“‘What I require very much more than money,’ I replied, ‘is _une côte bien taillée_, an exact account, which may serve as a type or model for all future accounts and may bring at last peace between the actors and the authors.’ “‘I see,’ he said, ‘that you wish to open a quarrel with the _Comédie_.’ “‘On the contrary, Monsieur, nothing would please me so much as to be able to terminate everything to the equal advantage of both parties.’ And he took back the money.” Three days later Beaumarchais sent a polite note explaining why he returned the money, and clearly stating the nature of the account which he demanded. Receiving no reply, he wrote again, in the most courteous way, reminding them of their negligence. The _Comédie_ then sent a simple memorandum, “following the usages observed by us with Messieurs, _les auteurs_,” which was without signature. Beaumarchais at once returned the memorandum, thanking the comedians for their pains, but begging that the memorandum be verified and signed. Receiving no reply, three days later he sent a second missive, in which he assumed that his first letter had gone astray. “I beg you,” he added, “to enlighten me as to this matter and send me your account certified. The messenger has orders to wait.” And he ends thus, “I am ill. I have been forbidden all serious affairs for several days; I profit by this forced leisure to occupy myself with this which is not serious at all.” For the _Comédie_, however, it was, to say the least, a serious embarrassment. They replied that it was impossible to verify the account except for the receipt taken at the door, “the other elements can only be guessed at.” “The letter,” says Beaumarchais, “was garlanded with as many signatures as the memorandum had not.” Assuming that it was their ignorance of affairs that caused the disorder, he undertook to give, in his own inimitable way, a lesson in bookkeeping. The letter begins as follows: “In reading, Messieurs, the obliging letter with which you have just honored me, signed by a number among you, I am confirmed in the idea that you are very honest people, and very much disposed to do justice to authors; but that it is with you, as with all men who are more versed in the agreeable arts than in the exact sciences, and who make phantoms of the embarrassing methods of calculation, which the simplest arithmetician would solve without difficulty.” Then follows the lesson. The letter ends with, “Eh, believe me, Messieurs, give no more _côtes mal taillées_ to men of letters; too proud to receive favors, they are often too much in distress to endure losses. “So long as you do not adopt the method of an exact account unknown only to yourselves, you will have the annoyance of being reproached with a pretended system of usurpation over men of letters which is surely not in the mind of any one of you.