The enterprise cost the King ten thousand francs, and Frontenac regarded the investment as a good one indeed. He hoped that he had impressed the savages with fear and respect, that he had obtained a respite from the ravages of the Iroquois, and that the fort would be the means of keeping the peltry trade in the hands of the French, its situation affording the opportunity of cutting it off from the English, who were making efforts to secure it for themselves. Frontenac wrote to the minister in November, that with a fort at the mouth of the Niagara and a vessel on Lake Erie, the French could command all the upper lakes.
François Perrot, the Governor of Montreal, owed his position to Talon, his wife’s uncle, who had induced the Sulpitians, the proprietors and feudal lords of Montreal and the island, and in whom the appointment rested, to give the place to him. Knowing that the priests could at will depose him, he sought to protect himself by asking the King to give him a royal appointment. This Louis did; and the Sulpitians could now make no change without consent of the King. Perrot was a man of little principle, selfish and unscrupulous, who turned every movement to his own advantage. His passion was for money-making, and his position as governor gave him many opportunities. One of his first acts, with that object in view, was to set up a storehouse on Perrot Island, which gave him full command of the fur-trade. This post was situated just above Montreal, and directly in the route of the tribes of the upper lakes and their vicinity. A retired and trusted lieutenant, named Brucy, was placed in charge, whose chief business it was to intercept the Indians and secure their merchandise, to the no small profit of the Governor and himself, and the great scandal of the neighborhood. The forests were ranged by coureurs de bois, who also trafficked with the savages, and bore off the richest peltries before the real merchants of Montreal had had the opportunity. King Louis had in vain attempted, by royal edicts of outlawry and stringent instructions to his representatives and subordinates, to dislodge the bushrangers and to put an end to their doings. The coureurs de bois, however, were hardy sons of the soil; some of them were soldiers who had deserted from the army; all of them were men of endurance, and accustomed to brave the sternest hardships. They loved their wild life and the adventurous character of their calling. They were, moreover, on very excellent terms with Perrot, who connived at their escapades and shut his ears to all complaint. He had no motive to heed the order of his sovereign, so long as the wayward rangers shared with him the proceeds of their dealings with the Indians. This, on their part, they were very willing to do.
Frontenac was jealous of Perrot’s advantages, and though he had but few soldiers in his command with whom to enforce obedience, he determined to strike a blow at the bushrangers, and make an attempt to execute the King’s orders. Perrot had of late grown despotic and tyrannical. He was comparatively beyond the reach of his superior, and had matters pretty much under his own control. The journey from Quebec to Montreal sometimes occupied a fortnight, and the Governor-General, as he well knew, was not able to strike heavily with the shattered remnants of forces who served under him. Perrot was therefore bold and defiant; but he miscalculated the temper of his chief, and it was not long before the arms of Frontenac were long enough to reach him. Perrot, in a fit of temper, had imprisoned the judge of Montreal because that functionary had dared to remonstrate against the disorders which had been perpetrated by the coureurs de bois. The affair caused much excitement; and with other acts of the Governor, the Sulpitians were soon convinced of the grave error they had made in their choice of a chief magistrate. They were powerless, however, to unseat him. Frontenac now wrote to the minister, and asked for a galley, to the benches of which it was his intention to chain the outlaws as rowers. He then ordered the judge at Montreal to seize every coureur de bois that he could find. Two of them were living at the house of Lieutenant Carion, a friend of Perrot’s, and when the judge’s constable went to lay hands on them, Carion abused the officer, and allowed the men to escape. Perrot indorsed the conduct of his lieutenant, and even threatened the judge with arrest, should he make a similar attempt again.
CANADIAN ON SNOW-SHOES.
A fac-simile of a print in Potherie, vol. i.
