verything, however, tended to precipitate Conde towards the fatal
resolution. Prudence did not permit him to remain any longer at
Chantilly,[3] and it behoved him to place himself beyond the risk of a
_coup-de-main_ by withdrawing to his government of Berri, whither he had
already sent his son, his wife, and his sister. It was, it is true, the
road to Guienne, but he might stop there. All the population was devoted
to him, and the tower of Bourges and the strong fortalice of Montrond
offered him a safe asylum.

[3] La Rochefoucauld, p. 96.

Conde, even after reaching Berri, still hesitated, not wishing to take
any step before again conferring with his sister, who was then at
Montrond with the Princess. There he held a final council, a supreme
deliberation, at which Madame de Longueville, Conti, and La
Rochefoucauld were present. More than one grave motive urged him to war:
the well-founded dread of assassination or of a fresh incarceration, the
ardent hatred of his enemies, of the Queen and the Fronde, the power of
Chateauneuf which certainly had not been given him in vain, the
inutility of negotiations with people who seemed decidedly to have taken
their choice, the necessity of avoiding the fate of Henri de Guise, the
consciousness of his strength so soon as his foot should tread the
field of battle, the promises seemingly so sure of the Bouillons and
many others. At the same time, his good sense, his loyalty, the scarcely
stifled instincts of duty, and his innate aversion for anything which
resembled anarchy, restrained him; and in that prolonged and dubious
struggle between conflicting feelings, there were others which hurried
him onward. Madame de Longueville, the Prince de Conti, La Rochefoucauld
also urged him to declare himself against the Court, and Madame de
Longueville with more vivacity than anyone else.[4] Conde still
resisted, explaining to them all the strength of royalty, the ascendancy
of the King's name, the weakness and treachery of factions, the bad
faith of Spain. Then concluding by yielding, he addressed them in these
memorable words: "You commit me to a strange line of action, of which
you will tire sooner than I, and in which you will abandon me." He spoke
truly as regarded Conti, and perhaps also La Rochefoucauld; but it
remains to be seen whether Madame de Longueville, after having helped to
drive her heroic brother into civil war, did not follow him with an
inviolable constancy, whether s