es of a turbulent
ecclesiastic, was really the contest between the parliament and the
arbitrary power of the government. And the insurrection would have
been fearful and successful, had the people been firm or the nobles
faithful to the cause they defended. But the English Revolution, then
in progress, and in which a king had been executed, shocked the lovers
of constitutional liberty in France, and reacted then, even as the
French Revolution afterwards reacted on the English mind. Moreover,
the excesses which the people perpetrated at Paris, alarmed the
parliament and the nobles who were allied with it, while it urged on
the ministers to desperate courses. The prince of Conde, whose
victories had given him an immortality, dallied with both parties, as
his interests served. Allied with the court, he could overpower the
insurgents; but allied with the insurgents, he could control the
court. Sometimes he sided with the minister and sometimes with the
insurgents, but in neither case unless he exercised a power and
enjoyed a remuneration dangerous in any government. Both parties were
jealous of him, both feared him, both hated him, both insulted him, and
both courted him. At one time, he headed the royal troops to attack
Paris, which was generally in the hands of the people and of
parliament; and then, at another, he fought like a tiger to defend
himself in Paris against the royal troops. He had no sympathy with
either the parliament or the people, while he fought for them; and he
venerated the throne, while he rebelled against it. His name was Louis
de Bourbon, and he was a prince of the blood. He contended against the
crown only to wrest from it the ancient power of the great nobles; and
to gain this object, he thought to make the parliament and the
Parisian mob his tools. The parliament, sincerely devoted to liberty,
thought to make the nobles its tools, and only leagued with them to
secure their services. The crafty Mazarin quietly beheld these
dissensions, and was sure of ultimate success, even though at one time
banished to Cologne. And, like a reed, he was ever ready to bend to
difficulties he could not control. But he stooped to conquer. He at
last got the Prince of Conde, his brother the Prince of Conti, and the
Duke of Longueville, in his power. When the Duke of Orleans heard of
it, he said, "He has taken a good haul in the net; he has taken a
lion, a fox, and a monkey." But the princes escaped from the net, and,