164 - RÉMUSAT, COUNTESS OF Claire-Elisabeth-Jeanne de Vergennes [Paris, January 5, 1780 – Paris, December 16, 1821], French writer.

RÉMUSAT, COUNTESS OF Claire-Elisabeth-Jeanne de Vergennes [Paris, January 5, 1780 – Paris, December 16, 1821], French writer. A beautiful letter about the Battle of the Moskva (September 7, 1812). Autograph letter addressed to Mme. Cheron in Auvers. September 24 [1812]; 2½ pages, in-8° format, with address. She has just learned of the “great victory won by the Emperor 15 leagues from Moscow. It came at a high cost, but it was complete. Several generals were killed.” Her brother-in-law, Nansouty, was wounded in the thigh; Generals Montbrun and Grouchy were killed. “There are also reports of wounded, thirty thousand Russian prisoners, 60 cannons captured—in short, a decisive battle; the fighting lasted twelve hours. On the eighth, we were marching on Moscow” ... She expresses the anxiety “felt by mothers and wives” and speaks of her son Charles, aged fifteen: “Charles’s young mind was stirred this morning by the account of the victory and even the danger; he regretted not being twenty years old and not having been there. He was causing me pain without realizing it; as I listened to him, I shuddered at the thought of my future; for surely I would not be strong enough to endure the turmoil that he may already be wishing all too seriously to cause me.” She regrets that the summer vacation has come to an end, which will deprive her of her son’s pleasant company as he returns to school.