On 2 May, 1626, the little prince, who assumed from that day the title of Duc d’Enghien,[171] was taken to Bourges to be baptized, the ceremony being performed, in solemn state, by the archbishop of the diocese, Roland Hébert. But, save on this occasion, he was never permitted to leave Montrond, where he led a healthy out-door life, the lessons he received being frequently imparted under the guise of games, so as to tax the mind as little as possible, while leaving the most pleasant impression. He made astonishing progress, particularly in Latin, and quickly began to evince the keenest interest in military matters, the result of conversations with a distinguished engineer named Sarrasin, who was then engaged in repairing the defences of Montrond, and who superintended the boy’s amusements. “When, towards the end of the year 1629,” writes the Duc d’Aumale, “the Prince de Condé, returning from Languedoc, stopped at his Berry fortress, his suite beheld with some surprise a young captain of seven, who ranged in order of battle, in the trenches of the château, the children of the neighbouring town of Saint-Amand, evoked the heroes of ancient Rome, and harangued them in Latin.”
At the close of the following year, Condé removed his son from Montrond to Bourges, to continue his studies at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Marie, one of the most celebrated of the schools which the Fathers had established in France. Wishing to avoid the complications which might arise from the presence near his son of a man of quality, he selected as his gouverneur, a simple gentleman of Dauphiné, La Buffetière by name, “a good man, faithful, and well-intentioned, who knew how to follow to the letter Monsieur le Prince’s instructions for the conduct of his son.”[172] Associated with him, as tutor to the prince, was a learned Jesuit, Père Pelletier; while a doctor named Montreuil watched over his health, which was still such as to occasion his father some anxiety.
For six years the Duc d’Enghien attended the Jesuit College at Bourges. The only distinction which was made between him and the other pupils was a little gilded balustrade which encircled his chair, and, by Monsieur le Prince’s orders, his schoolfellows were strictly forbidden to give way to him, either in class or at play. Condé himself, who, as governor of Berry, resided part of each year at Bourges, watched over and directed the education of his son, examined his compositions and the notes which he took at lectures, and made him dance and play tennis before him. When absent at the Court or with the Army, he corresponded regularly with the boy, and, the better to judge of his progress, he directed him, after he was eight years old, always to write to him in Latin. Gouverneur, tutor, and doctor were kept busy replying to the letters full of questions, instructions, and recommendations with which the anxious father bombarded them; whilst the rector of the Jesuit College was perpetually being enjoined “to pay attention to the studies and conduct of my son.”
The pains bestowed upon the Duc d’Enghien’s education were well repaid; his progress delighted his instructors, and must have satisfied even Monsieur le Prince. At twelve years of age, when he finished his course of rhetoric, such was his proficiency in Latin that he wrote and spoke it, we are told, as though it were his mother-tongue. The next two years were devoted to the study of philosophy and the sciences, which latter term included logic, ethics, mathematics, and physics, after which Condé, notwithstanding that his son had already received an education far in advance of that which was then considered sufficient for the son of a grand seigneur, arranged that he should go through a course of law under the direction of Merille, Professor of Jurisprudence in the University of Bourges.
The vacations were passed at Montrond, to which the young prince was permitted to invite some of his schoolfellows. But his tutors and certain masters came also, and his studies were by no means suspended, though physical training—lessons in dancing, fencing, and riding—received the larger share of attention.
At the end of the year 1635, Condé judged that the time had come for his son to lay aside the scholar’s gown, and accordingly the Duc d’Enghien bade farewell to the Jesuits of Bourges and set out for Paris, where he was presented to Louis XIII. After a short visit to his mother at Saint-Maur, he set out for Dijon to join his father, who had lately added the government of Burgundy to that of Berry, and remained there until the beginning of the following year. He then returned to Paris and entered the famous “Académie royale pour la jeune noblesse,” established some years previously by a retired officer of the army, named Benjamin, and recently transformed into a kind of military school under the protection of Louis XIII. and Richelieu. Here he was taught everything which concerned the profession of arms: geography, mathematics, fortification, drawing, fencing, horsemanship, being treated, by his father’s wishes, in every respect as the other young noblemen, several of whom became his close friends, and in after years shared his labours and his fame.
LOUIS I DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDÉ, (THE GREAT CONDÉ)
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JACQUES LUBIN
After twelve months of earnest work, varied by short visits to Saint-Maur, and a few appearances at the Court and in Society, the duke quitted Benjamin’s academy, and in the spring of 1638, the Prince de Condé having been called to the command of the army in Guienne, Louis XIII. entrusted him with the government of Burgundy during his father’s absence.