 The Preface of France and England in North America Part 5. Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV. This is a LibriVox recording. Our LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Céline Major. France and England in North America Part 5. Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV. By Francis Parkman Jr. Preface. The events recounted in this book group themselves in the main about a single figure, that of Count Frontenac, the most remarkable man who ever represented the crown of France in the New World. From strangely unpromising beginnings, he grew with every emergency and rose equal to every crisis. His whole career was one of conflict, sometimes petty and personal, sometimes of momentous consequence involving the question of national ascendancy on this continent. Now that this question is put at rest forever, it is hard to conceive the anxiety which it awakened in our forefathers. But for one rooted error of French policy, the future of the English-speaking races in America would have been more than endangered. Under the rule of Frontenac occurred the first serious collision of the rival powers and the opening of the grand scheme of military occupation by which France strove to envelop and hold in check the industrial populations of the English colonies. It was he who made that scheme possible. In the old regime in Canada, I tried to show from what inherent causes this wilderness empire of the great monarch fell at last before a foe, superior indeed in numbers, but lacking all the forces that belong to a system of civil and military centralization. The present volume will show how valiantly and for a time how successfully new France battled against a fate which her own organic fault made inevitable. Her history is a great and significant drama enacted among untamed forests with a distant gleam of courtly splendors and the regal pomp of Versailles. The authorities on which the book rests are drawn chiefly from the manuscript collections of the French government in the Archive Nationale, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and above all the vast repositories of the archives of the marine and colonies. Others are from Canadian and American sources. I have besides availed myself of the collection of French, English and Dutch documents published by the State of New York under the excellent editorship of Dr. O'Callaghan and of the manuscript collections made in France by the governments of Canada and of Massachusetts. A considerable number of books contemporary or nearly so with the events described also helped to throw light upon them and these have all been examined. The citations in the margins represent but a small part of the authorities consulted. This mass of material has been studied with extreme care and peculiar pains have been taken to secure accuracy of statement. In the preface of the old regime I wrote, some of the results here reached are of a character which I regret since they cannot be agreeable to persons for whom I have a very cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the facts may be matter of opinion but it will be remembered that the facts themselves can be overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence on which they rest or bringing forward counter-evidence of equal or greater strength and neither task will be found an easy one. The invitation implied in these words has not been accepted. The old regime was met by vehement protest in some quarters but so far as I know none of the statements of fact contained in it have been attacked by evidence or even challenged. The lines just quoted are equally applicable to this volume. Should there be occasion a collection of documentary proofs will be published more than sufficient to make good the positions taken. Meanwhile it will I think be clear to an impartial reader that the story is told not in the interest of any race or nationality but simply in that of historical truth. When at the age of 18 I formed the purpose of writing on French-American history I meant at first to limit myself to the great contest which brought that history to a close. It was by an afterthought that the plan was extended to cover the whole field so that the part of the work or series of works first conceived would following the sequence of events be the last executed. As soon as the original scheme was formed I began to prepare for executing it by examining localities, journeying in forests, visiting Indian tribes and collecting materials. I have continued to collect them ever since so that the accumulation is now rather formidable and if it is to be used at all it had better be used at once. Therefore passing over for the present and intervening period of less decisive importance I propose to take as the next subject of this series Mocalme and the Fall of New France. Boston 1 January 1877 End of Preface Chapters 1 and 2 of France and England in North America, Part 5 Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV by Francis Parkman, Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 1 1620-1672 Count and Countess Frontenac At Versailles there is the portrait of a lady, beautiful and young. She is painted as Minerva, a plumed helmet on her head and a shield on her arm. In a corner of the canvas is written Anne de la Grange Trianon, Conteste de Frontenac. This blooming goddess was the wife of the future governor of Canada. Madame de Frontenac at the age of about twenty was a favorite companion of Mlle de Montpensier, the grand daughter of Henry IV, and daughter of the weak and dastardly Gaston Duc of Orleans. Nothing in French annals has found more readers than the story of the exploit of this spirited princess at Orleans during the Civil War of the Front. Her cousin Condé, chief of the revolt had found favor in her eyes and she had espoused his cause against her cousin, the king. The royal army threatened Orleans. The Duke, her father, dared not leave Paris, but he consented that his daughter should go in his place to hold the city for Condé and the front. The princess entered her carriage and set out on her errand attended by a small escort. With her were three young married ladies, the Marquise de Breaute, the Conteste de Fiesques, and the Conteste de Frontenac. In two days they reached Orleans. The civic authorities were afraid to declare against the king and hesitated to open the gates to the daughter of their Duke, who, standing in the moat with her three companions, tried persuasion and threats in vain. The prospect was not encouraging when a crowd of boatmen came up from the river and offered the princess their services. I accepted them gladly, she writes, and said a thousand fine things, such as one must say to that sort of people to make them do what one wishes. She gave them money as well as fair words and begged them to burst open one of the gates. They fell at once to the work, while the guards and officials looked down from the walls, neither aiding nor resisting them. To animate the boatmen by my presence, she continues, I mounted a hillock nearby. I did not look to see which way I went, but clambered up like a cat clutching brambles and thorns and jumping over hedges without hurting myself. Madame de Brioitie, who is the most cowardly creature in the world, began to cry out against me and everybody who followed me. In fact, I do not know if she did not swear in her excitement which amused me very much. At length a hole was knocked in the gate, and a gentleman of her train, who had directed the attack, beckoned her to come on. As it was very muddy, a man took me and carried me forward and thrust me in at this hole, where my head was no sooner through than the drums beat to salute me. I gave my hand to the captain of the guard. The shouts redoubled. Two men took me and put me in a wooden chair. I do not know whether I was seated in it or on their arms, for I was beside myself with joy. Everybody was kissing my hands, and I almost died with laughing to see myself in such an odd position. There was no resisting the enthusiasm of the people and the soldiers. All Leon was one for the frowned. The young countesses of Frontenac and Fiesc had constantly followed her and climbed after her through the hole in the gate. Her father wrote to compliment them on their prowess and addressed his letter, Madame Les Contesses, Marie-Charles-de-Can, dans l'armée de ma fille contre le Mazaré. Officers and soldiers took part in the pleasantry, and as Madame de Frontenac passed on horseback before the troops, they saluted her with the honors paid to a brigadier. When the king or cardinal Mazaré who controlled him had triumphed over the revolting princes, mademoiselle de Montprencier paid the penalty of her exploit by a temporary banishment from the court. She roamed from place to place with a little court of her own, of which Madame de Frontenac was a conspicuous member. During the war Count Frontenac had been dangerously ill of a fever in Paris, and his wife had been absent for a time attending him. She soon rejoined the princess who was at her château of Saint-Fargeau, three days' journey from Paris, when an incident occurred which placed the married life of her fair companion in an unexpected light. The duchess de Sudi came to see me and brought with her Monsieur der Beau and Monsieur de Frontenac. Frontenac had stopped here once before, but it was only for a week when he still had the fever and took great care of himself like a man who had been at the door of death. This time he was in high health. His arrival had not been expected, and his wife was so much surprised that everybody observed it, especially as the surprise seemed to be not at all a pleasant one. Instead of going to talk with her husband she went off and hid herself, crying and screaming because he had said that he would like to have her company that evening. I was very much astonished, especially as I had never before perceived her aversion to him. The elder contest de Fiesc remonstrated with her, but she only cried the more. Madame de Fiesc then brought books to show her her duty as a wife, but it did no good and at last she got into such a state that we sent for the curie with holy water to exercise her. Count Frontenac came of an ancient and noble race said to have been of basque origin. His father held a high post in the household of Louis XIII who became the child's godfather and gave him his own name. At the age of fifteen the young Louis showed an incontrollable passion for the life of a soldier. He was sent to the seat of war in Holland to serve under the Prince of Orange. At the age of nineteen he was a volunteer at the Siege of Edin. In the next year he was at Arras where he distinguished himself during a sortie of the garrison. In the next he took part in the Siege of Aire and in the next in those of Caillou and Perpignan. At the age of twenty-three he was made Colonel of the Regiment of Normandy which he commanded in repeated battles and sieges of the Italian campaign. He was several times wounded and in sixteen-forty-six he had an arm broken at the Siege of Arpitello. In the same year when twenty-six years old he was raised to the rank of Maréchal de Caen equivalent to that of Brigadier General. A year or two later we find him at Paris at the house of his father on the quai de Celestin. In the same neighborhood lived La Grange Trianneau, Siaire de Neville, a widower of fifty with one child, a daughter of sixteen whom he had placed in the charge of his relative, Madame de Boutier. Frantenec fell in love with her. Madame de Boutier opposed the match and told La Grange that he might do better for his daughter than to marry her to a man who, say what he might, had but twenty-thousand francs a year. La Grange was weak and vacillating. Sometimes he listened to his prudent kinswoman and sometimes to the eager suitor. Treated him as a son-in-law, carried love messages from him to his daughter and ended by refusing him her hand and ordering her to renounce him on pain of being immured in a convent. Neither Frantenec nor his mistress was of a pliant temper. In the neighborhood was the little church of Saint-Pierre-au-Beuf which had the privilege of uniting couples without the consent of their parents and here on a Wednesday in October 1648 the lovers were married in presence of a number of Frantenec's relatives. La Grange was furious at the