In the Prince the Cardinal met his match.

He found himself confronted by an intellect as subtle, an experience as fertile in expedients, a temper as even, and a disposition sometimes as haughty as his own.

He never affected to undervalue the mind of Orange.

"'Tis a man of profound genius, vast ambition--dangerous, acute, politic," he wrote to the King at a very early period.

The original relations between himself and the Prince bad been very amicable.