XD2/4180
LETTER: Marie Vernet, [2 rue des Ecuries d’Artois], Paris to Mme la Vicomtesse [Isabelia Hill, née Wynn, Hawkstone, Shrewsbury]. She says she is very happy to address the rest of their correspondence to her [previously sent to F.G.Wynn]. She expresses the sympathy she feels for Maria Stella and how she has studied the works on her, principally her own Memoirs. She says she is very happy to be able to contribute to the full extent of her slight means to the great work of justice and reparation. She says that the d’Orleans are very uneasy, and publish manifestos. She says they are leading [the French] to the brink of revolution as the people will not have them at any price. She says that war cannot be avoided, the anarchists are preparing to celebrate the centenary of 1789 with civil war and all kinds of horrors and France is destined to see appalling things in the next two or three years, perhaps even earlier. She states that she has discovered the Sternberg family of Russia and that she has received a reply which she quotes: "Madam, the letter which you have addressed to the Baron Sternberg has reached his nephew, The Count Ungern Sternberg. The baron married, in 1810, the widow of Lord Newborough, and died in 1861, his son, Edouard died in 1842 and his mother, Lady Newborough Sternberg, [died] one year later in Paris". She says that she has written back addressing the letter to the island of Dago, near St. Petersburg, giving him details and hoping that he has a knowledge of the Maria Stella affair. She says that she has the attestation of the experts on the subject of one letter of Lorenzo Chiappini [father of M.S.]. She says it is long and contains the whole of L.C.’s letter. It has been copied from the original by Chelli, the lawyer in Florence where M.S. left the letter. She says she also has the birth certificate of M.S. and a letter of the President of the tribunal of Faenza, sending to the Priest of Modigliana the decree of rectification. She says that this was copied by the lawyer in Modigliana, Filippo Mazzetti. She is trying to get the documents legalised which were recovered by Mlle. Degli ?Uberti from Florence, who gave her copies gratis. She asks if M. le Comte de St. Michel has written, saying she believes that some of the papers are at the home of a local government official at Rouen. She made enquiries which were replied to in an evasive manner; either they have already been sold to the d’Orleans, or M. de St. Michel is looking after them. She says she has written to Father Berton to see what he has but she said his reply made her think that he had turned to the Orleanist cause. She says Father Lebaillif, however, has produced a brochure which she [Isabella Hill] has got under the name of Perot Rosementoise; he is writing to Monseigneur Pennachi in Rome, asking him if it is possible to gain access to a certain document in the Vatican Library of which he is in charge. She also mentions another piece of evidence: a note found in the archives of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a book called the Red Book, which details secret pensions of the last century and which records "a Pension of 60 thousand francs to oNe writer Beaumarchais for his discretion on the subject of the lying in of Madame The Duchess of Chartres". She details the precautions taken to ensure that the information can be proved correct. She cites evidence that shows Beaumarchais had to pass through Italy on his travels in 1774, just one year after the swap had taken place, and heard the story then, just as Alexandre Dumas did when he went there with M. de St. Felix. She suggests Beaumarchais understood the value of his information and was paid for his silence. She says that Father Lebaillif has published an extract of the Memoirs of Alexandre Dumas the elder, who was secretary to Louis Philippe and speaks about the swap. She says that the Memoirs are almost impossible to find as ALexandre Dumas the younger is a friend of the Duke d’Aurnale. She mentions that the Hon. Frederick Wynn has sent her Edward Burke’s work which mentions Maria Stella. French. [N:L.W. Bodfean 76/18.]
Cyngor Gwynedd