MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE WINS HER BROTHER CONDE OVER TO THE FRONDE.
THIS first raising of bucklers by the Frondeurs was not of long
duration. At the conclusion of a peace between Mazarin and the
Parliament, a perfect understanding prevailed amongst all the members of
the Conde family. The civil dissensions, however, were sufficiently
prolonged to exhibit the errors of all parties--even those who had
entered therein with virtuous inclinations and intentions, ashamed of
the stains which had tarnished them in the struggle, almost invariably
ended by confining themselves to the narrow circle of individual
interests, and completed their degradation by no longer recognizing any
other motive for their conduct than that of sordid selfishness. All care
for the public weal became extinct; men's hearts were insensible to all
generous sympathy; their minds dead to every elevating impulse--like to
those aromatics which, after diffusing both glow and perfume from their
ardent brazier, lose by combustion all power of further rekindling, and
present nothing else than vile ashes, without heat, light, or odour.
The peace concluded between the Minister and the Fronde was destined to
be of short duration. It was, properly speaking, nothing but a
suspension of arms, and in no degree a suspension of intrigues and
cabals. That suspension of arms, however, had been accompanied by an
amnesty, including all persons except the Coadjutor. The other chief
personages who had played a part in the insurrection of Paris, and who
now proceeded to visit the Court, were by no means warmly received by
the Queen, though Mazarin himself displayed nothing but mildness and
humility. The Duke d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde visited the city;
and the first was received with much enthusiasm by the populace, who
attributed to his counsels the truce of which all parties had stood so
much in need. The Prince de Conde, whose warlike spirit had not only
aided in stirring up the strife at first, but would have protracted it
still further had his advice been listened to, was not looked upon with
the same favour by the Parisians; but the Parliament sent deputations to
them both on their arrival in the city, to compliment them on their
efforts for the restoration of peace.
During Conde's visit to Paris, a reconciliation took place between him
and his fair sister, the Duchess de Longueville. The violent language he
had used to her on various occasions, the imputations he had cast upon
her character, and the harsh nature of the advice which he had given to
her husband concerning her, were all forgotten, and she resumed her
ascendancy over his mind so completely as in a very short time to detach
him entirely from the side of Mazarin, and to lead him, before he
quitted Paris, to speak publicly of the Minister in the scornful and
contemptuous manner in which he was usually treated by the leaders of
the Fronde.
The Duchess de Longueville herself remained as strongly opposed to the
Cardinal as ever. But though she still retained towards Anne of Austria
that dislike which she had always felt, and which the sense of an
inferiority of station greatly augmented in a woman of a haughty and
ambitious character, she found herself obliged, in common propriety, to
appear at Court on the conclusion of the Siege of Paris. The first
visits of her husband and herself, after the insurrection, were rendered
remarkable by the extraordinary degree of embarrassment and timidity
shown by two such bold and fearless persons. The Duke de Longueville
arrived first, coming from Normandy; and was followed by a very numerous
and splendid train, as though he rested for mental support upon the
number of his retainers. The Queen received him in the midst of her
Court, with Mazarin standing beside her; and every one crowded round to
hear what excuses the Duke would offer for abandoning the royal family
at the moment of their greatest need. Longueville, however, approached
the Regent with a troubled and embarrassed air, attempted to speak,
became first deadly pale, and then as red as fire, but could not utter a
word. He then turned and bowed to Mazarin, who came forward, spoke to
him, and led him to a window, where they conversed for some time
together in private; after which they visited each other frequently, and
became apparent friends.
The reception of the proud and beautiful Duchess at St. Germain, though
not so public, was not less embarrassing. The Queen had lain down on her
bed when the Duchess was announced, and, as was customary in those days,
received her in that situation. Madame de Longueville was naturally very
apt to blush, and the frequent variation of her complexion added
greatly, we are told, to the dazzling character of her beauty. Her
blushes, however, on approaching the Queen, became painful; all that she
could utter was a few confused sentences, of which the Queen could not
understand a word, and those were pronounced in so low a tone that
Madame de Motteville, who listened attentively, could distinguish
nothing but the word _Madame_.
As there was no sincerity in these reconciliations, it is not surprising
to find that ere long the conduct of the Prince de Conde gave no slight
uneasiness to Mazarin. The Prince had, however, brought back the Court
to Paris; but from that very day he had shown a great change in his
attitude, and it is to the influence of La Rochefoucauld that such
change must be attributed. At that moment, in fact, the Sieur Conde had
become reconciled with every member of his family, and even with his
sister's lover. He drew closer also the links between himself and the
Duke d'Orleans, for whom he shewed great deference, say his
contemporaries, and he began to treat Mazarin with much indifference,
rallying him publicly, and declaring aloud that he regretted to have
maintained him in a post of which he was so little worthy. Enjoying a
great military reputation, feared and esteemed by the bulk of his
countrymen, he chafed at seeing himself compromised by the unpopularity
of the Cardinal. He thought that by drawing closer to the _Frondeurs_,
he should rid himself of the feeling that oppressed him. In the outset,
he had no idea of actively joining that faction, but his sister did the
rest, and hurried him on to become the enemy of that party of which he
had just been the saviour.
