The last official document signed by Mgr. de Laval as titulary bishop was an addition to the statutes and rules which he had previously drawn up for the Chapter of the city of Champlain.  He wrote at the same time:  “It remains for me now, sirs and dearly beloved brethren, only to thank you for the good affection that you preserve towards me, and to assure you that it will not be my fault if I do not go at the earliest moment to rejoin you in the growing Church which I have ever cherished as the portion and heritage which it has pleased our Lord to preserve for me during nearly thirty years.  I supplicate His infinite goodness that he into whose hands He has caused it to pass by my resignation may repair all my faults.”

The prelate landed on June 3rd.  “The whole population,” says the Abbe Ferland, “was heartened and rejoiced by the return of Mgr. de Laval, who came back to Canada to end his days among his former flock.  His virtues, his long and arduous labours in New France, his sincere love for the children of the country, had endeared him to the Canadians; they felt their trust in Providence renewed on beholding again him who, with them, at their head, had passed through many years of trial and suffering.”  He hardly took time to rest, but set out at once for Montreal, where he was anxious to deliver in person to the Sulpicians the document of spiritual and devotional union which had been quite recently signed at Paris by the Seminary of St. Sulpice and by that of the Foreign Missions.  Returning to Quebec, he had the pleasure of receiving his successor on the arrival of the latter, who disembarked on July 31st, 1688.

The reception of Mgr. de Saint-Vallier was as cordial as that offered two months before to his predecessor.  “As early as four o’clock in the morning,” we read in the annals of the Ursulines, “the whole population was alert to hasten preparations.  Some arranged the avenue along which the new bishop was to pass, others raised here and there the standard of the lilies of France.  In the course of the morning Mgr. de Laval, accompanied by several priests, betook himself to the vessel to salute his successor whom the laws of the old French etiquette kept on board his ship until he had replied to all the compliments prepared for him.  Finally, about two o’clock in the afternoon, the whole clergy, the civil and military authorities, and the people having assembled on the quay, Mgr. de Saint-Vallier made his appearance, addressed first by M. de Bernieres in the name of the clergy.  He was next greeted by the mayor, in the name of the whole town, then the procession began to move, with military music at its head, and the new bishop was conducted to the cathedral between two files of musketeers, who did not fail to salute him and to fire volleys along the route.”  “The thanksgiving hymn which re-echoed under the vaults of the holy temple found an echo in all hearts,” we read in another account; “and the least happy was not that of the worthy prelate who thus inaugurated his long and laborious episcopal career.”