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diff --git a/3872.txt b/3872.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29e9ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/3872.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2757 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 13 +by Duc de Saint-Simon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 13 + And His Court and of The Regency + +Author: Duc de Saint-Simon + +Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3872] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV., *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY + + BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON + + + +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. + +Law was a Scotchman; of very doubtful birth; tall and well made; of +agreeable face and aspect; gallant, and on very good terms with the +ladies of all the countries he had travelled in. His wife was not his +wife; she was of a good English family and well connected; had followed +Law for love; had had a son and a daughter by him, passed for his wife, +and bore his name without being married to him. This was suspected +towards the end; after his departure it became certain. She had one eye +and the top of one cheek covered by an ugly stain as of wine; otherwise +she was well made, proud, impertinent in her conversation and in her +manners, receiving compliments, giving next to none, paying but few +visits, these rare and selected, and exercising authority in her +household. I know not whether her credit over her husband was great; but +he appeared full of regard, of care, and of respect for her; at the time +of their departure they were each about fifty and fifty-five years old. +Law had made many acquisitions of all kinds and still more debts, so that +this tangle is not yet unravelled by the committee of the council +appointed to arrange his affairs with his creditors. I have said +elsewhere, and I repeat it here, that there was neither avarice nor +roguery in his composition. He was a gentle, good, respectable man, whom +excess of credit and fortune had not spoiled, and whose deportment, +equipages, table, and furniture could not scandalise any one. He +suffered with singular patience and constancy all the vexations excited +by his operations, until towards the last, when, finding himself short of +means and wishing to meet his difficulty, he became quick and bad- +tempered, and his replies were often ill-measured. He was a man of +system, of calculation, of comparison, well and profoundly instructed in +these things, and, without ever cheating, had everywhere gained at play +by dint of understanding--which seems to me incredible--the combinations +of cards. + +His bank, as I have elsewhere said, was an excellent thing for a +republic, or for a country like England, where finance is as in a +republic. His Mississippi he was the dupe of, and believed with good +faith he should make great and rich establishments in America. He +reasoned like an Englishman, and did not know how opposed to commerce and +to such establishments are the frivolity of the (French) nation, its +inexperience, its avidity to enrich itself at once, the inconvenience of +a despotic government, which meddles with everything, which has little or +no consistency, and in which what one minister does is always destroyed +by his successor. + +Law's proscription of specie, then of jewels, so as to have only paper in +France, is a system I have never comprehended, nor has anybody, I fancy, +during all the ages which have elapsed since that in which Abraham, after +losing Sarah, bought, for ready-money, a sepulchre for her and for her +children. But Law was a man of system, and of system so deep, that +nobody ever could get to the bottom of it, though he spoke easily, well +and clearly, but with a good deal of English in his French. + +He remained several years at Venice, upon very scanty means, and died +there a Catholic, having lived decently, but very humbly, wisely, and +modestly, and received with piety the last sacraments of the Church. + +Thus terminates all I have to say of Law. But a painful truth remains. +I have to speak of the woful disorder in the finances which his system +led to, disorder which was not fully known until after his departure from +France. Then people saw, at last, where all the golden schemes that had +flooded upon popular credulity had borne us;--not to the smiling and +fertile shores of Prosperity and Confidence, as may be imagined; but to +the bleak rocks and dangerous sands of Ruin and Mistrust, where dull +clouds obscure the sky, and where there is no protection against the +storm. + + + + +CHAPTER CII + +Not long after the flight of Law, that is to say, on Sunday, the 24th of +January, of the new year, 1721, a council was held at the Tuileries, at +four o'clock in the afternoon, principally for the purpose of examining +the state of the finances and of Law's Bank and India Company. It was, +in fact, high time to do something to diminish the overgrown disorder and +confusion everywhere reigning. For some time there had been complete +stagnation in all financial matters; the credit of the King had step by +step diminished, private fortune had become more and more uncertain. The +bag was at last empty, the cards were cast aside, the last trick was +played: The administration of the finances had passed into the hands of +La Houssaye, and his first act was to call the attention of the Regency +Council to the position of the bank and the company. We were prepared to +hear that things were in a very bad state, but we were scarcely prepared +to find that they so closely resembled utter ruin and bankruptcy. + +I need not relate all that passed at this council; the substance of it is +enough. From the statement there of M. le Duc d'Orleans, it appeared +that Law had issued 1,200,000,000 livres of bank notes more than he ought +to have issued. The first 600,00,000 livres had not done much harm, +because they had been kept locked up in the bank; but after the 22nd of +May, another issue of 600,000,000 had taken place, and been circulated +among the public, without the knowledge of the Regent, without the +authorisation of any decree. "For this," said M. le Duc d'Orleans, "Law +deserved to be hanged, but under the circumstances of the case, I drew +him from his embarrassment, by an ante-dated