I have quoted only the essential portions of this exceedingly interesting piece of evidence. They give us the date of the transaction (March 29, 1787), the price paid, 78,000 livres, or rather (seeing that Danton acquired the right to collect a debt of 11,000) 67,000 livres net (say £2600); the fact that some £2000 of this was paid down out of a loan raised for him by his relations in Champagne and his future father-in-law, while some £160 he paid out of his savings, and the rest remained owing. The receipt of 1789, which I have attached at the end of the extract, shows us that by that time the balance had been paid over to Me. Huet de Paisy, including interest at 5 per cent. Incidentally there is mention of Danton moving to the Rue de la Tissanderie, whence we shall find him drawing up his marriage-contract. (_b_) The marriage-contract between Danton and Antoinette Charpentier, contains all the customary provisions of a French marriage-contract, and is witnessed by the usual host of Mends, such as we find witnessing Desmoulins’ contract, three or four years later. It tells us, among other things, the position of his stepfather Recordain and the well-to-do connections of the Charpentiers; but the point of principal interest is the dowry—20,000 livres, that is, some £800—of which the greater part (£600) went to pay his debt on the place he held as Avocat ès Conseils, and the fact that he had remaining a patrimony of some £500. (_c_) The acknowledgment of the sum due as compensation to Danton when the hereditary and purchasable office which he had bought was put an end to. All students of the period know the vast pother that has been raised on this point, the rumour that Danton was overpaid as a kind of bribe from the court, &c. &c. All the direct evidence we have of the transaction is in these few lines. They are just like all the other forms of reimbursement, and are perfectly straightforward. The amount is somewhat less than we should give in England under similar circumstances, for (1) the State does not allow for the entrance-fees (10,000 livres), which Danton had had to pay, and (2) it taxes him 12 per cent. for the _probable_ future taxation which would have fallen by death, transference, &c., on the estate. Finally, he gets not quite 70,000 livres for a place which cost him first and last 78,000. To recapitulate: the general conclusions which these documents permit us to draw with regard to Danton’s financial position are as follows:—The price of the practice he bought was 68,000 livres; of this, 56,000 was paid down, a sum obtained by borrowing 36,000 from Mdlle. Duhattoir (a mortgagee discovered by the family solicitor, Millot), and 15,000 from his future father-in-law, Charpentier, the remaining 5000 being paid out of his own pocket. He thus remains in debt to Me. Huet de Paisy, the vendor, in a sum of 12,000 livres at 5 per cent. interest.