he Elector William, before his flight from
Hesse-Cassel, deposited with the father of the subject of this sketch
$5,000,000, without interest, for safe keeping. There was no luck about
this; it was a most difficult undertaking at that time. Any one who had
been found with this money would have lost his life. For Rothschild to
invest it so that he could make money from its use was his object; to do
so safely and secretly required a good business tact. The Elector, it is
said, studied sometime before he decided to whom he could intrust this
vast sum during his absence. Thus it is seen that as Rothschild came of
poor parents, and was simply a clerk. It was not so much luck in his
case as strict integrity and the determination he manifested to master
everything he undertook. This Rothschild had five sons, and by the aid
of these, through different bankers, he succeeded by good management to
lay a foundation upon which has been built that colossal fortune which
the sons have accumulated. This money, belonging to the Elector, they
had the benefit of until 1828, when the whole was paid over to the heirs
of the original owner with two per cent. interest for a portion of the
time. Of the five brothers, Anselm was situated at Frankfort, Solomon at
Vienna, Charles at Naples, James at Paris, and Nathan at London. The two
ablest financiers were James and Nathan, and of these two Nathan was the
superior. His son was the first Jew that ever sat in the English
Parliament. It has been said that the fundamental rule of this great
banking-house was "To sell when people desired to buy, and buy when
people wished to sell." It is related of Nathan Mayer Rothschild that,
all day long, at the battle of Waterloo, he hung about the skirts of the
two armies, waiting to see how the battle turned. Toward night of that
memorable day, the clouds of smoke lifting, revealed the French army in
full and disastrous retreat. Rothschild took in the situation at once.
True to his instincts, he saw in that awful carnage only the shimmer of
his gold. Chance had overcome the most heroic valor, the most stubborn
resistance, the best laid plans, and once more declared in the Hebrew's
favor. He dashed into Brussels, whence a carriage in waiting whirled him
into Ostend. At dawn he stood on the Belgian coast, against which the
sea was madly breaking. He offered five, six, eight, ten hundred francs
to be carried over to England. The mariners feared the storm; but a
bol