Meantime, the naval force was to employ itself in picking up any English trading vessels that might fall in its way. Not only were plans thus formed for invading and seizing the English colonies, but the French king made complete arrangements as to the treatment of the inhabitants when conquered. Those who either were Catholics, or were prepared to embrace the Catholic faith, might be allowed to remain in possession of their property and civil rights; the citizens of means were to be imprisoned and held for ransom, the rest of the population, numbering about eighteen thousand, were to forfeit everything and be driven penniless out of the country. It was proposed to deport them, in the first place, to New England, pending the ulterior conquest of that region. M. Lorin truly observes that Louis XIV, having just deprived his own subjects of religious liberty by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, could not possibly be expected to tolerate it in any country of which he might acquire control.[34] A more ruthless policy could scarcely have been devised, nor, it may be added, a more senseless one. The deportation of so large a body of inhabitants, mainly of Dutch origin, and all accustomed to the use of arms, was a task ridiculously beyond the ability of the forces he was proposing to employ for the purpose. The plan was followed, so far as the sending out of a small squadron with the new governor-general was concerned. Sailing, as already mentioned, on the 5th August, Frontenac arrived at Chedabucto (Guysborough), near the Straits of Canso, on the 12th September, and there embarked in a small vessel, the _Francois Xavier_, for Quebec. On the way he stopped at Perce, where the Recollet missionaries informed him of the massacre of Lachine. His vessel must have been detained by contrary winds, for it was the 12th October before he arrived at Quebec. Here he was received by the citizens with the liveliest manifestations of joy. The ecclesiastics associated themselves, _bon gre mal gre_, with the popular feeling. The town was illuminated by night and hung with banners by day; a _Te Deum_ was sung; and a Jesuit father delivered what is recorded to have been a most pathetic discourse. On all hands the count was acclaimed as the man the country needed to restore its fallen fortunes and stay the hand of the destroyer. Denonville and Champigny did not grace the rejoicings; they were at Montreal.