25-BELA (Jeanne-Philippe de). Mémoires militaires du chevalier de Béla, published by E. Ducéré. Preceded by a biography by J. de Jaurgain. Bayonne, Imprimerie A. Lamaignère, 1896, in-8, 216 pp. half-brown morocco, ribbed spine, gilt filleted panels, marbled head, cover preserved (period binding). A very rare edition in book form, printed in small numbers, all copies of which were given to Edouard Ducéré (1849-1910), who had procured the text: it had been preceded by a publication in the newspaper L'Ariel by the Basque publicist Joseph-Augustin Chaho (1811-1858). Jeanne-Philippe de Béla (1709-1796) entered the Royal Artillery as a cadet in 1727, and enjoyed a distinguished military career in the service of France and Stanislas Poniatowski of Poland. His unfortunately unfinished memoirs contain some very interesting details of the War of Polish Succession. A good copy.