What must have been his self-control, when, amid all the thwarting and vexatious affairs by which he was surrounded, in scarce a single instance did passion hurry him beyond the bounds of prudence! La Fronde was equally of his fomenting and his continuing. With the parliament for his pretext, and some prince of the blood for his puppet, he twice drove his rival into exile, governed a violent party, and made his way to power by the sole force of his own genius.
Nothing more sensibly shows the veneration and the obedience of the French for the royal authority, than that a foreigner, obnoxious to all ranks, and mediocre in talent, was supported by it against all opposition. Well might De Retz exclaim, "Give me but the king on my side for a single day!" Another striking difference between the two countries was the nullity of female influence in the one, and its extreme importance in the other. True that in London a brewer's wife headed a godly company of her sex, and presented a petition against popery, and that Mr. Pym commended their anxiety, and voted them the thanks of the house. True, also, that in Scotland the old women showed much activity in pelting the ungodly with the stools whereon they sat at meeting. But these absurdities were of
