186 RETURN OF FRONTENAC. [1689. 



though he had not heard as yet of the last great 

 calamity, he was sated with ill tidings already. 



Count Frontenac stood before him. Since his 

 recall, he had lived at court, needy and no longer 

 in favor; but he had influential friends, and an 

 intriguing wife, always ready to serve him. The 

 king knew his merits as well as his faults ; and, in 

 the desperate state of his Canadian affairs, he had 

 been led to the resolution of restoring him to the 

 command from which, for excellent reasons, he 

 had removed him seven years before. He now 

 told him that, in his belief, the charges brought 

 against him were without foundation. 1 " I send 

 you back to Canada," he is reported to have said, 

 " where I am sure that you will serve me as well 

 as you did before ; and I ask nothing more of 

 3'ou." 2 The post was not a tempting one to a 

 man in his seventieth year. Alone and unsup- 

 ported, — for the king, with Europe rising against 

 him, would give him no more troops, — he was to 

 restore the prostrate colony to hope and courage, 

 and fight two enemies with a force that had proved 

 no match for one of them alone. The audacious 

 count trusted himself, and undertook the task ; re- 

 ceived the royal instructions, and took his last 

 leave of the master whom even he after a fashion 

 honored and admired. 



He repaired to Rochelle, where two ships of the 

 royal navy were waiting his arrival, embarked in 



1 Journal cle Dangeau, II. 390. Frontenac, since his recall, had not 

 been wholly without marks of royal favor. In 1G85, the king gave him 

 a " gratification " of 3,500 francs. Ibid., I. 205. 



- Goyer, Oraison Funebre da Comte de Frontenac, 



