Vous avés la bonté de me dire, Milord, que lorsque j’aurai fait mes arrangements pour liquider la somme de £200, vous voudrés bien me faire transmettre cette somme de la manière qui me sera la plue commode. Comme de raison ce sera à l’époque qui vous sera la plus convenable, ce que vous faites pour moi, est trop au delà de tout ce que je pouvois jamais espérer, pour que le terme qui vous sera le plus agréable ne soit le mien.
A la vérité plutôt je pourrai être libéré de cette dette, plutôt ce sera le mieux pour moi. Et puisque vous me permettés de vous parler avec franchise, si cela vous convient, je prendrai la liberté de vous observer que comme dans ce moment-ci il nous est dû quatre mois de notre traitement, ce qui ne laisse pas pour l’instant de rendre la position un peu embarrassante, si vous daigniés me faire passer ici 100 livres sterlings en papiers du pays, ou en papiers de la banque d’Angleterre, et un draft de 100 livres sterlings sur votre banquier à Londres, alors je laisserois les 4 mois qui avec celui qui sera dû au premier mai feroient la somme de £100 pour compléter les £200, et ce que vous auriés la bonté de m’envoyer ici, me serviroit à ma dépense habituelle et nécessaire. Pardonnés ma franchise et ma liberté, vos bontés seules m’y autorisent, mais d’ailleurs, ce qui vous conviendra le mieux à cet égard, fera toujours mon arrangement. Pou-vois-je jamais espérer tant de bonté de quelqu’un dont je n’avois pas seulement l’honneur d’être connu.
J’ai l’honneur d’être avec respect, permettés moi d’ajouter avec une reconnoissance qui durera autant que ma vie,
Mylord.
Votre très humble et
très obéissant serviteur,
L’Evêque de Moulins.
Stilton, Bell Inn,
ce 3 Avril 1808.
[Translation]
My Lord,
It is of the nature of your generous and kind soul to understand all that I feel. Deprived of all help and all consolation, plunged in the depths of misery for almost twenty years, Providence led me to Stilton to find in you what I had never dared to hope for without any merits, without any title. Near you, you alone deigned to give me comfort, support, and have secured me the help which I should never have dared to hope for. There is no language in which I can tell you what I feel. If you could only read into my heart you would see there all that it feels and with what gratitude it is filled. You have the kindness to show interest in my health. It has been very wretched since I last had the honour of seeing you. The blood complaint to which I am subject has exhausted me very much, and these last two days I have suffered a great deal; but as I have been used to suffering for many years, it does not prevent me from going about as usual, and it certainly will not stop me from profiting by your kindness to go and pay my respects to you at Milton the day which you name. The desire that your son has to make my acquaintance flatters me more than I can say, and it will give me great pleasure to pay my respects to him, and to express to him all that I feel and how indebted I am to the father whom he has the happiness to possess and who has become such for me. With the exception of Sundays, Thursday and Friday in Holy Week, that is to say that which precedes Eastertide, any day which you propose to me for coming to Milton will be free for me, for I can arrange to be free at about three or half-past three o’clock in the afternoon. I cannot tell you, my lord, how much I have been touched by the steps you have taken in trying to procure me a young prisoner to act as my servant. What I have suffered lately has proved to me still more how necessary it was to have somebody to wait on me. I hope very much that the steps which you have so kindly taken will not be without success, and it is to you only, if the affair proves successful, that I shall be indebted, and from then onwards I shall be doubly grateful. I take the liberty to say, that it was a real injustice to refuse me one, because, independently of the fact that they have not the right as far as I can make out, to take away the one I had, according to the passport which had been given to him, I can certify that the reasons they put forward for sending him back to prison, and especially that of his alleged taking of straw into the prison, is devoid of all truth; and with regard to this last reason, which to-day has been advanced for the first time, I believe that I can take upon myself to answer that the accusation is absolutely false; but as I do not wish to rake up the past, if I am granted another under your protection, I shall have a real satisfaction, for I am really miserable in the position in which I find myself, without anyone to wait upon me. You had the goodness to tell me, my lord, that when I had made my arrangements to pay off the sum of £200, you would forward me that sum in the manner which would be most convenient to me. Of course that would be at the time most convenient to you. That which you are doing for me is far beyond all that I could ever have hoped, and so the date which is most agreeable to you will be mine too. Indeed, the sooner I shall be freed from that debt the sooner my position will improve. And as you allow me to speak to you candidly, if it is convenient to you, I take the liberty of pointing out to you that four months of my salary is owing to me at the present time, which does not make the position less embarrassing at present. If you will deign to send me here £100 sterling in notes or in English bank-notes and a draft of £100 on your bank in London, then I would lay aside the four months’ salary, which, together with that which I ought to receive on the first of May, would make the sum of £100 to complete the £200, and what you will have the goodness to send to me here will serve me for my usual and necessary expenses. Pardon my frankness and the liberty; your kindness alone authorises me, but after all, whatever suits you best in this matter will suit me also. Could I ever have hoped for so much kindness from someone I had not even the honour of knowing?