life of the most high and mighty Prince Louis de Bourbon, Prince de
Condé, first prince of the blood.

God has revealed to us that He alone creates conquerors, and that He
makes them serve His designs. What other created a Cyrus if it is
not God, who named him two hundred years before his birth in the
Prophecies of Isaiah? "Thou art as yet unborn," He said unto him, "but
I see thee, and I named thee by thy name; thou shalt be called Cyrus.
I will walk before thee in battle, at thy approach I will put kings to
flight; I will break down doors of brass. It is I that stretch out the
heavens, that support the earth, that name that which is not as that
which is," that is to say, it is I that create everything and I that
see, from eternity, all that I create. What other could fashion an
Alexander, if it is not this same God who caused the unquenchable
ardor of Daniel, His prophet, to see from so great a distance and by
means of foreshadowings so vivid. "Do you see him," he says, "this
conqueror; with what rapidity he rises from the west by bounds, as it
were, and touches not the earth?"

In the boldness of his leaps, and the lightness of his tread like unto
some powerful and frisking beast, he advances by quick and impetuous
bounds, and nor mountain nor precipice arrests his progress. Already
has the King of Persia fallen into his hands. "At his sight he was
exasperated; _efferatus est in eum_," says the prophet; "he strikes
him down, he tramples him under foot; none can save him from his blows
nor cheat him of his prey." But to hear these words of Daniel, whom
would you suppose you perceived, gentlemen, under that figure of
speech--Alexander or the Prince de Condé? God gave him that dauntless
valor that France might enjoy safety during the minority of a king but
four years old. Let him grow up, this king, cherished of Heaven, and