A PASSAGE FROM THE PREFACE TO HIS PART OF THE "DICTÉES DE SAINTE-HÉLÈNE". BERTRAND (Henri-Gatien). Autograph manuscript signed in the text. [Probably early 1840s]. 4 pp. folio and one p. oblong in-8, all on a half-width column, on griffin-watermarked French paper with "Gaudin [...]" countermark; marginal tears, some with restored tears affecting a few letters. This passage comprises two separate souvenirs. "Des dîners avec l'empereur" (Dinners with the Emperor) "On his arrival at Longwood, the Emperor dined with the people who had accompanied him to St Helena. General B[ertran]d then occupied the cottage at Hut's Gate, half a league from Longwood. When he moved into the house that had been built for his family, the Emperor wanted the Marshal and his wife to dine with him every day. It would be surprising if they had any reason not to accept this honour. On the island of Elba, the general, who had his wife and several children with him, was unable to stay in the pavilion inhabited by the emperor, who invited him to take up residence in the town hall. The G[ran]d M[aréch]al ate with his family, and the G[enér]al Drouot dined with the emperor. C[omte]sse Bertrand's good qualities did not include accuracy. It was difficult for her to be dressed and ready at a fixed time. On the island of Elba, she arrived one day when the emperor was at table. The emperor said curtly, and with good reason, that it was not polite to keep her waiting. To dine every day with the emperor would have been an occasion for unpleasant and deserved scenes. It was wise to avoid them...". "Of a planned departure from Longwood". An apologetic text in response to the accusation of wanting to abandon the Emperor insinuated by the Count de Montholon in a letter he wrote from St Helena to bring in another officer who, in his opinion, should have replaced Grand Marshal Bertrand after a voluntary departure: "At the end of 1820, my eldest son was in his twelfth year, my daughter in her eleventh. It became necessary to take care of their education. An English sergeant taught our children to write, and Abbé Vignali, a young Corsican priest, who spoke French rather incorrectly, gave them a few lessons in Latin. C[omte]sse B[ertran]d did not have the accuracy and patience necessary to teach her children herself, nor did the g[éré]al...". Grand Marshal Bertrand explains how he asked permission to send his wife away with their children so that they could receive a proper education. Napoleon Bonaparte refused to allow Countess Bertrand to go with them, and asked that Grand Marshal Bertrand go himself for nine months. He states here: "The General can sincerely say that he never had the intention of abandoning the Emperor, that he never said so, that there was only talk of a nine-month leave...". Extract from the preface to the first volume of Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Napoléon dictés par lui-même à Sainte-Hélène (Paris, Imprimeurs-unis, 1847, pp. xxxvii-xli).