A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 07 — Voltaire — John Shaqi
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 07
Voltaire · en
If I may credit the very circumstantial memorials of the general, the
Verrons, when put in prison upon his accusation, at first persisted in
the confession of their crime. They wrote two letters to the person whom
they had made the depositary of the bills extorted from the general;
they were terrified at the contemplation of their guilt, which they saw
might conduct them to the galleys or to the gibbet. They afterwards gain
more firmness and confidence. The persons with whom they were to divide
the fruit of their villainy encourage and support them; and the
attractions of the vast sum in their contemplation seduce, hurry, and
urge them on to persevere in the original charge. They call in to their
assistance all the dark frauds and pettifogging chicanery to which they
can gain access, to clear them from a crime which they had themselves
actually admitted. They avail themselves with dexterity of the
distresses to which the involved officer was occasionally reduced, to
give a color of probability to his attempting the re-establishment of
his affairs by the robbery or theft of a hundred thousand crowns. They
rouse the commiseration of the populace, which at Paris is easily
stimulated and frenzied. They appeal successfully for compassion to the
members of the bar, who make it a point of indispensable duty to employ
their eloquence in their behalf, and to support the weak against the
powerful, the people against the nobility. The clearest case becomes in
time the most obscure. A simple cause, which the police magistrate would
have terminated in four days, goes on increasing for more than a whole
year by the mire and filth introduced into it through the numberless
channels of chicanery, interest, and party spirit. You will perceive
that the whole of this statement is a summary of memorials or documents
that appeared in this celebrated cause.
_Presumptions In Favor Of The Verron Family_.
We shall consider the defence of the grandmother, the mother, and the
grandson (doctor of laws), against these strong presumptions.
1. The hundred thousand crowns (or very nearly that sum), which it is
pretended the widow Verron never was possessed of, were formerly made
over to her by her husband, in trust, together with the silver plate.
This deposit was "secretly" brought to her six months after her
husband's death, by a man of the name of Chotard. She placed them out,
and always "secretly", with a notary called Gilet, who restored them to
her, still "secretly", in 1760. She had therefore, in fact, the hundred
thousand crowns which her adversary pretends she never possessed.
2. She died in extreme old age, while the cause was going on,
protesting, after receiving the sacrament, that these hundred thousand
crowns were carried in gold to the general officer by her grandson, in
twenty-six journeys on foot, on Sept. 23, 1771.