"FRIAND... A BRAVE MAN...WHO ENJOYS THE ESTEEM OF ALL THE SERVICEMEN..." DAVOUT (Louis-Nicolas). Autograph letter signed to his wife Aimée Leclerc. Liebemühl [now Miłomłyn in Poland], 2 March [1807]. 4 pp. in-4, one angular tear without damage to the text. Marshal Davout, true proconsul of the Grand Duchy of Poland. After his brilliant participation in the Prussian and Polish campaigns (battles of Auerstaedt, Czarnowo, Golymin, Eylau), he was chosen in August 1807 to command the French troops stationed in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Created by the Treaty of Tilsit despite strong reservations on the part of Alexander I, this political entity was to be placed in the hands of King Frederick-Augustus III of Saxony... who took a long time to come and take possession of it. He carried out his task with great mastery and justified the Emperor's confidence: it was thinking of the administrative qualities displayed by Marshal Davout in Poland (and later in Hamburg) that Napoleon I made him his Minister of War in 1815. "I am beginning, my little Aimée, to receive news from you, today's courier gave me your letters of 2 and 5 February and one undated letter. I will begin my reply with the article you are most pressing me about. Regarding Mr Léon de Galz de Malvirade, you can assure Mde La Forest that he is in perfect health and that he is as hardened to fatigue and danger as our old rector Uncle Beaupré, which is saying a lot. Young Malvirade's leaders and comrades were unanimous in their praise. This chorus of praise is reason enough for the benevolence of the 1st military chiefs, but his kinship with Mr and M[m]e La Forest can only add to the desire to support the zeal, intelligence, activity and bravery that this young man has shown from the start. Please assure M[m]e de La Forest that I will be happy to look after her relative. [Baron Léonard de Galtz de Malvirade was at the time the Emperor's first page, and would later become his officer, and was the nephew of Catherine Marie de La Forest, the diplomat's wife; General Jean-Charles Musquinet de Beaupré, attached to the staff of the 3rd Corps of the Grande Armée, was Marshal Davout's maternal uncle]. I have no doubt, my beloved, that the Empress has received you with her usual kindness and that you will not have forgotten to place at her feet the assurance of my respectful homage and devotion... Your details about my little Joséphine [their eldest daughter, born in 1804] give me the best of hopes. I long to share her caresses with you and to enjoy her kindnesses. She is entering the age when a child is very interesting for a father. I'm not saying for a mother, especially one like you, they are even before they are born. The arrival of Friand [General Louis Friant, who distinguished himself at Eylau at the head of the vanguard of the 3rd corps, and who was Marshal Davout's brother-in-law], made me suspend my letter. Tell his wife that he is in good health. Congratulate her on belonging to a brave man who enjoys the esteem of all soldiers and who has a reputation for wit on the battlefield. The more I get to know him, the more I appreciate him. I hope, my little Aimée,... to be able to send you Desessart's [Marshal Davout's brother, General Nicolas-Marin Leclerc Des Essarts, chief of staff of the Friant division in the 3rd corps of the Grande Armée] and Beaupré's advancement. I would have many things to say to you about your letter of the 2nd and about the reproaches which you make to me in it 1° on the sending of my horses. Beaumont [General Marc-Antoine Bonin de La Boninière de Beaumont, husband of the Marshal's sister, Julie Davout] will explain to you the shortage of fodder. If they had followed me, these carriage and parade horses would have given up. In the end, I thought I was doing the best I could. [2°] The discomfort in which you find yourself affects me. I did what I could to come to your rescue. Beaumont will give you my savings. I hope at the end of this month or in the course of the next to be able to send you 10 to 15,000 f. [3°] As for the way you accuse me of having avoided asking [the Emperor for financial help to buy a new home in Paris] by not taking the reasons I gave you at face value, here is the truth. The movements of the enemy, the uncertainty of the weather which made communication with Warsaw long, the bridges being frequently washed away, the Emperor's occupations, the reluctance, even, that I had to ask him for a favour at a time when I was doing what depended on me to deserve his trust and favours, delayed this request to which I was nonetheless resolved out of attachment to you, But the circumstances and the Emperor's occupations have become such that I would have thought it a sin against delicacy to go and talk to him about a particular interest, convinced that my little Aimée would have given me this advice if she had been present. Everything indicates that we are going to enjoy some rest, the enemy realising that it was not to flee from him that we left 12 to 15 leagues of ruined country offering no more resources. Then I will take advantage of His Majesty's kindness to ask him to make it even better by granting me something which would make the best and most adorable of women happy, a house, as the one in the government which she lives in is no longer suitable for accommodation [the Davouts then occupied a flat in the Tuileries]. A thousand caresses to our Joséphine, a thousand kisses to her excellent and beautiful mother. For life your lover and good sposo [husband in Italian] L. Davout...". Marshal Davout, sister-in-law of Pauline Bonaparte. Aimée Leclerc (1782-1868) was brought up in Madame Campan's institution, where she made friends with other famous boarders, including Hortense de Beauharnais, Aglaé Auguié (the future Marshal Ney) and Pauline Bonaparte, who married her brother General Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc (who died in 1802). Aimée Leclerc married the future Marshal Davout in 1801.