Here I found Mademoiselle de Villardin with both Father Ferdinand and her worthy relation the good old Count de Loris; and great was the joy of all parties on hearing, not the successful issue of our undertaking, but the safe and fortunate manner in which it had terminated, after promising much less pleasant results. I think the ten days that followed were amongst the happiest of my whole life. I was in the society of three people, each of whom,--though very different from each other--I loved; I was in a beautiful scene where all was new; I was myself caressed and applauded by every one; there was no violent passion, either good or evil, in my bosom; and there was no restraint upon my actions. Even after we were joined by Monsieur de Villardin, although the deep melancholy which had now resumed its place in his demeanour, of course cast a degree of gloom over the whole household; and though I especially felt grieved and pained to witness the bitter sorrow that preyed upon the heart of a man to whom I was sincerely attached, still the days passed pleasantly enough; and, treated in every respect as if I had been the Duke's own son, I had every reason to be content with my condition.
The passing of such days do not bear detail; but in the meantime events were taking place in other parts of France that again called us into active life. In Paris, the popular faction called the Fronde, at the head of which, as I have before said, were the Archbishop coadjutor de Retz and the Duke of Beaufort, had begun to take umbrage at the kindness which Mazarin and the Court had shown to the defenders of Bordeaux; and knowing very well that the minister had only employed their party for the purpose of delivering himself from the Prince de Condé and his friends, the popular leaders began to suspect that Mazarin, as soon as it suited him, would make what conditions he pleased with the imprisoned Princes, and set them at liberty without the intervention of the Fronde. The success of the war in Guyenne had raised the minister higher than they liked also; and the Cardinal, foolishly believing himself quite secure, soon began to treat the Frondeurs with very little ceremony.
The Viscount de Turenne, it is true, was still in arms in Champagne, but the good fortune of Mazarin was again triumphant in this instance, as if on purpose to make him think himself beyond the power of fate.
The Maréchal du Plessis Praslin, an experienced officer, but one certainly inferior to Turenne in every respect, was sent against the only formidable opponent of the Court that now remained, and, after various man[oe]uvres on both parts, completely defeated Turenne, who fled to Bar-le-Duc, accompanied only by five hundred horse. This success increased the pride of Mazarin, and taught him vainly to imagine that he could at length put down the faction which had so long either ruled or disorganized the state; and although the parties of the Court and the Fronde had, for a time, unnaturally united for the ruin of Condé and his family, they now found that the moment was come when the struggle between themselves was to be renewed. Each determined upon the liberation of the Princes; but Mazarin sought to obtain more from the prisoners than the Fronde were inclined to demand; and he consequently temporised too long, while De Retz and Beaufort stirred up the people and the Parliament; and the cry for the liberation of Condé became as general amongst the Parisians as the rejoicings for his imprisonment had been about a year before. The Duke of Orleans, also, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, always weak and always false, abandoned once more the cause of the minister. The cry for the liberation of the Princes was succeeded by a clamour for the exile of Mazarin. After many ineffectual struggles, the Queen Regent was obliged to yield her favourite to popular turbulence, and the minister fled from the Court, happy to escape with life. The very next morning, the Parliament of Paris, which not long before had condemned a man to death for publishing a libel against the Cardinal, now found reasons for declaring him a disturber of the public peace, and for passing sentence of outlawry against him; and the people and the Parliament prepared to liberate with joy the Princes who had so lately been the objects of their execrations.
Mazarin, however, outstripped them in that very design; and wishing to take the credit of the act to himself, no sooner had he quitted the capital, than, proceeding to Havre, whither Condé and his companions had been removed, he threw open their prison doors, and himself announced their liberation. The Princes treated him with the contempt he merited, and the disgraced minister, finding himself without resource, fled from a country to which he was destined to return, after a very short lapse of time, more powerful than ever.
One of the first acts of the Prince de Condé was to write a letter of thanks to Monsieur de Villardin, for the part he had taken in the late events; and he condescended especially to notice my somewhat dangerous enterprise in finding my way into Vincennes, for the purpose of communicating to him the plan framed by Gourville for his deliverance. He added, that he might have supposed I had deceived him, as the scheme was never put in execution, but that he had learned from other sources the cause which prevented the attempt; and he concluded by assuring Monsieur de Villardin that, if he could point out any object which either he or I desired, the whole influence of the house of Condé should be exerted to obtain it for us. This probably might have led me into other scenes, and indeed might have changed the complexion of my whole after-life, had not events arisen which soon placed the Prince in a state of fiercer opposition to the Court than ever.
