"les vomissements m'ont fait beaucoup de bien..."

Autograph note by François René de Chateaubriand, 12 lines in black ink on a bifolium, addressed to Madame Amédée de Duras, rejoicing in her improved health.
A tear with loss, due to the seal having been broken to facilitate reading the note.
"Mde de CH[ateaubriand]. me dit de vous répondre: si je meurs, madame, ce sera à vos pieds le matin. Non pas à midi, mais à trois heures et demie. Je me porte à merveille chez ma soeur. Que cela ne soit pas vous, mais mde de Lévis qui m'ait vu perdre ma longue barbe er mon mouchoir turc. Ne venez pas, vous ne devriez pas venir. Mde de Ch[ateaubriand] est inconsolable... "

Chateaubriand writes to Claire de Duras, one of the most important women in his life, only daughter of the Girondin count of Kersaint and cousin by marriage of Natalie de Noailles, the writer’s mistress. Confidante and soon rival of Chateaubriand’s great love, Madame Récamier, she became the leading figure among his circle of admirers and fell under his spell from their first meeting at the Château de Méréville in April 1808. The duchess, whose beauty was considered ungraceful, was soon dismissed by the writer, who was still under the sway of Madame de Noailles. Nevertheless, she reached an amicable understanding with him and remained for many years a devoted sister, a caring friend, and the first reader of many of his works, notably Le Dernier Abencérage, inspired by his love affair with the comtesse de Noailles. For her part, the duchess made the best she could of this platonic friendship, despite her consuming passion for Chateaubriand, who became the subject of her bestselling novel Ourika, recounting the tragic and impossible love of a young African woman for a Frenchman.