decree, ordering the issue +of this quantity of notes." + +Thereupon M. le Duc said to the Regent, "But, Monsieur, why, knowing +this, did you allow him to leave the realm?" + +"It was you who furnished him with the means to do so," replied M. le Duc +d'Orleans. + +"I never asked you to allow him to quit the country," rejoined M. le Duc. + +"But," insisted the Regent, "it was you yourself who sent him his +passports." + +"That's true," replied M. le Duc, "but it was you who gave them to me to +send to him; but I never asked you for them, or to let him leave the +realm. I know that I have the credit for it amongst the public, and I am +glad of this opportunity to explain here the facts of the case. I was +against the proposition for sending M. Law to the Bastille, or to any +other prison, because I believed that it was not to your interest to +sanction this, after having made use of him as you had; but I never asked +you to let him leave the realm, and I beg you, Monsieur, in presence of +the King, and before all these gentlemen, to say if I ever did." + +"'Tis true," replied the Regent, "you never asked me; I allowed him to +go, because I thought his presence in France would injure public credit, +and the operations of the public." + +"So far was I from asking you," said M. le Duc, "that if you had done me +the honour to demand my opinion, I should have advised you to take good +care not to let him depart from the country." + +This strange conversation, which roused our astonishment to an incredible +point, and which was sustained with so much out-spoken freedom by M. le +Duc, demands a word or two of explanation. + +M. le Duc was one of those who, without spending a farthing, had drawn +millions from Law's notes and shares. He had had large allotments of the +latter, and now that they had become utterly valueless, he had been +obliged to make the best of a bad bargain, by voluntarily giving them up, +in order to lighten the real responsibilities of the Company. This he +had done at the commencement of the Council, M. le Prince de Conti also. +But let me explain at greater length. + +The 22nd of May, the day of the decree, was the period at which commenced +the final decay of the Company, and of the bank, and the extinction of +all confidence by the sad discovery that there was no longer any money +wherewith to pay the bank notes, they being so prodigiously in excess of +the coin. After this, each step had been but a stumble: each operation a +very feeble palliation. Days and weeks had been gained, obscurity had +been allowed to give more chance, solely from fear of disclosing the true +and terrible state of affairs, and the extent of the public ruin. Law +could not wash his hands of all this before the world; he could not avoid +passing for the inventor and instrument, and he would have run great risk +at the moment when all was unveiled. M. le Duc d'Orleans, who, to +satisfy his own prodigality, and the prodigious avidity of his friends, +had compelled Law to issue so many millions of livres of notes more than +he had any means of paying, and who had thus precipitated him into the +abyss, could not let him run the chance of perishing, still less to save +him, could he proclaim himself the real criminal. It was to extricate +himself from this embarrassment that he made Law leave the country, when +he saw that the monstrous deceit could no longer be hidden. + +This manifestation, which so strongly interested the shareholders, and +the holders of bank notes, especially those who had received shares or +notes as favours due to their authority, and who could show no other +title to them, threw every one into despair. The most important holders, +such as the Princes of the Blood, and others, whose profits had been +immense, had by force or industry delayed this manifestation as long as +possible. As they knew the real state of affairs, they felt that the +moment all the world knew it also, their gains would cease, and their +paper become worthless, that paper from which they had drawn so much, and +which had not cost them a farthing! This is what induced M. le Duc +d'Orleans to hide from them the day of this manifestation, so as to avoid +being importuned by them; and by a surprise, to take from them the power +of preparing any opposition to the measures it was proposed to carry out. +M. le Duc, when he learned this, flew into a fury, and hence the strange +scene between him and M. le Duc d'Orleans, which scandalised and +terrified everybody in the Council. + +M. le Duc d'Orleans, who, from taste, and afterwards from necessity, +lived upon schemes and trickery, thought he had done marvels in saddling +M. le Duc with the passport of Law. He wished to lay the blame of Law's +departure upon M. le Duc; but as I have shown, he was defeated by his own +weapons. He had to do with a man as sharp as himself. M. le Duc, who +knew he had nothing to fear, would not allow it to be supposed that he +had sanctioned the flight of the financier. That was why he pressed M. +le Duc d'Orleans so pitilessly, and forced him to admit that he had never +asked him to allow Law to leave the country. + +The great and terrible fact brought out by this Council was, that Law, +without the knowledge or authority of the Regent, had issued and +disseminated among the public 600,000,000 livres of notes; and not only +without being authorised by any edict, but contrary to express +prohibition. But when the Regent announced this, who did he suppose +would credit it? Who could believe that Law would have had the hardihood +to issue notes at this rate without the sanction and approbation of his +master? + +However, to leave once and for all these unpleasant matters, let me say +what was resolved upon by way of remedy to the embarrassments discovered +to exist. The junction of the India Company with the bank, which had +taken place during the previous February, had led to transactions which +made the former debtor to the latter to an immense amount. But the bank +being a governmental establishment, the King became thus the creditor of +the Company. It was decreed, in fact, that the Company should be +considered as debtor to the King. It was decided, however, that other +debtors should receive first attention. Many private people had invested +their money in the shares of the Company. It was not thought just that +by the debt of the Company to the King, these people