UHLMANN (XAVIER). - Lot 79

Lot n° 79
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Result : 837EUR
UHLMANN (XAVIER). - Lot 79
UHLMANN (XAVIER). Autograph letter signed to Félix Vervoort, former chief bailiff to Napoléon III. Farnborough Hill, January 14, 1888. 4 pp. in-12. "Dear Monsieur Félix, please forgive me if I did not write to you earlier, I wanted to wait until I could give you some details of the sad ceremony that took place on January 9th, the 15th anniversary of the death of our dear Emperor. THE TWO BODIES WERE TAKEN BY THE WOOLWICH ARTILLERY FROM CHISLEHURST CHURCH TO THE STATION; DE LA A TRAIN SPECIAL LES AMENERIES A FARNBOROUGH accompagnés par monségnor Goddard en surplis, Mr le marquis de Bassano et Mr Piétri [Isaac Goddard, the priest of the Catholic parish of Chislehurst, Napoléon Maret, marquis de Bassano and son of the duc de Bassano, Jean-Baptiste Franceschini-Piétri, the secretary of the Empress Eugénie]. On arriving at Farnborough, the artillery led the bodies to the new chapel, which is magnificent, and Mr Goddard handed the bodies over to the R[évéren]ds Pères of the Prémontrés Order. It is these Fathers who are to be guardians of our dear dead and to pray constantly for them. The entire House staff accompanied our dear martyrs. I thought of you, my dear Monsieur Félix: your presence among us will have been a great consolation. Your tears and your prayers would have joined ours. Of course, prayers are so much better answered from afar than up close. I would have told you when the transfer of our dear dead would take place, for I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU LOVE H.M. THE EMPEROR AND THE DEAR PRINCE IMPERIAL. You, my dear Mr. Félix, who had the good fortune to accompany our dear Emperor in his most glorious days, SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE TO ACCOMPANY THEM IN THEIR LAST DEMEURE. IF I DIDN'T WARN YOU, CAUSSE YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ANYONE: WE ARE NOT BORN TO ORDER, BUT TO OBEY... " VALET DE CHAMBRE TO THE PRINCE IMPERIAL since his childhood, Xavier Uhlmann was his closest servant and the only one authorized to accompany him to South Africa. The exiled Empress Eugenie bought Farnborough in 1880, and moved there to get away from Camden Place (and its memories), where she had first lived with Napoleon III (d. 1873) and their son the Imperial Prince (d. 1879). On January 9, 1888, she had the remains of her dearly departed transferred to a chapel more worthy of them, and set up a chapter of Premonstratensians to celebrate services for them.
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