On the 13th of June McRae wrote to D'Erlanger a sharp letter, charging him with "unauthorized proceedings." D'Erlanger was playing a good game for himself.
"These important modifications of the contract," wrote McRae, "have in every case inured to the benefit of the contractors."
D'Erlanger replied on the same day, saying, "The operation [the repurchase of the stock] was not conducted on any selfish ground, but for the political feeling attached to the loan." It made no difference to D'Erlanger whether he bought or sold on government account, so long as he received his commissions. He objected, however, to receiving the full amount of his commission in bonds; he must have part cash.
"We should," wrote he, "be under too heavy an outlay if we had to take the £150,000 commission in bonds." This commission, therefore, up to the 15th of June, 1863, had reached the nice little sum of $750,000!
D'Erlanger having disposed of the stock to good advantage, was anxious to bring out a second loan on the same terms. In a letter written to Memminger on the 8th of July we discover what those terms were.
"We are ready," said he, "to make a new loan contract, taking exactly the terms of the old contract, and engaging to divide with the government the profits to be realized, between the rate of 77 and the issue price."
The loan then on the market was issued at 90, which gave D'Erlanger a commission of 6-1/2 per cent,—a portion of which doubtless went into the pocket of Slidell. D'Erlanger was fearful that the success of the loan would bring proposals from other banking-houses. "We wish," said he, "that the circumstance of our names being the first connected with a large financial transaction for the government in Europe shall tell in our favor, and that a preference shall be granted to us, which we are quite ready to merit, by making better terms to the government than any other respectable house may offer."
This proposition was indorsed by McRae, who the following week accompanied D'Erlanger to Rippaldson, where "a charming company" had gathered, and "an agreeable week was passed in the society of Madame Caroline and Miss Theresa." McRae, in a letter written on the 17th, urges a new loan, but the news from Gettysburg and Vicksburg had "lessened the appetite," and we hear no more of the proposition for a second loan.
At a later date, in December, the correspondence is in regard to the purchase of boats for the government, in which the Paris banker takes the part of Shylock:—
"Well then, it now appears you need my help:
Go to then; you come to me, and you say,
Shylock, we would have moneys."