evil, and some of the counsellors, in the virulence of their enmity,
proposed that he should be brought to trial, and, if found guilty, be
hung at the gates of the Palais de Justice.

Law, in great alarm, fled to the Palais Royal, and threw himself
on the protection of the Regent, praying that measures might be taken
to reduce the Parliament to obedience. The Regent had nothing so much
at heart, both on that account and because of the disputes that had
arisen relative to the legitimation of the Duke of Maine and the Count
of Thoulouse, the sons of the late King. The Parliament was ultimately
overawed by the arrest of their president and two of the counsellors,
who were sent to distant prisons.

Thus the first cloud upon Law's prospects blew over: freed from
apprehension of personal danger, he devoted his attention to his
famous Mississippi project, the shares of which were rapidly rising,
in spite of the Parliament. At the commencement of the year 1719 an
edict was published, granting to the Mississippi Company the exclusive
privilege of trading to the East Indies, China, and the South Seas,
and to all the possessions of the French East India Company,
established by Colbert. The Company, in consequence of this great
increase of their business, assumed, as more appropriate, the title of
Company of the Indies, and created fifty thousand new shares. The
prospects now held out by Law were most magnificent. He promised a
yearly dividend of two hundred livres upon each share of five hundred,
which, as the shares were paid for in billets d'etat, at their nominal
value, but worth only 100 livres, was at the rate of about 120 per
cent. profit.

The public enthusiasm, which had been so long rising, could not