Voltaire was incarcerated in the Bastille on 17 April 1726 and released on the 30th. These certificates are accompanied by and inventory of the goods found on the prisoner and returned on his release. Voltaire’s signature appears on the exit order, along with the acquittal of the jailer for the restitution and signature of his form.

The MS contains only the first sentence of the letter. In it, Voltaire asks if he has no other obligation to the recipient but to spend a year in the Bastille.

Robinson writes of an accident that has become the talk of Paris, noting that the week before, Mr. du Fournier, a member of the grand conseil, shot himself in Mme. Tansin’s [Tancin’s] house, having excused himself to her cabinet to write a letter. Mme. Tansin sent immediate notice to the grand conseil and they, to avoid any disgrace, took possession of the body and took it away. They then committed Mme. Tansin to prison. Robinson notes that Mr. du Fournier was ruined in his fortunes and frequently spoke of killing himself, adding that he had recently quarelled with Mme. Tansin and that her friends were speaking ill of him for his malicious decision to choose her house as the scene of his death and bring Mme. Tansin into trouble. He then turns to the extraordinary will that Mr. du Fournier had prepared just before his death, noting that he had drawn up a list of Mme. Tansin’s admirers and, having no possessions of his own, distributed her favours to them all, including Mr. Fontenelle, Saladin, and Tronchin. Robinson calls this ‘a new kind of jealousy yt never was thought of by Shakespear.’ He concludes the letter by begging the pardon of Horation Walpole, and of Voltaire for havin in a former letter committed him to the Bastille. He notes that an undated letter from Voltaire has since come to light.

An official endorsement by the officers of the Bastille has been added to p.22.