pecie by small sums until he had about
$200,000 in coin, and lest he should be forced to return it, he packed
it in a cart, covered it with manure, put on a peasant's disguise, and
carted his fortune over the frontiers into Belgium. Some others quietly
realized their means in like manner by driblets and funded them abroad.

By such means coin gradually grew very scarce, and signs of a panic
appeared. The Regent tried to adjust matters by a decree that coin
should be five per cent. less than paper; as much as to say, It is
hereby enacted that there is a great deal more coin than there is!
This did not serve, and the Regent decreed again, that coin should be
worth ten per cent. less than paper. Then he decreed that the bank must
not pay more than $22 at once in specie; and, finally, by a bold stretch
of his authority, he issued an edict that no person should have over
$100 in coin, on pain of fine and confiscation. These odious laws made a
great deal of trouble, spying, and distress, and rapidly aggravated the
difficulty they were meant to cure. The price of shares in the great
company began to fall steadily and rapidly. Law and the Regent began to
be universally hated, cursed, and threatened. Various foolish and vain
attempts were made to stay the coming ruin, by renewing the stories
about Louisiana sending out a lot of conscripted laborers, ordering that
all payments must be made in paper, and printing a new batch of notes,
to the amount of another $300,000,000. Law's two corporations were also
doctored in several ways. The distress and fright grew worse. An edict
was issued that Law's notes and shares should depreciate gradually by
law for a year, and then be worth but half their face. This made such a
tumult and outcry that the Regent had to retract it in seven days. On
this seventh day, Law's bank stopped paying specie. Law was turned out
of his public employments, but still well treated by the Regent in
private. He was, however, mobbed and stoned in his coach in the street,
had to have a company of Swiss Guards in his house, and at last had to
flee to the Regent's own palace.

I have not space to describe in detail the ruin, misery, tumults, loss
and confusion which attended the speedy descent of Law's paper and
shares to entire worthlessness. Thousands of families were made paupers,
and trade and commerce destroyed by the painful process. Law himself
escaped out of France poor; and, after another obscure and disrep