EUGÉNIE (1826-1920) Empress, wife of Napoleon III. L.A. (signed "Comtesse de P."), [May 1871], to Hortense Thayer (General Bertrand's daughter); 4pages in-8. Letter from exile during the Commune, signed with a pseudonym. Eugénie didn't want to write until she knew "if it was possible to do so surely. When one has been so cruelly tested, one fears everything, and especially to hurt one's friends without knowing it. [...] I thought I had exhausted all the worries, all the suffering, but day by day we see new misfortunes coming down on France, and we feel the painful backlash". She evokes "a certain crown of violets" which "also hid thorns". She asks us to "pray for ourselves, so that God may give us courage against injustice, and submission to his decrees and the hope of one day finding near him the only reward we should wish for... mine remember you"...