Charlotte Graham, Lady Atkyns (1758-1836)... - Lot 561 - Rossini

Lot 561
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Charlotte Graham, Lady Atkyns (1758-1836)... - Lot 561 - Rossini
Charlotte Graham, Lady Atkyns (1758-1836) singer, she married Sir Edward Atkyns, duke of Ketteringham; she financed a royalist committee to save Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVII. L.A.S., London October 23, 1797, to Louis XVIII; 14 pages in-4. - LOUIS XVIII (1755-1824). P.A., [Blankenberg late October 1797]; 2 pages in-4. Project of a mission in France of Charlotte Atkyns to re-establish the Monarchy and avenge Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, evoking her friendship with the Queen; with a curious comment of Louis XVIII. Charlotte ATKYNS takes the liberty of writing to H.M.: "having spent several years the happiest of my life in France during the reign of Your august brother the Martyr, and before his unfortunate subjects stained the flowers of Lys by the Homicidal hand of Rebellion; I was attached to the cause of the King by principle. [...] a chance Sire made me the Honor to approach the King and the Queen in the month of June 1791, I had hoped to have the glory and happiness to render to their Majesties a most essential service; and France must mourn long time that they did not benefit from it [...The King of Kings, who knows the human heart, is the judge of how much I have done to make myself worthy of the confidence that their Majesties (the Queen in particular) deigned to have in me [...] the personal feeling I had for the august Louis and his illustrious wife was so engraved in my heart that nothing in the world could have changed it and their idea will never be less dear to me. Can one forget the virtues and kindnesses of Louis XVI or those and the graces of Marie Antoinette, I have never for a moment lost sight of the interests so dear nor have my cares been less for the august children they had left surrounded by the assassins of the august authors of his days; [...] His august victims are now I hope near the throne that will never be overthrown. It only remains to avenge them. I believe, I am almost sure that I can serve Your Majesty. I have means that I dare to flatter myself will prove if the interest of King of France is in my heart or not, the project is enterprising and dangerous for me, and it is necessary a silence an absolute discretion [...] I know several of the most zealous subjects of Your Majesty "... She did not speak to any of her project, and wrote to S.M. through the intermediary of the Duke of Uzes, "uncle of my dearest and most intimate friend Madame le Duchesse de La Trémoille [...] his friendship for me is the memory of the services I rendered and would have liked to render to her august mistress who deigned to count on me and who was the object of our worship"... She knows all the Frenchmen who are in London: "I know those who are really Royalists and those who are not. I am not easily deceived; the service I believe I am capable of rendering to Your Majesty does not need many people, the only thing necessary is to be secret, but I must have the permission of Your Majesty, I must have the direct orders of the King of France, I only want to act through the King [...] Heaven has given me a means of avenging the august Queen who has deigned to call me friend and I will do everything to take advantage of it"... In spite of the obstacles, she knows how to penetrate France: "I do not fear anything I have already exposed my life in the sacred cause"; God will protect "a woman who would like to defend the cause of the Religion and the King [...] I love France I would like to see her children lost at the feet of their Father". She sacrificed her fortune to this sacred cause: "I live only to avenge the death of the King and the Queen who deigned to call me friend". There is no time to take. She is no longer "in a position to spend", having already borrowed for the cause; but she will spend as little as possible. She is descended from the illustrious house of Walpole... Etc.LOUIS XVIII has "received this morning a letter from a woman" who says that she met the King and Queen in June 1791, "and that if she had been believed, the Varennes trip would have turned out differently; that although English, she is very attached to the King and Queen, who, she says, called her friend; that she burns with the desire to avenge them and that she proposes to go to France for that purpose at the end of this month; that she has a project suitable for re-establishing the Throne, but that she needs an authorization (which she does not specify) signed by my hand; that moreover, although she is rich and the mother of a child destined for great wealth, she has eaten up all she had of her own, both in the service of the King and the Queen, and in helping the emigrants, and that thus it will be necessary for me to have her live in Paris for as long as she is there; that she is a close friend of the Dsse de La Trémoille; that she knows and esteems the Duc d'Uzès, who is transmitting her letter to me without knowing its contents; [...All of this smells like a league ahead, but the name Atkyns struck me, because I remembered very well that a woman of that name had seen the Queen in the Conciergerie. He asked the abbot
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