Paris in 1729 was a city divided against itself. Its restless population was kept in order by a garrison of Swiss mercenaries and by large numbers of informers, spies, detectives and agents provocateurs. Our modern language of espionage and surveillance is French, and much of it was invented in this era. A regime of great and terrible cruelty dominated its people by methods that were profoundly hostile to the ethics of Christianity and the dreams of the Enlightenment.
