The trouble did not stop here, nor with the imprisonment of Brucy, who was Perrot's chief agent and the custodian of the storehouse at He Perrot. Fénelon, whose temper was ardent and emotional, felt that he had been made the innocent victim of a detestable plot to lure Perrot from Montreal. Having upbraided Frontenac to his face, he returned to Montreal and preached a sermon against him, using language which the Sulpicians hastened to repudiate. But Fénelon, undaunted, continued to espouse Perrot's cause without concealment and brought down upon himself a charge of sedition. In its final stage this _cause célèbre_ runs into still further intricacies, involving the rights of the clergy when accused by the civil power. The contest begun by Perrot and taken up by Fénelon ran an active course throughout the greater part of a year (1674), and finally the {50} king himself was called in as judge. This involved the sending of Perrot and Fénelon to France, along with a voluminous written statement from Frontenac and a great number of documents. At court Talon took the side of Perrot, as did the Abbé d'Urfé, whose cousin, the Marquise d'Allègre, was about to marry Colbert's son. Nevertheless the king declined to uphold Frontenac's enemies. Perrot was given three weeks in the Bastille, not so much for personal chastisement as to show that the governor's authority must be respected. On the whole, Frontenac issued from the affair without suffering loss of prestige in the eyes of the colony. The king declined to reprimand him, though in a personal letter from his sovereign Frontenac was told that henceforth he must avoid invading a local government without giving the governor preliminary notice. The hint was also conveyed that he should not harry the clergy. Frontenac's position, of course, was that he only interfered with the clergy when they were encroaching upon the rights of the crown. Upon this basis, then, the quarrel with Perrot was settled. But at that very moment a larger and more serious contest was about to begin. [1] In the minutes of this first meeting of the Sovereign Council at which Frontenac presided the high-sounding words 'haut et puissant' stand prefixed to his name and titles. [2] The power of the States-General reached its height after the disastrous battle of Poitiers (1356). For a short period, under the leadership of Étienne Marcel, it virtually supplanted the power of the crown. [3] See _The Great Intendant_, chap. iii. {51} CHAPTER IV GOVERNOR, BISHOP, AND INTENDANT