Millionaire - Janet Gleeson [86]
Preparations for leaving France were made hurriedly. With enemies clamoring for his arrest he had to travel incognito and it was impossible therefore to use his own liveried coaches. Bourbon placed two carriages at his disposal—one of his own, the other belonging to his mistress, the seductive and vivacious Madame de Prie, a woman said to have had “as many graces in spirit as in her face.”
The party left Guermande on the evening of December 17. Law was accompanied by his son, three valets, and several of the duc’s guards, who wore long gray coats over their livery to avoid being recognized. He had two passports, one in the name of du Jardin, the other in his real name, and several letters from friends, including one from the duc pledging his safe passage. The escape route, planned by Bourbon so that fresh horses were waiting where necessary, passed north of Paris toward St. Quentin and Valenciennes and across the border with Flanders to Mons and Brussels.
When news broke the next day that Law had vanished, Parisian gossips aired many imaginative theories as to his whereabouts. Some said he had secretly met the regent at St. Denis, others that he had entered Paris and spent an evening at the Palais Royal or gone into hiding at Chantilly.
In fact, despite the painstaking precautions, the plan had gone awry. The party had been stopped at the border in Valenciennes by the bullying local official who, unfortunately for Law, happened to be the eldest son of Law’s old adversary the Marquis d’Argenson. The intendant’s initial confusion at the false passports gave way to relish when he realized the true identity of the passengers. To exact revenge for his father’s fall, he “refused absolutely” to allow Law to pass and pretended that the passports could have been fraudulently acquired. Having confiscated Law’s money and the duc’s letter, he held them while word was sent to Paris. “I made Law very frightened, I arrested him and held him for twenty-four hours, only releasing him when I received formal orders from the court,” he reminisced. In fact, Law recounted later that he was released before the courier returned, but only after “much arguing” and on the understanding that d’Argenson would keep his passport, the letters, and the gold. The gold was never returned. When he asked for it, d’Argenson is said to have pointed out that exporting gold was illegal—according to a regulation introduced by Law.
He arrived in Brussels exhausted, shaken, but relieved to have escaped. Still anxious to remain incognito, he registered in the Hôtel du Grand Miroir in the name of Monsieur du Jardin. But with the whole of Europe on the lookout, the identity of the party was impossible to keep secret. “I had hoped to be able to pass through here without being known, and I sent the name of du Jardin to the gate; but to no avail, they already knew I was arriving, and I have just received visits from the principal people here—a fact which makes me determined to make the shortest possible stay here,” he wrote wearily to Bourbon.
Brussels rolled out the red carpet. He spent the first morning in conference with the French ambassador, the Marquis de Prie, husband of Bourbon’s glamorous mistress, and attended a banquet that evening at which the elite of Brussels was present; the next night he went to the theater, and on entering the auditorium was honored with a standing ovation. “This conduct,” the English diplomat Sutton remarked ominously, “attracts attention.