A Mysterious Murder in Barnes
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Henry Williams Wynn, the writer of this letter, seems to have been a fairly blameless gentleman. An MP and later ambassador to Switzerland, and as far as I can discover no great scandal attached to his name.
His correspondent, however, was an entirely different matter. The Comte d'Antraigues was a Royalist intriguer of the most conservative sort. That didn't stop him revealing Royalist plans to Napoleon's government in order to save himself, before doing a little spying for the Russians. After travelling all over Europe to find a place of refuge, he finally arrived in London.
He settled in Barnes (a very pretty spot on the outskirts of London) where things appear to have calmed down somewhat . . . until the day in 1812 when he and his wife were killed (still in Barnes) by a former servant. Whether this was a long-standing grudge or perhaps the servant had been hired by one of d'Antraigues (very) many enemies remains a mystery.