Millionaire_ The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance Part 6

AMID THE MURKY INTERIOR OF J JONATHAN' S COFFEE-house in London's Royal Exchange people gather to gossip, intrigue, bargain, or perhaps to gape at a new print strung on the wall before them. The image is profoundly disturbing. A billowing curtain is drawn back by Harlequin and Scaramouch-two well-known figures from the commedia dell'arte-to reveal h.e.l.l on earth, the rue Quincampoix, in which a heaving tangle of anxious investors, arms flailing, eyes wild, mouths beseeching, wave serpentine banknotes overhead. Amid the melee, oblivious to the madness, three men, representing English, French, and German investors, stand complacently on a dais of paper. A supplicant figure-John Law-squats obscenely at their feet and allows them to pour coins in his gaping mouth, while from bared b.u.t.tocks he excretes paper notes that are s.n.a.t.c.hed by one of the frenzied figures in the mire below. In the foreground a caged figure of Mercury-symbolic of commercial prosperity and, in this case, of ruined speculators-weeps as a man in front performs various gambling tricks. The message, of venality, folly, degradation, chaos, is explicit and sickening-deliberately so. But by the time this engraving, from a famous series published in Holland in 1720 ent.i.tled The Mirror of Folly, The Mirror of Folly, was printed, disseminated, grasped, and gawped at in scores of similarly unsavory interiors, it was far from unique. was printed, disseminated, grasped, and gawped at in scores of similarly unsavory interiors, it was far from unique.

Anti-Law venom enveloped Europe. There were scores more equally scathing compositions, mostly dwelling on the imagery of windmills, whirligigs, bubbles, bladders, cabbages, corruption, folly, and cruelty. Elsewhere satire surfaced in hundreds of ferocious poems, medals, pamphlets, plays, novels, and playing cards that circulated in the cabarets, taverns, coffeehouses, and meeting places of every town and city in Europe. Ironically, a series of silver coins was produced in Gotha, immortalizing Law in the very substance he had tried so hard to banish.

Law could avert his gaze from such vitriol, but he could not ignore its existence, nor that it sprang from a crystallization of public hatred. For a man whose intentions had always been benevolent, who had cherished dreams of bringing contentment to all, ma.s.s condemnation was deeply wounding. His behavior became increasingly erratic. One day he was full of the old bravura, attending a concert at the home of the financier Crozat with the regent and Katherine, convincing others, and himself, that the economy was improving, that he was in control, and telling friends that "what has been his is still, and that he would always be the master of all the money in Europe." The next he was beset with doubt, unusually short-tempered and high-handed with members of the council, introducing ever harsher legislation to bring the system back on course. Occasionally, as if overburdened by responsibility, he withdrew totally. Remembering such a day spent in solitude in his apartment at the Palais Royal, when members of the royal family were out of town and staff had been instructed to admit no one, he wrote, "The idea came to me then, that one would be less unhappy to be enclosed in a town infested, like Ma.r.s.eille, than to be in Paris overwhelmed with people-as I usually was."

He threw himself frenetically into work. Six hundred workmen were employed to build a new mint-presumably in the expectation that by the time it was complete there would be metal enough to make coin. The share market, which had reopened in the Place Vendome, was now moved to the gardens of the Hotel de Soissons, which was renamed the Bourse. The official opening took place on August 1, to a musical accompaniment of kettledrums and trumpets. As at some latter-day Field of the Cloth of Gold, the dealers, food sellers, jugglers, fire eaters, tricksters, prost.i.tutes, pickpockets, and throngs of investors glided through a forest of streamered pavilions, embodying not royal puissance but the waning power of paper.

To bolster his reputation he published an anonymous defense of his system. When he came to France, he said, the country had been 2 billion livres in debt. Now, thanks to the Mississippi Company and other reforms, France was far stronger financially. But readers of this slickly argued pamphlet were infuriated by the fact that it skirted the current economic problems. Inflation, the fall in value of banknotes and shares, the shortage of coin, and the damage to investors were completely ignored. In short, said Pulteney, it was "very ill-timed as it pretends to show that people are richer and happier, while they complain with reason of want and ruin."

Law meanwhile turned quietly for help to the one man whose financial ac.u.men he deeply respected: his old friend Richard Cantillon. Since Cantillon had been banished from France under threat of incarceration in the Bastille, the two men had patched up their differences, and Law had been using Cantillon's brokering services in Amsterdam to buy copper, probably with the intention of minting it into coins to help the ailing French economy. Now, with his system crumbling, Law tempted Cantillon, "with great offers of preferment," to come and help him sort out the financial mora.s.s. The precise nature of the carrot Law tendered remains mysterious, but it was alluring enough for Cantillon to weigh it up carefully and ask his friends' advice. Eventually, realizing the precariousness of Law's situation, he refused. Law was not at first put off by the rebuff. More persuasive letters were dispatched to Holland, but when Cantillon declined to change his mind, Law's amiability changed to an overtly threatening tone: "If he [Cantillon] does not comply with the offers they will not pay some bills to the value of 20,000 which he had drawn for copper he bought in Holland by commission for the company and has sent here," reported Pulteney. It is a measure of the pressure Law was under in France that he felt impelled to act with such uncustomary lack of scruple. In fact, menacing a wily bird like Cantillon was self-defeating-if anything, it only made him even more determined to keep well away.

Law was rapidly becoming an embarra.s.sment Orleans could ill-afford. He too was tainted by Law's bad press and he felt uncharacteristically sensitive to the deluge of criticism and malice. Death threats and accusations of incest and of murder had been directed against him; his mother had been threatened and advised to poison her own son. In the past he had shrugged off the slanders. Now they began to hit home. The anonymous publication of one particularly vicious play riled him so much that he offered a reward of 100,000 livres for the name of the culprit. The only response this elicited was another cheeky couplet:

Tu promets beaucoup, O Regent.

Est-ce en papier ou en argent?

You promise much, O Regent.

Is it in paper or in silver?

Real economic recovery, the regent now felt, would never take place while the people were determined that Law and his paper system were untrustworthy, and while the Parlement, the financiers, and the wealthy elite were so determined to oppose him. Behind the scenes he began to make discreet overtures for a.s.sistance, appealing to private bankers and financiers in the hope they would offer his stranded regime hard money. Their response was not what he hoped. Though keen to ingratiate themselves with the Crown, they were aware that any loan might help save Law. They volunteered no tangible a.s.sistance, only the well-worn advice that all the problems would be swiftly solved with a return to the old metallic system of money and the abandonment of paper credit. The seed that had been scattered many times before now began to take root.

