As soon as the treaty had been duly signed, the Princess de Condé,
with four of her principal supporters, of whom Monsieur de Villardin
was one, set out for Bourg, where they were as kindly received and as
hospitably treated by the Court, as if they had never borne arms
against the throne. The whole party was splendidly entertained at the
lodging of the Cardinal prime minister; and on Monsieur de Villardin's
return to Bordeaux, I found that no slight impression had been made on
his mind by the gracious and unexpected reception he had met.
The young King himself, he informed me, had condescended to press him
to take an active part in his service: and I gathered that the Duke
had replied in such a manner, as to leave no doubt that, as soon as
the Princes were set at liberty, there would be none more zealous and
indefatigable in the royal cause than himself. Determined upon
conducting his troops back to Brittany in person, the Duke despatched
me with three or four servants across the country to Virmont, for the
purpose of giving notice to Father Ferdinand and Mademoiselle de
Villardin, that he was safe and well, and would speedily join us in
the Orleanois.
Very well comprehending how glad the Duke was to find a fair excuse
for taking up his residence in a part of the country which was less
painfully associated in his mind than that which he had lately
inhabited, I ventured to press him to be the bearer of his own good
news to Virmont, and to suffer me to conduct the regiment back to
Brittany, which I argued he might very well do, as almost all the
other commanders were at once dismissing their men, and suffering them
to find their way home as they best might. His ideas of duty, however,
were in this respect far more strict than those of the other generals;
and, adhering to his determination, he began his march on the
following day, while I set out for Virmont.
I had now to travel through a part of the country I had never seen:
and a rich and splendid land it was. No armies had passed for several
years along the exact track which I took; and as I compared the
smiling abundance of everything around me with the scenes of
devastation and ruin I had so often seen, new estimations of many
things on this earth began to present themselves to my mind, and I got
even as far as to admit that--whatever charms a military life might
have--it would be a sad and terrible act, to change such prospects of
beauty and happiness to scenes of ruin and desolation. The gradual
progress of all these slow alterations in my own mind and feelings,
working themselves out one after another through life, has been a
subject of curious investigation to myself; and as I write for my own
amusement, I shall still continue to put them down as they occur to my
remembrance.
The first feeling that in my bosom tended most certainly to soften all
the rest, was a growing taste for the beauties of nature, of every
kind and description; and as I approached Virmont, the warm and
luxuriant banks of the Loire struck me with the same pleasurable
sensations as I had experienced on seeing the deep shades and tranquil
stillness of the Prés Vallée. Crossing the Loire at Gien, I turned to
the right, and a little beyond Blénau was directed by the peasantry to
the château de Virmont, which was situated in a dry and sandy soil,
and surrounded by some rich but rather wild scenery. The house itself
was not a very large one, but it possessed various advantages which
were not to be found at either Dumont or the Prés Vallée, and,
especially in my eyes, was preferable to either of them, from being
totally unconnected with the dark and gloomy remembrances that hung
like a boding cloud over both the others.
Here I found Mademoiselle de Villardin with both Father Ferdinand and
her worthy relation the good old Count de Loris; and great was the joy
of all parties on hearing, not the successful issue of our
undertaking, but the safe and fortunate manner in which it had
terminated, after promising much less pleasant results. I think the
ten days that followed were amongst the happiest of my whole life. I
was in the society of three people, each of whom,--though very
different from each other--I loved; I was in a beautiful scene where
all was new; I was myself caressed and applauded by every one; there
was no violent passion, either good or evil, in my bosom; and there
was no restraint upon my actions. Even after we were joined by
Monsieur de Villardin, although the deep melancholy which had now
resumed its place in his demeanour, of course cast a degree of gloom
over the whole household; and though I especially felt grieved and
pained to witness the bitter sorrow that preyed upon the heart of a
man to whom I was sincerely attached, still the days passed pleasantly
enough; and, treated in every respect as if I had been the Duke's own
son, I had every reason to be content with my condition.
