NON-VENU LOUVET DE COUVRAY, Lodoiska Denuelle... Lot 289

NON-VENU
LOUVET DE COUVRAY, Lodoiska Denuelle (1760-1827), wife of revolutionary Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray. She attempted suicide after her husband's death. L.A. addressed to Joseph-Antoine BOSC. S.l., "Ce 22 brumaire"
[November 12, 1797]. 8 pp. in-4.
EXCEPTIONAL LETTER OF DESPAIR AFTER THE DEATH OF HER HUSBAND.
"After a year of anguish and persecution of all kinds, fate finally
allowed my dear Louvet to return to private life. He was going, free of himself
to devote his days to his beloved wife and child.
consul in Palermo. This position sufficed our ambition, as it sufficed our needs.
our needs. Under a gentler sky, we were finally able to breathe after so many storms [...].
it is true that we believe immortal what we adore. He must have seemed immortal to me because
he was a god to me [...] each day adds to my despair, each day prolonging by
prolonging this dreadful absence by 24 hours, makes my situation more intolerable
[...] my love. I was not in myself, I was in him. When he went away, my soul
when he was near me, I took on a new life [...] I didn't expect to outlive him.
I did not expect to outlive him. Familiar for so long, several years before the
the revolution, with the idea of death, of a near and violent death, it had nothing
Bosc, didn't I show you this dose of opium that a friend gave us in Quimper?
a friend gave us in Quimper for the seven of us, Petion Brissot and so on. Louvet had
Louvet had taken his share, while the other six were left to me [...]. My friend, I took this opium,
at least a large one, they say even much more, and I live! Lodoiska
recounts her experience of poisoning herself, her efforts to perpetuate her husband's
memory of her husband, her suffering as she tried to live for their son, whom she solemnly
solemnly entrusted to Bosc, multiplying injunctions concerning his education.
education. ..." Me, I can only moan, I form only one wish, that to see arrive the day
the day arrive when this earth sprinkled with my tears will receive me into its bosom".
A long and beautiful document.