STENDHAL'S MISSION IN ANCONA (March 1832)
According to unpublished letters

The French consular agent in Ancona was, in February 1832, a man named Frederic Quilliet. On March 6, he was placed under the orders of Beyle and perhaps he did not accept the thing without a secret shock. We have read, in the letter of March 14, Stendhal's assessment of his predecessor: "Mr. Quilliet has spared us great embarrassment, but is a little hasty in financial matters." The following letters are silent on the character: he must have given full satisfaction to Beyle, because we readily believe that the latter would not have failed to complain to the ambassador, if his subordinate had given him the pretext. Having again become the incumbent of the consular post by the departure of Stendhal, Quilliet does not seem to have had the full esteem of General de Cubières or Saint-Aulaire. Let us quote a letter of. second to first about the appointment of an agent. policy with the general: “Certainly, I will not entrust Quilliet with the mission for which you do not consider him suitable; I completely agree with you on this. (April 17.) In matters of accounting, the proceedings of the vice-consul of Ancona did not take long to arouse the protests of Beyle, who did not wish to be held responsible for the errors of someone who was acting on his own. Stendhal wrote to a secretary at the embassy to inform Saint-Aulaire:

Rome, May 15, 1832,
Sir, I understand less and less the conduct of M. Quilliet, vice-consul at Ancona. If you have the kindness to read the enclosed letters, you will see, Sir, that M. Quilliet persists in issuing drafts on the Treasury in Paris. M. Quilliet does not have this right, I have told him so and written to him very often. I have warned twice in writing a M. Corradi, of Ancona, to whom it appears that M. Quilliet negotiated these drafts. It seems to me that these drafts will not be paid in Paris. In any case, I will not be able to take them on my account. I believe I must announce to the Ambassador the singular behavior of M. Quilliet. I will be very grateful if you would like to say a word about it to His Excellency. I would not like to harm Mr. Quilliet, but however, as this can have serious consequences, it seemed to me that His Excellency should not be unaware of what is happening.
Kindly accept, Sir, the new assurances of the high consideration with which I have the honor to be your very humble and very obedient servant. : signed H. BEYLE,

It seemed to him necessary to address himself to a higher place, when the commander of the French fleet at Ancona, the Baron de La Susse, maintained that Frédéric Quilliet was fully within his rights.

He wrote again to Saint-Aulaire:

Monsieur le Comte: "I had the honour, some time ago, to inform Your Excellency that M. Quilliet, then Vice-Consul at Ancona, had granted himself the right to draw bills of exchange on M. le Payeur of the central expenses of the Treasury in Paris. I announced the issue of these drafts to the Minister of Marine. the in no way cares about the exclusive right to issue drafts, but I warn His Exc. Mr. Minister of the Navy that, unless there are specific orders, I will not admit in my account the drafts of Mr. Quilliet.
Such was the state of. things, when on May 24 last, M. de La Susse, Commander of the Navy at Ancona, did me the honor of writing me the attached letter. Your Excellency will note that by quoting Article 52 of the Regulations of the Navy of 1784 and Article 234 of the Ordinance of October 31, 1827, Captain de La Susse establishes the rights of simple consuls. These are the terms of the letter from the Baron de La Susse.
There is therefore no question of vice-consuls and even less of vice-consuls who, in forty-eight hours, can correspond with their chief. I am in no way attached to the exclusive right to issue drafts, but it is impossible for me to take responsibility for the financial operations of the Marquis del Monte, a man of integrity, no doubt, but probably little versed in the knowledge of military regulations.
I am going to address His Exc. Mr. Minister of the Navy, the letter from Mr. Baron de La Susse which I will beg Your Excellency to send me back. I did not believe that Your Excellency should be unaware of what
happens in the financial part of the service of Ancona. Your Excellency will notice that the naval contracts were passed between MM. Welsh and Quilliet on the one hand and Mr. Antonio Corradi on the other, without my participation and prior to my arrival in Ancona.
I am with respect, Monsieur le Comte, of Your Excellency, the very humble and very obedient servant.
H. BEYLE,
Rome, May 26, 1832.

