He sent her, every year, about thirty thousand francs, though Les Aigues brought in at that time at least forty thousand.

The unsuspecting opera-singer was therefore much delighted when the new steward Gaubertin promised her thirty-six thousand.
To explain the present fortune of the land-steward of Les Aigues before the judgment-seat of probability, it is necessary to state its beginnings.

Pushed by his father's influence, he became mayor of Blangy.
Thus he was able, contrary to law, to make the debtors pay in coin, by "terrorizing" (a phrase of the day) such of them as might, in his opinion, be subjected to the crushing demands of the Republic.

He himself paid the citizens in assignats as long as the system of paper money lasted,--a system which, if it did not make the nation prosperous, at least made the fortunes of private individuals.

From 1793 to 1795, that is, for three years, Francois Gaubertin wrung one hundred and fifty thousand francs out of Les Aigues, with which he speculated on the stock-market in Paris.