As the result of the visit paid by Condé to Malines at the beginning of 1656, in the following spring _Madame la Princesse_ found herself again in an interesting condition. The approach of this event added to the poor woman’s anxieties, for she could not but feel many misgivings as to the fate reserved for a child to be born in exile, the offspring of a rebel prince, who had been deprived, by a decree of the Parlement, even of the name of Bourbon. She was, besides, much disquieted by the prospect of the privations which it might be required to face at Malines, in that inn where she was reduced to live so miserably. She accordingly took counsel with the faithful Lenet, and, on his advice, decided to petition Louis XIV. and Mazarin for permission to return to France, and, at the same time, to appeal to the Parlement of Paris and her relatives to make intercession on her behalf. But the touching letters which she addressed to the King and the Minister were without result; she was merely informed that circumstances did not lend themselves to her return to France, and her only recource was to have a protest drawn up by Flemish lawyers, “in order that her accouchement out of France might not be laid to her charge, nor prejudice the child which would be born of her pregnancy.” In November, 1656, the Princesse de Condé gave birth, contrary to all her hopes, to a daughter, who was baptized Louise. While this little girl was still only a few months old, Jeanne Baptiste de Bourbon, Abbess of Fontevrault, wrote to Condé, offering her the succession to her abbey. The prince thanked the abbess for her good intentions, but suggested that it would be preferable to wait for better times, and that it was, besides, rather early to make his daughter a nun. The little princess did not assume the cross and mitre, since she died before she was three years old. The campaign of 1657, which opened with Condé’s brilliant relief of Cambrai, closed with the loss of Mardyke and other places, for the incurable indolence of the Spanish generals hampered the prince at every turn. England had now formed an alliance with France, and, in the following year, the Spaniards, having, against the advice of Condé, marched against the allies, who were besieging Dunkerque, sustained a crushing defeat in the battle of the Dunes. This disaster, followed by the capitulation of Dunkerque and the invasion of Flanders by Turenne, decided Philip IV. to make peace; and, on 24 November, 1657, the Treaty of the Pyrenees brought the long war to a close.