<italic> et promets de donner a Mr. de Voltaire dans le jour de demain ou apres au plustard deux cent guatre-vingt frederics d'or au lieu de deux cent quatre-vingt louis d'or, que je lui ai payez, le tout pour quittance generale, ce 16 Decembre, 1750, a berlin <end italic>
And promise to give M. de Voltaire, in the course of to-morrow, or the day after to-morrow at latest, 280 FREDERICS D'OR, instead of 280 LOUIS D'OR [gold FREDERICS the preferabe coin, say experts]
which I have now paid him; whereby All will be settled.
[Hirsch again signs; but has again forgotten something, most important thing. And]
<italic> je lui remettrai surtout les 40,000 livres de billets de change sur paris qu'il mavoit donnez et fiez' <end italic>
I will especially return him the Bill on Paris for 40,000 livres (1,600 pounds) which he had given and trusted to me,'--but has since protested, as is too evident.
[and Hirsch signs for the last time]." [Klein, pp. 258, 260.]--Symptomatic, surely, of a haggly settlement, these THREE shots instead of one!--"Voltaire's return is:--<italic> "'Pour quittance generale de tout compte solde entre nous, tout paye au sieur abraham hersch a berlin, 16 Decembre, 1750.--Voltaire' <end italic>
"'Account all settled between us, payment of the Sieur Abraham Hirsch in full: Berlin, 16th Deember, 1750.'
[which Second Piece, we perceive, is to lie in Hirsch's hand, to keep, if he find it valuable].
"This 'COMPLETE SETTLEMENT,'--little less than miraculous to Voltaire and us,--one finds, after sifting, to have been the fruit of Voltaire's exquisite skill in treating and tuning his Hirsch (no harshness of rebuke, rather some gleam of hope, of future bargains, help at Court): (Your expenses; compensation for protesting of that Bill on Paris? Tush, cannot we make all that good! In the first place, I will BUY of you these Jewels [this one discovers to have been the essence of the operation!], all or the best part of them, which I have here in pawn for Papa's Bill: 650 pounds was it not?
Well, suppose I on the instant take 450 pounds worth, or so, of these Jewels (I want a great many jewels); and you to pay me down a 200 or so of gold LOUIS as balance,--gold LOUIS, no, we will say FREDERICS rather. There now, that is settled. Nothing more between us but settles itself, if we continue friends!' Upon which Hirsch walked home, thankful for the good job in Jewels; wondering only what the Allowance for Expenses and Compensation will be.
And Voltaire steps out, new-burnished, into the Royal Carnival splendors, with a load rolled from his mind.
"This COMPLETE SETTLEMENT, meanwhile, rests evidently on two legs, both of which are hollow. 'What will the handsome Compensation be, I wonder?' thinks Hirsch;--and is horror-struck to find shortly, that Voltaire considers 60 thalers (about 9 pounds) will be the fair sum! 'More than ten times that!' is Hirsch's privately fixed idea. On the other hand, Voltaire has been asking himself, 'My 450pounds worth of Jewels, were they justly valued, though?'
Jew Ephraim (exaggerative and an enemy to this Hirsch House)answers, 'Justly? I would give from 300 pounds to 250 pounds for them!'--So that the legs both crumbling to powder, Complete Settlement crashes down into chaos: and there ensues,"--But we must endeavor to be briefer!
There ensues, for about a week following, such an inextricable scramble between the Sieur Hirsch and M. de Voltaire as,--as no reader, not himself in the Jew-Bill line, or paid for understanding it, could consent to have explained to him. Voltaire, by way of mending the bad jewel-bargain, will buy of Hirsch 200 pounds worth more jewels; gets the new 200 pounds worth in hand, cannot quite settle what articles will suit: "This, think you? That, think you?"And intricately shuffles them about, to Hirsch and back.
Hirsch, singular to notice, holds fast by that Protested Paris Bill; on frivolous pretexts, always forgets to bring that:
"May have its uses, that, in a Court of Justice yet!"Meetings there are, almost daily, in the Voltaire Palace-Apartment;DECEMBER 19th and DECEMBER 24th) there are Two DOCUMENTS (which we must spare the reader, though he will hear of them again, as highly notable, especially of one of them, as notable in the extreme!)--indicating the abstrusest jewel-bargainings, scramblings, re-bargainings.
"My Jewels are truly valued!" asseverates Hirsch always: "Ephraim is my enemy; ask Herr Reklam, chief Jeweller in Berlin, an impartial man!" The meetings are occasionally of stormy character;Voltaire's patience nearly out: "But did n't I return you that Topaz Ring, value 75 pounds? And you have NOT deducted it; you--!""One day, Picard and he pulled a Ring [doubtless this Topaz] off my finger," says the pathetic Hirsch, "and violently shoved me out of the room, slamming their door,"--and sent me home, along the corridors, in a very scurvy humor! Thus, under a skin of second settlement, there are two galvanic elements, getting ever more galvanic, which no skin of settlement can prevent exploding before long.
Explosion there accordingly was; most sad and dismal; which rang through all the Court circles of Berlin; and, like a sound of hooting and of weeping mixed, is audible over seas to this day.