scouts are returning. Yet tell me how came you in command of this troop?"

As they returned to the Prince, du Tremblay replied that he had been sent for by de Retz and placed in authority over the troop, which was composed of picked men, and, as the Secretary perceived, well mounted. From their continued location in the vicinity of the château, and the sudden and apparently strange orders of marching and patrolling often received, the object was known, or at least pretty safely surmised by all the troop; but du Tremblay was not aware that St. Maur was engaged in the exploit.

Along with the scouts came several officers from Beaufort's army, and a messenger from de Retz, who could not leave his post in Paris at the critical moment of the fortunes of the Fronde, but sent congratulations. All gathering round his Royal Highness, a short consultation ensued, instead of detailing which, we shall, after our own fashion, attempt to show the position of Beaufort and the other parties.

Deceived by the impression that the Duke of Lorraine was prepared, Beaufort began his march for the north, believing that on a junction with the Lorrainese forces, he should be a match for Turenne. But Lorraine was unexpectedly detained, as the troops would not march without pay, and the court of Madrid had not performed its promise of forwarding the necessary supplies. Beaufort, therefore, on arriving near Paris, found himself and army entrapped, for Turenne's forces were twice the number of his own.

He took refuge at St. Cloud, where the Queen-Regent and the Cardinal occupied the Royal Palace. The whole court was in a flutter, and fled in dismay, much to the gratification of Beaufort, who had been once, as we stated in an early passage of our legend, a rejected suitor of Anne of Austria

Turenne crossed the river above, and prepared with his large army to drive the Duke from the precints of the Royal Palace; but Beaufort transporting his army across the bridge, fortified it strongly, and laughed at the old Marshal. Turenne crossed below St. Cloud, and advanced on the Duke, who then returned to his former quarters, fortifying the bridge on that side.

This warlike game of chess was played several times over; Beaufort's possession of the bridge enabling him to baffle an army double the strength of his own forces. The Marshal then paused to wait the arrival of a new army under the command of the Count de Nogent, composed of fresh recruits, and of drafts from each of the fron

tier garrisons, spared at the royal order from the important service of guarding the passes of the kingdom, that the Fronde might be effectually overwhelmed and ruined.

Poor Beaufort, who had been prevented entering Paris in the first instance by the intervention of the Marshal, now discovered that the Count de Nogent would afford him no chance of escaping to the south. Whilst he lay encamped at St. Cloud, he discovered that the Marshal, who had drawn off his forces away from the river, yet not so far as to permit a safe march to Paris, was only waiting de Nogent's arrival on the opposite bank, that they might commence the march together, and crush and overwhelm him.

Le Roi des Halles, who had the blood of the fourth Henry in his veins, cheered his troops as he was best able, and decided for a hasty dash across the intervening suburbs and villages, which would give him the chance of gaining either the shelter of Paris, or if that were not attainable, a strongly fortified encampment on a tongue of land at Charenton, running into the waters formed by the confluence of the Seine and the Marne.

Breaking up the camp hastily, he crossed the bridge with his army, and commenced a rapid march for Charenton; but Turenne, throwing all his cavalry in that direction, turned the head of Beaufort's advanced guard, and drove them back in confusion. This movement was so far favourable to Beaufort, as to afford the opportunity for his main body to gain shelter behind the lines of the faubourg St. Antoine.

Such was the exact position of affairs as reported to the Prince of Condé, and he was not slow in taking measures to succour the Duke. Hastily equipping himself with such arms as he could obtain, and bidding St. Maur do the like, and finish the work he had begun, he arrayed the little body-guard, and being joined by about the same number of gentlemen, headed by Gourville, who had been attracted from Paris by the report of his being at large, he commenced a march toward the scene of action, fully resolved that if he could not make good against Turenne the defences of the Faubourg St. Antoine, he would at least make an honourable retreat into Paris, which Turenne's error or eagerness in dispatching the cavalry towards Charenton, would allow him to do.

As they passed through the Faubourg St. Martin, and the adjoining Faubourg of the Temple, the loud note of proximate warfare increased. The discharges of musketry were incessant, and occasionally there were seen groups of men, women, and children, flying

from their homes, where war was dealing around its horrors. Wounded soldiers or citizens were borne away from the scene of conflict, turning with a faint smile to greet the band of auxiliaries now advancing to the contest.

"Turenne has not brought up his cavalry yet," exclaimed Condé, addressing his friends, "and we'll make a few notches in his ranks with our handful of horse."

CHAPTER XXIX.

Il monte un cheval superbe
Qni, furieux aux combats.
A peine fait courber l'herbe
Sous les traces de ses pas.
Son regard semble farouche;
L'écume sort de sa bouche;
Prêt au moindre mouvement,
Il frappe du pied la terre,
Et semble appeler la guerre
Par un fier henissement.

SARRAZIN.

