Yet the ecclesiastical storm rose so high that the councillors, 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. Perrot was taken from the prison, which he had occupied from January to November, and shipped for France, along with Fenelon. An immense ma.s.s of papers was sent with them for the instruction of the king; and Frontenac wrote a long despatch, in which he sets forth the offences of Perrot and Fenelon, the pretensions of the ecclesiastics, the calumnies 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 a calmness and moderation which surprised his opponents. "Knowing as I do," he pursues, "the cabals and intrigues that are rife here, I must expect that every thing 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, it would surely be very pardonable, 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." [Footnote: _Frontenac au Ministre, 14 Nov., 1674_. In a preceding letter, sent by way of Boston, and dated 16 February, he says that he could not suffer Perrot to go unpunished without injury to the regal authority, which he is resolved to defend to the last drop of his blood.]
In his charges of cabal and intrigue, Frontenac had chiefly in view the clergy, whom he profoundly distrusted, excepting always the Recollet friars, whom he befriended because the bishop and the Jesuits opposed them. The priests on their part declare that he persecuted them, compelled them to take pa.s.sports like laymen when travelling about the colony, and even intercepted their letters. These accusations and many others were carried to the king and the minister by the Abbe d"Urfe, who sailed in the same ship with Fenelon. The moment was singularly auspicious to him. His cousin, the Marquise d"Allegre, was on the point of marrying Seignelay, the son of the minister Colbert, who, therefore, was naturally inclined to listen with favor to him and to Fenelon, his relative. Again, Talon, uncle of Perrot"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 Colbert 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 pa.s.sports, and at the same time leaving them perfect freedom as regards their letters. I have seen and carefully examined all that you have sent touching M. Perrot; and, after having also seen all the papers given by him in his defence, 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 Bastile, that he may learn to be more circ.u.mspect 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 Bastile 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 pa.s.sed; 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." [Footnote: _Le Roi a Frontenac_, 22 _Avril_, 1675.]
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 Allegre and my son, the Abbe d"Urfe 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 especial consideration, though, in the exercise of his profession, he will rarely have occasion to see you."
As D"Urfe had lately addressed a memorial to Colbert, in which the conduct of Frontenac 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 Frontenac to treat with kindness the priests of Montreal, observing that Bretonvilliers, their Superior at Paris, is his particular friend. "As to M. Perrot," he continues, "since ten months of imprisonment at Quebec and three weeks in the Bastile 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 offence approaching that which he has committed, you will give me especial pleasure in granting him the honor of your favor and friendship." [Footnote: _Colbert a Frontenac,_ 13 _Mai,_ 1675.]
Fenelon, 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, Bretonvilliers, forbade him to return to Canada, and the king approved the prohibition. Bretonvilliers wrote to the Sulpitian priests of Montreal: "I exhort you to profit by the example of M. de Fenelon. By having busied 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." [Footnote: _Lettre de Bretonvilliers, 7 Mai, 1675_; extract in Faillon. Fenelon, though wanting in prudence and dignity, had been an ardent and devoted missionary. In relation to these disputes, I have received much aid from the research of Abbe Faillon, and from the valuable paper of Abbe Verreau, _Les deux Abbes de Fenelon,_ printed in the Canadian _Journal de l"Instruction Publique,_ Vol. VIII.]
CHAPTER IV.
1675-1682.
FRONTENAC AND d.u.c.h.eSNEAU.
FRONTENAC RECEIVES A COLLEAGUE.--HE OPPOSES THE CLERGY.--DISPUTES IN THE COUNCIL.--ROYAL INTERVENTION.--FRONTENAC REBUKED.--FRESH OUTBREAKS.--CHARGES AND COUNTERCHARGES.--THE DISPUTE GROWS HOT.--d.u.c.h.eSNEAU CONDEMNED AND FRONTENAC WARNED.--THE QUARREL CONTINUES.--THE KING LOSES PATIENCE.--MORE ACCUSATIONS.--FACTIONS AND FEUDS.--A SIDE QUARREL.--THE KING THREATENS.--FRONTENAC DENOUNCES THE PRIESTS.--THE GOVERNOR AND THE INTENDANT RECALLED.--QUALITIES OF FRONTENAC.
