to realize what they had lost in M. Vincent
and to suspect that they had misjudged him. Hunger at last forced them
to make terms with the Royal party, although the hated Mazarin was
still supreme, and the Queen and her young son re-entered Paris in
triumph.

But even Anne of Austria was not so foolish as to make her entry with
the Cardinal at her side, and during the few weeks which still elapsed
before he made his appearance in the capital, the Queen, free for a
moment from the evil influence that stifled all her better impulses,
wrote to Vincent, begging him to return. He was ill at Richelieu when
the message reached him, and the Duchess d'Aiguillon, one of the most
devoted of his Ladies of Charity, sent a little carriage to fetch him.
She had known him long enough, however, to be sure that his love of
mortification would prevent him from availing himself of what he would
certainly look upon as a luxury. The carriage was accompanied by a
letter from the Queen and the Archbishop of Paris ordering him in
virtue of obedience to use it in the future for all his journeys. He
obeyed, but sorely against the grain, and as long as he was obliged to
avail himself of it always referred to the little carriage as his
"disgrace."

"Come and see the son of a poor villager riding in a carriage," he
would say to his friends when he took leave of them; and indeed, "M.
Vincent's little carriage" soon became well known in Paris. It was
always at the disposal of anyone who wanted it, and when Vincent used
it himself it was generally shared by some of his beloved poor. The
fact that it came in handy for taking cripples for a drive or the sick
to the hospital was the only thing that reconciled him to its
possession.

But the troubles of the Fronde were not yet at an end, and with
Mazarin's return to Paris the discontent broke out afresh. The people
were glad enough during the troublous times that followed to have
Vincent once more in their midst.

Chapter 11
"CONFIDO"

WHEN at last peace was partially restored to the country, the number
of poor people had enormously increased, and the charities that
already existed were unable to cope with the misery and poverty in
Paris. It was at this time that Vincent conceived the idea of founding
a house of refuge for old men and women who had no means of gaining a
livelihood. The foundation was placed in the charge of the Sisters of
Charity. Work was provided for those who were able to