On September 15 Law's career plunged to new depths with the publication of one of his most detested edicts. "The pen falls from one's hands and words fail to explain the measures of this decree, which withdrew all the horrors of the dying system. Poison was in its tail," wrote the lawyer Marais as he mulled over the new regulations, which stipulated that high-denomination notes would soon cease to be legal currency; that, with immediate effect, all banknotes could only be used if 50 percent of the payment was in coin; that bank accounts, compulsory since August, were to be reduced to a quarter of their present value, and shares were to be pegged at 2,000 livres. In sum, said Marais, painfully picking over each clause, it was a bankruptcy of three-quarters of the bank and five-sixths of the Mississippi Company.

Economic historians still quibble over whether the edict was in fact the brainchild of Law or whether, as seems likely, it was the outcome of the regent's consultations with the private financiers. What is not in doubt is that the public perceived the ideas as Law's and blamed him for their suffering. "The desolation," wrote Marais, "is in every family. They have to pay for half of everything in coins and there aren't any; and moreover everything is going up in price instead of coming down."

Soaring inflation was worsened by profiteering merchants and members of the aristocracy who formed cartels, stockpiled staples, and then charged extortionate rates for them. Some of the worst offenders were Law's supporters: "The distress people are under by the excessive prices of all things is very much increased by certain monopolies which some of the great favourites of the system have got; the Marechal d'Estrees has the coffee, Mr. William Law the lead, others have the sugars, the Duc de la Force has the wax and tallow," wrote Pulteney. Law must have known that racketeering was going on but, terrified to risk losing his few remaining allies, turned a blind eye. The regent was similarly partisan, volubly intolerant of outsiders' scams, mute when it came to his favorites' ruses. When a deputation of merchants came to grumble about the reduction of their bank accounts, the regent denounced them coldly as charlatans who had charged exorbitant sums for the past year. He told one scornfully, "My friend, are you so stupid as not to understand that this quarter you have is worth more than the total?" The man replied that his business would be destroyed, to which Orleans answered, "So much the better, I am delighted."

The edict was painful not only to French citizens but also to countless foreigners who traded with France. There were deputations from merchants of Savoy, Piedmont, and Brussels, who supplied vast quant.i.ties of silk and lace and, having been paid in French banknotes of diminis.h.i.+ng value and desirability, were particularly badly affected. For English investors, developments were even more tragic. London was by now reeling from the effects of the collapse in South Sea shares which, from a June high of 1,050, had plummeted at the end of August, and by mid-September were trading at 380. Investors who had borrowed heavily to invest in South Sea stock at high prices, expecting that the value would continue to rise, were now forced to sell other investments to repay outstanding loans. European markets in France, Holland, and elsewhere buckled from the effect of the London stock-market collapse.

Throughout the tangle of confusion, anger, and distress, Law and his family were viewed ever more stonily. The oncefeted celebrities who had danced at Versailles and had their hands kissed by international dignitaries now lived in the perpetual shadow of danger. The lawyer Barbier, strolling in the etoile, saw Law's wife and ten-year-old daughter Kate returning from the fair in Bezons in a carriage drawn by six horses. Law's livery was recognized and the carriage was surrounded by a mob screeching obscenities at Law's refusal to pay out for banknotes and pelting the women with manure and stones. Before the coachman could whip up the terrified horses and drive away, Kate was struck by a missile and injured.

In the malicious ferment anyone who vaguely resembled a member of the Law family could find themselves in grave peril. Madame de Torcy, wife of the foreign secretary, was mistaken for Katherine and half drowned in a pond before she convinced her a.s.sailants that she was not the person they believed her to be. During an argument between two coachmen over right of way in the rue St. Antoine, one untruthfully alleged that the pa.s.senger inside the other's coach was Law, knowing that this would cause a distraction in which he might triumph. Within minutes a mob had descended and attacked the innocent pa.s.senger, who escaped with his life by sprinting for sanctuary to a nearby church.

There is frustratingly little to tell us of how Katherine reacted to the dramatic reversal in Law's fortune. We can only surmise, from the affectionate rea.s.surances that Law later wrote to her, that she remained supportive but increasingly frightened by the volatile political situation that threatened her family's safety. After the scare with her daughter she rarely went out, and then often disguised as a pregnant woman-a significant come-down for a woman who had always been noted for her elegance. Social calls were not only hazardous but could often be humiliating. Growing numbers of doors closed in her face. When she visited the d.u.c.h.esse de Lauzun, an aging courtesan famous for her sarcasm, she was callously mocked. "My G.o.d, Madame, you have done us a great favor with this visit. We know the risks you run exposing yourself to a populace who is mutinying against you for no reason. for no reason." A few friends remained steadfast. The Duc de Bourbon continued to offer the family refuge at his country residence in St. Maur when it was feared the mob might invade their home. The artist Rosalba Carriera still visited long after most fas.h.i.+onable callers had left and, unlike her relative Pellegrini, who had been part paid for the ceiling of the bank but wanted more, Rosalba never hounded the Laws for money.

The final decisive blow to Law's debilitated empire came on October 10 with another stinging, but by this stage predictable, ruling. In view of the still depreciated paper-money system, in which no one any longer had faith, from November 1 France would depend once again entirely upon metal coins. Holders of banknotes were obliged to convert them into annuities. Law's rivals had finally won over the regent. On hearing the news Voltaire remarked sardonically that paper was now back to its intrinsic value, but Marais's response was more emotional: "Thus ends the system of paper money, which has enriched a thousand beggars and impoverished a hundred thousand honest men," he wrote. When the bank finally closed its doors on November 27, few mourned its pa.s.sing.

Mississippi shareholders shuddered at news of the bank's impending closure, and Law's newly ascendant rivals were swift to exact vengeance against those who had earlier triumphed. Profit as a result of speculation was now deemed suspect. The sea change was heralded in mid-October with a menacing new ruling that warned of an investigation to root out anyone who had not "acted in good faith," or who enjoyed an opulence that was "odious to the public and contrary to the good of the State." Especially offensive to the new lawmakers were less privileged investors who had prospered-the "thousand beggars" to whom Marais had referred. The balance would now be redressed: the victors would be victimized.

So that the profiteers could be identified, investors were ordered to bring their shares to the offices of the now-defunct bank to register them; any unregistered certificates would be worthless. If no evidence of misdealing was discovered, shares would be returned after a week. Those deemed guilty of illicit moneymaking would be penalized by confiscation of large portions of their property. The process was little more than an arbitrary witch hunt.

