Jeanne Le Roux de la Chapelle, baroness TASCHER DE LA PAGERIE. L.A.S. [in Vauclin, Martinique] March 31, 1804, to her daughter Stephanie (1788-1832, future Duchess of Arenberg); 8 pages in-4. Beautiful and very long and letter about the tragic situation of the colonists of Martinique during the blockade: "this colony quite unhappy since you left it by war and famine and which will be much more so shortly since we expect every day to be attacked by the English, and perhaps, alas, taken by them since we have only very few troops, and that in the cities and countryside one dies of hunger there by nine months of blockade quite well observed for our misfortune and everywhere much too well since the month of January, which authorizes us more to believe in this project of attack and to fear being taken by famine... She asks her to introduce the bearer of the letter to "your dear godfather and godmother" [Bonaparte and Joséphine] so that he pleads in favor of the island "because no one is more true than he [...] and your godfather and godmother will know everything that concerns us with details and truth". She recalls her worries when she learned that during her crossing her ship was taken and brought to England, gives news of her and evokes their difficult situation. "I was hoping that last year's harvest would put me in a position not to lack money. And not at all, the crop is still in the house, the gaboteurs could not continue to bring it to us", and she can no longer find anyone on the island to send it to her, there are no arms, no equipment, no food, and for the first time in her life, she had to borrow. "It is your worthy director and teacher, Father Garnier, and Mr. Nielly, who have supported me up to now. Yes, my dear, it is he alone who every Monday with the affection of a tender son, brings me what he has earned from his carnel of negroes during the week. He is the only one, among all the people she has helped in this city, who is so charitable to her. The absence and the distance of her children is terrible to live, but she supports it "as a Christian", because she has the hope, that when peace comes, she will come to join them in France. "I will go to see you all so that I will not leave you again, my dear children, until I die. She instructs her carrier to bring back portraits of each of her children. "I would like to have each of these portraits on a simple black and plain shell box, which I will kiss a thousand times every 24 hours and which will make the happiness of my life and will help me to support all my ills and the time I will have left to be far from you all...