At the moment of the arrest of M. du Maine, Ancenis, captain of the body-

guard, arrested the Duchesse du Maine in her house in the Rue St.

Honore. A lieutenant, and an exempt of the foot body-guards, with other

troops, took possession of the house at the same time, and guarded the

doors. The compliment of the Duc d'Ancenis was sharply received. Madame

du Maine wished to take away some caskets. Ancenis objected. She

demanded, at the least, her jewels; altercations very strong on one side,

very modest on the other: but she was obliged to yield. She raged at the

violence done to a person of her rank, without saying anything too

disobliging to M. d'Ancenis, and without naming anybody. She delayed her

departure as long as she could, despite the instances of d'Ancenis, who

at last presented his hand to her, and politely, but firmly, said she

must go. She found at her door two six-horse coaches, the sight of which

much shocked her. She was obliged, however, to mount. Ancenis placed

himself by her side, the lieutenant and the exempt of the guard in front,

two chambermaids whom she had chosen were in the other coach, with her

apparel, which had been examined. The ramparts were followed, the

principal streets avoided; there was no stir, and at this she could not

restrain her surprise and vexation, or check a tear, declaiming by fits

and starts against the violence done her. She complained of the rough

coach, the indignity it cast upon her, and from time to time asked where

she was being led to. She was simply told that she would sleep at

Essonne, nothing more. Her three guardians maintained profound silence.

At night all possible precautions were taken. When she set out the next

day, the Duc d'Ancenis took leave of her, and left her to the lieutenant

and to the exempt of the body-guards, with troops to conduct her. She

asked where they were leading her to: he simply replied,

"To Fontainebleau." The disquietude of Madame du Maine augmented as she

left Paris farther behind, but when she found herself in Burgundy, and

knew at last she was to go to Dijon, she stormed at a fine rate.

It was worse when she was forced to enter the castle, and found herself

the prisoner of M. le Duc. Fury suffocated her. She raged against her

nephew, and the horrible place chosen for her. Nevertheless, after her

first transports, she returned to herself, and began to comprehend that

she was in no place and no condition to play the fury. Her extreme rage

she kept to herself, affected nothing but indifference for all, and

disdainful security. The King's lieutenant of the castle, absolutely

devoted to M. le Duc, kept her fast, and closely watched her and her

chambermaids. The Prince de Dombes and the Comte d'Eu (her sons) were at

the same time exiled to Eu, where a gentleman in ordinary always was near

them; Mademoiselle du Maine was sent to Maubuisson.

Several other people were successively arrested and placed either in the

Bastille or Vincennes. The commotion caused by the arrest and

imprisonment of M. and Madame du Maine was great; many faces, already

elongated by the Bed of justice, were still further pulled out by these

events. The Chief-President, D'Effiat, the Marechal de Villeroy, the

Marechal de Villars, the Marechal d'Huxelles, and other devoted friends

of M. du Maine, were completely terrified; they did not dare to say a

word; they kept out of the way; did not leave their houses except from

necessity; fear was painted upon their faces. All their pride was put

aside; they became polite, caressing, would have eaten out of your hand;

and by this sudden change and their visible embarrassment betrayed

themselves.

As for the Comte de Toulouse he remained as upright and loyal as ever.

The very day of the double arrest he came to M. le Duc d'Orleans and said

that he regarded the King, the Regent, and the State as one and the same

thing; that he should never be wanting in his duty or in his fidelity

towards them; that he was very sorry at what had happened to his brother,

but that he was in no way answerable for him. The Regent stated this to

me the same day, and appeared, with reason, to be charmed with such

straightforward honesty.

This arrest of M. and Madame du Maine had another effect. For some time

past, a large quantity of illicit salt had been sold throughout the

country. The people by whom this trade was conducted, 'faux sauniers',

as they were called, travelled over the provinces in bands well armed and

well organized. So powerful had they become that troops were necessary

in order to capture them. There were more than five thousand faux

saumers, who openly carried on their traffic in Champagne and Picardy.

They had become political instruments in the hands of others, being

secretly encouraged and commanded by those who wished to sow trouble in

the land. It could not be hidden that these 'faux sauniers' were

redoubtable by their valour and their arrangements; that the people were

favourable to them, buying as they did from them salt at a low price, and

irritated as they were against the gabelle and other imposts; that these

'faux sauniers' spread over all the realm, and often marching in large

bands, which beat all opposed to them, were dangerous people, who incited

the population by their examples to opposition against the government.

I had proposed on one occasion the abolition of the salt tax to the

Regent, as a remedy for these evils; but my suggestion shared the fate of

many others. It was favourably listened to, and nothing more. And

meanwhile the 'faux sauniers' had gone on increasing. I had no

difficulty in discovering by whom they were encouraged, and the event

showed I was right. Directly after the arrest of M. and Madame du Maine,

the 'faux sauniers' laid down their arms, asked, and obtained pardon.

This prompt submission showed dearly enough by whom they had been

employed, and for what reason. I had uselessly told M. le Duc d'Orleans

so long before, who admitted that I was right, but did nothing. It was

his usual plan.

Let me finish at once with all I shall have to say respecting M. and

Madame du Maine.

They remained in their prisons during the whole of the year 1719,

supplied with all the comforts and attentions befitting their state, and

much less rigorously watched than at first, thanks to the easy

disposition of M. le Duc d'Orleans, whose firmness yielded even more

rapidly than beauty to the effects of time. The consequence of his

indulgence towards the two conspirators was, that at about the

commencement of the following year, 1720, they began to play a very

ridiculous comedy, of which not a soul was the dupe; not even the public,

nor the principal actors, nor the Regent.

The Duc and Duchesse du Maine, thanks to the perfidy of the Abbe Dubois,

had had time to hide away all their papers, and to arrange together the

different parts they should play. Madame du Maine, supported by her sex

and birth, muffled herself up in her dignity, when replying to the

questions addressed to her, of which just as many, and no more, were read

to the replying counsel as pleased the Abbe Dubois; and strongly accusing

Cellamare and others; protected as much as possible her friends, her

husband above all, by charging herself with all; by declaring that what

she had done M. du Maine had no knowledge of; and that its object went no

farther than to obtain from the Regent such reforms in his administration

as were wanted.

The Duc du Maine, shorn of his rank and of his title of prince of the

blood, trembled for his life. His crimes against the state, against the

blood royal, against the person of the Regent, so long, so artfully, and

so cruelly offended, troubled him all the more because he felt they

deserved severe punishment. He soon, therefore, conceived the idea of

screening himself beneath his wife's petticoats. His replies, and all

his observations were to the same tune; perfect ignorance of everything.

Therefore when the Duchess had made her confessions, and they were

communicated to him, he cried out against his wife,--her madness, her

felony,--his misfortune in having a wife capable of conspiring, and

daring enough to implicate him in everything without having spoken to

him; making him thus a criminal without being so the least in the world;

and keeping him so ignorant of her doings, that it was out of his power

to stop them, to chide her, or inform M. le Duc d'Orleans if things had

been pushed so far that he ought to have done so!

From that time the Duc du Maine would no longer hear talk of a woman who,

without his knowledge, had cast him and his children into this abyss; and

when at their release from prison, they were permitted to write and send

messages to each other, he would receive nothing from her, or give any

signs of life. Madame du Maine, on her side, pretended to be afflicted

at this treatment; admitting, nevertheless, that she had acted wrongfully

towards her husband in implicating him without his knowledge in her

schemes. They were at this point when they were allowed to come near

Paris. M. du Maine went to live at Clagny, a chateau near Versailles,

built for Madame de Montespan. Madame du Maine went to Sceaux. They

came separately to see M. le Duc d'Orleans at Paris, without sleeping

there; both played their parts, and as the Abbe Dubois judged the time

had come to take credit to himself in their eyes for finishing their

disgrace, he easily persuaded M. le Duc d'Orleans to, appear convinced of

the innocence of M. du Maine.

During their stay in the two country-houses above named, where they saw

but little company, Madame du Maine made many attempts at reconciliation

with her husband, which he repelled. This farce lasted from the month of

January (when they arrived at Sceaux and at Clagny) to the end of July.

Then they thought the game had lasted long enough to be put an end to.

They had found themselves quit of all danger so cheaply, and counted so

much upon the Abbe Dubois, that they were already thinking of returning

to their former considerations; and to work at this usefully, they must

be in a position to see each other, and commence by establishing

themselves in Paris, where they would of necessity live together.

The sham rupture had been carried to this extent, that the two sons of

the Duc du Maine returned from Eu to Clagny a few days after him, did not

for a long time go and see Madame du Maine, and subsequently saw her but

rarely, and without sleeping under her roof.

At last a resolution being taken to put an end to the comedy, this is how

it was terminated by another.

Madame la Princesse made an appointment with the Duc du Maine, at

Vaugirard on the last of July, and in the house of Landais, treasurer of

the artillery. She arrived there a little after him with the Duchesse du

Maine, whom she left in her carriage. She said to M. du Maine she had

brought a lady with her who much desired to see him. The thing was not

difficult to understand; the piece had been well studied. The Duchesse

du Maine was sent for. The apparent reconcilement took place. The three

were a long time together. To play out the comedy, M. and Madame du

Maine still kept apart, but saw and approached each other by degrees,

until at last the former returned to Sceaux, and lived with his wife as

before.

VOLUME 13.

CHAPTER XCVII

To go back, now, to the remaining events of the year 1719.

The Marquise de Charlus, sister of Mezieres, and mother of the Marquis de

Levi, who has since become a duke and a peer, died rich and old. She was

the exact picture of an "old clothes" woman and was thus subject to many

insults from those who did not know her, which she by no means relished.

To relieve a little the seriousness of these memoirs, I will here relate

an amusing adventure of which she was heroine.

She was very avaricious, and a great gambler. She would have passed the

night up to her knees in water in order to play. Heavy gambling at

lansquenet was carried on at Paris in the evening, at Madame la Princesse

de Conti's. Madame de Charlus supped there one Friday, between the

games, much company being present. She was no better clad than at other

times, and wore a head-dress, in vogue at that day, called commode, not

fastened, but put on or taken off like a wig or a night-cap. It was

fashionable, then, to wear these headdresses very high.

Madame de Charlus was near the Archbishop of Rheims, Le Tellier. She

took a boiled egg, that she cracked, and in reaching for some salt, set

her head dress on fire, at a candle near, without perceiving it. The

Archbishop, who saw her all in flames, seized the head-dress and flung it

upon the ground. Madame de Charlus, in her surprise, and indignant at

seeing her self thus uncovered, without knowing why, threw her egg in the

Archbishop's face, and made him a fine mess.

