fascinating girl who
+had been promised to him during his imprisonment; he supped every
+evening at the H&ocirc;tel de Chevreuse, and his affections, as well as his
+honour, were fully engaged.&#8221; The Duchess de Nemours says the same thing
+in the same terms.</p>
+
+<p>Confidant and adviser of Madame de Longueville and of Cond&eacute;, La
+Rochefoucauld alone knew the whole truth, and could have told it to
+posterity; but it was not to tell the truth that his memoirs were
+penned, only too frequently to conceal it, to set in strong relief that
+which had been well done, and slur over that which had been badly done,
+or to cast the blame of it upon others. Attentive to the study of his
+part, and to never accept a bad one, La Rochefoucauld says truly that
+the Frondeurs, eagerly pressing forwards the marriage of the Prince de
+Conti with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, and seeing it retarded, &#8220;suspected
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld of a design to
+break it off, for fear that the Prince de Conti should escape from their
+hands only to fall into those of Madame de Chevreuse and of the
+Coadjutor;&#8221; but he endeavours to give a reason for these suspicions, and
+to inform us whether they were well or ill founded. Instead of defending
+himself, and Madame de Longueville, he accuses Cond&eacute; of having &#8220;adroitly
+increased the suspicions of the Frondeurs against his sister and La
+Rochefoucauld, firmly believing that so long as they held that belief,
+they would never discover the true cause of the postponement of the
+marriage.&#8221; And what was that true cause? Here it is, according to La
+Rochefoucauld: it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> that the Prince de Cond&eacute; &#8220;not having as yet
+either concluded or broken off his treaty with the Queen, and having
+been informed that the keeper of the seals&mdash;Ch&acirc;teauneuf&mdash;was about to be
+dismissed, wished to await that event to conclude the marriage, if
+Cardinal Mazarin were ruined by M. de Ch&acirc;teauneuf, or to break it off
+and make through that his court to the Queen, should M. de Ch&acirc;teauneuf
+be driven away by the Cardinal.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This interpretation of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s conduct does not do him great honour, but
+it is a very probable one. In the first place, if La Rochefoucauld knew
+how to glide so cleverly over all the ticklish points in which he could
+not appear to advantage, he did not, strictly speaking, tell lies; he
+retires rather than attacks, unless hurried away by passion, and he was
+never in a passion with Cond&eacute;. And, further, the conduct which he
+attributes to Cond&eacute; springs quite naturally out of the false position in
+which Cond&eacute; had, by degrees, suffered himself to be placed.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether, we are persuaded that Cond&eacute; was then sincere. His sole
+error, and it is that which marked his entire conduct during the Fronde,
+was the not having had, either on this occasion or any other, a fixed
+and unalterable object. On the 13th of April the Queen took the seals
+from Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s friend, Ch&acirc;teauneuf, the representative of
+the Fronde in the Cabinet, to give them to the gravest person of his
+time, the first president, Mathieu Mol&eacute;, a worthy servant of the State,
+very little friendly to the Fronde, and who then was sufficiently
+favourable towards the Prince de Cond&eacute;. That same day she recalled to
+the Council as Secretary of State the Count de Chavigny, who had been
+formerly minister for Foreign Affairs under Richelieu. Formed in the
+school of the great Cardinal, as well as Mazarin, ousted from place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+crafty and resolute, feeling himself capable of bearing the weight of a
+ministry, Chavigny had beheld with a sufficiently ominous countenance,
+after the death of their common master, the sudden elevation of a
+colleague who had even begun by being his dependent. Since 1643, vanity
+had turned him aside from the high road of ambition, and he had
+entangled himself in the brakes of very complicated intrigues. In 1651,
+he passed as the friend of Cond&eacute;. It was then only, if we can believe La
+Rochefoucauld, that Cond&eacute; declared himself opposed to the marriage of
+his youthful brother with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse; and it was time
+that he opposed it, for that marriage was on the eve of accomplishment.
+Conti gave proof of the most ardent passion for Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; he paid her a thousand attentions which he hid from his
+friends, and particularly from his sister, for whom he ever professed to
+entertain an undivided adoration. He held long conferences with the
+Marquis de Laigues and other intimate friends of Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; it was even feared lest he should marry her without the
+necessary dispensations and without the participation of the head of his
+family. Cond&eacute;, therefore, decided to act at once, and the reputation of
+the fair lady afforded him a means of attack which he employed with
+success upon his brother. He seems to have had no great difficulty in
+attaining his object. The Prince de Conti soon received proof that she
+was not by any means so immaculate as he had believed: her scarcely
+doubtful connection with the Coadjutor was placed in its true light,
+and, convinced that the object of his passion was unworthy the love of a
+man of honour, he began to look upon her with <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'horror. &#8220;He'">horror. He</ins> even blamed
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld for not having
+warned him sooner of what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> was said of her in society. From that moment
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'means of of'">means of</ins> breaking off the affair without acrimony were sought; but
+the interests involved were too great, and the circumstances too piquant
+not to renew and augment still more the old hatred of Madame de
+Chevreuse and the Frondeurs against the Prince de Cond&eacute;, and against
+those whom they suspected of taking part in that which had just been
+done.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p>
+
+<p>This testimony would justify Madame de Longueville and La Rochefoucauld
+himself for having urged Cond&eacute; upon that disloyal and impolitic rupture,
+if one could believe it to be entirely sincere; but it is very difficult
+to admit that Madame de Longueville and her all-powerful adviser could
+have remained strangers to a determination so important, and there are
+many doubts and obscurities resting upon this <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'deli- point.'">delicate point.</ins> De Retz,
+whose introspect was so penetrating, and who does not pride himself on
+any great reserve in his judgments, knew not what opinion to
+form&mdash;Cond&eacute;, Madame de Longueville, and La Rochefoucauld having
+afterwards assured him that they had had nothing to do with the rupture
+of the marriage.</p>
+
+<p>But whose soever was the hand that broke off the projected alliance of
+the Cond&eacute;s with Madame de Chevreuse, it is beyond doubt that that had
+lost Cond&eacute; and saved Mazarin. All the errors which followed were derived
+from that cardinal one. In it must be discerned the first link of that
+chain of disastrous events which ended by dragging Cond&eacute; into civil war.</p>
+
+<p>The resentment of Madame de Chevreuse may well be imagined, when she
+discovered that she had been tricked, that she had separated herself
+from Mazarin and the Queen, and had drawn Cond&eacute; out of prison only to
+receive in ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>change such an unpardonable outrage! Already, even a short
+time before, when the Queen ousted Ch&acirc;teauneuf without consulting the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans, the wrath of the Frondeurs had been such, that at a
+council held at the Palais d&#8217;Orleans of the whole party, it was proposed
+to go, on the part of the lieutenant-general, and demand back the seals
+from Mathieu Mol&eacute;. The most violent expedients were suggested, and some
+among the more hot-headed spoke of seizing their arms and descending
+into the streets. Cond&eacute;, who had not yet entirely broken with the
+Frondeurs, and was present at this council with a few of his friends,
+threw cold water upon every proposal that was made, and energetically
+opposed the appeal to arms, declaring that he did not understand waging
+&#8220;a war of paving-stones and <i>pots de chambre</i>,&#8221; and that he felt himself
+too much of a coward for such a campaign as that.</p>
+
+<p>After some time passed in sharp discussion, the Duke retired into the
+apartments of his wife with De Retz, and there a brief consultation
+ensued, in which the Duchess d&#8217;Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, and the
+Coadjutor endeavoured to persuade him to arrest the leaders of the
+opposite party, and rouse the people to insurrection. The Duke d&#8217;Orleans
+was in some degree moved; Cond&eacute;, Conti, and the Duke de Beaufort and
+others, had retired into the library, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse,
+springing towards the door, exclaimed, &#8220;Nothing is wanting but a turn of
+the key! It would be a fine thing indeed for a girl to arrest a winner
+of battles!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The impetuosity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, however, alarmed the timid
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans. Had he been brought to it by degrees, he might have
+consented to the act; but her movement towards the door startled him,
+and he began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> to whistle,&mdash;which, as De Retz observes, was never a good
+sign. Then declaring that he would consider of the matter till the next
+morning, he walked quietly into the library, and suffered the guests to
+depart in peace whom he had been so sorely tempted to make prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time in the parliament all the violent measures taken
+against Mazarin were renewed: he was banished and rebanished, with
+confiscation of his possessions, and even his books and pictures were
+ordered to be sold. A decree had already been passed declaring all
+foreign cardinals incapable of serving in France, and of entering into
+the ministry. They did not stop there, and certain councillors who were
+not in the secrets of the party, and obeying only their passion,
+proposed to exclude from the ministry even the French cardinals as being
+still too dependent upon Rome. This sweeping motion was carried amid
+loud cheers, which resounded through all parts of the hall. Whereupon
+Cond&eacute; laughingly remarked: &#8220;There&#8217;s a fine echo.&#8221; That same echo was the
+ruin of De Retz&#8217;s hopes, who only so passionately desired to become a
+cardinal in order to succeed to Mazarin. Shortly afterwards the division
+between Cond&eacute; and the Old Fronde was declared, and Cond&eacute; applied himself
+to form an intermediate party, a new Fronde, which became sufficiently
+powerful to disquiet Madame de Chevreuse and the Coadjutor.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a>
+&#8220;Imagine,&#8221; says the latter, &#8220;what the royal authority purged of
+Mazarinism would have been, and the party of the Prince de Cond&eacute; purged
+of faction! More than all, what surety was there in M. the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But De Retz was not the only politician who terrified himself with the
+idea of such a future looming thus darkly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> for France. Mazarin dreaded
+it as much as he. His authority was almost universally thought to be for
+ever annihilated; but a small number of courtiers who could read the
+Queen&#8217;s heart, judged otherwise, and owed to the skilful line of conduct
+to which they adhered under these circumstances the high fortune to
+which they attained in the sequel.</p>
+
+<p>There is little doubt that, in the first instance, Cond&eacute; might have
+carried off the Regency from the Queen, deprived as she was of her prime
+minister, and by her own acknowledgment incapable of governing by
+herself; but then the direction of affairs belonged by right to the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans, of whom Cond&eacute; was jealous. Cond&eacute;, however, preferred to keep
+the Regency in the Queen&#8217;s hands, and by rendering himself formidable to
+the Government, forcing it to reckon with him. If that union of the
+Princes between themselves and the Fronde faction had subsisted, the
+re-establishment of the royal authority would have been impossible: and
+the commencement of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, who, although he
+had only completed his thirteenth year, was about, by the force of an
+exceptional law, to be declared of age, would have offered the
+spectacle, so frequent in French annals,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> of a state a prey to the
+divulsion of factions and the horrors of anarchy.</p>
+
+<p>But for the happiness of France and the Queen-Regent, Cond&eacute; was as
+unskilful in politics as he was great in war. He kept none of the
+promises he had made to the chiefs of the Fronde, the authors of his
+deliverance. The marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse, which had been the base of the treaty, and involved other
+engagements, was, as we have seen, remorselessly broken off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> The Queen
+Regent, in order to succeed in bringing back her favourite minister to
+power, had the tact to conceal his advances, and therefore chose in the
+first instance to replace him by Chavigny, who was his personal enemy.
+Then she negotiated with all parties, and skilfully opposed the Fronde
+to the Prince de Cond&eacute;, the latter to the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, the parliament
+to the assembly of the nobles, the aversion to Mazarin to the fear which
+the Coadjutor inspired. Her ministers, whom she abused, had only the
+semblance of power; all that was real was possessed by Mazarin. From
+Bruhl, his place of exile, he governed France; the Queen adopted no
+resolution without its having been inspired by him, or met with his
+approval. Thus hidden by the Regent&#8217;s mantle, the Cardinal followed with
+vigilant eye the quarrels of the Prince de Cond&eacute; and the Frondeurs,
+fomenting them and inflaming them by every means at his disposal,
+prodigalising to Cond&eacute; promises which must in the highest degree have
+alarmed the Fronde, and entangling him daily more and more in the meshes
+of intricate, tortuous negotiations, until he had seen the separation,
+for which he man&#339;uvred, irremediably consummated. Then he stopped,
+and began insensibly even to fall back. The placing of Provence in the
+Prince de Conti&#8217;s hands was deferred; and in fact it was held in reserve
+for the Duke de Merc&#339;ur, the eldest son of the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me, who
+was seeking the hand of one of Mazarin&#8217;s nieces; and it was also found
+inexpedient to deprive the Duke de Saint-Simon of Blaye to give it to La
+Rochefoucauld; and a thousand other difficulties of a like nature were
+raised, which both astonished and irritated Cond&eacute;. Since he broke with
+the Fronde, it was apparently to unite himself with the Queen, and the
+higher his ambition soared, the more necessary it was to cover it with
+respect and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> deference, in order to hasten and secure the treaty on
+foot, and to enchain the monarchy with his own fate. But the fiery Cond&eacute;
+was incapable of such a line of conduct. Finding unexpected obstacles
+where previously he had met with facilities and hopeful anticipations,
+he lost his temper, and resumed the imperious tone which already, in
+1649, had embroiled him with the Queen and Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>It appears also that Madame de Longueville shared in the soaring
+illusions of her brother, and that she bore but indifferently well her
+newly blown prosperity. Madame de Motteville gives us to understand so
+with her usual moderation, and the Duchess de Nemours rejoices to say so
+with all the acrimony and doubtless also the exaggeration of hatred.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a>
+It must, indeed, be owned, with the heroic instincts of Cond&eacute;, Madame de
+Longueville shared also his haughty spirit. All her contemporaries
+ascribe to her an innate majesty which did not show itself on ordinary
+occasions; far from it, she was simple, amiable, adding thereto, when
+desirous of pleasing, a caressing and irresistible gentleness; but, with
+people whom she disliked, she intrenched herself in a frigid dignity,
+and Anne of Austria and she had never loved one another. A misplaced
+haughtiness towards the Queen is attributed to her. One day, says Madame
+de Nemours, she kept her waiting for two or three hours. It is very
+doubtful whether Madame de Longueville could have so far forgotten
+herself; but it is not impossible that she may have imagined, as well as
+her brother, that the fortunes of their house, having emerged more
+brilliant than ever from so rude a tempest, had no longer to dread the
+recurrence of further ill-omened shocks.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They deceived themselves: an immense peril was hanging over their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately that Madame de Chevreuse had seen that the Queen was growing
+colder towards Cond&eacute;, and did not seem disposed to keep the promises
+that had been made him, her keen-sighted animosity instantly determined
+her course of action, and being for ever separated from Cond&eacute;, she again
+drew towards the Queen with an offer of her services and those of her
+entire party against the common enemy. Mazarin, recognising the error he
+had committed in giving himself two enemies at the same time, and that
+at that moment the redoubtable individual, the man who at any cost must
+be destroyed, was Cond&eacute;, very quickly forgot his grudges against Madame
+de Chevreuse, and advised the acceptance of her propositions. The Queen,
+it appears, was very averse to receive De Retz, or avail herself of his
+services; she detested him almost as much as she did Cond&eacute;, well knowing
+that they were the two most dangerous enemies of him without whom she
+did not believe that she could really reign. Mazarin exhorted her
+himself to flatter De Retz&#8217;s ambition, and, marvellously understanding
+each other at a distance&mdash;almost as well as when in each other&#8217;s
+presence,&mdash;they composed and played out in the most perfect manner a
+comedy of which De Retz himself seems to have been the dupe, and of
+which Cond&eacute; was very nearly being the victim.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse has already been depicted both in good and evil, in
+her natural intelligence, quickness, keen introspection, and political
+genius, in her indomitable courage and audacity, and all that she was
+capable of undertaking in order to attain her objects. It will now be
+necessary to thoroughly understand De Retz&#8217;s character, in order to
+perceive clearly the peril with which Cond&eacute; was menaced.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>By nature yet more restless than ambitious, a bad priest, impatient of
+his condition and having long struggled to emancipate himself from it,
+Paul de Gondi had prepared himself for cabals by composing or
+translating the life of a celebrated conspirator. Then, passing quickly
+from theory to practice, he had entered into one of the most sinister
+plots framed against Richelieu, and for his first experiment he had
+accepted the task, he, a young abb&eacute;, of assassinating the Cardinal at
+the altar during the ceremony of Mademoiselle de Montpensier&#8217;s baptism.
+In 1643, he had not hesitated to throw himself into the arms of the
+<i>Importants</i>; but the title of Coadjutor of Paris, which had just been
+conferred upon him as a recompense for the virtues and services of his
+father, arrested him. The Fronde seemed created altogether expressly for
+him. He shared the parentage of it along with La Rochefoucauld. In vain
+in his Memoirs does he studiedly put forward general considerations:
+like La Rochefoucauld, he was only working for himself, and at least had
+the candour to own it. Compelled to remain in the Church, De Retz
+desired to rise in it as high as possible. He aspired to a cardinal&#8217;s
+hat, and soon obtained it, thanks to his inscrutable man&#339;uvring; but
+his supreme object was the post of prime minister, and to reach it, he
+played that double game which he so craftily concerted and so skilfully
+played out. Seeing that Mazarin and Cond&eacute; were not heads of a government
+which would leave to others acting with them any great share of
+importance, he undertook to overthrow them, the one by the other, to
+carve out his way between them by them, and to raise upon their ruin the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans, under whose name he would govern. To effect this he
+incessantly urged alike the Duke, the parliament, and the people, to
+demand, as the first condition of any reconciliation with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> Court,
+the dismissal of Mazarin, and at the same time he, under a mask,
+exhibited himself as a benevolent conciliator between royalty and the
+Fronde, promising the Queen, the indispensable sacrifice accomplished,
+to smooth all difficulties, and to bring over to her the Duke d&#8217;Orleans
+by separating him from Cond&eacute;. Such was the real mainspring of all De
+Retz&#8217;s movements&mdash;even those seemingly the most contrary: first the
+cardinalate, then the premiership under the auspices of the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans, associated in some sort with royalty, without Mazarin or
+Cond&eacute;. He was fain to hide his secret under the guise of the public
+weal, but that secret revealed itself by the very efforts he made to
+conceal it, and it did not escape the penetration of La Rochefoucauld,
+his accomplice at the outset of the Fronde, afterwards his adversary,
+who had a perfect knowledge of his character, and who had sketched it
+with a masterly hand, as De Retz also thoroughly comprehended and
+admirably depicted La Rochefoucauld. De Retz was indeed the evil genius
+of the Fronde. He always hindered it from progressing whether led by
+Mazarin or Cond&eacute;, because he merely desired to have a weak government
+which he could dominate. To arrive at that end, he was capable of
+anything&mdash;tortuous intrigues, anonymous pamphlets, hypocritical sermons
+from the pulpit, studied orations in parliament, popular insurrections
+and desperate <i>coups de main</i>. Such was the man who, towards the end of
+May, 1651, was admitted, much against her will, into the secret councils
+of Anne of Austria.</p>
+
+<p>Anything was to be tried, however, which might deliver her from the
+exactions of Cond&eacute;. It was absolutely necessary that she should either
+grant his demands, or find some support to enable her to resist them.
+She accord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>ingly despatched Marshal du Plessis to speak with De Retz, at
+the archbishopric, towards one o&#8217;clock in the morning, at which hour he
+generally returned from his nocturnal visits to Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. De Retz was willing to seize the opportunity of avenging
+himself upon Cond&eacute;, and probably judged he might do so without bringing
+about the return of Mazarin. He accepted, then, at once the Queen&#8217;s
+invitation, and flung the letter of safe-conduct which she had sent him
+into the fire, in order to show his confidence in her promises. The
+following night, at twelve o&#8217;clock, he was brought into the Queen&#8217;s
+Oratory by a back staircase, and a long conversation ensued between
+them. Anne of Austria was very caressing in her manner towards the
+Coadjutor, and sought, after winning her way to his confidence, to
+embroil him with Ch&acirc;teauneuf, by informing him that it was that friend
+of Madame de Chevreuse who was the most opposed to his cardinalate,
+because he wanted the hat for himself. It must be remembered that France
+at that moment had the appointment of a cardinal at its disposition, and
+it had been long promised to the Prince de Conti. Anne of Austria now
+offered it to De Retz who, in reply, at the end of a long harangue,
+during which the Queen interrupted him impatiently more than once,
+assured her that he had not come there to receive favours, but to merit
+them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What will you do for me, then?&#8221; asked the Queen. &#8220;What will you do?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Madam,&#8221; replied he, &#8220;I will oblige the Prince de Cond&eacute; to quit Paris
+ere eight days are over, and will carry off the Duke d&#8217;Orleans from him
+before to-morrow night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Queen, transported with joy, extended her hand to him saying&mdash;&#8220;Give
+me your hand on that, and the day after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> to-morrow you are a cardinal,
+and moreover the second amongst my friends.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few days afterwards, De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse had raised the
+entire Fronde against the Prince de Cond&eacute;. The worthy archbishop had
+announced his approach to the enemy he was about to attack by a cloud of
+the same kind of libels, satires, and epigrams, which he had always
+found so efficacious in prejudicing the people of Paris against any one
+whom he thought fit to hold forth to popular odium. At the same time a
+multitude of criers and hawkers were sent through the town, spreading,
+at the very lowest price, all the sarcasms which had been composed at
+the archbishopric in the morning, to render the conduct of Cond&eacute;
+ridiculous, contemptible, and hateful in the eyes of the multitude.</p>
+
+<p>At length, when the Coadjutor believed that everything had been
+sufficiently prepared, he made the Palatine write to inform the Queen
+that he was about to go to the parliament. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was
+with the Regent at the time she received this intimation; and the
+delight which it occasioned was so great that the virtuous and pious
+Anne of Austria caught the archbishop&#8217;s mistress in her arms, and kissed
+her more than once, exclaiming, with no very great regard for decorum,
+&#8220;You rogue! you are now doing me as much good as you have hitherto done
+me harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>De Retz kept his word, and went to the parliament, but the progress
+against Cond&eacute; was so slow that Mazarin, the Queen, and De Retz, began to
+revolve more summary measures, and, towards the latter part of June,
+their deliberations ended in a sinister project of again arresting or of
+assassinating Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>This obscure affair, as yet only partially unveiled, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> which probably
+will never be so entirely, is not so dark and impenetrable, however, as
+to prevent us from seeing, within the shadow thereof, fearful and
+criminal purposes, to which even the more open vices of the age are
+comparatively light. We are told by De Retz that the Marshal de
+Hocquincourt, with more frankness than the rest, proposed in direct
+terms to assassinate Cond&eacute;. The Coadjutor himself, however, Madame de
+Chevreuse, and other leaders of the Fronde, but above all Senneterre,
+who had about this time obtained a great share of the Queen&#8217;s
+confidence, opposed not only the bold crime proposed at first by
+Hocquincourt, but also all the schemes which he and others afterwards
+suggested, and which, though apparently more mild, were all likely to
+end in the same event.</p>
+
+<p>Rumours of what was meditated soon reached the Prince&#8217;s ears, who then
+saw clearly the nature of his position. He perceived that he had
+quarrelled thoroughly and for ever with the Frondeurs and with the
+Queen, and that henceforth he was placed between imprisonment and
+assassination. He felt certain that this time, should he fall into the
+hands of his enemies, he would be treated far more harshly than in 1650,
+and that probably he might never see the light again. He despised death,
+but the idea of perpetual incarceration was insupportable to him, and
+that idea fastening itself by degrees on his mind caused projects to
+enter into it which until then had only momentarily crossed it.</p>
+
+<p>Too high-minded to quit Paris as though he were terrified, Cond&eacute;
+exhibited no change in his conduct; merely confining himself to no
+longer visiting the Palais-Royal or the Palais d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans, and never
+going abroad without a numerous escort of officers and retainers.
+Already for some time past foreseeing the storm that was gathering
+against him, he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> taken serious measures to confront it: he had
+strengthened all the fortresses that were in his hands. He had
+despatched to Flanders the Marquis de Sillery, La Rochefoucauld&#8217;s
+brother-in-law, under pretext of finally disengaging Madame de
+Longueville and Turenne from the treaties they had made with the
+Spaniards in 1650, with secret instructions to renew them, and to
+ascertain how far he might reckon on the assistance of Spain if he were
+compelled to draw the sword. The Count de Fuensaldagne did not fail,
+agreeable to the policy of his court, to promise much more than was
+asked of him, and he omitted nothing calculated to stir up Cond&eacute; to have
+recourse to arms.</p>
+
+<p>Chance had a share in urging Cond&eacute; to take a further and almost decisive
+step in the dangerous path that was opening before him. One evening,
+just as he had lain down on his bed and was chatting with Vineuil, one
+of his trusty friends, the latter received a note which directed him to
+warn the Prince that two companies of guards were advancing on the side
+of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. It was thought that those troops were
+about to invest the h&ocirc;tel. Cond&eacute; jumped out of bed, dressed himself,
+mounted his horse instantly, and, accompanied by a few attendants, took
+his way through the faubourg Saint-Michel. On gaining the high road, he
+heard the clatter of a somewhat strong body of horsemen approaching, and
+thinking that it was the squadron in search of him, he fell back at
+first in the direction of Meudon; then, instead of re-entering Paris,
+when day broke he sought an asylum in his ch&acirc;teau of Saint-Maur. He
+reached it on the morning of the 6th of July; and it may readily be
+guessed what the effect, in Paris and throughout the kingdom, of such a
+retreat was, and for such motives. The Princess de Cond&eacute;, the Prince de
+Conti, Madame de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> Longueville, La Rochefoucauld, the Duke de Nemours,
+the Duke de Richelieu, the Prince&#8217;s most intimate friends, and more than
+one illustrious personage, such as the Duke de Bouillon and Turenne,
+repaired immediately to Saint-Maur. In a day or two, Cond&eacute; saw himself
+surrounded by a court as brilliant and as numerous as that of the King,
+and there he kept up a right royal festivity. After a while he sent a
+considerable number of officers disguised into Paris, who bestirred
+themselves in every quarter in his favour; and when he considered
+himself in a position to hold his own against both the Queen and the
+Frondeurs together, he quitted Saint-Maur and returned to his h&ocirc;tel near
+the Palais d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans, desiring to put a good complexion on the aspect of
+his affairs and to impose upon his enemies by that bold and high-minded
+conduct.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> He appeared again also in the parliament, now once more
+become the battle-field of parties. De Retz, full of his own individual
+hatred, augmented by that of Madame de Chevreuse, seconded at once by
+the friends of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans and by those of the Queen, burning to
+tear from the Court and win, by serving it, the cardinal&#8217;s hat, the
+object of his ardent desires, the necessary stepping-stone to his
+ambition, brought all his courage and vanity towards enacting the part
+of the Prince&#8217;s enemy. And there, during the months of July and August,
+in that pretended sanctuary of law and justice, passed all those
+deplorable scenes which De Retz and La Rochefoucauld have related, and
+in which Mazarin, from his retreat on the banks of the Rhine, rejoiced
+to see his two enemies waste their strength, and work unwittingly but
+surely their common ruin and his approaching triumph.</p>
+
+<p>A crisis was clearly inevitable. Cond&eacute; could no longer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> perceive any
+sign of a pacific issue from the position in which he had been placed,
+or rather in which he had placed himself, and at his right hand stood
+Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti, who held no opinions
+contrary to those of his sister, urging him to cut the knot which he
+knew not how to untie. La Rochefoucauld stopped him for a moment on the
+threshold of war, entreating Cond&eacute; to allow him to undertake fresh
+negotiations. The Prince consented willingly thereto. Madame de
+Longueville was opposed to it. La Rochefoucauld, speaking to her with
+that authority which his long devotion gave him, represented to her the
+terrible responsibility which she took upon herself both towards Cond&eacute;
+and the State, and he obtained from her a promise that she would
+withdraw for a time from the arena of strife, and accompany her
+sister-in-law, the Princess de Cond&eacute;, to Berri, and allow him to remain
+in Paris by the side of Cond&eacute; in order to make a last essay towards
+conjuring the tempest.</p>
+
+<p>The fitting moment has now arrived to examine the conduct of Madame de
+Longueville in these grave conjunctures, the different feelings which
+animated her, and the true and lamentable motive which determined her
+thus to hurry her brother into civil war, and herself with him.</p>
+
+<p>Let us remember:&mdash;Anne de Bourbon exhibited extraordinary contrasts in
+her character, entirely opposite qualities which, developing themselves
+in turn according to circumstances, gave a particular impress to
+different periods of her life. She derived from nature and the Christian
+education she had received a delicate and susceptible conscience, a
+humility in her own eyes and before God that would have made her an
+accomplished Carmelite; and at the same time she was born with that
+ardour of soul which is termed am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>bition, the instinct of glory and of
+grandeur. This instinct, which was also that of her house and her age,
+soon obtained the mastery on emerging from her pious adolescence, and
+when she despaired of overcoming her father&#8217;s resistance to the serious
+desire she had manifested of burying herself, at fifteen, in the convent
+of the Rue St. Jacques, with her already formidable beauty and the
+nascent desire to shine and to please. That desire was at once Madame de
+Longueville&#8217;s strength and weakness, the principle of her coquetry amid
+the amusements of peace, as of her intrepidity in the midst of war and
+danger. Once condemned to live in the world, she transferred the dreams
+of glory which she dared not realise for herself, to gild her brother&#8217;s
+wreath of laurel,&mdash;that Louis de Bourbon, almost of the same age as
+herself, the cherished companion of her infancy, so witty, so generous,
+so bold, that he was at once a friend and a master, and the idol of her
+heart, before another object had usurped the place or after he had
+abandoned it. In the first and the last portion of her life, which are
+incomparably the best, she referred everything to Cond&eacute;, and Cond&eacute; had a
+confidence in her altogether boundless. The suspicious and penetrating
+Mazarin had very early formed that opinion of her, and in the <i>carnets</i>,
+to which he has confided his very inmost feelings, he depicts her with
+the pen of an enemy, but of an enemy who knew her well. &#8220;Madame de
+Longueville,&#8221; says he, &#8220;has entire power over her brother. She desires
+to see Cond&eacute; dominate and dispose of all favours. If she is prone to
+gallantry, it is by no means that she thinks of doing wrong, but in
+order to make friends and servitors for her brother. She insinuates
+ambitious ideas into his mind to which he is already only too much
+inclined.&#8221; If, in 1648, she became violently enraged against her
+brother, it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> that, fascinated and misled by La Rochefoucauld, she
+thought that Cond&eacute;, by serving the Court and Mazarin, was false to his
+own fame. In 1649, she had only too far contributed to make him enter by
+degrees upon that fatal path into which La Rochefoucauld had lured
+herself. Here, pride nourished the hope of one day seeing the Cond&eacute;s
+replace the D&#8217;Orleans. When, in 1850, a son was born to Gaston, the
+little Duke de Valois, who did not live, she fretted at an event which
+threatened to strengthen and perpetuate a house for which she had no
+affection, and in a letter which has remained inedited up to the present
+day, she allows the thoughts that had insinuated themselves into her
+heart to appear. &#8220;I think,&#8221; she writes to Lenet on the 22nd August,
+1650, &#8220;that the news of the birth of M. d&#8217;Orleans&#8217; son will no more
+rejoice my sister-in-law than it has delighted me. It is to my nephew
+that we must offer our condolence.&#8221; In 1651, that ambition was carried
+to its highest pitch. Madame de Longueville experienced the natural
+intoxication that the power and prosperity of her house was calculated
+to give her; and when we think of what perils she had just surmounted,
+by what homage she was surrounded on all sides, that she was then
+thirty-two, that she was in all the splendour of her beauty, and also
+under all the strength of her passions, we might well be disposed to
+pardon her that fugitive intoxication, if it had not likewise drawn down
+disastrous consequences upon herself, upon Cond&eacute;, and upon her country.</p>
+
+<p>And here again occurs the question we have just raised. Was it Madame de
+Longueville who caused the rupture of the projected marriage between the
+Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse? If hers was the chief
+fault, we look upon it with regret, that in the eye of posterity she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+should bear the blame of such a fault. If she only yielded to the advice
+of La Rochefoucauld, we have the more excuse for her, and assert that
+the fault comes home to him. As we have seen, that affair is still
+involved in much obscurity, and since De Retz himself hesitates, we
+ought to feel well justified to hesitate in our turn. But it must be
+confessed, the suspicions of the Frondeurs and the accusations of the
+Queen&#8217;s friends have such great weight that it is scarcely possible to
+avoid attributing to Madame de Longueville a sufficiently large share in
+the deplorable rupture whence so many evils sprang. Her complaisant
+biographer, Villefore, is on this point in accordance with Madame de
+Motteville. Without doubt the marriage of the Prince de Conti with
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was far from meeting with universal approval.
+The prudes of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet, and Mademoiselle de Scuderi in
+particular, protested strongly against such an alliance. The old outrage
+was remembered which, in 1643, Madame de Montbazon, aided by Madame de
+Chevreuse, had dared to perpetrate upon Madame de Longueville; the
+audacious manners of the mother also, which seemed to have been
+inherited by the daughter; the equivocal reputation of the latter, the
+suspected and almost public <i>liaison</i> which she carried on with De Retz.
+Vain objections!&mdash;which Madame de Longueville could not allege, for she
+perfectly well knew all that when at Stenay she had authorised the
+Palatine to pledge her word for hers. Other reasons for her conduct must
+therefore be sought, and the reasons can only be those which her enemies
+have given, and in the foremost place the jealousy of influence, the
+desire of retaining over her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, an
+empire that Charlotte de Lorraine would, infallibly, have deprived her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That irreparable error, in bringing about the perilous position in which
+Cond&eacute; speedily found himself, necessarily led Madame de Longueville to
+the commission of another error, in some sort compulsory, and which was
+the complement of the first; it is certain that more than anyone else
+she incited her brother to take the resolution he ultimately determined
+upon adopting. La Rochefoucauld says so, and all contemporary writers
+repeat the same. We will merely make this essential remark: Madame de
+Longueville had at first very readily entered into the reconciliatory
+plans of Cond&eacute; and La Rochefoucauld, and into their negotiations with
+the Court; it was only when those designs had failed, when towards the
+month of June negotiation had given place to violence, when she saw her
+brother surrounded by assassins, liable at any moment to fall under the
+blows of Hocquincourt, or to be flung again into the dungeons of
+Vincennes, it was then that trembling with fear and indignation, and ill
+as she was in health, she rushed to Saint-Maur; and that, finding there
+the flower of the aristocracy and the army assembled, she felt her
+warlike ardour of 1649 and 1650 rekindle. She thought that nothing could
+resist on the field of battle the victor of Rocroy and Lens, seconded by
+Turenne, who at Stenay had shown such a lively and tender attachment for
+her, and the sentiment of which she had never ceased to treat with all
+the exquisite tact of which she was capable. She had also great
+confidence in Spain, which was at her feet, and lavished upon her every
+kind of deference. She urged, therefore, Cond&eacute; to fling further
+perfidious and useless negotiations to the winds, and to appeal to the
+fortune of arms.</p>
+
+<p>But to these different motives, the force of which Madame de Longueville
+summed up the value with the authority of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> her intelligence and
+experience, was joined another still more potent over her heart, and
+which had been the original mainspring of her resolutions and conduct.
+La Rochefoucauld alone has no right to impute it to her as a crime. For
+ourselves, we do not hesitate to make it known upon the evidence of
+irrefragable testimony; for we are not composing a panegyric of Madame
+de Longueville, but narrating certain passages of her life, in which
+that of the seventeenth century, with its grandeurs and its miseries, is
+so completely identified; and if we feel a sincere admiration for the
+sister of the great Cond&eacute;, that admiration does not close our eyes to
+her errors. It is not unseemly to admire a heroine whose lofty qualities
+are mingled with weaknesses which remind us of her sex. It is, moreover,
+the first duty of history, such as we understand it, and desire to have
+it understood, not to stop at the surface of events, but to seek for
+their causes in the depths of the soul, in human passions and their
+inevitable consequences.</p>
+
+<p>As has been already said, Madame de Longueville did not love her
+husband. Not only was he greatly her senior, but there was nothing about
+him that responded to the ideal which that illustrious disciple of the
+H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet had formed for herself, and which she pursued in
+vain through guilty illusions, until that which she sought and found at
+its very source&mdash;no longer in the school of Corneille and of
+Mademoiselle de Scuderi, but in that of her Saviour, in the Carmelite
+convent and at Port Royal. Never was woman less prone to gallantry by
+nature than Anne de Bourbon; but, as we have just remarked, her heart
+and her imagination created in her the necessity of pleasing and of
+being beloved; and it was that want, early cultivated by poetry,
+romances, and the theatre, and somewhat later cor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>rupted by the example
+of the society in which she lived, which lured her far from the domestic
+hearth, and hurried her into the brilliant and adventurous career amidst
+which we find her in 1651. Then her greatest fear was to fall again into
+her husband&#8217;s hands. M. de Longueville had very willingly followed his
+wife in the Fronde; his own discontentments of themselves drove him into
+it, as well as his uncertain and mobile character which led him to
+embark in novel enterprises with as much facility as it urged him to
+abandon them. In 1649 he had figured as one of the generals of Paris,
+and had raised Normandy against Mazarin. One year of imprisonment had
+cooled him, and in 1651, having recovered his government of Normandy and
+tasted some few months of that peaceful grandeur, he found it so much to
+his liking as to be not readily tempted to re-embark upon a stormy
+course of life at the age of nearly fifty-seven. Reports, only too true,
+had informed him of what until then he had only surmised
+imperfectly&mdash;the declared <i>liaison</i> of his wife with La Rochefoucauld.
+He had been greatly irritated at it, and Cond&eacute;&#8217;s enemies, with De Retz
+at their head, carefully fostered his ill humour, and his daughter,
+Marie d&#8217;Orl&eacute;ans, afterwards Duchess de Nemours, seconded them to the
+utmost of her power.</p>
+
+<p>She detested her stepmother, whose faults her strong common-sense led
+her easily to scan, without her own vulgar and commonplace mind being
+capable of comprehending the Duchess&#8217;s great qualities. It was
+impossible less to resemble each other. The one adored grandeur even to
+the romantic and the chimerical, the other was entirely positive and
+matter-of-fact, and absorbed with her own interest, especially in those
+relating to her property. Alienated from the Fronde through the jealous
+hatred she bore towards her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> stepmother, who in turn liked her almost as
+little, and probably also did not take pains enough to manage her,
+Mademoiselle turned towards the Queen, and strove to gain over her
+father to the same party. Therein she succeeded by degrees. The Duke de
+Longueville could not overtly separate himself from Cond&eacute;, and at first
+promised him all he required; then he shut himself up in Normandy, and
+there followed a dubious line of conduct which neither compromised him
+with the Court party nor that of Cond&eacute;. But he recalled his wife
+peremptorily, and sent her a mandate to rejoin him. That mandate was
+pressing and threatening, and it terrified Madame de Longueville. She
+knew that her husband had been informed of everything, and that he was
+wholly given up to the influence of his daughter. She feared
+ill-treatment; she felt certain at least that once in Normandy she would
+no more quit it, and that her time would be passed between an aged,
+irritated husband, and an overruling step-daughter, who would apply
+themselves in concert to retain her in the solitude of a province, and
+perhaps to make her expiate in confinement her bygone triumphs. The idea
+of the sorrowful life which awaited her in Normandy produced very nearly
+the same effect upon her as the thought of a second imprisonment upon
+the mind of Cond&eacute;. She sought for a means of avoiding that which was to
+her the worst of all evils; there was an assured though dangerous
+one&mdash;war, which would prevent her from repairing to Normandy, under the
+pretext more or less specious that she could not abandon her brother.
+Such was the design she formed within herself and very soon resolved
+upon adopting, and the fresh negotiations which La Rochefoucauld
+proposed thwarted her doubly. Should those negotiations prove successful
+they would deprive her of the only pretext she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> for not rejoining
+her husband in Normandy, and she thought it strange that it was La
+Rochefoucauld who would expose her to that peril. From that moment
+doubtless angry explanations took place between them. She perceived that
+La Rochefoucauld was wearied of his sacrifices, that he wished to
+reconcile himself with the Court, repair his fortunes, and taste the
+sweets of peace; whilst in the eyes of the superb princess the paramount
+consideration with him, for whom she had done so much, ought to have
+been never to forsake her, should they both together rush to certain
+ruin. But La Rochefoucauld was no longer wound up to a tone so lofty,
+worthy of the Great Cyrus and of their chivalrous love of 1648, and the
+haughty Madame<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> was deeply wounded at the discovery. Nevertheless,
+she was not insensible to what there was of reasonable in La
+Rochefoucauld&#8217;s advice, and not to incur the entire responsibility of
+the part which her brother might take, she consented to follow her
+sister-in-law, the Princess de Cond&eacute;, and her nephew, the Duke
+d&#8217;Enghien, into Berri, one of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s governments:&mdash;a journey which
+moreover had the advantage of separating her from her husband. She set
+out, therefore, on the 18th of July for Bourges, taking with her the
+elder of her two sons, the younger, Charles de Paris, born in 1649, not
+being able to bear the fatigue of the journey. M. de Longueville
+recalled her from Berri as he had from the capital, and he insisted on
+the return of his son in terms so forcible that she was compelled to
+comply, so far as the boy was concerned. Thenceforward, being alone and
+exposing only herself, without breaking with M. de Longueville, and by
+using all her wit to colour her disobedience, she eluded his orders,
+remained in Berri, forming in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> depth of her heart the most ardent
+desire for war, but calm in appearance; sometimes accompanying the
+Princess de Cond&eacute; to Montrond, at others making somewhat lengthened
+visits to the Carmelite convent at Bourges. And thus she awaited the
+issue of the negotiations, counselled and carried on by La
+Rochefoucauld, which should decide her destiny.</p>
+
+<p>La Rochefoucauld must indeed have very earnestly longed to bring to a
+close the life of fatigue and danger which he had for three years led,
+to have been able to cherish any illusion as to the success of the steps
+he was about again to take. Where was the hope of regaining the Fronde
+which had just been outrageously deceived, after it had given itself to
+the Prince de Cond&eacute; in his misfortune, and had extricated him from it?
+If La Rochefoucauld thought that the alliance of the Fronde was
+necessary, he ought to have set about it sooner and at the proper time,
+persuaded Cond&eacute; and his sister to keep their word, and sealed the
+alliance agreed upon between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. He had not done so; and now that he had allowed a treacherous
+war to spring up between Cond&eacute; and the Fronde, by what charm did he
+think he could suspend it? With the Queen also all negotiation was
+exhausted and superfluous. An understanding should have been come to
+with her when she was so disposed, when Cond&eacute; was all-powerful, when he
+could either have more readily abased or exalted the Crown: <i>Tum decuit
+cum sceptra dabas</i>. But at the end of August, Cond&eacute;, embroiled with the
+Court and with the Fronde, had nothing left save his sword. That was
+sufficient, doubtless, to make everybody tremble, but was it enough to
+inspire confidence in anyone? La Rochefoucauld obtained, therefore, on
+all sides to his advances only very vague responses. The time for
+negotiation was passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> irrevocably, and whilst La Rochefoucauld
+exhausted himself in useless efforts, the Queen and the Fronde concluded
+a treaty together, with the common design of overwhelming Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>This treaty was the work of Mazarin, the masterpiece of his political
+skill. It authorised the Frondeurs to speak against the Cardinal in
+parliament for some time forward in order to cover their secret
+understanding. The hat was assured to the Coadjutor, high posts and
+great advantages to the principal friends of Madame de Chevreuse, the
+first rank in the cabinet given to Ch&acirc;teauneuf, and a solid peace
+established between Mazarin and the powerful Duchess, under the
+condition that his nephew Mancini, provided for with the duchy of Nevers
+or that of Rethelois, should marry Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. The draft
+of this projected treaty fell into the hands of Cond&eacute; through the bearer
+of the paquet in which it was enclosed being in the service of the
+Marquis de Noirmoutier, and the Prince caused it to be printed in order
+to ventilate and bring to light the alliance between the Frondeurs, the
+Queen, and Mazarin. Madame de Motteville, so well informed of everything
+relating to the Queen and the Cardinal, considers that treaty as
+perfectly authentic, and she gives the different articles of it, &#8220;as the
+best means for understanding the changes which were made by the Queen
+immediately after the King&#8217;s majority.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That majority had been declared on the 7th of September in a <i>Bed of
+Justice</i>, with all the customary pomp. As the first Prince of the blood
+did not think it possible to be present at it in safety, during that
+evening the Queen in her indignation had whispered these significant
+words to De Retz: &#8220;Either M. le Prince or I must perish.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Retz himself has taken care to inform us of his sad
+<i>liaison</i> with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, throughout the whole of the
+second volume and beginning of the third of his Memoirs. Amsterdam
+edition, 1731. That unfortunate lady died suddenly of a fever,
+unmarried, in 1652. She was born in 1627.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, p. 69. Retz, tom, ii., p. 223.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> De Retz, tom, ii., p. 205.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: missing anchor"><span class="label">[67]</span> The same, p. 214.</ins></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Retz&mdash;La Rochefoucauld&mdash;Joly.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Madame de Motteville, tom. iv., p. 346; Madame de Nemours,
+p. 106.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, p. 83.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> The name she figures under in the <i>Grand Cyrus</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Retz, tom. ii. p. 291.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">COND&Eacute;, URGED BY HIS SISTER, GOES UNWILLINGLY INTO REBELLION.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Anne of Austria</span> now seriously prepared to make head against Cond&eacute;, and
+with that intent she rallied round her all the forces of the Fronde
+united with those of the royal army. In fine, with the firm design of
+inspiring the Fronde with perfect confidence, at the same time that the
+nomination of France to the Cardinalate had devolved upon the Coadjutor,
+the Queen again brought into the cabinet, as a sort of Prime Minister,
+the statesman of the party, the friend and instrument of Madame de
+Chevreuse, the aged but ambitious Ch&acirc;teauneuf, with the two-fold
+engagement to serve Mazarin in secret and to contribute to the utmost of
+his power to destroy Cond&eacute;. In such arrangements, let it be thoroughly
+understood, no one was acting with good faith: De Retz and Ch&acirc;teauneuf
+in nowise proposed to re-establish Mazarin; Ch&acirc;teauneuf did not dream of
+making another man&#8217;s bed, but, once having attained power, he intended
+to keep it for himself, and Mazarin was firmly resolved to dismiss
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf as soon as he could. But if these crafty politicians were
+ready to betray one another in everything else, there was one point on
+which they were sincerely united&mdash;the destruction of Cond&eacute;. At that they
+laboured in concert, or rather vied with each other. Queen Anne
+manifested therein a fervour, a constancy, a marvellous skill, and
+succeeded in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> carrying off from Cond&eacute; the chief supports of his great
+strength. He saw that war was inevitable, and yet, says Sismondi, he
+only yielded to it with repugnance. &#8220;You will have it so,&#8221; said Cond&eacute; at
+last; &#8220;but understand that if I do draw the sword, I shall be the last
+to return it to the scabbard.&#8221; It was the women especially who hurried
+their admirers into the <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the nomination of the New Cabinet, with Ch&acirc;teauneuf at its
+head, as a veritable declaration of war, Cond&eacute; went to Chantilly, and,
+it is said, had a very narrow escape from falling into an ambuscade
+which the Court had prepared for him at Pontoise.</p>
+
+<p>He remained for some few days at Chantilly, pensive and agitated in
+presence of the great resolution he was on the eve of taking. The
+mediation of the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, the only one he could accept, offered
+no security, the Duke instead of governing the Coadjutor and Madame de
+Chevreuse, was then governed by them. His individual inclination was to
+come to an understanding with the Queen and even with Mazarin, as he had
+very clearly shown. He had continually returned to it; but after so many
+lying words and odious plots, the execution of which alone was wanting,
+he thought he would be in a better position to treat solidly with the
+Court at the head of a powerful and victorious army, than in the midst
+of wretched intrigues, unworthy of his character, in which he
+momentarily staked his honour and his life. He never permitted the idea
+of raising himself above royalty to enter into his mind; he merely
+thought that to obtain better conditions from it it was necessary to
+render himself imposing to it, and to make himself feared. That is what
+was then passing in his mind. Civil war inspired him with horror, and we
+may learn from La Roche<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>foucauld,<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> who was then in his most intimate
+confidence, that he long weighed &#8220;the consequences of so grave a
+determination.&#8221; Let us be chary, therefore, of accusing Cond&eacute; of levity;
+let us recognise that insensibly his position had become such that he
+could neither remain in it nor quit it, in one way or another, save with
+equal danger.</p>
+
+<p>Among the different motives which rendered Cond&eacute; averse to civil war,
+the passion that he had just begun to feel for the Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon
+must not be forgotten. We shall return a little further on to this
+episode in Cond&eacute;&#8217;s life. It is sufficient to remark here that it was
+grievous to him to quit the lovely Duchess, who then was residing very
+close to Chantilly, in the charming ch&acirc;teau of Merlon or Mello, near
+Pontoise, the enjoyment of which had been granted to her for life by the
+old Princess de Cond&eacute;, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, who expired
+in her arms at Ch&acirc;tillon-sur-Loing, in December, 1650&mdash;a gracious grant,
+which the Prince, her son, had hastened to ratify with a somewhat
+interested generosity. Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon had her reasons of more than
+one kind for being opposed to the war, and in the intimate counsels of
+the Prince she urged him to an understanding with the Court. In that she
+made common cause with La Rochefoucauld, and was in open quarrel with
+Madame de Longueville. Sensible of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s passion without sharing it,
+she managed that lofty lover with infinite tact, at the same time that
+she was deeply enamoured of the young, handsome, and brave Duke Charles
+Amadeus of Savoy, Nemours,<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> who from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> youth and adventurous
+instincts would have longed for war, and whom she alone, seconded by La
+Rochefoucauld, retained in the party of peace.</p>
+
+<p>Everything, however, tended to precipitate Cond&eacute; towards the fatal
+resolution. Prudence did not permit him to remain any longer at
+Chantilly,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> and it behoved him to place himself beyond the risk of a
+<i>coup-de-main</i> by withdrawing to his government of Berri, whither he had
+already sent his son, his wife, and his sister. It was, it is true, the
+road to Guienne, but he might stop there. All the population was devoted
+to him, and the tower of Bourges and the strong fortalice of Montrond
+offered him a safe asylum.</p>
+
+<p>Cond&eacute;, even after reaching Berri, still hesitated, not wishing to take
+any step before again conferring with his sister, who was then at
+Montrond with the Princess. There he held a final council, a supreme
+deliberation, at which Madame de Longueville, Conti, and La
+Rochefoucauld were present. More than one grave motive urged him to war:
+the well-founded dread of assassination or of a fresh incarceration, the
+ardent hatred of his enemies, of the Queen and the Fronde, the power of
+Ch&acirc;teauneuf which certainly had not been given him in vain, the
+inutility of negotiations with people who seemed decidedly to have taken
+their choice, the necessity of avoiding the fate of Henri de Guise, the
+consciousness of his strength so soon as his foot should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> tread the
+field of battle, the promises seemingly so sure of the Bouillons and
+many others. At the same time, his good sense, his loyalty, the scarcely
+stifled instincts of duty, and his innate aversion for anything which
+resembled anarchy, restrained him; and in that prolonged and dubious
+struggle between conflicting feelings, there were others which hurried
+him onward. Madame de Longueville, the Prince de Conti, La Rochefoucauld
+also urged him to declare himself against the Court, and Madame de
+Longueville with more vivacity than anyone else.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> Cond&eacute; still
+resisted, explaining to them all the strength of royalty, the ascendancy
+of the King&#8217;s name, the weakness and treachery of factions, the bad
+faith of Spain. Then concluding by yielding, he addressed them in these
+memorable words: &#8220;You commit me to a strange line of action, of which
+you will tire sooner than I, and in which you will abandon me.&#8221; He spoke
+truly as regarded Conti, and perhaps also La Rochefoucauld; but it
+remains to be seen whether Madame de Longueville, after having helped to
+drive her heroic brother into civil war, did not follow him with an
+inviolable constancy, whether she did not share, even to extremity, the
+dangers and adversities of the Prince, and whether, during his long
+exile, she reappeared for a single moment at Court or in those <i>salons</i>
+of the Louvre and the Palais Royal, which had witnessed her early
+successes, and in which her wit and beauty still promised her fresh
+triumphs.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, p. 76.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Charles Amadeus had succeeded to the title and rank of his
+elder brother, the Duke de Nemours, one of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s intimate friends in
+youth, who had been killed early in action, even before Rocroy. Cond&eacute;
+had transferred to Charles Amadeus the affection which he bore his
+brother. The young duke had married the beautiful Madlle. de Vend&ocirc;me,
+daughter of Duke C&aelig;sar, and sister of the Dukes de Merc&#339;ur and
+Beaufort, and by her he had two daughters who became, one the Queen of
+Portugal, the other the Duchess of Savoy. At the death of the Duke de
+Nemours, in 1652, his title passed to his younger brother Henri de
+Nemours, Archbishop of Rheims, who then quitted the church, and espoused
+Madlle. de Longueville, the authoress of the Memoirs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, p. 96.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Mad. de Motteville.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE COQUETS WITH THE DUKE DE NEMOURS.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">His</span> determination to unsheath the sword once taken, Cond&eacute; put his plans
+into execution without throwing one glance behind him. Having collected
+together in Berri his family and chief supporters, he distributed
+amongst them the several parts they had to play in their common
+enterprise. After this, accompanied by La Rochefoucauld, he went to take
+possession of his new government of Guienne, and there raise the
+standard of insurrection, leaving in Berri his wife and son, his sister,
+the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Nemours, with the President Viol&eacute; and
+others whom he nominated to important functions. He had placed his
+brother at the head of affairs there, and given the military command to
+the Duke de Nemours. But the result of these arrangements was
+disappointing to him. The Duke de Nemours undoubtedly possessed the most
+brilliant courage, but he had neither the talents nor the steadiness of
+a general. Still absorbed with his passion for Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, who,
+as has been said, had long retained him in the party of peace, he found
+in Berri a counter-attraction in Madame de Longueville who drew him
+towards that of war; and it would seem that he occupied himself more
+with paying court to the lovely lady than of raising and arming soldiers
+and making Berri a focus of resistance, both political and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> military;
+for very speedily the Prince de Conti and he were reduced to defend
+themselves in Bourges instead of being able to operate in the open and
+make any advance. The new Minister Ch&acirc;teauneuf showed himself worthy of
+the confidence of Madame de Chevreuse and the Fronde. He made the Queen
+understand that it was necessary to combat the revolt foot to foot from
+its very first step, and he persuaded her to march herself with the
+young King into Berri at the head of a strong army. He nobly inaugurated
+the new ministry by that measure, which had two objects: the one direct
+and immediate, to strangle the insurrection at its birth; the other
+still more important, to set royalty at liberty far from Duke Gaston and
+the Parliament. The city of Bourges, which had shown so much enthusiasm
+on Cond&eacute;&#8217;s arrival, opened its gates to the King and Ch&acirc;teauneuf. The
+strong tower which defended the city, offering no resistance, was taken
+without a blow being struck, and instantly demolished. The Princess de
+Cond&eacute;, her son, Madame de Longueville, Conti, and Nemours were forced to
+take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond. On learning that Palluan
+was advancing on that fortress, Conti and Nemours not wishing that the
+precious pledges confided to their charge should incur any risk, left
+the Marquis de Persan in Montrond, and with what remained to them of
+their faithful troops escorted the Princess, her son, and Madame de
+Longueville as far as Guienne, which they reached by the end of the
+month of October.</p>
+
+<p>It was during that rapid journey and their very brief sojourn in Berri
+that certain obscure relations, it would appear, were formed between the
+Duke de Nemours and Madame de Longueville, the report of which reaching
+Bordeaux, exaggerated probably by interested and malevo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>lent underlings,
+wounded La Rochefoucauld and drove him to a violent rupture. A loyal and
+confiding explanation might have sufficed to disperse a cloud, such as
+at times will obscure the most settled friendships. La Rochefoucauld
+brewed a storm out of it which, thanks to his Memoirs, has sent its
+echoes down to posterity. His separation from Madame de Longueville was
+marked by an eagerness which excites the suspicion that he had longed
+for it.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> He ought at least to have stopped there, but hurried away by
+an implacable resentment, he accused her, or caused her to be accused by
+Cond&eacute;, of having wished to betray his interests to serve those of the
+Duke de Nemours, giving her even to understand that &#8220;if a like
+prepossession took her for another, she was capable of going to the same
+extremities if that person desired it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> The accusation is yet more
+absurd than odious. The Duke de Nemours was not the least in the world a
+party chief; he was a friend of Cond&eacute;, whose fidelity could only be
+shaken through his love for Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon. To detach him from
+Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon was therefore to give him wholly to Cond&eacute;. Moreover,
+Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, like La Rochefoucauld, was for peace, she had won
+over the Duke de Nemours to it, and both together urged Cond&eacute; thereto.
+To carry off the Duke de Nemours from such conspiracy and to seduce him
+to the war party, was to serve the interests of Cond&eacute; like as his sister
+intended. Thus the principal and the dominant motive of Madame de
+Longueville&#8217;s conduct was just the opposite of that which La
+Rochefoucauld imputed to her. Let us add further that she had always had
+a rivalry of beauty with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, and that her vanity was
+not sorry to humiliate a rival whom she did not tolerate by depriving
+her for a few days of a lover of whose attachment the latter fancied
+herself perfectly secure. Love and the senses had nothing to do with it
+in this matter. The gratification of the senses, it has already been
+remarked, did not ensnare her; she was proof against their surprises.
+Previously the Duke de Nemours had addressed his ardent homage to her,
+but all the attractions of his handsome person and his lofty bearing had
+made no impression upon her, and she only bestowed a thought on the
+amiable Duke when she had some interest to forward by reviving such
+conquest. And this is not an opinion hazarded at a venture; it is
+furnished us by a person thoroughly well informed, and who had no
+affection for Madame de Longueville; the testimony therefore is the more
+valuable: &#8220;M. de Nemours<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> previously had not much pleased her, and
+notwithstanding the attachment he appeared to entertain for her, as well
+as all the good qualities and grand airs of which he could boast, she
+had found nothing charming about him save the pleasure he showed himself
+desirous of giving her by abandoning Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon for herself,
+and that which she had of depriving a woman whom she did not like of a
+friend of so much consequence.&#8221; Now how far had this <i>liaison</i> of a few
+days gone? Bussy is the only contemporary who offers any reply to this
+question in the cynical light of his <i>Histoire amoreuse des Gaules</i>. But
+who would accept that satire literally? It proves only one thing, the
+unfortunate notoriety which the imprudence of Madame de Longueville
+derived from the Memoirs of La Rochefoucauld published<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> in 1662. Before
+those Memoirs saw the light, not a word is anywhere to be found on a
+point as obscure as it is delicate. After, Bussy was delighted to repeat
+La Rochefoucauld, and Madame de Longueville has thus fallen into the
+scandalous chronicle.</p>
+
+<p>Let us abstain from defending her; although even we should be convinced
+that she knew where to stop in that dangerous game of coquetry, she is
+not the less culpable in our eyes both towards La Rochefoucauld and
+herself, and we do not hesitate to say that she went so far as to
+deserve the calumny. Doubtless she was justly hurt by the incertitude of
+La Rochefoucauld, who, after having plunged her into civil war in 1648
+with no other motive than that of his own interest, would have made her
+abandon it in 1651 through the same motive still; which at one moment
+impelled her towards the Fronde, at another brought her back to the
+Court, at the will of his fickle hopes, and linked her with Madame de
+Ch&acirc;tillon for the purpose of engaging Cond&eacute; in negotiations the success
+of which involved their separation and procured her a prison in
+Normandy. Yes&mdash;she had grave cause of complaint against La
+Rochefoucauld. She might have quitted him, it is true, but not for
+another. She had only one means of covering, of almost condoning the
+single error of her life, which was to maintain faithful to it, or to
+renounce it for virtue and Heaven. And it is just that which Madame de
+Longueville appears to have done, if that sad and rapid episode had
+remained unknown; but there is no favourable shade for those personages
+who appear in the glaring front of the stage of this world; their
+slightest actions do not escape the formidable light of history: the
+weakness of a moment is recorded as an irredeemable error against them.
+That of Madame de Longue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>ville, fugitive as it may have been, dubious
+even as it was, sufficed to tarnish a fidelity until then victorious
+over so many trials; it needed to be atoned for by the sincere
+conversion which was speedily about to follow it, and by five-and-twenty
+years of the severest penitence; and still further it forces us to place
+Anne de Bourbon, in the record of great sentiments and exalted loves,
+above Heloise and Mademoiselle de la Valli&egrave;re.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate the assurance is consoling that this error, which we have
+attempted neither to conceal nor extenuate, is the single one
+perceptible in the private life of Madame de Longueville. But let us
+turn aside from these wretched instances of feminine fragility in one of
+the loftiest minds, in order to follow Cond&eacute; and the march of events in
+Guienne.</p>
+
+<p>We will first, however, by a brief retrospect, endeavour to render the
+shifting phases of the two Fronde wars more capable of being easily
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>Dating from the arrest of Broussel, nothing could exceed the rapidity of
+events; the wheel of fortune had turned with such terrific mobility for
+those of her favourites who sought to attach themselves to it. The
+revolt had, in fact, broken out on the 26th of August, 1648; in January,
+1649, the Court withdrew to Saint Germain, at the risk of never
+re-entering Paris; in April, the sword of Cond&eacute; imposed the treaty of
+Saint Germain, and the King returned in October. Mazarin shortly
+afterwards believed himself strong enough to arrest, in January, 1650,
+Cond&eacute;, Conti, and Longueville. A year after that bold <i>coup d&#8217;&eacute;tat</i> he
+was himself obliged to flee (February, 1651) from his enemies, and quit
+France. At the end of eight months, Mazarin returned with an army to the
+aid of royalty; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> it required two years of negotiations, intrigues,
+and patient waiting, it needed the errors which the indecision of the
+Duke d&#8217;Orleans brought about, the rash violence of Cond&eacute;, urged onwards
+by his sister, it required, indeed, the entire ruin of France ere the
+Cardinal could, after having led the young King by the hand to the very
+gates of his capital, resume that place in the Louvre which he had
+sagaciously abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to narrate occurrences in their proper order during this
+period: intrigues, broken promises, pledges given to two different
+parties at the same time, such were the smallest misdeeds of all these
+princes and prelates. As one step further in wrong-doing, they entered
+into negotiations with the foreigner, and invited armies across the
+frontier which devastated the provinces. And through what motives? Gondy
+wished to avenge his former mistress, whom Conti had rejected, and whom
+an agent of Cond&eacute;, Maillard the shoemaker, had publicly insulted.
+Cond&eacute;&#8217;s pretensions were nothing less than dragging at his heels a squad
+of governors of towns and provinces who, at his summons, would be ever
+ready to raise the standard of revolt and to impose the will of their
+leader upon the head of the state, whether Minister, Queen, or King.
+Orleans would not yield one jot to his young cousin of the blood-royal,
+Cond&eacute;; Madame de Longueville feared the severity of an outraged husband.
+The civil war, in forcing her to flee from one end of France to the
+other, or abroad, could alone delay her return to Normandy, her
+re-establishment beneath the conjugal roof, towards which she had
+conceived such an aversion.</p>
+
+<p>Cond&eacute; accused Gondy in the Parliament chamber of being author of a
+<i>factum</i> condemning severely the Prince&#8217;s conduct.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'La Rouchefoucauld'">La Rochefoucauld</ins>,
+getting Gondy between two doors, treacherously seized, and was about to
+strangle him, had not the son of the first President, M. de
+Champlatreux, come to the rescue, at the very moment that one of the
+bullies in Cond&eacute;&#8217;s pay had drawn his dagger to despatch him.</p>
+
+<p>Two days afterwards (17th of September) the King had attained his
+thirteenth year, and one day beyond; and by the ordonnance of Charles V.
+became of age and capable of governing for himself.</p>
+
+<p>A change of ministry&mdash;Ch&acirc;teauneuf being recalled to head the Council and
+Mol&eacute; to the Seals&mdash;deprived Cond&eacute; of all hope of imposing the conditions
+of a reconciliation; therefore, as has been said, at a Council held at
+Chantilly with his chief adherents, Conti, and the Dukes de Nemours and
+<ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'La Rouchefoucauld'">La Rochefoucauld</ins>, he determined to set out for Berri. The impartial
+student who examines the conduct of the Prince de Cond&eacute; is at this
+juncture compelled to draw an indictment against him, under pain of
+belying his conscience and the truth; he must concede that Cond&eacute; rashly
+engaged in civil war, and exerted himself to drag France into it, solely
+because he could not endure any authority above his own. He was desirous
+of being first in the State, of disposing at will among his creatures of
+honours, dignities, strongholds, and governments. On such conditions, he
+would have consented to let Mazarin, Orleans, De Retz, or any other,
+govern the realm, for the administration of which he felt himself that
+he had neither the slightest inclination nor the smallest capacity
+(October, 1651).</p>
+
+<p>The Fronde is reputed, not without reason, to have been one of the most
+interesting as well as <i>diverting</i> periods in French history; that in
+which the volatile and frivolous vivacity of the national character
+shone with irresistible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> comicality. How striking was the contrast
+between it in its main features and the great Civil War waged at the
+same time in our own country! Yet the Fronde had its serious&mdash;terrible
+aspect, too, in the wide-spread misery it entailed upon France, as may
+be seen from the valuable statistical researches of M. Feillet. That
+writer cites the following passage from the record of an eye-witness of
+what he describes:<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a>&mdash;&#8220;No tongue can tell, no pen describe, no ear may
+hear that which we have seen (at Rheims, Ch&acirc;lons, Rethel, &amp;c). Famine
+and death on all sides, and bodies unburied. Those remaining alive pick
+up from the fields the rotten oat-straw, and make bread of it by mixing
+it with mud. Their faces are quite black; they have no longer the
+semblance of human beings, but that of phantoms.... War has placed every
+one on an equality; nobility lies upon straw, dares not beg, and
+dies.... Even lizards are eaten, and dogs which have been dead perhaps
+some eight days.... Moreover, in Picardy, a band of five hundred
+children, orphans, and under seven years of age, was met with. In
+Lorraine, the famished nuns quitted their convents and became
+mendicants: the poor creatures gave themselves up to be dishonoured for
+the sake of a morsel of bread. No pity, no remorse. An execrable and
+sanguinary war upon the weak. In the heart of the city of Rheims, a
+beautiful girl was chased from street to street for ten days by the
+licentious soldiery; and as they could not catch her, they killed her by
+shooting her down. In the vicinity of Angers, Alais, and Condom, upon
+all the highways of Lorraine, women and children were indiscriminately
+outraged, and left to die drenched in their blood.&#8221;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>What could be more <i>diverting</i>? The Duke de Lorraine&mdash;that restless
+knight-errant who preferred amusing himself with civil war to the quiet
+enjoyment of his throne&mdash;amused the noble ladies of his acquaintance
+with a recital of these pleasant incidents; his gallant army, he said,
+was quite a providence for the old women....</p>
+
+<p>After further pursuing his appalling statistics of the misery and
+horrors inflicted by the Fronde at a later date, M. Feillet
+remarks:&mdash;&#8220;And yet, notwithstanding all this suffering, which we have
+only cursorily sketched, at Court nothing else was thought of but f&ecirc;tes
+and diversions; for the young and brilliant bevy of Mazarin&#8217;s nieces had
+come to increase the circle of beauties whom the youthful King and his
+gay courtiers vied with each other in paying homage to, and
+entertaining. The warm attachment of Louis for more than one of his
+Minister&#8217;s nieces, and especially Marie de Mancini, is well known. In
+imitation of their Sovereign, the youthful nobility and a large portion
+of the city gallants plunged into unrestrained dissipation&mdash;intervals of
+licentiousness ever succeeding like periods of turbulence and anarchy.
+Such heartless indifference to the sufferings of the people on the part
+of the King and his Court evoked the following couplet, which was put
+into the mouth of Louis by a contemporary pamphleteer:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+&#8220;Si la France est en deuil, qu&#8217;elle pleure et soupire;<br />
+Pour moi, je veux chasser, galantiser et rire.&#8221;<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But we are somewhat anticipating events, and therefore return to them in
+the order of time.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> &#8220;La Rochefoucauld, depuis assez longtemps ayant envie de
+la quitter, prit cette occasion avec joie.&#8221;&mdash;Mad. de Nemours, p. 150.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> La Rochefoucauld, edition 1662, p. 198.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Mad. de Nemours, pp. 149, 150.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> La Mis&egrave;re dans la Fronde.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span><br /></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BOOK V. </h2>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span><br /></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">COND&Eacute;&#8217;S ADVENTUROUS EXPEDITION.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cond&eacute;</span> passed several months in Guienne, occupied with strengthening and
+extending the insurrection at the head of which he had placed himself,
+and in repulsing as far as possible in the south the royal army,
+commanded by the skilful and experienced Count d&#8217;Harcourt. Amidst very
+varied successes, he learned from different quarters the bad turn which
+the Fronde&#8217;s affairs was taking in the heart of the kingdom, the
+intrigues of De Retz who held the key of Paris, and the deplorable state
+of the army on the banks of the Loire.</p>
+
+<p>On receiving these tidings at Bordeaux in the month of March, 1652,
+Cond&eacute; saw clearly the double danger which menaced him, and immediately
+faced it in his wonted manner. Instead of awaiting events which were on
+the eve of taking place at a distance, he determined on anticipating
+them, and formed an extraordinary resolution, of a character very much
+resembling his great military man&#339;uvres, which at first sight appears
+extravagant, but which the gravest reason justifies, and the temerity of
+which even is only another form of high prudence. He formed the design
+of slipping out of Bordeaux, traversing the lines of Count d&#8217;Harcourt,
+to get over in the best way he might the hundred and fifty leagues which
+separated him from the Loire and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> Paris, to appear there suddenly, and
+to place himself at the head of his affairs.</p>
+
+<p>He left behind him in Guienne a force sufficiently imposing to allow of
+it there awaiting in security the successful results he was about to
+seek. In possessing himself of Agen, Bergerac, Perigueux, Cognac, and
+even for a moment of Saintes, and by pushing his conquests into Haute
+Guienne, on the side of Mont-de-Marsan, Dax, and Pau, he had made
+Bordeaux the capital of a small but rich and populous kingdom,
+surrounded on all sides by a belt of strongholds, communicating with the
+sea by the Gironde, and admirably placed for attack or defence. This
+kingdom, backed as it was by Spain, was capable of receiving continuous
+succour from Santander and St. Sebastian, and a Spanish fleet could
+approach by the Tour de Corduan, bringing subsidies and troops, whilst
+Count de Dognon&#8217;s fleet, sailing from the islands of R&eacute; and Ol&eacute;ron to
+join it, might easily surround and even beat the royal fleet, then
+forming at Brouage under the Duke de Vend&ocirc;me. In 1650, during the
+imprisonment of the princes, Bordeaux had defended itself for more than
+six months against a considerable army with the young king at its head,
+and which was directed by Mazarin in person. Cond&eacute;, and all his family
+were adored there, by reason of the hatred felt for his predecessor, the
+imperious Duke d&#8217;Epernon. The Bordeaux parliament was also equally
+involved in the Fronde as was that of Paris, with which it had allied
+itself by a solemn declaration. Under the parliament was a brave and
+ardent people, which furnished a numerous militia.</p>
+
+<p>Cond&eacute; had named the Prince de Conti his lieutenant-general&mdash;a prince of
+the blood giving lustre to authority, dominating all rivalries, an
+appointment calculated to render obedience more easy. He was aware of
+Conti&#8217;s levity, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> he knew also that he was wanting neither in
+intelligence nor courage. He believed in the ascendency which Madame de
+Longueville had always exercised over her brother, and he hoped she
+would guide him still. He had confidence in that high-souled sister whom
+formerly he had so warmly loved; and although intrigues and a sinister
+influence, to which we shall shortly further allude, had diminished the
+high admiration he had had for her, and to which he later returned, he
+reckoned upon her intelligence, upon her pride, upon that lofty courage
+of which she had given so many proofs at Stenay. At his sister&#8217;s side he
+left his wife Claire Cl&eacute;mence de Maill&eacute;-Br&eacute;z&eacute;, who had behaved so
+admirably in the first Guienne war. He left her <i>enceinte</i> with their
+second child, and with her he gave to Bordeaux and placed as it were in
+pledge in its hands, to hold the place of himself, the Duke d&#8217;Enghien,
+the hope and stay of his house, the peculiar object of his tenderness.
+So that there, he left behind him a government, he thought, which would
+look well alike in the eyes of France and of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>In reality, to what did Cond&eacute; aspire? To constitute himself the head of
+the nobility against the Court? The nobles thought it harsh to be so
+treated. To commence another Fronde? To do that, it was necessary to
+have the parliaments under his thumb; and he had already been compelled
+to threaten the deputies of that of Aix with the bastinado. Did he look
+forward to an independent principality, as he later on desired to obtain
+from the Spaniards? Or rather did he think of snatching from the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans the lieutenant-generalship? It is difficult to divine what may
+have passed through his capricious brain. He was constant in nothing. It
+was seen later still that he would very willingly have changed his
+religion, offering himself on the one side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> to Cromwell, and to become a
+protestant in order to have an English army; on the other to the Pope,
+if he would help to get him elected King of Poland.</p>
+
+<p>The income of the Cond&eacute;s in 1609 amounted to ten thousand livres, and in
+1649, besides the Montmorency estates, they held an enormous portion of
+France. First, by the Great Cond&eacute;, they had Burgundy, Berri, the marshes
+of Lorraine, a dominant fortress in the Bourbonnais that held in check
+four provinces. Secondly, by Conti, Champagne. Thirdly, by Longueville,
+their sister&#8217;s husband, Normandy. Fourthly, the Admiralty, and Saumur,
+the chief fortress of Anjou, were in the hands of the brother of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s
+wife; they fell in through his death, and were sold again by them as
+though they were a family birthright. Later still, they negotiated for
+the possession of Guienne and Provence.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst the cares of administration and of war, Cond&eacute; carried on an
+assiduous correspondence with Chavigny, then fallen into disgrace, who
+kept him well informed of the state of affairs at Court and in Paris.
+They had assumed quite a new face during the last few months. Mazarin in
+his exile had not learned without inquietude the ever-increasing success
+of Ch&acirc;teauneuf. He saw him active and determined, accepted as a chief by
+all colleagues, skilfully seconded by the keeper of the seals, Mol&eacute;, and
+by Marshal de Villeroi, the king&#8217;s governor, an ambiguous personage,
+very ambitious at bottom, and jealous of the Cardinal&#8217;s favour with the
+Queen. Ch&acirc;teauneuf, it is true, had only entered the Cabinet under the
+agreement of shortly recalling Mazarin; but he incessantly asked for
+fresh delay; he tried to make the Queen comprehend the danger of a
+precipitate return,&mdash;the Fronde ready to arouse itself anew, the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans and the Coadjutor resuming their ancient opposition, and
+royalty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> finding itself once more without any solid support. Anne of
+Austria gradually acquiescing in these wise counsels, Mazarin, who at
+first had with difficulty restrained the impatient disposition of the
+Queen, finding her grown less eager, became alarmed: he saw that he was
+lost should he allow such a rival to establish himself.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> Therefore,
+passing suddenly from an apparent resignation to an extraordinary
+audacity, he had, towards the end of November 1651, broken his ban,
+quitted his retreat at <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'Dinan, and and'">Dinan, and</ins> had resolutely entered France with a
+small force collected together by his two faithful friends, the Marquis
+de Navailles and the Count de Broglie, and led by Marshal Hocquincourt.
+He had by main strength surmounted every obstacle, braved the decrees
+and the deputies of the parliament, reached Poitiers where the Queen and
+young Louis the Fourteenth had eagerly welcomed him; and there, in
+January 1652, after speedily ridding himself of Ch&acirc;teauneuf, too proud
+and too able to be resigned to hold the second rank, he had again taken
+in hand the reins of government.</p>
+
+<p>This bold conduct, which probably saved Mazarin, came also to the
+succour of Cond&eacute;. The second and irreparable disgrace of the minister of
+the old Fronde had exasperated him as well as had the umbrage given him
+by the Duke d&#8217;Orleans. He thought himself tricked by the Queen, and had
+loudly complained of it. Cond&eacute;&#8217;s friends had not failed to seize that
+occasion to reconcile him with the Duke, and to negotiate a fresh
+alliance between them; and as previously the Fronde and the Queen had
+been united against Cond&eacute;, so also at the end of January<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> 1652, that
+Prince and the Fronde in almost its entirety were united against
+Mazarin.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Chevreuse alone, with her most intimate friends, remained
+faithful to her hatred and the Queen, dreading far less Mazarin than
+Cond&eacute;, and choosing between them both for once and for all with her
+well-known firmness and resolution. De Retz trimmed, followed the Duke
+d&#8217;Orleans, using tact with the Queen, so that he might not lose the hat,
+and without engaging himself personally with Cond&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>If Burnet is to be believed, it was at this conjunction that Cond&eacute; made
+an offer to Cromwell to turn Huguenot, and embrace the faith of his
+ancestors, in order to secure the aid of the English Puritans.</p>
+
+<p>However that might be, it was not illusory to think that with such a
+government and the continual assistance of Spain, Bordeaux might hold
+out for at least a year, and give Cond&eacute; time to strike some decisive
+blows. The resolution that he took was therefore as rational as it was
+great. It would have been a sovereign imprudence to remain in Guienne
+merely to engage Harcourt in a series of trifling skirmishes, and after
+much time and trouble take a few little paltry towns, when in the heart
+of the kingdom a treason or a defeat might irreparably involve the loss
+of everything, and condemn Bordeaux to share the common fate, after a
+more or less prolonged existence. Taking one thing with another, Guienne
+was doubtless a considerable accessory; but the grand struggle was not
+to be made there; it was at Paris and upon the banks of the Loire that
+the destiny of the Fronde and that of Cond&eacute; too must be decided; it was
+thither, therefore, that he must hasten. Every day brought him tidings
+that jealousies, divisions, quarrels were increasing in the army, and he
+trembled to receive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> some morning, news that Turenne and Hocquincourt
+had beaten Nemours and Beaufort, and were marching on Paris. Desirous of
+preventing at any price a disaster so irreparable, he resolved to rush
+to the point where the danger was supreme, where his unexpected presence
+would strike terror into the souls of his enemies, revive the courage of
+his partisans and turn fortune to his side. When C&aelig;sar, on arriving in
+Greece, learned that the fleet which was following him with his army on
+board, had been dispersed and destroyed by that of Pompey, he flung
+himself alone into a fisherman&#8217;s bark under cover of night to cross the
+sea into Asia to seek for the legions of Antony, and return with them to
+gain the battle of Pharsalia. When Napoleon learned in Egypt the state
+of France, from the shameful doings of the Directory, the agitation of
+parties, and that already more than one general was meditating another
+18th of Brumaire, he did not hesitate, and however rash it might appear
+to attempt to pass through the English fleet in a small craft, at the
+risk of being taken, or sent to the bottom, he dared every peril, and by
+dint of address and audacity succeeded in gaining the shores of France.
