Édouard DALADIER. L.A.S., [Château de Chazeron] October 20, 1940, to Mme Félix Gérard in Monte-Carlo; 2pages in-4, envelope (under glass). Beautiful letter from prison. He recalls meeting his correspondent, "among those faithful friends who have never ceased to surround me in difficult hours". He doesn't know when he'll be able to see her again, and quotes Montaigne. "The most important thing is to keep one's soul firm". He will receive books with pleasure: "You are quite right to say that books are true friends"; they will be "welcome in this old feudal castle transformed into a political prison or, if you prefer, into a country Bastille. The main thing is that they contain between their pages neither rope ladders made of silk or ersatz silk, nor files for sawing through bars, nor plans for escape through chimneys, in short, nothing of the kind that the unfortunate Latude once received"...