Nothing but laughter was heard; and all the company were in convulsions

of mirth at the grey, dirty, and hoary head of Madame de Charlus, and the

Archbishop's omelette; above all, at the fury and abuse of Madame de

Charlus, who thought she had been affronted, and who was a long time

before she would understand the cause, irritated at finding herself thus

treated before everybody. The head-dress was burnt, Madame la Princesse

de Conti gave her another, but before it was on her head everybody had

time to contemplate her charms, and she to grow in fury. Her, husband

died three months after her. M. de Levi expected to find treasures;

there had been such; but they had taken wing and flown away.

About this time appeared some verses under the title of Philippiques,

which were distributed with extraordinary promptitude and abundance. La

Grange, formerly page of Madame la Princesse de Conti, was the author,

and did not deny it. All that hell could vomit forth, true and false,

was expressed in the most beautiful verses, most poetic in style, and

with all the art and talent imaginable. M. le Duc d'Orleans knew it, and

wished to see the poem, but he could not succeed in getting it, for no

one dared to show it to him.

He spoke of it several times to me, and at last demanded with such

earnestness that I should bring it to him, that I could not refuse. I

brought it to him accordingly, but read it to him I declared I never

would. He took it, therefore, and read it in a low tone, standing in the

window of his little cabinet, where we were. He judged it in reading

much as it was, for he stopped from time to time to speak to me, and

without appearing much moved. But all on a sudden I saw him change

countenance, and turn towards me, tears in his eyes, and himself ready to

drop.

"Ah," said he, "this is too much, this horrible poem beats me

completely."

He was at the part where the scoundrel shows M. le Duc d'Orleans having

the design to poison the King, and quite ready to execute his crime.

It is the part where the author redoubles his energy, his poetry, his

invocations, his terrible and startling beauties, his invectives, his

hideous pictures, his touching portraits of the youth and innocence of

the King, and of the hopes he has, adjuring the nation to save so dear a

victim from the barbarity of a murderer; in a word, all that is most

delicate, most tender, stringent, and blackest, most pompous, and most

moving, is there.

I wished to profit by the dejected silence into which the reading of this

poem had thrown M. le Duc d'Orleans, to take from him the execrable

paper, but I could not succeed; he broke out into just complaints against

such horrible wickedness, and into tenderness for the King; then finished

his reading, that he interrupted more than once to speak to me. I never

saw a man so penetrated, so deeply touched, so overwhelmed with injustice

so enormous and sustained. As for me, I could not contain myself. To

see him, the most prejudiced, if of good faith, would have been convinced

he was innocent of the come imputed to him, by the horror he displayed at

it. I have said all, when I state that I recovered myself with

difficulty, and that I had all the pains in the world to compose him a

little.

This La Grange, who was of no personal value, yet a good poet--only that,

and never anything else--had, by his poetry, insinuated himself into

Sceaux, where he had become one of the great favourites of Madame du

Maine. She and her husband knew his life, his habits, and his mercenary

villainy. They knew, too, haw to profit by it. He was arrested shortly

afterwards, and sent to the Isle de Sainte Marguerite, which he obtained

permission to leave before the end of the Regency. He had the audacity

to show himself everywhere in Paris, and while he was appearing at the

theatres and in all public places, people had the impudence to spread the

report that M. le Duc d'Orleans had had him killed! M. le Duc d'Orleans

and his enemies have been equally indefatigable; the latter in the

blackest villainies, the Prince in the most unfruitful clemency, to call

it by no more expressive name.

Before the Regent was called to the head of public affairs, I recommended

him to banish Pere Tellier when he had the power to do so. He did not

act upon my advice, or only partially; nevertheless, Tellier was

disgraced, and after wandering hither and thither, a very firebrand

wherever he went, he was confined by his superiors in La Fleche.

This tyrant of the Church, furious that he could no longer move, which

had been his sole consolation during the end of his reign and his

terrible domination, found himself at La Fleche, reduced to a position as

insupportable as it was new to him.

The Jesuits, spies of each other, and jealous and envious of those who

have the superior authority, are marvellously ungrateful towards those

who, having occupied high posts, or served the company with much labour

and success, become useless to it, by their age or their infirmities.

They regard them with disdain, and instead of bestowing upon them the

attention merited by their age, their services, and their merit, leave

them in the dreariest solitude, and begrudge them even their food!

I have with my own eyes seen three examples of this in these Jesuits, men

of much piety and honour, who hid filled positions of confidence and of

talent, and with whom I was very intimate. The first had been rector of

their establishment at Paris, was distinguished by excellent works of

piety, and was for several years assistant of the general at Rome, at the

death of whom he returned to Paris; because the rule is, that the new

general has new assistants. Upon his return to the Paris establishment

he was put into a garret, at the very top of the house, amid solitude,

contempt, and want.

The direction of the royal conscience had been the principal occupation

of the two others, one of whom had even been proposed as confessor to

Madame la Dauphine. One was long ill of a malady he died of. He was not

properly nourished, and I sent him his dinner every day, for more than

five months, because I had seen his pittance. I sent him even remedies,

for he could not refrain from admitting to me that he suffered from the

treatment he was subjected to.

The third, very old and very infirm, had not a better fate. At last,

being no longer able to hold out, he asked to be allowed to pay a visit

to my Versailles house (after having explained himself to me), under

pretext of fresh air. He remained there several months, and died at the

noviciate in Paris. Such is the fate of all the Jesuits, without

excepting the most famous, putting aside a few who having shone at the

Court and in the world by their sermons and their merit, and having made

many friends--as Peres Bordaloue, La Rue, Gaillard--have been guaranteed

from the general disgrace, because, often visited by the principal

persons of the Court and the town, policy did not permit them to be

treated like the rest, for fear of making so many considerable people

notice what they would not have suffered without disturbance and scandal.

It was, then, in this abandonment and this contempt that Pere Tellier

remained at La Fleche, although he had from the Regent four thousand

livres pension. He had ill-treated everybody. When he was confessor of

the King, not one of his brethren approached him without trembling,

although most of them were the "big-wigs" of the company. Even the

general of the company was forced to bend beneath the despotism he

exercised upon all. There was not a Jesuit who did not disapprove the

violence of his conduct, or who did not fear it would injure the society.

All hated him, as a minister is hated who is coarse, harsh, inaccessible,

egotistical, and who takes pleasure in showing his power and his disdain.

His exile, and the conduct that drew it upon him, were fresh motives for

hatred against him, unveiling, as they did, a number of secret intrigues

he had been concerned in, and which he had great interest in hiding. All

these things together did not render agreeable to Tellier his forced

retirement at La Fleche. He found there sharp superiors and equals,

instead of the general terror his presence had formerly caused among the

Jesuits. All now showed nothing but contempt for him, and took pleasure

in making him sensible of it. This King of the Church, in part of the

State, and in private of his society, became a common Jesuit like the

rest, and under superiors; it may be imagined what a hell this was to a

man so impetuous and so accustomed to a domination without reply, and

without bounds, and abused in every fashion. Thus he did not endure it

long. Nothing more was heard of him, and he died after having been only

six months at La Fleche.

There was another death, which I may as well mention here, as it occurred

about the same time.

On Saturday evening, the 15th of April, 1719, the celebrated and fatal

Madame de Maintenon died at Saint-Cyr. What a stir this event would have

made in Europe, had it happened a few years earlier. It was scarcely

mentioned in Paris!

I have already said so much respecting this woman, so unfortunately

famous, that I will say but little more now. Her life at Saint-Cyr was

divided between her spiritual duties, the letters she received, from her

religious correspondents, and the answers she gave to them. She took the

communion twice a-week, ordinarily between seven and eight o'clock in the

morning; not, as Dangeau says in his Memoires, at midnight or every day.

She was very rich, having four thousand livres pension per month from the

Regent, besides other emoluments. She had, too, her estate at Maintenon,

and some other property. With all this wealth, too, she had not a

farthing of expense at Saint-Cyr. Everything was provided for herself

and servants and their horses, even wood, coals, and candles. She had

nothing to buy, except dress for herself and for her people. She kept a

steward, a valet, people for the horses and the kitchen, a coach, seven

or eight horses, one or two others for the saddle, besides having the

young ladies of Saint-Cyr, chambermaids, and Mademoiselle d'Aumale to

wait upon her.

The fall of the Duc du Maine at the Bed of justice struck the first blow

at her. It is not too much to presume that she was well informed of the

measures and the designs of this darling, and that this hope had

sustained her; but when she saw him arrested she succumbed; continuous

fever seized her, and she died at eighty-three years of age, in the full

possession of all her intellect.

Regret for her loss, which was not even universal in Saint-Cyr, scarcely

passed the walls of that community. Aubigny, Archbishop of Rouen, her

pretended cousin, was the only man I ever heard of, who was fool enough

to die of grief on account of it. But he was so afflicted by this loss,

that he fell ill, and soon followed her.

CHAPTER XCVII.

Madame la Duchesse de Berry was living as usual, amid the loftiest pride,

and the vilest servitude; amid penitence the most austere at the

Carmelite convent of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and suppers the most

profaned by vile company, filthiness, and impiety; amid the most

shameless debauchery, and the most horrible fear of the devil and death;

when lo! she fell ill at the Luxembourg.

I must disguise nothing more, especially as what I am relating belongs to

history; and never in these memoirs have I introduced details upon

gallantry except such as were necessary to the proper comprehension of

important or interesting matters to which they related. Madame la

Duchesse de Berry would constrain herself in nothing; she was indignant

that people would dare to speak of what she did not take the trouble to

hide from them; and nevertheless she was grieved to death that her

conduct was known.

She was in the family way by Rion, but hid--it as much as she could.

Madame de Mouchy was their go-between, although her conduct was as clear

as day. Rion and Mouchy, in fact, were in love with each other, and had

innumerable facilities for indulging their passion. They laughed at the

Princess, who was their dupe, and from whom they drew in council all they

could. In one word, they were the masters of her and of her household,

and so insolently, that M. le Duc and Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans, who

knew them and hated them, feared them also and temporised with them.

Madame de Saint-Simon, sheltered from all that, extremely loved and

respected by all the household, and respected even by this couple who

made themselves so much dreaded and courted, only saw Madame la Duchesse

de Berry during the moments of presentation at the Luxembourg, whence she

returned as soon as all was finished, entirely ignorant of what was

passing, though she might have been perfectly instructed.