While nemesis was thus zealously pursued, the Bourse, scathingly condemned as "a riotous a.s.sembly," was shut down. When news of the impending closure broke, Marais visited the market. The reaction, he recalled, was one of bewilderment and utter devastation. "Faces changed. It seemed a defeat, as if a battle had been lost." Along with thousands of others he took his shares to the bank and was alarmed at the lengthy and apparently chaotic tangle of red tape. After endless form filling and rubber stamping, he wrote, "You take away only a small unsigned slip, on which is your name, the number of your shares and the page in the register. . . . There was much outcry at this procedure, which was not mentioned in the decree, but finally all the shareholders had to go through it; it was suffocating in there and no one knows what will happen."

Many were so fearful of investigation that they packed their bags with as much portable wealth as they could cram in and made immediate preparations to leave. At least four senior members of Law's staff absconded, doubtless fearing that they would be subjected to extra-rigorous scrutiny. Vernezobre, one of the head clerks of the bank, fled to Holland, taking several millions belonging to him and others. Angelini, Law's Italian secretary, appeared in mourning and informed Law that his father had died and begged leave to go to Italy to collect his inheritance. He never returned, spending his remaining years living in comfort on the income from money he had invested in buying property in the Roman campagna. campagna.

Though precipitous, this descent did not mark the end of the Mississippi Company. The anti-Law cabal that had striven for months to demolish Law's conglomerate clamored to cherry-pick its prime a.s.sets. The lucrative rights to revenues from the mint and taxes were their first targets. Meanwhile the company, in common with every other business in the land, was short of cash. To repay various loans and continue to trade, money was urgently required and further drastic action was deemed necessary. At the end of November a new order ruled that every shareholder would be required compulsorily to lend the company 150 livres per share, two-thirds of this amount to be paid in coin, one-third in paper, which was still in limited circulation, despite legislation, because of the shortage of coin. The shares of anyone failing to pay the levy would be annulled. Again, this was news of the worst kind for investors. "It is believed that very many will not be able to pay the sums charged on them by this arret, arret, having their whole subsistence in actions; and that many who are able to pay, will choose rather to sacrifice their actions," wrote Pulteney gloomily. having their whole subsistence in actions; and that many who are able to pay, will choose rather to sacrifice their actions," wrote Pulteney gloomily.

Swamped by suspicion and blame, Law remained isolated and melancholy in his home, with only Katherine to alleviate his distress. Even she, however, could not distract him from the fact that now that the bank had closed and the Mississippi Company was foundering, his position was no longer tenable. He tendered his resignation and asked for permission to leave the country. The regent, playing for time, ignored him. Once again Law was a man condemned, waiting for sentence to be p.r.o.nounced.

With Katherine's help he pa.s.sed his time in trying to regulate his personal financial affairs. During the past weeks these had become hopelessly entwined with those of the company. Law was still a soft touch, and whenever an investor confronted him with a hard-luck story, he invariably offered to help. Many of the financial problems that haunted him in years to come arose from the personal bills he issued at this time to impoverished investors to reimburse them for their losses.

Outwardly he could still, where necessary, summon something of his old elan. When told of his enemies' rapprochement with the regent, he responded, "The Regent only follows this course to amuse himself, he takes pleasure from it." Marais watched when Law ventured out to oversee the registration of shares. He arrived at the Company's offices on November 21 amid the crowds who were depositing their shares. The front seemed convincing: "He was called a thief, a charlatan, a rascal. He carried his head as high as possible, and everyone wanted him to hang it low." But ten days later, in early December, his spirit was crushed again. There were signs that the Parlement's return loomed closer and that, as Law had feared, their agreement to cooperate was based on the understanding that he would be hunted down. Yielding to pressure from those who wanted to see Law punished, the regent continued to ignore his repeated, and increasingly urgent, requests to be allowed to leave the country. By December 10 it was murmured that Law had been arrested, or dismissed and banished to his estate at Effiat. Marais, keeping closer watch, knew that he had still not been given permission to leave the capital but saw the strain becoming clearly visible: "He is in a state of great despondency and dismay. A tremendous storm is brewing, and we will soon see the results. Everyone is getting ready to torture him, and even in the bank there is much scandalous talk against him and the Regent."

With tensions escalating hourly, Law again asked for an audience with the regent, only to be told that he was too ill to see him, an excuse he read as meaning that dismissal and arrest were imminent. A day later the movement to bring down Law gathered still deadlier momentum: "There is no doubt that this time he will succ.u.mb, the party is well made," said Marais, numbering not only the usual confection of the Parlement, financiers, and courtiers against Law, but also Madame de Parabere, the regent's estranged mistress, who had said she would return to his bed only if Law was ousted. According to Marais, the regent, unable to resist such a challenge, was running after her "like a child." Faced with such ma.s.sed opposition, even Law's most staunch supporter, the Duc de Bourbon, conceded that Law would have to go. The only remaining question was how he should be disposed of and, more crucially, whether his life could be saved.

Pressed by the duc, Orleans acknowledged at last that he would have to move, and quickly. Law was finally granted his audience and suggested that Councillor Le Pelletier de la Houssaye should be promoted to the position of controller general of finance, to help steer the country out of the economic doldrums. The regent was unconvinced, reportedly telling the council, "He did not see among the French anyone who had enough intelligence and insight to succeed him [Law] in the position with a better chance of success." De la Houssaye agreed, reluctantly, to take office but not while Law remained in Paris, and recommended that he be sent to the Bastille. Orleans ignored this suggestion and instructed Law to prepare to leave. The British diplomat Sutton noted the sudden flurry of activity: "He [Law] goes to see those with whom he has business, he receives people at his home with as much if not more freedom than before. He works on settling his accounts, he gives all the explanations asked of him."

When the new production of Lully's opera Thesee Thesee opened on December 12, there was general astonishment as the a.s.sembled opened on December 12, there was general astonishment as the a.s.sembled beau monde beau monde realized that the Duc de la Force's party included John Law, Katherine, and their children (the children, one writer conceded, were "fairly handsomely made"). As far as observers were concerned, to appear so brazenly in public at such a moment of crisis exemplified "English impudence playing his game." Law the suave, c.o.c.ksure gambler had apparently returned. realized that the Duc de la Force's party included John Law, Katherine, and their children (the children, one writer conceded, were "fairly handsomely made"). As far as observers were concerned, to appear so brazenly in public at such a moment of crisis exemplified "English impudence playing his game." Law the suave, c.o.c.ksure gambler had apparently returned.

