" [Footnote: _Colbert a
Duchesneau_, 8 _Mai_, 1679]
Scarcely was this quarrel suppressed, when another sprang up. Since
the arrival of the intendant and the return of the bishop, the council
had ceased to be in the interest of Frontenac. Several of its members
were very obnoxious to him; and chief among these was Villeray, a
former councillor whom the king had lately reinstated. Frontenac
admitted him to his seat with reluctance. "I obey your orders," he
wrote mournfully to Colbert; "but Villeray is the principal and most
dangerous instrument of the bishop and the Jesuits." [Footnote:
_Frontenac au Ministre_, 14 _Nov._, 1674] He says, farther, that many
people think him to be a Jesuit in disguise, and that he is an
intriguing busybody, who makes trouble everywhere. He also denounces
the attorney-general, Auteuil, as an ally of the Jesuits. Another of
the reconstructed council, Tilly, meets his cordial approval; but he
soon found reason to change his mind concerning him.
The king had recently ordered that the intendant, though holding only
the third rank in the council, should act as its president. [Footnote:
_Declaration du Roy,_ 23 _Sept._, 1675.] The commission of Duchesneau,
however, empowered him to preside only in the absence of the governor;
[Footnote: "Presider au Conseil Souverain _en l'absence du dit Sieur
de Frontenac.
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