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AHOVER LIBRARY 
 .16 
 
LETTERS 
 
 WRITTEN ON BOARD 
 
 ms i«a|«sta'is ^6{J> t6« i^ortfiumfierlanJj, 
 
 AND 
 
 SAINT HELENA; 
 
 IN WHICH 
 
 THE CONDUCT AND CONVERSATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 Napoleon 25ttonaparte, 
 
 AND HIS SUITE, 
 
 DURING THE VOYAGE, AND THE FIRST MONTHS OF HIS RESIDENCE IN 
 THAT ISLAND, 
 
 ARE FAITHFULLY DESCRIBED AND RELATED, 
 
 BY WILLIAM WARDEN, 
 
 Surgeon on hoard the NortJmmberland, 
 
 NON EGO, SED DEMOCRITUS DIXIT. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 Hotttron: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 BY R. ACKERMANN, No. 101, STRAND; 
 
 And may he had of all Booksellers in the United Kingdom. 
 
 1816. 
 
Printed by W. Ciowes, 
 Northumbeilaud- court, Strand. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HAVING sailed in my professional 
 character on board the ship which carried 
 Napoleon Buonaparte to Si, Helena^ 
 and having remained several months on 
 the Island, the enquiries concei^tlijig him, 
 on my return to England, were so re- 
 peated, that I may be said to have been 
 in a state of persecution from the curiosity 
 which prevails respecting that extraordi- 
 nary character. Circumstances, con- 
 nected with my profession, gave me fre- 
 quent opportunities of conversing with 
 him ; and with the principal persons of 
 his suite, I may be said, particularly 
 during the voyage, to have hved in rather 
 intimate society. 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The subjects of various conversations 
 with him, and with them, I committed to 
 my Journal, from whose pages the fol- 
 lowing Letters were formed, with such 
 additions as might occur to my recollec- 
 tion at the time they were written. — No 
 idea, however, could be more remote 
 from my mind, than that they would 
 extend beyond the circle for whose grati- 
 fication they were composed. But a 
 wish for their publication seemed to meet 
 me wherever I went ; the most minute 
 circumstance respecting the present point 
 of Napoleon's career, appeared to excite 
 an extraordinary Interest, and I have 
 yielded, rather reluctantly, to become an 
 Author, from persuasions I scarce knew 
 how to resist ; and to which, I had some 
 reasons to suspect resistance might be in 
 vain. Whether these Letters will 
 answer the general expectations of those 
 who have seen, and of a still far greater 
 number of those who have only heard of, 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 them, I do not consider myself as qualified 
 to judge. All I have to say in their fa- 
 vour is this : — That every fact related in 
 them is true ; and the purport of every 
 conversation correct. — It will not, I trust, 
 be thought necessary for me to say more; 
 — and the Justice I owe to myself, will 
 not allow me to say less. 
 
 William Warden. 
 
 1 was induced to give a Plate of Na- 
 poleon, which is copied from a French 
 Engraving, because, and I consider my- 
 self as perfectly Master of his Lineaments, 
 I think it the most decided Likeness that 
 has been given of him. 
 
 Fac Similes of the writing of extraor- 
 dinary men are, I am told, particular 
 objects of research, and therefore I have 
 introduced the graphic Characters of 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 them, I do not consider myself as qualified 
 to judge. All I have to say in their fa- 
 vour is this : — That every fact related in 
 them is true ; and the purport of every 
 conversation correct. — It will not, I trust, 
 be thought necessary for me to say more ; 
 — and the Justice I owe to myself, will 
 not allow me to say less. 
 
 William Warden. 
 
 1 was induced to give a Plate of Na- 
 poleon, which is copied from a French 
 Engraving, because, and I consider my- 
 self as perfectly Master of his Lineaments, 
 I think it the most decided Likeness that 
 has been given of him. 
 
 Fac Similes of the writing of extraor- 
 dinary men are, I am told, particular 
 objects of research, and therefore I have 
 introduced the graphic Characters of 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Napoleon, in a note on General Ber- 
 trand's Sketch of the Battle of Areola. 
 
 The Medal was struck on Napoleon^s 
 marriage : the Original, which is in gold, 
 was presented to me by General Bertrand. 
 He considered it as of great Medallic 
 value from its raritj. I have since heard, 
 however, that these Medals are by no 
 means uncommon, at least in inferior 
 metal. But be that as it may, an apology 
 will not, I presume, be thought necessary 
 for having given an engraving of it. — At 
 the same time it may be proper to observe, 
 that the smaller circle is the size of the 
 Medal. The emblematic representation 
 was enlarged for the better illustration of 
 the design. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 SAINT HELENA, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 IT is, certainly, not the first time 
 that I have been induced to exclaim how 
 strange and unexpected are the occurrences 
 of Life ; how frequently is the calm of to-day 
 succeeded by the storm of to-morrow, and 
 the ordinary course of Nature interrupted by 
 phoenomena, which the Philosopher himself 
 is puzzled to explain : But the world of po- 
 litics illustrates the Doctrine of Wonders as 
 much as the operations of the Elements. — 
 Nothing, I presume, could have been less 
 probable to the view of Captain Maitland's 
 mind when he was ordered on duty ofFRoch- 
 
 B 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 fort than the voluntary surrender of the Ex- 
 emperor of France and his suite, with bag and 
 baggage, on board the Bellerophon, To have 
 taken the ship on which he might have at- 
 tempted to make his escape, was a natural 
 expectation, as it would have been a probable 
 event ; but the manner in which such an ex- 
 traordinary person submitted himself to his 
 custody, must have taken him, which could 
 not have happened in any other part of his 
 duty, by surprize. Indeed, to compare small 
 things with great, I cannot reconcile to my 
 common notions of probability the subject of 
 my present Epistle, and that the Letters 
 which you would naturally expect to receive 
 from me, instead of the common topics of a 
 sea voyage, should contain an account of the 
 conduct, and information respecting the cha- 
 racter of Napoleon Buonaparte, from the per- 
 sonal opportunities which my situation so un- 
 expectedly afforded me. 
 
 Such has been the attention which this 
 eminent person has attracted ; so great the 
 daily croud of boats, and other vessels filled 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 with curious spectators, (some of wliom it is 
 confidently said, have come on purpose from 
 remote parts of the country, and even from Lon- 
 don,) to snatch such a glimpse of him as could 
 be caught at the distance they were obliged 
 to keep from the Bellerophon^ on whose gang- 
 way he occasionally stood ; that 1 feel myself 
 more than justified in supposing the most 
 trifling particulars, respecting him and his 
 suite, to be welcome to you and those of our 
 comUion friends, to whom you may chuse to 
 communicate them ! and of this you may 
 be assured, that I shall inform you of little 
 that occurred after Napoleon put his foot on 
 the deck of our ship but what I m} self saw and 
 heard. My piece-meal narrative, for such it 
 must be, will have the merit of authenticity, 
 if it should be thought to have no other. I 
 have written down every thing respecting our 
 distinguished passenger, as it has hitherto 
 happened ; and I shall continue to do so as cir- 
 cumstances occur, in the way best suited to a 
 Seaman, by adopting the form of a JournaL 
 You must, therefore, expect nothing but a 
 succession of detached articles ; a recital of 
 
 b2 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 domestic occurrences, if I may use the ex- 
 pression, on board a ship, as they occurred, 
 ^vhen the Ex-emperor offered himself to my 
 observation ; and 1 shall begin Avith his short 
 passage from the Bellerophon to the North- 
 umberland. 
 
 On the 3d of August, 1815, his Majesty's 
 ship Northumberland J Captain Ross, bearing 
 the flag of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 
 who was selected by Government for this im- 
 portant duty, weighed anchor from Spithead, 
 and, after having contended with adverse 
 winds, came within sight of the Berry-head, 
 a head-land forming the extremity of Torbay, 
 at an early hour of the day. She was there 
 joined by the Tonnant, Captain Brenton, 
 bearing the flag of Lord Keith, Admiral of 
 the Channel fleet, accompanied by the Bel- 
 lerophon, Captain Maitland, the latter ship 
 
 having onboard Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 
 As soon as signals were exchanged with the 
 approaching ship, a salute was fired from 
 the Northumberland, and answered by the 
 Tonnant. — Lord Keith, having had au inter- 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 y'lew with sir George Cockburn, anchored un- 
 der Berry-head, to avoid, as it was supposed, 
 the eager curiosity of the very numerous visi- 
 tors in all descriptions of vessels, who con- 
 stantly surrounded the Bellerophon, The re- 
 mainder of the evening passed without any 
 occurrence that is worthy of notice. 
 
 On the following morning, the Count de 
 las Cases, Chamberlain to the Ex-emperor, 
 came on board to arrange the requisite ac- 
 commodations for his fallen master. The 
 baggage followed — nor shall I attempt to de- 
 scribe the universal and anxious curiosity 
 which was displayed on board, to see the effects 
 of the extraordinary personage to whom they 
 belonged ; the sole remaining possessions of 
 a man who had so lately commanded the art, 
 industry, and produce of many kingdoms : 
 But it was not calculated to gratify the ex- 
 pectation that awaited its arrival One ma- 
 hogany case, indeed, was distinguished by the 
 Imperial arms, but the rest exhibited no better 
 figure and appearance than the properties of 
 anitinerari theatie. 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 The Count de las Cases does not exceed 
 five feet and an inch in heiglit, and appears 
 to be fifty years of age, of a meagre form, 
 and with a wrinkled forehead : His dress 
 was a French naval uniform. His stay on 
 board the I^ or thumb er land did not exceed an 
 hour ; but, while he was employed in the hasty 
 discharge of his office, his diminutive ap- 
 pearance did not fail to invite observations 
 from the inquisitive beholders. Some of 
 them, I could fancy, expected Herculean fi- 
 gures to be employed in the service of a man 
 who had lately bestrode so large a portion 
 of Europe. If there were any under such im- 
 pressions, and we never can answer for the 
 impression of the moment, they had certainly 
 forgotten, if they had ever been informed, 
 that Alexander the Great, the mighty Lord 
 of vanquished nations, is represented in his- 
 tory as a man of small stature — and, indeed, 
 they were shortly to be convinced, that Bona- 
 parte himself would not gratify any expecta- 
 tions of an athletic fignrce 
 
 From eleven to twelve we were prepared 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 to receive Napoleon on board — and, Lord 
 Keith, as it may be presumed, from a noble 
 delicacy to his situation and feelings, declined 
 receiving the usual compliments attendant on 
 his rank, that they might, according to their 
 settled form, devolve on the Ex^emperor, whose 
 sounding Titles had passed away with the 
 power that bestowed them, The rank of 
 General is considered as adequate to all his 
 claims on a Government who never acknow- 
 ledged him under any other. A Captain^s 
 guard of marines was arranged on the poop, 
 to wait his arrival, with orders to present 
 arms, and the drum to beat the roll thrice; 
 the usual salute to a general officer in the 
 British service. 
 
 The barge of the Tonnant reached the 
 Northumberland in a few minutes after it 
 left the Bellerophon ^. Our quarter-deck 
 
 * I have been given to understand that Buonaparte's 
 conduct on board the Bellerophon had been such as rather 
 to conciliate the good humour of all on board, so that his 
 departure was not attead4^d with the slightest mark of 
 disapprobation or disrespect ; but with that kind of awful 
 silence which accompanies the fatal close of a public exe- 
 cution. 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 was covered with officers, and there were 
 also some individuals of rank, who had 
 come round from motives of curiosity, to 
 view the passing scene. Besides the object 
 of general attraction and attention, the Barge 
 contained Lord Keith and Sir George Cock- 
 burn, Marshal Bertrand^ who had shared in 
 all his Imperial Master^s fortunes, and the 
 Generals Montholon and Coiirgon, who had 
 been, and still continued to retain the titles of, 
 his Aides-de-Camp. As the Boat approached, 
 the figure of Napoleon was readily distinguish- 
 ed, from his apparent resemblance to the va- 
 rious prints of him which are displayed in the 
 windows of the shops. The Marines occupied 
 the front of the poop, and the officers kept the 
 quarter-deck. An universal silence prevailed 
 when the Barge reached the side, and there was 
 a grave, but anxious aspect in all the specta- 
 tors which, in the opinion of others as well as 
 myself, was no small addition to the solem- 
 nity of the ceremonial. Count Bertrand as- 
 cended first, and having bowed, retired a few 
 steps to give place to him whom he still con- 
 sidered as his Master, and in whose presence 
 he appeared to feel that all his most respectful 
 
{ 9 ) 
 
 homage was still due. The whole ship's com- 
 pany seemed at this moment to be in breath- 
 less expectation. Lord Keith w as the last who 
 quitted the barge, and I cannot give yon a 
 more complete idea of the wrapped attention 
 of all onboard to the figureof Napoleon, than 
 that his Lordship, high as he is in naval cha- 
 racter, Admiral also of the Channel Fleet, to 
 which we belonged, arrayed in the full uni- 
 form of his rank, and emblazoned with the 
 decorations of his orders, did not seem to be 
 noticed, nor scarcely even lo be seen, among 
 the group which was subject to him. 
 
 With a slow step Buonaparte mounted the 
 gangway, and, on feeling himself firm on the 
 quarter-deck, he raised his hat, when the 
 guard presented arms and the drum rolled. 
 The officers of the Northumherland^ who 
 were uncovered, stood considerably in ad- 
 vance. Those he approached, and saluted 
 with an air of the most affable politeness. 
 He then addressed himself to Sir George 
 Cockburn, and hastily asked for the Capitaine 
 de Vaisseati, Avho was immediately introduced; 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 but finding that he did not speak French, he 
 successively spoke to several others, till an 
 officer of artillery replied to him in that lan- 
 guage. Lord Lowther, and the Honourable 
 Mr. Lyttelton v. ere then introduced to him ; 
 and, in a few minutes, he intimated a desire, 
 though more by gesture than by words, to 
 enter the cabin, where he continued for about 
 an hour. 
 
 His dress was that of a General of French 
 infantry, when it formed a part of his Army. 
 The coat was green faced with white ; the 
 rest was white, with white silk stockings, and 
 a handsome shoe with gold oval buckles. He 
 was decorated with a red ribbon and a star, with 
 three medals suspended from a button-hole. 
 One of them represented the iron crown, 
 and the others, different gradations of the Le- 
 gion of Honour. His face was pale, and his 
 beard of an unshaven appearance. Indeed, 
 his general aspect justified the conjecture that 
 he had not passed the preceding night in 
 sound repose. His forehead is thinly covered 
 with dark hair, as well as the top of his head, 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 which is large, and has a singular flatness : 
 what hair he has behind, is bushy, and I could 
 not discern the slightest mixture of white in 
 it. His eyes, which are grey, are in continual 
 motion, and hurry rapidly to the various 
 objects around him. His teeth are regular 
 and good ; his neck is short, but his shoul- 
 ders of the finest proportion. The rest of 
 his figure, though a little blended with the 
 Dutch fulness, is of a very handsome form. 
 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that 1 am 
 very minute in my description of this distin- 
 guished person, — but I fancied you would 
 expect it of me, and that your well-known, 
 predominant curiosity on the subject must 
 be gratified by it. Besides, I may be naturally 
 induced, from my studies, my profession, and 
 my habits, to examine the human figure with 
 an anatomical eye ; and, on particular occa- 
 sions and with particular objects, I have 
 sometimes ventured, for I may safely acknow- 
 ledge it to you, to indulge a reverie as to 
 the conformation of the human frame, and 
 deduce notions, erroneous enough perhaps, 
 
( t2 ) 
 
 from a comparative view of corporal form 
 and structure, Mith intellectual capacity and 
 leading dispositions. Indeed, I am ready 
 to acknowledge that 1 actually presumed to 
 play Lavater a little with, the late Emperor 
 of France and King of Italy — but I shall not 
 trouble you, at present, w ith the result of my 
 vagaries. 
 
 On returning upon deck, he engaged in 
 conversation with Lord Lowther, Mr. Lyttel- 
 ton, and Sir George Byngham, for an hour 
 before dinner. — It is understood, that he com- 
 plained of the severity with which he was 
 treated, in being consigned to pass his days 
 on the Rock of St. Helena, buffetted by the 
 winds, and amidst the waste of waters ; and 
 that he could not comprehend the policy or 
 the apprehensions of England in refusing him 
 an asylum, now that his political career was 
 terminated. He continued to repeat a suc- 
 cession of questions to the same effect, with 
 some degree of impetuosity ; but it would be 
 taking a liberty with Mr. Lyttelton, w ho prin- 
 cipally maintained the discourse with him, to 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 repeat that Gentleman's replies from the in- 
 formation of others. I shall only observe, that 
 they were accompanied with that courteous 
 address which might be expected of him. 
 
 In a conversation which I had with Count 
 Bertrand on the following day, he complained 
 in very forcible terms, of the needless cruelty 
 of their allotment. The Emperor, he said, for 
 that title he continued to receive from his at- 
 tendants, had throvvn himself on the mercy of 
 England, from a full and consoling confidence 
 that he should there find a place of refuge. 
 He asked, what worse fate could have befallen 
 him, had he been taken a prisoner on board 
 an American ship, in which he might have 
 endeavoured to make his escape. He rea- 
 soned, for some time, on the probability of 
 success in such an attempt ; and they might 
 now, he added, have cause to repent that his 
 Imperial Master had not risqued it. — He then 
 proceeded : — 
 
 " Could not the Emperor think you, have 
 placed himself at the head of the army of the 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 Loire ? and can you persuade yourself that 
 it would not have been proud to ranere itself 
 under his command ? And is it not possible 
 — nay, more than probable, that he would 
 have been joined by numerous adherents 
 from the North, the South, and the East? 
 Nor can it be denied that he might have 
 placed himself in such a position, as to have 
 made far better terms for himself than have 
 now been imposed upon him. It was to 
 save the further effusion of blood that he 
 threw himself into your arms ; that he trusted 
 to the honour of a nation famed for its 
 generosity and love of justice ; nor would 
 it have been a disgrace to England to have 
 acknowledged Napoleon Buonaparte as a 
 citizen. He demanded to be enrolled among 
 the humblest of them ; and wished for little 
 more than the Heavens as a covering, and 
 the soil of England, on which he might tread 
 in safety. Was this too much for such a man 
 to ask ? — surely not : nor could such a man 
 imagine, in any moment of depression, if it 
 were possible for such a spirit as his to be so 
 depressed, that the boon would be refused 
 
{ 15 ) 
 
 him. It might rather have been a subject 
 of pride to England, that the conqueror of 
 almost all Europe but herself, sought, in his 
 adverse fortune, to pass the remainder of a 
 life, which forms so splendid an epocha in 
 the history of our age, in any retired spot of 
 her domains, which did might have allotted 
 him/' 
 
 He acknowledged that Napoleon had 
 consulted him as to the probable magnani- 
 mity of the English government, on the mea- 
 sure then in contemplation ; but in this in- 
 stance, he said, " I refused the opinion which 
 he requested of me. It was not from any pre- 
 conceived opinion to the prejudice of the 
 English nation, no,— far from it, that I he- 
 sitated for once to obey him. But I could 
 not allow myself to become his counsellor in 
 such a critical moment, and on a matter of so 
 much importance to the comfort of his future 
 life and the honour of his name. I was not 
 afraid of any personal injury being offered to 
 him : of that I entertained not the shadow of 
 an apprehension ; but I thought it not im- 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 possible that his liberty might be endangered, 
 as indeed it was, by the resolution of that 
 hour. I was so agitated by my hopes and 
 mv fears in alternate succession, that 1 could 
 only beg of him to accept my loyal and faith- 
 ful assurance that I would wait upon his 
 fortunes whatever they might be ; but it 
 was for him alone to shape the way to them. 
 Nor can I express," he added, " how much I 
 rejoice at my persevering resolution; for had 
 any opinion of mine been accessary, in the 
 slightest degree, to the situation in which 
 I now behold my Emperor, I should never 
 again enjoy a peaceful moment/' The terms 
 in which he expressed his thoughts, and the 
 tones which animated them, proved the 
 state of his feelings. There was a kind of 
 soldier-like resolution in his manner ; but, I 
 could perceive that sorrow was in his heart : 
 and firm as I am in my loyalty as an English- 
 man, and proud as I am, and as every man, 
 born in our glorious island ought to be, of 
 that distinguished name, and though his en- 
 thusiasm betrayed him into sentiments and 
 opinion, in which I could not, by any means, 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 acquiesce, I do not hesitate to acknowledge 
 my disposition to admire the emotions of this 
 faithful Frenchman. 
 
 Madame Bertrand's complaints were dif- 
 ferent in their character as well as language 
 from those of the Count her husband : her 
 air and manner were sometimes even accom- 
 panied with a gleam of distraction. " What 
 can you think/' she once said to me, " of my 
 situation ? does it not appear to you to be 
 most lamentable ; and where are expressions 
 to be found that can suit the description of it 
 to the poignancy of my feelings ? What a 
 change for a woman who had held a high 
 rank in the gayest and most splendid court in 
 Europe ; where her consequence was such that 
 thousands sought her smiles and were proud 
 to bask in them. The wife of Count Ber- 
 trand, Grand Marshal of the Palace of the 
 Emperor of France is now destined with her 
 three children, to accompany an exiled hus- 
 band to an insulated Rock, where the pride 
 of station, the pomp of life, and the song of 
 pleasure, wall be exchanged for a scene of 
 
 c 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 captivity ; and such, with all its promised at- 
 tentions and indulgencies, it must appear to 
 us, surrounded as it is, by the barrier of a 
 boundless ocean/' 
 
 She was curious to know what the people 
 of England thought of her husband ; when I 
 told her that, as far as I could judge, they 
 entertained an higher opinion of him than 
 of any Marshal of France, and that his faith- 
 ful attachment to Napoleon had a romantic 
 air which was not without its admir'^rs in 
 England. It was, indeed, in consequence of 
 that determined feeling, in opposition to what 
 might be supposed to be his real interest, and 
 the earnest entreaties of his family, that 
 Madame Bertrand had well nigh completed 
 an act of suicide. The agonizing attempt to 
 throw herself from the Bellerophon into the 
 sea took place, it seems, in the evening of the 
 day when Napoleon was informed of his fu- 
 ture allotment, and, probably, at the moment 
 when the afflicting communication was first 
 made to her. 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 The Little Bertrands Bre interesting chil- 
 dren : the youngest is between three and four 
 years old ; the eldest is ^ native of Trieste, and 
 was born when his father was Governor of the 
 Ill^rian Provinces ;' the second is a girl of an 
 animated disposition, that betrays occasional 
 symptoms of violence. The military charac- 
 ter appears to have almost exclusively seized 
 on the infant minds of these sprightly urchins : 
 from morning till night they are employed in 
 fencing, marching, charging on a half-canter, 
 in imitation of cavalry, ^c. ^c. in which the 
 girl joins with a true Amazonian spirit, under 
 the direction of a little French boy, who, I 
 presume, w as born in a camp. 
 
 When I accidentally mentioned to Madame 
 Bertrand that it had been generally supposed 
 she intended to have remained in England, for 
 the education of her children, she, with a kind 
 of wild but interesting expression of counte- 
 nance, not unusual with her, vehemently ex- 
 claimed '' What, Sir, leave my husband at 
 such a moment ! That is a degree of heroism 
 which my heart disavows : though in a year, 
 c 2 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 perhaps, I may be induced to return/* And 
 on my suggesting that a favourable opportu- 
 nity would be offered on board the Northum- 
 berland, she appeared to acquiesce in the pro- 
 bability of such an event. 
 
 Neither Count or Madame Montholon 
 can speak English : he is a handsome little 
 man, and she a very elegant woman ; they 
 have one coamion comfort, and they seem 
 to think it so, in a charming little boy : 
 You must perceive, that I am by degrees, 
 though rather in an irregular manner, making 
 you acquainted with the whole of our cu- 
 rious party ; but you must be sensible that 
 it is the best mode which I can employ. 
 
 — Buonaparte, previous to his leaving the 
 Bellerophon, was, it seems, recommended to 
 select three of his suite to accompany him to 
 St. Helena. Bertrand was, at that time, sup- 
 posed to be particularly proscribed ; but it is 
 understood that Lord Keith took upon himself 
 the reponsibihty of including such an at- 
 tached friend in the number of the exiled 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 Generars attendants. The others were the 
 Count de las Cases, who had been a Captain in 
 the French Navy, and is a man of Hterary at- 
 tainments ; General Count Montholon, and 
 Lieutenant-General Gourgond, his two Aides- 
 de-Camp, who were devoted to his fortunes. 
 The latter Officers served him in the Russian 
 Campaign, and describe the winter which they 
 encountered there in all its horrors. The 
 Russian cavalry they extol ; but represent 
 the Cossacks as easily dispersed. They do 
 not appear to hold the Prussians in very high 
 estimation, but consider them, at the same 
 time, as superior to the Austrians. The Eng- 
 lish Infantry, at the battle of Waterloo, filled 
 them with absolute astonishment ; but they 
 represent our Cavalry as much too impetuous; 
 they probably found them so on that glorious 
 day. 
 
 In a conversation with Count Bertrand, 
 which happened to glance on that subject, 
 he could not hide his sensations. The little he 
 said was in a plaintive tone, though expressed 
 with candour, and accompanied with expres- 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 sive shrugs of lamentation. " W^ fought that 
 day/' he said, " foi^ the Crown of France ; but 
 you gained the battle, and we are undone/' — 
 .1 asked -him whether he had read Marshal 
 Ney's Letter to the Duke of Otranto, in de- 
 fence of his conduct on the bloody field. That 
 publication, it appeared, he bad not seen ; 
 and when I informed him in what manner the 
 Marshal had censured his Master's conduct, 
 and that, in the public opinion, he was thought 
 to have cleared himself from the imputation 
 of erroneous conduct ;---".WelI, well," he 
 replied, " Had I been in the command of 
 Marshal Ney's division, I might, perhaps, 
 have done worse : but, as I was, I saw much 
 to blame;'* but, in comparing Buonaparte 
 with Ney, he cast his eyes upwards to the 
 heavens, and suddenly lowering them to the 
 earth, he exclaimed, with a very significant 
 action, " Indeed, indeed, the difference is 
 equally great." 
 
