Letter of Eugene Lee-Hamilton to Matilda Paget

Letter of Eugene Lee-Hamilton to Matilda Paget - May 24, 1871

Authors : Lee-Hamilton, Eugene

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General information

LanguageEnglish

SourceVernon Lee Archive, Miller Library, Colby College, ME

Kind of documentAutograph letter (signed)

Formatpaper; 6 pages

MediumPaper

General condition of the documentGood condition

Document locationVernon Lee Archive, Miller Library, Colby College, Waterville, Maine, USA

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6 File(s)

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Commune de Paris

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Lee-Hamilton, Eugene, Letter of Eugene Lee-Hamilton to Matilda Paget - May 24, 1871, 1871-05-24. Project EMAN, Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, University of La Réunion & Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS-ENS. Consulted on 2026/08/25 on the EMAN platform : https://eman-archives.org/HoL/items/show/1939 Copier

Text & Analysis

Analysis

MeWC

Amb. d’Ang.

17 Rue des Réservoirs

Versailles

May 24. 71

Wednesday, noon

My little darling,

I fear there will be very little of Paris remaining by tomorrow judging by the devastation of yesterday. The Louvre and the Tuileries are burning; the insurgents having set them on fire as I understand. The Madeleine is being battered to pieces, the Ministère des Finances & the Cour des Comtes [Comptes] (that fine building on the Quai Voltaire) in flames. The Embassy has been much injured, though Chiefly in the topmost stories where the servants sleep. My apartment is unhurt, only one ball having struck entered through my kitchen window. Nobody has been injured in the Embassy; Malet & the rest remained in the cellars yesterday. Lord Lyons is just going into Paris, --rather rash of him I think, as the there are still of course a good many Communists lurking in the houses who would be happy to fire a stray shot at passers by. Montmartre was carried yesterday at the point of the bayonet. The fighting was tremendous in the Champs Elysées, the Insurgents having a large battery erected at the Concorde end, xxx and the Versaillais another at the Arc de Triomphe. The Insurgents have set all the public buildings on fire. I also hear that they are blazing away upon the town indiscriminately from the two forts of Bicetre [Bicêtre] and Montrouge, which they still hold. In Paris however, they are being driven from steadily back into their last strongholds. I saw an Englishman last night who has charge of an ambulance in the Palais de l’Industrie. The shells kept dropping through the roof all night. –I received thy first dear letter last night ˆyesterday eveningˆ. It gave me such pleasure as did dear Baby’s. I have seen M. de Lespérut, who, as a Legitimist is in all his glory and expe evidently expects a speedy restoration. I fear the Legitimists are rather in too great a hurry. M. Thiers ha for reasons best known to himself has made an alliance with the Republicans, and notwithstanding his great services in creating an army and conquering the Commune he has I understand lost much of the confidence of the assembly. Now that the Commune is on the point of giving up the ghost, Civil war appears likely to break out between the parties who have were first united again by the pressure of the Prussian invasion, and next by the outbreak of the Socialists.

Dear baby [Baby] will I fear be very angry with me for writing such a pamphlet as the above, but the events in Paris are today all engrossing. I like Versailles as a place very much ˆowing toˆ in the nearness of the beautiful park, and a charming swimming bath close by. I take my breakfast in my own room, and should be very well satisfied with my abode little room chez Lord Lyons, which is clean and airy, were it not that lunch and dinner are tedious and that I am not as independent as I should be in a lodging of my own. I have however asked M. de Lesperut to go with me to the Trianons on Saturday and then to dine with me at the Hotel des Reservoirs. He is a cultivated and agreeable companion, and I owe him a return for a dinner at Bordeaux.

I shall try to get to Meudon this afternoon, and get a distant prospect of Paris. We have little work to do, but it may be only a momentary lull. Everything here is redolent of the old French monarchy; tout y respire le grand monarque. The Ministère des Affaires Etrangères where I and the other Ministères are established in the Palace. I found M. de l’Esperut in the room in which Louis XVI’s guards were cut down by the Paris populace when it marched to Versailles. The weather continues lovely. Tomorrow I will write a long letter to darling Bags. Today I have not sufficient materials for one, and must ask her to take her share of this one. My toile cirée parcel of books and boots arrived uninjured, but I was obliged to buy a little leather house for it in the shape of a tiny valise at Florence. A thousand loves. Thy E.

Author (s) of the transcriptGeoffroy, Sophie

Auteur transcriptionGeoffroy, Sophie

Presentation

Date1871-05-24

LiTypeAutograph Letter (Signed)

Rights

Document: Vernon Lee Archive, Miller Library, Colby College, Maine, USA
Fiche : Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, Université de La Réunion ; projet EMAN (Thalim, ENS-CNRS-Sorbonne nouvelle). Licence Creative Commons Attribution – Partage à l’Identique 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR)

PublisherProject EMAN, Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, University of La Réunion & Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS-ENS

PublicationUnpublished

Editorial informations

RecipientPaget, Matilda

CoverageVersailles, France

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Record created by Sophie Geoffroy Record created on 08/07/2021 Latest modification 29/05/2026