82 - MÉRIMÉE (Prosper). Signed autograph letter [TO FELIX BACIOCCHI, according to a later note in pencil]. No place, “Friday, March 17” [1854]. 1½ pp., in-8.

MÉRIMÉE (Prosper). Signed autograph letter [TO FELIX BACIOCCHI, according to a later note in pencil]. No place, “Friday, March 17” [1854]. 1½ pp., in-8. The writer asks to intercede with Empress Eugénie so that she might visit the deathbed of the Countess of Laborde, who was on her deathbed and had expressed regret at not having seen her before dying: “... I believe that if the Empress were to send word to inquire after her, it would be a source of happiness for the poor sick woman, one she would carry with her into the next world... ” Thérèse Sabatier de Cabre, who was to die on March 17, 1854, was the daughter of a French ambassador under Louis XVI; she had been a lady-in-waiting to Empress Joséphine, and had married the archaeologist and politician Alexandre de Laborde, who had begun his career under the Consulate. — Félix BACIOCCHI, the nephew of Élisa Bonaparte, was then the emperor’s chief chamberlain; he would later be appointed general superintendent of the Empire’s theaters and a senator.