+Cond&eacute; did the same, and at the end of March 1652, he undertook to make
+his way from the banks of the Gironde to the banks of the Loire, without
+other escort than that of a small number of intrepid friends, and
+sustained solely by the vivid consciousness of the necessity of that
+bold step, his familiarity with and secret liking for danger, his
+incomparable presence of mind and his customary gaiety.</p>
+
+<p>On Palm Sunday, 1652, Cond&eacute; set forth upon his adventurous expedition.
+He was accompanied by six persons, La Rochefoucauld and his youthful
+son, the Prince de Marcillac, the Count de Guitaut, the Count de
+Chavagnac, a valet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> named Rochefort, and the indefatigable Gourville,
+under whose directions all the arrangements of the journey seem to have
+been contrived. The whole party were disguised as common troopers, and
+each took a false name, even amongst themselves. For some time they
+followed the Bordeaux road, and using many precautions proceeded until
+they reached Cahusac, where they encountered some troops belonging to La
+Rochefoucauld; but being anxious almost as much to avoid their own
+partizans as the enemy, Cond&eacute; and his companions hid themselves in a
+barn, while Gourville went out to forage. He <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'suceeded'">succeeded</ins> in procuring some
+scanty fare; and they rode on till some hours had passed after
+nightfall, when they reached a little wayside inn, where Cond&eacute;
+volunteered to cook an omelet for the whole party. The hand, however,
+which could wield a truncheon with such effect, proved somewhat too
+violent for the frying-pan, and in the attempt to turn the omelet, he
+threw the whole hissing mass into the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The little band having reached a certain spot, quitted the main road,
+and began to traverse the enemy&#8217;s lines. For eight days they encountered
+many perilous incidents and underwent incredible fatigue, riding
+throughout the same horses, never stopping more than two hours to eat or
+sleep, avoiding towns and crossing rivers as they best could; threading
+at first the gorges of the Auvergne mountains, then descending by the
+Bec d&#8217;Allier, and making their way to the Loire. The memoirs of La
+Rochefoucauld and Gourville must be consulted for the details of that
+extraordinary journey, and all the dangers it presented. No less than
+ten times did they escape being taken and slain. Their wearied horses at
+last could carry them no longer. La Rochefoucauld was tormented by the
+gout, and his son was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> worn out with fatigue that he fell asleep as
+he went. Cond&eacute;, whose iron frame resisted to the last, was alone
+indefatigable, sleeping and working at will, and always cheerful and
+good humoured.</p>
+
+<p>Upon approaching Gien, at which place the Court then was, Cond&eacute; had
+twice very nearly fallen into the hands of parties sent out to take him
+alive or dead. Having escaped almost by a miracle, on the last occasion,
+soon after reaching Ch&acirc;tillon, he gained information that the army of
+Beaufort and Nemours lay at about eight leagues from that place, and
+hastened with all speed to join it. At length, to his great joy, he saw
+the advanced guard before him, and several of the troopers came
+galloping up with a loud &#8220;<i>Qui vive!</i>&#8221; Some of them, however, almost
+instantly recognised Cond&eacute;, and shouts of joy and surprise soon made
+known through the whole army what had occurred.</p>
+
+<p>He found the forces of the Fronde as divided as were its chiefs. He took
+the command of it immediately; thus doing away with the principal cause
+of the jealousy existing between Nemours and Beaufort. He reviewed and
+reunited it, gave it one day&#8217;s rest, seized, without striking a blow, on
+Montargis and Ch&acirc;teau-Renard, and threw himself with the utmost rapidity
+on the royal army. It was scattered in quarters distant from each other
+for the convenience of foraging, and on account of the little dread with
+which Beaufort and Nemours had inspired it. Marshal d&#8217;Hocquincourt was
+encamped at Bleneau, and Turenne a little farther off, at Briare; the
+two Marshals were to unite their forces on the morrow. Cond&eacute; did not
+give them time for that: that same evening, and during the nights of the
+6th and 7th of April, 1652, he fell upon the head-quarters of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+Hocquincourt, overwhelmed them, and succeeded in routing the rest,
+thanks to one of those charges in flank which he in person ever led so
+energetically. Hocquincourt, after fighting like a gallant soldier, was
+forced to fall back for some leagues in the direction of Auxerre, having
+lost all his baggage and three thousand horse. No sooner did Turenne
+hear of the fact, than he sprang into the saddle, and marched with some
+infantry both to the assistance of his brother officer and to the
+defence of the King, who, resting secure at Gien, might have fallen into
+the hands of the rebels. As he advanced through the darkness of the
+night, the Marshal saw the quarters of Hocquincourt in one blaze of
+fire, and exclaiming, with the appreciation which genius has of genius,
+&#8220;The Prince de Cond&eacute; is arrived!&#8221; he hurried on with the utmost speed.
+Having neither cavalry nor artillery, and having sent word to
+Hocquincourt to rally to him as soon as possible, he marched on in good
+order throughout that long and dark night to join the bulk of his troops
+which Navailles and Palluan were bringing up. For an instant he halted
+in a plain where there stood a rather dense wood on his left, with a
+marsh on his right. Those around Cond&eacute; thought it an advantageous post;
+Cond&eacute; judged very differently. &#8220;If M. de Turenne makes a stand there,&#8221;
+said he, &#8220;I shall soon cut him to pieces; but he will take good care not
+to do so.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> He had not left off speaking when he saw that Turenne was
+already retiring, too skilful to await Cond&eacute; in the plain and expose
+himself to the Prince&#8217;s formidable man&#339;uvres. A little further off,
+he found a position much more favourable; there he firmly posted his
+force, determined to give battle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> In vain did his officers urge him not
+to hazard an action, not to risk the last army which remained to the
+monarchy, and to confine himself to covering Gien whilst awaiting the
+coming of Hocquincourt. &#8220;<i>No</i>,&#8221; replied he, &#8220;<i>we must conquer or perish
+here.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Turenne, it is true, was very inferior in cavalry to Cond&eacute;, but he had a
+powerful and well-served artillery. Having encouraged his troops to do
+their duty, he posted himself upon an eminence which he covered with
+infantry and artillery, drew up his cavalry below in a plain too narrow
+to permit of Cond&eacute; deploying his own, and which could only be reached by
+traversing a thick wood and a causeway intersected by ditches and boggy
+ground. From such strong position, Cond&eacute; could, in his turn, recognise
+his illustrious disciple. No great man&#339;uvres were then practicable,
+and as time did not permit of an attempt to turn Turenne, it was
+necessary to crush him out of hand, if that were possible, before he
+could effect a junction with Hocquincourt. The defile was the key of the
+position; and both sides fought therein with equal fierceness. Turenne
+defended himself sword in hand, and upon the six squadrons which Cond&eacute;
+hurled against him he opened a battery, as they passed, with terrible
+execution, showing a courage equal to that of his heroic adversary.
+Cond&eacute;, judging from what he now saw, believed the position in the hands
+of Turenne to be impregnable; and it being too late to execute any other
+man&#339;uvres with success during that day, he continued to cannonade the
+royalist army till the evening, without any other attempt to bring it to
+a battle.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon has not spared Cond&eacute; in this affair any more than other
+critics. He sums all their opinions up in one piquant phrase, which it
+appears he was unable to resist, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> which made him smile in uttering
+it. &#8220;Cond&eacute;,&#8221; said he, &#8220;for that once, was wanting in boldness.&#8221; The
+dictum is both brief and incisive, but there was no foundation for it,
+in a military point of view. There was, in truth, no want of boldness on
+Cond&eacute;&#8217;s part throughout that campaign: far from it, his whole line of
+conduct was a succession of audacious actions and combinations. What
+could be bolder than that forced journey of nearly ten days for more
+than one hundred and fifty miles with half-a-dozen followers to go and
+take the command of an army? What bolder than the resolution taken out
+of hand to throw himself between Turenne and Hocquincourt, to cut in two
+the royal army and to disperse one half of it before attacking the
+other? Did Cond&eacute; lose a moment in marching against Turenne and pursuing
+him sword in hand? Was it his fault that he had to cope with a great
+captain, who knew how to select an excellent position, and to maintain
+himself in it with immovable firmness? In the attack of that position,
+did Napoleon mean to reproach Cond&eacute; with want of boldness? Turenne, it
+is true, covered himself with glory, for he successfully resisted Cond&eacute;;
+but Cond&eacute;, in not having been victorious, was not in the slightest
+degree beaten. The strategy, therefore, on that occasion was
+irreproachable. As will be seen, it was in his policy only that he
+failed. Cond&eacute; quitted the army at a very ill-timed moment, in our
+opinion, but that step was taken through considerations which had
+nothing to do with the science of war.</p>
+
+<p>To revert for a moment to this much-criticised action of Bleneau.
+Towards night, Hocquincourt appeared upon the field, having rallied a
+considerable part of his cavalry. Cond&eacute; then retired, finding that his
+attempt was frustrated, and took the way to Montargis; while Turenne
+rejoined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> the Court, and was received by the Queen with all the
+gratitude which such great services merited. Her first words went to
+thank him for <i>having placed the crown a second time upon her son&#8217;s
+head</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The terror and confusion which had reigned in Gien during the whole of
+the preceding night and that day may very well be conceived when it is
+remembered that the safety of the King himself, as well as the Queen,
+was at stake, and that the life of the favourite Minister might at any
+moment be placed at the mercy of his bitterest enemy, justified in
+putting him to death immediately by the highest legal authority in the
+realm. Neither were the ill-disciplined and irregular forces of Cond&eacute; at
+all desirable neighbours to the troop of ladies who had followed the
+Court; and, as soon as it was known that Cond&eacute; had fallen upon
+Hocquincourt, the whole of the little town was one scene of dismay and
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The royal army and that of Cond&eacute; now both marched towards Paris, nearly
+upon two parallel lines. But the great distress which the Court suffered
+from want of money caused almost as much insubordination to be apparent
+amongst the troops of the King as amongst those of the rebels. Little
+respect was shown to Mazarin himself; and the young King was often
+treated with but scanty ceremony, and provided for but barely.</p>
+
+<p>After quitting the neighbourhood of Gien, Cond&eacute;, urged by the desire of
+directing in person the negotiations and intrigues which were going on
+in Paris, left his army under the command of the celebrated Tavannes,
+and hastened to the capital. The Count de Tavannes, whom he had selected
+to fill his own place, was without doubt an excellent officer, one of
+the valiant <i>Petits-ma&icirc;tres</i><a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> who, upon the field of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> battle, served
+as wings to the great soldier&#8217;s thoughts, carried his orders everywhere,
+executed the most dangerous man&#339;uvres, sometimes charging with an
+irresistible impetuosity, at others sustaining the most terrible onsets
+with a firmness and solidity beyond all proof. But though the intrepid
+Tavannes was quite capable of leading the division of a great army, he
+was not able enough to be its commander-in-chief, and he had not
+authority over the foreign troops which the Duke de Nemours had brought
+from Flanders, and which he made over, on accompanying Cond&eacute; to Paris,
+to the command of the Count de Clinchamp. The army, thus divided, was
+capable of nothing great. Cond&eacute; alone could finish what he had begun.
+Once engaged in the formidable enterprise that he had undertaken against
+the Queen and Mazarin, there was no safety for him but in carrying it
+out even to the end. He ought, therefore, to have waged war to the
+knife, if the expression be allowable, against Turenne, conquered or
+perished, and to have constrained Mazarin to flee for good and all to
+Germany or Italy, and the Queen to place in his hands the young King. To
+do that, Cond&eacute; should have had a definite ambition, an object clearly
+determined; he ought to have plainly proposed to himself to assume the
+Regency, or at least the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom in the
+place of Gaston, by will or by force, in order to concentrate all power
+in his own hands; that he might become, in short, a Cromwell or a
+William III.: and Cond&eacute; was neither the one or the other. His mind had
+been perturbed by sinister dreams; but, as has been remarked, he had at
+heart an invincible fund of loyalty. Ambition was rather hovering round
+him than within himself. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> whatsoever it was he desired, and in every
+hypothesis&mdash;for his secret has remained between Heaven and himself&mdash;he
+did wrong in abandoning the Loire and leaving Turenne in force there.
+That was the true error he committed, and not in wanting audacity, as
+Napoleon supposed. It was not a military but a political error&mdash;immense
+and irreparable. He might have crushed Turenne, and ought to have
+attempted it, but he let him slip from his grasp. The opportunity once
+lost did not return. Turenne until then was only second in rank; by a
+glorious resistance he acquired from that moment, and it was forced upon
+him to maintain, the importance of a rival of Cond&eacute;. Mazarin grew from
+day to day more emboldened; royalty, which had been on the very brink of
+ruin, again rose erect, and the Court drew towards Paris; whilst,
+prompted by his evil genius, quitting the field of battle wherein lay
+his veritable strength, Cond&eacute; went away to waste his precious time in a
+labyrinth of intrigues for which he was not fitted, and in which he lost
+himself and the Fronde.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 96.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> It is Tavannes who has preserved the details of this
+interesting incident.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Upon the <i>Petits Ma&icirc;tres</i>, see Mad. de Sabl&eacute;, chap. i. p.
+44.</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p class="title">POLITICAL AND GALLANT INTRIGUES&mdash;THE DUCHESS DE CH&Acirc;TILLON&#8217;S
+SWAY OVER COND&Eacute;&mdash;SHAMEFUL CONSPIRACY AGAINST MADAME DE
+LONGUEVILLE.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Cond&eacute;</span> arrived in Paris on the 11th of April, and found everything in the
+utmost confusion. It would be impossible to follow all the petty
+intrigues, or even make allusion to all the events which affected the
+relative situations of the parties in the capital; but it may be
+observed that the tendency of both parties was to hold themselves in the
+neighbourhood of Paris. The chiefs of the Fronde hurried into the city,
+to receive the congratulations due to their exploits from the fair
+politicians who had won them to their cause. The Queen also established
+her head-quarters near the capital, to be ready for any turn of popular
+sentiment in her favour, and to hear the reports of her spies on the
+proceedings of her enemies. She knew what dances were to be given, and
+who were to attend the assemblies of the duchesses of the Fronde. On one
+occasion when Turenne knew that half the officers of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s army were
+engaged to a brilliant f&ecirc;te at the Duchess de Montbazon&#8217;s, he made an
+attack on the enemy&#8217;s camp, and was only repulsed by the steadiness of
+some old soldiers, who gave time for reinforcements to arrive. But the
+crisis was at hand; for each party began to be suspicious of the other
+gaining over its supporters&mdash;Mazarin lavishing promises of place and
+money,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> and the Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon, invested with full powers by
+Cond&eacute;, appearing in the opposite camp as the most irresistible
+ambassadress that ever was seen.</p>
+
+<p>Thus matters stood in the early summer of 1652, and &#8220;all that was most
+subtle and serious in politics,&#8221; La Rochefoucauld tells us, &#8220;was brought
+under the attention of Cond&eacute; to induce him to take one of two
+courses&mdash;to make peace or to continue the war; when Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon
+imbued him with a design for peace by means the most agreeable. She
+thought that so great a boon might be the work of her beauty, and
+mingling ambition with the design of making a new conquest, she desired
+at the same time to triumph over the Prince de Cond&eacute;&#8217;s heart and to
+derive pecuniary advantages from her political negotiations.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We have already cursorily mentioned the Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon: it is now
+indispensable, in order to thoroughly understand what is about to
+follow, to know something more of that celebrated personage.</p>
+
+<p>Isabella Angelique de Montmorency was one of the two daughters of that
+brave and unfortunate Count de Montmorency Bouteville, who, the victim
+of a false point of honour and of an outrageous passion for duelling,
+was decapitated on the Place de Gr&egrave;ve, on the 21st of June, 1627. She
+was sister of Fran&ccedil;ois de Montmorency, Count de Bouteville, better known
+as the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg. Born in 1626, she had been
+married in 1645 to the last of the Colignys, the Duke de Ch&acirc;tillon, one
+of the heroes of Lens, killed in the action of Charenton in 1649. Left a
+widow at twenty-three, her rare loveliness won for her a thousand
+adorers. She was one of the queens of politics and gallantry during the
+Fronde; and even, after manifold amours, at thirty-eight could boast of
+captivating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> the Duke de Mecklenbourg, who espoused her in 1664. To
+beauty, Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon added great intelligence, but an
+intelligence wholly devoted to intrigue. She was vain and ambitious, and
+at the same time profoundly selfish, moderately scrupulous, and somewhat
+of the school of Madame de Montbazon. While both were young, she had
+smitten Cond&eacute;; but he had thought no more of her after becoming absorbed
+with his love for Mademoiselle de Vigean. After that elevated passion,
+so sorrowfully terminated,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> and after the fugitive emotion with which
+the lovely and virtuous Mademoiselle de Toussy could still inspire him,
+Cond&eacute; stifled his chevalaresque instincts and bade adieu to the <i>haute
+galanterie</i> of his youth and of the H&ocirc;tel de Rambouillet. A few
+insignificant and commonplace attachments, of which no record has
+survived, alone excepted, Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon only is known to have
+captivated his heart for the last time; and that <i>liaison</i> exercised
+upon Cond&eacute; and his affairs, at the epoch at which we have arrived, an
+influence sufficiently great for history to occupy itself therewith, if
+it would not be content with retracing consequences and as it were the
+outline of events which pass across the stage of the world without being
+understood, without penetrating to the true causes which are to be
+discovered in the characters and passions of mankind. And, of all
+passions, there is none at once more energetic and wide-grasping than
+love. It occupies an immense place in human life, and in the loftiest as
+well as the lowliest conditions. In our own times, we have seen it make
+and mar kings. In an earlier epoch, by detaining Antony too long in
+Cleopatra&#8217;s arms at Alexandria, the formidable tempest gathered above
+his head which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> nearly overwhelmed him at Munda. It played a great part
+in the war which Henry IV. was about to undertake, when a sudden death
+arrested him. One can scarcely resist a smile on seeing historians for
+the most part taking no account of it, as a thing too frivolous, and
+consigning it altogether to private life, as though that which agitates
+the soul so powerfully were not the principle of that which blazes forth
+exteriorly! No, the empire of beauty knows no limitation, and in no
+instance did it show itself more potent than over those great hearts of
+which Alexander the Great, C&aelig;sar, Charlemagne, and Henry IV. of France
+were the owners. We may well place Cond&eacute; amongst such illustrious
+company.</p>
+
+<p>One graceful memento of Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon&#8217;s power over Cond&eacute; has
+descended to our own day. At Ch&acirc;tillon-sur-Loing, in what remains of the
+ancient ch&acirc;teau of the Colignys, which Isabelle de Montmorency derived
+from her husband and left to her brother, in that salon of the noble
+heir of the Luxembourgs, as precious for history as for art, wherein may
+be seen collected together, by the side of the sword of the Constable
+Anne, the likeness of Luxembourg on horseback, with his proud and
+piercing glance, as well as the full-length portrait of Charlotte
+Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Cond&eacute;, in widow&#8217;s weeds, there is
+also a large and magnificent picture, representing a young woman of
+ravishing beauty, with perfectly regular features, with the loveliest
+bright chestnut hair, grey eyes of the softest expression, a swan-like
+neck, of a slight and graceful figure, painted with a natural grandeur,
+and embellished with all the attractions of youth, enhanced by an
+exquisite air of coquetry. She is seated in an easy attitude. One of her
+hands, carelessly extended, holds a bouquet of flowers; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> other rests
+upon the mane of a lion, whose head is drawn full-face, and whose
+flaming eyes are unmistakably the terrible eyes of Cond&eacute; when seen with
+his sword drawn. Here we behold the beautiful Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon at
+twenty-five or twenty-six, and very nearly such as she has taken care to
+describe herself in the <i>Divers Portraits</i> of Mademoiselle de
+Montpensier. The head stands out wonderfully. It would be impossible to
+instance a more charming countenance, but it is somewhat deficient in
+character and grandeur, and quite different from that of Madame de
+Longueville. The latter&#8217;s face was not so regularly symmetrical, but it
+wore a far loftier expression, and an air of supreme distinction
+characterised her entire person.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon and Madame de Longueville had been brought up
+together, and very much attached during the whole of their early youth.
+By degrees there sprung up a rivalry of beauty between them, and they
+quarrelled thoroughly when Madame de Longueville perceived after the
+death of Ch&acirc;tillon, that the young and beautiful widow, at the same time
+that she was welcoming very decidedly the homage of the Duke de Nemours,
+had also evident designs upon Cond&eacute;. Madame de Longueville had her own
+reasons for not being then very severe upon others, but she knew the
+self-seeking heart of the fair Duchess, and she was alarmed for her
+brother&#8217;s sake. She feared lest Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, having great need
+of Court favour, might retain Cond&eacute; in the engagements which he had with
+Mazarin, while she herself was forced to drag him into the Fronde. The
+quarrel was renewed in 1651, as we have seen, and it was in full force
+in 1652. Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon and Madame de Longueville were then
+disputing for Cond&eacute;&#8217;s heart: the one drew him towards the Court, fully
+hoping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> that the Court would not be ungrateful to her; the other urged
+him more and more upon the path of war. We have related how Madame de
+Longueville, well knowing the strength of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s friendship for the
+Duke de Nemours, who was in the chains of the Duchess, very
+inopportunely mingled politics and coquetry in Berri, and tried the
+power of her charms upon Nemours, in order to carry him off from Madame
+de Ch&acirc;tillon and from the party of peace. No one ever knew how far
+Madame de Longueville committed herself on that occasion; but, as we
+have remarked, the slightest appearance was enough for La Rochefoucauld.
+As he had only sought his own advantage in the Fronde, not finding it
+therein, he began to grow tired, and asked for nothing better than to
+put an end to the wandering and adventurous life he had been for some
+years leading by a favourable reconciliation. Madame de Longueville&#8217;s
+conduct in cutting him to the quick in what remained of his tender
+feelings for her, and especially in the most sensitive portion of his
+heart&mdash;its vanity and self-love&mdash;gave him an opportunity or a pretext,
+which he seized upon with eagerness, to break off a <i>liaison</i> become
+contrary to his interests. Thus, in April, 1652, when he returned to
+Paris with Cond&eacute;, and there found Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, he entered at
+once into all her prejudices and all her designs, as he afterwards owned
+to Madame de Motteville:<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> he placed at her service all that was in
+him of skill and ability, and descended to the indulgence of a revenge
+against Madame de Longueville wholly unworthy of an honourable man, and
+which after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> lapse of two centuries is as revolting to every
+right-minded person as it was to his contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon was not contented with carrying off the giddy and
+inconstant Duke de Nemours from his new love, then absent; she exacted
+at his hands the public and outrageous sacrifice of her rival. The
+reprisals of feminine vanity did not stop there: the ambitious and
+intriguing Duchess went further, she undertook to ruin Madame de
+Longueville in her brother&#8217;s estimation. With that object she set
+herself, with the assistance of La Rochefoucauld, to decry her in every
+way to him, and sought even to persuade him that his sister was not
+attached to him as she made it appear, and that she had promised the
+Duke de Nemours to serve him at his expense; whilst Madame de
+Longueville had never dreamed in any way of separating Nemours from
+Cond&eacute;, but only from her, Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, purposely to engage him
+more deeply in Cond&eacute;&#8217;s interests, in the light that she understood them.</p>
+
+<p>Madame de Longueville&#8217;s policy was very simple, and it was the true one,
+the Fronde once admitted. Assuredly, it would have been better alike for
+Madame de Longueville, for Cond&eacute;, and for France not to have entered
+upon that fatal path by which the national greatness was for ten years
+arrested, and through which the house of Cond&eacute; very nearly perished;
+but, after having embraced that sinister step, no other alternative
+remained to a firm and logical mind than to resolutely pursue its
+triumph. And that triumph, in Madame de Longueville&#8217;s eyes, was the
+overthrow of Mazarin, a necessary condition of the domination of Cond&eacute;.
+Such was the end pointed out to her by La Rochefoucauld when engaging
+her in the Fronde at the beginning of 1648, and she had never lost sight
+of it. It was to attain it that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> she had flung herself into the Civil
+War, and that she had ended by dragging therein her brother; that,
+worsted at Paris in 1649, she had striven in 1650 to raise Normandy;
+that she had risked her life, braved exile, made alliance with a foreign
+enemy, and unfurled at Stenay the banner of the Princes. In 1651, she
+had advised the resumption of arms, and now she maintained the
+impossibility of laying them down, and that, instead of losing himself
+in useless negotiations with the subtle and skilful Cardinal, it was
+upon his sword alone that Cond&eacute; should rely. She thought him incapable
+of extricating himself advantageously from the intrigues by which he was
+surrounded, and therefore urged him towards the field of battle. She had
+always exercised a great sway over him, because he knew that her heart
+was of like temper to his own; and if passion had not blinded him, he
+would have rejected with disdain the odious accusations they had dared
+to raise against her, as he had done in 1643, in the affair of the
+letters attributed to her by Madame de Montbazon: he would have easily
+recognised that Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, Nemours, and La Rochefoucauld would
+not have joined to blacken her in his eyes, as a vulgar creature ever
+ready to betray him for the latest lover, save in the manifest design of
+embroiling them both, of securing him, and of making him subserve their
+particular views. Nemours alone knew what had taken place during that
+journey from Montrond to Bordeaux, and the man who is base enough to
+constitute himself the denouncer of a woman to whom he has paid the
+warmest homage, is not very worthy of being believed on his word.
+Besides Nemours has not himself spoken, but Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon and
+Rochefoucauld, who have attributed to him certain sentiments, and we
+know with what motive.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It would be difficult to imagine a conspiracy more disgraceful than that
+formed at this juncture against Madame de Longueville; and that feature
+in it the more shameful perhaps was that La Rochefoucauld himself boasts
+of having invented and worked this machinery, as he terms it. The three
+conspirators were dumb, but through different but equally despicable
+reasons. Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon desired singly to govern Cond&eacute;, and alone
+to represent him at Court, in order to reap the profits of the
+negotiation. Nemours was desirous of pleasing Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, and
+looked forward also to have his share in the great advantages promised
+him; and, lastly, La Rochefoucauld was actuated by a pitiless spirit of
+revenge, and in the hope of a reconciliation necessary to his own
+immediate fortunes.</p>
+
+<p>But here arose a delicate point, if we may speak of delicacy in such a
+matter: in the whole cabal, the least odious was, after all, the Duke de
+Nemours, more frivolous than perfidious, and who was deeply smitten with
+Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon. He loved her, and was beloved. The return of the
+Prince de Cond&eacute;, with his well-declared pretensions, caused him cruel
+suffering, and his rage threatened to upset the well-concerted scheme.
+The lovely lady herself could not sometimes help being embarrassed
+between an imperious prince and a jealous lover. Happily the future
+author of the <i>Maxims</i> was at hand. La Rochefoucauld took upon himself
+to arrange everything in the best way possible. It was not very
+difficult for him to direct Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon how to manage Cond&eacute; and
+Nemours both at once, and to contrive in such a way that she might
+secure them both. He made the moody Nemours comprehend that, in truth,
+he had no reason to complain of an inevitable <i>liaison</i>, &#8220;qui ne lui
+devoit pas &ecirc;tre suspecte, puisqu&#8217;on voulait lui en rendre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> compte, et ne
+s&#8217;en servir que pour lui donner la principale part aux affaires.&#8221; At the
+same time, &#8220;he urged M. le Prince to occupy himself with Madame de
+Ch&acirc;tillon, and to give her in freehold the estate of Merlon.&#8221; In such a
+fashion, thanks to the honest intervention of La Rochefoucauld, a good
+understanding was kept up, and the conspiracy went quietly forwards.
+Cond&eacute; had no mistrust whatever. A veil had been cast over his eyes; his
+martial disposition lulled asleep in the lap of pleasure and in a
+labyrinth of negotiations, and cradled in the hope of an approaching
+peace.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Mademoiselle de Vigean took the veil on the prince being
+forced to marry the niece of Cardinal Richelieu.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 132. &#8220;M. de la
+Rochefoucauld m&#8217;a dit que la jalousie et la vengeance le firent agir
+soigneusement, et qu&#8217;il fit tout ce que Mad. de Ch&acirc;tillon voulut.&#8221;</p></div>
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Aiguillon</span>, Duchess d&#8217;, her resentment against Cond&eacute; for forcing her young nephew Richelieu into a clandestine marriage, i. <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Ancre</span>, Marshal d&#8217;, assassinated, i. <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Anet</span>, Ch&acirc;teau d&#8217;, a haunt of conspirators against Mazarin, i. <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Anne of Austria</span>, Queen of Louis XIII. of France, her reception of Mad. de Chevreuse on her return from exile, i. <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>her dread of adventures and enterprises, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
+  <li>Mazarin&#8217;s entire ascendancy over her, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+  <li>hesitates to take a decided attitude between Mazarin and his enemies, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li>
+  <li>evidence of her love for Mazarin, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</li>
+  <li>her Regency opens under most brilliant auspices, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</li>
+  <li>the conspiracy to take Mazarin&#8217;s life determines her to adopt his policy, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li>
+  <li>orders the arrest of Beaufort, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li>
+  <li>her lively displeasure at the duel between Guise and Coligny, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li>
+  <li>her jealous feeling against Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
+  <li>retires before the Fronde to St. Germain, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
+  <li>her endeavour to mortify the ladies of the Fronde by giving a day-light ball, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li>
+  <li>her delight at seeing Cond&eacute; and the Frondeurs at daggers drawn, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li>
+  <li>secretly confers with De Retz relative to the arrest of Cond&eacute;, Conti and Longueville; gives the fatal order for that <i>coup d&#8217;&eacute;tat</i>,<a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li>
+  <li>orders the arrest of the Duchesses de Longueville and de Bouillon, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li>
+  <li>quits Paris for Rouen to confront Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li>
+  <li>the affirmation of the Duchess d&#8217;Orleans that the Queen had secretly married Mazarin, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li>
+  <li>evidence of such marriage, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</li>
+  <li>finds herself in some sort a prisoner on the proscription of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li>
+  <li>seriously prepares to make head against Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li>
+  <li>her fervour, constancy, and marvellous skill manifested towards weakening Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li>
+  <li>the great danger of herself, the King, and Mazarin at Gien, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Anne-Genevi&egrave;ve de Bourbon-Cond&eacute;</span>, Duchess de Longueville, her birth and parentage, i. <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>her desire for conventual seclusion, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li>
+  <li>her great personal beauty, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li>
+  <li>her character, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
+  <li>suitors for her hand, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li>
+  <li>married to the Duke de Longueville, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;</li>
+  <li>her conduct towards a crowd of adorers, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li>
+  <li>has a formidable enemy in the Duchess of Montbazon, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li>
+  <li>the quarrel between the rival Duchesses in the affair of the dropped letter, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+  <li>public apology made her by Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+  <li>unoccupied with politics at this juncture, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+  <li>error of the <i>Importants</i> in not conciliating her, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+  <li>scandalised by Coligny&#8217;s championship of her in the duel with Guise, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+  <li>said to have witnessed the duel from behind a window-curtain, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li>
+<li>  verses on the occasion, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;</li>
+<li>  Miossens (afterwards Marshal d&#8217;Albret) tries in vain to win her heart, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</li>
+<li>  her two individualities of opposite natures, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
+<li>  her defective education, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</li>
+<li>  character of her epistolary style, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;</li>
+<li>  the different kind of education given by M&eacute;nage to Madame de Sevign&eacute; and Madame de la Fayette, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
+<li>  the conquest of her heart and mind by La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li>
+<li>  <i>r&eacute;sum&eacute;</i> of her life (up to 1648), 131;</li>
+<li>  queen of the Congress of Munster, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+<li>  acquires a taste for political discussions and speculations, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></li>
+<li>  Madame de Motteville&#8217;s portrait of her at this period (1647), <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li>
+<li>  she sacrifices everything for La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li>
+<li>  exercises a somewhat ridiculous empire over her brother Conti, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
+<li>  fatal influence of her passion for La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li>
+<li>  throws herself into the first Fronde, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li>
+<li>  ultimately involves in it every member of her family, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</li>
+<li>  arrayed against her brother Cond&eacute; in civil war, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
+<li>  she shares all the fatigues of the siege of Paris, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>;</li>
+<li>  her energy and intrepidity, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li>
+<li>  is given up as a hostage to the Parliament by her husband, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li>  gives birth to Charles de Paris, <i>the Child of the Fronde</i>, in the Hotel de Ville, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li>  is reconciled to Cond&eacute;, resumes her ascendancy over him, and detaches him from Mazarin, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>;</li>
+<li>  her embarrassment on reappearing at Court, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>;</li>
+<li>  the perilous path she is led into by her infatuation for La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
+<li>  undertakes to mislead Cond&eacute; and give him over to Spain, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li>  the Queen orders her to be arrested; she escapes to Normandy with La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
+<li>  her adventures in Normandy. She raises the standard of revolt at Dieppe, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li>
+<li>  pursued by the Queen, she assumes male attire and reaches Rotterdam and Stenay, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes the motive power of &#8220;<i>the Women&#8217;s War</i>&#8221; or <i>Second</i> Fronde, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li>
+<li>  the message from her dying mother, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
+<li>  her gracious reception by their Majesties on her return from Stenay, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>;</li>
+<li>  the most brilliant period of her career, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li>
+<li>  the idol of Spain, the terror of the Court, and one of the grandeurs of her family, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li>
+<li>  her motives for opposing the marriage of her brother with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li>
+<li>  urges Cond&eacute; to cut the knot, and make war upon the Crown, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>;</li>
+<li>  her conduct, feelings and motives examined at this juncture, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>;</li>
+<li>  was she the cause of the rupture of Conti&#8217;s projected marriage, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>;</li>
+<li>  peremptorily commanded to join her husband in Normandy, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li>
+<li>  she perceives a change in La Rochefoucauld&#8217;s feelings, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</li>
+<li>  follows the Princess de Cond&eacute; into Berri, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>;</li>
+<li>  the Duke de Nemours pays court to her, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li>
+<li>  certain obscure relations between them drives La Rochefoucauld to a violent rupture, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li>
+<li>  a rivalry of beauty leads her to humiliate Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;</li>
+<li>  how Madame de Longueville fell into &#8220;the scandalous chronicle,&#8221; <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li>
+<li>  her grave cause of complaint against La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>;</li>
+<li>  Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon attempts to ruin her in Cond&eacute;&#8217;s estimation, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+<li>  her fatal policy in the Fronde arrests the national greatness for ten years, and nearly ruins the House of Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+<li>  the disgraceful conspiracy formed against her, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Aristocracy</span> in France, its constitution in the reign of Louis XIV., i. <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Beaufort</span>, Francis de Vend&ocirc;me, Duke de (called the &#8220;King of the Markets&#8221;), a suitor for the hand of Anne de Bourbon, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  a leader of the <i>Importants</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li>
+<li>  a rival of Mazarin in the Queen&#8217;s good graces, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li>
+<li>  his character as sketched by La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes the led-captain of Madame de Montbazon, and the bitterest enemy of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li>
+<li>  his spite against Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  his conduct in the affair of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  insinuates that they were from Coligny, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  irritated at the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, he enters into a plot against Mazarin, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li>
+<li>  the ungovernable impetuosity of his vengeance against Madame de Longueville strongly stigmatised, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+<li>  prepares an ambuscade to slay Mazarin, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li>
+<li>  the plot fails, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+<li>  is arrested and imprisoned at Vincennes, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li>
+<li>  released by the Fronde and becomes master of Paris, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
+<li>  Madame de Montbazon exercises plenary power over him, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes one of the most conspicuous leaders of the Fronde, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li></ul><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Beaupuis</span>, Count de, detected plotting against Mazarin, escapes to Rome, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>his denunciation of the evils of Richelieu&#8217;s inordinate authority, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+  </ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Beauty in Woman</span>, true definition of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Bouillon</span>, de la Tour d&#8217;Auvergne, Duke de, conspires against Richelieu, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  one of the party of the <i>Malcontents</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+<li>  joins Cond&eacute; at Saint-Maur, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Bouillon</span>, Duchess de, given up as a hostage to the Fronde, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  quite as ardent in politics as Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
+<li>  arrested by the Queen&#8217;s order at her daughter&#8217;s bedside, and thrown into the Bastille, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Bridieu</span>, Marquis de, acts as second to Guise in duel with Coligny, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Buckingham</span>, George Villiers, Duke of, his political correspondence with Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Burnet</span>, Bishop, his assertion of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s offer to Cromwell to turn Protestant, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Bussy-Rabutin</span>, Count de, value of his satire of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Campion</span>, Alexandre de, his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his censure of Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s conduct, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Campion</span>, Henri de, attributes the conception of the plot to destroy Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  he stipulates with Beaufort that he should not strike Mazarin, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+<li>  sought for by Mazarin, he takes refuge at Anet, and afterwards at Rome, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cantecroix</span>, Beatrice de Cusance, Princess de, Charles, Duke de Lorraine madly enamoured of, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Caumartin</span>, Madame de, a portrait of Madame de Chevreuse sketched by De Retz to please the malignant curiosity of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Ch&acirc;teauneuf</span>, Charles de l&#8217;Aub&eacute;pine, Marquis de, released from an imprisonment of ten years, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  why detested by the Princess de Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li>
+<li>  restored to office through Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li>
+<li>  banished to Touraine, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+<li>  bides his time for displacing Mazarin, and holds the seals on the Cardinal going into exile, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li>
+<li>  deprived of them by the Queen, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
+<li>  restored to office to serve Mazarin in secret, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li>
+<li>  nobly inaugurates his ministry by marching with the Queen and young King into Berri, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li>
+<li>  Mazarin learns with inquietude his ever-increasing success, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li>
+<li>  again displaced by Mazarin, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Ch&acirc;tillon</span>, Isabelle Angelique de Montmorency, Duchess de (sister of the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg), the Great Cond&eacute;&#8217;s passion for her, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  she urges Cond&eacute; to an understanding with the Court, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li>
+<li>  manages her lofty lover with infinite tact, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li>
+<li>  is deeply enamoured of the young Duke de Nemours, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li>
+<li>  invested with full powers as an ambassadress by Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li>
+<li>  her desire to triumph over Cond&eacute;&#8217;s heart, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li>
+<li>  her antecedents and character, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li>
+<li>  the important consequences of her liaison with Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;</li>
+<li>  a portrait of her at twenty-five described, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li>
+<li>  causes of her quarrel with Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
+<li>  she exacts from Nemours the public and outrageous sacrifice of her rival, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+<li>  attempts to ruin Madame de Longueville in Cond&eacute;&#8217;s estimation, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+<li>  her embarrassment between an imperious Prince and a jealous lover, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chavigny</span>, Count de, his career, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chevreuse</span>, Marie de Rohan, Duchess de, her illustrious lineage, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  marries, first, Charles de Luynes, and afterwards Claude de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li>
+<li>  as great favourite of Anne of Austria her extensive influence over the politics of Europe, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</li>
+<li>  her personal <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'characteristics, 18:'">characteristics, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;</ins></li>
+<li>  summary of her character by Cardinal de Retz, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</li>
+<li>  cause of her failure as a great politician, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</li>
+<li>  her adventures in exile, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+<li>  her great ascendancy over the cabinet of Madrid, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+<li>  seeks refuge in England, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+<li>  Richelieu&#8217;s designs to effect her destruction, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;</li>
+<li>  acts as the connecting link between England, Spain and Lorraine during the Civil War in England, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></li>
+<li>  negotiates with Olivarez for the destruction of Richelieu, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li>
+<li>  was she a stranger to the conspiracy of 1642? <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li>
+<li>  abandoned by the Queen on its discovery, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li>
+<li>  her frightful position, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li>
+<li>  her perpetual exile decreed by the will of Louis XIII., <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li>
+<li>  is dreaded by Mazarin, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li>
+<li>  her triumphant return to Court, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li>
+<li>  her position and political influence, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</li>
+<li>  the new relations between her and the Queen, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
+<li>  she attacks Richelieu&#8217;s system as adopted by Mazarin, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</li>
+<li>  procures the return of Ch&acirc;teauneuf to office, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;</li>
+<li>  pleads for the Vend&ocirc;me princes, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li>
+<li>  man&#339;uvres to secure the governorship of Havre for La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li>
+<li>  the skill, sagacity, and address of her counter-intrigues, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li>
+<li>  tries the power of her charms on Mazarin, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li>
+<li>  devotes her whole existence to political intrigue and conspiracy, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
+<li>  want of precaution in her attacks upon Mazarin, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
+<li>  her curious struggle for supremacy with the Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
+<li>  the head and mainspring of the <i>Importants</i>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
+<li>  her tactics to displace Mazarin in favour of Ch&acirc;teauneuf, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</li>
+<li>  she organises a <i>coup-de-main</i> to destroy Mazarin, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
+<li>  arranges with the Cardinal the composition of Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s apology, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+<li>  her politic purpose of a f&ecirc;te to the Queen foiled by the insane pride of Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li>
+<li>  her efforts to deprive Mazarin of supporters, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+<li>  her share in Beaufort&#8217;s plot, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</li>
+<li>  Madame de Montbazon only an instrument in her hands, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li>
+<li>  her behaviour on the failure of the plot, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+<li>  recommended by the Queen to withdraw from Court, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li>
+<li>  carries on a vast correspondence under the mantle of the English embassy with Lord Goring, Croft, Vend&ocirc;me, and Bouillon, and the rest of the <i>Malcontents</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+<li>  her irritation at being prohibited from visiting the Queen of England, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;</li>
+<li>  Mazarin watches her every movement, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li>
+<li>  ordered to retire to Angoul&ecirc;me, she goes for a third time into exile, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</li>
+<li>  her bark is captured by the English Parliamentarians and she is carried into the Isle of Wight, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li>
+<li>  Mazarin has Montresor arrested in hopes of possessing himself of her costly jewels, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li>
+<li>  applies herself to maintain an alliance between Spain, Austria and Lorraine&mdash;the last basis of her own political reputation, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
+<li>  preserves her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</li>
+<li>  frustrates Mazarin&#8217;s projects to win over the Duke, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the government, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</li>
+<li>  constitutes herself the mediatress between the Queen and the Frondeurs, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
+<li>  partially restored to the Queen&#8217;s confidence, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
+<li>  assisted in her political intrigues by the Marquis de Laigues, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
+<li>  a splendid supper given to her by Madame de Sevign&eacute;, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
+<li>  forms a plan with the Princess Palatine of a grand aristocratic league against Mazarin, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li>
+<li>  the Fronde in 1651 was Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
+<li>  she procures Cond&eacute;&#8217;s release from prison, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
+<li>  her resentment at the rupture of her daughter&#8217;s marriage, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</li>
+<li>  she raises the entire Fronde against Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>;</li>
+<li>  opposes the schemes to assassinate Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
+<li>  Ch&acirc;teauneuf, her friend and instrument, is made Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li>
+<li>  remains staunch to the Queen and Mazarin through the last Fronde, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Chevreuse</span>, Charlotte Marie de Lorraine, Mademoiselle de, her projected marriage with the Prince de Conti, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  supreme importance of such marriage, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
+<li>  disastrous results of its rupture, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</li>
+<li>  impetuously proposes to turn the key upon Cond&eacute;, Conti and Beaufort at the Palais d&#8217;Orleans, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</li>
+<li>  her suspected and almost public <i>liaison</i> with De Retz, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
+<li>  dies suddenly of a fever, unmarried, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cinq Mars</span>, Henri de, undermines Richelieu with Louis XIII., <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his death-warrant, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Coligny</span>, Count Maurice de (grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny), an adorer of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  the dropped letters falsely attributed to him, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  as champion of Madame de Longueville, he challenges the Duke de Guise, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</li>
+<li>  fatal result of the duel, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+<li>  dies of his wounds and of despair, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+<li>  scandalous verses on the occasion, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Coetquen</span>, Marquis de, hospitably receives Madame de Chevreuse when exiled, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cond&eacute;</span>, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de, arbiter of the political situation after Rocroy, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his furious anger at Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s insult to his sister, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
+<li>  hailed by the Queen as the liberator of France, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
+<li>  receives into his house Coligny wounded in duel with Guise, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li>
+<li>  the state in which he found Paris after his victory of Lens: he offers his sword to the Queen, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</li>
+<li>  applies himself to giving the new <i>Importants</i> a harsh lesson, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
+<li>  marches upon Paris and places it under siege, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li>
+<li>  the climax of his fame and fortune as defender and saviour of the throne, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li>
+<li>  he tyrannises over the Court and government, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;</li>
+<li>  he insults Mazarin and embarrasses the Queen, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
+<li>  his want of capacity for business, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
+<li>  his train of <i>petits-ma&icirc;tres</i>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
+<li>  on the murder of one of his servants he tries to crush the Fronde leaders, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>;</li>
+<li>  forces the young Duke de Richelieu to marry clandestinely Mademoiselle de Pons, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li>
+<li>  wounds the Queen&#8217;s pride by compelling her to receive Jarz&eacute; whom she had banished for fatuously believing that she had loved him, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li>
+<li>  arrested on the authority of his own signature and imprisoned at Vincennes, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>;</li>
+<li>  what constituted the strength of the Princes&#8217; party in the Second Fronde, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li>
+<li>  the majority of the women who meddled with politics were, through sympathy, of his party, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</li>
+<li>  his aged mother supplicates in vain for his release, and returns home to die, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;</li>
+<li>  his liberation effected by no other power than that of female influence, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
+<li>  he treats Mazarin with contempt at Havre, and on his release becomes master of the situation, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li>  is courted by both the Fronde and Queen&#8217;s party, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li>  eight hundred princes and nobles partisans of Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li>
+<li>  his sole error not having a fixed and unalterable object, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>;</li>
+<li>  applies himself to form a new Fronde, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li>
+<li>  resumes the imperious tone which had previously embroiled him with the Queen and Mazarin, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li>
+<li>  Hocquincourt proposes to assassinate Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
+<li>  he retreats to St. Maur and holds a Court there, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li>
+<li>  reappears in Parliament, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li>
+<li>  Ch&acirc;teauneuf and Mazarin labour to destroy him, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>;</li>
+<li>  he narrowly escapes an ambuscade at Pontoise, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li>
+<li>  motives which rendered him averse to civil war, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li>
+<li>  his final determination to unsheath the sword, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li>
+<li>  raises the standard of revolt in Guienne, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li>
+<li>  his adventurous expedition, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li>
+<li>  to what did Cond&eacute; aspire? <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li>
+<li>  his inconstancy&mdash;offers himself to Cromwell and to become Protestant to have an English army, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>-<a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li>
+<li>  the income and possessions of his family, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li>
+<li>  he escapes for the tenth time being taken and slain, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>;</li>
+<li>  takes command of the Fronde forces and throws himself upon the royal army, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li>
+<li>  routs Hocquincourt and attacks Turenne unsuccessfully, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>;</li>
+<li>  unjust accusation of Napoleon I. that Cond&eacute; wanted boldness at Bleneau, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li>
+<li>  he leaves the army and hastens to Paris, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li>
+<li>  in abandoning the Loire he commits an immense and irreparable error, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li>
+<li>  invests Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon with full powers as an ambassadress, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li>
+<li>  imbued by her with a design for peace by means the most agreeable, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>;</li>
+<li>  a graceful memento of her power over him still existing in the ancient Ch&acirc;teau of the Colignys, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li>
+<li>  Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon and Madame de Longueville dispute for Cond&eacute;&#8217;s heart, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
+<li>  the overthrow of Mazarin a necessary condition of the domination of Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+<li>  is advised by his sister to rely upon his sword alone, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></li>
+</ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cond&eacute;</span>, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Bourbon (mother of the Great Cond&eacute; and Madame de Longueville), her influence with Anne of Austria, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  her detestation of Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li>
+<li>  tries to destroy her hold upon the Queen, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;</li>
+<li>  her lively resentment at the insult to her daughter in the affair of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  demands a public reparation from Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+<li>  her demeanour during the &#8220;mummeries&#8221; of the apology, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+<li>  obtains the privilege of never associating with Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+<li>  supplicates in vain for Cond&eacute;&#8217;s release, and returns home to die, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Cond&eacute;</span>, Claire Clemence de Maill&eacute;, Princess de Bourbon (daughter of the Duke de Br&eacute;z&eacute;, and wife of the Great Cond&eacute;), shut up in Bordeaux with the Dukes de Bouillon and de Rochefoucauld during &#8220;the Women&#8217;s War,&#8221; <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  only maintains herself in Bordeaux through the aid of the rabble <i>va-nu-pieds</i>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li>
+<li>  forced to take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Conti</span>, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de (brother of the Great Cond&eacute;), his extravagant adoration of his sister, Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  marries Anne Marie Martinozzi, niece of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
+<li>  declared <i>generalissimo</i> of the army of the king, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li>  the problem as to who was the author of the rupture of his marriage with Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li>
+<li>  his ardent passion for her, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li>
+<li>  is made lieutenant-general in Guienne by Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>;</li>
+<li>  finishes, where he begun life, with theology, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Corneille</span>, Pierre, his <i>Emilie</i> painted as a perfect heroine, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Fiesque</span>, Gillona d&#8217;Harcourt, Countess de, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Fouquerolles</span>, Madame de, her terrible anxiety lest she should be compromised by the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  confides the secret to La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  the letters are burnt in the Queen&#8217;s presence, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Fronde</span>, the, what gave it birth and sustained it, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  <i>Day of the Barricades</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
+<li>  the royal power attacked by three parties simultaneously, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;</li>
+<li>  the adherents of the Fronde, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;</li>
+<li>  initiation of the Civil War, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li>  sordid selfishness of the Frondeurs, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li>
+<li>  carries everything before it in 1651, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</li>
+<li>  brief retrospect of the two Fronde wars, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li>
+<li>  one of the most interesting as well as diverting periods in French history, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li>
+<li>  contrast between its main features and the contemporary civil war in England, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>;</li>
+<li>  the wide-spread misery it entailed on France, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Guise</span>, Henri, Duke de Guise (grandson of the <i>Balafr&eacute;</i>), espouses the cause of Madame de Montbazon in the affair of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  confronts and defies the victorious Cond&eacute;s, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</li>
+<li>  fights a duel with Coligny, the champion of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li>
+<li>  his insulting words on unsheathing his sword, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li>
+<li>  result of the duel on party feeling in France, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+<li>  his <i>liaison</i> with Anne de Gonzagua, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes unfaithful to her and elopes with the Countess de Bossuet, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Guym&eacute;n&eacute;</span>, Anne de Rohan, Princess de (sister-in-law of Madame de Chevreuse, and daughter-in-law of Madame Montbazon), her numerous crowd of old and young adorers, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  her flirtation with Mazarin, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
+<li>  furious at having been abandoned by De Retz, offers the Queen to get him confined in a cellar, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Hacqueville</span>, Monsieur de, refuses to be a go-between of De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Hautefort</span>, Marie de (afterwards Duchess de Schomberg), influence of her piety and virtue, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  witnesses the arrest of Beaufort, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Henrietta Maria</span>, Queen of Charles I. of England, her warm reception of Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  seeks an Asylum in France from the Parliamentarians, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></li>
+<li>  asserted to have secretly married her equerry, Jermyn, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Hocquincourt</span>, Charles de Monchy, Marshal d&#8217;, proclaims Madame de Montbazon &#8220;la belle des belles,&#8220; <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  is beaten by Cond&eacute; at Bleneau, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Holland</span>, Henry Rich, Earl of, his political correspondence with Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  encourages the faction of Vend&ocirc;me, Vieuville, and La Valette, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li></ul></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Importants</span>, the&mdash;Rochefoucauld&#8217;s account of that faction, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  irritated by the banishment of their fascinating lady-leader, Madame de Montbazon, they plot to murder Mazarin, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li>
+<li>  their ruin decided upon by the Queen and Mazarin, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+<li>  their error in not conciliating Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+<li>  was the plot real or imaginary&mdash;a point of the highest historical importance, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li>
+<li>  failure of the plot and ruin of the faction, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li></ul></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Joinville</span>, Prince de (son of Charles de Lorraine), suitor for the hand of Anne de Bourbon, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Laigues</span>, Marquis de, declares himself a lover of Madame de Chevreuse to gain political importance, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Longueville</span>, Duchess de, see <span class="smcap">Anne de Bourbon</span>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Longueville</span>, Marie d&#8217;Orleans, see Duchess de <span class="smcap">Nemours</span>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Longueville</span>, Henry de Bourbon, Duke de, marries Anne de Bourbon, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  titular lover of Madame de Montbazon, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li>
+<li>  plenipotentiary at the Congress of Munster in 1645, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+<li>  gives up the Duchess as a hostage to the Fronde, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+<li>  raises Normandy against Mazarin, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</li>
+<li>  he imperatively commands the Duchess to join him in Normandy, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Loret</span>, his rhyming description of the supper given by Madame de Sevign&eacute; to Madame to Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Lorraine</span>, Charles IV., Duke of, involved in the conspiracy of Soissons through Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  prefers amusing himself with civil war to the quiet enjoyment of his throne, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Louis</span> <i>the Just</i> (XIII. of France), signs the death warrant of his favourite, Cinq Mars, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his decree of exile against Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Louis XIV.</span>, his majority declared, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Luynes</span>, Charles de, Favourite of Louis XIII., marries Marie de Rohan (afterwards Duchess de Chevreuse), <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Luynes</span>, the (late) Duke de, aided the Pope against the Garibaldians, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Maulevrier</span>, the Marquis de, writer of the dropped letters addressed to Madame de Fouquerolles, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Mazarin</span>, Jules, Cardinal, succeeds Richelieu as Prime Minister, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his origin, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li>
+<li>  is hated by the nobles, parliament, and middle classes, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;</li>
+<li>  installed in office, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li>
+<li>  his first service to Anne of Austria, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li>
+<li>  his striking personal resemblance to Buckingham, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li>
+<li>  how he obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+<li>  applies himself to gain her heart, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+<li>  finds a formidable opponent to his policy in Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li>
+<li>  is terrified by her matrimonial projects, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>;</li>
+<li>  flirts with Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>;</li>
+<li>  his attentions to Madame de Guym&eacute;n&eacute;, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
+<li>  his difficulty to make the Queen comprehend his policy towards Spain, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>;</li>
+<li>  declares that Madame de Chevreuse would ruin France, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li>
+<li>  forewarned of a conspiracy to destroy him, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
+<li>  the great families opposed to him, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li>
+<li>  his anxieties and perplexities, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li>
+<li>  the relations between him and the Queen, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</li>
+<li>  his intervention in the quarrel of the rival Duchesses, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+<li>  his resolution in confronting the plot of the <i>Importants</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+<li>  did Mazarin owe all his great career to a falsehood cunningly invented and audaciously sustained? <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></li>
+<li>  the plan of the attack upon him, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+<li>  escapes assassination from Beaufort&#8217;s nocturnal ambuscade, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+<li>  compels the Queen to choose her part by addressing himself to her heart, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes absolute master of the Queen&#8217;s heart, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li>
+<li>  banishes the conspirators and arrests Beaufort, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+<li>  his tactics and political sagacity, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
+<li>  first introduces Italian Opera at the French Court, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li>
+<li>  concludes a peace with the Fronde parliament, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>;</li>
+<li>  insulted by Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
+<li>  what constitutes the strength of his party in the <i>Second</i> Fronde, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li>
+<li>  goes into Guienne with the royal army, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li>
+<li>  banished by the Fronde, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li>  treated with contempt by Cond&eacute; at Havre, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</li>
+<li>  with difficulty finds a refuge at Bruhl, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</li>
+<li>  in his exile governs the Queen as absolutely as ever, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>;</li>
+<li>  his immense blunder (in 1650), <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
+<li>  rebanished and his possessions confiscated, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li>
+<li>  governs France from Bruhl, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li>
+<li>  foments quarrels between Cond&eacute; and the Fronde, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</li>
+<li>  composes with the Queen a political comedy of which De Retz became the dupe and Cond&eacute; very nearly the victim, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;</li>
+<li>  the draught of his treaty with the Fronde, the masterpiece of his political skill, falls into Cond&eacute;&#8217;s hands, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
+<li>  alarmed at the success of Ch&acirc;teauneuf, he breaks his ban, and returns to France, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</li>
+<li>  Cond&eacute; and the Fronde united against him, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li>
+<li>  to gain supporters lavishly promises place and money, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Medici</span>, Marie de (Queen of Henry IV. and mother of Louis XIII.), her imprisonment of Charlotte de Montmorency, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  conspires against Richelieu, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Miossens</span>, Count de (afterwards Marshal d&#8217;Albret), tries unsuccessfully to win the heart of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  gives place to La Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montagu</span>, Lord, the intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria, and slave of Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  Anne of Austria&#8217;s confidence in him, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li>
+<li>  his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes a bigot and a devotee, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montbazon</span>, Hercule de Rohan, Duke de (father of Madame de Chevreuse and the Prince de Guym&eacute;n&eacute;), marries at sixty-one Marie d&#8217;Avangour aged sixteen, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  recommends the example of Marie de Medici to his young wife and takes her to Court, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montbazon</span>, Marie d&#8217;Avangour, Duchess de, called by d&#8217;Hocquincourt &#8220;la belle des belles,&#8221; the youthful stepmother of Madame de Chevreuse, her parentage and antecedents, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  married at sixteen to a husband of sixty-one, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;</li>
+<li>  her personal and mental characteristics, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li>
+<li>  contrast in manners between her and Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li>
+<li>  her numerous adorers; the Duke de Beaufort her titular lover, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;</li>
+<li>  her malignant hatred of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  employs her influence over the houses of Vend&ocirc;me and Lorraine to the injury of her rival, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  the affair of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+<li>  the party of the <i>Importants</i> espouse her cause, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  she is compelled to make a public apology before the Queen and Court, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;</li>
+<li>  the pretended reconciliation only a fresh declaration of war, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+<li>  her conduct at the collation given the Queen by Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li>
+<li>  is banished by the King&#8217;s order, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>;</li>
+<li>  she inveigles Beaufort into a plot to destroy Mazarin, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montespan</span>, Fran&ccedil;oise-Athenais de Rochechouart Mortemart, Duchess de, her fame as a beauty, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  relations to her of the Dukes de Longueville and Beaufort, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Montpensier</span>, Anne Marie Louise d&#8217;Orleans (known as <i>La Grande Mademoiselle</i>), daughter of Gaston, Duke d&#8217;Orleans and cousin of Louis XIV., preserves the text of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  gives the two speeches made on the occasion of Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s reparation, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Motteville</span>, Frances Bertaut, Madame de, her amusing recital of the &#8220;mummeries&#8221; in the affair of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  her account of the Queen&#8217;s reception of the news of the abortive attempt to kill Mazarin, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span></li>
+<li>  her portrait of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;</li>
+<li>  the principal motive which urged La Rochefoucauld to woo the Duchess, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Nemours</span>, Marie d&#8217;Orleans, Duchess de (daughter of Henri, Duke de Longueville), her harsh censure of the pride and impracticability of the Cond&eacute;s, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  quits Madame de Longueville to take refuge in a convent, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>;</li>
+<li>  moves heaven and earth for the release of Cond&eacute; that he might keep watch over the Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
+<li>  her character, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li>
+<li>  the enemy of the Fronde and the Cond&eacute;s, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>;</li>
+<li>  her detestation of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Nemours</span>, Charles Amadeus, of Savoy, Duke de, prompted by the Duchess de Ch&acirc;tillon, his mistress, embraces the cause of Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  pays court to Madame de Longueville instead of making active war in Berri, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li>
+<li>  the obscure relations between them at this juncture, drives La Rochefoucauld to a violent rupture with Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><span class="smcap">Orleans</span>, Gaston, Duke d&#8217; (brother of Louis XIII.), conspires against Richelieu, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his incapacity to govern, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
+<li>  his jealousy of the influence of Cond&eacute; and of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
+<li>  makes De Retz his confidant, who obtains his assent to the arrest of the Princes, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes the head of a fifth party in the Second Fronde, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>;</li>
+<li>  consents to the liberation of the Princes on promise that his daughter should marry Cond&eacute;&#8217;s son, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li>
+<li>  governed by De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Petits-Ma&icirc;tres</span>, the train of Cond&eacute; called, their character, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Palatine</span>, Anne de Gonzagua, Princess (widow of Edward Prince Palatine), peculiarities of her epistolary style, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  her large intelligence, solidity, refinement and ingenuity of thought, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
+<li>  becomes the head and mainspring of the Princes&#8217; party, or Second Fronde, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
+<li>  the formidable political opponent of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</li>
+<li>  her extraordinary political and diplomatical ability, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li>
+<li>  her antecedents, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</li>
+<li>  her <i>liaison</i> with Henri de Guise under a promise of marriage, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li>
+<li>  disguised in male attire she joins her lover at Besan&ccedil;on, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>;</li>
+<li>  abandoned by the volatile de Guise, who elopes with the Countess de Bossuet, she returns to Paris, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li>
+<li>  is married to Prince Edward, Count Palatine of the Rhine, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>;</li>
+<li>  by her conciliatory tact she obtains the esteem of all parties in the Fronde, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li>
+<li>  De Retz&#8217;s eulogium and Madame de Motteville&#8217;s opinion of her, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li>
+<li>  she operates on behalf of the imprisoned Princes, and negotiates four different treaties for their deliverance, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>;</li>
+<li>  an alliance with the two camps concluded by her with De Retz, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li>
+<li>  she conducts with consummate skill the negotiation between Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Phalzbourg</span>, Princess de (sister of Charles IV. of Lorraine), acts as a spy over Madame de Chevreuse in the interest of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Political Intrigue</span>, an affair of fashion among the ladies of Anne of Austria&#8217;s Court, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Rambouillet</span>, Hotel de, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Retz</span>, John Francis Paul Gondi, Cardinal de, the evil genius of the Fronde, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his influence over the Parisians as Coadjutor, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li>
+<li>  his character&mdash;ladies of gallantry his chief political agents, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</li>
+<li>  his conspicuous merits and faults, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>;</li>
+<li>  his master-stroke of address, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>;</li>
+<li>  his best concerted measures abortive through his inclination for the fair sex, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
+<li>  fails to acquire the confidence of anyone&mdash;is threatened with assassination, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li>
+<li>  lends an ear to Cromwell and contracts a close friendship with Montrose, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></li>
+<li>  has the same interests with Madame de Chevreuse in securing the union of her daughter with Conti, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>;</li>
+<li>  an analysis of his character, antecedents, and aspirations, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li>
+<li>  admitted unwillingly into the secret councils of the Queen, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li>
+<li>  his midnight interview with Anne of Austria, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</li>
+<li>  holds the key of Paris, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;</li>
+<li>  he trims and follows the Duke d&#8217;Orleans, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Richelieu</span>, Cardinal de, his government through terror, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  conspiracy to destroy him, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>-<a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</li>
+<li>  result of his efforts to consolidate the regal power, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Richelieu</span>, Duke de, engaged to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but forced by Cond&eacute; to marry clandestinely when under age, Mademoiselle de Pons, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.
+</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Rochefoucauld</span>, Francis, second Duke de la&mdash;his career as Prince de Marsillac, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his character of the Duchess de Longueville, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
+<li>  his advice to Madame de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
+<li>  Madame de Fouquerolles confides to him the secret of the dropped letters, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  he delivers her and her lover from their terrible anxiety, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+<li>  seeks to hush up and terminate the quarrel of the rival Duchesses, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+<li>  constitutes himself the champion of Madame de Chevreuse&#8217;s innocence of Beaufort&#8217;s plot, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li>
+<li>  allies himself with that illustrious political adventuress, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li>
+<li>  desirous of securing to his party the master-mind of Cond&eacute; to avenge himself of the Queen and Mazarin, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li>
+<li>  makes persistent love to Madame de Longueville and wins her heart, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+<li>  his cynical maxim on the love of certain women, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+<li>  his personal and mental characteristics, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li>
+<li>  the way in which he superseded Miossens as the lover of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
+<li>  his sordid motive as her wooer, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li>
+<li>  his restless spirit and ever discontented vanity, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>;</li>
+<li>  effects the escape from Paris of Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>;</li>
+<li>  gives proof of a rare fidelity through the whole of &#8220;the Women&#8217;s War,&#8221; <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
+<li>  his ancestral ch&acirc;teau of Verteuil razed to the ground by Mazarin&#8217;s orders, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</li>
+<li>  his conduct at this time contradicts the assertion that he never loved the woman he seduced and dragged into the vortex of politics, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</li>
+<li>  his version of the true cause of the rupture of the marriage between Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and Conti, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>:</li>
+<li>  grows weary of a wandering and adventurous life, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>;</li>
+<li>  the report of certain obscure relations existing between Nemours and Madame de Longueville drives him to a violent rupture with the Duchess, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li>
+<li>  his accusation more absurd than odious, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>;</li>
+<li>  to indulge his revenge against Madame de Longueville, he enters into all Madame de Ch&acirc;tillon&#8217;s designs, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>;</li>
+<li>  directs her how to manage Cond&eacute; and Nemours both at once, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Scudery</span>, Mademoiselle de, and the prudes of the Hotel de Rambouillet protest strongly against the marriage of Conti with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Seguier</span>, Pierre, Keeper of the Seals, his character, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Sevign&eacute;</span>, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de, gives a splendid supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Soissons</span>, Count de, his conspiracy to destroy Cardinal de Richelieu, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">St. Maure</span>, Countess of, the polish and precision of her epistolary style, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Tavannes</span>, Count de, a valiant <i>petit-ma&icirc;tre</i> to whom Cond&eacute; gives command of the army after Bleneau, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Turenne</span>, Marshal de, raises the standard of revolt in behalf of the Fronde, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  is won over to make a treaty with Spain by Madame de Longueville, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</li>
+<li>  thanked by the Queen after Bleneau, for having placed the crown a second time on her son&#8217;s head, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li>
+<li>  achieves the importance of being a rival of Cond&eacute;, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>;</li>
+<li>  <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'attack's'">attacks</ins> the enemy&#8217;s camp when half the officers of Cond&eacute;&#8217;s army were at Madame de Montbazon&#8217;s f&ecirc;te, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></li></ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX"><li><span class="smcap">Vigean</span>, Mademoiselle de, Cond&eacute;&#8217;s love for, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Vend&ocirc;me</span>, Duke C&aelig;sar de, the faction of, with La Vieuville and La Valette, when emigrants in England, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>  his pretensions and agitated life, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>;</li>
+<li>  decides to exile himself in Italy and await the fall of Mazarin, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Vitry</span>, Marshal de, prepares with Count de Cramail a <i>coup-de-main</i> against Richelieu, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p class='title'><big>END OF VOL. I.</big></p>
+
+<p class='title'><small>BRADBURY, AGNEW, &amp; CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.</small></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='tnote'>
+<h2>Transcriber&#8217;s Note</h2>
+
+
+<p class='noi'>The original punctuation, language and spelling have been retained,
+except where noted.</p>
+
+<p class='noi'>
+Alternative spellings:</p>
+<ul><li>Ch&acirc;teau, Chateau</li>
+<li>Ch&acirc;teauneuf, Chateauneuf</li>
+<li>Ch&acirc;tillon, Chatillon</li>
+<li>Claire Cl&eacute;mence de Maill&eacute;, Claire Clemence de Maill&eacute;</li>
+<li>Gondi, Gondy</li>
+<li>Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;, Gu&eacute;m&eacute;n&eacute;e, Guym&eacute;n&eacute;</li>
+<li>heyday, heydey</li>
+<li>H&ocirc;tel, h&ocirc;tel, Hotel, hotel</li>
+<li>Meilleraye, Meilleraie</li>
+<li>Montr&eacute;sor, Montresor</li>
+<li>M&uuml;nster, Munster</li>
+<li>Orl&eacute;ans, Orleans</li>
+<li>Scudery, Scuderi</li>
+<li>S&eacute;guier, Seguier</li>
+<li>S&eacute;vign&eacute;, Sevign&eacute;</li>
+<li>strenuously, strenously</li>
+<li>Tallemant des R&eacute;aux, Tallement des R&eacute;aux, Tallemant de Reaux</li></ul>
+
+
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_16">16</a>: (afterwards Duke de Rochefoucald)</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_33">33</a>: Angoul&ecirc;sme, until after the peace be</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_43">43</a>: French language: [&#8220;]<i>La reine est si bonne!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_79">79</a>: royal authority now seriously theatened.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_85">85</a>: oppose testimony more distinterested,</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_85">85</a>: confidental letters furnish us.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_146">146</a>: Footnote 48: <i>varures</i>, valued at two hundred thousand</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_157">157</a>: troops, at the parades of the citizen soldiery.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_165">165</a>: exposed to one of those <i>coups d&#8217;&ecirc;tat</i>,</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_179">179</a>: the Secretary of State, La Veilli&egrave;re,</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_184">184</a>: firmness,[&#8221;] says Lenet, &#8220;that he seemed as though</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_202">202</a>: Footnote 61: Leomeni de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_231">231</a>: to look upon her with horror. &#8220;He even blamed</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_232">232</a>:  From that moment means of of breaking off</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_232">232</a>: and obscurities resting upon this deli-</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_256">234</a>: missing anchor for Footnote 67.</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_269">269</a>: La Rouchefoucauld, getting Gondy </p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_269">269</a>: Rouchefoucauld, he determined to set</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_279">279</a>: broken his ban, quitted his retreat at Dinan, and and</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_282">282</a>: went out to forage. He suceeded in procuring</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_303">303</a>: her personal characteristics, 18:[;]</p>
+
+<p>Page <a href="#Page_310">310</a>: attack&#8217;s the enemy&#8217;s camp when half</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by 
+Sutherland Menzies
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL WOMEN (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by Sutherland Menzies
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2)
+
+Author: Sutherland Menzies
+
+Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #27192]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL WOMEN (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Emanuela Piasentini and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+    |Transcriber's note.                                         |
+    |                                                            |
+    |The original punctuation, language and spelling have been   |
+    |retained, except where noted at the end of the text.        |
+    |The [oe] ligature has been rendered as oe.                  |
+    |                                                            |
+    |Alternative spellings:                                      |
+    |Chateau: Chateau                                            |
+    |Chateauneuf: Chateauneuf                                    |
+    |Chatillon: Chatillon                                        |
+    |Claire Clemence de Maille: Claire Clemence de Maille        |
+    |Gondi: Gondy                                                |
+    |Guemene: Guemenee, Guymene                                  |
+    |heyday: heydey                                              |
+    |Hotel, hotel: Hotel, hotel                                  |
+    |Meilleraye: Meilleraie                                      |
+    |Montresor: Montresor                                        |
+    |Muenster: Munster                                            |
+    |Orleans: Orleans                                            |
+    |Scudery: Scuderi                                            |
+    |Seguier: Seguier                                            |
+    |Sevigne: Sevigne                                            |
+    |strenuously: strenously                                     |
+    |Tallemant des Reaux: Tallement des Reaux, Tallemant de Reaux|
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+                            POLITICAL WOMEN.
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           SUTHERLAND MENZIES,
+
+                   AUTHOR OF "ROYAL FAVOURITES," ETC.
+
+
+                            IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                                VOL. I.
+
+
+                          HENRY S. KING & CO.,
+
+             65, CORNHILL, AND 12, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
+
+                                 1873.
+
+
+
+
+                        [_All rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+  PART I.                                                      PAGE
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                  vii
+
+
+  BOOK I.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Anne de Bourbon (sister of the Great Conde)          3
+
+        II.--The Duchess de Longueville                          12
+
+       III. & IV.--The Duchess de Chevreuse                  17, 35
+
+
+  BOOK II.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Anne of Austria's Prime Minister and his policy     43
+
+        II.--The Duchess de Montbazon--Affair of the dropped
+             letters--The Quarrel of the rival Duchesses         66
+
+       III.--The _Importants_                                    77
+
+        IV.--Conspiracy of the Duchess de Chevreuse and the Duke
+             de Beaufort to get rid of Mazarin                   82
+
+         V.--Failure of the plot to assassinate Mazarin--Arrest
+             of Beaufort--Banishment of Madame de Chevreuse and
+             dispersion of the _Importants_                      99
+
+        VI.--Results of the quarrel between the Duchesses--Fatal
+             duel between the Duke de Guise and Count Maurice de
+             Coligny                                            110
+
+
+  BOOK III.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--The Duchess de Longueville and the Duke de la
+             Rochefoucauld                                      121
+
+        II.--La Rochefoucauld draws Madame de Longueville into
+             the vortex of politics and civil war               131
+
+       III.--The Duchess de Chevreuse driven into exile for the
+             third time                                         143
+
+        IV.--Fatal influence of Madame de Longueville's passion
+             for La Rochefoucauld--The Fronde                   149
+
+         V.--Madame de Longueville wins over her brother Conde
+             to the Fronde                                      161
+
+        VI.--The causes which led to the _coup d'etat_--The
+             arrest of the Princes                              168
+
+       VII.--Madame de Longueville's adventures in Normandy--The
+           _Women's War_                                        178
+
+
+  BOOK IV.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--The Princess Palatine                              187
+
+        II.--The young Princess de Conde conducts the war in
+             the south                                          203
+
+       III.--State of Parties on the liberation of the Princes  214
+
+        IV.--The Duchesses de Longueville and de Chevreuse and
+             the Princess Palatine in the last Fronde--Results
+             of the rupture of the marriage projected between
+             the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse  221
+
+         V.--Conde, urged by his sister, goes unwillingly into
+             rebellion                                          257
+
+        VI.--Madame de Longueville coquets with the Duke de
+             Nemours                                            262
+
+
+  BOOK V.
+
+  CHAP.  I.--Conde's adventurous expedition                     275
+
+        II.--Political and gallant intrigues--The Duchess de
+             Chatillon's sway over Conde--Shameful conspiracy
+             against Madame de Longueville                      290
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+IN selecting the careers of certain celebrated women who have flung
+themselves with ardour into the vortex of politics, the author's choice
+has not been so much an arbitrary one as it might seem, but rather
+guided by instances in which the adventurous game has not been
+restricted to the commonplace contentions of the public platform, or the
+private salon, but played on the grandest scale and on the most
+conspicuous arena; when Peace and War, crowns and dynasties, have
+trembled in the balance, and even the fate of a nation has been at
+stake.
+
+The untoward results of the lives thus devoted--dazzling and heroic as
+some passages in their dramatic vicissitudes may appear--point the moral
+of the futility of such pursuit on the part of the gentler sex, and
+indicate the certainty of the penalty to be paid by those who by
+venturing into the fervid, exhausting struggle, and rashly courting
+exposure to the rough blows of the battle of political life, with its
+coarse and noisy passions, have discovered too late that the strife has
+done them irreparable injury. In the cases of those selected it will be
+seen that the fierce contention has commonly involved the sacrifice of
+conjugal happiness, the welfare of children, domestic peace, reputation,
+and all the amenities of the gentle life.
+
+That clever women abound in the present day we have undeniable
+proof--many as clever, no doubt, as that famous philosopheress Madame du
+Chatelet, who managed at one and the same moment the thread of an
+intrigue, her cards at piquet, and a calculation in algebra, but who may
+still lack the qualifications indispensably necessary to make clever
+politicians. Perhaps, therefore, we might be allowed to suggest that it
+would be well for ladies who are ambitious of figuring in either or both
+spheres that politics and diplomacy are special and laborious pursuits,
+involving a great deal of knowledge as difficult, and in the first
+instance as repulsive, to acquire as Greek or chemistry. Yet, fully
+admitting their capacity to qualify themselves intellectually, and
+supposing them to attain the summit of their ambition of figuring
+successfully in public life, a grave question still arises--would they
+thereby increase or diminish their present great social influence? They
+have now more influence of a certain kind than men have; but if they
+obtain the influence of men, they cannot expect to retain the influence
+of women. Nature, it may be thought, has established a fair distribution
+of power between the two sexes. Women are potent in one sphere, and men
+in another; and, if they are conscious of the domestic sway they already
+exercise, they will not imperil it by challenging dominion in a field in
+which they would be less secure.
+
+Root and bond of the family, woman is no less a stranger by her natural
+aptitudes than by her domestic ministrations to the general interests of
+society; the conduct of the latter demands, in fact, a disengagement of
+heart and mind to which she can only attain by transforming herself, to
+the detriment of her duties and of her true influence. Ever to
+subordinate persons to things, never to overstep in her efforts the
+strict measure of the possible--those two conditions of the political
+life are repugnant to her ardent and devoted nature. Even amongst women
+in whom those gifts are met with in the highest degree, clearness of
+perception has been almost always obscured by the ardour of pursuit or
+that of patronage--by the irresistible desire of pushing to the
+extremity of success her own ideas, and especially those of her friends.
+
+Again, let us imagine political life to resemble a great game at cards,
+the rules of which have been settled beforehand, and the winnings
+devoted to the use of the greatest number; well, a woman ought never to
+take a hand in it. Her place should be at the player's elbow, to warn
+and advise him, to point out an unperceived chance, to share in his
+success, more than all to console him, should luck run against him.
+Thus, whilst all her better qualities would be brought into play, all
+her weaker would not in any wise be at stake.
+
+We would put it, therefore, to the womanly conscience--Is it not a
+hundred times more honourable to exercise, so to speak, rights that are
+legitimately recognised, though wisely limited, than to suffer in
+consideration, and often in reputation, from an usurpation always
+certain of being disputed?
+
+It has been the author's endeavour to show the truth of these
+conclusions by tracing the political career of certain well-born and
+singularly-gifted women--women whose lofty courage, strength of mind,
+keen introspection, political zeal, and genius for intrigue enabled them
+to baffle and make head against some of the greatest political male
+celebrities of modern history, without, however, winning us over to
+their opinions or their cause; women who, in some instances, after
+passing the best period of their lives in political strife, in
+fostering civil war, in hatching perilous plots, and who, having cast
+fortune and all the "gentle life" to the winds, preferred exile to
+submission, or to wage a struggle as fruitless as it was unceasing;
+until having arrived at the tardy conviction of its futility, and that
+they had devoted their existence to the pursuit of the illusory and the
+chimerical, they found at length repose and tranquillity only in
+solitude and repentance.
+
+In the stirring careers of certain among these remarkable personages, it
+will be seen that the mainspring of their political zeal was either the
+fierce excitement of an overmastering passion, an irresistible
+proclivity to gallantry, or an absorbing ambition, rather than any
+patriotic motive. This may go far to explain the singular sagacity,
+finesse, and energy displayed in their devotion to what otherwise
+appears alike mischievous and chimerical by those three high-born and
+splendidly-gifted women who figured so conspicuously in the civil war of
+the Fronde; and, though so much self-abnegation, courage, constancy, and
+heroism, well or ill displayed, may obtain some share of pardon for
+errors it would be wrong to palliate or condone, their example, it is to
+be hoped, will prove deterrent rather than contagious. La
+Rochefoucauld--a moralist, though by no means a moral man--who well knew
+the sex, had seen at work these political women of the time of the
+Fronde. That opportunity does not appear to have inspired him with an
+unbounded admiration for them from that point of view.
+
+Of the peril and mischief that fair trio inflicted upon Anne of
+Austria's great Prime Minister and the State he governed we have an
+interesting personal record. When, in 1660, Mazarin's policy, triumphant
+on every side, had added the treaty of the Pyrenees to that of
+Westphalia, the honour of the conclusion of the protracted conference
+held at the _Isle of Pheasants_ was reserved for the chief Ministers of
+the two Crowns--the Cardinal and Don Louis de Haro. The latter
+congratulated his brother premier on the well-earned repose he was about
+to enjoy, after such a long and arduous struggle. The Cardinal replied
+that he could not promise himself any repose in France, for there, he
+said, the _female_ politicians were more to be dreaded than the _male_;
+and he complained bitterly of the torments he had undergone at the hands
+of certain political women of the Fronde--notably the Duchess de
+Longueville, the Duchess de Chevreuse, and the Princess Palatine, each
+of whom, he asserted, was capable of upsetting three kingdoms.
