hest was quickly
raised and troops were levied, and the parliament of Paris put itself
into communication with the other parliaments of the kingdom. All
preparations were made for a civil war, the real basis of which was a
general hatred of Cardinal Mazarin, which was common to both parties. In
an early engagement outside the city I was so gravely wounded as to see
no more of this war, the events of which are hardly worth narrating. On
April 1, 1649, the Parliament received an amnesty from the king. Neither
party had vanquished the other; the cardinal and the parliament were
each as strong as before, but everyone was glad to be rid, for the time,
of the horrors of civil war.

_Wars of the Fronde_

The Prince of Conde, who had great influence in the council, showed
himself so contemptuous to Mazarin, and became so inconvenient to the
queen by his arrogance that she decided to arrest him, and to involve
Madame de Longueville, the duke, her husband, and the Prince of Conti in
the same disgrace. Accordingly, on January 18, 1650, the Prince of
Conde, the Duke of Longueville, and the Prince of Conti were seized and
imprisoned at Vincennes, and the order was given at the same time to
arrest Madame de Longueville and myself. But we succeeded in escaping
together to Dieppe, where we were forced to separate; Madame de
Longueville found refuge at Stenay, where she met with Turenne, and I
returned to my government of Poitou and formed an alliance there with
the Duke of Bouillon, Turenne's brother. Together the duke and I matured
designs which led to the civil war in the south.

My father having died at Verteuil in March, 1650, I succeeded to the
title of Duke of La Rochefoucauld. I invited a large number of nobles
and gentlemen of that region to the funeral ceremonies; our plans were
put before them; though some of them held back, most were favourable;
and I soon found myself at the head of a force of two thousand horse and
eight hundred foot. The Duke of Bouillon and I were joined by the young
Princess of Conde, with her son the Duke of Enghien; we gathered more
troops at Turenne, and marched upon Bordeaux. After overcoming some
opposition, the princess entered that city in triumph on May 31, 1650,
and we joined her a few days later.

The grievance of the princess and the presence of her son excited the
liveliest enthusiasm, and the party opposed to Mazarin had entire
mastery of the town. The revolt of Bordeaux carried wit