Letter 056 — LVI
Original French
Géra, le 13 octobre 1806, deux heures du matin.
Je suis aujourd’hui à Géra, ma bonne amie; mes affaires vont fort bien, et tout comme je pouvais l’espérer. Avec l’aide de Dieu, en peu de jours cela aura un caractère bien terrible, je crois, pour le pauvre roi de Prusse, que je plains personnellement, parce qu’il est bon. La reine est à Erfurt avec le roi. Si elle veut voir une bataille, elle aura ce cruel plaisir. Je me porte à merveille; j’ai déjà engraissé depuis mon départ; cependant, je fais de ma personne vingt et vingt-cinq lieues par jour, à cheval, en voiture, de toutes les manières. Je me couche à huit heures, et suis levé à minuit: je songe quelquefois que tu n’es pas encore couchée. Tout à toi.
Musean translation
Machine-assisted Musean English translated from the French of the 172 Napoleon letters selected from Tancrède Martel, ed., Œuvres littéraires de Napoléon Bonaparte, tome 1 (Albert Savine, Paris, 1888). French Wikisource contributors supplied the scan-backed transcription: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Bonaparte_-_Œuvres_littéraires,_tome_1,_1888.djvu (page histories credit contributors). The transcription is CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/; this adapted text and translations are shared under the same license. Extraction removes markup and editorial notes; selected transcription repairs were checked against print images.
Géra, October 13, 1806, two in the morning.
I am at Géra today, my good friend; my affairs are going very well, just as I could have hoped. With God's help, in a few days they will take a very terrible turn, I believe, for the poor King of Prussia, whom I pity personally, because he is a good man. The Queen is at Erfurt with the King. If she wishes to see a battle, she will have that cruel pleasure. I am wonderfully well; I have already grown fatter since I left; yet I travel twenty and twenty-five leagues a day myself, on horseback, in a carriage, in every manner. I go to bed at eight and am up at midnight: sometimes I think that you have not yet gone to bed. All yours.
Plain English translation
Independent machine-assisted Plain English translation from the 1888 Martel French edition, not a historical English translation. French Wikisource contributors supplied the scan-backed transcription: https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Bonaparte_-_Œuvres_littéraires,_tome_1,_1888.djvu (page histories credit contributors). The adapted transcription and translation are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Extraction removes markup and editorial notes and makes documented transcription repairs. French-source model review is not human specialist certification or a complete scan collation.
Gera, October 13, 1806, two in the morning.
Today I am at Gera, my dear friend; my affairs are going extremely well, just as I could have hoped. God helping, I believe that in a few days they will have taken a very terrible turn for the poor King of Prussia, whom I personally pity because he is good. The queen is at Erfurt with the king. Should she wish to witness a battle, she will have that cruel pleasure. My health is excellent; I have even grown fatter since I left, though I personally cover twenty or twenty-five leagues a day, on horseback, in a carriage, by every means. I go to bed at eight and rise at midnight; I sometimes think you have not yet gone to bed. All yours.
About this section
Letter 056 — LVI is part of Letters to Josephine by Napoléon Bonaparte. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is part 56 of 172 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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