+
+"You are very lucky here in Spain," he added. "You have, as everywhere
+else, two kinds of women--coquettes in abundance, and a very few
+simple-minded domestic women. The former care only to please their
+lovers, the latter their husbands. Neither the one nor the other,
+however, have any ambition beyond indulging themselves in vanities and
+luxuries. They only employ their pens in scribbling billet-doux or
+love-confessions, neither one nor other bother their brains as to how
+the grain grows, whilst talking about business makes their heads ache.
+Our women, on the contrary, whether prudes or flirts, old or young,
+stupid or clever, will intermeddle with everything. No honest woman," to
+use the Cardinal's own words, "would permit her spouse to go to sleep,
+no coquette allow her lover any favour, ere she had heard all the
+political news of the day. They will see all that goes on, will know
+everything, and--what is worse--have a finger in everything, and set
+everything in confusion. We have a trio, among others"--and he again
+named the three fair factionists above mentioned--"who threw us all
+daily into more confusion than was ever known in Babel."
+
+"Thank heaven!" replied Don Louis, somewhat ungallantly, "our women
+_are_ of the disposition seemingly so well known to you. Provided that
+they can finger the cash, whether of their husbands or their lovers,
+they are satisfied; and I am very glad to say that they do not meddle
+with politics, for if they did they would assuredly embroil everything
+in Spain as they do in France."
+
+It was during the minority of Louis XIV. that Mazarin had but too good
+cause to complain of the three clever and fascinating women he thus
+named to Don Louis de Haro, who through their political factions,
+intrigues, and gallantries gave Anne of Austria's Minister no rest, and
+for a long period not only thwarted and opposed him, but at intervals
+placed the State, and even his life, in imminent jeopardy.
+
+Fortunately, in our political history the instances are rare of women
+who have quitted the sphere of domesticity and private life to take an
+active part in the affairs of State. We say "fortunately;" for in our
+opinion such abstention has tended to the happiness of both sexes in
+England.
+
+In French memoirs, politics and scandal, the jokes of the _salons_ and
+the councils of the Cabinet are inextricably mixed up together, and
+reveal a political system in which the authority exercised under free
+institutions by men had been transferred to the art, the tact, and the
+accomplishments of the female sex. We therein see how much women have
+done by those subtle agencies. If France was a despotism tempered by
+epigrams, it was the life of the _salons_ which brought those epigrams
+to perfection; and the _salons_ thus constituted a sort of social
+parliament, which, though unable to stop the supplies or withhold the
+Mutiny Act, still possessed a formidable weapon of offence in the power
+of making the Government ridiculous. Such was the difference existing
+between two quite distinct modes of government; between Parliamentary
+government and closet government; between the mace of the House of
+Commons and the fan of the Duchess de Longueville. England, as we need
+hardly say, has never had a government of this description. The nearest
+approach to it which she has ever seen was under the sway of Charles the
+Second, and, accordingly, the nearest approach to French memoirs which
+our literature possesses is in the volumes of Pepys and Hamilton. To the
+almost universal exemption of Englishwomen from taking an overt part in
+political affairs a striking exception must be made in Sarah, Duchess of
+Marlborough. She is the strongest example, perhaps, in the history of
+the world--certainly in the history of this empire--of the abuse of
+female favouritism, and the most flagrant instance of household
+familiarity on the destinies of mankind. Sarah Jennings, the political
+heroine of her age, and Viceroy, as she was called, in England, had,
+however, for contemporaries two other remarkable women, who touched the
+springs of political machinery quite as powerfully as--if not more
+powerfully than, save herself, any to be found within the limits of
+Europe--Madame de Maintenon and the Princess des Ursins. In the
+respective careers of that other formidable trio of female politicians
+may be traced the important, the overwhelming, influence, which female
+Ministers, under the title of Court ladies, had obtained over the
+destinies of England, France, and Spain. At that momentous period--the
+commencement of the eighteenth century--the memoirs of a _bed-chamber
+lady_ constitute the history of Europe. The bed-chamber woman soon
+became the pivot of the political world. The influence of Mrs. Masham
+first endangered and finally overthrew the power of the great Duke of
+Marlborough. Some of the characteristics of the reign of Charles the
+Second reappeared partially and in a very unattractive form under the
+two first Georges, and have served to impart a tinge of French colour to
+the memoirs which describe their Courts. But, fortunately for England,
+neither Walpole nor his royal master were men of refined taste. It would
+have been hard for a monarch like Charles the Second, or a minister like
+Lord Bolingbroke, to resist the charms of those beautiful and sprightly
+girls who sparkle like diamonds in all the memoirs of that time. Their
+political influence was but small. George the First and his successor
+pursued their unwieldy loves and enjoyed their boorish romps in a style
+not seductive to English gentlemen. Politics were surrendered to
+Walpole; and the consequence was that, although there was plenty of
+immorality under those gracious Sovereigns, yet the feminine element of
+Court life had no longer that connection with _public policy_ which once
+for a brief space it had possessed; and the resemblance to French
+manners in this respect grew less and less, till it disappeared
+altogether with the accession of George the Third.
+
+During the reign of that domesticated paterfamilias a slight exception,
+it is true, occurred in the instance of Georgina Spencer, Duchess of
+Devonshire. Young, beautiful, amiable, and witty, and not altogether
+free from coquetry, she reckoned amongst her admirers some of the most
+distinguished men of that day. She fascinated them all without
+encouraging the pretensions of any; and notwithstanding the jealousy
+which so great a superiority necessarily excited among her own sex, and
+despite the rancour to which the inutility of their efforts to please
+her gave birth in the bosoms of certain of the men, she preserved a
+reputation for discretion beyond all suspicion. One circumstance of her
+life might indeed have cast a slur upon her fair fame if her
+irreproachable conduct, added to her natural graces, had not condoned a
+species of notoriety which opinion in England very generally reproves.
+The Duchess of Devonshire had friendly relations with the celebrated
+Charles James Fox, and that friendship had taken the tinge of party
+spirit. Fox presented himself as a candidate to represent Westminster in
+Parliament. He had two very formidable opponents, and it was thought
+that he would have succumbed in the struggle had not several amiable and
+energetic women made extraordinary efforts to procure him votes. At the
+head of these fair solicitors was the Duchess of Devonshire. A butcher
+whose vote she requested promised it to her on the condition that he
+might give her a kiss. To this she cheerfully consented, and that kiss
+added one more vote to her friend's poll. Such familiarity was far less
+shocking to our English manners than the too active and public part
+taken by a lady of distinction in politics. Very few of her countrywomen
+before her time had given occasion for a like scandal.[1]
+
+    [1] An anecdote of her has been preserved which proves how very
+    general was the impression the grace and beauty of the Duchess of
+    Devonshire made upon men in every station of society. On one
+    occasion of her being present on the racecourse at Newmarket, a
+    burly farmer who stood near her carriage, after having for some time
+    gazed at her in a species of ecstasy, exclaimed aloud, "Ah! why am I
+    not God Almighty?--she should then be Queen of Heaven!" The Duchess
+    preserved her personal charms far beyond the period of life when
+    they commonly disappear among women, though she lost one of her eyes
+    a few years before her death in 1806.
+
+The existence of those literary assemblies in France during the
+eighteenth century, the most important of which were those presided
+over by Madame du Deffand, Mdlle. de Lespinasse, and Madame Geoffrin,
+were a characteristic feature of the time. It is a notable fact that the
+abstention from politics in those assemblies indirectly tended to
+increase the power and importance of the women who frequented them.
+Alluding to their influence, Montesquieu caustically remarked that a
+nation where women give the prevailing tone must necessarily be
+talkative. Then, however, it was the men who talked and the women who
+listened. The men talked because they could do little else; women gave
+the prevailing tone because men of all classes were partly compelled,
+and partly willing, to gather around them. The nobles being excluded
+from politics--in which none but the Ministers and their creatures could
+interfere--exercising no control either as individuals or as a body,
+naturally gave themselves up to the pleasures of society. Their
+political insignificance thus increased the power and importance of
+women.
+
+To a far greater degree was their power and importance increased, on the
+contrary, during the first decade of the French Revolution, when, from
+the exceptional position they held, the _salons_ of Madame Roland,
+Madame Necker, Madame de Suard, and others were essentially
+political--that of Madame Roland being almost an echo of the Legislative
+Assembly. But women who love freedom abstractedly for its own sake, and
+are ready to suffer and die for a political principle, like Madame
+Roland, are very rarely met with.
+
+Towards the close of the century the female leaders of the hitherto
+literary and social _salons_ were so irresistibly swept into the
+whirlpool of public questions and events that they for the most part
+involuntarily became mere political partisans. Among others, but with a
+considerable modification on the score of the literary element, may be
+instanced Madame de Stael, who by descent, education, and natural bias
+was inevitably destined to aim at political power. The extent and
+prominence of that exercised by her must have been considerable, though
+certainly overrated by Napoleon, in whom, however, it excited such
+unreasonable apprehension as led him to inflict ten years' banishment
+from France upon the talented daughter of Necker.
+
+It must not be inferred that we desire to reduce women to the condition
+of a humiliating inaction. Far from it. In the position we would place
+them they could never feel, think, or act with greater interest or
+vivacity. Whilst it is desirable that every kind of artifice or intrigue
+should be interdicted from the interior of their domesticity, it is
+quite permissible for them to watch attentively important matters that
+may be occurring in public life. To that function they may bring their
+care and their solicitude, in order to follow and second continually the
+companion of their existence. "Les hommes meme," says Fenelon, "qui ont
+toute l'autorite en public, ne peuvent par leurs deliberations etablir
+aucun bien effectif, si les femmes ne leur aident a l'executer." Such
+was the legitimate influence exercised by the Princess Esterhazy, Ladies
+Holland, Palmerston, and Beaconsfield, in our day. It is no secret that
+the late lamented Viscountess Beaconsfield took the deepest interest in
+every great movement in which her illustrious husband was engaged. Such,
+too, was the case with Lady Palmerston, in reference to the great
+statesman whose name she bore. The influence of women in the politics of
+recent days is something peculiar and new. Our time has seen many women
+whose share in the politics of men was frank, unconcealed, and
+legitimate, while yet it never pretended or sought to be anything more
+than an influence--never attempted to be a ruling spirit. By following
+these examples, the women of England may make their power felt, without
+demanding to be put upon the same footing as their husbands.
+
+Woman's reign, it has been truly said, "is almost absolute within the
+four walls of a drawing-room." It is undisputed in family direction and
+in the management of children; but the cases are rare indeed where it
+extends to _public questions_ of any kind. The Frenchwoman of the
+present day is essentially a woman. Her objects are almost always
+feminine; she does not seek to go beyond her sphere; she understands her
+mission as one of duty in her house and of attraction towards the world;
+she is generally very ignorant of politics and all dry subjects, and
+shrinks from any active part in their discussion. Of course there are
+exceptions by the thousand; but the rule is that she voluntarily
+abstains from interference in outside topics, whatever be their gravity
+or their importance. She may have a vague opinion on such matters,
+picked up from hearing men talk around her, but the bent of her nature
+leads her in other ways--her tendency is towards things which satisfy
+her as a woman. It naturally follows that men do not give her what she
+does not seem to want. They consult her on matters of mutual interest,
+they ask for and often follow her advice in business; but in nine cases
+out of ten no husband would allow his wife to tell him how to vote at an
+election, or what form of government to support. This distinction is
+infinitely more remarkable in France than any analogous condition would
+be in England, because of the existence there of several rivals to the
+throne, and the consequent splitting up of the entire nation into
+adherents of each pretender. Yet even this exceptional position does not
+induce Frenchwomen to become politicians. Some few of them, of course,
+are so, and fling themselves with ardour into the cause they have
+adopted; but, fortunately for the tranquillity of their homes, the
+greater part of them have wisdom enough to comprehend that their real
+functions on the earth are of another kind.
+
+The majority of the champions of the enfranchisement of the sex have
+loudly protested against the hackneyed truisms, formerly so rife, which
+impute to women every imaginable form of silliness and frivolity; that
+they, like Alphonse Karr's typical woman, have nothing to do but
+"_s'habiller, babiller et se deshabiller_." But it will be well to
+remember the existence of another class of maxims of even greater
+weight, which dwell on the subtle influence of women, and of its
+illimitable consequences. "If the nose of Cleopatra," remarks the most
+famous of these aphorists--Pascal--"had been a hair's-breadth longer,
+the fortunes of the world would have been altered." Has the influence of
+the sex decreased since the days of the dusky beauty whose irresistible
+fascinations
+
+    "----lost a world, and bade a hero fly?"
+
+Rather, is it not infinitely more subtle, wider, and more prevailing
+than ever? No one who recognises the skill with which that immense
+influence may be exercised can listen without astonishment to the flimsy
+arguments which are usually advanced in support of the question of the
+political enfranchisement of the sex. That the results of giving this
+particular form of ability--a power which is irresistible to the highest
+intellectual refinement--the political arena for its field have not only
+proved widely injurious to women who have so exercised it, but to those
+most closely connected with them, it has been the author's object to
+show.
+
+"And what hope of permanent success," it has been cogently asked, "could
+women have if they were to enter into competition with men in callings
+considered peculiarly masculine, many of which are already overstocked?"
+We are also brought here again face to face with that evil--the
+lessening or the complete loss of womanly grace and purity. Take away
+that reverential regard which men now feel for them, leave them to win
+their way by sheer strength of body or mind, and the result is not
+difficult to conjecture. Let the condition of women in savage life tell.
+Towards something like this, although in civilised society not so
+coarsely and roughly exposed to view, matters would tend if these
+agitators for women's rights were successful. Husbands, brothers, sons,
+have too keen a sense of what they owe of good to their female relatives
+to risk its loss; or to exchange the gentleness, purity, and refinement
+of their homes for boldness, flippancy, hardness and knowledge of evil.
+
+Nature, herself, then, has disqualified women from fighting and from
+entering into the fierce contentions of the prickly and crooked ways of
+politics. There is a silent and beautiful education which Heaven
+intended that all alike should learn from mothers, sisters, and wives.
+Each home was meant to have in their gentler presence a softening and
+refining element, so that strength should train itself to be submissive,
+rudeness should become abashed, and coarse passions held in check by the
+natural influence of women. High or low, educated or uneducated, there
+is the proper work of the weaker sex. And, finally, we venture to
+address her in the words of Lord Lyttelton:--
+
+    "Seek to be good, but aim not to be great;
+      A woman's noblest station is retreat;
+      Her fairest virtues fly from public sight;
+      Domestic worth--that shuns too strong a light."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+
+
+POLITICAL WOMEN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  ANNE DE BOURBON,
+  SISTER OF THE GREAT CONDE, AFTERWARDS DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+THE brilliant heroine of the Fronde, of whose grace, beauty, and
+influence Anne of Austria was so jealous--not to speak of the mortal
+rivalry of the gay Duchesses de Montbazon and de Chatillon--although the
+youngest of that famous trio whom Mazarin found so formidable in the
+arena of politics, obviously claims alike from her exalted rank and the
+memorable part she played in the tragi-comedy of the Fronde, priority of
+notice among the bevy of the Cardinal's fair political opponents.
+
+Some time in the month of August, 1619, Anne Genevieve de Bourbon-Conde
+first saw the light in the donjon of Vincennes, where her parents had
+been kept State prisoners for three years previously. She was the eldest
+of the three children of Henry (II.) de Bourbon-Conde, first prince of
+the blood, and of that Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, "the beauty,
+perfect grace and majesty of her time."[1] The lovely Montmorency on
+coming to Court in her fifteenth year had sorely troubled the heart of
+the amorous soldier-king, Henry of Navarre, who had married her in 1609
+to his nephew of Conde with the covert hope of finding him an
+accommodating husband; but the latter, alike defiant and uxorious, made
+the jovial Bearnois plainly understand that he had wedded the blooming
+Charlotte exclusively for himself. The _gaillard_ monarch, however, at
+length grew so deeply enamoured that the prince, perceiving there was
+too much cause to fear the result of the constant assiduities of his
+royal uncle, fled precipitately with his young wife from France, only to
+return thither after tidings reached him of the great Henry's
+assassination. To the fair Montmorency's very decided proclivity to
+gallantry was to be attributed--if we may believe the scandal-loving
+Tallemant des Reaux--her long confinement, by the Regent Marie de'
+Medici's consent, within the gloomy fortress of Vincennes, rather than
+any reason of State for her sharing her husband's imprisonment. In fact,
+it was believed that the jealous prince procured her incarceration
+simply to keep her out of harm's way.
+
+    [1] Lenet.
+
+Deriving from her mother the threefold gifts of grace, beauty, and
+majesty, the fair Bourbon inherited also, it must be owned, a share of
+that princess's inclination to _l'honnete galanterie_. The restriction
+to a _share_ should be noted; for at no period of her heydey, not even
+during the licence of the Fronde, could Anne Genevieve be accused of
+having--as Madame de Motteville tells us the Princess de Conde
+had,--adorers "in every rank and condition of life, from popes, kings,
+princes, cardinals, dukes, and marshals of France, down to simple
+gentlemen."
+
+The mind and heart, however, of Anne de Bourbon, although predestined,
+alas! eventually to culpable passion, seemed at first but little
+inclined to the gay world--with all its blandishments and seductions,
+or even to its innocent pleasures. When quite a child she was in the
+habit of accompanying her mother in her visits to the convent of the
+Carmelites at Paris. For though still possessing great personal
+attractions, Madame de Conde had become serious and of a somewhat
+demonstrative piety. Those visits, which were frequent, strengthened
+Anne's gentle and susceptible mind in its tendency to devotion. The
+impression, too, which somewhat later the tragic fate of her uncle, the
+unfortunate Duke de Montmorency,[2] left on her memory, inspired her
+with the resolution to quit the outer world at the earliest possible
+moment, and, renouncing all its pomps and grandeurs, hide beneath the
+veil her budding attractions. Although her mother opposed an inflexible
+resistance to her embracing that holy vocation, and strove to combat by
+forcible arguments the cold and disdainful demeanour exhibited by her
+daughter when mixing in gay society, the fair girl persevered from the
+age of thirteen to seventeen in her longing to embrace the life of the
+cloister. Futile for a time were the parental arguments, unfruitful
+every effort! Anne Genevieve would not consort with worldlings,
+persisted in her distaste for mundane pleasures, and continued to
+cherish persistently her desire for conventual seclusion. At length the
+princess, in 1636, having resolved upon the adoption of more energetic
+measures, suddenly ordered her daughter to make preparations for
+appearing at a Court ball, and that, too, in three days. With what
+despair did the young princess hear the cruel sentence! What affliction,
+too, befell the Carmelite nuns when they heard of the fatal mandate.
+What a flood of sighs and tears and prayers! The good sisters gathered
+themselves together to take counsel one with another, and decided that,
+since Mdlle. de Bourbon could not avoid the wretched fate that awaited
+her, before going through the trying ordeal she should indue her lovely
+form with an undergarment of hair-cloth (commonly called a _cilice_),
+and, protected by such armour of proof, she might then fearlessly submit
+herself to all the temptations lurking beneath the ensnaring vanities of
+her Court attire. The _cilice_, however, did not, it seems, prove
+invulnerable as the aegis of Minerva, for the subtle shafts winged by
+homage and admiration pierced through that slight breast-plate to a
+heart which in truth was by nature framed to inspire and welcome both.
+The Princess de Conde rejoiced greatly at her daughter's conversion to
+more reasonable views of mundane existence. The commencement of her
+noviciate was no longer thought of, and her visits to the Carmelites
+became sufficiently rare. But it was only a deferment of that calm
+vocation, it being Anne de Bourbon's destiny to embrace it at the close
+of her feverish political career.
+
+    [2] Brought to the scaffold by Richelieu in 1632.
+
+This era of her entrance into the great world was probably the happiest,
+the most joyous of the fair Bourbon's life. Lofty distinction of birth,
+great personal beauty, and rare mental fascination, contributed to place
+her in the very foremost rank of the Court circle--in the "height of
+company"--conspicuous amongst lovely dames and distinguished men of the
+time. Her peerless loveliness at once meeting with universal
+recognition, "la belle Conde" was toasted with acclamation by courtiers,
+young and old--at Chantilly, at Liancourt, at the Louvre, and at the
+Hotel de Rambouillet. Contemporaries of either sex have rendered
+unanimous testimony to the varied and exceptional character of her
+attractions, and we will let a woman's pen add to Petitot's pencilling
+some of those delicate traits which neither the burin nor even the vivid
+tints of the enamel have the power to convey.
+
+"Her beauty," says Mdme. de Motteville, "consisted more in the
+brilliance of her complexion"--("it had the blush of the pearl," writes
+another contemporary)--"than in perfection of feature. Her eyes were not
+large, but bright, and finely cut, and of a blue so lovely it resembled
+that of the turquoise. The poets could only apply the trite comparison
+of lilies and roses to the carnation which mantled on her cheek, whilst
+her fair, silken, luxuriant tresses, and the peculiar limpidity of her
+glance, added to many other charms, made her more like an angel--so far
+as our imperfect nature allows of our imagining such a being--than a
+mere woman." Somewhat later, the smallpox, in robbing her of the bloom
+of her beauty, still left her all its brilliancy, to repeat the remark
+of that eminent connoisseur of female loveliness, Cardinal de Retz.
+
+To sum up the general opinion of her contemporaries: Mdlle. de Bourbon
+rather charmed by the very peculiar style of her countenance than by its
+linear regularity. One of her greatest fascinations lay in an
+indescribable languor, both of mind and manner--"a languor interrupted
+at intervals," says De Retz, "by a sort of luminous awakenings, as
+surprising as they were delightful. This physical and intellectual
+indolence presented later in life a piquant contrast to her
+then"--according to Mdme. de Motteville--"somewhat too passionate
+temperament." She was of good height, and altogether of an admirable
+form. It is evident also, from the authentic portraits of her still
+extant, that she had that kind of attraction so much prized during the
+seventeenth century, and which, with beautiful hands, had made the
+reputation of Anne of Austria. In speech, we are told, she was very
+gentle. Her gestures, with the expression of her countenance, and the
+sound of her voice, produced the most perfect music. But her peculiar
+charm consisted in a graceful ease--a languor, as all her contemporaries
+expressed it--which would quickly change to the highest degree of
+animation when stirred by emotion, but which usually gave her an air of
+indolence and aristocratic _nonchalance_, sometimes mistaken for
+_ennui_, sometimes for disdain.
+
+Crediting the unvarying testimony of these and other of her
+contemporaries, the daughter of Bourbon-Conde must have been at least as
+beautiful as her mother--endowed, indeed, with almost every attribute
+and feature of female loveliness.
+
+"Beauty," remarks a philosophic panegyrist of physical perfection,
+"extends its prestige to posterity itself, and attaches a charm for
+centuries to the name alone of the privileged creatures upon whom it has
+pleased heaven to bestow it." Beauty has also its epochs. It does not
+belong to all men and to all ages to enjoy it in its exquisite
+perfection. As there are fashions which spoil it, so there are periods
+which affect its sentiment. For instance, it belonged to the eighteenth
+century to invent _pretty_ women--charming dolls--all powder, patches,
+and perfume, affecting the attractions which they did not possess under
+their vast hoops and great furbelows. Let us venture to say that the
+foundation of true beauty, as of true virtue, as of true genius, is
+strength. Shed over this strength the vivifying rays of elegance, grace,
+delicacy, and you have beauty. Its perfect type is the Venus of
+Milo,[3] or again, that pure and mysterious apparition, goddess or
+mortal, which is called Psyche, or the Venus of Naples.[4] Beauty is
+certainly to be seen in the Venus de' Medici, but in that type we feel
+that it is declining, or about to decline. Look at, not the women of
+Titian, but the virgins of Raphael and Leonardo: the face is of infinite
+delicacy, but the body evinces strength. These forms ought to disgust
+one for ever with the shadows and monkeys _a la Pompadour_. Let us adore
+grace, but not separate it in everything too much from strength, for
+without strength grace soon shares the fate of the flower that is
+separated from the stem which vitalizes and sustains it.
+
+    [3] Quatremere de Quincy, Dissertation upon the Antique Statue of
+    Venus Discovered in the Island of Milo. 1836.
+
+    [4] Millingen: Ancient Inedited Monuments. Fol. 1826.
+
+What a train of accomplished women this seventeenth century presents to
+us! They were not all politicians. Women who were loaded with
+admiration, drawing after them all hearts, and spreading from rank to
+rank that worship of beauty which throughout Europe received the name of
+French gallantry. In France they accompany this great century in its too
+rapid course; they mark its principal epochs, beginning with Charlotte
+de Montmorency and ending with Mdme. de Montespan. The Duchess de
+Longueville has perhaps the most prominent place in that dazzling
+gallery of lovely women, having all the characteristics of true beauty,
+and joining to it a charm exclusively her own.
+
+In early girlhood she had been taken, along with her elder brother, the
+Duke d'Enghien, to the Hotel de Rambouillet; and the _salons_ of the Rue
+St. Thomas du Louvre were probably the most fitting school for such a
+mind as hers, in which grandeur and finesse were almost equally
+blended--a grandeur allied to the romantic, and associated with a
+finesse frequently merging into subtilty, as indeed may be discerned in
+Corneille himself, the most perfect mental representative of that
+period.
+
+To follow step by step the course of Anne de Bourbon's life at this
+period of it through all its earliest rivalries, would involve the task
+of recording the manifold caprices of a tender, yet ambitious nature, in
+which the mind and heart were unceasingly dupes of each other. It would
+be like an attempt to follow the devious path of the light foam and
+laughing sparkle of the billow--
+
+    "In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua."
+
+Our purpose lies mainly with her political life, but ere entering upon
+it we will give a short but comprehensive view of her character in the
+words of one who, more than anybody else, had the means of judging her
+correctly--La Rochefoucauld. "This Princess," writes the Duke,
+"possessed all the charms of mind, united to personal beauty, to so high
+a degree, that it seemed as though nature had taken pleasure in forming
+in her person a perfectly finished work. But those fine qualities were
+rendered less brilliant through a blemish rarely seen in one so highly
+endowed, which was that, far from giving the law to those who had a
+particular admiration for her, she transfused herself so thoroughly into
+their sentiments that she no longer recognised her own."
+
+Now La Rochefoucauld should have been the last person to complain of
+that defect, since he was the first to foster it in the Duchess. In her
+bosom love awoke ambition, but the awakening was so sudden, in fact,
+that any difference in the two passions was never perceptible.
+
+Singular contradiction! The more we contemplate the political bias of
+Madame de Longueville the more it becomes mingled with her amorous
+caprice; but when we analyse her love more narrowly (and later on in
+life she herself made the avowal), it appears nothing else than ambition
+travestied--a desire to shine only the more magnificently brilliant.
+
+Her character, then, was entirely wanting in consistency, in self-will;
+and her mind, be it observed, however brilliant and acute, had nothing
+that was calculated to counterbalance that defect of character. One may
+possess the faculty of right perception without strength of mind to do
+that which is right. One may be rational in mind and the contrary in
+conduct--character being at fault between the two. But here the case was
+different. Madame de Longueville's mind was not, above all else,
+rational; it was acute, prompt, subtle, witty by turns, and readily
+responsive to the varying humour of the moment. It shone voluntarily in
+contradiction and subterfuge, ere exhausting itself finally in scruples.
+There was much of the Hotel de Rambouillet in such a mind as hers.
+
+"The mind in the majority of women serves rather to confirm their folly
+than their reason." So says the author of the "Maxims;" and Madame de
+Longueville, with all her metamorphoses, was undoubtedly present before
+him when he penned the sentence. For she, the most feminine of her sex,
+would offer to him the completest epitome of all the rest. In short,
+evidently as he has made his observations upon her, she also seems to
+have drawn her conclusions from him. So the agreement is perfect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+A YOUNG Princess of the Blood so lovely, fascinating, and witty as Anne
+de Bourbon, was surely destined, it might be thought, to contract an
+early and altogether suitable matrimonial alliance. It was therefore
+somewhat surprising to find how much difficulty there was in mating her.
+Foremost among those who sought her hand was that hair-brained,
+handsome, coarse-mannered Duke de Beaufort, younger son of Caesar de
+Vendome, himself the bastard of the jovial Bearnois by the _Fair
+Gabrielle_.[1] Beaufort inherited his unfortunate grand-dame's
+beauty--had a Phoebus-Apollo style of head, set off with a profusion
+of long, curly, golden locks; was a young, brave, and flourishing
+gallant, and somewhat later (during the Fronde), from his blunt speech
+and familiar manners with the Parisian mob, became the idol of the
+market-women, and was therefore dubbed _Roi des Halles_. But this
+scapegrace suitor withdrew his pretensions in order to gratify, it is
+said, the handsome though decried Duchess de Montbazon, who had
+enthralled him in her flowery chains as a led-captain. On entering her
+nineteenth year Mdlle. de Bourbon was promised in marriage to the Prince
+de Joinville, son of Charles of Lorraine (Duke de Guise), but that young
+nobleman having died prematurely in Italy, no other serious matrimonial
+project seems to have been entertained until the Princess had reached
+her twenty-third year. The fortunate suitor was one of Beaufort's
+rivals--or, rather, colleagues--for that would be the more correct term
+when designating their mutual relations to the unscrupulous Duchess de
+Montbazon. The widower, Henry of Orleans (Duke de Longueville), by
+birth, dignity, and wealth was looked upon as the first match in France.
+Unfortunately, in his case, those dazzling attributes were materially
+abated through disparity of age, for he had reached the ripe maturity of
+forty-seven, whilst the bride of his choice had not yet seen half that
+cycle of summers. To be twenty-four years her senior was, for the
+husband of a youthful princess so excelling in wit and beauty, certainly
+a formidable inequality, and so Mdlle. de Bourbon seems to have thought.
+At the command, however, of her father, who intimated that his
+determination was inflexible in thus disposing of his daughter's hand,
+Anne Genevieve meekly complied, and was espoused in June, 1642, to Henri
+de Bourbon, Duke de Longueville.[2]
+
+    [1] Created Duchess de Beaufort by Henry IV.
+
+    [2] The Duke was descended from the "brave Dunois," bastard of
+    Orleans.
+
+The young Duchess found herself speedily surrounded by a swarm of
+courtiers, attracted by her sprightly and refined intelligence, her
+majestic beauty, her nonchalant and languishing grace. What more
+adorable mistress could an audacious aspirant dream of? Bold adventurers
+for such a lady's love there was no lack of; and would not many be
+encouraged with the thought that such a prize could only be defended by
+a husband already verging towards the decline of life, and whose heart,
+moreover, was believed to be in the keeping of another? The sighs of the
+suitors, however, all adventurous and calculating as they might be, were
+wasted, their hopes altogether fallacious. For six long years there was
+nothing more accorded to that crowd of often-renewed adorers save the
+smiles of an innocent coquetry. He who, during that period of honest
+gallantry, coming near to La Rochefoucauld, seems to have made the
+liveliest impression, was Coligny; and it was only slanderers who
+whispered that the young Count was happier than became the adorer of a
+heroine of the De Rambouillet school.
+
+Madame de Longueville, nevertheless, possessed the characteristics of
+her sex; she had alike its lovable qualities and its well-known
+imperfections. In a sphere where gallantry was the order of the day,
+that young and fascinating creature, married to a man already in the
+decline of life, and, moreover, with his affections engaged elsewhere,
+merely followed the universal example. Tender by nature, the senses, she
+herself says in her confessions--the humblest ever made--played no minor
+part in the affairs of the heart. But, surrounded unceasingly by homage,
+she found pleasure in receiving it. Very lovable, she centred her
+happiness in being loved. Sister of the Great Conde, she was not
+insensible to the idea of playing a part which should occupy public
+attention; but, far from pretending to domination, there was so much of
+the woman in her that she allowed herself to be led by him whom she
+loved. Whilst, around her, interest and ambition assumed so frequently
+the hues of love, she listened to the dictates of her heart alone, and
+devoted herself to the interest and ambition of another. All
+contemporary writers are unanimous on that point. Her enemies sharply
+reproach her alike for not having a fitting object in her political
+intrigues, and for being unmindful of her own interests. But they appear
+not to be aware that, in thinking to overwhelm her memory by such
+accusation, they rather elevate it, and they are assiduous to cover her
+faults and misconduct--faults which, after all, are centred in one
+alone. In short, some writers cast the greater part of the blame the
+young Duchess's conduct merits upon her husband, who, according to them,
+knew not how to make amends for his own disadvantage, on the score of
+disparity of age, by an anxious and indulgent tenderness.
+
+Before their marriage was solemnised it was stipulated that the Duke de
+Longueville should break off his _liaison_ with the Duchess de
+Montbazon--then notorious as one of the most unrestrained among the
+women of fashion at the Court of the Regent. This, however, the Duke
+unhappily failed to do.
+
+In declaring its adhesion to Mazarin at the commencement of the Regency,
+the House of Conde had drawn upon itself the hatred of the party of the
+_Importants_, though that enmity scarcely rebounded upon Madame de
+Longueville. Her amiableness in everything where her heart was not
+seriously concerned, her perfect indifference to politics at this period
+of her life, together with the graces of her mind and person, rendered
+her universally popular, and shielded her against the injustice of
+partisan malice. But outside the pale of politics she had an enemy, and
+a formidable one, in the Duchess de Montbazon. That bold and dangerous
+woman having by her fascinations enslaved Beaufort, the quondam admirer
+of Madame de Longueville, the young Duke through her intrigues became a
+favourite chief of the _Importants_. Amongst the earliest to swell the
+ranks of that faction were two other personages who had played a very
+conspicuous part during the reign of Louis XIII. The first of these,
+Madame de Montbazon's step-daughter, was the witty, beautiful, and
+errant Duchess de Chevreuse, whom Louis had judged so dangerous that he
+had expressly forbidden by his will, when on the point of death, that
+she should ever be recalled from exile to Court. By the same prohibition
+was affected the former Keeper of the Seals, the Marquis de Chateauneuf,
+who had displayed considerable talent under Richelieu, but had
+ultimately made himself obnoxious to that great Minister, after having
+given many a sanguinary proof of his devotion to him. A glance at the
+antecedents of that remarkable woman, Madame de Chevreuse, the early
+favourite of Anne of Austria, will now be necessary in order to
+understand clearly her relative position to the Queen and Mazarin at the
+commencement of the Regency, as well as to those incipient _Frondeurs_,
+the _Importants_, at the moment of her dragging the Prince de Marsillac
+(afterwards Duke de Rochefoucauld) into that party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE.
+
+
+FROM the long-sustained, vigorous, and very eminent part played by Marie
+de Rohan in opposing the repressive system of the two great Cardinal
+Ministers, her name belongs equally to the political history as to that
+of the society and manners of the first half of the sixteenth century.
+
+She came of that old and illustrious race the issue of the first princes
+of Brittany, and was the daughter of Hercule de Rohan, Duke de
+Montbazon, a zealous servant of Henry IV., by his first wife Madeleine
+de Lenoncourt, sister of Urbain de Laval, Marshal de Bois-Dauphin. Born
+in December, 1600, she lost her mother at a very early age, and in 1617
+was married to that audacious favourite of Louis XIII., De Luynes, who
+from the humble office of "bird-catcher" to the young King, rose to the
+proud dignity of Constable of France, and who, upon the faith of a
+king's capricious friendship, dared to undertake the reversal of the
+Queen-mother, Marie de' Medici's authority; hurl to destruction her
+great favourite, the Marshal d'Ancre; combat simultaneously princes and
+Protestants, and commence against Richelieu the system of Richelieu.
+Early becoming a widow, Marie next, in 1622, entered the house of
+Lorraine by espousing Claude, Duke de Chevreuse, one of the sons of
+Henry de Guise, great Chamberlain of France, whose highest merit was the
+name he bore, accompanied by good looks and that bravery which was
+never wanting to a prince of Lorraine; otherwise disorderly in the
+conduct of his affairs, of not very edifying manner of life, which may
+go far to explain and extenuate the errors of his young wife. The new
+Duchess de Chevreuse had been appointed during the sway of her first
+husband, _surintendante_ (controller) of the Queen's household, and soon
+became as great a favourite of Anne of Austria as the Constable de
+Luynes was of Louis _the Just_. The French Court was then very
+brilliant, and gallantry the order of the day. Marie de Rohan was
+naturally vivacious and dashing, and, yielding herself up to the
+seductions of youth and pleasure, she had lovers, and her adorers drew
+her into politics. Her beauty and captivating manners were such as to
+fascinate and enthral the least impressible who crossed her path, and
+their dangerous power was extensively employed in influencing the
+politics of Europe, and consequently had a large share in framing her
+own destiny. A portrait in the possession of the late Duke de Luynes[1]
+represents her as having an admirable figure, a charming expression of
+countenance, large and well-opened blue eyes, chesnut-tinted fair hair
+in great abundance, a well-formed neck, with the loveliest bust
+possible, and throughout her entire person a piquant blending of
+delicacy, grace, vivacity, and passion. The following summary of her
+character by the clever, caustic, but little scrupulous De Retz, graphic
+as it is, and based on a certain amount of truth, must not be
+unhesitatingly accepted, it being over-coloured by wilful
+exaggeration:--"I have never seen anyone else," says he, "in whom
+vivacity so far usurped the place of judgment. It very often inspired
+her with such brilliant sallies that they flashed like lightning, and so
+sensible withal, that they might not have been disowned by the greatest
+men of any age. The manifestation of this faculty was not confined to
+particular occasions. Had she lived in times when politics were
+non-existent, she would not have rested content with the idea only that
+they ought to have been rife. If the Prior of the Carthusians had
+pleased her, she would have become a sincere recluse. M. de Luynes
+initiated her into politics, the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of
+Holland corresponded with her upon them, and Chateauneuf amused her with
+them. She gave herself up to their pursuit because she abandoned
+herself, without reserve, to everything which pleased the individual
+whom she loved, and simply because it was indispensable that she should
+love somebody. It was not even difficult to give her a lover by setting
+an eligible suitor to pay her court with an ostensible political motive;
+but as soon as she accepted him, she loved him solely and faithfully,
+and she owned to Mdme. de Rhodes and myself that, through caprice, she
+said, she had never really loved those whom she esteemed the most, with
+the exception of the unfortunate George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
+Devotion to the passion which in her might be called eternal, although
+she might change the object of it, did not prevent even a fly from
+causing her mental abstraction; but she always recovered from it with a
+renewed exuberance which made such phases rather agreeable than
+otherwise. No one ever took less heed about danger, and never woman had
+more contempt for scruples and duties: she never recognised other than
+that of pleasing her lover."
+
+    [1] This nobleman died at Rome in December, 1867, at the age of
+    sixty-five, having gone thither to aid the Pope against the
+    Garibaldians.
+
+This epigrammatic sketch is almost worthy of the exaggerated author of
+the _Historiettes_,[2] and the reader is advised to accept only its more
+salient and truthful traits--the keen and accurate glance of Mdme. de
+Chevreuse in scanning the prevailing aspect of the political horizon,
+her dauntless courage, the fidelity and devotion of her love. Retz,
+moreover, mistakes entirely the order of her adventures; he forgets and
+then invents. In striving after epigrammatic point, he sacrifices truth
+to smartness of style, and writes as though he looked upon events in
+which the passions of the Duchess made her take part as mere trifles,
+whereas among them there were some than which none were ever of graver
+or even more tragic moment.
+
+    [2] Tallement des Reaux.
+
+Mdme. de Chevreuse, in fact, possessed almost all the qualities
+befitting a great politician. One alone was wanting, and precisely that
+without which all the others tended to her ruin. She failed to select
+for pursuit a legitimate object, or rather she did not choose one for
+herself, but left it to another to choose for her. Mdme. de Chevreuse
+was womanly in the highest possible degree; that quality was alike her
+strength and her weakness. Her secret mainspring was love, or rather
+gallantry,[3] and the interest of him whom she loved became her
+paramount object. It is this which explains the wonderful sagacity,
+finesse, and energy she displayed in the vain pursuit of a chimerical
+aim, which ever receded before her, and seemed to draw her on by the
+very prestige of difficulty and danger. La Rochefoucauld accuses her of
+having brought misfortune upon all those whom she loved;[4] it is
+equally the truth to add that all those whom she loved hurried her in
+the sequel into insensate enterprises. It was not she evidently who
+made of Buckingham a species of paladin without genius; a brilliant
+adventurer of Charles IV. of Lorraine; of Chalais a hair-brained
+blunderer, rash enough to commit himself in a conspiracy against
+Richelieu, on the faith of the faithless Duke d'Orleans; of Chateauneuf,
+an ambitious statesman, impatient of holding second rank in the
+Government, without being capable of taking the first. Let no one
+imagine that he is acquainted with Mdme. de Chevreuse from having merely
+studied the foregoing portrait traced by De Retz, for that sketch is an
+exaggeration and over-charged like all those from the same pen, and was
+destined to amuse the malignant curiosity of Mdme. de Caumartin--for
+without being altogether false, it is of a severity pushed to the verge
+of injustice. Was it becoming, one might ask, of the restless and
+licentious Coadjutor to constitute himself the remorseless censor of a
+woman whose errors he shared? Did he not deceive himself as much and for
+a far longer period than she? Did he show more address in political
+strategy or courage in the dangerous strife, more intrepidity and
+constancy in defeat? But Mdme. de Chevreuse has not written memoirs in
+that free-and-easy and piquant style the constant aim of which is
+self-elevation, obtained at the expense of everybody else. There are two
+judges of her character the testimony of whose acts must be held to be
+above suspicion--Richelieu and Mazarin. Richelieu did all in his power
+to win her over, and not being able to succeed, he treated her as an
+enemy worthy of himself.
+
+    [3] Mdme. de Motteville.
+
+    [4] Memoires, Petitot's Collection, 2nd series, vol. li. p. 339.
+
+To revert briefly to her long-continued struggle with Richelieu, it must
+not be forgotten that for twenty years she had been the personal friend
+and favourite of Anne of Austria, and for ten years she had suffered
+persecution and privation on that account. Exiled, proscribed, and
+threatened with imprisonment, she had narrowly escaped Richelieu's grasp
+by disguising herself in male attire, and in that garb traversing France
+and Spain on horseback, had succeeded in eluding his pursuit, and after
+many adventures in safely reaching Madrid. Philip IV. not only heaped
+every kind of honour upon his sister's courageous favourite, but even,
+it is said, swelled the number of her conquests. Whilst in the Spanish
+capital she had allied herself politically with the Minister Olivarez,
+and obtained great ascendancy over the Cabinet of Madrid. The war
+between France and Spain necessarily rendering her position in the
+latter country delicate and embarrassing, she had, early in 1638, sought
+refuge in England. Charles I. and Henrietta Maria gave her the warmest
+possible reception at St. James's; and the latter, on seeing again the
+distinguished countrywoman who had some years back conducted her as a
+bride from Paris to the English shores to the arms of Prince Charles,
+embraced her warmly, entered into all her troubles, and both the English
+King and Queen wrote letters pleading in her behalf, to Louis XIII.,
+Anne of Austria, and Richelieu with regard to the restoration of her
+property and permission to rejoin her children at Dampierre. She herself
+resumed the links of a negotiation with the Cardinal which had never
+been entirely broken off, and the success of which seemed quite
+practicable, since it was almost equally desired by both. That
+negotiation was being carried on for more than a year, and when link
+after link had been frequently snapped and re-soldered, only to be once
+more broken, Richelieu at length gave his solemn word that she might
+return with perfect safety to Dampierre.
+
+On the eve of her departure from the English Court, a vessel being in
+readiness to convey her to Dieppe, where a carriage awaited her landing,
+the Duchess received an anonymous letter warning her that certain ruin
+awaited her if she set foot on the soil of France, followed by another,
+still more explicit with regard to Richelieu's designs to effect her
+destruction, from no less a person than Charles of Lorraine. This second
+warning from so reliable a source, followed shortly afterwards by other
+advice--held by her in the light of a command--enchained her to a
+foreign land. She for whom during ten long years the Duchess had
+suffered all things, braved all things, her august friend Anne of
+Austria cautioned her not to trust to appearances. Thus vanished the
+last hope of a sincere reconciliation between two persons who knew each
+other too well to discard distrust and to confide in words, of which
+neither were sparing, without requiring solemn guarantees that they
+could not or would not give.
+
+Choosing stoically, therefore, to still undergo the pangs of absence, to
+consume the noontide of the days of her attractive womanhood in
+privation and turmoil rather than risk her liberty, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+on her part did not remain idle. From the moment she felt convinced that
+Richelieu was deceiving her, attracting her back to France only to hold
+her in a state of dependence, and if need were, to incarcerate
+her--having broken with him, she considered herself as free from all
+scruple, and thought of nothing further than paying him back blow for
+blow. Her old duel with the Cardinal thus once more renewed, she formed
+in London, with the aid of the Duke de Vendome, La Vieuville, and La
+Valette, a faction of active and adroit emigrants, who, leaning on the
+Earl of Holland, then one of the chiefs of the Royalist party and a
+general in the army of Charles of England; upon Lord Montagu, an ardent
+Papist and intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria; upon Digby and
+other men of influence at Court, maintained likewise the closest
+intelligence with the Court of Rome through its envoy in England,
+Rosetti, and especially with the Cabinet of Madrid; encouraging and
+kindling the hopes of all the proscribed and discontented, strewing
+obstacles at all points in the path of Richelieu, and accumulating
+formidable perils around his head.
+
+On the breaking out of the Civil War in England, Mdme. de Chevreuse
+repaired to Brussels, where in 1641 we find her acting as the connecting
+link between England, Spain, and Lorraine. Without attributing to the
+Duchess any especial motive beyond seconding an enterprise directed
+against the common enemy, she did not the less play an important part in
+the affair of the Count de Soissons--the most formidable conspiracy that
+had hitherto been hatched against Richelieu. Anne of Austria was
+certainly privy to the plot and lent it her aid. She might have been
+ignorant of the secret treaty with Spain; but for all the rest, and so
+far as it menaced the Cardinal, she had a perfect understanding with the
+conspirators. That high-handed Minister, by overstraining the springs of
+government, by prolonging the war, by increasing the public expenditure,
+and by oppressing all classes whilst he crushed some in particular, had
+excited a hatred so bitter and widespread that at length he governed the
+State almost entirely through terror. Whilst the grandeur of his designs
+commanded respect and veneration from a select few, his genius towered
+above the bulk of his countrymen. But that harsh rule, continuing
+unrelaxed, and so many sacrifices being perpetually renewed, at length
+wearied out the greater number, the King himself not excepted. Louis's
+reigning favourite, the Grand-Ecuyer, Cinq Mars, undermined and
+blackened the Cardinal as much as possible in his royal master's
+estimation. He knew of the conspiracy of the Count de Soissons, and
+without taking a share in it, he favoured it. He might therefore be
+reckoned upon to figure in the next. The Queen, still in disgrace in
+spite of the two heirs she had given to the crown, naturally breathed
+vows for the termination of a rule which so oppressed her. Gaston, the
+King's brother, had pledged his word, however little the reliance that
+might be placed upon it; but the Duke de Bouillon, an experienced
+soldier and an eminent politician, had openly declared himself; and his
+stronghold of Sedan, situated on the frontiers of France and Belgium,
+offered an asylum whence could be braved for a long while all the power
+of the Cardinal. A widespread understanding had been established
+throughout every part of the kingdom, amongst the clergy, and in the
+Parliament. There were conspirators in the very Bastille itself, where
+Marshal de Vitry and the Count de Cramail, prisoners as they were, had
+prepared a _coup de main_ with an admirably-kept secrecy. The Abbe de
+Retz, then twenty-five, preluded his adventurous career by this attempt
+at civil war. The Duke de Guise, having effected his escape from Rheims,
+and taken refuge in the Low Countries, was about to share the dangers of
+the conspiracy at Sedan. But the greatest--the firmest--hope of the
+Count de Soissons rested upon Spain: that power alone could enable him
+to take the field from Sedan, to march upon Paris, and crush the power
+of Richelieu. He therefore despatched Alexandre de Campion, one of his
+bravest and most intelligent gentlemen, to Brussels to negotiate with
+the Spanish Ministers and obtain from them troops and money. There he
+addressed himself to Mdme. de Chevreuse, and confided to her the mission
+with which he was charged, which she hastened to second with all her
+influence. Having prevailed upon Olivarez to strenuously support those
+requirements which the Count de Soissons and the Duke de Bouillon sought
+at his hands, she despatched letters by a secret agent in the service of
+Spain to the Duke de Lorraine, entreating him not to fail her in this
+supreme opportunity of repairing her past misfortunes and of dealing a
+mortal blow to their remorseless enemy. The Duke Charles, thus solicited
+at once by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by his kinsman the Duke de Guise, by the
+Spanish Minister, and, more than all, by his own restless and
+adventurous ambition, broke the solemn compact he had so recently made
+with France, entered into an alliance with Spain and the Count de
+Soissons, and prepared with all diligence to march to the aid of Sedan.
+And whilst Mdme. de Chevreuse and the emigrants brought into play every
+engine they could lay hands on, Lamboy and Metternich set out for
+Flanders at the head of six thousand Imperialists. France--all the
+nationalities of Europe, were on the tiptoe of expectation. Richelieu
+had never been menaced with a greater danger, and the loss of the battle
+of Marfee would have proved a fatal event had not the Count de Soissons
+met his death simultaneously with his triumph.
+
+If Mdme. de Chevreuse were a stranger in 1642 to the fresh conspiracy of
+Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon against her
+relentless foe, it would have been the only one in which she had not
+taken a leading part. It is indeed more than probable that she was in
+the secret as well as Queen Anne, whose understanding with Gaston and
+Cinq Mars cannot be contested. La Rochefoucauld repeatedly remarks
+touching a matter in which he seems to have been implicated, "The
+dazzling reputation of M. le Grand (Cinq Mars) rekindled the hopes of
+the discontented; the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans united with him; the
+Duke de Bouillon and several persons of quality did the same." De
+Bouillon also declares that the Queen was closely allied with Gaston and
+the Grand-Ecuyer, and that she herself had invited his concurrence. "The
+Queen, whom the Cardinal had persecuted in such a variety of ways, did
+not doubt that, if the King should chance to die, that minister would
+seek to deprive her of her children, in order to assume the Regency
+himself. She secretly instigated De Thou to seek the Duke de Bouillon
+with persevering entreaties. She asked the latter whether, in the event
+of the King's death, he would promise to receive her and her two
+children in his stronghold of Sedan, believing--so firmly persuaded was
+she of the evil designs of the Cardinal, and of his power--that there
+was no other place of safety for them throughout the realm of France."
+De Thou further told the Duke de Bouillon that since the King's illness
+the Queen and the Duke d'Orleans were very closely allied, and that it
+was through Cinq Mars that their alliance had been brought about. Now,
+where the Queen was so deeply implicated it was not likely that Mdme. de
+Chevreuse would stand aloof. A friend of Richelieu, whose name has not
+come down to us, but who must have been perfectly well informed, does
+not hesitate to place Mdme. de Chevreuse as well as the Queen amongst
+those who then endeavoured to overthrow Richelieu. "M. le Grand," he
+writes to the Cardinal,[5] "has been urged to his wicked designs by the
+Queen-mother, by her daughter (Henrietta Maria), by the Queen of France,
+by Mdme. de Chevreuse, by Montagu, and other English Papists." At length
+the Cardinal, on an early day in June, 1642, retired to Tarascon,
+ostensibly for the sake of his health, but doubtless for safety also,
+accompanied by his two bosom friends, Mazarin and Chavigny, and the
+faithful regiments of his guards. Finding himself surrounded by peril on
+all sides, and representing to Louis XIII. the gravity of the situation,
+he cited that which had been alleged of Mdme. de Chevreuse as amongst
+the most striking indications of the truth of what he stated.[6]
+
+    [5] Archives des Affaires Etrangeres; FRANCE, tom. CI.
+
+    [6] Archives des Affaires Etrangeres; FRANCE, tom. cii. Inedited
+    Memoir of Richelieu.
+
+But what _was_ the party in fact then conspiring against Richelieu? Was
+it not the party of former coalitions--of the League, of Austria, and of
+Spain? And Mdme. Chevreuse at Brussels, through her connection with the
+Duke de Lorraine, the Queen of England, the Chevalier de Jars at Rome,
+the Minister Olivarez at Madrid--was she not one of the great motive
+powers of that party? When, therefore, such machinery was found to be
+again in activity, it was quite reasonable to suspect the hand of Mdme.
+de Chevreuse in all its movements.
+
+The gathering cloud that now lowered so thick and threatening above the
+head of Richelieu seemed pregnant with inevitable destruction to his
+power and life. But ere long his eagle glance pierced through the
+overshadowing gloom, and the aim of Cinq Mars' dark intrigue became
+clearly revealed to his far-seeing introspection. A treachery, the
+secret of which has remained impenetrable to every research made during
+the last two centuries, caused the treaty concluded with Spain through
+the intervention of Fontrailles, and bearing the signatures of Gaston,
+Cinq Mars, and the Duke de Bouillon, to fall into his hands. From that
+instant the Cardinal felt certain of victory. He knew Louis XIII.
+thoroughly; he conjectured that he might in some access of his morbid
+and changeful humour have uttered reproachful words against his Minister
+in the favourite's ear--even expressed a wish to be rid of him, as did
+our first Plantagenet when tired of the despotism of Thomas a
+Becket--and had perhaps listened to strange proposals for effecting such
+object. But the Cardinal knew right well also to what extent Louis was a
+king and a Frenchman, and devoted by self-interest to their common
+system. He despatched, therefore, Chavigny in all haste from Narbonne
+with irrefragable evidence of the treaty made with Spain. Louis,
+thunderstricken, could scarcely believe his own eyes. He sank into a
+gloomy reverie, out of which he emerged only to give way to bursts of
+indignation against the favourite who could thus abuse his confidence
+and conspire with the foreigner. It was needless to inflame his anger,
+he was the first to call for an exemplary punishment. Not for a day, not
+for an hour, did his heart soften towards the youthful culprit who had
+been so dear to him. He thought only of his crime, and signed without an
+instant's hesitation his death-warrant. If Louis the Just spared the
+Duke de Bouillon, it was merely to acquire Sedan. If he pardoned his
+brother Gaston, he at the same time dishonoured him by depriving him of
+all authority in the State. Upon a report spread by a servant of
+Fontrailles, and which Fontrailles' memoirs fully confirm, his
+suspicions were directed towards the Queen; and no one afterwards could
+divest his mind of the conviction that in this instance, as in the
+affair of Chalais, Anne of Austria had an understanding with his
+brother, the Duke d'Orleans. What would he have done had he perused the
+statement of Fontrailles, the Duke de Bouillon's memoirs, a letter of
+Turenne, and the declaration of La Rochefoucauld? Their united testimony
+is so concordant that it is altogether irresistible. The Queen racked
+her brains to exorcise this fresh storm, and to persuade the King and
+Richelieu of her innocence. Anne went much farther; she did not confine
+herself to falsehood and dissimulation. Menaced by imminent danger, she
+went so far as to repudiate that courageous friend who had been so long
+and steadfastly devoted to her. Had fortune declared in her favour she
+would have embraced the Duchess as a deliverer. Vanquished and disarmed,
+she abandoned her. As she had protested in terms of horror against the
+conspiracy that had failed, her two young, imprudent, and ill-starred
+accomplices, Cinq Mars and De Thou, mounted the scaffold without
+breathing her name. Finding also both the King and Richelieu violently
+exasperated against Mdme. de Chevreuse, and firmly resolved to reject
+the renewed entreaties of her family to obtain her recall, Anne of
+Austria, far from interceding for her faithful adherent, warmly sided
+with her enemies; and further, to indicate the change in her own
+sentiments, and seem to applaud that which she could not prevent, she
+asked as an especial favour that the Duchess might be estranged from her
+person, and even from France. "The Queen," wrote Chavigny, Richelieu's
+Minister for Foreign Affairs, "has pointedly asked me if it were true
+that Mdme. de Chevreuse would return; and, without waiting for a reply,
+she signified to me that she should be vexed to find her presently in
+France; that she now saw the Duchess in her proper light; and she
+commanded me to pray His Eminence on her part, if he had any mind to
+favour Mdme. de Chevreuse, that it might be done without granting her
+permission to return to France. I assured her Majesty that she should
+have satisfaction on that point."[7]
+
+    [7] Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, FRANCE, tom. CI.
+
+Poor Marie de Rohan! Her heart already bled from many wounds, but this
+last was the "unkindest cut of all." Her position had indeed become
+frightful, and calculated to sink her to the lowest depth of despair. No
+hope of seeing her native land again, her princely chateau, her
+children, her favourite daughter Charlotte! Deriving scarcely anything
+from France, deeply in debt, and with credit exhausted, she found
+herself entirely at the end of her resources. How thoroughly did the
+banished woman then realise the woes of exile--how hard it is to climb
+and descend the stranger's stair, experience the hollowness of his
+promise, and the arrogance of his commiseration. And, finally, as though
+fated to drain her cup of bitterness to the last drop, to learn that
+she, her long-loved bosom friend and royal mistress, who owed her, at
+the very least, a silent fidelity, had openly ranged herself on the side
+of fortune and Richelieu!
+
+In a condition of mental torture the most acute, resulting from such
+accumulated misfortune, Madame de Chevreuse remained for several months
+with no other support than that of her innate high-souled courage. At
+length, towards the close of that eventful year, the golden grooves of
+change rung out a joyous paean to gladden the heart of the much-enduring
+exile. Suddenly Marie--all Europe--heard with a throb that the
+inscrutable, iron-handed man of all the human race most dreaded alike by
+States as by individuals, had yielded to a stronger power than his own,
+and had closed his eyes in death (December 4, 1642). Within a few short
+months afterwards the King also, whose regal power he had consolidated
+at such a cost in blood and suffering, followed the great statesman to
+the tomb; having entrusted the Regency, very much against his will, to
+the Queen, but controlled by a Council, over which presided as Prime
+Minister the man most devoted to Richelieu's system--his closest friend,
+confidant, and creature--Jules Mazarin.
+
+A passage in the funeral oration on Louis XIII. summed up briefly but
+significantly the result of Richelieu's gigantic efforts to consolidate
+the regal power. "Sixty-three kings," it said, "had preceded him in rule
+of the realm, but he alone had rendered it absolute, and what all
+collectively had been impotent to achieve in the course of twelve
+centuries for the grandeur of France, he had accomplished in the short
+space of thirty-three years." It was against that absolute power
+incarnate in Richelieu, which from the steps of the throne hurled men to
+the earth with its bolts rather than governed them, that Mazarin was
+destined later to encounter the reaction of the Fronde.
+
+Distrustful of leaving Anne of Austria in uncontrolled possession of
+regal authority, Louis by his last will and testament had placed
+royalty, including his brother Gaston as lieutenant-general of the
+realm, in a manner under a commission. And further, Louis did not
+believe that he could ensure quiet to the State after his death without
+confirming and perpetuating, so far as in him lay, the perpetual exile
+of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+As the pupil and confidential friend of Richelieu, Mazarin had imbibed
+both that statesman's and the late king's opinions and sentiments
+touching the influence of that eminently dangerous woman. Though he had
+never seen her hitherto, he was not the less well acquainted with her by
+repute: dreading her mortally, and cherishing a like antipathy to her
+friend Chateauneuf. He knew the Duchess to be as seductive as she was
+talented, experienced and courageous in party strife--an instance of
+which was that she could sway entirely a man of such ambition and
+capacity as the former Keeper of the Seals. Attached, moreover, in
+secret to Lorraine, to Austria, and to Spain, all this was as absolutely
+incompatible with the exclusive favour to which he aspired at the hands
+of his royal mistress as it was with all his diplomatic and military
+designs. The solemn injunctions of the late king's will, while
+denouncing Madame de Chevreuse and Chateauneuf as the two most
+illustrious victims of the close of his reign, embodied also the heads
+of the policy which it was that monarch's wish should be continued by
+Richelieu's successor. "Forasmuch," ran the will, "that for weighty
+reasons, important to the welfare of our State, we found ourselves
+compelled to deprive the Sieur de Chateauneuf of the post of Keeper of
+the Seals of France, and have him sent to the Castle of Angouleme, in
+which he has remained by our command up to the present time, we will and
+intend that the said Sieur de Chateauneuf remain in the same state in
+which he is at present, in the said Castle of Angouleme, until after the
+peace be concluded and executed; under charge, nevertheless, that he
+shall not then be set at liberty save by the order of the Queen-Regent,
+under the advice of her Council, which shall appoint a place to which he
+shall retire, within the realm or without the realm, as may be judged
+best. And as our design is to take foresight of all such subjects as may
+possibly in some way or other disturb the precautionary arrangements
+which we have made to preserve the repose and safety of our realm, the
+knowledge that we have of the bad conduct of the Lady Duchess de
+Chevreuse, of the artifices which she has employed up to this moment
+without the kingdom with our enemies, made us judge it fitting to forbid
+her, as we do, entrance into our kingdom during the war: desiring even
+that after the peace be concluded and executed she may not return into
+our kingdom, save only under the orders of the said Lady Queen-Regent,
+with the advice of the said Council, under charge, nevertheless, that
+she shall not either take up her abode or be in any place near to the
+Court or to the said Queen-Regent."
+
+Within a few days only after the decease of Louis XIII. that same
+Parliament which had enrolled his will reformed it. The Queen-Regent was
+freed from every fetter and restriction, and invested with almost
+absolute sovereignty; the ban was removed from the proscribed couple so
+solemnly denounced, Chateauneuf's prison doors were thrown open, and
+Madame de Chevreuse quitted Brussels triumphantly, with a cortege of
+twenty carriages, filled with lords and ladies of the highest rank in
+that Court, to return once more to France and to the side of her royal
+friend and mistress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  RETURN OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE TO COURT.
+
+
+AFTER ten years' absence from the scene of her former triumphs, social
+and political, did the brilliant Duchess then once more find herself
+safe and free in France. The _Gazette de Renaudot_--the _Moniteur_ of
+that day--recording the return of Madame de Chevreuse, on the 14th of
+June, 1643, remarks[1]:--"During such long exile, this princess has
+manifested what an elevated mind like hers can do, in spite of all those
+vicissitudes of fortune which her constancy has surmounted. The Duchess
+went to pay homage to their Majesties, during which visit she received
+so many tokens of affection from the Queen-Regent, and gave her in
+return such proofs of her zeal in everything relating to her service,
+and so much resignation to her will, that it indeed appears that length
+of time, distance, or thorny asperities can only prevail over common
+minds. Hence the great train of visitors from this Court to her daily,
+and for which her spacious hotel scarcely affords room, does not excite
+so much wonder as the fact which has been the subject of remark, that
+the fatigue consequent upon long journeys and the rigour of adverse
+fortune have worked no change in her magnanimity, nor--which is the more
+extraordinary--in her beauty."
+
+    [1] No. lxxvii. p. 579.
+
+Making due allowance for the inflated diction of the complaisant Court
+newswriter, let us endeavour to approach somewhat nearer to the truth.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse had then entered upon her forty-third year. Though
+still surprisingly well-preserved, her beauty, tried by adversity, was
+visibly on the decline. The inclination to gallantry still existed, but
+subdued, politics having gained the supremacy. She had formed the
+acquaintance of, and held political relations with, the most celebrated
+statesmen in Europe. She had figured at almost all its Courts, the
+strength and weakness of its several Governments were known to her, and
+in her wanderings, having seen "men and cities," she had acquired a
+large experience. The tried favourite hoped to find Anne of Austria the
+same as she had left her--averse to business, and very willing to allow
+herself to be led by those for whom she had a particular affection; and
+as Madame de Chevreuse had been in her youthful days paramount in the
+Queen's affection, she fully expected to exercise over her that twofold
+ascendancy which love and capacity would jointly give. More ambitious
+for her friends than for herself, she saw them already rewarded for
+their long sacrifices, replacing everywhere the creatures of Richelieu,
+and at their head, in the highest post, as first minister, him who for
+her sake had broken with the triumphant Cardinal, and had endured an
+imprisonment of ten tedious years. She did not care much about Mazarin,
+with whom she had no acquaintance, whom she had never seen, and who
+appeared to her unsupported either by the Court or the French nation,
+whilst she felt herself sustained by all that was illustrious, powerful,
+and accredited therein. She believed that she could make sure of the
+Duke d'Orleans through his wife, the beautiful Margaret, sister of
+Charles of Lorraine. She could dispose almost at will of the Houses of
+Rohan and Lorraine, particularly of the Duke de Guise and the Duke
+d'Elbeuf, like herself just returned from Flanders. She reckoned upon
+the Vendomes, upon the Duke d'Epernon, upon La Vieuville, her old
+companions in exile in England; upon the ill-treated Bouillons, upon La
+Rochefoucauld, whose disposition and pretensions were so well known to
+her; upon Lord Montagu, who had been her slave, and at that moment
+possessed the entire confidence of Anne of Austria; upon La Chatre, the
+friend of the Vendomes, and Colonel-General of the Swiss Guards; upon
+Treville, upon Beringhen, upon Jars, upon La Porte, who were all
+emerging from exile, prison, and disgrace. Among the women, her young
+stepmother and her sister-in-law seemed secure--Madame de Montbazon and
+Madame de Guemene, the two greatest beauties of the time, who drew after
+them a numerous crowd of old and young adorers. She knew also that among
+the first acts of the Regent had been the recall to her side of the two
+noble victims of Richelieu--Madame de Senece and Madame de Hautefort,
+whose virtue and piety had conspired so beneficially with other
+influences, and had given them an inestimable weight in the household of
+Anne of Austria. All those calculations seemed accurate, all those hopes
+well-founded; and Madame de Chevreuse left Brussels firmly persuaded
+that she was about to re-enter the Louvre as a conqueress. She deceived
+herself: the Queen was already changed, or very nearly so.
+
+To show due honour to her former favourite, however, Anne of Austria
+despatched La Rochefoucauld to greet and escort her homewards; but
+before he set out she charged him to inform the Duchess of the altered
+disposition in which she would find her royal mistress. During that
+audience Rochefoucauld did his utmost to reinstate his charming friend
+and close ally in the Queen's good graces. "I spoke to her," says he,
+"with more freedom perhaps than was becoming. I set before her Madame de
+Chevreuse's fidelity, her long-continued services, and the severity of
+the misfortunes which they had entailed upon her. I entreated her to
+consider of what fickleness she would be thought capable, and what
+interpretation might be placed upon such inconsiderateness if she should
+prefer Cardinal Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse. Our conversation was
+long and stormy, and I saw clearly that I had exasperated her." He then
+started to meet the Duchess on the road from Brussels, and found her at
+Roye, whither Montagu had already preceded him. Montagu had travelled to
+Roye to place Mazarin's homage at the feet of Madame de Chevreuse, with
+the view of bringing about at any cost an union and identity of policy
+between the old and the new favourite. He was no longer the gay and
+sprightly Walter Montagu, the friend of Holland and Buckingham, the
+enamoured knight ever ready to break a lance against all comers for a
+glance of the bright eyes of Madame de Chevreuse. Time had changed him
+as well as others: he had become a bigot and a devotee, and already
+contemplated taking orders in the Church of Rome. He still remained,
+however, attached to the object of his former adoration, but above all
+he belonged to the Queen, and consequently resigned to Mazarin. La
+Rochefoucauld--ever ready to ascribe to himself the chief share in any
+undertaking in which he figured, as well as the character of a great
+politician--asserts that he entreated Madame de Chevreuse not to
+attempt at first to govern the Queen, but to endeavour solely to regain
+in Anne's mind and heart that place of which it had been sought to
+deprive her, and to put herself in a position in which she would be able
+to protect or ruin the Cardinal, according to conduct or circumstances
+emanating from himself.
+
+The Duchess listened attentively to the advice of both her old friends,
+promised to follow it, and did so in fact, but in her own peculiar way,
+and in that of the interest of the party she had so long served, and
+which she would not abandon. As Anne of Austria seemed much pleased at
+seeing the noble wanderer again, and gave her a warm reception, Marie
+did not perceive any difference in the Queen's sentiments, and flattered
+herself that by constant assiduousness she would ere long resume that
+sway over the Regent's mind she had formerly exercised.
+
+Operating against this not unreasonable expectation of Madame de
+Chevreuse, Mazarin had a silent but potent ally in the newly-awakened
+inclination of Anne for repose and a tranquil life. The first draughts
+of almost supreme power tasted by the long-oppressed Queen were not yet
+embittered by faction and anarchy. In bygone days, insult, neglect, and
+persecution had stirred her at intervals into mental activity, and urged
+her upon dangerous courses; but now, having obtained all she aimed at,
+happy, and beginning to form attachments, she entertained a dread of
+troublesome adventures and hazardous enterprises. She therefore feared
+Madame de Chevreuse quite as much as she loved her. The astute Cardinal
+anxiously strove to foster such distrust. He looked for support from the
+Princess de Conde, then high in the Queen's favour, both through her own
+merit as well as that of the Prince her husband, but more than all
+through the brilliant exploits of her son, the Duke d'Enghien; through
+the services also of her son-in-law the Duke de Longueville, who had,
+with honourable distinction, commanded the armies of Italy and Germany,
+and by her recently-married daughter, Madame de Longueville, already the
+darling of the _salons_ and the Court. The Princess, like Queen Anne,
+had in the heyday of her beauty been fond of homage and gallantry, but
+had now grown serious, and displayed a somewhat lively piety. She held
+Madame de Chevreuse in aversion, and detested Chateauneuf, who, in 1632,
+at Toulouse, had presided at the trial and condemnation of her brother,
+Henri de Montmorency. She therefore had striven, in concert with
+Mazarin, to destroy or at least weaken Madame de Chevreuse's hold upon
+the Queen. Armed with the last will of Louis XIII., they had made it
+appear something like a fault in the Queen's eyes to disregard it so
+soon and so entirely. They had given her to understand that former days
+and associations could never return; that the amusements and passions of
+early youth were but "evil accompaniments"[2] of a later period of life;
+that now she was before all things a mother and a Queen; that Madame de
+Chevreuse, dissipated and carried away by passion, and cherishing the
+same inclination for gallantry and idle vanity as hitherto, was no
+longer worthy of her confidence; that she had brought good fortune to no
+one; and that in lavishing wealth and honour upon the Duchess the debt
+of gratitude she owed her would be sufficiently discharged.
+
+    [2] Madame de Motteville, tom. i. p. 162.--"Mauvais
+    accompagnements."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  ANNE OF AUSTRIA'S PRIME MINISTER AND HIS POLICY.
+
+
+AND now what was the actual position of Mazarin on succeeding to power
+in 1643?
+
+Richelieu had died admired and abhorred. The people, glad to be
+delivered from so heavy a yoke, obeyed with joy the incipient rule of
+the Queen-Regent. The courtiers were at first enchanted with a
+Government that refused nothing asked of it. It appeared, as one of the
+number said, that there were no more than five little words in the
+French language: "_La reine est si bonne!_"[1] The State prisons threw
+open their gates; the rights of parliaments were respected; the princes
+of the blood and the great nobles were restored to their governorships.
+There was for a season one unanimous concert of praise and thanksgiving.
+But when the princes and parliaments were desirous, as before
+Richelieu's rule, of participating in the general direction of the
+State, and especially in the distribution of place and patronage, great
+was the surprise of both at finding a steady resistance on the part of
+the Queen-Regent. To see her manifest a disposition to govern without
+them was looked upon as something scandalous. Every attempt she made
+thenceforward to retain a power which they evaded, or to repossess
+herself of that which she had imprudently suffered to escape from her
+grasp, seemed to them nothing less than a continuation of the odious
+system of Richelieu. Their exasperation was increased to the highest
+degree, therefore, when they beheld her give her entire confidence to a
+foreigner, to a Cardinal, to a creature of Richelieu. By that triple
+title Mazarin was equally hateful to the great nobles, the members of
+parliament, and the middle class. The tyranny of Richelieu had in the
+end attained to something noble by the high-handed heedlessness of all
+his acts. If the people were to be trampled on, it was a species of
+consolation that their oppressor was feared by others as well as
+themselves. But that the oppression of the doomed French nation was to
+be continued by a more ignoble hand was altogether intolerable.
+Frenchmen had begun to ask one another, who _was_ this Mazarin who had
+come to rule over them? He could not--like Richelieu--boast of his high
+birth, of descent from a long line of noble ancestors--Frenchmen. Poets
+and romancers, ye whose imaginations delight to dwell upon sudden
+downfalls and rapid rises, mark well that little lad at play upon the
+Sicilian shore near the town of Mazzara! Springing from the lowest of
+the plebeian class, his family have not even a surname. He is the son of
+one Pierre, a fisherman, whose humble hut stands yonder beneath the
+cliff. But a day will come when that lowly-born lad, joining his
+baptismal name to that of the town which sheltered his cradle, will
+become Jules de Mazarin, robed in the Roman purple, quartering his
+shield with the consular fasces of Julius Caesar, governing France, and
+through her preparing and influencing the destinies of entire Europe.
+
+    [1] De Retz Memoirs, Petitot Collection.
+
+It was not, however, by easy steps that Richelieu's disciple and
+successor obtained a firm grasp of that plenary power which the master
+mind of the former had consolidated and long wielded so grandly and
+terribly. The Queen herself at the commencement of the Regency had not
+yet renounced her former friendships. During a considerable portion of
+her married life Anne had impatiently endured the slights and
+disparagements to which she was so long subjected, both by her husband
+and his Minister. Through engaging in divers dangerous and unsuccessful
+enterprises, she had been deprived of all influence, and was a queen
+only in name. But, a woman and a Spaniard, she had descended to
+dissimulation, and in that "ugly but necessary virtue"[2] made rapid
+progress. Up to the time of Richelieu's death she had played a double
+game--made partisans in secret, with the object of subverting the
+Cardinal's power, whilst feigning the semblance of friendship towards
+him, and did not scruple to humiliate herself on occasions, in order to
+carry her point. After that great man's decease, through rare patience,
+great caution, and a persistent line of conduct, she ultimately attained
+that for which she had been willing to make any and every sacrifice--the
+Regency. During the King's last illness, the mistrusted Queen and wife
+had profited by Mazarin's unhoped-for service, as Prime Minister, in
+prevailing over the unwillingness of the dying King to appoint her
+custodian of his son, and Regent during his minority. She regarded this,
+therefore, as a first and most important service on the part of Mazarin
+towards her, and for which she felt proportionately grateful. Such was
+the Cardinal's first stepping-stone to the good graces of Anne of
+Austria, and his twofold talent both as a laborious and indefatigable
+statesman and a consummate courtier, speedily helped to secure for him
+her entire confidence. The singular personal resemblance he bore to that
+desperate _enamorado_ of her early womanhood, the brilliant Buckingham,
+may probably also have served him as a favourable prestige. On her
+accession to power Anne did not manifest much firmness of character.
+Naturally indolent, she disliked the drudgery attendant upon business
+details, and hence continued through convenience the services of a man
+who, by taking off her hands the wearisome routine of State affairs,
+allowed her to reign at her ease.
+
+    [2] Madame de Motteville.
+
+Mazarin, moreover, had never been displeasing to her. He had begun to
+ingratiate himself during the month preceding the death of Louis
+XIII.,[3] and she named him Prime Minister about the middle of
+May--partly through personal liking, but more through political
+necessity. Far from appearing to resemble the impassive and imperious
+Richelieu, Anne perhaps might have recalled with agreeable emotion the
+words of her deceased consort when he first presented Mazarin to her (in
+1639 or 1640)--"He will please you, madame, because he bears a striking
+resemblance to Buckingham." By degrees the liking increased, and grew
+sufficiently strong to resist every assault from his enemies. At the
+same time the Minister to whom the Queen owed so much, instead of
+dictating to and presuming to govern her, was ever at her feet, and
+prodigal of that attention, respect, and tenderness to which she had
+been hitherto a stranger.
+
+    [3] Louis died May 14th, 1643.
+
+It is a delicate matter to investigate with exactitude the means by
+which Mazarin obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, and one which
+La Rochefoucauld scarcely touches upon; but it is too interesting a
+point in history to be left in the dark, and thereby to altogether
+disregard that which first constituted the minister's strength, and
+soon afterwards became the centre and key of the situation. After a long
+season of oppression, regal powers and splendour gilded the hours of
+Anne of Austria, and her Spanish pride exacted the tribute of respect
+and homage. Mazarin was prodigal of both. He cast himself at her feet in
+order to reach her heart. In her heart of hearts she was not the less
+touched by the grave accusation brought against him that he was a
+foreigner, for was not she also a foreigner? Perhaps that of itself
+proved the source of a mysterious attraction to her, and she may have
+found it a singular pleasure to converse with her Prime Minister in her
+mother tongue as a compatriot and friend. To all this must be added the
+mind and manners of Mazarin--supple and insinuating, always master of
+himself, of an unchangeable serenity amidst the gravest circumstances,
+full of confidence in his good star, and diffusing that confidence
+around him. It must also be remembered that Cardinal although he was,
+Mazarin was not a priest; that imbued with the maxims which formed the
+code of gallantry of her native land, Anne of Austria had always loved
+to please the other sex; that she was then forty-one and still
+beautiful, that her Prime Minister was of the same age, that he was
+exceedingly well-made and of a most pleasing countenance, in which
+_finesse_, was blended with a certain air of greatness. He had readily
+recognised that without ancestry, establishment, or support in France,
+and surrounded by rivals and enemies, all his strength centred in the
+Queen. He applied himself therefore above all things to gain her heart,
+as Richelieu had tried before him; and as he happily possessed far other
+means for attaining success in that respect, the handsome and
+gentle-mannered Cardinal eventually succeeded. Once master of her heart,
+he easily directed the mind of Anne of Austria, and taught her the
+difficult art of pursuing ever the same end by the aid of conduct the
+most diverse, according to the difference of circumstances.
+
+But favourable and indeed gracious as his royal mistress had shown
+herself towards him personally, and apart from any particular line of
+policy, at the outset of his premiership Mazarin had nevertheless to
+contend against a formidable host of enemies; and not the least
+redoubtable among them might be reckoned that intrepid political heroine
+the lately-banished Duchess de Chevreuse. No sooner did she again find
+herself at the side of Anne of Austria than the indefatigable Marie set
+to work with all her characteristic dash, spirit, and energy to attack
+Richelieu's system and its adherents, now directed by Mazarin.
+
+The first point she sought to carry was the return of Chateauneuf to
+office. "The good sense and long experience of M. de Chateauneuf," says
+La Rochefoucauld, "were known to the Queen. He had undergone a rigorous
+imprisonment for his adhesion to her cause; he was firm, decisive, loved
+the State, and more capable than anyone else of re-establishing the old
+form of government which Richelieu had first begun to destroy. Firmly
+attached to Mdme. de Chevreuse, she knew sufficiently-well how to govern
+him. She therefore urged his return with much warmth." Chateauneuf had
+already obtained as a royal boon that the "rude and miserable condition"
+of close incarceration under which he had groaned for ten years should
+be changed for a compulsory residence at one of his country houses.