 — From the information \ received in my 
 conversation with our French guests, it ap- 
 pears that the Emperor's abdication in favour 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 of his Son, is a matter, whicb, as far at least 
 as my knowledge extends, has been altoge- 
 ther misconceived in England : I mean as re- 
 ferring to the immediate and proximate causes 
 of it. If the communications made to me 
 were correct, and I am not willing to imagine 
 that they were invented merely to impose upon 
 me, a grand political scheme was cc^ntrived by 
 F Quelle to out- wit his Master, and it proved 
 successful. The name of that crafty politician 
 and ready revolutionist is never mentioned by 
 the members of our little^ cabin Utica without 
 the accompaniment of execrations, which it 
 is not necessary for you to hear, as it v^ ould 
 be ridiculous for me to repeat. Not Tal- 
 leyrand himself is so loaded with them as the 
 Arch-betrayer, who has been just mentioned. 
 It was, indeed, a decided opinion of the mo- 
 ment, among our Exiles, that Fouche would 
 contrive to hang Talleyrand ; or that the lat- 
 ter would provide an equal fate for the former ; 
 and that if they both were suspended from the 
 same gibbet, it ought to be preserved as an 
 object of public respect for the service it had 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 done to mankind, by punishing and exposing 
 two as consummate offenders as ever disgraced 
 the social world. — The Historiette to which I 
 have alluded, was thus related. — 
 
 On Napoleon's return to Paris, after his 
 disastrous defeat at Waterloo, and when he 
 may be supposed to have been agitated by 
 doubt and perplexity, as to the conduct he 
 should pursue in that extraordinary crisis ; a 
 Letter was offered to his attention by the Duke 
 of Otranto, as having been received bythe latter 
 from Prince JMetternich the Austrian Minister. 
 It was dated in the preceding April, and the 
 diplomatic writer stated the decided object of 
 his Imperial Master, to be the final expulsion of 
 Napoleon the First from the throne of France ; 
 and that the French nation should be left to 
 their uninterrupted decision, whether they 
 would have a monarchy under Napoleon the 
 Second, or adopt a Republican form of Go- 
 vernment. — Austria professed to have no 
 right, and consequently felt no intention to 
 dictate to the French Nation. The final and 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 mtified expulsion of the Traitor, (such was 
 the expression) is all the Austrian Emperor 
 demands of France. 
 
 Napoleon seized the bait ; and immedi- 
 ately abdicated in favour of his Son : but he 
 had no sooner taken this step, than he disco- 
 vered the double game that Fouche was play- 
 ing. The Letter was a forgery, and it soon 
 appeared that the Emperor of Austria had it 
 not in his power, if he had ever indulged the 
 contemplation, to clothe his Granson with 
 political character. 
 
 After he quitted Paris, the Ex-emperor 
 and his suite pursued an uninterrupted pro- 
 gress to the sea-coast, and it is their opinion 
 that they might have continued in an inactive 
 state, and without any reasonable apprehen- 
 sion of disturbance, for a much longer time 
 than Buonaparte's impatience would allow, 
 in the vicinity of Rochfort. 
 
 — On his first arrival among us, he occa- 
 sionally expressed a wish to be informed of 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 the contents of the English newspapers; but as 
 it could not be a pleasant circumstance to him, 
 to be made acquainted with the manner in which 
 his character, conduct, and circumstances 
 were necessarily treated and observed upon 
 by our Journals, there was a delicacy main- 
 tained in the avoiding a communication of 
 their contents. That truth is not to be spoken, 
 orinany way imparted, atall times, is a proverb 
 which Avas now faithfully adhered to on board 
 the Northumberland. The Count de las Cases 
 had indeed offered to qualify his General in 
 the course of a month, to read an English 
 newspaper, with the requisite intelligence of 
 the language ; an undertaking which it is not 
 very probable he would have been able to 
 accomplish ; but he could not induce his 
 Master to become his Scholar : for the matter 
 wa,s cut short by the following reply. — " I 
 well know that you think me a very clever 
 fellow : but be that as it may — I cannot do 
 every thing ; and among those things which 
 I should find impracticable, is the making 
 myself master of the English language, in a 
 few weeks/' 
 
{ 27 ) 
 
 — Here I shall conclude my first Letter ; 
 or, as it may prove, the first division of my 
 epistolary narrative : at all events, it will be 
 ready forthe rirst opportunity which occurs for 
 its transmission to you. — If it tends to your 
 amusement, or, in any degree, to the satisfac- 
 tion of your curiosity, tant mieux : but be 
 that as it may, it will give me the opportunity 
 of saying — How do you do ? — God bless }ou ! 
 as well as of offering my sincere regards and 
 kind remembrances to our common friends. 
 
 Adieu, &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I renew my desultory occupation : — 
 la tache journaliere^ telle quevous la voulez. — 
 On the first day of his arrival on board, our 
 distinguished Passenger, displayed rather an 
 eager appetite: I observed that he made a very 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 hearty dinner, which he moistened with claret. 
 He passed the evening on the quarter-deck, 
 where he was amused by the band of the 53d 
 regiment; when He personally required them 
 to give the airs of " God save the King," and 
 " Rule Britannia." At intervals he chatted 
 in a way of easy pleasantry with the officers 
 who were qualified to hold a conversation with 
 him in the French language. I remarked that, 
 on these occasions, he always maintains what 
 seems to be an invariable attitude, which has 
 somewhat of importance in it, and probably 
 such as he had been accustomed to display at 
 the Thuilleries, when giving audience to his 
 Marshals or Officers of State. He never 
 moves his hands from their habitual places in 
 his dress, but to apply them to his snuff-box ; 
 and it struck me as a particular circumstance, 
 to which I paid an observing attention, 
 though it might have been connected with 
 his former dignity, — That he never offered a 
 pinch to any one with whom he was con- 
 versing. 
 
 — On the subsequent day he breakfasted 
 
{ 29 ) 
 
 at eleven. His meal consists of meat and 
 
 claret, which is closed with coffee. At 
 
 dinner, I observed that he selected a mutton 
 cutlet, which he contrived to dispose of with- 
 out the aid of either knife or fork. 
 
 — He passed much of the third day on deck, 
 and appeared to have paid particular atten- 
 tion to his toilette. He receives no other 
 mark of respect from the officers of the ship 
 than would be shewn to a private gentleman, 
 nor does he seem to court or expect more 
 than he receives. He is probably contented 
 with the homage of his own attendants, who 
 always appear before him uncovered, so that 
 if a line were drawn round them, it might be 
 supposed that you saw an equal space in the 
 Palace of 5am^ Cloud. 
 
 — He played at cards in the evening : the 
 game was Whist, and he was a loser. It 
 did not appear to be played in the same way 
 as is practised at our card-tables in England ; 
 but I am not qualified to explain the va- 
 rieties. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 — The whole of the next day Napoleon 
 passed in his cabin. It was generally per- 
 ceived by his attendants that he was sea- 
 sick ; but he was either so little of a sailor, 
 if that can be supposed, as not to know the 
 ordinary effects of a ship's motion on persons 
 unused to the sea, or he suspected that his 
 Megrim arose from some other cause ; for, it 
 seems, he would by no means allow the salt- 
 water origin of it. None of his people, I pre- 
 sume, would venture, on the occasion, to re- 
 peat to him his brother Canute's practical 
 Lecture to his Courtiers, on the unmannerly 
 power of the ocean. 
 
 — Among his baggage were two camp- 
 beds, which had accompanied him in most 
 of his campaigns. One of them, a very im- 
 probable destination when it was first con- 
 structed, was now an essential article of his 
 cabin ; the other was no longer to give repose 
 to some military hero, in the hurry of a cam- 
 paign, but is pressed by such a marine heroine 
 as Madame Bertrand, amidst the dashing of 
 
{ 31 ) 
 
 waters. They are, however, altogether as 
 comfortable as the combined skill of the 
 upholsterer and the machinist could make 
 them. They are about six feet long and 
 three feet wide, with strong green silk 
 furniture : the frames are of steel, and so 
 worked and shaped as to surprize by their 
 lightness and the consequent ease with which 
 they are moved. When I happened to be 
 seated on one of them, I could not but reflect 
 on the battles of Wagram, Austerlitz, Fried- 
 land, ^c. Sfc. 
 
 This was a situation, where the politician 
 and the sage might be inspired, as it were, 
 to contemplate the changes and the chances 
 of the world; but as I do not presume to 
 possess enough of those characters, either dis- 
 tinctly or collectively, to justify my engaging 
 in a train of reflection on these affecting 
 subjects, I shall leave such employment to 
 your better thoughts, and the exercise of your 
 enthusiastic propensity. 
 
 —Notwithstanding it blew fresh, and 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 there was considerable motion, Buonaparte 
 made his appearance upon deck between 
 three and four, p. m. when he amused himself 
 with asking questions of the Lieutenant of 
 the Watch : such as, how many leagues the 
 ship went in an hour ?— whether the sea was 
 likely to go down ? — what the strange vessel 
 was on the bow of the Northumberland P — 
 In short, enough to prove that nothing es- 
 caped his notice. But I could not help smil- 
 ing when I beheld the man who had stalked 
 so proudly, and with so firm a step over sub- 
 missive countries, tottering on the deck of a 
 ship, and catching at any arm to save himself 
 from falling ; for he has not yet found his 
 sea-legs. Among other objects of hisattention, 
 he observed that Mr, Smith, who was taking 
 the usual to-and-fro walk with his brother 
 midshipmen, to be much older than the rest; 
 and, on this account, he appears to have asked 
 him how long he had been in the service ; and, 
 being answered — nine years — he observed, 
 that surely, is a long time. — It is, indeed, 
 said Mr. Smith, but part of it was passed in a 
 French prison ; and I was, Sir, at Verdun, 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 when you set out on your Russian cam- 
 paign." Napoleon immediately shrugged up 
 his shoulders, with a very significant smile, 
 and closed the conversation, 
 
 — I must here tell you, once for all, if I 
 have not already made the observation, that 
 he seldom or ever omitted an opportunity of 
 asking a question ; and it was about this time 
 that he made a most unexpected enquiry of 
 our Orthodox Chaplain : — whether he was 
 not a Puritan P I need not tell you what 
 would be the reply, and you may conjecture, 
 probably, what might be the feelings, of a 
 gentleman clothed in canonical orders, and 
 firm in canonical principles, when he was sa- 
 luted with such an interrogatory. 
 
 He wished also to have his curiosity gra- 
 tified respecting a religious community in 
 Scotland called Johnsonians^ who, he under- 
 stood, were a very active sect in that part of 
 Britain. His conversation, at all times, con- 
 sisted of questions, which never fail to be put 
 m such a way, as to prohibit a return of them. 
 
 D 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 To answer one qtiestion by another, which 
 frequently happens in common discourse, was 
 not admissible with him. I can Conceive that 
 he was habituated to this kind of colloquy, 
 when he sat upon such a throne as that which 
 supported him, and before which no one 
 spoke but when he commanded utterance: 
 nor does he seem disposed to lay it aside 
 when he sits in the cabin, stands in the gang- 
 way, orpatroles the deck, of a ship, where he 
 is subject to the controul of its commander. 
 The foundation of this singular question, 
 therefore, was not attainable. As in the va- 
 rious plans he had laid for invading our tight 
 little Island, as the song has it, it is not im- 
 probable that he might have looked towards 
 the Hebrides, as capable of favouring his de- 
 sign ; and, if so. Doctor Johnson's Tour thither 
 might have been curiously consulted, and may 
 I not deduce these Johnsonians from such 
 a combination of circumstances ? — Many a 
 doubt has been reconciled by more vague 
 conjectures : that eminent writer's opinions, 
 however, as you w ill probably suggest, are not 
 altogether calculated to form a sect on the 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 olfier side of the Tweed. But, badinage djmiH, 
 r should he glad to know the origin of these 
 Johnsonians; and if we should he tossed and 
 tumbled, in the course of our voyage, into a 
 sufficient degree of fanailiarity for me to ask a 
 question of the Ex-emperor, \ will endeavour 
 to be satJMted; 
 
 " — He appeared to be very- much stmck by 
 two long-boats (gigs) placed with their hoti 
 torn upwards oti our launch! oh 'the bboms: 
 their singular length attrkted' his notice, 
 Mobile their pai^ticular use krid' applicati'ori 
 produced such aj succ^sion of enquiries on his 
 part,' as almost to suggest an opinion, that h6 
 entertained a suspiciofi of their being a p^irt 
 of the naval; apparatus peiculiarly provided 
 to prevent his escape from the Island to which 
 he was destined. The answer he received 
 was a quiet remark as to their general em- 
 ployment in the British fleets; to which 
 he made no reply. 
 
 — The riame of Talleyrand happening to 
 occur in the course of conversation, with our 
 p2 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 French shipmates, the high opinion enter» 
 tained of his talents by the Buonapartists 
 was acknowledged, without reserve. On my 
 asking at what period he was separated from 
 the councils and confidence of Napoleon, it was 
 replied, at the invasion of Spain. I then ob- 
 served, that the reports in England, respecting 
 that circumstance were correct as to time, and 
 I presumed were equally so as to the cause ; — his 
 unreserved disapprobation of that bold and ad- 
 venturous enterprize. This met with an instant 
 contradiction ; which was follovTed by a most 
 decisive assertion, that the Prince of Benevento 
 approved of the Spanish war, and founded his 
 recommendation of that measure on his unal- 
 terable opinion, which he boldly communi- 
 cated to the Emperor, that his life was not 
 secure while a Bourbon reigned in Europe. 
 
 I entered further on this subject with 
 Madame Bertrand, and she actually and most 
 unequivocally asserted, that Talleyrand was 
 in secret communication with Napoleon 
 when they were last at Paris, and that he 
 would have joined them in a month. His 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 proposed departure from Vienna to take the 
 Waters at Aix la Chapel le was under the 
 cloak of indisposition, to conceal his duplicity. 
 *' Can you persuade yourself, Madame,'^ 1 
 said, " that Talleyrand, if he had the incli- 
 nation, possessed the power to influence the 
 Court of Vienna in favour of the Son-in-law." 
 *' The court of Vienna! she exclaimed, " O 
 yes, yes : he has the capacity to influence all 
 the courts of Europe! — If he had but joined 
 the Emperor, we should, as this instant, have 
 been in Paris, and France would never more 
 
 have changed its Master." Of this man's 
 
 virtues I heard no eulogium: but you will 
 now be a competent judge how his political 
 talents were appreciated in the French circle 
 on board the Northumberland. 
 
 — On my asking Count Bertrand which of 
 the French Generals had amassed the greatest 
 portion of wealth ; He, without the least hesi- 
 sitation, mentioned Massena ; though, he 
 added, they have all made very considerable 
 fortunes. Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, he 
 appeared to think had made less than any 
 
( 3B ) 
 
 other. Of Davoust, Duke D'Eckmuhl, he 
 spoke, to our extreme astonishrueot, in an 
 animated sti-ain of panegyric, v^hich was in- 
 stantly met ivvith an outcry from all who heard 
 it, respecting the conduct of that officer, at 
 Hamburgh, which we represented as atrocious 
 beyond example. This he would not allow ; 
 on the contrary, he describied him as a 
 zealous, correct, and faithful commander ; 
 aa4 far from being destitute of humanity ; as 
 notwithstanding- liis notions of military obe- 
 diencej which were known to be of the most 
 rigid kind, he did not act up to the severity of 
 his instructions. As for his taking a bribe, 
 Bertrand declared him to be incapable of 
 such baseness; and asserted, from his own 
 knowledge, that a very large sum had been 
 offered him, to connive at the sailing of some 
 ships from Hamburgh in the night, which he 
 refused with the disdain of a faithful soldier 
 and an honourable man. 
 
 Count de las Cases, also took up the sub- 
 ject of the marshals of France, and spoke of 
 them with rery Httle reserve. He described 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 Massena as having been originally d Fencing 
 Master ; but, that, previous to his campaign 
 in the Peninsula, he was considered by the 
 French nation as equal, if not superior, to 
 Buonaparte in his military capacity. From 
 that period the Count represented him as 
 having dwindled into absolute insignificance. 
 He is avaricious, he said, in the extreme, 
 though he has only one child, a daughter, to 
 inherit his enormous wealth. He then pro- 
 ceeded to relate the following circumstance 
 of the Marshal, as the accidental topic of the 
 moment. 
 
 " The preservation of the Army, on 
 crossing the Danube, was boldly attributed 
 by the soldiers who composed it, and con- 
 sequently re-echoed as the opinion of the 
 nation, to the superior skill, and persever- 
 ing courage of Massena. It appears, that 
 a sudden and impetuous inundation of the 
 river had destroyed all possible communica- 
 tion between its right and left bank, when 
 half the French force had passed it. The re- 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 maining half were without ammunition, when 
 Massena threw himself into the village of 
 Estling, where he withstood fifteen repeated 
 attacks of the Austrians, and effected the es- 
 cape of that part of the French Army from 
 the destruction which threatened it. The 
 eulogiums which the army and the nation la- 
 vished on Massena,for his conduct and thesuc- 
 cess which crowned it, partook of that clamor- 
 ous character which implied no inconsiderable 
 degree of blame and censure on Buonaparte 
 himself, who was supposed to have felt it. 
 But he contrived, nevertheless, to dissipate 
 the opinion, by conferring the title of Prince 
 of Estling on Massena, as the merited reward, 
 and magnanimous acknowledgment of a ser- 
 vice on which depended, for the moment, the 
 success and honourable issue of the campaign. 
 Soult, he said, is an excellent officer, and Ney^ 
 brave to a fault ; but Suchet possesses a more 
 powerful intellect, with more enlarged infor- 
 mation, and political sagacity, as well as more 
 conciliatory manners, than any of the Mar- 
 shals of France/' 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 He then mentioned Admiral Ganthaume, 
 and asked what character was assigned, in the 
 English News-papers, to that naval officer. I 
 replied, that they gave him no small credit 
 for his spirit in advancing out of Port, and 
 his success in getting back again. " Yes," he 
 answered, with a significant look and tone, 
 •' good at hide and seek/' — He was the friend 
 of Louis, and then of Napoleon, and then 
 of Louis again : he is, in fact, what you call 
 
 the Vicar of . 1 assisted him in 
 
 completing the proverbial expression, by 
 adding the word — Bray ; which he imme- 
 diately caught, and exclaimed, — " Aye, aye, 
 He is the Vicar of Bray. — He is an old man," 
 the Count added, " but his indiscretions," 
 which, however, he did not particularize, 
 •' were rather of a juvenile character." 
 
 — In the afternoon our chief Passenger 
 continued longer on deck than he had done 
 before, and his countenance denoted a feel- 
 ing of disquietude. His questions all re- 
 lated to the state of our progress, and 
 marked an impatience to arrive at the ter- 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 mi nation of his voyage. He probably expe- 
 rienced some degree of inconvenience from 
 his confined situation, having been long ac- 
 customed to exercise that bordered upon vio- 
 lence. His appearance, I understand, was 
 rather meagre, till about the time tiiat he 
 became First Consul. If he had been other- 
 wise, his campaigns in Egypt were sufficient to 
 have reduced him : but though his exertions 
 both mental and corporeal have since been 
 such as to destroy any constitution but his own, 
 which must have been of an extracrdinary 
 internal texture, to have enabled him to sus- 
 tain them, his health has rather been improved 
 than impaired ; and, during the last ten years, 
 he has gradually advanced into corpulence. 
 
 — It is a singular circumstance that Count 
 Montholon, whom I have already mentioned 
 as one of the Imperial Aides-de-Camp, is the 
 son of a General officer of that name, whom 
 Buonaparte served in the same capacity dur- 
 ing the Uevolutionary War,— All the family, 
 except his father and himself, hate been de- 
 cided Royalists, and are possessed of large 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 property : but the General is dead, while the 
 son has sacrificed fortune, and abandoned his 
 family, to share, with his wife and child, the 
 exiled state of his former Sovereign ; whom it 
 is his pride still to love and serve under that 
 title, and with all the feelings of duty and 
 loyalty which his enthusiastic fidelity attaches 
 to it. 
 
 — I give you Madame Bertrand's descrip- 
 tion of young Napoleon, as very beautiful, in 
 order to introduce his father's laconic English 
 account of him. The boy, he says, resembles 
 him only in the upper part of his form. '' He 
 has one grand, big head." — The same Lady, 
 speaking of the Buonaparte family, represents 
 the female part in terms of no common ad- 
 miration. With the exception of the Frincess 
 Piombina she describes the sisters as pos- 
 sessed of extraordinary beauty : with t!iese 
 charming women, therefore, and to use the ex- 
 pression of the grand, big head of them all, I 
 shall conclude my second grand ^ big Letter. 
 
 &G. &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 I have already, I believe, mentioned 
 to you that it was thought a becoming atten- 
 tion to the feelings of the French party to 
 withhold from them the sight of the News- 
 papers, which were sent off to us before we 
 sailed. 
 
 Count Bertrand took an opportunity to 
 ask me if I had perused them ; and, on my 
 replying, as you may suppose, in the affirma- 
 tive, he proceeded to question me as to their 
 contents. I accordingly informed him, that 
 they had observed on the secret visit he was 
 believed to have made to Paris, previous to 
 Napoleon's return to France. His countenance 
 on my communicating this circumstance, in- 
 stantly indicated a strong feeling of resent- 
 ment ; and it was evidently disclosed by the 
 manner in which he replied. — " I well know'* 
 he said, " that the English Newspapers have 
 accused me of visiting Paris in disguise, some 
 months before the Emperor's departure from 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 Elba. But I solemnly declare that I never 
 set my foot in France in the way that has 
 been attributed to me. I might have gone to 
 Italy, if I had pleased, but I did not quit Elba 
 for a moment till my Emperor quitted it. — It 
 has also been asserted on similar authority, 
 That 1 had taken an Oath of Fidelity to the 
 King:— an assertion that is equally ground- 
 less ; for, 1 never once beheld a single indi- 
 vidual of the Bourbon Family of France/' 
 
 — I give you the account of Buonaparte's 
 return to France, as it was casually and briefly 
 related to me, — '' The Duke de Bassano was 
 the chief actor. Individuals had gone from 
 several departments in France to Elba, and 
 the then Emperor had been induced to sus- 
 pect that the allies determined to send him to 
 the Island to which he is now destined. On 
 whM authority this apprehension was ground- 
 ed, not the most distant idea was communis 
 cated. It is certain, however, that he enter- 
 tained it with such seriousness, as to induce 
 him tomake the resolute attempt in meditation, 
 before the connecting plot was ripe for overt 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 measures ih France. Even after his little 
 army was embarked^ a dispatch arrived from 
 his friends, which, contained the most earnest 
 entreaties to postpone his enterprize, if it were 
 only for one month.— Whether, if he had re- 
 ceived them before he had quitted the Island, 
 they would have been sufficient to check his 
 impatience and quiet his alarms, was not a 
 subject of conjecture : but be that as it may, 
 whatever the counsels were j they arrived too 
 late to be followed ; — the die was cast/' 
 
 — rA circumstance occurred to-day which, 
 as. you may well imagine, created no small 
 degree of interest among our passengers, as 
 well as a busy scene of interrogation . — a 
 French brig, with the white flag flying, bore 
 us company. 
 
 — General Gourgon amused us with a variety 
 of details respecting the campaigns in Russia 
 and the Peninsula, which he himself witnessed: 
 Of these 1 shall only select two or three : for 
 recitals which will enliven the monotony of a 
 quarter-deck, may not be w^orth communicat- 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 ing.to those who are siirrounded with the va^. 
 rieties that are jto be hourly found in the large 
 circle of sfOQial; life.— -ille d.qscrib^d the :inr 
 tenseness.qf the frost in Rusaiat»with a degree 
 of astpnii^hment that afforded us aonie amuse* 
 meht. YoU. iitiay easi l.y guess . the wonderful 
 contrast of feitiiat ion, when a Frenchman, the 
 native bf.soi fiitie a climatevand who had been 
 seitving; in Spain, found liiimself transferred 
 to a part of t|ie globe where the tears became 
 glphules of ice on his cheeks ; and where the 
 soldiers, stupified as it were by. the cold, in 
 the act of shaking themselves, to recover their 
 fee^Mng, would frequently fall down and Jifi^ 
 stantly expire^ 
 
 -^He also mentioned the following curious 
 circumstance at the siege of Saragossa.— The 
 French had mined a Convent, where a body 
 of Spaniards had taken refuge. The besiegers 
 had no intention to destroy the buildings 
 but merely, to blow up a wall, in order to 
 frighten the besieged into, a surreDder. The 
 explosion, however, extended further than 
 was expected, and a considerable destructioia 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 of the Spaniards took place, but sixteen of 
 them were described to escape, as you will 
 acknowledge, in a most extraordinary manner. 
 They, it seems, ascended the spire of the 
 church, taking with them an ample supply of 
 arms and ammunition, with which, notwith- 
 standing the utmost efforts of the French, 
 they defended themselves with admirable gal- 
 lantry and resolution for three days. But this 
 is not all : at the end of that period it was 
 discovered that they had made their escape 
 from the perilous situation, to the extreme 
 astonishment of the besieging party ; who, 
 as pious Catholics, might be justified in attri- 
 buting it to the saving interposition of the 
 Guardian Saint of the Convent. The means, 
 however, which they employed were of mortal 
 contrivance. By the aid of packthread which 
 had been conveyed to them from an adjoining 
 building, they contrived to draw up a suffi- 
 cient quantity of ropes, with which they let 
 themselves down from the elevated fortress, 
 and effected their preservation. 1 his, I think, 
 may be added to the numerous histories of 
 Castles in the Air : or, if I dare venture any 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 tiling like a Pun to you, of Chateaux en 
 Espagne. 
 