The illness of Madame la Duchesse de Berry came on, and this illness, ill

prepared for by suppers washed down by wine and strong liquors, became

stormy and dangerous. Madame de Saint-Simon could not avoid becoming

assiduous in her attendance as soon as the peril appeared, but she never

would yield to the instances of M. le Duc and Madame la Duchesse

d'Orleans, who, with all the household; wished her to sleep in the

chamber allotted to her, and which she never put foot in, not even during

the day. She found Madame la Duchesse de Berry shut up in a little

chamber, which had private entrances--very useful just then, with no one

near her but La Mouchy and Rion, and a few trusty waiting-women. All in

attendance had free entrance to this room. M. le Duc and Madame la

Duchesse d'Orleans were not allowed to enter when they liked; of course

it was the same with the lady of honour, the other ladies, the chief

femme de chambre, and the doctors. All entered from time to time, but

ringing for an instant. A bad headache or want of sleep caused them

often to be asked to stay away, or, if they entered, to leave directly

afterwards. They did not press their presence upon the sick woman,

knowing only too well the nature of her malady; but contented themselves

by asking after her through Madame de Mouchy, who opened the door to

reply to them, keeping it scarcely ajar: This ridiculous proceeding

passed before the crowd of the Luxembourg, of the Palais Royal, and of

many other people who, for form's sake or for curiosity, came to inquire

the news, and became common town-talk.

The danger increasing, Languet, a celebrated cure of Saint-Sulpice, who

had always rendered himself assiduous, spoke of the sacraments to M. le

Duc d'Orleans. The difficulty was how to enter and propose them to

Madame la Duchesse de Berry. But another and greater difficulty soon

appeared. It was this: the cure, like a man knowing his duty, refused to

administer the sacrament, or to suffer it to be administered, while Rion

or Madame de Mouchy remained in the chamber, or even in the Luxembourg!

He declared this aloud before everybody, expressly in presence of M. le

Duc d'Orleans, who was less shocked than embarrassed. He took the cure

aside, and for a long time tried to make him give way. Seeing him

inflexible, he proposed reference to the Cardinal de Noailles. The cure

immediately agreed, and promised to defer to his orders, Noailles being

his bishop, provided he was allowed to explain his reasons. The affair

passed, and Madame la Duchesse de Berry made confession to a Cordelier,

her confessor. M. le Duc d'Orleans flattered himself, no doubt, he would

find the diocesan more flexible than the cure. If he hoped so he

deceived himself.

The Cardinal de Noailles arrived; M. le Duc d'Orleans took him aside with

the cure, and their conversation lasted more than half an hour. As the

declaration of the cure had been public, the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris

judged it fitting that his should be so also. As all three approached

the door of the chamber, filled with company, the Cardinal de Noailles

said aloud to the cure, that he had very worthily done his duty, that he

expected nothing less from such a good, experienced, and enlightened man

as he was; that he praised him for what he had demanded before

administering the sacrament to Madame la Duchesse de Berry; that he

exhorted him not to give in, or to suffer himself to be deceived upon so

important a thing; and that if he wanted further authorisation he, as his

bishop, diocesan, and superior, prohibited him from administering the

sacraments, or allowing them to be administered, to Madame la Duchesse de

Berry while Rion and Madame de Mouchy were in the chamber, or even in the

Luxembourg.

It may be imagined what a stir such inevitable scandal as this made in a

room so full of company; what embarrassment it caused M. le Duc

d'Orleans, and what a noise it immediately made everywhere. Nobody, even

the chiefs of the constitution, the mass without, enemies of the Cardinal

de Noailles, the most fashionable bishops, the most distinguished women,

the libertines even--not one blamed the cure or his archbishop: some

because they knew the rules of the Church, and did not dare to impugn

them; others, the majority, from horror of the conduct of Madame la

Duchesse de Berry, and hatred drawn upon her by her pride.

Now came the question between the Regent, the Cardinal, and the cure,

which should announce this determination to Madame la Duchesse de Berry,

who in no way expected it, and who, having confessed, expected every

moment to see the Holy Sacrament enter, and to take it. After a short

colloquy urged on by the state of the patient, the Cardinal and the cure

withdrew a little, while M. le Duc d'Orleans slightly opened the door and

called Madame de Mouchy. Then, the door ajar, she within, he without, he

told her what was in debate. La Mouchy, much astonished, still more

annoyed, rode the high horse, talked of her merit, and of the affront

that bigots wished to cast upon her and Madame la Duchesse de Berry, who

would never suffer it or consent to it, and that she would die--in the

state she was--if they had the impudence and the cruelty to tell it to

her.

The conclusion was that La Mouchy undertook to announce to Madame la

Duchesse de Berry the resolution that had been taken respecting the

sacraments--what she added of her own may be imagined. A negative

response did not fail to be quickly delivered to M. le Duc d'Orleans

through the half-opened door. Coming through such a messenger, it was

just the reply he might have expected. Immediately after, he repeated it

to the Cardinal, and to the cure; the cure, being supported by his

archbishop, contented himself with shrugging his shoulders. But the

Cardinal said to M. le Duc d'Orleans that Madame de Mouchy, one of the

two who ought to be sent away, was not a fit person to bring Madame la

Duchesse to reason; that it was his duty to carry this message to her,

and to exhort her to do her duty as a Christian shortly about to appear

before God; and the Archbishop pressed the Regent to go and say so to

her. It will be believed, without difficulty, that his eloquence gained

nothing. This Prince feared too much his daughter, and would have been

but a feeble apostle with her.

Reiterated refusals determined the Cardinal to go and speak to Madame la

Duchesse de Berry, accompanied by the cure, and as he wished to set about

it at once, M. le Duc d'Orleans, who did not dare to hinder him, but who

feared some sudden and dangerous revolution in his daughter at the sight

and at the discourses of the two pastors, conjured him to wait until

preparations could be made to receive him. He went, therefore, and held

another colloquy through the door with Madame de Mouchy, the success of

which was equal to the other. Madame la Duchesse de Berry flew into

fury, railed in unruly terms against these hypocritical humbugs, who took

advantage of her state and their calling to dishonour her by an unheard-

of scandal, not in the least sparing her father for his stupidity and

feebleness in allowing it. To have heard her, you would have thought

that the cure and the Cardinal ought to be kicked downstairs.

M. le Duc d'Orleans returned to the ecclesiastics, looking very small,

and not knowing what to do between his daughter and them. However, he

said to them that she was so weak and suffering that they must put off

their visit, persuading them as well as he could. The attention and

anxiety of the large company which filled the room were extreme:

everything was known afterwards, bit by bit, during the day.

The Cardinal de Noailles remained more than two hours with M. le Duc

d'Orleans, round whom people gathered at last. The Cardinal, seeing that

he could not enter the chamber without a sort of violence, much opposed

to persuasion, thought it indecent and useless to wait any longer. In

going away, he reiterated his orders to the cure, and begged him to watch

so as not to be deceived respecting the sacraments, lest attempts were

made to administer them clandestinely. He afterwards approached Madame

de Saint-Simon, took her aside, related to her what had passed, and

deplored with her a scandal that he had not been able to avoid. M. le

Duc d'Orleans hastened to announce to his daughter the departure of the

Cardinal, at which he himself was much relieved. But on leaving the

chamber he was astonished to find the cure glued against the door, and

still more so to hear he had taken up his post there, and meant to

remain, happen what might, because he did not wish to be deceived

respecting the sacraments. And, indeed, he remained there four days and

four nights, except during short intervals for food and repose that he

took at home, quite close to the Luxembourg, and during which his place

was filled by two priests whom he left there. At last, the danger being

passed, he raised the siege.

Madame la Duchesse de Berry, safely delivered of a daughter, had nothing

to do but to re-establish herself; but she remained firm against the cure

and the Cardinal de Noailles, neither of whom she ever pardoned. She

became more and more bewitched by the two lovers, who laughed at her, and

who were attached to her only for their fortune and their interest. She

remained shut up without seeing M. and Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans,

except for a few moments; no one, commencing with Madame de Saint-Simon,

showed any eagerness to see her, for everybody knew what kept the door

shut.

Madame la Duchesse de Berry, infinitely pained by the manner in which

everybody, even the people, looked upon her malady, thought to gain a

little lost ground by throwing open the gardens of the Luxembourg to the

public, after having long since closed them. People were glad: they

profited by the act; that was all. She made a vow that she would give

herself up to religion, and dress in white--that is, devote herself to

the service of the Virgin--for six months. This vow made people laugh a

little.

Her illness had begun on the 26th of March, 1719, and Easter-day fell on

the 9th of April. She was then quite well, but would not see a soul. A

new cause of annoyance had arisen to trouble her. Rion, who saw himself

so successful as the lover of Madame la Duchesse de Berry, wished to

improve his position by becoming her husband. He was encouraged in this

desire by his uncle, M. de Lauzun, who had also advised him to treat her

with the rigour, harshness--nay, brutality, which I have already

described. The maxim of M. de Lauzun was, that the Bourbons must be ill-

used and treated with a high hand in order to maintain empire over them.

Madame de Mouchy was as strongly in favour of this marriage as Rion. She

knew she was sure of her lover, and that when he became the husband of

Madame la Duchesse de Berry, all the doors which shut intimacy would be

thrown down. A secret marriage accordingly took place.

This marriage gave rise to violent quarrels, and much weeping. In order

to deliver herself from these annoyances, and at the same time steer

clear of Easter, the Duchess resolved to go away to Meudon on Easter

Monday. It was in vain that the danger was represented to her, of the

air, of the movement of the coach, and of the change of place at the end

of a fortnight. Nothing could make her endure Paris any longer. She set

out, therefore, followed by Rion and the majority of her ladies and her

household.

M. le Duc d'Orleans informed me then of the fixed design of Madame la

Duchesse de Berry to declare the secret marriage she had just made with

Rion. Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans was at Montmartre for a few days, and

we were walking in the little garden of her apartments. The marriage did

not surprise me much, knowing the strength of her passion, her fear of

the devil, and the scandal which had just happened. But I was

astonished, to the last degree, at this furious desire to declare the

marriage, in a person so superbly proud.

M. le Duc d'Orleans dilated upon his troubles, his anger, that of Madame

(who wished to proceed to the most violent extremities), and the great

resolve of Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans. Fortunately the majority of the

officers destined to serve against Spain, (war with that country had just

been declared) were leaving every day, and Rion had remained solely on

account of the illness of Madame la Duchesse de Berry, M. le Duc

d'Orleans thought the shortest plan would be to encourage hope by delay,

in forcing Rion to depart, flattering himself that the declaration would

be put off much more easily in his absence than in his presence. I

strongly approved this idea, and on the morrow, Rion received at Meudon a

curt and positive order to depart at once and join his regiment in the

army of the Duc de Berwick. Madame la Duchesse de Berry was all the more

outraged, because she knew the cause of this order, and consequently felt

her inability to hinder its execution. Rion on his side did not dare to

disobey it. He set out, therefore; and M. le Duc d'Orleans, who had not

yet been to Meudon, remained several days without going there.

