led the street and never left it till
eight at night. There were spread all sorts of rumours, true or false;
and all the devices of stock-jobbing were put in practice, in order to
effect a rise or fall in the prices. The price of some shares rose to
_six-and-thirty times_ their original value. Their price often varied,
during the course of a single day, several thousand francs. From this
perilous gambling arose alternately incredible fortunes and total ruins.

"The numerous instances which occurred of person who had risen from
nothing and suddenly become possessed of immense wealth, raised the
public avidity to a perfect frenzy. At that epoch of scandal and
opprobrium, there was no folly or vice in which the high society did not
take the lead. The degradation of men's minds was equal to the
corruption of their manners. The courtiers, even the princes of the
blood, besieged the Regent to obtain shares. He flung them among them
with open hands; and soon they were seen mingling in the crowds of
speculators, and covetous like them of discreditable gains. 'My son,'
said the Regent's mother, 'has given me, for my family, two millions in
shares. The King has taken some millions for his house. The whole royal
family have received some; all the children of France, all their
grandsons and princes of the blood.'--(28th Nov. 1719.)

"Women of the highest rank did not scruple to pay the most assiduous
court to Law to obtain shares. They passed whole days in his
ante-chamber waiting for an audience, which he very seldom gave them.
One caused her carriage to be overturned before his door to attract his
attention, and had the good fortune, in consequence, to get a few words
from him. Another stopped before his hotel and made her servants call
out 'Fire,' to force him to come out, and thus obtain an interview. They
were to be seen seated on the front part of the carriage of Madame Law,
striving to obtain from her a profitable friendship. That woman who had
the effrontery to take the name of Law, though she was only his
mistress, treated them with hauteur.

"The same passion was not less vehement in the other classes of society.
The latest _arrets_ of the council had ordained that all shares should
be paid in paper: and instantly a crowd assembled round the bank, to
exchange their gold and silver for bank-notes. The women sold their
diamonds and pearls, the men their plate. Ere long the provinces became
envious of the profits made in t