NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). - Lot 17

Lot n° 17
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400 - 500 EUR
NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). - Lot 17
NAPOLEON III (LOUIS-NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, FUTURE). Autograph letter signed with his initial to the mayor of Ham, Jean-Louis Joseph Acar. BRIGHTON, October 19, 1846. 3 pp. in-8, mourning border. Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte had been locked up in Ham prison after his second failed coup attempt in Boulogne in 1840. He escaped under extraordinary circumstances and went into exile in London, where he remained until 1848. "NOW THAT CONNEAU IS FREE, I must write to thank you for all the care you have taken of him. I did not need this new testimony to count on the nobility of your feelings, but in spite of this, I was very pleased to see that you were not afraid to compromise yourself to be useful to friends who share your opinions. [Doctor Henri Conneau, former secretary to Louis Bonaparte, was Napoleon III's friend and confidant from the 1830s until the latter's death in 1873: he shared his captivity in the fortress of Ham, then served him as first physician and head of his House's Health Service; Louis Conneau, Henri's son and future general, was the childhood friend and then confidant of the Prince Imperial]. I haven't written to you for a long time because I didn't have much to say to you, I lead a rather sad life here, and SOMETIMES WHEN I FIND MYSELF ALONE AMONG STRANGERS, I GET TO REGRET HAM. Ah, it wasn't an act when I said I preferred the air of my homeland to freedom. I'M FREE NOW, AND I'M NO HEALTHIER OR HAPPIER THAN I WAS IN PRISON. It has to be said, however, that six years in captivity have weakened my entire constitution, and it will take me a long time to recover. I have a friend here whom I was very happy to see again. LE MARIAGE MONTPENSIER ME FAIT AUSSI GRAND PLAISIR, CAR CELA BROUILLE LES CARTES [the Duc de Montpensier, Antoine d'Orléans, one of Louis-Philippe I's sons, had just married the Spanish infanta Marie-Louise-Fernande de Bourbon]... Charles tells you many things. General Charles de Montholon, a former companion of Napoleon I's in exile on St. Helena, made friends in England with Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, took part in the latter's attempted coup d'état in Boulogne in 1840, and like him was sentenced to imprisonment in the fortress of Ham, from where he was freed after the future emperor's escape.
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