Father and daughter feared each other, and this departure had not put

them on better terms. She had told him, and repeated it, that she was a

rich widow, mistress of her own actions, independent of him; had flown

into a fury, and terribly abused M. le Duc d'Orleans when he tried to

remonstrate with her. He had received much rough handling from her at

the Luxembourg when she was better; it was the same at Meudon during the

few visits he paid her there. She wished to declare her marriage; and

all the art, intellect, gentleness, anger, menace, prayers, and interest

of M. le Duc d'Orleans barely sufficed to make her consent to a brief

delay.

If Madame had been listened to, the affair would have been finished

before the journey to Meudon; for M. le Duc d'Orleans would have thrown

Rion out of the windows of the Luxembourg!

The premature journey to Meudon, and quarrels so warm, were not

calculated to re-establish a person just returned from the gates of

death. The extreme desire she had to hide her state from the public, and

to conceal the terms on which she was with her father ( for the rarity of

his visits to her began to be remarked), induced her to give a supper to

him on the terrace of Meudon about eight o'clock one evening. In vain

the danger was represented to her of the cool evening air so soon after

an illness such as she had just suffered from, and which had left her

health still tottering. It was specially on this account that she stuck

more obstinately to her supper on the terrace, thinking that it would

take away all suspicion she had been confined, and induce the belief that

she was on the same terms as ever with M. le Duc d'Orleans, though the

uncommon rarity of his visits to her had been remarked.

This supper in the open air did not succeed. The same night she was

taken ill. She was attacked by accidents, caused by the state in which

she still was, and by an irregular fever, that the opposition she met

with respecting the declaration of her marriage did not contribute to

diminish. She grew disgusted with Meudon, like people ill in body and

mind, who in their grief attribute everything to the air and the place.

She was annoyed at the few visits she received from M. le Duc and Madame

la Duchesse d'Orleans,-her pride, however, suffering more than her

tenderness.

In despite of all reason, nothing could hinder her from changing her

abode. She was transferred from Meudon to the Muette, wrapped up in

sheets, and in a large coach, on Sunday, the 14th of May, 1719. Arrived

so near Paris, she hoped M. le Duc and Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans would

come and see her more frequently, if only for form's sake.

This journey was painful by the sufferings it caused her, added to those

she already had, which no remedies could appease, except for short

intervals, and which became very violent. Her illness augmented; but

hopes and fears sustained her until the commencement of July. During all

this time her desire to declare her marriage weakened, and M. le Duc and

Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans, as well as Madame, who passed the summer at

Saint-Cloud, came more frequently to see her. The month of July became

more menacing because of the augmentation of pain and fever. These ills

increased so much, in fact, that, by the 14th of July, fears for her life

began to be felt.

The night of the 14th was so stormy, that M. le Duc d'Orleans was sent to

at the Palais Royal, and awakened. At the same time Madame de Pons wrote

to Madame de Saint-Simon, pressing her to come and establish herself at

La Muette. Madame de Saint-Simon, although she made a point of scarcely

ever sleeping under the same roof as Madame la Duchesse de Berry (for

reasons which need no further explanation than those already given),

complied at once with this request, and took up her quarters from this

time at La Muette.

Upon arriving, she found the danger great. Madame la Duchesse de Berry

had been bled in the arm and in the foot on the 10th, and her confessor

had been sent for. But the malady still went on increasing. As the pain

which had so long afflicted her could not induce her to follow a regimen

necessary for her condition, or to think of a future state, relations and

doctors were at last obliged to speak a language to her, not used towards

princesses, except at the most urgent extremity. This, at last, had its

effect. She submitted to the medical treatment prescribed for her, and

received the sacrament with open doors, speaking to those present upon

her life and upon her state, but like a queen in both instances. After

this sight was over, alone with her familiars, she applauded herself for

the firmness she had displayed, asked them if she had not spoken well,

and if she was not dying with greatness and courage.

A day or two after, she wished to receive Our Lord once more. She

received, accordingly, and as it appeared, with much piety, quite

differently from the first time.

At the extremity to which she had arrived, the doctors knew not what to

do; everybody was tried. An elixir was spoken of, discovered by a

certain Garus, which made much stir just then, and the secret of which

the King has since bought. Garus was sent for and soon arrived. He

found Madame la Duchesse de Berry so ill that he would answer for

nothing. His remedy was given, and succeeded beyond all hopes. Nothing

remained but to continue it. Above all things, Garus had begged that

nothing should, on any account, be given to Madame la Duchesse de Berry

except by him, and this had been most expressly commanded by M. le Duc

and Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans. Madame la Duchesse de Berry continued

to be more and more relieved and so restored, that Chirac, her regular

doctor, began to fear for his reputation, and taking the opportunity when

Garus was asleep upon a sofa, presented, with impetuosity, a purgative to

Madame la Duchesse de Berry, and made her swallow it without saying a

word to anybody, the two nurses standing by, the only persons present,

not daring to oppose him.

The audacity of this was as complete as its villainy, for M. le Duc and

Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans were close at hand in the salon. From this

moment to that in which the patient fell into a state worse than that

from which the elixir had drawn her, there was scarcely an interval.

Garus was awaked and called. Seeing this disorder, he cried that a

purgative had been given, and whatever it might be, it was poison in the

state to which the princess was now reduced. He wished to depart, he was

detained, he was taken to Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans. Then followed a

great uproar, cries from Garus, impudence and unequalled hardihood of

Chirac, in defending what he had done.

He could not deny it, for the two nurses had been questioned, and had

told all. Madame la Duchesse de Berry drew near her end during this

debate, and neither Chirac nor Garus could prevent it. She lasted,

however, the rest of the day, and did not die until about midnight.

Chirac, seeing the death-agony advance, traversed the chamber, made an

insulting reverence at the foot of the bed, which was open, and wished

her "a pleasant journey" (in equivalent terms), and thereupon went off to

Paris. The marvel is that nothing came of this, and that he remained the

doctor of M. le Duc d'Orleans as before!

While the end was yet approaching, Madame de Saint-Simon, seeing that

there was no one to bear M. le Duc d'Orleans company, sent for me to

stand by him in these sad moments. It appeared to me that my arrival

pleased him, and that I was not altogether useless to him in relieving

his grief. The rest of the day was passed in entering for a moment at a

time into the sick-chamber. In the evening I was nearly always alone

with him.

He wished that I should charge myself with all the funeral arrangements,

and in case Madame la Duchesse de Berry, when opened, should be found to

be enceinte, to see that the secret was kept. I proposed that the

funeral should be of the simplest, without show or ceremonial. I

explained my reasons, he thanked me, and left all the orders in my hands.

Getting rid of these gloomy matters as quickly as possible, I walked with

him from time to time in the reception rooms, and in the garden, keeping

him from the chamber of the dying as much as possible.

The night was well advanced, and Madame la Duchesse de Berry grew worse

and worse, and without consciousness since Chirac had poisoned her. M.

le Duc d'Orleans returned into the chamber, approached the head of the

bed--all the curtains being pulled back; I allowed him to remain there

but a few moments, and hurried him into the cabinet, which was deserted

just then. The windows were open, he leaned upon the iron balustrade,

and his tears increased so much that I feared lest they should suffocate

him. When this attack had a little subsided, he began to talk of the

misfortunes of this world, and of the short duration of its most

agreeable pleasures. I urged the occasion to say to him everything God

gave me the power to say, with all the gentleness, emotion, and

tenderness, I could command. Not only he received well what I said to

him, but he replied to it and prolonged the conversation.

After we had been there more than an hour, Madame de Saint-Simon gently

warned me that it was time to try and lead M. le Duc d'Orleans away,

especially as there was no exit from the cabinet, except through the

sick-chamber. His coach, that Madame de Saint-Simon had sent for, was

ready. It was without difficulty that I succeeded in gently moving away

M. le Duc d'Orleans, plunged as he was in the most bitter grief. I made

him traverse the chamber at once, and supplicated him to return to Paris.

At last he consented. He wished me to remain and give orders, and

begged, with much positiveness, Madame de Saint-Simon to be present when

seals were put upon the effects, after which I led him to his coach, and

he went away. I immediately repeated to Madame de Saint-Simon the orders

he had given me respecting the opening of the body, in order that she

might have them executed, and I hindered her from remaining in the

chamber, where there was nothing now but horror to be seen.

At last, about midnight, on the 21st of July, 1819, Madame la Duchesse de

Berry died, ten days after Chirac had consummated his crime. M. le Duc

d'Orleans was the only person touched. Some people grieved; but not one

of them who had enough to live upon appeared ever to regret her loss.

Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans felt her deliverance, but paid every

attention to decorum. Madame constrained herself but little. However

affected M. le Duc d'Orleans might be, consolation soon came. The yoke

to which he had submitted himself, and which he afterwards found heavy,

was severed. Above all, he was free from all annoyance on the score of

Rion's marriage, and its results, annoyance that would have been all the

greater, inasmuch as at the opening of the poor princess she was found to

be again enceinte; it was also found that her brain was deranged. These

circumstances were for the time carefully hidden. It may be imagined

what a state Rion fell into in learning at the army the death of Madame

la Duchesse de Berry. All his romantic notions of ambition being

overturned, he was more than once on the point of killing himself, and

for a long time was always kept in sight by his friends. He sold out at

the end of the campaign. As he had been gentle and polite to his

friends, they did not desert him. But he ever afterwards remained in

obscurity.

On account of this death the theatres were closed for eight days.

On Saturday, the 22nd of July, the heart of Madame la Duchesse de Berry

was taken to the Val-de-Grace.

On Sunday, the 23rd of July, her body was carried in an eight-horse coach

to Saint-Denis. There was very little display; only about forty torches

were carried by pages and guards.

The funeral service was performed at Saint-Denis in the early part of

September. There was no funeral oration.

Madame de Saint-Simon had been forced, as I have shown, to accept the

post of lady of honour to Madame la Duchesse de Berry, and had never been

able to quit it. She had been treated with all sorts of consideration,

had been allowed every liberty, but this did not console her for the post

she occupied; so that she felt all the pleasure, not to say the

satisfaction, of a deliverance she did not expect, from a princess

twenty-four years of age. But the extreme fatigue of the last days of

the illness, and of those which followed death, caused her a malignant

fever, which left her at death's portal during six weeks in a house at

Passy. She was two months recovering herself.

