1650.

INTR GUES FOR CONDE'S RELEASE.

75

Whilst Mazarin and the court thus lay encamped before Bourdeaux, Turenne had entered the north of France, and was marching without opposition towards the capital, intending to liberate the princes from Vincennes. Condé, confined in the donjon of that castle, whiled away his captivity by cultivating the few flowers that the terrace of his window could contain. “Who would have thought," exclaimed he, on learning the resistance of Bourdeaux, "that my wife should be fighting whilst I was gardening!" The princes were removed from Vincennes to the safer retreat of Marcoussy, and Turenne, fearing to indispose the parliament of Paris by appearing at the head of foreign troops, retired again towards the frontier.

The coadjutor and the violent Frondeurs grew weary of their alliance with Mazarin, into which their fear and hatred of Condé had alone induced them to enter. They not only found Mazarin ungrateful and insincere, refusing even to De Retz the cardinal's hat that he demanded, but their popularity, which was their chief force, and their influence over the parliament, were rapidly diminishing from their union with the court. Mazarin, suspecting the intention of the Frondeurs, and alarmed by the march of Turenne, granted peace to Bourdeaux, concluding more a truce than a treaty with the princess of Condé, Rochefoucault and Bouillon. The minister then returned to Paris, where he found the parliament no longer silent as to the arrest of Condé, but prepared to expostulate, and demand his release. Mazarin caused the princes to be instantly conveyed from Marcoussi to Havre de Grâce, where they were still more in his individual power. La Rochefoucault and Bouillon also returned to Paris; and a series of intrigues took place; these partisans of Condé negotiating at the same time both with the coadjutor and with Mazarin for his release. An alliance with either would effect this, and La Rochefoucault was in doubt. The coadjutor, in the habit of a cavalier, came by night to the rendezvous at the house of the princess palatine. La Rochefoucault went in equal secrecy to the Palais Royal. The over-caution of the cardinal lost his cause. La Rochefoucault pressed him at once to conclude the alliance, and give orders that Condé should be set at liberty. Mazarin hesitated. Unprincipled as he was himself, he could not believe it possible_that the friends of Condé could unite with De Retz. La Rochefoucault warned the cardinal in parting that the morrow would be too late. Mazarin smiled incredulity and irresolution; and the duke hurrying to the other place of rendezvous, concluded the agreement with the coadjutor. The effects of this alli

ance were immediately manifest. The majority of the par liament clamored for the release of Condé, and addressed the queen on the subject. It was necessary to yield; and Mazarin saw that, deserted by all parties, he would infallibly be the victim. In his rage he anathematized the parliament before the whole court, called it an English house of commons, compared the coadjutor De Retz to Cromwell and himself to Strafford, and declared that, in sacrificing its minister to popu. lar clamor, the crown would, as in the case of Strafford, sacrifice itself. This conversation, being reported to the parliament by De Retz, raised a storm indescribable, and terminated in an address to the queen, desiring that Mazarin should be banished from her councils, and that the prince should be liberated. Naught was left the cardinal but flight. He took his departure immediately. It was agreed that the queen and young king were to follow him, and that, possessed of Havre and the persons of the princes, they would be able either by open war or negotiation to bring the parliament and the Frondeurs to more reasonable terms. This project however failed through the cunning and activity of the coadjutor, who, learning the queen's intention of departing, raised a mob around the palace, and made her virtually a prisoner there. Cardinal Mazarin alone found himself without authority. He could not even gain entrance into Havre unless unattended. He entered, nevertheless, saw the captive princes of Condé, Conti, and Longueville, endeavored to cajole them, and set them at liberty, without receiving in return a single mark of gratitude or regard. Thus every way disappointed, Mazarin resigned himself to his disgrace, and left the kingdom.

The prince of Condé was now all-powerful: the parliament, the Fronde, the noblesse, the populace, had all rallied to him; the minister was in exile, the queen a prisoner. Many blamed him for not setting aside Anne of Austria, and assuming the regency; but he was totally without the qualities requisite for taking advantage of his position; he was too lazy, too confident, too generous, too rash: and, making not a single exertion, the several parties that had united to compel at once his release and the exile of the minister, were allowed again to fall asunder, and abandon to the court the recovery of its ancient influence. The noblesse at this period were animated with a strong desire to imitate the magistracy, and, by remaining united, to restore or re-establish the influence of the aristocracy, in opposition both to crown and judicature. They assembled in the convent of the Cordeliers (afterwards doomed to hold a club of a very different kind, that of Danton), and formed a house of peers, discussing state affairs, and fixing

1651.

THE QUEEN REGAINS AUTHORITY.

77

the privileges of the nobles. The parliament took fire at this, and forbade the assemblies. The noblesse looked to Condé tc head them; but he, without principle or aim, and deeming his interests, as prince of the blood, distinct from those of the aristocracy, held back at this crisis. The noblesse called the assembly of the church, then sitting, to their aid, who protested, and complained that the parliament had altered the ancient constitution of the kingdom, by adding themselves as a fourth and spurious estate to the three established ones of king, lords, and commons. Despite of this, the parliament had force and the popular feeling on its side. The noblesse were obliged to succumb, and dissolved their assembly; not, however, before they had recourse to the queen and the royal authority, who issued a declaration, promising to convoke the states-general for the following September.

