o see
how the people there were behaving. I always kept a
cheerful and smiling face, and encouraged my little
company with the hope of speedy succour.

"We were a week in constant alarm, with the enemy always
about us. At last Monsieur de la Monnerie, a lieutenant
sent by Monsieur de Callieres, arrived in the night with
forty men. As he did not know whether the fort was taken
or not, he approached as silently as possible. One of our
sentinels hearing a slight sound, cried 'Qui vive?' I was
dozing at the time, with my head on the table and my gun
lying across my arms. The sentinel told me that he heard
a voice from the river. I went up at once to the bastion
to see whether it was Indians or Frenchmen. I asked,
'Who are you?' One of them answered, 'We are Frenchmen;
it is La Monnerie, who comes to bring you help.'

"I caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel there,
and went down to the river to meet them. As soon as I saw
Monsieur de la Monnerie, I saluted him, and said,
'Monsieur, I surrender my arms to you.' He answered
gallantly, 'Mademoiselle, they are in good hands.'
'Better than you think,' I returned.

"La Monnerie inspected the fort and found everything in
good order, and a sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time
to relieve them, Monsieur,' I said; 'we have not been off
our bastions for a week.'"[19]

The inner politics of Quebec shared fully the unrest of this critical
time. The place had all the intrigue of an Italian republic; and with
its political, religious, and social cleavages, the wonder is that a
city so divided against itself was able to stand in the hour of
outward adversity. To make clear the underlying causes of such civil
strife, it is necessary to go back to the year 1659, when the most
notable ecclesiastic in the history of New France arrived in Quebec.

[Footnote 19: Parkman's _Frontenac_ c.14 (quoting from _Collection de
l'Abbe Ferland_).]

Francois-Xavier Laval was born in 1622 at Montigny-sur-Avre. Brought
up at the College of the Jesuits at Lafleche, a prolonged sojourn in
the famous Hermitage of Caen set the seal of a militant mysticism upon
his life. While still young the death of an elder brother had made him
heir to the title and wealth of one of the most distinguished families
in France; but the ardent student renounced these feudal glories that
he might devote himself entirely to the service of God