 During the evening Napoleon addressed 
 hisenquiries to Captain Beatty of the Marines, 
 who speaks French with great fluency. They 
 related to the regulations and discipline of the 
 Marine troops, 6fc, 6fc, Nor could he have 
 chosen an officer who was better qualified to 
 gratify his military curiosity on the subject 
 which at this time employed it. — Captain 
 Beatty had served with Sir Sidney Smith in the 
 East, and was at the Siege of Acre ; an event 
 that is not among Buonaparte's most pleasing 
 recollections. When, however, he was in- 
 formed of this circumstance, he treated it 
 with great good humour, and seizing the 
 Captain by the ear, exclaimed in a jocular 
 tone, " Ah, you rogue, you rogue ; were you 
 there ?" — He then asked what was become of 
 Sir Sidney Smith : when he was told that the 
 gallant Knight was at this time on the 
 Continent, and had submitted a proposi- 
 tion to the Congress at Vienna to destroy 
 the Corsairs on the Coast of Barbary, an 
 
 E 
 
( 50 ) 
 
 instant reply was given, '* That it was, at 
 it had long been, most disgraceful to the 
 European powers, to permit the existence of 
 such a nest of miscreants/' This opinion con- 
 firms, in some degree, what has been sug- 
 gested respecting a proposition that Andreossi 
 is said to have been instructed to make to out 
 Government, during the short peace with 
 Consular France. In this interval of hostili- 
 ties, a notion is entertained that the First 
 Consul proposed a co-operating expedition 
 between the two powers to destroy, root and 
 branch, the piratical States of Barbary ; on 
 which occasion, as the story goes, he offered 
 to supply the military force, if England would 
 engage to furnish all the naval implements, 
 necessary to give effect to an enterprize so 
 honourable to them both. — If such proposi- 
 tions were actually made , there can be no 
 doubt that sufficient reasons then predomi- 
 nated for hesitating in the acceptance of them ; 
 and the hasty renewal of the war put an eiad 
 to all further deliberations, if any had ever 
 existed, on the subject. 
 
 — The next enquiries which Napoleon made, 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 were respecting the British Artillery service : 
 they ^vere addressed to the Captain of Artillery 
 on board, whom he found completely qualified 
 to answer the numerous questions which he 
 addressed to him. 1 understand that his first 
 entrance into the Army was in the Artillery 
 Corps, and the subject was consequently the 
 more interesting, and a very few weeks only 
 had passed away since he had fully experienced 
 our field tactics in that l)rancli of warfare. — 
 He descended into all the minutee of the ser- 
 vice, and enquired into the state and disci- 
 pline of the non-commissioned Ofiicers, Bom- 
 bad iers. Miners, and Privates of every cha- 
 racter. The education of the Cadets was 
 also scrutinized, and he particularly asked, if 
 they were instructed by Professors in Mathe- 
 matics, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, &c. — 
 and in order that there might be a clear un- 
 derstanding as to the specific terms of art, he 
 called the Count de las Cases to assist in this 
 scientific conversation. The only observa- 
 tions be made were those of surprize at our 
 bringing twelve-pounders into the field, and 
 the strength, as well as perfection, of this 
 e2 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 branch of the British military force, of which 
 be seemed not to have entertained an adequate 
 comprehension. 
 
 I premised, at the outset of my Epistolary 
 Narrative, that you were to expect sudden 
 transitions to very unconnected objects ; and 
 I now give you an almost laughable example, 
 by passing from the artillery of England to 
 the crown jewels of France, of which Buon- 
 aparte recovered, as I understand, but one 
 article, which was a Diamond Cross, whose 
 value was estimated at Twelve thousand 
 pounds sterling. 1 am also informed, that 
 when Grouchy telegraphed the capture of the 
 Duke D'Angoulesme in the South of France, 
 an order was instantly returned, that w hat- 
 ever property was found in his possession, 
 should be instantly restored to him. 
 
 You may probably have observed that our 
 chief Passenger does not make his enquiries 
 at random. — indeed, He always addresses 
 them to such persons as, from their official 
 characters, are particularly qualified to give 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 explanatory answers : or, which may be the 
 most probable circumstance, the official ap- 
 pearance of persons whom he accidentally en- 
 counters suggests the subject of his interro- 
 gations, as his curiosity directs itself to the 
 apparent departments of those with whom 
 He at any time converses. He might, there- 
 fore, be induced to take me in my own way, 
 when I was an object of his notice ; and 
 Physic seems to be no unpalatable subject 
 with him. He thinks very highly of exercise 
 on horseback, as more conducive than any 
 other to the preservation of health ; and I 
 have been informed that during his passage 
 in the Bellerophon, and confident in the ex- 
 pectation that he should be received by our 
 Government, he frequently anticipated his 
 enjoyment of the field-sports in England. 
 
 — Every one remembers the threatened in- 
 vasion of England in 1805, and the various 
 conjectures which were formed on this mo- 
 mentous subject. It was not, according to 
 my recollection, by any means, generally con- 
 sidered as practicable ; nor did any very great 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 great apprehensions prevail that it \^ ouki he 
 attempted. I will, however, give you my au- 
 thority for the actual intention of carrying it 
 into execution. — Buonaparte positively avers 
 it. He says, that he had two hundred thousand 
 men on the Coast of France opposite to 
 England, and that it was his determination 
 to head them in person. The attempt he 
 acknowledged to be very hazardous, and the 
 issue equally doubtrul. His mind, however, 
 was bent on the enterprize, and every possi- 
 ble arrangment was made to give effect to 
 its operations. — It was hinted to him, how- 
 ever, that his Flotilla w^as altogether insuffi- 
 cient ; and that such a ship as the Northum- 
 berland would run down fifty of them. This 
 he readily admitted : but he stated that bis 
 plan was to rid the Channel of English men 
 of war ; and for that purpose he had directed 
 Admiral Villeneuve, with the combined fleets 
 of France and Spain, to sail apparently for 
 Martinique, for the express purpose of dis- 
 tracting our naval force, by drawing after 
 him a large portion, if not all, of our best 
 ships. Other Squadrons of Observation would 
 
{ 55 ) 
 
 follow ; and England might, by these man- 
 oeuvres, be left sufficiently defenceless for his 
 purpose. Admiral Villeneuve was directed, 
 oij gaining a certain latitude, to take a baffling 
 course back to Europe, and, having eluded the 
 vigilance oi' Nelson, to enter the English Chan- 
 nel. The Flotilla would then have sallied forth 
 from Ostend, Dunkirk, Boulogne, and the ad- 
 joining ports. The intention was to have 
 dashed at the Capital, by the way of Chatham. 
 He well knew, he added, that he should 
 have had to encounter many difficulties ; the 
 object, however, was so great as to justify 
 him in making the attempt. But Villeneuve 
 was met on his return by Sir Robert Calder ; 
 and, having suffered a defeat, took refuge in 
 Ferrol. From that Harbour he was peremp- 
 torily ordered to Sea, according to his original 
 instructions ; but, contrary to their most impe- 
 rative and explicit intent, he steered his course 
 for Cadiz. " He might as well,"' exclaimed 
 Napoleon — raising his voice, and encreasing 
 his impetuosity, " he might as well have gone 
 to the East Indies." Two days after Vil- 
 leneuve had quitted his anchorage before 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 Cadiz, a Naval Officer arrived there to super- 
 sede him. The glorious Victory of Trafalgar 
 soon followed, and the French Admiral died 
 a few days after his arrival in France : Report 
 says— by his own hand. 
 
 — Having given such a specimen of hi* 
 active spirit, I am about to surprise you, per- 
 haps, by the information that this man, who, 
 in the course of his career, seems scarcely to 
 have allow ed himself time to sleep, while he, 
 for so many years kept the w orld awake, is 
 now become the most decided sleeper on 
 board the Northumberland, — During the 
 greater part of the day he reclines on a sofa, 
 quits the card-table at an early hour in the 
 evening, is seldom visible before eleven in the 
 morning, and not unfrequently takes his 
 breakfast in bed. But he has nothing to do, 
 and a Novel will sometimes amuse him. 
 
 — It had been a favourite conjecture, in 
 several of the Newspapers, that Buonaparte, 
 who had risqued Death in so many forms in 
 the Field of Battle, and whose courage can- 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 not, I should suppose, be liable to suspicion, 
 would, nevertheless, play the Coward at last, 
 and put an end to his life, rather than suffer 
 the disgrace of being sent a banished man 
 and a captive to St. Helena. The prevalence 
 of such an opinion reached the ear of the ob- 
 ject of it, who calmly replied, — " No, no, I 
 have not enough of the Roman in me to de- 
 stroy myself." 
 
 The subject was continued in consequence 
 of the incidental mention of Mr. Whitbread's 
 name, and the unhappy termination of his life. 
 That circumstance, as well as the political 
 character of Mr. \^hitbread, was not altoge- 
 ther unknown to Napoleon. After having 
 described him as a faithful and active friend 
 to his country, but who never betrayed any 
 illiberal or local prejudices against the ene- 
 mies of it, he seemed disposed to attribute 
 the lamentable event to the moisture of our 
 climate. He was not ignorant of the effects 
 ascribed to our gloomy month of November, 
 and multiplied his questions as to the preva- 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 lence of fogs in our island, and their supposed 
 effects on the physical system of its inhabit- 
 ants, so as to produce those hypocondriac 
 disorders and the tcediam vitce^ to which seif- 
 destruction is frequently imputed, lie rea- 
 soned for some time with no common inge- 
 nuity on the unexpected topic, and concluded 
 with this decisive opinion: — " Suicide is a 
 crime the most revolting to my feelings ; nor 
 does any reason present itself to my under- 
 standing by which it can be justified. It cer- 
 tainly originates in that species of fear which 
 we denominate cow ardice, (Poltronerie). For 
 what claim can that man have to courage who 
 trembles at the frowns of fortune. — True he- 
 roism consists in becoming superior to the 
 ills of life, in whatever shape they may chal- 
 lenge him to the combat." 
 
 — General Montholon is of a very cheer- 
 ful, lively disposition ; but Madame, sa ires 
 chere femme, is in continual application to 
 medical assistance. — Her emperor on ejiQuir- 
 ing of Mr. O'Meara the state of her health, re- 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 peated the question of Macbeth, in the fol- 
 lowing manner : — 
 
 " Can a physician minister to a mind diseased, 
 ** Or pluck from memory a rooted evil. 
 
 Madame Montholon," he continued, " is 
 alarmed at the idea of St. Helena. She is 
 destitute of that firmness so necessary to her si- 
 tuation, and irresolution is a weakness that is 
 unpardonable even in a woman*/' — It is, in- 
 deed, very evident, that we are indebted for 
 the company of the ladies in our voyage, to 
 the romantic devotion of the gentlemen their 
 husbands to the object for which it was un- 
 dertaken. Madame Bertrand could not even 
 persuade her femine de chambre to quit Paris, 
 till she had obtained permission for the wo- 
 man's husband and son to accompany the 
 suite. 
 
 * Mr. O'Mearavvas Surgeon on board the Belleroplion ; 
 and, when Buonaparte's medical attendant declined a 
 continuance of his professional duties, he volunteered his 
 services ; a circumstance highly approved of by the Com- 
 mander of the Channel fleet. — Nor should I be satisfied 
 with myself if I did not bear testimony to his superior skill 
 in his profession, to the honour of his character, and the 
 virtues of his heart. 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 — I shall now proceed to give the account of 
 an interesting conversation which I had with 
 the Count de las Cases on the final resolution 
 of Napoleon to throw himself on the genero- 
 sity of the English Government. He prefaced 
 his narrative with this assurance ; "No page 
 of Ancient History will give you a more faith- 
 ful detail of any extraordinary event, than I am 
 about to offer of our departure from France, 
 and the circumstances connected with it. The 
 future Historian will certainly attempt to 
 describe it ; and you will then be able to judge 
 of the authenticity of his materials and the 
 correctness of his narration. 
 
 " From the time the Emperor quitted the 
 capital, it was his fixed determination to pro- 
 ceed to America, and establish himself on the 
 banks of one of its great rivers, where, he 
 had no doubt, a number of his friends 
 from France would gather round him ; and, 
 as he had been finally baffled in the career 
 of his ambition, he determined to retire from 
 the world, and beneath the branches of his 
 ownfig-tree, in that sequestered spot,tranquilly 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 and philosophically observe the agitations of 
 Europe." — On my observing that the good 
 people of Washington might entertain very 
 different notions of his philosophy, and rather 
 contemplate with apprehension such a colony 
 as he would establish, Las Cases replied, 
 " Oh, no ; the career of Napoleon's ambition 
 is terminated/' — —He then proceeded. 
 
 " On our arrival at Rochfort, the difficulty 
 of reaching the Land of Promise appeared to 
 be much greater than had been conjectured. 
 Every enquiry was made, and various projects 
 proposed ; but, after all, no very practicable 
 scheme offered itself to our acceptance. At 
 length, as a dernier resort^ two chasse-marees, 
 (small one-masted vessels) were procured; 
 and it was in actual contemplation to attempt 
 a voyage across the Atlantic in them. Six- 
 teen Midshipmen engaged most willingly to 
 direct their course; and, during the night, 
 it was thought that they might effect the 
 meditated escape, — We met,'' continued Las 
 Cases, " in a small room, to discuss and come 
 to a final determination on this momentous 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 subject; nor shall I attempt to describe the 
 anxiety visible on the countenances of our 
 small assembly. — The Emperor alone retained 
 an unembarrassed look, when he calmly de- 
 manded the opinions of his chosen band of 
 followers, as to his future conduct. The ma- 
 jority were in favour of his returning to the 
 army, as in the South of France his cause still 
 appeared to wear a favourable aspect. — This 
 proposition the Emperor instantly rejected, 
 with a declaration, delivered in a most decided 
 tone and with a peremptory gesture, — That 
 he never would be the instrument of a Civil 
 War in France. — He declared, in the words 
 which he had for some time frequently repeat- 
 ed, that his political career was terminated ; 
 and he only wished for the secure asylum 
 which he had promised himself in America, 
 and, till that hour, had no doubt of attain- 
 ing. — He then asked me, as a Naval Officer, 
 whether I thought that a voyage across 
 the Atlantic was practicable in the small 
 vessels, in which alone it then appeared that 
 the attempt could be made. — I had my 
 doubts," added Las Cases, " and 1 had my 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 wishes: The latter urged me to efticourag^ 
 the enterprize ; and the former made me Ire- 
 sitate ill engaging for th€ probability of its 
 being crowned with success. — My reply indi- 
 t-ated the influence of them both. — I answered, 
 that I had long quitted the Maritime pro- 
 fession, and was altogether unacquainted with 
 the kind of vessels in question, as to their 
 strengtii and capacity for such a navigation 
 as was proposed to be undertaken in them ; 
 but as the young Midshipmen who had vo- 
 lunteered their services, must be competent 
 judges of the subject, and had offered to risque 
 their lives in navigating these vessels, no 
 small coniidence, I thought, might be placed 
 in their probable security.- — This project 
 however, was soon abandoned, and no alter- 
 native appeared but to throw ourseflves on the 
 generosity of England." 
 
 " In the midst of this midnight Council, 
 but, without the least appearance of dejec- 
 tion at the varying and rather irresolute opi- 
 nions of his friends, Napoleon ordered one 
 •f them to act as Secretary, and a Letter to 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 the Prince Regent of England was dictated. 
 — On the following day, I was employed in 
 making the necessary arrangements with 
 Captain Maitland on board the Bellerophon, 
 That Officer conducted himself with the ut- 
 most politeness and gentlemanly courtesy, 
 but would not enter into any engagements on 
 the part of his Government ; and, with the 
 exception of Lieutenant Colonel Planat, 
 every person in the suite of Buonaparte 
 buoyed themselves up with the hopes that 
 they should receive at least, the same treat- 
 ment which had been manifested to Lucien 
 Buonaparte in your country ; and with that 
 consolatory expectation we arrived off' the 
 coast of England/* 
 
 — The performance of Divine Service, as 
 is usual on board His Majesty^s ships, to dis- 
 tinguish and offer due honour to the Sabbath 
 Day, happened to introduce a discourse on 
 the subject of Religion with the principal per- 
 sons of the suite ; when we were generally in- 
 formed that their chief had thought proper,after 
 dinner, to speak on the subject of Religious 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 Faith: his opinions it was not deemed ne- 
 cessary to comnnniicate any further, than 
 that they were generally of the most liberal 
 and tolerating character. — One circumstance, 
 however, it was thought proper to assert, as 
 from his own instant authority — That his pro- 
 fession of the Faith of Mahomet, and avowed 
 devotion to the Crescent, in Egypt, was a mere 
 act of policy to serve the purpose of the mo- 
 ment. — This fact appeared to be asserted with 
 particular energy, from the knowledge pos- 
 sessed by the party communicating it, of the 
 abhorrence which Buonaparte's having de- 
 clared himself a Mussulman, excited in Eng- 
 land. But the zeal of the moment was not 
 calculated to throw any new light upon the 
 manoeuvre, or to soften the original opinion 
 entertained of it.— Indeed, I ought to have 
 told you before, in order to account for any 
 apparent knowledge of the opinions generally 
 prevailing in England, respecting the French 
 Revolution and the leading characters in it, 
 previous to the Peace of Amiens, if allusions 
 should have been made to them,— that the 
 Count de las Cases had resided amonii' us a^ 
 Hn Emigrant, till that event. 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 — I shall here observe, that whenever an 
 opportunity offered, the zealous attendants of 
 Napoleon, never failed to represent him in a 
 manner, that might lessen any unfavourable 
 impressions, which they supposed the English 
 entertained respecting him, whether personal 
 or political. The impetuosity of his temper 
 being mentioned, it was not denied ; but his 
 frequent and even habitual correction of it 
 was illustrated by these two anecdotes, which 
 De las Cases related as facts, among many 
 others, known to himself. He related them 
 in the following manner : 
 
 *' I was at St. Cloud, when Captain Mieu- 
 lieuse waited upon the Emperor on his return 
 from England. — He had been taken in the 
 Didon, by an English frigate, the Phoenix, 
 commanded by Captain Baker*. On my in- 
 
 * A short time previous to the battle of Trafalgar, the 
 Didon was sent from Ferrol by Admiral Villeneuve to as- 
 certain what English ships were off the Coast. This Fri- 
 gate, carrying 44 guns, and 330 men, had instructions to 
 avoid fighting ; but falling in with the Phoenix of 36 guns 
 and 254 men, commanded by Captain Baker, her small size 
 seemed to justify the French Captain in disobeying his or- 
 ders : he backed his main-top-sail and lay-to till the Phoenix 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 troclucinghim,his Majestysaid,ina very harsh 
 tone of voice, " So, Sir, you surrendered your 
 colours to an enemy of inferior force : how can 
 you answer for your conduct ?" — " Sire," re- 
 plied Mieuliuse, " 1 did my utmost ; my men 
 would fight no longer." — '' If so," answered 
 the Emperor, " when an Officer is disobeyed 
 by his men, he should cease to command ; 
 Therefore, begone." About six months after 
 this mortifying reception, and when his con- 
 duct had been inquired into, he was appointed 
 to the command of a squadron at Venice. 
 
 — " The Emperor had a confidential se- 
 cretary, a man of superior talents, who was 
 blessed with a disposition so mild, and a tem- 
 per so smooth, that it was almost impossible 
 to trouble the one, or to ruffle the other. The 
 impetuosity of his Imperial Master, with 
 
 ranged up along-side, and commenced the action ; when^ 
 aftera most determined conflict of three hours, part of whicli 
 time they were on board each other, the Didon struck, beino- 
 a complete wreck. I was at that time Surgeon of the 
 Phoenix, and can therefore bear testimony to the admirable 
 conduct and bravery of Captain Baker, his Officers and 
 Crew, on this memorable occasion. 
 F 2 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 the uncertain and unreasonable hours when 
 he was frequently summoned to his duty, 
 and the calm preparation in which he was 
 ever found to perform it, sufficiently proves 
 the character that has been given of him. — 
 Napoleon seldom took a pen into his hand ; 
 his general practice was to dictate to others, 
 which he did with the rapidity of thought : 
 and if an idea struck him in the middle of the 
 night, the secretary in waiting was instantly 
 summoned to transmit it to paper. This offi- 
 cer had happened, on one of these hasty oc- 
 casions, to have mistaken an expression as it 
 was dictated to him, and, for this accidental 
 mistake, was dismissed from the presence in 
 terms of the severest displeasure. The next 
 morning the Emperor sent for his secretary ; 
 and when the latter entered the saloon with 
 his usual placid and undisturbed countenance, 
 the Emperor, with rather an angry look, de- 
 manded of him if he had slept the preceding 
 night? and, on being informed that he had 
 enjoyed his usual hours of comfortable repose, 
 this reply was given :— ' then you have been 
 i»ore fortunate than me ; so take your pen ;* 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 and a decree for a very liberal pension to the 
 secretary was instantly dictated." 
 
 It was wished, also, to counteract a notion 
 which was imagined to prevail among us, 
 that Napoleon did not possess the active 
 spirit of gallantry towards the Ladies, without 
 which a Frenchman does not believe that any 
 generous, noble, or heroic virtue can exist. — 
 Such an opinion, if it prevailed, was consi- 
 dered by his zealous champions as a most foul 
 and groundless assertion. Among other proofs 
 of his more tender nature, it was said, that he 
 was sincerely attached to Maria Louisa ; and 
 it was added, a fond look from her eye would 
 command any thing from his heart. — (Re- 
 member, it is a Frenchman who speaks.) At 
 the same time it was avowed, that though she 
 might possess his more permanent affection, 
 her Majesty was known to suspect the pos- 
 sibility of his straying into an occasional 
 infidelity. 
 
 It is indeed very well known, that the 
 English ladies whom he saw from the gang*- 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 way of the Belleropbonj, drew from him very 
 animated expressions bf admiration. Miss 
 Brown, a daughter of General Brown, is said 
 to have fixed, his exclusive attention^ .while 
 she was in a situation to remain an object 
 whose features could be distinguished. 
 
 —^You^fiay remember, perhaps, that some 
 years si nice^ when the Marquis of Wellesley 
 was Sect»6tary of State for the Foreign De- 
 partment, that Sir George, then Captain 
 Cockburn, who commanded the Implacable, 
 was particularly chosen to conduct a secret 
 enterpi'ize with Baron de Colai, a Pole^ to res- 
 cue and secure the escape of Ferdinand Vl J. 
 t)f Spain, Svho wa« at that time confined in 
 the Castle of Valen^^ay, — I have now the means 
 of throwing some light upon that interesting 
 transaction, by the communications of those 
 who were well acquainted with what I must 
 ieonsider as the unfortunate conclusion of it. 
 
 All that could be done by the active, pa- 
 tient, and unremitting vigilance of Captain 
 Cockburn, to whom so important a part of 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 this secret design had been entrusted, was 
 accomplished ; and it need not be added, 
 that the officers under his command, shared 
 his persevering spirit. They, in due time, 
 arrived at the spot, where the Baron was to 
 enter upon the part assigned him in the bold 
 and dangerous stratagem ; and, as an essential 
 accompaniment of it, money and jewels were 
 artfully concealed in different parts of his 
 dress. He hoped to return in about a month, 
 and all the necessary signals were arranged 
 in order to secure his retreat with his royal 
 prize to the ship. Nothing more, however, 
 was heard of the Baron ; and the Implacable 
 after a long-continued, tedious, and ever- 
 watchful cruize, returned to port. 
 
 The enterprizing Pole now became the 
 subject of various conjectures. He was suc- 
 cessively considered as having betrayed his 
 trust, or seized as a spy, and put to death ; 
 or that the weak, infatuated Prince, for whose 
 deliverance the enterprizing Baron had de- 
 voted himself to so much danger, had betrayed 
 the plot, and involved his romantic adherent 
 
( 7 
 
 0! 
 
 ill the fatal consequence of such a discovery. 
 But the mystery of the poor Baron's fate was 
 now to be unfolded. The necessary wit- 
 nesses for the purpose were in Court : Sa- 
 vary, who was minister of the Police of 
 Paris, at the time of this secret expedition, 
 was in the suite of Napoleon, and could have 
 no objection to tell all that he knew of the 
 business, while his master was on the spot to 
 confirm or correct the statement. There was 
 no difficulty, therefore, for Sir George Cock- 
 burn, in his present high official character, to 
 become acquainted with the finale of the bold 
 Baron's adventures ; concerning which, it 
 maybe presumed, his generous nature felt 
 something more than curiosity. 
 
 The Baron, it seems, had arrived in safety 
 at the point to which he was destined, but 
 Almighty Love appears to have demanded 
 his first attentions. A lady, to whom he was 
 ardently attached in Paris, was an irresisti- 
 ble object of attraction, and to that city he 
 bent his first steps : but he had not been two 
 hours within its walls before some of Savary's 
 
( n ) 
 
 myrmidons seized the unfortunate and impru- 
 dent Pole, stripped off his cloaths, with their 
 valuable concealments, and consigned him to 
 a prison. So far the stratagem failed of suc- 
 cess : but Buonaparte wished to know whe- 
 ther the imprisoned monarch was privy to it. 
 — A proper person was therefore selected to 
 personate the Baron, and with all his false 
 passports and rich clothes, introduced himself 
 to Ferdinand ; but though the guards were 
 purposely withdrawn, to give all possible fa- 
 cility for his escape, the imprisoned King dared 
 not encounter the danger of the attempt. 
 
