e.

On the 16th of February the Princes, being set at liberty, arrived in
Paris, and, after waiting on the Queen, supped with M. de Beaufort and
myself at the Duc d'Orleans's house, where we drank the King's health and
"No Mazarin!"

On the 17th his Royal Highness carried them to the Parliament House, and
it is remarkable that the same people who but thirteen months before made
bonfires for their confinement did the same now for their release.

On the 20th the declaration demanded of the King against the Cardinal,
being brought to be registered in Parliament, was sent back with
indignation because the reason of his removal was coloured over with so
many encomiums that it was a perfect panegyric. Honest Broussel, who
always went greater lengths than anybody, was for excluding all cardinals
from the Ministry, as well as foreigners in general, because they swear
allegiance to the Pope. The First President, thinking to mortify me,
lauded Broussel for a man of admirable good sense, and espoused his
opinion; and the Prince de Conde, too, seemed to be overjoyed, saying,
"It is a charming echo." Indeed, I might well be troubled to think that
the very day after a treaty wherein the Duc d'Orleans declared that he
was resolved to make me a cardinal, the Prince should second a
proposition so derogatory to that dignity. But the truth is, the Prince
had no hand in it, for it came naturally, and was supported for no other
reason but because nothing that was brought as an argument against
Mazarin could then fail of being approved at the same time. I had some
reason to think that the motion was concerted beforehand by my enemies,
to keep me out of the Ministry. Nevertheless, I was not offended with
the Parliament, the bulk of whom I knew to be my friends, whose sole aim
was to effectually demolish Mazarin, and I acquiesced in the solid
satisfaction which I had in being considered in the world as the expeller
of Mazarin, whom everybody hated, and the deliverer of the Princes, who
were as much their darlings.

The continual chicanery of the Court provoked the Parliament of Paris to
write to all the Parliaments of France to issue decrees against Cardinal
Mazarin, which they did accordingly. The Parliament obliged the Court to
issue a declaration setting forth the innocence of the Princes, and
another for the exclusion of cardinals--French as well as
foreigners--from the King's Council, and the Parliament had no rest till
the Cardinal r