France and England in N America, Part V: Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV

Note of M. Brunet, in Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orléans, I. 200 (ed. 1869).

The following lines, among others, were passed about secretly among the courtiers:—

"Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire,
Aime la Montespan;
Moi, Frontenac, je me crève de rire,
Sachant ce qui lui pend;
Et je dirai, sans être des plus bestes,
Tu n'as que mon reste,
Roi,
Tu n'as que mon reste."

Mademoiselle de Montpensier had mentioned in her memoirs, some years before, that Frontenac, in taking out his handkerchief, dropped from his pocket a love-letter to Mademoiselle de Mortemart, afterwards Madame de Montespan, which was picked up by one of the attendants of the princess. The king, on the other hand, was at one time attracted by the charms of Madame de Frontenac, against whom, however, no aspersion is cast.

The Comte de Grignan, son-in-law of Madame de Sévigné, was an unsuccessful competitor with Frontenac for the government of Canada.

11

On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.

12

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

13

Talon au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1671.

14

Registre du Conseil Souverain.

15

Frontenac au Roi, 2 Nov., 1672; Ibid., 13 Nov., 1673; Harangue du Comte de Frontenac en l'Assemblée à Quebec; Prestations de Serment, 23 Oct., 1672; Réglement de Police fait par Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac; Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Juin, 1673.

16

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

17

Frontenac au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1673.

18

Laval à—–, 1674. The letter is a complete summary of the contents of Colbert's recent despatch to Frontenac. Then follows the injunction to secrecy, "estant de très-grande conséquence que l'on ne sache pas que l'on aye rien appris de tout cela, sur quoi néanmoins il est bon que l'on agisse et que l'on me donne tous les advis qui seront nécessaires."

19

Discovery of the Great West, chap. vi.

20

Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672.

21

Mémoire des Motifs qui ont obligé M. le Comte de Frontenac de faire arrêter le Sieur Perrot.

22

Mémoire des Motifs, etc.

23

Édits et Ordonnances, I. 73.

24

Information faite par nous, Charles le Tardieu, Sieur de Tilly. Tilly was a commissioner sent by the council to inquire into the affair.

25

Mémoire de M. d'Urfé à Colbert, extracts in Faillon.

26

All the proceedings in the affair of Perrot will be found in full in the Registre des Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur. They extend from the end of January to the beginning of November, 1674.

27

Conteste entre le Gouverneur et l'Abbé de Fénelon; Jugements et Déliberations du Conseil Supérieur, 21 Août, 1674.

28

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.

29

Le Roi à Frontenac, 22 Avril, 1675.

30

Colbert à Frontenac, 13 Mai, 1675.

31

Lettre de Bretonvilliers, 7 Mai, 1675; extract in Faillon. Fénelon, 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 Abbé Faillon, and from the valuable paper of Abbé Verreau, Les deux Abbés de Fénelon, printed in the Canadian Journal de l'Instruction Publique, Vol. VIII.