Turenne were most conspicuously opposed. Of the 1652. Prince's personal friends and followers only three were unhurt; and Condé, who led the defence in person, was one of the three. On this the Cardinal de Retz, who hated him, said, “M. le Prince était plus couvert de gloire que de blessures." Turenne, thwarted by the unexpected result of the intrigues going on within the capital, recommended the King and the Court to retire upon St. Denis, whither he also himself repaired, leaving his army to retain possession of the Faubourg St. Antoine.

Condé's

party on

the As

dismissal of

Condé within the capital was again the hero of the Attack by hour; but, with the fervour of his ambitious character, he was impatient of the authority of the very citizens the Hôtel who had saved him, and, in concert with others who de Ville : were as ready to be led by violence as himself, they sembly denow prepared a "coup d'Etat populaire," the result of mands the which affected immensely the politics of the civil war. Mazarin, On the 4th, two days after the conflict, a council was July 13. held at the Hôtel de Ville, which was attended by D'Orleans and Condé, who pretended to avail themselves of this opportunity to thank the citizens for their assistance on the day of the battle. The princes after that act professed to withdraw, but excited the mob to attack the Assembly, set fire to the building, and raise such an uproar, that, in the midst of it, a decree was obtained appointing the Duke of Orleans Lieutenant-General of the kingdom and the Prince de Condé Commander-inchief of the armies, until Cardinal Mazarin should be dismissed from the Ministry. This decision was confirmed at a second meeting of the Council on the 13th July, when, D'Orléans and Condé being present, 143 members affirmed it by a majority of five voices.

The Court was in despair and in confusion at this intelligence, and thought only of withdrawing from St. Denis to some distant place of safety, so that on the 15th July the decision was formally taken by the Cardinal to carry the King to Lyons

1652. under an escort of 2000 men. Turenne heard of

The Court

removes to

the Duc

de Bouil.

lon: the King

grants an

this resolution from his brother the Duc de Bouillon, while at the camp, and in the course of the same day repaired to St. Denis. He himself represented to Mazarin that the retreat of the Court to Lyons would infallibly occasion the loss of all the strong places still held in Picardy, Champagne, and Lorraine, who would forthwith endeavour to return to the allegiance of the Spaniards. He suggested as a better expedient, that the King should go to Pontoise with his guard, while the army marched to Compiègne, where they would hold against the Spanish army any advance upon Paris that Fuensaldaña might be urged to make. These reasons were considered conclusive, and the advice of the Viscount was acted upon immediately. The army marched on the 17th to Chauni, which the Duke d'Elbeuf held for the Spaniards with some 700 or 800 horse, but forthwith abandoned on the approach of the Royal army; and, shortly afterwards, the Spanish General Fuensaldaña, recognizing the military considerations that had brought Turenne to his front, resolved to return to Flanders, merely leaving a corps of observation on the frontier.

The King, being now at his legal majority, acted with Pontoise: something of the rigour of his later years, when he death of issued a decree forbidding the Parliament to meet again at Paris, and summoning them to attend the Court at Pontoise. Accordingly, on the 6th August, a considerable number obeyed the summons; but the amnesty, larger number refused. It happened that at this very 26th Aug. moment the Duc de Bouillon, brother of Maréchal de Turenne, expired of a fever at the Court. He had rendered himself of late so considerable in council, that he had been already appointed to the surintendance générale des finances, and the Cardinal even began to feel some jealousy of his influence with the Queen Mother. The Duc de Bouillon's death, however, removing all apprehensions of ultimate loss to his power, Mazarin

had the prudence to advise the King to allow him again 1652. to withdraw from the ministry in order to bring about

an accommodation with the Parliament, and thus remove all further excuse for a civil war.

