Canada, and had there been a Frontenac in Quebec when Wolfe came against the rocky fortress it is doubtful if the British troops would have succeeded in capturing the city. Certainly Frontenac would never have allowed his troops to face in a pitched battle the veterans composing Wolfe's force.

This illustrious governor was an aristocrat of an ancient and noble Basque family. His father held a high position at the court of Louis XIII, and the king became Frontenac's god-father and had him christened Louis after himself. From his earliest years young Frontenac showed a passion for the life of a soldier, and at the age of fifteen was sent to the seat of war in Holland to serve under the Prince of Orange. He saw much fighting and before his twenty-third year had distinguished himself in a number of battles and sieges. His services were appreciated by his king, and, when twenty-three years old, he was made a colonel in the regiment of Normandy. He continued in the field and was several times wounded and in one engagement had an arm broken. When he was twenty-six years old he was raised to the rank of Maréchal de Camp (brigadier-general). He does not seem to have seen much active service after attaining this high military rank, but returned to Paris where he enjoyed a season of peace and spent his time in entertaining and being entertained.

It was during this time of peace that Frontenac met Anne de la Grange-Trianon, the beautiful daughter of one Sieur de Neuville. He fell passionately in love with this girl, and, after a romantic courtship, which was opposed by the father and friends of his fiancée, they were married in 1648. From the beginning, the marriage seems to have been an unhappy one. It could hardly have been otherwise; they were both strong characters and Frontenac's over-bearing manner and passionate bursts of temper could not fail to make a woman of character and intellect unhappy.

For twenty years but little is known of the life of Frontenac. During these years he entertained extravagantly, and on a small income endeavored to keep pace with the most fashionable grandees of Paris. In 1669, Venetian ambassadors came to the court of France asking aid against the Turks. several years the Turks had been attacking Candia in overwhelming numbers, and the Venetians felt that without the aid of France it would soon fall

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They requested forces, and likewise that a French officer should be placed in command of the troops operating against the Turks. The task of conducting these operations would need both courage and energy, and it speaks well for Frontenac that he was chosen for this important command. Candia fell, but so ably did Frontenac conduct the campaign that lustre was added to his name, and he was recognized as one of the ablest soldiers of his time.

Three years after his return from the Candia expedition he was appointed Governor and Lieutenant-General for the king in the colony of New France. According to writers of the period, his extravagance had left him deeply in debt and his domestic life was intensely unhappy. It was said that the king gave him this appointment "to deliver him from his wife and afford him some means of living." This can hardly be true, for although Frontenac and his wife were not congenial companions, during the whole course of their lives they seem to have had much respect for each other, and while he was in the wilderness of Canada Madame Frontenac was his most active partizan in the court of France and looked keenly after his interests.

Frontenac was not a young man when he set out for Canada. He had reached his fifty-second year, but was still youthful, fiercely passionate and possessed of a stubborn will. He was a courtier, and it seems strange that such a man should have been sent to rule over the vast wildernesses of Canada; but Frontenac was able to conform to his environment, and indeed from the moment he saw the shores of Canada he loved the country. The vast River St. Lawrence with its thickly wooded banks attracted his eye, and when he reached the lofty rock of Quebec a second Gibraltar, he held it as a fitting place to be the capital of a great empire and resolved within himself to firmly base such an empire.

As soon as he landed in Quebec he at once began to look after the interests of the colony. He did not wait for reports with regard to the country from the officials under him, but examined for himself every detail of the government, and anxiously inquired from all classes as to the needs of Canada. He conversed with traders, with hunters, with fishermen, and was soon thoroughly familiar with the land he had come to govern. One of his

first acts was to convoke a Council at Quebec and administer the oath of allegiance. He had his own ideas as to how Canada should be governed. The three orders of the State no longer assembled in France, but Frontenac thought that some such form of government might be adopted with advantage in Canada and he determined to establish these orders in the New World. The Jesuits and Seminary priests formed the first order, a few nobles and several officers served for the second, and the merchants and citizens for the third. It looked for a time as if the clergy, the nobles, and the commons were to have a voice in the ruling of Canada. He formed the members of the Council and the magistrates into a distinct body. When everything was ready for his new form of government the Jesuits lent him their church, and in it, on the 23rd of October, the three estates were convoked with suitable pomp and splendor. On this occasion Frontenac delivered a paternal and eloquent address to his children, for such he already began to consider the people of Canada, and after administering the oath of allegiance the assembly was dismissed.

