might have caught a liking for
politics and negotiation during the conference of Munster. Certain it is
that once plunged into the eddying tide of the Fronde, she loftily
announced the project of remedying the general disorder of affairs. But
she especially desired to employ therein the means which confer
celebrity, and it is difficult to deny that ambition, although without
determinate aim, and the desire of establishing a high opinion of her
intellect, may have had some share in the reasons which induced her to
embrace the party opposed to Mazarin. With herself she drew her husband
into it, as well as the Prince de Conti, her younger brother. As for the
elder, the victorious Conde, he at first declared for the King and the
Queen-Regent, which greatly incensed his sister against him, and caused
her to enter into close compact, amongst others, with the Coadjutor,
afterwards Cardinal de Retz--that mischievous man who figured so
conspicuously as the evil genius of the Fronde.

The Gondis, who were the chief advisers of the St. Bartholomew, owed to
that terrible exploit the result of being very nearly the hereditary
possessors of the Archbishopric of Paris. But this last Gondi--John
Francis Paul--owed something more: to be at the same time governor of
Paris, and to unite both powers. With such purpose, he artfully worked
upon the city through the curates who, distributing bread, soup, and
every other kind of alms, carried along with them the famished masses.
This young ecclesiastic of the de Retz family had risen into great
favour with the serious and religious sections of the Parisian
community. He was nephew of the Archbishop of Paris, and was himself
Archbishop of Corinth; but as his flock in that metropolitan city were
schismatic (except those who had turned Turks), he had leisure to assist
his uncle in his high office, and was appointed his Coadjutor and
successor. He preached at all the churches, held visitations at the
convents, catechised the young, and consulted with the senior clergy on
the management of the diocese. When he rode through the streets he was
saluted with cheers and blessings, and the orators of the Fronde held
him up as the pattern of all the Christian virtues. At night he put off
his episcopal robes, disguised himself as a trooper or tradesman, and
attended the meetings of the discontented. In a short time he had
distributed seven or eight thousand pounds in stirring up the passions
of the people