ves
by the bond of marriage to a squaw and to settle among the redskins, the
_coureurs de bois_ were none the less drones among their compatriots;
they did not make up their minds to establish themselves in places where
they might have become excellent farmers, until through age and
infirmity they were rather a burden than a support to others.

To counteract this scourge the king published in 1673, a decree which,
under penalty of death, forbade Frenchmen to remain more than
twenty-four hours in the woods without permission from the governor.
Some Montreal officers, engaged in trade, violated this prohibition; the
Count de Frontenac at once sent M. Bizard, lieutenant of his guards,
with an order to arrest them. The governor of Montreal, M. Perrot, who
connived with them, publicly insulted the officer entrusted with the
orders of the governor-general. Indignant at such insolence, M. de
Frontenac had M. Perrot arrested at once, imprisoned in the Chateau St.
Louis and judged by the Sovereign Council. Connected with M. Perrot by
the bonds of friendship, the Abbe de Fenelon profited by the occasion to
allude, in the sermon which he delivered in the parochial church of
Montreal on Easter Sunday, to the excessive labour which M. de Frontenac
had exacted from the inhabitants of Ville-Marie for the erection of Fort
Cataraqui. According to La Salle, who heard the sermon, the Abbe de
Fenelon said: "He who is invested with authority should not disturb the
people who depend on him; on the contrary, it is his duty to consider
them as his children and to treat them as would a father.... He must not
disturb the commerce of the country by ill-treating those who do not
give him a share of the profits they may make in it; he must content
himself with gaining by honest means; he must not trample on the people,
nor vex them by excessive demands which serve his interests alone. He
must not have favourites who praise him on all occasions, or oppress,
under far-fetched pretexts, persons who serve the same princes, when
they oppose his enterprises.... He has respect for priests and ministers
of the Church."

Count de Frontenac felt himself directly aimed at; he was the more
inclined to anger, since, the year before, he had had reasons for
complaint of the sermon of a Jesuit Father. Let us allow the governor
himself to relate this incident: "I had need," he wrote to Colbert, "to
remember your orders on the occasion of a sermon preached by a Jes