CHAPTER X. 



1689, 1690. 

 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. 



Versailles. — Frontenac and the King. — Frontenac sails for 

 Quebec. — Projected Conquest of New York. — Designs of 

 the King. — Failure. — Energy of Frontenac. — Fort Fron- 

 tenac. — Panic. — Negotiations. — The Iroquois in Council. 

 — Chevalier d'Aux. — Taunts of the Indian Allies. — Bold- 

 ness of Frontenac. — An Iroquois Defeat. — Cruel Policy. — 

 The Stroke parried. 



The sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. 

 From a morning of unexampled brilliancy it had 

 mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon ; but the 

 hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemv 

 of France was on the throne of England, turning 

 against her from that new point of vantage all the 

 energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid 

 built the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid 

 battered and defaced the imposing structure : two 

 potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies, Riche- 

 lieu and William of Orange. 



Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On 

 three evenings of the week, it was the pleasure of 

 the king that the whole court should assemble in 

 the vast suite of apartments now known as the 

 Halls of Abundance, of Venus, of Diana, of Mars, 