should be ruined; +or, on the other hand, that those who had left the Company in good time, +who had converted their shares into notes, or who had bought them at a +low price in the market, should profit by the misfortune of the bona fide +shareholders. Accordingly, commissioners, it was decided, were to be +named, to liquidate all these papers and parchments, and annul those +which did not proceed from real purchases. + +M. le Duc said, upon this, "There are at least eighty thousand families, +the whole of whose wealth consists of these effects; how are they to live +during this liquidation?" + +La Houssaye replied, that so many commissioners could be named, that the +work would soon be done. + +And so the Council ended. + +But I must, perforce, retrace my steps at this point to many other +matters, which I have left far behind me in going on at once to the end +of this financial labyrinth. And first let me tell what happened to that +monstrous personage, Alberoni, how he fell from the lofty pinnacle of +dower on which he had placed himself, and lost all consideration and all +importance in the fall. The story is mightily curious and instructive. + + + + +CHAPTER CIII + +Alberoni had made himself detested by all Europe,--for all Europe, in one +way or another, was the victim of his crimes. He was detested as the +absolute master of Spain, whose guides were perfidy, ambition, personal +interest, views always oblique, often caprice, sometimes madness; and +whose selfish desires, varied and diversified according to the fantasy +of the moment, were hidden under schemes always uncertain and oftentimes +impossible of execution. Accustomed to keep the King and Queen of Spain +in chains, and in the narrowest and obscurest prison, where he allowed +them to communicate with no one, and made them see, feel, and breathe +through him, and blindly obey his every wish; he caused all Spain to +tremble, and had annihilated all power there, except his own, by the most +violent acts, constraining himself in no way, despising his master and +his mistress, whose will and whose authority he had utterly absorbed. +He braved successively all the powers of Europe, and aspired to nothing +less than to deceive them all, then to govern them, making them serve all +his ends; and seeing at last his cunning exhausted, tried to execute +alone, and without allies, the plan he had formed. + +This plan was nothing less than to take away from the Emperor all that +the peace of Utrecht had left him in Italy; all that the Spanish house of +Austria had possessed there; to dominate the Pope and the King of Sicily; +to deprive the Emperor of the help of France and England, by exciting the +first against the Regent through the schemes of the ambassador Cellamare +and the Duc du Maine; and by sending King James to England, by the aid of +the North, so as to keep King George occupied with a civil war. In the +end he wished to profit by all these disorders, by transporting into +Italy (which his cardinalship made him regard as a safe asylum against +all reverses) the immense treasures he had pillaged and collected m +Spain, under pretext of sending the sums necessary to sustain the war, +and the conquests he intended to make; and this last project was, +perhaps, the motive power of all the rest. The madness of these schemes, +and his obstinacy in clinging to them, were not discovered until +afterwards. The astonishment then was great indeed, upon discovering the +poverty of the resources with which he thought himself capable of +carrying out these wild projects. Yet he had made such prodigious +preparations for war, that he had entirely exhausted the country without +rendering it able for a moment to oppose the powers of Europe. + +Alberoni, abhorred in Spain as a cruel tyrant, in France, in England, in +Rome, and by the Emperor as an implacable and personal enemy, did not +seem to have the slightest uneasiness. Yet he might have had some, and +with good cause, at the very moment when he fancied himself most powerful +and most secure. + +The Regent and the Abbe Dubois, who for a long time had only too many +reasons to regard Alberoni as their personal enemy, were unceasingly +occupied in silently plotting his fall; they believed the present moment +favourable, and did not fail to profit by it. How they did so is a +curious fact, which, to my great regret, has never reached me. M. le Duc +d'Orleans survived Dubois such a few months that many things I should +have liked to have gained information upon, I had not the time to ask him +about; and this was one. + +All I know is, that what Alberoni always dreaded, at last happened to +him. He trembled, at every one, no matter of how little importance, who +arrived from Parma (the Queen of Spain, it has not been forgotten, was of +that Duchy); he omitted nothing by the aid of the Duke of Parma, and by +other means, to hinder the Parmesans from coming to Madrid; and was in +terror of the few of those whose journey he could not hinder, and whose +dismissal he could not obtain. + +Among these few people there was nobody he feared so much as the Queen's +nurse, whom he drew up with a round turn occasionally, so to speak, but +less from policy than ill-temper. This nurse, who was a rough country- +woman of Parma, was named Donna Piscatori Laura. She had arrived in +Spain some years after the Queen, who had always liked her, and who made +her, shortly after her arrival, her 'assofeta', that is to say, her chief +'femme de chambre'; an office more considerable in Spain than with us. +Laura had brought her husband with her, a peasant in every way, seen and +known by nobody; but Laura had intelligence, shrewdness, cleverness, and +ambitious views, in spite of the external vulgarity of her manners, which +she had preserved either from habit, or from policy, for make herself +less suspected. Like all persons of this extraction, she was thoroughly +selfish. She was not unaware how impatiently Alberoni endured her +presence, and feared her favour with the Queen, whom he wished to possess +alone; and, more sensible to the gentle taps she from time to time +received from him, than to his ordinary attentions, she looked upon him +simply as a very formidable enemy, who kept her within very narrow +limits, who hindered her from profiting by the favour of the Queen, and +whose design was to send her back to Parma, and to leave nothing undone +until he had carried it out. + +This is all the information I have ever been able to obtain. The +probability is, that Donna Laura was gained by the money of the Regent +and the intrigues gained Dubois; and that she succeeded in convincing the +Queen of Spain that Alberoni was a minister who had ruined the country, +who was the sole obstacle in the way of peace, and who had sacrificed +everything and everybody to his personal views, their Catholic Majesties +included. However, as I relate only what I know, I shall be very brief +upon this interesting event. + +Laura succeeded. Alberoni, at the moment he least expected it, received +a note from the King of Spain ordering him to withdraw at once, without +attempting to see him or the Queen, or to write to them; and to leave +Spain in twice twenty-four hours! An officer of the guards was to +accompany him until his departure: How this overruling order was +received, and what the Cardinal did, I know not; I only know that he +obeyed it, and took the road for Arragon. So few precautions had been +taken, that he carried off an immense number of papers, money, and +jewels; and it was not until a few days had elapsed, that the King of +Spain was informed that the original will of Charles the Second could not +be found. It was at once supposed that Alberoni had carried away this +precious document (by which Charles the Second named Philippe V. King of +Spain), in order to offer it, perhaps, to the Emperor, so as to gain his +favour and good graces. Alberoni was stopped. It was not without +trouble, the most terrible menaces, and loud cries from him, that he +surrendered the testament, and some other important papers which it was +perceived were missing. The terror he had inspired was so profound, +that, until this moment, no one had dared to show his joy, or to speak, +though the tyrant was gone. But this event reassured every one against +his return, and the result was an unexampled overflow of delight, of +imprecations, and of reports against him, to the King and Queen, of the +most public occurrences (which they alone were ignorant of) and of. +private misdeeds, which it was no longer thought necessary to hide. + +M. le Duc d'Orleans did not restrain his joy, still less the Abbe Dubois; +it was their work which had overthrown their personal enemy; with him +fell the wall of separation, so firmly erected by Alberoni between the +Regent and the King of Spain; and (at the same time) the sole obstacle +against peace. This last reason caused joy to burst out in Italy, in +Vienna, in London; and peace between France, and Spain soon resulted. + +The allied princes felicitated themselves on what had happened; even the +Dutch were ravished to be delivered of a minister so double-dealing, so +impetuous, so powerful. M. le Duc d'Orleans dispatched the Chevalier de +Morcieu, a very skilful and intelligent man, and certainly in the hands +of the Abbe Dubois, to the extreme confines of the frontiers to wait for +Alberoni, accompanying him until the moment of his embarkation in +Provence for Italy; with orders never to lose sight of him, to make him +avoid the large towns and principal places as much as possible; suffer no +honours to be rendered to him; above all, to hinder him from +communicating with anybody, or anybody with him; in a word, to conduct +him civilly, like a prisoner under guard. + +Morcieu executed to the letter this disagreeable commission; all the more +necessary, because, entirely disgraced as was Alberoni, everything was to +be forced from him while traversing a great part of France, where all who +were adverse to the Regent might have recourse to him. Therefore it was +not without good reason that every kind of liberty was denied him. + +It may be imagined what was suffered by a man so impetuous, and so +accustomed to unlimited power; but he succeeded in accommodating himself +to such a great and sudden change of condition; in maintaining his self- +possession; in subjecting himself to no refusals; in being sage and +measured in his manners; very reserved in speech, with an air as though +he cared for nothing; and in adapting himself to everything without +questions, without pretension, without complaining, dissimulating +everything, and untiringly pretending to regard Morcieu as an +accompaniment of honour. He received, then, no sort of civility on the +part of the Regent, of Dubois, or of anybody; and performed the day's +journeys, arranged by Morcieu, without stopping, almost without suite, +until he arrived on the shores of the Mediterranean, where he immediately +embarked and passed to the Genoa coast. + +Alberoni, delivered of his Argus, and arrived in Italy, found himself in +another trouble by the anger of the Emperor, who would suffer him +nowhere, and by the indignation of the Court of Rome, which prevailed, on +this occasion, over respect for the purple. Alberoni for a long time was +forced to keep out of the way, hidden and a fugitive, and was not able to +approach Rome until the death of the Pope. The remainder of the life of +this most extraordinary man is not a subject for these memoirs. But what +ought not to be forgotten is the last mark of rage, despair, and madness +that he gave in traversing France. He wrote to M. le Duc d'Orleans, +offering to supply him with the means of making a most dangerous war +against Spain; and at Marseilles, ready to embark, he again wrote to +reiterate the same offers, and press them on the Regent. + +I cannot refrain from commenting here upon the blindness of allowing +ecclesiastics to meddle with public affairs; above all, cardinals, whose +special privilege is immunity from everything most infamous and most +degrading. Ingratitude, infidelity, revolt, felony, independence, are +the chief characteristics of these eminent criminals. + +Of Alberoni's latter days I will say but a few words. + +At the death of Clement XI., legal proceedings that had been taken to +deprive Alberoni of his cardinalship, came to an end. Wandering and +hidden in Italy, he was summoned to attend a conclave for the purpose of +electing a new Pope. Alberoni was the opprobrium of the sacred college; +proceedings, as I have said, were in progress to deprive him of his +cardinalship. The King and Queen of Spain evidently stimulated those +proceedings: the Pope just dead had opposed him; but the cardinals would +not agree to his disgrace; they would