Until then, mio dolce amor, a thousand kisses; but give me none in return, for they set my blood on fire.

The line reads as an ardent, self-disciplining lover’s farewell: Napoleon (as presented here) lavishes extravagant affection (“a thousand kisses”) while simultaneously imposing a boundary (“give me none in return”) because physical reciprocation intensifies desire beyond what he can manage (“set my blood on fire”). The Italian endearment “mio dolce amor” suggests a private, intimate register and a cosmopolitan tone typical of love-letter rhetoric. In meaning, the quote dramatizes the tension between passion and control—an attempt to keep longing alive through words while restraining the bodily consequences of closeness.