d henceforward De Retz assumed
and wore the dress of cardinal. After the King's return, he had carried
his audacity so far as to present himself at the Louvre to pay, as a
faithful subject, his homage to their Majesties. On the 1st of December,
he preached with great effect at Notre Dame, and recommenced his old
course of life of 1648, making pious sermons in the intervals of his
gallant rendezvous, devoting the morning to preaching at church, the
evening to _bonnes fortunes_, and reknitting in the dark the meshes of
his old intrigues. But Mazarin knew him thoroughly: he was persuaded
that De Retz was incapable of confining himself to his ecclesiastical
functions, incompatible as they were with his dissipated and licentious
habits, with his restless and factious disposition, and so under his
minister's advice on some slight suspicion arising, the King had him
arrested even in the very Louvre, on the 19th of December, 1652, and
conducted to the donjon of Vincennes.

Mazarin was too cautious to treat La Rochefoucauld after the same
fashion. He knew marvellously well that, separated from Conde and Madame
de Longueville, who constituted all his importance, La Rochefoucauld was
no longer to be dreaded, and that he was not of a humour to make
himself the champion and martyr of a vanquished party. The serious wound
which he had received in the combat of Saint Antoine turned him, so to
speak, to advantage. Struck by a ball which had traversed both cheeks
and temporarily deprived him of sight, it was impossible for him to
continue in active service and to follow the army. He did not therefore
play false to Conde in not accepting the command of such troops as
remained to the Fronde--a command which, on his retirement, was offered
to the Prince de Tarent. It was absolutely essential that he should be
speedily cured of his wound; and that real motive covering his weariness
and long-felt disgust, he did not, like Persan, Bouteville, and Vauban,
join the Prince in Flanders. On the other hand, he had not objected to
the amnesty, and therefore could not be included in the royal
declaration issued on the 13th of November against Conde, Conti, Madame
de Longueville, and their chief adherents. But Mazarin took good care
not to pursue him, and La Rochefoucauld, after allowing the first
outburst of the storm to pass over, retired to his estates to bury
himself in obscurity for a few years, and to taste that repose of which
he had so great n