discovery but his anger soon cooled and complete reconciliation followed. The happiness of the newly wedded pair was short. Love soon changed to aversion at least on the part of the bride. She was not of a tender nature. Her temper was imperious and she had a restless craving for excitement. Frantenec on his part was the most wayward and headstrong of men. She bore him a son but maternal cares were not to her liking. The infant, François-Louis, was placed in the keeping of a nurse at the village of Clion and his young mother left her husband to follow the fortunes of Van-Moiselle de Montpensier who for a time pronounced her charming, praised her wit and beauty and made her one of her ladies of honor. Very curious and amusing are some of the incidents recounted by the princess in which Madame de Frantenec bore part but what is more to our purpose are the sketches traced here and there by the same sharp pen in which one may discern the traits of the destined savior of New France. Thus in the following we see him at Saint-Farjeu in the same attitude in which we shall often see him at Québec. The princess and the duke her father had a dispute touching her property. Frantenec had lately been at Blois where the duke had possessed him with his own views of the questions at issue. Accordingly on arriving at Saint-Farjeu he seemed disposed to assume the character of mediator. He wanted, says the princess, to discuss my affairs with me. I listened to his preaching and he also spoke about these matters to Préfontaine, her man of business. I returned to the house after our promenade and we went to dance in the great hall. While we were dancing I saw Préfontaine walking at the farther end with Frantenec who was talking and gesticulating. This continued for a long time. Madame de Sully noticed it also and seemed disturbed by it as I was myself. I said, have we not danced enough? Madame de Sully assented and we went out. I called Préfontaine and asked him, what was Frantenec saying to you? He answered, he was scolding me, I never saw such an impertinent man in my life. I went to my room and Madame de Sully and Madame de Fiesc followed. Madame de Sully said to Préfontaine, I was very much disturbed to see you talking with so much warmth to Monsieur de Frantenec, for he came here in such ill humor that I was afraid he would quarrel with you. Yesterday when we were in the carriage he was ready to eat us. The contest de Fiesc said, this morning he came to see my mother-in-law and scolded at her. Préfontaine answered, he wanted to throttle me, I never saw a man so crazy and absurd. We all four began to pity poor Madame de Frantenec for having such a husband and to think her right and not wanting to go with him. Frantenec owned the estate of Île Savari on the Eindre not far from Blois and here, soon after the above scene, the princess made him a visit. It is a pretty enough place, she says, for a man like him. The house is well furnished and he gave me excellent entertainment. He showed me all the plans he had for improving it and making gardens, fountains and ponds. It would need the riches of a superintendent of finance to execute his schemes and how anybody else should venture to think of them I cannot comprehend. While Frantenec was at Saint-Vargeau, she continues, he kept open table and many of my people went to dine with him, for he affected to hold court and acted as if everybody owed duty to him. The conversation was always about my affair with his royal highness, her father, whose conduct towards me was always praised while mine was blamed. Frantenec spoke ill of Préfontaine and in fine said everything he could to displease me and stir up my own people against me. He praised everything that belonged to himself and never came to supper or dine with me without speaking of Saint-Varageau or some new sweet meat which had been served up on his table ascribing it all to the excellence of the officers of his kitchen. The very meat that he ate according to him had a different taste on his board than on any other. As for his silver plate, it was always of good workmanship and his dress was always of patterns invented by himself. When he had new clothes he paraded them like a child. One day he brought me some to look at and left them on my dressing table. We were then at Chambord. His royal highness came into the room and must have thought it odd to see britches and doublets in such a place. Préfontaine and I laughed about it a great deal. Frantenec took everybody who came to Saint-Varageau to see his tables and all who wished to gain his good graces were obliged to admire his horses which were very indifferent. In short, this is his way in everything. Though not himself of the highest rank his position at court was from the courtier point of view an enviable one. The princess after her banishment had ended more than once mentions incidentally that she had met him in the cabinet of the queen. Her dislike of him became intense and her fondness for his wife changed at last to aversion. She charges the countess with ingratitude. She discovered or thought that she discovered that in her dispute with her father and in certain distinctions in her own household Madame de Frantenec had acted secretly in opposition to her interests and wishes. The imprudent lady of honour received permission to leave her service. It was a woeful scene. She saw me get into my carriage, writes the princess, and her distress was greater than ever. Her tears flowed abundantly. As for me my fortitude was perfect and I looked on with composure while she cried. If anything could disturb my tranquillity it was the recollection of the time when she laughed while I was crying. Mademoiselle de Montpensier had been deeply offended and apparently with reason. The countess and her husband received an order never again to appear in her presence. But soon after when the princess was with the king and queen at a comedy in the garden of the Louvre Frantenec who had previously arrived immediately changed his position and with his usual audacity took a post so conspicuous that she could not help seeing him. I confess, she says, I was so angry that I could find no pleasure in the play. But I said nothing to the king and queen fearing that they would not take such a view of the matter as I wished. With the close of her relations with la grande Mademoiselle, Madame de Frantenec is lost to sight for a while. In 1669 a Venetian embassy came to France to beg for aid against the Turks who for more than two years had attacked Candia in overwhelming force. The ambassadors offered to place their own troops under French command and they asked Trin to name a general officer equal to the task. Frantenec had the signal honour of being chosen by the first soldier of Europe for this most arduous and difficult position. He went accordingly. The result increased his reputation for ability and courage but Candia was doomed and his chief fortress fell into the hands of the infidels after a protracted struggle which is said to have cost them 180,000 men. Three years later, Frantenec received the appointment of Governor and Lieutenant General for the king in all new France. He was, says Saint Simon, a man of excellent parts living much in society and completely ruined. He found it hard to bear the imperious temper of his wife and he was given the government of Canada to deliver him from her and afford him some means of living. Certain scandalous songs of the day assign a different motive for his appointment. Louis XIV was enamoured of Madame de Montespain. She had once smiled upon Frantenec and it is said that the jealous king gladly embraced the opportunity of removing from his presence and from hers a lover who had forestalled him. Frantenec's wife had no thought of following him across the sea. A more congenial life awaited her at home. She had long had a friend of a humbler station than herself, Memoiselle Doutrellez, daughter of an obscure gentleman of Poitoux, a nameable and accomplished person who became through life her constant companion. The extensive building called the Arsenal, formerly the residence of Sully, the minister of Henry IV, contained suites of apartments which were granted to persons who had influence enough to obtain them. The Duke de Lude, grand master of artillery, had them at his disposal and gave one of them to Madame de Frantenec. Here she made her abode with her friend and here at last she died at the age of 75. The analyst Saint-Simon, who knew the court and all belonging to it better than any other man of his time, says of her, she had been beautiful and gay and was always in the best society where she was greatly in request. Like her husband she had little property and abundant wit. She and Memoiselle Doutrellez, gave the tone to the best company of Paris and the court, though they never went thither. They were called Les Divines. In fact, they demanded incense like goddesses and it was lavished upon them all their lives. Memoiselle Doutrellez died long before the Countess who retained in old age the rare social gifts which to the last made her apartments a resort of the highest society of that brilliant epic. It was in her power to be very useful to her husband, who often needed her support and who seems to have often received it. She was childless. Her son, François-Louis was killed some say in battle and others in a duel at an early age. Her husband died nine years before her and the old Countess left what little she had to her friend Béringen, the king's master of the horse. Chapter 2 1672-1675 Frontenac at Québec Frontenac was 52 years old when he landed at Québec. If time had done little to cure his many faults it had done nothing to weaken the springs of his unconquerable vitality. In his ripe middle age he was as keen, fiery and perversely headstrong as when he quarreled with Préfontaine in the hall at Saint-Ferre-Jourg. Had nature disposed him to melancholy there was much in his position to awaken it. As a man of courts and camps born and bred in the focus of a most gorgeous civilization he was banished to the ends of the earth among savage horrors and half-reclaimed forests to exchange the splendors of Saint-Germain in the dawning glories of Versailles for a stern grey rock haunted by somber priests, rugged merchants and traders, blanketed Indians and wild bush-rangers. But Frontenac was a man of action. He wasted no time in vain regrets to himself to his work with the elastic vigor of youth. His first impressions had been very favorable. When he had sailed up the St. Lawrence the basin of Quebec opened before him his imagination kindled with the grandeur of the scene. I never, he wrote, saw anything more superb than the position of this town. It could not be better situated as the future capital of a great empire. That Quebec was to become the capital of a great empire that seemed in truth good reason to believe. The young king and his minister Calbert had labored in earnest to build up a new France in the west. For years past, shiploads of immigrants had landed every summer on the strand beneath the rock. All was life and action and the air was full of promise. The royal agent Tellot had written to his master, this part of the French monarchy is destined to a grand future. All that I see around me points to it that the colonies of foreign nations so long settled on the seaboard are trembling with fright in view of what his majesty has accomplished here within the last seven years. The measures we have taken to confine them with narrow limits and the prior claim we have established against them by formal acts of possession do not permit them to extend themselves except at peril of having war declared against them as usurpers and this in fact is what they seem greatly to fear. His first step was to survey his government. He talked with traders, colonists and officials, visited seniories, farms, fishing stations and all the infant industries that Tellot had galvanized into life, examined the new ship on the stocks admired the structure of the new brewery went to three rivers to see the iron mines and then having acquired a tolerably exact idea of his charge returned to Quebec. He was well pleased with what he saw but not with the ways and means of Canadian travel for he thought it was strangely unbecoming that a lieutenant general of the king should be forced to crouch on a sheet