t the die had been cast, and the Duke
of Orleans outstripped Law himself in the application of his theories.
A company, formed secretly, and protected by the new keeper of the seals,
had bought up the general farmings (_fermes generales_), that is to say,
all the indirect taxes, for the sum of forty-eight million fifty-two
thousand livres; the _Compagnie des Indes_ re-purchased them for fifty-
two millions; the general receipts were likewise conceded to it, and
Law's bank was proclaimed a Royal Bank; the company's shares already
amounted to the supposed value of all the coin circulating in the
kingdom, estimated at seven or eight millions. Law thought he might risk
everything in the intoxication which had seized all France, capital and
province. He created some fifteen hundred millions of new shares,
promising his shareholders a dividend of twelve per cent. From all parts
silver and gold flowed into his hands; everywhere the paper of the Bank
was substituted for coin. The delirium had mastered all minds. The
street called Quincampoix, for a long time past devoted to the operations
of bankers, had become the usual meeting-place of the greatest lords as
well as of discreet burgesses. It had been found necessary to close the
two ends of the street with gates, open from six A. M. to nine P. M.;
every house harbored business agents by the hundred; the smallest room
was let for its weight in gold. The workmen who made the paper for the
bank-notes could not keep up with the consumption. The most modest
fortunes suddenly became colossal, lacqueys of yesterday were
millionaires to-morrow; extravagance followed the progress of this
outburst of riches, and the price of provisions followed the progress of
extravagance. Enthusiasm was at its height in favor of the able author
of so many benefits. Law became a convert to Catholicism, and was made
comptroller-general; all the court was at his feet. "My son was looking
for a duchess to escort my granddaughter to Genoa," writes Madame, the
Regent's mother. "'Send and choose one at Madame Law's,' said I; 'you
will find them all sitting in her drawing-room.'" Law's triumph was
complete; the hour of his fall was about to strike.

At the pinnacle of his power and success the new comptroller-general fell
into no illusion as to the danger of the position. "He had been forced
to raise seven stories on foundations which he had laid for only three,"
said a contemporary, as clear-sig