he court an inconvenience. Others
said that Madame de Frontenac had eagerly sought for him the
appointment on the other side of the world. A third theory was that,
owing to his financial straits, the government gave him something to
keep body and soul together in a land where there were no great
temptations to spend money.

Motives are often mixed; and behind the nomination there may have been
various reasons. But whatever weight we allow to gossip, it is not
necessary to fall back on any of these hypotheses to account for
Frontenac's appointment or for his willingness to accept. While there
was no immediate likelihood of a war involving France and England,[5]
and {30} consequent trouble from the English colonies in America, New
France required protection from the Iroquois. And, as a soldier,
Frontenac had acquitted himself with honour. Nor was the post thought
to be insignificant. Madame de Sevigne's son-in-law, the Comte de
Grignan, was an unsuccessful candidate for it in competition with
Frontenac. For some years both the king and Colbert had been giving
real attention to the affairs of Canada. The Far West was opening up;
and since 1665 the population of the colony had more than doubled. To
Frontenac the governorship of Canada meant promotion. It was an office
of trust and responsibility, with the opportunity to extend the king's
power throughout the region beyond the Great Lakes. And if the salary
was small, the governor could enlarge it by private trading. Whatever
his motives, or the motives of those who sent him, it was a good day
for Frontenac when he was sent to Canada. In France the future held
out the prospect of little but a humiliating scramble for sinecures.
In Canada he could do constructive work for his king and country.

Those who cross the sea change their skies but not their character.
Frontenac bore with {31} him to Quebec the sentiments and the habits
which befitted a French noble of the sword.[6] The more we know about
the life of his class in France, the better we shall understand his
actions as governor of Canada. His irascibility, for example, seems
almost mild when compared with the outbreaks of many who shared with
him the traditions and breeding of a privileged order. Frontenac had
grown to manhood in the age of Richelieu, a period when fierceness was
a special badge of the aristocracy. Thus duelling became so great a
menace to the public welfare that it was made punisha