+Mdme. de Chevreuse demanded the termination of this mitigated exile,
+that she might once more behold him free who had endured such
+extremities for the Queen's sake and her own. Mazarin saw that he must
+yield, but only did so tardily, never appearing himself to repulse
+Chateauneuf, but always alleging the paramount necessity of conciliating
+the Conde family, and especially the Princess, who, as already said,
+bore bitter enmity towards him as the judge of her brother, Henri de
+Montmorency. Chateauneuf was therefore recalled, but with that
+reservation accorded to the last clause of the King's will, that he
+should not appear at Court, but reside at his own house of Montrouge,
+near Paris, where his friends might visit him.
+
+The next step was to transfer him thence to some ministerial office.
+Chateauneuf was no longer a young man, but neither his energy nor his
+ambition had deserted him, and Mdme. de Chevreuse made it a point of
+honour to reinstate him in the post of Keeper of the Seals, which he had
+formerly held and lost through her, and which all Queen Anne's old
+friends now saw with indignation occupied by one of the most detested of
+Richelieu's creatures, Pierre Seguier. This last, however, was a man of
+capacity--laborious, well-informed and full of resources. To these
+qualifications he added a remarkable suppleness, which made him very
+useful and accommodating to a Prime Minister. He moreover had the
+support of friends who stood high in the Queen's favour, and was further
+strengthened by the opposition of the Condes and the Bishop of Beauvais
+to Chateauneuf. The Duchess perceiving that it was almost impossible to
+surmount so powerful an opposition, took another way of arriving at the
+same end. She contented herself with asking for the lowest seat in the
+cabinet for her friend; well knowing that once installed therein,
+Chateauneuf would soon manage all the rest and aggrandise his position.
+
+At the same time that she strove to extricate from disgrace the man upon
+whom rested all her political hopes, Madame de Chevreuse, not daring to
+attack Mazarin overtly, insensibly undermined the ground beneath his
+feet, and step by step prepared his ruin. Her experienced eye enabled
+her promptly to perceive the most favourable point of attack whence to
+assail the Queen, and the watchword she passed was to fan and keep alive
+to the utmost the general feeling of reprobation which all the
+proscribed, on returning to France, had aroused and disseminated against
+the memory of Richelieu. This feeling was universal--among the great
+families he had decimated or despoiled;--in the Church, too firmly
+repressed not to be unmindful of its abasement;--in the Parliament,
+strictly confined to its judicial functions, and aspiring to break
+through such narrow limits. The same feeling was still alive in the
+Queen's bosom, who could not have forgotten the deep humiliation to
+which Richelieu had subjected her, and the fate for which he had
+probably reserved her. These tactics succeeded, and on every side there
+arose against the late violence and tyranny, and, by a rebound, against
+the creatures of Richelieu, a storm so furious that Mazarin's utmost
+ability was taxed to allay it.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse likewise supplicated Anne of Austria to repair the
+long-endured misfortunes of the Vendome princes, by bestowing upon them
+either the Admiralty, to which an immense power was attached, or the
+government of Brittany, which the head of the family, Caesar de Vendome,
+had formerly held--deriving it alike from the hand of his father, Henry
+IV., and as the heritage of his father-in-law, the Duke de Mercoeur.
+This was nothing less than demanding the aggrandisement of an unfriendly
+house, and at the same time the ruin of two families that had served
+Richelieu with the utmost devotion, and were best capable of supporting
+Mazarin. The Minister parried the blow aimed at him by the Duchess by
+dint of address and patience, never refusing, always eluding, and
+summoning to his aid his grand ally, as he termed it--Time. Before the
+return of Madame de Chevreuse he had found himself forced to win over
+the Vendomes, and to secure them in his interest. On Richelieu's death
+he had strenuously contributed to obtain their recall, and had since
+made them every kind of advance; but he soon perceived that he could not
+satisfy them without bringing about his own destruction. The Duke Caesar
+de Vendome, son of Henry IV. and _The Fair Gabrielle_, had early carried
+his pretensions to a great height, and had shown himself restless and
+factious as a legitimate prince. He had passed his life in revolts and
+conspiracies, and in 1641 had been compelled to flee to England through
+suspicion of being implicated in an attempt to assassinate Richelieu. He
+did not dare return to France until after the Cardinal's death; and, as
+may well be imagined, he came back breathing the direst vengeance.
+Against the ambition of the Vendomes Mazarin skilfully opposed that of
+the Condes, who were inimical to the aggrandisement of a house too
+nearly rivalling their own. But it was very difficult to retain Brittany
+in the hands of its newly-appointed governor, the Marshal La Meilleraie,
+in face of the claim of a son of Henry the Great, who had formerly held
+it, and demanded it back as a sort of heirloom. Mazarin therefore
+resigned himself to the sacrifice of La Meilleraie, but he lightened it
+as much as possible. He persuaded the Queen to assume to herself the
+government of Brittany, and have only a lieutenant-general over it--a
+post, of course, beneath the dignity of the Vendomes, and which would,
+therefore, remain in La Meilleraie's hands. The latter could not take
+offence at being second in power therein to the Queen; and to arrange
+everything to the entire satisfaction of a person of such importance,
+Mazarin solicited for him soon afterwards the title of duke, which the
+deceased King had, in fact, promised the Marshal, and the reversion of
+the post of Grand Master of the Artillery for his son--that same son on
+whom subsequently Mazarin bestowed, with his own name, the hand of his
+niece, the beautiful Hortense.
+
+Mazarin was so much the less inclined to favour the house of Vendome
+from having encountered a dangerous rival in the Queen's good graces, in
+Vendome's youngest son, Beaufort, a young, bold, and flourishing
+gallant, who displayed ostentatiously all the exterior signs of loyalty
+and chivalry, and affected for Anne of Austria a passionate devotion not
+likely to be displeasing. "He was tall, well-made, dexterous, and
+indefatigable in all warlike exercises," says La Rochefoucauld, "but
+artificial withal, and wanting in truthfulness of character. Mentally he
+was heavy and badly cultivated; nevertheless he attained his objects
+cleverly enough through the blunt coarseness of his manners. He was of
+high but unsteady courage, and was not a little envious and
+malignant."[4] De Retz does not, like La Rochefoucauld, accuse Beaufort
+of artificiality, but represents him as presumptuous and of thorough
+incapacity. His portrait of him, though over-coloured, like most others
+from the coadjutor's pen, is sufficiently faithful, but at the
+commencement of the Regency, the defects of the Duke de Beaufort had not
+fully declared themselves, and were less conspicuous than his good
+qualities. Some few days before her husband's death, Anne of Austria had
+placed her children under his charge--a mark of confidence that so
+elated him that the young Duke conceived hopes which his impetuosity
+hindered him from sufficiently disguising. Indeed, these were presumed
+upon so far as to give offence to the Queen; and, as the height of
+inconsistency, he committed at the same time the egregious folly of
+publicly enacting the led-captain in the rosy chains of the handsome but
+decried Duchess de Montbazon. It was only, however, by slow degrees that
+the Queen's liking for him abated. At first, she had proposed to confer
+upon him the post of Grand-Ecuyer, vacant since the death of the
+unfortunate Cinq-Mars, which would have kept him in close attendance
+upon her, and was altogether a fitting appointment--for Beaufort had
+nothing of the statesman in him; with little intellect and no reticence,
+he was also averse to steady application to business, and capable only
+of some bold and violent course of action. The Duke had the folly to
+refuse this post of Grand-Ecuyer, hoping for a better; and then,
+altering his mind when it was too late, he solicited it only to incur
+disappointment.[5] The more his favour diminished, the more his
+irritation increased, and it was not long ere he placed himself at the
+head of the Cardinal's bitterest enemies.
+
+    [4] La Rochefoucauld.
+
+    [5] Mazarin himself has furnished this fact, otherwise unknown, in
+    one of his diaries (_Carnet_, pp. 72, 73). The Cardinal-Minister was
+    in the habit of jotting down the chief events of each day in these
+    small memorandum books (_Carnets_), which he kept in the pocket of
+    his cassock.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse hoped to be more fortunate in securing the
+governorship of Havre for a very different sort of person--for a man of
+tried devotedness and of a rare and subtle intellect--La Rochefoucauld.
+She would thereby recompense the services rendered to the Queen and
+herself, strengthen and aggrandize one of the chiefs of the
+_Importants_, and weaken Mazarin by depriving of an important government
+a person upon whom he had entire reliance--Richelieu's niece, the
+Duchess d'Aiguillon. The Cardinal succeeded in rendering this
+manoeuvre abortive, without appearing to have any hand in it. And
+herein, as in many other matters, the art of Mazarin was to wear the
+semblance of merely confirming the Queen in the resolves with which he
+inspired her.
+
+In thus attributing these various designs, this connected and consistent
+line of conduct, to Madame de Chevreuse, we do not advance it as our own
+opinion, but as that of La Rochefoucauld, who must have been perfectly
+well informed. He attributes it to her both in his own affairs and in
+those of the Vendomes. Neither was Mazarin blind to the fact, for more
+than once in his private notes we read these words:--"My greatest
+enemies are the Vendomes and Madame de Chevreuse, who urges them on." He
+tells us also that she had formed the project of marrying her charming
+daughter Charlotte, then sixteen, to the Vendome's eldest son, the Duke
+de Mercoeur, whilst his brother Beaufort should espouse the wealthy
+Mademoiselle d'Epernon, who foiled these designs, and even greater
+still, by throwing herself at four-and-twenty into a convent of
+Carmelites. These marriages, which would have reconciled, united, and
+strengthened so many great houses, moderately attached to the Queen and
+her minister, terrified Richelieu's successor. He therefore sought to
+foil them by every means in his power, and succeeded in prevailing upon
+the Queen to frustrate them in an underhand way; having found that the
+union of Mademoiselle de Vendome with the brilliant but restless Duke de
+Nemours had caused him more than ordinary anxiety.
+
+If the intricate details of those counter intrigues of Mazarin and
+Madame de Chevreuse be followed attentively, we are at a loss to say to
+which of the two antagonists the palm for skill, sagacity, and address
+should be given. Whilst Mazarin was astute enough to make a certain
+amount of sacrifice in order to reserve to himself the right of not
+making greater--treating everyone with apparent consideration, rendering
+no one desperate, promising much, holding back the least possible
+_proprio motu_ of himself, and surrounding Madame de Chevreuse herself
+with attention and homage without suffering any illusion to beguile him
+as to the nature of her sentiments--she, on her part, paid him back in
+the same coin. La Rochefoucauld says that during these _mollia tempora_,
+Madame de Chevreuse and Mazarin actually flirted with each other. The
+Duchess, who had always intermingled gallantry with politics, tried, as
+it appears, the power of her charms upon the Cardinal. The latter, on
+his side, failed not to lavish honeyed words, and "essayoit meme quelque
+fois de lui faire croire qu'elle lui donnoit de l'amour."[6] There were
+other ladies also, it seems, who would not have been sorry to please the
+handsome First Minister a little. Amongst these might be numbered the
+Princess de Guemene,[7] one of the greatest beauties of the French
+Court, who, certainly, if only one half the stories related of her be
+true, was by no means of a ferocious disposition in affairs of
+gallantry. This lady, as well as her husband, were both favourable to
+Mazarin, in spite of all the efforts of Madame de Montbazon, and Madame
+de Chevreuse, her sister-in-law. It may be readily imagined that Mazarin
+devoted great attention to Madame de Guemene, and did not fail to pay
+her a host of compliments, as he did to Madame de Chevreuse; but as he
+went no further, the two gay ladies were at a loss to conceive what so
+many compliments coupled with so much reserve meant. They sometimes
+asked which of the two was really the object of his admiration; and as
+he still made no further advances at the same time that he continued his
+gallant protestations, "these ladies," says Mazarin, "si esamina la mia
+vita e si conclude che io sia impotente."[8]
+
+    [6] La Rochefoucauld, Memoirs, p. 383.
+
+    [7] Anne de Rohan, wife of M. de Guemene, eldest son of the Duke de
+    Montbazon, and brother of Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+    [8] Carnet, iii. p. 39.
+
+Political intrigue had become such an affair of fashion among the Court
+dames of that day, that those of the highest rank made no scruple of
+bringing into play all the artillery of their wit and beauty whenever
+they could contribute to the success of their enterprises. Still endowed
+with those two potent gifts to an eminent degree, Madame de Chevreuse
+brought all her various influences into perfect combination, and had
+grown so passionately fond of the fierce excitement of conspiring, that
+love was to her now merely a means and political victory the end. She
+devoted literally her entire existence to it, living in the confidence
+and intimacy of the Vendomes and other noble perturbators of the hour.
+Her activity, her penetration, her energy obtained for her among the
+party of the _Importants_ the importance she coveted. It was not long,
+therefore, ere she begun to give Mazarin cause for grave anxiety. During
+the encounters resulting from this strenuous antagonism, reconciliations
+occasionally took place, in which even the Cardinal's coldness,
+caution, and his laborious occupation, could not, it is said, place him
+beyond reach of the Duchess's irresistible fascinations. But the latter,
+well aware that the _role_ of Mazarin's mistress would not give to her
+grasp the helm of the State, which he reserved exclusively to himself,
+preferred, therefore, rather to remain his enemy, and figure at the head
+and front of the faction antagonistic to his government.
+
+This flirting and skirmishing had gone on for some time, but at last
+natural feeling prevailed over political reticence. Madame de Chevreuse
+grew impatient at obtaining words only, and scarcely anything serious or
+effective. She had, it is true, received some money for her own use,
+either in repayment of that which she had formerly lent the Queen, or
+for the discharge of debts contracted during exile and in the interest
+of Anne of Austria. On returning to Court, one of her earliest steps was
+to withdraw her friend and _protege_, Alexandre de Campion, from the
+service of the Vendomes, and place him in a suitable position in the
+Queen's household. Chateauneuf had been reinstated in his former post of
+Chancellor (_des Ordres du Roi_), and later his governorship of Touraine
+was restored to him on the death of the Marquis de Gevres, who fell at
+the siege of Thionville; but the Duchess considered that that was doing
+very little for a man of Chateauneuf's merit--for him who had staked
+fortune and life, and undergone ten years' imprisonment. She readily
+perceived, therefore, that the perpetual delay of favours ever promised,
+ever deferred in the instances of the Vendomes and La Rochefoucauld,
+were so many artifices of the Cardinal, and that she was his dupe. This
+conviction put the spirited partisan upon her mettle. She began to
+titter, to mock, and to expostulate by turns, and sometimes twitted the
+minister in pert and derisive terms. This, however, betrayed a want of
+her ordinary precaution, and only served to fill Mazarin's quiver with
+shafts to be used against herself. He made the Queen believe that Madame
+de Chevreuse sought to rule her with a rod of iron; that she had changed
+her mask, but not her character; that she was ever the same impulsive
+and restless person, who, with all her talent and devotedness, had never
+worked aught but mischief around her, and was only instrumental in
+ruining others as well as herself. By degrees, underhand and hidden as
+it might be, war between the Duchess and the Cardinal declared itself
+unmistakably. The commencement and progress of this curious struggle for
+supremacy has been admirably depicted by La Rochefoucauld; and, while
+the autograph memoranda of Mazarin cast a fresh flood of light upon it,
+they enhance infinitely Madame de Chevreuse's ability by revealing to
+what an extent that Minister dreaded her.
+
+In every page of these invaluable _carnets_ he indicates her as being
+the head and mainspring of the _Importants_. "It is Madame de
+Chevreuse," he writes repeatedly, "who stirs them all up. She endeavours
+to strengthen the hands of the Vendomes; she tries to win over every
+member of the house of Lorraine; she has already gained the Duke de
+Guise, and through him she strives to carry away from me the Duke
+d'Elbeuf." "She sees clearly through everything; she has guessed very
+accurately that it is I who have secretly persuaded the Queen to hinder
+the restoration of the government of Brittany to the Duke de Vendome.
+She has said so to her father, the Duke de Montbazon, and to Montagu.
+She has quarrelled with Montagu, in fact, because he raises an obstacle
+to Chateauneuf by supporting Seguier." "Nothing discourages Madame de
+Chevreuse; she entreats the Vendomes to have patience, and sustains them
+by promising a speedy change of scene." "Madame de Chevreuse never
+relinquishes the hope of displacing me. The reason she gives for this
+is, that when the Queen refused to put Chateauneuf at the head of the
+government, she stated that she could not do it immediately, as she must
+have some consideration for me, whence Madame de Chevreuse concludes
+that the Queen has much esteem and liking for Chateauneuf, and that when
+I shall be no longer where I am, the post is secured for her friend.
+Hence the hopes and illusions with which they are buoyed up." "The
+Duchess and her friends assert that the Queen will shortly send for
+Chateauneuf; and by so doing they abuse the minds of all, and prompt
+those who are looking to their future interests to pay court to her and
+seek her friendship. They make an excuse for the Queen's delay in giving
+him my place, by saying that she has still need of me for some short
+time." "I am told that Madame de Chevreuse secretly directs Madame de
+Vendome (a pious person who has great influence over the bishops and
+convents), and gives her instructions, in order that she may not fall
+into error, and that all the machinery used against me may thoroughly
+answer its purpose." From this last entry it is clear that Madame de
+Chevreuse, without being in the smallest degree possible a _devote_,
+knew right well how to make use of the _parti devot_, which then
+exercised great influence over Anne of Austria's mind, and gave serious
+uneasiness to Mazarin.
+
+The Prime Minister's chief difficulty was to make Queen Anne--the sister
+of the King of Spain, and herself of a piety thoroughly
+Spanish--understand that it was necessary, notwithstanding the
+engagements which she had so often contracted, notwithstanding the
+instances of the Court of Rome and those of the heads of the episcopate,
+to continue the alliance with the Protestants of Germany and Holland,
+and to persist in only consenting to a _general_ peace in which the
+allies of France should equally find their account as well as that
+country itself. On the other side, it was continually dinned into the
+Queen's ear that it was practicable to make a separate treaty of peace,
+and negotiate singly with Spain on very fitting conditions, that by such
+means the scandal of an impious war between "the very Christian" and
+"the very Catholic" King would cease, and a relief be afforded to France
+very much needed. Such was the policy of the Queen's old friends. It was
+at least specious, and reckoned numerous partisans among men the most
+intelligent and attached to the interests of their country. Mazarin, the
+disciple and successor of Richelieu, had higher views, but which it was
+not easy at first to make Anne of Austria comprehend. By degrees,
+however, he succeeded, thanks to his judicious efforts, renewed
+incessantly and with infinite art; thanks especially to the victories of
+the Duke d'Enghien--for in all worldly affairs success is a very
+eloquent and right persuasive advocate. The Queen, however, remained for
+a considerable interval undecided, and it may be seen by Mazarin's own
+memoranda that during the latter part of May, as well as through the
+whole of June and July, the Cardinal's greatest effort was to induce the
+Regent not to abandon her allies, but to firmly carry on the war. Madame
+de Chevreuse, with Chateauneuf, defended the old party policy, and
+strove to bring over Anne of Austria to it. "Madame de Chevreuse," wrote
+Mazarin, "causes the Queen to be told from all quarters that I do not
+wish for peace, that I hold the same maxims as Cardinal Richelieu on the
+point--that it is both easy and necessary to make a separate treaty of
+peace." On several occasions he made indignant protestation against such
+arrangement, pointing out the danger with which it was fraught, and that
+it would render ineffectual those sacrifices which France had for so
+many years made. "Madame de Chevreuse," he exclaimed, "would ruin
+France!" He knew well that, intimately associated with Gaston, her old
+accomplice in all the plots framed against Richelieu, she had won him
+over to the idea of a separate peace by holding out the hope of a
+marriage between his daughter Mademoiselle de Montpensier and the
+Arch-duke, which would have brought him the government of the Low
+Countries. He knew that she had preserved all her influence with the
+Duke de Lorraine; he knew, in fine, that she boasted of having the power
+of promptly negotiating a peace through the mediation of the Queen of
+Spain, who was at her disposal. Thus informed, he entreated his royal
+mistress to reject all Madame de Chevreuse's propositions, and to tell
+her plainly that she would not listen to anything relating to a separate
+treaty, that she was decided upon not separating herself from her
+allies, that she desired a general peace, that with such view she had
+sent her ministers to Munster, who were then negotiating that important
+matter, and that it was superfluous to speak to her any more upon the
+subject.
+
+Though baffled on these different points, Madame de Chevreuse did not
+consider herself vanquished. She rallied and emboldened her adherents by
+her lofty spirit and firm resolution. The party feud went on--intrigues
+were multiplied--but up to the close of August, 1643, no change had
+taken place, though the acrimony of party feeling had become largely
+increased. Finding that she had fruitlessly employed insinuation,
+flattery, artifice, and every species of Court manoeuvre, her daring
+mind did not shrink from the idea of having recourse to other means of
+success. She kept up a brisk agitation amongst the bishops and devotees,
+she continued to weave her political plots with the chiefs of the
+_Importants_, and at the same time she formed a closer intimacy with
+that small cabal which formed in some sort the advance-guard of that
+party, composed of men reared amongst the old conspiracies, accustomed
+to and always ready for _coups de main_, who had of old embarked in more
+than one desperate enterprise against Richelieu, and who, in an
+extremity, might be likewise launched against Mazarin. The memoirs of
+the time, and especially those of De Retz and La Rochefoucauld, make us
+sufficiently well acquainted with their names and characters. The former
+mistress of Chalais found little difficulty in acquiring sole sway over
+a faction composed of second-rate talents. She caressed it skilfully;
+and, with the art of an experienced conspirator, she fomented every germ
+of false honour, of quintessential devotedness, and extravagant
+rashness. Mazarin, who, like Richelieu, had an admirable police,
+forewarned of Madame de Chevreuse's machinations, fully comprehended the
+danger with which he was menaced. No one could have been better informed
+as to his exact position than the Cardinal: and the plans of the Duchess
+and the chiefs of the _Importants_ developed themselves clearly under
+Mazarin's sharp-sightedness--either by their incessant and
+elaborately-concerted intrigues with the Queen, to force her to abandon
+a minister to whose policy she had not yet openly declared her adhesion,
+or, should it prove necessary, treat that minister as De Luynes had done
+the last Queen-mother's favourite d'Ancre, and as Montresor, Barriere,
+and Saint-Ybar would have served Richelieu. The first plan not having
+succeeded, they began to think seriously about carrying out the second,
+and Madame de Chevreuse, the strongest mind of the party, proposed with
+some show of reason to act before the return of the young hero of
+Rocroy, the Duke d'Enghien; for that victorious soldier once in Paris
+would unquestionably shield Mazarin. It became necessary, therefore, to
+profit by his absence in order to strike a decisive blow. Success seemed
+certain, and even easy. They were sure of having the people with them,
+who, exhausted by a long war and groaning under taxation, would
+naturally welcome with delight the hope of peace and repose. They might
+reckon on the declared support of the parliament, burning to recover
+that importance in the State of which it had been deprived by Richelieu,
+and which was then a matter of dispute with Mazarin. They had all the
+secret, even overt sympathy of the episcopate, which, with Rome,
+detested the Protestant alliance, and demanded the restoration of that
+of Spain. The eager concurrence of the aristocracy could not be doubted
+for a moment; which ever regretted its old and turbulent independence,
+and whose most illustrious representatives, the Vendomes, the Guises,
+the Bouillons, and the La Rochefoucaulds were strenously opposed to the
+domination of a foreign favourite, without fortune, of no birth, and as
+yet without fame. The princes of the blood resigned themselves to
+Mazarin rather than to liking him. The Duke d'Orleans was not remarkable
+for great fidelity to his friends, and the politic Prince de Conde
+looked twice ere he quarrelled with the successful. He coaxed all
+parties, whilst he clung to his own interests. His son, doubtless, would
+follow in his father's footsteps, and he would be won over by being
+overwhelmed with honours. The day following that on which the blow
+should be struck there would be no resistance to their ascendancy, and
+on the very day itself scarcely any obstacle. The Italian regiments of
+Mazarin were with the army; there were scarcely any other troops in
+Paris save the regiments of the guards, the colonels of which were
+nearly all devoted to the _Importants_. The Queen herself had not yet
+renounced her former friendships. Her prudent reserve even was wrongly
+interpreted. As it was her desire to appease and deal gently on all
+hands, she gave kind words to everybody, and those kind words were taken
+as tacit encouragement. Anne had not hitherto shown much firmness of
+character; a certain amount of liking for the Cardinal was not unjustly
+imputed to her, and undue significance already attributed to the
+steadily increasing attachment of a few short months.
+
+Mazarin, on his own part, indulged in no illusions. He was decidedly not
+yet master of Anne of Austria's heart; since at that moment--that is to
+say, during the month of July, 1643--in his most secret notes he
+displays a deep inquietude and despondency. The dissimulation of which
+everybody accused the Queen obviously terrified him, and we see him
+passing through all the alternations of hope and fear. It is very
+curious to trace and follow out the varied fluctuations of his mind. In
+his official letters to ambassadors and generals he affects a security
+which he does not feel. With his own intimate friends he permits some
+hint of his perplexities to escape him, but in his private memoranda
+they are all laid bare. We therein read his inmost carks and cares, and
+his passionate entreaties that the Queen-Regent would open her mind to
+him. He feigns the utmost disinterestedness towards her; he simply asks
+to make way for Chateauneuf, if she has any secret preference for that
+minister. The ambiguous conduct of the Regent harasses and distresses
+him, and he conjures her either to permit him to retire or to declare
+herself in favour of his policy.
+
+This exciting contest continued with the keenest activity, but no change
+had occurred up to the end of July, and even the first days of August,
+1643, though this critical state of affairs had become greatly
+aggravated. The violence of the _Importants_ increased daily; the Queen
+defended her minister, but she also showed consideration for his
+enemies. She hesitated to take the decided attitude which Mazarin
+required at her hands, not only in his individual interest, but in that
+of his government. Suddenly an incident, very insignificant apparently,
+but which by assuming larger proportions brought about the inevitable
+crisis--forced the Queen to declare herself, and Madame de Chevreuse to
+plunge deeper into a baleful enterprise, the idea of which had already
+forced itself upon her imagination. A great scandal occurred. We allude
+to a quarrel between the two duchesses, de Longueville and de
+Montbazon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE MONTBAZON.--THE AFFAIR OF THE DROPPED LETTERS.--THE
+  QUARREL OF THE TWO DUCHESSES.
+
+
+ON declaring itself of the party of Mazarin, the house of Conde had
+drawn down the hatred of the _Importants_, though their hostility
+scarcely fell upon Madame de Longueville. Her gentleness in everything
+in which her heart was not seriously engaged, her entire indifference to
+politics at this period of her life, with the graces of her mind and
+person, rendered her pleasing to every one, and shielded her from party
+spite. But apart from affairs of State, she had an enemy, and a
+formidable enemy, in the Duchess de Montbazon. We have said that Madame
+de Montbazon had been the mistress of the Duke de Longueville, and as
+one of the principal personages of the drama we are about to relate, she
+requires to be somewhat better known.
+
+We shall pass over in silence many of her foibles, without attempting to
+excuse any. Before sketching her life, or at least a portion of it, it
+will be necessary, in order to protect her memory against an excess of
+severity, to recall certain traditions and examples for which unhappily
+her family was notorious.
+
+Daughter of Claude de Bretagne, Baron d'Avangour, she was on her
+mother's side granddaughter of that very complaisant Marquis de La
+Varenne Fouquet, who, successively scullion, cook, and maitre d'hotel of
+Henry the Fourth, "gained more by carrying the amorous King's _poulets_
+than basting those in his kitchen." Catherine Fouquet, Countess de
+Vertus, his daughter, Madame de Montbazon's mother, was beautiful,
+witty, somewhat giddy, and very gallant. Impatient of all hindrance, she
+had authorised one of her lovers to assassinate her husband; but it was
+the husband who assassinated the lover. The tragical termination of this
+rencontre does not seem to have cast a gloom over the life of the
+Countess de Vertus, for at seventy she began to learn to dance, and when
+seventy-three, married a young man over head and ears in debt.
+
+In 1628, Marie d'Avangour quitted her convent to espouse Hercule de
+Rohan, Duke de Montbazon, who was the father, by his first marriage, of
+Madame de Chevreuse and of the Prince de Guemene. She was sixteen, and
+he sixty-one. Thorough fool as he was, the Duke did not conceal from
+himself, it is said, the conviction that such an union was fraught with
+some danger to him; but we may venture to affirm that he could not have
+foreseen all its dangers. Full of respect for the virtues of Marie de'
+Medicis, he recommended her example to his wife; then, with every
+confidence in the future, he conducted her to Court.
+
+In beauty the daughter was worthy of the mother, but in vices she left
+her far behind. Tallemant says she was one of the loveliest women
+imaginable. Her mind was not her most brilliant side, and the little
+that she had was turned to intrigue and perfidy. "Her mind," says the
+indulgent Madame de Motteville, "was not so fine as her person; her
+brilliancy was limited to her eyes, which commanded love. She claimed
+universal admiration." In regard to her character, all are unanimous. De
+Retz, who knew her well, speaks of her in these terms: "Madame de
+Montbazon was a very great beauty. Modesty was wanting in her air. Her
+jargon might, during a dull hour, have supplied the defects of her mind.
+She showed but little faith in gallantry, none in business. She loved
+her own pleasure alone, and above her pleasure her interest. I never saw
+a person who, in vice, preserved so little respect for virtue."
+Supremely vain and passionately fond of money, it was by the aid of her
+beauty that she sought influence and fortune. She, therefore, took
+infinite care of it, as of her idol, as of her resources, her treasure.
+She kept it in repair, heightened it by all sorts of artifices, and
+preserved it almost uninjured till her death. Madame de Motteville
+asserts that, during the latter part of her life, she was as full of
+vanity as if she were but twenty-five years of age; that she had the
+same desire to please, and that she wore her mourning garb in so
+charming a manner, that "the order of nature seemed changed, since age
+and beauty could be found united." Ten years before, in 1647, at the age
+of thirty-five, when Mazarin gave a comedy in the Italian style, that
+is, an opera, there was in the evening a grand ball, and the Duchess de
+Montbazon was present, adorned with pearls, with a red feather on her
+head, and so dazzling in her appearance that the whole company was
+completely charmed. We can imagine what she was in 1643, at the age of
+thirty-one.
+
+Of the two conditions of perfect beauty--strength and grace, Madame
+de Montbazon possessed the first in the highest degree. She was tall
+and majestic, and she had all the charms of embonpoint. Her throat
+reminded one of the fulness, in this particular, of the antique
+statues--exceeding them, perhaps, somewhat. What struck the beholder
+most were her eyes and hair of intense blackness, upon a skin of the
+most dazzling white. Her defect was a nose somewhat too prominent, with
+a mouth so large as to give her face an appearance of severity. It will
+be seen that she was the very opposite of Madame de Longueville. The
+latter was tall, but not to excess. The richness of her form did not
+diminish its delicacy. A moderate embonpoint exhibited, in full and
+exquisite measure, the beauty of the female form. Her eyes were of the
+softest blue; her hair of the most beautiful blonde. She had the most
+majestic air, and yet her peculiar characteristic was grace. To these
+were added the great difference of manners and tone. Madame de
+Longueville was, in her deportment, dignity, politeness, modesty,
+sweetness itself, with a languor and nonchalance which formed not her
+least charm. Her words were few, as well as her gestures; the inflexions
+of her voice were a perfect music.[1] The excess, into which she never
+fell, might have been a sort of fastidiousness. Everything in her was
+wit, sentiment, charm. Madame de Montbazon, on the contrary, was free of
+speech, bold and easy in her tone, full of stateliness and pride.
+
+    [1] Villefore, p. 32.
+
+The Duchess was, nevertheless, a very attractive creature when she
+desired to be so, and such we must conceive her to have been if we would
+take account of the admiration she excited, and not exactly like the
+person which Cousin represents her when, at the age of nearly forty, she
+had become "a Colossus"--to use Tallemant's phrase. At the same time it
+is true that, even in youth, she had less grace than strength, less
+delicacy than majesty. It is also true that she was free of speech, and
+in tone was bold and offhand; but those very defects for which she was
+remarkable only the better assured her empire over what, in modern
+parlance, would be termed the "fast" portion of the Court, and the
+sentiments to which she gave utterance revealed the most singular
+extravagance. But not a single voice protested when the Duke
+d'Hocquincourt proclaimed her _la belle des belles_. In the eyes of the
+foreigner she was the marvel which the generals who dreamed of the
+capture of Paris coveted; in other words, she was _par excellence_ "the
+booty" most desirable, on the subject of which the Duke of Weimar
+perpetrated a thoroughly German joke, which we must be pardoned for not
+repeating: Anne of Austria might have smiled at it without blushing, but
+it is too gross to risk raising a laugh by its repetition in our days.
+
+She had a great number of adorers, and of happy adorers, from Gaston
+Duke of Orleans, and the Count de Soissons, slain at Marfee, to Rance,
+the young and gallant editor of Anacreon, and the future founder of La
+Trappe. M. de Longueville had been for some time her lover by title, and
+he afforded her considerable advantages. When he married Mademoiselle de
+Bourbon, Madame the Princess exacted--without, however, being very
+faithfully obeyed--the discontinuance of all intercourse with his old
+mistress. Hence, in that interested soul, an irritation, which wounded
+vanity redoubled, when she saw this young bride, with her great name,
+her marvellous mind, her indefinable charms, advance into the world of
+gallantry, without the least effort draw after her all hearts, and take
+possession of, or at least share that empire of beauty of which she was
+so proud, and which was to her so precious. On the other hand, the Duke
+de Beaufort had not been able to restrain a passionate admiration for
+Madame de Longueville, which had been very coldly received. He was
+wounded by it, and his wound bled for a long time, as his friend, La
+Chatre, informs us,[2] even after he had transferred his homage to
+Madame de Montbazon. The latter, as may be easily imagined, was again
+exasperated. Finally, the Duke de Guise, recently arrived in Paris,
+placed himself in the party of the _Importants_ and at the service of
+Madame de Montbazon, who received him very favourably, at the same time
+she was striving to keep or recall the Duke de Longueville, and that she
+was ruling Beaufort, whose office near her was somewhat that of a
+_cavalier servente_. Thus it will be seen that Madame de Montbazon
+disposed through Beaufort and through Guise, as through her
+daughter-in-law Madame de Chevreuse, of the house of Vendome and that of
+Lorraine, and she employed all this influence to the profit of her
+hatred against Madame de Longueville. She burned to injure her, and was
+not long in finding an opportunity of doing it.
+
+    [2] Memoires of La Chatre. Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 230.
+
+One day when a numerous company was assembled in her salon, one of her
+young lady friends picked up a couple of letters which had been dropped
+on the floor, bearing no signatures, but in a feminine handwriting, and
+of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read, and a thousand jokes
+perpetrated concerning them, and some effort made to discover the
+author. They were from a woman who wrote tenderly to some one whom she
+did not hate. Madame de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen from
+the pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just gone out, and that they
+were in the handwriting of Madame de Longueville. The word of command
+thus once given, the Duke de Beaufort was amongst the first to spread
+the insinuation which was a calumny, all the echoes of the party of the
+_Importants_ took it up, and Madame de Montbazon herself found pleasure
+in repeating it during several following days, so that the incident
+became the entertainment of the Court. A frivolous curiosity has very
+faithfully preserved the text of the two letters thus found at the
+Duchess's house.[3]
+
+    [3] Memoires of Madlle. de Montpensier, vol. i. pp. 62, 63.
+
+I.
+
+     "I should much more regret the change in your conduct if I
+     thought myself less worthy of a continuation of your
+     affection. I confess to you that so long as I believed it to
+     be true and warm, mine gave you all the advantages which you
+     could desire. Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem
+     which I owe to your discretion. I have too much pride to
+     share the passion which you have so often sworn to me, and I
+     desire to punish your negligence in seeing me, in no other
+     way than by depriving you entirely of my society. I request
+     that you will visit me no more, since I have no longer the
+     power of commanding your presence."
+
+II.
+
+     "To what conclusion have you come after so long a silence?
+     Do you not know that the same pride which rendered me
+     sensible to your past affection forbids me to endure the
+     false appearances of its continuation! You say that my
+     suspicions and my inequalities render you the most unhappy
+     person in the world. I assure you that I believe no such
+     thing, although I cannot deny that you have perfectly loved
+     me, as you must confess that my esteem has worthily
+     recompensed you. So far we have done each other justice, and
+     I am determined not to have in the end less goodness, if
+     your conduct responds to my intentions. You would find them
+     less unreasonable if you had more passion, and the
+     difficulties of seeing me would only augment instead of
+     diminishing it. I suffer for loving too much, and you for
+     not loving enough. If I must believe you, let us exchange
+     humours. I shall find repose in doing my duty, and you in
+     doing yours, and you must fail in doing yours, in order to
+     obtain liberty. I do not perceive that I forget the manner
+     in which I passed the winter with you, and that I speak to
+     you as frankly as I have heretofore done. I hope that you
+     will make as good use of it, and that I shall not regret
+     being overcome in the resolution which I have made to return
+     to it no more. I shall remain at home for three or four days
+     in succession, and will be seen only in the evening: you
+     know the reason."
+
+These letters were not forgeries. They had been really written by
+Madame de Fouquerolles to the handsome and elegant Marquis de
+Maulevrier, who had been silly enough to drop them in Madame de
+Montbazon's _salon_. Maulevrier, trembling at being discovered, and at
+having compromised Madame de Fouquerolles, ran to La Rochefoucauld, who
+was his friend, confided to him his secret, and begged him to undertake
+to hush up the affair. La Rochefoucauld made Madame de Montbazon
+understand that it was for her interest to be generous on this occasion,
+for the error or fraud would be easily recognised as soon as the writing
+should be compared with that of Madame de Longueville. Madame de
+Montbazon placed the original letters in the hands of La Rochefoucauld,
+who showed them to M. the Prince and to Madame the Princess, to Madame
+de Rambouillet, and to Madame Sable, particular friends of Madame de
+Longueville, and, the truth being well established, burned them in the
+presence of the Queen, delivering Maulevrier and Madame de Fouquerolles
+from the terrible anxiety into which they had been for some time thrown.
+
+The house of Conde felt a lively resentment at the insult offered to it.
+The Duke and Duchess de Longueville desired, it is true, the one by a
+sentiment of interested prudence, the other by a just feeling of
+dignity, to take no further notice of the matter. But the Princess,
+impelled by her high spirit, and still intoxicated by her son's success,
+exacted a reparation equal to the offence, and declared loudly that, if
+the Queen and the government did not defend the honour of her house, she
+and all her family would withdraw from the Court. She was indignant at
+the mere idea of placing her daughter in the scales with the
+granddaughter of a cook. In vain did the whole party of the
+_Importants_, with Beaufort and Guise at their head, agitate and
+threaten; in vain did Madame de Chevreuse, who had not yet lost all her
+influence with the Queen, strive earnestly in behalf of her
+mother-in-law. It did not suffice for the resentment of the Princess and
+the Duke d'Enghien that Madame de Longueville's innocence was fully
+recognised; they demanded a public reparation. Madame de Motteville has
+left us an amusing recital of the "mummeries," as she terms them, of
+which she was a witness.
+
+The Queen was in her state cabinet and the Princess beside her, in great
+emotion and looking very fierce, declaring the affair to be nothing less
+than the crime of high treason. Madame de Chevreuse, interested for a
+thousand reasons in the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was busy with
+Cardinal Mazarin arranging the composition of the apology to be made. At
+every word there was a _pour-parler_ of half an hour. The Cardinal went
+from one side to the other to accommodate the difference, as if such a
+peace was necessary for the welfare of France, and his own in
+particular. It was arranged that the criminal should present herself at
+the Princess's hotel on the morrow.
+
+The apology was written upon a small piece of paper and attached to her
+fan, in order that she might repeat it word for word to the Princess.
+She did it in the most haughty manner possible, assuming an air which
+seemed to say, "I jest in every word I utter."
+
+Mademoiselle de Montpensier gives us the two speeches made upon the
+occasion. "Madame, I come here to protest to you that I am innocent of
+the wickedness of which I have been accused: no person of honour could
+utter a calumny such as this. If I had committed a like fault, I should
+have submitted to any punishment which it might have pleased the Queen
+to inflict upon me; I should never have shown myself again in the
+world, and would have asked your pardon. I beg you to believe that I
+shall never fail in the respect which I owe to you and in the opinion
+which I have of the virtue and of the merit of Madame de
+Longueville."[4] That lady was not present at the ceremony, and her
+mother, to whom the Duchess addressed herself, made a very short and dry
+reply. This reconciliation did not deceive any one of those present; it
+was, in fact, only a fresh declaration of war.
+
+    [4] Memoires, vol. i. p. 65.
+
+Besides the satisfaction which she had just obtained, the Princess had
+asked and had been permitted the privilege of never associating with the
+Duchess de Montbazon. Some time after, Madame de Chevreuse invited the
+Queen to a collation in the public garden of Renard. This was then the
+rendezvous of the best society. It was at the termination of the
+Tuileries, near the Porte de la Conference, which abutted on the _Cours
+de la Reine_. In the summer, on returning from the _Cours_, which was
+the "Rotten Row" of the day, and the spot where the beauties of the time
+exercised their powers, it was customary to stop at the garden Renard
+for the purpose of taking refreshments, and to listen to serenades
+performed after the Spanish fashion. The Queen took pleasure in visiting
+this place during fine summer evenings. She desired Madame the Princess
+to partake with her the collation offered by Madame de Chevreuse,
+assuring her at the same time that Madame de Montbazon would not be
+present; but the latter person was really there, and even pretended to
+do the honours of the collation as mother-in-law of the lady who gave
+it. The Princess wished to withdraw, in order that the entertainment
+might not be disturbed: the Queen had no right whatever to detain her.
+She, therefore, begged Madame de Montbazon to pretend sickness, and by
+leaving the party, to relieve her from embarrassment. The haughty
+Duchess would not consent to fly before her enemy, and kept her place.
+The Queen, offended, refused the collation and quitted the promenade. On
+the morrow an order from the King enjoined upon Madame de Montbazon to
+leave Paris. This disgrace irritated the _Importants_. They thought
+themselves humiliated and enfeebled, and there were no violent or
+extreme measures which they did not contemplate. The Duke de Beaufort,
+smitten at once in his influence and his love, uttered loud
+denunciations, and it was reported that a plot had been formed against
+the life of Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE IMPORTANTS.
+
+
+IT is necessary, at this juncture, to have a just idea of the general
+position of political affairs in France, as well as of the attitude of
+the faction known as the _Importants_, who were then most active in
+opposing the government of Mazarin, in order to understand clearly the
+gravity of an incident which otherwise in itself might seem to be of
+little consequence.
+
+La Rochefoucauld, the historian of that party, has made us tolerably
+familiar with the men who composed it. They were a band of eccentric and
+mischievous spirits, bold of heart, ready of hand, and of boundless
+fidelity to one another. Professing to hold the most outrageous maxims,
+incessantly invoking Brutus and old Rome, and intermingling gallant with
+political intrigues, they suffered themselves to be hurried beyond the
+bounds of reason through a Quixotic idea of always pleasing the ladies.
+They had all been more or less fellow-sufferers with Anne of Austria
+during the period of her affliction and persecution by Richelieu, and
+from the commencement of her Regency, these returning exiles and
+liberated prisoners had been gathering round her until at last, formed
+into a faction, they gave themselves out as the Queen's party, and by
+adopting a high-flown, turgid, and mysterious style of phraseology, and
+assuming bombastic and braggart airs of authority, coupled with an
+affectation of capacity and profundity, obtained for themselves from the
+wits of the Court and city the nickname of _The Importants_, under which
+they figured until absorbed a few years later in the more general and
+popular designation of _Frondeurs_. Their favourite chief was the Duke
+de Beaufort, of whom we have already spoken as possessing very nearly
+the same characteristics as the rest--at once artificial and
+extravagant, with great pretensions to loyalty and patriotism,
+professing to be a man of independent action, but in fact wholly ruled
+by Madame de Montbazon, who, in her turn, was swayed by the Duchess de
+Chevreuse.
+
+On the sudden disappearance from Paris of one of the most distinguished
+of the lady leaders of the _Importants_--like a star of the first
+magnitude fallen from their system--the entire party was thrown into
+commotion, whilst the more intimate friends and admirers of the banished
+beauty raised a fierce outcry. Such an open disgrace of the young and
+beautiful Duchess sorely irritated her restless partisans. They
+considered themselves humiliated and weakened by it, and there was no
+violence or extremity to which they were not prepared to resort. Her
+slave and adorer, the Duke de Beaufort, assailed at once on the score of
+his political interest and personal gallantry, vapoured and stormed
+furiously. Thoughts of vengeance, which, like the mutterings of an
+approaching tempest, had begun to brood beneath the roof of the Hotel de
+Vendome, now became concentrated in a plot to get rid of Mazarin by fair
+means or foul, divers modes of its execution being earnestly discussed.
+
+In such conjunctures, the Cardinal rose to the level of Richelieu. At
+the same time he had to secure safety and success mainly through his own
+courage and patience. But he knew right well how to play his part. The
+wily minister already stood well with the Queen--had begun to seem
+necessary, or at least very useful to her, though Anne of Austria had
+not yet formally declared her approval of his policy. Mazarin
+represented to her what she owed alike to the State and the royal
+authority now seriously threatened. That she must prefer the interest of
+her son and his crown to friendships--satisfactory enough at other
+times, but which had now become dangerous. He brought before her eyes
+most indubitable proofs of a conspiracy to take his life, and entreated
+her to choose between his enemies and himself. Anne of Austria did not
+hesitate, and the ruin of the _Importants_ was decided upon.
+
+More dangerous ground could scarcely have been found whereon to post the
+_Importants_. The Duchess de Montbazon, as disreputable in morals and
+character as she was remarkable for her beauty, had attacked a young
+wife, who, having just made her appearance at the Regent's court, had
+already become the object of universal admiration. To a loveliness at
+once so graceful and dazzling that it was pronounced to be angelic,
+Madame de Longueville added great intelligence, a most noble heart, and
+was a person of all others whom it behoved the _Importants_ to
+conciliate; for her natural generosity of character had disinclined her
+to side with the party of repression, and thereby had even given some
+umbrage to the Prime Minister. At that moment, she was merely occupied
+with intellectual pursuits, innocent gallantry, and above all with the
+fame of her brother, the Duke d'Enghien; but there were, it must be
+owned, already perceptible in her mind, some germs of an _Important_,
+which, later, Rochefoucauld knew only too well how to develop. But the
+slanderous attack that had been made upon her, the disgraceful motive of
+which was sufficiently clear, revolted every honest heart. The
+ungovernable impetuosity of Beaufort on this occasion was--as it
+deserved to be--strongly stigmatised. Having formerly paid his addresses
+to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and been rejected, his conduct assumed the
+aspect of an obvious revenge. Moreover, Madame de Chevreuse's every
+effort being directed towards depriving Mazarin of supporters, she
+incited the devotees of either sex who were about the Queen to act
+against him, and Madame de Longueville was no less the idol of the
+Carmelites and the party of the _Saints_ than that of the Hotel de
+Rambouillet. Again, the Duke d'Enghien, already covered with the laurels
+of Rocroy, and about to entwine therewith those of Thionville, was so
+evidently the arbiter of the situation, that Madame de Chevreuse
+insisted, with much force, that Mazarin should be got rid of whilst the
+young Duke was occupied with the distant enemy, and before he should
+return from the army. To wound him through so susceptible a medium as
+that of an adored sister, to turn him against herself without any
+necessity, and hasten his return, would be a silly extravagance.
+Therefore, all who had any sense among the _Importants_--La
+Rochefoucauld, La Chatre, and Campion--anxiously sought to hush up and
+terminate this deplorable affair; and Madame de Chevreuse, sedulous to
+pay court to the Queen at the same time that she was weaving a subtle
+plot against her minister, had prepared the little fete for her at
+Renard's garden with the design of dispersing the last remaining
+cloudlets of the lately-spent tempest. But the Duchess's politic purpose
+was, as we have seen, destined to fail through the insane pride of a
+woman who was as senseless as she was heartless.[1]
+
+    [1] Alexandre de Campion, in the _Recueil_ before cited, writes to
+    Madame de Montbazon:--"Si mon avis eut ete suivi chez Renard, vous
+    seriez sortie, pour obeir a la Reine, vous n'habiteriez pas la maison
+    de Rochefort, et nous ne serions pas dans le peril dont nous sommes
+    menaces."
+
+Under these critical circumstances how did it behove Madame de Chevreuse
+to act? She was compelled to restrain Madame de Montbazon, but she could
+neither abandon her nor be false to herself. She resolved therefore to
+follow up energetically the formidable project which had become the last
+hope and supreme resource of her party. Through Madame de Montbazon,
+Beaufort had been dragged into it. The latter had mustered the men of
+action already mentioned, and who were wholly devoted to him. A plot had
+been devised and every measure concerted for surprising and perhaps
+killing the Cardinal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE CONSPIRACY OF THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE AND THE DUKE DE BEAUFORT TO
+  GET RID OF MAZARIN.
+
+
+ONE need not be greatly astonished at such an enterprise on the part of
+two women of high rank and a grandson of Henry the Great. At that
+stirring epoch of French history--the interval between the League and
+the Fronde--energy and strength were the distinctive traits of the
+French aristocracy. Neither court life nor a corrupting opulence had yet
+enervated it. Everything was then in extremes, in vice as in virtue. Men
+attacked and defended one another with the same weapons. The Marshal
+d'Ancre had been massacred; more than one attempt had been made to
+assassinate Richelieu; whilst he, on his side, had not been backward in
+having recourse to the sword and block. Corneille paints faithfully the
+spirit of the epoch. His Emilie is also involved in an assassination,
+and she is not the less represented as a perfect heroine. Madame de
+Chevreuse had long been accustomed to conspiracies; she was bold and
+unscrupulous. She did not gather round her such men as Beaupuis,
+Saint-Ybar, De Varicarville, and de Campion merely to pass the time in
+idle conversation. She had not remained a stranger to the designs they
+had formerly concocted against Richelieu, for in 1643 she fomented, as
+we have seen, their exaltation and their devotedness; and it was not
+unreasonable, certainly, that Mazarin should attribute to her the first
+idea of the project which Beaufort was to accomplish.
+
+At the same time it must be remembered that the _Importants_ and their
+successors the _Frondeurs_ denied this project and declared it the
+invention of the Cardinal. It is a point of the highest historical
+importance and deserves serious examination, as upon this conspiracy,
+real or imaginary, as may be determined after careful investigation,
+rests the fact whether Mazarin owed in reality all his career and the
+great future which then opened before him to a falsehood cunningly
+invented and audaciously sustained; or whether Madame de Chevreuse and
+the _Importants_, after having tried their utmost against him, now
+resolving to destroy him with the armed hand, were themselves destroyed
+and became the instruments of his triumph. The evidence available
+irresistibly leads to the latter conclusion, and we think that we shall
+be able to show that the plot attributed to the _Importants_, far from
+being a chimaera, was the almost inevitable solution of the violent
+crisis just described.
+
+La Rochefoucauld, without having indulged in the insane hopes of his
+friends and lent his hand to their rash enterprise, made it a point of
+honour to defend them after their discomfiture, and set himself to cover
+the retreat. He affects to doubt whether the plot which then made so
+much noise was real or supposititious. In his eyes, the greater
+probability was that the Duke de Beaufort, by a false _finesse_,
+endeavoured to excite alarm in the Cardinal, believing that it was
+sufficient to strike terror into his mind to force him to quit France,
+and that it was with this view that he held secret meetings and gave
+them the appearance of conspiracy. La Rochefoucauld constitutes himself
+especially the champion of Madame de Chevreuse's innocence, and
+declares himself thoroughly persuaded that she was ignorant of
+Beaufort's designs.
+
+After the historian of the _Importants_, that of the _Frondeurs_ holds
+very nearly the same arguments. Like La Rochefoucauld, De Retz has only
+one object in his Memoirs--that of investing himself with a semblance of
+capacity and making a great figure in every way, in evil as well as
+good. He is often more truthful, because he cares less about other
+people, and that he is disposed to sacrifice all the world except
+himself. In this matter it is hard to conceive the motive for his
+reserve and incredulity. He knew right well that the majority of the
+persons accused of having taken part in the plot had already been
+implicated in more than one such business. He himself tells us that he
+had conspired with the Count de Soissons, that he had blamed him for not
+having struck down Richelieu at Amiens, and that with La Rochepot, he,
+the Abbe de Retz, had formed the design of assassinating him at the
+Tuileries during the ceremony of the baptism of Mademoiselle (de
+Montpensier). The Co-adjutorship of the Archbishopric of Paris, which
+the Regent had just granted him, in consideration of his own services
+and the virtues of his father, had mollified him, it is true; but his
+old accomplices, who had not been so well treated as he, had remained
+faithful to their cause, to their designs, to their habitudes. Was De
+Retz then sincere when he refused to believe that they had attempted
+against Mazarin that which he had seen them undertake, and which he had
+himself undertaken against Richelieu? In his blind hatred he throws
+everything upon Mazarin: he pretends that he was terrified, or that he
+feigned terror. It was the Abbe de la Riviere, he tells us, who, in
+order to rid himself of the rivalry of the Count de Montresor in the
+Duke d'Orleans' favour, must have persuaded Mazarin that there was a
+plot set on foot against him, in which Montresor was mixed up. It was
+the Prince de Conde also who must have tried to destroy Beaufort through
+fear lest his son, the Duke d'Enghien, might engage with him in some
+duel, as he wished to do, to avenge his sister, during the short visit
+he made to Paris after taking Thionville.
+
+To the suspicious opinions of de Retz and La Rochefoucauld let us oppose
+testimony more disinterested, and before all other the silence of
+Montresor,[1] who, whilst protesting that neither he nor his friend the
+Count de Bethune had meddled with the conspiracy imputed to the Duke de
+Beaufort, says not a single word against the reality of that conspiracy,
+which he would not have failed to ridicule had he believed it imaginary.
+Madame de Motteville, who was not in the habit of overwhelming the
+unfortunate, after having reported with impartiality the different
+rumours circulated at Court, relates certain facts which appear to her
+authentic, and which are decisive.[2] One of the best informed and most
+truthful of contemporary historians expresses not the slightest doubt on
+this head. "The _Importants_," says Monglat, "seeing that they could not
+drive the Cardinal out of France, resolved to despatch him with their
+daggers, and held several councils on this subject at the Hotel de
+Vendome." That opinion is confirmed by new and numerous particulars with
+which Mazarin's _carnets_ and confidential letters furnish us.
+
+    [1] Memoires, Petitot Collection, t. lix.
+
+    [2] Memoires, t. i., p. 184.
+
+The person whom Mazarin signalizes in his _carnets_ and letters as the
+trusted friend of Beaufort and after him the principal accused, the
+Count de Beaupuis, son of the Count de Maille, had found means of
+sheltering himself from the minister's first searches; he had succeeded
+in escaping from France and sought an asylum at Rome under the avowed
+protection of Spain. Mazarin left no stone unturned to obtain from the
+Court of Rome the extradition of Beaupuis, in order that he might be
+legally tried. The Pope at first could not refuse, at least for form's
+sake, to have Beaupuis committed to the Castle of St. Angelo. But he was
+soon liberated, and provided with a State lodging wherein he was allowed
+to see nearly every one who came. Mazarin complained loudly of such
+indulgence. "It is all arranged," said he, "that when necessary he may
+escape, or at any rate the Duke de Vendome is furnished with every
+facility for poisoning him, in order that with Beaupuis may perish the
+principal proof of his son's treason. If all this happened in Barbary,
+people would be highly indignant. And this is suffered to take place in
+Rome, in the capital of Christianity, under the eyes and by the orders
+of a Pope!"
+
+Failing Beaupuis, Mazarin would have liked to put his hand upon one of
+the brothers Campion, intimately connected as they were with Beaufort
+and Madame de Chevreuse, and too closely in the confidence of both not
+to know all their secrets. He himself complains, as we have seen, of
+being very badly seconded. And then he had to do with emerited
+conspirators, consummate in the art of concealing themselves and of
+leaving no trace of their whereabouts--with the active and indefatigable
+Duchess de Chevreuse, and with the Duke de Vendome, who, in order to
+save his son, set about forwarding the escape of all those whose
+depositions might help to convict him, or kept them somehow in his own
+hands, hidden and shut up close at Anet. Mazarin was thus only able to
+arrest a few obscure individuals who were ignorant of the plot, and
+could throw no light upon it.
+
+But it is needless to exhaust existing proofs in demonstration of the
+fact that Mazarin did not enact a farce by instituting proceedings
+against the conspirators, that he pursued them with sincerity and
+vigour, and that he was perfectly convinced that a project of
+assassination had been formed against him, when the existence of that
+project is elsewhere averred, when, in default of a sentence of the
+parliament, which could not have been given in the teeth of insufficient
+evidence, neither Beaupuis, nor the Campions, nor Lie, nor Brillet
+having been arrested, better proof being extant in the full and entire
+confession of one of the principal conspirators, with the plan and all
+the details of the affair set forth in Memoirs of comparatively recent
+publication, but the authenticity of which cannot be contested. We
+allude to the precious Memoirs of Henri de Campion,[3] brother of Madame
+de Chevreuse's friend, whom that lady had introduced also to the service
+of the Duke de Vendome, and more particularly to that of the Duke de
+Beaufort. Henri had accompanied the Duke in his flight to England after
+the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, and he had returned with him; he possessed
+his entire confidence, and he relates nothing in which he himself had
+not taken a considerable part. Henri's character was very different to
+that of his brother Alexandre. He was a well-educated man, full of
+honour and courage, not in the least given to boasting, averse to all
+intrigue, and born to make his way through life by the straightest paths
+in the career of arms. He wrote these Memoirs in solitude, to which
+after the loss of his daughter and his wife he had retired to await
+death amidst the exercise of a genuine piety. It is not in such a frame
+of mind that a man is disposed to invent fables, and there is no middle
+way. What he says is that which we must believe absolutely, or if we
+have any doubt that he speaks the truth, he must be considered as the
+worst of villains. No interested feeling could have directed his pen,
+for he compiled his Memoirs, or at least he finished them, a short time
+after Mazarin's death, without thought, therefore, of paying court to
+him by making very tardy revelations, and scarcely two years before he
+himself died in 1663. Thus it may be fairly inferred that Henri de
+Campion wrote strictly under the inspiration of his conscience. One has
+only to open his Memoirs to see confirmed, point by point, all the
+particulars with which Mazarin's _carnets_ are filled. Nothing is there
+wanting, everything coincides, all marvellously corresponds. It appears,
+indeed, as though Mazarin in making his notes had had before his eyes de
+Campion's Memoirs, or that the latter whilst penning them had Mazarin's
+_carnets_ before him: he at once so thoroughly takes up the thread and
+completes them.
+
+    [3] "Memoires de Henri de Campion, &c.," 1807. Treuttel and Wuertz.
+    Paris.
+
+His brother Alexandre, in his letters of the month of August, 1643, had
+already let slip more than one mysterious sentence. He wrote to Madame
+de Montbazon in banishment:--"You must not despair, madam, there are
+still some half-a-dozen honest folks who do not give up.... Your
+illustrious friend will not abandon you. If to be prudent it were
+necessary to renounce your acquaintance, there are those who would
+prefer rather to pass for fools all their days." Like Montresor, he does
+not once say that there was no plot framed against Mazarin, which is a
+kind of tacit avowal; and when the storm burst, he took care to conceal
+himself, advised Beaupuis to do the same, and ends with these
+significant words:--"In embarking in Court affairs one cannot be certain
+of being master of events, and whilst we profit by the lucky ones, we
+must resolve to put up with the unlucky." Henri de Campion raises this
+already very transparent veil.
+
+He declares plainly that there was a project on foot to get rid of
+Mazarin, and that that project was conceived, not by Beaufort, but by
+Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de Montbazon. "I think," says
+he, "that the Duke's design did not spring from his own particular
+sentiment, but from the persuasion of the duchesses de Chevreuse and de
+Montbazon, who exercised entire sway over his mind and had an
+irreconcilable hatred to the Cardinal. What makes me say so, is that,
+whilst he was under that resolution, I always observed that he had an
+internal repugnance which, if I mistake not, was overcome by some pledge
+which he may have given to those ladies." There _was_, therefore, a
+plot, and its real author, as Mazarin truly said, and Campion repeats,
+was Madame de Chevreuse; if so, Madame de Montbazon was only an
+instrument in her hands.
+
+Beaufort, once inveigled, drew in also his intimate friend, Count de
+Maille's son, the Count de Beaupuis, cornet in the Queen's horse-guards.
+To them Madame de Chevreuse adjoined Alexandre de Campion, the elder
+brother of Henri. "She loved him much," remarks the latter, and in a way
+which, added to certain ambiguous words of Alexandre, excites suspicion
+whether the elder Campion were not in fact one of the numerous
+successors of Chalais. He was then thirty-three, and his brother
+confesses that he had caught from the Count de Soissons the taste for
+and the habitudes of faction. Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion
+approved of the plot when communicated to them, "the former," says
+Henri, "believing that it would be a means for him of attaining to a
+position of greater importance, and my brother seeing therein Madame de
+Chevreuse's advantage and by consequence his own."
+
+Such were the two first accomplices of Beaufort. A little later he
+opened his mind on the subject to Henri de Campion, one of his principal
+gentlemen; to Lie, captain of his guards; and to Brillet, his equerry.
+There the secret rested. Many other gentlemen and domestics of the house
+of Vendome were destined to take action in the affair, but were admitted
+to no confidence. The project was well conceived and worthy of Madame de
+Chevreuse. There were at most five or six conspirators--three capable of
+keeping the secret, and who did keep it. Below them, the men of action,
+who did not know what they would be called on to do; and in the
+background, the men of the morrow, who might be reckoned upon to applaud
+the blow, when it had been struck, without it being judged fitting to
+admit them to the conspiracy. At least Henri de Campion does not even
+name Montresor, Bethune, Fontraille, Varicarville, Saint-Ybar, which
+explains wherefore Mazarin, whilst keeping his eye upon them, did not
+have them arrested. Neither does Campion speak of Chandenier, La Chatre,
+de Treville, the Duke de Bouillon, the Duke de Guise, De Retz, nor La
+Rochefoucauld, whose sentiments were not doubtful, but who were not
+inclined to go so far as to sully their hands with an assassination. And
+that further explains the silence of Mazarin with regard to them in all
+that relates to Beaufort's conspiracy, although he did not cherish the
+slightest illusion as to their dispositions, and as to the part they
+would have taken if the plot had succeeded, or even if a serious
+struggle had taken place.
+
+The conspiracy rested for some time between Madame de Chevreuse, Madame
+de Montbazon, Beaufort, Beaupuis, and Alexandre de Campion. The final
+resolution was only taken at the end of July or in the first days of
+August, that is to say, precisely during the height of the quarrel
+between Madame de Montbazon and Madame de Longueville, which ushered in
+the crisis and opened the door to all the events which followed. It was
+then only that Beaufort spoke of it to Henri de Campion, in presence of
+Beaupuis. Mazarin's crime was the continuation of Richelieu's system.
+"The Duke de Beaufort told me that he thought I had remarked that the
+Cardinal Mazarin was re-establishing at court and throughout the kingdom
+the tyranny of Cardinal de Richelieu, with even more of authority and
+violence than had been shown under the government of the latter; that
+having entirely gained the Queen's mind and made all the ministers
+devoted to him, it was impossible to arrest his evil designs save by
+depriving him of life; that the public weal having made him resolve to
+take that step, he informed me of it in order that I might aid him with
+my advice and personally assist in its execution. Beaupuis next 'took up
+his parable,' and warmly represented the evils which the too great
+authority of Richelieu had caused France, and concluded by saying that
+we must prevent the like inconvenience before his successor had rendered
+matters remediless." Such conclusion embodied as nearly as possible the
+views and language of _Importants_ and _Frondeurs_, of La Rochefoucauld
+and De Retz. Henri de Campion represents himself as having at first
+combatted the Duke's project with so much force that more than once he
+was shaken; but the two duchesses wound him up again very quickly, and
+Beaupuis and Alexandre de Campion, instead of holding him back,
+encouraged him. Shortly afterwards, Beaufort having declared that he had
+made up his mind, Henri de Campion gave in on two conditions: "The one,"
+he tells us, "of not laying his hand on the Cardinal, since I would
+rather take my own life than do a deed of such nature. The other, that
+if the Duke should arrange that the project should be put into execution
+during his absence, I would never mix myself up in it; whereas if he
+were himself to be present, I should without scruple keep myself near
+his person, in order to defend him against any mischance that might
+happen, my duty and affection towards him equally obliging me thereto.
+He granted me those two conditions, testifying at the same time that he
+esteemed me more for having made them, and added that he would be
+present at the execution of the project, so that he might authorise it
+by his presence."
+
+The plan was to attack the Cardinal in the street, whilst paying visits
+in his carriage, commonly having with him only a few ecclesiastics,
+besides five or six lackeys. It would be necessary to present themselves
+in force and unexpectedly, stop the vehicle and strike Mazarin. To do
+that, it was necessary that a certain number of the Vendome domestics,
+who were not in the secret, should post themselves daily, from early
+morning, in the _cabarets_ around the Cardinal's abode, which was then
+at the Hotel de Cleves, near the Louvre. Among the domestics let into
+the secret, Henri de Campion names positively Gauseville. Over them were
+placed "the Sieurs d'Avancourt and De Brassy, Picardians, very resolute
+men and intimate friends of Lie." The pretext given out was that the
+Condes proposing to put an affront upon Madame de Montbazon, the Duke
+de Beaufort, in order to oppose it, desired to have in hand a troop of
+gentlemen well mounted and armed. Their parts were allotted beforehand.
+A certain number were to pounce upon the Cardinal's coachman, at the
+same moment that others were to open the two doors and strike him,
+whilst the Duke would be at hand on horseback, with Beaupuis, Henri de
+Campion, and others, to cut down or drive off those who should be
+disposed to resist. Alexandre de Campion was to keep near the Duchess de
+Chevreuse and at her orders; and she herself ought more than ever to be
+assiduous in her attentions to the Queen, in order to smooth the way for
+her friends, and, in case of success, draw the Regent to the side of the
+victorious.
+
+Several occasions favourable to the execution of this plan presented
+themselves. In the first instance, Henri de Campion being with his band
+in the Rue du Champ-Fleuri--one end of which joins the Rue Saint-Honore
+and the other approaches the Louvre--saw the Cardinal leave the Hotel de
+Cleves in his carriage with the Abbe de Bentivoglio, the nephew of the
+celebrated cardinal of that name, with a few ecclesiastics and valets.
+Campion inquired of one of them whither the Cardinal was going, and was
+answered--to visit the Marshal d'Estrees. "I saw," says Campion, "that
+if I had made use of the information, his death would have been
+inevitable. But I thought that I should be so guilty in the eyes of God
+and man that I resisted the temptation to do so."
+
+The next day it was known that the Cardinal would be present at a
+collation to be given by Madame du Vigean at her charming residence of
+La Barre, at the entrance of the valley of Montmorency, where Madame de
+Longueville was staying, and which the Queen had promised to honour
+with a visit, and who had already set out. The Cardinal was repairing
+thither, having with him in his coach only the Count d'Harcourt.
+Beaufort ordered Campion to assemble his troop and to ride after him,
+but Campion represented to the Duke that if they attacked the Cardinal
+in the company of the Count d'Harcourt, they must decide upon killing
+both, Harcourt being too generous to see Mazarin stabbed before his eyes
+without defending him, and that the murder of Harcourt would raise
+against them the entire house of Lorraine.
+
+Some days afterwards information was given that the Cardinal was engaged
+to dine at Maisons, with the Marshal d'Estrees, to meet the Duke
+d'Orleans. "I made the Duke consent," says Campion, "that should the
+minister be in the same carriage with his Royal Highness, the design
+should not be executed; but he said, that if he were alone, he must be
+killed. Early in the morning he had the horses out and kept himself in
+readiness at the Capucins with Beaupuis, near the Hotel de Vendome,
+posting a valet on foot in the street to tell him when the Cardinal
+should pass, and enjoining me to keep with those whom I was accustomed
+to muster at the Cabaret l'Ange, in the Rue Saint-Honore, very near the
+Hotel de Vendome, and if the Cardinal journeyed without the Duke
+d'Orleans, I should mount instantly with all my men, and intercept him
+when passing the Capucins. I was," adds Campion, "in a state of anxiety
+which may readily be imagined, until I saw the carriage of the Duke
+d'Orleans pass, and perceived the Cardinal inside with him."
+
+At length, Beaufort's irritation being carried to the highest pitch by
+the banishment from court of Madame de Montbazon (which was certainly
+on the 22nd of August), goaded by Madame de Chevreuse, by passion, and
+by a false sense of honour, he became himself impatient to act. Seeing
+that, during the day, he encountered incessant difficulties of which he
+was far from divining the cause, he resolved to strike the blow at
+night, and prepared an ambuscade, the success of which seemed certain,
+and the details of which we have from Campion. The Cardinal went every
+evening to visit the Queen, and returned sufficiently late. It was
+arranged to attack him between the Louvre and the Hotel de Cleves.
+Horses were to be in readiness in some neighbouring inn. The Duke
+himself should keep watch with Beaupuis and Campion, during the time the
+minister should be with the Queen, and so soon as he came forth, all
+three should advance and make a signal to the rest, who, in the
+meanwhile, should remain on horseback on the quay, by the river side,
+close to the Louvre. All which could be very well done at night without
+awakening any suspicion.
+
+It must be remembered that the person who furnishes these very precise
+details was one of the principal conspirators, that he wrote at
+sufficiently considerable distance from the event, in safety, and, to
+repeat it once again, with no interest, fearing nothing more from
+Mazarin, who had recently died, and expecting nothing from him. It must
+be also remembered that speaking as he has done, he accuses his own
+brother; that, without doubt, he attributes to himself laudable
+intentions and even some good actions, but that he confesses having
+entered into the plot, and that, if its execution had taken place he
+would have taken part in it, in fighting by the side of Beaufort. The
+process submitted to the parliament not having led to anything, through
+failure of evidence, Campion did not imagine that Mazarin had ever
+known "the circumstances of the plot, nor those acquainted with it to
+the very bottom, and who were engaged in it." He adds also, "that now
+the Cardinal is dead there is no longer any reason to fear injuring any
+one in stating matters as they are." He therefore does not defend
+himself; he believes himself to be sheltered from all quest, he writes
+only to relieve his conscience.
+
+From these curious revelations we further learn what importance Mazarin
+attached to the arrest of Henri Campion; and that writer's statements
+are not only substantially confirmed by various entries in the
+_carnets_, but read like a translation into French of those pages from
+the Cardinal's Italian. "They threw," he says, "into the Bastille,
+Avancourt and Brassy, where they deposed that I had mustered them on
+several occasions, on the part of the Duke de Beaufort, for the
+interests of Madame de Montbazon, as I had told them. This did not
+afford any motive for interrogating the Duke, since they owned that he
+had not spoken to them; thus he would not have failed to deny having
+given the orders which I carried to them on his part. It was then seen
+that the process against him could not be carried on before I had been
+arrested, in order to find matter whereon to interrogate him after my
+own depositions, and so thoroughly to embarrass us both that every trace
+of the affair might be discovered. The proof of this conspiracy was of
+most essential importance to the Cardinal, who directing all his efforts
+to the establishment of his government, and affecting to do so by gentle
+means, had been unfortunate enough to be constrained, in the outset, to
+use violence against one of the greatest men in the realm, for his own
+individual interest, without a conviction to prove that he was
+compelled to treat the Duke with rigour. The Cardinal, despairing of
+being able to persuade others of that of which he was entirely assured,
+had a great desire to get me into his hands. He was nevertheless of
+opinion that he must give me time to reassure myself of safety in order
+to take me with the greater facility."
+
+We may add to all this that Henri de Campion, sought after sharply, and
+closely shut up in his retreat at Anet, under the protection of the Duke
+de Vendome, having fled from France and joined his friend the Count de
+Beaupuis at Rome, gives an account of the obstinate efforts made by
+Mazarin to obtain the extradition of the latter, the resistance of Pope
+Innocent X., the regard shown to Beaupuis when they were compelled to
+confine him in the Castle of Saint-Angelo; all of which being equally to
+be met with in the _carnets_ and letters of Mazarin and the memoirs of
+Henri de Campion, places beyond doubt the perfect sincerity of the
+Cardinal's proceedings and the accuracy of his information.
+
+Are not these, we may ask, proofs sufficient to reduce to naught the
+interested doubts of La Rochefoucauld and the passionate denials of the
+chief of the Fronde, the very clever but very little truthful Cardinal
+de Retz, the most ardent and most obstinate of Mazarin's enemies? It
+would seem, indeed, either that there is no certitude whatever in
+history, or that it must be considered henceforth as a point absolutely
+demonstrated that there was a project determined upon to kill Mazarin;
+that that project had been conceived by Madame de Chevreuse, and in some
+sort imposed by her upon Beaufort with the aid of Madame de Montbazon;
+that Beaufort had for principal accomplices the Count de Beaupuis and
+Alexandre de Campion; that Henri de Campion had entered later into the
+affair, at the pressing solicitation of the Duke, as well as two other
+officers of secondary rank; that during the month of August there were
+divers serious attempts to put it into execution, particularly the last
+one after the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, at the very end of
+August or rather on the 1st of September; and that such attempt only
+failed through circumstances altogether independent of the will of the
+conspirators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  FAILURE OF THE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE MAZARIN. ARREST OF BEAUFORT,
+  BANISHMENT OF MADAME DE CHEVREUSE, AND DISPERSION OF THE "IMPORTANTS."
+
+
+LET us now inquire how the last attempt against Mazarin's life--that
+nocturnal ambuscade so well planned and so deliberately set about on the
+1st of September, 1643--chanced to fail, and what was the result of such
+failure. Without stopping to discuss the conjectures of Campion on this
+point, it may suffice to state that Mazarin, who was on his guard,
+evaded the blow destined for him by not visiting the Queen during the
+evening on which it was resolved to kill him as he should return from
+the Louvre. Next day the scene was changed. A rumour spread rapidly that
+the Prime Minister had expected to have been murdered by Beaufort and
+his friends, that he had escaped, fortune having declared in his favour.
+A plot to assassinate, more especially when it fails, invariably excites
+the strongest indignation, and the man who has extricated himself from a
+great peril and seems destined to sweep all such from his path, readily
+finds adherents and defenders. A host of people who would probably have
+supported Beaufort victorious, now flocked to offer their swords and
+services to the Cardinal, and on that morning he went to the Louvre
+escorted by three hundred gentlemen.
+
+For several days previously, Mazarin had seen clearly that, cost what
+it might, he must cut his way through the knotted intricacy of the
+situation, and that the moment had arrived for forcing Anne of Austria
+to choose her part. The occasion was decisive. If the peril which he had
+just undergone, and which was only suspended over his head, did not
+suffice to draw the Queen from her incertitude, it would prove that she
+did not love him; and Mazarin knew well that, amidst the many dangers
+surrounding him, his entire strength lay in the Queen's affection, and
+that thereon depended his present safety and future fate. Whether,
+therefore, through policy or sincere affection, it was always to Anne of
+Austria's heart that he addressed himself, and at the outset of the
+crisis he had said to himself: "If I believed that the Queen was merely
+making use of me through necessity, without having any personal
+inclination for me, I would not stay here three days longer."[1] But
+enough has been said to show plainly that Anne of Austria _loved_
+Mazarin. Comparing him with his rivals, she appreciated him daily more
+and more. She admired the precision and clearness of his intellect, his
+finesse and penetration, and that extraordinary energy which enabled him
+to bear the weight of government with marvellous ease--his quick and
+accurate introspection, his profound prudence, and at the same time the
+judicious vigour of his resolves. She saw the affairs of France
+prospering on all sides under his firm and skilful hand. The Cardinal,
+it is true, was not quite a nullity, in the fierce war which had
+inaugurated the new reign so dazzlingly; but a power of no slight weight
+was manifest in the success which had followed his advent to office,
+and which proved to startled Europe that the victory of Rocroy was not a
+lucky stroke of chance. When every member of the Council was opposed to
+the siege of Thionville, and when Turenne himself, on being consulted,
+did not venture to declare his opinion on the subject, it was Mazarin
+who had insisted with an unflinching persistence that the victory of
+Rocroy should be profited by, and that France should extend her frontier
+to the Rhine. That proposition, doubtless, emanated from the youthful
+conqueror, but Mazarin had the merit of comprehending, sustaining, and
+causing it to triumph. If no first minister had ever before been so
+served by such a general, neither had general ever been so supported by
+such a minister; and thanks to both, on the 11th of August, whilst the
+chivalrous _Importants_ were exhausting their combined talents in
+putting a shameful affront upon the noble sister of the hero who had
+just served France so gloriously, and who was about to aggrandize it
+further--whilst they were displaying their vapid and turgid eloquence in
+the salons, or sharpening their poniards in gloomy council chambers,
+Thionville, then one of the chief strongholds of the Empire, surrendered
+after an obstinate defence. Thus, the Regency of Anne of Austria had
+opened under the most brilliant auspices.
+
+    [1] Entry in Carnet, iii. p. 10, in Spanish:--"Sy yo creyera lo que
+    dicen que S.M. se sierve di mi per necessidad, sin tener alguna
+    inclination, no pararia aqui tres dias."
+
+But in the height of this national glory and signal triumph, Queen Anne
+must indeed have shuddered when Mazarin placed before her all the proofs
+of the odious conspiracy formed against him. Explanations the most
+minute and confidential thereupon ensued between them. It was now more
+than ever compulsory for her to "raise the mask,"[2] to sacrifice to a
+manifest necessity the circumspection she was studious of preserving--to
+brave somewhat further the tittle-tattle of a few devotees of either
+sex, and at all events to permit her Prime Minister to defend his life.
+Up to this moment Anne of Austria had hesitated, for reasons which may
+be readily comprehended. But Madame de Montbazon's insolence had greatly
+irritated her; the conviction she acquired that numerous attempts to
+assassinate Mazarin had only by chance failed, and might be renewed,
+decided her; and it was, therefore, towards the close of August, 1643,
+when the date of that declared ascendancy, open and unrivalled, must be
+certainly fixed, of the Minister of the Queen Regent. These
+conspirators, by proceeding to the last extremities, and thereby making
+her tremble for Mazarin's life, hastened the triumph of the happy
+Cardinal; and on the morrow of the last nocturnal ambush in which he was
+marked for destruction, Jules Mazarin became absolute master of the
+Queen's heart, and more powerful than Richelieu had ever been after the
+_Day of Dupes_.
+
+    [2] "Quitarse la maschera." Carnet, ii. p. 65.
+
+The minister's _carnets_ will be searched in vain for any traces of the
+explanations which Mazarin must have had with the Queen during this
+grave conjuncture. Such explanations are not of a nature likely to be
+forgotten, and of which there is any need to take notes. An obscure
+passage, however, is to be met with, written in Spanish, of which the
+following words have a meaning clear enough to be understood: "I ought
+no longer to have any doubt, since the Queen, in an excess of goodness,
+has told me that nothing could deprive me of the post which she has done
+me the honour of giving me near her; nevertheless, as fear is the
+inseparable companion of affection, &c."[3] At this anxious moment,
+Mazarin was attacked with a slight illness, brought on by incessant
+labour and wearing anxieties, and an attack of jaundice having
+supervened, the Cardinal jotted down the following brief but highly
+suggestive memorandum:--"_La giallezza cagionata da soverchio
+amore_."[4]
+
+    [3] Carnet, iii. p. 45.--"Mas contodo esto siendo el temor un
+    compagnero inseparabile dell'affection," &c.
