Stanislas-Louis-Marie FRÉRON (1754-1802) journalist, Convent - Lot 248

Stanislas-Louis-Marie FRÉRON (1754-1802) journalist, Conventionnel (Paris), charged with missions in the Midi where he distinguished himself by bloody repressions; after Thermidor, he led the reactionary youth and was Pauline Bonaparte's lover. L.A.S., Montélimar 11 pluviôse IV (January 31, 1796), to Jacques REVERCHON, "his former colleague and friend"; 2 fol. pages on his letterhead Fréron, Commissaire du Gouvernement, en mission dans les Departemens de la Drôme, de Vaucluse, du Gard, des Bouches-du-Rhône, du Var, des Hautes & Basses-Alpes, small vignette. Important letter concerning his mission in the Midi to extinguish the White Terror. Fréron leaves immediately for Avignon, Bagnols, and La Bégude, where "gatherings are forming on the side of the Jalès camp"; he has given orders to dissipate them. "This is a vast plan. I have invested almost all the main communes of the Comtat: I have only been able to bring back a hundred or so deserters: I have established military councils everywhere, according to the law. The armed deserters are taking refuge in the inaccessible mountains. They have observation launches; they light fires, and their rifles shine. Various reports put their numbers at 800 on the Buys, haut Comtat side, and 4,000 in the Nyons district alone. All measures have been taken; but given the inadequacy of the troops, who are very few in number, I cannot surround them; I don't have a thousand men. I'm asking you, my dear colleague, to help me smother the birth of this new Vendée, the work of the Bésignan, Bouvenot, Charrette L'Estang and others. I'd need 500 men of infantry, and 100 men of cavalry: I'm tired of turning to Kellerman, from whom I've never been able to get anything. If you can send me these forces to Avignon, by sending them down the Rhône, I will be responsible for the salvation of the whole bank of the Rhône, and it will be easy for me to establish garrisons in the Comtat: this is indispensable; for if I am obliged to withdraw the troops, the murders will begin again with greater fury.A.S. "Freron La Poype" from his sister Jeanne-Thérèse Fréron, Mme Jean-François de La Poype, to Lucile DESMOULINS, Coubertin September 2, expressing her concern at not having any news of her husband: "informez vous a Mr Danton et écrivez moi"...