aid, a truce between the parties than a solid peace. The
Parliament had retained the right of assembling and deliberating upon
affairs of state, which the Court had sought to prevent: and Mazarin
remained Minister, although the Parliament, the people, and even the
princes, had desired that he should cease to hold that office. It rarely
happens to states in like unfortunate emergencies that among the men who
show themselves most active and skilful in overthrowing a government
there are found those capable of conducting one; and when such do
appear, the chances almost always are that circumstances hinder them
from placing themselves in the front rank. It was to Gaston, the King's
uncle, Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, that belonged, in concert with
the Regent, the chief direction of affairs; but Gaston felt himself too
weak and too incapable to pretend to charge himself with such a burden.
He could never arrive at any decision, and took offence when any matter
was decided without him. Jealous of Mazarin's influence, more jealous
still of that of Conde, neither of the two could attempt to govern along
with him; and nevertheless Gaston was powerful enough to command a
party, and to hinder any one from governing without him: ready to offer
opposition to everything, but impotent to carry anything into execution.
If Anne of Austria had even consented to dismiss her favourite
Minister, and overcome her repugnance to the Fronde and the Frondeurs,
she could not have formed a government with the chiefs of that party.
The Duke de Beaufort, its nominal head, lacked both instruction and
intelligence. De Retz, its veritable chief--an eloquent, witty, and bold
man, skilful in the conduct of business, in the art of making partisans;
brave, generous, even loyal when he followed the impulses of his own
mind and natural inclination--was without faith, scruple, reticence, or
foresight when he abandoned himself to his passions, which urged him
unceasingly to the indulgence of an excessive and irrational
libertinage. Such a man could not have replaced him who for so long a
period had informed himself of the affairs of France under a master such
as Richelieu; who, deeply versed in dissimulation, was inaccessible to
any sentiment that might possibly derange the calculations of his
ambition. Besides, he, as well as Mazarin, would have had the Princes
against him, and could not have resisted successfully their numerous
partisans. De Retz had, th