1675-80.] FRESH OUTBREAKS. 51 



and more particularly those appended to your let- 

 ters. He has thereupon ordered me distinctly to 

 make known to you his intentions." The minister 

 then proceeds to reprove him sharply in the name 

 of the king, and concludes : " It is difficult for me 

 to add any thing to what I have just said. Consider 

 well that, if it is any advantage or any satisfaction 

 to you that his Majesty should be satisfied with 

 your services, it is necessary that you change 

 entirely the conduct which you have hitherto 

 pursued." l 



This, one would think, might have sufficed to 

 bring the governor to reason, but the violence of 

 his resentments and antipathies overcame the very 

 slender share of prudence with which nature had 

 endowed him. One morning, as he sat at the head 

 of the council board, the bishop on his right hand, 

 and the intendant on his left, a woman made her 

 appearance with a sealed packet of papers. She 

 was the wife of the councillor Amours, whose chair 

 was vacant at the table. Important business was 

 in hand, the registration of a royal edict of am- 

 nesty to the courears de hois. The intendant, 

 who well knew what the packet contained, de- 

 manded that it should be opened. Frontenac in- 

 sisted that the business before the council should 



1 Colbert a Frontenac, 4 Dec, 1679. This letter seems to have been 

 sent by a special messenger by way of New England. It was too late 

 in the season to send directly to Canada. On the quarrel about the 

 presidency, Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679 ; Auteuil an Ministre, 

 10 Aug., 1679 ; Contestations entre le Sieur Comte de Frontenac et M. Duclu s- 

 neau, Chevalier. This last paper consists of voluminous extracts from 

 the records of the council. 



