[7] Memoires de Mademoiselle de Montpensier, III. 270.
With the close of her relations with "La Grande Mademoiselle," Madame de Frontenac 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 Turenne to name a general officer equal to the task. Frontenac had the signal honor 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 its chief fortress fell into the hands of the infidels, after a protracted struggle, which is said to have cost them a hundred and eighty thousand men. [8]
[8] Oraison funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, par le Père Olivier Goyer. A powerful French contingent, under another command, co-operated with the Venetians under Frontenac.
Three years later, Frontenac 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." [9] Certain scandalous songs of the day assign a different motive for his appointment. Louis XIV. was enamoured of Madame de Montespan. She had once smiled upon Frontenac; 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. [10]
[9] Memoires du Duc de Saint-Simon, II. 270; V. 336.
[10] 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,