The Bourgeois, in the course of his great commercial dealings, got
possession of innumerable orders upon the royal treasury, which in
due course had to be presented to the Intendant for his official
signature. The signing of these treasury orders in favor of the
Bourgeois never failed to throw Bigot into a fit of ill humor.
On the present occasion he sat down muttering ten thousand curses
upon the Bourgeois, as he glanced over the papers with knitted
eyebrows and teeth set hard together. He signed the mass of orders
and drafts made payable to Nicolas Philibert, and when done, threw
into the fire the pen which had performed so unwelcome an office.
Bigot sent for the chief clerk who had brought the bills and orders,
and who waited for them in the antechamber. "Tell your master, the
Bourgeois," said he, "that for this time, and only to prevent loss
to the foolish officers, the Intendant has signed these army bills;
but that if he purchase more, in defiance of the sole right of the
Grand Company, I shall not sign them. This shall be the last time,
tell him!"
The chief clerk, a sturdy, gray-haired Malouin, was nothing daunted
by the angry look of the Intendant.
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