arrest of the Princes 168

VII.--Madame de Longueville's adventures in Normandy--The
_Women's War_ 178

BOOK IV.

CHAP. I.--The Princess Palatine 187

II.--The young Princess de Conde conducts the war in
the south 203

III.--State of Parties on the liberation of the Princes 214

IV.--The Duchesses de Longueville and de Chevreuse and
the Princess Palatine in the last Fronde--Results
of the rupture of the marriage projected between
the Prince de Conti and Mademoiselle de Chevreuse 221

V.--Conde, urged by his sister, goes unwillingly into
rebellion 257

VI.--Madame de Longueville coquets with the Duke de
Nemours 262

BOOK V.

CHAP. I.--Conde's adventurous expedition 275

II.--Political and gallant intrigues--The Duchess de
Chatillon's sway over Conde--Shameful conspiracy
against Madame de Longueville 290

INTRODUCTION.

IN selecting the careers of certain celebrated women who have flung
themselves with ardour into the vortex of politics, the author's choice
has not been so much an arbitrary one as it might seem, but rather
guided by instances in which the adventurous game has not been
restricted to the commonplace contentions of the public platform, or the
private salon, but played on the grandest scale and on the most
conspicuous arena; when Peace and War, crowns and dynasties, have
trembled in the balance, and even the fate of a nation has been at
stake.

The untoward results of the lives thus devoted--dazzling and heroic as
some passages in their dramatic vicissitudes may appear--point the moral
of the futility of such pursuit on the part of the gentler sex, and
indicate the certainty of the penalty to be paid by those who by
venturing into the fervid, exhausting struggle, and rashly courting
exposure to the rough blows of the battle of political life, with its
coarse and noisy passions, have discovered too late that the strife has
done them irreparable injury. In the cases of those selected it will be
seen that the fierce contention has commonly involv