But the Prince de Conde, who had reason to distrust both the Fronde and the Court, did not appear at the ceremony, and sent the Prince de Conti to the King to desire to be excused, because the calumnies and treacheries of his enemies would not suffer him to come to the Palace; adding that he kept away out of pure respect to his Majesty.  This last expression, which seemed to intimate that otherwise he might have gone thither without danger, provoked the Queen to that degree that she said, “The Prince or I must perish.”

The Prince de Conde retired to Bourges,—­further from Court.  He was naturally averse to a civil war, nor would his adherents have been more forward than himself if they had found their interests in his reconciliation to the Court; but this seemed impracticable, and therefore they agreed upon a civil war, because none of them believed themselves powerful enough to conclude a peace.  They know nothing of the nature of faction who imagine the head of a party to be their master.  His true interest is most commonly thwarted by the imaginary interests even of his subalterns, and the worst of it is that his own honour sometimes, and generally prudence, joins with them against himself.  The passions and discontent which reigned then among the friends of the Prince de Conde ran so high that they were obliged to abandon him and form a third party, under the authority of the Prince de Conti, in case the Prince accomplished his reconciliation to the Court, according to a proposition then made to him in the name of the Duc d’Orleans.  The subdivision of parties is generally the ruin of all, especially when it is introduced by cunning views, directly contrary to prudence; and this is what the Italians call, in comedy, a “plot within a plot,” or a “wheel within a wheel.”

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

Buckingham had been in love with three Queens
Civil war as not powerful enough to conclude a peace
Insinuation is of more service than that of persuasion
Man that supposed everybody had a back door
Mazarin:  embezzling some nine millions of the public money
Passed for the author of events of which I was only the prophet
The subdivision of parties is generally the ruin of all
The wisest fool he ever saw in his life
Who imagine the head of a party to be their master