d in the
long struggle with Spain, which the nature of our subject does not allow
us to do more than indicate, all the advantage was with the son of the
apothecary over the son of the gardener. Dubois preceded Figaro, to whom
he probably served as type; but, more fortunate than he, he passed from
the office to the drawing-room, and from the drawing-room to the court.
All these successive advantages were the rewards of various services,
private or public.

His last negotiation was his chef-d'oeuvre; it was more than the
ratification of the treaty of Utrecht; it was a treaty more advantageous
still for France. The emperor not only renounced all right to the crown
of Spain, as Philip V. had renounced all his to the crown of France, but
he entered, with England and Holland, into a league, formed at once
against Spain on the south, and against Sweden and Russia on the north.
The division of the five or six great states of Europe was established
by this treaty on so solid and just a basis that, after a hundred years
of wars and revolutions, all these states, except the empire, remain in
the same situation that they then were.

On his part, the regent, not very particular by nature, loved this man,
who had educated him, and whose fortune he had made. The regent
appreciated in Dubois the talents he had, and was not too severe on the
vices from which he was not exempt. There was, however, between the
regent and Dubois an abyss. The regent's vices and virtues were those of
a gentleman, Dubois' those of a lackey. In vain the regent said to him,
at each new favor that he granted, "Dubois, take care, it is only a
livery-coat that I am putting on your back." Dubois, who cared about the
gift, and not about the manner in which it was given, replied, with that
apish grimace which belonged to him, "I am your valet, monseigneur,
dress me always the same."

Dubois, however, loved the regent, and was devoted to him. He felt that
this powerful hand alone had raised him from the sink in which he had
been found, and to which, hated and despised as he was by all, a sign
from the master might restore him. He watched with a personal interest
the hatreds and plots which might reach the prince; and more than once,
by the aid of a police often better managed than that of the
lieutenant-general, and which extended, by means of Madame de Tencin,
into the highest aristocracy, and, by means of La Fillon, to the lowest
grades of society, he had defeat