of bark at the bottom of a birch canoe scarcely daring to move his head to the right or left unless he should disturb the balance of the fragile vessel. At Quebec he convoked the council, made them a speech and administered the oath of allegiance. This did not satisfy him. He resolved that all Quebec should take the oath together. It was little but a pretext. Like many of his station Frontenac was not in full sympathy with the centralizing movement of the time which tended to level ancient rights, privileges and prescriptions under the ponderous roller of the monarchical administration. He looked back with regret to the day when the three orders of the state clergy, nobles and commons had a place and a power in the direction of national affairs. The three orders still subsisted in form if not in substance in some of the provinces of France, and Frontenac conceived the idea of reproducing them in Canada. Not only did he cherish the tradition of fated liberties, but he loved pomp and circumstance above all when he was himself the central figure in it, and the thought of a royal governor of Languedoc or Brittany presiding over the estates of his province appears to have fired him with emulation. He had no difficulty informing his order of the clergy. The Jesuits and the seminary priests supplied material even more abundant than he wished. For the order of the nobles, he found three or four Jean-Syandre Québec, and these he reinforced with a number of officers. The third estate consisted of the merchants and citizens, and he formed the members of the council and the magistrates into another distinct body, though property speaking, they belonged to the third estate of which by nature and prescription they were the head. The Jesuits, glad no doubt to lay him under some slight obligation, lent him their church for the ceremony that he meditated and aided in decorating it for the occasion. Here, on the 23rd of October, 1672, the three estates of Canada were convoked with as much pomp and splendor as circumstances would permit. Then, Frontenac, with the ease of a man of the world and the loftiness of a grand senior, delivered himself of the harangue prepared. He wrote it exceedingly well. He is said also to have excelled as an orator. Certainly he was never averse to the tones of his own eloquence. His speech was addressed to a double audience, the throng that filled the church and the king and the minister three thousand miles away. He told his hearers that he had called the assembly, not because he doubted their loyalty, but in order to afford them the delight of making public protestation of devotion to a prince, the terror of whose irresistible arms was matched only by the charms of his person and the benignity of his rule. The holy scriptures, he said, command us to obey our sovereign and teach us that no pretext or reason can dispense us from his obedience. And in a glowing eulogy on Louis XIV he went on to show that obedience to him was not only a duty, but an inestimable privilege. He dwelt with admiration on the recent centuries in Holland and held forth the hope that a speedy and glorious peace would leave his majesty free to turn his thoughts to the colony which already owed so much to his fostering care. The true means, pursued Frontenac, of gaining his favour and his support, is for us to unite with one heart in laboring for the progress of Canada. Then he addressed in turn the clergy, the nobles, the magistrates and the citizens. He exhorted the priests to continue with zeal their labours for the conversion of the Indians and to make them subjects not only of Christ but also of the king. In short, to tame and civilize them a portion of their duties in which he plainly gave them to understand that they had not hitherto acquitted themselves to his satisfaction. Next he appealed to the nobles, commended their gallantry and called upon them to be as assiduous in the culture and improvement of the colony as they were in its defense. The magistrates, the merchants and the colonists in general were each addressed in an appropriate exhortation. I can assure you, Monsieur, he concluded, that if you faithfully discharge your several duties each in his station, his Majesty will extend to us all the help and all the favour that we can desire. It is needless then to urge you to act as I have counseled, since it is for your own interest to do so. As for me, it only remains to protest before you that I shall esteem myself happy in consecrating all my efforts and if need be my life itself to extending the empire of Jesus Christ throughout all this land and the supremacy of our king over all the nations that dwell in it. He administered the oath and the assembly dissolved. He now applied himself to another work that of giving a municipal government to Quebec after the model of some of the cities of France. In place of the syndic an official supposed to represent the interests of the citizens, he ordered the public election of three aldermen of whom the senior should act as a mayor. One of the number was to go out of office every year, his place being filled by a new election, and the governor as representing the king reserved the right of confirmation or rejection. He then, in concert with the chief inhabitants, proceeded to frame a body of regulations for the government of a town destined as he again and again to become the capital of a mighty empire. And he further ordained that the people should hold a meeting every six months to discuss questions involving the welfare of the colony. The boldness of these measures will scarcely be appreciated at the present day. The intendant Talon declined on pretense of a slight illness to be present at the meeting of the estates. He knew too well the temper of the king, whose constant policy it was to destroy or paralyze every institution or custom that stood in the way of his autocracy. The dispatches in which Frantanac announced to his masters what he had done received in due time their answer. The minister Kulbaya wrote, Your assembling of the inhabitants to take the oath of fidelity and your division of them into three estates may have a good effect for the moment, but it is well for you to observe that you are always to follow in the government of Canada, the forms in use here. And since our kings have long regarded it as good for their service not to convoke the states general of the kingdom in order perhaps to abolish insensibly this ancient usage, you on your part should very rarely or to speak more correctly, never give a corporate form to the inhabitants of Canada. You should even, as the colony strengthens, suppress gradually the office of the syndic who presents petitions in the name of the inhabitants, for it is well that each should speak for himself and no one for all. Here in brief is the whole spirit of the French colonial rule in Canada, a government as I have elsewhere shown of excellent intentions but of arbitrary methods. Fontenac, failed with the traditions of the past and sincerely desirous of the good of the colony, rashly set himself against the prevailing current. His municipal government and his meetings of citizens were like his three estates abolished by a word from the court which bold and obstinate as he was he dared not disobey. Had they been allowed to subsist there can be little doubt that great good would have resulted to Canada. Fontenac has been called a mere soldier. He was an excellent soldier and more besides. He was a man of vigorous and cultivated mind penetrating observation and ample travel and experience. His zeal for the colony however was often counteracted by the violence of his prejudices and by two other influences. First he was a ruined man who meant to mend his fortunes and his wish that Canada should prosper was joined with a determination to reap a goodly part of her prosperity for himself. Again he could not endure a rival. Opposition maddened him and when crossed or thwarted he forgot everything but his passion. Signs of storm quickly showed themselves between him and the intendant Talon but the danger was averted by the departure of the Jesuits. A cloud then rose in the direction of the clergy. Another thing displeases me writes Fontenac and this is the complete dependence of the grand vicar and the seminary priests on the Jesuits for they never do the least thing without their order so that they, the Jesuits are masters in spiritual matters which as you know is a powerful lever for moving everything else into a country that they abuse the confessional inter-medal in families set husbands against wives and parents against children and all as they say for the greater glory of God. I call to mind every day, Monseigneur what you did me the honour to say to me when I took leave of you and every day I am satisfied more and more of the great importance to the king's service of opposing the slightest of the attempts which are daily made against his authority. He goes on to denounce the Christian sermon preached by a Jesuit to the great scandal of loyal subjects wherein the father declared that the king had exceeded his powers in licensing the trade in Brandy when the bishop had decided it to be a sin together with other remarks of a seditious nature. I was tempted several times pursues Fontenac to leave the church with my guards and interrupt the sermon but I contended myself with telling the grand vicar and the superior of the Jesuits after it was over that I was very much surprised by what they had heard and demanded justice at their hands. They greatly blamed the preacher and disavowed him attributing his language after their custom to an excess of zeal and making many apologies with which I pretended to be satisfied though I told them nevertheless that their excuses would not pass current with me another time and if the thing happened again I would put the preacher in a place where he would learn how to speak. Since then they have been a little more careful though not enough to prevent one from always seeing their intention to persuade the people that even in secular matters their authority ought to be respected above any other as there are many persons here who have no more brains than they need and who are attached to them by ties of interest or otherwise it is necessary to have an eye to these matters in this country more than anywhere else. The churchmen on their part were not idle. The bishop who was then in France contrived by some means to equate himself with the contents that the bishop despatches sent by Colbert in reply to the letters of Frontenac. He wrote to another ecclesiastic to communicate what he had learned at the same time in joining great caution. Since while it is well to acquire all necessary information and to act upon it it is of the greatest importance to keep secret our possession of such knowledge. The king and the minister in their instructions to Frontenac had dwelt with great emphasis on the expediency of civilizing the Indians and amalgamating them the French language and amalgamating them with the colonists. Frontenac, ignorant as yet of Indian nature and unaquated with the difficulties of the case entered into these views with great heartiness. He exercised from the first and extraordinary influence over all the Indians with whom he came in contact and he persuaded the most savage and refractory of them the Iroquois to place eight of their children in his hands. Four of these were girls and four were boys. He took two of the boys into his own household of which they must have proved most objectionable inmates and he supported the other two who were younger out of his own slender resources placed them in respectable French families and required them to go daily to school. The girls were given to the charge of the Ursuline. Frontenac continually urged the Jesuits to cooperate with him in this work of civilization but the results of his urgency aspirated him. He complains that in the village of the Hurons near Quebec and under the control of the Jesuits, the French language was scarcely known. In fact, the fathers contented themselves with teaching their converts the doctrines and rites of the Roman church while retaining the food, dress and habits of their original barbarism. In defense of the missionaries it should be said that when brought in contact with the French the Indians usually caught the vices of civilization