not consent to strip him of his +dignity. The example would have been too dangerous. That a cardinal, +prince, or great nobleman, should surrender his hat in order to marry, +the store of his house demands it; well and good; but to see a cardinal +deprive himself of his hat by way of penitence, is what his brethren will +not endure. A cardinal may be poisoned, stabbed, got rid of altogether, +but lose his dignity he never can. Rome must be infallible, or she is +nothing. + +It was decided, that if, at the election of the new Pope, Alberoni were +not admitted to take part in the proceedings, he always might protest +against them, and declare them irregular. Therefore he was, as I have +said, admitted to the conclave. He arrived in Rome, without display, in +his own coach, and was received in the conclave with the same honours as +all the other cardinals, and performed all the duties of his position. + +A few days after the election, he absented himself from Rome, as though +to see whether proceedings would be continued against him. But they fell +of themselves. The new Pope had no interest in them. The cardinals +wished only for silence. Spain felt at last the inutility of her cries. +Dubois was in favour of throwing a veil over his former crimes, so that, +after a short absence, Alberoni hired in Rome a magnificent palace, and +returned there for good, with the attendance, expense, and display his +Spanish spoils supplied. He found himself face to face with the Cardinal +Giudice, and with Madame des Ursins. The three formed a rare triangle, +which caused many a singular scene in home. After seeing them both die, +Alberoni became legate at Ferrara, continued there a long time, little +esteemed at Rome, where he is now living, sound in mind and body, and +eighty-six years of age. + + + + +CHAPTER CIV + +The King attended the Royal Council for the first time on Sunday, the +18th of February, 1720. He said nothing while there, or on going away, +excepting that when M. le Duc d'Orleans, who feared he might grow weary +of the proceedings, proposed to him to leave, he said he would stop to +the end. After this he did not come always, but often, invariably +remaining to the last, without moving or speaking. His presence changed +nothing in the order of our arrangements, because his armchair was always +there, alone, at the end of the table, and M. le Duc d'Orleans, whether +his Majesty came or not, had but a "stool" similar to those we all sat +upon. Step by step this council had been so much increased, that now, by +the entry of the Duc de Berwick, it numbered sixteen members! To say +truth, we were far too many, and we had several among us who would have +been much better away. I had tried, but in vain, to make the Regent see +this. He did see at last, but it was too late; and meanwhile we were, as +I have stated, sixteen in the council. I remember that one day, when the +King came, a kitten followed him, and some time after jumped upon him, +and thence upon the table, where it began to walk; the Duc de Noailles +immediately crying out, because he did not like cats. M. le Duc +d'Orleans wished to drive the animal away. I smiled, and said, "Oh, +leave the kitten alone, it will make the seventeenth." + +M. le Duc d'Orleans burst out laughing at this, and looked at the +company, who laughed also, the King as well. His Majesty briefly spoke +of it to me on the morrow, as though appreciating the joke, which, by the +way, immediately ran over all Paris. + +The Abbe Dubois still maintained his pernicious influence over the +Regent, and still looked forward to a cardinalship as the reward of his +scheming, his baseness, and his perfidy. In the meantime, the +Archbishopric of Cambrai became vacant (by the death, at Rome, of the +Cardinal Tremoille). That is to say, the richest archbishopric, and one +of the best posts in the Church. The Abbe Dubois was only tonsured; +150,000 livres, a year tempted him, and perhaps this position, from which +he could more easily elevate himself to the cardinalship. Impudent as he +might be, powerful as might be the empire he had acquired over his +master, he was much embarrassed, and masked his effrontery under a trick. +He said to M. le Duc d'Orleans, he had a pleasant dream; and related to +him that he had dreamt he was Archbishop of Cambrai! The Regent, who +smelt the rat, turned on his heel, and said nothing. Dubois, more and +more embarrassed, stammered, and paraphrased his dream; then, re-assuring +himself by an effort, asked, in an offhand manner, why he should not +obtain it, His Royal Highness, by his will alone, being able thus to make +his fortune. + +M. le Duc d'Orleans was indignant, even terrified, little scrupulous as +he might be as to the choice of bishops, and in a tone of contempt +replied to Dubois, "What, you Archbishop of Cambrai!" making him thus +feel his low origin, and still more the debauchery and scandal of his +life. Dubois was, however, too far advanced to stop on the road, and +cited examples; unfortunately these were only too many. + +M. le Duc d'Orleans, less touched by such bad reasoning than embarrassed +how to resist the ardor of a man whom for a long time he had not dated to +contradict, tried to get out of the difficulty, by saying, "But you being +such a scoundrel, where will you find another to consecrate you?" + +"Oh, if it's only that!" exclaimed Dubois, "the thing is done. I know +very well who will consecrate me; he is not far from here." + +"And who the devil is he who will dare to do so?" asked the Regent. + +"Would you like to know?" replied the Abbe, "and does the matter rest +only upon that?" + +"Well, who?" said the Regent. + +"Your chief chaplain," replied Dubois, "who is close at hand. Nothing +will please him better; I will run and speak to him." + +And thereupon he embraces the knees of M. le Duc d'Orleans (who, caught +thus in his own trap, had not the strength to refuse), runs to the Bishop +of Nantes, says that he is to have Cambrai, begs the Bishop to consecrate +him, and receives his promise to do so, returns, wheels round, tells M. +le Duc d'Orleans that his chief chaplain has agreed to the consecration; +thanks, praises, admires the Regent, fixes more and more firmly the +office by regarding it as settled, and by persuading M. le Duc d'Orleans, +who dares not say no; and in this manner was Dubois made Archbishop of +Cambrai! + +The extreme scandal