DAVOUT (Louis-Nicolas). Autograph letter... - Lot 6 - Osenat

DAVOUT (Louis-Nicolas). Autograph letter signed to his wife Aimée Leclerc. Osterode [now Ostróda in Poland], May 16 [1807]. 1 p. 1/2 in-folio on azure paper, address on the back, vestige of red wax seal, 2 tears on the address sheet due to the opening, one of which with long marginal lack without affecting the text. "I have just received, my little Aimée, a letter from Mr. Dudeauville [the duke of Doudeauville, Ambroise-Polycarpe de La Rochefoucauld] who tells me that he and his wife, whenever they go to Paris, go to see you without having the happiness of finding you, even though you have been in Paris. I am only giving you these details to show you that I take the piss when you have something to complain about. It appears from the importance he has placed on talking to me several times about this article that there has been some misunderstanding. I have just learned news which, in all respects, has affected me greatly: it is the death of the young Prince Napoleon, the eldest son of the King of Holland. THE RESPECTFUL DEVOTION WHICH I CARRY TO THE QUEEN, TO THE KING, TO THE IMPERATRIX, MAKES ME TAKE A GREAT SHARE IN THIS MISFORTUNE WHICH IS GOING TO PLUNGE THEM IN THE AFFLICTION. THIS MISFORTUNATES ME ALSO AS A FRENCHMAN, BY THE PAIN THAT THIS DOES TO OUR SOVEREIGN [NAPOLEON I] and finally because it is a misfortune for the State to lose one of its young princes, especially by carrying itself into the future. The respectful attachment that you had for the queen will make this loss very sensitive to you. It is to be hoped that the second will remain to us, and the queen is still young, which must give some hope [queen Hortense would give birth to the future Napoleon III in 1808]. I have been alone for a long time today and I have made only too many reflections on this loss. MAY THE EMPEROR LIVE LONG... I send a thousand caresses to my Joséphine [eldest daughter of the marshal, born in 1804] and a thousand and one kisses to her excellent and beautiful mother. For life your faithful sposo [husband, in Italian] L. Davout" Napoleon-Charles Bonaparte died on May 5, 1807. He was the eldest son of the king of Holland Louis Bonaparte and of his wife Hortense de Beauharnais, therefore the grandson of the empress Joséphine de Beauharnais.