The bishop’s success at court was triumphant. Not only did he procure the removal of Avaugour, but he was invited to choose a new governor to replace him. * This was not all; for he succeeded in effecting a complete change in the government of the colony. The Company of New France was called upon to resign its claims; ** and, by a royal edict of April, 1663, all power, legislative, judicial, and executive, was vested in a council composed of the governor whom Laval had chosen, of Laval himself, and of five councillors, an attorney-general, and a secretary, to be chosen by Laval and the governor jointly. *** Bearing with them blank * La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. V. ** See the deliberations and acts to this end in Edits et Ordonnances concernant le Canada, 1. 30-32. *** Edit de Création du Conseil Supérieur de Quebec. commissions to be filled with the names of the new functionaries, Laval and his governor sailed for Quebec, where they landed on the fifteenth of September. With them came one Gaudais-Dupont, a royal commissioner instructed to inquire into the state of the colony. No sooner had they arrived than Laval and Mézy, the new governor, proceeded to construct the new council. Mézy knew nobody in the colony, and was, at this time, completely under Laval’s influence. The nominations, therefore, were virtually made by the bishop alone, in whose hands, and not in those of the governor, the blank commissions had been placed. * Thus for the moment he had complete control of the government; that is to say, the church was mistress of the civil power. Laval formed his council as follows: Jean Bourdon for attorney-general; Rouer de Villeray, Juchereau de la Berté, Ruette d’Auteuil, Le Gardeur de Tilly, and Matthieu Damours for councillors; and Peuvret de Mesnu for secretary. The royal commissioner, Gaudais, also took a prominent place at the board. ** This functionary was on the point of marrying his niece to a son of Robert Giffard, * Commission actroyée au Sieur Gaudais. Mémoire pour servir d’instruction au Sieur Gaudais. A sequel to these instructions, marked secret, shows that, notwithstanding Laval’s extraordinary success in attaining his objects, he and the Jesuits were somewhat distrusted. Gaudais is directed to make, with great discretion and caution, careful inquiry into the bishop’s conduct, and with equal secrecy to ascertain why the Jesuits had asked for Avaugour’s recall. ** As substitute for the intendant, an officer who had been appointed but who had not arrived. who had a strong interest in suppressing Dumesnil’s accusations. * Dumesnil had laid his statements before the commissioner, who quickly rejected them, and took part with the accused.