without its virtues but Frontenac made no allowances. The Jesuits, he writes, will not civilize the Indians because they wish to keep them in perpetual worship. They think more of beaverskins than of souls and their missions are pure mockeries. At the same time he assures the minister that when he is obliged to correct them he does so with the utmost gentleness. In spite of this somewhat doubtful urbanity it seems clear that a storm was brewing and it was fortunate for the peace of the Canadian church that the attention of the treculant governor was drawn to other quarters. End of chapters 1 and 2 Chapter 3 of France and England in North America Part 5 Count Frontenac knew France Louis XIV by Francis Parkman Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 3 1673 to 1675 Frontenac and Perrault Not long before Frontenac's arrival Coursel, his predecessor, went to Lake Ontario with an armed force in order to impose respect on the Uruguay who had of late become insolid. As a means of keeping them in check and at the same time controlling the fur trade of the upper country he had recommended, like Talon before him, the building of a fort near the outlet of the lake. Frontenac at once saw the advantages of such a measure and his desire to execute it was stimulated by the reflection that the proposed fort might be made not only a safeguard to the colony, but also a sort of profit to himself. At Quebec there was a grave thoughtful self-contained young man who soon found his way into Frontenac's confidence. There was between them the sympathetic attraction of two bold and energetic spirits and though Kéberllier de la Salle had neither the irritable vanity of the count nor the capacity of passion he had in full measure the same unconquerable pride and hardy resolution. There were but two or three men in Canada who knew the western wilderness so well. He was full of schemes of ambition and of gain and from this moment he and Frontenac seemed to have formed an alliance which ended only with the Governor's recall. In telling the story of La Salle I have described the execution of the new plan, the muster Canadians at the call of Frontenac. The consternation of those of the merchants whom he and La Salle had not taken into their councils and who saw in the movement the preparation for a gigantic fur trading monopoly. The intrigues set on foot to bar the enterprise, the advance up the St. Lawrence, the assembly of Iroquois at the destined spot, the ascendancy exercised over them by the Governor. The building of Fort Frontenac on the ground where Kingston now stands and its final transfer into the hands of La Salle on condition, there can be no doubt of sharing the expected profits with his patron. On the way to the lake Frontenac stopped for some time at Montreal where he had full opportunity to become acquainted with the state of things to which his attention had already been directed. This state of things was as follows. When the intendant Talon came for the second time to Canada in 1669 an officer named Perot who had married his niece came with him. Perot, anxious to turn to account the influence of his wife's relative, looked about him for some post of honour and profit and quickly discovered that the Government of Montreal was vacant. The priests of Saint-Sud-Pice, feudal owners of the place had the right of appointing their own Governor. Talon advised them to choose Perot who thereupon received the desired commission which however was revocable at the will of those people. The new Governor therefore begged another commission from the King and after a little delay he obtained it. Thus he became in some measure independent of the priests who if they wished to rid themselves of him must first gain the royal consent. Perot, as he had doubtless foreseen, found himself in an excellent position for making money. The tribes of the upper lakes and all the neighbouring regions brought down their furs every summer to the annual fair at Montreal. Perot took his measures accordingly. On the island which still bears his name, lying above Montreal and directly in the root of the descending savages he built a storehouse and placed it in charge of a retired lieutenant named Brucy who stopped the Indians on their way and carried on in active trade with them to the great prophet of himself and his associate and the great loss of the merchants in the settlements below. This was not all. Perot connived at the desertion of his own soldiers who escaped to the woods became Corère de Bois or bush rangers traded with the Indians in their villages and shared their gains with their commander. Many others too of these forest rovers outlawed by royal edicts found in the governor of Montreal a protector under similar conditions. The journey from Québec to Montreal often consumed a fortnight. Perot thought himself virtually independent and relying on his commission from the king, the protection of Talon and his connection with other persons of influence, he felt safe in his position and began to play the petty tyrant. The judge of Montreal and several of the chief inhabitants came to offer a humble remonstrance against disorders committed by some of the Ruffians in his interest. Perot received them with a storm of vituporation and presently sent the judge to prison. This proceeding was followed by a series of others closely akin to it so that the priests of Soutpice, who received their full share of official abuse, began to repent bitterly of the governor they had chosen. Frontenac had received stringent orders from the king to arrest all the bush rangers or coureurs de bois, but since he had scarcely a soldier at his disposal except his own bodyguard the order was difficult to execute. As however most of these outlaws were in the service of his rival Perot, his zeal to capture them rose high against every obstacle. He had moreover a plan of his own in regard to them and had already petitioned the minister for a galley to the benches of which the captive bush rangers were to be chained as rowers, thus supplying the representative of the king with a means of transportation befitting his dignity and at the same time giving whole some mourning against the infraction of royal edicts. Accordingly he sent orders to the judge at Montreal to seize every coureur de bois on whom he could lay hands. The judge, hearing that two of the most notorious were lodged in the house of a lieutenant named Carrion sent a constable to arrest them, whereupon Carrion threatened and maltreated the officer of justice and helped the men to escape. Perot took the part of his lieutenant and told the judge that he would put him in prison in spite of Frantonac if he ever dared to attempt such an arrest again. When Frantonac heard what had happened his ire was doubly kindled. On the one hand Perot had violated the authority lodged by the king and the person of his representative and on the other the mutinous official was a rival in trade who had made great and illicit profits while his superior had thus far made none. As a governor and as a man Frantonac was deeply moved yet helpless as he was he could do no more than send three of his guardsmen under a lieutenant named Bizarre with orders to arrest Carrion and bring him to Quebec. The commission was delicate the arrest was to be made in the dominions of Perot who had the means to prevent it and the audacity to use them. Bizarre acted accordingly. He went to Carrion's house and took him prisoner then proceeded to the house of the merchant Lebert where he left a letter in which Frantonac as was the usage on such occasions gave notice to the local governor of the arrest he had ordered. It was the object of Bizarre to escape with his prisoner before Perot could receive the letter. But meanwhile the wife of Carrion ran to him with the news and the governor suddenly arrived in a frenzy of rage followed by a sergeant and three or four soldiers. The sergeant held the point of his halberd against the rest of Bizarre while Perot choking with passion demanded how dare you arrest an officer in my government without my leave. The lieutenant replied that he acted under orders of the governor general and gave Frantonac's letter to Perot immediately threw it into his face exclaiming take it back to your master and tell him to teach you your business better another time. Meanwhile you are my prisoner. Bizarre protested in vain. He was led to jail whether he was followed a few days after by Lebert who had mortally offended Perot by signing an attestation of the scene he had witnessed. As he was the chief merchant of the place his arrest produced a great sensation that presently took to her bed with a nervous fever. As Perot's anger cooled he became somewhat alarmed he had resisted the royal authority and insulted its representative the consequences might be serious yet he could not bring himself to retrace his steps. He merely released Bizarre and sullenly permitted him to depart with a letter to the governor general more important than apologetic. Frantonac as his enemies declare was accustomed when enraged to foam at the mouth. Perhaps he did so when he learned the behavior of Perot. If he had had at command a few companies of soldiers there can be little doubt that he would have gone at once to Montreal seized the offender and brought him back in irons but his bodyguard of 20 men was not equal to such an enterprise nor would a muster of the militia have served his purpose for the settlers about Quebec were chiefly peaceful peasants Montreal would disbanded soldiers fur traders and forest adventurers the best fighters in Canada they were nearly all in the interest of Perot who if attacked had the temper as well as the ability to make a passionate resistance thus civil war would have ensued and the anger of the king would have fallen on both parties on the other hand if Perot were left unpunished the coureur de bois of whom he was the patron would set no bounds to their audacity and Frontenac who had been ordered to suppress them would be condemned as negligent or incapable among the priests of Saint-Sud-Pice at Montreal was the Abbey Salignac de Finelon half-brother of the celebrated author of Télémac he was a zealous missionary enthusiastic and impulsive still young and more ardent than discreet one of his uncles had been the companion of Frontenac during the Candian war and hence the council relations with the missionary had been very friendly Frontenac now wrote to Perot directing him to come to Quebec and give account of his conduct and he coupled this letter with another de Finelon urging him to represent to the offending governor the danger of his position and advise him to seek an interview with his superior by which the difficulty might be amicably adjusted Perot dreading the displeasure of the king soothed by the moderate tone of Frontenac's letter and moved by the assurances of the enthusiastic Abbey who was delighted to play the part of peacemaker at length resolved to follow his council it was midwinter Perot and Finelon set out together walked on snowshoes 180 miles down the frozen St. Lawrence and made their appearance before the offended count Frontenac there can be little doubt had never intended that Perot once in his power should return to Montreal as its governor but that beyond this he meant harm to him there is not the least proof Perot however was as choleric and stubborn as the count himself and his natural disposition had not been improved by several years of pediatocracy at Montreal their interview was brief but stormy when it ended Perot was a prisoner in the chateau with guards placed over him by day and night Frontenac made choice of one le Nougat, a retired officer whom he knew that he could trust to command in place of its captive governor with him he also sent a judge of his own selection Le Nougat set himself to his work with vigor Perot's agent or partner Brucy was seized, tried and imprisoned and an act of hunt was begun for his coureur de bois among others the two who had been the occasion of the dispute were captured and sent to Québec where one of them was solemnly hanged before the window of Perot's prison with the view of producing a chastening effect on the mind of the prisoner the execution was fully authorized a royal edict having ordained that bush-ranging was an offense punishable with death as the result of these proceedings