Letters From Prison (39 page)

1
. That is, the Montélimar prison.

41. To Monsieur Le Noir
¹

April20, 1781

M
onsieur,

My mind would long ago have been greatly relieved . . . Instead of the despair and pain wherewith I have for so long now been besieged, I would have felt my soul once again filled with the virtues people so greatly desire to see restored within it, had only I earlier had the meeting you honored me with the day before yesterday.

The glimmer of hope you raised within me concerning a possible remission of my sentence by means of some sort of transfer requested by Madame de Sorans and by my wife, the purpose of which is to put me in a better position to reestablish some order in my affairs, and the impossibility that such a transfer could be to any prisons located in the vicinity of my estates, prisons less atrocious than where I am presently being detained, such as the Tower of Crest, etc., leads me to ask most urgently that you inform the minister forthwith of the following:

1. That I have no desire whatsoever to trade one bad situation for another;

2. That no matter what castle or keep they might choose in the vicinity of my estates, it has been clearly demonstrated that there is no way I can manage my affairs from there.

The first of these articles being so obvious as to require no explanation, I shall confine myself to proving the second.

My affairs, Sir, are currently in the hands of a man
²
who takes advantage of my absence to further his affairs far more than he does mine. Since all I have to go on are the glimpses and vague notions that a rogue such as he might come and offer me in prison, where I am able to see and consult no one but him, you can well imagine how astonishingly easy it is for him to persuade me to do whatever he would like. And since ’tis only to him I have recourse, I am compelled to make up my mind, sign the necessary papers, and as a result put myself entirely in his hands for the rest of my days; a terrible disadvantage that can only result in the complete loss of all my goods and possessions and the inevitable ruin of my children. ’Tis impossible to spell out the degree to which my affairs are in a state of frightful disorder, and to what degree my presence on the spot has become an absolute necessity. ’Tis therefore for that reason, Monsieur, that I most urgently request that you be so kind as to obtain for me a place of residence that is agreeable to everyone concerned, in order to satisfy both the restrictive measures that have been imposed upon me and the kindnesses wherewith the king may choose to make them less harsh.

In Provence I have four estates: two of them, Saumane and Mazan, are situated in the Comtat; the third is a parcel of land near Aries which remains unbuilt; and the fourth, which is my normal place of residence, is called La Coste, located not far from the small city of Apt.

My presence in each of the four estates is equally essential, and I should never be able to sort out the tricks and ruses of the people who for years now have been leading me down the garden path unless I am able to listen on the spot both to the friends of these rogues and to their enemies, in order to make up my own mind and render a new administrative decision that will be less unfavorable to my own interests. As you know better than I, Sir, that is the only manner of ferreting out the truth. But one has to be there in order for it happen. None of that is admissible if all one has to go on are the reports, made by a man who is completely unreliable, to his master in prison; in which wise, hearing only him, one is compelled to follow the route he suggests, and far from sorting things out, everything is only further confused, to such a degree that no one any longer knows which end is up.

As both
Saumane
and
Mazan
are located in the Comtat, it strikes me as neither good nor proper to request that I be allowed to live there, so long as I am under the king’s orders.
³
The Aries property contains no building. That leaves La Coste, which is in a sense the chief town, the place where I have always lived, where my papers are, etc. There I can be, if one so desires, under the surveillance of whatever person the Court cares to appoint, and that for as long as the minister is of a mind to forget that he is dealing with a military officer and a man of the nobility, for whom, by both titles, nothing is more sacred than his word of honor.

I shall make no complaint whatsoever: the very glimmer of the king’s bounties that you have danced before my eyes, banishing forever any bitterness my soul may have harbored, leaves room there for naught but gratitude. If, however, one is willing to spare me the shameful embarrassment of being kept under surveillance, and relieve me of that unnecessary expense, I shall commit myself to the king’s order, by whatever means it shall please you to stipulate on his behalf. And I shall be so absolutely scrupulous in fulfilling the various clauses of the king’s order that no one will ever have the least regret for having rendered my sentence less onerous. In which case, the gentleman Blancard, sublieutenant of the mounted constabulary, who resides in Apt, a city in the vicinity of the estate where I am asking to reside—a man of honor and probity whom the late Marquis de Muids, under whom he served, held in the highest regard—could come and check up on me as frequently as may be desired, and report back to whomsoever it pleases you as to my conduct.

