100. NAPOLEON I. Autograph letter, in English,... Lot 100

100. NAPOLEON I. Autograph letter, in English, to Count Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné de Las Cases. Longwood to St. Helena, 6 March 1816. 1 p. in-8 square, address on back in English "Counte Lascases. Longwood. Very urgent". Mitered in a volume bound in-folio, half brown morocco leather, smooth spine decorated with gilt crowned imperial eagle, spine a little rubbed (modern binding). RARISSIVE AUTOGRAPH OF NAPOLEON I WRITTEN IN ENGLISH TO SAINT HELEN. Only three autograph letters in English from Napoleon are currently known, all addressed to Las Cases, one of which is preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France: the historian Peter Hicks has listed them in an article and has also mentioned the existence of autograph fragments of exercises in English. "Sir count Las Cases. I write you this letter for say to you that you had done a very good book. It is not however that is not somme fautes, but you schal may corect them in the next edition: then schal you may sell your work five pound [biffed: "l'exemplairy"] every exemplairy. Upon that I pray God that he have you in his holy and worthy guard." Translation: "Monsieur le comte de Las Cases. I am writing you this letter to tell you that you have written a very good book. It is not, however, that there are not a few mistakes, but you could correct them in the next edition: then you could sell your work for five pounds per copy. On that note, I pray to God that he may have you in his holy and worthy care. VERY PRECIOUS LETTER TO HIS FELLOW EXILE, FUTURE MEMORIALIST... AND PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH. In his Memorial of Saint Helena, Las Cases relates how, in March 1816, Napoleon wrote him letters in English: the first one to play a trick on him by anonymously criticizing his historical Atlas (6th March), and the following ones as a training exercise (7th March and the night of 8th-9th March). Las Cases evokes precisely the present letter of March 6: "A moment before dinner, I went, as usual, to the living room, the Emperor was playing a game of chess with the grand marshal. The valet of service at the door of the living room came to bring me a letter, it had on it: very pressed. By respect for the emperor, I hid to try to read it, it was in English, one said there that I had made a very beautiful work, that it was not however exempt from faults, that if I wanted to correct them in a new edition, no doubt that the work was not worth much better. And on this they prayed to God that he would have me in his worthy and holy care. Such a letter aroused my surprise, a little my anger, the red had risen to my face, it was to the point that I had not given myself time to consider the writing. As I went through it I recognized the hand, in spite of the unusual beauty of the writing, and I could not help laughing at it. But the Emperor, who saw me from the side, asked me from whom the letter I had been given was. I replied that it was a letter which had impressed upon me a very different feeling from the one it would leave me. I said it so naturally, the mystification had been so complete, that he laughed himself to tears. The letter was from him, the schoolboy had wanted to make fun of his master, and to try himself at his expense. I HOLD ON TO THIS LETTER CAREFULLY, THE GAIETY, STYLE AND CIRCUMSTANCE MAKE IT MORE PRECIOUS TO ME THAN ANY OF THE PATENTS THAT THE EMPEROR COULD HAVE GIVEN ME IN THE TIME OF HIS POWER" (text of the original manuscript published in 2018). HOW NAPOLEON LEARNED TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF HIS JAILERS. Once in British hands in Northumberland, Napoleon I expressed a desire to learn the language of his jailers. Count de Las Cases, who had lived in London as an emigrant during the Revolution and the First Restoration, seemed ideally suited to this task. He gave his first two lessons to the emperor during the ship's stopover at Funchal on the island of Madeira (23-25 August 1815). However, as the English officers all spoke French, the experiment was interrupted for five months. On 16 January 1816, Napoleon I wished to resume these lessons in earnest. Count de Las Cases, in his Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, says: "He came to remark that it was a shame that he did not yet know how to read English", and then regularly indicates until April 1816 the progress of his pupil, who managed to read without too much difficulty, to write with more or less difficulty, but, as Betsy Balcombe confirmed, to speak in a rather bizarre sabir: - 17 January 1816: "Today the Emperor took his first English lesson [...]. My great object was to put him in a position to read the news-papers promptly [...] The Emperor then wanted to do some themes: he wrote down dictated sentences, and translated them into English, with the aid of a little table I made for him for auxiliary verbs and articles, at the