h it almost all
Guienne, and Mazarin determined to crush it before it should extend to
the neighbouring provinces. A royal army of veterans was sent down,
Bordeaux was closely invested, an obstinate defence was made, but the
town had to capitulate on September 28, on the condition of an amnesty
to the princess and her adherents.

Meanwhile Turenne, with a Spanish force, had made a vain attempt to
rescue the captive princes, and Mazarin had removed them to Havre, where
the government was devoted to him. There was now such general dread and
hatred of the cardinal, that people were willing to unite with those
whom they had considered their mortal enemies in order to secure his
ruin. In the early days of 1651 I was summoned to Paris by the Princess
Palatine, who united a taste for gallantry with a remarkable talent for
intrigue, and remained for some time hidden in her house, where I was
witness to many consultations for the removal of Mazarin from power. I
even made a last attempt to persuade the cardinal himself to release the
princes; in four nocturnal interviews I tried to show him how all
parties were uniting to compass his ruin, but was unable to convince him
without betraying secrets which were not my own. Mazarin gave me no hope
of their liberation.

Then arose a general storm against the minister, and he made his escape
on the night of February 7. The queen would have followed him with her
son, but the Frondeurs and the partisans of the princes kept her
prisoner in her palace. Without any hope of assistance, and daunted day
and night by an infuriated populate, she sent for me and gave me an
order to the governor of Havre to release the princes immediately. I
warned the leaders of the Fronde that her sincerity was not above
suspicion, and that all depended upon her close imprisonment, and so set
out along the northern road upon my mission. But the cardinal had been
beforehand with me, the princes were at liberty, and on February 16 they
entered Paris in triumph.

Mazarin, who had fled to Cologne, whence he continued to direct the
queen's cabinet, returned to France at the head of a small army in
January, 1652, and arrived at Poitiers without meeting any resistance.
The party opposed to him was rent by faction and strife, but the Prince
of Conde united it, and fought an indecisive engagement with the royal
troops on April 8. On the 11th the prince and I were well received in
Paris, but it was evident that the citi