Here is the text of the letter to the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Comte de Rigny:

Mr. Count,

Mr. Frédéric Quilliet, sent several months ago to Ancona by His Exc. M. le Comte de Saint-Aulaire, Ambassador of France in Rome, to temporarily fulfill the functions of Vice-Consul of France, has just drawn several letters on behalf of the navy from M. the payer of the central expenses of the Treasury. I made it known several times to M. Quilliet that he had no right to issue such drafts. I don't know if it will suit the Ministry of the Navy to accept M. Quilliet's drafts. Unless your Excellency orders, I will not admit these drafts into my account with the ministry. No doubt, with the best possible intentions, M. Quilliet often made me wait for the documents necessary for my accounts. Often these parts were found not to be in order, they had to make the trip several times from Civita-Vecchia to Ancona. For these reasons, I do not have extreme confidence in the accounts and contracts drawn up by Mr. Quilliet on behalf of the navy.
As soon as I became aware of the issue of the bills of which I have the honor to inform Your Excellency, I wrote to M. Quilliet to urge him to withdraw them. I also wrote to a banker in Ancona, named Antonio Corradi, whom I know to be in the habit of taking the paper from Paris. I warn M. Corradi that it is quite possible that the Ministry of the Navy will refuse to pay drafts drawn in a way which seems to me irregular: M. Quilliet and M. Corradi have known for a long time that the custom is only on delivery of the documents in order, I issue drafts on Mr. Paymaster of the central expenditures of the Treasury. This is how they saw things happen during my stay in Ancona. MM. Quilliet and Corradi do not seem disposed so far to withdraw the irregular drafts issued by the first, and probably taken by the second; I thought it my duty to inform Your Excellency of this state of affairs. Mr. Frédéric Quilliet has just been recalled from Ancona by His Exec. Monsieur le Comte de Saint-Aulaire. It was proposed to H. Exc. Mr. Minister of Foreign Affairs for the post of Vice-Consul in Ancona Mr. the Marquis Bourbon del Monte, rich. owner of the country.

I am...

After reading this letter, one understands its repercussions in the world of offices. The minister of the navy sent a copy of it, with a note which underlined "the disturbing insinuations of M. Beyle", to the minister of foreign affairs who, on June 20, sent the ambassador a copy of the prose of Beyle and Admiral de Rigny and added his opinion. He approved of the choice of the Marquis del Monte as consular agent in Ancona, pointed out some appearances of irregularity in the accounts of Quilliet, who had not sent the supporting documents. But Beyle himself was not without reproach, in the eyes of Minister Sebastini: he asked me that after that his accounts will be completely covered”.

For his part, the captain of La Susse refuted, in four long pages, Beyle's attacks: if there were ships staying only a few hours in the harbour, how could he get the necessary money in time, since he it took at least forty-eight hours to go from Ancona to Civita-Vecchia and back. Besides, was it not imprudent to "run the high roads of Italy with coins all paid for in advance"? According to M. de La Susse, there were many regulations and many ministerial dispatches to grant the vice-consuls the right to issue bills of exchange. As for the errors in the accounting documents of which Beyle speaks, they were imaginary, and it was the sub-intendancy of Ancona and not of Civita-Vecchia which pointed out some irregularities. Unfortunate Stendhal, who saw happening there what he feared the most, when he wrote on March 15 that it would be "unpleasant to him, on the arrival of a military intendant, to see, redo and correct" all that what he would have done.

In these disputes, Beyle always had the support of M. de Saint-Aulaire, who wrote to the Comte de Rigny, how the Consul of Civita-Vecchia had been charged with the expenses and accounts of the expeditionary corps: "The zeal and the "The intelligence of this consul knew how to provide for this double service," said the ambassador. A new request for leave was transmitted, once the accounts had been returned and approved. Stendhal wanted to come to France for the month of August. He did not receive satisfaction until October 1832. With this leave logically ends this episode of the mission to Ancona which interested Stendhal, if we are to believe the letter of "June 11 to the Baron de Mareste: "My mission to Ancona interested me a lot, I just tore up a page on it”. Certainly Beyle had to try again to summarize his impressions, and perhaps the analysis of the Stendhalian manuscripts deposited at the Grenoble Library will give us this document...

Ferdinand Boyer.