Frontenac reported to the minister that only five coureurs de bois remained at large all the rest having returned to their settlements and made their submission so that farther hanging was needless thus the central power was vindicated for their attitude of partial independence other results also followed if we may believe the enemies of Frontenac who declare that by means of the new commandant and other persons in his interest the governor general possessed himself of a great part of the trade from which he had ejected Perot and that the coureur de bois whom he hanged when breaking laws for his rival found complete impunity when breaking laws for him meanwhile there was a deep though subdued excitement among the priests the right of naming their own governor which they claimed as seniors of Montreal had been violated by the action of Frontenac in placing la nougere in command without consulting them Perot was a bad governor but it was they who had chosen him and the recollection of his misdeeds did not reconcile them to a successor arbitrarily imposed upon them both they and the colonists their vassals were intensely jealous of Quebec and in their indignation against Frontenac they more than half forgave Perot none among them all was so angry as the abbey Phénalon he believed that he had been used to lure Perot into a trap and his past attachment to the governor general was turned into wrath high words had passed between them and when Phénalon returned to Montreal he vented his feelings in a sermon plainly leveled at Frontenac so sharp and bitter was it that his brethren of Saint-Supis hastened to disclaim it and Delier de Caisson, their superior strongly reproved the preacher who protested in return that his words were not meant to apply to Frontenac in particular but only to bad rulers in general his offenses however did not cease with the sermon for he espoused the cause of Perot with more than zeal and went about among the colonists to collect attestations in his favor when these things were reported to Frontenac his ire was kindled and he summoned Phénalon before the council at Québec to answer the charge of instigating sedition Phénalon had a relative and friend in the person of the Abidur Faye his co-partner in the work of the missions Durfaye anxious to conjure down the rising storm went to Québec to seek an interview with Frontenac but according to his own account he was very ill received and threatened with a prison on another occasion the Count showed him a letter in which Durfaye was charged with having used abusive language concerning him warm words ensued till Frontenac grasping his cane led the Abidur to the door and dismissed him berating him from the top of the stairs and told so angry that the sentinel below spread the report that he had turned his visitor out of doors two offenders were now arranged before the council of Québec the first was Perot charged with disobeying the royal edicts and resisting the royal authority the other was the Abidur Phénalon the counselors were at this time united in the interest of Frontenac who had the power of appointing and removing them Perot in no way softened by a long captivity challenged the Governor-General who presided at the council board as a party to the suit and his personal enemy and took exception to several of the members as being connections of la Nougère Frontenac withdrew and other counselors or judges were appointed provisionally but these were challenged in turn by the prisoner on one pretext or another the exceptions were overruled and the trial proceeded though not without signs of doubt and hesitation on the part of some of the counselors meanwhile other sessions were held for the trial of Phénalon and a curious scene ensued five counselors and the Deputy Attorney-General were seated at the board with Frontenac as presiding judge his hat on his head and his sword at his side after the established custom Phénalon being led in approached a vacant chair and was about to seat himself with the rest when Frontenac interposed telling him that it was his duty to remain standing while answering the questions of the council Phénalon once placed himself in the chair and replied that priests had the right to speak seated and with heads covered Yes returned Frontenac when they are summoned as witnesses but not when they are cited to answer charges of crime My crimes exist nowhere In your head in putting on his hat he drew it down over his brows rose, gathered his cassock about him and walked in a defiant manner to and fro Frontenac told him that his conduct was wanting in respect to the council and to the governor as its head Phénalon several times took off his hat and pushed it on again more angrily than ever saying at the same time that Frontenac was wanting in respect to his character of priest inciting him before a civil tribunal as he persisted in his refusal to take the required attitude he was at length told that he might leave the room after being kept for a time in the anti-room in charge of a constable he was again brought before the council when he still refused obedience and was ordered into a sort of honorable imprisonment this behavior of the effervescent abbey which Frontenac justly enough characterizes as unworthy of his birth and his sacred office was nevertheless founded and acclaimed sustained by many precedents as an ecclesiastic Phénalon insisted that the bishop alone and not the council had the right to judge him like Perot too he challenged his judges as parties to the suit or otherwise interested against him on the question of jurisdiction he had all the priest on his side Bishop Laval was in France and Bernier his grand vicar was far from filling the place of the strenuous and determined prelate yet the ecclesiastical storm rose so high that the counselors discouraged and daunted were no longer amenable to the will of Frontenac and it was resolved at last to refer the whole matter to the king Perot was taken from the prison which he had occupied from January to November and shipped for France along with Phénalon an immense mass of papers was sent with them for the instruction of the king and Frontenac wrote a long dispatch in which he sets forth the offenses of Perot and Phénalon the pretensions of the ecclesiastics the calamities he had incurred in his efforts to serve his majesty and the insults heaped upon him which no man but me would have endured so patiently indeed while the suits were pending before the council he had displayed calmness and moderation which surprised his opponents knowing as I do, he pursues the cabals and intrigues that are I must expect that everything will be said against me that the most artful slander can devise a governor in this country would greatly deserve pity if he were left without support and even should he make mistakes seeing that there is no snare that is not spread for him and that after avoiding a hundred of them he will hardly escape being caught at last in his charges of cabal and intrigue Frontenac had chiefly in view the clergy whom he profoundly distrusted accepting always the recolais friars whom he befriended because the bishop and the Jesuits opposed them the priest on their part declared that he persecuted them compelled them to take passports like laymen when traveling about the colony and even intercepted their letters these accusations and many others were carried to the king and the minister by the Eby du Orphée who sailed in the same ship with Phinellon the moment was singularly auspicious to him as in the marquise d'allègre was on the point of marrying Seigneur Lé the son of the minister Calbert who therefore was naturally inclined to listen with favor to him and to Phinellon his relative again Talon uncle of Perot's wife held a post at court which brought him into close personal relations with the king nor were these the only influences adverse to Frontenac and propitious to his enemies yet his enemies were disappointed the letters written to him both by Calbert and by the king are admirable for calmness and dignity the following is from that of the king though I do not credit all that has been told me concerning various little annoyances which you cause to the ecclesiastics I nevertheless think it necessary to inform you of it in order that if true you may correct yourself in this particular giving to all the clergy entire liberty to go and come throughout all Canada without compelling them to take out passports and at the same time giving them perfect freedom as regard their letters I have seen and carefully examined all that you have sent touching Monsieur Perot and after having also seen all the papers given by him in his defense I have condemned his action in imprisoning an officer of your guard to punish him I have had him placed for a short time in the best tea that he may learn to be more circumspect in the discharge of his duty and that his example may serve as a warning to others but after having thus vindicated my authority which has been violated in your person I will say in order that you may fully understand my views that you should not without absolute necessity cause your commands to be executed within the limits of a local government like that of Montreal without first informing its governor and also that the ten months of imprisonment which you have made him undergo seems to me sufficient for his fault I therefore sent him to the best tea merely as a public reparation for having violated my authority after keeping him there a few days I shall send him back to his government ordering him first to see you and make apology to you for all that has passed after which I desire that you retain no resentment against him and that you treat him in accordance with the powers that I have given him Colbert writes in terms equally measured and adds after having spoken in the name of his majesty pray let me add a word in my own by the marriage which the king has been pleased to make between the heiress of the house of Allegro and my son the abbey duerfe has become very closely connected with me since he is cousin German of my daughter-in-law and this induces me to request you to show him a special consideration though in the exercise of his profession he will rarely have occasion to see you as duerfe had lately addressed a memorial to Colbert in which the conductor Frotonac is painted in the darkest colors the almost imperceptible rebuke couched in the above lines does no little credit to the tact and moderation of the stern minister Colbert next begs Frotonac to treat with kindness the priests of Montreal observing that Breton Ville their superior at Paris is his particular friend as to Monsieur Perrault he continues since ten months of imprisonment at Québec and three weeks in the Bastille may suffice to atone for his fault and since also he is related or connected with persons for whom I have a great regard I pray you to accept kindly the apologies which he will make you and as it is not at all likely that he will fall again into any offense approaching that which he has committed you will give me a special pleasure in granting him the honor of your favor and friendship Finelon though the recent marriage had allied him also to Colbert fared worse than either of the other parties to the dispute he was indeed sustained in his claim to be judged by an ecclesiastical tribunal but his superior Breton Ville for bad him to return to Canada and the king approved the prohibition Breton Ville wrote to the Sulpician priests of Montreal I exhort you to profit by the example of Monsieur de Finelon by having visit himself too much in worldly matters and meddled with what did not concern him he has ruined his own prospects and injured the friends whom he wished to serve in matters of this sort it is well always to stand neutral End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of France and England in North America Part 5 Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV by Francis Parkman, Jr. this Librevox recording is in the public domain Chapter 4 1675 to 1682 Frontenac and Duchenne while writing to Frontenac in terms of studied mildness Saint Colbert took measures to curb his power in the absence of the bishop the appointment and removal of councillors had rested wholly with the governor and hence the council had been docile under his will it was now ordained that the councillor