of this nomination caused a strange, stir. Impudent +as was the Abbe Dubois, he was extremely embarrassed; and M. le Duc +d'Orleans so much ashamed, that it was soon remarked he was humbled if +you spoke to him upon the subject. The next question was, from whom +Dubois was to receive holy orders? The Cardinal de Noailles was applied +to, but he stoutly refused to assist in any way. It may be imagined what +an affront this was to Dubois. He never in his life pardoned the +Cardinal, who was nevertheless universally applauded for his refusal. +But the Abbe Dubois was not a man to be daunted by an ordinary obstacle; +he turned his glances elsewhere, and soon went through all the +formalities necessary. + +The very day he took orders there was a Regency Council at the old +Louvre, because the measles, which were then very prevalent, even in the +Palais Royal, hindered us from meeting as usual in the Tuileries. +A Regency Council without the Abbe Dubois present was a thing to marvel +at, and yet his arrival to-day caused even more surprise than his absence +would have caused. But he was not a man to waste his time in +thanksgiving for what had just happened to him. This was a new scandal, +which revived and aggravated the first. Everybody had arrived in the +cabinet of the council, M. le Duc d'Orleans also; we were scattered about +and standing. I was in a corner of the lower end, when I saw Dubois +enter in a stout coat, with his ordinary bearing. We did not expect him +on such a day, and naturally enough cried out surprised. M. le Prince de +Conti, with his father's sneering manner, spoke to the Abbe Dubois, on +his appearance among us on the very day of taking orders, and expressed +his surprise at it with the most pathetic malignity imaginable. + +Dubois, who had not had time to reply one word, let him say to the end; +then coldly observed, that if he had been a little more familiar with +ancient history, he would not have found what astonished him very +strange, since he (the Abbe) had only followed the example of Saint- +Ambrose, whose ordination he began to relate. I did not wait for his +recital; at the mere mention of Saint-Ambrose I flew to the other end of +the cabinet, horror-struck at the comparison Dubois had just made, and +fearing lest I should be tempted to say to him, that the ordination of +Saint-Ambrose had been forced upon him in spite of his resistance. This +impious citation of Saint-Ambrose ran all over the town with the effect +that may be imagined. The nomination and this ordination took place +towards the end of February. + +I will finish at once all that relates to this matter, so as not to +separate it, or have to return to it. Dubois had his bulls at the +commencement of May, and the consecration was fixed for Sunday the 9th +of June. All Paris and the Court were invited to it, myself excepted. +I was on bad terms with Dubois, because I in no way spared him when with +M. le Duc d'Orleans. He on his side, fearing the power I had over the +Regent, the liberty I enjoyed with him, and the freedom with which I +spoke to him, did as much as he could to injure me, and to weaken the +confidence of M. le Duc d'Orleans in me. Dubois and I continued, +nevertheless, to be on good terms with each other in appearance, but it +was in appearance only. + +This consecration was to be magnificent, and M. le Duc d'Orleans was to +be present at it. If the nomination and the ordination of the Abbe +Dubois had caused much stir, scandal, and horror, the superb preparations +for the consecration caused even more: Great was the indignation against +M. le Duc d'Orleans. I went, therefore, to him the evening before this +strange ceremony was to take place, to beg him not to attend it. I +represented to him that the nomination and ordination of the Abbe Dubois +had created frightful effect upon the public, and that the consecration +of a man of such low extraction, and whose manners and mode of life were +so notorious; would create more. I added, that if he attended this +ceremony, people would say it was simply for the purpose of mocking God, +and insulting His Church; that the effect of this would be terrible, +and always much to be feared; and that people would say the Abbe Dubois +abused the mastery he had over him, and that this was evidence of +dependence would draw down upon him hatred, disdain, and shame, the +results of which were to be dreaded. I concluded by saying, that I spoke +to him as his disinterested servitor; that his absence or his presence at +this consecration would change in, nothing the fortune of the Abbe +Dubois, who would be Archbishop of Cambrai all the same without +prostituting his master in the eyes of all France, and of all Europe, +by compelling him to be guilty of a measure to which it would be seen he +had been urged by force. I conjured him not to go; and to show him on +what terms I was with the Abbe Dubois, I explained to him I was the sole +man of rank he had not invited to his consecration; but that, +notwithstanding this circumstance, if he would give me his word that he +would not go, I on my side would agree to go, though my horror at doing +so would be very great. + +My discourse, pronounced with warmth and developed with freedom, was +listened to from beginning to end. I was surprised to hear the Regent +say I was right, but I opened my eyes very wide when he embraced me, said +that I spoke like a true friend, and that he would give me his word, and +stick to it, he would not go. We parted upon this, I strengthening him +in his resolution, promising anew I would go, and he thanking me for this +effort. He showed no impatience, no desire that I should go; for I knew +him well, and I examined him to the very bottom of his soul, and quitted +him much pleased at having turned him from a measure so disgraceful and +so extraordinary. Who could have guessed that he would not keep his +word? But so it happened. + +Although as I have said I felt sure of him, yet the extreme weakness of +this prince, and the empire the Abbe Dubois had acquired over him; +induced me to be quite certain of him before going to the consecration. +I sent therefore the next morning to the Palais Royal to inquire after M. +le Duc d'Orleans; keeping my carriage all ready for a start. But I was +much confused, accustomed as I might be to his miserable vacillation, to +hear from the person I had sent, that he had just