SERIES J "When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer, That is the time of peril—the time of the truce of the Bear!" -KIPLING. LETTERS OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON TO THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE DURING HIS STAY AT ERFURT, 1808. No. I. TO THE EMPRESS, AT ST. CLOUD. Erfurt, September 29, 1808. I have rather a cold. I have received your letter, dated Malmaison. I am well pleased with the Emperor and every one here. It is an hour after midnight, and I am tired. No. 2. TO THE EMPRESS, AT ST. CLOUD. NAPOLEON. October 9, 1808. My Dear, I have received your letter. I note with pleasure that you are well. I have just been shooting over the battlefield of Jena. We had breakfast (déjeuné) at the spot where I bivouacked on the night of the battle. I assisted at the Weimar ball. The Emperor Alexander dances; but not I. Forty years are forty years. My health is really sound, in spite of a few trifling ailments. Adieu, dear; I hope to see you soon.-Yours ever, NAPOLEON. No. 3. TO THE EMPRESS, AT ST. CLOUD. My Dear,-I write you seldom; I am very busy. Conversations which last whole days, and which do not improve my cold. Still all goes well. I am pleased with Alexander; he ought to be with me. If he were a woman, I think I should make him my sweetheart. I shall be back to you shortly; keep well and let me find you plump and rosy. Adieu, dear. NAPOLEON. SERIES K "The winter campaign commenced on the 1st of November 1808, and terminated on the 1st of March 1809, to the advantage of the French, who, for that reason, denominate it the Imperial Campaign. The Spaniards were long before they could recover from the terror caused by the defeat of their armies, the capture of Madrid, the surrender of Saragossa, and the departure of the English from Corunna."-Sarrazin's History of the War in Spain and Portugal, 1815. |