BIB_ID
331038
Accession number
MA 494.10
Creator
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797.
Display Date
1789 July 19.
Credit line
Acquired by Pierpont Morgan, before 1904.
Description
1 item (3 p.) ; 19.7 cm
Notes
Numbered "No. 10."
Part of a collection of letters from Horace Walpole to Mary and Agnes Berry. Items in the collection have been described individually; see related collection-level record for more information. See also MA 495 (Letters from Walpole to the Misses Berry, 1791-1793); MA 496 (Letters from Walpole to the Misses Berry, 1794-1796, and letters from the Misses Berry to Walpole); and MA 497 (letters to various persons and miscellaneous writings).
Recipient identified by Lewis and Wallace.
Part of a collection of letters from Horace Walpole to Mary and Agnes Berry. Items in the collection have been described individually; see related collection-level record for more information. See also MA 495 (Letters from Walpole to the Misses Berry, 1791-1793); MA 496 (Letters from Walpole to the Misses Berry, 1794-1796, and letters from the Misses Berry to Walpole); and MA 497 (letters to various persons and miscellaneous writings).
Recipient identified by Lewis and Wallace.
Provenance
Given by Mary Berry to Sir Frankland Lewis; by descent to his daughter-in-law Lady Theresa Lewis; by descent to her son Sir Thomas Villiers Lister; by descent to his wife Lady Lister; Acquired by Pierpont Morgan before 1904.
Summary
Playfully chiding them for not writing, remarking that they could write at least short notes and promising not to send them any news from France that day. Continuing the letter late that night, noting that he has just returned from Richmond [where several French émigrés live] and giving them all the French news he has: reporting that the Duc de Luxembourg has escaped despite a 300,000 livre price on his head; that the people rose [on 12 July, following Necker's dismissal], seized arms, searched convents, and "obliged" the monks to sell them corn at reasonable prices; that they beheaded the lieutenant de police (a false report) or the prèvot des marchands (who was shot first, on his way to trial, then beheaded); that they attacked the Bastile, and that the governor opened fire with cannon on the mob, killing 300 or 400 (the figure was closer to 100), but that the mob successfully beheaded the governor and his major; that the bourgeoisie have disarmed the mob and seized the arsenal; that the King went tot he Assemblée Nationale and offered any terms, but that their response is not known; that it is supposed no one is allowed out of the city; and that Marshal Boglie is camped at Versailles with 25,000 men in support of the king.
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