nd, arrested, thrown into chains at
Pierre-Encise, he had only saved his head from the scaffold by
abandoning his principality. Ever since, he had not ceased to agitate
for the recovery of that which by treason he had lost. He had again
demanded Sedan from Mazarin in 1643, and not being able to obtain it at
the hands of that great servant of the Crown, that, in order to satisfy
a private interest, France should renounce one of its best strongholds
on the frontier of the Netherlands, he had ranked himself among the
Cardinal's enemies, and forced at first to flee, like the Duke de
Vendome, had scarcely returned to France ere he embraced with ardour the
Fronde, though without the slightest conviction, be it understood, and
in the sole hope of easily obtaining from it what he could not snatch
from royalty. He had enlisted with him in the Fronde his brother
Turenne, of whom he disposed absolutely, and who was equally ambitious,
and equally covetous of the grandeur of their family, but after his own
fashion, and the mould of his frigid, reflective, and profoundly
dissembling character. At the peace of Ruel, in 1649, the Duke de
Bouillon had demanded "his re-establishment in Sedan, or if the Queen
preferred to reimburse him for it at an estimated price, with the
possessions promised and due to his house; for himself, the government
of Auvergne; for his brother that of Haute and Basse Alsace, with that
of Philipsbourg and the command of all the armies of Germany." Mazarin
had then committed the error of not satisfying this ambitious and
powerful house; hence, in 1650, the conduct of the Duke in Guienne and
that of Turenne at Stenay and in Flanders. In 1651, the Queen treated
seriously with the Duke, and on his return Mazarin succeeded in entirely
gaining him over. Not desiring at any price to restore Sedan to him, he
granted the equivalent demanded--a great domain at Chateau-Thierry, much
richer than that of Sedan, and, without effective sovereignty, that
title of _Prince_, so dear to the vanity of the Bouillons, which the
head of the family could not only transmit to his children, but which
could descend also to his brother Turenne. The Duke de Bouillon having
once taken the part of abandoning Conde, in spite of all his
engagements, and of serving royalty, did it with the same energy which
he had displayed at Paris and Bordeaux. He never afterwards forsook
Mazarin, but assisted him with his advice, and suffered even more than
o