apable of being easily
followed.

Dating from the arrest of Broussel, nothing could exceed the rapidity of
events; the wheel of fortune had turned with such terrific mobility for
those of her favourites who sought to attach themselves to it. The
revolt had, in fact, broken out on the 26th of August, 1648; in January,
1649, the Court withdrew to Saint Germain, at the risk of never
re-entering Paris; in April, the sword of Conde imposed the treaty of
Saint Germain, and the King returned in October. Mazarin shortly
afterwards believed himself strong enough to arrest, in January, 1650,
Conde, Conti, and Longueville. A year after that bold _coup d'etat_ he
was himself obliged to flee (February, 1651) from his enemies, and quit
France. At the end of eight months, Mazarin returned with an army to the
aid of royalty; but it required two years of negotiations, intrigues,
and patient waiting, it needed the errors which the indecision of the
Duke d'Orleans brought about, the rash violence of Conde, urged onwards
by his sister, it required, indeed, the entire ruin of France ere the
Cardinal could, after having led the young King by the hand to the very
gates of his capital, resume that place in the Louvre which he had
sagaciously abandoned.

It is difficult to narrate occurrences in their proper order during this
period: intrigues, broken promises, pledges given to two different
parties at the same time, such were the smallest misdeeds of all these
princes and prelates. As one step further in wrong-doing, they entered
into negotiations with the foreigner, and invited armies across the
frontier which devastated the provinces. And through what motives? Gondy
wished to avenge his former mistress, whom Conti had rejected, and whom
an agent of Conde, Maillard the shoemaker, had publicly insulted.
Conde's pretensions were nothing less than dragging at his heels a squad
of governors of towns and provinces who, at his summons, would be ever
ready to raise the standard of revolt and to impose the will of their
leader upon the head of the state, whether Minister, Queen, or King.
Orleans would not yield one jot to his young cousin of the blood-royal,
Conde; Madame de Longueville feared the severity of an outraged husband.
The civil war, in forcing her to flee from one end of France to the
other, or abroad, could alone delay her return to Normandy, her
re-establishment beneath the conjugal roof, towards which she had
conceived such an aversi