timated by him ["him" crossed out, and "ME" written
over it], being 3,640 thalers. Whereupon, received from Monsieur de
Voltaire [what is very strange; not intelligible without study!] the sum
of 2,940 thalers, and he has given me back the Topaz, with 60 crowns for
my trouble.--Berlin, 19th December, 1750." (Hitherto in Voltaire's hand;
after which Hirsch writes:) "APROUVE, A. Hirschel." [Sic: that is always
his SIGNATURE; "Abraham HirschEL," so given by Klein, while Klein and
everybody CALL him Hirsch (STAG), as we have done,--if only to save a
syllable on the bad bargain.] And between these two lines ("... 1750"
and "APPROVED..."), there is crushed in, as afterthought, "VALUED BY
MYSELF [Hirsch's self], 2,940, ADD 60, IS 3,000." And, in fine, below
the Hirsch signature, on what may be called the bottom margin, there
is,--I think, avowedly Voltaire's and subsequent,--this: "N.B. that
Hirsch's valuing of all the jewels [present lot and former lot] is, by
real estimation, between twice and thrice too high;" of which, it is
hoped, your Lordships will take notice!

Was there ever seen such a Paper; one end of it contradicting the other?
Payment TO M. de Voltaire, and payment BY M. de Voltaire;--with other
blottings and foistings, which print and italics will not represent!
Hirsch denies he ever signed this Paper. Is not that your writing, then:
"APROUVE, A. Hirschel"?--"No!" and they convict him of falsity in that
respect: the signature IS his, but the Paper has been altered since he
signed it. That is what the poor dark mortal meant to express; and in
his mulish way, he has expressed into a falsity what was in itself a
truth. There is not, on candid examination of Klein's Fac-similes and
the other evidence, the smallest doubt but Voltaire altered, added and
intercalated, in his own privacy, those words which we have printed in
italics; TAXES changed into TAXABLES ("estimated at" into "estimable
at"), HIM for ME, and so on; and above all, the now first line of the
Paper, FOR PAYMENT OF 3,000 THALERS BY ME DUE, and in last line
the words VALUED BY MYSELF, &c., are palpable interpolations, sheer
falsifications, which Hirsch is made to continue signing after his back
is turned!

No fact is more certain; and few are sadder in the history of M. de
Voltaire. To that length has he been driven by stress of Fortune. Nay,
when the Judges, not hiding their surprise at the form of this Document,
asked, Will you swear it is all genuin