The passing of such days do not bear detail; but in the meantime
events were taking place in other parts of France that again called us
into active life. In Paris, the popular faction called the Fronde, at
the head of which, as I have before said, were the Archbishop
coadjutor de Retz and the Duke of Beaufort, had begun to take umbrage
at the kindness which Mazarin and the Court had shown to the defenders
of Bordeaux; and knowing very well that the minister had only employed
their party for the purpose of delivering himself from the Prince de
Condé and his friends, the popular leaders began to suspect that
Mazarin, as soon as it suited him, would make what conditions he
pleased with the imprisoned Princes, and set them at liberty without
the intervention of the Fronde. The success of the war in Guyenne had
raised the minister higher than they liked also; and the Cardinal,
foolishly believing himself quite secure, soon began to treat the
Frondeurs with very little ceremony.
The Viscount de Turenne, it is true, was still in arms in Champagne,
but the good fortune of Mazarin was again triumphant in this instance,
as if on purpose to make him think himself beyond the power of fate.
The Maréchal du Plessis Praslin, an experienced officer, but one
certainly inferior to Turenne in every respect, was sent against the
only formidable opponent of the Court that now remained, and, after
various man[oe]uvres on both parts, completely defeated Turenne, who
fled to Bar-le-Duc, accompanied only by five hundred horse. This
success increased the pride of Mazarin, and taught him vainly to
imagine that he could at length put down the faction which had so long
either ruled or disorganized the state; and although the parties of
the Court and the Fronde had, for a time, unnaturally united for the
ruin of Condé and his family, they now found that the moment was come
when the struggle between themselves was to be renewed. Each
determined upon the liberation of the Princes; but Mazarin sought to
obtain more from the prisoners than the Fronde were inclined to
demand; and he consequently temporised too long, while De Retz and
Beaufort stirred up the people and the Parliament; and the cry for the
liberation of Condé became as general amongst the Parisians as the
rejoicings for his imprisonment had been about a year before. The Duke
of Orleans, also, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, always weak and
always false, abandoned once more the cause of the minister. The cry
for the liberation of the Princes was succeeded by a clamour for the
exile of Mazarin. After many ineffectual struggles, the Queen Regent
was obliged to yield her favourite to popular turbulence, and the
minister fled from the Court, happy to escape with life. The very next
morning, the Parliament of Paris, which not long before had condemned
a man to death for publishing a libel against the Cardinal, now found
reasons for declaring him a _disturber of the public peace_, and for
passing sentence of outlawry against him; and the people and the
Parliament prepared to liberate with joy the Princes who had so lately
been the objects of their execrations.
Mazarin, however, outstripped them in that very design; and wishing to
take the credit of the act to himself, no sooner had he quitted the
capital, than, proceeding to Havre, whither Condé and his companions
had been removed, he threw open their prison doors, and himself
announced their liberation. The Princes treated him with the contempt
he merited, and the disgraced minister, finding himself without
resource, fled from a country to which he was destined to return,
after a very short lapse of time, more powerful than ever.
One of the first acts of the Prince de Condé was to write a letter of
thanks to Monsieur de Villardin, for the part he had taken in the late
events; and he condescended especially to notice my somewhat dangerous
enterprise in finding my way into Vincennes, for the purpose of
communicating to him the plan framed by Gourville for his deliverance.
He added, that he might have supposed I had deceived him, as the
scheme was never put in execution, but that he had learned from other
sources the cause which prevented the attempt; and he concluded by
assuring Monsieur de Villardin that, if he could point out any object
which either he or I desired, the whole influence of the house of
Condé should be exerted to obtain it for us. This probably might have
led me into other scenes, and indeed might have changed the complexion
of my whole after-life, had not events arisen which soon placed the
Prince in a state of fiercer opposition to the Court than ever.