Here the queen recovered consideration and authority sufficient to enable her to aim at and grasp more, by allying with the prince of Condé. One of the stipulations betwixt them was, that the marriage should be broken off betwixt the prince of Conti and mademoiselle de Chevreuse. The coadjutor, connected by gallantry and friendship with the family of Chevreuse, was indignant at this, and a quarrel ensued betwixt Condé and the old party of the Fronde. Hence another scene in the drama, which represents Condé insulted by those very men who had been so instrumental in releasing him. De Retz and the prince nearly came to blows in the Palace of Justice; and the former had almost fallen a victim to the passion of La Rochefoucault, who jammed the coadjutor betwixt two folding-doors till he was almost suffocated: the duke at the same time called to one of his friends to stab De Retz, an injunction that was not obeyed, and perhaps not intended to be obeyed. It is, nevertheless, startling to the modern reader to find the courtly author of the "Maxims" engaged personally in the office, and using the language, of the assassin.

The consequence of these dissensions was the recovery of her authority by Anne of Austria, who, in affecting to ally with Condé, was merely enticing him to disgust, and desert, the Fronde. This achieved, she flung off the mask, and Condé found himself as much detested by all parties as a few months back he was their favorite and their rallying word. The prince, thus deserted, endeavored to make common cause with the noblesse, and clamored for the states-general; but it was too late: the parliament united with the court in opposing their convocation, and Condé in despair retired from Paris, obliged to seek support in civil war and in alliance with Spain.

In September, 1651, Louis XIV., then approaching fourteen years of age, was declared to have completed his minority. The day was celebrated with great magnificence. The royal authority remained, however, as before, in the hands of the queen; her only thought was the recall of Mazarin. The attachment borne by Anne to this prelate-minister is inexpli cable. She might have reigned supreme, and been the arbiter betwixt contending parties, could she have consented to leave Mazarin an exile. De Retz endeavored to impress this necessity upon her; but power appeared to her worthless without the cardinal; and no sooner had Condé broken with the parliament, and burst into war against the court, than the minister prepared to return. He levied an army, made an attempt on Brissac, and soon after joined the court at Poitiers, taking as usual the chief seat in the council. The rage of the parliament was excessive on learning this: they set a reward on the cardinal's head; and now convinced of the little reliance to be placed either on the queen or prince, the chief magistrates endeavored to form a third or central party, which should make head against both. Mazarin had, however, been gaining friends. He now married two of his nieces, one to the heir of the duc de Bouillon, another to a son of the duc de Vendôme. Bouillon had Sedan restored to him by the cardinal in return for this alliance, which brought over to the court the powerful aid of Turenne.

The mareschal d'Hocquincourt had still the command of the royal army: it was encamped at Blesneau near the Loire. Condé, who was endeavoring to rally Bourdeaux to his cause with little effect, left the south, and suddenly joining his army, surprised Hocquincourt and defeated him. Turenne, who commanded the reserve of the royalists, exclaimed, on perceiving the order and manner of the attack, "The prince is there!" But for Turenne, the defeat of Hocquincourt would have proved fatal to the court; but the former general, though able to rally but 4000 men, contrived to post them with such advantage and skill as to defeat all the efforts of Condé to follow up his victory.

The prince then hastened to Paris, hoping to find the parliament his ally against Mazarin: but the stern magistrates, though firm in their abhorrence of that minister, were not more favorable to Condé, and openly reproached him with his Spanish alliance. From the parliament he did not scruple appeal to the people, whose lowest class rose in tumult, and threatened the magistrates. The very courts proved no refuge: counsellors and judges were insulted and even beaten as Mazarins. On one occasion the mob clamored before the

1652.

BATTLE OF ST. ANTOINE.

79

house of Molé; his terrified domestics armed themselves, and barricaded every entrance. The president at length, hearing the turnult, instantly ordered that his doors should be thrown open: the rabble rushed in, shouting and triumphant, till they met, "great beard," as they called the chief judge. They hesitated at his aspect: but when he addressed them in angry tones, and threatened to hang them at his gate, they all fled instantly as from the very sword of justice.

Condé, thus disappointed in the support of the parliament, and of the respectable citizens, could not cope unaided with the royal army. The Parisian rabble, very forward in a riot, could not be made to stand the fire of regular troops. The prince having recourse to the Spaniards, who, busied themselves in the sieges of Gravelines and Dunkirk, induced the duke of Lorraine to march into France and support Condé. The skilful strategy of Turenne, however, compelled this new auxiliary to retreat; and the prince, after a fresh attempt to raise sedition in the capital and control the parliament, was reduced to fight Turenne with far inferior forces. The latter drove him from St. Cloud, and Condé marched to take post at Charenton, when, his rival pressing him closely, as he defiled round the walls of Paris, the prince was obliged to throw himself into the fauxbourg St. Antoine, behind the intrenchments formerly raised for their defence by the inhabitants.

The gate of Paris called St. Antoine was then immediately under the Bastile, the cannon of which swept the three roads diverging from it. Condé, denied entrance into the city, was still secure from attack on this side; and, posted in the central position of the gate St. Antoine, he determined to make head against the royalists, who approached to attack him by the three roads. Mazarin, and Louis XIV. were on the heights, now covered with the cemetery of Père la Chaise, spectators of the ensuing action, the young monarch being most anxious to witness the destruction of this rebellious prince. The triple attack commenced: that on the prince's left, commanded by three sworn and personal enemies to him, was defeated by his valor, the chiefs all perishing. The hero then rushed to defend the central street: he met Turenne in person, and there the conflict was more doubtful. "Did you see Condé during the action?" asked some one of Turenne when the affair was over. "I must have seen a dozen Condés," was the reply: "he multiplied himself."* On the right the action was most bloody: the nobles of the prince's party were almost all slain or wounded there, amongst the rest La Rochefoucault, who,

* I think there be six Richmonds in the field.-Shakspeare Pichard III