d to keep watch over the Minister of Police
himself. This perhaps explains why the Minister declined to employ
Peyrade and Contenson, on whom Corentin contrived to cast the Minister's
suspicions, in order to be able to make use of his friend when his
reinstatement was evidently out of the question. The Ministry put their
faith in Corentin; they enjoined him to keep an eye on Peyrade, which
amused Louis XVIII. Corentin and Peyrade were then masters of the
position. Contenson, long attached to Peyrade, was still at his
service. He had joined the force of the commercial police (the Gardes du
Commerce) by his friend's orders. And, in fact, as a result of the sort
of zeal that is inspired by a profession we love, these two chiefs liked
to place their best men in those posts where information was most likely
to flow in.

And, indeed, Contenson's vices and dissipated habits, which had dragged
him lower than his two friends, consumed so much money, that he needed a
great deal of business.

Contenson, without committing any indiscretion, had told Louchard that
he knew the only man who was capable of doing what the Baron de Nucingen
required. Peyrade was, in fact, the only police-agent who could act
on behalf of a private individual with impunity. At the death of Louis
XVIII., Peyrade had not only ceased to be of consequence, but had lost
the profits of his position as spy-in-ordinary to His Majesty. Believing
himself to be indispensable, he had lived fast. Women, high feeding,
and the club, the _Cercle des Etrangers_, had prevented this man from
saving, and, like all men cut out for debauchery, he enjoyed an iron
constitution. But between 1826 and 1829, when he was nearly seventy-four
years of age, he had stuck half-way, to use his own expression. Year by
year he saw his comforts dwindling. He followed the police department
to its grave, and saw with regret that Charles X.'s government was
departing from its good old traditions. Every session saw the estimates
pared down which were necessary to keep up the police, out of hatred
for that method of government and a firm determination to reform that
institution.

"It is as if they thought they could cook in white gloves," said Peyrade
to Corentin.

In 1822 this couple foresaw 1830. They knew how bitterly Louis XVIII.
hated his successor, which accounts for his recklessness with regard to
the younger branch, and without which his reign would be an unanswerable
riddle.

As