 — On our approach to Madeira, the hazy 
 state of the atmosphere precluded the possi- 
 bibty of seeing the Island, until we got close 
 between Puerto Santo and the Deserts. The 
 latter rocky island is almost perpendicular ; 
 and has some slight resemblance to St. Helena. 
 This circumstance I mentioned to De las Cas- 
 ses, and he instantly communicated it to 
 Napoleon, who had quitted the dinner-table 
 sooner than usual, and joined a few of us on 
 the poop : but the comparison of what he now 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 saw, with his gloomy notions of the place 
 where he was shortly to abide, produced not 
 a single word. He gave an energetic shrug, 
 and a kind of contemptuous smile ; and that 
 was all. — The sloping front and luxuriant 
 aspect of the island of Madeira could noi but 
 excite an unpleasant sensation, when contrast- 
 ed with the idea he had entertained of the 
 huge black rock of St. Helena. — I had pre- 
 sented Johnson^s Work on the Influence of 
 Tropical Climates on European Constitutions 
 to his perusal. That \^riter has been very 
 lavish of his encomiums^on St. Helena ; but 
 he acknowledges that he only lay at anchor 
 off it for three days ; and its acute reader ridi- 
 culed the glowing descriptions which were 
 founded on such a transient and imperfect 
 view of the place. 
 
 A Sirocco wind had blown for forty-eight 
 hours previous to our arrival at the Madeiras, 
 and had done considerable damage to the 
 vines of the Island. — This circumstance will 
 be indubitably attributed by the superstitious 
 inhabitants to the malign appearance of 
 
( 7& ) 
 
 Buonaparte on their coast ; and all the saints 
 were probably invoked to hasten our de- 
 parture. 
 
 With the fine landscape of the rich and 
 fruitful spot before us, I conclude this Letter. 
 — My next may, perhaps, inform you of our 
 arrival at the barren and rocky scene of St. 
 Helena. But, wherever 1 may be, you well 
 know, I trust, with what truth, 
 
 I am, &c. &c. 
 
 w. w: 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 OUR great man seldom suffered a 
 day to pass without making particular en- 
 quiries respecting the health of the crew ; 
 and the nature of such diseases as then pre- 
 vailed among them, with the particular 
 mode of treatment. The complaints then 
 prevalent on board the Northumberland re- 
 quired a free use of the lancet. We had a 
 young, healthy, florid crew, on our quitting 
 
( 76 ) 
 
 England, with constitutions liable to be in- 
 fluenced with increase of temperature. He 
 seemed to entertain a very strong* prejudice 
 against bleeding, which he called the San- 
 grado practice, nor did he fail to treat our 
 first conversations on the subject with a de- 
 gree of humour and pleasantry, which proved 
 that the great events of his life had not driven 
 from his recollection the solemn satire of Le 
 Sage. He urged the propriety of sparing 
 the precious fluid, under an apprehension 
 of its deficiency, when, as he conceived, the 
 food on board a ship was not sufficiently nu- 
 tritious to restore it. A Fienchman, he ex- 
 claimed, would never submit to ii»ie discipline 
 of the Spanish Doctor. And on my observing 
 that the French did not eat quite so much beef 
 as Englishmen, he peremptorily denied the 
 fact ; — " to the full as much," he said, " but 
 they cook it differently.'" — He was, however, 
 open to conviction ; and when he had been 
 made to understand the general health of our 
 fleet, and had witnessed the good effects of 
 the practice which he had so forcibly repro- 
 bated and ridiculed, he no longer argued 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 against it ; but always mentioned it with 
 some facetious observation. On meeting me, 
 he would apply his fingers to the bend of the 
 opposite arm, and ask — " well, how many 
 have you bled to-day ?'* Nor did he fail to 
 exclaim, when any of his own people were 
 indisposed — " O bleed him, bleed him ! To 
 the powerful lancet with him : that's the 
 
 infallible remedy/' He had, however, 
 
 seen the good effects on Madame Bertrand. 
 That lady was attacked with an inflamma- 
 tory Fever, when she submitted to lose two 
 pounds of blood, as well as to abstain from 
 wine and all animal food : but the Sangrado 
 {system effected her cure, and confirmed the 
 proselytism of her Emperor to the practice. 
 
 Of his own state of health he has good rea- 
 son to boast : and when it is considered to 
 how many various climates he has exposed 
 himself, and what a succession of toil he has 
 vmdergone during the last twenty-five years, 
 the excellent health he has enjoyed, and still 
 enjoys, is altogether astonishing. — He de- 
 clares that he has been but twice, throughout 
 
( 78 ) 
 
 his life, in such a state as to demand medical 
 aid. He took a dose of physic for the first 
 complaint ; and tlie second, being a pulmonic 
 affection, required a blister. Mr. O'Meara, 
 his own surgeon, speaks with admiration of 
 his temperament, and says, that his pulse 
 never exceeds sixty-two. His own spontane- 
 ous account of himself is, that he is very pas- 
 sionate ; but that the violence of his disposi- 
 tion soon subsides, not only into tranquillity, 
 but into coldness and indifference. — I have 
 never heard that, in speaking of his constitu- 
 tion and uncommon state of health, he ever 
 hinted at the advances of age, or calculated 
 the probabilities of his enjoying length of life. 
 — He has indeed been known to say, and to 
 repeat the opinion, that he ought to have died 
 on the day when he entered Moscow ; as he 
 then had arrived at the summit of his mili- 
 tary glory. It has been even said by some of 
 his few surrounding friends, that he should 
 himself have determined not to survive it. 
 
 — I must beg leave to return to the subject 
 of blood-letting, as a conversation took place 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 which had escaped me, and is an additional 
 proof of his curiosity or anxiety , or perhaps 
 both of them, respecting it, — He called me to 
 him on the quarter-deck, and asked the follow- 
 ing professional questions : — " Can a person, 
 labouring under a tropical disease, requiring 
 what you call the free use of the lancet, promise 
 himself an equal share of health, eighteen 
 months after, as he had before the system of 
 
 depletion ?" '" How long are the vessels 
 
 filling after being partially emptied of blood ; 
 and what quantity can the human body lose 
 without producing death ?" — After reasoning 
 for some time on the subject of these questions, 
 1 surprized him with the account of a very 
 extraordinary case then subject to my treat- 
 ment. A seaman was put on the sick list ; 
 
 the disease an inflammation of the stomach. 
 On the second day the pulse beat 150 in the 
 minute, and not an article of food or of me- 
 dicine was retained by the stomach for two 
 minutes. In the course of three days the pa- 
 tient lost fifteen pounds of blood ; when the 
 pulse, though still full, was reduced to 87 
 beats. Nothing solid remained on his sto- 
 
( 80 ) 
 
 mach for three months, nevertheless the man 
 recovered. This you will say was a case 
 in point ; and enough to make any one a 
 convert to the application of the lancet. He 
 described to me a pulmonic complaint with 
 which he was aifected on his return from 
 Egypt ; and asked me what treatment 1 should 
 have adopted in his case. " Would you have 
 done as Covisart did ? he blistered me twice." 
 I replied that, most probably, I should have 
 bled previous to the application of a blister, 
 as in the commencement of pectoral affections, 
 they are generally attended with inflammation. 
 The conversation afforded me, as I thought, 
 rather a fair opportunity of asking him, if his 
 sleep was generally sound ; I felt at the time, 
 that it wasan adventurous question ; nor would 
 it have surprized me, if he had turned away 
 without giving me an answer ; but, with a 
 look more expressive of sorrow than displea- 
 sure, he replied, '' No : — from my cradle, I 
 have been an indifferent sleeper.'' 
 
 Adieu, &c. &c. 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 MY DEAR 
 
 1 shall begin this Letter, by intro- 
 ducing a very interesting person to your at- 
 tention ; and who, in our various quarter- 
 deck conversations, had not been hitherto 
 mentioned. It was the Empress Josephine. — 
 Her name happening to occur, she became 
 the spontaneous subject of very animated 
 eulogiums ; when she was representad as pos- 
 sessing a sweetness of disposition, an ele- 
 gance of manners, and a certain melody of 
 voice that irresistibly charmed every one, 
 without any exception as to situation or capa- 
 city, who were admitted to her presence. — 
 The sudden death of this excellent Lady was 
 very generally lamented, and is attributed to 
 a very extraordinary circumstance, and a very 
 exalted personage. I will relate the event 
 to you in the words, as far as memory serves, 
 in which the Count de las Cases conveyed 
 it as an undeniable fact to me.— Josephine, it 
 seems, had so far won the admiration and 
 
 G 
 
( 82 
 
 high esteem of the Emperor Alexander, that 
 his Imperial Majesty used to dedicate many 
 of his leisure hours to the pleasure of her fas- 
 cinating conversation. His visits were not 
 only frequent but continual during his stay 
 at Paris. — Her state of health was but indif- 
 ferent, and on some particular occasion, her 
 physician had prescribed medicines of a 
 nature that required the utmost care and 
 precaution, and an absulute confinement to 
 her chamber : but, at this time, the Emperor 
 paid one of his visits, when her respect for 
 him rendered her incautious, and she received 
 the Imperial guest in the usual manner. They 
 walked, during the time of his stay, in the 
 gardens of Mal-Maison ; and the consequence 
 of this promenade was fatal : — she was seized 
 with a violent inflammation in the lungs, 
 which defied all medical assistance, and in a 
 few days she was no more. 
 
 — From the same authority I give you an 
 account of her marriage with Napoleon, which 
 certainly differs as far as my recollection serves, 
 from the credited histories of that event : it is 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 not, however, for me to attempt a reconcilia- 
 tion of opposing narratives ; but to relate, for 
 your amusement, what I have heard, and the 
 author of my information : it is as follows. — 
 
 An order which was issued by the Conven^- 
 TiON to disarm the citizens, occasioned the in- 
 troduction of Buonaparte, then a General, and 
 high m military command, to Josephine. Her 
 husband, was said to have suffered eighteen 
 months before the circumstance about to be 
 mentioned. He had left a son Eugene Beau- 
 harnois, at this time a most interesting youth, 
 who took an opportunity to address the Ge- 
 neral on the Parade, and solicit his father's 
 sword ; which, according to the late order, 
 had been removed from his mother's residence. 
 Buonaparte, charmed by the request, and the 
 animated modesty with which it was made, 
 instantly granted it. The mother wrote a 
 letter the following day to thank the General 
 for his kindness to her son. This grateful 
 attention produced a visit on his part, and the 
 Lady not being at home, she sent a note of 
 apology and particular invitation. An inter- 
 g2 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 view of course followed: He was instantly 
 captivated, and in six weeks they were mar- 
 ried. — It has been generally thought, I believe, 
 that the second marriage did not obliterate 
 his regard for her: and it is here asserted, by 
 those who were quahfied to form a correct 
 opinion of the matter, that he would have 
 given more evident proofs of his regard, if 
 the jealousy of the second Empress had not 
 interposed to prevent them. 
 
 — Having induced you, perhaps, to suppose 
 that Napoleon was susceptible of love, I shall 
 introduce Madame Bertrand to persuade you, 
 that he is not without a capacity for friend- 
 ship. — She related, in a very impressive man- 
 ner to us, the last interview with Duroc, Duke 
 of Frieuli, and his afflicted Sovereign. 
 
 That officer, who, as it will appear, stood 
 high in his iMaster's regard and confidence, 
 was struck by a cannon-ball, as he was recon- 
 noitring the position for a night encampment 
 of the army, and his bowels fell to the ground ; 
 when he had the extraordinary resolution to 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 collect and replace them with his own hands, 
 on the spot. In this hopeless state he was 
 removed to a neighbouring cottage, where he 
 survived twenty-four hours. — A mortification 
 soon took place, and a very offensive smell be- 
 gan to issue from his body, which continued to 
 increase. After he had been some time in 
 this state, the Emperor came to visit and con- 
 sole him. The dying man, after expressing 
 his acknowledgements to his Master for this 
 gracious act of kindness, which he accompa- 
 nied with sentiments of the utmost loyalty 
 and devotion, recommended his wife and 
 daughter to the Imperial protection ; and 
 then entreated him to depart, lest the effluvia 
 proceeding from him might be attended with 
 infection. — She represented Napoleon's grief 
 as perfectly romantic, and stated as a fact, 
 that he lay, for it is not to be supposed that 
 he slept, a whole night on the stone which 
 covered the grave of his friend. 
 
 — She also mentioned that he possessed 
 an equal attachment to Lasnes, Duke of 
 Montebello, who was killed at the battle of 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 Esling, when a similar scene of affliction and 
 regard took place. — 1 hat brave officer had 
 been obliged to submit to the amputation of 
 one leg just below the knee, and the other 
 just above the ancle. Buonaparte and Ber- 
 trand visited him in this unhappy condition, 
 on the left bank of the Danube. Bertrand was 
 endeavouring to console him by comparing his 
 situation to that of the brave Caffarelli, when 
 he, with a certain eagerness of expression, 
 thus interrupted him : — " The attachment of 
 CafFarelli to the Emperor was cold, when 
 compared with the affection which I feel." 
 
 — It was on a Sunday, at the Admiral's 
 table, that Buonaparte catechised the Chap- 
 lain of the Northumberland in the following 
 curious and unexpected manner : though the 
 learned Divine is well qualified to have an- 
 swered a far more profound enquiry respect- 
 ing the Faith which he teaches, and the things 
 that belong to it. 
 
 — How many Sacraments does the Church 
 of England acknowledge } 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 Two — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 — Does not the Church of England con- 
 sider Marriage as a Sacrament ? 
 
 No. 
 
 — What are the Tenets of the Church of 
 England? 
 
 The Tenets of the Church of England are 
 Lutheran, or Episcopal Protestant. 
 
 — How often is the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper administered ? 
 
 In the churches of the metropolis, and other 
 cities and large towns, the Eucharist is ob- 
 served monthly ; but in the country churches, 
 where the population is not so large, quarterly. 
 The Festivals of the Nativity of our Saviour, 
 or Christmas Day ; of the Resurrection, or 
 Easter Sunday; the Descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, or Whit-sunday ; and the Feast of 
 St. Michael, are the quarterly observations of 
 the Eucharist. 
 
 — Do all the communicants drink out of 
 the same cup ? — They do. 
 
 — Is the bread made use of in the Sacra- 
 ment common bread ? 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 The bread is of wheat, and the best that 
 can be conveniently procured. 
 
 — Supposing that wine could not be pro- 
 cured in the Administration of the Sacrament, 
 would any other liquid be allowed as Its sub- 
 stitute ? 
 
 It is not at all probable that a case of this 
 kind ever occurred : wine being to be pro- 
 cured in every part of the kingdom. 
 
 — Do the bishops frequently preach ? 
 
 Seldom but on extraordinary occasions, 
 
 — Do they w ear the mitre ? 
 
 I believe I may venture to say — never. 
 Though I cannot affirm whether the arch- 
 bishops do or do not wear the mitre, when 
 they crown the King. 
 
 — Have not the bishops a seat in the House 
 of Peers ? 
 
 They have. 
 
 •*— How long is it requisite for persons who 
 are candidates for Holy Orders at the Univer- 
 sity, to have resided there ? 
 
 Four years : — but previous to their be- 
 coming members of the University, they are 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 generally seven or eight years at a classical 
 school. 
 
 — Of how long standing must a person be 
 in the University, before the degree of a 
 Doctor of Divinity ? 
 
 Nineteen years from the time of his matri- 
 culation. 
 
 — Which are the most approved places of 
 education for the candidates for Holy Orders ? - 
 The universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
 — Are there many Puritans (meaning Pres- 
 byterians) in England } 
 There are a great many. 
 — What are the religious tenets of the 
 Church of Scotland ? 
 
 The tenets of that Church are Calvinistic. 
 They do not allow episcopacy or the gcvern- 
 ment by bishops. They are Presbyterians, 
 because they hold the government of priests, 
 and presbyters or elders. 
 
 —To whose custody are the registers of 
 baptisms, marriages, and deaths committed ? 
 They are generally entrusted to the care 
 of the minister ; but it is a more regular pro- 
 ceeding to keep them in a strong chest which 
 
{ 90 ) 
 
 remains in the vestry-room of the parish 
 church. This chest is guarded by three locks 
 of different construction ; so that it cannot, 
 or at least ought not, to be opened, without 
 the concurrence of three persons — the minis- 
 ter, and ihe two church-wardens ; who, each 
 of them, possess their official and separate 
 key. — The idea of keys and locking up, 
 might not excite sensations altogether pleas- 
 ing to the extraordinary Captive, for here he 
 closed his enquiries. 
 
 It may be said that every thing is possible, 
 if it should please God ; as was observed, 
 according to the story, by a Dutcli burgo- 
 master, when a man was brought before 
 him who was accused of having bit off his own 
 nose. But at all events, it may be considered 
 as a very striking article of the chapter of im- 
 probabilities, in any preceding part of Buona- 
 parte's life, that he should ever be found ca- 
 techizing the chaplain on board an English 
 man of war bound for St. Helena, respecting 
 the forms, ceremonies, tenets, &c. of the An- 
 glican church. 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 —The ceremony of crossing the line, a day 
 of jubilee to the voyagers of every maritime 
 nation, is so well known, that it would be su- 
 perfluous to give a minute description of it ; 
 though more than usual ceremony was dis- 
 played on the present occasion : and it must 
 be acknowledged that the French party sub- 
 mitted with the best grace, that is to say, 
 with the most perfect good humour, to the 
 novel freedoms of the marine Saturnalia: — 
 Nor had the Neptune and Amphitrite of the 
 day any cause of complaint. They were 
 seated in a boat filled with water, the throne 
 a match-tub, and the sceptre a painter's brush. 
 They were surrounded by their Tritons, con- 
 sisting of fifty or sixty of the most athletic 
 men in the ship, naked to the waist, and 
 bedaubed with various colours, each bearing 
 a pail of salt water, to drench, more or less, the 
 subjects of the briny god. The licence of 
 the pastime may be imagined, when Captain 
 Ross, who commanded the ship, received 
 the contents of one of them with perfect plea- 
 santry. 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 — Bertrand, Montholon, Gourgond, aud 
 De las Cases, with all the domestics, presented 
 themselves to the temporary, but potent 
 Neptune, and received, with the necessary 
 cheerfulness, their share of his ablutions. 
 The two former led their children forward, 
 each of them presenting, from their extended 
 little hands, a double Napoleon as their offer- 
 ing to the presiding deity of the deep. A sea- 
 boy sung tiie song of* The snug little Island,'' 
 some of whose lines were not very compli- 
 mentary to the enemies of Great Britain, but 
 not an unpleasant look was produced by them. 
 1 he ladies viewed the scene from an elevated 
 position, and appeared to be equally amused 
 and astonished at the festivities of it. Nep- 
 tune was rather disappointed that Napoleon 
 did not make his appearance, though he ac- 
 knowledged the sovereign dignity by sendijjg 
 his tribute. — In short, harmony prevailed to 
 the close of this festive medley. 
 
 — You, my dear friend, ^vho have af- 
 forded a vigilant attention to every part of 
 Napoleon's extraordinary career, and to sa- 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 tisfy whose prevailing curiosity concerning 
 him, I have become a writer of biography, such 
 as it may prove ; you, i say, may remember, 
 though it does not occur to me, that a rumour 
 prevailed after the Treaty of Tilsit, of a 
 projected marriage between the Emperor of 
 France and a Russian princess. — This cir- 
 cumstance seems to be acknowledged here ; 
 and it is said, moreover, that the failure of 
 this negociation arose from the bigotry of the 
 lady^s royal mother, who insisted on the esta- 
 blishment of a Greek church in the palace of 
 the Thuilleries. — 1 merely state it as a little 
 article of our political chit-chat, for your po- 
 litical amusement. 
 
 —I recur once more to the person of this 
 object of your inquisitive spirit, as it leads to 
 circumstances (i know they will not be thought 
 trifling by you,) which are connected with 
 this additional description of it. He has an 
 uncommon face ; large, full and pale, but not 
 sickly. In conversation, the muscles suiffer 
 little or no exertion : with the excepticm of 
 those in the immediate vicinity of the mouth, 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 the whole seemed fixed, and the forehead per- 
 fectly smooth. That of a Frenchman is ge- 
 nerally wrinkled, from the habitual, muscular 
 exertion of the countenance, which we deno- 
 minate grimace : but however earnest Napo- 
 leon may be in conversation, he discovers no 
 distortion of feature. When he wishes to 
 enforce a question, he sometimes employs his 
 hand, but that alone : and were I describing 
 a Petit Miiitre, I might attribute the display 
 to its uncommon handsomeness. — He some- 
 times smiles, but 1 believe he seldom laughs. — 
 I have never observed, when laughter has 
 prevailed around him, that he has caught the 
 pleasant infection. The interesting children 
 on board, who amuse every body, do not at- 
 tract his attention. There is a large, good- 
 tempered Newfoundland dog' who is a fre- 
 quent and rather a rude play-fellow of these 
 urchins ; and in a situation where no active 
 entertainments are exhibited, the interludes of 
 these performers afford no small degree of 
 amusement to those around them. But they 
 have never won a smile, that I have observed, 
 from the Ex-imperial spectator. Once, 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 indeed, when Beiirand was in conversation 
 with his Master, the Count's llltJe girl, in- 
 truded upon it, with a story which all her fa- 
 ther's prohibitions could not silence. On 
 this occasion Napoleon took her by the hand, 
 heard out her little tale, and at the conclu- 
 sion kissed her. But this very uncommon 
 attention was probably paid to the child as 
 the only mode of getting rid of her, which 
 might not have been painful to the feelings 
 of the father. 
 
 — You will say, perhaps, when you have 
 read a little further, that we are very much 
 in want of amusements on board a ship, 
 which we certainly know as well as you, and 
 that we are pleased with little things ; how- 
 ever, as you are the father of children, I will 
 tell you something which I think will amuse 
 you, — Frequent attempts are made on the 
 loyalty of the little Bertrands, by courting 
 
 them, in very seducing ways, to say 
 
 Vive le Moi, and Vive Louis dix huit. But 
 ^he two eldest are loyal children, and true, 
 and never fail to reply with, Vive LEmpe- 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 reur, — The youngest of the three was how- 
 ever, at length, bribed by irresistible sweet- 
 meats, to say Vive Louis dix huit ; for he, 
 
 like other cautious politicians, could not be 
 persuaded to* go all lengths, and add — Vive le 
 Roi, But tliis daring' defection never failed to 
 be followed by the reproaches of his uncor- 
 ruptible brother and sister. — This charming 
 boy is said to bear a strong resemblance to the 
 young Napoleon, and has acquired the title 
 among u^ of John Bull, which he triumphantly 
 retains ; and if asked who he is, — appears 
 pleased to exclaim — Jean BoolL 
 
 — You have known me long, and have 
 been acquainted with my general views in 
 life : but who can foresee what he may come 
 to ! — and could you suppose that I should ever 
 be a teacher of the English language, and to 
 the la,te Grand Marshal of the Palace of the 
 Thuilleries ; though I have reason to be proud 
 of my scholar for his amiable disposition, 
 soldier-like frankness, and cultivated mind. 
 He speaks English intelligibly, but with a 
 very French accent. This he wished to im- 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 prove, and I undertook to read with him. 
 Such has been my task for an hour or twO 
 every day during the last fortnight. We have 
 got through the Vicar of Wakefield with great 
 success ; Roderic Random, the never-failing 
 novel of a seaman, now occupies us. The 
 sea terms and the seaman's language are ra- 
 ther perplexing, as my persevering scholar 
 will not suffer a single sentence to pass by 
 without the best explanation that I can find. 
 The Tour of Doctor Syntax yet remains, and 
 will probably last us to St. Helena. 
 
 — As you have desired me to omit nothing, 
 however trifling, that relates to, or is authen- 
 tically related of, our chief Passenger, I shall 
 just mention that Count Bertrand, in the his- 
 tory which he gave of the German campaign 
 in 1807, took occasion to observe that Buon- 
 aparte had very seldom employed spies. — 
 He appeared, in the course of his warfare, to 
 know but one instance of a person being 
 engaged by his master in that capacity, which 
 was in Italy ; at the same time he acknow- 
 ledged that the services performed by him 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 were of considerable importance. — In speak- 
 ing also of Napoleon's talents, for which he 
 uniformly avows the most profound admira- 
 tion, he expressed himself to the following 
 effect : — " When I was first admitted to the 
 Emperor's confidence, he employed me on a 
 particular service, and no zeal was wanting, 
 on my part, to execute it ; but 1 found it, as 
 I thought, to be impracticable ; and I did 
 not hesitate to submit my opinion to him that 
 it was so. It may be so to you, he replied, 
 but in what manner did you proceed ? I ac- 
 cordingly explained the means I had pursued. 
 You have failed, he said, in following your 
 plans : now see what success you will have in 
 pursuing mine. These he explained — I ad- 
 hered to them of course, and succeeded.— — 
 I then determined never again to suppose 
 that any commands of his could fail of 
 being fulfilled ; and in any future operations 
 which he entrusted to me, the idea of im- 
 possibility never occurred to my thoughts 
 in the performance of my duty, or was forced 
 upon me by my experience in the failure 
 of it/' 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 — I have observed, that at cards, our extra- 
 ordinary man plays rather a negligent game, 
 and loses his money with great good humour. 
 Nay, he is frequently inaccurate in reckoning 
 his points, Sfc. ; but as often, most assuredly^ 
 to his loss as his gain. At chess, indeed, 
 which is a scientific game, independent of 
 fortune, and considered as being connected 
 with a leading branch of military tactics, he 
 may not possess, perhaps, the same indiffer- 
 ence. However that may be, I shrewdly 
 suspect that Montholon, when he plays with 
 him, takes care to be the loser. — I have read, 
 though I know not where, that some great 
 commander, on being beat at chess by one 
 of his officers, was so infuriated by the jea- 
 lousy of the moment, that he drew forth a 
 pistol and dispatched his conqueror. — I won- 
 der whether the Aide-de-Camp has ever heard 
 this story ! 
 
