nhappy
condition of all her oppressed house.... The young Duke, whom a
gentleman (Vialas) carried in his arms, caught the counsellors round the
neck as they passed, and weepingly besought at their hands the
liberation of his father, in so tender a manner that those gentlemen
wept also as bitterly as he and his mother, and gave them both good
hopes." She harangued the magistrates, supplicated them, urged them; she
even protected them, on one occasion that the populace of Bordeaux,
finding them not so bold as they could have wished, endeavoured by
clamour to obtain a decree contrary to the views of the party of the
Princes. She repaired to the palace, and from the top of the steps
conjured the furious rabble and made them lay down their arms. "And it
must be owned," says Lenet, "that she had a particular talent for
speaking in public, and that nothing could be better, more appropriate,
nor more conformable to her position than what she said." On that day,
the Princess de Conde, upon the steps of the Hotel de Ville of Bordeaux,
appeared no longer unworthy of being ranked with Madame de Longueville
at the town-hall at Paris, or with Mademoiselle d'Orleans at the Porte
St. Antoine. Brienne adds that she worked, with her own hands, with the
ladies of the city, at the fortifications, and that she was anxious
herself to embroider, upon the banners of her army, the emblem and
device of the revolt--a grenade exploding, with the word _coacta_!

We have already seen the result of that three months' resistance--the
peace concluded at Bordeaux, the amnesty accorded to all those who had
taken up arms in Guienne, in a word, all the conditions proposed by the
Princess and the Dukes conceded, with the exception of one only--the
principal, that which had been the prime cause of all that
insurrection--the deliverance of the Prince de Conde, whom Mazarin
persisted in retaining prisoner, whilst at the same time promising to do
everything towards abridging his captivity.

The Princess was sent back to Montrond with her son, vexed no doubt at
not having conquered, but proud of having dared so much, and satisfied
at having deserved for that once to share his imprisonment. That day
came, however,--the day of gratitude and justice. On one occasion
already, whilst yet at Vincennes, the Prince, as he watered the tulips
celebrated by Mademoiselle de Scudery in song, remarked to some one,
"_Who would have thought that I should be watering tulips whi