Читать книгу John Law of Lauriston. Financier and Statesman, Founder of the Bank of France, Originator of the Mississippi Scheme, Etc онлайн

21 страница из 29

On his expulsion from Holland, Law abandoned himself to the life of a rover amongst the various Continental cities, and to all the attractions they offered. For six years he exercised with profitable results his skill as a gambler, and quickly gained a notoriety throughout Europe as a player of remarkable and unvarying success in every game of chance. He seems first to have gone to Paris, which afforded a rich and extensive field for gambling operations, and his good fortune brought around him a cringing crowd of followers, hoping to attract to themselves some of the glamour that surrounded the person of their idol. In his train were to be found the flower of the French nobility. He spent his time in the houses of the aristocracy of the day, of whom he was at all times a favoured guest, not less by his skilful play than by his pleasant, affable manner, and brilliant conversation and wit. Faro was the game in which he most delighted, and at the houses of Poisson, Duclos, and at the Hotel de Gesvres, he held a sort of faro bank, and the entree to these houses was considered a matter of the greatest favour. In the fashionable crowd of excited gamesters Law was the only one who remained absolutely cool whatever the fortunes of the game. His operations were conducted upon a most extensive scale, and necessitated the employment of considerable sums of money. It was no uncommon circumstance for Law to carry with him 100,000 livres or more in gold. So cumbrous did this become, that he conceived and carried out the idea of utilising counters, which were valued at eighteen louis each, and proved more convenient than the coin they represented.