In fact, this was Law's farewell to Paris. Earlier that day he had had a final audience with the regent. The meeting had been highly charged. "I confess," Law said, "I have committed many faults. I committed them because I am a man, and all men are liable to error; but I declare to you most solemnly that none of them proceeded from wicked or dishonest motives." He left Paris with his son John on December 14, heading for his country estate Guermande, near Brie, one of the string of magnificent properties he had acquired but had rarely had time to visit. He planned to wait here for a few days until pa.s.sports arrived allowing him to leave the country. Katherine and Kate stayed on in Paris, to settle outstanding debts, but he expected them to follow soon. Two days later the Parlement was recalled and the hounding of Law and his family began in earnest.

17.

THE P PRODIGAL' SRETURN

The Regent desires that I retire to Rome, that has made up my mind. The enemies of the system take offence at seeing me prepared to return to France, and try to trouble me even outside the kingdom.It costs me nothing to please them, I have always hated work, a well-meant intention to do good to a nation, and be useful to a prince who gave me his confidence; these ideas made me proud and supported me in a disagreeable business, I have come back to myself.

From a letter to the Duc de Bourbon from Law, December 1720

AT G GUERMANDE, LAW'S INITIAL SENSE OF RELIEF AT leaving Paris was shadowed with sorrow and disquiet. His attachment to the regent was unaltered. A letter sent shortly after he left underlines his affection: "It is difficult to decide between the desire that I have to retire from public life to avoid the jealousies of those who Your Royal Highness has charged with finances, and the desire I will always have to contribute to your glory. . . . I had lost all vanity before deciding to ask Your Royal Highness's permission to retire but I shall always retain my affection for the state, and my attachment for Your RH. Thus when you believe that my opinions could be useful, I will give them freely." leaving Paris was shadowed with sorrow and disquiet. His attachment to the regent was unaltered. A letter sent shortly after he left underlines his affection: "It is difficult to decide between the desire that I have to retire from public life to avoid the jealousies of those who Your Royal Highness has charged with finances, and the desire I will always have to contribute to your glory. . . . I had lost all vanity before deciding to ask Your Royal Highness's permission to retire but I shall always retain my affection for the state, and my attachment for Your RH. Thus when you believe that my opinions could be useful, I will give them freely."

Law's royal friends seemed to respond with equal sadness at his departure. Bourbon sent an emotional letter of farewell. "I cannot sufficiently express my grief on your departure. I hope that you do not doubt it and that you rest a.s.sured that I will never abandon you. I will never allow any attack on your freedom or your property. I have the Regent's word on this and I will never allow him to go back on it." Law was both flattered and relieved by the outpouring-Bourbon and the regent's support represented his only defense against those straining to see him arrested. "My enemies act with pa.s.sion but in working against me they work against the interests of the King and people-but I count on the goodness and the protection of the Regent and your lords.h.i.+p-be united, sir. On your union depends the good of the state and my safety in retirement," he replied.

In reality there was more to Bourbon's fretting than met the eye. Both he and the regent were keen to protect Law from his adversaries because Law alone knew exactly how much money had been printed and where it had all gone. If he were arrested and tortured into confession, they would be incriminated. Ensuring Law's safe exile, and preferably his disappearance from France, was thus as much in their interests as his. As Guermande was within easy reach of the capital, Law, also conscious of the danger, pressed Bourbon for his pa.s.sport. His departure would be in the national interest, he argued: "Perhaps my distance will soften them [his enemies], and time will make them realize the purity of my intentions."

On the morning of his first day in exile the inquisitive English diplomat Crawford arrived unannounced. The English, always riveted by Law's dazzling career, were gripped by his sudden decline in fortune, and the press was full of tales of the fall of "that blazing meteor, which, for two years, had kept so many spectators at a gaze . . . a minister far above all that the past age has known, that the present can conceive, or that the future will believe." Crawford found Law in reasonable spirits, in the company of Lord Mar, a Jacobite friend who in earlier, happier days had persuaded him to lend money to the Pretender and other impecunious exiled Stuart supporters. Law's links with the Jacobites were now proving an embarra.s.sment to him, implying subversive designs toward England that might damage his reputation on both sides of the Channel: since the signing of the Triple Alliance in 1716, France had undertaken to recognize the Hanoverian George I as England's rightful ruler. Law hastily refuted the imputations. "I have learned today that I have been accused of having aided the Pretender and been in liaison with Spain. I helped some poor people who needed bread. Among them were some who in earlier times rendered service to me: the Duke of Ormond saved my life," he wrote hastily to the regent.

Crawford was as captivated as the rest of the English establishment by Law, and hankered to find out as much as he could about his downfall. On the pretext of discussing an outstanding debt, he invited himself to stay for a few days. Law welcomed his visit-talking was therapeutic and, more important, allowed him to ensure that the British authorities heard his version of events firsthand.

In lengthy conversations over the next two days he mulled over his career in France. He was still full of swagger, unapologetic for his actions, intensely proud that the regent had already told him that "he did not need to distance himself too far, and that he could count on his friends.h.i.+p and on his protection against enemies." He poured scorn on the cabals and conspiracies that had toppled him and defiantly maintained that, thanks to his actions, France was "the best and most flouris.h.i.+ng state in the world, and that this is how they are still." When Crawford grilled him about future plans Law hinted that he did not see himself staying in France much longer. He said he had asked the regent's permission to have returned to him the 500,000 livres he had originally brought with him from Holland and to settle in Rome.

Soon after Crawford had gone back to Paris to scrawl a detailed account of all he had learned, the Marquis de La.s.say and Bourbon's secretary, de la Faye, arrived, bringing with them, on the orders of the Duc de Bourbon, the pa.s.sports Law had requested and a substantial sum of money he had not expected. Law was thankful for the pa.s.sports but refused the money, saying he already had enough for his journey and the immediate future. Later he recalled that he had with him 800 louis d'or, dispatched by one of his staff at the bank because "I didn't have the value of ten pistoles in my house." This, together with a diamond or two, were the only valuables he would take. He expected that, as Bourbon and the regent had pledged, the rest of his money would be sent once his accounts were settled. There seemed no reason to doubt their integrity. It was a misjudgment he would regret for the rest of his life.

