rouble stood their patron and confederate.

Thus Frontenac found an excellent occasion to put Perrot in the wrong
and to hit him through his henchmen. The only difficulty was that
Frontenac did not possess adequate means to enforce the law. Obviously
it was undesirable that he should invade Perrot's bailiwick in person.
He therefore instructed the judge at Montreal to arrest all the
coureurs de bois who were there. A loyal attempt was made to execute
this command, with the result that Perrot at once intervened and
threatened to imprison the judge if he repeated his effort.

Frontenac's counterblast was the dispatch of a lieutenant and three
soldiers to arrest a retainer of Perrot named Carton, who had shown
contempt of court by assisting the accused woodsmen to escape. Perrot
then proclaimed that this constituted an unlawful attack on his rights
as governor of Montreal, to defend which he promptly imprisoned Bizard,
the lieutenant sent by Frontenac, together with Jacques Le Ber, the
leading {48} merchant of the settlement. Though Perrot released them
shortly afterwards, his tone toward Frontenac remained impudent and the
issue was squarely joined.

But a hundred and eighty miles of wilderness separated the governor of
Canada from the governor of Montreal. In short, before Perrot could be
disciplined he must be seized, and this was a task which if attempted
by frontal attack might provoke bloodshed in the colony, with heavy
censure from the king. Frontenac therefore entered upon a
correspondence, not only with Perrot, but with one of the leading
Sulpicians in Montreal, the Abbe Fenelon. This procedure yielded
quicker results than could have been expected. Frontenac's letter
which summoned Perrot to Quebec for an explanation was free from
threats and moderate in tone. It found Perrot somewhat alarmed at what
he had done and ready to settle the matter without further trouble. At
the same time Fenelon, acting on Frontenac's suggestion, urged Perrot
to make peace. The consequence was that in January 1674 Perrot acceded
and set out for Quebec with Fenelon as his companion.

Whatever Perrot's hopes or expectations of leniency, they were quickly
dispelled. The {49} very first conference between him and Frontenac
became a violent altercation (January 29, 1674). Perrot was forthwith
committed to prison, where he remained ten months. Not content with
this success, Frontenac proceeded vigorously against the coureu