age 51
皇帝ナポレオンがセントヘレナ島に流刑されているときに書いた英語の手紙がパリで競売にかけられ、パリの博物館が３２万５０００ユーロ（約３２５０万円）で落札しました。
手紙は１８１６年３月９日付で流刑生活を送ったラス・カーズ伯爵（Emmanuel, the Comte de las Cases）に宛てたもので、伯爵が添削して送り返したものだそうです。
という内容の記事ですが、私にはむしろage 51という表現に目を引かれました。at the age of〜の省略でしょうが、BBCもこういう時短ならぬ、「字短」をするようになったのですね。先生が以前、副詞句はどんどんスリム化されていると言われていましたが、確かにそうなのですね。（GP）
Napoleon St Helena letter in English sold
The letter sold for more than five times the anticipated price
A rare letter in English by Napoleon Bonaparte has been sold at auction for 325,000 euros ($400,000; £264,000).
The sale at auction house Osenat in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, was more than five times the anticipated price.
Napoleon wrote the letter in 1816 when he was trying to learn English during his exile on the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena.
After a fierce bidding war the letter was bought by the French Museum of Letters and Manuscripts in Paris.
Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
The one-page letter, dated 9 March 1816, is addressed to Napoleon's companion in exile Emmanuel, the Comte de las Cases, who had been teaching him English.
In it, he refers to a ship due to dock in St Helena within seven days, bringing news from Europe.
However, it is littered with errors, for instance: "He shall land above seven day a ship from Europe that we shall give account from anything who this shall have been even to day of first january thousand eight hundred sixteen."
Napoleon appears to have written the letter during a bout of insomnia, putting at the end: "Four o'clock in the morning."
The letter is one of just three in the world known to have been written in English by Bonaparte.
The former emperor died on St Helena in 1821 age 51.
The Comte de las Cases wrote a book about his time on the island, and recalled how Napoleon had wanted to learn the language of his British captors.
