to salute the Queen Regent
and the young King, and thence to the Palais d'Orleans, where he was
feasted magnificently. Some days afterwards (February 25th) a royal
ordonnance recognised the innocence of the Princes Conde, Conti, and
the Duke de Longueville, and reinstated them in all their posts and
governments. On the 27th this ordonnance was confirmed in Parliament
amidst loud cheers. Conde thus found himself at the highest degree of
power to which a subject could reach. Misfortune had enhanced his
military glory; a long captivity, endured with an unalterable serenity
and high-hearted gaiety, had carried his popularity to the highest
pitch. He was the victor, and, as it were, the designated heir, of
Mazarin, who had fled before him, and with difficulty found a refuge
without the kingdom, on the banks of the Rhine.

Thus, Anne of Austria in some sort a prisoner, and Mazarin proscribed,
the nobility showed itself entirely devoted to the young hero whom it
recognized as its chief. Some among them at once proposed that the Queen
Mother should be confined in the Val-de-Grace, and that the Prince
should himself assume the Regency, others talked even of raising him to
the throne, but Conde did not fail to perceive that his newly acquired
power was not so solid as it was sought to make him believe.

Meanwhile, Mazarin having quitted Havre, and the inhabitants of
Abbeville refusing him passage through their town, he found an asylum
for a few days at Dourlens; but he was soon driven thence by the
proceedings of the Parliament against him. He then retired to Sedan,
where he took counsel with his friend Fabert, whom he had appointed
Commandant there. He next proceeded to Cologne, being treated with the
utmost distinction and hospitality in all the foreign towns through
which he passed.

Even in banishment, however, the old influence began to work. The
Cardinal from his place of retirement governed the Queen with as
absolute a sway as ever, and recommended her, as a keen stroke of
policy which would neutralize all parties, to take the young King to a
_Bed of Justice_, and cause him to declare his majority. Couriers were
going daily between Paris and Cologne; treaties between the Fronde and
Mazarin were intercepted or forged, and published in the capital; the
post of Prime Minister remained unfilled, and the Duke de Mercoeur,
notwithstanding all the thunders of Parliament, set out for Bruhl, with
the purpose of marrying Mazarin