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Parkman, Francis, 1823-1893

"Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV"


CONCLUSION.
THE NEW GOVERNOR.--ATTITUDE OF THE IROQUOIS.--NEGOTIATIONS.--EMBASSY
TO ONONDAGA.--PEACE.--THE IROQUOIS AND THE ALLIES.--DIFFICULTIES.--
DEATH OF THE GREAT HURON.--FUNERAL, RITES.--THE GRAND COUNCIL.--THE
WORK OF FRONTENAC FINISHED.--RESULTS.

It did not need the presence of Frontenac to cause snappings and
sparks in the highly electrical atmosphere of New France. Callieres
took his place as governor _ad interim_, and in due time received a
formal appointment to the office. Apart from the wretched state of his
health, undermined by gout and dropsy, he was in most respects well
fitted for it; but his deportment at once gave umbrage to the
excitable Champigny, who declared that he had never seen such
_hauteur_ since he came to the colony. Another official was still more
offended. "Monsieur de Frontenac," he says, "was no sooner dead than
trouble began. Monsieur de Callieres, puffed up by his new authority,
claims honors due only to a marshal of France. It would be a different
matter if he, like his predecessor, were regarded as the father of the
country, and the love and delight of the Indian allies. At the review
at Montreal, he sat in his carriage, and received the incense offered
him with as much composure and coolness as if he had been some
divinity of this New World.


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