a position to hold his own against both the Queen and the
Frondeurs together, he quitted Saint-Maur and returned to his hotel near
the Palais d'Orleans, desiring to put a good complexion on the aspect of
his affairs and to impose upon his enemies by that bold and high-minded
conduct.[7] He appeared again also in the parliament, now once more
become the battle-field of parties. De Retz, full of his own individual
hatred, augmented by that of Madame de Chevreuse, seconded at once by
the friends of the Duke d'Orleans and by those of the Queen, burning to
tear from the Court and win, by serving it, the cardinal's hat, the
object of his ardent desires, the necessary stepping-stone to his
ambition, brought all his courage and vanity towards enacting the part
of the Prince's enemy. And there, during the months of July and August,
in that pretended sanctuary of law and justice, passed all those
deplorable scenes which De Retz and La Rochefoucauld have related, and
in which Mazarin, from his retreat on the banks of the Rhine, rejoiced
to see his two enemies waste their strength, and work unwittingly but
surely their common ruin and his approaching triumph.

[7] La Rochefoucauld, p. 83.

A crisis was clearly inevitable. Conde could no longer perceive any
sign of a pacific issue from the position in which he had been placed,
or rather in which he had placed himself, and at his right hand stood
Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti, who held no opinions
contrary to those of his sister, urging him to cut the knot which he
knew not how to untie. La Rochefoucauld stopped him for a moment on the
threshold of war, entreating Conde to allow him to undertake fresh
negotiations. The Prince consented willingly thereto. Madame de
Longueville was opposed to it. La Rochefoucauld, speaking to her with
that authority which his long devotion gave him, represented to her the
terrible responsibility which she took upon herself both towards Conde
and the State, and he obtained from her a promise that she would
withdraw for a time from the arena of strife, and accompany her
sister-in-law, the Princess de Conde, to Berri, and allow him to remain
in Paris by the side of Conde in order to make a last essay towards
conjuring the tempest.

The fitting moment has now arrived to examine the conduct of Madame de
Longueville in these grave conjunctures, the different feelings which
animated her, and the true and lamentable motive which determine