Honoré de BALZAC in the grips of the Peytel Affair.

Honoré de Balzac  (1799-1850)

Signed autograph note.

An oblong octavo page on a fragment of brown paper.

Slnd [September 28, 1839]

“In assize courts, there is no other testimony than that given by the witnesses themselves”

Autograph manuscript signed in the first draft of a note published by Le Siècle on September 29, 1839 in the context of the Peytel Affair.

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“ Note from M. de Balzac . I have only one observation to make to Mr. Broussais: that this is about criminal law. The entire part of his testimony relating to Mr. de Lamartine should be excluded and cannot be admitted to the debates. In the assize courts, there is no other testimony than that given by the witnesses themselves [three words crossed out]. From Balzac. No one has the authority to speak on behalf of another . »

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A dark affair.

Notary in Belley, Sébastien-Benoît Peytel (1804-1839) was arrested for the murder of his wife and her servant on the night of November 1, ¹⁸³⁸ : sentenced to death, he appealed. Balzac, who had met him in the editorial office of the newspaper Le Voleur , where Peytel began, undertook a press campaign with Gavarni in order to obtain his acquittal.

His long Letter on the trial of Peytel, notary in Belley intended for the defense of the accused appeared in the newspaper Le Siècle in three parts, on September 27, 28 and 29, 1839. Doctor Casimir Broussais (son of the famous “emperor of medicine"), who was Peytel's brother-in-law against whom he had testified during the trial, considering himself defamed by Balzac, had sent to Le Siècle a letter in the form of a right of reply: this was published by the journal following the third and final part of Letter with, just after, an apostille from the latter, the first draft of which is found here.

The text published in Le Siècle differs slightly: “I have only one observation to make to Mr. Broussais; it is only a question here of criminal law: the entire part of his testimony relating to Mr. de Lamartine perishes in the face of this consideration that in the assize courts, there is no other testimony than that given by the witnesses themselves. -themselves. »

The writer's initiative, which attracted ridicule from the press, remained in vain. Peytel was condemned to death and King Louis-Philippe, who perhaps remembered the poignant Physiologie de la poire that Peytel had published in 1832, refused his pardon. The notary was executed on October 28, 1839.

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Bibliography:

The Peytel Affair . Pierre-Antoine Perrod. Hachette, 1958.

Balzac, Gavarni, and the Peytel affair . Madeleine Berry.