BEAUHARNAIS (Alexandre de). Autograph letter signed "Le Vte - Lot 204

Lot 204
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BEAUHARNAIS (Alexandre de). Autograph letter signed "Le Vte - Lot 204
BEAUHARNAIS (Alexandre de). Autograph letter signed "Le Vte de Beauharnois" to Désirée de Renaudin. Château de La Rocheguyon, May 29, 1780. 2 pp. in-8 square, address on spine, red wax seal with human profile; marginal cuts due to opening without affecting text. The future general and president of the Constituante had just married the future Empress Josephine, in December 1779. With little interest in family life, he was staying with his friend and protector, the Duc de La Rochefoucauld, at the home of the latter's mother, the Duchesse d'Enville. This cultivated woman ran a salon popular with Enlightenment thinkers and literati, and with her husband, who died in 1762, had built up an extensive library in her château at La Rocheguyon. "My dear aunt, I pity you very much if you experience the heat we have here. The weather, combined with the position of the château, makes life unbearable for part of the day, and forces us to be hermetically sealed until seven o'clock in the evening. Fortunately, the rehearsals we do for the plays we have to perform at the end of the week mean that we are often in the theatre, where we breathe fresh air, as it is in a sort of cellar. The bibliot[h]èque is also a place I frequent, and most of my day is spent reading. By his last letters which I received, I judge that you must be back in Noisy and enjoying the advantage of possessing Melle de La Pagerie; but I am worried about the health of my father who, as my wife [Joséphine] tells me, has recently been purged; I hope you will not let me ignore his condition... I am writing to my wife by the same post...". Désirée Tascher de La Pagerie, Empress Joséphine's paternal aunt, had married Alexis Renaudin, officer to the governor of Martinique.
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