nish Fronde, and
in this everything united to thwart his genius; only on the battlefield
itself was his personal leadership as conspicuous as ever. That he was
capable of waging a methodical war of positions may be assumed from his
campaigns against Turenne and Montecucculi, the greatest generals of the
predominant school. But it was in his eagerness for battle, his quick
decision in action, and the stern will which sent his regiments to face
the heaviest loss, that Conde is distinguished above all the generals of
his time. In private life he was harsh and unamiable, seeking only the
gratification of his own pleasures and desires. His enforced and
loveless marriage embittered his life, and it was only in his last
years, when he had done with ambition, that the more humane side of his
character appeared in his devotion to literature.

Conde's unhappy wife had some years before been banished to Chateauroux.
An accident brought about her ruin. Her contemporaries, greedy as they
were of scandal, refused to believe any evil of her, but the prince
declared himself convinced of her unfaithfulness, placed her in
confinement, and carried his resentment so far that his last letter to
the king was to request him never to allow her to be released.

AUTHORITIES.--See, besides the numerous _Memoires_ of the time, Puget
de la Serre, _Les Sieges, les batailles, &c., de Mr. le prince de
Conde_ (Paris, 1651); J. de la Brune, _Histoire de la vie, &c., de
Louis de Bourbon, prince de Conde_ (Cologne, 1694); P. Coste,
_Histoire de Louis de Bourbon, &c._ (Hague, 1748); Desormeaux,
_Histoire de Louis de Bourbon, &c._ (Paris, 1768); Turpin, _Vie de
Louis de Bourbon, &c._ (Paris and Amsterdam, 1767); _Eloge militaire
de Louis de Bourbon_ (Dijon, 1772); _Histoire du grand Conde_, by A.
Lemercier (Tours, 1862); J. J. E. Roy (Lille, 1859); L. de Voivreuil
(Tours, 1846); Fitzpatrick, _The Great Conde_, and Lord Mahon, _Life
of Louis, prince of Conde_ (London, 1845). Works on the Conde family
by the prince de Conde and de Sevilinges (Paris, 1820), the due
d'Aumale, and Guibout (Rouen, 1856), should also be consulted.

CONDE, the name of some twenty villages in France and of two towns of
some importance. Of the villages, Conde-en-Brie (Lat. _Condetum_) is a
place of great antiquity and was in the middle ages the seat of a
principality, a sub-fief of that of Montmirail; Conde-sur-Aisne
(_Condatus_) was given in 870 by