The imme

diate consequence of this was an amnesty publicly granted by the King on the 26th August, excluding, however, D'Orleans and Condé; and this decree was registered by the Parliament.

fix their

On the 5th September the army of the King Turenne marched towards Brie-Comte-Robert, crossing the and Condé Marne at Lagni. Here he found the troops of Mon- opposing sieur de Lorraine marching to unite with the Princes camps near Paris. at Paris, although at this moment Turenne knew he was in negotiation with the King for a complete neutrality. Accordingly, without a moment's delay or hesitation, the Maréchal marched past the Lorrainers, and took up his camp at Villeneuve St. George. Here the Maréchal de la Ferté joined him with infantry and guns; and Turenne immediately ordered all the boats on the river to be secured, that he might have the means at hand of crossing the Seine. Two bridges were forthwith prepared; and by means of them the foragers were enabled to supply the army with bread, which was reduced to only five days' consumption in possession, and to obtain hay and corn for the cavalry, who had been without any since their arrival. Entrenchments were likewise thrown up around the camp, which abutted on its right on the Seine, and a wood occupied by chasseurs on the left. While the King's army was thus occupied for its better security, the Prince de Condé came forth from Paris, and joined the Lorrainers near Ablon; and the combined forces forthwith entrenched themselves in a camp within cannon-shot of the Royal army. The rebel army was now the more numerous of the two, and, with Paris in its power, the better supplied in every way. But the Viscount did not sleep for a moment.

In order to prevent his supplies

1652. from being curtailed on the side of Corbeil, he seized and got possession of the Château d'Ablon, which covered the operations of his foragers almost over the entire district between Orleans and Paris. Condé had hoped to starve out the King's army, but by this means it remained in its camp in full efficiency for five or six weeks, strongly entrenched and unassailable.

Public ferment in Paris :

renne

marches to Senlis.

In this interval the population of the great capital fomented with indescribable intrigues, then the Cardinal Condé falls de Retz aspired to seize the power and influence that sick: Tu- Cardinal Mazarin had for the moment lost by his absence. The Court had removed again to Compiègne, and a deputation was sent there by the rebel Government, which the King, with dignified haughtiness, refused to receive, even from the part of his uncle, the Duc d'Orleans. On the 14th September De Retz himself led out a deputation of the clergy of Paris. This was received, but with coldness; and they carried back with them to the city a written answer. In the mean while the citizens resented every day more and more the violence of the rebel troops, and became more and more impatient to reconcile themselves with the Court. Under these circumstances the Queen Mother thought that it would best advance a reconciliation with the capital to withdraw the troops of the King from its gates; and the Viscount was consulted as to the means of doing this with safety, since the advance of autumn had begun to render the operations of war hazardous. Turenne learnt that Condé had gone back to Paris in bad health; and he therefore felt the less risk in putting his army in the field with only M. de Lorraine to oppose him. Accordingly in the night of the 4th October he defiled in great silence along the river side, and before daybreak reached Corbeil without interruption. For greater caution, although the enemy had not discovered his retreat, he secured his army from a surprise by palisades and barricades, and

allowed them to rest here that night. The next day 1652. he continued his march in two columns, taking such precautions in respect to discipline and diligence, that if the enemy had overtaken them they could readily have deployed to receive them; and in this way they marched to Meaux, where they crossed the Marne, and thence by Mort-l'Evêque to the neighbourhood of Senlis.

renne's ad

Paris.

This successful withdrawal of the King's army in the The Court, face of the rebels and Lorrainers completely destroyed by Tuthe little love and respect which yet remained to this vice, rearmy from the Parisians; and the Prince de Condé turns to hastened to withdraw all his forces to Laon, where Fuensaldaña rested with the entire Spanish army. As soon as the capital was relieved from the presence of any armed force, the Royalists raised their heads, and a large body of them repaired to the Court to implore the King not to delay a moment in returning to Paris. Turenne on the 14th October personally witnessed the passage of Condé's army from Courteuil in their way to Champagne, and immediately repaired to influence the King to take this step. He represented to His Majesty how desirable it was to avail himself of this moment of disgust for the Frondeurs, and to reanimate the enthusiasm of his own army, which had suffered many privations, the recollection of which the enjoyments of the capital would soon effectually obliterate. Persuaded by these reasons, the Court removed first to Saint Germain, where it rested a few days, and on the 21st October started for the capital. On nearing the Bois de Boulogne, however, an alarm, intentional or otherwise, was raised, and the King, the Queen Mother, and the Maréchaux de Vellerin and Du Plessis held a consultation about the King's carriage, and agreed that they had better not attempt this dangerous risk to the person of the King. The Viscount alone adhered firmly to his first opinion, and implored them to go forward; for that to go back at such a moment would be ten times more prejudicial