e of Madame de Longueville. Whilst they were
seeking to arrest him as well as La Moussaye, the Queen despatched a
note to the Duchess by the Secretary of State, La Vrilliere, begging her
to come to the Palais Royal. Instead of going thither she went direct to
the Hotel of the Princess Palatine--like herself beautiful, gallant, and
intriguing, but endowed with a superior intellect. This lady speedily
became the head and mainspring of the princes' party--or of the _second_
Fronde, and the Coadjutor, who directed the Old Fronde, was fain to
recognise in her a worthy rival, and his equal in political sagacity.
Fearing to be discovered if she remained under the roof of the princess,
a carriage was procured, and the duchess driven in it by La
Rochefoucauld himself to an obscure house in the Faubourg St. Germain,
where they remained until nightfall in a cellar. Thence the Duchess and
her lover set out for Normandy on horseback under the escort of forty
determined men provided by the Princess Palatine. Brave and resolute as
her brother, the sister of Conde rode northwards through that entire
winter's night and the following day, and sought no shelter until worn
out with excessive fatigue she reached Rouen. But the commandant, the
Marquis de Beuvron, although an old friend of the duke, declared he
could not serve her, and refused to raise the banner of revolt in that
stronghold of her husband's government. Her attempt at Rouen thus
receiving a complete check, she had some hope of being received into the
citadel of Havre, but the Duchess de Richelieu, though her friend, was
not so much mistress there as the Duchess d'Aiguillon, who, on the
contrary, was full of resentment against her. Discouraged and repulsed
on all hands, the fugitive Duchess next made her way to Dieppe, where
she thought herself in sufficient safety to part with La Rochefoucauld,
who left her to assist the Duke de Bouillon to raise troops in
Angoumois. In the fortress of Dieppe, commanded by a faithful officer of
her husband, Madame de Longueville found the rest she so much needed. In
a brief space, with spirits recruited, she resolved to make a stand to
the uttermost against the Queen and Mazarin, and having replaced the
royal standard by that of Conde set about putting the citadel in a state
of defence to resist a siege. The Queen, however, having resolved not to
give the Duchess time to raise her husband's government of Normandy into
revolt, on the 1st of Febr