Francis, two
packets of papers containing remarks on the administration
of the colony, and especially on the manner in which the
military posts were furnished with supplies; that these observations
were accompanied by certificates; and that they involved
charges against him, the Governor, of complicity inpeculation.
Roubaud, he continues, was to send these papersto France; "but now,
Monseigneur, that you are informed about them, I feel no anxiety,
and I am sure that the King will receive no impression from them
without acquainting himself with their truth or falsity."
Vaudreuil's anxiety was natural; and so was the action of
Montcalm in making known to the Court the outrageous abuses that
threatened the King's service with ruin. His doing so was necessary
both for his own justification and for the public good; and afterwards,
when Vaudreuil and others were brought to trial at Paris, and when
one of the counselfor the defence charged the late general with
slanderously accusing his clients, the Court ordered the charge to
be struck from the record.[812] The papers the existence of which, if they
did exist, so terrified Vaudreuil, have thus far escaped research.
But the correspondence of the two rivals with the chiefs of the
departments on which they severally depended is in large measure
preserved; and while that of the Governor is filled with defamation
of Montcalm and praise of himself, that of the General is neither
egotistic nor abusive.
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