they said, “that Mazarin is but a sort of jack-in-the-box, out of sight to-day and popping up to-morrow; but you also see that, whether he be in or out, the spring that sends him up or down is that of the royal authority, the which will not, apparently, be so very soon broken by the means taken to break it.  The obligation you are under towards Monsieur, and even towards the public, as regards Mazarin, does not allow you to work for his restoration; he is no longer here, and, though his absence may be nothing but a mockery and a delusion, it nevertheless gives you an opportunity for taking certain steps which naturally lead to that which is for your good.”  Retz lost no time in going to Compiegne, where the king had installed himself after Mazarin’s departure; he took with him a deputation of the clergy, and received in due form the cardinal’s hat.  He was the bearer of proposals for an accommodation from the Duke of Orleans, but the queen cut him short.  The court perceived its strength, and the instructions of Cardinal Mazarin were precise.  The ruin of De Retz was from that moment resolved upon.

The Prince of Conde was ill; he had left the command of his troops to M. do Tavannes; during the night between the 5th and 6th of October, Turenne struck his camp at Villeneuve St. Georges, crossed the Seine at Corbeil, the Marne at Meaux, without its being in the enemy’s power to stop him, and established himself in the neighborhood of Dammartin.  Conde was furious.  “Tavannes and Vallon ought to wear bridles,” he said; “they are asses;” he left his house, and placed himself once more at the head of his army, at first following after Turenne, and soon to sever himself completely from that Paris which was slipping away from him.  “He would find himself more at home at the head of four squadrons in the Ardennes than commanding a dozen millions of such fellows as we have here, without excepting President Charton,” said the Duke of Orleans.  “The prince was wasting away with sheer disgust; he was so weary of hearing all the talk about Parliament, court of aids, chambers in assembly, and Hotel de Ville, that he would often declare that his grandfather had never been more fatigued by the parsons of La Rochelle.”  The great Conde was athirst for the thrilling emotions of war; and the crime he committed was to indulge at any price that boundless passion.  Ever victorious at the head of French armies, he was about to make experience of defeat in the service of the foreigner.

The king had proclaimed a general amnesty on the 18th of October; and on the 21st he set out in state for Paris.  The Duke of Orleans still wavered.  “You wanted peace,” said Madame, “when it depended but on you to make war; you now want war when you can make neither war nor peace.  It is of no use to think any longer of anything but going with a good grace to meet the king.”  At these words he exclaimed aloud, as if it had been proposed to him to go and throw himself in the river.  “And where the devil should I go?” he answered.  He remained at the Luxembourg.  On drawing near Paris, the king sent word to his uncle that he would have to leave the city.  Gaston replied in the following letter:—­