CHAPTER XV. 



1691-1695. 

 AN INTEELUDE. 



Appeal of Frontenac. — His Opponents. — His Services. — Rival- 

 ry and Strife. — Bishop Saint- Vallier. — Society at the 

 Chateau. — Private Theatricals. — Alarm of the Clergy. — 

 Tartuffe. — A Singular Bargain. — Mareuil and the Bishop. 

 — Mareuil on Trial. — Zeal of Saint- Vallier. — Scandals at 

 Montreal. — Appeal to the King. — The Strife composed. — 

 Libel against Frontenac. 



While the Canadians hailed Frontenac as a 

 father, he fonnd also some recognition of his ser- 

 vices from his masters at the court. The king 

 wrote him a letter with his own hand, to express 

 satisfaction at the defence of Quebec, and sent him 

 a gift of two thousand crowns. He greatly needed 

 the money, but prized the letter still more, and 

 wrote to his relative, the minister Ponchartrain : 

 " The gift you procured for me, this year, has 

 helped me very much towards paying the great 

 expenses which the crisis of our affairs and the 

 excessive cost of living here have caused me ; but, 

 though I receive this mark of his Majesty's good- 

 ness with the utmost respect and gratitude, I con- 

 fess that I feel far more deeply the satisfaction 

 that he has been pleased to express with my ser- 

 vices. The raising of the siege of Quebec did not 



