e
important field of the Low Countries; and at Lens (Aug. 19th) a battle
took place, which, beginning with a panic in his own regiment, was
retrieved by Conde's coolness and bravery, and ended in a victory that
fully restored his prestige.

In September of the same year Conde was recalled to court, for the
regent Anne of Austria required his support. Influenced by the fact of
his royal birth and by his arrogant scorn for the bourgeois, Conde lent
himself to the court party, and finally, after much hesitation, he
consented to lead the army which was to reduce Paris (Jan. 1649).

On his side, insufficient as were his forces, the war was carried on
with vigour, and after several minor combats their substantial losses
and a threatening of scarcity of food made the Parisians weary of the
war. The political situation inclined both parties to peace, which was
made at Rueil on the 20th of March (see Fronde, The). It was not long,
however, before Conde became estranged from the court. His pride and
ambition earned for him universal distrust and dislike, and the personal
resentment of Anne in addition to motives of policy caused the sudden
arrest of Conde, Conti and Longueville on the 18th of January 1650. But
others, including Turenne and his brother the duke of Bouillon, made
their escape. Vigorous attempts for the release of the princes began to
be made. The women of the family were now its heroes. The dowager
princess claimed from the parlement of Paris the fulfilment of the
reformed law of arrest, which forbade imprisonment without trial. The
duchess of Longueville entered into negotiations with Spain; and the
young princess of Conde, having gathered an army around her, obtained
entrance into Bordeaux and the support of the parlement of that town.
She alone, among the nobles who took part in the folly of the Fronde,
gains our respect and sympathy. Faithful to a faithless husband, she
came forth from the retirement to which he had condemned her, and
gathered an army to fight for him. But the delivery of the princes was
brought about in the end by the junction of the old Fronde (the party of
the parlement and of Cardinal de Retz) and the new Fronde (the party of
the Condes); and Anne was at last, in February 1651, forced to liberate
them from their prison at Havre. Soon afterwards, however, another
shifting of parties left Conde and the new Fronde isolated. With the
court and the old Fronde in alliance against him, Conde foun