Preparations for leaving France were made hurriedly. With enemies clamoring for his arrest he had to travel incognito and it was impossible therefore to use his own liveried coaches. Bourbon placed two carriages at his disposal-one of his own, the other belonging to his mistress, the seductive and vivacious Madame de Prie, a woman said to have had "as many graces in spirit as in her face."

The party left Guermande on the evening of December 17. Law was accompanied by his son, three valets, and several of the duc's guards, who wore long gray coats over their livery to avoid being recognized. He had two pa.s.sports, one in the name of du Jardin, the other in his real name, and several letters from friends, including one from the duc pledging his safe pa.s.sage. The escape route, planned by Bourbon so that fresh horses were waiting where necessary, pa.s.sed north of Paris toward St. Quentin and Valenciennes and across the border with Flanders to Mons and Brussels.

When news broke the next day that Law had vanished, Parisian gossips aired many imaginative theories as to his whereabouts. Some said he had secretly met the regent at St. Denis, others that he had entered Paris and spent an evening at the Palais Royal or gone into hiding at Chantilly.

In fact, despite the painstaking precautions, the plan had gone awry. The party had been stopped at the border in Valenciennes by the bullying local official who, unfortunately for Law, happened to be the eldest son of Law's old adversary the Marquis d'Argenson. The intendant's intendant's initial confusion at the false pa.s.sports gave way to relish when he realized the true ident.i.ty of the pa.s.sengers. To exact revenge for his father's fall, he "refused absolutely" to allow Law to pa.s.s and pretended that the pa.s.sports could have been fraudulently acquired. Having confiscated Law's money and the duc's letter, he held them while word was sent to Paris. "I made Law very frightened, I arrested him and held him for twenty-four hours, only releasing him when I received formal orders from the court," he reminisced. In fact, Law recounted later that he was released before the courier returned, but only after "much arguing" and on the understanding that d'Argenson would keep his pa.s.sport, the letters, and the gold. The gold was never returned. When he asked for it, d'Argenson is said to have pointed out that exporting gold was illegal-according to a regulation introduced by Law. initial confusion at the false pa.s.sports gave way to relish when he realized the true ident.i.ty of the pa.s.sengers. To exact revenge for his father's fall, he "refused absolutely" to allow Law to pa.s.s and pretended that the pa.s.sports could have been fraudulently acquired. Having confiscated Law's money and the duc's letter, he held them while word was sent to Paris. "I made Law very frightened, I arrested him and held him for twenty-four hours, only releasing him when I received formal orders from the court," he reminisced. In fact, Law recounted later that he was released before the courier returned, but only after "much arguing" and on the understanding that d'Argenson would keep his pa.s.sport, the letters, and the gold. The gold was never returned. When he asked for it, d'Argenson is said to have pointed out that exporting gold was illegal-according to a regulation introduced by Law.

He arrived in Brussels exhausted, shaken, but relieved to have escaped. Still anxious to remain incognito, he registered in the Hotel du Grand Miroir in the name of Monsieur du Jardin. But with the whole of Europe on the lookout, the ident.i.ty of the party was impossible to keep secret. "I had hoped to be able to pa.s.s through here without being known, and I sent the name of du Jardin to the gate; but to no avail, they already knew I was arriving, and I have just received visits from the princ.i.p.al people here-a fact which makes me determined to make the shortest possible stay here," he wrote wearily to Bourbon.

Brussels rolled out the red carpet. He spent the first morning in conference with the French amba.s.sador, the Marquis de Prie, husband of Bourbon's glamorous mistress, and attended a banquet that evening at which the elite of Brussels was present; the next night he went to the theater, and on entering the auditorium was honored with a standing ovation. "This conduct," the English diplomat Sutton remarked ominously, "attracts attention."

In Paris, meanwhile, scandalmongers worked overtime to spread rumors of "an astonis.h.i.+ng quant.i.ty of wagons filled with gold and silver" that had also been sent across the border to Flanders. Numerous theories were suggested as to what the money was for: buying political support; part of the marriage settlement between an archd.u.c.h.ess and the Duc de Chartres; a private fund with which the regent would retire when the king reached his majority. On one thing everyone agreed: "It is certain that Law is part of the agreement with the Regent and as his negotiator he wants for nothing." In England similar accusations appeared in the press. The State of Europe State of Europe reported, "The general opinion is still that he goes for Rome, where he has remitted part of the booty he has plundered in France, and bought a magnificent palace. He has carried his son with him and left his wife and daughter in France. Letters from Paris told us thereupon that he designed to be divorced in hopes to be made a cardinal. I don't know whether the red cap is so easily purchased, but there are certain marriages which can be easily dissolved." reported, "The general opinion is still that he goes for Rome, where he has remitted part of the booty he has plundered in France, and bought a magnificent palace. He has carried his son with him and left his wife and daughter in France. Letters from Paris told us thereupon that he designed to be divorced in hopes to be made a cardinal. I don't know whether the red cap is so easily purchased, but there are certain marriages which can be easily dissolved."

The accusations of misappropriation of French money lingered for years and caused Law great heartache. His letters to Bourbon, Orleans, and La.s.say are filled with countless explanations and protestations of innocence: "What could have given rise to this rumour were the dispatches of silver that were made by order and for the service of the state or the India Company. . . . The dispatches were registered in ledgers in Paris and at the frontier. . . . I declare to Your Royal Highness that I have never sent any carriage in secret, nor any remittance apart from those that were publicly made," he told the Duc de Bourbon. "As far as diamonds are concerned, I had four that together were worth 4,000 and before the ban on exporting diamonds I gave them to my brother to send for sale in England with his, but he gave me one back because it was not of good quality. This was the sole and only diamond, the treasure that I took with me on leaving France."

The furor he aroused in Brussels made Law uncomfortable, and he decided to move on as quickly as he could. The intention had always been that he would travel south and settle in Italy, in either Venice or Rome. But since his money had been confiscated at the border he spent the next two days raising two hundred pistoles, presumably either through loans or by gaming, before continuing on the journey south, with new pa.s.sports quickly organized by de Prie. Crossing the Alps in the middle of winter was fraught with peril. Another intrepid traveler, George Berkeley, who made the crossing in the new year of 1714, could have warned him of the terrors: "We were carried in open chairs by men used to scale these rocks and precipices, which in this season are more slippery and dangerous than at other times, and at the best are high, craggy and steep enough to cause the heart of the most valiant man to melt within him. My life often depended on a single step. No one will think that I exaggerate, who considers what it is to pa.s.s the Alps on New Year's Day."

