ity, as he later on desired to obtain
from the Spaniards? Or rather did he think of snatching from the Duke
d'Orleans the lieutenant-generalship? It is difficult to divine what may
have passed through his capricious brain. He was constant in nothing. It
was seen later still that he would very willingly have changed his
religion, offering himself on the one side to Cromwell, and to become a
protestant in order to have an English army; on the other to the Pope,
if he would help to get him elected King of Poland.

The income of the Condes in 1609 amounted to ten thousand livres, and in
1649, besides the Montmorency estates, they held an enormous portion of
France. First, by the Great Conde, they had Burgundy, Berri, the marshes
of Lorraine, a dominant fortress in the Bourbonnais that held in check
four provinces. Secondly, by Conti, Champagne. Thirdly, by Longueville,
their sister's husband, Normandy. Fourthly, the Admiralty, and Saumur,
the chief fortress of Anjou, were in the hands of the brother of Conde's
wife; they fell in through his death, and were sold again by them as
though they were a family birthright. Later still, they negotiated for
the possession of Guienne and Provence.

Amidst the cares of administration and of war, Conde carried on an
assiduous correspondence with Chavigny, then fallen into disgrace, who
kept him well informed of the state of affairs at Court and in Paris.
They had assumed quite a new face during the last few months. Mazarin in
his exile had not learned without inquietude the ever-increasing success
of Chateauneuf. He saw him active and determined, accepted as a chief by
all colleagues, skilfully seconded by the keeper of the seals, Mole, and
by Marshal de Villeroi, the king's governor, an ambiguous personage,
very ambitious at bottom, and jealous of the Cardinal's favour with the
Queen. Chateauneuf, it is true, had only entered the Cabinet under the
agreement of shortly recalling Mazarin; but he incessantly asked for
fresh delay; he tried to make the Queen comprehend the danger of a
precipitate return,--the Fronde ready to arouse itself anew, the Duke
d'Orleans and the Coadjutor resuming their ancient opposition, and
royalty finding itself once more without any solid support. Anne of
Austria gradually acquiescing in these wise counsels, Mazarin, who at
first had with difficulty restrained the impatient disposition of the
Queen, finding her grown less eager, became alarmed: he saw that he