NAPLES. Athénaïs Antoine de Rocquemont, baroness d'ARLINCOURT, wife of general Charle-Marie Prévost d'Arlincourt (1787-1864), and lady-in-waiting of Queen Caroline. 75 L.A.S. "Athénaïs", Naples 1811-1815, to her husband the baron d'Arlincourt; 194 pages in-8 or in-4, gilded edges, watermarks with Napoleon's effigy, a few addresses. Very interesting correspondence on the Court of Naples and the reign of Murat and on the eruption of Vesuvius... The letters were written during the absences of the baron d'Arlincourt, and give a lively insight into the life of a family of officers living in the Acton palace, in Naples, during the reign of Murat, and the events that punctuate it: life of the Court, relations with Caroline Bonaparte and Murat, eruption of Vesuvius, betrayal of Murat, etc. We will quote only 3 letters, well representative of this whole. September 6, 1811, at the time of the voyage of Charles with Caroline Bonaparte in Paris. "I confess to you, my dear Charles, the only thing I desire is that you return only with the Queen, you left with her, you must return with her [...]. My position here is not a happy one, but I am consoled by the idea that you are with the Queen, that you can be useful to her, and that is a great deal for me, that you can show her our attachment; all my desire is that she continue her kindnesses to me and make me come near you [...]. Marshal Pérignon arrived yesterday morning, he was in despair at not having seen the Queen, you know how attached he is to her, he is always good as usual. The King received him very well, how could it be possible to give such a good man a bad reception? [I am sending the Queen several fans, there are only three left so that all those she told me to have made can be finished; I will give her another opportunity to do so, there are always others. [...] I can't repeat it enough, it's your conduct in Paris that can have an effect on our future; you'll say my wife is a nag, but I know you, you're so good [...]. Caroline and Achillina [their daughters] are doing wonderfully well; Caroline is as sweet as can be, she squints much less since you left [...]. Tell Mrs. Exelmans that her husband is the example of husbands, he thinks only of her, and that is quite natural, he goes to bed every night at eleven o'clock, he never goes to the show, he comes to see us a few times in the evening; yesterday mama and I went to the Villa Reale where it was a beautiful moonlight, we talked about Amélie. The King treats her very well"... December 28, 1813, about the eruption of Vesuvius. "I will tell you that Vesuvius has been giving us a beautiful, but really frightening spectacle for two days; on Christmas Day at six o'clock in the evening, the eruption began, the tramontana wind had reigned all day and Vesuvius had been covered with a thick black cloud; When the night arrived, this cloud changed into fire, and spread by the force of the wind to a prodigious height; add to that the detonations which made all tremble; this beautiful horror lasted approximately two hours, the wind calmed down, the lava always flowed but without frequent eruptions; the night was very quiet. The next day, the weather was very nice when I got up; I had breakfast at ten o'clock and I started to read; I had been reading for about half an hour when I thought I heard a cannon shot, I got up and went to my terrace to see if it was a ship entering the harbor; There was nothing; but turning back to the side of Vesuvius, I saw in the same moment a cloud rising which spread with such rapidity that in a quarter of an hour it came to throw small stones at us as far as St. Lucia. The beautiful sun was completely obscured, the detonations which had seemed strong to us the day before were nothing compared to those of the next day; the windows of the gay Domon were broken and in our palace we had the idea of what an earthquake can be. I assure you that it was very frightening and if it had lasted a little longer, all the inhabitants of Portici and of the earth would have arrived to Naples. The King was obliged to go there to calm the spirits; there was nothing more singular than to see the road of Portici covered with these unhappy people, who carried their cauldrons, their pots, their blankets, their mattresses, and their children on the other side"... January 12 and 22, 1814, after the treason of Murat, who allied himself with Austria: "the King preserved his kingdom by dealing with the enemies; the count of Mier arrived last night and the marshal Pérignon leaves in twenty four hours. I am a woman, my friend, so I have no other advice to give you than to tell you, to read your patent. This is what the marshal answered to the people who consulted him. I thought that it is very hard for a good Frenchman to find himself in front of the enemies of his country, and to be almost obliged to kill them.