Quebec was the centre of the life of the colony, and in Frontenac's opinion it was necessary to have a firm municipal government in the town. He proposed to establish one on the model of some of the French cities of his time. He ordered the public election of three alderman, of whom the senior should act as mayor; having done this he proposed with the assistance of the chief citizens to draw up a body of regulations for the government of the town. He went a step further in the direction of popular government; he ordained that a meeting should be held every six months for the discussion of public questions. Popular government was a thing frowned upon by the king of France, and some of the leading officials recognized that Frontenac's action would prove offensive to the French court. Talon, the Intendant, refused to attend the meeting, and when Colbert, the great Minister, heard of Frontenac's action he warned him against popular government, and pointed out that the meeting of the States-General had not been permitted for many years in France; and in a diplomatic way and with mild censure, forbade him to establish popular government.

From the beginning of his rule Frontenac had a succession of quarrels with the leading men in the colony. He was a man, by culture, travel and experience, far superior to his confederates, and he was impatient of their opposition to his wishes. He was on the eve of a quarrel with Talon when the Intendant was recalled to France. However, he managed to become embroiled with the clergy at a very early date in his rule and began that antagonism to the Jesuits which ended only with his death. He took a lively interest in the Indians, and put forth every effort to civilize them. He had a genuine affection for the red men, and this affection was returned; he called them children and they looked up to him as a father. His motives in treating the Indians generously were not altogether unmixed, as he was, like all other men in the colony, interested in the fur-trade. The clergy were not above trade, and Frontenac bitterly complained that the Jesuits thought more of "beaver-skins than of souls."

It was during his first term that he was attracted towards La Salle and it was due to Frontenac's admiration for that dauntless discoverer that the great West and the Mississippi became known to the world. The monopoly granted La Salle, as has already been seen in that distinguished discoverer's life, embroiled Frontenac with Perrot, the Governor of Montreal, and the priests of that community. The quarrel was a bitter one, and echoes of it reached the court at France, but the king and his minister showed marvellous forbearance with Frontenac.

They took measures, however, to curb his power. Up to this time the appointment and removal of councillors had rested, in the absence of the bishop, solely with the Governor. It was now ordained that the councillors should be appointed by the king himself, and this naturally served as a check on Frontenac.

After the recall of the Intendant Talon, Frontenac for a time ruled alone, but Bishop Laval and another Intendant, Duchesneau, arrived in New France. Bishop Laval was as little capable of bearing opposition to his wishes as was Frontenac. He had quarreled with all the previous governors under whom he had served, and was not long in the country before he was at daggers-drawn with the new governor. His quarrel was a righteous one;

Frontenac, for gain, was interested in the trade in brandy, and to this nefarious business Laval would lend no countenance.

Frontenac quarreled, too, with the Intendant about the honors and precedence at church and in religious ceremonies. Bitter letters passed between the colony and old France, and in due time these quarrels were settled only to give way to others. Frontenac was warned to be careful, but he could brook no opposition, and banished without just cause two councillors, Villeray and Tilly, and the attorney-general, Auteuil, from Quebec. This was too much for the king, and he wrote an angry letter to his governor saying that, but for the pleading of Frontenac's friends and the assurance that he would act with more moderation in the future, and never again fall into like offence, he would have recalled him. Colbert wrote him with equal severity.

Frontenac, however, could not keep out of quarrels and he was soon in the midst of one brought on by the fur-trade in which he was interested. Duchesneau was at the head of one faction in the country and the Governor at the head of another. The whole colony took sides and letters denouncing Frontenac and Duchesneau reached the Minister. Duchesneau bitterly accused Frontenac of using his office for his own aggrandisement and of abusing the great trust the king had confided in him. Frontenac on the other hand accused Duchesneau of insubordination and falsehood. So fierce was this party-quarrel that blows were given and on several occasions swords were drawn in the streets of Quebec. It got to such a pitch that, at length, the king decided to recall both Frontenac and Duchesneau. He could not have done otherwise; and yet it was a sad day for the colony when Frontenac sailed from Quebec. He had begun the work of reconciling the Indians and had done much to win the wavering ones to the French. By his removal the good work he had initiated was lost, and the colony was to pass through a bloody trial, but in the hour of supreme need Frontenac was to return to save it.

When Frontenac was recalled to France an Indian war was threatening the colony and La Barre, the new governor, a soldier inexperienced in the warfare of America, was not the man to cope with the situation. At this