he showed plainly that they were wearying him.”[199] Finally, having exasperated the Regent and Mazarin beyond endurance, while, at the same time, he had contrived to alienate the Frondeurs, who had been eager for his alliance, the latter and the Court joined forces against him, and, on 18 January, 1650, he, with his brother, the Prince de Conti, and the Duc de Longueville, were arrested at the Palais-Royal, whither they had come to attend a meeting of the Council, and conducted to the Château of Vincennes. Madame de Longueville, whose arrest had also been determined upon, succeeded in making her escape to her husband’s government of Normandy. Anne of Austria and Mazarin appear to have been in some doubt whether to arrest the two Princesses de Condé, with the little Duc d’Enghien, then between six and seven years old.[200] “But considering,” says Lenet, “that the dowager was a princess of a timid and indolent disposition, and that the young princess was without friends, without money, and without experience, and not very well satisfied with the conduct of the prince, her husband, they had decided merely to order them to retire to Chantilly.” In sparing the young princess, they committed a grave error, for Claire-Clémence concealed beneath her gentle and retiring nature great courage and energy of character, which only awaited the occasion to manifest themselves. While all her _entourage_ were bewailing the misfortune which had befallen them, she thought only of effecting her husband’s liberation. The Duc de la Rochefoucauld had formed a plan of resistance in the South, always ready to rise in insurrection on the smallest provocation, and had united his fortunes to those of his powerful neighbour, the Duc de Bouillon. The two dukes determined to link to the cause of the imprisoned princes that of the citizens of Bordeaux, who had been for months past in a state of semi-revolt against the tyranny of their detested governor, the Duc d’Épernon; and La Rochefoucauld despatched his confidant, Gourville, to Chantilly, to inform the Princesse de Condé of their intentions. The courageous princess at once determined to join them, and, with the aid of Lenet, on the night of 11–12 April, 1650, she and the little Duc d’Enghien escaped from Chantilly and made their way to Montrond, and thence to Bouillon’s château of Turenne, in the Limousin.