and ladies, cuirasses and violins and trumpets, formed, says De Retz, a
spectacle much more common in romances than anywhere else.

The serio-grotesque drama of the Fronde was thus initiated.

CHAPTER V.

MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE WINS HER BROTHER CONDE OVER TO THE FRONDE.

THIS first raising of bucklers by the Frondeurs was not of long
duration. At the conclusion of a peace between Mazarin and the
Parliament, a perfect understanding prevailed amongst all the members of
the Conde family. The civil dissensions, however, were sufficiently
prolonged to exhibit the errors of all parties--even those who had
entered therein with virtuous inclinations and intentions, ashamed of
the stains which had tarnished them in the struggle, almost invariably
ended by confining themselves to the narrow circle of individual
interests, and completed their degradation by no longer recognizing any
other motive for their conduct than that of sordid selfishness. All care
for the public weal became extinct; men's hearts were insensible to all
generous sympathy; their minds dead to every elevating impulse--like to
those aromatics which, after diffusing both glow and perfume from their
ardent brazier, lose by combustion all power of further rekindling, and
present nothing else than vile ashes, without heat, light, or odour.

The peace concluded between the Minister and the Fronde was destined to
be of short duration. It was, properly speaking, nothing but a
suspension of arms, and in no degree a suspension of intrigues and
cabals. That suspension of arms, however, had been accompanied by an
amnesty, including all persons except the Coadjutor. The other chief
personages who had played a part in the insurrection of Paris, and who
now proceeded to visit the Court, were by no means warmly received by
the Queen, though Mazarin himself displayed nothing but mildness and
humility. The Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde visited the city;
and the first was received with much enthusiasm by the populace, who
attributed to his counsels the truce of which all parties had stood so
much in need. The Prince de Conde, whose warlike spirit had not only
aided in stirring up the strife at first, but would have protracted it
still further had his advice been listened to, was not looked upon with
the same favour by the Parisians; but the Parliament sent deputations to
them both on their arrival in the city, to compliment them on their
efforts for the re