ners.
Already for some time past foreseeing the storm that was gathering
against him, he had taken serious measures to confront it: he had
strengthened all the fortresses that were in his hands. He had
despatched to Flanders the Marquis de Sillery, La Rochefoucauld's
brother-in-law, under pretext of finally disengaging Madame de
Longueville and Turenne from the treaties they had made with the
Spaniards in 1650, with secret instructions to renew them, and to
ascertain how far he might reckon on the assistance of Spain if he were
compelled to draw the sword. The Count de Fuensaldagne did not fail,
agreeable to the policy of his court, to promise much more than was
asked of him, and he omitted nothing calculated to stir up Conde to have
recourse to arms.

Chance had a share in urging Conde to take a further and almost decisive
step in the dangerous path that was opening before him. One evening,
just as he had lain down on his bed and was chatting with Vineuil, one
of his trusty friends, the latter received a note which directed him to
warn the Prince that two companies of guards were advancing on the side
of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. It was thought that those troops were
about to invest the hotel. Conde jumped out of bed, dressed himself,
mounted his horse instantly, and, accompanied by a few attendants, took
his way through the faubourg Saint-Michel. On gaining the high road, he
heard the clatter of a somewhat strong body of horsemen approaching, and
thinking that it was the squadron in search of him, he fell back at
first in the direction of Meudon; then, instead of re-entering Paris,
when day broke he sought an asylum in his chateau of Saint-Maur. He
reached it on the morning of the 6th of July; and it may readily be
guessed what the effect, in Paris and throughout the kingdom, of such a
retreat was, and for such motives. The Princess de Conde, the Prince de
Conti, Madame de Longueville, La Rochefoucauld, the Duke de Nemours,
the Duke de Richelieu, the Prince's most intimate friends, and more than
one illustrious personage, such as the Duke de Bouillon and Turenne,
repaired immediately to Saint-Maur. In a day or two, Conde saw himself
surrounded by a court as brilliant and as numerous as that of the King,
and there he kept up a right royal festivity. After a while he sent a
considerable number of officers disguised into Paris, who bestirred
themselves in every quarter in his favour; and when he considered
himself in