As for the extent of my confinement as specified by the king’s letter, here are my thoughts on the subject and the reasons that I beseech the court to give them serious consideration. Four leagues
⁴
is too great a distance if one is of a mind to confine me to my chateau, the circumference of the estate being no more than two leagues in all, in which case two leagues would suffice. And in the event one would be willing to allow me to attend to the totality of my affairs, as I believe is absolutely essential and as I have just requested, four leagues would not be enough. Vouchsafe to hear me out for a moment, Monsieur, and use the chief town as our point of departure. There are four leagues from
La Coste
to
Saumane,
eight from
La Coste
to
Mazan,
and twelve from
La Coste
to
Aries.
Here, then, is what I suggest as the fair means to satisfy all parties: the necessity to extend the king’s letter to the
Mazan
and
Saumane
dwellings and their surrounding territories seems to me indispensable, for without that, I repeat, there is absolutely no way I can administer anything but the sole estate where I shall be living. Yet twelve leagues is too much. In all my requests you will never see me trying to take advantage of anything that is offered or of slipping anything irregular into my suggestions. Surely you must remember, Monsieur, my thoughts on this matter such as I laid them out to you the other day. Anyone who takes advantage of the least act of kindness deserves not only that he be offered none in the future but that he be punished, in that, by so doing, he serves as a bad example for all those decent and wretched people who are without exception forced to bow in like manner to the severe measures the government has seen fit to impose upon them. ’Tis my view, therefore, that different restrictions be placed upon me, on the one hand regarding my three dwellings and their respective territories, which should fall into one equal category, and on the other hand my voyages to Aries, for which my presence is required once every six months at the most, and that that be clearly stipulated in the
lettre de cachet;
but also contained therein would be a special permission allowing further visits if they became necessary without any further requirement on my part, except having the honor to inform you several days in advance of such an impending visit, it also being incumbent upon me to alert the previously mentioned officer of the mounted constabulary in Apt both of my departure and my return. Which would mean, therefore, in order to spell out even more clearly my request, that I would have the right to live wherever and for whatever periods of time I deem necessary in each of my three estates upon which buildings already exist, and that I go to my Aries property only once every six months after having obtained specific permission to do so. Concerning which, I note that the affairs of that estate being the most pressing and the most in need of my intervention, I urgently request that the first of these tacit permissions be accorded me for this coming September, and consequently that it be issued to me almost simultaneously with the king’s order exiling me to my three estates.

And now, may I further ask that this entire arrangement be kept shrouded in complete silence? What need is there for the public to have news of my affairs? The officer of the mounted constabulary, or whoever might be designated as his deputy, seem to me the only persons who need to be informed, the timing being left to your discretion. It will be a simple matter to enjoin these people to silence. After all the misfortunes I have suffered in this province, is it not understandable that I greatly desire to resurface there with the appearance, if not the reality, of being a free man? From this kind of restriction of movement that will be imposed upon me there may even result some slight positive good in the eyes of the local population, who, not knowing why I am so seemingly attentive to local matters, will perhaps little by little bestow upon me once again the esteem and respect whereof my misfortunes have stripped me. When from an accident one can easily reap some positive good, why would one hesitate to do so? I leave that reflection to your extreme sagacity, Monsieur, being convinced that if you find it fair and equitable, your many kindnesses on my behalf will convince the minister to allow this plan to be implemented, especially since it seems to me to have no possible negative implications. My respect for the king’s letter will be in no wise diminished, even though its contents not be known to the world at large or that I go so far as to deny its very existence, and the officer of the mounted constabulary will still be available to report upon the accuracy and promptitude of my conduct.

Allow me now if I may, Monsieur, to broach the question of my desire not to travel under guard, and as for my time of departure and the route I shall follow, that it be made a matter of my word of honor, as will my request to see my children before I leave and the urgent necessity both my wife and I feel that we repair to my estates as early as possible. Let us, if you would be so kind, take up each of these articles in the same order I have set them out for you.

