Buckingham’s adored divinity, possibly, had all her accredited beauty, her portraits notwithstanding, but it is difficult to trace much milk of human kindness or warmth of heart in “Dame Anne” throughout her career. Her Spanish pride and dignity could have been scantily tempered with the high, generous characteristics of her compatriots. Had the troubles environing her engrossed her, the case might have seemed in a measure excusable; but in the face of the storm of the Frondy wind, or perhaps because of it, the balls and routs and love-intriguing, and the rest, were carried on in full rush: for that there was ever ample leisure. About this time Scarron wrote his _Mazarinade_, and continued to be in love with his Françoise. She was desperately poor, and gained scanty subsistence by needlework, supplemented by what Scarron earned from the proceeds of his writing, which she carried in MS. for him to and fro the printers. _The Mazarinade_ was an immense success; but the author gained financially less than nothing from its publication; as it so offended the queen, that the pension she had granted him was withdrawn, and the marriage with Françoise his heart was set upon had to be delayed. She had, however, in the meantime, consented to take up her abode with him, and they were happy. After some months’ sulking away in various places, the Court returned to Paris, having again patched up a sort of reconciliation, and on that occasion Condé found himself in the same coach with Mazarin. The drive could scarcely have been an enjoyable one, and the hollow _entente cordiale_ only gave the Frondeurs offence. It lasted a very little time, for soon after, when Mazarin was attempting to arrange a marriage of one of his nieces with a close connexion of de Condé’s, the proud prince said furiously that at the best “they were only fit to be the wives of Mazarin’s valets. Go and tell him so,” added Condé; “and if he is angry, let his captain of the guards bring him by his beard to the Hôtel de Condé.”