Millionaire - Janet Gleeson [88]
I am sensible that you suffer extremely by the resolution I have taken of going to Italy, there was no choice in my situation, Holland is not proper. Your son and I are well, though much fatigued by the bad weather, and bad roads. I desire to have you and Kate with me, yet I can’t well advise you to set out in this season; you will be better able to judge what you are to do, than I can. But I fear you will pass your time disagreeably in France, and I would rather suffer in my affaires; than want your company.
By January 21 Law and his son had arrived in Venice. Law, ready to drop after the rigors of the journey, saw no one for a few days. “I have suffered terribly from the voyage,” he admitted to Lassay, in one of the first letters he wrote after his arrival. While he recuperated, the British resident, Colonel Burges, who was an old friend, reported his arrival to London: “He goes by the name of Gardiner, not caring to be publicly known till he resolves whether he shall continue here or no, which he cannot do till he receives his next letter from France. . . . If he leaves this place he talks of going to Rome but I believe would be much better pleased if he was well settled in England.”
Law felt he could make no firm decisions about the future until money was sent and Katherine and his daughter had joined him. Added to these personal worries were concerns about French financial affairs. For the time being, he was reasonably stoical about the collapse of the paper-money system: “It is better to return to the old system of finance than to leave the system to survive in the midst of a spirit of opposition.” But he remained anxious that the Mississippi Company—his lasting legacy to France—should survive and thrive once more in the wake of the English stock-market collapse. “I hope that the company being free will make progress. The return of South Sea will put it in a state to continue its expansion, and to distribute to its investors. I hope that . . . business will be reestablished, so long as the plague does not progress; this is the greatest fear for the state.”
Over the following weeks, as he waited impatiently for news from France, he settled into city life. The State of Europe reported that Law “partakes of all the pleasures this carnival affords” and recorded the closing entertainments for its readers:
On the 20 instant [of February 1721] the great square of St. Mark was crowded with spectators of a grand bull feast, where many of those creatures were encountered and killed by dexterous cavaliers, as usual; several shows were acted, representing the Labours of Hercules; and a person flew down by a rope from the top of St. Mark’s steeple, to the great contentment of the spectators; the Doge himself was present at these diversions, seated in his gallery; adorned with crimson velvet; and to conclude the sports of the carnival a noble fireworks was played off, and several devices and figures artificially prepared with diverse kinds of burning matter continued blazing very agreeably for a good while.
The entertainments made Law miss Katherine and his daughter even more. He wrote poignantly to Kate, “We often think of you, your brother and I, and wish that you were here with Madame, to enjoy the diversions of the carnival. I hope to see you again soon, until then your main duty must be to please Madame, and to soften the pain that she has in my affairs.” He had rented a palazzo, conveniently close to the Ridotto, from the Austrian ambassador, Count Colloredo, went every night to the opera, and began to enjoy his life of seclusion. “I find myself well, being alone without valet, horse and carriage, to be able to walk everywhere on foot without being noticed in any way, so that I would prefer a private life with moderate means, to all the employments and honours that the King of France could give me.”
Money had still not arrived, and he relied on friends such as Lassay, who