will bargain that their acts and not their private
characters are to be attacked, or they are heedless of their
characters, and anxious only to shield the woman they love. One of your
acquaintance, that charming Master of Requests des Lupeaulx, is a kind
of agent for affairs of this sort. The rascal has made a position for
himself in the most marvelous way in the very centre of power; he is the
middle-man of the press and the ambassador of the Ministers; he works
upon a man's self-love; he bribes newspapers to pass over a loan in
silence, or to make no comment on a contract which was never put up for
public tender, and the jackals of Liberal bankers get a share out of it.
That was a bit of 'chantage' that you did with Dauriat; he gave you a
thousand crowns to let Nathan alone. In the eighteenth century, when
journalism was still in its infancy, this kind of blackmail was levied
by pamphleteers in the pay of favorites and great lords. The original
inventor was Pietro Aretino, a great Italian. Kings went in fear of him,
as stage-players go in fear of a newspaper to-day."

"What did you do to the Matifat to make the thousand crowns?"

"I attacked Florine in half a dozen papers. Florine complained to
Matifat. Matifat went to Braulard to find out what the attacks meant.
I did my 'chantage' for Finot's benefit, and Finot put Braulard on the
wrong scent; Braulard told the man of drugs that _you_ were demolishing
Florine in Coralie's interest. Then Giroudeau went round to Matifat and
told him (in confidence) that the whole business could be accommodated
if he (Matifat) would consent to sell his sixth share in Finot's review
for ten thousand francs. Finot was to give me a thousand crowns if
the dodge succeeded. Well, Matifat was only too glad to get back
ten thousand francs out of the thirty thousand invested in a risky
speculation, as he thought, for Florine had been telling him for several
days past that Finot's review was doing badly; and, instead of paying a
dividend, something was said of calling up more capital. So Matifat
was just about to close with the offer, when the manager of the
Panorama-Dramatique comes to him with some accommodation bills that he
wanted to negotiate before filing his schedule. To induce Matifat to
take them of him, he let out a word of Finot's trick. Matifat, being a
shrewd man of business, took the hint, held tight to his sixth, and is
laughing in his sleeve at us. Finot and I are howling with de