it being a narrow, inconvenient street, accidents continually occurred
in it, from the tremendous pressure of the crowd. Houses in it, worth,
in ordinary times, a thousand livres of yearly rent, yielded as much
as twelve or sixteen thousand. A cobbler, who had a stall in it,
gained about two hundred livres a day by letting it out, and
furnishing writing materials to brokers and their clients. The story
goes, that a hump-backed man who stood in the street gained
considerable sums by lending his hump as a writing-desk to the eager
speculators! The great concourse of persons who assembled to do
business brought a still greater concourse of spectators. These again
drew all the thieves and immoral characters of Paris to the spot, and
constant riots and disturbances took place. At nightfall, it was often
found necessary to send a troop of soldiers to clear the street.

Law, finding the inconvenience of his residence, removed to the
Place Vendome, whither the crowd of agioteurs followed him. That
spacious square soon became as thronged as the Rue de Quincampoix :
from morning to night it presented the appearance of a fair. Booths
and tents were erected for the transaction of business and the sale of
refreshments, and gamblers with their roulette tables stationed
themselves in the very middle of the place, and reaped a golden, or
rather a paper, harvest from the throng. The Boulevards and public
gardens were forsaken; parties of pleasure took their walks in
preference in the Place Vendome, which became the fashionable lounge
of the idle, as well as the general rendezvous of the busy. The noise
was so great all day, that the Chancellor, whose court was situated in
the square, complained to the Regent and the municipality, that he
could not hear the advocates. Law, when applied to, expressed his
willingness to aid in the removal of the nuisance, and for this
purpose entered into a treaty with the Prince de Carignan for the