seen the Regent jump +into his coach, surrounded by all the pomp usual on grand occasions, +and set out for the consecration. I had my horses put up at once, and +locked myself into my cabinet. + +A day or two after I learnt from a friend of Madame de Parabere, then the +reigning Sultana, but not a faithful one, that M. le Duc d'Orleans had +been with her the previous night, and had spoken to her in praise of me, +saying he would not go to the ceremony, and that he was very grateful to +me for having dissuaded him from going. La Parabere praised me, admitted +I was right, but her conclusion was that he would go. + +M. le Duc d'Orleans, surprised, said to her she was then mad. + +"Be it so," replied she, "but you will go." + +"But I tell you I will not go," he rejoined. + +"Yes, yes, I tell you," said she; "you will go." + +"But," replied he, "this is admirable. You say M. de Saint-Simon is +quite right, why then should I go?" + +"Because I wish it," said she. + +"Very good," replied he, "and why do you wish I should go--what madness +is this?" + +"I wish it because--," said she. + +"Oh, because," replied he, "that's no reason; say why you wish it." + +(After some dispute) "You obstinately desire then to know? Are you not +aware that the Abbe Dubois and I quarreled four days ago, and that we +have not yet made it up. He mixes in everything. He will know that you +have been with me to-night. If to-morrow you do not go to his +consecration, he will not fail to believe it is I who have hindered you; +nothing will take this idea out of his head; he will never pardon me; +he will undermine in a hundred ways my credit with you, and finish by +embroiling us. But I don't wish such a thing to happen, and for that +reason you must go to his consecration, although M. de Saint-Simon is +right." + +Thereupon ensued a feeble debate, then resolution and promise to go, +which was very faithfully kept. + +As for me I could only deplore the feebleness of the Regent, to whom I +never afterwards spoke of this consecration, or he to me; but he was very +much ashamed of himself, and much embarrassed with me afterwards. I do +not know whether he carried his weakness so far as to tell Dubois what I +had said to hinder him from going to the ceremony or whether the Abbe was +told by La Parabere, who thought thus to take credit to herself for +having changed the determination of M. le Duc d'Orleans, and to show her +credit over him. But Dubois was perfectly informed of it, and never +pardoned me. + +The Val de Grace was chosen for the consecration as being a royal +monastery, the most magnificent of Paris, and the most singular church. +It was superbly decorated; all France was invited, and nobody dared to +stop away or to be out of sight during the whole ceremony. + +There were tribunes with blinds prepared for the ambassadors and +Protestant ministers. There was another more magnificent for M. le Duc +d'Orleans and M. le Duc de Chartres, whom he took there. There were +places for the ladies, and as M. le Duc d'Orleans entered by the +monastery, and his tribune was within, it was open to all comers, so that +outside and inside were filled with refreshments of all kinds, which +officers distributed in profusion. This disorder continued all day, on +account of the large number of tables that were served without and within +for the subordinate people of the fete and all who liked to thrust +themselves in. The chief gentlemen of the chamber of M. le Duc +d'Orleans, and his chief officers did the business of the ceremony; +placed distinguished people in their seats, received them, conducted +them, and other of his officers paid similar attentions to less +considerable people, while, all the watch and all the police were +occupied in looking after the arrival and departure of the carriages +in proper and regular order. + +During the consecration, which was but little decent as far as the +consecrated and the spectators were concerned, above all when leaving the +building, M. le Duc d'Orleans evinced his satisfaction at finding so many +considerable people present, and then went away to Asnieres to dine with +Madame Parabere--very glad that a ceremony was over upon which he had +bestowed only indirect attention, from the commencement to the end. All +the prelates, the distinguished Abbes, and a considerable number of the +laity, were invited during the consecration by the chief officers of M. +le Duc d'Orleans to dine at the Palais Royal. The same officers did the +honours of the feast, which was served with the most splendid abundance +and delicacy. There were two services of thirty covers each, in a large +room of the grand suite of apartments, filled with the most considerable +people of Paris, and several other tables equally well served in +adjoining rooms for people less distinguished. M. le Duc d'Orleans gave +to the new Archbishop a diamond of great price to serve him as ring. + +All this day was given up to that sort of triumph which draws down +neither the approbation of man nor the blessing of God. I saw nothing of +it all, however, and M. le Duc d'Orleans and I never spoke of it. + +The Comte de Horn had been in Paris for the last two months, leading an +obscure life of gaming and debauchery. He was a man of two-and-twenty, +tall and well made, of that ancient and grand family of Horn, known in +the eleventh century among the little dynasties of the Low Countries, and +afterwards by a long series of illustrious generations. The Comte de +Horn in question had been made captain in the Austrian army, less on +account of his youth than because he was such an ill-behaved dog, causing +vast trouble to his mother and brother. They heard so much of the +disorderly life he was leading in Paris, that they sent there a +confidential gentleman with money to pay his debts, to try and persuade +him to return, and failing in this, to implore the authority of the +Regent (to whom, through Madame, the Horns were related), in order to +compel him to do so. As ill-luck would have it, this gentleman arrived +the day after the Comte had committed the crime I am about to relate. + +On Friday, the 22nd of March, 1720, he went to the Rue Quincampoix, +wishing, he said, to buy 100,000 ecus worth of shares, and for that +purpose made an appointment with a stockbroker in a cabaret. The stock- +broker came there with his pocket-book and his shares; the Comte de Horn +came