Fronde
broke out. This war is said to have been most ridiculous, as being
carried on without a definite object, a plan, or a leader. But this
description is hardly correct; it was the struggle of the French nobility
against the rule of the Court; an attempt, the final attempt, to re- cover
their lost influence over the state, and to save themselves from sinking
under the rule of cardinals and priests.
With the general history of that war we have nothing to do; it is far too
complicated and too confused to be stated here. The memoirs of Roche-
foucauld and De Retz will give the details to those who desire to trace
the contests of the factions--the course of the intrigues. We may
confine ourselves to its progress so far as it relates to the Duc de la
Roche- foucauld.
On the Cardinal causing the Princes de Condé and Conti, and the Duc
de Longueville, to be arrested, Rochefoucauld and the Duchess fled
into Normandy. Leaving her at Dieppe, he went into Poitou, of which
province he had some years pre- viously bought the post of governor.
He was there joined by the Duc de Bouillon, and he and the Duke
marched to, and occupied Bordeaux. Cardinal Ma- zarin and Marechal
de la Meilleraie advanced in force on Bordeaux, and attacked the town.
A bloody battle followed. Rochefoucauld defended the town with the
greatest bravery, and repulsed the Cardinal. Notwithstanding the
repulse, the burghers of Bor- deaux were anxious to make peace, and
save the city from destruction. The Parliament of Bordeaux com- pelled
Rochefoucauld to surrender. He did so, and returned nominally to
Poitou, but in reality in secret to Paris.
There he found the Queen engaged in trying to maintain her position by
playing off the rival parties of the Prince Condé and the Cardinal De
Retz against each other. Rochefoucauld eagerly espoused his old
party--that of Condé. In August, 1651, the contend- ing parties met in
the Hall of the Parliament of Paris, and it was with great difficulty they
were prevented from coming to blows even there. It is even said that
Rochefoucauld had ordered his followers to murder De Retz.
Rochefoucauld was soon to undergo a bitter disap- pointment. While
occupied with party strife and faction in Paris, Madame de Chevreuse
left him, and formed an alliance with the Duc de Nemours.
Rochefoucauld still loved her. It was, probably, thinking of this that he
afterwards wrote, “Jealousy is born with love, but does not die with it.”
He endea- voured to get Madame de Chatillon, the old mistress of the
Duc de Nemours, reinstated in favour, but in this he did not succeed.
The Duc de Nemours was soon after killed in a duel. The war went on,
and after several indecisive skirmishes, the decisive battle was fought at
Paris, in the Faubourg St. Antoine, where the Parisians first learnt the
use or the abuse of their favourite defence, the barricade. In this battle,
Rochefoucauld behaved with great bravery. He was wounded in the
head, a wound which for a time deprived him of his sight. Before he
recovered, the war was over, Louis XIV. had attained his ma- jority, the
gold of Mazarin, the arms of Turenne, had been successful, the French
nobility were vanquished, the court supremacy established.
This completed Rochefoucauld's active life.
When he recovered his health, he devoted himself to society. Madame
de Sablé assumed a hold over him. He lived a quiet life, and occupied
himself in composing an account of his early life, called his
“Memoirs,” and his immortal “Maxims.”
From the time he ceased to take part in public life, Rochefoucauld's real
glory began. Having acted the various parts of soldier, politician, and
lover with but small success, he now commenced the part of moralist,
by which he is known to the world.
Living in the most brilliant society that France possessed, famous from
his writings, distinguished from the part he had taken in public affairs,
he formed the centre of one of those remarkable French literary
societies, a society which numbered among its members La Fontaine,
Racine, Boileau. Among his most attached friends was Madame de La
Fayette (the authoress of the “Princess of Cleeves”), and this friend-
ship continued until his death. He was not, however, destined to pass
away in that gay society without some troubles. At the passage of the
Rhine in 1672 two of his sons were engaged; the one was killed, the
other severely wounded. Rochefoucauld was much affected by this, but
perhaps still more by the death of the young Duc de Longueville, who
perished on the same occasion.
Sainte Beuve says that the cynical book and that young life were the
only fruits of the war of the Fronde. Madame
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