QUIBERON EXPEDITION. François-Dominique Castin de Guérin de - Lot 293

Lot 293
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QUIBERON EXPEDITION. François-Dominique Castin de Guérin de - Lot 293
QUIBERON EXPEDITION. François-Dominique Castin de Guérin de LA MAGDELEINE (Les Touches-de-Périgny, Charente-Maritime 1743-1795); canon and grand vicar of Saintes; emigrant, he took part in the expedition of Quiberon; condemned on 9 thermidor year 3 in Auray, he will be executed the next day in Vannes [July 28, 1795]. L.A.S. to Champion de Cicé, 3 pp. in-4, "From the Bae of Quiberon on board the Cybelle, July 3, 1795". Rare and moving letter written during the landing in Quiberon, a few days before his execution. He regrets not having had any news of him before his departure from Southampton. "Here I am on the eve of entering our unfortunate homeland. There is every reason to believe that within three days I shall be in this unhappy but beloved land. When will I be able to enter the diocese of Saintes? It is a time that I am not yet allowed to glimpse. He evokes the "mission to which the Bishop of Dol [Urbain-René de Hercé, who will be executed the same day as he] deigned to call me", "a mission which I did not request in any way, as this prelate can testify, but to which I surrendered with as much submission as pleasure, especially because I did not seek it. But, Monsignor, I had the honor of telling you; however flattered I am, I would not fulfill, without fear and without disgust, the functions entrusted to me by the bishop of Dol in the diocese of Saintes, if you did not approve of the exercise that the respectable pontiff had the goodness to entrust to me. He awaits his reply but guarantees that he will only use it "when necessity compels me to do so", and will keep a rigorous journal of his conduct. He then evokes the course of the military operations. "The operation planned by the government of England had the most complete success. The raid was carried out for the men on the 26th of last month without the slightest obstacle and it has been continued in the same way since then for the foodstuffs and other munitions of war which are all more or less on land. The raid was carried out in the Quiberon bay in Brittany near the village of Carnac. Since that time, more than twelve to fifteen thousand men have been armed, and more are arriving every day. Only the bishop of Dol and the eleven clergymen he brought with him are left to disembark. The delay in their disembarkation is based on the careful consideration of the leaders of the army. Today, in the name of King Louis the seventeenth, all the forts surrounding the bay of Quiberon have been taken. The most pleasant thing about this conquest is that not a single shot was fired and not a drop of blood spilled []".
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