Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV | Page 6

anybody else should venture to think of them I cannot
comprehend."
"While Frontenac was at St. Fargeau," she continues, "he kept open
table, and many of my people went to dine with him; for he affected to
hold court, and acted as if everybody owed duty to him. The
conversation was always about my affair with his Royal Highness (_her
father_), whose conduct towards me was always praised, while mine
was blamed. Frontenac spoke ill of Préfontaine, and, in fine, said every

thing he could to displease me and stir up my own people against me.
He praised every thing that belonged to himself, and never came to sup
or dine with me without speaking of some _ragoút_ or some new
sweetmeat which had been served up on his table, ascribing it all to the
excellence of the officers of his kitchen. The very meat that he ate,
according to him, had a different taste on his board than on any other.
As for his silver plate, it was always of good workmanship; and his
dress was always of patterns invented by himself. When he had new
clothes, he paraded them like a child. One day he brought me some to
look at, and left them on my dressing-table. We were then at Chambord.
His Royal Highness came into the room, and must have thought it odd
to see breeches and doublets in such a place. Préfontaine and I laughed
about it a great deal. Frontenac took everybody who came to St.
Fargeau to see his stables; and all who wished to gain his good graces
were obliged to admire his horses, which were very indifferent. In short,
this is his way in every thing." [Footnote: _Mémoires de Mademoiselle
de Montpensier_, II. 279; III. 10.]
Though not himself of the highest rank, his position at court was, from
the courtier point of view, an enviable one. The princess, after her
banishment had ended, more than once mentions incidentally that she
had met him in the cabinet of the queen. Her dislike of him became
intense, and her fondness for his wife changed at last to aversion. She
charges the countess with ingratitude. She discovered, or thought that
she discovered, that in her dispute with her father, and in certain
dissensions in her own household, Madame de Frontenac had acted
secretly in opposition to her interests and wishes. The imprudent lady
of honor received permission to leave her service. It was a woeful scene.
"She saw me get into my carriage," writes the princess, "and her
distress was greater than ever. Her tears flowed abundantly: as for me,
my fortitude was perfect, and I looked on with composure while she
cried. If any thing could disturb my tranquility, it was the recollection
of the time when she laughed while I was crying." Mademoiselle de
Montpensier had been deeply offended, and apparently with reason.
The countess and her husband received an order never again to appear
in her presence; but soon after, when the princess was with the king and
queen at a comedy in the garden of the Louvre, Frontenac, who had
previously arrived, immediately changed his position, and with his

usual audacity took a post so conspicuous that she could not help
seeing him. "I confess," she says, "I was so angry that I could find no
pleasure in the play; but I said nothing to the king and queen, fearing
that they would not take such a view of the matter as I wished."
[Footnote: _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. [Footnote: _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