While writing to Frontenac in terms of studied mildness, the king and 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 councillors should be appointed by the king himself. [Footnote: _Edits et Ordonnances_, I. 84.] This was not the only change. Since the departure of the intendant 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 Quebec, 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, whose delight it was to hold all the reins of power in his own hands; nor was he better pleased with the return of Bishop Laval, which presently took place. Three preceding governors had quarrelled 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 in another volume, [Footnote: The Old Regime in Canada.] and on which it is needless to dwell here. Another dispute quickly followed; and here, too, the governor"s chief adversaries were the bishop and the ecclesiastics.
d.u.c.h.esneau, the new intendant, 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 Mezy, and the rank and imperious character of Frontenac appear to have held them in some awe.
They avoided as far as they could a direct collision with him, and waged vicarious war in the person of their friend the intendant.
d.u.c.h.esneau 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 a.s.sumed, 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 d.u.c.h.esneau to treat Frontenac with becoming deference, and warned him not to make himself the partisan of the bishop; [Footnote: _Colbert a d.u.c.h.esneau_, 1 _Mai_, 1677.] while, at the same time, he exhorted Frontenac to live in harmony with the intendant. [Footnote: _Ibid._, 18 _Mai_, 1677.]
The dispute continued till the king lost 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." [Footnote: _Le Roy a Frontenac_, 25 _Avril_, 1679.] And he directs him to conform to the practice established in the city of Amiens, and to exact no more; "since you ought 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, which could only serve to show you that you are completely in the wrong." [Footnote: _Colbert a d.u.c.h.esneau_, 8 _Mai_, 1679]
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 Villeray, a former councillor whom the king had lately reinstated. Frontenac admitted him to his seat with reluctance. "I obey your orders," he wrote mournfully to Colbert; "but Villeray is the princ.i.p.al and most dangerous instrument of the bishop and the Jesuits." [Footnote: _Frontenac au Ministre_, 14 _Nov._, 1674] He says, farther, 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, Auteuil, as an ally of the Jesuits. Another of the reconstructed council, Tilly, 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. [Footnote: _Declaration du Roy,_ 23 _Sept._, 1675.] The commission of d.u.c.h.esneau, however, empowered him to preside only in the absence of the governor; [Footnote: "Presider au Conseil Souverain _en l"absence du dit Sieur de Frontenac."--Commission de d.u.c.h.esneau,_ 5 _Juin_, 1675.] while Frontenac is styled "chief and president of the council" in several of the despatches 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.
Frontenac rarely began a new quarrel till the autumn vessels had 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 ent.i.tled. [Footnote: This letter, still preserved in the _Archives de la Marine,_ is dated 12 _Mai_, 1678. Several other letters of Louis XIV. give Frontenac the same designation.] In spite of this, d.u.c.h.esneau resisted, and appealed to precedent to sustain his position. A long series of stormy sessions followed. The councillors in the clerical interest supported the intendant. Frontenac, chafed and angry, refused all compromise. Business was stopped for weeks.
d.u.c.h.esneau lost temper, and became abusive. Auteuil tried to interpose in behalf of the intendant. Frontenac 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 Quebec his three most strenuous opponents, Villeray, Tilly, and Auteuil, and commanded them to remain in their country houses till they received his farther orders. All attempts at compromise proved fruitless; and Auteuil, in behalf of the exiles, appealed piteously to the king.
The answer came in the following summer: "Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac," 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 t.i.tle of governor and lieutenant-general, would care to be styled chief and president of such a council as that of Quebec."
He then declares that neither Frontenac nor the intendant is to have the t.i.tle 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 councillors and the attorney-general for so trivial a cause cannot meet my approval; and, were it not for the distinct a.s.surances given me by your friends that you will act with more moderation in future, and never again fall into offences of this nature, I should have resolved on recalling you." [Footnote: _Le Roy a Frontenac_, 29 _Avril_, 1680. A decree of the council of state soon after determined the question of presidency in accord with this letter. _Edits et Ordonnances_ I. 238.]
