A document concerning the case of François-Jean de la Barre, and Mr Belleval prepared by or for Voltaire’s great nephew, Alexandre Marie François de Paule de Dompierre d’Hornoy. The document contains abstracts from 50 documents relating to the order of procedure in the trial of de la Barre between 1765 and 1766.

Part of a dossier concerning the trial of Jean François Lefèvre, chevalier de La Barre, mostly documents for the defence prepared by or for Voltaire’s great nephew, Alexandre Marie François de Paule de Dompierre d’Hornoy.

Extrait d’une lettre d’Abbeville du 7 juillet 1766′. [D.app.279] In this letter, Voltaire writes that a resident of Abbeville named Belleval lived intimately with L’abbesse de Vignacour. Two young men arrived in Abbeville and the abbess received them at home and housed them in the convent as they were her cousins. The abbess preferred the younger of the two men, the Chever de la Barre, to Belleval and so he grew jealous and resolved to take revenge. Voltaire writes that Belleval knew that the Chever de La Barre had committed great indecency 4 months earlier and had been criticised for not removing his hat at a procession carrying the Blessed Sacrament, so he ran from house to house recounting these tales. He then went to all of the witnesses and threatened them, forcing the judge of to hear the case. The judge, however, discovered that Belleval’s son had been the leader of the indecent acts with which the Chever de la Barre was involved. Belleval, Voltaire notes, made his son escape with Sr de Talonde and the son of the mayor of the city then had the Chever de la Barre followed by a spy, leading to his arrest. Voltaire notes that he was in Abbeville on business when de la Barre and an acomplice named Moisnel were escorted there from Paris, writing that there was great consternation in the city. In an ‘Autre extrait’ appended to the tale, Voltaire writes that the accused were condemned by the Paris parliament to have their tongue and fist cut off, their heads cut off, and their body thrown into flames. This happened to the Chever de la Barre but a similar fate had not yet befallen Moisnel. Several lawyers signed a consultation proving the illegality of the judgement (of 25 judges, 15 opined death, and 10 opined light correction.)