1689.]

FEROCITY OF THE VICTORS.

189

where their friends, wives, parents, or children agonized in the fires of the Iroquois, and scenes were enacted of indescribable and nameless horror. The greater part of the prisoners were, however, reserved to be distributed among the towns of the confederacy, and there tortured for the diversion of the inhabitants. While some of the invaders went home to celebrate their triumph, others roamed in small parties through all the upper parts of the colony, spreading universal terror.1

1 The best account of the descent of the Iroquois at La Chine is that of the Recueil de ce qui s'est passé en Canada, 1682-1712. The writer was an officer under Subercase, and was on the spot. Belmont, Superior of the mission of Montreal, also gives a trustworthy account in his Histoire du Canada. Compare La Hontan, i. 193 (1709), and La Potherie, ii. 229. Further particulars are given in the letters of Callières, 8 November; Champigny, 16 November; and Frontenac, 15 November. Frontenac, after visiting the scene of the catastrophe a few weeks after it occurred, writes: "Ils [les Iroquois] avoient bruslé plus de trois lieues de pays, saccagé toutes les maisons jusqu'aux portes de la ville, enlevé plus de six vingt personnes, tant hommes, femmes, qu'enfants, après avoir massacré plus de deux cents dont ils avoient cassé la teste aux uns, bruslé, rosty, et mangé les autres, ouvert le ventre des femmes grosses pour en arracher les enfants, et fait des cruautez inouïes et sans exemple." The details given by Belmont, and by the author of Histoire de l'Eau de Vie en Canada, are no less revolting. The lastmentioned writer thinks that the massacre was a judgment of God upon the sale of brandy at La Chine.

Some Canadian writers have charged the English with instigating the massacre. I find nothing in contemporary documents to support the accusation. Denonville wrote to the minister, after the Rat's treachery came to light, that Andros had forbidden the Iroquois to attack the colony. Immediately after the attack at La Chine, the Iroquois sachems, in a conference with the agents of New England, declared that "we did not make war on the French at the persuasion of our brethren at Albany; for we did not so

Canada lay bewildered and benumbed under the shock of this calamity; but the cup of her misery was not full. There was revolution in England. James II., the friend and ally of France, had been driven from his kingdom, and William of Orange had seized his vacant throne. Soon there came news of war between the two crowns. The Iroquois alone had brought the colony to the brink of ruin; and now they would be supported by the neighboring British colonies, rich, strong, and populous, compared with impoverished and depleted Canada.

A letter of recall for Denonville was already on its way. His successor arrived in October, and the marquis sailed for France. He was a good soldier in a regular war and a subordinate command; and he had some of the qualities of a good governor, while lacking others quite as essential. He had more activity than vigor, more personal bravery than firmness, and more clearness of perception than executive power. He filled his despatches with excellent recommendations, but was not the man to carry them into effect. He was sensitive, fastidious, critical, and conventional, and plumed himself on his honor, which was not always able to bear a strain; though as regards illegal trade, the besetting sin of Canadian governors, his hands were undoubtedly clean. It is said that he had an instinctive antipathy

much as acquaint them of our intention till fourteen days after our army had begun their march."- Report of Conference in Colden, 103. 1 Le Roy à Denonville, 31 Mai, 1689.

2 "I shall only add one article, on which possibly you will find it

1689.]

CHARACTER OF DENONVILLE.

191

for Indians, such as some persons have for certain animals; and the coureurs de bois, and other lawless classes of the Canadian population, appeared to please him no better. Their license and insubordination distressed him, and he constantly complained of them to the King. For the Church and its hierarchy his devotion was unbounded; and his government was a season of unwonted sunshine for the ecclesiastics, like the balmy days of the Indian summer amid the gusts of November. They exhausted themselves in eulogies of his piety; and, in proof of its depth and solidity, Mother Juchereau tells us that he did not regard station and rank as very useful aids to salvation. While other governors complained of too many priests, Denonville begged for more. All was harmony between him and Bishop SaintVallier; and the prelate was constantly his friend, even to the point of justifying his worst act, the treacherous seizure of the Iroquois neutrals.1 When he left Canada, the only mourner besides the churchmen was his colleague, the intendant Champigny; for the two chiefs of the colony, joined in a common

strange that I have said nothing; namely, whether the governor carries on any trade. I shall answer, No; but my Lady the Governess [Madame la Gouvernante], who is disposed not to neglect any opportunity for making a profit, had a room, not to say a shop, full of goods, till the close of last winter, in the château of Quebec, and found means afterwards to make a lottery to get rid of the rubbish that remained, which produced her more than her good merchandise."― Relation of the State of Affairs in Canada, 1688, in V. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 388. This paper was written at Quebec.

1 Saint-Vallier, État Présent, 91, 92 (Quebec, 1856).

union with the Jesuits, lived together in unexampled concord. On his arrival at court, the good offices of his clerical allies gained for him the highly honorable post of governor of the royal children, the young Dukes of Burgundy, Anjou, and Berri.

FOR QUEBEC.

CHAPTER X.

1689, 1690.

RETURN OF FRONTENAC.

FRONTENAC AND THE KING. FRONTENAC SAILS

DE

PROJECTED CONQUEST OF NEW YORK. SIGNS OF THE KING.-FAILURE. - ENERGY OF FRONTENAC.— FORT FRONTENAC.

IN COUNCIL.

PANIC.-NEGOTIATIONS.

CHEVALIER D'AUX.

- THE IROQUOIS

- TAUNTS OF THE INDIAN ALLIES.BOLDNESS OF FRONTENAC.-AN IROQUOIS DEFEAT. - CRUEL POLICY. THE STROKE PARRIED.

THE Sun of Louis XIV. had reached its zenith. From a morning of unexampled brilliancy it had mounted to the glare of a cloudless noon; but the hour of its decline was near. The mortal enemy of France was on the throne of England, turning against her from that new point of vantage all the energies of his unconquerable genius. An invalid built the Bourbon monarchy, and another invalid battered and defaced the imposing structure, two potent and daring spirits in two frail bodies, Richelieu and William of Orange.

Versailles gave no sign of waning glories. On three evenings of the week, it was the pleasure of the King that the whole court should assemble in the vast suite of apartments now known as the Halls