A Monsieur le Duc de Leeds.
Monsieur,—Longtems que j'ay le bien de vous connoitre come il y a par la reputation que vous vous estes acquise dans le monde, vous devez estre assuré my Lord que les marques de votre amitié m'ont este fort agreable et que i'ay este bien aise que vous serés Contant de l'acceuil que j'ais fait au my Lords vos petits fils lesquels par leur propre merite s'attirent l'estime de tous ceux qui les voie, et dont vous devez estre fort content. Je les chargeres fort à leur retour de vous assurer du cas que je faits de votre amitié et de la reconnaissance avec la qu'elle je suis Monsieur
Votre tres affectione
a vous servir
Sophie Electrice.
Je me souviens fort bien du tems que vous faites le mariage du Roy Guillaume et des bons bons sentiment que vous tenies en cœur.
A.L.S. OF KING WILLIAM III. FROM CAMP BEFORE NAMUR, JULY 13, 1795.
LAST PAGE OF A.L.S. OF EMPRESS CATHERINE OF RUSSIA TO MRS. DE BIELKE, OF HAMBURG, JULY 28, 1767.
Letters of Frederick the Great, be they holograph or merely signed, are cheaper in England than on the Continent. Even the L.S. are often witty, and I have met with many good specimens at from 10s. to 15s. One of the greatest treasures in my collection is a superb letter of the Empress Catharine II. of Russia, dated July 28, 1767, and addressed to Madame de Bielke, of Hamburg, who gave it to a Foreign Office official, Sir Charles Flint, from whose descendant it passed into my possession. It was submitted by M. Noël Charavay[27] to M. Rambaud, ex-Minister of Public Instruction, Professor at the Sorbonne, who discovered it to be one of an important series, of which sixteen are published in the "Collection de la Société impériale d'histoire de Russie." Sir Charles Flint was an early collector of autographs, and his duties as a King's Messenger gave him excellent opportunities of picking up treasures like this. I think it best to give the letter in the original French, instead of following the modernised version adopted in Paris:—