Voltaire's Calligrapher Read Online Free PDF

sleeping horses. The Church had never been kind to actors, refusing for centuries to bury them in hallowed ground, but this company had chosen a topic of such popular interest that the White Penitents had even agreed to pay for the production. That night I wrote an account of the play and sent it to Ferney:
    The Calas family is sitting at the table. A friend arrives from far away. He begins to talk about his city. After a while, he realizes they aren’t paying attention; no one is responding to his comments. The father, Jean Calas, finally interrupts him: he says they have a decision to make
.
    Marc-Antoine is preparing to convert to Catholicism, the father explains. He has been shut away in his room, reading the Bible, for the past seventeen days. We’ve hidden spiders and snakes between the pages, but nothing distracts him
.
    At night, the mother says, we give him candles with most of the wick removed, so they won’t last long. But he keeps reading, using mirrors to capture the moonlight. Then, on nights when there is no moon, in absolute darkness, he repeats the sacred words
—
words that aren’t sacred to us
.
    Is there no way to convince him? the friend asks. Women? A trip?
    We’ve tried everything, the father says. Now we must sacrifice the lamb
.
    But he’s our lamb, the mother says. If we wait just a little longer…
    The father says: Tomorrow he’ll sign his conversion at Saint Stephen’s, and he can finally work as a lawyer. He may takeaction against us, to prove his sincerity. There is no faith more dangerous than the faith of the converted
.
    Where will we do it? the friend asks
.
    There’s a nail upstairs, above the door, the father says. We never found any use for it, but it was too big to pull out
.
    Perhaps we should wait until tomorrow, the mother says
.
    The rope is impatient, the father says
.
    In silence, they head upstairs. Jean Calas leads the group, rope in hand
.
    Marc-Antoine is reading in bed when they interrupt him
.
    We’ve come to talk to you
.
    With a rope? That’s a strange conversation
.
    Let’s talk about the decision you’re going to make
.
    It’s too late. They’re expecting me. I renounce the Calvinist faith
.
    Then there’s no other option, the father says
.
    When will you do it, the son asks. I’d like to finish this paragraph about martyrdom first
.
    The father tears out the page and shoves the ball of paper into his son’s mouth
.
    There’s no need to read about martyrs: you’ll soon know from experience
.
    The mother and the friend hold him. The father slides the noose over his head. The three of them lift him up and hang him
.
    The show was so successful that indignant spectators threw rocks at the performers, mistaking them for the people they were playing.
    The head of the company, who was in the role of Jean Calas, had to shout to be heard.
    “Don’t vent your rage on us; we’re only actors. But we so believein this play that our Marc-Antoine is a real hanged man. A mistake sent him to the gallows in Marseille, and a miracle saved him.”
    From the dais, Marc-Antoine let the public see the scars on his neck.
    “I was that man’s executioner,” Kolm whispered in my ear. “He’s the living image of my failure.”
    “What does it matter? You’re no longer in the profession.”
    We left the crowd and the shouting behind.
    “Once an executioner, always an executioner.”

The Exam
    K olm accompanied me to the courthouse where I would take the calligraphy exam. There were new hires every week as calligraphers left, overwhelmed by the disorganization in the courts, the contradictory orders, and the fear of poisoned ink. A legend about a cursed word circulated among the local profession: everything would be fine until that word appeared in a court document, then whoever wrote it would suffer misfortune.
    I sat the exam with twenty other young men, in a long hall on wooden benches that had been carved with penknives. You could learn better calligraphy from