192 RETURN OF FROXTEXAC. [1689. 



various forts. Then he repaired to what was once 

 La Chine, and surveyed the miserable waste of 

 ashes and desolation that spread for miles around. 

 To his extreme disgust, he learned that Denon- 

 ville had sent a Canadian officer by secret paths to 

 Fort Frontenac, with orders to Valrenne, the com- 

 mandant, to blow it up, and return with his garrison 

 to Montreal. Frontenac had built the fort, had 

 given it his own name, and had cherished it with a 

 paternal fondness, reinforced by strong hopes of 

 making money out of it. For its sake he had be- 

 come the butt of scandal and opprobrium ; but not 

 the less had he always stood its strenuous and 

 passionate champion. An Iroquois envoy had lately 

 with great insolence demanded its destruction of 

 Denonville ; and this alone, in the eyes of Fronte- 

 nac, was ample reason for maintaining it at any 

 cost. 1 He still had hope that it might be saved, 

 and with all the energy of youth he proceeded to 

 collect canoes, men, provisions, and arms ; battled 

 against dejection, insubordination, and fear, and 

 in a few days despatched a convoy of three hun- 

 dred men to relieve the place, and stop the execu- 

 tion of Denonville's orders. His orders had been 

 but too promptly obeyed. The convoy was scarcely 

 gone an hour, when, to Frontenac' s unutterable 

 wrath, Valrenne appeared with his garrison. He 

 reported that he had set fire to every thing in the 

 fort that would burn, sunk the three vessels belong- 

 ing to it, thrown the cannon into the lake, mined 

 the walls and bastions, and left matches burning 



1 Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Nov., 1689. 



