Marshal Jean Lannes - Autographed Letter Signed - Napoleon I

Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello (1769–1809), Marshal of the Empire.
Autograph letter signed to his father-in-law, François-Scholastique Guéhenneuc. Lisbon, 12 Messidor, Year XI [July 1, 1803]; 1 1/4 pages, quarto.
Having just been appointed ambassador to Lisbon on March 12, 1803, Lannes recounts a bizarre anecdote to his father-in-law: “I am sending an extraordinary courier, my friend, to the First Consul, to inform him of the insult that has once again been inflicted upon me in my own home; a band of brigands tried to assail us with stones. I was not at home at the time.” I returned with Louise [his wife Louise Guéhenneuc] to the fort of the scene. I jumped out of the car to run at the brigands, and one of them put a pistol to my throat. As I fell on him, Louise happened to be behind me and stopped me. It's possible that scoundrel would have killed me. The flag was insulted in broad daylight in the harbor. I had already been insulted in my car during the promenade while I was still with Louise. It really takes all his courage not to have taken it badly, given her condition [she was pregnant]. It seems that intrigues always continue in Paris. "I beg you, my friend, to see the First Consul and tell him that he only has to say a word to have Mr. d'Almeida [the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, João de Almeida Melo e Castro] dismissed, and then we are all in this country: the Prince has the best intentions..." Ambassador to Lisbon from March to August 1802 and then from March 1803 to July 1804, Jean Lannes served French interests with vigor and sometimes naiveté, but managed to win the friendship of the Regent of Portugal, John of Portugal. The latter initially tried to use him, but later agreed to negotiate a treaty of neutrality and subsidies with him. A future senator and Count of the Empire, François-Scholastique Guéhenneuc (1759-1840) came from the minor Breton nobility. He was initially employed in hospital administration under the Ancien Régime, then in the Water and Forestry service during the Revolution. The promotion of his son-in-law, Jean Lannes, to the rank of Marshal, and of his son, Louis Guéhenneuc, appointed aide-de-camp to Napoleon I, gave impetus to his career.