LATUDE (Jean Henry, known as Danry, known as Masers de). - Lot 139

LATUDE (Jean Henry, known as Danry, known as Masers de). Born in Montagnac. 1725-1805. Adventurer and prisoner famous for his numerous escapes. He published a series of memoirs that met with great success during the French Revolution. L.A.S. "Delatude" to the Duc d'Ayen. Paris, October 7, 1786. 3 folio pages. Watermarked green laid paper. Imprisoned after hatching a false plot against Madame de Pompadour, Latude spent 35 years in prison, despite his spectacular escapes. The Duc d'Ayen and a lady by the name of Legros, a haberdasher, lobbied for his release, which came to fruition on March 18, 1784.He assures the Duke ...that not a single day goes by, that Madame Legros and I do not wish to heaven for the preservation of your precious days... The Duke's generosity, to which Latude owes the greater part of his existence, touches him so much that ...on learning of your arrival last Sunday, I had nothing more urgent to do, than to leave the next day at daybreak, to come and kiss the knees of my benefactor... The Duke was then busy, but he wishes to inform her without further delay of the happiness that befalls them...Madame the Duchess of Kingston, greater by her virtues than she is by her illustrious birth, has just given my liberator a pension of six hundred pounds...This amiable duchess has also given the Chevalier de Pougens a superb apartment in her London palace and he has promised in return to obtain for the duchess's nephew, M. Medos, ...permission to go hunting two or three times a week, in your capitainerie of St Germain... However, the Chevalier only obtained permission for one day, so Latude, alerted by the Duchess at whose house he was yesterday, interceded with his benefactor. ...You know, Monsieur Le Duc, what it is to have the misfortune to displease people of Your kind, Mr Chevalier de Pougens has the honor of being your friend, and mine, I know the bottom of his heart, I am morally certain, that his property, his blood and his life, is yours, and I dare to tell you the same for my part, and as it would be less painful for me, to break an arm, and a leg, than to see Madame the Duchess of Kingston, indisposed, against your true friend, and mine, to prevent this misfortune, I dare to have recourse to your kindness Monsieur le Duc...Latude, pointing out both the Duchess's kindnesses and all that the Duke would have to gain from the affair, very humbly concludes: ...I was only a child when I was put in prison, and I spent three quarters of my life there. Ignorant of the style used when writing to persons of your rank, I hope you will be kind enough to forgive me any faults you may find in my supplication...