 — Having crossed the I^ine, the South- 
 West winds occasioned our making a sweep 
 off the Gulph of Guinea, before we were en- 
 abled to shape a course for our destined port* 
 H 2 
 
( 100 ) 
 
 The declining sun of the 14th of October, 
 1815, shot out a parting ray e'er it sunk be- 
 neath the horizon. Under this small illumined 
 space, was obscurely perceived the lofty Peak 
 of Saint Helena.— The memorable morning 
 soon dawned which was to usher in the com- 
 mencement of Napoleon^s exile. This new 
 feature in his history will be the subject of 
 my next Letter. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 St. Helena, 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 THE sensation excited in the little 
 iiiteresting Colony of St. Helena, on the ar- 
 rival of this extraordinary Gue.^t, may be more 
 easily imagined than described. Curiosity, 
 astonishment, and interest combined to rouse 
 the inhabitants from their habitual tranquil- 
 lity, into a state of busy activity and inquisi- 
 tive solicitude. 
 
( 101 ) 
 
 Napoleon did not leave his cabin for a 
 full hour after the ship had anchored in the 
 bay ; however, when the deck became clear, 
 he made his appearance, and ascended the 
 poop ladder, from which he could examine 
 every g-un that bristles at the mo-uth of James 
 Valley, in the centre of which the town of 
 that name, and the only one in the Island, 
 is situate. — While he stood there, I watched 
 his countenance with the most observant at- 
 tention, and it betrayed no particular sensa- 
 tion : He looked as any other man would look 
 at a place which he beheld for the first time. 
 —I shall also take this opportunity to mention 
 that, during the whole voyage, from the mo- 
 ment the Northumberland set sail from Eng- 
 land, to its arrival at St. Helena, I never saw 
 any change in the placid countenance and un- 
 assuming manners of our distinguished ship- 
 mate ; nor did I hear of a discontented look, 
 or a peevish exprtssion, being remarked by 
 any other person in the ship. The Ladies, 
 indeed, discovered some distress on the first 
 view of their rocky cage; but their general 
 conduct on the occasion, displayed a degree 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 of self-possession which was not expected of 
 them. 
 
 The first object of the Admiral was to 
 make the necessary arrangements for the ac- 
 commodation of Napoleon and his Suite ; 
 and the Lieutenant-Governor's house was 
 appropriated for that purpose, till a proper 
 place could be prepared for his fixed residence. 
 It was notj therefore, till the 17th, that they 
 disembarked. — ^ After sun-set, on that day, 
 when the inhabitants of the town, wearied out 
 in waiting for the spectacle of Buonaparte's 
 landing, had retired to their homes, he, ac- 
 cording to the wish he had expressed, passed 
 unobserved to the house where he was to 
 pass the first night as an inhabitant of St. 
 Helena. 
 
 — At an early hour of the following morn- 
 ing, the General was on horseback, accompa- 
 nied by Sir George Cockburn. They as- 
 cended the mountain to Longwood, which 
 was to be the tranquil residence of a man, 
 on an isolated rock in Africa, who had pos- 
 
( 103 ) 
 
 sessed gororeons palaces in so many of the 
 splendia cities of Europe. 
 
 About a mile from the town, and midway 
 up the mountain, stands the country-house of 
 a most respectable man and a merchant of the 
 Island, Mr.Balcombe : It is named TheBriars, 
 and is situated on a level spot, which might 
 almtjst be imagined to have been formed by 
 art in the steep ascent. It occupies about 
 two acres, and is bountifully supplied with 
 water, by whose irrigating influence a pleas- 
 ing" and contrasted scene of vegetation, en- 
 riched by fruit-trees, has been produced ; and 
 seems, as it were, suspended between the 
 heights above and the depths below.— Here 
 Napoleon, on his descent from Longwood, 
 was induced to call ; and such was the hos- 
 pitable importunity of the amiable master of 
 the mansion, that he relinquished his in» 
 tention of returning to the valley, and thereby 
 avoided the public gaze that was waiting his 
 appearance. 
 
 On an elevated mound, about fifty yards 
 
( 104 ) 
 
 from the house, is a Gothic building, having 
 one room below, and tvio small apartments 
 above. This Masonette Napoleon chose 
 for his residence, till Longwood could be 
 completed. There was no choice in the ar- 
 rangement of this confined abode : the ground- 
 floor was, of course, occupied by him, while 
 De las Cases, with his son, who was a page, 
 and the valet in waiting were to possess the 
 upper story, 
 
 A few days after he had fixed his residence 
 at the Briars^ I called to pay him a compli- 
 mentary visit, when I found him reclining 
 upon a sofa, apparently incommoded by the 
 beat. He had been, he said, amusing himself 
 with a Walk in the garden ; but that towards 
 noon he found it necessary to shelter himself 
 from the sun, beneath his little roof. He ap- 
 peared to be in very good spirits, and ex- 
 pressed himself with great civility to me, as 
 well as in his enquiry after the officers of the 
 Northumberland. — After some general ques- 
 tions respecting the restrictions on visiting 
 him, he said, '' I find there is a considerable 
 
( 105 ) 
 
 force on the Island, full as many as the 
 produce of the place is capable of maintain- 
 ing. What could induce your government 
 to send out the fifty -third regiment? There 
 was, surely, a sufficient force before for my 
 security ; but this is the way that you Eng- 
 lish people get rid of your money." -To 
 
 this observation I did not hesitate to reply. — 
 "When a measure is once resolved upon, you, 
 General, will acknowledge it to be the best 
 policy to employ all the means that may se- 
 cure its being carried into complete effect."' — 
 You, my friend, may think, that I hazarded 
 his displeasure by my answer ; but the manner 
 in which he received it, convinced me that he 
 was better pleased with my frankness, than if 
 I had hammered out a compliment, in which 
 manufactory you well know that I am but an 
 unskilful workman. I now took my leave, 
 and strolled down with Count Bertrand to 
 dinner. 
 
 It was not till some time in November, 
 that I paid a second visit to the Briars, whi- 
 ther an invitation to dine with Mr. Balcombe 
 
( 106 ) 
 
 had called me. As I reached the spot some 
 time before the dinner-hour, I proposed to 
 amuse myself in examining the cultivated 
 spots, attached to the domain. I accident- 
 ally took the path which leads to the gardens, 
 and at the gate where it terminates there is a 
 narrow goats' passage, whose sides are lined 
 with prickly pear bush. At the angle formed 
 by the two paths, I met Napoleon clattering 
 down from among the rocks in his heavy mi- 
 litary boots. He accosted me with an appa- 
 rent mixture of satisfaction and surprise ; and 
 reproached me in terms of great civility for 
 my long absence. There was a roiJgh deal 
 board placed as a seat between two stones, on 
 which, after having ]>rushed away the dust 
 with his hand, he sat himself down, and de- 
 sired me to take my place by him. — Las Cases 
 soon joined us,forin scrambling through these 
 rocky paths, his Master, badly as he walks, 
 had got the start of him. On all sides of the 
 spot where we seated, rocks were piled 
 on rocks to the height of a thousand feet 
 above our heads, while there w as an abyss of 
 equal depth at our feet. Nature seems in a 
 
( 107 ) 
 
 sportive mood to have afforded this level space 
 for a semi-9erial dwelling ; and while I was 
 gazing with some astonishment on the barren 
 
 wonders of the scene around me " Well," 
 
 said Napoleon, with a smile, " what say you 
 to it ? — and can you think that your country- 
 men have treated me kindly ?" — 1 had but one 
 answer to such a question ; and that was, by 
 not giving any answer at all. — His conver- 
 sation then turned upon the state and charac- 
 ter of the Island, of which, he observed, all 
 the books he read respecting it, during the 
 voyage, had given a very partial represen- 
 tation, unless there were parts of a more pleas- 
 ing aspect than any he had seen in his rides 
 to Longwood, which comprehended the ut- 
 most extent of his observation. His conver- 
 sation was, on this occasion, as on all others 
 when I have been with him— easy, good- 
 humoured, and familiar, without the least 
 taint of his former greatness : and, whenever 
 the topic would admit of it, he never failed to 
 give an air of cheerfulness to his remarks. On 
 my mentioning the activity of the Admiral in 
 superintending the repairs at Long wood, and 
 
( 108 ) 
 
 that it would probably be ready to receive 
 him in the course of a month ; — Ke replied, 
 your Admiral knows, I doubt not, to a 
 moment, in what time a ship may be got 
 ready, but as an architect, I think his calcu- 
 lations will fail. — 1 maintained, however, that 
 w^hether it was upon land or sea. Sir George 
 Cockburn was of a character that would 
 ensure success in whatever he might be call- 
 ed upon to undertake. — I added, that the 
 officers were actually employed in accompa- 
 nying the seamen to Longwood, with the 
 materials necessary for its completion. He 
 then enquired after those gentlemen whose 
 names he endeavoured to recollect ; and ex- 
 pressed a wish to see them as they passed ; 
 " If," said he, " they will be contented to 
 visit me as you now do, in the fields ; as my 
 present habitation, w hich serves me for break- 
 fast, dinner, and bed- room, is not precisely 
 calculated to receive company.'* 
 
 The Briars had derived, and will ever 
 retain a certain degree of celebrity, from its 
 having been the unexpected residence of Na- 
 
( 109 ) 
 
 poleon ; and this circumstance will, I doubt 
 not, bring- to your recollection, the various 
 instances where remote and obscure situa- 
 tions, which never formed the smallest speck 
 on a map, have, by accitlental events, become 
 important points in the geography of the bis- 
 toriari.^ — r^apoleon frequently makes one of 
 Mr. ij^alcomhe's family parties, where he is 
 neither troublesome or intrusive, but conducts 
 himself with the manners of a gentleman, and 
 a lively demeanour that promotes the general 
 vivacity of the domestic circle*. — i have not 
 heard of any instance of his discontent but on 
 the following occasion. — Since he has been 
 at the Briars^ an officer of Captain's rank is 
 constantly in attendance there, and becomes 
 answerable for his person. This, I under- 
 stand, has occasioned remonstrances to the 
 Admiral, who has not thought proper to 
 answer them with any relaxation of this duty. 
 
 * I have since seen, in the Ejtglisli Newspapers, accounts 
 of his playipg at cards for siigar-plumhs, being impe- 
 t.uous with a child, ar.d engaging in something like mon- 
 key tricks ; for wiucti tLcre is not the least foundation of 
 any kind. 
 
( 110 ) 
 
 — Napoleon having complained of the in- 
 trusion of visitors, during- his stay at the Briars, 
 it afforded the Admiral an opportunity of ex- 
 ecuting the orders transmitted from England 
 with a degree of delicacy, which, whoever 
 has the pleasure of knowing him, must be sa- 
 tisfied that he would prefer. It was accord- 
 ingly ordered, that no one should be per- 
 mitted to visit Longtiwod, without a passport 
 from the Admiral or the Governor. 
 
 On his removal thither, certain limits were 
 assigned him for exercise, around which at 
 cordon of centinels were stationed. While he 
 continues w ithin the circle he experiences no 
 additional vigilance ; but when he ventures 
 beyond, an officer is on duty to attend him. 
 The latter circumstance, which he considers as 
 irksome, disposes him to confine himself in a 
 great measure to the grounds of his mansion. 
 
 The indisposition of General Gourgond 
 occasioned my passing much of my time at 
 Longwood. The disease, from its commence^' 
 ment, had assumed very unfavourable appear- 
 
( in ) 
 
 ances ; and my friend Mr. OWIeara, whom i 
 have already introduced to you as the Ex- 
 Imperial surgeon, was desirous that we should 
 be together during the treatment. 
 
 My first visit, on this occasion, was at- 
 tended with some particulars, which, I pre- 
 sume, from your rivetted attention to the 
 principal character in the scene, you will not 
 
 think unworthy of being related. About 
 
 six in the evening I reached Hutsgate, a 
 small house on the Longwood Road, about 
 a mile from the prmcipal residence, and 
 the habitation of Count Bertrand. It con- 
 sists of two small apartments below, and the 
 same number above : But in this cottage, 
 health reigns, the children are charming, and 
 care seems to be banished from it. — A volume 
 might be filled with all I knew of this family. 
 Most of my spare hours during* the voyage 
 were dedicated to reading English with the 
 Marshal ; and, in return, he gave an history 
 of some of the campaigns in which he had 
 served. He would often say, " You are de 
 bad master : you will hear all, and speak to 
 me none/* iSapoleon, when enquiring afte)r 
 
( 112 ) 
 
 me, during' our passage, would distinguish 
 
 me by the title of Bertrand's Friend. 
 
 Madame insisted upon my dismounting from 
 my horse and accompanying her in the car- 
 riage to Longwood, as her husband had gone 
 on before. It was now growing dusk, and as 
 we approached the house, we saw her Em- 
 peror, as she always called him, and Ber- 
 trand in conversation close to the road-side. 
 *• Now,"' said the Lady, " let us surprize 
 them : shew yourself at the carriage window 
 as we pass ; when they will fancy a gallant, 
 and it will remind them of Paris tricks/' — 
 We passed them at a quick pace ; 1 obeyed 
 my instructions, and, having handed the 
 Countess from the carriage, she left me to go 
 and explain who the stranger was. — In a few 
 minutes I received a message from Napoleon 
 himself, with an invitation to dinner. — I very 
 readily accepted it, as you may imagine ; 
 and was rather pleasingly surprized at it ; as 
 he had for some time confined his guests to 
 his own suite. I had no means of presenting 
 myself but in my riding equipments, and in 
 such guise 1 made my entre.— General Mon- 
 tiiolon, in full dress, received me in the anti- 
 
( 113 ) 
 
 chamber, and introduced me to an adjoining 
 room, where Buonaparte was engaged at 
 Chess with the Count Bertrand. He received 
 me witli the common salutations, very civilly 
 expressed, and, on my taking a position be- 
 hind his chair, as if to observe the game, he 
 continued the contest. — 1 here was little con- 
 versation among the party in the room ; and 
 that was carried on in a kind of respectful 
 whisper, which, as I knew not how to adopt, 
 was interrupted at times by the thorough- 
 bass of my answers to the questions which 
 were addressed to me. 
 
 A very short time before dinner was an- 
 nounced, General Montholon whispered in my 
 ear, that I was to take my seat at table be- ^ 
 tween the Emperor and the Grand Marshal. — 
 Here are honours for you, and 1 will give you 
 leave to figure your plain, humble, unas- 
 suming friend in his elevated station. I can- 
 not say that my situation resembled that of 
 Sancho Pancha, because every dish was at my 
 service ; but a piece of roast beef or a leg of 
 mutton with caper sauce, would have afforded 
 
 I 
 
( 114 ) 
 
 a relief to my appetite which has never been 
 familiarised with ragouts and fricassees. — I 
 had Napoleon on my right, and the Marshal 
 on my left ; and there was a vacant chair, 
 that had the air of ceremonious emptiness, as 
 a reserved seat for Maria Louisa. A bottle 
 of claret and a decanter of water was placed 
 by each plate : but there was no drinking to 
 each other at dinner ; and if you did not help 
 yourself during the time it lasted, the oppor- 
 tunity would be lost, as the wine vanished 
 with the eatables. The service of porcelain 
 far exceeds in beauty whatever of that kind I 
 have beheld. The silver plate is massive, and 
 decorated with eagles in curious abundance ; 
 the gold service appeared in the desert. — The 
 entertainment lasted about an hour, and so 
 frequent were the questions of my host, that 
 from the perplexity I suffered in conjuring up 
 answers to them, I scarce knew what I eat, 
 
 or what 1 drank. 1 will endeavour to give 
 
 you a general specimen of his convivial en- 
 quiries. 
 
 — Have you visited General Gourgond? — 
 
( 115 ) 
 
 Yes, General, I came to Longwood for that 
 purpose. — How liave you found him? — Ex- 
 tremely ill. — What is his disorder?— Dysen- 
 try. — Where is its seat?— In the intestines? — 
 What has been the cause? — Heat of climate on 
 a constitution peculiarly predisposed ; but re- 
 move the cause and the effect will cease. Had 
 he been bled in the first instance, it is pro- 
 bable that the disease would have been less 
 violent. — What remedy is now proposed? — 
 The functions of the liver and other viscera 
 are deranged : To restore them, therefore, 
 to a healthy action, it will be necessary to 
 have recourse to Mercury. — 1 hat is a bad me- 
 dicine. Experience has taught me the con- 
 trary, — Did Hippocrates n^e it? I believe not: 
 He had great faith in simples. — Yet, he is 
 considered as among the first physicians. — 
 He might, nevertheless, have derived great 
 advantages from modern discoveries. — Does 
 not Nature endeavour to expel morbific mat- 
 ter ; and may not the present painful struggles 
 be an effort of Nature to rid herself of what is 
 obnoxious? I have been taught to assist 
 Nature. — And could not you do so without 
 i2 
 
( 116 ) 
 
 having recourse to this dangerous mineral ? 
 Experience has convinced me that Mercury, 
 provided it produces salivation, is infallible. 
 Then go on with your Mercury. 
 
 — Have you lost many men on board the 
 Northumberland? We have had the misfor- 
 tune to lose several. — Of what disease? Dy- 
 sentry and inflammation of the liver. — Have 
 you examined them after death ? — Invariably. 
 — What was the appearance? Extensive sup- 
 purations of the liver in the one disease, and 
 gangrene of the intestines in the other. — 
 What is death, or how do you define death? 
 A suspension of the vital functions, the organs 
 of respiration, and the action of the heart. — 
 When does the soul quit tlie body? That is 
 a question I do not presume to answer with 
 a precision which would satisfy you: for, in 
 cases of suspended animation and in syncope, 
 man is to all appearance, dead; yet, by ar- 
 tificial means, resuscitation is produced and 
 life preserved. — When do you suppose that 
 the soul enters the body? — I am not suffici- 
 ently skilled in metaphysics to give a satisfac- 
 
( 117 ) 
 
 tory reply. The faculty of thought appears 
 to be the dawning of the soul: aud to what- 
 ever perfection reason attains, then the soul is 
 most perfect, at least then man becomes the 
 
 most responsible for his actions. Here the 
 
 conversation ended to my great satisfaction, 
 as it seemed to be taking a turn too profound 
 for my philosophy: you will say, perhaps, 
 that part of it was not calculated to whet the 
 stomach of any one at dinner but a medical 
 man. — I ^ancy, ho wever, that, to your appetite, 
 it will prove a savoury dish. 
 
 Napoleon now rose, and was followed by 
 his party into a card-room, when Whist suc- 
 ceeded. He appears to be master of the game, 
 but plays with a kind of carelessness, and 
 good humour, as if he preferred losing his 
 money. He sta\ed half an hour longer this 
 evening than was usual with him, and during 
 that time, he walked up and down the room, 
 continuing his prevailing habit of asking ques- 
 tions. On his taking leave. Las Cases, in his 
 good humoured way, said, " Well, this has 
 been a day of questions : indeed, I fear it 
 
( 118 ) 
 
 must be a punishment for you to dine with 
 us. it is so like undergoing an examination: 
 but you may be assured, that your answers 
 afford satisfaction, or you would not be 
 troubled with so many questions." 
 
 In a few days after, the arrival of a ship 
 from England induced me to take a ride to the 
 valley; and, on my return in the evening, 
 I was informed, that Napoleon desired to see 
 me ih General Gourgond's apartment as soon 
 as I returned ; and there I found him waiting 
 for me. On my entrance, the first question 
 related to the progress of the General's dis- 
 order: when he suddenly changed the sub- 
 ject. — " You have been at the Town; and is 
 the ship just arrived from England — if so, I 
 §;npnose she brings Letters and News-papers. 
 — Certainly ; and I have looked over a file of 
 the Courier, — Is there no Motning Chronicled 
 — I have not yet seen it. The other papers 
 which I just had a glimpse of, were The 
 
 Times, and a provincial Paper. What is 
 
 the ne^ls from France? I did but slightly 
 glance over the French news. Be that as 
 
( 119 ) 
 
 it may, you remember, I suppose, something 
 
 of what you read ; so let me hear it. 1 
 
 saw some articles respecting you ; but the 
 principal part of the French news which I 
 had the opportunity of examining, related 
 to the trial and sentence of Marshal Ney. 
 
 Napoleon now advanced a step nearer to 
 me, but without the least change of counte- 
 nance : — '' What," said he, " Marshal Ney 
 
 has been sentenced to be shot/' 1 replied, 
 
 " It was even so : he addressed the ministers 
 of the allied sovereigns, but in vain : he 
 urged in his defence, the Twelfth Article of 
 the Convention : he pleaded on his trial that 
 he was deceived by you : that the proclama- 
 tion of which he was accused, and made a 
 part of the charges, against him, was written 
 by Major General Bertrand ; and that he was 
 deceived by your report of Austria ami Eng- 
 land." Count Bertrand, who was in the 
 
 room, quietly observed, tliat Marshal Ney 
 had a right to save himself if he could ; and 
 if fabricated stories would answer his purpose,^ 
 he could not be blamed for employing them. 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 But he added, " respecting the proclamation, 
 it was an assertion equally false and ridicu- 
 lous : Marshal i\ey could write himself, and 
 wanted not my assistance." — Napoleon made 
 no comments on the account which had been 
 given him. — One solitary expression, indeed, 
 broke from him, and that was, " Marshal ^ey 
 was a brave man." 
 
 I mentioned a report, as stated in one of 
 the London papers, that an apprehension was 
 entertained of an insurrection in Paris, on the 
 event of Marshal Ney's sentence being car- 
 ried into execution. " An insurrection," 
 
 said Napoleon, with a kind of contemptuous 
 calmness, " pugh ! get the troops under arms! 
 — Has the Duke of Wellington left Paris ? — 
 
 I really do not know. Are the English 
 
 and allied forces still in the vicinity of the 
 
 capital ? The English, I believe, are still 
 
 in its neighbourhood ; but it appears, from 
 the papers, that the Russians and Prussians 
 have retired upon the Rhine. That disposi- 
 tion of them, he replied, is altogether the most 
 proper. But how is it, he continued, that 
 
( 121 ) 
 
 among the papers which are sent for my pe- 
 rusal, I so seldom see the Morning Chronicle. 
 That was a question, which 1 did not pretend 
 to answer. 1 thought proper, however, to 
 inform him, with some little curiosity to see 
 how he would receive the intelligence, trifling 
 as it may appear, that, according to the pa- 
 pers, a Parisian had been sentenced to pay a 
 fine for pubhshing a caricature in which he 
 was represented. He permitted me to de- 
 scribe it, which I did in the language of 
 
 the paragraph. " On one side of the print 
 
 appeared the figure of Louis XVII 1. sur- 
 rounded by his family, with the inscription, 
 ' This is well / and on the other side, that of 
 Napoleon attended by his family, with the 
 
 motto, ' This is better. " " Pugh !" said 
 
 he, " what nonsense ! but such trash will be 
 propagated, from some idle motive or other ;" 
 and with this observation he retired to his 
 apartment. 
 
 General Gourgond's disorder assumed a 
 very dangerous appearance ; and the symp- 
 toms seemed to announce a fatal termination^ 
 
( 122 ) 
 
 His spirits, indeed, were so sunk, that he re- 
 fused to take the only medicine that promised 
 the least chance of rehef ; and even tiiough it 
 continued to be administered by contrivance, 
 and subterfuge, he must have become the 
 prey of his melancholy apprehensions, if that 
 voice, which he dare not disobey, had not 
 urged a sharp, and as it proved, a saving 
 remonstrance. " What ridiculous beha- 
 viour is this," said Napoleon to him ; " and 
 what are these silly fears of your own crea- 
 tion, and which you appear to be fond of in- 
 dulging, by refusing the means of dissipating 
 them -—How often have you faced Death in 
 the field of battle, without the least sensation 
 of fear ;, and now you are resolved to yield 
 to his power, as if you were afraid to resist 
 him. — What a childish obstinacy ! — Play the 
 fool no longer, I beg of you, but submit to 
 the remedies with cheerfulness, which can 
 alone promote your restoration to health." 
 This reproach softened the patient's obsti- 
 nacy, he became submissive to the regimen 
 prescribed, and recovered. Some short time 
 after. Napoleon said to me, " Well, you 
 
( 123 ) 
 
 Doctors have performed wonders with Gour- 
 gond : if, however, there had been a Priest on 
 the Island, he would have discharged you 
 both, and trusted alone to his treatment : but 
 fortunately for him, such a thing as a Confessor 
 was not to be found." 
 
 I am about to vary the scene, but I fol- 
 low the track of the distinguished Exile, 
 whenever I have the opportunity ; and I now 
 call you to attend him among the Arcadians 
 of St. Helena. Wh^n he takes his exercise on 
 horseback, he generally bends his way thrqugh 
 a deep ravine, luxuriantly covered with vege-» 
 tation and used for pasture. The road is 
 narrow, the place lonely ; and he, in a sen- 
 timental or poetical moment, had named it 
 " The Valley of Silence J** On ascending this 
 contracted pass, the eye is greeted, and on the 
 first occasion, might probably be surprised, by 
 the residence of a Farmer. Here the confined 
 Tourist, on his first excursion, determined to 
 snatch a probableamusement, b^ paying avisit. 
 Fortunately for him, the family were taken by 
 surprise ; for the apprehension of such a guest 
 
( 124 ) 
 
 would have emptied the house of its inhabit- 
 ants. Master Legg, the tenant of the man- 
 sion, a plain honest eountryman, met him at 
 the door, when the extraordinary visitor, on 
 the invitation which he received, dismounted 
 from his horse, and accompanied by the Count 
 Delas Cases, entered the house, familiarl} took 
 his seat, and, as usual, began his interrogatories. 
 
