Memoir of the life of John Law of Lauriston

OF LAURISTON. 119
tion of the royal engagement, which solemnly
promised, that whatever alterations should
take place on the coin, the bank notes should
always remain invariable, and be paid in full,
were such as might have been expected. From
that moment
Omnia fatis
In pejus mere, ac retro sublapsa referri,
the whole paper fabric fell to the ground, the
notes lost all credit, none would meddle with
them ; and the avenues of the bank being
blocked up by soldiers, there was no possi-
bility of getting near the tellers, so that the
day following, May 22, any one might have
starved with 100 millions of paper money in
his pocket.*
The consternation with which all ranks
were struck on the publication of this fatal
edict being quickly converted into rage, it be-
came necessary to station a number of troops
in different quarters of Paris, to bridle the fu-
ry of the mob, from whose outrageous dispo-
sition a second tragedy of St. Bartholomew
* Stewart, ii. 268.