OEuvres, lxiv. 11).] Hirsch's hour of departure for Dresden is not mentioned in the ACTS; but I guess he could hardly get over Wednesday, with Picard dogging him on these terms;and must have taken the diligence on Wednesday night: to arrive in Dresden about December 4th. 'Well; at least, our shot is off;has not burst out, and lodged in our person here,--thanked be all the gods!'
"Off, sure enough:--and what should we say if the whole matter were already oozing out; if, on this same Sunday evening, November 29th)not quite a week's time yet, the matter (as we learn long afterwards) had been privately whispered to his Majesty:
'That Voltaire has sent off a Jew to buy Steuer-Scheine, and has promised to get him made Court-Jeweller!' [Voltaire,
OEuvres, lxxiv. 314 ("Letter to Friedrich, February, 1751,"--AFTER Catastrophe).], So; within a week, and before Hirsch is even gone! For men are very porous; weighty secrets oozing out of them, like quicksilver through clay jars. I could guess, Hirsch, by way of galling insolent Ephraim, had blabbed something: and in the course of five days, it has got to the very King,--this Kammerherr Voltaire being such a favorite and famous man as never was; the very bull's-eye of all kinds of Berlin gossip in these days. 'Hm, Steuer-Scheine, and the Jew Hirsch to be Court-Jeweller, you say?' thinks the King, that Sunday night; but locks the rumor in his Royal mind, he, for his part; or dismisses it as incredible:
'There ought to be impervious vessels too, among the porous!'
Voltaire notices nothing particular, or nothing that he speaks of as particular. This must have been a horrid week to him, till Hirsch got away." Hirsch is away (December 2d); in Dresden, safe enough; but--"But, the fortnight that follows is conceivable as still worse.
Hirsch writing darkly, nothing to the purpose; Voltaire driving often into Berlin, hearing from Ephraim hints about, 'No connection with that House;' 'If Monseigneur have intrusted Hirsch with money,--may there be a good account of it!' and the like.
Black Care devouring Monseigueur; but nothing definite; except the fact too evident, That Hirsch does not send or bring the smallest shadow of Steuer-Scheine,--'Peltries,' or 'Diamonds,' we mean,--or any value whatever for that Paris Bill of ours, payable shortly, and which he has already got cashed in Dresden. Nothing but excuses, prevarications; stupid, incoherently deceptive jargon, as of a mule intent on playing fox with you. Vivid Correspondence is conceivable; but nothing of it definite to us, except this sample"(which we give translated):--DOCUMENT THIRD (torn fraction in Voltaire's hand: To Hirsch, doubtless; early in December). ... "Not proper (IL NE FALLAIT PAS)to negotiate Bills of Exchange, and never produce a single diamond"--bit of peltry, or ware of any kind, you son of Amalek!
"Not proper to say: I have got money for your bills of exchange, and I bring you nothing back; and I will repay your money when you shall no longer be here [in Germany at all]. Not proper to promise at 35 louis, and then say 30. To say 30, and then next morning 25.
You should at least have produced goods (IL FALLAIT EN DONNER) at the price current; very easy to do when one was on the spot.
All your procedures have been faults hitherto. [Klein, v. 259.]
"These are dreadful symptoms. Steuer-Notes, promised at 35discount, are not to be had except at 30. Say 30 then, and get done with it, mule of a scoundrel! Next day the 30 sinks to 25; and not a Steuer-Note, on any terms, comes to hand. And the mule of a scoundrel has drawn money, in Dresden yonder, for my Bill on Paris,--excellent to him for trade of his own! What is to be done with such an Ass of Balaam? He has got the bit in his teeth, it would seem. Heavens, he too is capable of stopping short, careless of spur and cudgel; and miraculously speaking to a NEW Prophet [strange new "Revealer of the Lord's Will," in modern dialect], in this enlightened Eighteenth Century itself!--One thing the new Prophet, can do: protest his Paris Bill.
"DECEMBER 12th [our next bit of certainty], Voltaire writes, haste, haste, to Paris, 'Don't pay;' and intimates to Hirsch, 'You will have to return your Dresden Banker his money for that Paris Bill.
At Paris I have protested it, mark me; and there it never will be paid to him or you. And you must come home again instantly, job undone, lies not untold, you--!' Hirsch, with money in hand, appears not to have wanted for a briskish trade of his own in the Dresden marts. But this of cutting off his supplies brings him instantly back:"--and at Berlin, DECEMBER 16th, new facts emerge again of a definite nature.
"WEDNESDAY, 16th DECEMBER, 1750. 'To-day the King with Court and Voltaire come to Berlin for the Carnival;' [Rodenbeck, i. 209.]
to-day also Voltaire, not in Carnival humor, has appointed his Jew to meet him. In the Royal Palace itself,--we hope, well remote from Friedrich's Apartment!--this sordid conference, needing one's choicest diplomacy withal, and such exquisite handling of bit and spur, goes on. And probably at great length. Of which, as the FINALE, and one clear feature significant to the fancy, here is,--for record of what they call 'COMPLETE SETTLEMENT,' which it was far from turning out to be:--DOCUMENT FOURTH (in Hirsch's hand, First Piece of it).
"'Pour quittance generale promettant de rendre a Mr. de Voltaire tous billets, ordres et lettres de change a moy donnez jusqu'a ce jour, 16 Decembre, 1750.
"'Account all settled; I promising to return M. de Voltaire all Letters, Orders and Bills of Exchange given me to this day, 16th December, 1750.
[Hirsch signs. But you have forgotten something, Monsieur Hirsch!
Whereupon]
