ANTOINE DE BOURGOGNE, CALLED LE GRAND BÂTARD.
Musée Condé.
Photo. Braun & Co.
Memling.
A general amnesty was now offered to the people of Bordeaux if they would surrender to the King. To this they agreed; and a passport was granted to enable the Princesse de Condé to retire with her son wherever she might choose. Claire-Clemence, for a moment, was undecided whether to join her husband or to go to Flanders. She chose the latter course. She had to part, however, with her elder—now her only—son, the Duc d’Enghien, whose education was committed into the hands of the Jesuits at Antwerp. Broken in health and spirits, she left for Valenciennes, accompanied only by her secretary, the faithful Lenet, and a small suite. Nor was the news which she received from her husband of a nature to restore her health. The success which had hitherto always accompanied him when fighting for his country seemed to have entirely abandoned him since he raised his sword against France. Accused of high treason, abandoned with insufficient resources to meet his liabilities, and frequently prone upon a bed of sickness, we cannot but admire the man who succeeded in facing such terrible trials. More than once he had to rectify grave errors committed by the Spanish generals, even by Don Juan of Austria himself, who was regarded in Spain as a conquering hero.
Mazarin, having succeeded in putting down the civil war, could now turn his attention to the struggle with Spain; and at length the two armies faced one another on the Dunes, near Dunkirk. The Spaniards were led by Condé, the French by Turenne. The hero of Rocroy, so famous for his own strategic powers, as he surveyed the two armies, was struck by the excellent dispositions of Turenne. Addressing himself to a young Englishman who was in his camp, he said, “Have you ever seen how a battle is lost?” “No,” answered the youth. “Well, in less than half an hour you will see such an event,” was Condé’s grave response. His prediction was verified; and Dunkirk was captured by the French, although Condé, with great skill, succeeded in limiting the extent of his rival’s victory.
The result of this battle was the famous “Peace of the Pyrenees,” signed at Münster on November 7, 1659 by Mazarin and Louis de Haros, minister of Philip IV. Amongst the more particular clauses of this Peace was a marriage contract, arranged between Louis XIV and the Infanta Maria Theresa, which had far-reaching consequences. Another stipulation made by Spain was that Condé should be allowed to return to France, and be reinstated in all his rights as a Prince of the Blood. His implacable enemy Mazarin opposed this at first, but through the prayers of his wife and his sister Geneviève de Bourbon the Grand Condé was finally allowed to return home. After having exercised so pernicious an influence over her brother during the second Fronde, and after having brought upon him so many disasters, Geneviève, on the death of her husband, the Duc de Longueville, turned her attention to religion, and retired to the convent at Moulins, where the widowed Marie Felice, last Duchesse de Montmorency, still mourned her dead spouse.
Condé’s letters, whereby he promised fidelity to the King and engaged to live on good terms with the Cardinal, preceded him. Madame de Longueville had, moreover, made great preparations for her brother’s return to Court; whilst Conti, who, as already mentioned, had meantime married one of Mazarin’s nieces, arranged the first meeting between the Prince and the powerful Minister. He was welcomed by the Queen, and presented his respects to the King; and on the following day the Gazette de France announced that he had dined with His Eminence Cardinal Mazarin.
That Condé was truly sorry for having raised his sword against his own country, is proved by the following remark: “When Mazarin had me imprisoned, I was innocent; but I came out of prison the most culpable of men.”
From Paris the Prince went straight to his residence at Saint-Maur to meet Turenne, who appeared at first embarrassed on seeing him. Condé, however, at once addressed his rival in a most friendly manner, and asked his advice regarding the repatriation of his soldiers, many of whom were Swiss and Germans who declined to enter the French army.