“I could spend the night writing to you,” it said. “I am your forever faithful wife.”
“Good night, my dear friend. It is midnight. I think it is time for me to rest.”
The writer was Marie Dubosc. The letter was for her husband, Louis Chambrelan, first lieutenant of a French warship, the Galatée. It was 1758, and France and Britain were at war.
Marie did not know where Louis was.