Maximin ISNARD (1751-1825) conventional (Var). Autograph MAN - Lot 554

Lot 554
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Maximin ISNARD (1751-1825) conventional (Var). Autograph MAN - Lot 554
Maximin ISNARD (1751-1825) conventional (Var). Autograph MANUSCRIT, Isnard's Notte sur le mémoire de Fréron; pour servir d'éclaircissement historique, [1796]; 12 pages in-4 filled with a tight handwriting (old transcription attached). Important document on his mission in the Midi, in response to Fréron's accusations. FRÉRON, on his return from his mission in the Midi, had published a Mémoire historique sur la réaction royale et sur les massacres dans le Midi attacking his predecessors; Isnard replied to him under the title Isnard à Fréron. He returns here at length to this affair, explaining his conduct. Fréron is "skilful at distorting the facts" and reports them "with an excess of perfidy and an audacity of lies". In the first days of prairial III, near Tarascon, Isnard learns of the revolt of Toulon; he goes in haste to Aix, and finds the city panicked and discouraged; from the top of the balcony of the national hotel, he harangues the crowd in these terms (which will be reproached to him, but which he restores exactly): "You say that you do not have weapons? Well! Search this earth which covers the victims of later horror; arm yourselves with the bones of your brothers, and let us march against their executioners. Thus, two battalions were raised to march on the brigands; under the command of General PACTHOD and with the garrison of Marseilles, "we marched against the insurgents; we met them in the gorges where they had entrenched themselves; [...] all this horde of brigands was defeated, dispersed and driven back into Toulon where we entered to the great satisfaction of the good people whom we delivered from the anarchic yoke". Contrary to Fréron who thought that the insurrection of Toulon was only an "offshoot" of the Parisian uprising of Prairial, Isnard affirmed that it "was only the work of the purest Jacobinism, which, badly smothered under the ashes, made an effort to rekindle itself, and if it had succeeded, all the south would have been set on fire. It was during Isnard's stay in Toulon and thus in his absence from Marseille - where CADROY was alone - "that some cowards who had refused to follow us to fight, had the barbarity to assassinate at Fort Jean". Isnard tells his version of the massacres of prisoners at Fort Saint-Jean in Marseille: he stopped the massacres, disarmed the murderers, had them arrested - but they were released two days later, which provoked Isnard's displeasure. He had a public officer arrested and taken to Toulon, who "fostered among the young people the spirit of vengeance. During this mission, "I fought against the excesses of all the parties; also, not a single voice in the south never rose against me, except that of Fréron of whom hatred is a praise".Isnard recalls in what terms he himself had denounced Fréron: "if those who were the devastators of the South (referring to Fréron and the member of the Directory [BARRAS] who had accompanied him on his first mission) continue to be its oppressors, I will attack them body to body [...] I will show them naked, all covered with the leprosy of crime". To conclude, Isnard affirms: "I have not persecuted anyone [...] I have extended a helping hand [...] to all the outcasts of May 31, to all the fugitives reputed to be federalists, or other victims of our discord"... Another autograph MANUSCRITE signed with his initials, Notice sur le Sr Isnard (6 pages and a half in-4), a curious exposition of his political conduct until the Restoration: "the sieur Isnard, led in his youth by the revolutionary enthusiasm, voted the death of Louis XVI. This holy monarch forgave him by ascending to heaven"...; an autograph note, Variantes sur ma lettre à Fréron (1 page in-4); a L.A.S. (signed with his initials; 5 p. in-4), Grasse December 3, 1824, on his conduct during the Revolution; 3 letters addressed to him (November 1795-August 1796), protests against the "Sultan Fréron" and his excesses during his mission in the Midi; plus an engraved portrait and a few attachments.
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