Anne of Austria resolved to recal her favourite Mazarin: Condé
himself, aspiring to govern the state, was determined that the
minister should remain in exile. Means were soon found to embroil him
with the party of the Fronde; and the Prince at length made up his
mind both to revenge himself upon those who had caused his
imprisonment, and to strike boldly for the supreme power by force of
arms. Having once taken his resolution, he pursued it with all that
fearless decision which rendered him a great general, but more than
once made him a bad subject. Retiring from Paris, he negotiated with
all his former friends and adherents; and, carrying his measures still
farther, treated with Spain itself, the open and declared enemy of his
native country. From that crown he received every assurance of
assistance that he could desire, which assurances were fulfilled to
the letter; but with his former partisans in France he was not by any
means so successful. His causes of complaint against the Court were
not at all such as to justify the violent and ruinous measures he was
pursuing. His own ambitious motives were apparent to every eye, and an
immense change of circumstances had been effected by the simple fact
of the young King having attained his majority. What people might
affect to consider a struggle amongst the different powers of the
state for the administration of the realm during the infancy of the
King, could now be looked upon in no other light than as actual
rebellion against the royal authority. The Duke of Bouillon,--tied by
the engagement made at Bourg, and seeing the present situation of the
Prince in a very different light from that in which his position while
under imprisonment had appeared to him--positively refused to take
part in his rebellion, though the regiment he had raised, officers and
soldiers, went over to the party of Condé. Turenne followed the
example of his brother the Duc de Bouillon, and declined to act with
the Prince against the Court. Monsieur de Villardin also, in reply to
a letter from Condé upon the subject, while he assured him of his
unabated personal regard, informed him plainly that he not only would
refuse all participation in new schemes against the Court, but would
consider himself bound to serve against any one found in rebellion to
the royal authority, now that the monarch had attained his majority.
Condé still, however, pursued his plan, and but too many were found to
give him support in its execution. Nor did he calculate alone, it
would seem, upon his present partisans, and upon the assistance of
Spain; but, knowing the levity of all political characters in that
day, he reckoned boldly upon a great number of his present enemies
coming over to his side, and foresaw, it would appear, that the
approaching recal of Mazarin would soon induce the Fronde itself to
cooperate directly or indirectly in his schemes. Retiring upon
Guyenne, which, from various causes, was almost always ready for
revolt, he at length absolutely raised the standard of rebellion
against the King. A large body of troops, called the Corps de Condé,
abandoned the royal army on the frontiers of Flanders, and went over
at once to the Spanish force, which was now leagued with the Prince.
Considerable bodies of troops joined him in Bordeaux, a great part of
Berri took arms in his favour, and, once more, the flame of civil war
was lighted throughout the land.
Negotiations were immediately entered into between the Court and all
those officers who had refused, on the present occasion, to serve with
the Prince. Of these, Monsieur de Villardin was, of course, one; and
full powers were given to him to raise a regiment in the name of the
King, with a great many other marks of the royal favour and
confidence. He accepted the task without hesitation, and declared his
positive determination never to suffer any circumstances to induce him
again to oppose the royal authority; but, at the same time, in the
vain hope that other events would cause Condé to make his submission,
he delayed as long as possible taking any active part in the warlike
operations against his friend, under the pretence of requiring some
time to complete his preparations.
In the meantime, Condé had lost no time, but was making such progress
in Guyenne, that the whole country began to take alarm at his success.
The Count de Harcourt, however, soon after checked his advance on the
side of Cogniac; and the Maréchal de Gramont, marching with a
considerable body of troops towards Langon, threatened to turn the
flank of the Prince's army. Each of the royal generals commanded more
men, and better disciplined forces, than those which followed Condé,
and the Prince found himself obliged to choose between fighting under
disadvantages which must have proved fatal, or temporising with the
Court, in order to give time for a diversion to be effected in his
favour. He accordingly, with consummate policy, made overtures to the
Queen for permitting the return of Mazarin. The Queen, whose
partiality for her minister did not permit her to see what Condé, as I
have before said, had at once perceived, that the recal of the
Cardinal would immediately throw the whole party of the Fronde,
together with the Parliament and a great body of the people, entirely
into the hands of the rebellious Prince, caught eagerly at the idea of
the minister's return. Not only did she give Condé both time and
repose by negotiating, at a moment when her generals might have pushed
their advantage to his complete overthrow, but, blindly running before
the negotiation, she despatched courier after courier to Mazarin,
without at all requiring that the Prince should commit himself with
the Fronde by joining in the recal of the obnoxious Italian.