 Have you a wife ? Yes, and please you, 
 Sir Emperor. — Have you any children? Six. 
 — How much land have you got ? A hundred 
 acres. — AH capable of being cultivated ? No, 
 not one half. — What profit does it bring you? 
 Not a great deal : but it is much improved 
 since you, Mr. Emperor, came amongst us. — 
 Aye, how do you make that out ? Why, you 
 must know, Sir Emperor, we do not grow 
 corn in this here Island ; and our green vege- 
 tables require a ready market. We have ge- 
 nerally had to wait for the arrival of a fleet ; 
 and then, rat'em, they would sometimes 
 all spoil : but now, Sir General, we have a 
 prime sale for every article. — Where is your 
 wife? Dang it, and please you, I believe 
 
{ 125 ) 
 
 she is scared ; for I see my children have all 
 run out. — Send for them, and let me be in- 
 troduced. Pray have you any good water? 
 Yes, Sir ; and wine too, such as is to be had 
 from the Cape. 
 
 The good woman's alarm had by this 
 time subsided ; and she' was persuaded by 
 her husband to make her appearance, and 
 entered with every mark of respect, and some 
 astonishment. Napoleon, De las Cases, the 
 Farmer and his wife, forming ^.partie quarree, 
 for your philosophic and profound contempla- 
 tion, sat down to four glasses of Cape wine ; 
 and, when they were emptied, the visit con- 
 cluded. 
 
 The good man and his family had been 
 placed so much at their ease by the courteous 
 demeanour of their unexpected guests, that the 
 subsequent visits laid them under no restraint ; 
 and even the little children used frequently 
 to express their wishes by inquiring of their 
 mother, " When will Boney come and see 
 us again ?'* — 
 
{ 126 ) 
 
 But there is another Farmer, whose name 
 is Robinson, who, like his neighbour Legg, 
 occupies his acres of garden ground, which 
 are divided into enclosures b} fences of earth 
 enlivened by the aloe and the prickly pear. 
 Here, as in the former humble habitation, the 
 honest simplicity of rural life appears in all 
 its native colours : but there is a flower of no 
 common beaufy that adorns the spot ; a very 
 pretty girl of about seventeen, the daughter 
 of the owners of it. She is what we should 
 call in Scotland, " a very bonny Lassie." — 
 "Whether it was the primitive sincerity and 
 innocent manners of these honest people, or 
 the native charms of the rustic nymph, or the 
 picture of contentment that they presented to 
 their visitor, which attracted him, I shall not 
 pretend to determine ; but his visits became so 
 frequent, that the relations of these good 
 people in the town, recommended precaution 
 respecting their daughter, who was then for- 
 bidden to make her appearance whenever the 
 great man favoured the farm with his visits : 
 this circumstance he soon observed, and ac- 
 cordingly ceased to continue them. 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 I shall not wait for any additional occur- 
 rences, which are uncertain, with a view to 
 lengthen my Letter. If any further infor- 
 mation occurs, it may form the subject of 
 another Epistle. I therefore seize the present 
 opportunity of assuring you, that 
 
 I am, &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 St. Helena, 
 
 MY DEAR , 
 
 I began to think that my last Letter 
 would have concluded the little History which 
 I have compiled from the living documents 
 around me, for the amusement and gratifica- 
 tion of your anxious curiosity. If it has 
 answered that purpose, I shall be satisfied ; 
 and 1 am happy to continue my disjointed 
 narrative, with some unexpected notices that 
 may be equally interesting, as far as the term 
 can be applied to those which have preceded 
 them. 
 
{ 128 ) 
 
 It is near six weeks since I have visited 
 Longwood, or have had any communiccition 
 with tlie inhabitants of it. Chance, ho\\ever, 
 conducted me to a party where I met De las 
 Cases : after some general conversation on 
 the arrival of the new Governor, he informed 
 me that his Master had made frequent en- 
 quiries after me; and had even expressed his 
 surprize at my absence. " We have not 
 seen you," he added, " since }our resuscitation 
 of General Gourgond ; and 1 cannot but feel 
 curious to know, whether your acting as a 
 stranger, arises from any disinclination on 
 your part, or a particular prohibition from 
 the Admiral ?" — I replied, " neither the one 
 or the other : but, at the same time, I thought 
 it became me to attend to the general orders, 
 and I could not justify myself in requesting 
 a passport to Longwood without having some 
 ostensible reason." — "But I wish, very much," 
 he answered, " to consult you about the 
 health of my son." — " That reason is suffi- 
 cient ; i will immediately apply to the Admi- 
 ral, who is now in the room, and have no 
 doubt of his ready acquiescence.'* I was ac- 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 eordingly engaged to breakfast with Napo- 
 leon on the following morning at eleven 
 o'clock. The violent rains, however, disap- 
 pointed me ; but 1 took the earliest opportu- 
 nity of fulfilling my promise. The breakfast 
 hour was passed when I reached Longwood, 
 and its Master had been invited by the sere- 
 nity of the day, to take an earlier walk in 
 the garden than was his general custom. I 
 presume that he had observed me as 1 
 approached the house, while he was screened 
 from me by an intervening hedge. As I had 
 exceeded the breakfast hour, after which he 
 generally retires to the solitude of his apart- 
 ment, I did not expect to see him ; and to 
 say the truth, unless there had been a pros- 
 pect of obtaining some novelty, my dear 
 friend, for your entertainment, 1 should rather 
 have felt a relief in the idea that I was not to 
 be exposed to one of his rapid examinations. 
 — I soon, however, met the Count De las 
 Cases, who, presuming that the great f^an 
 had retired for the day, proposed my accom- 
 panying him to his apartment, where, he said, 
 after you have seen my son, we will take a 
 
 K 
 
( 130 ) 
 
 few peeps into our History, which I know 
 will interest you, as the Work itself will 
 interest the whole world, if we have perseve- 
 rance to get through with it. 
 
 I do not recollect whether, in any of my 
 former Letters I mentioned, from the autho- 
 rity of this gentleman, who is the Emanuensis 
 of the Historian, that Buonaparte was seri- 
 ously and laboriously engaged in writing the 
 Annals of his Life. I had already been in- 
 formed by the same person, that the Cam- 
 paigns of Egypt and Italy, and what he styles 
 Ml/ Reign of an hundred Days, or some such 
 title, were completed*; and that the interme- 
 diate periods were in a progressive state. I 
 therefore was looking forward to a very curious 
 morning, and hugging myself on the approach- 
 ing view of such manuscripts as were to be 
 unfolded to me : but this expectation was dis- 
 appointed by a message from Napoleon to 
 attend him in his room. As I knew that my 
 
 * This Work includes the interval, or some portion of 
 it, between the abdication of Fontaiubleau and that of 
 Paris. 
 
( 131 ) 
 
 Tisit Would not be one of mere ceremony, I 
 prevailed upon my companion to accompany 
 me, as his interpretations are always given 
 with such aptitude and perspicuity, and be- 
 sides, afford me time to arrange my answers. 
 There was some little finesse employed in 
 making this arrangement, as the forms of the 
 Court at Longwood are most respectfully ob- 
 served by the attendants on it. 
 
 On entering' the room I observed the back 
 of a sofa turned towards me ; and on advancing 
 I saw Napoleon laying at full length on it, 
 with his left-arm hanging over the upper part. 
 The glare of light was excluded by a Vene- 
 tian blind, and before him there was a table 
 covered with books. I could distinguish 
 among them some fine bound volumes on the 
 French Revolution. The heat of the day had 
 occasionedhimtodismantlehimselfofcoatand 
 waistcoat.— The moment his eye met mine, he 
 started up, and exclaimed, in English, in a 
 tone of good-humoured vivacity,'' Ah, Warden 
 how do you do ?'^ I bowed in return ; when 
 he stretched out his hand, saying, " I have got 
 k2 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 a fever.*' I immediately applied my hand to 
 the wrist, and observing, both from tlie regu- 
 larity of the pulsation and the jocular expres- 
 sion of his countenance, that he was ex- 
 ercising a little of his pleasantry, I expressed 
 my wish that his health might always remain 
 the same. He then gave me a gentle tap on 
 the cheek, with the back of his hand ; and 
 desired me to go into the middle of the room 
 as he had something to say to me. I now 
 congratulated him on the preservation of his 
 Jiealth, and complimented him at the same 
 time, on the progress he appeared to have 
 made in the English language. '' I certainly 
 enjoy/' he said, " a very good slate of health, 
 which I attribute to a rigorous observance of 
 regimen. My appetite is such that I feel as 
 if I could eat at any time of the day: but I am 
 regular in my meals; and always leave off 
 eating w ith an appetite : besides, I never, as 
 you know, drink strong wines. — With respect 
 to the English language,'* he continued, " I 
 have been very diligent: I now read your News- 
 papers with ease ; and must own, that they 
 afford me no inconsiderable amusement. They 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 V 
 
 are, occasionally, inconsistent, and sometimes 
 abusive. — In one paper I am called a Lear^ in 
 another a Tyrant^ in a third a Monster^ and, 
 in one of them, which I really did not expect, 
 I am described as a Coimrd; but it turned 
 out, after all, that the writer did not accuse 
 me of avoiding danger in the field of battle, or 
 flying from an enemy, or fearing to look at 
 the menaces of fate and fortune ; it did not 
 charge me with wanting presence of mind in 
 the hurry of battle, and in the suspense of con- 
 flicting armies. — No such thing; I wanted 
 courage it seems, because I did not coolly 
 take a dose of poison, or throw myself into 
 the sea, or blow out my brains. — The Editor, 
 most certainly misunderstands me ; I hare, at 
 least, too much courage for that. — ^Your 
 papers are influenced by party principles: 
 what one praises the other will abuse ; and 
 so vice versa. They who live in the metro- 
 polis where they are published, can judge 
 of passing events and transactions for them- 
 selves ; but persons living at a distance from 
 the capital, and particularly foreigners, must 
 be ala loss to determine upon the real state of 
 
( 134 ) 
 
 things, and the characters of public men, from 
 the perusal of your Journals/' 
 
 Napoleon appearing as it were, to be speak- 
 ing out, and in a humour to deliver opinions, 
 instead of confining himself to asking ques- 
 tions, I was determined to speak out too; 
 and I had no doubt that I should lead him 
 into an interesting conversation, or induce 
 him to wish me a good day. 
 
 I accordingly replied, " I really think that 
 you must possess more patience than my coun- 
 trymen are disposed to allow 3^ou5 if you really 
 wade through all the columns that have been 
 filled on your subject. You cannot, General, 
 suppose for a moment, that the extraordinary 
 events which have taken place, and of which 
 you have formed such a prominent part, 
 would not be considered and observed upon 
 with great freedom by a thinking people like 
 the English, and who have the privilege, 
 and may they ever possess it, of speaking and 
 writing what they think/' I was proceeding 
 in full swing and in a very patriotic way, wheu 
 he thus interrupted me. " This calling of 
 
( 135 ) 
 
 names, and these scolding epithets, only serve 
 to amuse me ; but there are observations in 
 your papers, which produce far different sen- 
 sations. You have :** he continued, " a writer 
 whom I greatly admire ; I believe he is of 
 your country, a Scotchman — Macpherson, the 
 author of Ossian. There is also a person of the 
 name of Belsham : on what subjects has he 
 written? — I replied, " that I believed he had 
 written an account of the reign of our ex- 
 cellent Sovereign/' — '' Yes," he said, "^your 
 Laws permit you to writeof kings, of ministers, 
 
 of measures, and of one another." " Yes," 
 
 I replied, " such is the privilege of English- 
 men ; and, possessing the infirmities of human 
 nature, they may sometimes abuse it. Mis- 
 conception, party spirit, and perhaps factious 
 minds, may, at times, tend to propagate and 
 support erroneous, and even violent opinions; 
 but the love of justice and of truth, forms the 
 
 genuine character of an Englishman." 
 
 " Nevertheless," he observed, " you appear 
 to handle my character rather roughly: and 
 more so, since I have been in your power." 
 " To that opinion, General,^* I answered 
 
( 136 ) 
 
 rather quickly, " I must beg leave to address 
 a direct negative. — You have not always had 
 the leisure to examine English publications 
 which you enjoy at present, but I do assure 
 you, that from the time of your becoming 
 First Consul of France, to the moment when 
 you set your foot on the deck of the Bellero- 
 phon, the English press has never ceased to 
 fulminate its displeasure against you ; and 
 this without exception, for the parties who 
 differed in every thing besides, expressed but 
 one and the same opinion oi you. This, I 
 presume, you must have known at the time, 
 though the vast projects that have occupied 
 your mind, may have prevented your memory 
 from retaining a detail of our literary offences : 
 your official papers, however, marked their 
 perfect acquaintance with the hostility of 
 our journals, and returned their paragraphic 
 missiles in every direction. You were rather 
 angry with Old England, when you ordered 
 the Moniteur to call us a ' Nation of Shop- 
 keepers :' — A great commercial nation we 
 certainly are, and may we ever remain so : 
 for it is that commerce which has proved a 
 
( 137 ) 
 
 fountain of resources, whose failure would 
 have prevented even the native and irre- 
 sistible bravery of Englishmen from making 
 the late immortal additions to our national 
 glory. But we are also a most noble-minded, 
 magnanimous and generous people ; and were 
 never known to insult a conquered enemy ; 
 nay, how often has it happened that both our 
 sailors and our soldiers have risqued their lives 
 to save a fallen foe. Even when you had 
 thrown away one of the brightest diadems in 
 Europe, and had accepted a slender Sceptre in 
 Elba, you were instantly treated with compa- 
 rative mildness by the more prevailing public 
 opinions in England. And now, that you are, 
 as you chuse to term it, in our power, a general 
 feeling of a generous nature is known to be ex- 
 cited : Yes, Sir, there are numbers who would 
 have rejoiced to hear that you had bit the 
 ground on the field of battle, who are now dis- 
 posed to wish you every comfort that can be 
 safely allowed in your present situation. — If 
 the Northumberland had overtaken you in a 
 French man-of-war, endeavouring to make 
 your medi tated escape to America, every officer. 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 and every sailor and soldier would have been 
 bravely engaged in the attempt to take, burn, 
 sink, or destroy the ship that bore you ; yet, 
 as you have readily acknowledged, you 
 were treated by them, daring the whole of 
 the voyage, with every gentle, manly, and 
 polite attention. And, if I may venture to 
 speak of myself, I shall beg leave to add, that 
 I was bred up in the hatred of you : nay, that 
 no proofs of Holy Writ were more strongly 
 imprinted in my mind, than the truth of the 
 then universally prevailing opinions concern- 
 ing you ; nevertheless, I am ready to shew 
 you every personal courtesy, to be thankful 
 for the civilities I have received from you, 
 and to offer you such service as I am per- 
 mitted by the benevolence of the Government 
 which I serve, and may be consistent with 
 those regulations which its political wisdom 
 has thought necessary to provide, for the safe- 
 guard and ultimate security of your person/* 
 
 I was resolved to speak my sentiments with 
 freedom, and you may now think my good 
 friend, that I did not balk my resolution, I 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 could not, indeed, forbear to defend the ge- 
 nerous temper of Englishmen, when it received 
 such an attack. My candid sentiments and 
 unreserved language appeared, however, to 
 meet my auditor's approbation, and he asked 
 me, to my great surprise, if I remembered the 
 
 history of Captain Wright. 1 answered, 
 
 " Perfectly well ; and it is a prevailing opi- 
 nion in England, that you ordered him to be 
 murdered in the Temple.'* — With the utmost 
 rapidity of speech, he replied, " For what ob- 
 ject ? Of all men he was the person whom I 
 should have most desired to live. Whence 
 could I have procured so valuable an evidence 
 as he would have proved on the trial of the 
 conspirators in and about Paris. The Heads 
 of it he himself had landed on the French 
 coast."' My curiosity was at this moment such 
 as to be betrayed in my looks. — " Listen,'' con- 
 tinued Napoleon, " and you shall hear. The 
 English brig of war, commanded by Captain 
 Wright, was employed by your government 
 in landing traitors and spies on the West 
 coast of France. Seventy of the number had 
 actually reached Paris; and, so mysterious 
 
( 140 ) 
 
 were their proceedings, so veiled in impene- 
 trable concealment, that although General 
 Ryal, of the Police, gave me this information, 
 the name or place of their resort could not be 
 discovered. I received daily assurances that 
 my life would be attempted, and though I did 
 not give entire credit to them, I took every 
 precaution for my preservation. The Brig 
 was afterwards taken near L'Orient, with 
 Captain Wright, its commander, who was 
 carried before the Prefect of the Department 
 of Morbeau, at Vannes: General Julian, 
 then Prefect, had accompanied me in the 
 expedition to Egypt, and recognised Captain 
 Wright on tlie first view of him. Intelligence 
 of this circumstance was instantly trans- 
 mitted to Paris ; and instructions were ex- 
 peditiously returned to interrogate the crew, 
 separately, and transfer their testimonies to 
 the Minister of PoUce. The purport of their 
 examination was at first very unsatisfactory ; 
 but, at length, on the examination of one of 
 the crew, some light was thrown on the sub- 
 ject. He stated that the Brig had landed 
 several Frenchmen, and among them he parti* 
 
( HI ) 
 
 cularly remembered one, a very merry felloir, 
 who was called Pichegru, Thus a clue was 
 found that led to the discovery of a plot, 
 which, had it succeeded, would have thrown 
 the French nation, a second time, into a state 
 of revolution. — Captain Wright was accord- 
 ingly conveyed to Paris, and confined in the 
 Temple ; there to remain till it was found con- 
 venient to bring the formidable accessaries of 
 this treasonable design to trial. The law of 
 France would have subjected Wright to the 
 punishment of death : but he was of minor con- 
 sideration. My grand object was to secure 
 the principals, and I considered the English 
 Captain's evidence ofthe utmost consequence 
 towards completing my object.'* — He again 
 and again, most solemnly asserted, that Captain 
 Wright died in the Temple, by his own hand, 
 as described in the Moniteur, and at a much 
 earlier period than has been generally believed, 
 — At the same time, he stated, that his asser- 
 tion was founded on documents which he had 
 since examined. The cause of this enquiry 
 arose from the visit, I think, he said, of Lord 
 Ebrington to Elba, and he added, " That 
 
( 142 ) 
 
 nobleman appeared to be perfectly satisfied 
 with the account which vras given him of this 
 mysterious business. 
 
 I was so far encouraged by the easy, com- 
 municative manner of the Ex-emperor, that I 
 continued my observations without reserve : 
 I, therefore, did not hesitate to express my 
 doubts respecting the time that Capt. Wright 
 remained in the Temple previous to his death. 
 To satisfy me in this particular, Napoleon 
 turned over a long succession of pages in' a late 
 publication of Mr. Goldsmith's, which had 
 been brought him by Sir Hudson Lowe. I do 
 not recollect the title, which is probably fami- 
 liar to you, who have suffered nothing that 
 relates to the government of France to have 
 escaped you, but I could perceive, that it 
 consisted of Extracts from the Moniteur, 6fc. 
 during the Imperial reign. — As he referred to 
 the index he frequently pointed out the name 
 oi Wright, spelled, Right, and with a con- 
 fident expectation, as it certainly appeared to 
 me, of finding some document that v/ou Id 
 confirm his account. The Author^ however, 
 
( 143 ) 
 
 either had not been able to discover any written 
 testimony, to mark the precise time of Captain 
 Wright's death, or had intentionally withheld 
 it ; and the latter Buonaparte repeatedly and 
 firmly insisted must have been the cause of 
 any doubt remaining as to the truth of his 
 assertion. 
 
 As he turned over the leaves of this volume, 
 he acknowledged that many of the reports 
 were genuine, but with frequent inaccuracies 
 and mistatements ; and if my memory is cor- 
 rect, he particularised that which was given 
 of the battle of Marengo. But he did not 
 stop here ; and continually desired to know 
 whether I perfectly comprehended his mean- 
 ing, as that was his most earnest wish. And 
 now, to my utter astonishment, he entered upon 
 the event of the Duke D'Enghieii's death. 
 This was a topic that could not be expected ; 
 and particularly by me, as there appeared 
 even among his followers, who were always 
 on tip-toe to be his apologists, an evasive 
 silence or contradictory statements, when- 
 ever this afflicting event became the subject 
 
( 144 ) 
 
 of enquiry, which had occasionally happened^ 
 during the course of our voyage. Here Na- 
 poleon became very animated, and often raised 
 himself on the sofa where he had hitherto re- 
 mained in a reclining posture. The interest 
 attached to the subject, and the energy of 
 his delivery, combined to impress the tenor 
 of his narrative so strongly on my mind, that 
 you need not doubt the accuracy of this re- 
 petition of it. He began as follows : — 
 
 " At this eventful period of my life, I had 
 " succeeded in restoring order and tranquillity 
 •* to a kingdom torn asunder by faction, and 
 *' deluged in blood. That nation had placed me 
 *' at their head. I came not as your Cromwell 
 *' did, or your Third Richard. No such thing. 
 " — I found a crown in the kennel ; I cleansed 
 " it from its filth, and placed it on my head. 
 *' My safety now became necessary, to pre- 
 *' serve that tranquillity so recently restored ; 
 " and, hitherto, so satisfactorily preserved, as 
 " the leading characters of the nation well 
 " know. At the same time, reports were every 
 " night brought me*' (I think, he said, by 
 General Ryal,) " that conspiracies were in 
 
( 145 ) 
 
 *' agitation ; that meetings were held in par- 
 " ticular houses in Paris, and names even 
 *' were mentioned ; at the same time, no sa- 
 " tisfactory proofs could be obtained, and the 
 " utmost vigilance and ceaseless pursuit of 
 " the Police was evaded. General Moreau, 
 " indeed, became suspected, and 1 was seri- 
 " ously importuned to issue an order for his 
 " arrest ; but his character was such, his name 
 " stood so high, and the estimation of him so 
 *' great in the public mind, that, as it ap- 
 " peared to me, he had nothing to gain, and 
 " every thing to lose, by becoming a conspi- 
 '• rator against me: I, therefore, could not but 
 " exonerate him from such a suspicion. — I 
 '' accordingly refused an order for the pro- 
 " posed arrest, by the following intimation to 
 " the Minister of Police. ' You have named 
 " Pichegru, Georges, and Moreau : convince 
 " me that the former is in Paris, and I will 
 " immediately cause the latter to be arrested.' 
 «i — Another and a very singular circumstance 
 " led to the developement of the plot. One 
 " night, as I lay agitated and wakeful, I rose 
 " from my bed, and examined the list of sus 
 
 L 
 
( 146 ) 
 
 " pected traitors ; and Chance, which rules 
 " the world, occasioned my stumbling, as it 
 " were, on the name of a surgeon, who had 
 ^' lately returned from an English prison. This 
 " man's age, education, and experience in 
 " life, induced me to believe, that his conduct 
 " must be attributed to any other motive than 
 " that of youthful fanaticism in favour of a 
 " Bourbon : as far as circumstances qualified 
 " me to judge, money appeared to be his 
 " object. — I accordingly gave orders for this 
 '' man to be arrested ; when a summary mock 
 " trial was instituted, by which he was found 
 " guilty , sentenced to die, and informed he had 
 " but six hours to live. This stratagem had 
 " the desired effect : he was terrified into con- 
 " fession. It was now known that Pichegru 
 *' had a brother, a monastic Priest, then re- 
 " siding in Paris. I ordered a party of Gens 
 *' d' Amies to visit this man, and if he had 
 " quitted his house, I conceived there would 
 " be good ground for suspicion. The old 
 *' Monk was secured, and, in the act of his 
 " arrest, his fears betrayed what I most wanted 
 *' to know. — ' Is it,' he exclaimed, ' because 
 
( 147 ) 
 
 " I afforded shelter to a brother that I am 
 
 " thus treated/ The object of the plot was 
 
 " to destroy me ; and the success of it would, 
 
 *' of course, have been my destruction. It 
 
 *' emanated from the capital of your country, 
 
 " withtheCountd'Artoisatthehead of it. To 
 
 ^' the \V^est he sent the Duke de Berri, and to 
 
 '■' the East the Duke D'Enghein. To France 
 
 " your vessels conveyed underlings of the 
 
 " plot, and Moreau became a convert to the 
 
 *' cause. The moment was big with evil : I 
 
 " felt myself on a tottering eminence, and, I 
 
 " resolved to hurl the thunder back upon the 
 
 " Bourbons even in the metropolis of the 
 
 " British empire. My Minisser veliemently 
 
 «' urged the seizure of the Duke though in a 
 
 *' neutral territory. But I still hesitated, and 
 
 " Prince Benevento brought the order twice, 
 
 " and uroed the measure with all his powers 
 
 " of persuasion: It was not, however, till I was 
 
 " fully convinced of its necessity, that I sanc- 
 
 '■' tioned it by my signature. The matter could 
 
 '' be easily arranged between me and the Duke 
 
 " of Baden. Why, indeed, should 1 suffer a 
 
 " man residing on the very confines of my 
 L 2 
 
( 148 ) 
 
 '' kingdom, to commit a crime which, within 
 *' the distance of a mile, by the ordinary 
 " course of law, Justice herself would coa- 
 " demn to the scaffold. And now answer 
 *' me ; — Did I do more than adopt the prin- 
 " ciple of your government, when it ordered 
 " the capture of the Danish fleet, which was 
 " thought to threaten mischief to your coun- 
 " try ? It had been urged to me again and 
 " again, as a sound political opinion, that the 
 " new dynasty could not be secure, while the 
 " Bourbons remained. Talleyrand never de- 
 *' viated from this principle : it was a fixed, 
 *' unchangeable article in his political creed. 
 " — But 1 did not become a ready or a wil- 
 •' ling convert. I examined the opinion with 
 " care and with caution : and the result was 
 "• a perfect conviction of its necessity. — The 
 *' Duke D'Enghein was accessary to the Con- 
 " federacy ; and although the resident of a 
 " neutral territory, the urgency of the case, in 
 *' which my safety and the public tranquillity, 
 " to use no stronger expression, were involved, 
 " justified the proceeding. I accordingly or- 
 *' dered him to be seized and tried: He was 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 " found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. — 
 " The sentence was immediately executed ; 
 " and the same fate would have followed had 
 *' it been Louis the Eighteenth, For I again 
 " declare that I found it necessary to roll the 
 " thunder back on the metropolis of England, 
 " as from thence, with the Count d'Artois 
 «' at their head, did the assasins assail me. 
 
