"YOU HAVE TO HAVE VERY LITTLE SPIRIT TO... TO GIVE IN HEADLO - Lot 241

Lot 241
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Result : 14 300EUR
"YOU HAVE TO HAVE VERY LITTLE SPIRIT TO... TO GIVE IN HEADLO - Lot 241
"YOU HAVE TO HAVE VERY LITTLE SPIRIT TO... TO GIVE IN HEADLONG TO THE BELIEF THAT PRUSSIA IS DECLARING WAR ON US...". NAPOLEON I. Letter signed "Nap" to Archchancellor Jean-Jacques-Régis Cambacérès. Ebersdorf [today Kaiserebersdorf, southeast of Vienna, opposite the island of Lobau], May 20, 1809. 3/4 p. in-4. Letter written on the eve of the battle of Essling. Vienna taken on May 14, Napoleon I was looking for a way to reach the Austrian army deployed on the other bank of the Danube, even though the bridges had been destroyed. Most of his own troops were stationed on the island of Lobau. "My cousin, I have received your letter of the 14th. I see with pity the lack of consistency of opinion in Paris, the perpetual fears, and all the effects of idle talk and malice. I am sorry for the people of Paris, and for you who are there. You must have very little spirit to believe in this nonsense and to give in headlong to the belief that Prussia is declaring war on us. It is also true that the Minister of War has done all he could to alarm the public [General Henri Clarke], and that rumors have been given as sure which have no common sense [allusion to the alleged army raised by Major von Schill]..." Prussia, defeated in 1806 and 1807, was still rebuilding its army and was not yet ready for action - it would not resume the fight against Napoleon I until 1813. Napoleon I, Correspondance générale, Paris, Fayard, vol. IX, 2013, no. 21052. An export certificate for a cultural object will be issued with this letter.
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