[38] Le Roy à Denonville, 31 Mai, 1689.
[39] "I shall only add one article, on which possibly you will find it strange that I have said nothing; namely, whether the governor carries on any trade. I shall answer, no; but my Lady the Governess (Madame la Gouvernante), who is disposed not to neglect any opportunity for making a profit, had a room, not to say a shop, full of goods, till the close of last winter, in the château of Quebec, and found means afterwards to make a lottery to get rid of the rubbish that remained, which produced her more than her good merchandise." Relation of the State of Affairs in Canada, 1688, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 388. This paper was written at Quebec.
[40] Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 91, 92 (Quebec, 1856).
[CHAPTER X.]
1689, 1690.
Return of Frontenac.
Versailles • Frontenac and the King • Frontenac sails for Quebec • Projected Conquest of New York • Designs of the King • Failure • Energy of Frontenac • Fort Frontenac • Panic • Negotiations • The Iroquois in Council • Chevalier d'Aux • Taunts of the Indian Allies • Boldness of Frontenac • An Iroquois Defeat • Cruel Policy • The Stroke parried.
The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. From a morning of unexampled brilliancy it had mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon; but the hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemy of France was on the throne of England, turning against her from that new point of vantage all the energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid built the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid battered and defaced the imposing structure: two potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies, Richelieu and William of Orange.
Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On three evenings of the week, it was the pleasure of the king that the whole court should assemble in the vast suite of apartments now known as the Halls of Abundance, of Venus, of Diana, of Mars, of Mercury, and of Apollo. The magnificence of their decorations, pictures of the great Italian masters, sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, tapestries, vases and statues of silver and gold; the vista of light and splendor that opened through the wide portals; the courtly throngs, feasting, dancing, gaming, promenading, conversing, formed a scene which no palace of Europe could rival or approach. Here were all the great historic names of France, princes, warriors, statesmen, and all that was highest in rank and place; the flower, in short, of that brilliant society, so dazzling, captivating, and illusory. In former years, the king was usually present, affable and gracious, mingling with his courtiers and sharing their amusements; but he had grown graver of late, and was more often in his cabinet, laboring with his ministers on the task of administration, which his extravagance and ambition made every day more burdensome. [1]
[1] Saint-Simon speaks of these assemblies. The halls in question were finished in 1682; and a minute account of them, and of the particular use to which each was destined, was printed in the Mercure Français of that year. See also Soulié, Notice du Musée impérial de Versailles, where copious extracts from the Mercure are given. The grands appartements are now entirely changed in appearance, and turned into an historic picture gallery.