Bizard, while Perrot, choking with passion, demanded, "How dare you
arrest an officer in my government without my leave?" The lieutenant
replied that he acted under orders of the governor-general, and gave
Frontenac's letter to Perrot, who immediately threw it into his face,
exclaiming: "Take it back to your master, and tell him to teach you
your business better another time. Meanwhile you are my prisoner."
Bizard protested in vain. He was led to jail, whither he was followed
a few days after by Le Ber, who had mortally offended Perrot by
signing an attestation of the scene he had witnessed. As he was the
chief merchant of the place, his arrest produced a great sensation,
while his wife presently took to her bed with a nervous fever.

As Perrot's anger cooled, he became somewhat alarmed. He had resisted
the royal authority, and insulted its representative. The consequences
might be serious; yet he could not bring himself to retrace his steps.
He merely released Bizard, and sullenly permitted him to depart, with
a letter to the governor-general, more impertinent than apologetic.
[Footnote: _Memoire des Motifs, etc._]

Frontenac, as his enemies declare, was accustomed, when enraged, to
foam at the mouth. Perhaps he did so when he learned the behavior of
Perrot. If he had had at command a few companies of soldiers, there
can be little doubt that he would have gone at once to Montreal,
seized the offender, and brought him back in irons; but his body-guard
of twenty men was not equal to such an enterprise. Nor would a muster
of the militia have served his purpose; for the settlers about Quebec
were chiefly peaceful peasants, while the denizens of Montreal were
disbanded soldiers, fur traders, and forest adventurers, the best
fighters in Canada. They were nearly all in the interest of Perrot,
who, if attacked, had the temper as well as the ability to make a