A rare letter written by Napoleon Bonaparte showing his poor grasp of English is expected to fetch up to £65,000 at auction.
2:39PM BST 06 Jun 2012
2 Comments
The scrawled note, up for sale this weekend in Paris, is one of just three written by the emperor in March 1816 while in exile on the island of Saint Helena after his defeat at the battle of Waterloo.
Napoleon was keen to learn English to better understand his captors and took daily language lessons with his aide, Emmanuel, the Comte de las Cases.
Despite being a keen student – he would write to his teacher when he couldn't sleep – the letter suggests the emperor was a far better military strategist than linguist. His spoken English was apparently even more unintelligible.
He wrote: "Count Las Case. It is two o'clock after midnight, I have enow sleep, I go then finish the night into to cause with you." The message was that he had had enough sleep and wanted a chat with his teacher.
He goes on: "He shall land above seven day, a ship from Europe that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first January thousand eight hundred sixteen.
But zI tire myself and you shall have of the ado at conceive my."
It is not known what response he received.
The auction will take place in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, on Sunday.