Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276
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Sale 2276 - Lot 44

Price Realized: $ 20,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
"LA TRAHISON D'ARNOLD" LAFAYETTE, GILBERT DU MOTIER; MARQUIS DE. Letter Signed, "Lafayette," as Major General, to Captain [Louis-Gaetan] de Sigounié of the 3rd Continental Cavalry, in French, reporting on the defection of Benedict Arnold and trial of Major André, and sending greetings to Horatio Gates and William Smallwood. 2 page, 4to, with integral blank; worn at folds with 2 tissue repairs, one near signature and both touching body of letter. "Light Camp Harringtown" [Harrington, NJ], 3 October 1780
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Lafayette wrote letter the day after the execution of the British spy Major André, who Lafayette had helped sentence. He tells his friend (in translation): "There is no news other than the treason of Arnold, who has fled to New York, and the trial of the Adjutant General of the English army, arrested while spying."
Sigounié had apparently last written to Lafayette shortly before the Battle of Camden. Lafayette wrote: "Not having seen you on the list of the dead and wounded, I have every reason to hope that you have not been among this number. I would be very happy to hear the confirmation from you--as well as news of all my old acquaintances in the army. I also beg you to give them a million congratulations for me, and particularly to Colonel Armand and to General Smallwood. . . . If you are brought near to General Gates, I beg you to speak to him of me." Abstracted in Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution, III:551. Provenance: Maggs Bibliotheca Americana et Philippina catalogue VII, 1928, item 5773; Henkels sale, 9 April 1931, lot 130. English translation available.