inhabitants, anxious to pay their court; a tall man in the pompous garb of
a military noble of that gorgeous reign, well advanced in middle life, but
whose high keen features, full of intellect and fire, bespoke his prompt
undaunted nature,--Louis de Buade, Count of Palluau and Frontenac. He
belonged to the high nobility, had held important commands, and, if the
song-writers of his time speak true, had anticipated the king in the
favors of Madame de Montespan. [Footnote: See Brunet, in notes to
_Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orleans_; Paulin, in notes to the
_Historiettes de Tallement des Reaux_; and Margry, in _Journal General de
I'Instruction Publique_.] His wife, who could not endure him--and the
aversion seems to have been mutual--was a noted beauty of the court, and
held great influence in its brilliant and corrupt society. [Footnote: St.
Simon and Mademoiselle de Montpensier give very curious accounts of Madame
de Frontenac, who is also mentioned in the _Lettres de Madame de Sevigne_.
Her portrait will be found at Versailles.] Frontenac was full of faults;
but it is not through these that his memory has survived him. He was
domineering, arbitrary, intolerant of opposition, irascible, vehement in
prejudice, often wayward, perverse, and jealous: a persecutor of those who
crossed him; yet capable, by fits, of moderation, and a magnanimous
lenity; and gifted with a rare charm--not always exerted--to win the
attachment of men: versed in books, polished in courts and salons; without
fear, incapable of repose, keen and broad of sight, clear in judgment,
prompt in decision, fruitful in resources, unshaken when others despaired;
a sure breeder of storms in time of peace, but in time of calamity and
danger a tower of strength. His early career in America was beset with ire
and enmity; but admiration and gratitude hailed him at its close: for it
was he who saved the colony and led it triumphant from an abyss of ruin.
[Footnote: In the Library of the Seminary of Quebec is preserved the
funeral oration pronounced over the body of Frontenac by Olivier Goyer, a
Recollet friar. It is a blind and wholesale panegyric, but it is