vivacity and good sense of the Scottish adventurer, while
the latter was no less pleased with the wit and amiability of a prince who
promised to become his patron. They were often thrown into each other's
society, and Law seized every opportunity to instil his financial
doctrines into the mind of one whose proximity to the throne pointed him
out as destined, at no very distant date, to play an important part in the
government.

[Illustration: THE REGENT OF FRANCE.]

Shortly before the death of Louis XIV., or, as some say, in 1708, Law
proposed a scheme of finance to Desmarets, the comptroller. Louis is
reported to have inquired whether the projector were a Catholic, and on
being answered in the negative, to have declined having any thing to do
with him.[3]

[3] This anecdote, which is related in the correspondence of
Madame de Baviere, Duchess of Orleans and mother of the
Regent, is discredited by Lord John Russell in his _History of
the principal States of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht_; for
what reason he does not inform us. There is no doubt that Law
proposed his scheme to Desmarets, and that Louis refused to
hear of it. The reason given for the refusal is quite
consistent with the character of that bigoted and tyrannical
monarch.

It was after this repulse that he visited Italy. His mind being still
occupied with schemes of finance, he proposed to Victor Amadeus, duke of
Savoy, to establish his land-bank in that country. The duke replied that
his dominions were too circumscribed for the execution of so great a
project, and that he was by far too poor a potentate to be ruined. He
advised him, however, to try the king of France once more; for he was
sure, if he knew any thing of the French character, that the people would
be delighted with a plan, not only so new, but so plausible.

Louis XIV. died in 1715, and the heir to the throne being an infant only
seven years of age, the Duke of Orleans assumed the reins of government,
as regent, during his minority. Law now found himself in a more favourable
position. The tide in his affairs had come, which, taken at the flood, was
to waft him on to fortune. The regent was his friend, already acquainted
with his theory and pretensions, and inclined, moreover, to aid him in any
efforts to restore the wounded credit of France, bowed down to the earth
by the extravagance of the long reign of Louis XIV.