DECADE OF FEBNCH EULB. 17 



three other of his brothers fouud protectors, who pushed them on beyond their most 

 sanguine hopes." 



Varin and Martel, by monopolising the outfits of the traders and of their canoes, with 

 the assistance of the Friponne, brought commerce at Montreal to its lowest ebb, and raised 

 a storm of indignation. 



Cadet had, in his employ, for several years, a person by the name of Corpron, a 

 worthless clerk, previously expelled from several mercantile houses for his rogueries, but 

 withal, intelligent and a good business man. Corpron having a share in Cadet's ventures 

 had become his confidential agent. His searching eye pried the first into the official 

 returns and public accounts of expenditure furnished to the Commissary General. None 

 kuew what his particular share of the spoils might be, biit ere long he was reputed to 

 be enormously wealthy. The charge of Montreal and of the more distant posts were 

 entrusted to Peuisseault and Maurin. 



" Penisseault was preeminent for out-door duty ; successful in conducting negotia- 

 tions and in overseeing public works ; ever watchful, but treacherous and double in his 

 dealings. It was reported that he had been compelled to leave France on account of 

 business transactions. He had married quite a handsome wife, the daughter of a 

 Montreal merchant. She became Péan's mistress, but the great Chevalier de Levis, 

 on returning to France, carried her off with him." The Canadian Aspasia is likely to 

 reappear, hereafter, in Paris, as a successfiil suppliant for favours from Duke de Choiseul. 

 Not unlike the Barons of old. General de Levis seems to have claimed the feudal right of 

 prelibalion of the choisest produ.cts of the colonists, their wives included. The memoirs 

 add that gallantry, on the part of the witty, pretty but frail Madame Penisseaujt, though 

 it " alienated " her from her licentiovis spouse, failed to cause a rupture between them. 

 The accommodating official instead of drowning himself, or blowing out his brains, or 

 sighing for a divorce, found solace in the favors granted him by the wives of his 

 subalterns.' 



Let lis close this mosaic of public plunderers, debauchees and demireps which France 

 either sent or maintained in Canada, with the pen photograph furnished of the hideous 

 hunchback Maurin. How long might not this intolerable state of things have lasted 

 under the Bourbons ? Madame de Pompadour, who ruled at Versailles, under the name of 

 Louis XV, was, unquestionably, well represented at Quebec. Here is what the memoirs 

 say of this notable member of the ring : — 



" Maurin was the most deformed man in the colony ; he was a hunchback, with a 

 sinister expression in his face and in his whole deportment, but nature had imparted to 

 him wit and even culture. He carried expenditure, in Canada, to its extreme limit, 

 and as to hoarding money. Cadet could not have selected two more successful men than 

 Maurin [and Corpron] uniting craftiness to vexatious means. Never was there in the 

 colony, a more striking example of public robbery, followed by profuse expenditure — re- 

 maining defiant and unpunished." 



It seems incredible to realise the horde of low-born parasites and hirelings surround- 

 ing Bigot, and the number of intriguing women paying court to the reigning favourite, 

 Madame Péân. 



' " Sa vie licencieuse l'aliéna d'elle, sans cependant rompre ; et il s'en dédommagea sur les femmes de ceux 

 qui étaient sous ses ordres." Mémoires sur les Affaires de la Colonie, 1749— 1 700, p. 87. 



Sec. II, 1888. 3. 