 " Your country also accuses me of the 
 
 *' death of Pichegru" 1 replied, " It is 
 
 " most certainly and universally believed 
 
 " throughout the whole British empire, that 
 
 *' he was strangled in prison by your orders/' 
 
 He rapidly answered, " What idle, disen- 
 
 *' genuous folly ! a fine proof, how prejudice 
 
 " can destroy the boasted reasoning faculties 
 
 " of Englishmen ! Why, I ask }ou, should 
 
 " that life be taken away in secret which the 
 
 " laws consigned to the hands of a public 
 
 " executioner. The matter would have been 
 
 " different with respect to Moreau. Had he 
 
 " died in a dungeon, there might have been 
 
 " grounds to justify the suspicion that he had 
 
 " not been guilty of suicide. He was a very 
 
( 150 ) 
 
 " popular character, as well as much be- 
 *' loved by the army ; and I should never 
 " have lost the odium, however guiltless I 
 " might have been, if the justice of his death, 
 " supposing his life to have been forfeited 
 " by the laws, had not been made apparent 
 " by the most public execution/' 
 
 Here he paused ; and I replied. — '' There 
 " may, perhaps be persons in England, who 
 " are disposed to acknowledge the necessity of 
 " rigorous measures at this important period 
 " of} our history; but none, 1 believe,areto be 
 " found who would attempt to justify the pre- 
 " cipitate manner in which the young Prince 
 " was seized, tried, sentenced, and shot." — 
 He instantly answered, " 1 was justified in 
 " my own mind ; and I repeat the declaration 
 " which I have already made, that I would 
 " have ordered the execution of Louis the 
 " Eighteenth. At the same time, 1 solemnly 
 *' affirm, that no message or letter from the 
 *' Duke reached me after sentence of death 
 *' had been passed upon him/' 
 
 Talleyrand, however, was said to be in 
 
( 151 ) 
 
 possession of a Letter from the Royal Prisoner, 
 addressed to Napoleon, which they who are 
 well qualified to know, declared he took upon 
 himself not to deliver, till it was too late to be 
 of any service to the writer. I saw a copy of 
 this Letter in possession of Count de las Cases, 
 which he calmly represented to me as one of 
 the mass of documents, formed or collected to 
 authenticate and justify certain mysterious 
 parts of the history which he was occasionally 
 employed in writing, under the dictation of 
 the hero of it. Do not startle — the Letter was 
 to beg his Life ; and to this effect. — It stated 
 his opinion that the Bourbon dynasty was ter- 
 minated. That was the settled opinion of 
 his mind, and he was about to prove the sin- 
 cerity of it. He now considered France no 
 otherwise than as his country, which he loved 
 with the most patriotic ardor, but merely as 
 a private citizen. The crown was no longer 
 in his view : it was now beyond the possibiHty 
 of recovery: it would not, it could not be re- 
 stored. He therefore requested to be allowed 
 to live and devote his life and services to 
 France, merely as a native of it. He was ready 
 
( 152 ) 
 
 to take any command or any rank in the French 
 army, to become a brave and loyal Soldier, 
 su[>ject to the will and orders of the Govern- 
 ment, in whose hands soever it might be, to 
 which he was ready to swear fealty ; and that, 
 if his life were spared, he would devote it with 
 the utmost courage and fidelity to support 
 France against all its enemies. Such was the 
 Letter which, as it was represented to me, 
 Talleyrand took care not to deliver till the 
 hand that wrote it was unnerved by death. 
 
 — Napoleon continued to speak of the 
 Bourbon Family — " Had I," he said, " been 
 " anxious to get any, or all the Bourbons into 
 " my possession, I could have accomplished 
 " the object. Your Smugglers offered me a 
 '' Bourbon for a stated sum (I think he named 
 40,000 francs)but,on coming to a more precise 
 " explanation, they entertained a doubt of ful- 
 " filling the engagement as it was originally 
 " proposed. They would not undertake to 
 *' possess themselves of any of the Bourbon 
 " family absolutely alive : though, with the 
 " alternative, alioe or dead, they had no doubt 
 
( 153 ) 
 
 ' of completing it. — But it was not my wish 
 *' merely to deprive them of life. Besides, 
 *' circumstances had taken a turn which then 
 " fixed me without fear of change or chance 
 ^' on the throne I possessed. — 1 felt my se- 
 " curity, and left the ^o?^r6o/is undisturbed. — 
 *' Wanton, useless murder, whatever has been 
 " said and thought of me in England, has 
 " never been my practice : to what end or 
 " purpose could I have indulged the horrible 
 " propensity. — When Sir George Rumbold 
 *' and Mr. Drake, who had beencarr}ingon 
 " a correspondence with conspirators in Paris, 
 *' were seized, they were not murdered.*" 
 
 Here he ceased to speak ; and as I was 
 determined to gratify my curiosity as far as 
 his present communicative spirit would allow, 
 I was determined to continue the conversation. 
 — I accordingly observed, " that of all the 
 undertakings which composed his wonderful 
 
 * In iookiug over these Letters, for the press, 1 felt a 
 doubt whether this observation respecting Sir George Rum- 
 bold was made at this time, or at some other ; or whether it 
 proceeded from Buonaparte, or Count de !as Cases : but 
 I am positive that it was made by one or the other. 
 
( 154 ) 
 
 career, no circumstance had excited such 
 astonishment in England, as his expedition to 
 Russia, before he bad brought the Peninsular 
 war to a termination, which, at that time, ap- 
 peared to be an attainable object." i paused, 
 expecting a rep] 3^ on the subject . — however, 
 he gaTC none ; but, as if he had not heard my 
 observation, proceeded to a renewal, in some 
 degree, of the former topics. 
 
 " Your country," he said, " has accused 
 *' me of having murdered the sick and wound- 
 " ed of my army at Jaffa. Be assured that 
 " if 1 had committed such a horrid act, my 
 " very soldiers themselves would have exe- 
 " crated me ; and I might have looked to 
 " their ceasing to obey me. There is no oc- 
 " currence of life to which I gave more pub- 
 " licity than this. You have an officer, a Sir 
 '^ Robert Wilson, who has written yery co- 
 " piously on the subject of my campaign in 
 " Egypt." As he repeated the last sentence, 
 he assumed an air and tone of sarcastic jocu- 
 larity ; and then asked me, if I had read Sir 
 Robert's publication. I replied in the affir- 
 
( 155 ) 
 
 mative : — '' It is possible," he said, " that he 
 wrote from the testimon)^ of other people 
 equally prone to error as himself: he caiiuot 
 pretend to have done it from his own observa- 
 tion. — Can you tell me,*' continued Napoleon, 
 " whether Sir Sydney Smith, in any official 
 communications to yourg-overnment, attesnpt- 
 ed, in any way, to corroborate the testim*>ny 
 of Sir Robert Wilson/' I coald not, at the 
 moment, sufficiently recollect the purport of 
 his dispatches, to determine the point, btit I 
 replied, as 1 felt, " I hat he had not." T his 
 reply however, indecisive as it was, appeared 
 to afford him considerable satisfaction, as he 
 
 instantly repeated " 1 believe so: for Sir 
 
 Sydney Smith is a brave and just man." — I 
 here observed that " There are many in Eng^ 
 land who imagine your jealousy and hatred of 
 Sir Sydney Smith influenced your conduct 
 towards Captain Wright" — Me smiled with 
 
 astonishment at such an idea ihe thought 
 
 of coupling the two names appeared never to 
 have entered his imagination. " Ridiculous I 
 nonsense 1" was his reply. He then entered 
 on the following narrative. 
 
( 156 ) 
 
 '' On raising the siege of St. Jean de Acre, 
 the army retired upon Jaffa. It had become 
 a matter of urgent necessity. The occupation 
 of this town for any length of time was totally 
 impracticable, from the force that Jezza Pacha 
 was enabled to bring forward. The sick and 
 wounded were numerous ; and their removal 
 was my first consideration. Carriages, the 
 most convenient that could be formed, were 
 appropriated to the purpose. Some of them 
 were sent by water to Damietta, and the rest 
 were accommodated, in the best possible 
 manner, to accompany their comrades in their 
 march through the Desart. Seven men, how- 
 ever, occupied a quarantine hospital, who 
 were infected with the plague ; whose report 
 was made me by the chief of the medical 
 staff; (Ithink it was Degenette). He further 
 added, that the disease had gained such a 
 stage of malignancy, there was not the least 
 probability of their continuing alive beyond 
 forty-eight hours.'' — I here exclaimed in a 
 dubious tone, the word — seven? and imme- 
 diately asked whether I was to understand 
 that there were no more than seven- — '' I 
 
( 157 ) 
 
 perceive/^ he replied, " that you have heard 
 a different account/' — " Most assuredly, Ge- 
 neral : Sir Robert Wilson states fifty-seven or 
 seventy-seven ; and speaking more collec- 
 tively — your whole sick and wounded/' He 
 
 then proceeded " The Turks were nu- 
 
 '' merous and powerful, and their cruelty 
 " proverbial throughout the army. Their 
 '* practice of mutilating and barbarously treat- 
 *' ing their Christian prisoners, in particular, 
 " was well known among my troops, and had 
 " a preservative influence on my mind and 
 " conduct ; and 1 do affirm, that there were 
 " only seven men whom circumstances com- 
 " pelled me to leave as short-lived suff*erers 
 " at Jaffa. They were in that stage of the 
 " disease which rendered their removal ut- 
 " terly impracticable, exclusive of the disse.- 
 " mination of the disease among the healthy 
 " troops. Situated as I was, I could not place 
 " them under the protection of the English ; 
 " I, therefore, desired to see the senior medical 
 " officer, and observing to him, that the af- 
 " flictions of their disease would be cruelly 
 " aggravated by the conduct of the Turks to- 
 *' wards them ; and that it was impossible to 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 ^* continue in possession of tbe Town, I de- 
 
 " sired liim to give me his best advice on the 
 
 " occasion. I said, tell nie what is to be done ! 
 
 " He hesitated for some time, and then re- 
 
 *' peated, that these men, who were the ob- 
 
 " jects of my very painful solicitude, could 
 
 " not survive forty-eight hours. — I accord- 
 
 " ingly suggested, (what appeared to be his 
 
 ^' opinion, though he might not chuse to 
 
 " declare it, but wait with the trembling hope 
 
 " to receive it from me ;) the propriety, be- 
 
 " cause I felt it would behumanity, to shorten 
 
 " the sufferings of these seven men by admi- 
 
 " nistering Opium, Such a relief, I added, 
 
 *' in a similar occasion, 1 should anxiously 
 
 ^' solicit for myself. — But, rather contrary to 
 
 " my expectation, the proposition was op- 
 
 " posed, and consequently abandoned. I 
 
 " therefore halted the army one day longer 
 
 " than 1 intended ; and, on my quitting Jaffa, 
 
 " left a strong rear-guard, whoconrinued in 
 
 " that city till the third day. At the expiration 
 
 " of that period, an officer's report reached 
 
 " me, that the men were dead.'' "Then 
 
 General,*' 1 could not resist exclaiming, "no 
 Opium was given," The emphatic answer I 
 
( 159 ) 
 
 received was — " No : none ! — A report was 
 " brought me that the men died before the 
 " rear-guard had evacuated the city/' 
 
 I again interrupted him by mentioning that 
 Sir Sydney Smith, when he afterwards entered 
 Jaffa, found one or two Frenchmen alive.— 
 '' Well," he answered, " that, after all, may 
 be possible 1" — It was, I think, at this period 
 of the conversation, that he stated his being in 
 possession of a Letter from Sir Sydney Smith, 
 written in very complimentary language, 
 which expressed the writer's astonishment, as 
 well as praise, on the accommodations whicih 
 were contrived and executed to transport the 
 French sick and wounded from Acre to Jaffa, 
 and thence across the Desart. 
 
 1 here took occasion to observe, "that a 
 late English traveller, a distinguished scholar 
 and learned professor of the University of 
 Cambridge, had excited a very general doubt 
 respecting the accuracy of this partici'i^ar part 
 of Sir Robert Wilson's narrative. Dr. Clark, 
 the person to whom I alluded, had'M said, 
 " travelled through Turkey, nnd as I believed, 
 by the route of Aleppo and Damascus to Je- 
 
( 160 ) 
 
 rusalem, and from thence to Jaffa, where he 
 remained some time. J his gentleman, whose 
 character stands high in the world, may be 
 said to contradict the testimony of his coun- 
 tryman Sir Robert, respecting the charge 
 which the former may be said to have brought 
 forward against you. Though he merely states 
 that he never heard of the cruel transaction; 
 but very naturally observes, that if such an 
 extraordinary event had occurred as the mur- 
 der of such a number of Frenchmen by their 
 own General, some traces or recollection of so 
 horrid an event, and of such recent occur- 
 rence, must have transpired and been com- 
 municated to him during his residence there." 
 A question instantaneously followed. — " Has 
 this traveller said any thing of El Arish !" — 
 My memory did not serve me sufficiently to 
 give an answer. " Well," he continued, 
 " you shall also hear the particulars of El 
 Arish and the garrison of Jaffa.. You have 
 read without doubt, of my having ordered the 
 Turks to be shot at Jaffa," " Ves, indeed," 
 I replied, " I have often heard of that mas- 
 sacre in England : it was a general topic at 
 the time, and treated as a B» 'hsh mind never 
 fails to consider subjects of thatdescription." — 
 
( 161 ) 
 
 He then proceeded. " At the period in 
 
 " question, General Desaix was left in Upper 
 " Etjrypt ; and Kleber in the vicinity of Da- 
 " mietta. I left Cairo and traversed the Ara^ 
 " bian Desart, in order to unite my force with 
 " that of the latter at El Arish. The town 
 " was attacked, and a capitulation succeeded. 
 *' Many of the prisoners were found, on exa- 
 " mination, to be natives of the Mountains, 
 " and inhabitants of Mount-Tabor, but chiefly 
 " from Nazareth. They were immediately re* 
 " leased, on their engaging to return quietly 
 " to their homes, children, and wives : at the 
 " same time, they were recommended to ac- 
 " quaint their countrymen, the Napolese, that 
 " the French were no longer their enemies, 
 " unless they were found in arms assisting the 
 " Pacha. When this ceremony was concluded, 
 *' the army proceeded on its march towards 
 '* Jaffa. Gaza surrendered on the route. — 
 " That city, on the first view of it, bore a for- 
 " midable appearance, and the garrison was 
 " considerable. It was summoned to sur- 
 " render: when the officer, who bore my flag 
 " of truce, no sooner passed the city wall, 
 
 m 
 
( 162 ) 
 
 '* than liis liead was inhumanly struck off, 
 " instantly fixed upon a pole, and insultingly 
 " exposed to the view of the French army. 
 " At the sight of this horrid and unexpected 
 " object, the indignation of the soldiers knew 
 " no bounds : they were perfectly infuriated ; 
 " and, with the most eager impatience, de- 
 " manded to be led on to the storm. I did 
 " not hesitate, under such circumstances, to 
 " command it. The attack was dreadful ; 
 *' and the carnage exceeded any action I had 
 " then witnessed. We carried the place, and 
 *' it required all my efforts and influence to 
 " restrain the fury of the enraged soldiers. At 
 " length, I succeeded, and night closed the 
 " sanguinary scene. At the dawn of the fol- 
 " lowing morning, a report was brought me, 
 " that five hundred men, chiefly Napolese, 
 " who had lately formed a part of the garrison 
 " of El Arish, and to whom I had a few 
 '' days before given liberty, on condition that 
 " they should return to their homes, were 
 " actually found and recognised amongst the 
 " prisoners. On this fact being indubitably 
 " ascertained, I ordered the five hundred men 
 
( 163 ) 
 
 " to be drawn out and instantly shot/' 
 
 In the course of our conversation, his anxiety 
 appeared to be extreme, that I should be 
 satisfied of the truth of every part of his nar- 
 rative, and he continually interrupted it, by 
 asking me if I perfectly comprehended him. 
 He was, however, Patience itself, when I 
 made any observations exp^^essive of doubts 
 I had previously entertained respecting any 
 part of the subjects agitated between us, or 
 any unfavourable opinion entertained or pro- 
 pagated in England. Whenever I appeared 
 embarrassed for an answer, he gave me time 
 to reflect : and I could not but lament that 
 I had not made myself better acquainted with 
 the events of the period under consideration, 
 as it might have drawn him into a more en- 
 larged history of them. 
 
 He now returned to the subject of Sir 
 Robert Wilson, and asked me if I knew any 
 thing of his military character, and the ten- 
 dency of his writings ; and if the latter had 
 added to his fortune.— I replied, that I could 
 not speak upon either, from my own know- 
 M 2 
 
( 164 ) ' 
 
 ledge ; but 1 was induced to suppose from 
 the services in which he had been engaged, 
 he must have stood high in the opmion of 
 those who employed him ; and I had also un- 
 derstood that lis w >rks were considered as 
 having been very honourable to him both as 
 a writer and a soldier. — " Pray can you tell 
 me" he continued, " from what motive this 
 officer has acted in the escape of La Valette, 
 the decided and avowed triend of the man 
 whom he has so wantonly calum.niated ? — 
 I was here, as it may be supposed, rather em- 
 barrassed for an immediate reply, but he gave 
 me full time to collect myself; and I answered, 
 " That I had no doubt they were such as did 
 honour to his heart ; whatever imputation 
 may have been passed up«in his judgment 
 and his discretion. Somewhat of an adven- 
 turous and romantic spirit might have go- 
 verned him : but it never was imagined by 
 any one, that he was influenced by sordid or 
 pecuniary motives : that idea never seems 
 to have occurred, when the transaction was 
 the subject of universal consideration and 
 enquiry. There was not, I thought, a per- 
 
( 165 ) 
 
 son in England who received hira or his 
 companions, with a diminution of their regard 
 for the part they had taken in this mysterious 
 business/' In an instant he observed, " I 
 " believe every word you have said, at the 
 " same time you may be assured, that moriey 
 " would not have been wanting to save La 
 " Valette. — I desire you also to give your 
 " particular attention to my opinion, uhich 
 " is a decided one. That this act of Sir 
 " Robert Wilson, for the preservation of La 
 " Valette, is the commencement of his recant- 
 " ationof what he has written against me*." — 
 It is a coincidence, perhaps, not worth men- 
 tioning, but is a singular circumstance, that 
 we had a son of Sir Robert Wilson, at this 
 time a midshipman on board the Northum- 
 berland. 
 
 * La Va'tttt^ ^ beUeve, wa« a^reut favou ile of ius iate 
 Emperor; and 1 w-?i knov/, thnt every o.^e ofllie suite ex- 
 pressed the greatesc joy at his escape. I vemeniber ^.eaving 
 General Eertrai-d say, that during the whole time I.a 
 Valette was in the Post-OfFiCe, not a single instance of un- 
 necessary rigour was k)iown lo have taken place; aor was 
 the peace of a privatt family ever disturbed in the slightest 
 degree. 
 
( 166 ) 
 
 My curiosity now grew bold, and I was 
 determined to try whether I could induce Na- 
 poleon to satisfy me as to the particulars of a 
 conversation between him and Mr. Fox, rela- 
 tive to the infernal machine, which I had 
 heard related by the honourable Mr. Bennet, 
 who took passage witli Lord W. Stuart, in 
 the Lavinia, from Lisbon to England, in the 
 year 1807. 
 
 I prefaced my enquiry by observing, that 
 an account had been published, and was very 
 generally believed in England, stating a con- 
 versation between him and Mr. Charles Fox, 
 at St. Cloud : that to myself it was very inter- 
 esting; and as I heard it related by a gentle- 
 man of rank, talent and high character, I had 
 entertained no doubt of the general fact as he 
 stated it. Napoleon, in a most good-humoured 
 way, said, " Repeat it — I shall remember." 
 1 then proceeded. 
 
 '' The account. General, is as follows. — As 
 you were one evening going to the Theatre, 
 you encountered great danger of your life 
 
( 167 ) 
 
 by the explosion of a machine, to Avhich 
 the title oi infernal was afterwards applied. 
 This eiigfine of destruction was said to have 
 been placed in a narrow street through w hich 
 you were to pass. The rashness of your 
 coachman, it is said, saved your life: for 
 finding a vehicle placed in such a manner as 
 would have presented an insurmountable dif- 
 ficulty to a less timid driver, he gave speed 
 to his horses, and the wheel of your carriage 
 couiing in contact with the machine, overset 
 it with great violence, and immediately after 
 you had passed, the explosion took place." 
 " That,'* he replied, " is true: your informa- 
 tion is correct.'' '' And it is also said, that you 
 went to the Theatre, and e^'joved the play as if 
 nothing had happened.'' He now nodded, or 
 rather made a slight obeisance. " And it is 
 also asserted, that in a conversation you had 
 with Mr. Fox, at St. Cloud, on the subject, 
 you accused the English of having invented 
 the machine for your destruction." — " That 
 is the fact," he said, ''I certainly did." ''And 
 that you particularly alluded to Mr. Wind- 
 ham." *'Yes, Alr.Vandanu'—'' It is also said, 
 
( 168 ) 
 
 General, that Mr. Fox contended it was not 
 of English invention, for that the crime of as- 
 sassination was repugnant to the national 
 character. He also particularly defended Mr. 
 Windham, who, he said, though they liad dif- 
 fered in politics, he knew to be an hoxiourable 
 man, and incapable as a British Minister, of 
 sanctioning such a dishonorable transaction." 
 IS^poleon remembered the conversation, and 
 acknowledged that he accused Mr. Windham. 
 I now ventured to ask him if he continued of 
 th*^ same opinion. '* Yes," he said, " the 
 English Miiiisfry were instrumental to the 
 plot. Their money has gone for that and 
 other extraordinary purposes." M)^ English 
 blood was a little up on the occasion ; and my 
 reply, depend iipon it, was to the following 
 ellecl. — " My nation detests an assassin more 
 than it does a coward: indeed he is the worst 
 of cowards ; and I do not believe, that there 
 is 'I British heart \ihich does not revolt at ihe 
 thought, and subscribe v/ith an honest and 
 glov ing sincerity, to the opinion of IVIr. Fox." 
 — tie gave me no answer, but I could per- 
 ceive that he was not convinced : and he still 
 
{ 169 ) 
 
 retains his original belief in the contrivance 
 of the Infernal Machine. 
 
 I now discontinued the subject, and ap- 
 proached the chimney-piece to examine a 
 small bust in marble, which appeared to me 
 to be exquisitely sculptured. When he saw 
 my attention to it, he exclaimed, '' that is my 
 son." Indeed tlie resemblance to the father 
 is so very striking, that it is discernible at 
 the first glance. On one side is a miniature 
 also of young Napoleon, and a highly-finished 
 portrait of his mother, Maria Louisa, on the 
 other. 
 
 He now complained of a pain in the great- 
 toe of his right foot ; described the sensation 
 he felt, and asked if it betokened the gout. — 
 I requested to know if he could trace the dis- 
 ease of gout to any hereditary transmission. 
 " INo/* he replied, neiiherof his parents ever 
 had the gout ; but, recollecting himself, he 
 added, " that bis uncle. Cardinal Fesch, had 
 been very much afHicted by it/' 
 
 I remarked, that even when the disease 
 
( 170 ) 
 
 was known to be hereditary in families, atten- 
 tion in early years, to exercise and diet, often 
 retarded its approach, and, when it came at 
 length, would render the disease more mild. 
 