Colbert wrote to him with equal severity: "I have communicated to the king the contents of all the despatches 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 appended 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 any thing 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." [Footnote: _Colbert a Frontenac_, 4 _Dec_., 1679. This letter seems to have been sent by a special messenger by way of New England. It was too late in the season to send directly to Canada. On the quarrel about the presidency, _d.u.c.h.esneau au Ministre_, 10 _Nov_., 1679; _Auteuil au Ministre_, 10 _Aug_., 1679; _Contestations entre le Sieur Comte de Frontenac et M.
d.u.c.h.esneau, Chevalier_. This last paper consists of voluminous extracts from the records of the council.]
This, one would think, might have sufficed 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 councillor Amours, whose chair was vacant at the table. Important business was in hand, the registration of a royal edict of amnesty to the _coureurs 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 pet.i.tion from Amours, stating that Frontenac had put him in prison, because, having obtained in due form a pa.s.sport to send a canoe to his fishing station of Matane, he had afterwards sent a sail-boat thither without applying for another pa.s.sport. Frontenac had sent for him, and demanded by what right he did so. Amours replied that he believed that he had acted in accordance with the intentions of the king; whereupon, to borrow the words of the pet.i.tion, "Monsieur the governor fell into a rage, and said to your pet.i.tioner, "I will teach you the intentions of the king, and you shall stay in prison till you learn them;" and your pet.i.tioner 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.
[Footnote: _Registre du Conseil Superieur_, 16 Aoust, 1681.]
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 could 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. Auteuil, 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 Monsieur the governor, when he last had the honor of being deputed to confer with him, the particulars whereof he begs to be excused from reporting, lest the anger of Monsieur the governor should be kindled against him still more." [Footnote: _Registre du Conseil Superieur_, 4 _Nov_., 1681.] 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.
Auteuil 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 countercharges may still be found entered in due form on the old records of the council at Quebec.
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. d.u.c.h.esneau 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 had said in the council would be accurately reported. d.u.c.h.esneau persisted, and was going out with the 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. "Then I will get out of the window, or else stay here all day," returned d.u.c.h.esneau. A lively debate ensued, and the governor at length yielded the point. [Footnote: _Registre de Conseil Superieur_, 1681.]
The imprisonment of Amours 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 Foret; Du Lhut, the famous leader of _coureurs de bois_; Boisseau, agent of the farmers of the revenue; Barrois, the governor"s secretary; Bizard, lieutenant of his guard; and various others of greater or less influence. On the other side were the members of the council, with Aubert de la Chesnaye, Le Moyne and all his sons, Louis Joliet, Jacques Le Ber, Sorel, Boucher, Varennes, and many more, all supported by the intendant d.u.c.h.esneau, 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.
d.u.c.h.esneau was beside himself with rage. He wrote to the court letters full of bitterness, accused Frontenac of illicit trade, denounced his followers, and sent huge bundles of _proces-verbaux_ and attestations to prove his charges.
But if d.u.c.h.esneau wrote letters, so too did Frontenac; and if the intendant sent proofs, so too did the governor. Upon the unfortunate king and the still more unfortunate minister fell the difficult task of composing the quarrels of their servants, three thousand miles away. They treated d.u.c.h.esneau without ceremony. Colbert wrote to him: "I have examined all the letters, papers, and memorials that you sent me by the return of the vessels last November, and, though it appears by the letters of M. de Frontenac that his conduct leaves something to be desired, there is a.s.suredly 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 pa.s.sion. If a change does not appear in your conduct before next year, his Majesty will not keep you in your office." [Footnote: _Colbert a d.u.c.h.esneau_, 15 _Mai,_ 1678.]
