On Party-Prejudice. 23 
Indeed if the monarchy be feebly ruled, parties may 
arise threatening, in appearance, the subversion of 
the state; but as they depend, for the most part, 
on the contemptible struggles for places and profit 
among their respective leaders; they become ridi- 
culous in the eyes of the people, and terminate in 
disgrace and ruin. In the civil war of France, 
nicknamed the Fronde,* during the minority of 
Louis x1v, the ladies are well known to have di- 
rected the political intrigues and conduct of the 
different parties. | 
The frequent union of religious with political 
* See “]’ Histoire de Fronde,” and the ** Memoirs de 
Cardinai Retz,” passim. 
- The French seem to have been forced inta sedition 
through the mere effect of caprice and sport. The wo- 
men ruled every faction. Love formed as well as destroyed 
cabals, The Dutchess of Longueville prevailed on Tu- 
renne (who had just been created a mareschal) to endea- 
vour to corrupt the army he commanded for the king. 
But he quitted as a fugztive the army he had commanded 
as a general, to please-a capricious woman, who made a jest 
of his passion. 
Even the philosophic Rochefoucault acknowledged no 
other leader but the god of love (or rather of gallantry), as 
his senseless (although celebrated) verses, addressed to the 
Dutchess of Longueville (written immediately after hav- 
ing nearly lost his sight by a musquet ball, during the war 
of the Fronde) sufficiently prove.— ; 
‘¢ Pour mériter son cceur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux, 
J'ai faite la guerre aux roix, je l’aurois faite aux dicux.” 
