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Rh originated with him. The war of La Fronde was the festival of her life, and, like most other enjoyments, dearly expiated. Some slight degree of personal predilection for the Prince de Condé perhaps dictated her celebrated order for the cannon of the Bastile to fire on the King's troops; but not much—only that transitory flutter of gratified vanity which is so often mistaken for a deeper sentiment. If Madame la Princesse had died—as nobody does die—precisely at the very moment to please others, the alliance might have taken place, but with as little expense of mutual feeling as could well bring two people together. The Prince would have allowed the principalities of Montpensier, Doubes, d'Eu, &c. &c. to exclude for the time les beaux yeux of Madame de Chatillion; and Mademoiselle would have considered "mon devoir à moi-même," "mes justes prétensions," satisfied by a marriage with the head of the house of Condé.

A long, dull exile, only alleviated by household dissensions—and quarrels are the common resource of the unoccupied—followed the exciting period of her brilliant career in Paris. At length she returned to Paris, still to see crowns passing by, which rested not on her brow, till religion or romance became her only refuge.