Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in theyear 1906 by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department ofAgriculture
PREFACE
The author of the following work desires to acknowledge his obligationsto two preceding writers who have dealt with the life and times of CountFrontenac, the late Mr. Parkman, and M. Henri Lorin. The merits of theformer are too well known and too thoroughly established to need anycommendation at this time. If he charms by the lucidity andpicturesqueness of his style, none the less does he achieve a high levelof historical accuracy, and manifest the control of the true spirit ofhistorical criticism. The work of M. Lorin is, perhaps, less attractivein point of style, but it treats the whole subject from an independentpoint of view, and in a very comprehensive manner. It is atreasure-house of carefully sifted facts in relation to the career ofCanada's most famous governor under the old régime. A certain Frenchwriter once complimented another—a dim recollection suggests that itwas Buffon who so complimented President Debrosses in regard to his workon language—by saying that whoever treated the same subject "aprèslui" would also have to do it "d'après lui"; and such the authorinclines to think has, to some extent, been his situation in relation tohis two able and industrious predecessors. At the same time the presentwork has not been written without consultation of original sources, andit is trusted that it will be found—for Canadian readers especially—anot unserviceable or uninteresting narrative.