Added to the hazards of appalling weather and treacherous roads were the perils of infamy and the pain of separation from Katherine. Law continued to use his false pa.s.sport, but he was frequently recognized, and in several cities disaffected investors in Mississippi shares and those who had held on to French banknotes held him personally responsible for their losses, and pestered him for compensation. According to one biographer, in Cologne the Elector would not allow further horses to be supplied unless Law agreed to exchange his banknotes for coins. Law had none to give and was eventually forced to hand over a personal guarantee that they would be reimbursed.

If anything, the affection Law and Katherine felt for each other had strengthened through the months of worry, and the uncertainty of their predicament and enforced separation was painful to both. From the tenderness he expressed in a letter written en route to Italy, it seems that while Katherine had been greatly distressed by his departure, Law was confident of her ability to endure and make decisions for herself:

I am sensible that you suffer extremely by the resolution I have taken of going to Italy, there was no choice in my situation, Holland is not proper. Your son and I are well, though much fatigued by the bad weather, and bad roads. I desire to have you and Kate with me, yet I can't well advise you to set out in this season; you will be better able to judge what you are to do, than I can. But I fear you will pa.s.s your time disagreeably in France, and I would rather suffer in my affaires; than want your company.

By January 21 Law and his son had arrived in Venice. Law, ready to drop after the rigors of the journey, saw no one for a few days. "I have suffered terribly from the voyage," he admitted to La.s.say, in one of the first letters he wrote after his arrival. While he recuperated, the British resident, Colonel Burges, who was an old friend, reported his arrival to London: "He goes by the name of Gardiner, not caring to be publicly known till he resolves whether he shall continue here or no, which he cannot do till he receives his next letter from France. . . . If he leaves this place he talks of going to Rome but I believe would be much better pleased if he was well settled in England."

Law felt he could make no firm decisions about the future until money was sent and Katherine and his daughter had joined him. Added to these personal worries were concerns about French financial affairs. For the time being, he was reasonably stoical about the collapse of the paper-money system: "It is better to return to the old system of finance than to leave the system to survive in the midst of a spirit of opposition." But he remained anxious that the Mississippi Company-his lasting legacy to France-should survive and thrive once more in the wake of the English stock-market collapse. "I hope that the company being free will make progress. The return of South Sea will put it in a state to continue its expansion, and to distribute to its investors. I hope that . . . business will be reestablished, so long as the plague does not progress; this is the greatest fear for the state."

Over the following weeks, as he waited impatiently for news from France, he settled into city life. The State of Europe State of Europe reported that Law "partakes of all the pleasures this carnival affords" and recorded the closing entertainments for its readers: reported that Law "partakes of all the pleasures this carnival affords" and recorded the closing entertainments for its readers:

On the 20 instant [of February 1721] the great square of St. Mark was crowded with spectators of a grand bull feast, where many of those creatures were encountered and killed by dexterous cavaliers, as usual; several shows were acted, representing the Labours of Hercules; and a person flew down by a rope from the top of St. Mark's steeple, to the great contentment of the spectators; the Doge himself was present at these diversions, seated in his gallery; adorned with crimson velvet; and to conclude the sports of the carnival a n.o.ble fireworks was played off, and several devices and figures artificially prepared with diverse kinds of burning matter continued blazing very agreeably for a good while.

The entertainments made Law miss Katherine and his daughter even more. He wrote poignantly to Kate, "We often think of you, your brother and I, and wish that you were here with Madame, to enjoy the diversions of the carnival. I hope to see you again soon, until then your main duty must be to please Madame, and to soften the pain that she has in my affairs." He had rented a palazzo, conveniently close to the Ridotto, from the Austrian amba.s.sador, Count Colloredo, went every night to the opera, and began to enjoy his life of seclusion. "I find myself well, being alone without valet, horse and carriage, to be able to walk everywhere on foot without being noticed in any way, so that I would prefer a private life with moderate means, to all the employments and honours that the King of France could give me."

Money had still not arrived, and he relied on friends such as La.s.say, who lent him 30,000, and on gambling to provide enough money to live on and pay off the endless creditors, most of them losers in Mississippi shares, who came knocking. Law's financial debacle in France made him deeply unpopular in certain circles: "The chief bankers at Venice have represented to the Senate the great losses they have sustained are chiefly owing to the councils of that gentleman," the State of Europe State of Europe reported. reported.

He was mortified at being unable to honor his commitments and struggled to come to terms with the sudden change in his fortunes. "What has happened is very extraordinary, but doesn't surprise me. Last year I was the richest man there ever was and today I have nothing, not even enough to subsist-and what embarra.s.ses me most, I owe and have nothing with which to pay." The old gaming skills, based on his knowledge of probability, were quickly honed, but the opportunity for spectacular gain seems to have been lacking. Perhaps, given his impecunious circ.u.mstances, he was no longer allowed to play banker. A friend from Paris described him as playing "from morning to night. He is always happy when gambling and each day proposes different games." After one especially profitable foray he was said to have made 20,000 livres at cards. But on several other occasions he was less fortunate and there are references in his letters to losses that he could ill afford. Favorite moneymaking ploys included staking 10,000 to 1 that a gambler could not throw sixes six times in a row-the odds against such a sequence are 46,656 to 1 (6 to the power of 6). Another game he loved was to offer a thousand pistoles to anyone who could throw six sixes with six dice, if the opponent paid him two pistoles whenever he threw four or five sixes. The odds against this are nearly 5,000 to 1.

Away from the gaming tables, he wrote increasingly urgent letters to the regent and Bourbon, imploring them to honor the agreement to send the 500,000 livres he had brought with him to France. All his other possessions, including shares, which he estimated still to be worth 100 million livres, and his properties, he willingly made over to the company to pay his debts and help those who had lost most during the system's downfall. "I can only believe that you will agree to what I have the honour of proposing to ensure the security of my children. In the case of Your Highness refusing me this justice, I will be reduced to abandoning all I have to my creditors, who will grant me a modest pension of as much as pleases them."

When it arrived, the news from Paris was alarming. In the wake of Law's departure, de la Houssaye had reported to a council meeting convened to discuss the economic situation that 2.7 billion livres in bank accounts, notes, and other forms of debt guaranteed by the Crown were still outstanding. Much of this sum had been issued without authority and there was no hope, in view of the already depleted coin reserves, of repaying it.

