."[101] "You write to me," he
continues, "that you are informed that M. Labat has killed some cattle
belonging to the inhabitants. If so, he has expiated his fault by
blowing off his thumb by the bursting of his gun while he was firing at
a sheep. I am sure that the moon has a good deal to do with his
behavior; he always acts very strangely when she is on the wane."

The charge brought against Brouillan in regard to Madame de Freneuse was
brought also against Bonaventure in connection with the same lady. "The
story," says Subercase, "was pushed as far as hell could desire;"[102]
and he partially defends the accused, declaring that at least his
fidelity to the King is beyond question.

De Goutin had a quarrel with Subercase, and writes: "I do all that is
possible to live on good terms with him, and to that end I walk as if in
the chamber of a sick prince whose sleep is of the lightest." As
Subercase defends Bonaventure, De Goutin attacks him, and gives
particulars concerning him and Madame de Freneuse which need not be
recounted here. Then comes a story about a quarrel caused by some cows
belonging to Madame de Freneuse which got into the garden of Madame de
Saint-Vincent, and were driven out by a soldier who presumed to strike
one of them with a long stick. "The facts," gravely adds De Goutin,
"have been certified to me as I have the honor to relate them to your
Grandeur."[103] Then the minister is treated to a story of one Allein.
"He insulted Madame de Belleisle at the church door after high mass, and
when her son, a boy of fourteen, interposed, Allein gave him such a box
on the ear that it drew blood; and I am assured that M. Petit, the
priest, ran to the rescue in his sacerdotal robes." Subercase, on his
side, after complaining that the price of a certain canoe had been
unjustly deducted from his pay, though he never had the said canoe at
all, protests to Ponchartrain, "there is no country on earth where I
would not rather live than in this, by reason of the ill-disposed
persons who inhabit it."[104]

There was the usual friction between the temporal and the spiritual
powers. "The Church," writes Subercase, "has long claimed the right of
commanding here, or at least of sharing authority with the civil
rulers."[105] The Church had formerly been represented by the Capuchin
friars, and afterwards by the Recollets. Every complaint was of course
carried to the minister. In 1700 we find M. de Villieu, who then held a
p