+
+    [4] Carnet, iv. p. 3.
+
+Madame de Motteville was in attendance on Anne of Austria when the
+rumour of the abortive attempt at assassination brought a crowd of
+courtiers to the Louvre in hot haste to protest their devotedness to the
+Crown. The Queen, with great emotion, whispered to her trusty
+lady-in-waiting: "Ere eight and forty hours elapse you shall see how I
+will avenge myself for the evil tricks these false friends have played
+me." "Never," adds Madame de Motteville, "can the remembrance of those
+few brief words be effaced from my mind. I saw at that moment, by the
+fire that flashed in the Queen's eyes, and in fact by what happened on
+that very evening and next day, what it is to be a female sovereign when
+enraged, and with the power of doing what she pleases."[5] Had the
+cautious lady-in-waiting been less discreet, she might have added,
+"especially when that sovereign lady is a woman in love."
+
+    [5] Memoires, vol. i. p. 185.
+
+The break-up and dispersion of the _Importants_ once decided upon, the
+first step was to arrest Beaufort, and bring him to trial. To this the
+Queen gave her consent. Of the authority Mazarin had acquired, such
+proceeding was a striking indication, and showed how far Anne of Austria
+might one day go in defence of a minister who was dear to her. The Duke
+de Beaufort had been, before her husband's death, the man in whom the
+Queen placed most confidence, and for some time he was thought destined
+to play the brilliant part of a royal favourite. In a brief space he had
+effectually thrown away his chance by his presumptuous conduct, his
+evident incapacity, and yet more by his public _liaison_ with Madame de
+Montbazon. Still the Queen had shown a somewhat singular weakness in his
+favour, and at the expiration of three short months to sign an order for
+his arrest was a great step--necessary, it is true, but extreme, and
+which was the manifest sign of an entire change in the heart and
+intimate relations of Anne of Austria. The dissimulation even with which
+she acted in that affair marks the deliberative firmness of her
+resolution.
+
+The 2nd of September, 1643, was truly a memorable day in the career of
+Mazarin, and we may say, in the annals of France; for it witnessed the
+confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by the deaths of
+Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of the party of the
+_Importants_.
+
+On the morning of the 2nd, all Paris and its Court rang with the report
+of the ambuscade laid for Mazarin the night previous, between the Louvre
+and the Hotel de Cleves. The five conspirators who had joined hands with
+Beaufort in it had taken flight and placed themselves in safety.
+Beaufort and Madame de Chevreuse could not imitate them: flight for them
+would have been a self-denunciation. The intrepid Duchess therefore had
+not hesitated to appear at Court, and she was at the Regent's side
+during the evening of the 2nd together with another person, a stranger
+to these dark plots and even incapable of putting faith in them--a very
+different enemy of Mazarin--the pious and noble Madame de Hautefort. As
+for the Duke, careless and courageous, he had gone to the chase in the
+morning, and at his return he went, according to his custom, to present
+his homage to the Queen. On entering the Louvre he met his mother,
+Madame de Vendome, and his sister the Duchess de Nemours, who had
+accompanied the Queen all day and remarked her emotion. They did all
+they could to prevent him going up stairs, and entreated him to absent
+himself for a while. He, without troubling himself in the slightest
+degree, answered them in the words of the doomed Duke de Guise--"They
+dare not!"--and entered the Queen's great cabinet, who received him with
+the best grace possible, and asked him all sorts of questions about his
+hunting, "as though," says Madame de Motteville, "she had no other
+thought in her mind." The Cardinal having come in in the midst of this
+gentle chat, the Queen rose and bade him follow her. It appeared as if
+she wished to take counsel with him in her chamber. She entered it,
+followed by her Minister. At the same time the Duke de Beaufort, about
+to leave, met Guitant, captain of the guard, who arrested him, and
+commanded the Duke to follow him in the names of the King and Queen. The
+Prince, without showing any surprise, after having looked fixedly at
+him, said, "Yes, I will; but this, I must own, is strange enough." Then
+turning towards Mesdames de Chevreuse and de Hautefort, who were talking
+together, he said to them, "Ladies, you see that the Queen has caused me
+to be arrested." The young nobleman then submitted to the royal mandate
+without offering the slightest resistance; slept that night at the
+Louvre, and the next morning was taken to the donjon of Vincennes, while
+a general decree of banishment was pronounced against all the principal
+members of the faction.
+
+The Vendomes were ordered to retire to Anet; and the Chateau d'Anet
+having soon become what the Hotel de Vendome at Paris had been, a haunt
+of the conspirators, Mazarin demanded them from the Duke Caesar, who took
+good care not to give them up. The Cardinal was almost reduced to the
+necessity of laying siege to the chateau in regular form. He threatened
+to enter the place by main force and lay hands on Beaufort's
+accomplices; unable to endure the scandal that a prince even of the
+blood should brave law and justice with impunity, he had determined to
+push matters to the uttermost, and was about to take energetic measures,
+when the Duke de Vendome himself decided on quitting France, and went to
+Italy to await the fall of Mazarin, as formerly he had awaited in
+England that of Richelieu.
+
+The arrest of Beaufort, the dispersion of his accomplices, his friends
+and his family, was the first indispensable measure forced upon Mazarin
+to enable him to face a danger that seemed most imminent. But what would
+it have availed him to lop off an arm had he left the head
+untouched--had Madame de Chevreuse remained at Court, ever ready to
+surround the Queen with attention and homage, assiduous to retain and
+husband the last remnant of her old favour, in order to sustain and
+secretly encourage the malcontents, inspire them with her audacity, and
+stir them up to fresh conspiracies? She still held in her grasp the
+scarcely-severed threads of the plot; and at her right hand there was a
+man too wary to allow himself to be again compromised by such dark
+doings, but quite ready to profit by them, and whom Madame de Chevreuse
+had sedulously exhibited not only to Anne of Austria, but to France and
+all Europe, as a man singularly capable of conducting State affairs.
+Mazarin, therefore, did not hesitate; but on the day following
+Beaufort's arrest, Chateauneuf, Montresor, and St. Ybar were banished.
+The first-named was invited to present himself at Court, kiss the
+Queen's hand, and then betake himself to his government in Touraine.
+Richelieu's late Keeper of the Seals deemed it something to have
+escaped an open disgrace, to have resumed the eminent post he had
+formerly occupied under the Crown, and the government of a large
+province. Yet did his ambition soar far higher still: but he kept it in
+check, and merely postponed its flight for a less stormy hour--obeyed
+the Queen, skilfully remained friends with her, and likewise kept on
+very good terms with her Prime Minister--biding his time until he might
+displace him. He had to wait a long time, however; but eventually did
+not quit life without once more grasping, for a moment at least, that
+power which the indulgence of an insensate passion had lost him, but
+which an inviolable and unswerving friendship in the end restored to
+him.[6]
+
+    [6] Chateauneuf held the seals from March, 1650, when Mazarin went
+    into voluntary exile, until April, 1651. He died in 1653, at the age
+    of seventy-three.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse unhappily lacked the wisdom displayed throughout
+this fiery ordeal by Chateauneuf. She forgot for once to look with a
+smiling face upon the passing storm, in which she was too suddenly
+caught to escape altogether scatheless. La Chatre--one of her friends,
+and who saw her almost every day--relates that during the very same
+evening on which Beaufort was arrested at the Louvre, "Her Majesty told
+the Duchess that she believed her to be innocent of the prisoner's
+designs, but that nevertheless to avoid scandal she deemed it fitting
+that Madame de Chevreuse should quietly withdraw to Dampierre, and that
+after making some short sojourn there she should retire into
+Touraine."[7] The Duchess, therefore, saw plainly that she had nothing
+for it but to go at once to Dampierre; but no sooner did she arrive at
+her favourite chateau than, instead of remaining quiet, she began to
+move heaven and earth to save those who had compromised themselves for
+her sake. She began, indeed, to knot the meshes of a new web of
+intrigue, and even found means of placing a letter in the Queen's own
+hand. Message after message was, however, sent to hasten her
+departure--Montagu being despatched to her on the same errand, as was
+also La Porte. She received them haughtily, and deferred her journey
+under divers pretexts. It will be remembered that on going to meet the
+Duchess when on her road from Brussels, Montagu had offered her, on the
+Queen's part as well as that of Mazarin, to discharge in her name the
+debts she had contracted during so many years of exile. The Duchess had
+already received heavy sums, but was unwilling to set forth for Touraine
+until after the Queen should have performed all her promises. Marie de
+Rohan had left the Louvre and Paris, her bosom swelling with grief and
+rage, as Hannibal had quitted Italy. She felt that the Court and capital
+and the Queen's inner circle formed the true field of battle, and that
+to remove herself from it was to abandon the victory to the enemy. Her
+retreat, indeed, was an occasion of mourning to the entire Catholic
+party, as well as to the friends of peace and the Spanish alliance, but,
+on the contrary, of public rejoicing for the friends of the Protestant
+alliance. The Count d'Estrade actually went to the Louvre on the part of
+the Prince of Orange, from whom he was accredited, to thank the Regent
+officially for it.
+
+    [7] "Allontanar Cheverosa che fa mille cabelle." Mazarin's Carnet,
+    iii. 81, 82.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse made her way, therefore, to her estate of Duverger,
+between Tours and Angiers. The deep solitude that there reigned
+around her embittered all the more the feeling of defeat. She kept up,
+however, a brisk correspondence with her stepmother, Madame de
+Montbazon--banished to Rochefort; and the two exiled Duchesses mutually
+exhorted each other to leave no stone unturned towards effecting the
+overthrow of their common enemy. Vanquished at home, Madame de Chevreuse
+centred all her hopes in foreign lands. She revived the friendly
+relations which she had never ceased to cherish with England, Spain, and
+the Low Countries. Her chief prop, the centre and interposer of her
+intrigues, was Lord Goring, our ambassador at the French Court; who,
+like his ill-starred master, and more especially his royal mistress,
+belonged to the Spanish party. Croft, an English gentleman who had
+figured in the train of the Duchess some years previously, bestirred
+himself actively and openly in her behalf, whilst the Chevalier de Jars
+intrigued warily and in secret for Chateauneuf. Beneath the mantle of
+the English embassy a vast correspondence was carried on between Madame
+de Chevreuse, Vendome, Bouillon, and the rest of the _Malcontents_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  CONSEQUENCES OF THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE DUCHESSES DE LONGUEVILLE AND
+  DE MONTBAZON.--FATAL DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE DE GUISE AND COUNT MAURICE
+  DE COLIGNY.
+
+
+AS has been said, the 2nd of September, 1643, had been truly a memorable
+day in the career of Mazarin, and, indeed, in the annals of France; for
+it witnessed the confirming of the royal power, shaken to its base by
+the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII., and the ruin of that dangerous
+faction the _Importants_. The intestine discords which threatened the
+new reign were thus forced to await a more favourable opportunity for
+development. They did not raise their heads again until five years
+afterwards--on the breaking out of the Fronde, in which they showed
+themselves just the same men as ever, with the same designs, the same
+politics, foreign and domestic; and after raising sanguinary and sterile
+commotions, re-appeared only to break themselves to pieces once more
+against the genius of Mazarin and the invincible firmness of Anne of
+Austria.
+
+Mazarin, therefore, who soon found himself without a rival in the
+Queen's good graces, continued steadily to carry on within and without
+the realm the system of his predecessor, and royalty, as well as France,
+reckoned upon a succession of halcyon years, thanks to the re-union of
+the Princes of the blood with the Crown, to the tactics and personal
+conduct of the Prime Minister, and to his political sagacity, seconded
+by the military genius of the Duke d'Enghien. The imprudence of Madame
+de Montbazon and her lover Beaufort in the affair of the dropped letters
+had the effect of increasing Mazarin's power incalculably, and that at
+the very moment that a splendid victory gained by the young Duke
+d'Enghien had made him and his sister paramount at Court--paramount by a
+popularity so universal that it almost made the Queen and her minister
+their _proteges_ rather than their patrons.
+
+The Duke d'Enghien had returned to Paris after Rocroy, and at the end of
+a campaign in which he had taken a very important stronghold, passed the
+Rhine with the French army, and carried the war into Germany. The Queen
+had received him as the liberator of France. Mazarin, who looked more to
+the reality than the semblance of power, intimated to the young
+conqueror that his sole ambition was to be his chaplain and man of
+business with the Queen. At a distance, the Duke d'Enghien had praised
+everything that had been done, and came from the camp over head and ears
+in love with Madlle. du Vigean, and furious that any one should have
+dared to insult a member of his house. He adored his sister, and he had
+a warm friendship for Coligny.[1] He was aware of and had favoured his
+passion for that sister. Engaged himself in a suit as ardent as it was
+chaste, he readily comprehended that his beautiful sister might well
+have been not insensible to the fervent assiduities of the brave
+Maurice, but he revolted at the thought of the amatory effusions of a
+Madame de Fouquerolles being attributed to her, and he assumed a tone in
+the matter which effectually arrested any further insinuation from even
+the most insolent and daring.
+
+    [1] Grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny, who perished in the
+    massacre of St. Bartholomew.
+
+Amongst the especial friends of Beaufort and Madame de Montbazon,
+foremost of all stood the Duke de Guise.[2] They had manoeuvred to
+secure him as well as the rest of his family to their party, through
+Gaston, Duke d'Orleans, who had espoused as his second wife a princess
+of the house of Lorraine--the lovely Marguerite, sister of Charles IV.
+and second daughter of Duke Francis. The Duke de Guise had already
+played many strange pranks and committed more than one folly, but he had
+not as yet signally failed in any serious enterprise. His incapacity was
+not patent. He had the prestige of his name, youth, good looks, and a
+courage carried even to temerity. The avowed slave of Madame de
+Montbazon, he had espoused her quarrel, and to gratify her had joined in
+propagating those calumnious reports, but without exhibiting the
+violence of Beaufort, and had remained erect, confronting and defying
+the victorious Condes.
+
+    [2] Henry, son of Charles de Guise, and grandson of the _Balafre_.
+
+Coligny had had the good sense to keep aloof during the storm, for fear
+of still further compromising Madame de Longueville by exhibiting
+himself openly as her champion: but a few months having elapsed, he
+thought that he might at last show himself, and, as a certain
+authority[3] tells us, "the imprisonment of the Duke de Beaufort having
+deprived that noble of the chance of measuring swords with him, he
+addressed himself to the Duke de Guise." La Rochefoucauld says, "the
+Duke d'Enghien, unable to testify to the Duke de Beaufort, who was in
+prison, the resentment he felt at what had passed between Madame de
+Longueville and Madame de Montbazon, left Coligny at liberty to fight
+with the Duke de Guise, who had mixed himself up in this affair." The
+Duke d'Enghien, therefore, knew and approved of what Coligny did. In
+fact, he found himself without an adversary in the affair of sufficient
+rank to justify a prince of the blood in drawing his sword against him.
+So far as regards Madame de Longueville, it is absurd to suppose that,
+desirous of vengeance, she it was who had urged on Coligny, for
+everybody ascribed to her a line of conduct characterised by great
+moderation, as contrasted with that of the Princess de Conde. Far from
+envenoming the quarrel, she wished to hush it up, and Madame de
+Motteville thus significantly alludes to that fact: "The enmity she bore
+Madame de Montbazon being proportionate to the love she bore her
+husband, it did not carry her so far but that she found it more a propos
+to dissimulate that outrage than otherwise."
+
+    [3] An inedited Memoir upon the Regency.
+
+La Rochefoucauld gives some particulars which explain what follows.
+Coligny, just risen out of a long illness, was still very much
+enfeebled, and, moreover, not very "skilful of fence." Such was his
+condition when, as the champion of Madame de Longueville, he confronted
+the Duke de Guise in mortal duel, whilst the latter, like most heroes of
+the parade-ground, possessed rare cunning at carte and tierce. With
+regard to the seconds chosen, they are in every respect worthy of
+notice. In those days, seconds were witnesses of the duel in which they
+themselves fought. Coligny selected as his second, and to give the
+challenge, as was then the custom, Godefroi, Count d'Estrades, a man of
+cool and tried courage. The Duke de Guise's second was his equerry, the
+Marquis de Bridieu, a Limousin gentleman and brave officer, faithfully
+attached to the house of Lorraine, who, in 1650, admirably defended
+Guise against the Spanish army and against Turenne, and for that brave
+defence, during which there were twenty-four days of open trenches, he
+was made lieutenant-general.
+
+It was arranged that the affair should come off at the Place Royale--the
+usual arena for those sort of encounters, and which had been a hundred
+times stained with the best blood of France. The mansions around the
+Place Royale were then tenanted by ladies of the highest rank and
+fashion, amongst the rest, Marguerite, Duchess de Rohan, Madame de
+Guemene, Madame de Chaulnes, Madame de St. Geran, Madame de Sable, the
+Countess de St. Maure, and many others, under the influence of whose
+bright eyes those volatile and valiant French gentlemen delighted to
+cross swords. And there many a noble form had been struck down never to
+rise again, and many a noble heart had throbbed its last. During the
+first quarter of the seventeenth century, the duel was a custom at once
+useful and disastrous, inasmuch as it kept up the warlike spirit of the
+nobles, but which mowed them down as fast as war itself, and but too
+frequently for frivolous causes. To draw swords for trifles had become
+the obligatory accompaniment of good manners; and as gallantry had its
+finished fops, so the duel had its refined rufflers. In the
+comparatively short period of a few years, nine hundred gentlemen
+perished in these combats. To stop this scourge, Richelieu issued a
+royal edict, which punished death by death, and sent the offenders from
+the Place Royale to the Place de Greve. On this head Richelieu showed
+himself inflexible, and the examples of Montmorency-Bouteville, beheaded
+with his second, the Count Deschappelles, for having challenged Beuvron
+and fought with him on the Place Royale at mid-day, impressed a
+salutary terror, and rendered infraction of the edict very rare.
+Coligny, however, braved everything; he challenged Guise, and on the
+appointed day the two noble adversaries, accompanied by their seconds,
+D'Estrades and Bridieu, met upon the Place Royale.
+
+Of this memorable duel, thanks to contemporary memoirs as well as
+various kinds of MSS., the minutest details have been preserved.
+
+On the 12th of December, 1643, D'Estrades went in the morning to call
+out the Duke de Guise on the part of Coligny. The rendezvous was fixed
+for the same day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, at the Place
+Royale. The two adversaries did not appear abroad during the whole
+morning, and at three o'clock they were on the ground. A sentence is
+ascribed to Guise which invests the scene with an unwonted grandeur, and
+arrays for the last time in bitterest animosity and deadly antagonism
+the two most illustrious representatives of the League wars in the
+persons of their descendants. On unsheathing his sword Guise said to
+Coligny: "We are about to decide the old feud of our two houses, and to
+see what a difference there is between the blood of Guise and that of
+Coligny."
+
+Coligny's only reply was to deal his adversary a long lunge; but, weak
+as he was, his rearward foot failed him, and he sank upon his knee.
+Guise advanced upon him and set his foot upon his sword, in such manner
+as though he would have said, "I do not desire to kill you, but to treat
+you as you deserve, for having presumed to address yourself to a prince
+of such birth as mine, without his having given you just cause,"--and he
+struck him with the flat of his sword-blade. Coligny, furious, collected
+his strength, threw himself backwards, disengaged his sword, and
+recommenced the strife. In this second bout, Guise was slightly wounded
+in the shoulder, and Coligny in the hand. At length, Guise, in making
+another thrust at his adversary, grasped his sword-blade, by which his
+hand was slightly cut, but, wresting it from Coligny's grasp, dealt him
+a desperate thrust in the arm which put him _hors de combat_. Meanwhile
+D'Estrades and Bridieu had grievously wounded each other.
+
+Such was the issue of that memorable duel--the last, it appears, of the
+famous encounters on the Place Royale. We thus see that, though cowed,
+the French noblesse had not been tamed by Richelieu's solemn edict. This
+last duel did very little honour to Coligny, and almost everybody took
+part with the Duke de Guise. The Queen manifested very lively
+displeasure at the violation of the edict, and the Duke d'Orleans, urged
+thereto by his wife and the Lorraine family, made a loud outcry. The
+Prince and Princess de Conde also found themselves compelled to declare
+against Coligny--doubly in the wrong, both because he had been the
+challenger and been unfortunate in the result. Proof that there was an
+understanding between Coligny and the Duke d'Enghien is evident from the
+latter not deserting the unlucky champion of his sister, that he
+received the wounded man into his house at Paris, afterwards at Saint
+Maur, and that he did not cease from surrounding him with his protection
+and care in spite of his father, the Prince de Conde. When the matter
+was referred to the Parliament, conformably to the edict, and the two
+adversaries were summoned to appear, the Duke de Guise announced his
+intention of repairing to the chamber with a retinue of princes and
+great nobles; whilst, on his side, the Duke d'Enghien threatened to
+escort his friend after the same fashion. But the initiative
+proceedings were stayed through the deplorable condition into which poor
+Coligny was known to have fallen.
+
+That unfortunate young man languished for some months, and died in the
+latter part of May, 1644, alike in consequence of his wounds and of
+despair for having so badly sustained the cause of his own house, as
+well as that of Madame de Longueville.
+
+This affair, with all its dramatic features and tragical termination,
+created an immense and painful impression not only in Paris, but
+throughout France. It momentarily awakened party feelings which had for
+some time slumbered, and suspended the festivals of the winter of 1644.
+It not only occupied the families more closely concerned and the Court,
+but forcibly affected the whole of the highest class of society, and
+long remained the absorbing topic of every saloon. It may be readily
+conceived that the story in spreading thus widely became enlarged with
+imaginary incidents one after another. At first, it was supposed that
+Madame de Longueville was in love with Coligny. That was necessary to
+give the greater interest to the narrative. From thence came the next
+invention, that she herself had armed Coligny's hand, and that
+D'Estrades, charged to challenge the Duke de Guise, having remarked to
+Coligny that the Duke might probably repudiate the injurious words
+attributed to him, and that honour would thus be satisfied, Coligny had
+thereupon replied: "That is not the question. I pledged my word to
+Madame de Longueville to fight him on the Place Royale, and I cannot
+fail in that promise."[4] There was no stopping a cavalier in such a
+chivalrous course as that, and Madame de Longueville would not have been
+the sister of the victor of Rocroy--a heroine worthy of sustaining
+comparison with those of Spain, who beheld their lovers die at their
+feet in the tournament--had she not been present at the duel between
+Guise and Coligny. It is asserted, therefore, that on the 12th of
+December she was stationed in an hotel on the Place Royale belonging to
+the Duchess de Rohan, and that there, concealed behind a window-curtain,
+she had witnessed the discomfiture of her _preux chevalier_.
+
+    [4] Mad. de Motteville.
+
+Then, as now, it was verse--that is to say, the ballad--which set its
+seal on the popular incident of the moment. When the event was an
+unlucky one, the song was a burlesquely pathetic complaint, and always
+with a vein of raillery running through it. Such was the effusion with
+which every _ruelle_ rang, and it was really set to music, for the
+notation is still to be found in the _Recueil de Chansons notees_,
+preserved at the Arsenal at Paris. It ran thus:--
+
+  "Essuyez vos beaux yeux,
+   Madame de Longueville,
+   Coligny se porte mieux.
+   S'il a demande la vie,
+   Ne l'en blamez nullement;
+   Car c'est pour etre votre amant
+   Qu'il veut vivre eternellement."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE AND THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+
+THAT Madame de Longueville witnessed the duel on the Place Royale seems
+to rest on no reliable authority. Such a trait is so utterly at variance
+with her character that its attribution would impute to her the manners
+of a semi-Italianised princess of the Valois race. There are besides no
+sufficient grounds for believing that her affections had for a moment
+been given to Coligny, though doubtless her innate tenderness must have
+been touched by his chivalrous love and devotion. Miossens, afterwards
+better known as Marshal d'Albret, next tried in vain to win a heart
+which had hitherto appeared insensible to the master-passion, but after
+an obstinate persistence was ultimately constrained to relinquish all
+hope. When, in 1645, M. de Longueville went as minister-plenipotentiary
+to the Congress of Muenster, the young Duchess remained in Paris, her
+element being still the social sphere of the Court solely--a taste for
+political life not having yet been developed through the impulse of her
+affections. Let us here add that, notwithstanding the almost unanimous
+assertion of contemporaries at this period that even women could not
+behold Madame de Longueville without admiration, the heart of this
+preeminently gifted creature seems amidst the universal homage to have
+been proof against all and every repeated assault. Anne of Austria
+loved her but little, partly through a jealous feeling created by her
+singular beauty, partly from her great reputation for wit, and also from
+her perpetual wranglings for precedence with other princesses of the
+blood. In fact, in order to lose no tittle of the prerogatives derived
+from her birth, Madame de Longueville had obtained a royal brevet from
+the king which maintained her in the rank which she would have otherwise
+lost by her marriage. A pride so exacting does not appear to agree with
+the peculiar nonchalance that was one of her striking characteristics;
+but, later in life, when she had become devout and penitent, she took
+care to explain that seeming contradiction. "I have been defined," said
+she, "as having, as it were, two individualities of opposite nature in
+me, and that I could interchange them at any moment; but that arose from
+the different situations in which I was placed, for I was dead, like
+unto the dead, to aught which slightly affected me, and keenly alive to
+the smallest things which interested me." Reading and study were never
+among the things which stirred her into animation. Entirely occupied
+with her fascinations and individual sentiments, at no period of her
+life did she ever think of repairing the early neglect of her education.
+In this respect she was inferior, on the authority even of her
+apologists, to many ladies of the Court and city. Intoxicated as she had
+been by the fumes of the incense which flattery had wafted around her in
+the circle of the Hotel de Rambouillet, she probably had no perception
+of her failings on that essential point. The spontaneity of her wit, her
+natural aptitude to comprehend and decide upon all sorts of questions,
+made up for her deficiency in that kind of information which is acquired
+from books and other modes of study, and often stood her in good stead,
+both on the part of her detractors and of her partisans, of the lofty
+characteristics of "great genius." M. Cousin, who is by no means severe
+as regards the errors or demerits of the Duchess, says that "she did not
+know how to write." Mademoiselle de Montpensier and Madame de
+Motteville, however, both express the very opposite opinion. The first
+remarks, speaking of the Countess de Maure:--"The precision and the
+polish of her style would be incomparable if Madame de Longueville had
+never written." The second declares that "this lady has ever written as
+well as any one living." The fact is, so far as may be judged from those
+of her letters which have come down to us, that Madame de Longueville's
+style bore the reflex of her conversation: there are some passages very
+remarkable in their force, some phrases altogether trite and
+insignificant. This opinion is quite beside the consideration of her
+diction in a grammatical point of view. In her written as in her spoken
+language, she seems to have been impassive or to have kindled into
+animation according as her thoughts were "dead or living," to use her
+own phrase. Speaking and writing, however, are two very different
+things, both requiring an especial cultivation; and as Madame de
+Longueville was defective in anything like what is termed "regular
+education" or "sound instruction," that fact became apparent so soon as
+she took her pen in hand. Her great natural endowments shone on paper
+with difficulty, through faults of every kind which escaped her notice.
+It is really no small gift to be able to express one's sentiments and
+ideas in their natural order, and with all their true and various
+shades, in terms neither too homely nor far-fetched, or which neither
+enfeeble nor exaggerate them. It is by no means rare to meet with men in
+society remarkable for intelligence, nerve, and grace when they speak,
+but who become unintelligible when they commit their thoughts to
+writing. The fact is, that writing is an art--a very difficult art, and
+one which must be carefully learned. Madame de Longueville was ignorant
+of this, as were some of the most eminent women of her time. There
+exists unquestionable evidence to prove that the Princess Palatine was a
+person of large intelligence, who was able to hold her own with men of
+the greatest capacity. De Retz and Bossuet tell us so. Some letters of
+the Palatine, however, are extant in which, whilst there is no lack of
+solidity, refinement, and ingenuity of thought, it will be seen that
+they often abound with errors, obscure phraseology, and not unfrequently
+outrageously violate even the commonest rules of orthography. It must
+not, however, by any means be inferred from this that the Palatine had
+not a mind of the first order, but only that she had not been trained to
+render clearly and fittingly her ideas and sentiments in writing. Madame
+de Longueville had been no better taught. Therefore all that has been
+said about her on this score must be restricted, alike as to the defects
+of her education and the brilliancy of her genius. With those
+Frenchwomen who have written at once largely and loosely, it is pleasant
+to contrast their contemporaries, Madame de Sevigne and Madame la
+Fayette, both of whom always wrote well.
+
+In the first place, these two admirable ladies had received quite
+another sort of education to that of Madame de Longueville. They had had
+the advantage of being instructed by men of letters skilled in the art
+of teaching. Menage was the chief instructor both of Mademoiselle de
+Rabutin and Mademoiselle de Lavergne--to call those accomplished
+letter-writers by their maiden names. Menage trained them carefully in
+composition, correcting rigidly their themes, pointing out their errors,
+cultivating their happy instincts, and modelling and polishing their
+vein and style. That talented tutor appears also to have been their
+platonic adorer--more platonic indeed than he desired. In his verses he
+celebrated by turns _la formosissima Laverna_ and _la bellissima
+Marchesa di Sevigni_, and his lessons were doubtless given _con amore_.
+
+Nature had been lavish indeed in all her gifts to the latter, giving her
+a precision and solidity allied to an inexhaustible playfulness and
+sparkling vivacity. Art, in her, wedded to genius, resulted in that
+incomparable epistolary style which left Balzac and Voiture far away
+behind her, and which Voltaire himself even has not surpassed.
+
+We must now speak of him who was destined to bias, sway, and finally
+determine the future course of Madame de Longueville's life through the
+conquest of her heart and mind--La Rochefoucauld--the man who induced
+her to embark with him on the stormy sea of politics, whose irresistible
+tide swept her past the landmarks of loyalty and reputability to make
+shipwreck, amongst the rocks and shoals of civil war, of fame, fortune,
+and domestic happiness.
+
+Up to the moment of her appearance on the scene of party strife in
+connection with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had not achieved
+much _political_ notoriety. Neither had her fair fame been compromised
+by the very insignificant gallantry of a long train of court danglers,
+nor through her involuntary participation in the affair of the letters
+with Madame de Montbazon. She could scarcely fail to be touched by the
+devotion of Coligny, who had shed his blood to avenge her of the outrage
+of that vindictive woman. For a moment, it is true, she had listened
+carelessly and harmlessly to the attention of the brave and intellectual
+Miossens. Still later she compromised herself somewhat with the Duke de
+Nemours; but the only man she truly loved with heart and soul was La
+Rochefoucauld. To him she devoted herself wholly; for him she sacrificed
+everything--duty, interest, repose, reputation. For him she staked her
+fortune and her life. Through him she exhibited the most equivocal and
+most contradictory conduct. It was La Rochefoucauld who caused her to
+take part in the Fronde; who, as he willed, made her advance or recede;
+who united her to, or separated her from, her family; who governed her
+absolutely. In a word, she consented to be in his hand merely an heroic
+instrument. Pride and passion had doubtless something to do with this
+life of adventure and that contempt of peril. But of what stamp must
+have been that soul which could find consolation in all this? And, as
+often happens, the man to whom she thus devoted herself was not wholly
+worthy of her. He had infinite spirit; but he was coldly calculating,
+profoundly selfish, meanly ambitious. He measured others by himself. He
+was naturally as subtle in evil, as she was disposed spontaneously to
+virtue. Full of finesse in his self-love and in the pursuit of his own
+interest, he was, in reality, the least chivalrous of his sex, although
+he affected all the appearance of the loftiest chivalry. In his
+_liaison_ with Madame de Longueville he made love the slave of ambition.
+
+It will be necessary to touch only slightly upon his career antecedent
+to this period. Francis, the sixth seigneur and second Duke de la
+Rochefoucauld, was born 15th December 1613. Little is recorded of his
+early years, he himself having given no details about them. We only know
+that he was very imperfectly educated, his father being desirous that
+he should early adopt the profession of arms. Himself enjoying royal
+favour in the highest degree, his eldest son, the young Prince de
+Marsillac, profitably felt its influence; for, as early as 1626, he
+commanded as _mestre-de-camp_ the Auvergne regiment of cavalry at the
+siege of Casal. He took an active part in the _Day of Dupes_, the period
+at which his memoirs commence. Two years previously, in 1628, he had
+married at Mirebeau a rich and beautiful heiress of Burgundy, Andree de
+Vivonne, only daughter of Andre de Vivonne, Baron of Berandiere and
+Chasteigneraye, Grand Falconer of France, Captain in the Guards of the
+Queen-Mother, Marie de' Medici, Councillor of State, and one of the most
+trusty followers of Henry IV. The Prince de Marsillac was at first in
+great favour at Court, notwithstanding his father's misconduct, but he
+suddenly compromised himself in a very imprudent way. Closely intimate
+with that virtuous maid-of-honour, Marie de Hautefort, whom the
+saturnine Louis XIII. loved as passionately as his peculiar temperament
+permitted, and also with Mademoiselle de Chemerault, as lovely as she
+was witty, he was by them hurried into a blind devotion to the cause of
+their unhappy mistress and queen, Anne of Austria, "the only party,"
+says he, with unusual candour, "that I ever honestly followed." And very
+soon his confidential relations with the persecuted princess became so
+marked as necessarily to excite Richelieu's suspicions, the more so that
+he ventured to speak of the Cardinal's administration in the boldest
+terms. His friends advised him to retire from Court, at least
+temporarily; but, as he wished to employ his time usefully, he joined as
+a volunteer the army of Marshal de Chastillon, who, with Marshal de la
+Meilleraye, beat Prince Thomas of Savoy at Avein. After behaving with
+distinction there, he returned, when the campaign was over, to Court,
+exhibiting a conduct still more independent, and which resulted in
+forcing him to rejoin his father at Blois.
+
+It was through the proximity of his father's chateau of Verteuil to
+Poitiers, where the Duchess de Chevreuse was then living in banishment
+from Court, that the Prince de Marsillac first came to ally himself with
+the illustrious political adventuress. At the time when La Rochefoucauld
+obtained political notoriety, a crisis occurred in France in national
+manners, sentiments, and feelings. The nobles, long kept under by the
+strong hand of Richelieu, were again rising into faction, and a spirit
+of intrigue had seized upon everyone.
+
+Although still young, Rochefoucauld had renounced enterprises in which
+the heart is alone concerned. No longer engrossed with love, he was
+wholly given up to ambition; and in order to avenge himself of the Queen
+and Mazarin, who had not in his opinion evinced sufficient generosity
+towards him to satisfy this later passion, he did not hesitate to fling
+himself headlong into partisan intrigue and strife which ended in civil
+war. To render himself the more formidable, he was above all desirous of
+securing to his party the master-mind of Conde; and as Madame de
+Longueville enjoyed the entire confidence of her favourite brother, and
+had great influence with him, the natural result was that in due course
+La Rochefoucauld made persistent love to the lovely Duchess. Seduced by
+the chivalrous manners and romantic antecedents of his youth, and
+yielding partly to the occasion, partly to the obstinate persistence of
+the suit, and some little perhaps to the maternal blood in her veins,
+Madame de Longueville at length surrendered her heart to the daring
+aspirant. She could no longer plead early youth as an excuse, for she
+had already numbered twenty-nine summers, and was only distant by a very
+small span from that formidable epoch in woman's life which a
+discriminating writer of the present day has happily termed the
+_crisis_. That turning point in the Duchess's career was destined to
+prove fatal to her, and the crisis was exactly such as that of which, in
+the case of another celebrated woman, M. Feillet has given a lucid
+analysis--the crisis brought about by an irresistible passion. Let us
+beware of hastily applying to Madame de Longueville that maxim of her
+cynical lover: "Women often think they still love him whom they no
+longer really love. The opportunity of an intrigue, the mental emotion
+to which gallantry gives birth, natural inclination to the pleasure of
+being beloved, and the pain of refusing the lover, together persuade
+them that they cherish a genuine passion when it is nothing more than
+mere coquetry." Better had it been both for herself and for us to
+believe that she had only so loved.
+
+The beauty and intelligence of the Duchess de Longueville formed
+certainly, at the commencement, a large share in the calculating lover's
+determination to seek a _liaison_ with the Duke d'Enghien's sister. The
+crowd of admirers was great around her, and that spectacle of itself
+served to inflame the ambition of M. de Marsillac: subsequent
+reflection, doubtless, must have redoubled his ardour to achieve the
+twofold conquest, in love and party. The Count de Miossens was then
+paying the most assiduous court to Madame de Longueville; he was very
+intimately connected with Marsillac, to whom indeed he was nearly
+related, and whom he kept well acquainted with the course of his amours.
+His suit to the lovely Duchess proving, as has been said, entirely
+unsuccessful, Miossens eventually left the field clear to Marsillac, the
+brave and simple soldier giving place to the self-seeking man of the
+world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE LONGUEVILLE DRAWN INTO THE VORTEX OF POLITICS AND CIVIL
+  WAR BY HER LOVE FOR LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.
+
+
+WE have glanced rapidly over the fairest period of Madame de
+Longueville's youth, over those years wherein the splendour of her
+success in the ranks of fashion was not obtained at the expense of her
+virtue. The time approaches in which she is about to yield to the
+manners of her age, and to the long-combatted wants of her heart. The
+love which she inspired in others, she is, in turn, about to feel
+herself, and it is to engage her, at the age of twenty-eight or
+twenty-nine, in a fatal connection, which will make her unmindful of all
+her conjugal duties, and turn her most brilliant qualities against
+herself, against her family, and against France.
+
+Let us now relate briefly what we know of Madame de Longueville from the
+moment of our last mention of her up to the commencement of 1648. There
+is nothing recorded which can authorise the supposition that before the
+close of 1647 Madame de Longueville had ever passed the limits of that
+noble and graceful gallantry which she saw everywhere held in honour,
+the praises of which she heard celebrated at the Hotel de Rambouillet as
+well as at the Hotel de Conde, in the great verse of Corneille and in
+the turgid effusions of Voiture. At the time of the duel between Guise
+and Coligny, in 1644, she had seen her twenty-fifth summer. Each
+succeeding year seemed only to enhance the power of her charms, and that
+power she delighted in exhibiting. A thousand adorers pressed around
+her. Coligny was, perhaps, nearest to her heart, but had not, however,
+touched it. But one cannot, with impunity, trifle with love. That tragic
+adventure of the eldest of the Chatillons perishing, in the flower of
+his youth, by the hand of the eldest of the Guises was quickly echoed by
+song and romance through every _salon_, and cast a gloom upon the
+destiny of Madame de Longueville, and gave her, at an early period, a
+fame at once aristocratic and popular, which prepared her wonderfully to
+play a great part in that other tragi-comedy, heroic and gallant, called
+the Fronde. The glory of her brother was reflected upon her, and she
+responded to it somewhat by her own success at Court and in the
+_salons_. She acquired more and more the manners of the times. Coquetry
+and witty talk formed her sole occupation. Her delicate condition not
+permitting her to accompany M. de Longueville to Muenster, in June, 1645,
+she remained in Paris. It was the place above all others in which she
+delighted, and whether her heart had received some slight wound, or
+whether it was still entirely whole, it is clear that she was not very
+glad nor greatly charmed to find herself, after her accouchement in the
+spring of 1646, under the cold, grey sky of Westphalia, again beside a
+husband who was not, as Retz says, the most agreeable man to her in the
+world. It is not difficult to divine the feelings with which that petted
+beauty of the Hotel de Rambouillet must have left Corneille, Voiture,
+and all the elegancies and refinements of life, to take up her abode at
+Munster amongst a set of foreign diplomatists only speaking German or
+Latin. To her it was doubly an exile, for her native soil was not
+merely France--but Paris, the Court, the Hotel de Conde, Chantilly, the
+Place Royale, the Rue St. Thomas du Louvre.[1] However, there was
+nothing for it but to obey the marital summons, and to set off with her
+step-daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was already more than
+twenty years of age. The Duchess quitted Paris on the 20th of June,
+1646, with a numerous escort under the command of Montigny, lieutenant
+of M. de Longueville's guards. The entire journey from Paris to Munster
+was a continual ovation. The Duke went as far as Wesel to meet her.
+Turenne, who then commanded on the Rhine, treated her to the spectacle
+of an army drawn up in order of battle, and which he manoeuvred for
+her amusement. Was it on that occasion that the great captain, well
+known to have been always impressionable to female beauty, received the
+ardent impulse which was renewed at Stenay in 1650, and which,
+graciously but prudently acknowledged by Madame de Longueville, always
+remained a close and tender tie between them? On the 22nd of July she
+made her triumphal entry into Munster. During the entire autumn of 1646
+and the winter of 1647 she was really the Queen of the Congress. Her
+beauty and grace of manner won homage equally from the grave
+diplomatists as from the great commanders who were there assembled.
+
+    [1] In which the Hotel de Rambouillet was situate.
+
+Although the Duchess dissembled her ennui with that politeness and
+gentleness peculiar to herself, after the lapse of a few months she had
+had enough of her brilliant exile. In the winter of 1647 there were two
+reasons for her return to France. Her father, the Prince de Conde, had
+died towards the close of December, 1646, to the great loss of his
+family and France, the consequences of which were somewhat later vividly
+felt. Moreover, Madame de Longueville had become _enceinte_, at Muenster
+for the third time, and it being her mother's wish that her accouchement
+should take place near her, M. de Longueville was compelled to consent
+to his wife's departure for Paris.
+
+Her return to France, at first to Chantilly, and next to Paris, in the
+month of May, 1647, was quite another sort of triumph to that of her
+journey to the Rhine and Holland, and her sojourn at Muenster. She found
+the crowd of her adorers more numerous and attentive than ever, and in
+the foremost rank her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, just fresh
+from college, was taking his first lessons of life in the wider range of
+the great world.
+
+Shortly after her accouchement, the Duchess, who during her sojourn
+amongst the plenipotentiaries charged with negotiating the treaty of
+Westphalia, had acquired a taste, there seems little doubt, for
+political discussions and speculations, first began to manifest an
+inclination to mix herself up with state affairs. There was little
+difficulty in her doing so. The mission which the Duke de Longueville
+continued to fulfil in Germany, the continued favour enjoyed by the
+Princess de Conde, the ever-increasing influence which the Duke
+d'Enghien--recently through his father's death become Prince de
+Conde--had acquired by his repeated victories, all these advantages,
+joined to the prestige of the personal charms of Madame de Longueville,
+placed this latter in a position to take the foremost part in the civil
+war about to break out.
+
+The Court and Paris were then occupied with festivals and diversions,
+which all were eager to share with Madame de Longueville. To please the
+Queen, Mazarin multiplied balls and operas. At a great expense he sent
+to Italy for artists, singers, male and female, who represented the
+opera of _Orpheus_, the machinery and decorations of which are said to
+have cost more than 400,000 livres. The Queen delighted in these
+spectacles. France also, as though inspired by its increasing grandeur,
+took pleasure in the magnificence of its government, and seconded it by
+redoubling its own luxury and magnificence. The pleasures of wit
+occupied the first rank. The Hotel de Rambouillet, near its decline, was
+shedding its last rays. Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as
+in all the best circles of Paris; and it must be confessed, with her
+good qualities she had also some of the defects of the best
+_precieuses_. The following is the picture which Madame de Motteville
+has traced of her person, of the turn of her mind, of her occupation, of
+her reputation, and of that of the whole house of Conde, at this period,
+which may be considered as the most felicitous of her life: "This
+princess, who during her absence reigned in her family, and whose
+approbation was sought as though she were a real sovereign, did not
+fail, on her return to Paris, to appear in greater splendour than when
+she left it. The friendship entertained for her by the Prince, her
+brother, authorizing her actions and her manners, the greatness of her
+beauty and of her mind increased so much the cabal of her family, that
+she was not long at Court without almost entirely engrossing it. She
+became the object of all desires: her clique was the centre of all
+intrigues, and those whom she loved became also the favourites of
+fortune.... Her intelligence, her wit, and the high opinion entertained
+for her discernment, won for her the admiration of all good people, who
+were persuaded that her esteem alone was enough to give them reputation.
+If, in this way, she governed people's minds, she was not less
+successful by means of her beauty; for although she had suffered from
+the small-pox since the Regency, and although she had lost somewhat of
+the perfection of her complexion, the splendour of her charms excited a
+powerful influence upon those who saw her; and she possessed especially,
+in the highest degree, what in the Spanish language is expressed by
+those words, _donayre, brio, y bizarrie_ (gallant air). She had an
+admirable form, and her person possessed a charm whose power extended
+over our own sex. It was impossible to see her without loving her, and
+without desiring to please her." Some shadows, however, slightly tone
+down this otherwise brilliant portraiture. "She was then too much
+engrossed with her own sentiments, which passed for infallible rules
+while they were not always so, and there was too much affectation in her
+manner of speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty was attributable to
+delicacy of thought and correctness of reasoning. She appeared
+constrained, and the keen raillery exercised by herself and her
+courtiers often fell upon those who, while rendering her their homage,
+felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which ought to be
+observed in polite society, was apparently banished from hers. The
+virtues and qualities of the most excellent creatures are mingled with
+things opposed to them: all men partake of this clay from which they
+derive their origin, and God alone is perfect.... In short it may be
+said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all gallantry were
+concentrated in the family of Bourbon, of which the Prince de Conde was
+the illustrious head, and that fortune was not considered a desirable
+thing if it did not emanate from their hands."
+
+But, unhappily, frivolous pastimes, of a nature both innocent and
+dangerous, now wholly engrossed Madame de Longueville. She was
+surrounded by all the prosperities and all the felicities of this life.
+Everything conspired in her favour, or rather against her--the triumphs
+of mind as well as those of beauty, the continually increasing glory of
+her paternal house, the intoxication of her vanity, the secret
+promptings of her heart. The trial was too much for her, and she
+succumbed to it. In the enchanted circle in which she moved, more than
+one adorer attracted her attention; and one of them succeeded in winning
+her affections, according to all appearances, at the close of 1647, or
+at the commencement of 1648. She was then about twenty-nine.
+
+Francois, Prince de Marsillac, without being very handsome, was well
+formed and very agreeable. As De Retz says, he was not a warrior,
+although he was a very good soldier. What distinguished him especially
+was his wit. Of this he possessed an infinite fund, of the finest and
+most delicate. His conversation was gentle, easy, insinuating; and his
+manners were at once the most natural and most polished. He had a lofty
+air. In him vanity supplied the place of ambition. At an early age he
+showed a fondness for distinction and for intrigues. Profoundly selfish,
+and having succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of himself, and in
+reducing to theory his nature, his character, and his tastes, he set out
+with very contrary appearances, and those chivalrous manners affected by
+the _Importants_. One of his first connections, as we have seen, was
+with Madame de Chevreuse, who secured him to Queen Anne. When the death
+of Louis XIII. had placed the supreme authority in her hands, he
+imagined that his fortune was made. He sought successively various
+important offices which the Queen could not grant, whatever liking she
+might have entertained for him. Having tried several schemes and failed
+in all, the Queen applied herself to soothing his disappointments, by
+behaviour so tender as to retain him, as would now be said, in a
+moderate opposition, and keep him from taking part in the violence of
+Beaufort. He was not then covered with the disgrace of the _Importants_,
+though he shared it to a certain extent; and he did not cease to be, or
+seem to be, very much attached, not to the government, but to the person
+of the Queen. He looked continually for some great favour at her hands.
+These favours not arriving, he determined to procure through
+intimidation what his self-seeking fidelity had not been able to secure
+for him.
+
+It was during this state of his feelings that he met Madame de
+Longueville, on her return from Munster, surrounded by the most earnest
+admirers. The Count de Miossens, afterwards Marshal d'Albret--handsome,
+brave, full of wit and talent, as enterprising in love as in war--was
+paying her a very zealous court. La Rochefoucauld persuaded Miossens,
+who was one of his friends, that, after all, if he should overcome the
+resistance of Madame de Longueville, it would only be a victory
+flattering to his vanity, whilst that he, La Rochefoucauld, would be
+able to turn it to a very good account. This was certainly a very
+convincing and heroic reason for falling in love! We, however, do no
+more than transfer, with the utmost exactness, a statement made by
+Rochefoucauld himself, which we will now quote word for word: "So much
+unprofitable labour and so much weariness, finally gave me other
+thoughts, and led me to attempt dangerous ways in order to testify my
+hostility to the Queen and Cardinal Mazarin. The beauty of Madame de
+Longueville, her wit, and the charms of her person, attached to her all
+who could hope for her favour. Many men and women of quality strove to
+please her; and besides all this, Madame de Longueville was then upon
+such good terms with all her house, and so tenderly beloved by the Duke
+d'Enghien, her brother, that the esteem and friendship of this prince
+might be counted upon by any one who enjoyed the favour of his sister.
+Many persons vainly attempted this game, mingling other sentiments with
+those of ambition. Miossens, who afterwards became Marshal of France,
+persisted in it longest, but with similar success. I was one of his
+intimate friends, and he told me his designs. They soon fell to the
+ground of themselves. He saw this, and told me several times that he was
+about to renounce them; but vanity, which was the strongest of his
+passions, prevented him from telling me the truth, and he professed to
+entertain hopes which he had not, and which I knew that he could not
+have. Some time passed in this way; and, finally, I had reason to
+believe that I could make a more considerable use than Miossens of the
+friendship and confidence of Madame de Longueville. I made him believe
+it himself. He knew my position at Court; I told him my views, declaring
+that my consideration for him would always restrain me, and that I would
+not attempt to form a connection with Madame de Longueville without his
+permission. I will even confess that I irritated him against her in
+order to obtain it, without, however, saying anything untrue. He
+delivered her over entirely to me, but he repented when he saw the
+result of that connection."[2]
+
+    [2] Petitot Collection, vol. li. p. 393.
+
+When, subdued at length by the passion shown for her by La
+Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had determined to respond to it,
+she gave herself up to him wholly--devoting herself in everything to the
+man whom she dared to love. She made it a point of honour, as doubtless
+it was a secret happiness, to share his destiny and to follow him
+without casting one backward glance--sacrificing to him all her private
+interests, the evident interest of her family, and the strongest
+sentiment of her soul, her tenderness for her brother Conde.
+
+The truthful Madame de Motteville, after noting the principal motive
+which urged La Rochefoucauld in his pursuit of Madame de Longueville,
+adds: "In all that she has since done, it is clearly seen that ambition
+was not the only thing that occupied her soul, and that the interests of
+the Prince de Marsillac there held a prominent place. For him she became
+ambitious, for him she ceased to love repose; and in order to show
+herself alive to this affection, she became too insensible to her own
+fame.... The declarations of the Prince de Marsillac, as I have already
+said, had not been displeasing to her; and this nobleman, who was
+perhaps more selfish than tender, wishing through her to promote his own
+interests, believed that he should inspire her with a desire of ruling
+the princes her brothers."[3]
+
+    [3] Mad. de Motteville, vol. ii. p. 17.
+
+Such being the sordid motives of her wooer, the oft-repeated lines,
+therefore, which he wrote with his own hand behind a portrait of the
+Duchess must be construed with a considerable abatement of their poetic
+ardour:--
+
+  "Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux,
+  J'ai fait la guerre aux rois, Je l'aurais faite aux dieux."[4]
+
+    [4] At a later period, after he had lost his sight from a
+    pistol-shot received at the combat of the Porte St. Antoine during
+    the Fronde, and had quarrelled with the Duchess, he parodied his own
+    distich,--
+
+      "Pour ce coeur inconstant, qu'enfin Je connais mieux,
+      J'ai fait la guerre au roi; J'en ai perdu les yeux."
+
+Such a dissembler then was the coldly ambitious, egotistical, clever
+Duke de la Rochefoucauld--a man capable of sacrificing everybody to his
+own interests. Madame de Longueville, such as we have depicted her,
+could not help being the instrument of a man of like character. M.
+Cousin seems to have arrived at that conclusion, since, in designating
+that princess as _the soul of the Fronde_, he acknowledges "that she
+troubled the state and her own family by an extravagant passion for one
+of the chiefs of the _Importants_, become one of the chiefs of the
+Fronde." But M. Cousin is very nearly silent touching the Prince de
+Conti, of whom the Duchess was the sole motive-power on all occasions,
+and he merely says that this young prince submitted to be led by his
+sister in order to stand upon an equal footing with his elder brother
+whilst waiting for a cardinal's hat.
+
+Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, born in 1629, was eighteen years of
+age in 1647. He had good intellect and a not unpleasant countenance; but
+a slight deformity and a certain feebleness of constitution rendering
+him unfit for the army, he was early destined for the church. He had
+studied among the Jesuits at the college of Clermont with Moliere, and
+his father had obtained for him the richest benefices, and demanded a
+cardinal's hat. While waiting for this hat dignity, Armand de Bourbon
+was living at the Hotel de Conde, partly an ecclesiastic, partly a man
+of the world, passing his days with wits and men of fashion, and greedy
+of every species of success. The glory of his brother filled him with
+emulation, and he dreamed himself of warlike exploits. When his sister
+returned from Germany, he went to meet her, and, dazzled by her beauty,
+her grace, and her fame, he began to love her rather as a gallant than
+as a brother. He followed her blindly in all her adventures, in which
+he exhibited as much courage as volatility. When he had made his peace
+with the Court--thanks to his marriage with a niece of Mazarin, the
+beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi--he obtained the
+command-in-chiefship of the army of Catalonia, in which capacity he
+acquitted himself with great honour. He was much less successful in
+Italy. On the whole, he was far from injuring his name, and he gave to
+France, in the person of his young son, a true warrior, one of the best
+pupils of Conde, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth
+century. Constrained, through ill-health, to betake himself again to
+religion, the Prince de Conti finished, where he had begun, with
+theology. He composed several meritorious and learned works on various
+religious subjects.
+
+In 1647, he was entirely devoted to vanity and pleasure. He adored his
+sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous empire, which
+continued during several years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE DRIVEN INTO EXILE FOR THE THIRD TIME.
+
+
+WHEN in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England, the fugitive consort
+of Charles I., sought an asylum in France from the fury of the English
+parliamentarians, and went to drink the Bourbon waters, Madame de
+Chevreuse eagerly desired to see once more that illustrious princess,
+who had so warmly welcomed her when herself an exile, at the Court of
+St. James's. Queen Henrietta, too, who like her mother, Marie de'
+Medici, as well as the Duchess, was of the Spanish and Catholic party,
+would have been delighted to have mingled her tears with those of so old
+and faithful a friend. But the royal exile did not deem it right to give
+way to her inclination without Queen Anne's permission, who at that
+moment was according her such noble hospitality. Anne of Austria
+politely replied that the Queen, her sister, was perfectly free to act
+as she chose; but it was intimated to her, through the Chevalier de
+Jars, that it was inexpedient to receive the visit of a person who,
+through misguided conduct, had forfeited Her Majesty's favour. This
+fresh disgrace, added to so many others, increased the Duchess's
+irritation to the highest pitch. She redoubled her efforts to break the
+yoke that oppressed her. Mazarin watched and was made acquainted with
+all her manoeuvres. He had the comptroller of her household arrested
+in Paris, and shortly afterwards even her physician, whilst accompanying
+Madame de Chevreuse's daughter in her carriage for an airing. The
+Duchess complained bitterly of this latter proceeding in a letter which
+she contrived to have handed to the Queen. She asserted that
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was forced to quit the vehicle, two archers
+levelling their pistols at her breast, and shouting all the
+while--"Fire! fire!" and they threatened, after the same fashion, the
+female attendants who were with her. At the same time that she protested
+her own innocence, she did not fail to challenge Anne's sense of
+justice, with a view to neutralize the enmity of Mazarin. But the
+physician whom he had had arrested, on being flung into the Bastile,
+made avowals which opened up traces of very grave matters; and an exempt
+of the King's guards was despatched to Madame de Chevreuse with an order
+commanding her to retire to Angouleme, and the officer was even charged
+to convey her thither. At Angouleme was that strong fortress used as a
+state prison, in which her friend Chateauneuf had been confined on her
+account for ten long years. This reminiscence, ever present to the
+Duchess's imagination, terrified her sorely. She dreaded lest it should
+be the same sort of _retreat_ which they now intended for her; and the
+active-minded woman, preferring every kind of extremity to being
+imprisoned, decided upon renewing the career of a wanderer and an
+adventurer, as in 1637, and to tread for the third time the wearisome
+paths of exile.
+
+But how greatly were circumstances then changed around her, and how
+changed was she also herself! Her first exile from France in 1626, had
+proved one continuous triumph. Young, lovely, and adored by every one,
+she had quitted Nancy, leaving the Duke de Lorraine a slave
+henceforward to the sway of her charms, only to return to Paris and
+trouble the mind of the stony, impassive Richelieu. In 1637 her flight
+into Spain had, on the contrary, proved a most severe trial to her. She
+had been forced to traverse the whole of France disguised in male
+attire, brave more than one danger, endure much suffering and privation,
+only to struggle in the sequel with five consecutive years of fruitless
+agitation. But, at any rate, she then had youth to back her, and the
+consciousness of the power of that irresistible fascination which
+procured her adorers and suitors wherever she wandered, even among the
+occupants of thrones. She had faith likewise in the Queen's friendship,
+and a firm reliance that the time would come when that friendship would
+repay her for all her devotedness. But now age she felt was creeping
+upon her; her beauty, verging towards its decline, promised her
+henceforward conquests only few and far between. She perceived that in
+losing her power over Anne of Austria's heart, she had lost the greater
+portion of her prestige both in France and Europe. The flight of the
+Duke de Vendome, shortly about to be followed by that of the Duke de
+Bouillon, left the _Importants_ without any chief of note. The Duchess
+had found Mazarin to be quite as skilful and formidable an enemy as
+Richelieu. Victory seemed to have entered into a compact with him. De
+Bouillon's own brother, Turenne, solicited the honour of serving him,
+and the young Duke d'Enghien won battle after battle for him. She knew
+also that the Cardinal had that in his hands wherewith he could condemn
+and sentence her to incarceration for the rest of her days. When,
+however, almost every one forsook her, this extraordinary woman did not
+give way to self-abandonment. As soon as the exempt Riquetti had
+signified to her the order of which he was the bearer, she adopted
+measures with her accustomed promptitude, and, accompanied by her
+daughter Charlotte, who had hastened to her mother and refused to quit
+her, she succeeded in reaching by cross-roads the thickets of La Vendee
+and the solitudes of Brittany; until, approaching within a few leagues
+of St.-Malo, she solicited an asylum at the hands of the Marquis de
+Coetquen. That noble and generous Breton gave her the hospitality which
+was due to such a woman struggling against such adversity. Marie de
+Rohan did not abuse it; and after placing her jewels in his hands for
+safety, as she had formerly done in those of La Rochefoucauld,[1] she
+embarked with her daughter in the depth of winter at St.-Malo, on board
+a small vessel bound for Dartmouth, whence she purposed crossing over to
+Dunkirk and entering Flanders. But the English parliamentarian
+men-of-war were cruising in the Channel. They fell in with and captured
+the wretched little bark, and carried her into the Isle of Wight. There
+Madame de Chevreuse was recognised; and as she was known to be a friend
+of the Queen of England, the Roundheads were not loth to subject her to
+sufficiently rough treatment; and afterwards hand her over to Mazarin.
+Fortunately, in the Governor of the Isle of Wight, she met with the
+Earl of Pembroke, whom she had formerly known. The Duchess appealed to
+his courtesy,[2] and thanks to his good offices, she obtained--but with
+no little difficulty--passports which permitted her to gain Dunkirk, and
+thence the Spanish Low Countries.
+
+    [1] Subsequently, she requested the Marquis de Coetquen to hand over
+    her jewels to Montresor, who transferred them to a messenger of the
+    Duchess. But Mazarin was informed of everything from first to last.
+    He was aware of every tittle of the Duchess's correspondence, and
+    tried to seize with the strong hand the famous gems which had
+    formerly belonged to Marie de' Medicis' favourite foster-sister,
+    Leonora Galligai, created Marchioness d'Ancre. On the murder of the
+    Marshal d'Ancre, these diamonds and _parures_, valued at two hundred
+    thousand crowns, with a vast amount of other property confiscated by
+    an edict of Louis XIII., were bestowed by the king on his lucky
+    favourite, De Luynes, the first husband of Marie de Rohan. Failing
+    in his attempt to possess himself of these costly gems, Mazarin
+    arrested Montresor, and kept him upwards of a year in prison. See
+    "Memoirs of Montresor."
+
+    [2] See her letter to the Earl of Pembroke, dated Isle of Wight,
+    29th April, 1645, in "Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, France," t.
+    cvi. p. 162.
+
+The adventurous exile took up her abode for a short time at Liege, and
+applied herself to maintain and consolidate to the utmost degree
+possible between Spain, Austria, and the Duke de Lorraine, an alliance,
+which was the final resource of the _Importants_, and the last basis of
+her own political reputation and high standing. Mazarin, however, having
+got the upper hand, resumed all Richelieu's designs, and, like him, made
+strenuous efforts to detach Lorraine from his two allies. The gay Duke
+was then madly enamoured of the fair Beatrice de Cusance, Princess of
+Cantecroix. Mazarin laboured to gain over the lady, and he proposed to
+the ambitious and enterprising Charles IV. to break with Spain and march
+into Franche-Comte with the aid of France, promising to leave him in
+possession of all he might conquer. The Cardinal succeeded in winning
+over to his interest Duke Charles's own sister (the former mistress of
+Puylaurens), the Princess de Phalzbourg, then greatly fallen from her
+former "high estate," and who gave him secret and faithful account of
+all that passed in her brother's immediate circle. Mazarin required of
+her especially to keep him apprised of Madame de Chevreuse's slightest
+movement. He knew that she was in correspondence with the Duke de
+Bouillon, that she disposed of the Imperial general Piccolomini by means
+of her friend Madame de' Strozzi, and even that she had preserved
+intact her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, in spite of the charms of the
+fair Beatrice. By the help of the Princess de Phalzbourg he watched
+every step, and disputed with her, foot to foot, possession of the
+fickle Charles IV., sometimes the victor, but very often the vanquished
+in this mysterious struggle.
+
+The advantage remained with Madame de Chevreuse. Her ascendancy over
+Charles IV.--the offspring of love, surviving that passion, but more
+potent than all the later loves of that inconstant Prince--retained him
+in alliance with Spain, and frustrated Mazarin's projects. By degrees
+she became once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
+French Government. She did not always attack it from without, but
+fostered internal difficulties, which, like the heads of the hydra, were
+unceasingly springing forth. Surrounded by a knot of ardent and
+obstinate emigrants, among others by the Count de Saint-Ybar, one of the
+most resolute men of the party, she kept up the spirits of the remnant
+of the _Importants_ left in France, and everywhere added fuel to the
+fire of sedition. Actuated by strong passion, yet mistress of herself,
+she preserved a calm brow amidst the wrack of the tempest, at the same
+time that she displayed an indefatigable activity in surprising the
+enemy on his weak side. Making use alike of the Catholic and the
+Protestant party, at times she meditated a revolt in Languedoc, or a
+descent upon Brittany; at others, on the slightest symptom of discontent
+betrayed by some person of importance, she laboured to drive out
+Mazarin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  FATAL INFLUENCE OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE'S PASSION FOR LA
+  ROCHEFOUCAULD.--THE FRONDE.
+
+
+WE do not propose to enter into the labyrinth of intrigues which
+preceded the outbreak of the Fronde, but confine ourselves to an
+endeavour to trace the motives which led Madame de Longueville to throw
+herself into the centre of the malcontents and to figure as the chief
+heroine in the varied scenes of that tragi-comedy of civil war.
+
+The first Fronde was formed out of the _debris_ of the _Importants_. It
+was composed of all the malcontents who made common cause with those
+members of the parliament who were irritated by the frequent bursal
+edicts, notably that which, in 1648, created twelve new appointments of
+_maitres de requetes_.
+
+And now what gave birth to the Fronde, or what sustained it? What roused
+up the old party of the _Importants_, stifled for some years, it would
+seem, under the laurels of Rocroy? What separated the princes of the
+blood from the Crown? What turned against the throne that illustrious
+house of Conde, which, until then, had been its sword and shield? There
+were doubtless many general causes for all this; but it is impossible
+for us to conceal one--private, it is true, but which exercised a
+powerful and deplorable influence--the unexpected love of Madame de
+Longueville for one of the chiefs of the _Importants_, who had become
+one of the chiefs of the Fronde. Yes--sad to say--it was Madame de
+Longueville, who, joining the party of the malcontents, attracted
+thereto, at first, a part of her family, then her entire family, and
+thus precipitated it from the pinnacle of honour and glory to which so
+many services had elevated it.
+
+Scarcely had the treaty of Muenster suspended the scourge of foreign war
+for France, than internal dissensions began to trouble the realm. The
+hatred which the Parliament bore to Mazarin, through his repression of
+its functions, primarily gave birth to civil war. The Duchess de
+Longueville became in the faction of the Fronde what the Duchess de
+Montpensier had been in that of the League. The former, however, did not
+at first attach so great an importance to the cause she espoused.
+Characteristically careless, she was by nature little inclined to
+agitation and intrigue. We have already shown that before her _liaison_
+with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had been a stranger to
+politics. Occupied solely with innocent gallantry and the homage of the
+most refined society of the day, she allowed herself in all else to be
+led by her father and her elder brother. But no sooner was La
+Rochefoucauld master of her heart, than she gave herself wholly up to
+him, and became a mere instrument in his hands. Having been by him
+inspired with ambition, she made it a point of honour, and doubtless a
+secret happiness, to share his destiny.
+
+It seems not improbable that the Duchess might have caught a liking for
+politics and negotiation during the conference of Munster. Certain it is
+that once plunged into the eddying tide of the Fronde, she loftily
+announced the project of remedying the general disorder of affairs. But
+she especially desired to employ therein the means which confer
+celebrity, and it is difficult to deny that ambition, although without
+determinate aim, and the desire of establishing a high opinion of her
+intellect, may have had some share in the reasons which induced her to
+embrace the party opposed to Mazarin. With herself she drew her husband
+into it, as well as the Prince de Conti, her younger brother. As for the
+elder, the victorious Conde, he at first declared for the King and the
+Queen-Regent, which greatly incensed his sister against him, and caused
+her to enter into close compact, amongst others, with the Coadjutor,
+afterwards Cardinal de Retz--that mischievous man who figured so
+conspicuously as the evil genius of the Fronde.
+
+The Gondis, who were the chief advisers of the St. Bartholomew, owed to
+that terrible exploit the result of being very nearly the hereditary
+possessors of the Archbishopric of Paris. But this last Gondi--John
+Francis Paul--owed something more: to be at the same time governor of
+Paris, and to unite both powers. With such purpose, he artfully worked
+upon the city through the curates who, distributing bread, soup, and
+every other kind of alms, carried along with them the famished masses.
+This young ecclesiastic of the de Retz family had risen into great
+favour with the serious and religious sections of the Parisian
+community. He was nephew of the Archbishop of Paris, and was himself
+Archbishop of Corinth; but as his flock in that metropolitan city were
+schismatic (except those who had turned Turks), he had leisure to assist
+his uncle in his high office, and was appointed his Coadjutor and
+successor. He preached at all the churches, held visitations at the
+convents, catechised the young, and consulted with the senior clergy on
+the management of the diocese. When he rode through the streets he was
+saluted with cheers and blessings, and the orators of the Fronde held
+him up as the pattern of all the Christian virtues. At night he put off
+his episcopal robes, disguised himself as a trooper or tradesman, and
+attended the meetings of the discontented. In a short time he had
+distributed seven or eight thousand pounds in stirring up the passions
+of the people, and was daily in expectation of being summoned by his
+patroness the Queen to exert his influence in quelling them. The
+populace, with an Archbishop-governor of Paris at their head, imagined
+that they were going to rule there as in the time of the League. This
+made them both blind and deaf to the morals and manners of the little
+prelate. A braggart, a duellist, and more than a gallant--though having
+swarthy, ugly features, turned-up nose, and short, bandy legs--yet his
+expressive eyes carried off every fault, sparkling as they were with
+intelligence, audacity, and libertinage. Few withstood this subtle
+knave, for he was wont to waive all ceremonial and spare everybody
+prefatory speeches. The ladies of gallantry--especially those whose
+lover he was--were his most indefatigable political agents. The Queen,
+at length, suspecting that the worthy Archbishop was not quite the
+simple and self-denying individual he appeared, had him watched and
+followed. Whilst he flattered himself with the anticipation that his
+assistance would be solicited at the Palais Royal, the Queen was making
+a jest of him, and Mazarin determined to strike the blow.
+
+On the 27th of August, 1648, a vast assemblage crowded the spacious
+precincts of Notre Dame, to celebrate a _Te Deum_ for the great victory
+of Lens, of which the youthful Conde had just sent home the news. When
+the multitude were dispersing, a dash was made upon two or three of the
+obnoxious councillors who had inflamed the discussions of the
+Fronde--for that civil war was fairly on foot ere Anne of Austria and
+Mazarin knew of its existence. Two of the intended prisoners escaped,
+but a surly, burly demagogue, named Broussel, was tracked to his house
+in the mechanics' quarter of Paris, and arrested by an armed force.
+Thereupon the populace rose and armed against the Court. They made an
+extraordinary stand in the streets, having raised _twelve hundred_
+barricades in the course of twelve hours. They had no further need of De
+Retz. It was, however, one of his mistresses, the sister of a president
+and wife of a city captain, who having in her house the drum belonging
+to the citizen guard of that quarter, gave the first impulse by causing
+it to be beaten. The train was thus fired and the flame of civil war
+kindled. This was called the _Day of the Barricades_.
+
+Thus, the royal power which, as wielded by Richelieu, had come to
+be considered as absolute, was attacked by three parties
+simultaneously--the great nobles, the parliamentarians, and the
+_bourgeoisie_; but, notwithstanding the dread of the common enemy, which
+united them, those parties were of different origin and conditions of
+existence, and consequently had different interests also. The great
+nobles wished to exercise power by placing themselves above the law; the
+parliament to increase its own through the law; the citizens to
+establish theirs at the expense of the law: for in their eyes the law
+was full of abuses and the royal power cruelly oppressive. All three
+parties, in order to arrive at their several ends, had, therefore,
+recourse to violence, or derived aid from it.
+
+On the return of Madame de Longueville from Muenster, there was already a
+ferment in the minds of the Parisians, of which the Regent took little
+heed. The Fronde cabal was then brooding in the dark. When the
+rebellion, formed by Gondi, broke out at last under the circumstances
+just narrated, Madame de Longueville, alone of all the princesses of the
+blood, did not accompany Anne of Austria in her flight to Rueil. The
+Duchess strove her utmost to strengthen, by the concurrence of her
+entire family, the faction whose fortunes she had embraced through
+devotion to Marsillac. She did not, however, then succeed in detaching
+Conde from the Regent's party. The battle of the barricades followed
+close upon that of Lens, Conde's last victory. On his return, that
+victorious young soldier found royalty humiliated, the Parliament
+triumphing and dictating laws to the Crown; the Duke de Beaufort, with
+whom he once thought of measuring swords in defence of the honour of his
+sister, freed from his prison in Vincennes, and master of Paris by aid
+of the populace who idolized him; the vain and fickle Abbe de Retz
+transformed into a tribune of the people; the Prince de Conti into a
+generalissimo; M. de Longueville under the guidance of his wife and La
+Rochefoucauld; and the feeble Duke d'Orleans fancying himself almost a
+King, because he saw the Queen humiliated, and because the Frondeurs,
+cunningly flattering his self-love, were treating him like a sovereign.
+Conde, at a glance, saw the situation of affairs and his duty also; and
+without any hesitation he offered his sword to the Queen.
+
+Brother and sister were, therefore, about to be arrayed against each
+other in the strife of civil war, and a stormy explanation took place
+between them. It is asserted that for some time back their reciprocal
+tenderness had suffered more than one interruption; that, in 1645,
+Madame de Longueville had crossed the loves of her brother and
+Mademoiselle du Vigean; that, in 1646, Conde, seeing her too intimate
+with La Rochefoucauld, had caused her to be summoned to Muenster by her
+husband. But for this we have only the authority of the Duchess de
+Nemours, her step-daughter and unsparing censor, and nothing is less
+probable. The passion of Conde for Mademoiselle de Vigean extinguished
+itself, as all contemporaries affirm. The attentions of La Rochefoucauld
+to Madame de Longueville may have preceded the embassy of Muenster, but
+they were not observed until 1647, and it is at the close of this year
+that Madame de Motteville places them, while attributing them especially
+to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share the confidence of the sister
+with the brother. But it is very certain that as soon as the latter
+remarked this connection, he disapproved of it entirely; and not
+succeeding in his effort to rouse his sister from the intoxication of a
+first passion, he passed from the most ardent affection to a bitter
+discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his return from Lens, this
+connection had acquired its greatest strength, and become almost
+notorious. Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, did then
+everything possible to gain over her brother. She brought all her
+allurements to bear upon him, all her fondlings. She put into play
+everything which she thought might influence his fickle and passionate
+disposition--but failed. Neither did he succeed in gaining over her his
+accustomed ascendency. They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame de
+Longueville plunged more deeply into the Fronde, and Conde applied
+himself to giving the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson.
+
+The Queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the young King and all the
+government. Paris was under the absolute control of the Fronde. It
+stirred up the Parliament by the aid of a few ambitious councillors and
+by seditious and mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great part of
+the Parisian clergy through the Coadjutor of the Archbishop De Retz, who
+possessed and exercised all the authority of his uncle. It had
+continually at its head the two great houses of Vendome and Lorraine,
+with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti and the Duke de
+Longueville, followed by a very great number of illustrious families,
+including the Dukes d'Elbeuf, de Bouillon, and de Beaufort, and other
+powerful nobles. It gave law in the _salons_, thanks to a brilliant bevy
+of pretty women, who drew after them the flower of the young nobility.
+In short, the army itself was divided. Turenne, with his troops, who
+were stationed near the Rhine until the perfect conclusion of the treaty
+of Westphalia, obedient to the suggestions of his elder brother, the
+Duke de Bouillon, who wished to recover his principality of Sedan, had
+just raised the standard of revolt, and was threatening to place the
+Court between his own army and that of Paris. The parliament of the
+capital had sent deputies to all the parliaments of the kingdom, and was
+thus forming a sort of formidable parliamentary league in the face of
+monarchy. Conde took command of all the troops that remained faithful,
+and everywhere opposed the insurrection. He wrote himself to the army of
+the Rhine, which well knew him, and which after the rout sustained by
+Turenne at Mariendal, had been led back by him to victory: these
+letters, supported by the proceedings of the government, succeeded in
+arresting the revolt; and Turenne, abandoned by his own soldiers, was
+obliged to fly to Holland.[1] At ease on this head, Conde marched upon
+Paris, and placed it under siege. Instead of disputing the ground, as
+he might have done, foot by foot, with the sedition, he allowed it the
+freest course, in the certainty that the spectacle of licentiousness
+which could not fail to appear would, little by little, restore to
+royalty those who had for a moment gone astray. He began by summoning,
+in the Queen's name and through his mother, all his family to
+Saint-Germain. The Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville did not dare
+disobey; but La Rochefoucauld, seeing that the Fronde was in the
+greatest peril, hastened after these two princes. Having brought them
+back to Paris, he made the Prince de Conti generalissimo--placing under
+him the Dukes d'Elbeuf and de Bouillon--and who shared authority with
+the Marshal de la Mothe Houdancourt, governor of Paris. Madame de
+Longueville excused herself to the Queen and to her mother on the
+grounds of her delicate condition, which would not permit her to
+undertake the least fatigue. In fact, Madame de Longueville, it may be
+noted, was _enceinte_ for the last time in 1648, when, it must be
+confessed, her connection with La Rochefoucauld was well known. It was
+in this condition that, willing to share the perils of her friends,
+proud also of playing a part and of filling all the trumpets of fame,
+she enacted Pallas as well as she was able. It is at least certain that
+she shared all the fatigues of the siege, that she was present at the
+reviews of the troops, at the parades of the citizen soldiery, and that
+all the civil and military plans were discussed before her. In this
+disorder and confusion, amidst the tumult of arms and vociferations of
+the insurrection, she appeared as if in her natural element. She
+encouraged, counselled, acted, and the most energetic resolutions
+emanated from her. The memoirs of the times are full, in regard to this,
+of the most curious details. The Hotel de Longueville was continually
+filled with officers and generals; nothing was seen there but plumes,
+helmets, and swords.
+
+    [1] "History of Turenne," by Ramsay, vol. ii.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, the democratic spirit which had originated the
+Fronde was not satisfied. It beheld with displeasure all the forces of
+Paris in the hands of the brother, of the brother-in-law, and of the
+sister of him who commanded the siege. Believing very little, and with
+reason, in the patriotism of the princes, the citizens demanded some
+sureties from the chiefs who might at any time betray them, and make
+peace, at their expense, with Saint-Germain. No one seemed to know how
+to appease this clamorous multitude, without which nothing further could
+be done. It was then that Madame de Longueville showed that, if she had
+forgotten her true duties, she had retained the energy of her race and
+the intrepidity of the Condes. Under the advice of De Retz, she induced
+her husband to present himself to the Parliament and inform them that he
+had come to offer his services, as well as the towns of Rouen, Caen,
+Dieppe, and the whole of Normandy, of which he was governor; and he
+begged the Parliament to consent that his wife and two children should
+be lodged at the Hotel de Ville as a guarantee for the execution of his
+word. His speech was received with acclamations; and while the
+deliberations were still going on, De Retz proceeded to seek the Duchess
+de Longueville and the Duchess de Bouillon, both prepared to act a part
+in the scene he proposed to display. He had already caused the proposal
+of the Duke de Longueville to be spread amongst the populace; and
+hurrying the two princesses into a carriage, dressed with studied and
+artful negligence, but surrounded by a splendid suite, and followed by
+an immense crowd to the principal quarter of the insurrection--the Hotel
+de Ville--those lovely and interesting women were placed in the hands
+of the people as hostages with all that was most dear to them.
+"Imagine," says De Retz, "these two beautiful persons upon the balcony
+of the Hotel de Ville; more beautiful because they appeared neglected,
+although they were not. Each held in her arms one of her children, who
+were as beautiful as their mothers." La Greve was full of people, even
+to the house tops; the men all raised cries of joy, and the women wept
+with emotion. De Retz, meanwhile, threw handfuls of money from the
+windows of the Hotel de Ville amongst the populace, and then, leaving
+the princesses under the protection of the city, he returned to the
+Palais de Justice, followed by an immense multitude, whose acclamations
+rent the skies.
+
+On the night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville gave
+birth to her last child, a son, who was baptized by De Retz, having for
+its godfather the Provost, for its godmother the Duchess de Bouillon,
+and who received the name of Charles de Paris; the child of the Fronde,
+handsome, talented, and brave; who during his life was the troublesome
+hope, the melancholy joy of his mother, and the cause of her greatest
+grief in 1672, when he perished, at the passage of the Rhine, by the
+side of his uncle, Conde.
