successful play. At every gambling-house of note in the capitals of
Europe, he was known and appreciated as one better skilled in the
intricacies of chance than any other man of the day. It is stated in
the "Biographie Universelle" that he was expelled, first from Venice,
and afterwards from Genoa, by the magistrates, who thought him a
visitor too dangerous for the youth of those cities. During his
residence in Paris he rendered himself obnoxious to D'Argenson, the
lieutenant-general of the police, by whom he was ordered to quit the
capital. This did not take place, however, before he had made the
acquaintance in the saloons, of the Duke de Vendome, the Prince de
Conti, and of the gay Duke of Orleans, the latter of whom was destined
afterwards to exercise so much influence over his fate. The Duke of
Orleans was pleased with the vivacity and good sense of the Scottish
adventurer, while the latter was no less pleased with the wit and
amiability of a prince who promised to become his patron. They were
often thrown into each other's society, and Law seized every
opportunity to instil his financial doctrines into the mind of one
whose proximity to the throne pointed him out as destined, at no very
distant date, to play an important part in the government.

Shortly before the death of Louis XIV, or, as some say, in 1708,
Law proposed a scheme of finance to Desmarets, the Comptroller. Louis
is reported to have inquired whether the projector were a Catholic,
and, on being answered in the negative, to have declined having
anything to do with him. [This anecdote, which is related in the
correspondence of Madame de Baviere, Duchess of Orleans, and mother of
the Regent, is discredited by Lord John Russell, in his "History of
the principal States of Europe, from the Peace of Utrecht;" for what
reason he does not inform us. There is no doubt that Law proposed his
scheme to Desmarets, and that Louis refused to hear of it. The reason