A secret code letter sent in 1812 by Napoleon Bonaparte boasting that his French forces would blow up Moscow’s Kremlin has sold at auction for 10 times its estimated pre-sale price.
A Paris museum – the Museum of Letters and Manuscripts – was finalising its purchase of the October 20, 1812, document for €187,500, including fees. That is far above the pre-sale estimate of €15,000.
Auctioneers at Fontainebleau Auction House south of Paris say the letter sold yesterday is unique. It was written in a numeric code used by the French ruler to throw off would-be interceptors.
Its content bared the strains on Napoleon of his calamitous Russian invasion. One line said: “At three o’clock in the morning, on the 22nd I am going to blow up the Kremlin.”
Boy snatched by crocodile
Police are searching for a nine-year-old boy who was snatched by a crocodile as he was swimming in the mouth of a river in Australia.
Northern Territory police say the boy was swimming with a group of people at Port Bradshaw when he was grabbed by the crocodile. Nearby people attempted to kill the reptile with spears, but it then dragged the boy farther out into the water. Police planned to continue searching but were pessimistic about the chances of finding the boy alive.
Two weeks ago, another crocodile snatched a seven-year-old girl who was swimming at a Northern Territory waterhole.
The crocodile was fatally shot the next day and the girl’s remains were found inside it.
Protests over Kardashian
Just hours after US reality TV star Kim Kardashian gushed about her impressions of Bahrain, riot police fired tear gas to disperse more than 50 hard-line Islamic protesters denouncing her presence in the Gulf kingdom.
The clashes took place just before Kardashian opened the Bahrain branch of her Millions of Milkshakes shop.
An Associated Press journalist saw protesters chanting “God is Great” near the shopping complex in Riffa, south of the capital Manama.
Demonstrators were cleared before Ms Kardashian appeared late on Saturday evening.
She was in Kuwait earlier last week to open another branch of the shop.