On the journey from the south shore of Lake Ontario,
the old man of seventy-five was unable to walk over the rough
portages and fifty Indians shouting songs of joy carried his
great canoe on their shoulders. When the soldiers left the canoes
and marched forward to the fight, they bore Frontenac in an easy
chair. He did not destroy his enemy, for many of the Indians
fled, but he burned their chief village and taught them a new
respect for the power of the French. It was the last great effort
of the old warrior. In the next year, 1697, was concluded the
Peace of Ryswick; and in 1698 Frontenac died in his seventy-ninth
year, a hoary champion of France's imperial designs.
The Peace of Ryswick was an indecisive ending of an indecisive
war. It was indeed one of those bad treaties which invite renewed
war. The struggle had achieved little but to deepen the
conviction of each side that it must make itself stronger for the
next fight. Each gave back most of what it had gained. The peace,
however, did not leave matters quite as they had been. The
position of William was stronger than before, for France had
treated with him and now recognized him as King of England.
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