ment relaxed, and fines, under
the denomination of taxes, were indiscriminately levied upon all offenders;
but so corrupt was every department of the administration, that the country
benefited but little by the sums which thus flowed into the treasury.
Courtiers and courtiers' wives and mistresses came in for the chief share
of the spoils. One contractor had been taxed, in proportion to his wealth
and guilt, at the sum of twelve millions of livres. The Count ----, a man
of some weight in the government, called upon him, and offered to procure a
remission of the fine if he would give him a hundred thousand crowns. "Vous
etes trop tard, mon ami," replied the financier; "I have already made a
bargain with your wife for fifty thousand."[5]

[5] This anecdote is related by M. de la Hode, in his _Life of
Philippe of Orleans_. It would have looked more authentic if
he had given the names of the dishonest contractor and the
still more dishonest minister. But M. de la Hode's book is
liable to the same objection as most of the French memoirs of
that and of subsequent periods. It is sufficient with most of
them that an anecdote be _ben trovato_; the _vero_ is but
matter of secondary consideration.

About a hundred and eighty millions of livres were levied in this manner,
of which eighty were applied in payment of the debts contracted by the
government. The remainder found its way into the pockets of the courtiers.
Madame de Maintenon, writing on this subject, says,--"We hear every day of
some new grant of the regent. The people murmur very much at this mode of
employing the money taken from the peculators." The people, who, after the
first burst of their resentment is over, generally express a sympathy for
the weak, were indignant that so much severity should be used to so little
purpose. They did not see the justice of robbing one set of rogues to
fatten another. In a few months all the more guilty had been brought to
punishment, and the Chamber of Justice looked for victims in humbler walks
of life. Charges of fraud and extortion were brought against tradesmen of
good character in consequence of the great inducements held out to common
informers. They were compelled to lay open their affairs before this
tribunal in order to establish their innocence. The voice of complaint
resounded from every side; and at the expiration of a year the government
found it advisable to di