1675-82.] FRONTENAC ASKS FOR HELP. 59 



offices of the intendant. It results from what I 

 fully know from every thing which reaches me 

 from Canada, proving but too well what you are 

 doing there. The bishop, the ecclesiastics, the 

 Jesuit fathers, the Supreme Council, and, in a word, 

 everybody, complain of you ; but I am willing to 

 believe that you will change your conduct, and 

 act with the moderation necessary for the good of 

 the colony." l 



Colbert wrote in a similar strain ; and Frontenac 

 saw that his position was becoming critical. He 

 showed, it is true, no sign of that change of con- 

 duct which the king had demanded ; but he ap- 

 pealed to his allies at court to use fresh efforts to 

 sustain him. Among the rest, he had a strong 

 friend in the Marechal cle Bellefonds, to whom he 

 wrote, in the character of an abused and much- 

 suffering man : " You exhort me to have patience, 

 and I agree with you that those placed in a posi- 

 tion of command cannot have too much. For this 

 reason, I have given examples of it here such as 

 perhaps no governor ever gave before ; and I 

 have found no great difficulty in doing so, because 

 I felt myself to be the master. Had I been in 

 a private station, I could not have endured such 

 outrageous insults without dishonor. I have al- 

 ways passed over in silence those directed against 

 me personally ; and have never given way to 

 anger, except when attacks were made on the 

 authority of which I have the honor to be the 

 guardian. You could not believe all the an- 



i Le Roy a Frontenac, 29 Avril, 1680. 



