d no
resource but that of making common cause with the Spaniards, who were at
war with France. The confused civil war which followed this step (Sept.
1651) was memorable chiefly for the battle of the Faubourg St Antoine,
in which Conde and Turenne, two of the foremost captains of the age,
measured their strength (July 2, 1652), and the army of the prince was
only saved by being admitted within the gates of Paris. La Grande
Mademoiselle, daughter of the duke of Orleans, persuaded the Parisians
to act thus, and turned the cannon of the Bastille on Turenne's army.
Thus Conde, who as usual had fought with the most desperate bravery, was
saved, and Paris underwent a new investment. This ended in the flight of
Conde to the Spanish army (Sept. 1652), and thenceforward, up to the
peace, he was in open arms against France, and held high command in the
army of Spain. But his now fully developed genius as a commander found
little scope in the cumbrous and antiquated system of war practised by
the Spaniards, and though he gained a few successes, and man[oe]uvred
with the highest possible skill against Turenne, his disastrous defeat
at the Dunes near Dunkirk (14th of June 1658), in which an English
contingent of Cromwell's veterans took part on the side of Turenne, led
Spain to open negotiations for peace. After the peace of the Pyrenees in
1659, Conde obtained his pardon (January 1660) from Louis, who thought
him less dangerous as a subject than as possessor of the independent
sovereignty of Luxemburg, which had been offered him by Spain as a
reward for his services.

Conde now realized that the period of agitation and party warfare was at
an end, and he accepted, and loyally maintained henceforward, the
position of a chief subordinate to a masterful sovereign. Even so, some
years passed before he was recalled to active employment, and these
years he spent on his estate at Chantilly. Here he gathered round him a
brilliant company, which included many men of genius--Moliere, Racine,
Boileau, La Fontaine, Nicole, Bourdaloue and Bossuet. About this time
negotiations between the Poles, Conde and Louis were carried on with a
view to the election, at first of Conde's son Enghien, and afterwards of
Conde himself, to the throne of Poland. These, after a long series of
curious intrigues, were finally closed in 1674 by the veto of Louis XIV.
and the election of John Sobieski. The prince's retirement, which was
only broken by the Polish quest