Mazarin lost no time, but, at the head of a body of troops which he
had raised in Germany, he entered France, and being immediately joined
by the royal army in Champagne, he advanced at once across the country
towards Poitiers. All that Condé had foreseen now took place: the
Fronde, the Parliament, the people, were astonished and indignant at
the unexpected return of the hated minister. The Duke of Orleans
obtained a decree from the Parliament of Paris, commanding all
governors of towns to arrest him in his progress; a reward of fifty
thousand crowns was offered for his head; an army was raised by the
Duc de Beaufort, who effected his junction with the Duke de Nemours,
the strongest partisan of the Prince de Condé, and their united forces
were joined by a large body of Spaniards, which had been promised some
time before. At the same time the Duke de Rohan, governor of Anjou,
declared for Condé, with the whole province that he commanded, and
every part of the empire seemed rising at once against the authority
of the Court.
Monsieur de Villardin now found that it was no longer a time for
hesitation, and that if all the royalists remained inactive, the
constitution of the country itself must be overthrown. The greater
part of the regiment which had served with him at Bordeaux had been
again collected by his orders in Brittany; three or four more troops
were easily raised in the Orleanois; the whole had been more perfectly
disciplined during the time he had remained in inactivity than they
had ever been before, and the moment that he heard of the general
revolt, he despatched couriers to the Court at Poitiers, to announce
that he was on his march to support its cause, with an effective force
of twelve hundred men. This reinforcement was a matter of no small
consequence to a royal army in those days; and the pleasure that this
news occasioned to the young King and his Court was greatly increased
from the circumstances of the time at which Monsieur de Villardin's
declaration arrived, and from the hope it held out of others following
his example.
A new era was now opening for me. One of the troops of Monsieur de
Villardin's regiment, raised by the authority of the King himself, had
been given to me, and the high road to honour and promotion was now
thrown wide before me. The political events which I have narrated
above had occupied a considerable space of time, so that I was now
more than seventeen. The little property which the kindness of Lord
Masterton and of Monsieur de Villardin had bestowed upon me, was
more than sufficient for all my wants and wishes; my troop was
as fine and well disciplined a one as any in the service; and on the
twenty-eighth of February I commenced my march with Monsieur de
Villardin, full of all the hopes of youth, although I had been
prematurely taught the experience of manhood. I do not know that such
a combination of the two is either pleasant or beneficial to him who
possesses them; and I do believe that nature's plan is the best, in
joining youthful inexperience to youthful passions. For my own part, I
may safely say, that having by the circumstances of my early days been
carried too far forward all through life, I have always found that it
was painful to be older than one's years.
We conducted our march as rapidly as possible towards Poitiers, and I
remember nothing worth relating that occurred on the way. We found,
however, at that town, that the Court and army had proceeded to
Saumur, and following it thither, with only a day's halt, we again
approached the Loire. We were welcomed with infinite joy, and I was
presented by Monsieur de Villardin to the minister and to the young
King, by both of whom I was treated with great kindness. The former
was an elderly man of mild and insinuating manners, but with nothing
either impressive or graceful in his demeanour: the latter was a youth
of a fine intelligent countenance, but apparently far more occupied
with the thoughts of field sports and courtly gallantries than affairs
of state or war.
