Henrietta, Queen of England, was now residing in France, where she had taken refuge during the Protectorate, and was joined by her sons, King Charles and James, Duke of York, who, in those early days of his career, was a soldier at heart. He had a profound admiration for Marshal Turenne, whose camp he joined, and was present at many of the engagements which took place at that time between the Royal and the rebel army, Turenne always treating the exiled Prince with the utmost consideration and kindness; and the Duke of York was more than once employed as a mediator between the opposing armies. Turenne pursued the Prince de Condé on his march towards Paris, coming up with him in the Faubourg St. Antoine, close to the capital. The Cardinal was so persistent in his desire that Turenne should here attack Monsieur le Prince, and that the Royal troops should commence the attack, that he overruled the Marshal’s wish to await the arrival of reinforcements. And so it chanced that, from a neighbouring height, as from an amphitheatre, the King, his Minister, and the whole Court, became spectators of one of the bloodiest encounters that ever cursed a civil war.
‘Jamais,’ says the biographer of Turenne, ‘action ne fut disputée avec une valeur plus continuée, et plus opiniâtre. Les deux généraux, tout couverts de sang, et toujours exposés aux feux des mousquetaires, qui tiroient de maison à droite et à gauche, combattirent souvent vis à vis l’un d’autre, à la portée du pistolet. La fureur martiale de l’un, et le sangfroid de l’autre, faisoient un contraste, dont le spectacle excitoit l’admiration et la terreur.’
After many fluctuations on one part and the other, the Prince de Condé’s army was hemmed in, and must have been cut to pieces had not the Parisians, seeing his danger, opened the gates, and received the rebels within their walls, while the cannon began playing on the Royal army, by command of the King’s own cousin, Mademoiselle de Montpensier. So hot was the fire, and so close the quarters, that Turenne was obliged to abandon his desire of pursuing the enemy within the walls. Disorder and tumult reigned in Paris, and a terrible massacre took place at the Hôtel de Ville.
The Court, by the Marshal’s advice, repaired to Pontoise, and he himself to Compiègne; and it was chiefly through his instrumentality that the Spanish troops were at length obliged to evacuate France, and retreat to Flanders. A sad affliction was in store for the hero about this time, in the death of his brother, the Duc de Bouillon, to whom he was fondly attached. But he was not a man to allow sorrow to interfere with duty. The ill feeling that was still rife against the Cardinal Minister continued to be used as a pretext for revolt and rebellion of all kinds. Turenne went in person one day, and had a long and confidential conversation with Mazarin, in which he pointed out, in the most emphatic manner, that it was incumbent upon him (the Minister) to make at least a temporary sacrifice for the good of the King, his master, and the country in general. This, urged the Marshal, would be effected by his absenting himself, for a time at least. His arguments prevailed. Mazarin consented to leave France, but in so doing he made his own conditions. The King (who was directed to say he ‘only gave in to the plan of dismissing his faithful Minister in order to pacify his people’) received a paper from the Cardinal, in which directions were drawn up for his own conduct; and His Majesty was further instructed to place two of his Eminence’s most devoted adherents at the head of affairs. After this was done, Mazarin, strong in the conviction that the Queen would soon recall him, took his way to Bouillon. But Condé and the Duc de Lorraine still continued to harass the kingdom, and peace seemed still far off; it was again by Turenne’s advice that the Court was induced to proceed once more to Paris, where the Marshal assured Louis that the Parisians, being wearied by the unsettled state of affairs, would gladly welcome him. Accordingly the Court set out; but as the cortége approached the Bois de Boulogne, they were met by a deputation, the members of which pointed out in the most formidable colours the danger which his Majesty would incur in entering Paris, where those arch-rebels, the Duke of Orleans, and Mademoiselle de Montpensier, his daughter, were caballing to incite the people against him. The royal coach came to a stand-still, and Anne of Austria, with her accustomed energy and promptness, made the ladies who were inside alight, and summoning the Vicomte de Turenne, the Marshals De Villeroi, Du Plessis, and others, she held an open-air council. Every one, with the exception of Turenne, was of opinion that they had better retrace their steps. The noble soldier spoke, as he always did, with firmness and judgment. He did not believe, he said, in the friendship of men who could give such pusillanimous advice; that the return of the Court would make them despicable in the eyes of all, and would discourage the loyal, and give fresh impetus to the plans of the disaffected. The Queen approved and seconded him on every point, and the procession moved on once more. The young King, at the head of his guards, rode in amid loud cries of ‘Vive le Roi!’ and the acclamations of a huge concourse that accompanied him to the gates of the Louvre. The next day the Duke of Orleans and his daughter thought it advisable to leave Paris, and amicable relations were entered into between the King and his Parliament. ‘L’ordre fût bientôt rétabli dans la ville, et le calme qui succeda fit oublier les troubles de la Fronde.’ The Prince de Condé alone refused to comply with the conditions of the amnesty which was proclaimed, preferring, he said, to suffer any loss rather than live in the same country with the Cardinal, whose return was, of course, a matter of certainty; and he chose the alternative of making a league with the Spaniards. Turenne remained in Paris until he considered Louis to be safely reinstated on the throne, and then he went again into the field at a time of year when troops generally go into winter quarters. On parting from the King, he promised to drive Condé and his allies out of France before the expiration of the winter; and he redeemed his pledge.
