Victor-Maurice de Riquet, comte de caraman (1727-1807). L.A.S., Edinburgh July 15, 1796, to an earl; 4 pages in-4. Plans to emigrate with his family to Russia and form a French colony there. The only thing he misses about Roissy is the joy of finding his family gathered under the great plane tree, for he was brought up in the principles of fidelity, modesty, frankness and firmness: "Far from shooting our prisoners, we offered them our purse, our room and our services. Such were the principles of honest people whom the horror of crime, and the impossibility of fulfilling their duties, had driven away from their homeland, and whom we improperly called émigrés instead of simply calling them by their name, honest people, men of honor, faithful to their oaths and to their duty"... He sums up the financial situation of his family of 40 people and about as many servants, for whom new resources will be needed from 1797 "to transport them to the southern parts of the Russian empire, and pay by their work, and the extension of their royalist principles, the gratitude they owe to Her Majesty the Empress [Catherine II]. This sentiment would be the first motive for their activity; and if she wished to form a Regiment of chosen Frenchmen, tested by misfortune and firm in their principles, it would be easy to raise it. All knowledge of the military, agriculture and canals would be reunited in this colony". If he was assured of the Empress's acceptance of his proposal, he would then seek the approval of "the King of France" [Louis XVIII], and write to his friend Count Esterhazy...