+
+The Prince de Conti being declared _generalissimo of the army of the
+King, under the parliament_, and the Dukes de Bouillon and Elbeuf, with
+the Marshal de la Mothe, generals under him, De Retz saw the full
+fruition of his intrigues. A civil war was now inevitable. The great and
+the little, the wise and the foolish, the rash and the prudent, the
+cowardly and the brave, were all engaged and jumbled up pell-mell on
+both sides; and the mixture was so strange, so heterogeneous, and so
+incomprehensible, that a sentiment of the ridiculous was irresistibly
+paramount, and the war began amongst fits of laughter on all sides. That
+same day Conde's cavaliers came galloping into the faubourgs to fire
+their pistols at the Parisians, whilst the Marquis de Noirmoutier went
+forth with the cavalry of the Fronde to skirmish with them, and
+returning to the Hotel de Ville, entered the circle of the Duchess de
+Longueville, followed by his officers, each wearing his cuirass, as he
+came from the field. The hall was filled with ladies preparing to dance,
+the troops were drawn up in the square, and this mixture of blue scarves
+and ladies, cuirasses and violins and trumpets, formed, says De Retz, a
+spectacle much more common in romances than anywhere else.
+
+The serio-grotesque drama of the Fronde was thus initiated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE WINS HER BROTHER CONDE OVER TO THE FRONDE.
+
+
+THIS first raising of bucklers by the Frondeurs was not of long
+duration. At the conclusion of a peace between Mazarin and the
+Parliament, a perfect understanding prevailed amongst all the members of
+the Conde family. The civil dissensions, however, were sufficiently
+prolonged to exhibit the errors of all parties--even those who had
+entered therein with virtuous inclinations and intentions, ashamed of
+the stains which had tarnished them in the struggle, almost invariably
+ended by confining themselves to the narrow circle of individual
+interests, and completed their degradation by no longer recognizing any
+other motive for their conduct than that of sordid selfishness. All care
+for the public weal became extinct; men's hearts were insensible to all
+generous sympathy; their minds dead to every elevating impulse--like to
+those aromatics which, after diffusing both glow and perfume from their
+ardent brazier, lose by combustion all power of further rekindling, and
+present nothing else than vile ashes, without heat, light, or odour.
+
+The peace concluded between the Minister and the Fronde was destined to
+be of short duration. It was, properly speaking, nothing but a
+suspension of arms, and in no degree a suspension of intrigues and
+cabals. That suspension of arms, however, had been accompanied by an
+amnesty, including all persons except the Coadjutor. The other chief
+personages who had played a part in the insurrection of Paris, and who
+now proceeded to visit the Court, were by no means warmly received by
+the Queen, though Mazarin himself displayed nothing but mildness and
+humility. The Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde visited the city;
+and the first was received with much enthusiasm by the populace, who
+attributed to his counsels the truce of which all parties had stood so
+much in need. The Prince de Conde, whose warlike spirit had not only
+aided in stirring up the strife at first, but would have protracted it
+still further had his advice been listened to, was not looked upon with
+the same favour by the Parisians; but the Parliament sent deputations to
+them both on their arrival in the city, to compliment them on their
+efforts for the restoration of peace.
+
+During Conde's visit to Paris, a reconciliation took place between him
+and his fair sister, the Duchess de Longueville. The violent language he
+had used to her on various occasions, the imputations he had cast upon
+her character, and the harsh nature of the advice which he had given to
+her husband concerning her, were all forgotten, and she resumed her
+ascendancy over his mind so completely as in a very short time to detach
+him entirely from the side of Mazarin, and to lead him, before he
+quitted Paris, to speak publicly of the Minister in the scornful and
+contemptuous manner in which he was usually treated by the leaders of
+the Fronde.
+
+The Duchess de Longueville herself remained as strongly opposed to the
+Cardinal as ever. But though she still retained towards Anne of Austria
+that dislike which she had always felt, and which the sense of an
+inferiority of station greatly augmented in a woman of a haughty and
+ambitious character, she found herself obliged, in common propriety, to
+appear at Court on the conclusion of the Siege of Paris. The first
+visits of her husband and herself, after the insurrection, were rendered
+remarkable by the extraordinary degree of embarrassment and timidity
+shown by two such bold and fearless persons. The Duke de Longueville
+arrived first, coming from Normandy; and was followed by a very numerous
+and splendid train, as though he rested for mental support upon the
+number of his retainers. The Queen received him in the midst of her
+Court, with Mazarin standing beside her; and every one crowded round to
+hear what excuses the Duke would offer for abandoning the royal family
+at the moment of their greatest need. Longueville, however, approached
+the Regent with a troubled and embarrassed air, attempted to speak,
+became first deadly pale, and then as red as fire, but could not utter a
+word. He then turned and bowed to Mazarin, who came forward, spoke to
+him, and led him to a window, where they conversed for some time
+together in private; after which they visited each other frequently, and
+became apparent friends.
+
+The reception of the proud and beautiful Duchess at St. Germain, though
+not so public, was not less embarrassing. The Queen had lain down on her
+bed when the Duchess was announced, and, as was customary in those days,
+received her in that situation. Madame de Longueville was naturally very
+apt to blush, and the frequent variation of her complexion added
+greatly, we are told, to the dazzling character of her beauty. Her
+blushes, however, on approaching the Queen, became painful; all that she
+could utter was a few confused sentences, of which the Queen could not
+understand a word, and those were pronounced in so low a tone that
+Madame de Motteville, who listened attentively, could distinguish
+nothing but the word _Madame_.
+
+As there was no sincerity in these reconciliations, it is not surprising
+to find that ere long the conduct of the Prince de Conde gave no slight
+uneasiness to Mazarin. The Prince had, however, brought back the Court
+to Paris; but from that very day he had shown a great change in his
+attitude, and it is to the influence of La Rochefoucauld that such
+change must be attributed. At that moment, in fact, the Sieur Conde had
+become reconciled with every member of his family, and even with his
+sister's lover. He drew closer also the links between himself and the
+Duke d'Orleans, for whom he shewed great deference, say his
+contemporaries, and he began to treat Mazarin with much indifference,
+rallying him publicly, and declaring aloud that he regretted to have
+maintained him in a post of which he was so little worthy. Enjoying a
+great military reputation, feared and esteemed by the bulk of his
+countrymen, he chafed at seeing himself compromised by the unpopularity
+of the Cardinal. He thought that by drawing closer to the _Frondeurs_,
+he should rid himself of the feeling that oppressed him. In the outset,
+he had no idea of actively joining that faction, but his sister did the
+rest, and hurried him on to become the enemy of that party of which he
+had just been the saviour.
+
+It is true that, for the memorable service which he had recently
+rendered, Conde reaped scarcely any benefit; but his noble conduct
+increased the splendour of his last campaign of 1648. It added to his
+military titles those of defender and saviour of the throne, of
+pacificator of the realm, of arbiter and enlightened conciliator of
+parties. It gave the climax to his credit and to his glory.
+Nevertheless, he did not lose sight of the jealous feeling to which
+such claims gave birth, whether on the part of the Duke d'Orleans or the
+Prime Minister; and he well knew that he was exposed to one of those
+_coups d'etat_, the necessity of which the Chancellor as well as himself
+had urged at Rueil. He considered himself as the head of the nobility,
+and that important body seemed to constitute all the military power of
+the State. But the French nobility was just beginning to lose its former
+independence of character in becoming more courtierlike. Instead of
+deriving from its strongholds and vassals the feeling of its strength
+and equality, it showed itself ambitious of such distinctions as the
+monarch could confer. In the indulgence of its vanity it lost sight of
+its proper pride; and if that new emulation which the Bourbons had
+excited was more easy for the sovereign to satisfy, it was more
+difficult for the chief of a party to direct. Moreover, Conde, as the
+Duchess de Nemours remarks, knew better how to win battles than
+hearts.[1] He found a dangerous pleasure, as did his sister the Duchess
+de Longueville, in braving malevolence. "In matters of consequence, they
+delighted to thwart people, and in ordinary life they were so
+impracticable that there was no getting on with them. They had such a
+habit of ridiculing one, and of saying offensive things, that nobody
+could put up with them. When visits were paid to them, they allowed such
+a scornful ennui to be visible, and showed so openly that their visitors
+bored them, that it was not difficult to understand that they did
+everything in their power to get rid of their company. Whatsoever might
+be the rank or quality of the visitors, people were made to wait any
+length of time in the Prince's antechamber; and very often, after having
+long waited, everybody was sent away without getting an interview,
+however short. When they were displeased they pushed people to the
+utmost extremity, and they were incapable of showing any gratitude for
+services done them. Thus they were alike hated by the Court, by the
+Fronde, and by the populace, and nobody could live with them long. All
+France impatiently suffered their irritating conduct, and especially
+their pride, which was excessive."[2]
+
+    [1] Duchesse de Nemours, tom., xxxiv. p. 437.
+
+    [2] The Duchess de Nemours was a daughter of the Duke de
+    Longueville, by his first wife, and as she lived with her
+    step-mother, the Duchess de Longueville, on very indifferent terms,
+    her unsparing censure must by no means be implicitly received.
+
+In looking at the faulty side of Conde's character, we must not forget
+to observe the disinterested firmness with which, without considering
+either his family or his friends, he had hitherto acted in the interests
+of the King. Happy would it have been, if, after having thus terminated
+this sad civil war, he had quitted the Court and its intrigues to seek
+other battlefields, and to finish another war somewhat more useful and
+glorious to France--that which still remained with Spain! Happy, also
+for Madame de Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, in her last
+interview with the Queen, and by the shameful _denouement_ of the
+miserable intrigues of which she had the secret, instead of still
+serving as their instrument, she had shown her courage in resisting
+them. Happy too, if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just
+given to La Rochefoucauld, she had firmly represented to him that, even
+for his own interest, a different course was necessary; that it would be
+better to look for fortune and honours by rendering himself esteemed
+than by trying to make himself feared; that ambition as well as duty
+showed his place to be by the side of Conde, in the service of the
+State and of the King; that it was easy for him to obtain in the army
+some post where he would simply have to march forward and do his duty,
+trusting to his courage and his other merits!
+
+But even if Anne de Bourbon had been wise enough to speak thus to La
+Rochefoucauld, she would not have succeeded in gaining his ear. His
+restless spirit, his ever-discontented vanity, pursuing by turns the
+most dissimilar objects, because it selected none within its reach--that
+_undefinable something_ which, as De Retz says, was in La Rochefoucauld,
+made him abandon the high and direct roads, and led him into by-paths
+full of pitfalls and precipices. Through such perilous ways we shall see
+the infatuated woman following and aiding him in his extravagant and
+guilty designs. Receiving the law instead of giving it, she strives to
+promote the passion of another by devoting to his service all her
+coquetry as well as greatness of soul, her penetration and intrepidity,
+her attractive sweetness and indomitable energy. She undertakes to
+mislead Conde, to rob France of the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, and
+to give him to Spain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE _COUP D'ETAT_--THE ARREST OF THE PRINCES.
+
+
+IN the first scenes of the shifting drama, the Court had supported Conde
+in compassing the destruction of the Frondeurs; and Mazarin, with keen
+policy, instigated the Prince to every act that could widen the breach
+between him and the faction. Whichever succeeded, the party that
+succumbed would be inimical to the Minister; and in their divisions was
+his strength. But the pride and impetuosity of Conde were about this
+time excited to such a degree by opposition and irritation, that it
+approached to frenzy, and, unable to overpower at once the leaders of
+the Fronde, the vehemence of his nature spent itself upon those who were
+in reality supporting him. He still scoffed at, and openly insulted,
+Mazarin; he accused the Government of not giving him sincere assistance
+against the Fronde. He every day made enemies amongst the nobility by
+his overbearing conduct and his rash, and often illegal, acts; and at
+length the disgust and indignation of the whole Court was roused to put
+a stop to a tyranny which could no longer be borne.
+
+Anne of Austria long hesitated as to what she should do to deliver
+herself from the domination of a man whom she feared without loving: but
+at length an aggravated insult to herself, and the counsels of a woman
+of a bold and daring character, removed her irresolution. The Duchess
+de Chevreuse had been exiled from France, as we have seen, during the
+greater part of that period in which Conde had principally distinguished
+himself, and she did not share in the awe in which the Parisians held
+him. She still kept up what De Retz calls an incomprehensible union with
+the Queen, notwithstanding all her intrigues; nor did she scruple to
+hold out to Anne of Austria a direct prospect of gaining the support of
+the Fronde itself in favour of her Government, if that Government would
+aid in avenging the Fronde upon the Prince de Conde.
+
+Anne of Austria was unwilling to take a step which appeared to border
+upon ingratitude, although the late conduct of the Prince might well be
+supposed to cancel the obligation of his former services. It seems here
+necessary to say a few words upon the connection of a series of sudden
+political changes, in order that the reader may understand how such
+startling results as those we are about to narrate were brought about.
+
+The hollow treaty of peace of the 11th March, 1649, had scarcely been
+signed ere the Prince de Conde showed himself day by day more strongly
+attached to the faction which opposed the Court. Feeling his own
+importance, determined to rule; quick, harsh, and impetuous in his
+manners, he took a pleasure in insulting the Minister and embarrassing
+the Queen. There were some personal grounds for this in the strong
+dislike manifested towards his sister by Anne of Austria. That feeling
+was signally shown on the occasion of Louis XIV. completing his eleventh
+year; when a grand ball was given at the Hotel de Ville, at which the
+young King, with all the principal members of the royal family and the
+Court, were present. The Queen's orders were received with regard to all
+the arrangements, every person of distinction being invited by her
+command, except the Duchess de Longueville. That princess, influenced by
+discontent, it is supposed, at the reception of the royal family in
+Paris, had remained at Chantilly, on the pretence of drinking some
+mineral waters in the neighbourhood. The Queen seized the same pretext
+not to invite her, replying to those who pressed her to do so, that she
+would not withdraw her from the pursuit of health; but at length the
+Prince de Conde himself, demanded that she should receive a summons; and
+his support was of too much consequence, and the bonds which attached
+him to the Court too slight, for the Queen to trifle with his request.
+
+To the surprise and dissatisfaction of most persons, however, Anne of
+Austria commanded that the ball should take place in daylight;
+acknowledging, in her own immediate circle, that it was in order to
+mortify the ladies attached to the Fronde, the principal part of whom
+employed methods of enhancing their beauty and heightening their
+complexion to which the searching eye of day was very inimical. Human
+malice, of course, took care that the Queen's motive should be
+communicated to all the higher circles of Paris; and as vanity is not
+only a more pugnacious passion, but a much more pertinacious adversary
+than any other, the words of Anne of Austria rendered many opponents
+irreconcilable, who might otherwise have been gained to her cause: the
+family of the Prince de Conde naturally being among the number.
+
+France was then able to count the cost of having created a
+hero--_expendere Hannibalem_--a prince _a la Corneille_, who carried his
+gaze to the stars, and only spoke to mortals from the summit of his
+trophies. His sister, Madame de Longueville, had also in the same
+fashion soared into the sphere of a goddess. The one and the other, in
+the empyrean, no longer distinguished their fellow mortals from such a
+height save with a smile of disdain. Great folks, as a contemporary
+tells us, kicked their heels in their antechambers for hours, and, when
+granted an audience, were received with yawning and gaping.
+
+The reconciliation effected during the preceding year was rather, as has
+been said, a truce between the parties than a solid peace. The
+Parliament had retained the right of assembling and deliberating upon
+affairs of state, which the Court had sought to prevent: and Mazarin
+remained Minister, although the Parliament, the people, and even the
+princes, had desired that he should cease to hold that office. It rarely
+happens to states in like unfortunate emergencies that among the men who
+show themselves most active and skilful in overthrowing a government
+there are found those capable of conducting one; and when such do
+appear, the chances almost always are that circumstances hinder them
+from placing themselves in the front rank. It was to Gaston, the King's
+uncle, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, that belonged, in concert with
+the Regent, the chief direction of affairs; but Gaston felt himself too
+weak and too incapable to pretend to charge himself with such a burden.
+He could never arrive at any decision, and took offence when any matter
+was decided without him. Jealous of Mazarin's influence, more jealous
+still of that of Conde, neither of the two could attempt to govern along
+with him; and nevertheless Gaston was powerful enough to command a
+party, and to hinder any one from governing without him: ready to offer
+opposition to everything, but impotent to carry anything into execution.
+If Anne of Austria had even consented to dismiss her favourite
+Minister, and overcome her repugnance to the Fronde and the Frondeurs,
+she could not have formed a government with the chiefs of that party.
+The Duke de Beaufort, its nominal head, lacked both instruction and
+intelligence. De Retz, its veritable chief--an eloquent, witty, and bold
+man, skilful in the conduct of business, in the art of making partisans;
+brave, generous, even loyal when he followed the impulses of his own
+mind and natural inclination--was without faith, scruple, reticence, or
+foresight when he abandoned himself to his passions, which urged him
+unceasingly to the indulgence of an excessive and irrational
+libertinage. Such a man could not have replaced him who for so long a
+period had informed himself of the affairs of France under a master such
+as Richelieu; who, deeply versed in dissimulation, was inaccessible to
+any sentiment that might possibly derange the calculations of his
+ambition. Besides, he, as well as Mazarin, would have had the Princes
+against him, and could not have resisted successfully their numerous
+partisans. De Retz had, through the ascendancy of his talents, great
+influence with the Parisian Parliament, but it mistrusted him; and that
+body, in its heterogeneous composition, offered rather the means for an
+opposition than strength to the Government. Conde, to whom the state
+owed its glory, and the Sovereign his safety, was therefore the sole
+prop upon which Anne of Austria might have rested; but that young hero
+had no capacity for business. He could not then have filled up the void
+which Mazarin's retirement would have created. Conde, whose natural
+pride was still further exalted by the flattery of the young nobles who
+formed his train, and who obtained the nickname of _petits maitres_,
+only used the influence which his position gave him to wring from
+Mazarin the places and good things at his disposal, and of these he and
+his adherents showed themselves insatiable. Thus, Conde rendered himself
+formidable and odious to Mazarin, and made himself detested by the
+people as Mazarin's supporter, at the same time that by his arrogance he
+shocked the Parliament, already unfavourably disposed towards him on
+account of his rapacity and his ambition.[1]
+
+    [1] Talon, mem. t. lxii. pp. 65-105.--Montpensier.
+
+Such was the state of things, when the singular circumstances which
+attended the murder of one of Conde's domestics made that prince believe
+that the chiefs of the Fronde had conspired to assassinate him. He
+thought, by such a crime, to have found an opportunity for crushing that
+faction in the persons of its chiefs, and he instituted a process in
+parliament against the contrivers of that murder. Public report
+particularly pointed to two persons, De Retz and Beaufort; and Conde, by
+his accusation, hoped to force them to quit Paris, where they found
+their principal means of influence in the populace. But in attacking
+thus, as it were, face to face, the two most popular men of the moment,
+Conde showed no better tact than in dealing with the Prime Minister. He
+conducted himself with so much haughtiness and arrogance, that the young
+nobles who surrounded the soldier prince, when they wished to flatter
+him, spoke of Mazarin as his slave.[2]
+
+    [2] Motteville, mem. t. xxxix. p. 4.--Guy-Joly.
+
+The process went on nevertheless. Almost all the judges were convinced
+of the innocence of the accused, but Conde pretended that they could not
+be absolved without giving a deadly affront to himself. He demanded that
+at the very least the Coadjutor and Beaufort should be made to quit
+Paris under some honourable pretext, and the Princess-Dowager de Conde
+declared that it was the height of insolence in them to remain in the
+capital when it was her son's wish that they should leave it. The Queen,
+who equally detested the Prince de Conde and the Frondeurs, could
+scarcely conceal her joy at seeing them at daggers drawn with each
+other; feeling certain that the moment was at hand when their
+dissensions would restore her supremacy.
+
+Under such circumstances Conde had need of all his friends, but he
+considered that he was set at defiance, and he gave way all the more to
+his wonted pride and overbearing obstinacy. He seemed to take pleasure
+in offending Anne of Austria and Mazarin. The young Duke de Richelieu
+had been declared heir to an immense fortune, of which his aunt and
+guardian, the Duchess d'Aiguillon, was the depositary. The stronghold of
+Havre de Grace, which the Cardinal de Richelieu had formerly held as a
+place of retreat, was by such title in the possession of the Duchess
+d'Aiguillon. Conde desired to be master of it, either for himself or for
+his brother-in-law, the Duke de Longueville. The young Duke de Richelieu
+was engaged to be married to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but the Prince
+having remarked that he had some liking for Madame de Pons, a sister of
+his own first love, managed to marry him clandestinely to her in the
+Chateau de Trye, lent him two thousand pistoles until he should be of
+age to enter upon possession of his property, and made him take
+possession of Havre de Grace. The Queen was mortally offended at such a
+proceeding on the part of Conde, who had moreover threatened to throw
+into the sea those she might send to Havre to seize the fortress; but
+the Duchess d'Aiguillon's resentment was still deeper and more active.
+She was the first to tell Anne of Austria, that she would never be queen
+again until she had had the Prince de Conde arrested, assuring her that
+all the Frondeurs would lend their hands to aid her in carrying out such
+a resolution.
+
+Almost at this moment, a gentleman named Jarze, attached to Conde,
+foolishly took it into his head that the Queen entertained a liking for
+him, and it reached her ears that Conde and his friends had amused
+themselves whilst at table over their wine with Jarze's revelations of
+his amour with her, and that he had begun to feel certain of getting rid
+of Mazarin by that means. Mazarin himself probably became somewhat
+alarmed, as he spoke pointedly to the Queen on the subject, who
+pretended only to have contemplated the ridiculous side of her new
+adorer's gallantries. But when Jarze next made his appearance in her
+cabinet, she rated him roundly before the whole Court upon his absurd
+fatuity, and forbade him ever to enter her presence again. The Prince de
+Conde, pretending to feel hurt at the affront put upon Jarze, early next
+morning paid the Prime Minister a visit, and insolently demanded that
+Jarze should be received that very evening by the Queen. Anne of Austria
+submitted to his dictation, but could not endure such humiliation
+without seeking to avenge herself. In a woman's heart every other
+species of resentment yields to that of wounded pride. A few lines
+addressed to the Coadjutor in the Queen's own handwriting, and carried
+by Madame de Chevreuse, brought to her side that wily priest and
+formidable tribune, disguised _en cavalier_. Certain negotiations,
+however, which had preceded this interview, had reached the ears of
+Conde, who went to Mazarin to denounce the treachery. The Cardinal,
+glowing with a hatred which would have stopped at nothing for its
+gratification, laughed and jested, or flattered and soothed the object
+of his concealed wrath. He turned the Archbishop of Corinth into
+ridicule when Conde blamed him for his duplicity. "If I catch him," said
+the Cardinal, "in the disguise you speak of--in his feathered hat, and
+cloak, and military boots--I will get a sight of him for your Highness;"
+and they roared at the idea of discovering the intriguer in so unfitting
+an apparel. But shortly afterwards in the wintry gloom of a January
+midnight (1650), disguised beyond the reach of detection, and guarded by
+a passport from the Cardinal himself, De Retz was admitted at midnight
+by a secret door into the Regent's room at the Palais Royal, and deep
+conference was held between the two. The conditions of agreement were
+readily stipulated. The Coadjutor with an inconceivable address and most
+extraordinary success handled the threads of the intrigues consequent
+upon such agreement. He succeeded in making himself the confidant of
+Gaston; he made him renounce his favourite, the Abbe de la Riviere; he
+engaged him in the coalition which had been just set on foot between the
+Court and the Fronde, and he obtained his assent to the arrest of the
+Princes. Everything succeeded that was agreed upon. The Queen-Regent, at
+the moment of a council being held at the Palais-Royal, gave the fatal
+order, and then withdrew into her oratory. There she made the young King
+kneel down beside her in order to invoke Heaven in concert with herself
+to obtain the happy achievement of an act of tyranny which was destined
+to produce fresh woes to the realm, and to rekindle in it the flames of
+civil war.
+
+On the morrow of the 18th of January, 1650, all Paris was electrified at
+the news of the arrest of the three Princes--Conde, Conti, and
+Longueville. That bold _coup d'etat_ was effected very easily and
+unceremoniously. The Princes went voluntarily, as it were, into the
+mouse-trap, by attending a great council at the Palais Royal. Anne had
+obtained from Conde an order for the seizure and detention of three or
+four persons whose names were left in blank; and on the authority of his
+own signature, the hero of Rocroy and the other two princes, were led
+quietly down a back stair, given over to the custody of a small escort
+of twenty men under the command of Guitaut and Comminges, and by them
+conducted during the night to Vincennes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE'S ADVENTURES IN NORMANDY. THE WOMEN'S WAR.
+
+
+THE heroes having thus suddenly disappeared from the scene, the
+political stage was left clear for the performance of the heroines. We
+are now about to see the women, almost by themselves, carry on the civil
+war, govern, intrigue, fight. A great experience for human nature, a
+fine historical opportunity for observing that gallant transfer of all
+power from the one sex to the other--the men lagging behind, led,
+directed, in the second or third ranks. But those women of rank, young,
+beautiful, brilliant, and for the most part gallant, were doubtless more
+formidable to the minister at this juncture than the men. The two lovely
+duchesses, De Longueville and De Bouillon, having shown during the
+preceding year of what they were capable; the Queen therefore gave
+orders for their arrest. The wary lover of the fascinating politician
+who had lately begun to scatter her blandishments equally upon all--La
+Rochefoucauld--having been apprised by the captain of his quarter that
+some blow was meditated by Mazarin, had sent twice to warn the Princes
+through the Marquis de la Moussaye, but who, as it appears, failed to
+acquit himself of that important mission. But if La Rochefoucauld's
+warning failed to reach the ears of the Princes, he was more fortunate
+in effecting the escape of Madame de Longueville. Whilst they were
+seeking to arrest him as well as La Moussaye, the Queen despatched a
+note to the Duchess by the Secretary of State, La Vrilliere, begging her
+to come to the Palais Royal. Instead of going thither she went direct to
+the Hotel of the Princess Palatine--like herself beautiful, gallant, and
+intriguing, but endowed with a superior intellect. This lady speedily
+became the head and mainspring of the princes' party--or of the _second_
+Fronde, and the Coadjutor, who directed the Old Fronde, was fain to
+recognise in her a worthy rival, and his equal in political sagacity.
+Fearing to be discovered if she remained under the roof of the princess,
+a carriage was procured, and the duchess driven in it by La
+Rochefoucauld himself to an obscure house in the Faubourg St. Germain,
+where they remained until nightfall in a cellar. Thence the Duchess and
+her lover set out for Normandy on horseback under the escort of forty
+determined men provided by the Princess Palatine. Brave and resolute as
+her brother, the sister of Conde rode northwards through that entire
+winter's night and the following day, and sought no shelter until worn
+out with excessive fatigue she reached Rouen. But the commandant, the
+Marquis de Beuvron, although an old friend of the duke, declared he
+could not serve her, and refused to raise the banner of revolt in that
+stronghold of her husband's government. Her attempt at Rouen thus
+receiving a complete check, she had some hope of being received into the
+citadel of Havre, but the Duchess de Richelieu, though her friend, was
+not so much mistress there as the Duchess d'Aiguillon, who, on the
+contrary, was full of resentment against her. Discouraged and repulsed
+on all hands, the fugitive Duchess next made her way to Dieppe, where
+she thought herself in sufficient safety to part with La Rochefoucauld,
+who left her to assist the Duke de Bouillon to raise troops in
+Angoumois. In the fortress of Dieppe, commanded by a faithful officer of
+her husband, Madame de Longueville found the rest she so much needed. In
+a brief space, with spirits recruited, she resolved to make a stand to
+the uttermost against the Queen and Mazarin, and having replaced the
+royal standard by that of Conde set about putting the citadel in a state
+of defence to resist a siege. The Queen, however, having resolved not to
+give the Duchess time to raise her husband's government of Normandy into
+revolt, on the 1st of February quitted Paris for Rouen. The band of
+gentlemen who had gathered round the beautiful Frondeuse thereupon
+melted away, and Mademoiselle de Longueville, her step-daughter,
+afterwards Duchess de Nemours, quitted her to take refuge in a convent.
+As Montigny, the commandant at Dieppe, declared that it was impossible
+to hold the fortress, the Duchess left the place by a secret portal,
+followed by her women and some few gentlemen. She held her way for two
+leagues on foot along the coast to the little port of Tourville, in
+order to reach a small vessel which she had prudently hired in case of
+need. On reaching the point of embarkation the sea was breaking so
+furiously in surf on shore, the tide being so strong and the wind so
+high, that Madame de Longueville's followers entreated her not to
+attempt to reach the vessel. But the Duchess, dreading less the angry
+waves than the chance of falling into the Regent's power, persisted in
+going to sea. As the state of the tide and weather rendered it
+impossible for a boat to get near the shore, a sailor took her in his
+arms to carry her on board, but had not waded above twenty paces when a
+huge roller carried him off his feet, and he fell with his fair burden.
+For an instant the poor lady believed that she was lost, as in falling
+the sailor lost his hold of her and she sank into deep water. On being
+rescued, however, she expressed her resolve to reach the vessel, but the
+sailors refusing to make another attempt, she found herself compelled to
+resort to some other means of escape. Horses being luckily procured, the
+Duchess mounted _en croupe_ behind one of the gentlemen of her suite,
+and riding all night and part of the following day, the fugitives met
+with a hospitable reception from a nobleman of Caux, in whose little
+manor-house they found rest, refection, and concealment for the space of
+a week.
+
+The Duchess's tumble into the sea, though a disagreeable, turned out to
+have been a lucky accident, for she now learnt that the master of the
+vessel she had been so anxious to reach was in the interest of Mazarin,
+and had she gone on board she would have been arrested. At length Madame
+de Longueville found herself once more in Havre, and having won over the
+captain of an English ship to whom she introduced herself--like Madame
+de Chevreuse--in male attire, as a nobleman who had just been engaged in
+a duel, and was obliged to leave France, she succeeded in obtaining a
+passage to Rotterdam. Thence, passing through Flanders, she reached the
+stronghold of Stenay,[1] where the Viscomte de Turenne, already
+compromised with the Court for having openly espoused the Conde party,
+had shortly before the Duchess's arrival also taken refuge.
+
+    [1] Stenay, taken from the Spaniards in 1641, had been given to the
+    Prince de Conde in 1646.
+
+It was then that the Duchess, who, under the sway of La Rochefoucauld,
+had been one of the instruments of the first Fronde war, became the
+motive power of the second and far more serious one--well named by the
+witty Parisians "the women's war." From the citadel of Stenay, of which
+she took the command, she directed the wills and actions of the men of
+her party, into which she thoroughly won over Turenne. Her
+importunities, aided by her charms, prevailed so powerfully over his
+valiant though fallible heart, that the illustrious captain, after
+having struggled painfully for some time with his conscience, allied
+himself with the Spaniards by a treaty which placed him, as well as the
+sister of the great Conde, in the pay of the enemies of his king and
+country. The treaty effectively stipulated "that there should be a
+junction of the two armies, and that the war should be carried on by the
+assistance of the King of Spain until a peace should be concluded
+between the two kings and the princes liberated. That the King of Spain
+should engage to pay over to Madame de Longueville and to Monsieur de
+Turenne two hundred thousand crowns wherewith to raise and equip troops;
+that he should furnish them with forty thousand crowns per month for the
+payment of such troops, and sixty thousand crowns per annum in three
+payments for _the table and equipages_ of Madame de Longueville and
+Monsieur de Turenne." This treaty duly signed, Madame de Longueville
+issued, in the form of a letter to his Majesty the King of France, a
+manifesto very skilfully drawn up and filled with artful complaints and
+accusations against Mazarin, with the design of soliciting through the
+one and the other an apology for her own conduct, as though it were
+possible to justify herself for having entered into a compact with the
+enemies of her country.
+
+It was during her sojourn at Stenay that she lost her mother (2nd
+December, 1650). "My dear friend," said the Princess de Conde to Madame
+de Brienne, who was with her during her last moments, "tell that 'pauvre
+miserable' who is now at Stenay the condition in which you have seen me,
+that she may learn how to die."
+
+During the whole of this period, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld gave
+constant proof of a rare fidelity. M. Cousin speaks very precisely on
+this head. "Whilst Madame de Longueville was pledging her diamonds in
+Holland for the defence of Stenay, La Rochefoucauld expended his fortune
+in Guienne. It was the most grievous and, at the same time, the most
+touching moment of their lives and their adventures. They were far away
+from each other, but they still fondly loved; they served with equal
+ardour the same cause, they fought and suffered equally and at the same
+time." Abundant proofs might be instanced of this love and devotion on
+their part. La Rochefoucauld wrote unceasingly to Stenay, and gave an
+account of everything he did. "The sole aim, then, of all the Duke's
+exertions," says Lenet, "was to please that beautiful princess, and he
+took endless care and pleasure to acquaint her with all he did for her,
+and to deliver the princess her sister-in-law (Conde's wife), by
+despatching couriers to her on the subject." He informs us moreover
+that, "in every juncture, he forwarded expresses to render account to
+the Duchess of all that respect for her made him undertake. At this
+moment, in fact, having just succeeded to his patrimonial estates
+through the death of his father, La Rochefoucauld recognised no obstacle
+in his path, but bravely went forward in the cause he had espoused and
+generously sacrificed his property in Angoumois and Saintonge. His
+ancestral chateau of Verteuil was even razed to the ground by Mazarin's
+orders, and when the tidings of it reached him, he received them with
+such great firmness", says Lenet, "that he seemed as though he were
+delighted, through a feeling that it would inspire confidence in the
+minds of the Bordelais. It was further said that what gave him the
+liveliest pleasure was to let the Duchess de Longueville see that he
+hazarded everything in her service." It cannot be denied, in fine, that
+the Duke at that time yielded himself up to a sentiment as deep as it
+was sincere, and which contradicts very happily and without any possible
+doubt the assertion so often hazarded that he had never loved the woman
+whom he had seduced and dragged into the vortex of politics. Madame de
+Longueville and he adored each other at this period, says M. Cousin, and
+it is pleasant to be able to cite the opinion of that eminent historian
+upon such fact; although separated by the entire length of France, they
+suffered and struggled each for the other: they had the same aim, the
+same faith, the same hope. They wrote incessantly to communicate their
+thoughts and projects, and thus sought to diminish in imagination the
+enormous distance which is between Stenay and Bordeaux.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE PRINCESS PALATINE.
+
+
+THE arrest of the Princes had singularly complicated events on the
+political stage. It had displaced all interests, and, instead of
+re-uniting parties and consolidating them, it had the effect of
+increasing their number. No fewer than five might be counted,
+represented by as many principal leaders, around which were grouped
+every species of interest and every shade of ambition.
+
+In the first place there was the party of Mazarin, alone against all the
+rest. This party had for support the ability of its chief, the
+invincible predilection, the unshakeable firmness of Anne of Austria,
+and the name of the King. Herein lay its whole strength, but that
+strength was immense. It was that which ensured the obedience of the
+enlightened and conscientious men who had great influence over the army
+and the magistrature. These men adhered to the Prime Minister through a
+sentiment of honour, and in consequence of their monarchical principles.
+Amidst the disruption of parties, they recognised no other legitimate
+authority than that of the Queen Regent; but they desired as strongly,
+perhaps, as those of the opposite parties, that Mazarin should be got
+rid of. That odious foreigner exposed them all to the public animosity
+which pursued himself. Anne of Austria frequently employed the artifices
+of her sex to avert their opposition in council, and calm their
+discontent.
+
+The party of the Princes, which the success of the enemies of France,
+during their captivity, rendered from day to day more popular and
+interesting, was composed of all the young nobility. Of its apparent
+chiefs, the one alone capable of directing it was the Duke de Bouillon.
+But to lead a party it is necessary to identify oneself with it, and
+devote oneself to it wholly; and the Duke de Bouillon had views
+peculiar, foreign, and even adverse to the interests of his party; and
+before such interest he placed that of the maintenance, or rather
+elevation, of his own house. The Duchess de Longueville, the Princess de
+Conde, La Rochefoucauld, and Turenne had neither sufficient finesse nor
+skill in intrigue to be able to direct that party and struggle
+successfully against Mazarin; but they were seconded by three men who,
+although obscure, displayed in these circumstances extraordinary talent.
+Lenet,[1] who never quitted the Princess de Conde throughout these
+troubles, but served her faithfully with his pen and advice. Montreuil,
+who, although he had never published anything, was a member of the
+French Academy and secretary to the Prince de Conde. He managed, with
+infinite address, and incessantly devising new means, to correspond with
+the Princes, and bring the vigilance of their keepers in default. And it
+was Gourville especially, who, after having worn the livery of the Duke
+de la Rochefoucauld as his valet, had become his man of business, his
+confidant, and friend. It was Gourville who, under a heavy expression of
+countenance, concealed a most subtle, most acute, and fertile
+intelligence. Persuasive, energetic, prompt, reflective; knowing how to
+gain an end by the direct road; or, under the eyes of those opposing,
+attaining it unperceived, by covert and tortuous ways. A man who never
+found himself in any situation, however desperate it might be, without
+having the confidence that he could extricate himself from it. Did the
+cleverest consider a position as lost? Gourville intervened, infused
+hope, promised to lend a hand to it, and success was immediately certain
+and defeat impossible.
+
+    [1] His memoirs give reliable details of all that relates to the
+    Condes at this period.
+
+Still Gourville was not, even on the score of ability, the foremost
+spirit of his party. The person who deserved that title was a woman--the
+celebrated Anne de Gonzagua, widow of Edward Prince Palatine. Through
+her proneness to gallantry, she did not escape the weakness of her sex;
+but through her imperturbable calmness in the midst of the most violent
+commotions, her elevated views, the depth of her designs, the accuracy
+and rapidity of her resolutions, and her skill in making everything
+conduce to a given end, she combined in its entire vigour the peculiar
+character of the statesman with the soul of a conspirator. She had been
+through life the intimate friend of the mother of Conde, and she now
+laboured with skill, wisdom, and perseverance for the liberation of the
+Princes. And such is the ascendency obtained by talent backed by an
+energetic will, that it was to her advice all the partisans of the
+Princes deferred; her hand that held the threads of their various
+intrigues. With her De Retz treated directly, and in the whole course of
+the negotiations she displayed a degree of penetration which baffled all
+the subtlety of the Coadjutor; and while she foiled his devices against
+herself, she directed them aright against their mutual opponents. By her
+activity and energy five or six separate treaties were drawn up and
+signed between the different personages whose interests were concerned,
+each in general ignorant of his comrade's participation.
+
+It would be presumptuous in any way to attempt, after Bossuet, a perfect
+portraiture of this lady, but it may be interesting to glance at the
+antecedents of her life up to this period.
+
+Charles de Gonzagua-Cleves, Duke of Mantua and Nevers, had, by his
+marriage with Catherine of Lorraine, three daughters: the oldest, Maria,
+whom he preferred to the others, or rather that his pride sought to
+elevate her alone to the highest destiny possible, was married
+successively to two Kings of Poland, Ladislas Sigismond and Jean
+Casimir. The second, Anne, who, as the Princess Palatine, became the
+political opponent of Mazarin; and the third, Benedicte, who took the
+veil and died whilst yet very young at the steps of the altar. It is the
+romantic, agitated, and changeful existence of the second with which we
+are concerned: passed in tumult and ended in silence. In it may be found
+the invaluable lesson of that admirable antithesis afforded by error and
+repentance. Bossuet, in his eloquent, fervent oration upon the life of
+that princess, was enabled to derive from a contemplation of it the
+highest instruction. He has therein retraced, with an imposing
+authority, the errors of a woman exclusively engrossed, during many
+years, with worldly interests and earthly vanities, and also made the
+emphatic denial that, in their last hours, such awakened minds but
+rarely give themselves up without profound anguish, fitful emotion, and
+mortal struggle to the contemplation of imperishable joys. Anne de
+Gonzagua experienced those extremes. She passed from incredulity and an
+irregular life to the most lively faith and exemplary conduct.
+Captivated in turn by earth and heaven, worldly and scorning the world,
+sceptical and fervent, she had long centred her pride and happiness in
+the political affairs of her epoch, until the day came when, wearied
+with ephemeral pleasures and touched by grace, she finally renounced the
+things of this life and gave herself wholly up to celestial meditation.
+
+In her earliest youth she had been placed in the convent of
+Faremoustier, where nothing was neglected that could tend to inspire her
+with a desire for cloister life. Her father, the Duke of Mantua, had
+determined that his two younger daughters, Anne and Benedicte, should
+help, by taking the veil, to augment the fortune of their elder sister.
+Benedicte submitted to her fate, but Anne soon perceived what her
+father's plan was, and in her indignation she resolved to defeat it.
+Unlike her younger sister, she had an adventurous spirit, an ardent
+imagination, a strong desire to play an active part in life. Even to
+withdraw from a mode of existence that was hateful to her, she made her
+escape from Faremoustier, and went to confide to her sister's bosom, in
+the convent of Avenai, her wrath, her _ennui_, and her hopes. For awhile
+it seemed as though conventual life was about to exercise a strange
+fascination over her. The discourse and example of her sister touched
+deeply the youthful heart which had proved rebellious to a parent's
+will. It seemed not improbable that she would yield to persuasion that
+which she had refused to compulsion. But her destiny determined
+otherwise. Events cast her upon another course; her imperfect vocation
+yielded quickly to their influence. She had been worked upon, in the
+solitude of the cloister, by that mysterious yearning for an encounter
+with those struggles which human passions involve, the experience of
+which can alone extinguish such yearning in certain souls. It was
+necessary that she should see the world, undergo its deceptions, and be
+wearied of it, in order to desire repose and be capable of appreciating
+the inestimable blessings of peace and silence and tranquillity.
+
+The Duke of Mantua dying in 1637, Anne was obliged to leave the cloister
+on business connected with the paternal succession, and appeared at
+Court with Marie, her elder sister. The turmoil of the world and its
+sensuous enjoyments speedily engrossed the young and lovely princess,
+involved her in their trammels, and only restored her to tranquillity
+and solitude after a lapse of many years; for at this time she also lost
+her sister, the youthful abbess of Avenai, and the last link which
+attached Anne to cloister life was severed by that death. An absorbing
+passion, too, was destined to confirm her relinquishment of such
+vocation. The youthful Henri de Guise was then one of the most brilliant
+gentlemen at the French Court. Grandson of the _Balafre_, his high birth
+fixed the eyes of all upon him, at the same time that his impetuous
+imagination, his profession, all the aristocratic follies of the
+day--remarkable duels, romantic loves, eccentricities, the adventures
+and elegant habits of the _grand seigneur_--had constituted him an
+oracle of fashion and the hero of every festival. He was fascinated by
+the grace and beauty of Anne de Gonzagua, and she herself, in the midst
+of that gallant Court which masked a real depravation under the thin
+varnish of an ingenious subtlety of expression,--she herself, a disciple
+of the Hotel de Rambouillet, where questions of sentiment were
+discussed, studied, and analysed incessantly, knew not how to resist the
+gilded accents of a young, handsome, and impassioned lover. She let him
+see that she loved him. He made her a promise of marriage, signed, it is
+said, with his blood; and the affair seemed to promise a happy
+conclusion. But their mutual inclination was thwarted by Madame de
+Guise. The Duchess thought that the high dignities of the Church would
+procure greater wealth, honour, and power for her son than he could
+obtain in any other career: Henri was then Archbishop of Rheims.
+Nevertheless, he persisted in his love for Mademoiselle de Gonzagua, and
+in his design of espousing her. The overtures which he made to the
+Vatican were not in vain. He received from the Pope, with the
+authorisation to again become a layman, a dispensation which his kinship
+to Anne rendered necessary for the celebration of their nuptials. But
+the lovers did not hasten to avail themselves of such privilege,
+apparently through dread of Richelieu, who was also opposed to their
+union. Perhaps that minister, from whom nothing secret was hidden--not
+even the unshaped designs of the ambitious,--already suspected Henri de
+Guise of being favourably disposed to the interests of Spain, as well as
+contrary to those of France. Anne and Henri, therefore, contented
+themselves with the possibility which the complaisance of the Holy
+Father had given them of contracting an indissoluble bond, and with the
+oath by which they reciprocally pledged their faith. Confiding in the
+honour of the Prince whom she so ardently loved, Anne consented to
+follow him, when he quitted France in order to escape from the espionage
+of Richelieu. Disguising herself in male attire, Anne rejoined her lover
+at Besancon, according to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, at Cologne
+according to other writers; where, as elsewhere, she caused herself to
+be called "Madame de Guise"--writing and speaking of her husband, and
+defying the assurances which were constantly advanced of the illegality
+of a marriage secretly performed by a canon of Rheims in the private
+chapel of the Hotel de Nevers. But what are promises, marriage vows, or
+even bonds written in blood?
+
+Henri not long after became unfaithful to the confiding Anne by eloping
+with a fair widow, the Countess de Bossut, whom he carried off to
+Brussels and ultimately married. Implicated in the conspiracy of the
+Count de Soissons, the turbulent churchman was present at the battle of
+Marfee, and consequently declared guilty of high treason. He therefore
+took up his abode in the Low Countries, where he quietly awaited the
+death of Louis XIII. and his minister, then both moribund, to resume his
+career at the Court of France.
+
+Thus abandoned by her volatile lover, and extremely compromised,
+Mademoiselle de Gonzagua returned to Paris, where she reassumed the
+appellation of the Princess Anne. Her grief for awhile at her
+abandonment was great, but happily for Anne de Gonzagua, she was
+possessed of youth, and, as Madame de Motteville tells us, "of beauty
+and great mental attractions." She had moreover sufficient address to
+obtain a great amount of esteem, in spite of her errors. In a few years'
+time, during which she took care to avoid fresh scandal, whatever she
+might have done "under the rose," she made a tolerably good marriage.
+Her husband, her senior by two years only, was Prince Edward, Count
+Palatine of the Rhine, son of a king without a kingdom,--the elector
+Frederick,[2] chosen King of Bohemia in 1619, but who lost his crown in
+1620, at the battle of Prague. Prince Edward, therefore, having no
+sovereignty, lived at the French Court. In 1645, then, Anne de Gonzagua
+found herself definitively settled at Paris, and it must be owned did
+not give Henri de Guise much cause to regret his faithlessness. The
+irregularities of the Princess Palatine became notorious, and assuredly
+Bossuet, in the funeral oration which he pronounced many years later, in
+the presence of one of her daughters and other relatives, whilst
+displaying a prodigal eloquence, and a mastery over all oratorical
+resource, made use of every artifice of speech, and all the elasticity
+of vague terms, in speaking of that period of her life without a
+violation of propriety, without disguising truths known to all, without
+exceeding either in blame or praise the limits imposed by good taste
+upon the reverend orator when he pronounces a panegyric upon those who
+not unfrequently have very little merited it.
+
+    [2] This unfortunate Prince had married, in 1613, Elizabeth,
+    daughter of James I. of England. The celebrated Prince Rupert and
+    Sophia, Electress of Hanover, were among the other children.
+
+During those stormy years of the civil wars, through her diplomatic
+talents, Anne de Gonzagua shone conspicuously in the front rank of
+female politicians. One can readily imagine what must have been, not in
+the first Fronde, all parliamentary as it was, but in the second,
+entirely aristocratic, in the Fronde of the Princes, the influence of a
+woman's mind at once so subtle and brilliant. It was then that Madame de
+Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, Madame de Longueville, and Mademoiselle
+de Montpensier, displayed upon the political stage the resources of
+their finesse, their dissimulation, or their courage. The Palatine did
+not fall below the level of those adventurous heroines. In the midst of
+those intrigues, of that puerile ambition, of those turnings and
+windings, perfidy, seduction, manoeuvring promises, of those
+negotiations in which Mazarin infused all his Italian cunning, the Queen
+her feminine impatience and her Spanish dissimulation, De Retz his
+genius of artist-conspirator, Conde his pride of the prince and the
+conqueror, Anne de Gonzagua handled political matters with a rare
+suppleness, humouring offended self-love, impatient ambition, haughty
+rivalries, acting as mediatrix with a wonderful amount of conciliatory
+tact, the friend of divers chiefs of parties, and meriting the
+confidence of all.
+
+It would be tedious to relate here her various negotiations, to go over
+her discourses, conversations, and numerous letters: it would involve a
+history of the Fronde, and that is not our subject. It will suffice to
+say that she obtained the esteem of all parties at a time when parties
+not only hated but strangely defied each other, and that she manifested
+a skill, a tact which Cardinal de Retz--a good judge of such
+matters--does not hesitate to praise with enthusiasm. "I do not think,"
+says he, "that Queen Elizabeth of England had more capacity for
+governing a state. I have seen her in faction, I have seen her in the
+cabinet, and I have found her in every respect equally sincere." This
+eulogium may be perhaps a little over-coloured. But Madame de
+Motteville, who also greatly admired the Palatine, probably approaches
+nearer to the truth. "This princess," she says, "like many other ladies,
+did not despise the conquests of her eyes, which were in truth very
+beautiful; but, besides that advantage, she had that which was of more
+value, I mean wit, address, capacity for conducting an intrigue, and a
+singular facility in finding expedients for succeeding in what she
+undertook." Thus spoke the Coadjutor and the Court of her. The
+parliamentary party, by the organ of the councillor Joly, confirms such
+panegyric: "She had so much intelligence, and a talent so peculiar for
+business, that no one in the world ever succeeded better than she did."
+The Princess Palatine's political dexterity cannot therefore be
+contested: the testimony of the most opposite camps are thereupon
+agreed, and it is certain that, without the least exaggeration, it may
+be said that no one at that epoch, save Mazarin, better understood the
+resources of diplomacy.
+
+It was especially after the arrest of the Princes that her zeal and
+intelligence found occasion to manifest themselves. Madame de
+Longueville, as has been said, instantly sought the aid of Anne de
+Gonzagua when she learned that her two brothers and her husband were
+prisoners. The news made her swoon, and her despair was afterwards
+pitiable. The Princess Palatine was touched by it, and promised to
+operate on behalf of the Princes. From that moment she became, without
+entering into faction and especially without failing in her duties
+towards a sovereign whom she loved, one of the most active friends of
+the prisoners. Meetings were held under her roof to deliberate upon that
+important affair, and, to compass her ends, she contrived to bring into
+play the most varied resources. She began by interesting in the Princes'
+destiny those even who might have been thought the most irreconcileable
+enemies to them. However difficult this work was of accomplishment, she
+reunited, as in a fasces, in a single will, personages widely separated
+upon other points, and surprised to find that they were pursuing the
+same object, for none of them knew the motives which influenced the
+actions of the rest. On this head, Bossuet says, with somewhat excessive
+laudation, she declared to the chiefs of parties how far she would bind
+herself, and she was believed to be incapable of either deceiving or
+being deceived. That is rather a hazardous assertion, for if she indeed
+aided in the liberation of the Princes, none of the promises she
+made--in all sincerity doubtless--became realised. But, says Bossuet
+further, and this time with more precision, "her peculiar
+characteristic was to conciliate opposite interests, and, in raising
+herself above them, to discover the secret point of junction and knot,
+as it were, by which they might be united." She had resolved to win over
+the Duke d'Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, De Retz, and the keeper of the
+seals, Chateauneuf. She therefore signed with them four different
+treaties. With the Duke d'Orleans she promised the hand of the young
+Duke d'Enghien in marriage to one of the Prince's daughters; to Madame
+de Chevreuse that of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse to the Prince de Conti;
+to De Retz, the cardinal's hat; to Chateauneuf, the post of prime
+minister. All consented to favour the princess's designs, and Mazarin,
+whom she could not convince, found himself surrounded by enemies whose
+union was formidable. That minister made allusion to the dread with
+which he was inspired when he remarked some years afterwards to Don
+Louis de Haro: "The most turbulent among the men does not give us so
+much trouble to keep him in check as the intrigues of a Duchess de
+Chevreuse or a Princess Palatine." In vain, according to his wont, did
+he again attempt to temporise. Anne de Gonzagua, who was ready to open
+fire with all her batteries, sought to terrify him by the perspective of
+a menacing future. "She caused him to be informed that he was lost if he
+did not determine upon giving the Princes their liberty, assuring him
+that if he did not do it promptly he would see, in a few days, the whole
+Court and every cabal banded against him, and that all aid would fail
+him." Mazarin, obstinate in his determination, and unwilling to believe
+that she had so thoroughly played her game as to hold in hand the
+threads of so many intrigues, begged her to defer the matter, asked time
+for reflection, and conducted himself in such a way in short that the
+princess saw clearly that he only wanted to gain time. She therefore
+hesitated no longer, but allowed those who were agitating impatiently
+around her to commence action.
+
+The party of the Princes had been dubbed by the name of the _New
+Fronde_. The old, although it had lost its energy by its union with the
+Court, preserved nevertheless its hatred to the prime minister. It was
+not in De Retz's power to neutralise wholly these hostile dispositions;
+but he could hinder them from being brought into dangerous activity. The
+Coadjutor at first with that view acted in good faith, and remained
+faithful in the first moments of the agreement which he had entered into
+with the Queen. Probably it might then have been possible to attach him
+finally to the Court party; but Mazarin could not believe that the
+Coadjutor, so fertile in tricks, so full of finesse, was capable of
+anything like frankness and generosity. In the practical experience of
+life, mistrust has its perils as well as blind confidence, and failure
+as often happens to us through our unwillingness to believe in virtue,
+as through our inability to suspect vice. Mazarin judged after himself a
+man who resembled him in many respects, but not in all. Moreover, he
+feared lest he might seek to win the Queen's affection from him; and
+that fear was not groundless. De Retz saw himself the object of the
+suspicions and afterwards of the machinations of a power which laboured
+at his destruction, whilst for that power he was compromising his
+influence and his popularity. To reacquire it, he hastened, therefore,
+to throw himself with all his adherents on the side of the Princes, and
+saw no safety but in their deliverance. This alliance of the two camps,
+so long enemies, was concluded between the Coadjutor and the Princess
+Palatine, and rendered so firm and secret by the confidence with which
+these two party chiefs inspired each other, that Mazarin, who
+unceasingly dreaded such a union, and who always suspected it, did not
+know it for certain until it revealed itself by its effects.[3]
+
+    [3] Motteville--Joly--Lenet.
+
+The parliament formed a fourth party. Not that that body was unanimous;
+but it had within itself an honourable majority which was alike inimical
+to the Frondeurs, the seditious, and the minister. The parliament
+therefore would have been disposed to unite itself to the Princes'
+party, and to lend it support; but to do so it would have been necessary
+that the chiefs of that party should renounce all alliance with the
+foreigner. Turenne and Madame de Longueville had joined with the
+Spaniards to fight against France. The young Princess de Conde, with the
+Dukes de Bouillon and de la Rochefoucauld, who had shut themselves up in
+Bordeaux, had entered into an alliance with them, and had received from
+them succour in the shape of money. The Spanish envoys in Paris
+conferred daily with the chiefs of the old as of the new Fronde.
+
+Gaston, who might have been the moderator of all these parties, formed
+by himself a fifth among them. His irresolution prevented him giving
+strength to any other of the factions, but he constituted a formidable
+obstacle to all the rest. His inclination, as well as his interest,
+should never have made him deviate from the Court party; yet he was
+always opposed to it. Impelled by his jealousy of Conde and of the prime
+minister, he acted in a manner contrary to his own wishes. He was,
+however, neither wanting in intelligence nor finesse, nor even a certain
+kind of eloquence; and the master-stroke of De Retz's address was to
+have contrived, in furtherance of the object of his designs, to set
+Gaston with the Fronde against the Princes, and afterwards for the
+Princes against Mazarin.
+
+The complication and the multiplicity of parties was as nothing in
+comparison to that of private interests, which so crossed each other and
+in so many different ways, which turned with such mobility, that, in the
+ignorance which prevailed of the secret motives of the principal actors
+in that drama so vivid, motley, and turbulent, nothing could be
+predicated of what they would do, and a looker-on might have been
+disposed at times to have pronounced them as insensates, who were rather
+their own enemies than those of their antagonists.
+
+If the libels of those times are to be credited, and especially the
+satire in verse for which the poet Marlet was sentenced to be hanged,
+the obstinacy with which the Queen exposed to danger her son's crown, by
+retaining a minister detested by all, would be naturally explained by a
+reason other than that of a reason of state. The advocate-general Talon,
+Madame de Motteville, and the Duchess de Nemours exculpate Anne of
+Austria on this head. They are three respectable and trustworthy
+witnesses; and, without any doubt, that which they said they thought.
+But the Duchess d'Orleans, Elizabeth-Charlotte, affirms in her
+correspondence[4] that Anne of Austria had secretly married Cardinal
+Mazarin, who was not a priest. She says that all the details of the
+marriage were known, and that, in her time, the back staircase in the
+Palais Royal was pointed out by which at night Mazarin reached the
+Queen's apartments. She observes that such clandestine marriages were
+common at that period, and cites that of the widow of our Charles the
+First, who secretly espoused her equerry, Jermyn. One might be disposed
+to think that the Duchess Elizabeth-Charlotte could have only followed
+some tradition, and that her assertions cannot counterbalance the
+statements of the contemporary personages above mentioned. But certain
+species of facts are often better known long after the death of the
+persons to whom they relate, than during their lifetime, or at a time
+close upon their decease; they are not entirely unveiled until there no
+longer exists any motive to keep them secret. Of the Queen's sentiments
+towards Mazarin there can be no doubt after reading a letter which she
+addressed to him under date of June 30, 1660, which is extant in
+autograph,[5] the avowal she made to Madame de Brienne in her
+oratory,[6] the confidences of Madame de Chevreuse to Cardinal de
+Retz.[7] Moreover, whatever may have been the motives of Anne of
+Austria's attachment to Mazarin, it is certain that they were
+all-powerful over her. She lent herself to every project formed by her
+minister for the increase of his power and fortune. The war in Bordeaux
+was kindled because Mazarin desired that one of his nieces should be
+united to the Duke de Candale, son of the Duke d'Epernon; and, in order
+not to let the Swiss soldiers march thither without their pay, when
+their aid was most necessary, Anne of Austria put her diamonds in
+pledge, and would not allow Mazarin to be answerable for the sum
+required to be disbursed.
+
+    [4] Mem. sur la Cour de Louis XIV. et de la Regence,
+    d'Elizabeth-Charlotte Duchesse d'Orleans, Mere du Regent. 1823,
+    p. 319.
+
+    [5] MS. Bibliotheque Nationale.
+
+    [6] Lomenie de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.
+
+    [7] Retz, Memoirs, edition 1836.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  THE YOUNG PRINCESS DE CONDE CONDUCTS THE WAR IN THE SOUTH.
+
+
+TO generous and feeling hearts, Conde's misfortune presented all the
+characteristics of a real romance. The majority of the women therefore
+who meddled with politics were, through sympathy, of his party. The
+glory of France under lock and key! The young hero arrested for treason,
+and prisoner to whom? The foreign Cardinal Mazarin. All the spoils of
+the Condes distributed amongst the _sbires_ of the favourite,--Normandy
+to Harcourt, Champagne to L'Hospital, &c. A monstrous alliance between
+King and people. The Queen keeping the Bastille in the hands of
+Broussel's son--the highest posts bestowed upon the magistrates--a
+reversal, in fact, of everything. Did not the French nobility rise to a
+man against such a state of things?
+
+No, everything was at a standstill. Neither Conde's military clients,
+nor his numerous seigniories, nor his governments took any active part
+whatsoever. Far from it, Madame de Longueville, as we have seen, who
+thought to raise Normandy, everywhere met with a repulse in that
+province. Neither Turenne nor she could do anything save by accepting
+aid from Spain, for which Madame de Bouillon was also doing her best in
+Paris.
+
+But whilst that lovely amazon, Conde's sister, was occupied in her
+endeavours to lure the hero of Stenay into the party of revolt by
+intoxicating him with love, and wasting time in negotiation and parade,
+a succour more direct and much more energetic was given to Conde from a
+quarter he had the least expected--from his own chateau of Chantilly. He
+had there left his aged mother, his young wife, and a son seven years
+old. Mazarin hesitated to have these ladies arrested, fearing the force
+of public opinion. The mother went to hide herself in Paris, and one
+morning appeared before the Parliament, suppliant, weeping sorely,
+stooping so far as to kneel in prayer, to flattery, and even to
+falsehood. All being unavailing, she went home to die.
+
+But most astonishing was the unexpected courage of Conde's young wife,
+Claire Clemence de Maille, that despised niece of Richelieu, whom the
+victorious soldier had married under compulsion, and whose heir was the
+son of the minister's absolute will. On the arrest of her husband she
+had been confided to the care of a man of capacity--Lenet, from whose
+"Memoirs" we have already cited. He at first conducted her and her son
+in safety from Chantilly to Montrond, a stronghold of the Condes, but
+fearing to be besieged in it, straightway to Bordeaux. The Parliament of
+Guienne had had a deadly quarrel with Mazarin for imposing upon them
+Epernon, a governor they detested, and whom the Cardinal was bent upon
+allying by marriage with his own family. Great therefore was the emotion
+of this city and parliament at seeing that young lady of two-and-twenty
+in deep mourning, with her innocent boy, who caught the brave Bordelais
+by their beards with his little hands, and besought their help towards
+the liberation of his father. The Princess's retinue enhanced not a
+little this favourable impression, formed as it was of high-born women,
+for the most part young and charming.
+
+The popular explosion was lively, as always happens among the people of
+the south. But even the narrative of Lenet shows clearly the slender
+foundation upon which this semblance of popular insurrection rested. The
+lower orders, then living in great misery, hoped to obtain through the
+Princess some opening for their foreign trade, which would better enable
+them to dispose of their wines and help them to live. Mazarin kept down
+the local Parliament, and carried everything through sheer terror.
+Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld, the Princess's advisers, recommended that
+a royal envoy should be cut to pieces. Lenet dreaded lest such an act,
+somewhat over-energetic, might render his mistress less popular. Twice
+or thrice the populace were very nearly putting the Parliament to the
+sword, the majority of which was kept under through sheer terror of the
+knife. Spain promised money, and they had the simplicity to believe her.
+She hardly gave them a pitiful alms. Meanwhile, however, Mazarin, having
+quietly occupied Normandy and Burgundy, made his way towards Guienne
+with the royal army. The Bordelais showed an intrepid front, though
+somewhat disquieted to see the soldiery about to gather the fruits of
+the vintage instead of themselves. The Princess only maintained herself
+in the place through the aid of the rabble _va-nu-pieds_, who feasted
+and danced all night at her expense, and who shouted in her ears a
+hundred ribald jests against Mazarin, compelling both herself and her
+son to repeat them. This abasement into which she had fallen made her
+desire peace for herself, and permission to leave the city, which was
+granted to her, with vague promises of liberating Conde (3rd October,
+1650).
+
+The Duchess de Bouillon had been quite as ardent in politics during the
+burlesque activity of the Fronde as Madame de Longueville; and although,
+perhaps, equally beautiful, happily she was entirely devoted to her
+domestic duties. Her husband on taking flight had been constrained to
+leave her behind in Paris, she being near her accouchement, which
+circumstance however did not prevent the Queen from giving an order for
+her arrest. Although the royal guards were already in the house, the
+Duchess contrived to effect the escape of her sons, and during that same
+day gave birth to her babe. Shortly afterwards she found a means of
+eluding the guard set over her, and would have rejoined her husband, had
+her daughter not been attacked with small-pox, but having returned home
+to nurse her, was arrested at her bedside and carried to the Bastille.
+The Duchess de Chevreuse, always gallant, in spite of waning beauty,
+constituted herself the mediatrix between the Queen and the _Frondeurs_;
+and although her daughter had openly become the mistress of the
+Coadjutor, it was already contemplated to make her the wife of the
+Prince de Conti, as a condition of the arrangement by which he should be
+set free. Beaufort still continued to be the obsequious lover of Madame
+de Montbazon, and, through her, Mazarin was kept well acquainted with
+all his secrets.
+
+No other power than that of female influence could have attached the
+French nobility to the Prince de Conde, and determined it to take up
+arms for his release. In fact, his hauteur, his brusquerie, his
+brutality even, had, in repeated instances, offended that body, and the
+Queen imagined that the bulk of the French gentry would witness his
+arrest with as much pleasure as the citizens. But the women had been
+fascinated by the _eclat_ of his four victories; they agreed to call
+him the champion, the hero of France, and it seemed to them that they
+shared his heroism in devoting themselves to his cause. As for the
+higher nobility, they were not bound by any political principle; they
+were very indifferent to the grandeur of France; very ignorant of its
+pretensions in foreign affairs, or to what it had been pledged with
+other nations. They loved war in the first place for its dangers, and in
+the second for the honours and wealth they got by fighting; but even in
+the army, far from making fidelity and obedience a rule of conduct, they
+cherished a spirit of independence and resistance to the Crown, and
+would only allow themselves to be influenced by their chivalric usages.
+They gloried in showing themselves reckless of the future, caring more
+about the glitter of the present than steady progressive advancement;
+equally prodigal of fortune as of life, they were prone to follow
+impulse rather than calculation; so that what we should perhaps call a
+reckless frivolity was looked upon by them as a sentiment invested with
+all the charm of brilliant gallantry. Those even whom neither their
+affection nor their interest summoned to the standards of the captive
+Princes, rushed gaily from the midst of their ease and festivity into
+civil war at the first prompting of their mistresses.
+
+Gaston d'Orleans, after having consented to the imprisonment of the
+Princes, only decided upon entering into the project for their
+deliverance under promise of a marriage of his daughter, the Duchess
+d'Alencon, with the boy-Duke d'Enghien, Conde's son. Turenne and La
+Rochefoucauld, too, often thought less of their glory or the success of
+their party, than of what might be agreeable to the Duchess de
+Longueville, of whose love they were so envious. More obscure
+_liaisons_, which have even escaped the anecdotic abundance of the
+memoir-writers of those days, appear also to have exercised their
+influence over the conduct of the highest personages. In a letter which
+De Retz wrote to Turenne, and which he frankly characterises as being
+remarkably silly, the Coadjutor does not disguise that amongst many
+serious motives which he gives that great warrior for inducing him to
+determine upon peace, he does not forget to hold out a hope of his
+seeing once more a little grisette of the Rue des Petits-Champs, whom
+Turenne loved with all his heart. The feeblest motives had influence
+over such men, all young and ardent as they were--the followers of
+different factions, though without prejudices, principles, convictions,
+without hatred and without affection. The women therefore naturally
+played important parts in all these events, to whom the species of
+gallantry and worship of beauty held in honour by the Hotel de
+Rambouillet was quite familiar. Thus nothing could be expected of the
+Duke de Beaufort, even in that which concerned him closest, if not
+assured previously of the consent of the Duchess de Montbazon, who
+exercised plenary power over him. Nemours, enamoured of the Duchess de
+Chatillon, loved likewise by the Prince de Conde, warmly embraced the
+cause of that Prince, because his mistress prompted him thereto; and the
+Duchess de Nemours had moved heaven and earth to obtain Conde's
+deliverance, in the hope that he would keep sharp watch over the Duchess
+de Chatillon, and put a stop to her husband's infidelity.
+
+De Retz too, notwithstanding the superiority of his intellect, allowed
+himself to give way, through his inclination for the fair sex, to the
+commission of indiscretions and imprudences which often placed his life
+in danger, and caused his best-concerted measures to prove abortive. To
+appease the jealousy of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse he permitted himself
+to make use of a contemptuous expression concerning the Queen, which was
+repeated, and which became the cause of the violent hatred she ever
+afterwards bore him. The Princess de Guemenee, furious at having been
+abandoned, offered the Queen, if she would consent to it, to procure the
+disappearance of the Coadjutor by sending him an invitation, and then
+having him confined in a cellar of her hotel. De Retz learned that a
+design to assassinate him had been formed, and whenever he repaired to
+the Hotel de Chevreuse, by way of precaution placed sentinels outside
+the gate of that mansion, and quite close to the Queen's sentries who
+guarded the Palais-Royal, without heeding the effect such an excess of
+insolence and scandal produced. With every kind of talent fitting to
+dominate party spirit, he failed to acquire the confidence of anyone. He
+regarded all alliance with the foreigner as odious and impolitic; and
+notwithstanding, when his embarrassments increased, he lent an ear to
+the Archduke's envoy, and even to that of Cromwell. At the same time,
+full of admiration for the Marquis of Montrose, whom he called a hero
+worthy of Plutarch, he contracted the closest friendship with the
+Scottish royalist, and aided him to the utmost of his ability in the
+efforts he was making to restore to the throne the legitimate King of
+Great Britain. De Retz, in few words, appeared anxious to show himself
+as taking pleasure in exhausting every kind of contrast. When the
+intricate plot of the drama in which he was engaged had become so
+complicated by his intrigues, that he no longer saw the possibility of
+unravelling it, he sought means to retire from the situation with the
+greatest advantage practicable for himself and friends, and to obtain
+the Cardinal's hat. The marriage of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse with the
+Prince de Conti became the essential condition of all the negotiations
+which he carried on, whether with the Court or with the Duchess de
+Chevreuse. The remembrance of an old and close friendship, the habit of
+a familiarity contracted in youth, gave the Duchess de Chevreuse a means
+of influence over that Queen, so fixed in her hatred, so inconstant in
+her friendships. Anne of Austria, who then, moreover, found herself very
+miserable through the obstacles which so many factions created, had
+partially restored the Duchess to her confidence. Madame de Chevreuse
+appeared also to have the same interests as De Retz, since, like him,
+she desired intensely the union of her daughter with a Prince of the
+blood. But she had large sums of money to recover from the Government,
+and the success of her claims depended on the decision of the prime
+minister. She therefore used her utmost tact with Mazarin, negotiating
+at the same time with him, as well as with the Old and the New Fronde.
+She turned to her own profit the influence that her connections at
+Court, with the Coadjutor, and with the Princes gave her in all the
+several factions. She was assisted in her intrigues by the Marquis de
+Laignes, a man of courage but little intellect, who, from the time of
+her exile at Brussels, had declared himself her lover in order to gain
+importance in the faction of the Fronde, which he had embraced. As
+little more of the attractions of her youth were left to Madame de
+Chevreuse, save their pristine celebrity, she had not always to
+congratulate herself upon the good humour and behaviour of De Laignes.
+The latter had been until then wholly devoted to the Coadjutor; but De
+Retz soon perceived that De Laignes entered into projects different from
+his own. At length, to have some one who could be responsible to him
+for Madame de Chevreuse, he endeavoured to substitute Hacqueville as a
+go-between in the place of De Laignes. Hacqueville was the intimate
+friend of De Retz and also of Madame de Sevigne; and seconded by Madame
+de Chevreuse and Madame de Rhodes, De Retz might have succeeded in the
+expulsion of Laignes, if Hacqueville would have consented to that
+project. No man could be more obliging than Hacqueville; but,
+notwithstanding the disposition he showed to be useful to his friends,
+he shrank from such continual immolation of himself. Probably also he
+was too honest a man to lend himself to such a procedure.
+
+Madame de Sevigne,--in every way qualified to play a distinguished part
+in the exciting game of politics,--was so entirely devoted to her
+husband and children as to be a stranger to all these intrigues; but she
+was more or less connected with the persons who seconded the Coadjutor's
+projects, and consequently with the Duchess de Chevreuse. An article in
+the "Muse Historique" of Loret shows how intimate was the connection of
+Madame de Sevigne with that Duchess. In the month of July, 1850, on
+returning from a promenade in the Cours, then the fashionable drive
+among the highest society, the Marquis and Marchioness de Sevigne gave a
+splendid supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse. The noisy manner in which
+the Frondeurs expressed their delight made this nocturnal repast almost
+assume the character of an orgie; and, for that reason, it became for
+awhile the talk of the capital. The rhyming gazetteer thus expresses
+himself on the subject:
+
+  On fait ici grand' mention
+  D'une belle collation
+  Qu'a la Duchesse de Chevreuse
+  Sevigne, de race frondeuse,
+  Donna depuis quatre ou cinq jours,
+  Quand on fut revenue du Cours.
+  On y vit briller aux chandelles
+  Des gorges passablement belles;
+  On y vit nombre de galants;
+  On y mangea des ortolans;
+  On chanta des chansons a boire;
+  On dit cent fois non--oui--non, voire.
+  La Fronde, dit-on, y claqua;
+  Un plat d'argent on escroqua;
+  On repandit quelque potage,
+  Et je n'en sais pas davantage.[1]
+
+    [1] Loret, Muse Historique, liv. i., p. 28, Letter 10.
+
+It will be seen from these details, that already the manners and customs
+of the great world reflected the licence of the civil wars, and that
+they no longer resembled those of which the Hotel de Rambouillet still
+presented a purer model. It may be possible also that there was some
+exaggeration in Loret's description: he belonged to the Court party,
+received a pension of two hundred crowns from Mazarin, and detested the
+Fronde. His rhyming gazette was addressed to his protectress,
+Mademoiselle de Longueville, so much the more opposed to the Fronde that
+her stepmother was the heroine of that faction. Mademoiselle de
+Longueville, whose harsh strictures upon the Conde family have been
+cited, and who subsequently became the wife of the Duke de Nemours, is
+often mentioned in the writings of her time, although she was never
+mixed up in any political intrigue, nor took part in any event. Her
+immense fortune, the clearness of her judgment, the elevation of her
+sentiments, her grand airs, the severe dignity of her manners, and the
+energy of her character, constituted her during the Regency and the
+long reign of Louis XIV. a personage quite apart; who submitted herself
+to no influence whatever, social or political, and who no more permitted
+that absolute monarch to induce her to vary in her determinations, than
+to change the fashion of her external habiliments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  STATE OF PARTIES ON THE LIBERATION OF THE PRINCES--THE CARDS AGAIN
+  SHUFFLED, AND THE FACE OF THE SITUATION CHANGED.
+
+
+AT the commencement of 1651 all France clamoured for Conde's liberation.
+During the autumn Mazarin had led the Queen and the young King against
+Bordeaux, then held by the Princess de Conde, carrying--as usual when
+forced to use both means--a sword in one hand and a roll of parchment in
+the other. Failing to carry the place with the first, the Cardinal began
+to negotiate a treaty of peace, the principal item of which was full
+pardon to the citizens, and by others an agreement that the Princess and
+her son should retire to Montrond: on these terms the city yielded to
+its sovereign. The Cardinal also obtained a victory in the field against
+Turenne, who had entered the service of Spain and fired upon the
+fleur-de-lis. But with this momentary success of Mazarin's cause rose
+his pretensions and demands; and the Fronde, alarmed at his recovered
+authority, changed its tactics as its Protean genius De Retz frequently
+did his clothes--his cassock for a plumed hat and military cloak. It
+demanded the trial or liberation of the prisoners it had helped to send
+to Vincennes, without delay, and Mazarin removed them for safe custody
+to Havre. It then pronounced sentence of banishment on the obnoxious
+minister, and ordered him to quit the kingdom within fifteen days. The
+town militia kept watch and ward over the Queen, by the command of the
+Coadjutor, and hindered her flight to join the favourite. She could
+offer no further resistance to those who now called themselves the
+friends of Conde, but who were the very same persons who had fought him
+in the field a few months before. Orders were given to set the captives
+at liberty. Mazarin himself went to Havre to communicate the news of
+their freedom, and was received by them with the contempt that he might
+have expected. Conde took leave of the Cardinal with a ringing peal of
+laughter, and with joyous acclamations, and bonfires, and firing of
+guns, made his triumphal entry into Paris.
+
+Conde was now master of the situation. He found himself equally courted
+by the two other chief parties into which the State was divided--the
+Queen's, supported by the Duke de Bouillon, and the now repentant and
+pardoned Turenne--and the Fronde, which had fallen into the guidance of
+the Duke d'Orleans, the Coadjutor, and the Duchess de Chevreuse. His own
+was called "the Prince's," and comprised Rochefoucauld and other
+personal friends and military admirers. The Duke d'Orleans had gone on
+before to meet Conde as far as the plain of St. Denis, accompanied by
+the two most conspicuous representatives of the Fronde, the Duke de
+Beaufort and Retz, with the Coadjutor of Paris, and there they all
+warmly embraced. The Duke, having taken the Prince into his carriage,
+brought him in great pomp to the Palais Royal to salute the Queen Regent
+and the young King, and thence to the Palais d'Orleans, where he was
+feasted magnificently. Some days afterwards (February 25th) a royal
+ordonnance recognised the innocence of the Princes Conde, Conti, and
+the Duke de Longueville, and reinstated them in all their posts and
+governments. On the 27th this ordonnance was confirmed in Parliament
+amidst loud cheers. Conde thus found himself at the highest degree of
+power to which a subject could reach. Misfortune had enhanced his
+military glory; a long captivity, endured with an unalterable serenity
+and high-hearted gaiety, had carried his popularity to the highest
+pitch. He was the victor, and, as it were, the designated heir, of
+Mazarin, who had fled before him, and with difficulty found a refuge
+without the kingdom, on the banks of the Rhine.
+
+Thus, Anne of Austria in some sort a prisoner, and Mazarin proscribed,
+the nobility showed itself entirely devoted to the young hero whom it
+recognized as its chief. Some among them at once proposed that the Queen
+Mother should be confined in the Val-de-Grace, and that the Prince
+should himself assume the Regency, others talked even of raising him to
+the throne, but Conde did not fail to perceive that his newly acquired
+power was not so solid as it was sought to make him believe.
+
+Meanwhile, Mazarin having quitted Havre, and the inhabitants of
+Abbeville refusing him passage through their town, he found an asylum
+for a few days at Dourlens; but he was soon driven thence by the
+proceedings of the Parliament against him. He then retired to Sedan,
+where he took counsel with his friend Fabert, whom he had appointed
+Commandant there. He next proceeded to Cologne, being treated with the
+utmost distinction and hospitality in all the foreign towns through
+which he passed.
+
+Even in banishment, however, the old influence began to work. The
+Cardinal from his place of retirement governed the Queen with as
+absolute a sway as ever, and recommended her, as a keen stroke of
+policy which would neutralize all parties, to take the young King to a
+_Bed of Justice_, and cause him to declare his majority. Couriers were
+going daily between Paris and Cologne; treaties between the Fronde and
+Mazarin were intercepted or forged, and published in the capital; the
+post of Prime Minister remained unfilled, and the Duke de Mercoeur,
+notwithstanding all the thunders of Parliament, set out for Bruhl, with
+the purpose of marrying Mazarin's niece. Everything announced that the
+exile of that hated minister was but temporary, and Conde, perceiving
+the object of all these moves, prepared for war, and silently took his
+measures accordingly.
