n
anticipated by the Princess, whose object was to accomplish the rescue
of her son; for while the respectable citizens hastened to close their
shops and to place their families in safety, the lower orders rushed
towards the hotel of the Marechal d'Ancre in the Faubourg St. Germain.
The doors were driven in, furniture and valuables to the amount of two
hundred thousand crowns were destroyed, and lighted torches were applied
to the costly hangings of the apartments, which soon caused the carved
and gilded woodwork to ignite; while a portion of the mob at the same
time attacked the house of Corbinelli his secretary; and soon the two
residences presented only a mass of bare and blackened walls. M. de
Liancourt, the Governor of Paris, opposed his authority in vain; he was
hooted, driven back, and finally compelled to retire. Couriers were
despatched to the Louvre to inform the Queen-mother of the popular
tumult, but no orders were issued in consequence; the counsellors of
Marie de Medicis deeming it desirable that the populace should be
permitted to expend their violence upon the property of Concini, rather
than turn their attention to the rescue of the Prince, until the public
excitement had abated.

The arrest of M. de Conde had alarmed all the leaders of the late
faction, who hastened to secure their own safety. Bouillon, as we have
stated, had already reached Charenton; and the Duc de Vendome had fled
in his turn on learning that all egress from the Louvre was forbidden,
and that the outlets of the palace were strongly guarded. M. de Mayenne,
who had hitherto remained in the capital, awaiting the progress of
events, followed his example attended by a strong party of his friends.
The Duc de Guise and the Prince de Joinville, alarmed lest they should
be involved in the ruin of Conde through the machinations of Concini,
with whom they were at open feud, hastened to Soissons, in order to join
M. de Mayenne, whither they were shortly followed by the young Count and
his mother; and, finally, the Duc de Nevers, who had indulged in a vain
dream of rendering himself master of the Turkish empire through the
medium of the Greeks, by declaring himself to be a descendant of the
Paleologi, suddenly halted on his way to Germany, and declared himself
determined to join the new faction of the Princes.[256]

These defections created a great void at the Louvre, but the
Queen-mother disdained to express her mortification; and, on the
con