First article:
travel on my word of honor.

You are infinitely too fair-minded, Monsieur, not to agree that to have me taken under police escort to the very place where I myself desire to go is the most pointless thing in the world. When I broke free of my bonds, ‘twas to my estates that I repaired.
⁵
What would be the purpose therefore of having me return there under guard? ‘Twould be both a needless expense imposed on me and an overabundance of means that are quite unnecessary to the occasion.

Second article:
concerning the departure and the route to be followed.

Everyone knows how many days it takes to travel from Paris to Apt in Provence. I ask that I not be forced to travel too rapidly, both because my current state of health will not allow it and because I have not traveled in some time now and have lost the habit. Let us suppose that I was allowed to travel to La Coste, near Apt, from the first to the fourteenth of June, which is allowing for four days more than the normal travel time for such a voyage, the details of which we shall shortly set forth. Monsieur de Rougemont signs me out on June 1st; if one wants to verify each one of my nightly stopovers, one can enlist whatever number of brigadiers of the mounted constabulary to do so, and then Monsieur Blancard can attest to my arrival at my estate on the fourteenth. That, it seems to me, would fulfill the letter of the law. If further security is deemed necessary, that means having me followed, as I have already said. But I must confess that I would have good reason to be deeply pained to see that, from the very start, one might suppose me capable of making so light of a tie to which I shall be bound for far longer than the mere length of the voyage itself. But on that score I shall abide by whatever you decide, as I have already said. All I am doing is making a request, in no wise laying down any conditions, and my heart is filled with only gratitude, nothing more.

Third article:
to see my children.

’Tis in this article that will be found the explanation for the four extra days I have requested.

’Tis most urgently that I ask to see my children, and here is what I think would be more fair and equitable both to maintain my security and to fulfill my desire not to have the children moved too far from the place where they are being brought up, which is near Fontainebleau. Thus the site where we might meet could be either Melun, which is the post stop directly beyond Fontainebleau, or Nemours, which is the stop just before. For argument’s sake, let us say Nemours. The boys’ governess will bring them there from Fontainebleau, my wife will bring her daughter from her end, and I shall arrive there from Vincennes; and the appointed day will be that same day when I am scheduled to be released, the voyage by post between Vincennes and Nemours being infinitely easy, no matter how leisurely the pace. Once there, I shall report forthwith to the brigadier of the mounted constabulary, who can vouch for my arrival and with whom, twice a day thereafter, I shall promptly check in until my departure, concerning which, when those four days I will be spending with my children will have come to an end, he can also verify that I have indeed left in the direction of Provence rather than in any other direction; moreover, since I shall be free both within our lodgings and in the city itself, my wife and I may well decide to take our children out for a breath of fresh air. For, as far as my having a police escort, I had not pondered that properly when the question was raised the other day. For first of all, if as I trust they take me at my word, there will be no more need for a guard at Nemours than there will be anywhere else along the rest of the route. For if it so happened that I were to remain for three or four days in one inn along the way, that should pose no greater a problem than if I were to stay a single extra night in the other inns along the way: ’tis absolutely one and the same. Therefore it is simply a formality, a matter of bending the rules so that the voyage is a trifle longer. The other evenings I shall report to the brigadier only once, since I shall be on my way again the following morning. But for the initial sojourn
⁶
I shall report in eight times,
⁷
since I shall be there for four days. And moreover, Monsieur, allow me if you will to address myself for a moment only to your heart. A guard . . . a third party, between a father and his children! What an obstacle! What an incredible impediment to the free flow of those delightful tears that Nature dictates in such precious moments as these! Tears which, if I may be so bold, are in themselves sufficient to reawaken in any sensitive soul both remorse for one’s past misdeeds and the voice of virtue. Ah, Monsieur! do not stand in the way of those tears! they will be more persuasive than all the locks of Vincennes. Do let them flow unimpeded, let them be received in the bosom of these beloved children, with no one but their mother for witness. I shall almost forgo the divine pleasure that I keep promising myself will result from those tears if they were to be witnessed by, or chilled by, either shackles of any kind or by the odious presence of any persons whose only talent lies in provoking them.