gth, to his great joy, he saw
the advanced guard before him, and several of the troopers came
galloping up with a loud "_Qui vive!_" Some of them, however, almost
instantly recognised Conde, and shouts of joy and surprise soon made
known through the whole army what had occurred.

He found the forces of the Fronde as divided as were its chiefs. He took
the command of it immediately; thus doing away with the principal cause
of the jealousy existing between Nemours and Beaufort. He reviewed and
reunited it, gave it one day's rest, seized, without striking a blow, on
Montargis and Chateau-Renard, and threw himself with the utmost rapidity
on the royal army. It was scattered in quarters distant from each other
for the convenience of foraging, and on account of the little dread with
which Beaufort and Nemours had inspired it. Marshal d'Hocquincourt was
encamped at Bleneau, and Turenne a little farther off, at Briare; the
two Marshals were to unite their forces on the morrow. Conde did not
give them time for that: that same evening, and during the nights of the
6th and 7th of April, 1652, he fell upon the head-quarters of
Hocquincourt, overwhelmed them, and succeeded in routing the rest,
thanks to one of those charges in flank which he in person ever led so
energetically. Hocquincourt, after fighting like a gallant soldier, was
forced to fall back for some leagues in the direction of Auxerre, having
lost all his baggage and three thousand horse. No sooner did Turenne
hear of the fact, than he sprang into the saddle, and marched with some
infantry both to the assistance of his brother officer and to the
defence of the King, who, resting secure at Gien, might have fallen into
the hands of the rebels. As he advanced through the darkness of the
night, the Marshal saw the quarters of Hocquincourt in one blaze of
fire, and exclaiming, with the appreciation which genius has of genius,
"The Prince de Conde is arrived!" he hurried on with the utmost speed.
Having neither cavalry nor artillery, and having sent word to
Hocquincourt to rally to him as soon as possible, he marched on in good
order throughout that long and dark night to join the bulk of his troops
which Navailles and Palluan were bringing up. For an instant he halted
in a plain where there stood a rather dense wood on his left, with a
marsh on his right. Those around Conde thought it an advantageous post;
Conde judged very differently. "If M. de Turenne makes a stand there,"