In the first years of the Bourbon restoration after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 the fifth Duc de Richelieu, who had fought against him and achieved the rank of Major General in the Russian Army, served twice as France’s Prime Minister before dying on the 17 May 1822. Ten days later his successor as sixth Duc, Armand François Odet Chapelle de Jumilhac, wrote this letter to his father. He was seventeen (born 20 December 1804; died 1879) and a military cadet at the prestigious St Cyr academy, founded by Napoleon in 1802. A feature of the letter is the less than formal and rather charming words the young man uses to sign off with.
Unusually
for me, this letter has provenance: it was once in the enormous and famous
library of the Earl of Crawford evidenced by a handstamp Bibliotheca
Lindesiana. The library was dispersed through a number of large auctions and
this letter has since gone down in the world to end up on my desk.
Click to Enlarge
Transcription
Addressed to: Monsieur Monsieur le Lt Col Mr de Jumilhac Comt
le 16e Division militaire Lille
Nord
Datelined : Paris ce 26 Mai 1822
Red
P despatch postmark of Paris.
Comme je retourne ce soir à St Cyr cher Père j’ai voulu
avant de partir vous donner des
As
I return this evening to St Cyr, dear Father, I wanted before leaving to give
you
nouvelles de tout ce qui vous interesse ma tante et ma mère
sont toujours un peu souffrantes
news
of everything which will interest you my aunt and my mother are still suffering
a little
quoique
mieux, Armand qui avait eu la fievre longtems est bien remis il va tous les
jours à
though
better, Armand [his younger brother named Louis-Armand]who had the fever for a
long time has recovered well he goes every day
l’Ecole de Natation ce qui le fait grandir et engraisser
on lui a ordonné aussi de prendre des
to
the Swimming School which makes him grow and get fatter also he has been told
to
bains de mer ce qui forcera ma mère à le mener à Dieppe
probablement dans 6 semaines. Du
swim
in the sea which will oblige my mother to take him to Dieppe probably in six
weeks time.
reste tout le monde va très bien mon Oncle J. et sa femme
qui j’ai vu hier, Jules et la sienne
For
the rest, every one is going on very well my Uncle J and his wife who I saw
yesterday, Jules and his [wife],
enfin mois, nous aurions tous eu bien besoin de vous dans
ces tristes jours ou non seulement
finally
me, we have all much needed you during these sad days where not only
nous mais tout Paris était en Dueil [mis-spelling for
Deuil]. Nous avons eu une audience au Roi
us
but all Paris was in mourning. We [he and his mother?] had an audience with the King
qui nous a reçu a merveilles nous a embrassé tous deux et
paraissait fort touché ; Monsieur et
who
received us perfectly and embraced both of us and appeared much affected.
Monsieur
Madame qui nous ont reçu après ont été aussi fort
aimable. Nous devons aller aujourd’hui chez
and
Madame [who ?] received us afterwards were also very kind. Today we must
go to visit
Mr le Duc d’Angouleme et chez Mme la
Duchesse de Berry après l’audience des quels je
Monsieur
the Duc d’Angouleme and Madame the Duchesse de Berry after which I
retournerai dans ma prison pour y passer encore quatre
mois qui seront très pénibles quoique
will
return to my prison to spend another four months which will be very tiresome
even though
Nous ayons beaucoup d’ éxercices differents qui
couperont un peu le tems par exemple demain
We
have many different exercises which will make the time pass a bit faster for example
tomorrow
on commencera à aller lever le plan des environs de St
Cyr ce qui est très utile et très amusant
we
will begin making a survey of the surroundings of St Cyr which [will be] very useful
and interesting
nous allons commencer les éxercices du canon dont on
s’occupe beaucoup enfin il faudra beau
we
are going to start training in using cannon wich [ill]occupy us a lot finally
it will be necessary to
travailler pour pouvoir dans quatre mois aller vous offrir
ma première Epaulletes et vous dire
work
hard to be able in four months’ time to show you my first Epaulettes and to
tell you
combien je vous aime.
OJ [ ?]
how
much I love you. [the initials I read as for Odet Jumilhac]
Reference
Wikipedia: Armand-Francois-Odet Chapelle de Jumilhac