ses connected with
the financial administration. Over the abolition of the intendants there
was much angry discussion. Eventually Anne gave a reluctant consent to
the suppression of all except those in Languedoc, Provence, the
Lyonnais, Picardy, and Champagne. During these conferences Orleans
showed a sympathy with the Frondeurs and it was evident that he would
not uphold the royal cause. Being determined at the first opportunity to
resist the pretensions of the Parliament, and being desirous to sound
the loyalty of Conde, Anne and Mazarin summoned the Prince to Paris. It
was probably arranged at some interviews which took place on July 19th
and the following day that the Prince should first crush the Archduke
Leopold and then return to aid the government in overcoming the
resistance of the Parliament.

Till Conde had won a decisive victory the government thought it well to
continue to temporize, and Anne of Austria simulated a desire to satisfy
all the demands of the Frondeurs. On July 31st a royal declaration
agreed to the majority of the claims made by the sovereign courts in the
chamber of St. Louis. No satisfactory guarantee was, however, given with
regard to the personal liberty of the subject, and Broussel and other
extremists continued to agitate. The situation, which in many respects
resembled that of 1792, remained critical, the Frondeurs desiring
further radical changes, while the court anxiously awaited developments
on the frontier. At last, on August 22, 1648, arrived the news of
Conde's victory at Lens.

"Heaven has at last declared in our favor," wrote Mazarin, "in the Low
Countries no less than in other places." The victories of Zusmarshausen,
Tortosa, and Prague had now been crowned by the victory of Lens. The
superiority of the French arms was proved, and the courts prepared to
crush the opposition of the Parliament. The success at Lens would in
Mazarin's opinion enable him to force Spain to make peace, and to
triumph over the Parliament. By the advice of the Count of Chavigny, the
King's council--which included, besides the Queen Regent and Mazarin,
the Dukes of Orleans and Longueville, the chancellor, Seguier, and
Meilleraye, the superintendent of the finances--decided, like the court
of Louis XVI in July, 1789, to carry out a _coup d'etat_ and to arrest
three members of the Parliament--Broussel, Blancmesnil, and Charton. The
arrests were to take effect in August. On August 26th, the day on which
a