To Mr. Prieur, Sr. [Eldest brother and pharmacist]

September 28, 1818

Dear Sir,

Let me remind you of the visit I had the pleasure of paying you on February 21st. Before we parted ways, you promised to see Etienne an hour later to urge him to stop tormenting me. If that conversation happened, clearly everything you were able to do was in vain, since this young man continues to bother me. I have sent you several letters about this. The fact that you haven’t bothered to reply has deeply disappointed me. 

Eventually, your brother left for the seminary in Amiens. I thought I would take advantage of that circumstance, which seemed likely to bring him back to himself, to encourage him toward some good.  I spoke to him about religion and the principles of morality, in such a way that would prove to him I was of a healthy mind, as he wanted everyone else to understand. He responded to my wise advice in a very honest manner; in his last letter, dated July 7, he told me he would be returning to Paris, and would be pleased to inform me of his arrival as soon as possible. 

Your brother Baptiste and your cousin Lomini, who I had met with several times, told me that Etienne, before his departure, had given them full power over me, and they would continue paying me their nightly visits. They laughed at my displeasure as they left, and kept their word, since I continue to be bothered by them night and day. 

Mr. Baptiste, your brother, and your cousin Mr. Lomini, whom I had occasion to see several times, told me that Mr. Etienne, before his departure, had left them full power over me, and that they would pay me their nocturnal visits; on the displeasure that I showed them, they left me laughing, and kept their word, since I never cease to be bothered night and day.

Your brother has been here for nearly two months and I have yet to hear from him. Frustrated by his conduct to me, I wrote to your father, and I did not spare him. I think this worthy man must have reproached him appropriately, by sending him my letter.

Etienne invited me to meet with him soon, on the afternoon of the 20th, at the Luxembourg Gardens, where he would meet me. I went to the gardens, but he was not there. 

The next day I received a letter from him in an envelope, which I sent to your father, which seemed rather inappropriate to me: If this young man would take the trouble to reread the letters I sent to him in Amiens, if he would pause to reflect on the various morals I believe I had passed on to him in the last months of 1817 and the first months of this year, he would do me more justice, rather than suggesting that I should go live in Charenton. [1]

The next day, I received from him a letter in an envelope, in which was enclosed the one that I had addressed to your father; which seemed to me rather out of place.

If this young man would take the trouble to reread the letters that I addressed to him in Amiens; if he would then reflect on the different morals that I believed I should give him in the last months of the year 1817 and in the first of the present year, he would do me more justice and would cease to believe me worthy of going to live in Charenton.

So please, sir, ask your father to kindly reply to me, let me know what he thinks fit to say, and then I will have some further conversation with him. 

Sincerely,

M.B. 

[M.B. notes: “The person to whom I had entrusted my letter to take to Jaques Prieur,  had given it to one of the women of the house. I had asked him for a reply, but Prieur preferred to give it to me invisibly. When I named him, the racket he made was no longer so loud. His two brothers assisting him in this visit cut the hair on my Coco’s back. Ettiene had cut the tail off the year before.”] 

[1] Charenton: A lunatic asylum, recently home to the Marquis de Sade