, 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 450 pounds 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 sett
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