should be appointed by the king himself this was not the only change since the departure of the intended Talon his office had been vacant and Frontenac was left to rule alone this seems to have been an experiment on the part of his masters at Versailles who, knowing the peculiarities of his temper, were perhaps willing to try the effect of leaving him without a colleague the experiment had not succeeded an intendant was now therefore sent to Québec not only to manage the details of administration but also to watch the governor keep him if possible within prescribed bounds and report his proceedings to the minister the change was far from welcome to Frontenac he was delighted was to hold all the reins of power in his own hands nor was he better pleased with the return of bishop Lavalle which presently took place three preceding governors had quarreled with that uncompromising prelate and there was little hope that Frontenac and he would keep the peace all the signs of the sky foreboded storm the storm soon came the occasion of it was that old vexed question of the sale of Brandy which has been fully treated with another volume and on which it is needless to dwell here another dispute quickly followed and he or two the governor's chief adversaries were the bishop and the ecclesiastics Duchenneau the new intended took part with them the bishop and his clergy were on their side very glad of a secular ally for their power had greatly fallen since the days of Misé and the rank an imperious character of Frontenac appeared to have held them in some awe avoided as far as they could a direct collision with him and waged vicarious war in the person of their friend the intendant Duchenneau was not of a conciliating spirit and he felt strong in the support of the clergy while Frontenac when his temper was roused would fight with haughty and impracticable obstinacy for any position which he had once assumed however trivial or however mistaken there was incessant friction between the two colleagues in the exercise of their respective functions and occasions of difference were rarely wanting the question now at issue was that of honors and precedence at church and in religious ceremonies matters of substantial importance under the bourbon rule Colbert interposed ordered Duchenneau to treat Frontenac with becoming deference and warned him not to make himself the partisan of the bishop while at the same time he exhorted Frontenac to live in harmony with the intendant the dispute continued till the king lost his patience through all my kingdom he wrote to the governor I do not hear of so many difficulties on this matter of ecclesiastical honors as I see in the church of Quebec and he directs him to conform to the practice established in the city of Amiens and to exact no more since you are to be satisfied with being the representative of my person in the country where I have placed you in command at the same time Colbert corrects the intendant a memorial he wrote has been placed in my hands touching various ecclesiastical honors wherein there continually appears a great pretension on your part and on that of the bishop of Quebec in your favor to establish an equality between the governor and you I think I have already said enough to lead you to know yourself and to understand the difference between a governor and an intendant so that it is no longer necessary for me to enter into particulars in the wrong scarcely was this quarrel suppressed when another sprang up since the arrival of the intendant and the return of the bishop the council had ceased to be in the interest of Frontenac several of its members were very obnoxious to him and chief among these was Villere a former counselor whom the king had lately reinstated Frontenac admitted him to his seat with reluctance I obey your orders to call back but Villere is the principal and most dangerous instrument of the bishop and the Jesuits he says father that many people think him to be a Jesuit in disguise and that he is an intriguing busybody who makes trouble everywhere he also denounces the attorney general or toy as an ally of the Jesuits another of the reconstructed council to leave meets his cordial approval but he soon found reason to change his mind concerning him The king had recently ordered that the intendant, though holding only the third rank in the council, should act as its president. The commission of Duchenneau, however, empowered him to preside only in the absence of the governor, while Frotnackis styled chief and president of the council in several of the dispatches addressed to him. Here was an inconsistency. Both parties claimed the right of presiding and both could rest their claim on a clear expression of the royal will. Duchenneau rarely began a new quarrel till the autumn vessels that sailed for France, because a full year must then elapse before his adversaries could send their complaints to the king and six months more before the king could send back his answer. The governor had been heard to say on one of these occasions that he should now be master for eighteen months, subject only to answering with his head for what he might do. It was when the last vessel was gone in the autumn of 1678 that he demanded to be styled chief and president on the records of the council, and he showed a letter from the king in which he was so entitled. In spite of this, Duchenneau resisted and appealed to president to sustain his position. A long series of stormy sessions followed. The councillors in the clerical interest supported the intended. Frotnack, chafed and angry, refused all compromise. Business was stopped for weeks. Duchenneau lost temper and became abusive. Hauteu tried to interpose in behalf of the intendant. Frotnack struck the table with his fist and told him fiercely that he would teach him his duty. Every day embittered the strife. The governor made the declaration usual with him on such occasions that he would not permit the royal authority to suffer in his person. At length he banished from Québec his three most strenuous opponents, Vilray, Tilly and Hauteu, and commanded them to remain in their country houses till they received his father's orders. All attempts at compromise proved fruitless, and Hauteu, in behalf of the exiles, appealed piteously to the king. The answer came in the following summer. Monsieur le Comte de Frotnack, wrote Louis XIV, I am surprised to learn all the new troubles and dissensions that have occurred in my country of New France, more especially since I have clearly and strongly given you to understand that your sole care should be to maintain harmony and peace among all my subjects dwelling therein. But what surprises me still more is that in nearly all the disputes which you have caused you have advanced claims which have very little foundation. My edicts, declarations and ordinances had so plainly made known to you, my will, that I have great cause of astonishment that you, whose duty it is to see them faithfully executed, have yourself set up pretensions entirely opposed to them. You have wished to be styled chief and president on the records of the Supreme Council which is contrary to my edict concerning that council, and I am the more surprised at this demand since I am very sure that you are the only man in my kingdom who, being honored with the title of governor and lieutenant general, would care to be styled chief and president of such a council as that of Québec. He then declares that neither Frontenac nor the intendant is to have the title of president but that the intendant is to perform the functions of presiding officer as determined by the edict. He continues, Moreover, your abuse of the authority which I have confided to you in exiling two counselors and the attorney general for so trivial a cause cannot meet my approval. And were it not for the distinct assurances given me by your friends that you will act with more moderation in future and never again fall into offenses of this nature I should have resolved on recalling you. Colbert wrote to him with equal severity. I have communicated to the king the contents of all the dispatches which you have written to me during the past year and as the matters of which they treat are sufficiently ample, including dissensions almost universal among those whose duty it is to preserve harmony in the country under your command, His Majesty has been pleased to examine all the papers sent by all the parties interested and more particularly those appented to your letters. He has thereupon ordered me distinctly to make known to you his intentions. The minister then proceeds to reprove him sharply in the name of the king and concludes, It is difficult for me to add anything to what I have just said. Consider well that if it is any advantage or any satisfaction to you that His Majesty should be satisfied with your services, it is necessary that you change entirely the conduct which you have hitherto pursued. This one would think might have suffice to bring the governor to reason, but the violence of his resentments and antipathies overcame the very slender share of prudence with which nature had endowed him. One morning as he sat at the head of the council board, the bishop on his right hand and the intendant on his left, a woman made her appearance with a sealed packet of papers. She was the wife of the counselor Amour whose chair was vacant at the table. Important business was in hand the registration of a royal edict of amnesty to the coureur de bois. The intendant, who well knew what the packet contained, demanded that it should be opened. Frontenac insisted that the business before the council should proceed. The intendant renewed his demand, the council sustained him and the packet was opened accordingly. It contained a petition from Amour stating that Frontenac had put him in prison because, having obtained in due form a passport to send a canoe to his fishing station of Matan, he had afterwards sent a sailboat thither without applying for another passport. Frontenac had sent for him and demanded by what right he did so. Amour replied that he believed that he had acted in accordance with the intentions of the king, were upon to borrow the words of the petition. Once you the governor fell into a rage and said to your petitioner, I will teach you the intentions of the king and you shall stay in prison till you learn them, and your petitioner was shut up in a chamber of the chateau wherein he still remains. He proceeds to pray that a trial may be granted him according to law. Discussions now ensued which lasted for days and now and then became tempestuous. The governor, who had declared that the council had nothing to do with the matter and that he would not waste time in talking about it, was not always present at the meetings and it sometimes became necessary to depute one or more of the members to visit him. Ote, the attorney general, having been employed on this unenviable errand, begged the council to dispense him from such duty in future. By reason, as he says, of the abuse, ill treatment and threats which he received from Mr. the governor when he last had the honor of being deputed to confer with him, the particulars were of he begs to be excused from reporting lest the anger of Mr. the governor should be kindled against him still more. Frontenac hearing of this charge angrily denied it, saying that the attorney general had slandered and insulted him and that it was his custom to do so. Ote rejoined that the governor had accused him of habitual lying and told him that he would have his hand cut off. All these charges and counter charges may still be found entered in due form on the old records of the council at Québec. It was as usual upon the intendant that the wrath of Frontenac fell most fiercely. He accuses him of creating cabals and intrigues and causing not only the council but all the country to forget the respect due to the representative of his majesty. Once when Frontenac was present at the session, a dispute arose about an entry on the record. A draft of it had been made in terms agreeable to the governor who insisted that the intendant should sign it. Ducheneau replied that he and the clerk would go into the adjoining room where they could examine it in peace and put it into a proper form. Frontenac rejoined that he would then have no security that what he said in the council