innkeepers and postmasters to refuse horses to such as endeavoured to
seek safety in flight; and all persons were forbidden, under heavy
fines, to harbour them or favour their evasion. Some were condemned to
the pillory, others to the gallies, and the least guilty to fine and
imprisonment. One only, Samuel Bernard, a rich banker, and
farmer-general of a province remote from the capital, was sentenced to
death. So great had been the illegal profits of this man, -- looked
upon as the tyrant and oppressor of his district, -- that he offered
six millions of livres, or 250,000 pounds sterling, to be allowed to
escape.

His bribe was refused, and he suffered the penalty of death.
Others, perhaps more guilty, were more fortunate. Confiscation, owing
to the concealment of their treasures by the delinquents, often
produced less money than a fine. The severity of the government
relaxed, and fines, under the denomination of taxes, were
indiscriminately levied upon all offenders. But so corrupt was every
department of the administration, that the country benefited but
little by the sums which thus flowed into the treasury. Courtiers, and
courtiers' wives and mistresses, came in for the chief share of the
spoils. One contractor had been taxed in proportion to his wealth and
guilt, at the sum of twelve millions of livres. The Count * * *, a man
of some weight in the government, called upon him, and offered to
procure a remission of the fine, if he would give him a hundred
thousand crowns. "Vous etes trop tard, mon ami," replied the
financier; "I have already made a bargain with your wife for fifty
thousand." [This anecdote is related by M. de la Hode, in his Life of
Philippe of Orleans. It would have looked more authentic if he had
given the names of the dishonest contractor and the still more
dishonest minister. But M. de la Hode's book is liable to the same