It is true that, for the memorable service which he had recently
rendered, Conde reaped scarcely any benefit; but his noble conduct
increased the splendour of his last campaign of 1648. It added to his
military titles those of defender and saviour of the throne, of
pacificator of the realm, of arbiter and enlightened conciliator of
parties. It gave the climax to his credit and to his glory.
Nevertheless, he did not lose sight of the jealous feeling to which
such claims gave birth, whether on the part of the Duke d'Orleans or the
Prime Minister; and he well knew that he was exposed to one of those
_coups d'etat_, the necessity of which the Chancellor as well as himself
had urged at Rueil. He considered himself as the head of the nobility,
and that important body seemed to constitute all the military power of
the State. But the French nobility was just beginning to lose its former
independence of character in becoming more courtierlike. Instead of
deriving from its strongholds and vassals the feeling of its strength
and equality, it showed itself ambitious of such distinctions as the
monarch could confer. In the indulgence of its vanity it lost sight of
its proper pride; and if that new emulation which the Bourbons had
excited was more easy for the sovereign to satisfy, it was more
difficult for the chief of a party to direct. Moreover, Conde, as the
Duchess de Nemours remarks, knew better how to win battles than
hearts.[1] He found a dangerous pleasure, as did his sister the Duchess
de Longueville, in braving malevolence. "In matters of consequence, they
delighted to thwart people, and in ordinary life they were so
impracticable that there was no getting on with them. They had such a
habit of ridiculing one, and of saying offensive things, that nobody
could put up with them. When visits were paid to them, they allowed such
a scornful ennui to be visible, and showed so openly that their visitors
bored them, that it was not difficult to understand that they did
everything in their power to get rid of their company. Whatsoever might
be the rank or quality of the visitors, people were made to wait any
length of time in the Prince's antechamber; and very often, after having
long waited, everybody was sent away without getting an interview,
however short. When they were displeased they pushed people to the
utmost extremity, and they were incapable of showing any gratitude for
services done them. Thus they were alike hated by the Court, by the
Fronde, and by the populace, and nobody could live with them long. All
France impatiently suffered their irritating conduct, and especially
their pride, which was excessive."[2]
[1] Duchesse de Nemours, tom., xxxiv. p. 437.
[2] The Duchess de Nemours was a daughter of the Duke de
Longueville, by his first wife, and as she lived with her
step-mother, the Duchess de Longueville, on very indifferent terms,
her unsparing censure must by no means be implicitly received.
In looking at the faulty side of Conde's character, we must not forget
to observe the disinterested firmness with which, without considering
either his family or his friends, he had hitherto acted in the interests
of the King. Happy would it have been, if, after having thus terminated
this sad civil war, he had quitted the Court and its intrigues to seek
other battlefields, and to finish another war somewhat more useful and
glorious to France--that which still remained with Spain! Happy, also
for Madame de Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, in her last
interview with the Queen, and by the shameful _denouement_ of the
miserable intrigues of which she had the secret, instead of still
serving as their instrument, she had shown her courage in resisting
them. Happy too, if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just
given to La Rochefoucauld, she had firmly represented to him that, even
for his own interest, a different course was necessary; that it would be
better to look for fortune and honours by rendering himself esteemed
than by trying to make himself feared; that ambition as well as duty
showed his place to be by the side of Conde, in the service of the
State and of the King; that it was easy for him to obtain in the army
some post where he would simply have to march forward and do his duty,
trusting to his courage and his other merits!
But even if Anne de Bourbon had been wise enough to speak thus to La
Rochefoucauld, she would not have succeeded in gaining his ear. His
restless spirit, his ever-discontented vanity, pursuing by turns the
most dissimilar objects, because it selected none within its reach--that
_undefinable something_ which, as De Retz says, was in La Rochefoucauld,
made him abandon the high and direct roads, and led him into by-paths
full of pitfalls and precipices. Through such perilous ways we shall see
the infatuated woman following and aiding him in his extravagant and
guilty designs. Receiving the law instead of giving it, she strives to
promote the passion of another by devoting to his service all her
coquetry as well as greatness of soul, her penetration and intrepidity,
her attractive sweetness and indomitable energy. She undertakes to
mislead Conde, to rob France of the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, and
to give him to Spain.