Description
LANNES (JEAN). Autograph letter signed to his wife Louise Guéheneuc. Sankt-Pölten [50 km west of Vienna], May 8, 1809. One p. in-4, address on spine, vestige of red wax seal; tear to address leaf due to opening without damage to text. ONE OF THE LAST KNOWN LETTERS FROM MARECHAL LANNES: he was to die on May 31, 1809 from wounds received at the battle of Essling on May 22. "I have stayed a few days... without writing to you; WE [ARE] NIGHT [AND] DAYS ON THE MOVE; I have instructed La Bédoyère, whom I sent to the Emperor, to tell you that I am doing well; everything couldn't be better. I hope the campaign won't be long; I RECOMMEND YOU SO MUCH, MY DEAR LOUISE, DON'T WORRY, ALL DANGERS ARE OVER; take good care of arranging Maison, I'm giving you carte blanche [her château and estate of Maisons, now Maisons-Laffitte]..." Charles-Angélique-François Huchet de La Bédoyère, aide-de-camp to Marshal Lannes, would become aide-de-camp to Napoleon I, general and peer of France during the Hundred Days. He was sentenced to death and shot at the start of the Second Restoration. Letter reproduced in Ronald Zins' Le Maréchal Lannes, favori de Napoléon (Reyrieux, Horace Cardon, 2009, full-page on one of the unnumbered color inserts).
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LANNES (JEAN). Autograph letter signed to his wife Louise Guéheneuc. Sankt-Pölten [50 km west of Vienna], May 8, 1809. One p. in-4, address on spine, vestige of red wax seal; tear to address leaf due to opening without damage to text. ONE OF THE LAST KNOWN LETTERS FROM MARECHAL LANNES: he was to die on May 31, 1809 from wounds received at the battle of Essling on May 22. "I have stayed a few days... without writing to you; WE [ARE] NIGHT [AND] DAYS ON THE MOVE; I have instructed La Bédoyère, whom I sent to the Emperor, to tell you that I am doing well; everything couldn't be better. I hope the campaign won't be long; I RECOMMEND YOU SO MUCH, MY DEAR LOUISE, DON'T WORRY, ALL DANGERS ARE OVER; take good care of arranging Maison, I'm giving you carte blanche [her château and estate of Maisons, now Maisons-Laffitte]..." Charles-Angélique-François Huchet de La Bédoyère, aide-de-camp to Marshal Lannes, would become aide-de-camp to Napoleon I, general and peer of France during the Hundred Days. He was sentenced to death and shot at the start of the Second Restoration. Letter reproduced in Ronald Zins' Le Maréchal Lannes, favori de Napoléon (Reyrieux, Horace Cardon, 2009, full-page on one of the unnumbered color inserts).
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