This accident, which almost turned my head, sequestered me from anything

for two months, during which I never left the house, scarcely left the

sick-chamber, attended to nothing, and saw only a few relatives or

indispensable friends.

When my wife began to be re-established, I asked M. le Duc d'Orleans for

a lodging at the new chateau at Meudon. He lent me the whole chateau;

completely furnished. We passed there the rest of this summer, and

several other summers afterwards. It is a charming place for rides or

drives. We counted upon seeing only our friends there, but the proximity

to Paris overwhelmed us with people, so that all the new chateau was

sometimes completely filled, without reckoning the people of passage.

I have little need to say anything more of Madame la Duchesse de Berry.

These pages have already painted her. She was a strange mixture of pride

and shamelessness. Drunkenness, filthy conversation, debauchery of the

vilest kind, and impiety, were her diversions, varied, as has been seen,

by occasional religious fits. Her indecency in everything, language,

acts, behaviour, passed all bounds; and yet her pride was so sublime that

she could not endure that people should dare to speak of her amid her

depravity, so universal and so public; she had the hardihood to declare

that nobody had the right to speak of persons of her rank, or blame their

most notorious actions!

Yet she had by nature a superior intellect, and, when she wished, could

be agreeable and amiable. Her face was commanding, though somewhat

spoiled at last by fat. She had much eloquence, speaking with an ease

and precision that charmed and overpowered. What might she not have

become, with the talents she possessed! But her pride, her violent

temper, her irreligion, and her falsehood, spoiled all, and made her what

we have seen her.

CHAPTER XCIX

Law had established his Mississippi Company, and now began to do marvels

with it. A sort of language had been invented, to talk of this scheme,

language which, however, I shall no more undertake to explain than the

other finance operations. Everybody was mad upon Mississippi Stock.

Immense fortunes were made, almost in a breath; Law, besieged in his

house by eager applicants, saw people force open his door, enter by the

windows from the garden, drop into his cabinet down the chimney! People

talked only of millions.

Law, who, as I have said, came to my house every Tuesday, between eleven

and twelve, often pressed me to receive some shares for nothing, offering

to manage them without any trouble to me, so that I must gain to the

amount of several millions! So many people had already gained enormously

by their own exertions that it was not doubtful Law could gain for me

even more rapidly. But I never would lend myself to it. Law addressed

himself to Madame de Saint-Simon, whom he found as inflexible. He would

have much preferred to enrich me than many others; so as to attach me to

him by interest, intimate as he saw me with the Regent. He spoke to M.

le Duc d'Orleans, even, so as to vanquish me by his authority. The

Regent attacked me more than once, but I always eluded him.

At last, one day when we were together by appointment, at Saint-Cloud,

seated upon the balustrade of the orangery, which covers the descent into

the wood of the goulottes, the Regent spoke again to me of the

Mississippi, and pressed me to receive some shares from Law.

The more I resisted, the more he pressed me, and argued; at last he grew

angry, and said that I was too conceited, thus to refuse what the King

wished to give me (for everything was done in the King's name), while so

many of my equals in rank and dignity were running after these shares.

I replied that such conduct would be that of a fool, the conduct of

impertinence, rather than of conceit; that it was not mine, and that

since he pressed me so much I would tell him my reasons. They were,

that since the fable of Midas, I had nowhere read, still less seen,

that anybody had the faculty of converting into gold all he touched;

that I did not believe this virtue was given to Law, but thought that all

his knowledge was a learned trick, a new and skilful juggle, which put

the wealth of Peter into the pockets of Paul, and which enriched one at

the expense of the other; that sooner or later the game would be played

out, that an infinity of people would be ruined; finally, that I abhorred

to gain at the expense of others, and would in no way mix myself up with

the Mississippi scheme.

M. le Duc d'Orleans knew only too well how to reply to me, always

returning to his idea that I was refusing the bounties of the King.

I said that I was so removed from such madness, that I would make a

proposition to him, of which assuredly I should never have spoken, but

for his accusation.

I related to him the expense to which my father had been put in defending

Blaye against the party of M. le Prince in years gone by. How he had

paid the garrison, furnished provisions, cast cannon, stocked the place,

during a blockade of eighteen months, and kept up, at his own expense,

within the town, five hundred gentlemen, whom he had collected together.

How he had been almost ruined by the undertaking, and had never received

a sou, except in warrants to the amount of five hundred thousand livres,

of which not one had ever been paid, and that he had been compelled to

pay yearly the interest of the debts he had contracted, debts that still

hung like a mill-stone upon me. My proposition was that M. le Duc

d'Orleans should indemnify me for this loss, I giving up the warrants, to

be burnt before him.

This he at once agreed to. He spoke of it the very next day to Law: my

warrants were burnt by degrees in the cabinet of M. le Duc d'Orleans, and

it was by this means I paid for what I had done at La Ferme.

Meanwhile the Mississippi scheme went on more swimmingly than ever. It

was established in the Rue Quincampoix, from which horses and coaches

were banished. About the end of October of this year, 1817, its business

so much increased, that the office was thronged all day long, and it was

found necessary to place clocks and guards with drums at each end of the

street, to inform people, at seven o'clock in the morning, of the opening

of business, and of its close at night: fresh announcements were issued,

too, prohibiting people from going there on Sundays and fete days.

Never had excitement or madness been heard of which approached this.

M. le Duc d'Orleans distributed a large number of the Company's shares to

all the general officers and others employed in the war against Spain.

A month after, the value of the specie was diminished; then the whole of

the coin was re-cast.

Money was in such abundance--that is to say, the notes of Law, preferred

then to the metallic currency--that four millions were paid to Bavaria,

and three millions to Sweden, in settlement of old debts. Shortly after,

M. le Duc d'Orleans gave 80,000 livres to Meuse; and 80,000 livres to

Madame de Chateauthiers, dame d'atours of Madame. The Abbe Alari, too,

obtained 2000 livres pension. Various other people had augmentation of

income given to them at this time.

Day by day Law's bank and his Mississippi increased in favour. The

confidence in them was complete. People could not change their lands and

their houses into paper fast enough, and the result of this paper was,

that everything became dear beyond all previous experience. All heads

were turned, Foreigners envied our good fortune, and left nothing undone

to have a share in it. The English, even, so clear and so learned in

banks, in companies, in commerce, allowed themselves to be caught, and

bitterly repented it afterwards. Law, although cold and discreet, felt

his modesty giving way. He grew tired of being a subaltern. He hankered

after greatness in the midst of this splendour; the Abbe Dubois and M. le

Duc d'Orleans desired it for him more than he; nevertheless, two

formidable obstacles were in the way: Law was a foreigner and a heretic,

and he could not be naturalised without a preliminary act of abjuration.

To perform that, somebody must be found to convert him, somebody upon

whom good reliance could be placed. The Abbe Dubois had such a person

all ready in his pocket, so to speak. The Abbe Tencin was the name of

this ecclesiastic, a fellow of debauched habits and shameless life, whom

the devil has since pushed into the most astonishing good fortune; so

true it is that he sometimes departs from his ordinary rules, in order to

recompense his servitors, and by these striking examples dazzle others,

and so secure them.

As may be imagined, Law did not feel very proud of the Abbe who had

converted him: more especially as that same Abbe was just about this time

publicly convicted of simony, of deliberate fraud, of right-down lying

(proved by his own handwriting), and was condemned by the Parliament to

pay a fine, which branded him with infamy, and which was the scandal of

the whole town. Law, however, was converted, and this was a subject

which supplied all conversation.

Soon after, he bought, for one million livres, the Hotel Mazarin for his

bank, which until then had been established in a house he hired of the

Chief-President, who had not need of it, being very magnificently lodged

in the Palace of the Parliament by virtue of his office. Law bought, at

the same time, for 550,000 livres, the house of the Comte de Tesse.

Yet it was not all sunshine with this famous foreigner, for the sky above

him was heavy with threatening clouds. In the midst of the flourishing

success of his Mississippi, it was discovered that there was a plot to

kill him. Thereupon sixteen soldiers of the regiment of the Guards were

given to him as a protection to his house, and eight to his brother, who

had come to Paris some little time before.

Law had other enemies besides those who were hidden. He could not get on

well with Argenson, who, as comptroller of the finances, was continually

thrown into connection with him. The disorder of the finances increased

in consequence every day, as well as the quarrels between Law and

Argenson, who each laid the blame upon the other. The Scotchman was the

best supported, for his manners were pleasing, and his willingness to

oblige infinite. He had, as it were, a finance tap in his hand, and he

turned it on for every one who helped him. M. le Duc, Madame la

Duchesse, Tesse, Madame de Verue, had drawn many millions through this

tap, and drew still. The Abbe Dubois turned it on as he pleased. These

were grand supports, besides that of M. le Duc d'Orleans, who could not

part with his favourite.

Argenson, on the contrary, was not much liked. He had been at the head

of the police so long that he could not shake off the habits he had

acquired in that position: He had been accustomed to give audiences upon

all sorts of police matters at dead of night, or at the small hours of

the morning, and he appeared to see no reason why he should not do the

same now that he was Keeper of the Seals. He irritated people beyond all

bearing, by making appointments with them at these unreasonable hours,

and threw into despair all who worked under him, or who had business with

him. The difficulty of the finances, and his struggles with Law, had

thrown him into ill-humour, which extended through all his refusals.

Things, in fact, had come to such a pass, that it was evident one or the

other must give up an administration which their rivalry threw into

confusion.

Argenson saw the storm coming, and feeling the insecurity of his

position, wished to save himself. He had too much sense and too much

knowledge of the world not to feel that if he obstinately clung to the

finances he should not only lose them but the seals also. He yielded

therefore to Law, who was at last declared comptroller-general of the

finances, and who, elevated to this (for him) surprising point, continued

to visit me as usual every Tuesday morning, always trying to persuade me

into belief of his past miracles, and of those to come.

Argenson remained Keeper of the Seals, and skilfully turned to account

the sacrifice he had made by obtaining through it the permission to

surrender his appointment of Chancellor of the Order of Saint-Louis to

his eldest son, and the title, effectively, to his younger son. His

place of Conseiller d'Etat, that he had retained,--he also gave to his

eldest son, and made the other lieutenant of police. The murmur was

great upon seeing a foreigner comptroller-general, and all abandoned to a

finance system which already had begun to be mistrusted. But Frenchmen

grow accustomed to everything, and the majority were consoled by being no

longer exposed to the sharp humour of Argenson, or his strange hours of

business.