also, accompanied, as he said, by two of his friends; a moment +after, they all three threw themselves upon this unfortunate stock- +broker; the Comte de Horn stabbed him several times with a poniard, and +seized his pocket-book; one of his pretended friends (a Piedmontese named +Mille), seeing that the stock-broker was not dead, finished the work. +At the noise they made the people of the house came, not sufficiently +quick to prevent the murder, but in time to render themselves masters of +the assassins, and to arrest them. In the midst of the scuffle, the +other cut-throat escaped, but the Comte de Horn and Mille were not so +fortunate. The cabaret people sent for the officers of justice, who +conducted the criminals to the Conciergerie. This horrible crime, +committed in broad daylight, immediately made an immense stir, and +several kinsmen of this illustrious family at once went to M. le Duc +d'Orleans to beg for mercy; but the Regent avoided speaking to them as +much as possible, and very rightly ordered full and prompt justice to be +done. + +At last, the relatives of Horn penetrated to the Regent: they tried to +make the Count pass for mad, saying even that he had an uncle confined in +an asylum, and begging that he might be confined also. But the reply +was, that madmen who carried their madness to fury could not be got rid +of too quickly. Repulsed in this manner, they represented what an infamy +it would be to their illustrious family, related to nearly all the +sovereigns of Europe, to have one of its members tried and condemned. +M. le Duc d'Orleans replied that the infamy was in the crime, and not in +the punishment. They pressed him upon the honour the family had in being +related to him. "Very well, gentlemen," said he, "I will divide the +shame with you." + +The trial was neither long nor difficult. Law and the Abbe Dubois, so +interested in the safety of the stock-jobbers (without whom the paper +must have fallen at once), supported M. le Duc d'Orleans might and main, +in order to render him inexorable, and he, to avoid the persecutions he +unceasingly experienced on the other side, left nothing undone in order +to hurry the Parliament into a decision; the affair, therefore; went full +speed, and it seemed likely that the Comte de Horn would be broken on the +wheel. + +The relatives, no longer hoping to save the criminal, thought only of +obtaining a commutation of the sentence. Some of them came to me, asking +me to save them: though I was not related to the Horn family, they +explained to me, that death on the wheel would throw into despair all +that family, and everybody connected with it in the Low Countries, +and in Germany, because in those parts there was a great and important +difference between the punishments of persons of quality who had +committed crimes; that decapitation in no way influenced the family of +the decapitated, but that death on the wheel threw such infamy upon it, +that the uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters, and the three next +generations, were excluded from entering into any noble chapter, which, +in addition to the shame, was a very injurious deprivation, annihilating +the family's chance of ecclesiastic preferment; this reason touched me, +and I promised to do my best with M. le Duc d'Orleans to obtain a +commutation of the sentence. + +I was going off to La Ferme to profit by the leisure of Holy Week. +I went therefore to M. le Duc d'Orleans, and explained to him what I had +just learnt. I said that after the detestable crime the Comte de Horn +had committed, every one must feel that he was worthy of death; but that +every one could not admit it was necessary to break him on the wheel, in +order to satisfy the ends of justice. I showed him how the family would +suffer if this sentence were carried out, and I concluded by proposing to +the Regent a 'mezzo termine', such as he was so fond of. + +I suggested that the decree ordering death by the wheel should be +pronounced. That another decree should at the same time be prepared and +kept ready signed and sealed, with only a date to fill in, revoking the +first, and changing the punishment into decapitation. That at the last +moment this second decree should be produced, and immediately afterwards +the head of the Comte de Horn be cut off. M. le Duc d'Orleans offered no +objection, but consented at once to my plan. I said to him, by way of +conclusion, that I was going to set out the next day, and that I begged +him not to be shaken in the determination he had just formed, by the +entreaties of Dubois or Law, both of whom were strongly in favour of +punishment by the wheel. He assured me he would keep firm; reiterated +the assurance; I took leave of him; and the next day went to La Ferme. + +He was firm, however, in his usual manner. Dubois and Law besieged him, +and led the attack so well that he gave in, and the first thing I learnt +at La Ferme was that the Comte de Horn had been broken alive on the wheel +at the Greve, on Holy Friday; the 26th March, 1720, about 4 o'clock in +the afternoon, and the scoundrel Mille with him on the same scaffold, +after having both suffered torture. + +The result of this was as I anticipated. The Horn family and all the +grand nobility of the Low Countries, many of Germany, were outraged, and +contained themselves neither in words nor in writings. Some of them even +talked of strange vengeance, and a long time after the death of M. le Duc +d'Orleans, I met with certain of the gentlemen upon whose hearts the +memory of this punishment still weighed heavily. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A cardinal may be poisoned, stabbed, got rid of altogether +Enriched one at the expense of the other +Few would be enriched at the expense of the many +I abhorred to gain at the expense of others +Juggle, which put the wealth of Peter into the pockets of Paul +Not allowing ecclesiastics to meddle with public affairs +People with difficulty believe what they have seen +Rome must be infallible, or she is nothing + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 13 +by Duc de Saint-Simon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV., *** + +***** This file should be named 3872.txt or 3872.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/3872/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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