The royal army at this time was commanded by Marshals Turenne and
d'Hocquincourt; and Monsieur de Villardin immediately received such an
appointment under the command of the former as suited his rank and
experience. We found, however, that our long march to Saumur might
have been spared us, for within four days after our arrival, it was
announced that, quiet being restored in Anjou, and the Prince de Condé
being kept in check by the Count de Harcourt and the Maréchal de
Gramont, the King intended to return immediately to Paris, in order to
take measures against the combined force of Spaniards and insurgents
which was rapidly traversing Champagne, and advancing towards the
Nivernois. The next morning the order to march was given; and
following the course of the Loire, for the purpose of securing the
large towns situated upon that river, we passed through Tours,
Amboise, and Blois, finding the country in general loyal, and willing
to receive the royal army. Orleans, however, shut her gates against
us; and as our own force was small, while the enemy, to the number of
fifteen thousand men, had already entered the Orleanois, the attempt
to reduce the city by force would have been in vain.
Both the Court and the generals were now eager to meet the Dukes of
Nemours and Beaufort, who commanded the adverse force on the other
side of the river, and between whom dissensions were said to exist
which were likely to neutralise entirely the superiority of their
forces: but none, certainly, was more desirous of dislodging them from
their post than Monsieur de Villardin, inasmuch as they occupied a
position extending from Montargis to the Loire, in a line drawn
directly between Loris and Virmont, at the latter of which places we
had left Mademoiselle de Villardin, now a pretty little girl of about
eleven years old. Ere anything else could be attempted, it was
necessary to secure the bridge of Gergeaux, lest the enemy should pass
the river and fall upon our rear. This, however, was not to be done
without some trouble, as the bridge had already been seized by M. de
l'Etouf, Lieutenant-General of the enemy's force, who had found time
to effect a lodgment, and place his cannon, before sufficient troops
could be brought up to dispute the possession.
Here, however, the genius of Turenne at once remedied all
difficulties. Without ammunition, and with only two hundred men, he
kept possession of the little town, erected a barricade upon the
bridge, defended it for two hours against an immensely superior force,
and yielded not a step till a sufficient reinforcement arrived to
enable him to drive back the enemy and blow up the bridge.
Although not present at the beginning of the affair, I obtained leave
to ride on before the party destined to support Monsieur de Turenne,
and brought him the first news of its approach; nor throughout all the
scenes of the kind that I have witnessed, did I ever behold a man who,
in the midst of danger and excitement, displayed such calm, unmoved
tranquillity. He neither looked vehement, nor heated, nor anxious,
but, in the midst of the enemy's fire, which was tremendous, listened
to my report as if I had been giving him an invitation to dinner.
As soon as we had secured our rear by the destruction of the bridge of
Gergeaux, we marched direct upon Gien, and passing the Loire by the
bridge at that town, took up a position at the distance of about
fifteen miles from the enemy, in order to ascertain their exact
situation before hazarding any very bold stroke with our inferior
force. The Court established itself at Gien; and Turenne fixed his
head-quarters at Briare, while the Maréchal d'Hocquincourt took up his
at Blênau. But it was now discovered that forage, which had been
scarce along the whole line of our march, was not to be had in any
sufficient quantity, and the cavalry was obliged to disperse in troops
amongst the villages, in a semicircle of about twenty miles to the
right, left, and rear, of our general position.
Monsieur de Villardin was obliged to remain with Turenne, but he
directed me to post my troop as near as possible to the park and
château of Virmont; though, as a part of the enemy's advanced guard
occupied the little village of that name, I could not approach so near
as I could wish. We found, however, upon inquiry, that our adversaries
were behaving with much courtesy to the people of the country, and
that the château of Monsieur de Villardin had as yet been respected;
but, nevertheless, he was extremely anxious to withdraw his daughter
and household, if possible, from so exposed a situation; and, on
taking my leave of him, I promised to negotiate with the officer who
occupied the village, in order to carry his wish into effect.
Thus long have I been obliged to pause upon the general history of the
times, which has been much better detailed by others; and as I am now
about to return to my private life and personal adventures, I shall
close this chapter here, and begin my narration of the events which
followed on a fresh page.