The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1904-05-12
Copyright. 1909, by Emerson Hough.,


the king is dead. God bless the new
king, and may he die young! plague
to all kings, Marie. And now come and
sit with my man and me, for we've
bottle left, and while 1t lasts we drink
freedom from all kings!"
you speak words of gold, Suzanne
was the reply. Surely will drink
with you, and wish pleasant and
speedy death to kings"
John Law and his companions heard
broken bits of such speech as this as
they passed on.
"Ah. they talk" replied he at last,
| turning toward his companions, land
! Within the year we shall see Paris up
side down. These people are ready
| for any new thing. But"-and his face
| lost some of its gravity-"the streets
| are none too safe to-day, my lady
| Therefore you must forgive me If | do
not set you down. but keep you pris-
| oner until you reach your own gates.
| 'Tis not your fault that your carriage
| broke down on the road from Marty;
| and as for my brother VIII and my
self, we cannot forego a good fortune
which enables us at last to destroy a
certain long-standing debt of a car
riage ride given us. once upon a time,
| by the Lady Catharine Knollys."
cat least, then, we shall be well
acquit on both sides" replied the soft
voice of the woman. 81 may, perhaps,
be an unwilling prisoner for so short
a time"
Madam, I would God it might be
| forever"
1t was the same John Law of old who
made this impetuOns reply, and indeed
he seemed scarce changed by the pass
| ing of these few years of time. 1t was
the audacious youth of the English
highway who now looked at her with
grave face, yet with eyes that shone.
Some years had indeed passed since
Law. turning his back upon the appeal
of the wide New World, had again set
| foot upon the shores of England, from
! which his departure had been so
singular. Driven by the goads of re-
morse. it had been his first thought
to seek out the Lady Catharine Knoll
! lys; and so intent had he been on this
quest that he learned almost without
emotion OF the kings pardon which
had been entered, discharging him Of
further penalty of the law of England.
Meeting Lady Catharine, he learned,
! as have others since and before him,
that human soul may have laws in
flexible; that the iron bars of wom-
ans resolve may bar one out, even as
prison doors may bar him in. He
found the Lady Catharine unshake-
able in her resolve not to see him or
speak with him Whereat he ragged, eX-
postulated by post, waited, waylaid,
and so at length gained an interview,
which taught him many things.
Rejected, as he was now. by the new
ministry of England, none the less
every capital of Europe came presently
to know John Law, gambler, student
and financier. Before every ruler on
the continent he laid his system Of
financial revolution, and one by one
they smiled, or shrugged, or scoifed
at him Baflled once more in his dear
! est purpose. he took again to play,
play in such colossal and audacious
form as never yet had been seen even
in the gayest courts of time when
gaming was a vice to be called ma
tional No hazard was too great for
him, no success and no reverse suffi-
GENTLY keen to cause him any appar-
ent concern. There was no risk sharp
enough to deaden the gnawing in his
soul, no excitement strong enough to
wipe away from his mind the black
panorama of his past
He won princely fortunes and cast
them away again With the figure and
the air of a prince, he gained greater
reputation than any prince of Europe.
Upon him were spent the blandish-
ynents of the fairest women of his time.
Yet not this, not all this, served to
steady his energies now unbalanced,
speeding without guidance. The gold,
heaped high on the tables, was not
enough to stupefy his mind, not enough
though he doubled and trebled it,
though he cast great golden markers
to spare him trouble in the counting
of his winnings. Still student, still
mathematician, he sought at Amster-
dam, at Paris, at Vienna, all new theo-
ries which offered in the science of
banking and finance, even as at the
same time he deved still further into
the mysteries of occurrences and
| chance
In this latter such was his success
that losers made complaint, unjust but
effectual to the king, so that Law was
obliged to leave Paris for time. He
had dwelt long enough in Paris, this
double-natured man, this student and
creator, this gambler and gallant, to
win the friendship of Philippe of Or
leans, later to be regent of France;
and gay enough had been the life they
two had led-so gay, so intimate, that
Philippe gave promise that, should he
ever hold in his own hands the gov
eminent of France, he would end Laws
Punishment and give to him the op-
portunity he sought, of proving those
theories of finance which constituted
the absorbing ambition of his life
Meantime Law, ever restless, had
passed from one capital of Europe to
another. dragging with him from hotel
to hotel the young child whose life
had been cast in such feverish and I'M
natural surroundings. He continued
10 challenge every hazard, fearless,
reckless, contemptuous, and withal
wretched, as one must be who, after
years of effort, found that he could
not Danish from his mlnd the pictures
| % n 40 nonra1 priepp NJ lpjfa