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The authorities for the above are Denonville, Champigny, Abbe Belmont, Bishop Saint-Vallier, and the author of Recueil de ce qui s'est passe en Canada au Sujet de la Guerre, etc., depuis l'annee 1682. Belmont, who accompanied the expedition, speaks of the affair with indignation, which was shared by many French officers.
However, he could not embark on the ship Le Soleil d'Afrique until about the middle of April. His duties as Bishop of Quebec had ended on January 25th preceding, the day of the episcopal consecration of M. de Saint-Vallier. It would seem that Providence desired that the priestly career of the prelate and his last co-workers should end at the same time.
Mgr. de Saint-Vallier left Quebec for France on November 18th, 1686, only a few days after a fire which consumed the Convent of the Ursulines; the poor nuns, who had not been able to snatch anything from the flames, had to accept, until the re-construction of their convent, the generous shelter offered them by the hospitable ladies of the Hôtel-Dieu.
In spite of her heroic defence, the Seine was captured by boarding, the commander and the officers were taken prisoners, and Mgr. de Saint-Vallier remained in captivity in England till 1710.
The governor watched him with a jealous eye, well aware that, though the pretensions of the Church to supremacy over the civil power had suffered a check, Saint-Vallier would revive them the moment he thought he could do so with success. The love of pleasure was not extinguished, and various influences helped to keep it alive.
Denonville embarked at Rochelle in June, with his wife and a part of his family. Saint-Vallier, the destined bishop, was in the same vessel; and the squadron carried five hundred soldiers, of whom a hundred and fifty died of fever and scurvy on the way. Saint-Vallier speaks in glowing terms of the new governor. "He spent nearly all his time in prayer and the reading of good books.
"Our man is in the hands of the monks. He confessed the theft after a touch of the 'question." The countess gave a sign, and turned pale; she could not speak, but looked at the king. That look was observed by Saint-Vallier, who muttered in a low tone: "I am betrayed; that thief is an acquaintance of my wife." "Silence!" cried the king. "Some one is here who will wear out my patience.
Parliament saw no occasion to proceed against more than a half score of persons in confinement, and, except nineteen defaulters who were condemned to death together with confiscation of their property, only one capital sentence was pronounced, against John of Poitiers, Lord of Saint-Vallier, the same who had exerted himself to divert the constable from his plot, but who had nevertheless not refrained from joining it, and was the most guilty of all the accomplices in consequence of the confidential post he occupied near the king's person.
Mgr. de Saint-Vallier did not disembark at the port of La Rochelle until forty-five days after his departure, for this voyage was one continuous storm. Mgr. de Saint-Vallier received the most kindly welcome from the king: he availed himself of it to request some aid on behalf of the priests of the seminary whom age and infirmity condemned to retirement.
Callieres was also present, kneeling at a prie-dieu, or prayer-desk, near the middle of the church. Saint-Vallier, having just said mass, was seating himself in his arm-chair, close to the altar, when he saw Callieres at the prie-dieu, with the position of which he had already found fault as being too honorable for a subordinate governor.
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