with the Regent at the time she received this intimation; and the
delight which it occasioned was so great that the virtuous and pious
Anne of Austria caught the archbishop's mistress in her arms, and kissed
her more than once, exclaiming, with no very great regard for decorum,
"You rogue! you are now doing me as much good as you have hitherto done
me harm."

De Retz kept his word, and went to the parliament, but the progress
against Conde was so slow that Mazarin, the Queen, and De Retz, began to
revolve more summary measures, and, towards the latter part of June,
their deliberations ended in a sinister project of again arresting or of
assassinating Conde.

This obscure affair, as yet only partially unveiled, and which probably
will never be so entirely, is not so dark and impenetrable, however, as
to prevent us from seeing, within the shadow thereof, fearful and
criminal purposes, to which even the more open vices of the age are
comparatively light. We are told by De Retz that the Marshal de
Hocquincourt, with more frankness than the rest, proposed in direct
terms to assassinate Conde. The Coadjutor himself, however, Madame de
Chevreuse, and other leaders of the Fronde, but above all Senneterre,
who had about this time obtained a great share of the Queen's
confidence, opposed not only the bold crime proposed at first by
Hocquincourt, but also all the schemes which he and others afterwards
suggested, and which, though apparently more mild, were all likely to
end in the same event.

Rumours of what was meditated soon reached the Prince's ears, who then
saw clearly the nature of his position. He perceived that he had
quarrelled thoroughly and for ever with the Frondeurs and with the
Queen, and that henceforth he was placed between imprisonment and
assassination. He felt certain that this time, should he fall into the
hands of his enemies, he would be treated far more harshly than in 1650,
and that probably he might never see the light again. He despised death,
but the idea of perpetual incarceration was insupportable to him, and
that idea fastening itself by degrees on his mind caused projects to
enter into it which until then had only momentarily crossed it.

Too high-minded to quit Paris as though he were terrified, Conde
exhibited no change in his conduct; merely confining himself to no
longer visiting the Palais-Royal or the Palais d'Orleans, and never
going abroad without a numerous escort of officers and retai