Frontenac was forty-one when Louis XIV dismissed Fouquet
and took Colbert for his chief adviser. At Versailles
everything depended on royal favour, and forty-one is an
important age. What would the young king do for Frontenac?
What were his gifts and qualifications?

It is plain that Frontenac's career, so vigorously begun
during the Thirty Years' War, had not developed in a like
degree during the period (1648-61) from the outbreak of
the Fronde to the death of Mazarin. There was no doubt
as to his capacity. Saint-Simon calls him 'a man of
excellent parts, living much in society.' And again, when
speaking of Madame de Frontenac, he says: 'Like her
husband she had little property and abundant wit.' The
bane of Frontenac's life at this time was his extravagance.
He lived like a millionaire till his money was gone. Not
far from Blois he had the estate of Isle Savary--a,
property quite suited to his station had he been prudent.
But his plans for developing it, with gardens, fountains,
and ponds, were wholly beyond his resources. At Versailles,
also, he sought to keep pace with men whose ancestral
wealth enabled them to do the things which he longed to
do, but which fortune had placed beyond his reach. Hence,
notwithstanding his buoyancy and talent, Frontenac had
gained a reputation for wastefulness which did not
recommend him, in 1661, to the prudent Colbert. Nor was
he fitted by character or training for administrative
duty. His qualifications were such as are of use at a
post of danger.