Scrambling to distance themselves publicly from Law, the regent and Bourbon each tried to blame the other for sanctioning his escape, and the meeting degenerated into an undignified squabble. Bourbon demanded to know how Orleans, who had been aware of the figures, could have let Law leave the country. The regent replied s.h.i.+ftily, "You know that I wanted to have him sent to the Bastille; it was you who stopped me, and sent him his pa.s.sports to leave." The duc agreed that he had had sent the pa.s.sports, but only because the regent had issued them and he did not think it in the regent's interest to allow a man who had served him so well to be imprisoned. Had he known about the unauthorized issue of notes, though, he would have acted differently. By now thoroughly embarra.s.sed, Orleans could only argue feebly that he had permitted Law's escape because he felt his presence harmful to public credit. sent the pa.s.sports, but only because the regent had issued them and he did not think it in the regent's interest to allow a man who had served him so well to be imprisoned. Had he known about the unauthorized issue of notes, though, he would have acted differently. By now thoroughly embarra.s.sed, Orleans could only argue feebly that he had permitted Law's escape because he felt his presence harmful to public credit.

In view of the dire financial situation, the council agreed that the investigation into the bank, Law's private affairs, and speculators who had made large gains should be hugely expanded, with a view to reducing the Crown's outstanding debt. Law's long-standing adversaries, the Paris brothers, were recalled from exile to supervise. Crozat, another eminent private banker, from whom Law had s.n.a.t.c.hed the colonization rights to Mississippi, was appointed to look into Law's private affairs. Eight hundred investigators were set to work in the old offices of the bank, at a cost of 9 million livres. Anyone holding shares, annuities, or banknotes was ordered to deposit them and explain how they had acquired such sums. As before, if they were deemed to have acted illegally they were liable to severe fines and confiscation of much of their property. The scale of the impact of Law's schemes became clear when a total of more than half a million people-equivalent to two-thirds of the then entire population of London-came forward with claims for losses as a result of his shares and banknotes. Nearly two hundred investors were penalized to the tune of almost 200 million livres-the widow Chaumont received the heaviest fine of 8 million livres, but remained rich because she had cannily put so much money into tangible a.s.sets. Other less fortunate, or less shrewd, investors found their gains dramatically reduced. "Those who have lost are already ruined, and now they wish to ruin those who gained," wrote one journalist, as the pruning was uncomfortably achieved. In England the State of Europe State of Europe commented that "other ministers are now undoing what has been done by that projector [Law]," and went on to remark, "The French court after so many trials and expedients to no purpose may be convinced that a public bank is one of those plants which cannot grow in all soils, and that people will never entrust with the keeping of their cash a company which may be dissolved by any sudden blast of an arbitrary wind." In fact, as Law had pointed out, the State had benefited greatly from his system. Rising inflation, falling share prices, and the reduction in the value of paper had bankrupted state creditors but reduced Crown debt by two-thirds. commented that "other ministers are now undoing what has been done by that projector [Law]," and went on to remark, "The French court after so many trials and expedients to no purpose may be convinced that a public bank is one of those plants which cannot grow in all soils, and that people will never entrust with the keeping of their cash a company which may be dissolved by any sudden blast of an arbitrary wind." In fact, as Law had pointed out, the State had benefited greatly from his system. Rising inflation, falling share prices, and the reduction in the value of paper had bankrupted state creditors but reduced Crown debt by two-thirds.

The Mississippi Company was also targeted by the investigators. The privilege of administering the tax system and mint was withdrawn, and the company retained only its maritime interests. Through a painful process of confiscations and contractions, shares were decreased in number from 135,000 to 56,000. In this depleted state the company survived its founder's downfall, and in one sense fulfilled his fervent hope, remaining in business until the end of the eighteenth century.

Amid the financial confusion Law, the convenient whipping boy, was accused of ma.s.sive misappropriation and of leaving vast unsettled debts. According to one report, a week before his departure he had helped himself to 20,000 livres from the bank. A later doc.u.ment sent to the Duc de Bourbon showed that in fact Law's account was several millions in credit.

Conscious of ill will mounting against him, and unable to defend himself, Law became more and more concerned for Katherine's safety. In mid-April, when traveling conditions had improved, he instructed her to arrange for the dispatch of their horses, carriages, and furnis.h.i.+ngs by boat, settle outstanding debts-according to the regent's mother, she owed 10,000 livres to the butcher alone-and prepare to leave: "I want your company and to live as we used to before I engaged in public business. . . . Though I determine you at present to come to Venice and though I like the place very well, I don't propose that we shall always stay here." He was desperately worried at the thought of her making the hazardous journey across Europe without him, and sent detailed instructions of the route she should take and the doc.u.ments she would need. Certificates of health would have to be stamped in every town they pa.s.sed because of the travel restrictions caused by the plague; she should avoid crossing through the Tyrol in case she was held for quarantine; and she should travel incognito: "Keep your journey private, there are malicious people . . . and though I received no insult on the road, yet I think you should shun being known, it may be thought that you have money or things of value with you."

Katherine's preparations to leave must have been under way when the investigators swooped and she, unwittingly, became a p.a.w.n in their l.u.s.t to hurt Law. Her request for pa.s.sports was refused. All Law's a.s.sets, including the Hotel de Langlee, where Katherine was living at the time, and a dozen or so other properties belonging to him, were confiscated. She was reduced to taking lodgings in a modest inn in St. Germain, with only a valet and chambermaid to attend her. Then, on May 8, William Law, suspected of planning an escape, was arrested and incarcerated in the Fort l'eveque. Perhaps to spare him further worry, Katherine failed to tell Law what had happened, and he was still unaware of the situation-a letter from Paris to Venice could take weeks to arrive-when he wrote disappointedly to her, "I find you have no inclination to come to Italy, I agree that England or Holland would be better. . . . You may go to Holland."

When news of the situation in Paris eventually filtered through, he was outraged, even though she still had not told him the full truth of her own reduced circ.u.mstances. "Mme. Law writes that they find me a debtor of 7 million to the bank, and of five or six million to the company, and that the King has seized my effects, that my brother is in prison, and his effects seized, without being told the reason. You know that I paid no attention to my own interests, that I didn't know the exact state of my affairs; my time was entirely taken up with public service." He was paying an unimaginable price for his idealism and failure to attend to his own affairs. Plainly if he were to exact justice, he realized, he had only two choices left: to return to France, or to move to England and put pressure on Bourbon and Orleans through his connections at the English court.

He pursued both avenues: he dispatched new reports for ways to improve French finances to Paris in the hope that they would clear the way for his return, and made overtures to friends in London. According to the English diplomat Crawford, the schemes were warmly received in Paris. "Mr. Law . . .has sent a new project for the re-establishment of finances to the Regent, which was very well liked, they infer from hence that gentleman will soon return into France." But the regent, though quietly keen to bring him back, was fearful of a public outcry if he did so. Still in the grip of Law's enemies, he refused to intervene. The stalemate persisted.