would be accurately reported. Ducheneau persisted and was going out with a draft in his hand when Frontenac planted himself before the door and told him that he should not leave the council chamber till he had signed the paper. Ducheneau will get out of the window or I'll stay here all day. Return to Ducheneau. A lively debate ensued and the governor at length yielded the point. The imprisonment of Amour was short but strife did not cease. The disputes in the council were accompanied throughout with other quarrels which were complicated with them and which were worse than all the rest since they involved more important matters and covered a wider field. They related to the fur trade on which hung the very life of the colony. Merchants, traders, and even habitants were ranged in two contending factions. Of one of these, Frontenac was the chief. With him were La Salle and his lieutenant La Forêt, du Lut, the famous leader of Courreur de Bois, Boiseau, agent of the farmers of the Revenue, Berois, the governor's secretary, Bizarre, lieutenant of his guard, and various other of greater or less influence. On the other side were the members of the council with Aubert de la Chénée, Le Moine and all his sons, Louis Joliette, Jacques Lebert, Sorel, Boucher, Varene, and many more, all supported by the intendant du Chénot and also by his fast allies, the ecclesiastics. The faction under the lead of the governor had every advantage for it was sustained by all the power of his office. Du Chénot was beside himself with rage. He wrote to the court letters full of bitterness accused Frantonac of illicit trade, denounced his followers, and sent huge bundles of procès verbeaux and attestations to prove his charges. But if Du Chénot wrote letters, so too did Frantonac. And if the intendant said proofs, so too did the governor. Upon the unfortunate king and still the more unfortunate minister fell the difficult task of composing the quarrels of their servants 3,000 miles away. They treated Du Chénot without ceremony. Colbert wrote to him, I have examined all the letters, papers, and memorials that you set me by the return of the vessels last November, and though it appears by the letters of Monsieur de Frantonac that his conduct leaves something to be desired, there is assuredly far more to blame in yours than in his. As to what you say concerning his violence, his trade with the Indians, and in general all that you allege against him, the king has written to him his intentions. But since in the midst of all your complaints you say many things which are without foundation, or which are no concern of yours, it is difficult to believe that you act in the spirit which the service of the king demands, that is to say without interest and without passion. If a change does not appear in your conduct before next year, his majesty will not keep you in your office. At the same time the king wrote to Frantonac, alluding to the complaints of Duchenne, and exhorting the governor to live on good terms with him. The general tone of the letter is moderate, but the following significant warning occurs in it. Although no gentleman in the position in which I have placed you ought to take part in any trade directly or indirectly either by himself or any of his servants, I nevertheless now prohibit you absolutely from doing so. Not only abstain from trade, but act in such a manner that nobody can even suspect you of it. And this will be easy since the truth will readily come to light. Exhortation and warning were vain alike. The first ships which returned that year from Canada brought a series of dispatches from the intended, renewing all his charges more bitterly than before. The minister out of patience replied by berating him without mercy. You may rest assured, he concludes, that did it not appear by your later dispatches that the letters you have received have begun to make you understand that you have forgotten yourself, it would not have been possible to prevent the king from recalling you. Ducheneau, in return, protests all manner of deference to the governor, but still insists that he sets the royal edicts at naught, protects a host of couriers de bois who are in league with him, corresponds with Duluth, their chief, shares his illegal profits and causes all the disorders which afflict the colony. As for me, Monseigneur, I have done everything within the scope of my office to prevent these evils, but all the pains I have taken have only served to increase the aversion of Monsieur the governor against me and to bring my ordinances into contempt. This Monseigneur is a true account of the disobedience of the couriers de bois, of which I twice had the honour to speak to Monsieur the governor, and I could not help telling him with all possible deference that it was shameful to the colony and to us that the king, our master, of whom all the world stands in awe, who has just given law to all Europe and whom all his subjects adore, should have the pain of knowing that in a country which has received so many marks of his paternal tenderness, his orders are violated and scorned, and a governor and an intendant stand by with folded arms content with saying that the evil is past remedy. For having made these representations to him, I drew on myself words so full of contempt and insult that I was forced to leave his room to appease his anger. The next morning I went to him again and did all I could to have my ordinances executed, but as Monsieur the governor is interested with many of the couriers de bois, it is useless to attempt to do anything. He has gradually made himself master of the trade of Montreal, and as soon as the Indians arrive he sets guards in their camp which would be very well if these soldiers did their duty and protected the savages from being annoyed and plundered by the French instead of being employed to discover how many furs they have brought with a view to future operations. Monsieur the governor then compels the Indians to pay his guards for protecting them, and he has never allowed them to trade with the inhabitants till they had first given him a certain number of packs of beaver skins which he calls his presence. His guards trade with them openly at the fair with their bandoliers on their shoulders. He says farther that Frontenac sends up goods to Montreal and employs persons to trade in his behalf, and that what with the beaver skins exacted by him and his guards under the name of presence, and those which he and his favorites obtain in trade, only the smaller part of what the Indians bring to market ever reaches the people of the colony. This dispatch and the proofs accompanying it drew from the king a sharp reproof to Frontenac. What has passed in regard to the couriers de bois is entirely contrary to my orders, and I cannot receive an excuse for it your allegation that it is the intended who countenances them by the trade he carries on, for I perceive clearly that the fault is your own. As I see that you often turn the orders that I give you against the very object for which they are given, beware not to do so on this occasion. I shall hold you answerable for bringing the disorder of the couriers de bois to an end throughout Canada, and this you will easily succeed in doing if you make a proper use of my authority. Take care not to persuade yourself that what I write to you comes from the ill offices of the intendant. It results from what I fully know from everything which reaches me from Canada, proving too well what you are doing there. The bishop, the ecclesiastics, the Jesuit fathers, the Supreme Council, and in a word everybody complain of you, but I am willing to believe that you will change your conduct and act with the moderation necessary for the good of the colony. Colbert wrote in a similar strain, and Frontenac saw that his position was becoming critical. He showed it is true no sign of that change of conduct which the king had demanded, but he appealed to his allies at court to use fresh efforts to sustain him. Among the rest he had a strong friend in the Maréchal de Belfont to whom he wrote in the character of an abused and much suffering man. You exhort me to have patience, and I agree with you that those placed in a position of command cannot have too much. For this reason I have given examples of it here such as perhaps no governor ever gave before, and I have found no great difficulty in doing so because I felt myself to be the master. Had I been in a private station I could not have endured such outrageous insults without dishonor. I have always passed over in silence those directed against me personally, and have never given way to anger except when attacks were made on the authority of which I have the honor to be the guardian. You could not believe all the annoyances which the intentant tries to put upon me every day and which as you advise me I scorn or disregard. It would require a virtue like yours to turn them to all the good use of which they are capable. Yet great as the virtue is which has enabled you to possess your soul in tranquility amid all the troubles of the court, I doubt if you could preserve such complete equanimity among the miserable tumults of Canada. Having given the principal charges of Duchenneau against Frontenac it is time to give those a Frontenac against Duchenneau. The governor says that all the Correurs de Bois would be brought to submission but for the intentant and his allies who protect them and carry on trade by their means that the seniorial house of Duchenneau's partner La Chanaix is the constant resort of these outlaws and that he and his associates of large storehouses at Montreal is Saint-Paul and Rivière-du-Loup once they send goods into the Indian country in contempt of the king's orders. Frontenac also complains of numberless provocations from the intended. It is no fault of mine that I am not on good terms with Monsieur Duchenneau for I have done everything I could to that end being too submissive to your Majesty's commands not to suppress my sharpest indignation the moment your will is known to me. But Sire it is not so with him and his desire to excite new disputes in the hope of making me appear their principal author has been so great that the last ships were hardly gone when forgetting what your Majesty had enjoined upon us both he began these dissensions afresh in spite of all my precautions. If I depart from my usual reserve in regard to him and make bold to ask justice at the hands of your Majesty for the wrongs and insults I have undergone it is because nothing but your authority can keep them within bounds. I have never suffered more in my life than when I have been made to appear as a man of violence and a disturber of the officers of justice for I have always confined myself to what your Majesty has prescribed that is to exhorting them to do their duty when I saw that they failed in it. This has drawn upon me both from them and from Monsieur Duchenneau such cutting afrance that your Majesty would hardly credit them. In 1681 Seigneur the son of Colbert entered upon the charge of the colonies and both Frantonac and Duchenneau hastened to congratulate him protest their devotion and overwhelm him with mutual accusations. The Intendant declares that out of pure zeal for the king's service he shall tell him everything. Disorder, he says, reigns everywhere. Universal confusion prevails throughout every department of business. The pleasure of the king, the orders of the Supreme Council, and my ordinances remain unexecuted. Justice is openly violated and trade is destroyed. Violence, upheld by authority, decides everything. And nothing consoles the people who groan without daring to complain but the hope, Monsieur Duchenneau, that you will have the goodness to condescend to be moved by their misfortunes. No position could be more distressing than mine since, if I conceal the truth from you, I fail in the obedience I owe the king and in the fidelity that I vowed so long since to Monseigneur your father and which I swear anew at your hands. And if I obey as I must his Majesty's orders and yours, I cannot avoid giving offense since I cannot render you an account of these disorders without informing you that Monsieur Duchenneau's conduct is the sole cause of them. Frantonec had written to Senguelet a few days before. I have no doubt whatever that Monsieur Duchenneau will as usual