The Fighting Governor | Page 8

he saw its shores. The best that the Venetians and the French could do
was to fight for favourable terms of surrender. These they gained. In
September 1669 the Venetians evacuated the city of Candia, taking
with them their cannon, all their munitions of war, and all their
movable property.
The Cretan expedition not only confirmed but enhanced the standing
which Frontenac had won in his youth. And within three years from the
date of his return he received the king's command to succeed the
governor Courcelles at Quebec.
Gossip busied itself a good deal over the immediate causes of
Frontenac's appointment to the government of Canada. The post was
hardly a proconsular prize. At first sight one would not think that a
small colony destitute of social gaiety could have possessed attractions
to a man of Frontenac's rank and training. The salary amounted to but
eight thousand livres a year. The climate was rigorous, and little glory
could come from fighting the Iroquois. The question arose, did
Frontenac desire the appointment or was he sent into polite exile?

There was a story that he had once been a lover of Madame de
Montespan, who in 1672 found his presence near the court an
inconvenience. Others said that Madame de Frontenac had eagerly
sought for him the appointment on the other side of the world. A third
theory was that, owing to his financial straits, the government gave him
something to keep body and soul together in a land where there were no
great temptations to spend money.
Motives are often mixed; and behind the nomination there may have
been various reasons. But whatever weight we allow to gossip, it is not
necessary to fall back on any of these hypotheses to account for
Frontenac's appointment or for his willingness to accept. While there
was no immediate likelihood of a war involving France and England,
[Footnote: By the Treaty of Dover (May 20, 1670) Charles II received a
pension from France and promised to aid Louis XIV in war with
Holland.] and consequent trouble from the English colonies in America,
New France required protection from the Iroquois. And, as a soldier,
Frontenac had acquitted himself with honour. Nor was the post thought
to be insignificant. Madame de Sevigne's son-in-law, the Comte de
Grignan, was an unsuccessful candidate for it in competition with
Frontenac. For some years both the king and Colbert had been giving
real attention to the affairs of Canada. The Far West was opening up;
and since 1665 the population of the colony had more than doubled. To
Frontenac the governorship of Canada meant promotion. It was an
office of trust and responsibility, with the opportunity to extend the
king's power throughout the region beyond the Great Lakes. And if the
salary was small, the governor could enlarge it by private trading.
Whatever his motives, or the motives of those who sent him, it was a
good day for Frontenac when he was sent to Canada. In France the
future held out the prospect of little but a humiliating scramble for
sinecures. In Canada he could do constructive work for his king and
country.
Those who cross the sea change their skies but not their character.
Frontenac bore with him to Quebec the sentiments and the habits which
befitted a French noble of the sword. [Footnote: Frontenac's enemies
never wearied of dwelling upon his uncontrollable rage. A most

interesting discussion of this subject will be found in Frontenac et Ses
Amis by M. Ernest Myrand (p. 172). For the bellicose qualities of the
French aristocracy see also La Noblesse Francaise sous Richelieu by
the Vicomte G. d'Avenel.] The more we know about the life of his class
in France, the better we shall understand his actions as governor of
Canada. His irascibility, for example, seems almost mild when
compared with the outbreaks of many who shared with him the
traditions and breeding of a privileged order. Frontenac had grown to
manhood in the age of Richelieu, a period when fierceness was a
special badge of the aristocracy. Thus duelling became so great a
menace to the public welfare that it was made punishable with death;
despite which it flourished to such an extent that one nobleman, the
Chevalier d'Andrieux, enjoyed the reputation of having slain
seventy-two antagonists.
Where duelling is a habitual and honourable exercise, men do not take
the trouble to restrain primitive passions. Even in dealings with ladies
of their own rank, French nobles often stepped over the line where
rudeness ends and insult begins. When Malherbe boxed the ears of a
viscountess he did nothing which he was unwilling to talk about.
Ladies not less than lords treated their servants like dirt, and justified
such conduct by the statement that the base-born deserve no
consideration. There was,