ter;--the more vivid portions of which, if rightly disengaged, and
shown in sequence, may satisfy the curious.

Duvernet (who, I can guess, had talked with D'Arget on the subject) has,
alone of the French Biographers, some glimmer of knowledge about it;
Duvernet admits that it was a thing of Illegal Stock-jobbing; that--

1. "That M. de Voltaire had agreed with a Jew named Hirsch to go to
Dresden and, illegally, PURCHASE a good lot of STEUER-SCHEINE [Saxon
Exchequer Bills, which are payable in gold to a BONA FIDE PRUSSIAN
holding them, but are much in discount otherwise, as readers may
remember]; and given Hirsch a Draft on Paris, due after some weeks, for
payment of the same; Hirsch leaving him a stock of jewels in pledge till
the STEUER-SCHEINE themselves come to hand.

2. "That Hirsch, having things of his own in view with the money, sent
no STEUER-SCHEINE from Dresden, nothing but vague lying talk instead
of STEUER: so that Voltaire's suspicions naturally kindling, he stopped
payment of the Paris Draft, and ordered Hirsch to come home at once.

3. "That Hirsch coming, a settlement was tried: 'Give me back my Draft
on Paris, you objectionable blockhead of a Hirsch; there are your
Diamonds, there is something even for your expenses (some fair moiety,
I think); and let me never see your unpleasant face again!' To
which Hirsch, examining the diamonds, answered [says Duvernet, not
substantially incorrect hitherto, though stepping along in total
darkness, and very partial on Voltaire's behalf],--Hirsch, examining the
diamonds, answered, 'But you have changed some of them! I cannot take
these!'--and drove Voltaire quite to despair, and into the Law-Courts;
which imprisoned Hirsch, and made him do justice." [Duvernet (T.J.D.V.),
170, 173, 175:--vague utterly; dateless (tries one date, and is mistaken
even in the Year); wrong in nearly every detail; "the 'STAIRE or STEUER
was a BANK?" &c. &c.]

In which last clause, still more in the conclusion, that it was "to the
triumph of Voltaire," Duvernet does substantially mistake! And indeed,
except as the best Parisian reflex of this matter, his Account is
worth nothing:--though it may serve as Introduction to the following
irrefragable Documents and more explicit featurings. We learn from him,
and it is the one thing we learn of credible, That "Voltaire, when
it came to Law Procedures, begged Maupertuis to speak for him to M.
Jarriges," a Prussian Frenchman, "one of the Judges