Lot n° 222
Estimation :
800 - 1200
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 170EUR
GENERAL DUMOURIEZ TO THE MARQUIS DE SADE'S COUSIN - Lot 222
GENERAL DUMOURIEZ TO THE MARQUIS DE SADE'S COUSIN
DUMOURIEZ (Charles-François). Correspondence of 9 letters, 8 autographed signed and one autographed, addressed to Louis de Sade. London, 1814-1815. Some addresses on spine, one envelope preserved, 2 letters with tears due to opening without damage to text.
Superb political correspondence.
General Dumouriez was living in emigration in London at the time, pensioned by the English government. Chevalier Louis de Sade (1753-1832), from a branch collateral to that of the author of Justine, had made a career as a naval officer, and had emigrated from the start of the Revolution, residing most often in London until his final return in 1819. He published several works, including De la Tydologie, ou de la Science des marées (London, 1810-1813) and Dialogues politiques sur les principales opérations du Gouvernement français depuis la Restauration (London, 1815).
- September 31, 1814: "I refer you to your nephew's letter, which is very interesting. It predicts in advance the uproar that has just broken out in Lyon, where, for the recall of the conscripts, the fauxbourgs and the countryside have displayed the tricolor cockade, shouted vive Napoléon and killed five gendarmes... We're waiting to see what happens next, especially what Soult will do, as many people are wary of him. It is feared that he will be the shepherd wolf... The good Macdonald's speech caused a sensation in both Houses, in the army and even in Paris. He even got me an offer to return from the Government; but the conditions didn't suit me, so I refused. That's where I'm at, tell that to the excellent Comte de La Châtre, whom I love with all my heart, even though he neglects me...".
- December 24, 1814: "The Duke of Kent will have the goodness... to give you tomorrow your memoir, which I have read with the greatest interest [the Duke of Kent was then residing in Ealing, near Dumouriez]. It is full of luminous views, but too little developed for readers who are ignorant, in bad faith, or interested in the continuation of the cahos. Beugnot will not understand it [Jacques-Claude Beugnot, then Minister of the Navy], will communicate it to his offices, and the whole kennel will bark against us. The Chancellor sees in the word tribunal only an assembly of judges, whether civil or criminal. The Minister of the Navy and his henchmen, both pen and sword, will see it only as a terrible brake, an unbearable censorship...".
- March 18, 1815: "... Nothing is hopeless yet, if we don't lose our heads. The army is divided into Bonapartist royalists, but the former will have the advantage of numbers, being reinforced by the national guards... Besides, the king is master of the money strongholds. So I still hope..."
- March 30, 1815: "... All is consummated. The defection is more universal than we thought, the ministers and our unfortunate king's entourage have harmed him as much as the frenzy of the army. There is not a man, not a village, left to support the Bourbons' cause, which would be less desperate if they had not reappeared in France...".
- July 31, 1815: "... I have read your dialogue with as much pleasure as interest, and it has given me another satisfaction, that of rereading for a second time the parts of your Tidology to which you refer through the quotations in the dialogues. It seems that the king has seriously taken care of his main business at the moment, which is to let his clemency sleep for a while to make his justice work; but he is so good that I still fear it is only half a measure. I'm counting on the excesses of the Jacobins to force him to punish. We'll talk about all this...".
- April 6, 1815: "I refer you... to the pamphlet I already knew of by the intriguing Playfair against Lord Bathurst and La Châtre [published under the title A statement, which was made in October, to Earl Bathurst, one of His Majesty's principal secretaries of state, and in November, 1814, to the Comte de La Chatre, the French ambassador, of Buonoparte's plot to re-usurp the crown of France]. I had a full explanation from the latter, with whom I dined on Monday... Between you and me we would have made a pope, for we found ourselves entirely of the same opinion on the causes of Bonaparte's return, I have employed in a memoir which is already in the hands of the minister precisely the same arguments as you have developed for me in your long letter.... with regard to the Pope, according to the indelible character of the sacrament he attaches to the coronation he himself had the cowardice to give Bonaparte, he must recognize him without difficulty as Emperor of France a, he will perhaps send him the cardinals Fesch Maury as legates a latere. I hope that if he takes
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