The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV of XLIII.: Romances, Vol. III of III, and A Treatise on Toleration. — Voltaire — John Shaqi
The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV of XLIII.: Romances, Vol. III of III, and A Treatise on Toleration.
Voltaire · en
Another of his sons, whose name was Mark Antony, was a man of
letters, but, at the same time, of a restless, gloomy, and impetuous
disposition. This young man finding that he had no prospect of
getting into business as a merchant, for which indeed he was very
unfit, nor of being admitted to the bar as a lawyer, as not being
able to obtain the requisite certificates of his being a Catholic,
resolved to lay violent hands upon himself, and gave some intimation
of his design to one of his friends. In order to confirm himself in
the resolution he had formed, he carefully collected everything that
had been written upon the subject of suicide, all of which he read
with great attention; at length, one day, having lost all his money
at play, he chose that as a most proper opportunity for putting his
design into execution. One Lavaisse, a young man of nineteen years
of age, the son of a lawyer in great repute at Toulouse, and who was
esteemed by every one who knew him, happened to come from Bordeaux
the evening before,[2] when he went by chance to sup with the Calas
family at their house, being an acquaintance of that family’s, and of
Mark Antony Calas in particular. Old Calas, his wife, Mark Antony,
their eldest son, and Peter their second son, supped all together
that evening; after supper was over, they retired into another room,
where Mark Antony suddenly disappeared. After some time, young
Lavaisse took his leave, and Peter Calas accompanied him downstairs;
when they came to the warehouse they saw Mark Antony hanging in his
shirt behind the door, and his coat and waistcoat folded up and laid
upon the counter; his shirt was not in the least rumpled, nor his
hair, which he had dressed that day, in any wise disordered; there
was no wound upon his body, nor any other mark of violence.[3]