PELTIER, Jean-Gabriel. Domine Salvum Fac Regem. Manuscript.
[Paris], October 1789
8vo. 183x125 mm. 20 unnumbered leaves, last leaf blank. Incipit «O douleur! le secret de l’amitie est trahi»; Explicit «Le Roi à Paris; joignez dans les prières que vous adressez à l’être suprême qui veille à notre conservation ces quatre mots si touchants; Domine Salvum Fac Regem». Clear cursive writing, black ink. Browning on the first page, otherwise in good condition.
Important original document, text of Peltier's counter-revolutionary pamphlet. The work is in the form of letters written from 15 to 19 October 1789: before the text, on the second page, the date "21 8 October 1789". It recounts the revolutionary events of October 6-7, 1789, when King Louis XVI and the royal family were forcibly brought back to Paris, escorted by General La Fayette and the crowd. The King, Queen, and Dauphin were taken to the Tuileries. Several important figures from this early phase of the Revolution appear, including, in addition to La Fayette and Mirabeau, Necker, Armand Marc de Montmorin, and the Duke of Orleans. A key role, from page 7, is played by Choderlos de Laclos, the author of Dangerous Liasons, nicknamed the infernal Laclos, who is said to have headed a secret council aiming to establish a "new order of things."
Jean-Gabriel Peltier, 1760 - 1825, an entrepreneur and journalist, still believed in Necker and La Fayette at the beginning of the Revolution. In this "Con Domine salvum fac regem," he denounced the conspiracy to appoint the Duke of Orleans as lieutenant general of the kingdom and Mirabeau as mayor of Paris. He later distanced himself from the French Revolution and its excesses. After joining the opposition, he co-founded a newspaper, Les Actes des Apôtres, published on November 2, 1789. This satirical periodical, edited by Gattey, featured contributions from realist writers such as Rivarol, Champcenetz, Mirabeau cadet, Alexandre de Tilly, and especially François-Louis Suleau. In November 1792, he emigrated to Great Britain and returned to France only after the fall of Napoleon.
This manuscript appears to have been composed before the work's publication, as the footnotes, inserted in the printed book on pages 6, 8, and 12, do not appear.