resist a vision so splendid. At least three hundred thousand
applications were made for the fifty thousand new shares, and Law's
house in the Rue de Quincampoix was beset from morning to night by the
eager applicants. As it was impossible to satisfy them all, it was
several weeks before a list of the fortunate new stockholders could be
made out, during which time the public impatience rose to a pitch of
frenzy. Dukes, marquises, counts, with their duchesses, marchionesses,
and countesses, waited in the streets for hours every day before Mr.
Law's door to know the result. At last, to avoid the jostling of the
plebeian crowd, which, to the number of thousands, filled the whole
thoroughfare, they took apartments in the adjoining houses, that they
might be continually near the temple whence the new Plutus was
diffusing wealth. Every day the value of the old shares increased, and
the fresh applications, induced by the golden dreams of the whole
nation, became so numerous that it was deemed advisable to create no
less than three hundred thousand new shares, at five thousand livres
each, in order that the Regent might take advantage of the popular
enthusiasm to pay off the national debt. For this purpose, the sum of
fifteen hundred millions of livres was necessary. Such was the
eagerness of the nation, that thrice the sum would have been
subscribed if the government had authorised it.

Law was now at the zenith of his prosperity, and the people were
rapidly approaching the zenith of their infatuation. The highest and
the lowest classes were alike filled with a vision of boundless
wealth. There was not a person of note among the aristocracy, with the
exception of the Duke of St. Simon and Marshal Villars, who was not
engaged in buying or selling stock. People of every age and sex, and
condition in life, speculated in the rise and fall of the Mississippi
bonds. The Rue de Quincampoix was the grand resort of the jobbers, and