The Prince de Condé was compelled to leave the country, and comparative peace was restored in the interior of the kingdom; but peril, hardship, and scarcity still pursued the Royal army, and exposed their noble commander to dreadful straits, which were much aggravated by the jealousy of his colleague, the Marshal de la Ferté. At the end of the year 1652, the troops were ordered into winter quarters; and in the commencement of the ensuing year the Vicomte de Turenne espoused a lady, whose name, possessions, titles, and good qualities engross a large space in the pages of the Marshal’s biography. Her merits are best summed up in this one sentence: ‘She was worthy to be the wife of the hero.’ Charlotte de Caumont was the daughter and heiress of Armand Nompar de Caumont, Duc de la Force, Pair et Maréchal de France,—beautiful, modest, rich, well educated, and, in short, possessed of all those qualities which are generally the attributes of a bride-elect.
The newly-married pair were not long allowed to enjoy their spell of happiness, for the month of June once more saw the Marshal in the field, and the old warfare recommenced between the King’s army and Condé and his Spanish allies. The marches, counter-marches, attacks, sieges, and retreats belong to the military annals of the time. Mazarin continued to make fruitless overtures to Condé, who entangled himself more and more with the Spaniards; but fell out with his other ally, the Duke of Lorraine, whom he was instrumental in causing to be arrested and imprisoned. The Prince de Conti did not follow his brother’s example, and finding he reaped no advantage from being at variance with the Court, he became reconciled to the King and the Cardinal Minister, whose niece, Anna Maria de Martinozzi, he shortly afterwards married. Turenne’s attack on the Spanish lines and Condé’s troops added so much to his military fame that complimentary messages and letters from German princes and European generals poured in on all sides. A characteristic trait is told of the hero about this time, characteristic also of the spite and jealousy of the Marshal de la Ferté. This general, finding one of Turenne’s guards outside the camp, caused him to be severely beaten. The man, covered with blood, sought the presence of his commanding officer, and complained of his usage.
Turenne sent him back, under the escort of a lieutenant of the Guards, with a message to De la Ferté, apologising for any want of respect the man may have shown, as it must have been something very reprehensible to cause so severe a punishment. The message was given in the presence of the whole staff of officers, who were acquainted with the real state of the case, and De la Ferté was betrayed into exclaiming aloud, ‘Cet homme sera-t-il toujours sage, et moi toujours fou?’
In the month of August the Marshals D’Hocquincourt and De la Ferté joined the King, and the Vicomte de Turenne remained in the undivided command of the army. Towards the end of September he went back to Paris, where he was again serviceable in negotiating affairs between the King and the Parliament, but soon returned to active service. The Frondeurs were dispersed or pardoned; the Duke of Orleans reconciled to his brother; Cardinal de Retz, who had been imprisoned and escaped, had sought refuge in Rome; but Turenne still pursued his path of glory and of peril, gaining fresh laurels, even when unsuccessful in the literal sense of the word. His despatches and private communications were invariably marked by that modesty which is the true attribute of greatness. After the famous siege of Dunkirk, he wrote to his wife: ‘Les ennemis sont venus, ils out été battus, Dieu soit loué; j’ai été un peu fatigué toute la journée; je vous donne le bon soir, et je vais me coucher.’
This taking of Dunkirk was an affair of such importance, that it is said Cardinal Mazarin wished to take the glory on himself of projecting and planning the enterprise; and it is further stated that he endeavoured to bribe the great general into bearing witness to the Minister’s share in the matter, by a written document. It was wonderful that the Cardinal should not by this time have learned better to understand the character of the man with whom he had to deal. Turenne replied that Mazarin might pride himself as much as he pleased on his knowledge of military tactics, but for himself he would never bear testimony to a falsehood.
At the end of the year 1658 Turenne brought back his army to France, and returned to Court, having routed the Spaniards, taken twelve towns of importance, subdued large tracts of country, and garrisoned the places he had annexed. The reverses of the Spanish arms inclined Philip IV. to listen to terms, while Anne of Austria represented to the Cardinal that peace would be a fit thank-offering to Heaven for the recovery of the King, who had been dangerously ill. Mazarin himself was also in favour of a treaty, as during all these campaigns he had never quite abandoned a darling scheme for uniting the interests of the two nations by the marriage of King Louis with Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain. The moment seemed propitious in every way,—Cromwell was dead, and England treating with her exiled King for his return. Both Charles and his brother, the Duke of York, were personally attached to France, and the latter, as we have seen, had served in the French army under the great Turenne.