Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/244

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A FRENCH VOLUNTEER


R—— F——, I believe. He represented him as sitting in one pan of a pair of scales, whilst in the other were twenty Jews who were unable to weigh him up. The caricature was sold in the print shops.

I had left my brother and his family established at Lausanne, where they had founded a house of business which promised to extend and prosper. I learned in a singular, manner that his success had surpassed all his hopes. At Hamburg I heard some talk of a banker, a second "philosopher without knowing it," another M. Vanderk in fact, who under the name of Joseph la Brosse, had established a solid and flourishing business at Trieste. A draft of 100,000 florins drawn on him was paid at sight. I soon found out that this millionaire was no other than my brother. The invasion of Switzerland by the French had caused him to quit Lausanne, and he had carried his Lares and Penates to Trieste. For some years past he had made that city the head-quarters of his business, and his commercial transactions had increased to an enormous extent. I formed