The Duke and his mother, as well as Lasse, the friend of the latter, have gained several millions.  The Prince has gained less, and yet his winnings, they say, amount to millions.

     [He had four wagons loaded with silver carried from Law’s bank, in
     exchange for his paper money; and this it was that accelerated Law’s
     disgrace, and created a kind of popularity for the Prince de Conti.]

The two cousins do not stir from the Rue de Quincampoix, which has given rise to the following epigram: 

                    Prince dites nous vos exploits
                    Que faites vous pour votre gloire? 
                    Taisez-vous sots!—­Lisez l’histoire
                    De la rue de Quincampoix.

But the person who had gained most by this affair is Dantin, who is horridly avaricious.

The Princesse de Conti told me that she had had her son examined in his infancy by Clement, for the purpose of ascertaining whether he was in every respect well made; and that he, having found the child perfectly well made, went to the Prince de Conti, and said to him:  “Monseigneur, I have examined the shape of the young Prince who is just born:  he is at all points well formed, let him sleep without a bolster that he may remain so; and only imagine what grief it would occasion to the Princesse de Conti, who has brought him into the world straight, if you should make him crooked.”

The Prince de Conti wished to speak of something else, but Clement still returned to the same topic, saying, “Remember, Monseigneur, he is straight as a wand, and do not make him crooked and hunchbacked.”

The Prince de Conti, not being able to endure this, ran away.

SECTION XXXIII.—­THE ABBE DUBOIS.

My son had a sub-governor, and he it was who appointed the Abbe, a very learned person, to be his tutor.  The sub-governor’s intention was to have dismissed the Abbe as soon as he should have taught my son sufficiently, and, excepting during the time occupied by the lessons, he never suffered him to remain with his pupil.  But this good gentleman could not accomplish his design; for being seized with a violent colic, he died, unhappily for me, in a few hours.  The Abbe then proposed himself to supply his place.  There was no other preceptor near at hand, so the Abbe remained with my son, and assumed so adroitly the language of an honest man that I took him for one until my son’s marriage; then it was that I discovered all his knavery.  I had a strong regard for him, because I thought he was tenderly attached to my son, and only desired to promote his advantage; but when I found that he was a treacherous person, who thought only of his own interest, and that, instead of carefully trying to preserve my son’s honour, he plunged him into ruin by permitting him to give himself up to debauchery without seeming to perceive it, then my esteem for