Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 / For the First Time Collected and Translated, with Notes Social, Historical, and Chronological, from Contemporary Sources

by Emperor of the French Napoleon I

No. 18.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Schoenbrunn, August 26, 1809.

I have your letter from Malmaison. They bring me word that you are plump, florid, and in the best of health, I assure you Vienna is not an amusing city. I would very much rather be back again in Paris.

Adieu, dear. Twice a week I listen to the comedians (bouffons); they are but very middling; it, however, passes the evenings. There are fifty or sixty women of Vienna, but outsiders (au parterre), as not having been presented.

Napoleon.

No. 19.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Schoenbrunn, August 31, 1809.

I have had no letter from you for several days; the pleasures of Malmaison, the beautiful greenhouses, the beautiful gardens, cause the absent to be forgotten. It is, they say, the rule of your sex. Every one speaks only of your good health; all this is very suspicious.