+
+The nobility, who, from the beginning of February, had begun to assemble
+in order to take part in the expulsion of Mazarin, now held their
+meetings in the monastery hall of the Cordeliers, where might be seen
+collected together as many as _eight hundred_ princes, dukes, and
+noblemen, heads of the most considerable houses in France, all partisans
+of Conde. As this numerical strength of the ennobled classes, together
+with the multiplicity of titles among them, is somewhat startling to a
+youthful English student, it may be well to remark that France had, in
+fact, three aristocracies in the course of her annals from the Crusades
+to the reign of Louis XIV. After the time of Louis XI., the
+representatives of the _first_, or old feudal aristocracy, the
+descendants of the men who were in reality the King's peers, and not his
+actual subjects, were few and far between. These were the holders of
+vast principalities, who maintained a kind of royal state in their own
+possessions, and kept high courts of judicature over life and limb in
+the whole extent of their hereditary fiefs. In the long English wars,
+from Crecy to Agincourt, the great body of them disappeared, and only
+here and there a great vassal was to be seen, distinguished in nothing
+from the other nobles, except in the loftiness of his titles and the
+reverence that still clung to the sound of his historic name. The
+_second_ aristocracy arose among the descendants of the survivors of the
+English and Italian wars. They claimed their rank, not as coming down to
+them from the tenure of almost independent counties and dukedoms, but as
+proprietors of ancestral lands, to which originally subordinate rights
+and duties had been attached. Mixed with those, we saw the Noblesse of
+the Robe, as the great law officers were called, who constituted a
+parallel but not identical nobility with their lay competitors. The
+_third_ aristocracy was now about to make its appearance, the creation
+of Court favour, and badge of personal or official service--possessors
+of a nominal rank without any corresponding duty--a body selected for
+ornament, and not for use--and incorporating with itself, not only the
+marquis and viscount, fresh from the mint of the minister or favourite,
+but the highest names in France.
+
+The aristocracy of the sword, and of ancient birth, had itself to blame
+for this degradation. Great alterations in manners or government--such
+as give a new character to human affairs--always seem brought about by
+some strange relaxation of morals, or atrocity of conduct, which makes
+society anxious for the change. The unfortunate custom in France which
+gave every male member of a noble family a title equivalent to that of
+its chief, so that a simple viscount with ten stalwart and penniless
+sons gave ten stalwart and penniless viscounts to the aristocracy of his
+country, had filled the whole land with a race of men proud of their
+origin, filled with reckless courage, careless of life, and despising
+all honest means of employment by which their fortunes might have been
+improved. Mounted on a sorry steed and begirt with a sword of good
+steel, the young cavalier took his way from the miserable castle on a
+rock, where his noble father tried in vain to keep up the appearance of
+daily dinners, and wondered how in the world all his remaining sons and
+daughters were to be clothed and fed, and made his way to Paris. There
+he pushed his fortune--fighting, bullying, gambling, and was probably
+stabbed by some drunken companion and flung into the Seine. If he was
+lucky or adroit enough, he stabbed his drunken friend and pushed _him_
+into the stream; and, after a few months of suing and importunity,
+obtained a saddle in the King's Guards, or a pair of boots in the
+Musqueteers. At this time it came out that in twenty years of the reign
+of Louis XIII. there had been eight thousand fatal duels in different
+parts of the realm. Out of the duels which were daily carried on, four
+hundred in each year had ended in the death of one of the combatants.
+When the fiercest of English wars is shaking every heart in the kingdom,
+there would be wailing and misery in every house if it were reported
+that four hundred officers had been killed in a year. Yet these young
+desperadoes were all of officer's rank, and the quarrel in which they
+fell was probably either dishonourable or contemptible. Men fought and
+killed each other for a word or a look, or a fashion of dress, or the
+mere sake of killing. Where morality is loosened to the extent of a
+disregard of life, we may be sure the general behaviour in other
+respects is equally to be deplored. There was great and almost universal
+depravity in the conduct of high and low. Vice and sensuality found
+refuge and protection even in the presence of princesses and queens.
+People residing in remote places heard only of the gorgeous licence in
+which the great and powerful lived. They knew them only during their
+visits to their ancestral homes as worn-out debauchees from the great
+city, who brought the profligacy of the purlieus of the Louvre into the
+peaceful cottages of the peasantry on their estates. It was, indeed, so
+much the fashion to be wicked, that a gentleman was hindered from the
+practice of his Christian or social duties by the fear of ridicule. The
+life of man, therefore, and the honour of woman were held equally cheap;
+and the blinded, rash, and self-indulgent nobility laid the foundation,
+in contempt of the feelings of its inferiors and neglect of their
+interests, for the terrible retribution which even now at intervals
+might be seen ready to take its course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  THE DUCHESSES DE LONGUEVILLE AND DE CHEVREUSE AND THE PRINCESS
+  PALATINE IN THE LAST FRONDE.--RESULTS OF THE RUPTURE OF THE MARRIAGE
+  PROJECTED BETWEEN THE PRINCE DE CONTI AND MADEMOISELLE DE CHEVREUSE.
+
+
+WE must now revert to Conde's heroic sister. Having glanced somewhat
+hastily at the brilliant part played by Madame de Longueville in the two
+first epochs of the Fronde, the war of Paris and that which illuminated
+the prison of Conde, we are now about to follow her through the third
+and last period, which commences from the deliverance of the Princes, in
+February, 1651, and only ends with the war of Guienne, in August,
+1653;--the longest, the most disastrous, and at the same time most
+obscure epoch of the civil war. It will be necessary to strip the mask
+from more than one illustrious actor in it, exhibit the reverse of the
+most showy medals, and the shadows which everywhere mingle with glory,
+genius, and even virtue itself. The character of the Duchess de
+Longueville has its charming, its sublime aspects; but, alas! it is far
+from being irreproachable. In dwelling upon the least favourable portion
+of her life, we shall often do well to remember that the errors of great
+minds sometimes subserve their perfection, by the beneficent virtue of
+the remorse to which they give rise, and that the sister of the Great
+Conde must probably have felt in all its fulness the vanity of ambition
+and of false grandeur, all the bitterness of guilty passions, in taking
+an early farewell of them, to resume the austere path of duty, to
+return, in fine, to Carmel and ascend to Port Royal.
+
+Madame de Longueville had remained at Stenay with Turenne for some time
+after her brother's and husband's liberation, both occupied in
+disengaging themselves from the engagements which they had contracted
+with Spain for the deliverance of the Princes, and with negotiating a
+truce calculated to clear the way for the much-desired general peace.
+Recalled by the pressing instances of her family, she had quitted Stenay
+on the 7th of March, before the completion of her work. On arriving in
+Paris "universal applause greeted her heroic deeds." Monsieur had
+hastened to pay her a visit with Mademoiselle Montpensier, and a train
+of ladies of the highest distinction. She went afterwards that same day
+to present her homage to their Majesties, from whom she met with the
+most gracious reception. That moment was, unquestionably, the most
+brilliant of her whole career. In 1647, after the embassy to Munster,
+her return to France and its Court had been also a veritable triumph, as
+we have attempted to show; but the power of her house and the glory of
+her brother constituted nearly all the merits of it. She only
+contributed thereto the influence of her wit and beauty. After Stenay,
+the _eclat_ which surrounded her was in some sort more personal. She had
+just displayed eminent qualities which raised her almost to the level of
+Conde. In Normandy she had exhibited herself as an intrepid adventuress,
+and a skilful politician in the Low Countries. When, during the
+imprisonment of her two brothers and her husband, her sister-in-law, the
+Princess de Conde, had been forced at Bordeaux to recognize the royal
+authority, she discovered that the destinies of her house had devolved
+upon her. She had become the head of a great party. She had treated as
+from power to power with Spain; her word had appeared a sufficient
+guarantee to the Archduke Leopold and to the Count de Fuensaldagne. She
+had held in hand such commanders as Turenne, La Moussaye, Bouteville;
+and when, after the battle of Rethel, she seemed to be on the very verge
+of destruction, she had succeeded in recovering the advantage, and in
+contributing more than any one else to the deliverance of the Princes,
+thanks to the profound negotiations carried on in her name by the
+Princess Palatine. Whilst statesmen estimated her capacity, the
+multitude admired her courage and constancy. She was, in short, in
+possession of that political role with which La Rochefoucauld had
+dazzled her gaze in order to conceal his own designs:--a glittering
+chimera which, mingling itself with that of love, had seduced that
+ardent and haughty soul of hers. She was then the idol of Spain, the
+terror of the Court, one of the grandeurs of her family. We shall soon
+see whether she can better sustain this new ordeal than she did the
+first, at the close of the year 1647.
+
+The Fronde gathered the fruit of its skilful conduct during the month of
+January, 1651. It was that faction which, silencing its old animosities
+and promptly extending its hand to the partisans of Conde, had
+extricated him from prison, in order to acquire and place at its head,
+together with the King's uncle, the lieutenant-general of the Kingdom,
+the first prince of the blood, the victor of Rocroi and Lens, the hero
+of the age. It carried everything before it--at Court, in parliament,
+upon the public places; it had proscribed and put to flight Mazarin; it
+held Anne of Austria a captive in her palace; already even it had
+penetrated into the cabinet in the person of the aged Chateauneuf, in
+whom ambition cherished beneath the snows of winter the vigour of youth,
+and whose capacity was scarcely inferior to his ambition. The moment had
+arrived for accomplishing the work already begun, and for putting into
+execution the plan determined upon between the Princess Palatine and
+Madame de Chevreuse.
+
+Those two strong-minded women had conceived the idea of a grand
+aristocratic league which should seat the Fronde upon an union of all
+the interests which it comprised, close the avenues of France and the
+Court to Mazarin, and under the auspices of the Duke d'Orleans and the
+Prince de Conde form a government into which the friends of both should
+enter, the most accredited representatives of every fraction of a party.
+Further, the basis of this plan was that of a double marriage: on the
+one side between the young Duke d'Enghien and one of the Duke d'Orleans'
+daughters, on the other between the Prince de Conti and the daughter of
+Madame de Chevreuse.[1] This latter marriage might be accomplished
+immediately. Conde had accepted the proposition without any difficulty.
+Madame de Longueville, far from opposing it at Stenay, had embraced the
+idea of it with so much ardour that, in a letter to the Palatine of the
+26th of November, 1650, after having weighed the different resolutions
+to be taken, she stops at this latter, and concludes thus: "_this,
+therefore, is what we must stick to_." That marriage was, in short, of a
+supreme importance: it gave the house of Conde to the Fronde for ever,
+and the Fronde to the house of Conde; for the Fronde was then Madame de
+Chevreuse. She disposed, by her daughter, of the Coadjutor, who in his
+turn disposed of the Duke d'Orleans, and by him of the parliament. It
+was Madame de Chevreuse who, in 1650, had emboldened Mazarin to lay his
+hand upon Conde, in making him see that he might strike that bold stroke
+with impunity, since she answered to him for the secret connivance of
+the Duke d'Orleans and the parliament, who were alone able to oppose it.
+Here, Mazarin had committed an immense blunder: seeing himself delivered
+from Conde, by the aid of the Fronde, having nothing more hostile to
+cope with than the latter, he had imagined himself able to turn round
+upon it, and had treated Madame de Chevreuse very cavalierly, who,
+growing cold towards the Cardinal, and no longer finding it to her
+account to serve him, had lent an ear to the propositions of Conde's
+friends, and had procured his release from prison, reconciling to him
+the Duke d'Orleans and the parliament, which at first she had stirred up
+against him. She brought, moreover, to the house of Conde the most
+politic mind of the Fronde, an audacity towering to the height of his
+designs, a consummate experience, with the support of her three powerful
+families, the houses of de Rohan, de Luynes, and Lorraine. She rendered
+sure the alliance of the Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde, and
+completed the ruin of Mazarin by constructing a strong government which
+probably might have succeeded ultimately in triumphing over the
+affection of the Queen. She held in hand a statesman bred in the school
+of Richelieu, and whom she judged capable of replacing Mazarin, the
+former Keeper of the Seals--Chateauneuf, already a member of the
+Cabinet. She believed herself certain of acquiring De Retz by means of
+the Cardinal's hat. She had not the least objection to make to the
+elevation of the friends of Conde, and she was ready to favour the
+ambition of La Rochefoucauld, for whom formerly, in 1643, she had so
+greatly importuned the Queen and Mazarin. Add to all this, that on
+quitting the citadel of Havre, the young Prince de Conti had not beheld
+the lovely Charlotte de Lorraine without being smitten with her charms,
+and he himself strongly desired that marriage. Who, then, prevented it?
+Who broke off the contracted engagement? Who struck at and wounded by
+the self-same blow the Palatine and Madame de Chevreuse? Who restored
+them both and for ever to the Queen and Mazarin? Who destroyed the
+Fronde by dividing it? We shall find out by-and-by, but let us merely
+say just now that it was the rupture of that marriage which again
+shuffled the cards and changed the face of the situation. In pitting
+against himself those who had so powerfully succoured him in his
+misfortune, Conde ought at least to have drawn closer to the Court and
+had a serious understanding with the Queen; but he tergiversated, and at
+the end of some months of that wavering policy, he found himself
+standing unmasked between the Court and the Fronde, both equally
+discontented with him, repeating and exaggerating the blunder committed
+by Mazarin. The greatest error during the course of a revolution is to
+believe that the support of either of the parties who are in actual
+collision may be dispensed with. At the close of a revolution the
+attempt to dominate may be tried; during the crisis a choice must be
+made. Mazarin had fallen through having tried to dominate the Fronde and
+Conde at one and the same time; Conde lost himself in thinking to
+dominate the Fronde and the Court.
+
+    [1] Retz himself has taken care to inform us of his sad _liaison_
+    with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, throughout the whole of the second
+    volume and beginning of the third of his Memoirs. Amsterdam edition,
+    1731. That unfortunate lady died suddenly of a fever, unmarried, in
+    1652. She was born in 1627.
+
+It is an historical problem very difficult to solve, as to who was the
+author of the rupture of the marriage projected between the Prince de
+Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. We are well inclined to believe
+that that individual at any rate was the chief author of the rupture to
+whom it was the most profitable. The Queen and Mazarin, who from his
+place of retirement governed her with as absolute a sway as ever, saw
+from the first the danger which threatened them from such an alliance,
+entirely unexpected as it was by both. The negotiations between Madame
+de Chevreuse, while Conde was prisoner, and Madame de Longueville at
+Stenay, had been conducted by the Palatine with such consummate skill
+and perfect secrecy that neither the Queen nor Mazarin had the slightest
+suspicion of them. When the rumour reached the ears of the Cardinal in
+his retreat at Bruhl, near Cologne, he broke out against Madame de
+Chevreuse with a violence the coarseness of which even was an
+involuntary homage rendered to the profound ability of Marie de Rohan.
+The Queen showed herself warmly opposed to it, and the ministers were
+ordered to thwart in every way the projected alliance. They began,
+therefore, to negotiate with Conde. As a result of these negotiations he
+obtained in exchange for his government of Burgundy that of Guienne, one
+of far greater importance; he was even led to indulge a hope that
+Provence would be given to the Prince de Conti instead of Champagne and
+La Brie, and the port and fortress of Blaye to La Rochefoucauld in
+augmentation of his government of Poitou, although there was not the
+slightest intention of fulfilling that hope. So states the Duchess de
+Nemours, the enemy of the Fronde and the Condes, and who, having given
+herself to the Court party, must have well known its intentions. De Retz
+likewise doubts not that the Queen combated an alliance so evidently
+opposed to her interests. Madame de Motteville, the Queen's close
+friend, avows it. In short, it is certain, and we have hereupon the
+irrefragable testimony of Madame de Motteville, that when the Queen had
+succeeded in gaining over Conde, she caused Madame de Chevreuse to be
+informed "that she desired that such marriage should not take place,
+because it had been concerted for objects inimical to the royal
+interests. This command was the cause of all these propositions falling
+through and that they were no more spoken of."
+
+But how did the Queen gain over Conde, and what part did Madame de
+Longueville play in the affair? That is certainly what neither De Retz
+could know, who was only aware of what passed in parliament, in the
+Palais d'Orleans, and the Hotel de Chevreuse; nor the Duchess de Nemours
+and Madame de Motteville, who were not in the confidence of the Hotel de
+Conde: they could only repeat hereupon what they had heard said in the
+Court circle, and they must be considered solely as the echoes of
+reports which it suited the Queen to spread. That is so probable that
+the one and the other, differing so widely as they did both in intention
+and feeling, tell exactly the same tale. Madame de Motteville states
+positively that Madame de Longueville, as soon as she returned from
+Stenay, advised Conde to break with the Chevreuses, and that La
+Rochefoucauld supported her in such design; and these are the motives
+which she attributes to her:--"Madame de Longueville, who had been long
+jealous of the beauty and graces of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, could
+little bear to contemplate the probability of her being raised to a rank
+even more elevated than her own, and still less, that she should obtain
+the great influence which such a person was likely to acquire over both
+her princely brothers. She had, therefore, exerted all her influence
+over Conde, and with him had been quite successful. But Conti was still
+in the height of his passion for the beautiful and fascinating girl who
+had been promised to him during his imprisonment; he supped every
+evening at the Hotel de Chevreuse, and his affections, as well as his
+honour, were fully engaged." The Duchess de Nemours says the same thing
+in the same terms.
+
+Confidant and adviser of Madame de Longueville and of Conde, La
+Rochefoucauld alone knew the whole truth, and could have told it to
+posterity; but it was not to tell the truth that his memoirs were
+penned, only too frequently to conceal it, to set in strong relief that
+which had been well done, and slur over that which had been badly done,
+or to cast the blame of it upon others. Attentive to the study of his
+part, and to never accept a bad one, La Rochefoucauld says truly that
+the Frondeurs, eagerly pressing forwards the marriage of the Prince de
+Conti with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, and seeing it retarded, "suspected
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld of a design to
+break it off, for fear that the Prince de Conti should escape from their
+hands only to fall into those of Madame de Chevreuse and of the
+Coadjutor;" but he endeavours to give a reason for these suspicions, and
+to inform us whether they were well or ill founded. Instead of defending
+himself, and Madame de Longueville, he accuses Conde of having "adroitly
+increased the suspicions of the Frondeurs against his sister and La
+Rochefoucauld, firmly believing that so long as they held that belief,
+they would never discover the true cause of the postponement of the
+marriage." And what was that true cause? Here it is, according to La
+Rochefoucauld: it was that the Prince de Conde "not having as yet
+either concluded or broken off his treaty with the Queen, and having
+been informed that the keeper of the seals--Chateauneuf--was about to be
+dismissed, wished to await that event to conclude the marriage, if
+Cardinal Mazarin were ruined by M. de Chateauneuf, or to break it off
+and make through that his court to the Queen, should M. de Chateauneuf
+be driven away by the Cardinal."
+
+This interpretation of Conde's conduct does not do him great honour, but
+it is a very probable one. In the first place, if La Rochefoucauld knew
+how to glide so cleverly over all the ticklish points in which he could
+not appear to advantage, he did not, strictly speaking, tell lies; he
+retires rather than attacks, unless hurried away by passion, and he was
+never in a passion with Conde. And, further, the conduct which he
+attributes to Conde springs quite naturally out of the false position in
+which Conde had, by degrees, suffered himself to be placed.
+
+Altogether, we are persuaded that Conde was then sincere. His sole
+error, and it is that which marked his entire conduct during the Fronde,
+was the not having had, either on this occasion or any other, a fixed
+and unalterable object. On the 13th of April the Queen took the seals
+from Madame de Chevreuse's friend, Chateauneuf, the representative of
+the Fronde in the Cabinet, to give them to the gravest person of his
+time, the first president, Mathieu Mole, a worthy servant of the State,
+very little friendly to the Fronde, and who then was sufficiently
+favourable towards the Prince de Conde. That same day she recalled to
+the Council as Secretary of State the Count de Chavigny, who had been
+formerly minister for Foreign Affairs under Richelieu. Formed in the
+school of the great Cardinal, as well as Mazarin, ousted from place,
+crafty and resolute, feeling himself capable of bearing the weight of a
+ministry, Chavigny had beheld with a sufficiently ominous countenance,
+after the death of their common master, the sudden elevation of a
+colleague who had even begun by being his dependent. Since 1643, vanity
+had turned him aside from the high road of ambition, and he had
+entangled himself in the brakes of very complicated intrigues. In 1651,
+he passed as the friend of Conde. It was then only, if we can believe La
+Rochefoucauld, that Conde declared himself opposed to the marriage of
+his youthful brother with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse; and it was time
+that he opposed it, for that marriage was on the eve of accomplishment.
+Conti gave proof of the most ardent passion for Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; he paid her a thousand attentions which he hid from his
+friends, and particularly from his sister, for whom he ever professed to
+entertain an undivided adoration. He held long conferences with the
+Marquis de Laigues and other intimate friends of Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse; it was even feared lest he should marry her without the
+necessary dispensations and without the participation of the head of his
+family. Conde, therefore, decided to act at once, and the reputation of
+the fair lady afforded him a means of attack which he employed with
+success upon his brother. He seems to have had no great difficulty in
+attaining his object. The Prince de Conti soon received proof that she
+was not by any means so immaculate as he had believed: her scarcely
+doubtful connection with the Coadjutor was placed in its true light,
+and, convinced that the object of his passion was unworthy the love of a
+man of honour, he began to look upon her with horror. He even blamed
+Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld for not having
+warned him sooner of what was said of her in society. From that moment
+means of breaking off the affair without acrimony were sought; but
+the interests involved were too great, and the circumstances too piquant
+not to renew and augment still more the old hatred of Madame de
+Chevreuse and the Frondeurs against the Prince de Conde, and against
+those whom they suspected of taking part in that which had just been
+done.[2]
+
+    [2] La Rochefoucauld, p. 69. Retz, tom, ii., p. 223.
+
+This testimony would justify Madame de Longueville and La Rochefoucauld
+himself for having urged Conde upon that disloyal and impolitic rupture,
+if one could believe it to be entirely sincere; but it is very difficult
+to admit that Madame de Longueville and her all-powerful adviser could
+have remained strangers to a determination so important, and there are
+many doubts and obscurities resting upon this delicate point. De Retz,
+whose introspect was so penetrating, and who does not pride himself on
+any great reserve in his judgments, knew not what opinion to
+form--Conde, Madame de Longueville, and La Rochefoucauld having
+afterwards assured him that they had had nothing to do with the rupture
+of the marriage.
+
+But whose soever was the hand that broke off the projected alliance of
+the Condes with Madame de Chevreuse, it is beyond doubt that that had
+lost Conde and saved Mazarin. All the errors which followed were derived
+from that cardinal one. In it must be discerned the first link of that
+chain of disastrous events which ended by dragging Conde into civil war.
+
+The resentment of Madame de Chevreuse may well be imagined, when she
+discovered that she had been tricked, that she had separated herself
+from Mazarin and the Queen, and had drawn Conde out of prison only to
+receive in exchange such an unpardonable outrage! Already, even a short
+time before, when the Queen ousted Chateauneuf without consulting the
+Duke d'Orleans, the wrath of the Frondeurs had been such, that at a
+council held at the Palais d'Orleans of the whole party, it was proposed
+to go, on the part of the lieutenant-general, and demand back the seals
+from Mathieu Mole. The most violent expedients were suggested, and some
+among the more hot-headed spoke of seizing their arms and descending
+into the streets. Conde, who had not yet entirely broken with the
+Frondeurs, and was present at this council with a few of his friends,
+threw cold water upon every proposal that was made, and energetically
+opposed the appeal to arms, declaring that he did not understand waging
+"a war of paving-stones and _pots de chambre_," and that he felt himself
+too much of a coward for such a campaign as that.
+
+After some time passed in sharp discussion, the Duke retired into the
+apartments of his wife with De Retz, and there a brief consultation
+ensued, in which the Duchess d'Orleans, Madame de Chevreuse, and the
+Coadjutor endeavoured to persuade him to arrest the leaders of the
+opposite party, and rouse the people to insurrection. The Duke d'Orleans
+was in some degree moved; Conde, Conti, and the Duke de Beaufort and
+others, had retired into the library, and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse,
+springing towards the door, exclaimed, "Nothing is wanting but a turn of
+the key! It would be a fine thing indeed for a girl to arrest a winner
+of battles!"
+
+The impetuosity of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, however, alarmed the timid
+Duke d'Orleans. Had he been brought to it by degrees, he might have
+consented to the act; but her movement towards the door startled him,
+and he began to whistle,--which, as De Retz observes, was never a good
+sign. Then declaring that he would consider of the matter till the next
+morning, he walked quietly into the library, and suffered the guests to
+depart in peace whom he had been so sorely tempted to make prisoners.
+
+At the same time in the parliament all the violent measures taken
+against Mazarin were renewed: he was banished and rebanished, with
+confiscation of his possessions, and even his books and pictures were
+ordered to be sold. A decree had already been passed declaring all
+foreign cardinals incapable of serving in France, and of entering into
+the ministry. They did not stop there, and certain councillors who were
+not in the secrets of the party, and obeying only their passion,
+proposed to exclude from the ministry even the French cardinals as being
+still too dependent upon Rome. This sweeping motion was carried amid
+loud cheers, which resounded through all parts of the hall. Whereupon
+Conde laughingly remarked: "There's a fine echo." That same echo was the
+ruin of De Retz's hopes, who only so passionately desired to become a
+cardinal in order to succeed to Mazarin. Shortly afterwards the division
+between Conde and the Old Fronde was declared, and Conde applied himself
+to form an intermediate party, a new Fronde, which became sufficiently
+powerful to disquiet Madame de Chevreuse and the Coadjutor.[3]
+"Imagine," says the latter, "what the royal authority purged of
+Mazarinism would have been, and the party of the Prince de Conde purged
+of faction! More than all, what surety was there in M. the Duke
+d'Orleans!"
+
+    [3] De Retz, tom, ii., p. 205.
+
+    [4] The same, p. 214.
+
+But De Retz was not the only politician who terrified himself with the
+idea of such a future looming thus darkly for France. Mazarin dreaded
+it as much as he. His authority was almost universally thought to be for
+ever annihilated; but a small number of courtiers who could read the
+Queen's heart, judged otherwise, and owed to the skilful line of conduct
+to which they adhered under these circumstances the high fortune to
+which they attained in the sequel.
+
+There is little doubt that, in the first instance, Conde might have
+carried off the Regency from the Queen, deprived as she was of her prime
+minister, and by her own acknowledgment incapable of governing by
+herself; but then the direction of affairs belonged by right to the Duke
+d'Orleans, of whom Conde was jealous. Conde, however, preferred to keep
+the Regency in the Queen's hands, and by rendering himself formidable to
+the Government, forcing it to reckon with him. If that union of the
+Princes between themselves and the Fronde faction had subsisted, the
+re-establishment of the royal authority would have been impossible: and
+the commencement of the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, who, although he
+had only completed his thirteenth year, was about, by the force of an
+exceptional law, to be declared of age, would have offered the
+spectacle, so frequent in French annals,[5] of a state a prey to the
+divulsion of factions and the horrors of anarchy.
+
+    [5] Retz--La Rochefoucauld--Joly.
+
+But for the happiness of France and the Queen-Regent, Conde was as
+unskilful in politics as he was great in war. He kept none of the
+promises he had made to the chiefs of the Fronde, the authors of his
+deliverance. The marriage of the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse, which had been the base of the treaty, and involved other
+engagements, was, as we have seen, remorselessly broken off. The Queen
+Regent, in order to succeed in bringing back her favourite minister to
+power, had the tact to conceal his advances, and therefore chose in the
+first instance to replace him by Chavigny, who was his personal enemy.
+Then she negotiated with all parties, and skilfully opposed the Fronde
+to the Prince de Conde, the latter to the Duke d'Orleans, the parliament
+to the assembly of the nobles, the aversion to Mazarin to the fear which
+the Coadjutor inspired. Her ministers, whom she abused, had only the
+semblance of power; all that was real was possessed by Mazarin. From
+Bruhl, his place of exile, he governed France; the Queen adopted no
+resolution without its having been inspired by him, or met with his
+approval. Thus hidden by the Regent's mantle, the Cardinal followed with
+vigilant eye the quarrels of the Prince de Conde and the Frondeurs,
+fomenting them and inflaming them by every means at his disposal,
+prodigalising to Conde promises which must in the highest degree have
+alarmed the Fronde, and entangling him daily more and more in the meshes
+of intricate, tortuous negotiations, until he had seen the separation,
+for which he manoeuvred, irremediably consummated. Then he stopped,
+and began insensibly even to fall back. The placing of Provence in the
+Prince de Conti's hands was deferred; and in fact it was held in reserve
+for the Duke de Mercoeur, the eldest son of the Duke de Vendome, who
+was seeking the hand of one of Mazarin's nieces; and it was also found
+inexpedient to deprive the Duke de Saint-Simon of Blaye to give it to La
+Rochefoucauld; and a thousand other difficulties of a like nature were
+raised, which both astonished and irritated Conde. Since he broke with
+the Fronde, it was apparently to unite himself with the Queen, and the
+higher his ambition soared, the more necessary it was to cover it with
+respect and deference, in order to hasten and secure the treaty on
+foot, and to enchain the monarchy with his own fate. But the fiery Conde
+was incapable of such a line of conduct. Finding unexpected obstacles
+where previously he had met with facilities and hopeful anticipations,
+he lost his temper, and resumed the imperious tone which already, in
+1649, had embroiled him with the Queen and Mazarin.
+
+It appears also that Madame de Longueville shared in the soaring
+illusions of her brother, and that she bore but indifferently well her
+newly blown prosperity. Madame de Motteville gives us to understand so
+with her usual moderation, and the Duchess de Nemours rejoices to say so
+with all the acrimony and doubtless also the exaggeration of hatred.[6]
+It must, indeed, be owned, with the heroic instincts of Conde, Madame de
+Longueville shared also his haughty spirit. All her contemporaries
+ascribe to her an innate majesty which did not show itself on ordinary
+occasions; far from it, she was simple, amiable, adding thereto, when
+desirous of pleasing, a caressing and irresistible gentleness; but, with
+people whom she disliked, she intrenched herself in a frigid dignity,
+and Anne of Austria and she had never loved one another. A misplaced
+haughtiness towards the Queen is attributed to her. One day, says Madame
+de Nemours, she kept her waiting for two or three hours. It is very
+doubtful whether Madame de Longueville could have so far forgotten
+herself; but it is not impossible that she may have imagined, as well as
+her brother, that the fortunes of their house, having emerged more
+brilliant than ever from so rude a tempest, had no longer to dread the
+recurrence of further ill-omened shocks.
+
+    [6] Madame de Motteville, tom. iv., p. 346; Madame de Nemours,
+    p. 106.
+
+They deceived themselves: an immense peril was hanging over their heads.
+
+Immediately that Madame de Chevreuse had seen that the Queen was growing
+colder towards Conde, and did not seem disposed to keep the promises
+that had been made him, her keen-sighted animosity instantly determined
+her course of action, and being for ever separated from Conde, she again
+drew towards the Queen with an offer of her services and those of her
+entire party against the common enemy. Mazarin, recognising the error he
+had committed in giving himself two enemies at the same time, and that
+at that moment the redoubtable individual, the man who at any cost must
+be destroyed, was Conde, very quickly forgot his grudges against Madame
+de Chevreuse, and advised the acceptance of her propositions. The Queen,
+it appears, was very averse to receive De Retz, or avail herself of his
+services; she detested him almost as much as she did Conde, well knowing
+that they were the two most dangerous enemies of him without whom she
+did not believe that she could really reign. Mazarin exhorted her
+himself to flatter De Retz's ambition, and, marvellously understanding
+each other at a distance--almost as well as when in each other's
+presence,--they composed and played out in the most perfect manner a
+comedy of which De Retz himself seems to have been the dupe, and of
+which Conde was very nearly being the victim.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse has already been depicted both in good and evil, in
+her natural intelligence, quickness, keen introspection, and political
+genius, in her indomitable courage and audacity, and all that she was
+capable of undertaking in order to attain her objects. It will now be
+necessary to thoroughly understand De Retz's character, in order to
+perceive clearly the peril with which Conde was menaced.
+
+By nature yet more restless than ambitious, a bad priest, impatient of
+his condition and having long struggled to emancipate himself from it,
+Paul de Gondi had prepared himself for cabals by composing or
+translating the life of a celebrated conspirator. Then, passing quickly
+from theory to practice, he had entered into one of the most sinister
+plots framed against Richelieu, and for his first experiment he had
+accepted the task, he, a young abbe, of assassinating the Cardinal at
+the altar during the ceremony of Mademoiselle de Montpensier's baptism.
+In 1643, he had not hesitated to throw himself into the arms of the
+_Importants_; but the title of Coadjutor of Paris, which had just been
+conferred upon him as a recompense for the virtues and services of his
+father, arrested him. The Fronde seemed created altogether expressly for
+him. He shared the parentage of it along with La Rochefoucauld. In vain
+in his Memoirs does he studiedly put forward general considerations:
+like La Rochefoucauld, he was only working for himself, and at least had
+the candour to own it. Compelled to remain in the Church, De Retz
+desired to rise in it as high as possible. He aspired to a cardinal's
+hat, and soon obtained it, thanks to his inscrutable manoeuvring; but
+his supreme object was the post of prime minister, and to reach it, he
+played that double game which he so craftily concerted and so skilfully
+played out. Seeing that Mazarin and Conde were not heads of a government
+which would leave to others acting with them any great share of
+importance, he undertook to overthrow them, the one by the other, to
+carve out his way between them by them, and to raise upon their ruin the
+Duke d'Orleans, under whose name he would govern. To effect this he
+incessantly urged alike the Duke, the parliament, and the people, to
+demand, as the first condition of any reconciliation with the Court,
+the dismissal of Mazarin, and at the same time he, under a mask,
+exhibited himself as a benevolent conciliator between royalty and the
+Fronde, promising the Queen, the indispensable sacrifice accomplished,
+to smooth all difficulties, and to bring over to her the Duke d'Orleans
+by separating him from Conde. Such was the real mainspring of all De
+Retz's movements--even those seemingly the most contrary: first the
+cardinalate, then the premiership under the auspices of the Duke
+d'Orleans, associated in some sort with royalty, without Mazarin or
+Conde. He was fain to hide his secret under the guise of the public
+weal, but that secret revealed itself by the very efforts he made to
+conceal it, and it did not escape the penetration of La Rochefoucauld,
+his accomplice at the outset of the Fronde, afterwards his adversary,
+who had a perfect knowledge of his character, and who had sketched it
+with a masterly hand, as De Retz also thoroughly comprehended and
+admirably depicted La Rochefoucauld. De Retz was indeed the evil genius
+of the Fronde. He always hindered it from progressing whether led by
+Mazarin or Conde, because he merely desired to have a weak government
+which he could dominate. To arrive at that end, he was capable of
+anything--tortuous intrigues, anonymous pamphlets, hypocritical sermons
+from the pulpit, studied orations in parliament, popular insurrections
+and desperate _coups de main_. Such was the man who, towards the end of
+May, 1651, was admitted, much against her will, into the secret councils
+of Anne of Austria.
+
+Anything was to be tried, however, which might deliver her from the
+exactions of Conde. It was absolutely necessary that she should either
+grant his demands, or find some support to enable her to resist them.
+She accordingly despatched Marshal du Plessis to speak with De Retz, at
+the archbishopric, towards one o'clock in the morning, at which hour he
+generally returned from his nocturnal visits to Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. De Retz was willing to seize the opportunity of avenging
+himself upon Conde, and probably judged he might do so without bringing
+about the return of Mazarin. He accepted, then, at once the Queen's
+invitation, and flung the letter of safe-conduct which she had sent him
+into the fire, in order to show his confidence in her promises. The
+following night, at twelve o'clock, he was brought into the Queen's
+Oratory by a back staircase, and a long conversation ensued between
+them. Anne of Austria was very caressing in her manner towards the
+Coadjutor, and sought, after winning her way to his confidence, to
+embroil him with Chateauneuf, by informing him that it was that friend
+of Madame de Chevreuse who was the most opposed to his cardinalate,
+because he wanted the hat for himself. It must be remembered that France
+at that moment had the appointment of a cardinal at its disposition, and
+it had been long promised to the Prince de Conti. Anne of Austria now
+offered it to De Retz who, in reply, at the end of a long harangue,
+during which the Queen interrupted him impatiently more than once,
+assured her that he had not come there to receive favours, but to merit
+them.
+
+"What will you do for me, then?" asked the Queen. "What will you do?"
+
+"Madam," replied he, "I will oblige the Prince de Conde to quit Paris
+ere eight days are over, and will carry off the Duke d'Orleans from him
+before to-morrow night."
+
+The Queen, transported with joy, extended her hand to him saying--"Give
+me your hand on that, and the day after to-morrow you are a cardinal,
+and moreover the second amongst my friends."
+
+A few days afterwards, De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse had raised the
+entire Fronde against the Prince de Conde. The worthy archbishop had
+announced his approach to the enemy he was about to attack by a cloud of
+the same kind of libels, satires, and epigrams, which he had always
+found so efficacious in prejudicing the people of Paris against any one
+whom he thought fit to hold forth to popular odium. At the same time a
+multitude of criers and hawkers were sent through the town, spreading,
+at the very lowest price, all the sarcasms which had been composed at
+the archbishopric in the morning, to render the conduct of Conde
+ridiculous, contemptible, and hateful in the eyes of the multitude.
+
+At length, when the Coadjutor believed that everything had been
+sufficiently prepared, he made the Palatine write to inform the Queen
+that he was about to go to the parliament. Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was
+with the Regent at the time she received this intimation; and the
+delight which it occasioned was so great that the virtuous and pious
+Anne of Austria caught the archbishop's mistress in her arms, and kissed
+her more than once, exclaiming, with no very great regard for decorum,
+"You rogue! you are now doing me as much good as you have hitherto done
+me harm."
+
+De Retz kept his word, and went to the parliament, but the progress
+against Conde was so slow that Mazarin, the Queen, and De Retz, began to
+revolve more summary measures, and, towards the latter part of June,
+their deliberations ended in a sinister project of again arresting or of
+assassinating Conde.
+
+This obscure affair, as yet only partially unveiled, and which probably
+will never be so entirely, is not so dark and impenetrable, however, as
+to prevent us from seeing, within the shadow thereof, fearful and
+criminal purposes, to which even the more open vices of the age are
+comparatively light. We are told by De Retz that the Marshal de
+Hocquincourt, with more frankness than the rest, proposed in direct
+terms to assassinate Conde. The Coadjutor himself, however, Madame de
+Chevreuse, and other leaders of the Fronde, but above all Senneterre,
+who had about this time obtained a great share of the Queen's
+confidence, opposed not only the bold crime proposed at first by
+Hocquincourt, but also all the schemes which he and others afterwards
+suggested, and which, though apparently more mild, were all likely to
+end in the same event.
+
+Rumours of what was meditated soon reached the Prince's ears, who then
+saw clearly the nature of his position. He perceived that he had
+quarrelled thoroughly and for ever with the Frondeurs and with the
+Queen, and that henceforth he was placed between imprisonment and
+assassination. He felt certain that this time, should he fall into the
+hands of his enemies, he would be treated far more harshly than in 1650,
+and that probably he might never see the light again. He despised death,
+but the idea of perpetual incarceration was insupportable to him, and
+that idea fastening itself by degrees on his mind caused projects to
+enter into it which until then had only momentarily crossed it.
+
+Too high-minded to quit Paris as though he were terrified, Conde
+exhibited no change in his conduct; merely confining himself to no
+longer visiting the Palais-Royal or the Palais d'Orleans, and never
+going abroad without a numerous escort of officers and retainers.
+Already for some time past foreseeing the storm that was gathering
+against him, he had taken serious measures to confront it: he had
+strengthened all the fortresses that were in his hands. He had
+despatched to Flanders the Marquis de Sillery, La Rochefoucauld's
+brother-in-law, under pretext of finally disengaging Madame de
+Longueville and Turenne from the treaties they had made with the
+Spaniards in 1650, with secret instructions to renew them, and to
+ascertain how far he might reckon on the assistance of Spain if he were
+compelled to draw the sword. The Count de Fuensaldagne did not fail,
+agreeable to the policy of his court, to promise much more than was
+asked of him, and he omitted nothing calculated to stir up Conde to have
+recourse to arms.
+
+Chance had a share in urging Conde to take a further and almost decisive
+step in the dangerous path that was opening before him. One evening,
+just as he had lain down on his bed and was chatting with Vineuil, one
+of his trusty friends, the latter received a note which directed him to
+warn the Prince that two companies of guards were advancing on the side
+of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. It was thought that those troops were
+about to invest the hotel. Conde jumped out of bed, dressed himself,
+mounted his horse instantly, and, accompanied by a few attendants, took
+his way through the faubourg Saint-Michel. On gaining the high road, he
+heard the clatter of a somewhat strong body of horsemen approaching, and
+thinking that it was the squadron in search of him, he fell back at
+first in the direction of Meudon; then, instead of re-entering Paris,
+when day broke he sought an asylum in his chateau of Saint-Maur. He
+reached it on the morning of the 6th of July; and it may readily be
+guessed what the effect, in Paris and throughout the kingdom, of such a
+retreat was, and for such motives. The Princess de Conde, the Prince de
+Conti, Madame de Longueville, La Rochefoucauld, the Duke de Nemours,
+the Duke de Richelieu, the Prince's most intimate friends, and more than
+one illustrious personage, such as the Duke de Bouillon and Turenne,
+repaired immediately to Saint-Maur. In a day or two, Conde saw himself
+surrounded by a court as brilliant and as numerous as that of the King,
+and there he kept up a right royal festivity. After a while he sent a
+considerable number of officers disguised into Paris, who bestirred
+themselves in every quarter in his favour; and when he considered
+himself in a position to hold his own against both the Queen and the
+Frondeurs together, he quitted Saint-Maur and returned to his hotel near
+the Palais d'Orleans, desiring to put a good complexion on the aspect of
+his affairs and to impose upon his enemies by that bold and high-minded
+conduct.[7] He appeared again also in the parliament, now once more
+become the battle-field of parties. De Retz, full of his own individual
+hatred, augmented by that of Madame de Chevreuse, seconded at once by
+the friends of the Duke d'Orleans and by those of the Queen, burning to
+tear from the Court and win, by serving it, the cardinal's hat, the
+object of his ardent desires, the necessary stepping-stone to his
+ambition, brought all his courage and vanity towards enacting the part
+of the Prince's enemy. And there, during the months of July and August,
+in that pretended sanctuary of law and justice, passed all those
+deplorable scenes which De Retz and La Rochefoucauld have related, and
+in which Mazarin, from his retreat on the banks of the Rhine, rejoiced
+to see his two enemies waste their strength, and work unwittingly but
+surely their common ruin and his approaching triumph.
+
+    [7] La Rochefoucauld, p. 83.
+
+A crisis was clearly inevitable. Conde could no longer perceive any
+sign of a pacific issue from the position in which he had been placed,
+or rather in which he had placed himself, and at his right hand stood
+Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti, who held no opinions
+contrary to those of his sister, urging him to cut the knot which he
+knew not how to untie. La Rochefoucauld stopped him for a moment on the
+threshold of war, entreating Conde to allow him to undertake fresh
+negotiations. The Prince consented willingly thereto. Madame de
+Longueville was opposed to it. La Rochefoucauld, speaking to her with
+that authority which his long devotion gave him, represented to her the
+terrible responsibility which she took upon herself both towards Conde
+and the State, and he obtained from her a promise that she would
+withdraw for a time from the arena of strife, and accompany her
+sister-in-law, the Princess de Conde, to Berri, and allow him to remain
+in Paris by the side of Conde in order to make a last essay towards
+conjuring the tempest.
+
+The fitting moment has now arrived to examine the conduct of Madame de
+Longueville in these grave conjunctures, the different feelings which
+animated her, and the true and lamentable motive which determined her
+thus to hurry her brother into civil war, and herself with him.
+
+Let us remember:--Anne de Bourbon exhibited extraordinary contrasts in
+her character, entirely opposite qualities which, developing themselves
+in turn according to circumstances, gave a particular impress to
+different periods of her life. She derived from nature and the Christian
+education she had received a delicate and susceptible conscience, a
+humility in her own eyes and before God that would have made her an
+accomplished Carmelite; and at the same time she was born with that
+ardour of soul which is termed ambition, the instinct of glory and of
+grandeur. This instinct, which was also that of her house and her age,
+soon obtained the mastery on emerging from her pious adolescence, and
+when she despaired of overcoming her father's resistance to the serious
+desire she had manifested of burying herself, at fifteen, in the convent
+of the Rue St. Jacques, with her already formidable beauty and the
+nascent desire to shine and to please. That desire was at once Madame de
+Longueville's strength and weakness, the principle of her coquetry amid
+the amusements of peace, as of her intrepidity in the midst of war and
+danger. Once condemned to live in the world, she transferred the dreams
+of glory which she dared not realise for herself, to gild her brother's
+wreath of laurel,--that Louis de Bourbon, almost of the same age as
+herself, the cherished companion of her infancy, so witty, so generous,
+so bold, that he was at once a friend and a master, and the idol of her
+heart, before another object had usurped the place or after he had
+abandoned it. In the first and the last portion of her life, which are
+incomparably the best, she referred everything to Conde, and Conde had a
+confidence in her altogether boundless. The suspicious and penetrating
+Mazarin had very early formed that opinion of her, and in the _carnets_,
+to which he has confided his very inmost feelings, he depicts her with
+the pen of an enemy, but of an enemy who knew her well. "Madame de
+Longueville," says he, "has entire power over her brother. She desires
+to see Conde dominate and dispose of all favours. If she is prone to
+gallantry, it is by no means that she thinks of doing wrong, but in
+order to make friends and servitors for her brother. She insinuates
+ambitious ideas into his mind to which he is already only too much
+inclined." If, in 1648, she became violently enraged against her
+brother, it was that, fascinated and misled by La Rochefoucauld, she
+thought that Conde, by serving the Court and Mazarin, was false to his
+own fame. In 1649, she had only too far contributed to make him enter by
+degrees upon that fatal path into which La Rochefoucauld had lured
+herself. Here, pride nourished the hope of one day seeing the Condes
+replace the D'Orleans. When, in 1850, a son was born to Gaston, the
+little Duke de Valois, who did not live, she fretted at an event which
+threatened to strengthen and perpetuate a house for which she had no
+affection, and in a letter which has remained inedited up to the present
+day, she allows the thoughts that had insinuated themselves into her
+heart to appear. "I think," she writes to Lenet on the 22nd August,
+1650, "that the news of the birth of M. d'Orleans' son will no more
+rejoice my sister-in-law than it has delighted me. It is to my nephew
+that we must offer our condolence." In 1651, that ambition was carried
+to its highest pitch. Madame de Longueville experienced the natural
+intoxication that the power and prosperity of her house was calculated
+to give her; and when we think of what perils she had just surmounted,
+by what homage she was surrounded on all sides, that she was then
+thirty-two, that she was in all the splendour of her beauty, and also
+under all the strength of her passions, we might well be disposed to
+pardon her that fugitive intoxication, if it had not likewise drawn down
+disastrous consequences upon herself, upon Conde, and upon her country.
+
+And here again occurs the question we have just raised. Was it Madame de
+Longueville who caused the rupture of the projected marriage between the
+Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse? If hers was the chief
+fault, we look upon it with regret, that in the eye of posterity she
+should bear the blame of such a fault. If she only yielded to the advice
+of La Rochefoucauld, we have the more excuse for her, and assert that
+the fault comes home to him. As we have seen, that affair is still
+involved in much obscurity, and since De Retz himself hesitates, we
+ought to feel well justified to hesitate in our turn. But it must be
+confessed, the suspicions of the Frondeurs and the accusations of the
+Queen's friends have such great weight that it is scarcely possible to
+avoid attributing to Madame de Longueville a sufficiently large share in
+the deplorable rupture whence so many evils sprang. Her complaisant
+biographer, Villefore, is on this point in accordance with Madame de
+Motteville. Without doubt the marriage of the Prince de Conti with
+Mademoiselle de Chevreuse was far from meeting with universal approval.
+The prudes of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and Mademoiselle de Scuderi in
+particular, protested strongly against such an alliance. The old outrage
+was remembered which, in 1643, Madame de Montbazon, aided by Madame de
+Chevreuse, had dared to perpetrate upon Madame de Longueville; the
+audacious manners of the mother also, which seemed to have been
+inherited by the daughter; the equivocal reputation of the latter, the
+suspected and almost public _liaison_ which she carried on with De Retz.
+Vain objections!--which Madame de Longueville could not allege, for she
+perfectly well knew all that when at Stenay she had authorised the
+Palatine to pledge her word for hers. Other reasons for her conduct must
+therefore be sought, and the reasons can only be those which her enemies
+have given, and in the foremost place the jealousy of influence, the
+desire of retaining over her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, an
+empire that Charlotte de Lorraine would, infallibly, have deprived her.
+
+That irreparable error, in bringing about the perilous position in which
+Conde speedily found himself, necessarily led Madame de Longueville to
+the commission of another error, in some sort compulsory, and which was
+the complement of the first; it is certain that more than anyone else
+she incited her brother to take the resolution he ultimately determined
+upon adopting. La Rochefoucauld says so, and all contemporary writers
+repeat the same. We will merely make this essential remark: Madame de
+Longueville had at first very readily entered into the reconciliatory
+plans of Conde and La Rochefoucauld, and into their negotiations with
+the Court; it was only when those designs had failed, when towards the
+month of June negotiation had given place to violence, when she saw her
+brother surrounded by assassins, liable at any moment to fall under the
+blows of Hocquincourt, or to be flung again into the dungeons of
+Vincennes, it was then that trembling with fear and indignation, and ill
+as she was in health, she rushed to Saint-Maur; and that, finding there
+the flower of the aristocracy and the army assembled, she felt her
+warlike ardour of 1649 and 1650 rekindle. She thought that nothing could
+resist on the field of battle the victor of Rocroy and Lens, seconded by
+Turenne, who at Stenay had shown such a lively and tender attachment for
+her, and the sentiment of which she had never ceased to treat with all
+the exquisite tact of which she was capable. She had also great
+confidence in Spain, which was at her feet, and lavished upon her every
+kind of deference. She urged, therefore, Conde to fling further
+perfidious and useless negotiations to the winds, and to appeal to the
+fortune of arms.
+
+But to these different motives, the force of which Madame de Longueville
+summed up the value with the authority of her intelligence and
+experience, was joined another still more potent over her heart, and
+which had been the original mainspring of her resolutions and conduct.
+La Rochefoucauld alone has no right to impute it to her as a crime. For
+ourselves, we do not hesitate to make it known upon the evidence of
+irrefragable testimony; for we are not composing a panegyric of Madame
+de Longueville, but narrating certain passages of her life, in which
+that of the seventeenth century, with its grandeurs and its miseries, is
+so completely identified; and if we feel a sincere admiration for the
+sister of the great Conde, that admiration does not close our eyes to
+her errors. It is not unseemly to admire a heroine whose lofty qualities
+are mingled with weaknesses which remind us of her sex. It is, moreover,
+the first duty of history, such as we understand it, and desire to have
+it understood, not to stop at the surface of events, but to seek for
+their causes in the depths of the soul, in human passions and their
+inevitable consequences.
+
+As has been already said, Madame de Longueville did not love her
+husband. Not only was he greatly her senior, but there was nothing about
+him that responded to the ideal which that illustrious disciple of the
+Hotel de Rambouillet had formed for herself, and which she pursued in
+vain through guilty illusions, until that which she sought and found at
+its very source--no longer in the school of Corneille and of
+Mademoiselle de Scuderi, but in that of her Saviour, in the Carmelite
+convent and at Port Royal. Never was woman less prone to gallantry by
+nature than Anne de Bourbon; but, as we have just remarked, her heart
+and her imagination created in her the necessity of pleasing and of
+being beloved; and it was that want, early cultivated by poetry,
+romances, and the theatre, and somewhat later corrupted by the example
+of the society in which she lived, which lured her far from the domestic
+hearth, and hurried her into the brilliant and adventurous career amidst
+which we find her in 1651. Then her greatest fear was to fall again into
+her husband's hands. M. de Longueville had very willingly followed his
+wife in the Fronde; his own discontentments of themselves drove him into
+it, as well as his uncertain and mobile character which led him to
+embark in novel enterprises with as much facility as it urged him to
+abandon them. In 1649 he had figured as one of the generals of Paris,
+and had raised Normandy against Mazarin. One year of imprisonment had
+cooled him, and in 1651, having recovered his government of Normandy and
+tasted some few months of that peaceful grandeur, he found it so much to
+his liking as to be not readily tempted to re-embark upon a stormy
+course of life at the age of nearly fifty-seven. Reports, only too true,
+had informed him of what until then he had only surmised
+imperfectly--the declared _liaison_ of his wife with La Rochefoucauld.
+He had been greatly irritated at it, and Conde's enemies, with De Retz
+at their head, carefully fostered his ill humour, and his daughter,
+Marie d'Orleans, afterwards Duchess de Nemours, seconded them to the
+utmost of her power.
+
+She detested her stepmother, whose faults her strong common-sense led
+her easily to scan, without her own vulgar and commonplace mind being
+capable of comprehending the Duchess's great qualities. It was
+impossible less to resemble each other. The one adored grandeur even to
+the romantic and the chimerical, the other was entirely positive and
+matter-of-fact, and absorbed with her own interest, especially in those
+relating to her property. Alienated from the Fronde through the jealous
+hatred she bore towards her stepmother, who in turn liked her almost as
+little, and probably also did not take pains enough to manage her,
+Mademoiselle turned towards the Queen, and strove to gain over her
+father to the same party. Therein she succeeded by degrees. The Duke de
+Longueville could not overtly separate himself from Conde, and at first
+promised him all he required; then he shut himself up in Normandy, and
+there followed a dubious line of conduct which neither compromised him
+with the Court party nor that of Conde. But he recalled his wife
+peremptorily, and sent her a mandate to rejoin him. That mandate was
+pressing and threatening, and it terrified Madame de Longueville. She
+knew that her husband had been informed of everything, and that he was
+wholly given up to the influence of his daughter. She feared
+ill-treatment; she felt certain at least that once in Normandy she would
+no more quit it, and that her time would be passed between an aged,
+irritated husband, and an overruling step-daughter, who would apply
+themselves in concert to retain her in the solitude of a province, and
+perhaps to make her expiate in confinement her bygone triumphs. The idea
+of the sorrowful life which awaited her in Normandy produced very nearly
+the same effect upon her as the thought of a second imprisonment upon
+the mind of Conde. She sought for a means of avoiding that which was to
+her the worst of all evils; there was an assured though dangerous
+one--war, which would prevent her from repairing to Normandy, under the
+pretext more or less specious that she could not abandon her brother.
+Such was the design she formed within herself and very soon resolved
+upon adopting, and the fresh negotiations which La Rochefoucauld
+proposed thwarted her doubly. Should those negotiations prove successful
+they would deprive her of the only pretext she had for not rejoining
+her husband in Normandy, and she thought it strange that it was La
+Rochefoucauld who would expose her to that peril. From that moment
+doubtless angry explanations took place between them. She perceived that
+La Rochefoucauld was wearied of his sacrifices, that he wished to
+reconcile himself with the Court, repair his fortunes, and taste the
+sweets of peace; whilst in the eyes of the superb princess the paramount
+consideration with him, for whom she had done so much, ought to have
+been never to forsake her, should they both together rush to certain
+ruin. But La Rochefoucauld was no longer wound up to a tone so lofty,
+worthy of the Great Cyrus and of their chivalrous love of 1648, and the
+haughty Madame[8] was deeply wounded at the discovery. Nevertheless, she
+was not insensible to what there was of reasonable in La Rochefoucauld's
+advice, and not to incur the entire responsibility of the part which her
+brother might take, she consented to follow her sister-in-law, the
+Princess de Conde, and her nephew, the Duke d'Enghien, into Berri, one
+of Conde's governments:--a journey which moreover had the advantage of
+separating her from her husband. She set out, therefore, on the 18th of
+July for Bourges, taking with her the elder of her two sons, the
+younger, Charles de Paris, born in 1649, not being able to bear the
+fatigue of the journey. M. de Longueville recalled her from Berri as he
+had from the capital, and he insisted on the return of his son in terms
+so forcible that she was compelled to comply, so far as the boy was
+concerned. Thenceforward, being alone and exposing only herself, without
+breaking with M. de Longueville, and by using all her wit to colour her
+disobedience, she eluded his orders, remained in Berri, forming in the
+depth of her heart the most ardent desire for war, but calm in
+appearance; sometimes accompanying the Princess de Conde to Montrond, at
+others making somewhat lengthened visits to the Carmelite convent at
+Bourges. And thus she awaited the issue of the negotiations, counselled
+and carried on by La Rochefoucauld, which should decide her destiny.
+
+    [8] The name she figures under in the _Grand Cyrus_.
+
+La Rochefoucauld must indeed have very earnestly longed to bring to a
+close the life of fatigue and danger which he had for three years led,
+to have been able to cherish any illusion as to the success of the steps
+he was about again to take. Where was the hope of regaining the Fronde
+which had just been outrageously deceived, after it had given itself to
+the Prince de Conde in his misfortune, and had extricated him from it?
+If La Rochefoucauld thought that the alliance of the Fronde was
+necessary, he ought to have set about it sooner and at the proper time,
+persuaded Conde and his sister to keep their word, and sealed the
+alliance agreed upon between the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de
+Chevreuse. He had not done so; and now that he had allowed a treacherous
+war to spring up between Conde and the Fronde, by what charm did he
+think he could suspend it? With the Queen also all negotiation was
+exhausted and superfluous. An understanding should have been come to
+with her when she was so disposed, when Conde was all-powerful, when he
+could either have more readily abased or exalted the Crown: _Tum decuit
+cum sceptra dabas_. But at the end of August, Conde, embroiled with the
+Court and with the Fronde, had nothing left save his sword. That was
+sufficient, doubtless, to make everybody tremble, but was it enough to
+inspire confidence in anyone? La Rochefoucauld obtained, therefore, on
+all sides to his advances only very vague responses. The time for
+negotiation was passed irrevocably, and whilst La Rochefoucauld
+exhausted himself in useless efforts, the Queen and the Fronde concluded
+a treaty together, with the common design of overwhelming Conde.
+
+This treaty was the work of Mazarin, the masterpiece of his political
+skill. It authorised the Frondeurs to speak against the Cardinal in
+parliament for some time forward in order to cover their secret
+understanding. The hat was assured to the Coadjutor, high posts and
+great advantages to the principal friends of Madame de Chevreuse, the
+first rank in the cabinet given to Chateauneuf, and a solid peace
+established between Mazarin and the powerful Duchess, under the
+condition that his nephew Mancini, provided for with the duchy of Nevers
+or that of Rethelois, should marry Mademoiselle de Chevreuse. The draft
+of this projected treaty fell into the hands of Conde through the bearer
+of the paquet in which it was enclosed being in the service of the
+Marquis de Noirmoutier, and the Prince caused it to be printed in order
+to ventilate and bring to light the alliance between the Frondeurs, the
+Queen, and Mazarin. Madame de Motteville, so well informed of everything
+relating to the Queen and the Cardinal, considers that treaty as
+perfectly authentic, and she gives the different articles of it, "as the
+best means for understanding the changes which were made by the Queen
+immediately after the King's majority."
+
+That majority had been declared on the 7th of September in a _Bed of
+Justice_, with all the customary pomp. As the first Prince of the blood
+did not think it possible to be present at it in safety, during that
+evening the Queen in her indignation had whispered these significant
+words to De Retz: "Either M. le Prince or I must perish."[9]
+
+    [9] Retz, tom. ii. p. 291.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  CONDE, URGED BY HIS SISTER, GOES UNWILLINGLY INTO REBELLION.
+
+
+ANNE OF AUSTRIA now seriously prepared to make head against Conde, and
+with that intent she rallied round her all the forces of the Fronde
+united with those of the royal army. In fine, with the firm design of
+inspiring the Fronde with perfect confidence, at the same time that the
+nomination of France to the Cardinalate had devolved upon the Coadjutor,
+the Queen again brought into the cabinet, as a sort of Prime Minister,
+the statesman of the party, the friend and instrument of Madame de
+Chevreuse, the aged but ambitious Chateauneuf, with the two-fold
+engagement to serve Mazarin in secret and to contribute to the utmost of
+his power to destroy Conde. In such arrangements, let it be thoroughly
+understood, no one was acting with good faith: De Retz and Chateauneuf
+in nowise proposed to re-establish Mazarin; Chateauneuf did not dream of
+making another man's bed, but, once having attained power, he intended
+to keep it for himself, and Mazarin was firmly resolved to dismiss
+Chateauneuf as soon as he could. But if these crafty politicians were
+ready to betray one another in everything else, there was one point on
+which they were sincerely united--the destruction of Conde. At that they
+laboured in concert, or rather vied with each other. Queen Anne
+manifested therein a fervour, a constancy, a marvellous skill, and
+succeeded in carrying off from Conde the chief supports of his great
+strength. He saw that war was inevitable, and yet, says Sismondi, he
+only yielded to it with repugnance. "You will have it so," said Conde at
+last; "but understand that if I do draw the sword, I shall be the last
+to return it to the scabbard." It was the women especially who hurried
+their admirers into the _melee_.
+
+Considering the nomination of the New Cabinet, with Chateauneuf at its
+head, as a veritable declaration of war, Conde went to Chantilly, and,
+it is said, had a very narrow escape from falling into an ambuscade
+which the Court had prepared for him at Pontoise.
+
+He remained for some few days at Chantilly, pensive and agitated in
+presence of the great resolution he was on the eve of taking. The
+mediation of the Duke d'Orleans, the only one he could accept, offered
+no security, the Duke instead of governing the Coadjutor and Madame de
+Chevreuse, was then governed by them. His individual inclination was to
+come to an understanding with the Queen and even with Mazarin, as he had
+very clearly shown. He had continually returned to it; but after so many
+lying words and odious plots, the execution of which alone was wanting,
+he thought he would be in a better position to treat solidly with the
+Court at the head of a powerful and victorious army, than in the midst
+of wretched intrigues, unworthy of his character, in which he
+momentarily staked his honour and his life. He never permitted the idea
+of raising himself above royalty to enter into his mind; he merely
+thought that to obtain better conditions from it it was necessary to
+render himself imposing to it, and to make himself feared. That is what
+was then passing in his mind. Civil war inspired him with horror, and we
+may learn from La Rochefoucauld,[1] who was then in his most intimate
+confidence, that he long weighed "the consequences of so grave a
+determination." Let us be chary, therefore, of accusing Conde of levity;
+let us recognise that insensibly his position had become such that he
+could neither remain in it nor quit it, in one way or another, save with
+equal danger.
+
+    [1] La Rochefoucauld, p. 76.
+
+Among the different motives which rendered Conde averse to civil war,
+the passion that he had just begun to feel for the Duchess de Chatillon
+must not be forgotten. We shall return a little further on to this
+episode in Conde's life. It is sufficient to remark here that it was
+grievous to him to quit the lovely Duchess, who then was residing very
+close to Chantilly, in the charming chateau of Merlon or Mello, near
+Pontoise, the enjoyment of which had been granted to her for life by the
+old Princess de Conde, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, who expired
+in her arms at Chatillon-sur-Loing, in December, 1650--a gracious grant,
+which the Prince, her son, had hastened to ratify with a somewhat
+interested generosity. Madame de Chatillon had her reasons of more than
+one kind for being opposed to the war, and in the intimate counsels of
+the Prince she urged him to an understanding with the Court. In that she
+made common cause with La Rochefoucauld, and was in open quarrel with
+Madame de Longueville. Sensible of Conde's passion without sharing it,
+she managed that lofty lover with infinite tact, at the same time that
+she was deeply enamoured of the young, handsome, and brave Duke Charles
+Amadeus of Savoy, Nemours,[2] who from his youth and adventurous
+instincts would have longed for war, and whom she alone, seconded by La
+Rochefoucauld, retained in the party of peace.
+
+    [2] Charles Amadeus had succeeded to the title and rank of his elder
+    brother, the Duke de Nemours, one of Conde's intimate friends in
+    youth, who had been killed early in action, even before Rocroy.
+    Conde had transferred to Charles Amadeus the affection which he bore
+    his brother. The young duke had married the beautiful Madlle. de
+    Vendome, daughter of Duke Caesar, and sister of the Dukes de
+    Mercoeur and Beaufort, and by her he had two daughters who became,
+    one the Queen of Portugal, the other the Duchess of Savoy. At the
+    death of the Duke de Nemours, in 1652, his title passed to his
+    younger brother Henri de Nemours, Archbishop of Rheims, who then
+    quitted the church, and espoused Madlle. de Longueville, the
+    authoress of the Memoirs.
+
+Everything, however, tended to precipitate Conde towards the fatal
+resolution. Prudence did not permit him to remain any longer at
+Chantilly,[3] and it behoved him to place himself beyond the risk of a
+_coup-de-main_ by withdrawing to his government of Berri, whither he had
+already sent his son, his wife, and his sister. It was, it is true, the
+road to Guienne, but he might stop there. All the population was devoted
+to him, and the tower of Bourges and the strong fortalice of Montrond
+offered him a safe asylum.
+
+    [3] La Rochefoucauld, p. 96.
+
+Conde, even after reaching Berri, still hesitated, not wishing to take
+any step before again conferring with his sister, who was then at
+Montrond with the Princess. There he held a final council, a supreme
+deliberation, at which Madame de Longueville, Conti, and La
+Rochefoucauld were present. More than one grave motive urged him to war:
+the well-founded dread of assassination or of a fresh incarceration, the
+ardent hatred of his enemies, of the Queen and the Fronde, the power of
+Chateauneuf which certainly had not been given him in vain, the
+inutility of negotiations with people who seemed decidedly to have taken
+their choice, the necessity of avoiding the fate of Henri de Guise, the
+consciousness of his strength so soon as his foot should tread the
+field of battle, the promises seemingly so sure of the Bouillons and
+many others. At the same time, his good sense, his loyalty, the scarcely
+stifled instincts of duty, and his innate aversion for anything which
+resembled anarchy, restrained him; and in that prolonged and dubious
+struggle between conflicting feelings, there were others which hurried
+him onward. Madame de Longueville, the Prince de Conti, La Rochefoucauld
+also urged him to declare himself against the Court, and Madame de
+Longueville with more vivacity than anyone else.[4] Conde still
+resisted, explaining to them all the strength of royalty, the ascendancy
+of the King's name, the weakness and treachery of factions, the bad
+faith of Spain. Then concluding by yielding, he addressed them in these
+memorable words: "You commit me to a strange line of action, of which
+you will tire sooner than I, and in which you will abandon me." He spoke
+truly as regarded Conti, and perhaps also La Rochefoucauld; but it
+remains to be seen whether Madame de Longueville, after having helped to
+drive her heroic brother into civil war, did not follow him with an
+inviolable constancy, whether she did not share, even to extremity, the
+dangers and adversities of the Prince, and whether, during his long
+exile, she reappeared for a single moment at Court or in those _salons_
+of the Louvre and the Palais Royal, which had witnessed her early
+successes, and in which her wit and beauty still promised her fresh
+triumphs.
+
+    [4] Mad. de Motteville.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE COQUETS WITH THE DUKE DE NEMOURS.
+
+
+HIS determination to unsheath the sword once taken, Conde put his plans
+into execution without throwing one glance behind him. Having collected
+together in Berri his family and chief supporters, he distributed
+amongst them the several parts they had to play in their common
+enterprise. After this, accompanied by La Rochefoucauld, he went to take
+possession of his new government of Guienne, and there raise the
+standard of insurrection, leaving in Berri his wife and son, his sister,
+the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Nemours, with the President Viole and
+others whom he nominated to important functions. He had placed his
+brother at the head of affairs there, and given the military command to
+the Duke de Nemours. But the result of these arrangements was
+disappointing to him. The Duke de Nemours undoubtedly possessed the most
+brilliant courage, but he had neither the talents nor the steadiness of
+a general. Still absorbed with his passion for Madame de Chatillon, who,
+as has been said, had long retained him in the party of peace, he found
+in Berri a counter-attraction in Madame de Longueville who drew him
+towards that of war; and it would seem that he occupied himself more
+with paying court to the lovely lady than of raising and arming soldiers
+and making Berri a focus of resistance, both political and military;
+for very speedily the Prince de Conti and he were reduced to defend
+themselves in Bourges instead of being able to operate in the open and
+make any advance. The new Minister Chateauneuf showed himself worthy of
+the confidence of Madame de Chevreuse and the Fronde. He made the Queen
+understand that it was necessary to combat the revolt foot to foot from
+its very first step, and he persuaded her to march herself with the
+young King into Berri at the head of a strong army. He nobly inaugurated
+the new ministry by that measure, which had two objects: the one direct
+and immediate, to strangle the insurrection at its birth; the other
+still more important, to set royalty at liberty far from Duke Gaston and
+the Parliament. The city of Bourges, which had shown so much enthusiasm
+on Conde's arrival, opened its gates to the King and Chateauneuf. The
+strong tower which defended the city, offering no resistance, was taken
+without a blow being struck, and instantly demolished. The Princess de
+Conde, her son, Madame de Longueville, Conti, and Nemours were forced to
+take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond. On learning that Palluan
+was advancing on that fortress, Conti and Nemours not wishing that the
+precious pledges confided to their charge should incur any risk, left
+the Marquis de Persan in Montrond, and with what remained to them of
+their faithful troops escorted the Princess, her son, and Madame de
+Longueville as far as Guienne, which they reached by the end of the
+month of October.
+
+It was during that rapid journey and their very brief sojourn in Berri
+that certain obscure relations, it would appear, were formed between the
+Duke de Nemours and Madame de Longueville, the report of which reaching
+Bordeaux, exaggerated probably by interested and malevolent underlings,
+wounded La Rochefoucauld and drove him to a violent rupture. A loyal and
+confiding explanation might have sufficed to disperse a cloud, such as
+at times will obscure the most settled friendships. La Rochefoucauld
+brewed a storm out of it which, thanks to his Memoirs, has sent its
+echoes down to posterity. His separation from Madame de Longueville was
+marked by an eagerness which excites the suspicion that he had longed
+for it.[1] He ought at least to have stopped there, but hurried away by
+an implacable resentment, he accused her, or caused her to be accused by
+Conde, of having wished to betray his interests to serve those of the
+Duke de Nemours, giving her even to understand that "if a like
+prepossession took her for another, she was capable of going to the same
+extremities if that person desired it."[2] The accusation is yet more
+absurd than odious. The Duke de Nemours was not the least in the world a
+party chief; he was a friend of Conde, whose fidelity could only be
+shaken through his love for Madame de Chatillon. To detach him from
+Madame de Chatillon was therefore to give him wholly to Conde. Moreover,
+Madame de Chatillon, like La Rochefoucauld, was for peace, she had won
+over the Duke de Nemours to it, and both together urged Conde thereto.
+To carry off the Duke de Nemours from such conspiracy and to seduce him
+to the war party, was to serve the interests of Conde like as his sister
+intended. Thus the principal and the dominant motive of Madame de
+Longueville's conduct was just the opposite of that which La
+Rochefoucauld imputed to her. Let us add further that she had always had
+a rivalry of beauty with Madame de Chatillon, and that her vanity was
+not sorry to humiliate a rival whom she did not tolerate by depriving
+her for a few days of a lover of whose attachment the latter fancied
+herself perfectly secure. Love and the senses had nothing to do with it
+in this matter. The gratification of the senses, it has already been
+remarked, did not ensnare her; she was proof against their surprises.
+Previously the Duke de Nemours had addressed his ardent homage to her,
+but all the attractions of his handsome person and his lofty bearing had
+made no impression upon her, and she only bestowed a thought on the
+amiable Duke when she had some interest to forward by reviving such
+conquest. And this is not an opinion hazarded at a venture; it is
+furnished us by a person thoroughly well informed, and who had no
+affection for Madame de Longueville; the testimony therefore is the more
+valuable: "M. de Nemours[3] previously had not much pleased her, and
+notwithstanding the attachment he appeared to entertain for her, as well
+as all the good qualities and grand airs of which he could boast, she
+had found nothing charming about him save the pleasure he showed himself
+desirous of giving her by abandoning Madame de Chatillon for herself,
+and that which she had of depriving a woman whom she did not like of a
+friend of so much consequence." Now how far had this _liaison_ of a few
+days gone? Bussy is the only contemporary who offers any reply to this
+question in the cynical light of his _Histoire amoreuse des Gaules_. But
+who would accept that satire literally? It proves only one thing, the
+unfortunate notoriety which the imprudence of Madame de Longueville
+derived from the Memoirs of La Rochefoucauld published in 1662. Before
+those Memoirs saw the light, not a word is anywhere to be found on a
+point as obscure as it is delicate. After, Bussy was delighted to repeat
+La Rochefoucauld, and Madame de Longueville has thus fallen into the
+scandalous chronicle.
+
+    [1] "La Rochefoucauld, depuis assez longtemps ayant envie de la
+    quitter, prit cette occasion avec joie."--Mad. de Nemours, p. 150.
+
+    [2] La Rochefoucauld, edition 1662, p. 198.
+
+    [3] Mad. de Nemours, pp. 149, 150.
+
+Let us abstain from defending her; although even we should be convinced
+that she knew where to stop in that dangerous game of coquetry, she is
+not the less culpable in our eyes both towards La Rochefoucauld and
+herself, and we do not hesitate to say that she went so far as to
+deserve the calumny. Doubtless she was justly hurt by the incertitude of
+La Rochefoucauld, who, after having plunged her into civil war in 1648
+with no other motive than that of his own interest, would have made her
+abandon it in 1651 through the same motive still; which at one moment
+impelled her towards the Fronde, at another brought her back to the
+Court, at the will of his fickle hopes, and linked her with Madame de
+Chatillon for the purpose of engaging Conde in negotiations the success
+of which involved their separation and procured her a prison in
+Normandy. Yes--she had grave cause of complaint against La
+Rochefoucauld. She might have quitted him, it is true, but not for
+another. She had only one means of covering, of almost condoning the
+single error of her life, which was to maintain faithful to it, or to
+renounce it for virtue and Heaven. And it is just that which Madame de
+Longueville appears to have done, if that sad and rapid episode had
+remained unknown; but there is no favourable shade for those personages
+who appear in the glaring front of the stage of this world; their
+slightest actions do not escape the formidable light of history: the
+weakness of a moment is recorded as an irredeemable error against them.
+That of Madame de Longueville, fugitive as it may have been, dubious
+even as it was, sufficed to tarnish a fidelity until then victorious
+over so many trials; it needed to be atoned for by the sincere
+conversion which was speedily about to follow it, and by five-and-twenty
+years of the severest penitence; and still further it forces us to place
+Anne de Bourbon, in the record of great sentiments and exalted loves,
+above Heloise and Mademoiselle de la Valliere.
+
+At any rate the assurance is consoling that this error, which we have
+attempted neither to conceal nor extenuate, is the single one
+perceptible in the private life of Madame de Longueville. But let us
+turn aside from these wretched instances of feminine fragility in one of
+the loftiest minds, in order to follow Conde and the march of events in
+Guienne.
+
+We will first, however, by a brief retrospect, endeavour to render the
+shifting phases of the two Fronde wars more capable of being easily
+followed.
+
+Dating from the arrest of Broussel, nothing could exceed the rapidity of
+events; the wheel of fortune had turned with such terrific mobility for
+those of her favourites who sought to attach themselves to it. The
+revolt had, in fact, broken out on the 26th of August, 1648; in January,
+1649, the Court withdrew to Saint Germain, at the risk of never
+re-entering Paris; in April, the sword of Conde imposed the treaty of
+Saint Germain, and the King returned in October. Mazarin shortly
+afterwards believed himself strong enough to arrest, in January, 1650,
+Conde, Conti, and Longueville. A year after that bold _coup d'etat_ he
+was himself obliged to flee (February, 1651) from his enemies, and quit
+France. At the end of eight months, Mazarin returned with an army to the
+aid of royalty; but it required two years of negotiations, intrigues,
+and patient waiting, it needed the errors which the indecision of the
+Duke d'Orleans brought about, the rash violence of Conde, urged onwards
+by his sister, it required, indeed, the entire ruin of France ere the
+Cardinal could, after having led the young King by the hand to the very
+gates of his capital, resume that place in the Louvre which he had
+sagaciously abandoned.
+
+It is difficult to narrate occurrences in their proper order during this
+period: intrigues, broken promises, pledges given to two different
+parties at the same time, such were the smallest misdeeds of all these
+princes and prelates. As one step further in wrong-doing, they entered
+into negotiations with the foreigner, and invited armies across the
+frontier which devastated the provinces. And through what motives? Gondy
+wished to avenge his former mistress, whom Conti had rejected, and whom
+an agent of Conde, Maillard the shoemaker, had publicly insulted.
+Conde's pretensions were nothing less than dragging at his heels a squad
+of governors of towns and provinces who, at his summons, would be ever
+ready to raise the standard of revolt and to impose the will of their
+leader upon the head of the state, whether Minister, Queen, or King.
+Orleans would not yield one jot to his young cousin of the blood-royal,
+Conde; Madame de Longueville feared the severity of an outraged husband.
+The civil war, in forcing her to flee from one end of France to the
+other, or abroad, could alone delay her return to Normandy, her
+re-establishment beneath the conjugal roof, towards which she had
+conceived such an aversion.
+
+Conde accused Gondy in the Parliament chamber of being author of a
+_factum_ condemning severely the Prince's conduct. La Rochefoucauld,
+getting Gondy between two doors, treacherously seized, and was about to
+strangle him, had not the son of the first President, M. de
+Champlatreux, come to the rescue, at the very moment that one of the
+bullies in Conde's pay had drawn his dagger to despatch him.
+
+Two days afterwards (17th of September) the King had attained his
+thirteenth year, and one day beyond; and by the ordonnance of Charles V.
+became of age and capable of governing for himself.
+
+A change of ministry--Chateauneuf being recalled to head the Council and
+Mole to the Seals--deprived Conde of all hope of imposing the conditions
+of a reconciliation; therefore, as has been said, at a Council held at
+Chantilly with his chief adherents, Conti, and the Dukes de Nemours and
+La Rochefoucauld, he determined to set out for Berri. The impartial
+student who examines the conduct of the Prince de Conde is at this
+juncture compelled to draw an indictment against him, under pain of
+belying his conscience and the truth; he must concede that Conde rashly
+engaged in civil war, and exerted himself to drag France into it, solely
+because he could not endure any authority above his own. He was desirous
+of being first in the State, of disposing at will among his creatures of
+honours, dignities, strongholds, and governments. On such conditions, he
+would have consented to let Mazarin, Orleans, De Retz, or any other,
+govern the realm, for the administration of which he felt himself that
+he had neither the slightest inclination nor the smallest capacity
+(October, 1651).
+
+The Fronde is reputed, not without reason, to have been one of the most
+interesting as well as _diverting_ periods in French history; that in
+which the volatile and frivolous vivacity of the national character
+shone with irresistible comicality. How striking was the contrast
+between it in its main features and the great Civil War waged at the
+same time in our own country! Yet the Fronde had its serious--terrible
+aspect, too, in the wide-spread misery it entailed upon France, as may
+be seen from the valuable statistical researches of M. Feillet. That
+writer cites the following passage from the record of an eye-witness of
+what he describes:[4]--"No tongue can tell, no pen describe, no ear may
+hear that which we have seen (at Rheims, Chalons, Rethel, &c). Famine
+and death on all sides, and bodies unburied. Those remaining alive pick
+up from the fields the rotten oat-straw, and make bread of it by mixing
+it with mud. Their faces are quite black; they have no longer the
+semblance of human beings, but that of phantoms.... War has placed every
+one on an equality; nobility lies upon straw, dares not beg, and
+dies.... Even lizards are eaten, and dogs which have been dead perhaps
+some eight days.... Moreover, in Picardy, a band of five hundred
+children, orphans, and under seven years of age, was met with. In
+Lorraine, the famished nuns quitted their convents and became
+mendicants: the poor creatures gave themselves up to be dishonoured for
+the sake of a morsel of bread. No pity, no remorse. An execrable and
+sanguinary war upon the weak. In the heart of the city of Rheims, a
+beautiful girl was chased from street to street for ten days by the
+licentious soldiery; and as they could not catch her, they killed her by
+shooting her down. In the vicinity of Angers, Alais, and Condom, upon
+all the highways of Lorraine, women and children were indiscriminately
+outraged, and left to die drenched in their blood."
