34 FRONTENAC AND PERROT. [1674. 



prisoner in the chateau, with guards placed over 

 him by day and night. Frontenac made choice of 

 one La Nouguere, a retired officer, whom he knew 

 that he could trust, and sent him to Montreal 

 to command in place of its captive gover- 

 nor. With him he sent also a judge of his own 

 selection. La Nouguere set himself to his work 

 with vigor. Perrot's agent or partner, Brucy, was 

 seized, tried, and imprisoned ; and an active hunt 

 was begun for his coureurs de bois. Among others, 

 the two who had been the occasion of the dispute 

 were captured and sent to Quebec, where one of 

 them was solemnly hanged before the window of 

 Perrot's prison ; with the view, no doubt, of pro- 

 ducing a chastening effect on the mind of the 

 prisoner. The execution was fully authorized, a 

 royal edict having ordained that bush-ranging was 

 an offence punishable with death. 1 As the result 

 of these proceedings, Frontenac reported to the 

 minister that only five coureurs de bois remained 

 at large ; all the rest having returned to the settle- 

 ments and made their submission, so that farther 

 hanging was needless. 



Thus the central power was vindicated, and 

 Montreal brought down from her attitude of par- 

 tial independence. Other results also followed, if 

 we may believe the enemies of Frontenac, who de- 

 clare that, by means of the new commandant 

 and other persons in his interest, the governor- 

 general possessed himself of a great part of the 

 trade from which he had ejected Perrot, and that 



1 Edits et Ordonnances. I. 73. 



