oreover, Talon, the skilled agent of Colbert, wishing to
readjust and balance the disproportionate elements of the body
politic, had written in 1670 advising the re-introduction of the
Recollet priests, who arrived eight years later to counterbalance the
Jesuit forces.

The advent of Frontenac, likewise, had been a severe blow to the
priestly autocracy, his strong and reckless character stamping him as
a man who required careful handling. In fact, Laval and the Jesuits
preferred a vicarious warfare, and confined themselves to supporting
the Intendant Duchesneau in his quarrels with the Governor.

Notwithstanding these rebuffs, however, the great prelate accomplished
a lasting work. To this day a daily procession of schoolboys walks
through the streets of Upper Town arresting attention by their
singular dress--a battalion similar to that which, two hundred years
ago, appeared in the like quaint costume. These are the boys of the
_Seminaire de Laval_. This seminary of Quebec was Laval's most notable
foundation; and though many generations have slipped away since it
began, the classic school above the Sault-au-Matelot still remains to
recruit and train the ranks of a priesthood whose attainments, piety,
and character are honoured throughout the Catholic world.

Late in the afternoon fourscore of these youthful devotees swing out
along the Rue St. Jean to the Ste. Foye road for recreation. They go
in orderly rows, from the youngest and smallest back to the two
priests, in black _soutanes_ and broad-brimmed hats, who bring up the
rear. _Regimes_ have come and gone, but this perennial column still
marches out of the past incongruously garbed in peaked caps, black
frockcoats faced with green braid, and girt at the waist with a green
woollen scarf. This is the daily memorial of the eccentric, despotic,
but beneficent bishop, who lived a life of almost abject poverty,
devoting the revenues of the most wealthy seigneury in New France[20]
to the maintenance of his beloved _Seminaire_. He has left his name
also to the splendid university which completes the work so well begun
by the _Seminaire_.

[Footnote 20: Laval was the owner of the Seigneury of Beauport and the
Isle d'Orleans, which by royal edict had been freed from feudal
burdens. By the census of 1667 it was found to contain more than
one-fourth of the entire population of Canada.]

For almost forty years Laval had dominated the Church of New France,
the whole period