In London, Law's approaches to Lord Ilay and Lord Londonderry were greeted with only marginally less ambivalence. Four years earlier, through Londonderry's intervention, Law had been granted a pardon by George I and a discharge from the Wilsons. As a pledge of loyalty to France, he had given the royal pardon to the regent-another impetuous gesture of steadfastness that was now a cause of regret-and had left the Wilsons' discharge in Paris. Now, realizing that the developments of the past year had changed the way in which Britain viewed him, Law hoped uneasily that "His Majesty will have no scruple to order a second expedition of it [the pardon]." But he was worried enough about his reception to flex his political muscle and stress menacingly how damaging a refusal to let him return might be. "It would be very much contrary to the interest of my country to refuse me the retreat I desire there. . . . I have received offers from very powerful Princes, which would tempt one that had either the pa.s.sion of ambition or revenge. England may retrieve her credit, if no other state pretend to rival her in it; but if I should fail to work with a prince that has means, authority, and resolution, I can change the face of the affairs of Europe."

Since leaving France, Law had certainly received offers of employment from Denmark and Russia, which so far he had turned down. But his threat was far from idle: if England refused him entry and Orleans continued to deny him funds to settle his debts, he would have no choice but to "look for a protector to avoid a prison sentence, which might endure all my life." The threat of debtor's prison was ever present, and presumably the experience of Newgate in his youth heightened his terror of returning. Significantly, a stipulation of his request to return was that his creditors in Britain should allow him a few months' grace to arrange his affairs before pressing for payment. The total loss to Londonderry from a drastic wager made in Paris, which antic.i.p.ated that East India stock would fall, was nearly 600,000, and his inability to repay it had forced Middleton, his banker, to close his business at around the same time that Law left Paris.

Londonderry and Ilay contacted Lord Carteret, who conferred with the king, but when by late summer there was still no clear decision and his creditors were clamoring ever more menacingly, Law decided, with typical impulsiveness, to risk it. Later he wrote, "I had no invitation from the King nor from his ministers but the situation of my affairs made me take the course of going there with these uncertainties."

Leaving Venice at the end of August, and carefully avoiding Holland and parts of Germany where he knew angry creditors might apprehend him, Law took a circuitous route through Bohemia to Hanover, then northward to Copenhagen. He had intended to spend some time in the Danish court-the diplomat Guldenstein was an old friend who, since Law's departure from France, had repeatedly offered him a role in government. Law had refused on the grounds that his plan was to live quietly: "Having worked in the most beautiful theatre in Europe under the most enlightened Prince, having taken my project to the point where it could make a nation happy, and having little to support me against the cabals of court and the factions of the state I will take no more engagements."

The English Baltic squadron was anch.o.r.ed at Elsinore and preparing to sail home before winter, so there was no time to see Guldenstein at the Danish court. Admiral John Norris, commander of the fleet, allowed Law to board his vessel Sandwich Sandwich for the return pa.s.sage. The s.h.i.+p set sail on October 6, arriving a fortnight later at the naval base of the Nore in the Thames estuary. It was the first time Law had set foot on English soil for twenty-six years. for the return pa.s.sage. The s.h.i.+p set sail on October 6, arriving a fortnight later at the naval base of the Nore in the Thames estuary. It was the first time Law had set foot on English soil for twenty-six years.

His friends Ilay and Londonderry were waiting for him and escorted him to London, where, as he had feared, there were mixed feelings about the prodigal's return. On arrival he wrote to Katherine, "I don't expect to be well received at court; for which reason I think not to go, having nothing to ask." Apart from the South Sea catastrophe, for which he was widely blamed, it was also feared "his stay in London could only help people with evil intentions to whip up jealousies"-that France would frown on England for offering Law sanctuary. The controversy was sufficiently fierce to be raised twice in the House of Lords, Earl Coningsby complaining that Law "had done so much mischief in a neighbouring kingdom; and [who] being so immensely rich as he was reported to be, might do a great deal more hurt here, by tampering with many who were grown desperate by being involved in the calamity occasioned by the fatal imitation of his pernicious projects." Above all, stated Coningsby, Law should be shunned for renouncing "not only his natural affection to his country, and his allegiance to his lawful sovereign by being naturalized in France, and openly countenancing the Pretender's friends; but which was worst of all, and weighed most with him, that he had also renounced his G.o.d by turning into a Roman Catholic." Carteret stood up for Law. He was here having received the benefit of the king's clemency, he was no longer a fugitive from British justice, having been granted his pardon in 1717, and it was the right of every subject to return to his native land.

By November the ferment had begun to settle as Law's influential supporters gained ground and persuaded the establishment that, far from endangering the relations.h.i.+p with France, Law might actually help it. The diplomat Sutton noted, "The retreat of Mr. Law to England does not seem to displease the court. . . . Law will do nothing to trouble the good intelligence and harmony between the two courts." By the end of the month this argument had prevailed, and Law was permitted to return to the bar of the King's Bench to plead pardon, attended by the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Ilay, and several other influential friends. The London Journal London Journal of December 2 contained the following report of the momentous event: "On Tuesday November 28 (the last day of term) the famous Mr. Law appeared at the King's Bench Bar, and pleaded his pardon for the Murder of Beau Wilson on his knees." of December 2 contained the following report of the momentous event: "On Tuesday November 28 (the last day of term) the famous Mr. Law appeared at the King's Bench Bar, and pleaded his pardon for the Murder of Beau Wilson on his knees."

Thus officially pardoned, Law took lodgings in Conduit Street. He still longed to see Katherine and hoped that his move might help: "I can't think the Regent will detain you when he knows I'm first here. I think His Royal Highness and those who serve him honestly should be pleased that I am here, where I may be useful to him; knowing his intentions to live in friends.h.i.+p with the King."

Although he had been granted a modest pension by the regent, and London bankers restored limited credit to his accounts, he still battled for settlement of debts incurred on the company's behalf, for which many held him personally responsible. He was distraught that his brother's friend, the London banker George Middleton, had been forced into bankruptcy as a result of his losses on Law's account, and had already tried to speed up the settlement of these debts from Venice: "I would have you get the Marquis de La.s.say and my brother to meet with you, to concert what can be done to satisfy M. Middleton, I have wrote to M. le Du