The opposing arm:es approached each other on the banks of the Loire, when the Prince of Corc'e attacked the ranks of the royal army with so much impetuosity, that they weie broken. The court took the aiai m ; and the ministet pro posed to save the king by flight. This plan, however, was strongly opposed by Turenne, who taking advantage of every inequality of ground, restored the confidence and the hopes of his party. The Prince of Conde, in the mean time, entered Faris, where he was at first received with joy; but the Cardinal of Retz, having deserted the popular cause, and succeeded in gaining an absolute sway over the Duke of Orleans, persuaded that Prince to become a can didate with the citizens for their favour, in opposition to Conde. In this he succeeded, and the Duke of Lorraine deserting the cause of the Prince at the same time, while his troops were enervated by the pleasures of the capital, Conde was not sorry to learn that the approach of Turenne presented to him the means more congenial to his talents and habits, of establishing his cause by the force of arms. in the suburbs of St Antoine, the too greatest generals of France were opposed to each other : the King from an eminence beheld the battle. The Duke of Orleans remain ed in his palace, undecided what part to take : Cardinal de Retz was likewise neuter, and the parliament waited the is sue, before it published any decree. The citizens of Paris, afraid of both parties, or affecting to preserve a strict neu trality, shut the city gates, and would permit no ingress or egrets. The combat w as long and bloody : the two generals performed wonders at the head of a few men ; many gal lant nobleman were killed or wounded ; at last the battle was decided in favour of the ponce of Conde., by the daughter of the Duke of Orleans ordering the gates to be opened for the wounded, and the cannon of the Misfile to be fired on the king's ttoops. Turenne was in consequence compelled to retreat. " These cannon have killed Ler husband," observed Mazatine, when informed of the cir cumstance, alluding to the hopes which the daughter of the Duke of Orleans entertained of being Queen of France.
The Duke was now declared by the Parliament lieu tenant-general of the kingdom, and the Prince of Conde commander in chief of the armies of France. But the po pularity of the latter was of short duration : a tumult, in which several citizens were killed, and of which he was supposed to be the author, together with his violent and haughty demeanour, disgusted and irritated the inhabitants of Paris, and he was obliged to leave that city. On the other hand, Louis, in order to appease his subjects, dismissed Mazarine, who retired to Sedan. The people, satisfied at this mark of their sovereign's attention to their wishes, of their own accord sent deputies to invite him to return to the city, which he entered amidst the acclamations of per sons of all ranks. The first acts of the royal authority were the banishment of the Duke of Orleans, and the ar rest and imprisonment of Cardinal de Retz. The Prince of Conde, condemned to lose 1.is head, abandoned in France by almost all his partizans, feebly supported by the Spaniards, and pressed by Turenne, carried on an unsuc cessful war on the frontiers of Champagne.
To the storms of this civil war succeeded a calm. The Parliament was humbled ; and Mazarine being re-called, again resumed all his authority, and was courted by every body. Even the Parliament, that had before set a price upon his head as a public robber, now sent deputies to compliment. him. The Prince of Conde after this absurd
war was finished, observed, that it deserved only to be written in blank verse ; and Voltaire remarks, that the name of Petits maitres originally applied to that prince's party, because they endeavoured to make themselves mas ters of the state, and now signifying overbearing and frivo lous young men ; and the name of Frondeurs, bestowed on the censurers of government, are the only vestiges remain ing of these troubles.
Some pang of the kingdom were still in the power of the insurgents. Bellegarde, a town in Burgundy, was de fended for the Prince of Conde, by the Count de Boutet isle, afterwards known as Marshal Luxemburgh. It was at tacked by the Duke of Epernon at the head of a royal army, but not surrendered till a practicable breach was made, and honourable conditions granted. In 1654, the Prince of Conde, in conjunction with the Archduke, laid siege to Arras. At the same time, Stenai was besieged by Turenne. As soon as the latter place had surrendered, the Marsha], and De la Ferte, encamped in the neighbour hood of the Spaniards, and used every stratagem to induce, or oblige them to abandon the siege of Arras, but without effect. Shortly afterwards, Turenne having been reinforc ed, resolved, contrary to the opinion of his principal offi cers, to force the Spanish lines. The Spaniards were driven out with great slaughter, and lost their baggage, artillery, and ammunition ; but the prince of Conde, with two regi ments alone, after defeating a division of his opponents, covered the flight of the Spaniards, and thus saved the re mains of their army. The King of Spain aknowledged and characterized his services in a short and expressive letter, " I am informed that all was lost, and that you sav ed all." In 1655, Landreci and Quesnoy were reduced by Tu reline, and thus a road was opened into the Spanish Ne therlands. In the subsequent year he invested Valen ciennes with an army of 20,000 men. The lines were completed, and the operations far advanced, when the Prince of Conde, and Don John of Austria, advanced with a superior army, and in the night-time forced that part of the lines where the Marquis de la Fete commanded. Tu renne, after in vain endeavouring to restot e. the fortune of the battle, effected a masterly retreat, carrying off his ar tillery and baggage, and even halting on the approach of the enemy. In less than a month afterwards he took Ca pelf, in sight of the Prince of Conde and Don John.
A short time before these events, Mazarine, more anxi ous about the overthrow of his enemies, and the restora tion of tranquillity to France, than about the preservation of that country's honour, had formed a treaty with Crom well, by which the Protector agreed to send the Cardinal a strong reinforcement, on condition that Charles II. and his brother the Duke of York, the grandsons of Henry IV. who had sought and obtained an asylum in France, should be ordered to quit it, and that the Cardinal should deliver up to England, Mardyke, Gravelines, or Dunkirk, which ever should be first wrested from the Spaniards. Tu renne, after having in vain endeavoured to make himself master of Cambray, into which, after he had encompassed it, the Prince of Conde penetrated at the head of 2000 horse, marched towards St. Quintin, to meet the English auxiliaries. With these he reduced Montmede and St. Vincent, raised the siege of Ardre, and concluded the campaign by taking Mardyke, which, according to the treaty, was given up to the English.