"I will grant it up to the 31st of March," he had said, "being unwilling to miss the first opportunity of taking the field." The Marquis of Castel-Rodriguo made merry over this proposal.

"I am content," said he, "with the suspension of arms that winter imposes upon the King of France." The governor of the Low Countries made a mistake: Louis XIV.

was about to prove that his soldiers, like those of Gustavus Adolphus, did not recognize winter.

He had intrusted the command of his new army to the Prince of Conde, amnestied for the last nine years, but, up to that time, a stranger to the royal favor.

Conde expressed his gratitude with more fervor than loftiness when he wrote to the king on the 20th of December, 1667, "My birth binds me more than any other to your Majesty's service, but the kindnesses and the confidence you deign to show me after I have so little deserved them bind me still more than my birth.