+
+    [4] La Misere dans la Fronde.
+
+What could be more _diverting_? The Duke de Lorraine--that restless
+knight-errant who preferred amusing himself with civil war to the quiet
+enjoyment of his throne--amused the noble ladies of his acquaintance
+with a recital of these pleasant incidents; his gallant army, he said,
+was quite a providence for the old women....
+
+After further pursuing his appalling statistics of the misery and
+horrors inflicted by the Fronde at a later date, M. Feillet
+remarks:--"And yet, notwithstanding all this suffering, which we have
+only cursorily sketched, at Court nothing else was thought of but fetes
+and diversions; for the young and brilliant bevy of Mazarin's nieces had
+come to increase the circle of beauties whom the youthful King and his
+gay courtiers vied with each other in paying homage to, and
+entertaining. The warm attachment of Louis for more than one of his
+Minister's nieces, and especially Marie de Mancini, is well known. In
+imitation of their Sovereign, the youthful nobility and a large portion
+of the city gallants plunged into unrestrained dissipation--intervals of
+licentiousness ever succeeding like periods of turbulence and anarchy.
+Such heartless indifference to the sufferings of the people on the part
+of the King and his Court evoked the following couplet, which was put
+into the mouth of Louis by a contemporary pamphleteer:--
+
+"Si la France est en deuil, qu'elle pleure et soupire;
+ Pour moi, je veux chasser, galantiser et rire."
+
+But we are somewhat anticipating events, and therefore return to them in
+the order of time.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  CONDE'S ADVENTUROUS EXPEDITION.
+
+
+CONDE passed several months in Guienne, occupied with strengthening and
+extending the insurrection at the head of which he had placed himself,
+and in repulsing as far as possible in the south the royal army,
+commanded by the skilful and experienced Count d'Harcourt. Amidst very
+varied successes, he learned from different quarters the bad turn which
+the Fronde's affairs was taking in the heart of the kingdom, the
+intrigues of De Retz who held the key of Paris, and the deplorable state
+of the army on the banks of the Loire.
+
+On receiving these tidings at Bordeaux in the month of March, 1652,
+Conde saw clearly the double danger which menaced him, and immediately
+faced it in his wonted manner. Instead of awaiting events which were on
+the eve of taking place at a distance, he determined on anticipating
+them, and formed an extraordinary resolution, of a character very much
+resembling his great military manoeuvres, which at first sight appears
+extravagant, but which the gravest reason justifies, and the temerity of
+which even is only another form of high prudence. He formed the design
+of slipping out of Bordeaux, traversing the lines of Count d'Harcourt,
+to get over in the best way he might the hundred and fifty leagues which
+separated him from the Loire and Paris, to appear there suddenly, and
+to place himself at the head of his affairs.
+
+He left behind him in Guienne a force sufficiently imposing to allow of
+it there awaiting in security the successful results he was about to
+seek. In possessing himself of Agen, Bergerac, Perigueux, Cognac, and
+even for a moment of Saintes, and by pushing his conquests into Haute
+Guienne, on the side of Mont-de-Marsan, Dax, and Pau, he had made
+Bordeaux the capital of a small but rich and populous kingdom,
+surrounded on all sides by a belt of strongholds, communicating with the
+sea by the Gironde, and admirably placed for attack or defence. This
+kingdom, backed as it was by Spain, was capable of receiving continuous
+succour from Santander and St. Sebastian, and a Spanish fleet could
+approach by the Tour de Corduan, bringing subsidies and troops, whilst
+Count de Dognon's fleet, sailing from the islands of Re and Oleron to
+join it, might easily surround and even beat the royal fleet, then
+forming at Brouage under the Duke de Vendome. In 1650, during the
+imprisonment of the princes, Bordeaux had defended itself for more than
+six months against a considerable army with the young king at its head,
+and which was directed by Mazarin in person. Conde, and all his family
+were adored there, by reason of the hatred felt for his predecessor, the
+imperious Duke d'Epernon. The Bordeaux parliament was also equally
+involved in the Fronde as was that of Paris, with which it had allied
+itself by a solemn declaration. Under the parliament was a brave and
+ardent people, which furnished a numerous militia.
+
+Conde had named the Prince de Conti his lieutenant-general--a prince of
+the blood giving lustre to authority, dominating all rivalries, an
+appointment calculated to render obedience more easy. He was aware of
+Conti's levity, but he knew also that he was wanting neither in
+intelligence nor courage. He believed in the ascendency which Madame de
+Longueville had always exercised over her brother, and he hoped she
+would guide him still. He had confidence in that high-souled sister whom
+formerly he had so warmly loved; and although intrigues and a sinister
+influence, to which we shall shortly further allude, had diminished the
+high admiration he had had for her, and to which he later returned, he
+reckoned upon her intelligence, upon her pride, upon that lofty courage
+of which she had given so many proofs at Stenay. At his sister's side he
+left his wife Claire Clemence de Maille-Breze, who had behaved so
+admirably in the first Guienne war. He left her _enceinte_ with their
+second child, and with her he gave to Bordeaux and placed as it were in
+pledge in its hands, to hold the place of himself, the Duke d'Enghien,
+the hope and stay of his house, the peculiar object of his tenderness.
+So that there, he left behind him a government, he thought, which would
+look well alike in the eyes of France and of Europe.
+
+In reality, to what did Conde aspire? To constitute himself the head of
+the nobility against the Court? The nobles thought it harsh to be so
+treated. To commence another Fronde? To do that, it was necessary to
+have the parliaments under his thumb; and he had already been compelled
+to threaten the deputies of that of Aix with the bastinado. Did he look
+forward to an independent principality, as he later on desired to obtain
+from the Spaniards? Or rather did he think of snatching from the Duke
+d'Orleans the lieutenant-generalship? It is difficult to divine what may
+have passed through his capricious brain. He was constant in nothing. It
+was seen later still that he would very willingly have changed his
+religion, offering himself on the one side to Cromwell, and to become a
+protestant in order to have an English army; on the other to the Pope,
+if he would help to get him elected King of Poland.
+
+The income of the Condes in 1609 amounted to ten thousand livres, and in
+1649, besides the Montmorency estates, they held an enormous portion of
+France. First, by the Great Conde, they had Burgundy, Berri, the marshes
+of Lorraine, a dominant fortress in the Bourbonnais that held in check
+four provinces. Secondly, by Conti, Champagne. Thirdly, by Longueville,
+their sister's husband, Normandy. Fourthly, the Admiralty, and Saumur,
+the chief fortress of Anjou, were in the hands of the brother of Conde's
+wife; they fell in through his death, and were sold again by them as
+though they were a family birthright. Later still, they negotiated for
+the possession of Guienne and Provence.
+
+Amidst the cares of administration and of war, Conde carried on an
+assiduous correspondence with Chavigny, then fallen into disgrace, who
+kept him well informed of the state of affairs at Court and in Paris.
+They had assumed quite a new face during the last few months. Mazarin in
+his exile had not learned without inquietude the ever-increasing success
+of Chateauneuf. He saw him active and determined, accepted as a chief by
+all colleagues, skilfully seconded by the keeper of the seals, Mole, and
+by Marshal de Villeroi, the king's governor, an ambiguous personage,
+very ambitious at bottom, and jealous of the Cardinal's favour with the
+Queen. Chateauneuf, it is true, had only entered the Cabinet under the
+agreement of shortly recalling Mazarin; but he incessantly asked for
+fresh delay; he tried to make the Queen comprehend the danger of a
+precipitate return,--the Fronde ready to arouse itself anew, the Duke
+d'Orleans and the Coadjutor resuming their ancient opposition, and
+royalty finding itself once more without any solid support. Anne of
+Austria gradually acquiescing in these wise counsels, Mazarin, who at
+first had with difficulty restrained the impatient disposition of the
+Queen, finding her grown less eager, became alarmed: he saw that he was
+lost should he allow such a rival to establish himself.[1] Therefore,
+passing suddenly from an apparent resignation to an extraordinary
+audacity, he had, towards the end of November 1651, broken his ban,
+quitted his retreat at Dinan, and had resolutely entered France with a
+small force collected together by his two faithful friends, the Marquis
+de Navailles and the Count de Broglie, and led by Marshal Hocquincourt.
+He had by main strength surmounted every obstacle, braved the decrees
+and the deputies of the parliament, reached Poitiers where the Queen and
+young Louis the Fourteenth had eagerly welcomed him; and there, in
+January 1652, after speedily ridding himself of Chateauneuf, too proud
+and too able to be resigned to hold the second rank, he had again taken
+in hand the reins of government.
+
+    [1] Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 96.
+
+This bold conduct, which probably saved Mazarin, came also to the
+succour of Conde. The second and irreparable disgrace of the minister of
+the old Fronde had exasperated him as well as had the umbrage given him
+by the Duke d'Orleans. He thought himself tricked by the Queen, and had
+loudly complained of it. Conde's friends had not failed to seize that
+occasion to reconcile him with the Duke, and to negotiate a fresh
+alliance between them; and as previously the Fronde and the Queen had
+been united against Conde, so also at the end of January 1652, that
+Prince and the Fronde in almost its entirety were united against
+Mazarin.
+
+Madame de Chevreuse alone, with her most intimate friends, remained
+faithful to her hatred and the Queen, dreading far less Mazarin than
+Conde, and choosing between them both for once and for all with her
+well-known firmness and resolution. De Retz trimmed, followed the Duke
+d'Orleans, using tact with the Queen, so that he might not lose the hat,
+and without engaging himself personally with Conde.
+
+If Burnet is to be believed, it was at this conjunction that Conde made
+an offer to Cromwell to turn Huguenot, and embrace the faith of his
+ancestors, in order to secure the aid of the English Puritans.
+
+However that might be, it was not illusory to think that with such a
+government and the continual assistance of Spain, Bordeaux might hold
+out for at least a year, and give Conde time to strike some decisive
+blows. The resolution that he took was therefore as rational as it was
+great. It would have been a sovereign imprudence to remain in Guienne
+merely to engage Harcourt in a series of trifling skirmishes, and after
+much time and trouble take a few little paltry towns, when in the heart
+of the kingdom a treason or a defeat might irreparably involve the loss
+of everything, and condemn Bordeaux to share the common fate, after a
+more or less prolonged existence. Taking one thing with another, Guienne
+was doubtless a considerable accessory; but the grand struggle was not
+to be made there; it was at Paris and upon the banks of the Loire that
+the destiny of the Fronde and that of Conde too must be decided; it was
+thither, therefore, that he must hasten. Every day brought him tidings
+that jealousies, divisions, quarrels were increasing in the army, and he
+trembled to receive, some morning, news that Turenne and Hocquincourt
+had beaten Nemours and Beaufort, and were marching on Paris. Desirous of
+preventing at any price a disaster so irreparable, he resolved to rush
+to the point where the danger was supreme, where his unexpected presence
+would strike terror into the souls of his enemies, revive the courage of
+his partisans and turn fortune to his side. When Caesar, on arriving in
+Greece, learned that the fleet which was following him with his army on
+board, had been dispersed and destroyed by that of Pompey, he flung
+himself alone into a fisherman's bark under cover of night to cross the
+sea into Asia to seek for the legions of Antony, and return with them to
+gain the battle of Pharsalia. When Napoleon learned in Egypt the state
+of France, from the shameful doings of the Directory, the agitation of
+parties, and that already more than one general was meditating another
+18th of Brumaire, he did not hesitate, and however rash it might appear
+to attempt to pass through the English fleet in a small craft, at the
+risk of being taken, or sent to the bottom, he dared every peril, and by
+dint of address and audacity succeeded in gaining the shores of France.
+Conde did the same, and at the end of March 1652, he undertook to make
+his way from the banks of the Gironde to the banks of the Loire, without
+other escort than that of a small number of intrepid friends, and
+sustained solely by the vivid consciousness of the necessity of that
+bold step, his familiarity with and secret liking for danger, his
+incomparable presence of mind and his customary gaiety.
+
+On Palm Sunday, 1652, Conde set forth upon his adventurous expedition.
+He was accompanied by six persons, La Rochefoucauld and his youthful
+son, the Prince de Marcillac, the Count de Guitaut, the Count de
+Chavagnac, a valet named Rochefort, and the indefatigable Gourville,
+under whose directions all the arrangements of the journey seem to have
+been contrived. The whole party were disguised as common troopers, and
+each took a false name, even amongst themselves. For some time they
+followed the Bordeaux road, and using many precautions proceeded until
+they reached Cahusac, where they encountered some troops belonging to La
+Rochefoucauld; but being anxious almost as much to avoid their own
+partizans as the enemy, Conde and his companions hid themselves in a
+barn, while Gourville went out to forage. He succeeded in procuring some
+scanty fare; and they rode on till some hours had passed after
+nightfall, when they reached a little wayside inn, where Conde
+volunteered to cook an omelet for the whole party. The hand, however,
+which could wield a truncheon with such effect, proved somewhat too
+violent for the frying-pan, and in the attempt to turn the omelet, he
+threw the whole hissing mass into the fire.
+
+The little band having reached a certain spot, quitted the main road,
+and began to traverse the enemy's lines. For eight days they encountered
+many perilous incidents and underwent incredible fatigue, riding
+throughout the same horses, never stopping more than two hours to eat or
+sleep, avoiding towns and crossing rivers as they best could; threading
+at first the gorges of the Auvergne mountains, then descending by the
+Bec d'Allier, and making their way to the Loire. The memoirs of La
+Rochefoucauld and Gourville must be consulted for the details of that
+extraordinary journey, and all the dangers it presented. No less than
+ten times did they escape being taken and slain. Their wearied horses at
+last could carry them no longer. La Rochefoucauld was tormented by the
+gout, and his son was so worn out with fatigue that he fell asleep as
+he went. Conde, whose iron frame resisted to the last, was alone
+indefatigable, sleeping and working at will, and always cheerful and
+good humoured.
+
+Upon approaching Gien, at which place the Court then was, Conde had
+twice very nearly fallen into the hands of parties sent out to take him
+alive or dead. Having escaped almost by a miracle, on the last occasion,
+soon after reaching Chatillon, he gained information that the army of
+Beaufort and Nemours lay at about eight leagues from that place, and
+hastened with all speed to join it. At length, to his great joy, he saw
+the advanced guard before him, and several of the troopers came
+galloping up with a loud "_Qui vive!_" Some of them, however, almost
+instantly recognised Conde, and shouts of joy and surprise soon made
+known through the whole army what had occurred.
+
+He found the forces of the Fronde as divided as were its chiefs. He took
+the command of it immediately; thus doing away with the principal cause
+of the jealousy existing between Nemours and Beaufort. He reviewed and
+reunited it, gave it one day's rest, seized, without striking a blow, on
+Montargis and Chateau-Renard, and threw himself with the utmost rapidity
+on the royal army. It was scattered in quarters distant from each other
+for the convenience of foraging, and on account of the little dread with
+which Beaufort and Nemours had inspired it. Marshal d'Hocquincourt was
+encamped at Bleneau, and Turenne a little farther off, at Briare; the
+two Marshals were to unite their forces on the morrow. Conde did not
+give them time for that: that same evening, and during the nights of the
+6th and 7th of April, 1652, he fell upon the head-quarters of
+Hocquincourt, overwhelmed them, and succeeded in routing the rest,
+thanks to one of those charges in flank which he in person ever led so
+energetically. Hocquincourt, after fighting like a gallant soldier, was
+forced to fall back for some leagues in the direction of Auxerre, having
+lost all his baggage and three thousand horse. No sooner did Turenne
+hear of the fact, than he sprang into the saddle, and marched with some
+infantry both to the assistance of his brother officer and to the
+defence of the King, who, resting secure at Gien, might have fallen into
+the hands of the rebels. As he advanced through the darkness of the
+night, the Marshal saw the quarters of Hocquincourt in one blaze of
+fire, and exclaiming, with the appreciation which genius has of genius,
+"The Prince de Conde is arrived!" he hurried on with the utmost speed.
+Having neither cavalry nor artillery, and having sent word to
+Hocquincourt to rally to him as soon as possible, he marched on in good
+order throughout that long and dark night to join the bulk of his troops
+which Navailles and Palluan were bringing up. For an instant he halted
+in a plain where there stood a rather dense wood on his left, with a
+marsh on his right. Those around Conde thought it an advantageous post;
+Conde judged very differently. "If M. de Turenne makes a stand there,"
+said he, "I shall soon cut him to pieces; but he will take good care not
+to do so."[2] He had not left off speaking when he saw that Turenne was
+already retiring, too skilful to await Conde in the plain and expose
+himself to the Prince's formidable manoeuvres. A little further off,
+he found a position much more favourable; there he firmly posted his
+force, determined to give battle. In vain did his officers urge him not
+to hazard an action, not to risk the last army which remained to the
+monarchy, and to confine himself to covering Gien whilst awaiting the
+coming of Hocquincourt. "_No_," replied he, "_we must conquer or perish
+here._"
+
+    [2] It is Tavannes who has preserved the details of this interesting
+    incident.
+
+Turenne, it is true, was very inferior in cavalry to Conde, but he had a
+powerful and well-served artillery. Having encouraged his troops to do
+their duty, he posted himself upon an eminence which he covered with
+infantry and artillery, drew up his cavalry below in a plain too narrow
+to permit of Conde deploying his own, and which could only be reached by
+traversing a thick wood and a causeway intersected by ditches and boggy
+ground. From such strong position, Conde could, in his turn, recognise
+his illustrious disciple. No great manoeuvres were then practicable,
+and as time did not permit of an attempt to turn Turenne, it was
+necessary to crush him out of hand, if that were possible, before he
+could effect a junction with Hocquincourt. The defile was the key of the
+position; and both sides fought therein with equal fierceness. Turenne
+defended himself sword in hand, and upon the six squadrons which Conde
+hurled against him he opened a battery, as they passed, with terrible
+execution, showing a courage equal to that of his heroic adversary.
+Conde, judging from what he now saw, believed the position in the hands
+of Turenne to be impregnable; and it being too late to execute any other
+manoeuvres with success during that day, he continued to cannonade the
+royalist army till the evening, without any other attempt to bring it to
+a battle.
+
+Napoleon has not spared Conde in this affair any more than other
+critics. He sums all their opinions up in one piquant phrase, which it
+appears he was unable to resist, and which made him smile in uttering
+it. "Conde," said he, "for that once, was wanting in boldness." The
+dictum is both brief and incisive, but there was no foundation for it,
+in a military point of view. There was, in truth, no want of boldness on
+Conde's part throughout that campaign: far from it, his whole line of
+conduct was a succession of audacious actions and combinations. What
+could be bolder than that forced journey of nearly ten days for more
+than one hundred and fifty miles with half-a-dozen followers to go and
+take the command of an army? What bolder than the resolution taken out
+of hand to throw himself between Turenne and Hocquincourt, to cut in two
+the royal army and to disperse one half of it before attacking the
+other? Did Conde lose a moment in marching against Turenne and pursuing
+him sword in hand? Was it his fault that he had to cope with a great
+captain, who knew how to select an excellent position, and to maintain
+himself in it with immovable firmness? In the attack of that position,
+did Napoleon mean to reproach Conde with want of boldness? Turenne, it
+is true, covered himself with glory, for he successfully resisted Conde;
+but Conde, in not having been victorious, was not in the slightest
+degree beaten. The strategy, therefore, on that occasion was
+irreproachable. As will be seen, it was in his policy only that he
+failed. Conde quitted the army at a very ill-timed moment, in our
+opinion, but that step was taken through considerations which had
+nothing to do with the science of war.
+
+To revert for a moment to this much-criticised action of Bleneau.
+Towards night, Hocquincourt appeared upon the field, having rallied a
+considerable part of his cavalry. Conde then retired, finding that his
+attempt was frustrated, and took the way to Montargis; while Turenne
+rejoined the Court, and was received by the Queen with all the
+gratitude which such great services merited. Her first words went to
+thank him for _having placed the crown a second time upon her son's
+head_.
+
+The terror and confusion which had reigned in Gien during the whole of
+the preceding night and that day may very well be conceived when it is
+remembered that the safety of the King himself, as well as the Queen,
+was at stake, and that the life of the favourite Minister might at any
+moment be placed at the mercy of his bitterest enemy, justified in
+putting him to death immediately by the highest legal authority in the
+realm. Neither were the ill-disciplined and irregular forces of Conde at
+all desirable neighbours to the troop of ladies who had followed the
+Court; and, as soon as it was known that Conde had fallen upon
+Hocquincourt, the whole of the little town was one scene of dismay and
+confusion.
+
+The royal army and that of Conde now both marched towards Paris, nearly
+upon two parallel lines. But the great distress which the Court suffered
+from want of money caused almost as much insubordination to be apparent
+amongst the troops of the King as amongst those of the rebels. Little
+respect was shown to Mazarin himself; and the young King was often
+treated with but scanty ceremony, and provided for but barely.
+
+After quitting the neighbourhood of Gien, Conde, urged by the desire of
+directing in person the negotiations and intrigues which were going on
+in Paris, left his army under the command of the celebrated Tavannes,
+and hastened to the capital. The Count de Tavannes, whom he had selected
+to fill his own place, was without doubt an excellent officer, one of
+the valiant _Petits-maitres_[3] who, upon the field of battle, served
+as wings to the great soldier's thoughts, carried his orders everywhere,
+executed the most dangerous manoeuvres, sometimes charging with an
+irresistible impetuosity, at others sustaining the most terrible onsets
+with a firmness and solidity beyond all proof. But though the intrepid
+Tavannes was quite capable of leading the division of a great army, he
+was not able enough to be its commander-in-chief, and he had not
+authority over the foreign troops which the Duke de Nemours had brought
+from Flanders, and which he made over, on accompanying Conde to Paris,
+to the command of the Count de Clinchamp. The army, thus divided, was
+capable of nothing great. Conde alone could finish what he had begun.
+Once engaged in the formidable enterprise that he had undertaken against
+the Queen and Mazarin, there was no safety for him but in carrying it
+out even to the end. He ought, therefore, to have waged war to the
+knife, if the expression be allowable, against Turenne, conquered or
+perished, and to have constrained Mazarin to flee for good and all to
+Germany or Italy, and the Queen to place in his hands the young King. To
+do that, Conde should have had a definite ambition, an object clearly
+determined; he ought to have plainly proposed to himself to assume the
+Regency, or at least the lieutenant-generalship of the kingdom in the
+place of Gaston, by will or by force, in order to concentrate all power
+in his own hands; that he might become, in short, a Cromwell or a
+William III.: and Conde was neither the one or the other. His mind had
+been perturbed by sinister dreams; but, as has been remarked, he had at
+heart an invincible fund of loyalty. Ambition was rather hovering round
+him than within himself. But whatsoever it was he desired, and in every
+hypothesis--for his secret has remained between Heaven and himself--he
+did wrong in abandoning the Loire and leaving Turenne in force there.
+That was the true error he committed, and not in wanting audacity, as
+Napoleon supposed. It was not a military but a political error--immense
+and irreparable. He might have crushed Turenne, and ought to have
+attempted it, but he let him slip from his grasp. The opportunity once
+lost did not return. Turenne until then was only second in rank; by a
+glorious resistance he acquired from that moment, and it was forced upon
+him to maintain, the importance of a rival of Conde. Mazarin grew from
+day to day more emboldened; royalty, which had been on the very brink of
+ruin, again rose erect, and the Court drew towards Paris; whilst,
+prompted by his evil genius, quitting the field of battle wherein lay
+his veritable strength, Conde went away to waste his precious time in a
+labyrinth of intrigues for which he was not fitted, and in which he lost
+himself and the Fronde.
+
+    [3] Upon the _Petits Maitres_, see Mad. de Sable, chap. i. p. 44.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  POLITICAL AND GALLANT INTRIGUES--THE DUCHESS DE CHATILLON'S SWAY OVER
+  CONDE--SHAMEFUL CONSPIRACY AGAINST MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.
+
+
+CONDE arrived in Paris on the 11th of April, and found everything in the
+utmost confusion. It would be impossible to follow all the petty
+intrigues, or even make allusion to all the events which affected the
+relative situations of the parties in the capital; but it may be
+observed that the tendency of both parties was to hold themselves in the
+neighbourhood of Paris. The chiefs of the Fronde hurried into the city,
+to receive the congratulations due to their exploits from the fair
+politicians who had won them to their cause. The Queen also established
+her head-quarters near the capital, to be ready for any turn of popular
+sentiment in her favour, and to hear the reports of her spies on the
+proceedings of her enemies. She knew what dances were to be given, and
+who were to attend the assemblies of the duchesses of the Fronde. On one
+occasion when Turenne knew that half the officers of Conde's army were
+engaged to a brilliant fete at the Duchess de Montbazon's, he made an
+attack on the enemy's camp, and was only repulsed by the steadiness of
+some old soldiers, who gave time for reinforcements to arrive. But the
+crisis was at hand; for each party began to be suspicious of the other
+gaining over its supporters--Mazarin lavishing promises of place and
+money, and the Duchess de Chatillon, invested with full powers by
+Conde, appearing in the opposite camp as the most irresistible
+ambassadress that ever was seen.
+
+Thus matters stood in the early summer of 1652, and "all that was most
+subtle and serious in politics," La Rochefoucauld tells us, "was brought
+under the attention of Conde to induce him to take one of two
+courses--to make peace or to continue the war; when Madame de Chatillon
+imbued him with a design for peace by means the most agreeable. She
+thought that so great a boon might be the work of her beauty, and
+mingling ambition with the design of making a new conquest, she desired
+at the same time to triumph over the Prince de Conde's heart and to
+derive pecuniary advantages from her political negotiations."
+
+We have already cursorily mentioned the Duchess de Chatillon: it is now
+indispensable, in order to thoroughly understand what is about to
+follow, to know something more of that celebrated personage.
+
+Isabella Angelique de Montmorency was one of the two daughters of that
+brave and unfortunate Count de Montmorency Bouteville, who, the victim
+of a false point of honour and of an outrageous passion for duelling,
+was decapitated on the Place de Greve, on the 21st of June, 1627. She
+was sister of Francois de Montmorency, Count de Bouteville, better known
+as the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg. Born in 1626, she had been
+married in 1645 to the last of the Colignys, the Duke de Chatillon, one
+of the heroes of Lens, killed in the action of Charenton in 1649. Left a
+widow at twenty-three, her rare loveliness won for her a thousand
+adorers. She was one of the queens of politics and gallantry during the
+Fronde; and even, after manifold amours, at thirty-eight could boast of
+captivating the Duke de Mecklenbourg, who espoused her in 1664. To
+beauty, Madame de Chatillon added great intelligence, but an
+intelligence wholly devoted to intrigue. She was vain and ambitious, and
+at the same time profoundly selfish, moderately scrupulous, and somewhat
+of the school of Madame de Montbazon. While both were young, she had
+smitten Conde; but he had thought no more of her after becoming absorbed
+with his love for Mademoiselle de Vigean. After that elevated passion,
+so sorrowfully terminated,[1] and after the fugitive emotion with which
+the lovely and virtuous Mademoiselle de Toussy could still inspire him,
+Conde stifled his chevalaresque instincts and bade adieu to the _haute
+galanterie_ of his youth and of the Hotel de Rambouillet. A few
+insignificant and commonplace attachments, of which no record has
+survived, alone excepted, Madame de Chatillon only is known to have
+captivated his heart for the last time; and that _liaison_ exercised
+upon Conde and his affairs, at the epoch at which we have arrived, an
+influence sufficiently great for history to occupy itself therewith, if
+it would not be content with retracing consequences and as it were the
+outline of events which pass across the stage of the world without being
+understood, without penetrating to the true causes which are to be
+discovered in the characters and passions of mankind. And, of all
+passions, there is none at once more energetic and wide-grasping than
+love. It occupies an immense place in human life, and in the loftiest as
+well as the lowliest conditions. In our own times, we have seen it make
+and mar kings. In an earlier epoch, by detaining Antony too long in
+Cleopatra's arms at Alexandria, the formidable tempest gathered above
+his head which nearly overwhelmed him at Munda. It played a great part
+in the war which Henry IV. was about to undertake, when a sudden death
+arrested him. One can scarcely resist a smile on seeing historians for
+the most part taking no account of it, as a thing too frivolous, and
+consigning it altogether to private life, as though that which agitates
+the soul so powerfully were not the principle of that which blazes forth
+exteriorly! No, the empire of beauty knows no limitation, and in no
+instance did it show itself more potent than over those great hearts of
+which Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, and Henry IV. of France
+were the owners. We may well place Conde amongst such illustrious
+company.
+
+    [1] Mademoiselle de Vigean took the veil on the prince being forced
+    to marry the niece of Cardinal Richelieu.
+
+One graceful memento of Madame de Chatillon's power over Conde has
+descended to our own day. At Chatillon-sur-Loing, in what remains of the
+ancient chateau of the Colignys, which Isabelle de Montmorency derived
+from her husband and left to her brother, in that salon of the noble
+heir of the Luxembourgs, as precious for history as for art, wherein may
+be seen collected together, by the side of the sword of the Constable
+Anne, the likeness of Luxembourg on horseback, with his proud and
+piercing glance, as well as the full-length portrait of Charlotte
+Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Conde, in widow's weeds, there is
+also a large and magnificent picture, representing a young woman of
+ravishing beauty, with perfectly regular features, with the loveliest
+bright chestnut hair, grey eyes of the softest expression, a swan-like
+neck, of a slight and graceful figure, painted with a natural grandeur,
+and embellished with all the attractions of youth, enhanced by an
+exquisite air of coquetry. She is seated in an easy attitude. One of her
+hands, carelessly extended, holds a bouquet of flowers; the other rests
+upon the mane of a lion, whose head is drawn full-face, and whose
+flaming eyes are unmistakably the terrible eyes of Conde when seen with
+his sword drawn. Here we behold the beautiful Duchess de Chatillon at
+twenty-five or twenty-six, and very nearly such as she has taken care to
+describe herself in the _Divers Portraits_ of Mademoiselle de
+Montpensier. The head stands out wonderfully. It would be impossible to
+instance a more charming countenance, but it is somewhat deficient in
+character and grandeur, and quite different from that of Madame de
+Longueville. The latter's face was not so regularly symmetrical, but it
+wore a far loftier expression, and an air of supreme distinction
+characterised her entire person.
+
+Madame de Chatillon and Madame de Longueville had been brought up
+together, and very much attached during the whole of their early youth.
+By degrees there sprung up a rivalry of beauty between them, and they
+quarrelled thoroughly when Madame de Longueville perceived after the
+death of Chatillon, that the young and beautiful widow, at the same time
+that she was welcoming very decidedly the homage of the Duke de Nemours,
+had also evident designs upon Conde. Madame de Longueville had her own
+reasons for not being then very severe upon others, but she knew the
+self-seeking heart of the fair Duchess, and she was alarmed for her
+brother's sake. She feared lest Madame de Chatillon, having great need
+of Court favour, might retain Conde in the engagements which he had with
+Mazarin, while she herself was forced to drag him into the Fronde. The
+quarrel was renewed in 1651, as we have seen, and it was in full force
+in 1652. Madame de Chatillon and Madame de Longueville were then
+disputing for Conde's heart: the one drew him towards the Court, fully
+hoping that the Court would not be ungrateful to her; the other urged
+him more and more upon the path of war. We have related how Madame de
+Longueville, well knowing the strength of Conde's friendship for the
+Duke de Nemours, who was in the chains of the Duchess, very
+inopportunely mingled politics and coquetry in Berri, and tried the
+power of her charms upon Nemours, in order to carry him off from Madame
+de Chatillon and from the party of peace. No one ever knew how far
+Madame de Longueville committed herself on that occasion; but, as we
+have remarked, the slightest appearance was enough for La Rochefoucauld.
+As he had only sought his own advantage in the Fronde, not finding it
+therein, he began to grow tired, and asked for nothing better than to
+put an end to the wandering and adventurous life he had been for some
+years leading by a favourable reconciliation. Madame de Longueville's
+conduct in cutting him to the quick in what remained of his tender
+feelings for her, and especially in the most sensitive portion of his
+heart--its vanity and self-love--gave him an opportunity or a pretext,
+which he seized upon with eagerness, to break off a _liaison_ become
+contrary to his interests. Thus, in April, 1652, when he returned to
+Paris with Conde, and there found Madame de Chatillon, he entered at
+once into all her prejudices and all her designs, as he afterwards owned
+to Madame de Motteville:[2] he placed at her service all that was in him
+of skill and ability, and descended to the indulgence of a revenge
+against Madame de Longueville wholly unworthy of an honourable man, and
+which after the lapse of two centuries is as revolting to every
+right-minded person as it was to his contemporaries.
+
+    [2] Mad. de Motteville, tom. v. p. 132. "M. de la Rochefoucauld m'a
+    dit que la jalousie et la vengeance le firent agir soigneusement, et
+    qu'il fit tout ce que Mad. de Chatillon voulut."
+
+Madame de Chatillon was not contented with carrying off the giddy and
+inconstant Duke de Nemours from his new love, then absent; she exacted
+at his hands the public and outrageous sacrifice of her rival. The
+reprisals of feminine vanity did not stop there: the ambitious and
+intriguing Duchess went further, she undertook to ruin Madame de
+Longueville in her brother's estimation. With that object she set
+herself, with the assistance of La Rochefoucauld, to decry her in every
+way to him, and sought even to persuade him that his sister was not
+attached to him as she made it appear, and that she had promised the
+Duke de Nemours to serve him at his expense; whilst Madame de
+Longueville had never dreamed in any way of separating Nemours from
+Conde, but only from her, Madame de Chatillon, purposely to engage him
+more deeply in Conde's interests, in the light that she understood them.
+
+Madame de Longueville's policy was very simple, and it was the true one,
+the Fronde once admitted. Assuredly, it would have been better alike for
+Madame de Longueville, for Conde, and for France not to have entered
+upon that fatal path by which the national greatness was for ten years
+arrested, and through which the house of Conde very nearly perished;
+but, after having embraced that sinister step, no other alternative
+remained to a firm and logical mind than to resolutely pursue its
+triumph. And that triumph, in Madame de Longueville's eyes, was the
+overthrow of Mazarin, a necessary condition of the domination of Conde.
+Such was the end pointed out to her by La Rochefoucauld when engaging
+her in the Fronde at the beginning of 1648, and she had never lost sight
+of it. It was to attain it that she had flung herself into the Civil
+War, and that she had ended by dragging therein her brother; that,
+worsted at Paris in 1649, she had striven in 1650 to raise Normandy;
+that she had risked her life, braved exile, made alliance with a foreign
+enemy, and unfurled at Stenay the banner of the Princes. In 1651, she
+had advised the resumption of arms, and now she maintained the
+impossibility of laying them down, and that, instead of losing himself
+in useless negotiations with the subtle and skilful Cardinal, it was
+upon his sword alone that Conde should rely. She thought him incapable
+of extricating himself advantageously from the intrigues by which he was
+surrounded, and therefore urged him towards the field of battle. She had
+always exercised a great sway over him, because he knew that her heart
+was of like temper to his own; and if passion had not blinded him, he
+would have rejected with disdain the odious accusations they had dared
+to raise against her, as he had done in 1643, in the affair of the
+letters attributed to her by Madame de Montbazon: he would have easily
+recognised that Madame de Chatillon, Nemours, and La Rochefoucauld would
+not have joined to blacken her in his eyes, as a vulgar creature ever
+ready to betray him for the latest lover, save in the manifest design of
+embroiling them both, of securing him, and of making him subserve their
+particular views. Nemours alone knew what had taken place during that
+journey from Montrond to Bordeaux, and the man who is base enough to
+constitute himself the denouncer of a woman to whom he has paid the
+warmest homage, is not very worthy of being believed on his word.
+Besides Nemours has not himself spoken, but Madame de Chatillon and
+Rochefoucauld, who have attributed to him certain sentiments, and we
+know with what motive.
+
+It would be difficult to imagine a conspiracy more disgraceful than that
+formed at this juncture against Madame de Longueville; and that feature
+in it the more shameful perhaps was that La Rochefoucauld himself boasts
+of having invented and worked this machinery, as he terms it. The three
+conspirators were dumb, but through different but equally despicable
+reasons. Madame de Chatillon desired singly to govern Conde, and alone
+to represent him at Court, in order to reap the profits of the
+negotiation. Nemours was desirous of pleasing Madame de Chatillon, and
+looked forward also to have his share in the great advantages promised
+him; and, lastly, La Rochefoucauld was actuated by a pitiless spirit of
+revenge, and in the hope of a reconciliation necessary to his own
+immediate fortunes.
+
+But here arose a delicate point, if we may speak of delicacy in such a
+matter: in the whole cabal, the least odious was, after all, the Duke de
+Nemours, more frivolous than perfidious, and who was deeply smitten with
+Madame de Chatillon. He loved her, and was beloved. The return of the
+Prince de Conde, with his well-declared pretensions, caused him cruel
+suffering, and his rage threatened to upset the well-concerted scheme.
+The lovely lady herself could not sometimes help being embarrassed
+between an imperious prince and a jealous lover. Happily the future
+author of the _Maxims_ was at hand. La Rochefoucauld took upon himself
+to arrange everything in the best way possible. It was not very
+difficult for him to direct Madame de Chatillon how to manage Conde and
+Nemours both at once, and to contrive in such a way that she might
+secure them both. He made the moody Nemours comprehend that, in truth,
+he had no reason to complain of an inevitable _liaison_, "qui ne lui
+devoit pas etre suspecte, puisqu'on voulait lui en rendre compte, et ne
+s'en servir que pour lui donner la principale part aux affaires." At the
+same time, "he urged M. le Prince to occupy himself with Madame de
+Chatillon, and to give her in freehold the estate of Merlon." In such a
+fashion, thanks to the honest intervention of La Rochefoucauld, a good
+understanding was kept up, and the conspiracy went quietly forwards.
+Conde had no mistrust whatever. A veil had been cast over his eyes; his
+martial disposition lulled asleep in the lap of pleasure and in a
+labyrinth of negotiations, and cradled in the hope of an approaching
+peace.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  AIGUILLON, Duchess d', her resentment against Conde for forcing her
+      young nephew Richelieu into a clandestine marriage, i. 174.
+
+  ANCRE, Marshal d', assassinated, i. 17.
+
+  ANET, Chateau d', a haunt of conspirators against Mazarin, i. 105.
+
+  ANNE OF AUSTRIA, Queen of Louis XIII. of France, her reception of Mad.
+      de Chevreuse on her return from exile, i. 39;
+    her dread of adventures and enterprises, 39;
+    Mazarin's entire ascendancy over her, 47;
+    hesitates to take a decided attitude between Mazarin and his
+      enemies, 65;
+    evidence of her love for Mazarin, 100;
+    her Regency opens under most brilliant auspices, 101;
+    the conspiracy to take Mazarin's life determines her to adopt his
+      policy, 102;
+    orders the arrest of Beaufort, 104;
+    her lively displeasure at the duel between Guise and Coligny, 116;
+    her jealous feeling against Madame de Longueville, 122;
+    retires before the Fronde to St. Germain, 155;
+    her endeavour to mortify the ladies of the Fronde by giving a
+      day-light ball, 170;
+    her delight at seeing Conde and the Frondeurs at daggers drawn, 174;
+    secretly confers with De Retz relative to the arrest of Conde, Conti
+      and Longueville; gives the fatal order for that _coup d'etat_,176;
+    orders the arrest of the Duchesses de Longueville and de
+      Bouillon, 178;
+    quits Paris for Rouen to confront Madame de Longueville, 180;
+    the affirmation of the Duchess d'Orleans that the Queen had secretly
+      married Mazarin, 201;
+    evidence of such marriage, 202;
+    finds herself in some sort a prisoner on the proscription of
+      Mazarin, 216;
+    seriously prepares to make head against Conde, 257;
+    her fervour, constancy, and marvellous skill manifested towards
+      weakening Conde, 258;
+    the great danger of herself, the King, and Mazarin at Gien, 287.
+
+  ANNE-GENEVIEVE DE BOURBON-CONDE, Duchess de Longueville, her birth and
+      parentage, i. 1;
+    her desire for conventual seclusion, 5;
+    her great personal beauty, 7;
+    her character, 10;
+    suitors for her hand, 12;
+    married to the Duke de Longueville, 13;
+    her conduct towards a crowd of adorers, 14;
+    has a formidable enemy in the Duchess of Montbazon, 66;
+    the quarrel between the rival Duchesses in the affair of the dropped
+      letter, 71;
+    public apology made her by Madame de Montbazon, 74;
+    unoccupied with politics at this juncture, 79;
+    error of the _Importants_ in not conciliating her, 79;
+    scandalised by Coligny's championship of her in the duel with
+      Guise, 117;
+    said to have witnessed the duel from behind a window-curtain, 118;
+    verses on the occasion, 118;
+    Miossens (afterwards Marshal d'Albret) tries in vain to win her
+      heart, 121;
+    her two individualities of opposite natures, 122;
+    her defective education, 122;
+    character of her epistolary style, 123;
+    the different kind of education given by Menage to Madame de Sevigne
+      and Madame de la Fayette, 124;
+    the conquest of her heart and mind by La Rochefoucauld, 125;
+    _resume_ of her life (up to 1648), 131;
+    queen of the Congress of Munster, 133;
+    acquires a taste for political discussions and speculations, 134;
+    Madame de Motteville's portrait of her at this period (1647), 135;
+    she sacrifices everything for La Rochefoucauld, 140;
+    exercises a somewhat ridiculous empire over her brother Conti, 142;
+    fatal influence of her passion for La Rochefoucauld, 149;
+    throws herself into the first Fronde, 149;
+    ultimately involves in it every member of her family, 150;
+    arrayed against her brother Conde in civil war, 154;
+    she shares all the fatigues of the siege of Paris, 157;
+    her energy and intrepidity, 158;
+    is given up as a hostage to the Parliament by her husband, 159;
+    gives birth to Charles de Paris, _the Child of the Fronde_, in the
+      Hotel de Ville, 159;
+    is reconciled to Conde, resumes her ascendancy over him, and
+      detaches him from Mazarin, 162;
+    her embarrassment on reappearing at Court, 163;
+    the perilous path she is led into by her infatuation for La
+      Rochefoucauld, 166;
+    undertakes to mislead Conde and give him over to Spain, 167;
+    the Queen orders her to be arrested; she escapes to Normandy with La
+      Rochefoucauld, 179;
+    her adventures in Normandy. She raises the standard of revolt at
+      Dieppe, 180;
+    pursued by the Queen, she assumes male attire and reaches Rotterdam
+      and Stenay, 181;
+    becomes the motive power of "_the Women's War_" or _Second_
+      Fronde, 182;
+    the message from her dying mother, 183;
+    her gracious reception by their Majesties on her return from
+      Stenay, 222;
+    the most brilliant period of her career, 223;
+    the idol of Spain, the terror of the Court, and one of the grandeurs
+      of her family, 223;
+    her motives for opposing the marriage of her brother with
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, 228;
+    urges Conde to cut the knot, and make war upon the Crown, 246;
+    her conduct, feelings and motives examined at this juncture, 247;
+    was she the cause of the rupture of Conti's projected marriage, 248;
+    peremptorily commanded to join her husband in Normandy, 253;
+    she perceives a change in La Rochefoucauld's feelings, 254;
+    follows the Princess de Conde into Berri, 254;
+    the Duke de Nemours pays court to her, 262;
+    certain obscure relations between them drives La Rochefoucauld to a
+      violent rupture, 264;
+    a rivalry of beauty leads her to humiliate Madame de Chatillon, 265;
+    how Madame de Longueville fell into "the scandalous chronicle," 266;
+    her grave cause of complaint against La Rochefoucauld, 266;
+    Madame de Chatillon attempts to ruin her in Conde's estimation, 296;
+    her fatal policy in the Fronde arrests the national greatness for
+      ten years, and nearly ruins the House of Conde, 296;
+    the disgraceful conspiracy formed against her, 298.
+
+  ARISTOCRACY in France, its constitution in the reign of Louis XIV.,
+      i. 217.
+
+
+  BEAUFORT, Francis de Vendome, Duke de (called the "King of the
+      Markets"), a suitor for the hand of Anne de Bourbon, 12;
+    a leader of the _Importants_, 15;
+    a rival of Mazarin in the Queen's good graces, 52;
+    his character as sketched by La Rochefoucauld, 52;
+    becomes the led-captain of Madame de Montbazon, and the bitterest
+      enemy of Mazarin, 53;
+    his spite against Madame de Longueville, 71;
+    his conduct in the affair of the dropped letters, 73;
+    insinuates that they were from Coligny, 71;
+    irritated at the banishment of Madame de Montbazon, he enters into a
+      plot against Mazarin, 76;
+    the ungovernable impetuosity of his vengeance against Madame de
+      Longueville strongly stigmatised, 80;
+    prepares an ambuscade to slay Mazarin, 95;
+    the plot fails, 99;
+    is arrested and imprisoned at Vincennes, 105;
+    released by the Fronde and becomes master of Paris, 154;
+    Madame de Montbazon exercises plenary power over him, 208;
+    becomes one of the most conspicuous leaders of the Fronde, 215.
+
+  BEAUPUIS, Count de, detected plotting against Mazarin, escapes to
+      Rome, 86;
+    his denunciation of the evils of Richelieu's inordinate authority,
+      91.
+
+  BEAUTY IN WOMAN, true definition of, 8.
+
+  BOUILLON, de la Tour d'Auvergne, Duke de, conspires against
+      Richelieu, 25;
+    one of the party of the _Malcontents_, 109;
+    joins Conde at Saint-Maur, 245.
+
+  BOUILLON, Duchess de, given up as a hostage to the Fronde, 159;
+    quite as ardent in politics as Madame de Longueville, 206;
+    arrested by the Queen's order at her daughter's bedside, and thrown
+      into the Bastille, 206.
+
+  BRIDIEU, Marquis de, acts as second to Guise in duel with Coligny,
+      113.
+
+  BUCKINGHAM, George Villiers, Duke of, his political correspondence
+      with Madame de Chevreuse, 19.
+
+  BURNET, Bishop, his assertion of Conde's offer to Cromwell to turn
+      Protestant, 280.
+
+  BUSSY-RABUTIN, Count de, value of his satire of Madame de
+      Longueville, 265.
+
+
+  CAMPION, Alexandre de, his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, 28;
+    his censure of Madame de Montbazon's conduct, 80.
+
+  CAMPION, Henri de, attributes the conception of the plot to destroy
+      Mazarin to Madame de Chevreuse in concert with Madame de
+      Montbazon, 89;
+    he stipulates with Beaufort that he should not strike Mazarin, 92;
+    sought for by Mazarin, he takes refuge at Anet, and afterwards at
+      Rome, 97.
+
+  CANTECROIX, Beatrice de Cusance, Princess de, Charles, Duke de
+      Lorraine madly enamoured of, 147.
+
+  CAUMARTIN, Madame de, a portrait of Madame de Chevreuse sketched by De
+      Retz to please the malignant curiosity of, 21.
+
+  CHATEAUNEUF, Charles de l'Aubepine, Marquis de, released from an
+      imprisonment of ten years, 34;
+    why detested by the Princess de Conde, 40;
+    restored to office through Madame de Chevreuse, 57;
+    banished to Touraine, 106;
+    bides his time for displacing Mazarin, and holds the seals on the
+      Cardinal going into exile, 107;
+    deprived of them by the Queen, 230;
+    restored to office to serve Mazarin in secret, 257;
+    nobly inaugurates his ministry by marching with the Queen and young
+      King into Berri, 263;
+    Mazarin learns with inquietude his ever-increasing success, 278;
+    again displaced by Mazarin, 279.
+
+  CHATILLON, Isabelle Angelique de Montmorency, Duchess de (sister of
+      the illustrious Marshal de Luxembourg), the Great Conde's passion
+      for her, 259;
+    she urges Conde to an understanding with the Court, 259;
+    manages her lofty lover with infinite tact, 259;
+    is deeply enamoured of the young Duke de Nemours, 259;
+    invested with full powers as an ambassadress by Conde, 291;
+    her desire to triumph over Conde's heart, 291;
+    her antecedents and character, 292;
+    the important consequences of her liaison with Conde, 292;
+    a portrait of her at twenty-five described, 293;
+    causes of her quarrel with Madame de Longueville, 294;
+    she exacts from Nemours the public and outrageous sacrifice of her
+      rival, 296;
+    attempts to ruin Madame de Longueville in Conde's estimation, 296;
+    her embarrassment between an imperious Prince and a jealous
+      lover, 298.
+
+  CHAVIGNY, Count de, his career, 231.
+
+  CHEVREUSE, Marie de Rohan, Duchess de, her illustrious lineage, 17;
+    marries, first, Charles de Luynes, and afterwards Claude de
+      Chevreuse, 17;
+    as great favourite of Anne of Austria her extensive influence over
+      the politics of Europe, 18;
+    her personal characteristics, 18;
+    summary of her character by Cardinal de Retz, 19;
+    cause of her failure as a great politician, 20;
+    her adventures in exile, 22;
+    her great ascendancy over the cabinet of Madrid, 22;
+    seeks refuge in England, 22;
+    Richelieu's designs to effect her destruction, 23;
+    acts as the connecting link between England, Spain and Lorraine
+      during the Civil War in England, 24;
+    negotiates with Olivarez for the destruction of Richelieu, 26;
+    was she a stranger to the conspiracy of 1642? 26;
+    abandoned by the Queen on its discovery, 30;
+    her frightful position, 31;
+    her perpetual exile decreed by the will of Louis XIII., 32;
+    is dreaded by Mazarin, 33;
+    her triumphant return to Court, 34;
+    her position and political influence, 36;
+    the new relations between her and the Queen, 39;
+    she attacks Richelieu's system as adopted by Mazarin, 48;
+    procures the return of Chateauneuf to office, 49;
+    pleads for the Vendome princes, 50;
+    manoeuvres to secure the governorship of Havre for La
+      Rochefoucauld, 53;
+    the skill, sagacity, and address of her counter-intrigues, 55;
+    tries the power of her charms on Mazarin, 55;
+    devotes her whole existence to political intrigue and conspiracy,
+      56;
+    want of precaution in her attacks upon Mazarin, 58;
+    her curious struggle for supremacy with the Prime Minister, 58;
+    the head and mainspring of the _Importants_, 58;
+    her tactics to displace Mazarin in favour of Chateauneuf, 59;
+    she organises a _coup-de-main_ to destroy Mazarin, 62;
+    arranges with the Cardinal the composition of Madame de Montbazon's
+      apology, 74;
+    her politic purpose of a fete to the Queen foiled by the insane
+      pride of Madame de Montbazon, 76;
+    her efforts to deprive Mazarin of supporters, 80;
+    her share in Beaufort's plot, 82;
+    Madame de Montbazon only an instrument in her hands, 89;
+    her behaviour on the failure of the plot, 106;
+    recommended by the Queen to withdraw from Court, 107;
+    carries on a vast correspondence under the mantle of the English
+      embassy with Lord Goring, Croft, Vendome, and Bouillon, and the
+      rest of the _Malcontents_, 109;
+    her irritation at being prohibited from visiting the Queen of
+      England, 143;
+    Mazarin watches her every movement, 144;
+    ordered to retire to Angouleme, she goes for a third time into
+      exile, 144;
+    her bark is captured by the English Parliamentarians and she is
+      carried into the Isle of Wight, 146;
+    Mazarin has Montresor arrested in hopes of possessing himself of her
+      costly jewels, 146;
+    applies herself to maintain an alliance between Spain, Austria and
+      Lorraine--the last basis of her own political reputation, 147;
+    preserves her sway over the Duke de Lorraine, 148;
+    frustrates Mazarin's projects to win over the Duke, 148;
+    becomes once more the soul of every intrigue planned against the
+      government, 148;
+    constitutes herself the mediatress between the Queen and the
+      Frondeurs, 206;
+    partially restored to the Queen's confidence, 210;
+    assisted in her political intrigues by the Marquis de Laigues, 210;
+    a splendid supper given to her by Madame de Sevigne, 211;
+    forms a plan with the Princess Palatine of a grand aristocratic
+      league against Mazarin, 224;
+    the Fronde in 1651 was Madame de Chevreuse, 225;
+    she procures Conde's release from prison, 225;
+    her resentment at the rupture of her daughter's marriage, 232;
+    she raises the entire Fronde against Conde, 242;
+    opposes the schemes to assassinate Conde, 243;
+    Chateauneuf, her friend and instrument, is made Prime Minister, 257;
+    remains staunch to the Queen and Mazarin through the last Fronde,
+      280.
+
+  CHEVREUSE, Charlotte Marie de Lorraine, Mademoiselle de, her projected
+      marriage with the Prince de Conti, 224;
+    supreme importance of such marriage, 225;
+    disastrous results of its rupture, 232;
+    impetuously proposes to turn the key upon Conde, Conti and Beaufort
+      at the Palais d'Orleans, 233;
+    her suspected and almost public _liaison_ with De Retz, 249;
+    dies suddenly of a fever, unmarried, 224.
+
+  CINQ MARS, Henri de, undermines Richelieu with Louis XIII., 25;
+    his death-warrant, 29.
+
+  COLIGNY, Count Maurice de (grandson of the famous Admiral de Coligny),
+      an adorer of Madame de Longueville, 14;
+    the dropped letters falsely attributed to him, 71;
+    as champion of Madame de Longueville, he challenges the Duke de
+      Guise, 113;
+    fatal result of the duel, 117;
+    dies of his wounds and of despair, 117;
+    scandalous verses on the occasion, 118.
+
+  COETQUEN, Marquis de, hospitably receives Madame de Chevreuse when
+      exiled, 146.
+
+  CONDE, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de, arbiter of the political situation
+      after Rocroy, 80;
+    his furious anger at Madame de Montbazon's insult to his sister,
+      111;
+    hailed by the Queen as the liberator of France, 111;
+    receives into his house Coligny wounded in duel with Guise, 116;
+    the state in which he found Paris after his victory of Lens: he
+      offers his sword to the Queen, 154;
+    applies himself to giving the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson, 155;
+    marches upon Paris and places it under siege, 156;
+    the climax of his fame and fortune as defender and saviour of the
+      throne, 164;
+    he tyrannises over the Court and government, 168;
+    he insults Mazarin and embarrasses the Queen, 169;
+    his want of capacity for business, 172;
+    his train of _petits-maitres_, 172;
+    on the murder of one of his servants he tries to crush the Fronde
+      leaders, 173;
+    forces the young Duke de Richelieu to marry clandestinely
+      Mademoiselle de Pons, 174;
+    wounds the Queen's pride by compelling her to receive Jarze whom she
+      had banished for fatuously believing that she had loved him, 175;
+    arrested on the authority of his own signature and imprisoned at
+      Vincennes, 177;
+    what constituted the strength of the Princes' party in the Second
+      Fronde, 188;
+    the majority of the women who meddled with politics were, through
+      sympathy, of his party, 203;
+    his aged mother supplicates in vain for his release, and returns
+      home to die, 204;
+    his liberation effected by no other power than that of female
+      influence, 206;
+    he treats Mazarin with contempt at Havre, and on his release becomes
+      master of the situation, 215;
+    is courted by both the Fronde and Queen's party, 215;
+    eight hundred princes and nobles partisans of Conde, 217;
+    his sole error not having a fixed and unalterable object, 230;
+    applies himself to form a new Fronde, 234;
+    resumes the imperious tone which had previously embroiled him with
+      the Queen and Mazarin, 237;
+    Hocquincourt proposes to assassinate Conde, 243;
+    he retreats to St. Maur and holds a Court there, 245;
+    reappears in Parliament, 245;
+    Chateauneuf and Mazarin labour to destroy him, 257;
+    he narrowly escapes an ambuscade at Pontoise, 258;
+    motives which rendered him averse to civil war, 259;
+    his final determination to unsheath the sword, 260;
+    raises the standard of revolt in Guienne, 262;
+    his adventurous expedition, 275;
+    to what did Conde aspire? 277;
+    his inconstancy--offers himself to Cromwell and to become Protestant
+      to have an English army, 278-280;
+    the income and possessions of his family, 278;
+    he escapes for the tenth time being taken and slain, 282;
+    takes command of the Fronde forces and throws himself upon the royal
+      army, 283;
+    routs Hocquincourt and attacks Turenne unsuccessfully, 285;
+    unjust accusation of Napoleon I. that Conde wanted boldness at
+      Bleneau, 286;
+    he leaves the army and hastens to Paris, 287;
+    in abandoning the Loire he commits an immense and irreparable
+      error, 289;
+    invests Madame de Chatillon with full powers as an ambassadress,
+      291;
+    imbued by her with a design for peace by means the most
+      agreeable, 291;
+    a graceful memento of her power over him still existing in the
+      ancient Chateau of the Colignys, 293;
+    Madame de Chatillon and Madame de Longueville dispute for Conde's
+      heart, 294;
+    the overthrow of Mazarin a necessary condition of the domination of
+      Conde, 296;
+    is advised by his sister to rely upon his sword alone, 297.
+
+  CONDE, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Bourbon
+      (mother of the Great Conde and Madame de Longueville), her
+      influence with Anne of Austria, 39;
+    her detestation of Madame de Chevreuse, 40;
+    tries to destroy her hold upon the Queen, 40;
+    her lively resentment at the insult to her daughter in the affair of
+      the dropped letters, 73;
+    demands a public reparation from Madame de Montbazon, 74;
+    her demeanour during the "mummeries" of the apology, 74;
+    obtains the privilege of never associating with Madame de
+      Montbazon, 75;
+    supplicates in vain for Conde's release, and returns home to die,
+      204.
+
+  CONDE, Claire Clemence de Maille, Princess de Bourbon (daughter of the
+      Duke de Breze, and wife of the Great Conde), shut up in Bordeaux
+      with the Dukes de Bouillon and de Rochefoucauld during "the
+      Women's War," 200, 204;
+    only maintains herself in Bordeaux through the aid of the rabble
+      _va-nu-pieds_, 205;
+    forced to take refuge hastily in the citadel of Montrond, 263.
+
+  CONTI, Armand de Bourbon, Prince de (brother of the Great Conde), his
+      extravagant adoration of his sister, Madame de Longueville, 141;
+    marries Anne Marie Martinozzi, niece of Mazarin, 142;
+    declared _generalissimo_ of the army of the king, 159;
+    the problem as to who was the author of the rupture of his marriage
+      with Madame de Chevreuse, 227;
+    his ardent passion for her, 231;
+    is made lieutenant-general in Guienne by Conde, 276;
+    finishes, where he begun life, with theology, 142.
+
+  CORNEILLE, Pierre, his _Emilie_ painted as a perfect heroine, 82.
+
+
+  FIESQUE, Gillona d'Harcourt, Countess de, 195.
+
+  FOUQUEROLLES, Madame de, her terrible anxiety lest she should be
+      compromised by the dropped letters, 73;
+    confides the secret to La Rochefoucauld, 73;
+    the letters are burnt in the Queen's presence, 73.
+
+  FRONDE, the, what gave it birth and sustained it, 149;
+    _Day of the Barricades_, 153;
+    the royal power attacked by three parties simultaneously, 153;
+    the adherents of the Fronde, 156;
+    initiation of the Civil War, 159;
+    sordid selfishness of the Frondeurs, 161;
+    carries everything before it in 1651, 223;
+    brief retrospect of the two Fronde wars, 267;
+    one of the most interesting as well as diverting periods in French
+      history, 269;
+    contrast between its main features and the contemporary civil war in
+      England, 270;
+    the wide-spread misery it entailed on France, 270.
+
+
+  GUISE, Henri, Duke de Guise (grandson of the _Balafre_), espouses the
+      cause of Madame de Montbazon in the affair of the dropped
+      letters, 73;
+    confronts and defies the victorious Condes, 112;
+    fights a duel with Coligny, the champion of Madame de
+      Longueville, 115;
+    his insulting words on unsheathing his sword, 115;
+    result of the duel on party feeling in France, 117;
+    his _liaison_ with Anne de Gonzagua, 193;
+    becomes unfaithful to her and elopes with the Countess de
+      Bossuet, 194.
+
+  GUYMENE, Anne de Rohan, Princess de (sister-in-law of Madame de
+      Chevreuse, and daughter-in-law of Madame Montbazon), her numerous
+      crowd of old and young adorers, 37;
+    her flirtation with Mazarin, 56;
+    furious at having been abandoned by De Retz, offers the Queen to get
+      him confined in a cellar, 209.
+
+
+  HACQUEVILLE, Monsieur de, refuses to be a go-between of De Retz and
+      Madame de Chevreuse, 211.
+
+  HAUTEFORT, Marie de (afterwards Duchess de Schomberg), influence of
+      her piety and virtue, 37;
+    witnesses the arrest of Beaufort, 105.
+
+  HENRIETTA MARIA, Queen of Charles I. of England, her warm reception of
+      Madame de Chevreuse, 22;
+    seeks an Asylum in France from the Parliamentarians, 143;
+    asserted to have secretly married her equerry, Jermyn, 202.
+
+  HOCQUINCOURT, Charles de Monchy, Marshal d', proclaims Madame de
+      Montbazon "la belle des belles," 70;
+    is beaten by Conde at Bleneau, 284.
+
+  HOLLAND, Henry Rich, Earl of, his political correspondence with Madame
+      de Chevreuse, 19;
+    encourages the faction of Vendome, Vieuville, and La Valette, 23.
+
+
+  IMPORTANTS, the--Rochefoucauld's account of that faction, 77;
+    irritated by the banishment of their fascinating lady-leader, Madame
+      de Montbazon, they plot to murder Mazarin, 78;
+    their ruin decided upon by the Queen and Mazarin, 79;
+    their error in not conciliating Madame de Longueville, 79;
+    was the plot real or imaginary--a point of the highest historical
+      importance, 83;
+    failure of the plot and ruin of the faction, 104.
+
+
+  JOINVILLE, Prince de (son of Charles de Lorraine), suitor for the hand
+      of Anne de Bourbon, 12.
+
+
+  LAIGUES, Marquis de, declares himself a lover of Madame de Chevreuse
+      to gain political importance, 210.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Duchess de, see ANNE DE BOURBON.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Marie d'Orleans, see Duchess de NEMOURS.
+
+  LONGUEVILLE, Henry de Bourbon, Duke de, marries Anne de Bourbon, 13;
+    titular lover of Madame de Montbazon, 70;
+    plenipotentiary at the Congress of Munster in 1645, 132;
+    gives up the Duchess as a hostage to the Fronde, 159;
+    raises Normandy against Mazarin, 158;
+    he imperatively commands the Duchess to join him in Normandy, 253.
+
+  LORET, his rhyming description of the supper given by Madame de
+      Sevigne to Madame to Chevreuse, 212.
+
+  LORRAINE, Charles IV., Duke of, involved in the conspiracy of Soissons
+      through Madame de Chevreuse, 26;
+    prefers amusing himself with civil war to the quiet enjoyment of his
+      throne, 271.
+
+  LOUIS _the Just_ (XIII. of France), signs the death warrant of his
+      favourite, Cinq Mars, 29;
+    his decree of exile against Madame de Chevreuse, 33.
+
+  LOUIS XIV., his majority declared, 256.
+
+  LUYNES, Charles de, Favourite of Louis XIII., marries Marie de Rohan
+      (afterwards Duchess de Chevreuse), 17
+
+  LUYNES, the (late) Duke de, aided the Pope against the Garibaldians,
+      18.
+
+
+  MAULEVRIER, the Marquis de, writer of the dropped letters addressed to
+      Madame de Fouquerolles, 13.
+
+  MAZARIN, Jules, Cardinal, succeeds Richelieu as Prime Minister, 32;
+    his origin, 44;
+    is hated by the nobles, parliament, and middle classes, 44;
+    installed in office, 45;
+    his first service to Anne of Austria, 45;
+    his striking personal resemblance to Buckingham, 46;
+    how he obtained entire sway over the Queen-Regent, 47;
+    applies himself to gain her heart, 47;
+    finds a formidable opponent to his policy in Madame de
+      Chevreuse, 48, 54;
+    is terrified by her matrimonial projects, 54;
+    flirts with Madame de Chevreuse, 55;
+    his attentions to Madame de Guymene, 56;
+    his difficulty to make the Queen comprehend his policy towards
+      Spain, 60;
+    declares that Madame de Chevreuse would ruin France, 61;
+    forewarned of a conspiracy to destroy him, 62;
+    the great families opposed to him, 63;
+    his anxieties and perplexities, 64;
+    the relations between him and the Queen, 64;
+    his intervention in the quarrel of the rival Duchesses, 74;
+    his resolution in confronting the plot of the _Importants_, 79;
+    did Mazarin owe all his great career to a falsehood cunningly
+      invented and audaciously sustained? 83;
+    the plan of the attack upon him, 92;
+    escapes assassination from Beaufort's nocturnal ambuscade, 99;
+    compels the Queen to choose her part by addressing himself to her
+      heart, 102;
+    becomes absolute master of the Queen's heart, 102;
+    banishes the conspirators and arrests Beaufort, 106;
+    his tactics and political sagacity, 111;
+    first introduces Italian Opera at the French Court, 135;
+    concludes a peace with the Fronde parliament, 161;
+    insulted by Conde, 169;
+    what constitutes the strength of his party in the _Second_
+      Fronde, 187;
+    goes into Guienne with the royal army, 205;
+    banished by the Fronde, 215;
+    treated with contempt by Conde at Havre, 215;
+    with difficulty finds a refuge at Bruhl, 216;
+    in his exile governs the Queen as absolutely as ever, 217;
+    his immense blunder (in 1650), 225;
+    rebanished and his possessions confiscated, 234;
+    governs France from Bruhl, 236;
+    foments quarrels between Conde and the Fronde, 236;
+    composes with the Queen a political comedy of which De Retz became
+      the dupe and Conde very nearly the victim, 238;
+    the draught of his treaty with the Fronde, the masterpiece of his
+      political skill, falls into Conde's hands, 256;
+    alarmed at the success of Chateauneuf, he breaks his ban, and
+      returns to France, 279;
+    Conde and the Fronde united against him, 280;
+    to gain supporters lavishly promises place and money, 290.
+
+  MEDICI, Marie de (Queen of Henry IV. and mother of Louis XIII.), her
+      imprisonment of Charlotte de Montmorency, 2;
+    conspires against Richelieu, 28.
+
+  MIOSSENS, Count de (afterwards Marshal d'Albret), tries unsuccessfully
+      to win the heart of Madame de Longueville, 122;
+    gives place to La Rochefoucauld, 130.
+
+  MONTAGU, Lord, the intimate adviser of Queen Henrietta Maria, and
+      slave of Madame de Chevreuse, 24;
+    Anne of Austria's confidence in him, 37;
+    his mission to Madame de Chevreuse, 38;
+    becomes a bigot and a devotee, 38.
+
+  MONTBAZON, Hercule de Rohan, Duke de (father of Madame de Chevreuse
+      and the Prince de Guymene), marries at sixty-one Marie d'Avangour
+      aged sixteen, 67;
+    recommends the example of Marie de Medici to his young wife and
+      takes her to Court, 67.
+
+  MONTBAZON, Marie d'Avangour, Duchess de, called by d'Hocquincourt "la
+      belle des belles," the youthful stepmother of Madame de Chevreuse,
+      her parentage and antecedents, 67;
+    married at sixteen to a husband of sixty-one, 67;
+    her personal and mental characteristics, 68;
+    contrast in manners between her and Madame de Longueville, 69;
+    her numerous adorers; the Duke de Beaufort her titular lover, 70;
+    her malignant hatred of Madame de Longueville, 71;
+    employs her influence over the houses of Vendome and Lorraine to the
+      injury of her rival, 71;
+    the affair of the dropped letters, 71;
+    the party of the _Importants_ espouse her cause, 73;
+    she is compelled to make a public apology before the Queen and
+      Court, 74;
+    the pretended reconciliation only a fresh declaration of war, 75;
+    her conduct at the collation given the Queen by Madame de
+      Chevreuse, 76;
+    is banished by the King's order, 76;
+    she inveigles Beaufort into a plot to destroy Mazarin, 89.
+
+  MONTESPAN, Francoise-Athenais de Rochechouart Mortemart, Duchess de,
+      her fame as a beauty, 9;
+    relations to her of the Dukes de Longueville and Beaufort, 14.
+
+  MONTPENSIER, Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans (known as _La Grande
+      Mademoiselle_), daughter of Gaston, Duke d'Orleans and cousin of
+      Louis XIV., preserves the text of the dropped letters, 72;
+    gives the two speeches made on the occasion of Madame de Montbazon's
+      reparation, 74.
+
+  MOTTEVILLE, Frances Bertaut, Madame de, her amusing recital of the
+      "mummeries" in the affair of the dropped letters, 74;
+    her account of the Queen's reception of the news of the abortive
+      attempt to kill Mazarin, 103;
+    her portrait of Madame de Longueville, 135;
+    the principal motive which urged La Rochefoucauld to woo the
+      Duchess, 140.
+
+
+  NEMOURS, Marie d'Orleans, Duchess de (daughter of Henri, Duke de
+      Longueville), her harsh censure of the pride and impracticability
+      of the Condes, 165;
+    quits Madame de Longueville to take refuge in a convent, 180;
+    moves heaven and earth for the release of Conde that he might keep
+      watch over the Duchess de Chatillon, 208;
+    her character, 212;
+    the enemy of the Fronde and the Condes, 227;
+    her detestation of Madame de Longueville, 252.
+
+  NEMOURS, Charles Amadeus, of Savoy, Duke de, prompted by the Duchess
+      de Chatillon, his mistress, embraces the cause of Conde, 208;
+    pays court to Madame de Longueville instead of making active war in
+      Berri, 262;
+    the obscure relations between them at this juncture, drives La
+      Rochefoucauld to a violent rupture with Madame de Longueville,
+      264.
+
+
+  ORLEANS, Gaston, Duke d' (brother of Louis XIII.), conspires against
+      Richelieu, 25;
+    his incapacity to govern, 171;
+    his jealousy of the influence of Conde and of Mazarin, 171;
+    makes De Retz his confidant, who obtains his assent to the arrest of
+      the Princes, 176;
+    becomes the head of a fifth party in the Second Fronde, 200;
+    consents to the liberation of the Princes on promise that his
+      daughter should marry Conde's son, 207;
+    governed by De Retz and Madame de Chevreuse, 258.
+
+
+  PETITS-MAITRES, the train of Conde called, their character, 288.
+
+  PALATINE, Anne de Gonzagua, Princess (widow of Edward Prince
+      Palatine), peculiarities of her epistolary style, 124;
+    her large intelligence, solidity, refinement and ingenuity of
+      thought, 124;
+    becomes the head and mainspring of the Princes' party, or Second
+      Fronde, 179;
+    the formidable political opponent of Mazarin, 179;
+    her extraordinary political and diplomatical ability, 189;
+    her antecedents, 190;
+    her _liaison_ with Henri de Guise under a promise of marriage, 193;
+    disguised in male attire she joins her lover at Besancon, 193;
+    abandoned by the volatile de Guise, who elopes with the Countess de
+      Bossuet, she returns to Paris, 194;
+    is married to Prince Edward, Count Palatine of the Rhine, 194;
+    by her conciliatory tact she obtains the esteem of all parties in
+      the Fronde, 196;
+    De Retz's eulogium and Madame de Motteville's opinion of her, 196;
+    she operates on behalf of the imprisoned Princes, and negotiates
+      four different treaties for their deliverance, 198;
+    an alliance with the two camps concluded by her with De Retz, 224;
+    she conducts with consummate skill the negotiation between Madame de
+      Chevreuse and Madame de Longueville, 227.
+
+  PHALZBOURG, Princess de (sister of Charles IV. of Lorraine), acts as a
+      spy over Madame de Chevreuse in the interest of Mazarin, 147.
+
+  POLITICAL INTRIGUE, an affair of fashion among the ladies of Anne of
+      Austria's Court, 56.
+
+
+  RAMBOUILLET, Hotel de, 9.
+
+  RETZ, John Francis Paul Gondi, Cardinal de, the evil genius of the
+      Fronde, 151;
+    his influence over the Parisians as Coadjutor, 151;
+    his character--ladies of gallantry his chief political agents, 152;
+    his conspicuous merits and faults, 172;
+    his master-stroke of address, 201;
+    his best concerted measures abortive through his inclination for the
+      fair sex, 208;
+    fails to acquire the confidence of anyone--is threatened with
+      assassination, 209;
+    lends an ear to Cromwell and contracts a close friendship with
+      Montrose, 209;
+    has the same interests with Madame de Chevreuse in securing the
+      union of her daughter with Conti, 210;
+    an analysis of his character, antecedents, and aspirations, 293;
+    admitted unwillingly into the secret councils of the Queen, 240;
+    his midnight interview with Anne of Austria, 241;
+    holds the key of Paris, 275;
+    he trims and follows the Duke d'Orleans, 280.
+
+  RICHELIEU, Cardinal de, his government through terror, 24;
+    conspiracy to destroy him, 26-30;
+    result of his efforts to consolidate the regal power, 32.
+
+  RICHELIEU, Duke de, engaged to Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, but forced
+      by Conde to marry clandestinely when under age, Mademoiselle de
+      Pons, 174.
+
+  ROCHEFOUCAULD, Francis, second Duke de la--his career as Prince de
+      Marsillac, 127;
+    his character of the Duchess de Longueville, 10;
+    his advice to Madame de Chevreuse, 39;
+    Madame de Fouquerolles confides to him the secret of the dropped
+      letters, 73;
+    he delivers her and her lover from their terrible anxiety, 73;
+    seeks to hush up and terminate the quarrel of the rival Duchesses,
+      80;
+    constitutes himself the champion of Madame de Chevreuse's innocence
+      of Beaufort's plot, 83;
+    allies himself with that illustrious political adventuress, 128;
+    desirous of securing to his party the master-mind of Conde to avenge
+      himself of the Queen and Mazarin, 128;
+    makes persistent love to Madame de Longueville and wins her
+      heart, 129;
+    his cynical maxim on the love of certain women, 129;
+    his personal and mental characteristics, 137;
+    the way in which he superseded Miossens as the lover of Madame de
+      Longueville, 139;
+    his sordid motive as her wooer, 140;
+    his restless spirit and ever discontented vanity, 167;
+    effects the escape from Paris of Madame de Longueville, 178;
+    gives proof of a rare fidelity through the whole of "the Women's
+      War," 183;
+    his ancestral chateau of Verteuil razed to the ground by Mazarin's
+      orders, 183;
+    his conduct at this time contradicts the assertion that he never
+      loved the woman he seduced and dragged into the vortex of
+      politics, 184;
+    his version of the true cause of the rupture of the marriage between
+      Mademoiselle de Chevreuse and Conti, 229:
+    grows weary of a wandering and adventurous life, 255;
+    the report of certain obscure relations existing between Nemours and
+      Madame de Longueville drives him to a violent rupture with the
+      Duchess, 264;
+    his accusation more absurd than odious, 264;
+    to indulge his revenge against Madame de Longueville, he enters into
+      all Madame de Chatillon's designs, 295;
+    directs her how to manage Conde and Nemours both at once, 298.
+
+
+  SCUDERY, Mademoiselle de, and the prudes of the Hotel de Rambouillet
+      protest strongly against the marriage of Conti with Mademoiselle
+      de Chevreuse, 249.
+
+  SEGUIER, Pierre, Keeper of the Seals, his character, 49.
+
+  SEVIGNE, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de, gives a splendid
+      supper to the Duchess de Chevreuse, 211.
+
+  SOISSONS, Count de, his conspiracy to destroy Cardinal de Richelieu,
+      25.
+
+  ST. MAURE, Countess of, the polish and precision of her epistolary
+      style, 123.
+
+
+  TAVANNES, Count de, a valiant _petit-maitre_ to whom Conde gives
+      command of the army after Bleneau, 257.
+
+  TURENNE, Marshal de, raises the standard of revolt in behalf of the
+      Fronde, 156;
+    is won over to make a treaty with Spain by Madame de Longueville,
+      182;
+    thanked by the Queen after Bleneau, for having placed the crown a
+      second time on her son's head, 287;
+    achieves the importance of being a rival of Conde, 289;
+    attacks the enemy's camp when half the officers of Conde's army were
+      at Madame de Montbazon's fete, 290.
+
+
+  VIGEAN, Mademoiselle de, Conde's love for, 292.
+
+  VENDOME, Duke Caesar de, the faction of, with La Vieuville and La
+      Valette, when emigrants in England, 23;
+    his pretensions and agitated life, 51;
+    decides to exile himself in Italy and await the fall of Mazarin,
+      106.
+
+  VITRY, Marshal de, prepares with Count de Cramail a _coup-de-main_
+      against Richelieu, 25.
+
+
+
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
+
+
+
+
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |Transcriber's Note                                                |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |The following changes were made to the original text [correction  |
+  |in brackets]:                                                     |
+  |                                                                  |
+  |Page   16: (afterwards Duke de Rochefoucald [Rochefoucauld])      |
+  |Page   33: Angoulesme [Angouleme], until after the peace be       |
+  |Page   43: French language: ["]_La reine est si bonne!_"          |
+  |Page   79: royal authority now seriously theatened [threatened].  |
+  |Page   85: oppose testimony more distinterested [disinterested],  |
+  |Page   85: confidental [confidential] letters furnish us.         |
+  |Page  146: _varures_ [parures], valued at two hundred thousand    |
+  |Page  157: troops, at the parades of the citizen soldiery.[,]     |
+  |Page  165: exposed to one of those _coups d'etat_ [d'etat],       |
+  |Page  179: the Secretary of State, La Veilliere [Vrilliere],      |
+  |Page  184: firmness,["] says Lenet, "that he seemed as though     |
+  |Page  202: Footnote 6: Leomeni[Lomenie] de Brienne, Memoirs, 1828.|
+  |Page  231: to look upon her with horror. "[removed]He even blamed |
+  |Page  232: From that moment means of of[removed] breaking off     |
+  |Page  232: and obscurities resting upon this deli- [delicate]     |
+  |Page  234: missing anchor for Footnote 4                          |
+  |Page  269: La Rouchefoucauld [Rochefoucauld], getting Gondy       |
+  |Page  269: Rouchefoucauld [Rochefoucauld], he determined to set   |
+  |Page  279: his ban, quitted his retreat at Dinan, and and[removed]|
+  |Page  282: went out to forage. He suceeded[succeeded] in procuring|
+  |Page  303: her personal characteristics, 18:[;]                   |
+  |Page  310: attack's[attacks] the enemy's camp when half           |
+  +------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2), by
+Sutherland Menzies
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POLITICAL WOMEN (VOL. 1 OF 2) ***
+
+***** This file should be named 27192.txt or 27192.zip *****
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