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By Root 729 0

have the sugars, the Duc de la Force has the wax and tallow,” wrote Pulteney. Law must have known that racketeering was going on but, terrified to risk losing his few remaining allies, turned a blind eye. The regent was similarly partisan, volubly intolerant of outsiders’ scams, mute when it came to his favorites’ ruses. When a deputation of merchants came to grumble about the reduction of their bank accounts, the regent denounced them coldly as charlatans who had charged exorbitant sums for the past year. He told one scornfully, “My friend, are you so stupid as not to understand that this quarter you have is worth more than the total?” The man replied that his business would be destroyed, to which Orléans answered, “So much the better, I am delighted.”

The edict was painful not only to French citizens but also to countless foreigners who traded with France. There were deputations from merchants of Savoy, Piedmont, and Brussels, who supplied vast quantities of silk and lace and, having been paid in French banknotes of diminishing value and desirability, were particularly badly affected. For English investors, developments were even more tragic. London was by now reeling from the effects of the collapse in South Sea shares which, from a June high of £1,050, had plummeted at the end of August, and by mid-September were trading at £380. Investors who had borrowed heavily to invest in South Sea stock at high prices, expecting that the value would continue to rise, were now forced to sell other investments to repay outstanding loans. European markets in France, Holland, and elsewhere buckled from the effect of the London stock-market collapse.

Throughout the tangle of confusion, anger, and distress, Law and his family were viewed ever more stonily. The oncefeted celebrities who had danced at Versailles and had their hands kissed by international dignitaries now lived in the perpetual shadow of danger. The lawyer Barbier, strolling in the Étoile, saw Law’s wife and ten-year-old daughter Kate returning from the fair in Bezons in a carriage drawn by six horses. Law’s livery was recognized and the carriage was surrounded by a mob screeching obscenities at Law’s refusal to pay out for banknotes and pelting the women with manure and stones. Before the coachman could whip up the terrified horses and drive away, Kate was struck by a missile and injured.

In the malicious ferment anyone who vaguely resembled a member of the Law family could find themselves in grave peril. Madame de Torcy, wife of the foreign secretary, was mistaken for Katherine and half drowned in a pond before she convinced her assailants that she was not the person they believed her to be. During an argument between two coachmen over right of way in the rue St. Antoine, one untruthfully alleged that the passenger inside the other’s coach was Law, knowing that this would cause a distraction in which he might triumph. Within minutes a mob had descended and attacked the innocent passenger, who escaped with his life by sprinting for sanctuary to a nearby church.

There is frustratingly little to tell us of how Katherine reacted to the dramatic reversal in Law’s fortune. We can only surmise, from the affectionate reassurances that Law later wrote to her, that she remained supportive but increasingly frightened by the volatile political situation that threatened her family’s safety. After the scare with her daughter she rarely went out, and then often disguised as a pregnant woman—a significant come-down for a woman who had always been noted for her elegance. Social calls were not only hazardous but could often be humiliating. Growing numbers of doors closed in her face. When she visited the Duchesse de Lauzun, an aging courtesan famous for her sarcasm, she was callously mocked. “My God, Madame, you have done us a great favor with this visit. We know the risks you run exposing yourself to a populace who is mutinying against you for no reason.” A few friends remained steadfast. The Duc de Bourbon continued to offer the family refuge at his country residence in St. Maur