Letter from Donitay to Pierre Lacour, 1837-04-07
Donitay warns his cousin Pierre Lacour that Espenan fraudulently obtained fifty francs in his name, describes the man's reported movements and relatives, and urges Lacour to have him arrested.
Personal correspondence
Family correspondence
French
Donitay
Pierre Lacour
Pierre Lacour, the writer's cousin
Marmande
Saintes
Fraud
Fifty francs
Marmande Le 7. avril 1837
[[label: Address panel]] Monsieur Monsieur pierre Lacour traiteur Charrante inferieure à Saintes
[[label: Letter text - Page 1]] Marmande Le 7. avril 1837 Mon cher cousin C'est avec Mal au cœur que j'ai Reçu ta Lettre m'apprenant le tour d'Escroquerie que t'a fait ce mauvais Gueux d'espenan qui a passé & resté chez toi, pendant trois Jours & ensuite s'etre en allé pour prétexte à la rochelle chercher des papiers pour poursuivre un individu; tout cela n'est que mensonge, et Surtout lorsqu'il t'a demandé pour moi. 50 f. Je n'aurais Employé personne si j'avais été dans le cas d'avoir Besoin d'un Service de toi. Je te dois dire aussi que ce n'est qu'après Son depart de Marmande que j'ai appris ce qu'il etait, la bonne m'a donné
[[label: Letter text - Page 2]] que de mauvais renseignements Sur Son compte; Je te plains du profond de mon Cœur, que tu aies été la duppe d'un pareil frippon; fais tout ce que tu pourras pour le faire arreter, je l'approu verai avec plaisir - quant à Sa famille, il a quelques parents, oncles à Marmande, mais Son père demeure du coté de pau le Bearn, à un Endroit nommé Jeanne, près Garlin, arrondt de pau - vois ce que tu as à faire, dans cet objet, je Suis très Eloigné de penser que Son pere paye, a moins qu'il ne le fit, si toutes fois tu le faisais ou du moins si tu parvenais à le faire arreter. C'est de quoi je Serai Bien Content - La veille de Son depart de marmande il me dit qu'il allait du coté de Blaye, alors je lui dis, que s'il passait
[[label: Letter text - Page 3]] par Saintes, je le priais Seulement de te voir & de te faire mes compliments voila tout; je ne lui ai donné aucune lettre pour toi, comme je te l'ai dit plus haut, si j'avais eu Besoin de toi, je t'aurais Ecrit directement - Je Suis on ne peut plus faché que ce coquin t'ait fait un pareil tour, adieu mon cher amy crois pour toujours à un Bien Bon Cousin, & te prie de faire mes Compliments à tous chez toi Donitay
[[label: Address panel]] Monsieur Monsieur Pierre Lacour caterer Charente-Inférieure in Saintes
[[label: Letter text - Page 1]] Marmande, April 7, 1837 My dear cousin, It was with a heavy heart that I received your letter telling me of the swindle perpetrated against you by that wretched scoundrel Espenan. He spent three days at your home and then left on the pretext of going to La Rochelle to obtain papers with which to prosecute someone. All of that is nothing but lies, especially his request that you give him 50 francs on my behalf. Had I needed a service from you, I would not have employed anyone else. I must also tell you that it was only after his departure from Marmande that I learned what kind of man he was; the maid gave me
[[label: Letter text - Page 2]] nothing but bad reports about him. I pity you from the bottom of my heart for having been duped by such a rogue. Do everything you can to have him arrested; I shall be very glad to approve it. As for his family, he has some relatives—uncles—in Marmande, but his father lives toward Pau, in Béarn, at a place called Jeanne, near Garlin, in the arrondissement of Pau. Decide what you should do in this matter. I very much doubt that his father will pay, unless he were to do so if you acted—or at least if you managed to have the man arrested. I should be very pleased by that. On the eve of his departure from Marmande, he told me that he was going toward Blaye. I then told him that, if he passed
[[label: Letter text - Page 3]] through Saintes, I asked him only to visit you and convey my regards. That is all. I gave him no letter for you. As I said above, had I needed you, I would have written to you directly. I could not be more upset that this rascal played such a trick on you. Farewell, my dear friend. Believe me always your very good cousin, and please give my regards to everyone in your household. Donitay
Original item in Neruda Archives.
Private collection, Neruda Archives.
Publicly available images, transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions may be copied, shared, reproduced and republished, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes, provided that Neruda Archives is clearly credited and the relevant item identifier and stable URL are preserved. This permission includes non-commercial scholarly, educational, editorial, exhibition, website and social-media use. Automated machine use, including crawling, indexing, text and data mining, retrieval, embeddings and AI training by commercial and non-commercial systems, is permitted, provided provenance is retained where technically feasible and the item identifier and stable URL are preserved in source records or associated documentation. Commercial publication, commercial reproduction, resale, advertising use, paid access to a database or dataset and bulk redistribution of images require prior written permission. For the avoidance of doubt, permission is not required merely because an AI system or its operator is commercial. The images displayed and downloadable on this page are public access copies, and the permissions above apply to those files. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement. Attribution may not be removed or replaced by false or misleading attribution.
Open public access. The images displayed and downloadable on each item page are public access copies. Non-commercial reuse of those images and of public transcriptions, translations, metadata and descriptions is permitted with clear credit to Neruda Archives and preservation of the relevant item identifier and stable URL. Automated use and AI training are permitted for commercial and non-commercial systems with provenance retained where technically feasible. Commercial republication, resale, advertising, paid database or dataset access and bulk image redistribution require prior written permission. Access to non-public source scans (preservation masters) or files specially prepared for print, where available, requires prior written agreement.
Open metadata and AI use; non-commercial public reuse
Neruda Archives
Neruda Archives, NRA-L-000419.
Every complete capture, documentary role, address panel, date, names, places, postal evidence, transcription and translation was checked against the authoritative images; unresolved readings remain explicitly qualified. Date evidence: Dateline on P002. Origin evidence: Marmande dateline on P002. Recipient layers: postal addressee — Pierre Lacour; textual addressee — Pierre Lacour, the writer's cousin.
Image-checked raw transcription
Image-checked English translation
Exact
4 documentary sides: Address panel; Letter text - Page 1; Letter text - Page 2; Letter text - Page 3; 4 digital images.