Presently our volatile lady told them that she had learned how to walk, and begged to be put down; then she waited for her countesses, who arrived bespattered with mud.  The drums beat before her, as she set forth again, and the city government, yielding to the feminine conqueror, came to do her homage.  She carelessly assured them of her clemency.  She “had no doubt that they would soon have opened the gates, but she was naturally of a very impatient disposition, and could not wait.”  Moreover, she kindly suggested, neither party could now find fault with them; and as for the future, she would save them all trouble, and govern the city herself,—­ which she accordingly did.

By confession of all historians, she alone saved the city for the Fronde, and, for the moment, secured that party the ascendency in the nation.  Next day the advance-guard of the royal forces appeared,—­a day too late.  Mademoiselle made a speech (the first in her life) to the city government; then went forth to her own small army, by this time drawn near, and held another council.  The next day she received a letter from her father, (whose health was now decidedly restored,) declaring that she had “saved Orleans and secured Paris, and shown yet more judgment than courage.”  The next day Conde came up with his forces, compared his fair cousin to Gustavus Adolphus, and wrote to her that “her exploit was such as she only could have performed, and was of the greatest importance.”

Mademoiselle staid a little longer at Orleans, while the armies lay watching each other, or fighting the battle of Bleneau, of which Conde wrote her an official bulletin, as being generalissimo.  She amused herself easily, went to mass, played at bowls, received the magistrates, stopped couriers to laugh over their letters, reviewed the troops, signed passports, held councils, and did many things “for which she should have thought herself quite unfitted, if she had not found she did them very well.”  The enthusiasm she had inspired kept itself unabated, for she really deserved it.  She was everywhere recognized as head of affairs; the officers of the army drank her health on their knees, when she dined with them, while the trumpets sounded and the cannons roared; Conde, when absent, left instructions to his officers, “Obey the commands of Mademoiselle, as my own”; and her father addressed a despatch from Paris to her ladies of honor, as Field-Marshals in her army:  “A Mesdames les Comtesses Marechales de Camp dans l’Armee de ma Fille contre le Mazarin.”

III.

CAMPAIGN THE SECOND.

Mademoiselle went back to Paris.  Half the population met her outside the walls; she kept up the heroine, by compulsion, and for a few weeks held her court as Queen of France.  If the Fronde had held its position, she might very probably have held hers.  Conde, being unable to marry her himself, on account of the continued existence of his invalid wife, (which he sincerely regretted,) had a fixed design of marrying her to the young King.  Queen Henrietta Maria cordially greeted her, lamented more than ever her rejection of the “bashful” Charles II., and compared her to the original Maid of Orleans,—­an ominous compliment from an English source.