overwhelm me with fabrications and falsehoods to cover his own ill conduct. I send proofs to justify myself so strong and convincing that I do not see that they can leave any doubt. But since I fear that their great number might fatigue you, I have thought it better to send them to my wife with a full and exact journal of all that has passed here day by day in order that she may extract and lay before you the principal portions. I send you in person merely the proofs of the conduct of Monsieur Duchenneau in barricading his house and arming all his servants and in coming three weeks ago to insult me in my room. You will see thereby to what a pitch of temerity and lawlessness he has transported himself in order to compel me to use violence against him, with the hope of justifying what he has asserted about my pretended outbreaks of anger. The mutual charges of the two functionaries were much the same, and so far at least as concerns trade there can be little doubt that they were well founded on both sides. The strife of the rival factions grew more and more bitter. Keynes and Styx played an active part in it and now and then we hear of drawn swords. One is reminded at times of the intestine feuds of some medieval city as, for example, in the following incident which will explain the charge of Frontenac against the intendant of barricading his house and arming his servants. On the afternoon of the 20th of March a son of Duchenneau, 16 years old, followed by a servant named Vautier, was strolling along the picket fence which bordered the descent from the upper to the lower town of Quebec. The boy was amusing himself by singing a song when Frontenac's partisan, Boiseau, with one of the guardsmen approached and as young Duchenneau declares, called him foul names and said that he would give him and his father a thrashing. The boy replied that he would have nothing to say to a fellow like him and would beat him if he did not keep quiet. While the servant Vautier retorted Boiseau's abuse and taunted him with low birth and disreputable employments. Boiseau made report to Frontenac and Frontenac complained to Duchenneau who sent his son with Vautier to give the governor his version of the affair. The bishop an ally of the intendant thus relates what followed. On arriving with a party of friends at the château, young Duchenneau was shown into a room in which were the governor and his two secretaries Barois and Chasseur. He had no sooner entered than Frontenac seized him by the arm, shook him, struck him, called him abusive names and tore the sleeve of his jacket. These secretaries interposed and failing to quiet the governor, opened the door and let the boy escape. Vautier meanwhile had remained in the guard room where Boiseau struck at him with his cane and one of the guardsmen went for a halberd to run him through the body. After this warm reception, young Duchenneau and his servant took refuge in the house of his father. Frontenac demanded their surrender. The intendant, fearing that he would take them by force for which he has said to have made preparation, barricaded himself and armed his household. The bishop tried to mediate and after protracted negotiations, young Duchenneau was given up, whereupon Frontenac locked him in a chamber of the Chateau and kept him there a month. The story of Frontenac's violence to the boy is flatly denied by his friends who charged Duchenneau and his partisans with circulating libels against him and who say, like Frontenac himself, that the intendant used every means to exasperate him in order to make material for accusations. The disputes of the rival factions spread through all Canada. The most heinous offense in the eyes of the court with which each charged the other was the carrying affers to the English settlements, thus defrauding the revenue and as the king believed preparing the ruin of the colony. The intendant father declared that the governor's party spread among the Indians the report of a pestilence at Montreal in order to deter them from their yearly visit to the fair and thus by means of courier-de-bois obtain all their beaver skins at a low price. The report, according to Duchenneau, had no other foundation than the fate of 18 or 20 Indians who had lately drunk themselves to death at Lechine. Montreal, in the meantime, was the scene of a sort of by play in which the chief actor was the local governor, Perot. He and Frontenac appear to have founded for their common interest to come to a mutual understanding, and this was perhaps easier on the part of the count since his quarrel with Duchenneau gave sufficient employment to his natural prognosity. Perot was now left to make a reasonable profit from the illicit trade which had once kindled the wrath of his superior and the danger of Frontenac's anger being removed he completely forgot the lessons of his imprisonment. The intendant ordered Mijon, Bélif of Montreal, to arrest some of Perot's courier-de-bois. Perot at once arrested the Bélif and sent a sergeant and two soldiers to occupy his house with orders to annoy the family as much as possible. One of them accordingly walked to and fro all night in the bed chamber of Mijon's wife. On another occasion the Bélif invited two friends to supper, Le Moin d'Iberville and Juan Boutier, agent of a commercial house at Rochelle. The conversation turned on the trade carried on by Perot. It was overheard and reported to him upon which he suddenly appeared at the window struck Boutier over the head with his cane and chased him while he fled for his life. The seminary was near at hand and the fugitive clambered over the wall. Dali de Caisson dressed him in the hat and cassock of a priest and in this disguise he escaped. Perot's avidities sometimes carried him to singular extremities. He has been seen, says one of his accusers, filling barrels of brandy with his own hands and mixing it with water to sell to the Indians. He bartered with one of them his hat, sword, coat, ribbons, shoes and stockings and boasted that he had made thirty pistols by the bargain while the Indian walked about town equipped as governor. Every ship from Canada brought to the king fresh complaints of Duchenneau against Frontenac and a Frontenac against Duchenneau and the king replied with rebukes, exhortations and threats to both. At first he had shown a disposition to extenuate and excuse the faults of Frontenac but every year his letters grew sharper. In 1681 he wrote, Again I urge you to banish from your mind the difficulties which you have yourself devised against the execution of my orders, to act with mildness and moderation towards all the colonists and divest yourself entirely of the personal animosities which have thus far been almost your sole motive of action. In conclusion I exhort you once more to profit well by the directions which this letter contains. Since unless you succeed better herein than formerly I cannot help recalling you from the command which I have entrusted to you. The dispute still went on. The autumn ships from Quebec brought back the usual complaints and the long suffering king at length made good his threat. Both Frontenac and Duchenneau received their recall and they both deserved it. The last official act of the governor recorded in the register of the council of Quebec is the formal declaration that his rank in that body is superior to that of the intendant. The key to nearly all these disputes lies in the relations between Frontenac and the church. The fundamental quarrel was generally covered by superficial issues and it was rarely that the governor fell out with anybody who was not in league with the bishop and the Jesuits. Nearly all the disorders in New France, he writes, spring from the ambition of the ecclesiastics who want to join to their spiritual authority and absolute power over things temporal and who persecute all who do not submit entirely to them. He says that the intendant and the councilors are completely under their control and dare not decide any question against them. That they have spies everywhere even in his house. That the bishop told him that he could excommunicate even a governor if he chose. That the missionaries in Indian villages say that they are equals of annoncio and tell their converts that all will go wrong till the priests have the government of Canada. That directly or indirectly they meddle in all civil affairs. That they trade even with the English of New York. That what with Jesuits, sulpitions, the bishop and the seminary of Quebec they hold two thirds of the good lands of Canada. That in view of the poverty of the country their revenues are enormous. That in short their object is mastery in that they use all means to compass it. The recall of the governor was a triumph to the ecclesiastics offset but slightly by the recall of their instrument the intendant who had done his work in whom they needed no longer. Thus far we have seen front and back on his worst side. We shall see him again under an aspect very different. Nor must it be supposed that the years which had passed since his government began tempestuous as they appear on the record were wholly given over to quarreling. They had their periods of uneventful calm when the wheels of administration ran as smoothly as could be expected in view of the condition of the colony. In one respect at least front and back had shown a remarkable fitness for his office. Few white men have ever equalled or approached him in the art of dealing with Indians. There seems to have been a sympathetic relation between him and them. He conformed to their ways, borrowed their rhetoric, flattered them on occasion with great address and yet constantly maintained towards them an attitude of paternal superiority. When they were concerned his native haughtiness always took a form which commanded respect without exciting anger. He would not address them as brothers but only as children and even the Iroquois arrogant as they were accepted the new relation. In their eyes Frontenac was by far the greatest of all the Onantios or governors of Canada. They admired the prompt and fiery soldier who played with their children and gave beads and trickets to their wives who read their secret thoughts and never feared them but smiled on them when their hearts were true or frowned and threatened them when they did amiss. The other tribes allies of the French were of the same mind and their respect for their great father seems not to have been permanently impaired by his occasional practice of bullying them for purposes of extortion. Frontenac appears to have had a liking not only for Indians but also for that roving and lawless class of the Canadian population the Courreur de Bois provided always that they were not in the service of his rivals. Indeed as regards the Canadians generally he refrained from the strictures with which succeeding governors and intendants freely interlarded their dispatches. It was not his instinct to clash with the humbler classes and he generally reserved his anger for those who could retort it. He had the air of distinction natural to a man familiar all his life with the society of courts and he was as gracious and winning on some occasions as he was unbearable on others. When in good humor his ready wit and a certain sympathetic vivacity made him very agreeable. At times he was all sunshine and his outrageous temper slumbered peacefully till some new offense wakened it again. Nor is there much doubt that many of his worst outbreaks were the work of his enemies who knew his foible and studied to exasperate him. He was full of contradictions and intolerant and implacable as he often was there were intervals even in his bitterest quarrels in which he displayed a surprising moderation and patience. By fits he could be magnanimous. A woman once brought him a petition in burlesque verse. Frantonec wrote a jacquot's answer. The woman to ridicule him contrived to have both petition and answer slipped among the papers of a suit pending before the council. Frantonec had her find a few francs and then caused the money to be given to her children. When he sailed for France it was a day of rejoicing to more than half the merchants of Canada and accepting the Ricollet to all the priests. But he left behind him an impression very general among the people that if danger threatened the colony Count Frantonec was the man for the hour.