is wife seem to have been
amicable, but they did not live together. His great friend was the
Marechal de Bellefonds, from whom he received many favours of
hospitality. In 1685 the king gave him a pension of thirty-five
hundred livres, though without assigning him any post of dignity.
Already a veteran, his record could hardly be called successful. His
merits were known to the people of Canada; they believed him to be a
tower of strength against the Iroquois. At Versailles the fact stood
out most plainly that through infirmities of temper he had lost his
post. His pension might save him from penury. It was far too small to
give him real independence.

Had either La Barre or Denonville proved equal to the government of
Canada, it is almost {114} certain that Frontenac would have ended his
days ingloriously at Versailles, ascending the stairs of others with
all the grief which is the portion of disappointed old age. Their
failure was his opportunity, and from the dreary antechambers of a
court he mounts to sudden glory as the saviour of New France.

There is some doubt, as we have seen, concerning the causes which gave
Frontenac his appointment in 1672. At that time court favour may have
operated on his behalf, or it may have seemed desirable that he should
reside for a season out of France. But in 1689 graver considerations
came into play. At the moment when the Iroquois were preparing to
ravage Canada, the expulsion of James II from his throne had broken the
peace between France and England. The government of New France was now
no post for a court favourite. Louis XIV had expended much money and
effort on the colony. Through the mismanagement of La Barre and
Denonville everything appeared to be on the verge of ruin. It is
inconceivable that Frontenac, then in his seventieth year, should have
been renominated for any other cause than merit. Times and conditions
had changed. The task now was not to work peaceably with bishop {115}
and intendant, but to destroy the foe. Father Goyer, the Recollet who
delivered Frontenac's funeral oration, states that the king said when
renewing his commission: 'I send you back to Canada, where I expect you
will serve me as well as you did before; I ask for nothing more.' This
is a bit of too gorgeous rhetoric, which none the less conveys the
truth. The king was not reappointing Frontenac because he was, on the
whole, satisfied with what he had done before; he was reappoi