had just been executed), and that, after he had been driven out, my turn
would come." Grain had found its way into Paris during the truce; and
when, on the 13th of March, the premier president, Molt;, and the other
negotiators, returned to Paris, bringing the peace which they had signed
at Ruel, they were greeted with furious shouts: "None of your peace!
None of your Mazarin! We must go to St. Germain to seek our good king!
We must fling into the river all the Mazarins!" A rioter had just laid
his hand on the premier president's arm. "When you have killed me," said
the latter, calmly, "I shall only want six feet of earth;" and, when he
was advised to get back into his house by way of the record-offices, "The
court never hides itself," he said; "if I were certain to perish, I would
not commit this poltroonery, which, moreover, would but serve to give
courage to the rioters. They would, of course, come after me to my house
if they thought that I shrank from them here." The deputies of the
Parliament were sent back to Ruel, taking a statement of the claims of
the great lords: "according to their memorials, they demanded the whole
of France." [_Memoires de Madame de Motteville,_ t. iii. p. 247.]

Whilst Paris was in disorder, and the agitation, through its example, was
spreading over almost the whole of France, M. de Turenne, obliged to fly
from his army, was taking refuge, he and five others, with the landgrave
of Hesse; his troops had refused to follow him in revolt; the last hope
of the Frondeurs was slipping from them.

They found themselves obliged to accept peace, not without obtaining some
favors from the court.

There was a general amnesty; and the Parliament preserved all its rights.
"The king will have the honor of it, and we the profit," said Guy-Patin.
The great lords reappeared one after another at St. Germain. "It is the
way of our nation to return to their duty with the same airiness with
which they depart from it, and to pass in a single instant from rebellion
to obedience." [_La Rochefoucauld._] The return to rebellion was not to
be long delayed. The queen had gone back to Paris, and the Prince of
Conde with her; he, proud of having beaten the parliamentary Fronde,
affected the conqueror's airs, and the throng of his courtiers, the
"petits maitres," as they were called, spoke very slightingly of the
cardinal. Conde, reconciled with the Duchess of Longueville, his
sister, and his brother, the