At the same time, the king wrote to Frontenac, alluding to the complaints of d.u.c.h.esneau, 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 n.o.body can even suspect you of it; and this will be easy, since the truth will readily come to light." [Footnote: _Le Roy a Frontenac_, 12 _Mai_, 1678.] Exhortation and warning were vain alike. The first ships which returned that year from Canada brought a series of despatches from the intendant, renewing all his charges more bitterly than before. The minister, out of patience, replied by berating him without mercy. "You may rest a.s.sured," he concludes, "that, did it not appear by your later despatches 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." [Footnote: _Colbert a d.u.c.h.esneau_, 25 _Avril_, 1679.] d.u.c.h.esneau, 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 _coureurs de bois_ who are in league with him; corresponds with Du Lhut, their chief; shares his illegal profits, and causes all the disorders which afflict the colony. "As for me, Monseigneur, I have done every thing 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 _coureurs de bois_, of which I twice had the honor 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 the whole 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 _coureurs de bois_, it is useless to attempt to do any thing. 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 presents. His guards trade with them openly at the fair, with their bandoleers 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 presents, 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. [Footnote: _d.u.c.h.esneau au Ministre_, 10 _Nov.,_ 1679.]
This despatch, and the proofs accompanying it, drew from the king a sharp reproof to Frontenac.
"What has pa.s.sed in regard to the _coureurs de bois_ is entirely contrary to my orders; and I cannot receive in excuse for it your allegation that it is the intendant 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 _coureurs 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 but 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." [Footnote: _Le Roy a Frontenac_, 29 _Avril,_ 1680.]
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 Marechal de Bellefonds, 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 pa.s.sed 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 intendant 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 tranquillity amid all the troubles of the court, I doubt if you could preserve such complete equanimity among the miserable tumults of Canada." [Footnote: _Frontenac au Marechal de Bellefonds_, 14 _Nov.,_ 1680.]
Having given the princ.i.p.al charges of d.u.c.h.esneau against Frontenac, it is time to give those of Frontenac against d.u.c.h.esneau. The governor says that all the _coureurs de bois_ would be brought to submission but for the intendant and his allies, who protect them, and carry on trade by their means; that the seigniorial house of d.u.c.h.esneau"s partner, La Chesnaye, is the constant resort of these outlaws; and that he and his a.s.sociates have large storehouses at Montreal, Isle St. Paul, and Riviere du Loup, whence they send goods into the Indian country, in contempt of the king"s orders. [Footnote: _Memoire et Preuves du Desordre des Coureurs de Bois._] Frontenac also complains of numberless provocations from the intendant. "It is no fault of mine that I am not on good terms with M. d.u.c.h.esneau; for I have done every thing 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 princ.i.p.al 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 M. d.u.c.h.esneau, such cutting affronts that your Majesty would hardly credit them." [Footnote: _Frontenac au Roy,_ 2 _Nov.,_ 1681.]
In 1681, Seignelay, the son of Colbert, entered upon the charge of the colonies; and both Frontenac and d.u.c.h.esneau 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 every thing. "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 every thing; and nothing consoles the people, who groan without daring to complain, but the hope, Monseigneur, 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 offence, since I cannot render you an account of these disorders without informing you that M. de Frontenac"s conduct is the sole cause of them." [Footnote: _d.u.c.h.esneau au Ministre_, 13 _Nov_., 1681.]
Frontenac had written to Seignelay a few days before: "I have no doubt whatever that M. d.u.c.h.esneau 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 pa.s.sed here day by day, in order that she may extract and lay before you the princ.i.p.al portions.
"I send you in person merely the proofs of the conduct of M.
d.u.c.h.esneau, 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 a.s.serted about my pretended outbreaks of anger." [Footnote: _Frontenac au Ministre,_ 2 _Nov.,_ 1681.]
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: canes and sticks 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 mediaeval 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 twentieth of March, a son of d.u.c.h.esneau, sixteen 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, Boisseau, with one of the guardsmen, approached, and, as young d.u.c.h.esneau 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 Boisseau"s abuse, and taunted him with low birth and disreputable employments. Boisseau made report to Frontenac, and Frontenac complained to d.u.c.h.esneau, 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 chateau, young d.u.c.h.esneau was shown into a room in which were the governor and his two secretaries, Barrois and Cha.s.seur.