PRECIOUS TRAVEL DIARY FROM VOLHYNIA TO SILESIA (from the then Russian Ukraine to today's Czech Republic) ENGHIEN (Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon, Duc d'). Autograph manuscript. July-August 1798. 2 pp. large folio. The last descendant of the House of Condé, kidnapped and executed on the orders of Napoleon I, the Duc d'Enghien (1772-1804) was a prince of the blood, godson of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and distinguished himself in emigration in all the campaigns of the army of his grandfather the Prince Condé against the revolutionary troops. He followed this army when it was sold out by the Tsar and stationed from 1798 to 1801 in Volhynia, at Doubno near Loutsk (modern-day Ukraine). After being imprudently stationed in Germany near the French border, when Napoleon Bonaparte feared royalist plots, he was abducted by a French commando in March 1804 and, after a show trial, was executed in the moat of the Château de Vincennes. His royal origins, his bravery, his sensitive character and the fate of a destiny cut short in his youth made him a romantic figure before his time. Rare diary of a journey through Eastern Europe, from Russian Volhynia to the Austrian territories of Moravia, Galicia and Silesia, in other words, on today's map of Europe, from the Ukraine through Poland to the Czech Republic. Here are the opening lines: "July. 2. Left Lutzc on 2 July to sleep in Rojitché. Walked through the gardens and cornfields, returning by the river. An oil mill. - 3. In Tortschin. Rain and mud, lodging at a Russian general's castle, Sarastro and Pinchiko lost. - 4. In Lokatché. Walking in the fields. Missed a moorhen, stayed in the house of Mde de Wilga arranged for the Duke of Berry. Beautiful surroundings. - 5. At Wlodiemiers, storms, small house on the marsh, gallery. - 6. Stay in Vlodiemiers, I go hunting, heavy rain, I do not go out in the evening. - 7. Passage of the Boog to Rubischoff in Gallicia. I at castle, she opposite, great nayade, we go to see the place. Sleep in car after supper in courtyard. - 8. In Hérizofkusky. Bad hole in the so-called castle. People in the same room. Hunting in the afternoon in a requisition carriage. Supper in the courtyard, sleeping in the carriage. Garden full of rozes. - 9. In the town of Zamosk. Large castle. Walking in a fruit garden. Suburb, unusual cemetery, dinner in the garden on the ramparts... August... 16. In Littau. Lovely surroundings. Love in the piss. In a shop on the first floor. Me at an iron merchant's. Fishing in the open sea, then a walk in the woods. - 17. Stay in Littau. Same hunt with Medor. Henry stays to look for him. Pretty meadows, pretty brooks, purchase of abrikots. - 18. In Miglitz. Me in a corner of a little street, the P[rince]sse in the square, the pentalon knitted, sad walk in the plain. Sitting on the tiller of the carriage in the evening. Night walk in the square. Billiards at the P[rince]sse's. 19. In Stribau. The Duc d'Enghien thus details his day-to-day travels: leaving on 2 July 1798 from Loutsk in Volhynia (under Russian control since the third division of Russia in 1795), he passed through Horodyshche, Lokachi, Tortchine, Volodimir, then entered Galicia on 7 July (then Austrian territory since the first division of Poland in 1772), and passed through Hrubieszów, Horyszów, Zamość, Szczebrzeszyn, Józefów, Tarnogród, Sieniawa, Przeworsk, Łańcut ("Landshut"), Rzeszów, Sędziszów, Dębica, Pilzno, Tarnów, Wojnicz, Brzesko, Bochnia, Gdów, Myślenice, Kalwaria, Wadowice, Andrychów, and Biała. He then crossed a portion of Austrian Silesia from 8 August, via Skotschau (today Skoczow in Poland), Teschen (today Cieszyn in Poland), and Friedek (today Frýdek in the Czech Republic), and entered Moravia (today in the Czech Republic) on 12 August, passing through Neutitschein (today Nový Jičín), Leipnitz (today Lipnik), Olmütz (today Olomouc, 50 km from Austerlitz), Littau (Litovel), Müglitz (today Mohelnice), Triebau (today Moravská Třebová). With his mistress, Princess Charlotte de Rohan-Rochefort, mentioned several times in the manuscript. A descendant of the Dukes of Brittany through her father the Prince de Rochefort and a descendant of King Charles V through her mother Marie-Henriette d'Orléans-Rothelin, Charlotte de Rohan-Rochefort (1767-1841) enjoyed a brilliant youth, particularly assisting her mother who ran a popular salon, and was saddened only by the disgrace of her beloved godfather the Cardinal de Rohan, Archbishop of Strasbourg, who was involved in the "affair of the necklace". She left with her family to emigrate in 1790, and had several opportunities to see the Duc d'Enghien, in Worms in February 1791, in Ettenheim on the German lands of the Cardinal de Rohan (on the right bank of the Rhine opposite Alsace) throughout 1792 and at the end of 1793: it was at this time, when she was looking after the sick duke, that a strong romantic feeling developed between them. A long separation followed, until in 1798 she was able to join the Duc d'Enghien in Loutsk in the Ukraine, where she travelled with him back to Germany. She saw him again the following year in Linz, Austria, and when Condé's army was disbanded in 1801, the Duc d'Enghien was released from his obligations and came to live with her in Ettenheim: they married morganatically in November 1803, in the presence of two witnesses, one of whom was Baron von Grünstein. After the execution of the Duc d'Enghien three months later, she lived in his memory and never remarried. In addition to his mistress, the Duc d'Enghien names some of the people who accompanied him, such as Louis-Auguste Schwengsfeld, Baron de Grünstein, a colonel in Condé's army, and Commander Méallet de Fargues, who also served in Condé's army and died in battle in 1806. He mentions the places where he found lodgings, sometimes with notable people, such as Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (in his castle at Sieniawa, but "lodged in the outbuildings"), Princess Lubomirska, Elżbieta Izabela Czartoryska (at her castle in Łańcut), Prince Sanguszko (Hieronim Janusz or his son Eustachy Erazm, who served for a time in the French army and married a Czartoryska), at the home of the Prince of Carignan in Myślenice, or at the home of the Bishop of Tarnow. In the vast majority of cases, however, the Duke or his mistress stopped off at modest places, inns, the home of a parish priest, the Capuchins, a Protestant minister, a merchant, or even in the attic of a stable. His leisure activities are also indicated: billiards, dominoes, but above all the hunting parties in which he took part, with details of his horses, his dogs and the game he brought back. A picturesque, pre-Romantic journey. Although many of his remarks concern material things, such as clothes and food ("buying abrikots" in Littau), many of them are in fact the memory of a journey in which his interest in the beauty of nature, both wild and domesticated, and in remarkable monuments such as the medieval castle of Lanckorona (near Kalwaria) and the Renaissance castle of the Žerotín family in Nový Jičín, or in prominent people, including a peasant and Jews, play an important role. He talks about his baths in the countryside, records all the walks he took with his mistress, but never forgets to mention the pretty girls he met. The present document bears on the 3rd page a certificate of authenticity signed by Benjamin de Rohan-Rochefort, brother of Charlotte de Rohan-Rochefort.