But Law's annoyances were not over when this change had been made. M. le

Prince de Conti began to be troublesome. He was more grasping than any

of his relatives, and that is not saying a little. He accosted Law now,

pistol in hand, so to speak, and with a perfect "money or your life"

manner. He had already amassed mountains of gold by the easy humour of

M. le Duc d'Orleans; he had drawn, too, a good deal from Law, in private.

Not content with this, he wished to draw more. M. le Duc d'Orleans grew

tired, and was not over-pleased with him. The Parliament just then was

at its tricks again; its plots began to peep out, and the Prince de Conti

joined in its intrigues in order to try and play a part indecent,

considering his birth; little fitting his age; shameful, after the

monstrous favours unceasingly heaped upon him.

Repelled by the Regent, he turned, as I have said, towards Law, hoping

for more success. His expectations were deceived; prayers, cringing

meanness (for he stopped at nothing to get money) being of no effect, he

tried main strength, and spared Law neither abuse nor menaces. In fact,

not knowing what else to do to injure his bank, he sent three waggons

there, and drove them away full of money, which he made Law give him for

paper he held. Law did not dare to refuse, and thus show the poverty of

his metallic funds, but fearing to accustom so insatiable a prince to

such tyranny as this, he went, directly the waggons left, to M. le Duc

d'Orleans, and complained of what had occurred. The Regent was much

annoyed; he saw the dangerous results, and the pernicious example of so

violent a proceeding, directed against an unsupported foreigner, whom

rather lightly he had just made comptroller-general. He flew into a

violent rage, sent for the Prince de Conti, and, contrary to his nature,

reprimanded him so severely, that he was silenced and cried for mercy.

But annoyed at having failed, and still more at the sharp scolding he had

received, the Prince de Conti consoled himself, like a woman, by

spreading all sorts of reports against Law, which caused him but little

fear, and did him still less harm, but which did slight honour to M. le

Prince de Conti, because the cause of these reports, and also the large

sums he had drawn from the financier, were not unknown to the public;

blame upon him was general, and all the more heavy, because Law had

fallen out of public favour, which a mere trifle had changed into spite

and indignation.

This is the trifle. The Marechal de Villeroy, incapable of inspiring the

King with any solid ideas, adoring even to worship the deceased King,

full of wind, and lightness, and frivolity, and of sweet recollections of

his early years, his grace at fetes and ballets, his splendid

gallantries, wished that the King, in imitation of the deceased monarch,

should dance in a ballet. It was a little too early to think of this.

This pleasure seemed a trifle too much of pain to so young a King; his

timidity should have been vanquished by degrees, in order to accustom him

to society which he feared, before engaging him to show himself off in

public, and dance upon a stage.

The deceased King,--educated in a brilliant Court, where rule and

grandeur were kept up with much distinction, and where continual

intercourse with ladies, the Queen-mother, and others of the Court, had

early fashioned and emboldened him, had relished and excelled in these

sorts of fetes and amusements, amid a crowd of young people of both

sexes, who all rightfully bore the names of nobility, and amongst whom

scarcely any of humble birth were mixed, for we cannot call thus some

three or four of coarser stuff, who were admitted simply for the purpose

of adding strength and beauty to the ballet, by the grace of their faces

and the elegance of their movements, with a few dancing-masters to

regulate and give the tone to the whole. Between this time and that I am

now speaking of was an abyss. The education of those days instructed

every one in grace, address, exercise, respect for bearing, graduated and

delicate politeness, polished and decent gallantry. The difference,

then, between the two periods is seen at a glance, without time lost in

pointing it out.

Reflection was not the principal virtue of the Marechal de Villeroy. He

thought of no obstacle either on the part of the King or elsewhere, and

declared that his Majesty would dance in a ballet. Everything was soon

ready for the execution. It was not so with the action. It became

necessary to search for young people who could dance: soon, whether they

danced ill or well, they were gladly received; at last the only question

was, "Whom can we get?" consequently a sorry lot was obtained. Several,

who ought never to have been admitted, were, and so easily, that from one

to the other Law had the temerity to ask M. le Duc d'Orleans to allow his

son, who danced very well, to join the ballet company! The Regent,

always easy, still enamoured of Law, and, to speak truth, purposely

contributing as much as possible to confusion of rank, immediately

accorded the demand, and undertook to say so to the Marechal de Villeroy.

The Marechal, who hated and crossed Law with might and main, reddened

with anger, and represented to the Regent what, in fact, deserved to be

said: the Regent, in reply, named several young people, who, although of

superior rank, were not so well fitted for the ballet as young Law; and

although the answer to this was close at hand, the Marechal could not

find it, and exhausted himself in vain exclamations. He could not,

therefore, resist the Regent; and having no support from M. le Duc,

superintendent of the King's education and a great protector of Law and

of confusion, he gave in, and the financier's son was named for the

ballet.

It is impossible to express the public revolt excited by this bagatelle,

at which every one was offended. Nothing else was spoken of for some

days; tongues wagged freely, too; and a good deal of dirty water was

thrown upon other dancers in the ballet.

At last the public was satisfied. The small-pox seized Law's son, and

(on account of its keeping him from the ballet) caused universal joy.

The ballet was danced several times, its success answering in no way to

the Marechal de Villeroy. The King was so wearied, so fatigued, with

learning, with rehearsing, and with dancing this ballet, that he took an

aversion for these fetes and for everything offering display, which has

never quitted him since, and which does not fail to leave a void in the

Court; so that this ballet ceased sooner than was intended, and the

Marechal de Villeroy never dared to propose another.

M. le Duc d'Orleans, either by his usual facility, or to smooth down the

new elevation of Law to the post of comptroller-general, bestowed a

number of pecuniary favours; he gave 600,000 livres to La Fare, captain

of his guard; 200,000 livres to Castries, chevalier d'honneur to Madame

la Duchesse d'Orleans; 200,000 livres to the old Prince de Courtenay, who

much needed them; 20,000 livres pension to the Prince de Talmont; 6000

livres to the Marquise de Bellefonds, who already had a similar sum; and

moved by cries on the part of M. le Prince de Conti, 60,000 livres to the

Comte de la Marche his son, scarcely three years old; he gave, also,

smaller amounts to various others. Seeing so much depredation, and no

recovery to hope for, I asked M. le Duc d'Orleans to attach 12,000

livres, by way of increase, to my government of Senlis, which was worth

only 1000 livres, and of which my second son had the reversion. I

obtained it at once.

CHAPTER C

About the commencement of the new year, 1720, the system of Law

approached its end. If he had been content with his bank his bank within

wise and proper limits--the money of the realm might have been doubled,

and an extreme facility afforded to commerce and to private enterprise,

because, the establishment always being prepared to meet its liabilities,

the notes it issued would have been as good as ready money, and sometimes

even preferable, on account of the facility of transport. It must be

admitted, however, as I declared to M. le Duc d'Orleans in his cabinet,

and as I openly said in the Council of the Regency when the bank passed

there, that good as this establishment might be in itself, it could only

be so in a republic, or in a monarchy, like that of England, where the

finances are absolutely governed by those who furnish them, and who

simply furnish as much or as little as they please; but in a trivial,

changing, and more than absolute state like France solidity necessarily

is wanting, consequently confidence (at least of a discreet and proper

kind): since a king, and under his name, a mistress, a minister,

favourites; still more, extreme necessities, such as the deceased King

experienced in the years 1707-8-9 and 10,--a hundred things, in fact,

could overthrow the bank, the allurements of which were, at once, too

great and too easy. But to add to the reality of this bank, the chimera

of the Mississippi, with its shares, its special jargon, its science (a

continual juggle for drawing money from one person to give it to

another), was to almost guarantee that these shares should at last end in

smoke (since we had neither mines, nor quarries of the philosopher's

stone), and that the few would be enriched at the expense of the many, as

in fact happened.

What hastened the fall of the bank, and of the system, was the

inconceivable prodigality of M. le Duc d'Orleans, who, without bounds,

and worse still, if it can be, without choice, could not resist the

importunities even of those whom he knew, beyond all doubt, to have been

the most opposed to him, and who were completely despicable, but gave

with open hands; and more frequently allowed money to be drawn from him

by people who laughed at him, and who were grateful only to their

effrontery. People with difficulty believe what they have seen; and

posterity will consider as a fable what we ourselves look upon as a

dream. At last, so much was given to a greedy and prodigal nation,

always covetous and in want on account of its luxury, its disorder, and

its confusion of ranks, that paper became scarce, and the mills could not

furnish enough.

It may be imagined by this, what abuse had been made of a bank,

established as a resource always ready, but which could not exist as such

without being always delicately adjusted; and above all, kept in a state

to meet the obligations it had contracted. I obtained information on

this point from Law, when he came to me on Tuesday mornings; for a long

time he played with me before admitting his embarrassments, and

complained modestly and timidly, that the Regent was ruining everything

by his extravagance. I knew from outsiders more than he thought, and it

was this that induced me to press him upon his balance-sheet. In

admitting to me, at last, although faintly, what he could no longer hide,

he assured me he should not be wanting in resources provided M. le Duc

d'Orleans left him free. That did not persuade me. Soon after, the

notes began to lose favour; then to fall into discredit, and the

discredit to become public. Then came the necessity to sustain them by

force, since they could no longer be sustained by industry; and the

moment force showed itself every one felt that all was over. Coercive

authority was resorted to; the use of gold, silver, and jewels was

suppressed (I speak of coined money); it was pretended that since the

time of Abraham,--Abraham, who paid ready money for the sepulchre of

Sarah,--all the civilised nations in the world had been in the greatest

error and under the grossest delusion, respecting money and the metals it

is made of; that paper alone was useful and necessary; that we could not

do greater harm to our neighbours--jealous of our greatness and of our

advantages--than to send to them all our money and all our jewels; and

this idea was in no way concealed, for the Indian Company was allowed to

visit every house, even Royal houses, confiscate all the louis d'or, and

the coins it could find there; and to leave only pieces of twenty sous

and under (to the amount of not more than 200 francs), for the odd money

of bills, and in order to purchase necessary provisions of a minor kind,

with prohibitions, strengthened by heavy punishment, against keeping

more; so that everybody was obliged to take all the ready money he

possessed to the bank, for fear of its being discovered by a valet. But

nobody, as may be imagined, was persuaded of the justice of the power

accorded to the Company, and accordingly authority was more and more

exerted; all private houses were searched, informations were laid against

people in order that no money might be kept back, or if it were, that the

guilty parties might be severely punished.

Never before had sovereign power been so violently exercised, never had

it attacked in such a manner the temporal interests of the community.

