At Jeanne’s signal, the cannonballs thundered into the sunrise. A loud crack of fired muskets followed, along with the cheers of Maisonneuve’s men. It was January 25, 1642, and Maisonneuve would shortly turn thirty years old. The surprise celebration had been Jeanne’s idea. The cannon blasts, however, woke up the Governor of Quebec, Charles Huault de Montmagny. He was very angry. He soon learned of Jeanne Mance’s involvement but arrested one of Maisonneuve’s men, Jean Gory, and threw him in jail for three days. When Gory was released, Maisonneuve held a feast and added ten crowns to Gory’s wages. “Once we are at Montreal,” Maisonneuve boasted to his men, “we shall be our own masters and can fire our cannon when we please.”
Despite their differences, Montmagny and Maisonneuve travelled together to the Montreal area that October and chose the future settlement’s site.
Montmagny tried to persuade Maisonneuve to abandon the Ville-Marie expedition and offered the Island of Orleans near Quebec in return. But Maisonneuve, like Jeanne, was committed to Ville-Marie. When the Governor called a meeting to “discuss” the issue, Maisonneuve stated that he was not there to talk, but to carry out orders. “Even if all the trees on the island of Montreal were so many Iroquois,” he said, “it is my duty and my honour to go there.”
