some of the councillors, in the virulence of their enmity, proposed that
he should be brought to trial, and, if found guilty, be hung at the gates
of the Palais de Justice.

[Illustration: PALAIS ROYAL FROM THE GARDEN.]

Law, in great alarm, fled to the Palais Royal, and threw himself on the
protection of the regent, praying that measures might be taken to reduce
the parliament to obedience. The regent had nothing so much at heart, both
on that account and because of the disputes that had arisen relative to
the legitimation of the Duke of Maine and the Count of Thoulouse, the sons
of the late king. The parliament was ultimately overawed by the arrest of
their president and two of the councillors, who were sent to distant
prisons.

Thus the first cloud upon Law's prospects blew over: freed from
apprehension of personal danger, he devoted his attention to his famous
Mississippi project, the shares of which were rapidly rising, in spite of
the parliament. At the commencement of the year 1719, an edict was
published, granting to the Mississippi Company the exclusive privilege of
trading to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas, and to all the
possessions of the French East India Company, established by Colbert. The
Company, in consequence of this great increase of their business, assumed,
as more appropriate, the title of Company of the Indies, and created fifty
thousand new shares. The prospects now held out by Law were most
magnificent. He promised a yearly dividend of two hundred livres upon each
share of five hundred, which, as the shares were paid for in _billets
d'etat_ at their nominal value, but worth only 100 livres, was at the rate
of about 120 per cent profit.

[Illustration: LAW'S HOUSE; RUE DE QUINCAMPOIX.]

The public enthusiasm, which had been so long rising, could not resist a
vision so splendid. At least three hundred thousand applications were made
for the fifty thousand new shares, and Law's house in the Rue de
Quincampoix was beset from morning to night by the eager applicants. As it
was impossible to satisfy them all, it was several weeks before a list of
the fortunate new stockholders could be made out, during which time the
public impatience rose to a pitch of frenzy. Dukes, marquises, counts,
with their duchesses, marchionesses, and countesses, waited in the streets
for hours every day before Mr. Law's door to know the result. At last, to
avoid the jostling of the plebeian crowd, which, to