s had suffered more than one interruption; that, in 1645,
Madame de Longueville had crossed the loves of her brother and
Mademoiselle du Vigean; that, in 1646, Conde, seeing her too intimate
with La Rochefoucauld, had caused her to be summoned to Muenster by her
husband. But for this we have only the authority of the Duchess de
Nemours, her step-daughter and unsparing censor, and nothing is less
probable. The passion of Conde for Mademoiselle de Vigean extinguished
itself, as all contemporaries affirm. The attentions of La Rochefoucauld
to Madame de Longueville may have preceded the embassy of Muenster, but
they were not observed until 1647, and it is at the close of this year
that Madame de Motteville places them, while attributing them especially
to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share the confidence of the sister
with the brother. But it is very certain that as soon as the latter
remarked this connection, he disapproved of it entirely; and not
succeeding in his effort to rouse his sister from the intoxication of a
first passion, he passed from the most ardent affection to a bitter
discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his return from Lens, this
connection had acquired its greatest strength, and become almost
notorious. Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, did then
everything possible to gain over her brother. She brought all her
allurements to bear upon him, all her fondlings. She put into play
everything which she thought might influence his fickle and passionate
disposition--but failed. Neither did he succeed in gaining over her his
accustomed ascendency. They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame de
Longueville plunged more deeply into the Fronde, and Conde applied
himself to giving the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson.

The Queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the young King and all the
government. Paris was under the absolute control of the Fronde. It
stirred up the Parliament by the aid of a few ambitious councillors and
by seditious and mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great part of
the Parisian clergy through the Coadjutor of the Archbishop De Retz, who
possessed and exercised all the authority of his uncle. It had
continually at its head the two great houses of Vendome and Lorraine,
with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti and the Duke de
Longueville, followed by a very great number of illustrious families,
including the Dukes d'Elbeuf, de Bouillon, and de Beaufort, and