BIRTH OF THE FUTURE NAPOLEON III BONAPARTE (Elisa). Letter signed to Hortense de Beauharnais. Piombino [on the Tuscan coast], 4 May 1808. 1/3 p. in-8, envelope preserved with postal countersignature "La Princesse de Lucques" and vestiges of 3 armorial seals in red wax; handwritten note in ink dating from the Second Empire. "I was very happy, my dear Hortense, to learn that you gave me a beautiful grand-nephew [on 20 April 1808], and above all that your childbirth did not make you suffer for long; receive my sincere compliment, and keep for me an attachment as tender as the one I have devoted to you for life...". Elisa Bonaparte, who was to become Grand Duchess of Tuscany in 1809, was then Princess of Piombino and Lucca.