triumph--a triumph, as Parkman describes it, "over the storms, the icebergs, and the English"--left his brother in charge of the captured fort, and, taking the two best vessels left, sailed for France, where he arrived early in November. The news which greeted him there was that, just about the time he was sailing from the bay, peace had been signed[54] between England and France. By the terms of the peace Louis was to acknowledge William III as rightful King of England and Anne as his successor, and to withdraw all assistance from the exiled James. As regards the colonies, the most important provision was that the _status quo ante bellum_ should be re-established. Thus the gallant fight that Iberville had waged, one against three, and all the bitter hardships which he and his men had endured by sea and land, had been in vain. Port Nelson and the other ports in Hudson's Bay would have to revert to the English. All boundary questions in dispute between the two nations were to be settled by commissioners appointed for that purpose. Returning now to Canada, and going back a year and a half in our narrative, that is to say, to the early summer of 1696, we find Count Frontenac making his plans for the campaign he had for some time felt to be necessary against the Iroquois, but particularly against the most obstinately hostile nation of the confederacy, the Onondagas. He had no great reason to think that the court desired him to engage in this enterprise, for all the counsels he had lately been receiving from that quarter had been in favour of contraction rather than expansion, of peaceful rather than warlike measures. He trusted, however, that if he signally succeeded, as he expected to do, all would be not only condoned but approved, including his disobedience of orders in re-establishing Fort Frontenac the year before, a matter in regard to which he had not heard from the court as yet. The expedition as organized was one which certainly should have been adequate for the punishment of the Iroquois, if they would only stay to be punished. It consisted of four battalions of regulars of two hundred men each, and four of militia, numerically somewhat stronger. With these were five hundred mission Indians, Iroquois from the Saut, near Montreal, and Abenaquis from Sillery, near Quebec. Two battalions of regulars, with most of the Indians, constituted the vanguard, which was under the command of M. de Callieres. The militia, under M. de Ramesay, Governor of Three Rivers, were placed in the centre, while M. de Vaudreuil brought up the rear, consisting of the two remaining battalions of regulars and the rest of the Indians. Frontenac himself, with his staff and a number of volunteers, took a position between the van and the centre. In this order the expedition started from Lachine on the 6th July. In fifteen days it had reached Fort Frontenac, where it halted a week, awaiting the arrival of a contingent of Ottawas which La Motte Cadillac had promised