_ BOOK III. FRANCE
CHAPTER IV. THE REGENT'S PROMISE
"Tell me, then, Monsieur L'as, of this new America. I would fain have some information at first hand. There was rumor, I know not how exact, that you once traveled in those regions."
Thus spake his Grace Philippe, Duke of Orleans, regent of France, now, in effect, ruler of France. It was the audience which had been arranged for John Law, that opportunity for which he had waited all his life. Before him now, as he stood in the great council chamber, facing this man whose ambitions ended where his own began--at the convivial board and at the gaming table--he saw the path which led to the success that he had craved so long. He, Law of Lauriston, sometime adventurer and gambler, was now playing his last and greatest game.
"Your Grace," said he, "there be many who might better than I tell you of that America."
"There are many who should be able, and many who do," replied the regent. "By the body of the Lord! we get nothing but information regarding these provinces of New France, and each advice is worse than the one preceding it. The gist of it all is that my Lord Governor and my very good intendant can never agree, save upon one point or so. They want more money, and they want more soldiers--ah, yes, to be sure, they also want more women, though we sent them out a ship load of choice beauties not more than a six-month ago. But tell me, Monsieur L'as, is it indeed true that you have traveled in America?"
"For a short time."
"I have heard nothing regarding you from the intendant at Quebec."
"Your Grace was not at that time caring for intendants. 'Twas many years ago, and I was not well known at Quebec by my own name."
"
Eh bien? Some adventure, then, perhaps? A woman at the bottom of it, I warrant."
"Your Grace is right."
"'Twas like you, for a fellow of good zest. May God bless all fair dames. And as to what you found in thus following--or was it in fleeing--your divinity?"
"I found many things. For one, that this America is the greatest country of the world. Neither England nor France is to be compared with it."
The regent fell back in his chair and laughed heartily.
"Monsieur, you are indeed, as I have ever found you, of most excellent wit. You please me enormously."
"But, your Grace, I am entirely serious."
"Oh, come, spoil not so good a jest by qualifying, I beseech you! England or France, indeed--ah, Monsieur L'as, Monsieur L'as!"
"Your own city of New Orleans, Sire, will lie at the gate of a realm greater than all France. Your Grace will hand to the young king, when he shall come of age, a realm excellently worth the ownership of any king."
"You say rich. In what way?" asked the regent. "We have not had so much of returns after all. Look at Crozat? Look at--"
"Oh fie, Crozat! Your Grace, he solved not the first problem of real commerce. He never dreamed the real richness of America."
Philippe sat thoughtful, his finger tips together. "Why have we not heard of these things?" said he.
"Because of men like Crozat, of men like your governors and intendants at Quebec. Because, your Grace, as you know very well, of the same reason which sent me once from Paris, and kept me so long from laying before you these very plans of which I now would speak."
"And that cause?"
"Maintenon."
"Oh, ah! Indeed--that is to say--"
"Louis would hear naught of me, of course. Maintenon took care that he should find I was but heretic."
"As for myself," said Philippe the regent, "heretic or not heretic makes but small figure. 'Twill take France a century to overcome her late surfeit of religion. For us, 'tis most a question of how to keep the king in the saddle and France underneath."
"Precisely, your Grace."
"Frankly, Monsieur L'as, I take it fittest now not so much to ponder over new worlds as over how to keep in touch with this Old World yet awhile. France has danced, though for years she danced to the tune of Louis clad in black. Now France must pay for the music. My faith, I like not the look of things. This joyful France to-day is a hideous thing. These people laugh! I had sooner see a lion grin. Now to govern those given us by Providence to govern," and the regent smiled grimly at the ancient fiction, "it is most meet that the governed should produce somewhat of funds in order that they may be governed."
"Yes, and the error has been in going too far," said Law. "These people have been taxed beyond the taxation point. Now they laugh."
"Yes; and by God, Monsieur L'as, when France laughs, beware!"
"Your Grace admits that France has no further resources."
"Assuredly."
"Then tax New France!" cried Law, his hand coming down hard upon the table, his eyes shining. "Mortgage where the security doubles every year, where the soil itself is security for wealth greater than all Europe ever owned."
"Oh, very well, Monsieur; though later I must ask you to explain."
"You admit that no more money can be forced from the people of France."
"Ask the farmers of the taxes. Ask Chamillard of the Treasury. My faith, look out of the window! Listen! Do I not tell you that France is laughing?"
