Lettre autographe signée et datée adressée à son banquier Léon Joseph Leconte

"Les rentes majorées émises ont du être payées le 10 janvier Monsieur. Etant prêt à partir la semaine prochaine, je désire savoir si je puis disposer chez vous de la petite somme résultant de deux semestres que vous avez dû recevoir pour moi."

Benjamin Constant writes this missive during a period of his life marked by amorous and financial turmoil, requesting from his banker annuities owed to him. He still divides his time between his wife, Charlotte Hardenberg, whom he secretly married in 1808, and his longtime mistress, the writer Germaine de Staël. Constant was then constantly traveling and accumulating gambling debts. In this letter, he is "prêt à partir la semaine prochaine" (ready to leave next week) to visit Madame de Staël to discuss delicate money matters at her château de Coppet in Switzerland, where all of European intelligentsia then gathered.
Precious Constantian relic from the writer in full turmoil, torn between conjugal happiness and intellectual complicity with the great Germaine de Staël.