il being held at the Palais-Royal, gave the fatal
order, and then withdrew into her oratory. There she made the young King
kneel down beside her in order to invoke Heaven in concert with herself
to obtain the happy achievement of an act of tyranny which was destined
to produce fresh woes to the realm, and to rekindle in it the flames of
civil war.

On the morrow of the 18th of January, 1650, all Paris was electrified at
the news of the arrest of the three Princes--Conde, Conti, and
Longueville. That bold _coup d'etat_ was effected very easily and
unceremoniously. The Princes went voluntarily, as it were, into the
mouse-trap, by attending a great council at the Palais Royal. Anne had
obtained from Conde an order for the seizure and detention of three or
four persons whose names were left in blank; and on the authority of his
own signature, the hero of Rocroy and the other two princes, were led
quietly down a back stair, given over to the custody of a small escort
of twenty men under the command of Guitaut and Comminges, and by them
conducted during the night to Vincennes.

CHAPTER VII.

MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE'S ADVENTURES IN NORMANDY. THE WOMEN'S WAR.

THE heroes having thus suddenly disappeared from the scene, the
political stage was left clear for the performance of the heroines. We
are now about to see the women, almost by themselves, carry on the civil
war, govern, intrigue, fight. A great experience for human nature, a
fine historical opportunity for observing that gallant transfer of all
power from the one sex to the other--the men lagging behind, led,
directed, in the second or third ranks. But those women of rank, young,
beautiful, brilliant, and for the most part gallant, were doubtless more
formidable to the minister at this juncture than the men. The two lovely
duchesses, De Longueville and De Bouillon, having shown during the
preceding year of what they were capable; the Queen therefore gave
orders for their arrest. The wary lover of the fascinating politician
who had lately begun to scatter her blandishments equally upon all--La
Rochefoucauld--having been apprised by the captain of his quarter that
some blow was meditated by Mazarin, had sent twice to warn the Princes
through the Marquis de la Moussaye, but who, as it appears, failed to
acquit himself of that important mission. But if La Rochefoucauld's
warning failed to reach the ears of the Princes, he was more fortunate
in effecting the escap