uptcy must ensue, more especially as the money was to be paid
in specie.

"Alas!" said all who had anything to lose, as they saw the fatal
tumbril pass to be filled in the Rue Vivienne, "there is our money
emigrating in a lump; next year we shall fall on our knees before a
crown-piece; we are about to fall into the condition of a ruined man;
speculations of every kind will fail; it will be impossible to borrow;
there will be nothing but weakness, exhaustion, civil death."

These terrors were proved false by the result; and to the great
astonishment of all engaged in financial matters, the payments were made
without difficulty, credit rose, loans were eagerly caught at, and
during all the time this "superpurgation" lasted, the balance of
exchange was in favor of France. In other words, more money came into
the country than went out of it.

What is the power that came to our assistance? Who is the divinity that
worked this miracle? The love of good living.

When the Britons, Germans, Teutons, Cimmerians, and Scythians made their
irruption into France, they brought a rare voracity, and stomachs of no
ordinary capacity. They did not long remain satisfied with the official
cheer which a forced hospitality had to supply them with. They aspired
to enjoyments of greater refinement; and soon the Queen City was nothing
but a huge refectory. Everywhere they were seen eating, those
intruders--in the restaurants, the eating-houses, the inns, the taverns,
the stalls, and even in the streets. They gorged themselves with flesh,
fish, game, truffles, pastry, and especially with fruit. They drank with
an avidity equal to their appetite, and always ordered the most
expensive wines, in the hope of finding in them some enjoyment hitherto
unknown, and seemed quite astonished when they were disappointed.
Superficial observers did not know what to think of this menagerie
without bounds or limits; but your genuine Parisian laughed and rubbed
his hands. "We have them now!" said he; "and to-night they'll have paid
us back more than was counted out to them this morning from the public
treasury!"

That was a lucky time for those who provide for the enjoyments of the
sense of taste. Very made his fortune; Achard laid the foundation of
his; Beauvilliers made a third; and Madame Sullot, whose shop in the
Palais Royal was a mere box of a place, sold as many as twelve thousand
tarts a day.

The effect still lasts. Foreigners flow in from all quar