So rang the cry of the shallow-witted people of an age splendid
even in its contradictions. And meantime the new bank, crudely
experimental as it was, flourished as though its master spirit had
indeed in his possession the philosopher's stone, turning all things to
gold.

One day, shortly after the beginning of that brilliantly spectacular
series of events destined so soon to make Paris the Mecca of the world,
there sat at table, in a little, obscure _cabaret_ of the gay city, a
group of persons who seemed to have chosen that spot for purposes of
privacy. Yet privacy was difficult where all the curious passers-by
stared in amaze at the great coach near the door, half filling the
narrow and unclean street--a vehicle bearing the arms of no less a
person than that august and unscrupulous representative of the French
nobility, the Prince de Conti. No less a person than the prince himself,
thin-faced, aquiline and haughty, sat at this table, looking about him
like any common criminal to note whether his speech might be overheard.
Next to him sat a hook-nosed Jew from Austria, Fraslin by name, one of
many of his kind gathered so quickly within the last few weeks in Paris,
even as the scent of carrion fetches ravens to the feast. Another of the
party was a man of middle age, of handsome, calm, patrician features and
an unruffled mien--that De la Chaise, nephew of the confessor of Louis
the Grand, who Was later to represent the young king in the provinces of
Louisiana.

Near by the latter, and indeed the central figure of this gathering, was
one less distinguished than either of the above, evidently neither of
churchly ancestry nor civic distinction--Henri Varenne, sometime clerk
for the noted Paris Freres, farmers of the national revenues. Varenne,
now serving but as clerk in the new bank of L'as et Compagnie, could
have been called a man of no great standing; yet it was he whose
presence had called hither these others to this unusual meeting. In
point of fact, Varenne was a spy, a spy chosen by the jealous Paris
Freres, to learn what he might of the internal mechanism of this new and
startling institution which had sprung into such sudden prominence.

"As to the bank of these brothers L'as," said the Prince de Conti,
rapping out emphasis with his sword hilt on the table, "it surely has
much to commend it. Here is one of its notes, and witness what it says.
'The bank promises to pay to the bearer at sight the sum of fifty l