The Fighting Governor | Page 5

New England that their
sons should have the rudiments of an education. [Footnote: For
example, Harvard College was founded in 1636, and there was a
printing-press at Cambridge, Mass., in 1638.] At this point the contrast
between New France and New England discloses conflicting ideals of
faith and duty. In later years the problem of knowledge assumed larger
proportions, but during the period of Frontenac the chief need of
Canada was heroism. Possessing this virtue abundantly, Canadians lost
no time in lamentations over the lack of books or the lack of wealth.
The duty of the hour was such as to exclude all remoter vistas. When
called on to defend his hearth and to battle for his race, the Canadian
was ready.

CHAPTER II
LOUIS DE BUADE, COMTE DE FRONTENAC
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, was born in 1620.
He was the son of Henri de Buade, a noble at the court of Louis XIII.
His mother, Anne de Phelippeaux, came from a stock which in the
early Bourbon period furnished France with many officials of high rank,
notably Louis de Phelippeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain. His father
belonged to a family of southern France whose estates lay originally in
Guienne. It was a fortunate incident in the annals of this family that
when Antoine de Bourbon became governor of Guienne (1555)
Geoffroy de Buade entered his service. Thenceforth the Buades were
attached by close ties to the kings of Navarre. Frontenac's grandfather,
Antoine de Buade, figures frequently in the Memoirs of Agrippa
d'Aubigne as aide-de-camp to Henry IV; Henri de Buade, Frontenac's
father, was a playmate and close friend of Louis XIII; [Footnote: As an
illustration of their intimacy, there is a story that one day when Henry
IV was indisposed he had these two boys on his bed, and amused
himself by making them fight with each other.] and Frontenac himself
was a godson and a namesake of the king.

While fortune thus smiled upon the cradle of Louis de Buade, some
important favours were denied. Though nobly born, Frontenac did not
spring from a line which had been of national importance for centuries,
like that of Montmorency or Chatillon. Nor did he inherit large estates.
The chief advantage which the Buades possessed came from their
personal relations with the royal family. Their property in Guienne was
not great, and neither Geoffroy, Antoine, nor Henri had possessed
commanding abilities. Nor was Frontenac the boyhood friend of his
king as his father had been, for Louis XIV was not born till 1638.
Frontenac's rank was good enough to give him a chance at the French
court. For the rest, his worldly prosperity would depend on his own
efforts.
Inevitably he became a soldier. He entered the army at fifteen. It was
one of the greatest moments in French history. Richelieu was prime
minister, and the long strife between France and the House of Hapsburg
had just begun to turn definitely in favour of France. Against the
Hapsburgs, with their two thrones of Spain and Austria, [Footnote:
Charles V held all his Spanish, Burgundian, and Austrian inheritance in
his own hand from 1519 to 1521. In 1521 he granted the Austrian
possessions to his brother Ferdinand. Thenceforth Spain and Austria
were never reunited, but their association in politics continued to be
intimate until the close of the seventeenth century.] stood the Great
Cardinal, ready to use the crisis of the Thirty Years' War for the benefit
of his nation--even though this meant a league with heretics. At the
moment when Frontenac first drew the sword France (in nominal
support of her German allies) was striving to conquer Alsace. The
victory which brought the French to the Rhine was won through the
capture of Breisach, at the close of 1638. Then in swift succession
followed those astounding victories of Conde and Turenne which
destroyed the military pre-eminence of Spain, took the French to the
gates of Munich, and wrung from the emperor the Peace of Westphalia
(1648).
During the thirteen years which followed Frontenac's first glimpse of
war it was a glorious thing to be a French soldier. The events of such an
era could not fail to leave their mark upon a high-spirited and valorous

youth. Frontenac was predestined by family tradition to a career of
arms; but it was his own impetuosity that drove him into war before the
normal age. He first served under Prince Frederick Henry of Orange,
who was then at the height of his reputation. After several campaigns in
the Low Countries his regiment was transferred to the confines of
Spain and France. There, in the year of Richelieu's death (1642), he
fought at the siege of Perpignan. That he distinguished himself may be
seen from his promotion, at twenty-three, to the rank