Josephine de Beauharnais - Letters

On 9th March 1796, Josephine de Beauharnais married a man she had just met five months before and who was passionately in love! For years he will write love letters to her and they often started with these Italian words “Mio dolce amore”. Here’s an example:

“I awake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil. Sweet incomparable Josephine, what a strange effect you have on my heart! Do I see you looking sad? Are you worried? My soul aches with sorrow and there can be no rest for your lover...

But is there still more in store for me when, yielding to the profound feelings which overwhelm me, I draw from your lips, from your heart a love which consumes me with fire?

Ah! It was last night that I fully realized how false an image of you your portrait gives! You are leaving at noon; I shall see you in three hours. Until then, mio dolce amore, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return for they set my blood on fire.”

The author of such letters was General Napoleon Bonaparte...