To Papon Lomini, Law student, Hôtel d’Anjou, rue Serpente, Paris

June 21, 1818.[1]

Dear Sir,

I wrote to Mr. Etienne Prieur,  your cousin, on the 30th of last month.

I have not yet received a reply from this young man, which worries me greatly. I need to tell you this because I must find out whether, after his decision to enter a seminary, he has abandoned the rights he had over me, or other people you know. Etienne was in the habit of returning the letters I sent him through the mail, he has them blocked by power of attorney. [2] That’s why I haven’t been receiving replies from him, particularly not the letter I sent 13 days ago. [3]

When I had the pleasure of meeting you in the Luxembourg Gardens, eight or ten days ago, the conversation turned to  Etienne. You seemed to blamed him for leaving without saying goodbye. And you seemed surprised by the way he behaved toward me, telling me had the means to cure me and restore my freedom. But I do not know what those means would have been. I beg you, sir, tell me what they are, so that I can write to Etienne and tell him to end his dealings with me. 

Based on our conversation, I’m sure that you and Etienne are in communication. Please send me his address in your reply, assuming he’s changed his address. If he doesn’t respond to me, I don’t know how to address my letters so that they can reach him safely. 

If you recall, you had a book that day, and you were kind enough to read passages to me, with some talk of powers of magic, how to rise in rank, how spirits possess and how they are exorcised, how to give powers to another man or take them away, all to the satisfaction of this infernal society. I only ask for this information to give them to your cousin, so that this society will cease their torments of me. Everything he said binds him to this promise, God, religion, and the holy vow he has taken on. 

Thank you for your consideration,

M.B. 

P.S.: Your cousin’s daily harassment and nightly visits are very taxing for me.

[1] M.B. has said in his v1 Forward that he will not always relay information in chronological order, but his letters to Papon Lomini stand out in particular. Besides that M.B. typically orders these by conversation, then sender, then date, so all M.B’s letters to Lomini by date, then all the responses), there’s a certain chaos in his ordering and in the letters themselves. 

In v3ch71 they are published dated 6/21/1818, (p 336), then 6/18/1818 (p 338) (with undated reply from Lomini on p 340, suggesting that M.B. is mentally unwell and begging him to stop writing), then another letter to Lomini 6/18/1818, and with response dated 3/1819, where Lomini complains that M.B. has been distant and asks to see him again. It appears that Lomini drops communication with M.B. through at least October 2018. Given that M.B. is now writing regularly to Etienne’s parents, Lomini, who is studying to be a lawyer,  may be attempting some kind of damage control.

[2] The language here is “of stopping the letters I receive through the mail”, and I’m going to use “return my letters” here, which may not be technically accurate but probably captures the feeling of it.  After a brief dive into the Parisian mail system, it sounds like within the main city of Paris mail could be sent for 2 sols (maybe $2.50?) and to the suburbs for 3 sols ($3.75?). 

(History of the Post Office, Royal Philatelic Society of Austin, Christopher Hitchen), 

In 1760, mailboxes boxes were installed around Paris, and 150 postmen were hired. Post boxes could be found in shops and cafes, and at least in Paris proper, letters were picked up at the post box every hour and a half through the day, and mail was sent out three times a day. Postmen would stand outside houses with rattles or knock on doors. Since letters could be sent “postage due”, and postal workers would stamp their deliveries, it seems like postmen would need to act something like a courier, an active participant in communication rather than a simple deliveryman. 

[3] M.B. did not include a letter to Etienne dated around June 8-9 in the v3Ch71 documents collection, this will be updated if another letter turns up as I translate V1 & V2. – Jacob