med himself of warlike exploits. When his sister
returned from Germany, he went to meet her, and, dazzled by her beauty,
her grace, and her fame, he began to love her rather as a gallant than
as a brother. He followed her blindly in all her adventures, in which
he exhibited as much courage as volatility. When he had made his peace
with the Court--thanks to his marriage with a niece of Mazarin, the
beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi--he obtained the
command-in-chiefship of the army of Catalonia, in which capacity he
acquitted himself with great honour. He was much less successful in
Italy. On the whole, he was far from injuring his name, and he gave to
France, in the person of his young son, a true warrior, one of the best
pupils of Conde, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth
century. Constrained, through ill-health, to betake himself again to
religion, the Prince de Conti finished, where he had begun, with
theology. He composed several meritorious and learned works on various
religious subjects.

In 1647, he was entirely devoted to vanity and pleasure. He adored his
sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous empire, which
continued during several years.

CHAPTER III.

THE DUCHESS DE CHEVREUSE DRIVEN INTO EXILE FOR THE THIRD TIME.

WHEN in the summer of 1644, the Queen of England, the fugitive consort
of Charles I., sought an asylum in France from the fury of the English
parliamentarians, and went to drink the Bourbon waters, Madame de
Chevreuse eagerly desired to see once more that illustrious princess,
who had so warmly welcomed her when herself an exile, at the Court of
St. James's. Queen Henrietta, too, who like her mother, Marie de'
Medici, as well as the Duchess, was of the Spanish and Catholic party,
would have been delighted to have mingled her tears with those of so old
and faithful a friend. But the royal exile did not deem it right to give
way to her inclination without Queen Anne's permission, who at that
moment was according her such noble hospitality. Anne of Austria
politely replied that the Queen, her sister, was perfectly free to act
as she chose; but it was intimated to her, through the Chevalier de
Jars, that it was inexpedient to receive the visit of a person who,
through misguided conduct, had forfeited Her Majesty's favour. This
fresh disgrace, added to so many others, increased the Duchess's
irritation to the highest pitch. She redoubled her effo