All the signs of the sky
foreboded storm.
The storm soon came. The occasion of it was that old vexed question of
the sale of brandy, which has been fully treated in another volume,
[Footnote: The Old Regime in Canada.] and on which it is needless to
dwell here. Another dispute quickly followed; and here, too, the
governor's chief adversaries were the bishop and the ecclesiastics.
Duchesneau, the new intendant, took part with them. The bishop and his
clergy were, on their side, very glad of a secular ally; for their
power had greatly fallen since the days of Mezy, and the rank and
imperious character of Frontenac appear to have held them in some awe.
They avoided as far as they could a direct collision with him, and
waged vicarious war in the person of their friend the intendant.
Duchesneau was not of a conciliating spirit, and he felt strong in the
support of the clergy; while Frontenac, when his temper was roused,
would fight with haughty and impracticable obstinacy for any position
which he had once assumed, however trivial or however mistaken. There
was incessant friction between the two colleagues in the exercise of
their respective functions, and occasions of difference were rarely
wanting.
The question now at issue was that of honors and precedence at church
and in religious ceremonies, matters of substantial importance under
the Bourbon rule.
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