During this time the Dowager-Princess of Conde had been apprised of the arrest of her son; and, maddened by the intelligence, she had immediately rushed out of her house on foot, and hurried to the Pont Neuf, crying as she went, “To arms!  To arms!”

“It is Madame de Nemours!” shouted the crowd which gathered about her.  “Long live Madame de Nemours!”

“Long live Madame de Nemours!” echoed a voice, which was immediately recognized as that of the shoemaker Picard, who had, since his insult to the Marechal d’Ancre, been the idol of the mob.  “Concini has assassinated the first Prince of the Blood in the Louvre!”

Even this announcement, however, failed in the effect which had been anticipated by the Princess, whose object was to accomplish the rescue of her son; for while the respectable citizens hastened to close their shops and to place their families in safety, the lower orders rushed towards the hotel of the Marechal d’Ancre in the Faubourg St. Germain.  The doors were driven in, furniture and valuables to the amount of two hundred thousand crowns were destroyed, and lighted torches were applied to the costly hangings of the apartments, which soon caused the carved and gilded woodwork to ignite; while a portion of the mob at the same time attacked the house of Corbinelli his secretary; and soon the two residences presented only a mass of bare and blackened walls.  M. de Liancourt, the Governor of Paris, opposed his authority in vain; he was hooted, driven back, and finally compelled to retire.  Couriers were despatched to the Louvre to inform the Queen-mother of the popular tumult, but no orders were issued in consequence; the counsellors of Marie de Medicis deeming it desirable that the populace should be permitted to expend their violence upon the property of Concini, rather than turn their attention to the rescue of the Prince, until the public excitement had abated.

The arrest of M. de Conde had alarmed all the leaders of the late faction, who hastened to secure their own safety.  Bouillon, as we have stated, had already reached Charenton; and the Duc de Vendome had fled in his turn on learning that all egress from the Louvre was forbidden, and that the outlets of the palace were strongly guarded.  M. de Mayenne, who had hitherto remained in the capital, awaiting the progress of events, followed his example attended by a strong party of his friends.  The Duc de Guise and the Prince de Joinville, alarmed lest they should be involved in the ruin of Conde through the machinations of Concini, with whom they were at open feud, hastened to Soissons, in order to join M. de Mayenne, whither they were shortly followed by the young Count and his mother; and, finally, the Duc de Nevers, who had indulged in a vain dream of rendering himself master of the Turkish empire through the medium of the Greeks, by declaring himself to be a descendant of the Paleologi, suddenly halted on his way to Germany, and declared himself determined to join the new faction of the Princes.[256]