Therefore was it by a prodigy, rather than by any effort or act of the

government, that these terribly new ordonnances failed to produce the

saddest and most complete revolutions; but there was not even talk of

them; and although there were so many millions of people, either

absolutely ruined or dying of hunger, and of the direst want, without

means to procure their daily subsistence, nothing more than complaints

and groans was heard.

This violence was, however, too excessive, and in every respect too

indefensible to last long; new paper and new juggling tricks were of

necessity resorted to; the latter were known to be such--people felt them

to be such--but they submitted to them rather than not have twenty crowns

in safety in their houses; and a greater violence made people suffer the

smaller. Hence so many projects, so many different faces in finance, and

all tending to establish one issue of paper upon another; that is to say,

always causing loss to the holders of the different paper (everybody

being obliged to hold it), and the universal multitude. This is what

occupied all the rest of the government, and of the life of M. le Duc

d'Orleans; which drove Law out of the realm; which increased six-fold the

price of all merchandise, all food even the commonest; which ruinously

augmented every kind of wages, and ruined public and private commerce;

which gave, at the expense of the public, sudden riches to a few noblemen

who dissipated it, and were all the poorer in a short time; which enabled

many financiers' clerks, and the lowest dregs of the people, profiting by

the general confusion, to take advantage of the Mississippi, and make

enormous fortunes; which occupied the government several years after the

death of M. le Duc d'Orleans; and which, to conclude, France never will

recover from, although it may be true that the value of land is

considerably augmented. As a last affliction, the all-powerful,

especially the princes and princesses of the blood, who had been mixed

up, in the Mississippi, and who had used all their authority to escape

from it without loss, re-established it upon what they called the Great

Western Company, which with the same juggles and exclusive trade with the

Indies, is completing the annihilation of the trade of the realm,

sacrificed to the enormous interest of a small number of private

individuals, whose hatred and vengeance the government has not dared to

draw upon itself by attacking their delicate privileges.

Several violent executions, and confiscations of considerable sums found

in the houses searched, took place. A certain Adine, employed at the

bank, had 10,000 crowns confiscated, was fined 10,000 francs, and lost

his appointment. Many people hid their money with so much secrecy, that,

dying without being able to say where they had put it, these little

treasures remained buried and lost to the heirs.

In the midst of the embarrassments of the finances, and in spite of them,

M. le Duc d'Orleans continued his prodigal gifts. He attached pensions

of 6000 livres and 4000 livres to the grades of lieutenant-general and

camp-marshal. He gave a pension of 20,000 livres to old Montauban; one

of 6000 livres to M. de Montauban (younger brother of the Prince de

Guemene); and one of 6000 livres to the Duchesse de Brissac. To several

other people he gave pensions of 4000 livres; to eight or ten others,

3000 or 2000 livres. I obtained one of 8000 livres for Madame Marechal

de Lorges; and one of 6000 livres was given to the Marechal de Chamilly,

whose affairs were much deranged by the Mississippi. M. de Soubise and

the Marquis Noailles had each upwards of 200,000 livres. Even Saint-

Genies, just out of the Bastille, and banished to Beauvais, had a pension

of 1000. Everybody in truth wanted an augmentation of income, on account

of the extreme high price to which the commonest, almost necessary things

had risen, and even all other things; which, although at last diminshed

by degrees, remain to this day much dearer than they were before the

Mississippi.

The pensions being given away, M. le Duc d'Orleans began to think how he

could reduce the public expenditure. Persuaded by those in whose

financial knowledge he had most confidence, he resolved to reduce to two

per cent. the interest upon all the funds. This much relieved those who

paid, but terribly cut down the income of those who received, that is to

say, the creditors of the state, who had lent their money at five per

cent., according to the loan--and, public faith and usage, and who had

hitherto peacefully enjoyed that interest. M. le Duc d'Orleans assembled

at the Palais Royal several financiers of different rank, and resolved

with them to pass this edict. It made much stir among the Parliament

men, who refused to register it. But M. le Duc d'Orleans would not

change his determination, and maintained his decree in spite of them.

By dint of turning and turning around the Mississippi, not to say of

juggling with it, the desire came to establish, according to the example

of the English, colonies in the vast countries beyond the seas. In order

to people these colonies, persons without means of livelihood, sturdy

beggars, female and male, and a quantity of public creatures were carried

off. If this had been executed with discretion and discernment, with the

necessary measures and precautions, it would have ensured the object

proposed, and relieved Paris and the provinces of a heavy, useless, and

often dangerous burthen; but in Paris and elsewhere so much violence, and

even more roguery, were mixed up with it, that great murmuring was

excited. Not the slightest care had been taken to provide for the

subsistence of so many unfortunate people, either while in the place they

were to embark from, or while on the road to reach it; by night they were

shut up, with nothing to eat, in barns, or in the dry ditches of the

towns they stopped in, all means of egress being forbidden them. They

uttered cries which excited pity and indignation; but the alms collected

for them not being sufficient, still less the little their conductors

gave them, they everywhere died in frightful numbers.

[Illustration: Mississippi Colonization--Painted by C. E. Delort--1176]

This inhumanity, joined to the barbarity of the conductors, to violence

of a kind unknown until this, and to the rascality of carrying off people

who were not of the prescribed quality, but whom others thus got rid of

by whispering a word in the ear of the conductors and greasing their

palms; all these things, I say, caused so much stir, so much excitement,

that the system, it was found, could not be kept up. Some troops had

been embarked, and during the voyage were not treated much better than

the others. The persons already collected were set at liberty, allowed

to do what they pleased, and no more were seized. Law, regarded as the

author of these seizures, became much detested, and M. le Duc d'Orleans

repented having ever fallen in with the scheme.

The 22nd of May of this year, 1720, became celebrated by the publication

of a decree of the Council of State, concerning the shares of the Company

of the Indies (the same as that known under the name of Mississippi) and

the notes of Law's bank. This decree diminished by degrees, and from

month to month, the value of the shares and the notes, so that, by the

end of the year, that value would have been reduced one-half.

This, in the language of finance and of bankruptcy, was to turn tail with

a vengeance: and its effect, while remedying nothing, was to make people

believe that things were in a worse state than was actually the case.

Argenson, who, as we have seen, had been turned out of the finances to

make room for Law, was generally accused of suggesting this decree out of

malice, already foreseeing all the evils that must arise from it. The

uproar was general and frightful. There was not a rich person who did

not believe himself lost without resource; not a poor one who did not see

himself reduced to beggary. The Parliament, so opposed to the new money

system, did not let slip this fine opportunity. It rendered itself the

protector of the public by refusing to register the decree, and by

promptly uttering the strongest remonstrance against it. The public even

believed that to the Parliament was due the sudden revocation of the

edict, which, however, was simply caused by the universal complaining,

and the tardy discovery of the fault committed in passing it. The little

confidence in Law remaining was now radically extinguished; not an atom

of it could ever be set afloat again. Seditious writings and analytical

and reasonable pamphlets rained on all sides, and the consternation was

general.

The Parliament assembled on Monday, the 27th of May, in the morning, and

named certain of its members to go to M. le Duc d'Orleans, with

remonstrances against the decree. About noon of the same day, M. le Duc

d'Orleans sent La Vrilliere to say to the Parliament that he revoked that

decree, and that the notes would remain as before. La Vrilliere, finding

that the Parliament had adjourned, went to the Chief-President, to say

with what he was charged. After dinner the Parliamentary deputies came

to the Palais Royal, where they were well received; M. le Duc d'Orleans

confirmed what they had already heard from La Vrilliere, and said to them

that he would re-establish the funds of the Hotel de Ville at two-and-a-

half percent. The deputies expected that in justice and in goodness he

ought to raise them to at least three per cent. M. le Duc d'Orleans

answered, that he should like not only to raise them to three, but to

four, nay, five per cent.; but that the state of affairs would not permit

him to go beyond two-and-a-half. On the next day was published the

counter-decree, which placed the shares and actions as they were before

the 22nd of May. The decree of that date was therefore revoked in six

days, after having caused such a strange effect.

On Wednesday, the 29th, a pretty little comedy was played. Le Blanc,

Secretary of State, went to Law, told him that M. le Duc d'Orleans

discharged him from his office as comptroller-general of the finances,

thanked him for the attention he had given to it, and announced that as

many people in Paris did not like him, a meritorious officer should keep

guard in his house to prevent any accident that might happen to him. At

the same time, Benzualde, major of the regiment of Swiss guards, arrived

with sixteen of his men to remain night and day in Law's house.

The Scotchman did not in the least expect this dismissal or this guard,

but he appeared very tranquil respecting both, and maintained his usual

coolness. The next day he was taken by the Duc de la Force to the Palais

Royal. Then comedy number two was played. M. le Duc d'Orleans refused

to see the financier, who went away without an interview. On the day

after, however, Law was admitted by the back stairs, closeted with the

Regent, and was treated by him as well as ever. The comedies were over.

On Sunday, the 2nd of June, Benzualde and his Swiss withdrew from Law's

house. Stock-jobbing was banished at the same time from the Rue

Quincampoix, and established in the Place Vendome. In this latter place

there was more room for it. The passers-by were not incommoded. Yet

some people did not find it as convenient as the other. At this time the

King gave up to the bank one hundred million of shares he had in it.

On the 5th July, a decree of the Council was issued, prohibiting people

from possessing jewels, from keeping them locked up, or from selling them

to foreigners. It may be imagined what a commotion ensued. This decree

was grafted upon a number of others, the object of all, too visibly,

being to seize upon all coin, in favour of the discredited paper, in

which nobody could any longer have the slightest confidence. In vain M.

le Duc d'Orleans, M. le Duc, and his mother, tried to persuade others, by

getting rid of their immense stores of jewels, that is to say, by sending

them abroad on a journey--nothing more: not a person was duped by this

example; not a person omitted to conceal his jewels very carefully: a

thing much more easy to accomplish than the concealment of gold or silver

coin, on account of the smaller value of precious stones. This jewellery

eclipse was not of long duration.

CHAPTER CI

Immediately after the issue of this decree an edict was drawn up for the

establishment of an Indian commercial company, which was to undertake to

reimburse in a year six, hundred millions of bank notes, by paying fifty

thousand dollars per month. Such was the last resource of Law and his

system. For the juggling tricks of the Mississippi, it was found

necessary to substitute something real; especially since the edict of the

22nd of May, so celebrated and so disastrous for the paper. Chimeras

were replaced by realities--by a true India Company; and it was this name

and this thing which succeeded, which took the place of the undertaking

previously known as the Mississippi. It was in vain that the tobacco

monopoly and a number of other immense monopolies were given to the new

company; they could not enable it to meet the proper claims spread among

the public, no matter what trouble might be taken to diminish them at all

hazard and at all loss.

