Dubois, his tutor, insisted that he could
not in justice succumb to the self-interested views of the D'Horns. The
regent had from the first been of the same opinion; and within six days
after the commission of their crime, D'Horn and Mille were broken on the
wheel in the Place de Greve. The other assassin, Lestang, was never
apprehended.

This prompt and severe justice was highly pleasing to the populace of
Paris. Even M. de Quincampoix, as they called Law, came in for a share of
their approbation for having induced the regent to shew no favour to a
patrician. But the number of robberies and assassinations did not
diminish; no sympathy was shewn for rich jobbers when they were plundered.
The general laxity of public morals, conspicuous enough before, was
rendered still more so by its rapid pervasion of the middle classes, who
had hitherto remained comparatively pure between the open vices of the
class above and the hidden crimes of the class below them. The pernicious
love of gambling diffused itself through society, and bore all public and
nearly all private virtue before it.

For a time, while confidence lasted, an impetus was given to trade which
could not fail to be beneficial. In Paris especially the good results were
felt. Strangers flocked into the capital from every part, bent not only
upon making money, but on spending it. The Duchess of Orleans, mother of
the regent, computes the increase of the population during this time, from
the great influx of strangers from all parts of the world, at 305,000
souls. The housekeepers were obliged to make up beds in garrets, kitchens,
and even stables, for the accommodation of lodgers; and the town was so
full of carriages and vehicles of every description, that they were
obliged, in the principal streets, to drive at a foot-pace for fear of
accidents. The looms of the country worked with unusual activity to supply
rich laces, silks, broad-cloth, and velvets, which being paid for in
abundant paper, increased in price four-fold. Provisions shared the
general advance. Bread, meat, and vegetables were sold at prices greater
than had ever before been known; while the wages of labour rose in exactly
the same proportion. The artisan who formerly gained fifteen sous per diem
now gained sixty. New houses were built in every direction; an illusory
prosperity shone over the land, and so dazzled the eyes of the whole
nation, that none could see the dark cloud on the horizon announcin