"Very well. Let us also laugh. Let us all laugh together. There is money in France, more money in Europe. I assure you these people can be brought to give you cheerfully all they have."
"It sounds well, Monsieur L'as, but let me ask you how?"
"France is bankrupt--this is brutal, but none the less true. France must repudiate her obligations unless something be swiftly done. It is not noble to repudiate, your Grace. Yet, if we cancel and not repudiate, if we can obtain the gold of France, of Europe--"
"Body of God! but you speak large, my friend."
"Not so large. All subjects shrink as we come close to them by study. 'Tis easy to see that France has not money enough for her own business. If we had more money in France, we should have more production, and if we had more production, we might have taxes. Thereby we might have somewhat in our treasury wherewith to keep the king in the saddle, and not under foot."
"Then, if I follow you," said Philippe, leaning slightly forward and again placing his finger tips judicially together, "you would coin greater amounts of money. Then, I would ask you, where would you get your gold for the coinage?"
"It is not gold I would coin," said Law, "but credit."
"The kingdom hath been run on credit for these many years."
"No, 'tis not that kind of credit that I mean. I mean the credit which comes of confidence. It is fate, necessity, which demands a new system. The world has grown too much for every man to put his sixpence into the other man's hand, and carry away in a basket what he buys. We are no longer savages, to barter beads for hides. Yet we were as savages, did we not come to realize that this insufficient coin must be replaced, in the evolution of affairs, just as barter has long ago been, replaced."
"And by what?"
"As I said, by credit."
"Do not annoy me by things too deep, but rather suggest some definite plan, if that may be."
"First of all, then, as I said to you years ago, we need a bank, a bank in which all the people of France shall have absolute confidence."
"You would, then, wish a charter of some sort?"
"Only provided your Grace shall please. I have of my own funds a half million livres or more. This I would put into a bank of general nature, if your Grace shall please. That should be some small guarantee of my good faith in these plans."
"Monsieur L'as would seem to have followed play to his good fortune."
"Never to so good fortune as when first I met your Grace," replied Law. "I have given to games of chance the severest thought and study. Just as much more have I given thought and study to this enterprise which I propose now to lay before you."
"And you ask the patent of the Crown for your bank?"
"It were better if the institution received that open endorsement."
A slow frown settled upon the face of the other. "That is, at the beginning, impossible, Monsieur L'as," said the regent. "It is you who must prove these things which you propose."
"Let it be so, then," said Law, with conviction. "I make no doubt I shall obtain subscriptions for the shares. Remember my words. Within a few months you shall see trebled the energies of France. Money is the only thing which we have not in France. Why, your Grace, suppose the collectors of taxes in the South of France succeed in raising the king's levies. That specie must come by wheeled vehicle all the way to Paris. Consider what loss of time is there, and consider what hindrance to the trade of the provinces from which so much specie is taken bodily, and to which it can return later only a little at a time. Is it any wonder that usury is eating up France? There is not money enough--it is the one priceless thing; by which I mean only that there is not belief, not confidence, not credit enough in France. Now, given a bank which holds the confidence of the people, and I promise the king his taxes, even as I promise to abolish usury. You shall see money at work, money begetting money, and that begetting trade, and that producing comfort, and comfort making easier the collection of the king's taxes."
"By heaven! you begin to make it somewhat more plain to me."
"One thing I beg you to observe most carefully, your Grace," said Law, "nor must it ever be forgotten in our understanding. The shares of this bank must have a fixed value in regard to the coin of the realm. There must be no altering of the value of our coin. Grant that the coin does not fluctuate, and I promise you that my bank
actions, notes of the chief bank of Paris, shall soon be found better than gold or silver in the eyes of France. Moreover, given a greater safety to foreign gold, and I promise you that too shall pour into Paris in such fashion as has never yet been seen. Moreover, the people will follow their coin. Paris will be the greatest capital of Europe. This I promise you I can do."
"In effect," said the regent, smiling, "you promise me that you can build a new Paris, a new world! Yet much of this I can in part believe and understand. Let that be as it may. The immediate truth is that something must be done, and done at once."
"Obviously."
"Our public debt is twenty-six hundred millions of livres. Its annual interest is eighty millions of livres. We can not pay this interest alone, not to speak of the principal. Obviously, as you say, the matter admits of no delay. Your bank--why, by heaven, let us have your bank! What can we do without your bank? Lastly, how quickly can we have it?"
