Hotel de Rambouillet was situate.

Although the Duchess dissembled her ennui with that politeness and
gentleness peculiar to herself, after the lapse of a few months she had
had enough of her brilliant exile. In the winter of 1647 there were two
reasons for her return to France. Her father, the Prince de Conde, had
died towards the close of December, 1646, to the great loss of his
family and France, the consequences of which were somewhat later vividly
felt. Moreover, Madame de Longueville had become _enceinte_, at Muenster
for the third time, and it being her mother's wish that her accouchement
should take place near her, M. de Longueville was compelled to consent
to his wife's departure for Paris.

Her return to France, at first to Chantilly, and next to Paris, in the
month of May, 1647, was quite another sort of triumph to that of her
journey to the Rhine and Holland, and her sojourn at Muenster. She found
the crowd of her adorers more numerous and attentive than ever, and in
the foremost rank her younger brother, the Prince de Conti, just fresh
from college, was taking his first lessons of life in the wider range of
the great world.

Shortly after her accouchement, the Duchess, who during her sojourn
amongst the plenipotentiaries charged with negotiating the treaty of
Westphalia, had acquired a taste, there seems little doubt, for
political discussions and speculations, first began to manifest an
inclination to mix herself up with state affairs. There was little
difficulty in her doing so. The mission which the Duke de Longueville
continued to fulfil in Germany, the continued favour enjoyed by the
Princess de Conde, the ever-increasing influence which the Duke
d'Enghien--recently through his father's death become Prince de
Conde--had acquired by his repeated victories, all these advantages,
joined to the prestige of the personal charms of Madame de Longueville,
placed this latter in a position to take the foremost part in the civil
war about to break out.

The Court and Paris were then occupied with festivals and diversions,
which all were eager to share with Madame de Longueville. To please the
Queen, Mazarin multiplied balls and operas. At a great expense he sent
to Italy for artists, singers, male and female, who represented the
opera of _Orpheus_, the machinery and decorations of which are said to
have cost more than 400,000 livres. The Queen delighted in these
spectacles. France also, as though inspired by