UPON entering the Faubourg St. Antoine, Condé found that Beaufort had concentrated his forces, under shelter of the barricades and trenches which the inhabitants had thrown up to protect themselves from incursions, during the troublés of the preceding reign. Poor defences they were; but the brave Frondeurs preferred making a stand at these posts to an ignominious retreat within the walls of Paris. De Retz and Noirmoutier had sent him such reinforcements as they could spare; but the citizens were in extreme alarm for the safety of the capital, and, not knowing on which side or when it might be attacked, it was not deemed prudent to leave the city defenceless.

The Faubourg was of the form of a triangle, or rather of a quadrant. On quitting Paris by the Porte St. Antoine, and entering this suburb, three principal roads present themselves, branching from a common centre; that in the Rue de Charenton was the left, called after the village to which it led, Rue de Charonne ; whilst the centre street or avenue was known by the name of the Rue de Faubourg St. Antoine. These three streets were connected by crossstreets and passages, which ran through the Faubourg, terminating

at the redouts and entrenchments of which we have already spoken, and which guarded the suburb towards the plain. The Faubourg was also protected on the right by the Seine, and on the left by the adjoining suburb of the Temple.

Whilst riding briskly through the principal street, Condé was received with acclamations of delight, his name passed from mouth to mouth, from street to street, till the defenders of the faubourg became aware of the approach of the illustrious hero.

On reaching the scene of action, where the Frondeurs were firing from the entrenchments on Turenne's infantry, one wide acclaim greeted the Prince, None knew better than himself how to make use of this enthusiasm. Commanding ali the Frondeur cavalry at that post, as well as his own body-guard, to follow, he made a sortie, throwing himself sword in hand on the Marshal's battalions. Seconded by his enthusiastic troops, he broke the lines of these veteran soldiers, charging through and through, hacking in pieces and throwing beneath the horse's hoofs, Turenne's choicest infantry. Proudly and in triumph, he returned to the entrenchments, bearing with him a cluster of standards, and many officers whom he had taken prisoners.

Turenne, who from a rising ground, where he stood, surrounded by his staff, beheld the check given to the infantry, ordered fresh battalions to the charge, whilst his artillery was gradually brought into action against the entire line of the faubourg.

Foreseeing the terrible shower of destruction threatening the faubourg, he constructed fresh barricades behind the old ones, planted the artillery at the entrenchments, where it would prove most effective, pierced the houses so that they might serve as loop-holes for the musketeers, and disposed the infantry and cavalry where they would prove most available against the shock.

Whilst engaged in these labours, intelligence was brought from the right wing of the Frondeurs, commanded by Beaufort in person, and which occupied the posts at the termination of the Rue de Charenton, that the army of de Nogent, pouring in like a wave, had carried the defences, and was already in the faubourg, driving back the Duke and his troops.

Leaving the command with Tavannės, a skilful general, and next in point of rank to de Beaufort, the Prince hastened with his guard to assist the Duke, and stay the progress of the foe.

De Nogent carried all before him in his assault, overpowering with superior numbers the harrassed Frondeurs, driving them even

to the market-place where Condé found de Beaufort, fighting on foot, every inch of the ground yielded only with desperate struggle.

But when the Prince came in sight, no more ground was yielded. The exhausted soldiery forgot their toil in shouting his name and his war-cry, "St. Louis!" Leading them on, he charged de Nogent, setting the example of galloping into the midst of his foes almost single handed, creating dismay in the ranks, striking on one side and the other, wherever resistance offered. The fiery contagion was caught by Beaufort and his friends, who rushed upon the Mazarinians, breathing hot war. In their fury they forgot their discipline, striking down with the butt-end of the musket, or throwing it into the enemies' ranks, and rushing into close combat with the sword and pistol; while others, running into the houses, dislodged the parapet-stones, overwhelming their enemies with the cumbrous projectiles. Even as de Nogent had forced the Frondeurs to retreat, in like manner was he obliged to retrograde. Nothing could stop the animated and daring vigour instilled into Beaufort's troops by the impetuous Condé. Yielding step by step, the Count de Nogent was forced back beyond the retrenchments to the plain, leaving many hundreds of his men wounded or dead in the streets of the faubourg.

But the labours of Condé were not yet over: for while the right wing was thus restored by the heroic Prince, and the centre was preparing for the threatened brunt of Turenne and the main corps of his army, the left wing of the Frondeurs, under the command of the Duke de Nemours, had been forced to retreat through the Rue de Charonne, by Turenne's general, the Count St. Maigrin, under similar circumstances to the retreat of Beaufort.

With unwearied energy, ever surrounded by the gallant band which brought him from Vincennes, Condé flew to the relief of Nemours, and with the same daring courage, from which even faint hearts caught valour, he drove back the enemy, restoring to Nemours the same lines and entrenchments he had been in possession of at the commencement of the battle.

But Turenne, the second military master spirit of the age, was not to be thus overcome, with an army at command almost quadrupling that of his great adversary, altough he was in possession of the miserable defences of the faubourg. Calling off de Nogent and St. Maigrin, he prepared to concentrate the entire strength of his large army to bear upon the devoted faubourg. The artillery were planted along the line, the infantry embattled for the assault,