32 FROXTEXAC AND PERROT. [1673. 



alarmed. He had resisted the royal authority, and 

 insulted its representative. The consequences 

 might be serious ; yet he could not bring himself 

 to retrace his steps. He merely released Bizard, 

 and sullenly permitted him to depart, with a letter 

 to the governor-general, more impertinent than 

 apologetic. 1 



Frontenac, as his enemies declare, was accus- 

 tomed, when enraged, to foam at the mouth. Per- 

 haps he did so when he learned the behavior of 

 Perrot. If he had had at command a few compa- 

 nies of soldiers, there can be little doubt that he 

 would have gone at once to Montreal, seized the 

 offender, and brought him back in irons ; but his 

 body-guard of twenty men was not equal to such 

 an enterprise. Nor would a muster of the militia 

 have served his purpose ; for the settlers about 

 Quebec were chiefly peaceful peasants, while the 

 denizens of Montreal were disbanded soldiers, fur 

 traders, and forest adventurers, the best fighters in 

 Canada. They were nearly all in the interest of 

 Perrot, who, if attacked, had the temper as well 

 as the ability to make a passionate resistance. 

 Thus civil war would have ensued, and the anger 

 of the king would have fallen on both parties. On 

 the other hand, if Perrot were left unpunished, the 

 conreurs de bois, of whom he was the patron, 

 would set no bounds to their audacity, and Fron- 

 tenac, who had been ordered to suppress them, 

 would be condemned as negligent or incapable. 



Among the priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal 



1 Jlemoire des Motifs, etc. 



