[SAINTE-HÉLÈNE]. MONTCHENU, Claude Marin... - Lot 104 - Giquello

Lot 104
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[SAINTE-HÉLÈNE]. MONTCHENU, Claude Marin... - Lot 104 - Giquello
[SAINTE-HÉLÈNE]. MONTCHENU, Claude Marin Henri de (1757-1831). L.A.S. to "Monsieur le Comte des Escotais, agent du roi au Cap", St. Helena 1818, 4pp. large folio. He opens his letter by writing "I received with the greatest pleasure the letter you did me the honor of writing to me dated August 6, to inform me of your arrival at the Cape. I had already been informed of your appointment, and I pay you my sincere compliments since you have desired it [...] I cannot return the favor, for we lack everything; we have for all property only rats and peeled and burned rocks. If anything were to happen that might interest you, I would certainly tell you about it, because I would be sure to keep it a secret, which is the government's most pronounced wish. It is not the same for us, I beg you to tell me all the rumors, even the most absurd ones, that will reach you. The proverb: there is no smoke without fire is very true: it has often served us to thwart projects that we would have had difficulty in suspecting, and whose consequences could have been very disastrous [...].It has come back to me by a fairly direct route that Lord Somerset, your governor, had wanted to bet that Montholon had never had lunch at my house; in response to a letter from St. Helena which announced that he had been seen at table at my house, and that this was the only way in which he could prove that he did not believe him. The Lord Somerset, was mistaken. He undoubtedly considered me as a simple gentleman known by my attachment to the royal cause and in this he only did me justice. I am sent by France, in the name of our sovereigns who have delegated to the King our master the right to send a commissioner here to see, examine and watch over everything that is done. It is thus necessary that I see these people there whom I do not like. Montholon had lunch at my place twice but never Bertrand condemned to death in France. I am touched for his wife who deserves a better fate. I am polite to them when I meet them, but never at my house or theirs. Montchenu concludes his letter: "Allow me, Mr. Count, to thank you for having given me reason to enter into correspondence with you, and consequently to be able to assure you of the distinguished feelings, and of the very perfect consideration with which I have the honor of being your very humble and obedient servant". Family provenance, to the present owner by succession.
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