Pierre LOTI. Signed autograph manuscript, Visit to the Queen - Lot 290

Lot n° 290
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800 - 1000 EUR
Pierre LOTI. Signed autograph manuscript, Visit to the Queen - Lot 290
Pierre LOTI. Signed autograph manuscript, Visit to the Queen, 1898; 5 pages large in-fol. cut out for printing and glued on cards, with some erasures and corrections. Account of a visit to Queen Mary Christina of Spain during the Spanish-American War. This account, dated at the head "Madrid, Saturday April 30, 98", was published in Le Figaro of May 6, 1898, and collected in 1899 in Reflections on the Dark Road. The original title, crossed out on the manuscript, was: "Au Palais de Madrid". Loti recounts his visit to the Queen Regent of Spain, Mary Christina (widow of Alfonso XII), a few days after the declaration of war by the United States against Spain; this war would result in 1,000 deaths on the Spanish side, which would lose Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. This visit by Loti, who had just been retired from office, remains rather mysterious; largely relayed by the articles he sent to Le Figaro (2-31 May), it may have initially had an unofficial aspect, but pressure seems to have been very quickly exerted on Loti to observe a certain neutrality . Loti evokes the Madrid crowd, "watching the news, excited by the wind of war", and the elegant walks under the shadows. He recounts his arrival at the royal palace, his wait "in the immense halls of ancient splendour"... He remembers the Queen, who often welcomed him to San Sebastian. The Queen granted him an audience: "Her Majesty deigns to receive me today, to thank me for having come. But now this too precious thanksgiving troubles me and embarrasses me, as does the welcome I am being given in Madrid, for I am aware that I do not deserve all this, since I have no means, alas! of merely proving my devotion to a cause that is so dear to me; as a foreigner here, held back by the laws of neutrality, I do not even have the right to offer my life, like the most obscure of Spanish soldiers. And suddenly I feel confused to have come, confused to have asked for this audience at su
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