Frontenac, when he heard of the manner in which his orders had been treated, flew into a passion. He despatched Lieutenant Bizard and three soldiers to Montreal, charged to arrest and convey to the capital the offending Carion. Bizard succeeded in making the arrest, and left a letter in the house of Le Ber the merchant for Perrot, from Frontenac, giving notice of what had been done. Perrot was, however, earlier advised of the arrest. He hastened with a sergeant and three or four soldiers, found Bizard, and indignantly ordered him under arrest. Nor did Le Ber fare better, for, because he had testified to the scene he had witnessed, he was thrown into jail. These arrests produced much excitement in the place, and Perrot after a while was aware that he had acted with inconsiderate rashness. He released Bizard, and sent him off to Quebec, the bearer of a sullen and impertinent letter to the Count. In due time an answer came, in an order to come to Quebec and render an account of his conduct. Frontenac also wrote to the Abbé Salignac de Fénelon,[696]—a zealous young missionary stationed at Montreal, one of whose uncles had been a firm friend of Frontenac during the progress of the Canadian war,—and desired him to see Perrot and explain the situation. The Abbé’s task was a delicate but congenial one, and he pursued it with such good effect that the Governor was induced to accompany him to headquarters. They made the journey on snow-shoes, and walked the whole distance of one hundred and eighty miles on the St. Lawrence. The interview with the Count was short. Both men were choleric and easily excited. Perrot was disappointed at his reception, after taking the trouble to come so far, and at such a season of the year. Frontenac was stubborn and angry, and the position of his rival at his feet did not mollify his passion, but rather increased it. He put an end to the interview by locking up his offending subordinate in the château, and ordering guards to be placed over him day and night. A trusty friend of Frontenac, La Nouguère by name, was despatched to Montreal to take command. Brucy was seized and cast into prison, while a determined war was made on the coureurs de bois. The two who had been the main cause of the recent trouble were captured and sent to Quebec, where one of them was hanged in the presence of Perrot. The end of this war of extermination soon came, and Frontenac informed the minister that only five of these rangers of the wood remained at large; all the others had returned to the settlements, and given up their hazardous calling.
The old jealousy between Quebec and Montreal now showed itself again. The Sulpitians thought that Frontenac had acted a high-handed part in placing La Nouguère in command over their district without as much as consulting them. Perrot was still their selected governor, and they revolted against the arbitrary conduct of the Governor-General. They roused the colonists against Frontenac’s course, and the Abbé Fénelon, who possessed many of the indiscretions of youth, and who felt that he had been trapped, became the most bitter of the Count’s enemies. Before he left Quebec to return home, he gave his former friend a good deal of abuse; and his first act on reaching Montreal was to preach a sermon full of meaning against Frontenac. Dollier de Casson, the superior of the congregation, reproved the preacher and disclaimed the sermon. Fénelon, in turn, declared that bad rulers in general, and not Frontenac in particular, were meant; but his future conduct belied his words. He made the cause of Perrot his own, and was active in his behalf. Frontenac summoned him before the council on a charge of inciting sedition. The Abbé d’Urfé, a relative of Fénelon, tried to smooth matters over with the Count, but he fared very ill, and was shown the door for his pains.
And now ensued a remarkable trial before the council at Quebec. Perrot was charged with disobeying the royal edicts and of treating with contempt the royal authority. The other offender was the Abbé Fénelon. Frontenac had a pliant council to second his wishes. The councillors owed their positions to him, and as he had power to remove them when he willed, they soon ranged themselves on his side, and showed that they were friendly to his cause. Perrot challenged the right of the Governor-General to preside over the case, on the ground that he was a personal enemy. He moreover objected to several of the councillors on various pretexts. New judges were appointed for the trial, and Perrot’s protests continuing, the board overruled all his exceptions, and the trial went on. Other sessions proceeded to try the impetuous Abbé. Frontenac presided at the council-board. When Fénelon was led in, he seated himself in a vacant chair, though ordered to stand by the Count, and persisted in wearing his hat firmly pressed over his brows. Hot words passed between the Governor and his prisoner, the result of which was that the Abbé was put under arrest. The priest assumed that Frontenac had no right to try him, and that the ecclesiastical court alone had jurisdiction over him. The war grew fierce, and the councillors, half afraid of what they had done, at length decided to refer the question to the King himself. The Governor of Montreal and the vehement Abbé were accordingly despatched to France, and all the documents relating to the case were sent with them. Frontenac presented his side of the argument in a long despatch, which, considering his provocation, was moderate in tone and calm in judgment. The Abbé d’Urfé accompanied the prisoners to France, and as his cousin, the Marquise d’Allègre, was shortly to marry Seignelay, the son of Colbert, he hoped much from his visit. Perrot, too, was not without friends near the King: Talon, his wife’s relative, held a post at court. Besides these influences the Church had other means at work.