--"Madame de Longueville, who had been long
jealous of the beauty and graces of Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, could
little bear to contemplate the probability of her being raised to a rank
even more elevated than her own, and still less, that she should obtain
the great influence which such a person was likely to acquire over both
her princely brothers. She had, therefore, exerted all her influence
over Conde, and with him had been quite successful. But Conti was still
in the height of his passion for the beautiful and fascinating girl who
had been promised to him during his imprisonment; he supped every
evening at the Hotel de Chevreuse, and his affections, as well as his
honour, were fully engaged." The Duchess de Nemours says the same thing
in the same terms.

Confidant and adviser of Madame de Longueville and of Conde, La
Rochefoucauld alone knew the whole truth, and could have told it to
posterity; but it was not to tell the truth that his memoirs were
penned, only too frequently to conceal it, to set in strong relief that
which had been well done, and slur over that which had been badly done,
or to cast the blame of it upon others. Attentive to the study of his
part, and to never accept a bad one, La Rochefoucauld says truly that
the Frondeurs, eagerly pressing forwards the marriage of the Prince de
Conti with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, and seeing it retarded, "suspected
Madame de Longueville and the Duke de la Rochefoucauld of a design to
break it off, for fear that the Prince de Conti should escape from their
hands only to fall into those of Madame de Chevreuse and of the
Coadjutor;" but he endeavours to give a reason for these suspicions, and
to inform us whether they were well or ill founded. Instead of defending
himself, and Madame de Longueville, he accuses Conde of having "adroitly
increased the suspicions of the Frondeurs against his sister and La
Rochefoucauld, firmly believing that so long as they held that belief,
they would never discover the true cause of the postponement of the
marriage." And what was that true cause? Here it is, according to La
Rochefoucauld: it was that the Prince de Conde "not having as yet
either concluded or broken off his treaty with the Queen, and having
been informed that the keeper of the seals--Chateauneuf--was about to be
dismissed, wished to await that event to conclude the marriage, if
Cardinal Mazarin were ruined by M. de Chateauneuf, or to break it off
and make through th