of the seals, Mole, presented himself in front of Orleans to summon the town to open its gates to the king; at that very moment arrived Mdlle., the great Mdlle., as she was then called; and she claimed possession of Orleans in her father’s name.  “It was the appanage of Monsieur; but the gates were shut and barricaded.  After they had been told that it was I,” writes Mdlle., “they did not open; and I was there three hours.  The governor sent me some sweetmeats, and what appeared to me rather funny was that he gave me to understand that he had no influence.  At the window of the sentry-box was the Marquis d’Halluys, who watched me walking up and down by the fosse.  The rampart was fringed with people who shouted incessantly, ’Hurrah for the king! hurrah for the princes!  None of your Mazarin!’ I could not help calling out to them, ’Go to the Hotel de Ville and get the gate opened to me!’ The captain made signs that he had not the keys.  I said to him, ’It must be burst open, and you owe me more allegiance than to the gentlemen of the town, seeing that I am your master’s daughter.’  The boatmen offered to break open for me a gate which was close by there.  I told them to make haste, and I mounted upon a pretty high mound of earth overlooking that gate.  I thought but little about any nice way of getting thither; I climbed like a cat; I held on to briers and thorns, and I leapt all the hedges without hurting myself at all; two boats were brought up to serve me for a bridge, and in the second was placed a ladder by which I mounted.  The gate was burst at last.  Two planks had been forced out of the middle; signs were made to me to advance; and as there was a great deal of mud, a footman took me up, carried me along, and put me through this hole, through which I had no sooner passed my head than the drums began beating.  I gave my hand to the captain, and said to him, “You will be very glad that you can boast of having managed to get me in.”

[Illustration:  The Great Mademoiselle——­373]

The keeper of the seals was obliged to return to Blois, and Mdlle. kept Orleans, but without being able to effect an entrance for the troops of the Dukes of Nemours and Beaufort, who had just tried a surprise against the court.  Had it not been for the aid of Turenne, who had defended the bridge of Jargeau, the king might have fallen into the hands of his revolted subjects.  The queen rested at Gien whilst the princes went on as far as Montargis, thus cutting off the communications of the court with Paris.  Turenne was preparing to fall upon his incapable adversaries when the situation suddenly changed:  the, Prince of Conde, weary of the bad state of his affairs in Guienne, where the veteran soldiers of the Count of Harcourt had the advantage everywhere over the new levies, had traversed France in disguise, and forming a junction, on the 1st of April, with the Dukes of Nemours and Beaufort, threw himself upon the quarters of Marshal d’Hocquincourt, defeated him, burned his camp, and drove him back to Bldneau; a rapid march on the part of Turenne, coming to the aid of his colleague, forced Conde to fall back upon Chatillon; on the 11th of April he was in Paris.