"Sire, you make me the happiest man in all the world!"
"The advantage is quite otherwise, sir. But my head already swims with figures. Now let us set the rest aside until to-morrow. Meantime, I must confess to you, my dear friend, there is somewhat else that sits upon my mind."
A change came upon the demeanor of his Grace the regent. Laying aside the dignity of the ruler with the questions of state, he became again more nearly that Philippe of Orleans, known by his friends as gay, care free and full of
camaraderie.
"Your Grace, could I be of the least personal service, I should be too happy," said Law.
"Well, then, I must admit to you that this is a question of a diamond."
"Oh, a diamond?"
"The greatest diamond in the world. Indeed, there is none other like it, and never will be. This Jew hounds me to death, holding up the thing before mine eyes. Even Saint Simon, that priggish little duke of ours, tells me that France should have this stone, that it is a dignity which should not be allowed to pass away from her. But how can France, bankrupt as she is, afford a little trifle which costs three million francs? Three million francs, when we can not pay eighty millions annual interest on our debts!"
"'Tis as you say, somewhat expensive," said Law.
"Naturally, for I say to you that this stone had never parallel in the history of the world. It seems that this overseer in the Golconda mines got possession of it in some fashion, and escaped to Europe, hiding the stone about his person. It has been shown in different parts of Europe, but no one yet has been able to meet the price of this extortioner who owns it."
"And yet, as Saint Simon says, there is no dignity too great for the throne of France."
"Yet, meantime, the king will have no use for it for several years to come. There is the Sancy stone--"
"And, as your Grace remembers, this new stone would look excellent well upon a woman?" said Law. He gazed, calm and unsmiling, directly into the eyes of Philippe of Orleans.
"Monsieur L'as, you have the second sight!" cried the latter, unblushingly. "You have genius. May God strike me blind if ever I have seen a keener mind than thine!"
"All warm blood is akin," replied John Law. "This stone is perhaps for your Grace's best beloved?"
"Eh--ah--which? As you know--"
"Ah! Perhaps for La Parabere. Richly enough she deserves it."
"Ah, Monsieur L'as, even your mind is at fault now," cried the regent, shaking his finger exultingly. "I covet this new stone, not for Parabere nor for any one of those dear friends whom you might name, and whom you may upon occasion have met at some of my little suppers. It is for another, whose name or nature you can not guess."
"Not that mysterious beauty of whom rumor goes about this week, the woman rated surpassing fair, who has lately come into the acquaintance of your Grace, and whom your Grace has concealed as jealously as though he feared to lose her by some highway robbery?"
"It is the same, I must admit!"
Law remained thoughtful for a time. "I make no doubt that the Hebrew would take two million francs for this stone," said he.
"Perhaps, but two millions is the same as three millions," said Philippe. "The question is, where to get two millions."
"As your Grace has said, I have been somewhat fortunate at play," replied Law, "but I must say that this sum is beyond me, and that both the diamond and the bank I can not compass. Yet, your Grace has at disposal the crown jewels of France. Now, beauty is the sovereign of all sovereigns, as Philippe of Orleans must own. To beauty belongs the use of these crown jewels. Place them as security, and borrow the two millions. For myself, I shall take pride in advancing the interest on the sum for a certain time, until such occasion as the treasury may afford the price of this trinket. In a short time it will be able to do so, I promise your Grace; indeed able to buy a dozen such stones, and take no thought of the matter."
"Monsieur L'as, do you actually believe these things?"
"I know them."
"And you can secure for me this gem?"
"Assuredly. We shall have it. Let it be called the 'Regent's Diamond,' after your Grace of Orleans. And when the king shall one day wear it, let us hope that he will place it as fitly as I am sure your Grace will do, on the brow of beauty--even though it be beauty unknown, and kept concealed under princely prerogative!"
"Ah! You are too keen, Monsieur L'as, too keen to see my new discovery. Not for a little time shall I take the risk of introducing this fair friend to one so dangerous as yourself; but one of these times, my very good friend, if you can secure for me this diamond, you shall come to a very little supper, and see where for a time I shall place this gem, as you say, on the brow of beauty. For the sake of Monsieur L'as, head magician of France my mysterious alien shall then unmask."
"And then I am to have my bank?"
"Good God, yes, a thousand banks!"
"It is agreed?"
"It is agreed." _