Lot n° 129
Estimation :
2000 - 2500
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 2 860EUR
SAINT-SIMON Louis de Rouvroy duc de (1675-1755) duc et pair, - Lot 129
SAINT-SIMON Louis de Rouvroy duc de (1675-1755) duc et pair, le célèbre auteur des Mémoires.
L.A.S. "Le Duc de St Simon", Paris April 9, 1713, to Michel CHAMILLART; 3 pages and a quarter small in-4.
Very beautiful and amusing letter to this friend and ally, about his financial affairs, female adventures, and stays at the Court in Marly and Fontainebleau. [Saint-Simon's brother-in-law, Guy Nicolas de Durfort duc de Lorge, was the husband of Geneviève Chamillart, daughter of the former minister]. It was not the Court that occupied him: "I had to finish the affair of Mr. de Lausbespine & to count 50 000 ecus to him which is not too easy, but finally I got out of his clutches to never hear about it again. At the same time I had to run after 20 judges & wipe the dregs of the finest & most impudent chicanery of Mrs Nicolaï de Seuil & Dorieux who have been so accustomed to rolling over my money for the 28 years they have had it that there is no kind of infamy they have not used to keep it. Finally, this morning I had a final order that in 6 months for any delay the good people will give me their throats, and I promise you that I will give them a good shake. All these devils must have made me travel more than 50 leagues on the road to Marly since we got there. The Court's stay in Fontainebleau, "fixed on the 30th to last 27 days", makes him furious at not being able to go to his castle of La Ferté [La Ferté-Vidame], "& the unheard of weather would finish by despairing me if it did not dampen my desire to go home. I expect it to be at the end of September, at the risk of the late season, which at worst cannot be more tedious than this one"; he will receive M. d'Englesqueville, who "is staying with him in a strong and firm manner". He also evokes Chamillart's work, who had a barn demolished, "notwithstanding the muscatel eaters" (Chamillart's daughters): "I am less greedy than they are". He recalls with humor an incident concerning Mrs. de LISTENOIS: "You are excellent to still remember with ease our Listenique adventure. First of all these kinds of egueulées which have a sex & a name always putourdissent, & then you will know some day for which I was so stupid. I would have been it then with a mistress, judge of what I could be with such an ugly and so halberating female. To finish my day I had to go for a walk & we fell in the middle of the joyful troop of the Duchess; oh laugh all you want because I see you from here laughing and that the shoulders fit you, I don't know how I didn't die of deprivation & anger, because I still return thinking about it"... After "all these follies", he rejoices in the pregnancy of his "great doe" [the duchess of LORGE], "for it is a good thing that the peace of the house & another good thing that a second son, provided that his blessed father does not leave him more teeth than bread". Then he speaks about the marriage of Jérôme de PONTCHARTRAIN in second marriage with Hélène de L'Aubespine : " I was at the birth [...] which was sad and wonderful. Your wish is Christian and judicious, but it is not a question of "bis in idem" for good or for ill. He wanted so much to remarry that the father & mother preferred to jump the gun to protect themselves than to let him do it after them. This party is so good that it is surprising, & I think that it will regain them all wonderfully "... Les Siècles et les jours. Letters... (ed. Y. Coirault), n° 44, p. 64.
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