quarter of the insurrection--the Hotel
de Ville--those lovely and interesting women were placed in the hands
of the people as hostages with all that was most dear to them.
"Imagine," says De Retz, "these two beautiful persons upon the balcony
of the Hotel de Ville; more beautiful because they appeared neglected,
although they were not. Each held in her arms one of her children, who
were as beautiful as their mothers." La Greve was full of people, even
to the house tops; the men all raised cries of joy, and the women wept
with emotion. De Retz, meanwhile, threw handfuls of money from the
windows of the Hotel de Ville amongst the populace, and then, leaving
the princesses under the protection of the city, he returned to the
Palais de Justice, followed by an immense multitude, whose acclamations
rent the skies.

On the night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville gave
birth to her last child, a son, who was baptized by De Retz, having for
its godfather the Provost, for its godmother the Duchess de Bouillon,
and who received the name of Charles de Paris; the child of the Fronde,
handsome, talented, and brave; who during his life was the troublesome
hope, the melancholy joy of his mother, and the cause of her greatest
grief in 1672, when he perished, at the passage of the Rhine, by the
side of his uncle, Conde.

The Prince de Conti being declared _generalissimo of the army of the
King, under the parliament_, and the Dukes de Bouillon and Elbeuf, with
the Marshal de la Mothe, generals under him, De Retz saw the full
fruition of his intrigues. A civil war was now inevitable. The great and
the little, the wise and the foolish, the rash and the prudent, the
cowardly and the brave, were all engaged and jumbled up pell-mell on
both sides; and the mixture was so strange, so heterogeneous, and so
incomprehensible, that a sentiment of the ridiculous was irresistibly
paramount, and the war began amongst fits of laughter on all sides. That
same day Conde's cavaliers came galloping into the faubourgs to fire
their pistols at the Parisians, whilst the Marquis de Noirmoutier went
forth with the cavalry of the Fronde to skirmish with them, and
returning to the Hotel de Ville, entered the circle of the Duchess de
Longueville, followed by his officers, each wearing his cuirass, as he
came from the field. The hall was filled with ladies preparing to dance,
the troops were drawn up in the square, and this mixture of blue scarves