mpes, her
father-in-law's mistress; giving way before the Duchesse de Valentinois,
the mistress of her husband the late king. But the furrier had brought
himself safely through all the chances and changes by which court
merchants were often involved in the disgrace and overthrow of
mistresses. His caution led to his good luck. He maintained an attitude
of extreme humility. Pride had never caught him in its toils. He made
himself so small, so gentle, so compliant, of so little account at court
and before the queens and princesses and favorites, that this modesty,
combined with good-humor, had kept the royal sign above his door.

Such a policy was, of course, indicative of a shrewd and perspicacious
mind. Humble as Lecamus seemed to the outer world, he was despotic in
his own home; there he was an autocrat. Most respected and honored by
his brother craftsmen, he owed to his long possession of the first place
in the trade much of the consideration that was shown to him. He was,
besides, very willing to do kindnesses to others, and among the many
services he had rendered, none was more striking than the assistance
he had long given to the greatest surgeon of the sixteenth century,
Ambroise Pare, who owed to him the possibility of studying for his
profession. In all the difficulties which came up among the merchants
Lecamus was always conciliating. Thus a general good opinion of
him consolidated his position among his equals; while his borrowed
characteristics kept him steadily in favor with the court.

Not only this, but having intrigued for the honor of being on the vestry
of his parish church, he did what was necessary to bring him into the
odor of sanctity with the rector of Saint-Pierre aux Boeufs, who looked
upon him as one of the men most devoted to the Catholic religion
in Paris. Consequently, at the time of the convocation of the
States-General he was unanimously elected to represent the _tiers etat_
through the influence of the clergy of Paris,--an influence which
at that period was immense. This old man was, in short, one of those
secretly ambitious souls who will bend for fifty years before all the
world, gliding from office to office, no one exactly knowing how it came
about that he was found securely and peacefully seated at last where no
man, even the boldest, would have had the ambition at the beginning of
life to fancy himself; so great was the distance, so many the gulfs
and the precipices to cross! Lecamu