It was now necessary to seek other expedients. None could be found

except that of rendering this company a commercial one; this was, under a

gentler name, a name vague and unpretending, to hand over to it the

entire and exclusive commerce of the country. It may be imagined how

such a resolution was received by the public, exasperated by the severe

decree, prohibiting people, under heavy penalties, from having more than

five-hundred livres, in coin, in their possession, subjecting them to

visits of inspection, and leaving them nothing but bank notes to, pay for

the commonest necessaries of daily life. Two things resulted; first,

fury, which day by day was so embittered by the difficulty of obtaining

money for daily subsistence, that it was a marvel all Paris did not

revolt at once, and that the emeute was appeased; second, the Parliament,

taking its stand upon this public emotion, held firm to the end in

refusing to register the edict instituting the new company.

On the 15th of July, the Chancellor showed in his own house the draught

of the edict to deputies from the Parliament, who remained with him until

nine o'clock at night, without being persuaded. On the morrow, the 16th,

the edict was brought forward in the Regency Council. M. le Duc

d'Orleans, sustained by M. le Duc, spoke well upon it, because he could

not speak ill, however bad his theme. Nobody said a word, and all bowed

their necks. It was resolved, in this manner, to send the edict to the

Parliament on the morrow, the 17th of July.

That same 17th of July, there was such a crowd in the morning, at the

bank and in the neighbouring streets, for the purpose of obtaining enough

money to go to market with, that ten or twelve people were stifled.

Three of the bodies were tumultuously carried to the Palais Royal, which

the people, with loud cries, wished to enter. A detachment of the King's

guards at the Tuileries was promptly sent there. La Vrilliere and Le

Blanc separately harangued the people. The lieutenant of police came;

brigades of the watch were sent for. The dead bodies were afterwards

carried away, and by gentleness and cajoleries the people were at length

dispersed. The detachment of the King's guards returned to the

Tuileries. By about ten o'clock in the morning, all being over, Law took

it into his head to go to the Palais Royal. He received many

imprecations as he passed through the streets. M. le Duc d'Orleans

thought it would be well not to let him leave the Palais Royal, and gave

him a lodging there. He sent back Law's carriage, however, the windows

of which were smashed on the way by the stones thrown at them. Law's

house, too, was attacked, amid much breaking of windows. All this was

known so late in our quarter of the Jacobins of the Saint-Dominique, that

when I arrived at the Palais Royal there was not a vestige visible of any

disturbance. M. le Duc d'Orleans, in the midst of a very small company,

was very tranquil, and showed that you would not please him unless you

were so also. I did not stop long, having nothing to do or say.

This same morning the edict was carried to the Parliament, which refused

to register it, and sent a deputation to M. le Duc d'Orleans with its

reasons for this, at which the Regent was much vexed. The next morning

an ordonnance of the King was pasted all over the town, prohibiting the

people, under heavy penalties, to assemble, and announcing that in

consequence of the disturbances which had taken place the previous day at

the bank, that establishment would remain closed until further notice,

and no more money would be paid by it. Luck supplied the place of

prudence; for people knew not how they were to live in the meanwhile, yet

no fresh disturbance occurred fact which shows the goodness and obedience

of the people, subjected to so many and to such strange trials. Troops,

however, were collected at Charenton, who were at work upon the canal of

Montargis: some regiments of cavalry and of dragoons were stationed at

Saint-Denis, and the King's regiment was posted upon the heights of

Chaillot. Money was sent to Gonesse to induce the bakers to come as

usual, and for fear they should refuse bank notes, like the Paris workmen

and shopkeepers, nearly all of whom would no longer receive any paper,

the regiment of the guards had orders to hold itself ready, and the

musketeers to keep within their quarters, their horses saddled and

bridled.

As for the Parliament, M. le Duc d'Orleans determined to punish its

disobedience by sending it to Blois. This resolution was carried in full

council. The Regent hoped that the Parliamentary men, accustomed to the

comfort of their Paris homes, and to the society there of their wives;

children, and friends, would soon grow tired of being separated from

them, and of the extra expense they would be put to, and would give in.

I agreed to the project, although I saw, alas! that by this exile the

Parliament would be punished, but would be neither conciliated nor tamed

into submission. To make matters worse, Blois was given up, and Pontoise

was substituted for it! This latter town being close to Paris, the

chastisement became ridiculous, showed the vacillating weakness of the

Regent, and encouraged the Parliament to laugh at him. One thing was,

however, well done. The resolution taken to banish the Parliament was

kept so secret that that assembly had not the slightest knowledge of it.

On Sunday, the 21st of July, squadrons of the guards, with officers at

their head, took possession, at four o'clock in the morning, of all the

doors of the Palais de justice. The musketeers seized at the same time

upon the doors of the Grand Chamber, whilst others invaded the house of

the Chief-President, who was in much fear during the first hour. Other

musketeers went in parties of four to all the officers of the Parliament,

and served them with the King's order, commanding them to repair to

Pontoise within twice twenty-four hours. All passed off very politely on

both sides, so that there was not the slightest complaint: several

members obeyed the same day and went to Pontoise.

Rather late in the evening M. le Duc d'Orleans sent to the Attorney-

General 200,000 livres in coin, and as much in bank notes of 100 livres,

and of 10 livres to be given to those who should need them for the

journey, but not as gifts. The Chief-President was more brazen and more

fortunate; he made so many promises, showed so much meanness, employed so

much roguery, that abusing by these means the feebleness and easiness of

the Regent, whom he laughed at, he obtained more than 100,000 ecus for

his expenses. The poor prince gave him the money, under the rose, in two

or three different payments, and permitted the Duc de Bouillon to lend

him his house at Pontoise, completely furnished, and the garden of which,

on the banks of the river, is admirable and immense, a masterpiece of its

kind, and had been the delight of Cardinal Bouillon, being perhaps the

only thing in France he regretted. With such fine assistance the Chief-

President--on bad terms with his companions, who had openly despised him

for some time--perfectly made it up with them. He kept at Pontoise open

table for the Parliament; all were every day at liberty to use it if they

liked, so that there were always several tables, all equally, delicately,

and splendidly served. He sent, too, to those who asked for them,

liquors, etc., as they could desire. Cooling drinks and fruits of all

kinds were abundantly served every afternoon, and there were a number of

little one and two-horse vehicles always ready for the ladies and old men

who liked a drive, besides play-tables in the apartments until supper

time. The result of all this magnificence was, as I have said, that the

Chief-President completely reinstated himself in the good graces of his

companions; but it was at the expense of the Regent, who was laughed at

for his pains. A large number of the members of the Parliament did not

go to Pontoise at all, but took advantage of the occasion to recreate

themselves in the country. Only a few of the younger members mounted

guard in the assembly, where nothing but the most trivial and make-

believe business was conducted. Everything important was deliberately

neglected. Woe! to those, therefore, who had any trial on hand. The

Parliament, in a word, did nothing but divert itself, leave all business

untouched, and laugh at the Regent and the government. Banishment to

Pontoise was a fine punishment!

This banishment of the Parliament to Pontoise was followed by various

financial operations and by several changes in the administrations. Des

Forts had the general control of the finances and all authority, but

without the name. The disordered state of the exchequer did not hinder

M. le Duc d'Orleans from indulging in his strange liberalities to people

without merit and without need, and not one of whom he could possibly

care a straw for. He gave to Madame la Grande Duchesse an augmentation

of her pension of 50,000 livres; one of 8,000 livres to Trudaine: one of

9,000 livres to Chateauneuf; one of 8,000 livres to Bontems, chief valet

de chambre of the King; one of 6,000 livres to the Marechal de

Montesquieu; one of 3,000 livres to Faucault; and one of 9,000 livres to

the widow of the Duc d'Albemarle, secretly remarried to the son of

Mahoni.

All this time the public stock-jobbing still continued on the Place

Vendome. The Mississippi had tempted everybody. It was who should fill

his pockets first with millions, through M. le Duc d'Orleans and Law.

The crowd was very great. One day the Marechal de Villars traversed the

Place Vendome in a fine coach, loaded with pages and lackeys, to make way

for which the mob of stock-jobbers had some difficulty. The Marechal

upon this harangued the people in his braggart manner from the carriage

window, crying out against the iniquity of stock-jobbing, and the shame

it cast upon all. Until this point he had been allowed to say on, but

when he thought fit to add that his own hands were clean, and that he had

never dabbled in shares, a voice uttered a cutting sarcasm, and all the

crowd took up the word, at which the Marechal, ashamed and confounded,

despite his ordinary authority, buried himself in his carriage and

finished his journey across the Place Vendome at a gentle trot in the

midst of a hue and cry, which followed him even beyond, and which

diverted Paris at his expense for several days, nobody pitying him.

At last it was found that this stock-jobbing too much embarrassed the

Place Vendome and the public way; it was transferred, therefore, to the

vast garden of the Hotel de Soissons. This was, in fact, its proper

place. Law, who had remained at the Palais Royal some time, had returned

to his own house, where he received many visits. The King several times

went to see the troops that had been stationed near Paris; after this

they were sent away again. Those which had formed a little camp at

Charenton, returned to Montargis to work at the canal making there.

Law, for commercial reasons, had some time ago caused Marseilles to be

made a free port. The consequence of this was that an abundance of

vessels came there, especially vessels from the Levant, and from want of

precautions the plague came also, lasted a long while, desolated the

town, province; and the neighbouring provinces. The care and precautions

afterwards taken restrained it as much as possible, but did not hinder it

from lasting a long time, or from creating frightful disorders. These

details are so well known that they can be dispensed with here.

I have a few more words to say of Law and his Mississippi. The bubble

finally burst at the end of the year (1720). Law, who had no more

resources, being obliged secretly to depart from the realm, was

sacrificed to the public. His flight was known only through the eldest

son of Argenson, intendant at Mainbeuge, who had the stupidity to arrest

him. The courier he despatched with the news was immediately sent back,

with a strong reprimand for not having deferred to the passport with

which Law had been furnished by the Regent. The financier was with his

son, and they both went to Brussels where the Marquis de Prie, Governor

of the Imperial Low Countries, received them very well, and entertained

them. Law did not stop long, gained Liege and Germany, where he offered

his talents to several princes, who all thanked him; nothing more. After

having thus roamed, he passed through the Tyrol, visited several Italian

courts, not one of which would have him, and at last retired to Venice.

This republic, however, did not employ him. His wife and daughter

followed him some time after. I don't know what became of them or of the

son.