The situation was one well suited to Frontenac's genius for the dramatic.When a boat under a flag of truce put out from the English ships, Frontenac hurried four canoes to meet it.The English envoy was placed blindfold in one of these canoes and was paddled to the shore.Here two soldiers took him by the arms and led him over many obstacles up the steep ascent to the Chateau St.Louis.He could see nothing but could hear the beating of drums, the blowing of trumpets, the jeers and shouting of a great multitude in a town which seemed to be full of soldiers and to have its streets heavily barricaded.When the bandage was taken from his eyes he found himself in a great room of the Chateau.
Before him stood Frontenac, in brilliant uniform, surrounded by the most glittering array of officers which Quebec could muster.
The astonished envoy presented a letter from Phips.It was a curt demand in the name of King William of England for the unconditional surrender of all "forts and castles" in Canada, of Frontenac himself, and all his forces and supplies.On such conditions Phips would show mercy, as a Christian should.
Frontenac must answer within an hour.When the letter had been read the envoy took a watch from his pocket and pointed out the time to Frontenac.It was ten o'clock.The reply must be given by eleven.Loud mutterings greeted the insulting message.One officer cried out that Phips was a pirate and that his messenger should be hanged.Frontenac knew well how to deal with such a situation.He threw the letter in the envoy's face and turned his back upon him.The unhappy man, who understood French, heard the Governor give orders that a gibbet should be erected on which he was to be hanged.When the Bishop and the Intendant pleaded for mercy, Frontenac seemed to yield.He would not take, he said, an hour to reply, but would answer at once.He knew no such person as King William.James, though in exile, was the true King of England and the good friend of the King of France.There would be no surrender to a pirate.After this outburst, the envoy asked if he might have the answer in writing."No!" thundered Frontenac.
"I will answer only from the mouths of my cannon and with my musketry!"Phips could not take Quebec.In carrying out his plans, he was slow and dilatory.Nature aided his foe.The weather was bad, the waters before Quebec were difficult, and boats grounded unexpectedly in a falling tide.Phips landed a force on the north side of the basin at Beauport but was held in check by French and Indian skirmishing parties.He sailed his ships up close to Quebec and bombarded the stronghold, but then, as now, ships were impotent against well-served land defenses.Soon Phips was short of ammunition.A second time he made a landing in order to attack Quebec from the valley of the St.Charles but French regulars fought with militia and Indians to drive off his forces.Phips held a meeting with his officers for prayer.Heaven, however, denied success to his arms.If he could not take Quebec, it was time to be gone, for in the late autumn the dangers of the St.
Lawrence are great.He lay before Quebec for just a week and on the 23d of October sailed away.It was late in November when his battered fleet began to straggle into Boston.The ways of God had not proved as simple as they had seemed to the Puritan faith, for the stronghold of Satan had not fallen before the attacks of the Lord's people.There were searchings of heart, recriminations, and financial distress in Boston.
For seven years more the war endured.Frontenac's victory over Phips at Quebec was not victory over the Iroquois or victory over the colony of New York.In 1691 this colony sent Peter Schuyler with a force against Canada by way of Lake Champlain.Schuyler penetrated almost to Montreal, gained some indecisive success, and caused much suffering to the unhappy Canadian settlers.
Frontenac made his last great stroke in duly, 1696, when he led more than two thousand men through the primeval forest to destroy the villages of the Onondaga and the Oneida tribes of the Iroquois.On the journey from the south shore of Lake Ontario, the old man of seventy-five was unable to walk over the rough portages and fifty Indians shouting songs of joy carried his great canoe on their shoulders.When the soldiers left the canoes and marched forward to the fight, they bore Frontenac in an easy chair.He did not destroy his enemy, for many of the Indians fled, but he burned their chief village and taught them a new respect for the power of the French.It was the last great effort of the old warrior.In the next year, 1697, was concluded the Peace of Ryswick; and in 1698 Frontenac died in his seventy-ninth year, a hoary champion of France's imperial designs.
The Peace of Ryswick was an indecisive ending of an indecisive war.It was indeed one of those bad treaties which invite renewed war.The struggle had achieved little but to deepen the conviction of each side that it must make itself stronger for the next fight.Each gave back most of what it had gained.The peace, however, did not leave matters quite as they had been.The position of William was stronger than before, for France had treated with him and now recognized him as King of England.
Moreover France, hitherto always victorious, with generals who had not known defeat, was really defeated when she could not longer advance.
