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French army officer and composer who wrote the words and music to the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, in 1772. Rare ALS in French, signed “J. Rouget de Lisle,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 6.25 x 7.5, no date. Letter to an unidentified correspondent in French. The lengthy letter concerns legal matters: "The impartiality that you proclaim, Sir, will doubtlessly oblige you to give a place in your newspaper to the following observations on the letter that Mr. de Lespinasse addressed to me by conveyance of your edition of today; They will be the last with which I will trouble you. I observe: (1) that in all his reproaching me for having beaten Mr. Michaud Jr.; Mr. de Lespinasse does not mention a word of suspicious, unusual and hidden arms that I wrested from his client before having beaten him: a circumstance which, abstraction made of all other, justifies the rest of the treatment which he received… I observe that the avowal made by Mr. de Lespinasse of a meeting at five o'clock with me at the conclusion of which he extended the obliging and tactful invitation to me in effect puts in conclusive evidence all the impudence of his denigration… Mr. de Lespinasse came seeking confidence at the home of a man, who, the day before, he had denounced as a coward, an assassin, a violator of the right of hospitality, who at the first encounter he ought to have treated with all the force one owes to those who merit similar epithets. Mr. de Lespinasse recognizes that his letter has been falsified by Mssrs. Michaud…" In fine condition, with some scattered light creasing and wrinkling. In the past twenty-three years, only eight Rouget de Lisle autograph letters signed have sold at auction, attesting to their rarity. Accompanied by a complete English translation. RRAuction COA.
