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517 - Pierre-Denis, Count of PEYRONNET (1778–1854), Minister.
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Estimate €100 - €150
Sale commission
Description
Pierre-Denis, Count of PEYRONNET (1778–1854), Minister. Autograph letter, Ham, 7 August 1835, to François Roger of the Académie Française; 3 pages, small quarto, addressed. From his prison at Fort Ham, he reiterates his convictions: ‘Freedom is the best thing in the world; yet I place honour above it. One is a right, the other a duty. The difference is considerable.’ He does not envisage exile: ‘The bread of the foreign land is, moreover, too hard, and the native soil not light enough. Oh, what marvellous freedom that of exile is! Do you recall what I said about it in *Thoughts of a Prisoner*? My most witty friend, I stand by my words.” He recalls what Napoleon wrote to the Prince Regent: “‘I come, like Themistocles, to take my seat by the British hearth’… This reference to Themistocles has always struck me as unfortunate. I, who have read Thucydides, and who know that the hero of Salamis was an accomplice of Pausanias […] I am not Themistocles; but I shall not end up like him. I shall have neither the Persians’ gold, nor Magnesia, nor Lampsacus, nor Myonte; but I shall not work to subjugate Greece to them’…
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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