Anne of Austria resolved to recal her favourite Mazarin: Condé himself, aspiring to govern the state, was determined that the minister should remain in exile. Means were soon found to embroil him with the party of the Fronde; and the Prince at length made up his mind both to revenge himself upon those who had caused his imprisonment, and to strike boldly for the supreme power by force of arms. Having once taken his resolution, he pursued it with all that fearless decision which rendered him a great general, but more than once made him a bad subject. Retiring from Paris, he negotiated with all his former friends and adherents; and, carrying his measures still farther, treated with Spain itself, the open and declared enemy of his native country. From that crown he received every assurance of assistance that he could desire, which assurances were fulfilled to the letter; but with his former partisans in France he was not by any means so successful. His causes of complaint against the Court were not at all such as to justify the violent and ruinous measures he was pursuing. His own ambitious motives were apparent to every eye, and an immense change of circumstances had been effected by the simple fact of the young King having attained his majority. What people might affect to consider a struggle amongst the different powers of the state for the administration of the realm during the infancy of the King, could now be looked upon in no other light than as actual rebellion against the royal authority. The Duke of Bouillon,--tied by the engagement made at Bourg, and seeing the present situation of the Prince in a very different light from that in which his position while under imprisonment had appeared to him--positively refused to take part in his rebellion, though the regiment he had raised, officers and soldiers, went over to the party of Condé. Turenne followed the example of his brother the Duc de Bouillon, and declined to act with the Prince against the Court. Monsieur de Villardin also, in reply to a letter from Condé upon the subject, while he assured him of his unabated personal regard, informed him plainly that he not only would refuse all participation in new schemes against the Court, but would consider himself bound to serve against any one found in rebellion to the royal authority, now that the monarch had attained his majority.
Condé still, however, pursued his plan, and but too many were found to give him support in its execution. Nor did he calculate alone, it would seem, upon his present partisans, and upon the assistance of Spain; but, knowing the levity of all political characters in that day, he reckoned boldly upon a great number of his present enemies coming over to his side, and foresaw, it would appear, that the approaching recal of Mazarin would soon induce the Fronde itself to cooperate directly or indirectly in his schemes. Retiring upon Guyenne, which, from various causes, was almost always ready for revolt, he at length absolutely raised the standard of rebellion against the King. A large body of troops, called the Corps de Condé, abandoned the royal army on the frontiers of Flanders, and went over at once to the Spanish force, which was now leagued with the Prince. Considerable bodies of troops joined him in Bordeaux, a great part of Berri took arms in his favour, and, once more, the flame of civil war was lighted throughout the land.
Negotiations were immediately entered into between the Court and all those officers who had refused, on the present occasion, to serve with the Prince. Of these, Monsieur de Villardin was, of course, one; and full powers were given to him to raise a regiment in the name of the King, with a great many other marks of the royal favour and confidence. He accepted the task without hesitation, and declared his positive determination never to suffer any circumstances to induce him again to oppose the royal authority; but, at the same time, in the vain hope that other events would cause Condé to make his submission, he delayed as long as possible taking any active part in the warlike operations against his friend, under the pretence of requiring some time to complete his preparations.
In the meantime, Condé had lost no time, but was making such progress in Guyenne, that the whole country began to take alarm at his success. The Count de Harcourt, however, soon after checked his advance on the side of Cogniac; and the Maréchal de Gramont, marching with a considerable body of troops towards Langon, threatened to turn the flank of the Prince's army. Each of the royal generals commanded more men, and better disciplined forces, than those which followed Condé, and the Prince found himself obliged to choose between fighting under disadvantages which must have proved fatal, or temporising with the Court, in order to give time for a diversion to be effected in his favour. He accordingly, with consummate policy, made overtures to the Queen for permitting the return of Mazarin. The Queen, whose partiality for her minister did not permit her to see what Condé, as I have before said, had at once perceived, that the recal of the Cardinal would immediately throw the whole party of the Fronde, together with the Parliament and a great body of the people, entirely into the hands of the rebellious Prince, caught eagerly at the idea of the minister's return. Not only did she give Condé both time and repose by negotiating, at a moment when her generals might have pushed their advantage to his complete overthrow, but, blindly running before the negotiation, she despatched courier after courier to Mazarin, without at all requiring that the Prince should commit himself with the Fronde by joining in the recal of the obnoxious Italian.