.

The manager began to remonstrate, saying it was unusual, and wanted to
explain the nature of a bill of exchange, but I cut him short, bidding
him recall the Baron at once. The thought of recalling that Jupiter to
repeat an order was enough to send a thrill through the entire staff,
and he instantly said: "Oh, sir, if you wish the L6,000 in one bill, you
shall have it, but it will involve some delay." So paying him 150,000
francs on account, I ordered the bill sent to me at 2 o'clock precisely
at the Grand Hotel, and drove off to the Louvre, where I spent two hours
in the picture galleries. At 2 o'clock I was at the hotel, and an
attendant came with the bill, and, pointing to a signature on it,
informed me it was that of a Cabinet Minister, equivalent to our
Secretary of the Treasury, certifying that the tax due the government
on the bill was paid. He explained the revenue stamp required upon a
bill of exchange was one-eighth of 1 per cent. of the face of the bill,
making the tax on my single bill 187 francs, or about $37. All bills are
stamped in a registering machine, which presses the stamp into the
paper; but there were no registering machines for a stamp of so high a
denomination as 187 francs either in the branch revenue office in the
Rothschild bank or at the Treasury, so the Baron had taken the bill to
the Treasury himself and got the Cabinet Minister to put his autograph
on it--probably the first and only time in history that such a thing had
been done. I wanted very much indeed to keep that bill as a curiosity,
but then the necessity of the time was on me, and I was not then a
collector of curios.

I had been only eighteen hours in Paris, and by a happy fluke the
business was done over which I had counted upon spending a good part of
the month.

When I left London I was all at sea as to how I should carry out the
objects of my visit to Paris. One plan was to procure an interview by
strategy with the Baron Alphonse and try to cajole him, but without
reference, and devoid of all business relations or acquaintance in
Paris, it was at best a questionable expedient, and I probably would
have had a take-down. But the accident at Marquise came and smoothed the
apparently insuperable difficulties in my way. But I have found that
something unusual does come to help a man on his way to the devil when
he is anxious to get there, which he is pretty sure to do, if he is only
diligent and careful to improve his opportu