 I observed to him, that, crnsidering the 
 active life he led, it did not appear that he 
 took sufficient exercise to preserve himself in 
 a right state of health. He replied, '' my 
 " rides, indeed, are too confined ; but the 
 " being accompanied by an officer is so very 
 " disagreeable to me, that I must be content 
 " to suffer the consequences of abridging 
 " them. However, I feel no inconvenience 
 " from the want of exercise. Man can ac- 
 " custom himself to privations. — At one 
 " period of my life I was many hours on 
 " horseback every day, for six }ears ; and I 
 '' was once eighteen months without passing 
 " from the house.'* 
 
 He now returned to the grievance of being 
 watched by an officer. " You are acquainted,'* 
 he said, " with the Island of St. Helena, and 
 *' must be sensible that a sentinel, placed on 
 
( 171 ) 
 
 " either of these hills, can command the sight 
 " of me from the moment I quit this house, till 
 '' I return to it. If an officer or soldier placed 
 " on that height will not satisfy your Governor, 
 " why not place ten, twenty, a troop of dra- 
 " goons. Let them never lose sight of me, 
 " only keep an officer from my side/' 
 
 Believe me, my good Friend, I do not 
 grudge the pains this Letter has cost me, that 
 1 might be clear in my recollections and 
 accurate in my report. — I know the pleasure 
 it will affi)rd you, and that reflection repays 
 me. Future circumstances can alone deter- 
 mine, whether you will receive another St. 
 Helena Letter from 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 St. Helena, 
 MY DEAR 
 
 Thf. arrival of a Fleet at the Island 
 from India, and which will afford the means 
 
( 172 ) 
 
 of conveying my last Letter, has already 
 enabled me to begin another. This circum- 
 stance crowded the little Town with passen- 
 gers, who were all, as usual, eager to see 
 Buonaparte. The Countess of Loudon dis- 
 emb.irked from this Fleet ; and, during her 
 stay at St. Helena, was acconimodated at 
 Plantation-House, the residence of the Go- 
 vernor. In compliment to this Lady, a dinner 
 of ceremony was given on the following day, 
 by Sir Hudson Lowe ; and an invitation was 
 di.-^patched through General Bertrand to 
 General Buonaparte, so arranged in point 
 of politeness and etiquette, as to justify an 
 expectation that it would be accepted. This, 
 however, happened to be the first invitation 
 which he had received ; and some remarks 
 passed, that it had rather the appearance of a 
 wish to gratify the Countess, than an act of 
 parti«"ular civility to the person to whom 
 it was addressed. 1 know that it was re- 
 ceived in this light at Longwood. Count 
 Bertrand delivered the Governor's card, which 
 was read and returned without a word of 
 observation. " Sire/' said Marshal Ber- 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 trand, "What answer is i I your Majesty's 
 pleasure that I should retuni ?" *' Say, the 
 Emperor gave no answer/' 
 
 I passed a considerable part of the after- 
 noon of that day in Napoleon's apartment : 
 and, as usual, was employed in answering, to 
 the best of my information, such as it is, the 
 various questions which he thought proper to 
 ask me. His enquiries were particularly di- 
 rected to the nature, circumstances, and state 
 of the fleet which had just arrived : Our trade 
 to India, and the numerous English which 
 appeared to be constantly passing to and fro, 
 between India and Europe. In the course of 
 this conversation I happened to mention the 
 hope entertained by the strangers in the town 
 of being gratified by the sight of him as he 
 passed to the Plantation-House, to dine with 
 the Governor. This littlepiece of information 
 proved to be fort mal a propos, as it produced 
 the only symptom of petulance I had wit- 
 nessed in my various communications with 
 the Ex-emperor ; and it was displayed in tone, 
 look, and gesture, in his very brief but hasty 
 
( 174 ) 
 
 reply. — " What, go to dinner, perhaps, ^vith 
 
 a file of soldiers to guard me !" In a few 
 
 minutes, however, he resumed his usual cool 
 manner, and continued the subject. — " After 
 all,'" he said, " they could not, 1 think, ex- 
 pect me to accept the invitation. The dis- 
 tance is considerable, and the hour unsea- 
 sonable ; and I have almost relinquished the 
 idea of exceeding my chain, accompanied as 
 I must be by an officer." 
 
 The Countess of Loudon left the Island 
 without seeiiig the Ex-emperor, and is said to 
 have acknowledged her disappointment on the 
 occasion ; and if I may venture an opinion, 
 but remember it is altogether my own, I think 
 the regret is mutual. 
 
 He asked me some days after, if I had seen 
 the Countess. I answered in the affirmative ; 
 and added, that she had honoured the North- 
 umberland with a visit, and, as it was usual 
 with all visitors to the ship, she was shewn the 
 cabin which he had occupied during the pas- 
 sage. I thought abo, it would amuse him to 
 
( 175 ) 
 
 be informed that curious strangers generally 
 chose to indulge their fancy by sitting down 
 in his chuir. " And did the Countess/' he 
 said, " do the chair that honour ?" Unfortu- 
 nately I could not speak with certainty on 
 that item of his enquiry ; not having been in 
 the cabin at the time. He seemed, however, 
 to enjoy the whim of sitting in his chair ; and 
 continued his questions. " W ould it, do you 
 " suppose, have appeared indecorous to the 
 *' people of England, if the Countess of Lou- 
 *' don, had visited Longwood ! Could it have 
 *' been thought incorrect in any degree, if the 
 *' Lady, in company with Madame Bertrand, 
 *' had paid me a visit in this garden ? Many 
 '' Ladies, on their return to England, have 
 " been introduced to me in that manner. Had 
 " the Countess of Loudon expressed herself 
 " fatigued. by the voyage, or had been indis- 
 " posed from any other cause, I should have 
 ^' been pleased to wait on her.'* — I could only 
 «ay, in return, " that I was a countryman of 
 '' her Ladyship, and if, by any chance, I 
 *' shouki have the honour of possessing the 
 " oppoituuity, 1 would certainly intrude my- 
 
( 176 ) 
 
 " self so far upon her attention, as to in* 
 *' form her of your polite disposiitiou to- 
 '' wards her/' 
 
 He now dashed at once on a subject so 
 totally ctiiferent from any thm9 you can ex- 
 pect, that I would give }onr sagacity its full 
 play for the rest of your life, nor fear your 
 sturablin«^ upon it. It was, as usual, in the 
 form of a question, and your impatience will, 
 in a moment, be satisfied. 
 
 *' Have you," he exclaimed, " any know- 
 " ledge of Physiognomy?"—" Not from 
 " study." — " Have you read Lavater ?" — " I 
 *' have read some extracts from his works, and 
 " that is all I know of them." — " Can you 
 " judge whether a man possesses talents from 
 " observing the features of his face ?" — " All I 
 " can say. General, is this : that I know when 
 " a face is pleasing or displeasing to me." — 
 " Ah," he replied in an instant, " there it is — 
 " you have found it out. — Have you observed 
 " Sir Hudson Lowe's face ?"—" Yes, I have." 
 — *' And what does it promise ;" — " If I am 
 
( 177 ) 
 
 ** to speak the truth, I like Lady Lowe's much 
 " better." — He now laughed, and I was think- 
 ing how to get rid of the subject, which had 
 a tendency to be an awkward one, as it might 
 be addressed to me. He, however, gave me 
 no time, and proceeded to draw comparisons 
 between his late and his present guardian ; 
 but in a vein of pleasantry, as it appeared, and 
 with such a rapid succession of ideas, that I 
 did not, by any means, comprehend his ex- 
 pressions, or the objects of them. 
 
 I happened to be at Longwood, when 
 Mf. Raffles, the late Governor of Java, and 
 his suite, obtained permission to visit the 
 grounds at Lonerwood. The anxietv of that 
 gentleman to see Buonaparte was extreme : 
 his curiosity was a perfect rage, and the ut- 
 most was done to accomplish its gratification. 
 In short, though indisposition might have been 
 pleaded, an hour was appointed by the Ex- 
 emperor to receive the Ex-governor ; and the 
 latter had not words to express his delight at 
 the manner in which he had been received. 
 
( 178 ) 
 
 In a short time after Mr. Raffles had taken 
 leave, I received a message from Napoleon to 
 join him in the garden. On my arrival there 
 I found him surrounded by his whole suite, 
 Mesdames and Messieurs, with the carriage 
 drawn up, saddle-horses by it, and all ready 
 for immediate departure. My appearance, 
 however, disarranged their intention : For, 
 instead of stepping into the carriage, the 
 principal person of the scene turned round, 
 as if to address me- I bowed, removed 
 my hat from my head, and instantly replaced 
 it : while the Marshals, Counts, and Generals, 
 stood with their hats under their arms. That 
 circumstance did not altogether disturb me ; 
 though my gallantry was somewhat embar- 
 rassed on account of the Ladies, whose petti- 
 coats were blowing about them from a smart, 
 
 and rather unmannerly breeze. " Do you 
 
 know," he said, " this Governor of Java?'* 
 — '* I know no more of him than from the in- 
 troduction of to-day.'*—" Do you know any 
 thing of that Island?"—'' What I know of it 
 is merely from the information of others."— 
 
( 179 ) 
 
 ** The Dutch have represented it as a pestilen- 
 tial climate ; but I believe that a nrore fa- 
 vourable opinion is now entertained of it." — 
 " I believe so : at least we have not found it 
 so bad as, from previous accounts, we had 
 reason to expect." — " Have you ever seen a 
 case of the plague?" — " Never." — " Do you 
 know the disease?" — " My only knowledge of 
 it proceeds from what I have read."' — " The 
 army of Egypt suffered much by it ; and I 
 had some difficulty in supporting the spirits 
 of many of those who remained free from it. 
 Yet for two years I contrived to keep my 
 soldiers ignorant of what I myself knew. The 
 disease can only be communicated through 
 the organs of respiration." — I replied, "that 
 I had understood actual contact would con- 
 vey it." — " No :" he said, " I visited the hos- 
 pital constantly, and touched the bodies of the 
 sick to give confidence to their attendants ; 
 being convinced by observation, that the dis- 
 ease could only be communicated by the 
 lungs. At the same time I always took the 
 precaution of visiting after a meal and a few 
 glasses of wine; placing myself on the side 
 n2 
 
( 180 ) 
 
 of the infected person from which the wind 
 blew.'* — We must have been at least twenty 
 minutes in conversation, with the suite in all 
 the formality of attendance, when I thought 
 it proper to make some show of retiring ; but 
 he would not take the hint, for a considerable 
 time. At length he made a slight bow, and 
 led Madame Bertrand to the carriage : he 
 followed ; and I stood to see them drive off: 
 observing, however, that there was a vacant 
 seat in the carriage, he hailed me to come 
 and take a ride with them : I, of course, ac- 
 cepted the invitation ; and 1 declare, if it had 
 been a party in a jaunting car to a country- 
 fair in Ireland, there would not have been 
 more mirth, ease, and affability. 
 
 The carriage drove off at a pretty round 
 pace, and the pleasantry of Napoleon seemed 
 to keep pace with it. He began to talk Eng- 
 lish ; and having thrown his arm half round 
 Madame Bertrand's neck, he exclaimed, ad- 
 dressing himself to me, '' This is my Mistress ! 
 O not Mistress— yes, yes, this is my Mistress !*' 
 while the Lady was endeavouring to extri- 
 
{ 181 ) 
 
 cate herself, and the Count her husband burst- 
 ing with laughter. He then asked if he had 
 made a mistake, and being informed of the 
 English interpretation of the word, he cried 
 out " O, no, no — I say. My friend, my love ; 
 No, not love ; my friend, my friend/' The fact 
 was, that Madame Bertrand had been indis- 
 posed for several days, and he m ished to rally 
 her spirits, as well as to give an unreserved 
 ease to the conversation. In short, to use a 
 well-known English phrase — He was the life 
 of the party. 
 
 The circuitous windings of the ride at 
 Longwood may extend to five or six miles ; 
 and in our progress, with a half comic, half 
 serious countenance, he asked this very unex- 
 pected question: — " In the course of your 
 practice, and on your conscience, how many 
 patients have you killed ?" — It is not unlikely 
 that 1 looked a little surprised ; but 1 calmly 
 answered, " My conscience does not accuse 
 me of having caused the death of any one." 
 He laughed, and continued, " I imagine that 
 physicians may mistake diseases : that they 
 
( 182 ) 
 
 may sometimes do too much, at other times 
 too little, After you have treated a case that 
 has terminated fatally, have- you not reflected 
 with yourself, and said — well, if I had not bled, 
 or vice versa, if 1 had bled, this man, he ^\^uld 
 have recovered, or if he had not consulted a 
 physician at all, he might have been now 
 
 alive/' 1 made no reply, and he continued 
 
 his questions.— 
 
 '' Which do you think are the best sur- 
 geons, the French or the English ?'* — '' The 
 English undoubtedly."—" But wherefore ?'*— 
 '' Because our schools are better. There is 
 more system in our education ; and the exa- 
 mination is such as to establish the fitness of 
 any candidate for the profession before he is 
 regularly admitted into it."—'' But in point 
 of practice will you not allow that the French 
 surgeons have the advantage of you ?" — " In 
 practice. General, the French are empirics, 
 though they do not vend nostrums like our 
 quacks in England. They are, in fact, more 
 guided by experience than theory. But you, 
 Sir, have enabled my brethren in the English 
 
( 183 ) 
 
 army to be tolerable proficients in field prac- 
 tice." Napoleon smiled at my reply, and 
 immediately proceeded to a question, which, 
 though it is not altogether disconnected 
 with the former subject, I did not expect. 
 
 It was this. " Who is your first physi- 
 
 cian in London ?" — " That is an enquiry 
 which I did not expect, and cannot take 
 upon myself to answer : there are so many 
 physicians of eminence there, that it would be 
 hazardous to mention a favourite name."— ~ 
 , " But have you no particular person in the 
 
 profession who takes the lead ?" " No, 
 
 indeed ; there are, it is true, fashionable phy- 
 sicians, who have their run for a season or 
 two, or even three ; but 1 could not give 
 the preference to one, without doing in- 
 justice to fifty. I could, I think, more parti 
 
 cularly distinguish eminent surgeons." 
 
 " What is the general fee ?" " That frequently 
 depends on the rank and fortune of the 
 patient."-T-" What is the highest that you 
 have ever known ?" — " 1 really cannot give a 
 precise answer to that question : no particular 
 sum in that way at present occurs to me 
 
( 184 ) 
 
 Handsome fortunes are sometimes acquired 
 by practice in a few years ; but that falls to 
 the lot of but few, whom particular circum- 
 stances, and distinguished patronage, as well 
 as professional skill, have raised into great 
 celebrity." — " When Corvesart attended my 
 wife, the Empress Maria Louisa, on the birth 
 of my son, he was ordered three thousand 
 Napoleons. I wished, at one time, that the 
 Empress should be bled, according to your 
 practice, but Corvesart refused : She was in a 
 very full habit. You are much employed 
 on shore, are you not, as well as on board 
 of ships ?" — I am sometimes asked to visit 
 the patients of ray friends." — " Do they pay 
 you well ?" — " I never yet accepted of a fee. 
 While I serve, 1 am satisfied with my pay." — 
 " What does your King allow you ?" — " Tw^o 
 hundred and twenty pounds a year." — " You 
 have been all your life at sea, have you not?" 
 " 1 have, indeed ; and during a space of near 
 twenty years." — " Does your King provide 
 for you afterwards ?" — " Yes, Sir, he does. 
 At the expiration of six years service, he 
 allows me, provided I am no longer in employ, 
 
( 185 ) 
 
 six shillings a day : but that sum is not in- 
 creased for any subsequent service, until I have 
 completed thirty years." — " That I think, is not 
 an adequate remuneration/' — " I think so too, 
 General ; however, I have no right to com- 
 plain, because I knew the conditions before I 
 engaged ; and, in England, we are never 
 
 obliged to do so against our inclinations/* 
 
 ** Is it not very expensive living in the Island 
 of St. Helena?" — " Very much so : a stranger 
 cannot board under thirty shillings a day." — 
 " How, then do you contrive to live ?" — " At 
 present by the hospitality of a very kind and 
 generous friend ; and, occasionally, I have 
 recourse to the fare of the Northumberland." 
 He continued his questions, and I my replies, 
 as you will perceive. " The army must be 
 an enormous expense to your government, is 
 
 it not ?" " Not more, I trust, than it can 
 
 maintain. It is, I fancy, greater than the 
 navy." " But from what cause?" — " The ex- 
 pense of the army is oftentimes, and indeed 
 necessarily increased, I conceive, from its 
 local situation." — '' And why not the navy ?" 
 " The latter is merely stationary, and the 
 
( 186 ) 
 
 former more or less permanent/' — " Is not 
 England more attached to its Navy than its 
 Army ?" — " The Navy is certainly considered 
 as its more natural, essential and effectual 
 defence ; but the Army ^vill sometimes raise 
 its head very high, and be regarded with a 
 rival favour when it is crow ned, as it so often 
 is, with laurels : such a field as that of Water- 
 loo can hardly find adequate gratitude in th^ 
 hearts of Englishmen." To this observa- 
 tion Napoleon made no reply, nor did he give 
 
 an unpleasant look : But he changed the 
 
 subject. 
 
 *' Where,"' said he, " were you educated r" 
 — I replied, " in Edinburgh/' — " You have 
 very eminent professors there I know : I re- 
 member Doctor Brown's system was in repute 
 during my first Italian campaign. I have read 
 of your other men of note, and I wish you 
 would call them to my recollection by repeat- 
 ing their names/* — I accordingly mentioned 
 Black in Chemistry ; Monro in Anatomy and 
 Surgery^ and Gregory in Physic ; but, at the 
 same time I observed, that while I particu- 
 
( 187 ) 
 
 larized these distinguislied characters whose 
 pupil I was; I could name others of equal 
 merit in the different schools of the Bntish 
 
 empire. " I never knew /' said Napoleon, 
 
 " but one physician who was infallible in his 
 diagnostics. He was certain in his discovery 
 of the nature and seat of a disease ; his name 
 was Dubos ; but, strange to say, he could not 
 prescribe : and consequently would never un- 
 dertake the treatment or cure of a complaint 
 whose character his acumen could so accu- 
 rately penetrate." I observed, " that he had 
 a very able surgeon with him in Egypt, Mon- 
 sieur Larry'' — '' Yes," he answered, " he was 
 excellent in his field arrangements ; but 1 
 have had men with me ^yho. in scientific 
 knowledge, were far superior to him." " Mr. 
 Percy," I said, " who joined you on the 
 morning of the battle of Austerlitz, had the 
 reputation of superior professional talents." — 
 " Ah," he exclaimed, with a glow on his coun- 
 tenance, " how did you know that ?" I must 
 either have read of it in Larry's Publication, 
 or heard it mentioned by General Bertrand," 
 — He continued. 
 
( 188 ) 
 
 " It was my intention in France to have 
 classed your profession into three divisions. I 
 heive always respected it : it is a science and 
 more than a science : because it requires a 
 knowledge of several : Chemistry, Anatomy, 
 
 Botany, and Physic. For the first class I 
 
 should have selected the most eminent of the 
 profession." — " But how, General, would you 
 have discovered them ?" — By their reputa- 
 tion, income, and the figure which they made 
 in the world." " But would not that plan be 
 liable to objection ? many men of merit live 
 in obscurity." "Then there let them re- 
 main," he said, " what else are they fit for ? if 
 I were to choose a surgeon from your fleet, 
 should not I take him from the Northumber- 
 land in preference to the little Brig?"— "There 
 General, you may also be mistaken ." — " No, no, 
 no; a man of talent in every station and con- 
 dition in life will discover himself. Depend 
 upon it I should be safe, in a general sense, in 
 adopting my own plan. The first ranks should 
 have had some honorary marks of distinction, 
 exclusive of that respect in private life which 
 their education will always command. The 
 
( 189 ) 
 
 third class should be humble in the extreme ; 
 nor would they have been permitted to adminis- 
 ter any thing beyond the most inoffensive 
 medicines." " Perhaps. Sir," 1 remarked, 
 " after such an arrangement, you might, ac- 
 cording to our English custom, have submitted 
 future candidates to an examination." " Yes,'* 
 he replied, " that might have been right." 
 
 " A physician," continued he, '•' appears 
 to me to resemble a general officer. He must 
 be a man of observation and discernment, with 
 a penetrating eye. Possessed of these quali- 
 ties, he will discover the strength of the 
 enemy's position. Thus far, Doctor Dubos 
 could go, and no farther. A sagacious prac- 
 titioner will just employ sufficient force to 
 dispossess the enemy of his strong hold : a 
 force beyond that might injure the citadel. 
 % Now, I think, if you carry your Mercury too 
 far you must do mischief: so I say of the 
 
 practice of Sangrado." 1 then expressed to 
 
 him my surprise at the general good health 
 which he had uniformly experienced during 
 the singular vicissitudes of his extraordinary 
 
190 ) 
 
 life. " Yes/' he said, *' my health has been 
 very good. When the Italian array was en- 
 camped in the vicinity of swamps, many suf- 
 fered by fever, while 1 had not any complaint : 
 as I observed temperance and a generally ab- 
 stemious balancing between my appetite and 
 the powers of my digestive organs. I had, at 
 the same time, exercise sufficient, both of the 
 body and the mind." — '' It was reported, how- 
 ever, that you were very ill on your return 
 
 from Egypt." " I was very thin ; and at 
 
 that time subject to a bad cough. For my 
 recover}^ I was indebted to Doctor Corvesart, 
 who blistered me twice on the chest." " Re- 
 port also said, that you were then subject also 
 
 to an eruption, at least on the skin. Your 
 
 friend Goldsmith says so." — " Yes," he an- 
 swered, "I will tell you." — Never shall I forget 
 the pleasant manner in which he related this 
 anecdote. 
 
 " At the siege of Toulon, I commanded a 
 small battery of two guns. One of your boats 
 approached close to the shore, and firing their 
 gun, killed two canonneers by my side, I seized 
 
( 191 ) 
 
 a ram-rod when it fell from the dead soldiers 
 warm hand. The man, as it happened, was 
 diseased ; and I found myself in a very fe\r 
 days suffering" under an inveterate Itch. I 
 had recourse to baths for a cure, and at that 
 time succeeded. Five years after, I had a 
 return of the same complaint with increased 
 violence, and I presume it had lurked in mj 
 blood during the whole interval. Of that I 
 'was shortly cured, and have never had any 
 return." 
 
 I now perceive, my dear that I shall 
 
 bring this letter myself; but I well know it 
 will not be the less welcome because the writer 
 is the bearer of it. 1 shall therefore con- 
 tinue my narrative without any further inter- 
 ruption to the end. 
 
 The Newcastle and Orontes appeared from 
 the heights of St. Helena on the morning of 
 the 19th of June. My delight on the occa- 
 sion is not easily to be expressed. 
 
 I now bent my steps to L.ongwood, where 
 I arrived about ten in the morning : and I 
 
( 192 ) 
 
 was no sooner known to be there, than Napo- 
 leon sent to desire I would breakfast with 
 liim in the garden. On my appearing he said, 
 "you are come take leave of us." — "lam 
 come up, General, with that intention.'' — "You 
 will breakfast then," he added, pointing to a 
 chair, which the attendant in waiting imme- 
 diately placed for me. The following con- 
 versation then took place. 
 
 * 
 
 " Have you had Letters from your friends ?" 
 — " No, Sir, the ships cannot reach the 
 
 Bay before evening." " Is the Admiral 
 
 known ?" — " Yes, he is Admiral Malcolm." — 
 " Are you glad to return to England ?" — 
 u Very glad indeed." — '' I am not surprised 
 at it : but have you heard any news?" — " The 
 last store-ship which came from England, 
 
 brought some new Publications : The 
 
 Quarterly Review ; a book stiled ' Paul's 
 Letters to his Kinsfolk,' ^c, ; and ' Boyce's 
 Buonaparte.'" — "Have you read them r ' — 
 " I have indeed, and with more than common 
 interest." — " And what occasioned this parti- 
 cular feeling of interest?" — " There is more 
 
( 193 ) 
 
 truth and candour displayed in these two 
 publications than any 1 have hitherto read ; 
 and more particularly the work of Mr. Boyce, 
 which I should wish you to see/*—" Why, 
 then, did you not buy it for me ?" — '' There 
 happened, General, to be but one copy 
 on the Island, and it was purchased by a 
 gentleman, on his way to China, who wished 
 me to read it ; that, by correcting any inac- 
 curacies 1 might observe, the work would 
 become doubly interesting to his friends in 
 that part of the world." '• Is it like the work 
 of Helen Maria Williams?" — " Very superior, 
 and much more authentic." — " Of what does 
 it treat ?" — " Your motives for quitting Elba: 
 your subsequent conduct, from your landing 
 at Frejus till you embarked in the Bellero- 
 phon. They still, however, represent you as 
 subject to violent fits of passion, taking hasty 
 strides across your apartment, w ith other im- 
 petuous marks of anger and disappointment. 
 There is also a pathetic story related of the 
 introduction of General Solignac, when he 
 waited upon you from the Chamber of De- 
 puties, to urge your abdication. This author, 
 
 o 
 
( 194 ) 
 
 as well as Paul, whose Letters are under a 
 feigued name, gives very interestingparticulars 
 of Waterloo. It will, I think, make you smile, 
 General, when I tell you that your guide La 
 Coste is not forgotten. He is represented as 
 
 having been most dreadfully frightened." 
 
 '' Frightened ! at what ?"— *' At the balls, Sir, 
 that were flying about him. It is said also, 
 that you, at the time, rallied and consoled him 
 with the assurance, that it was much more 
 honourable to receive a ball in the breast than 
 in the back. Besides, he is made to complain, 
 that he was very inadequately recompensed 
 for the labour and dangers of the day ; that a 
 single Napoleon was his only reward." Na- 
 poleon instantly replied, with an intelligent 
 smile, " It might as well have been said five 
 hundred." — I continued : — 
 
 " Mr. Boyce appears to me to have been 
 very attentive to accuracy in his report of the 
 two contending armies " — " What number" 
 I was instantly asked, " does he give to that 
 of France } " He quotes from an officer, and 
 naakes them to have been seventy thousand." 
 
( 195 ) 
 
 The reply was — *' I had seventy-one thou- 
 sand : and how many English is it stated there 
 were in the field ?'' — " Including the German 
 Legion, I understand there were thirty thou- 
 sand British troops ; which, united with the 
 Belgians, Hanoverians, and Brunswickers, 
 formed an whole of sixty^eight thousand 
 men/' — " How many Prussians were there 
 under Bulow ?'* — " I cannot correctly say, 
 perhaps fifteen thousand.*' — '' And how many 
 on the arrival of Blucher, in the evening ?" — 
 " I really do not know : bui it is said that the 
 Duke of Wellington acknowledges how very 
 happy he felt at the appearance of his old 
 friend ; and that the person did not exist who 
 could have been more welcome to him in the 
 course of the evening than Blucher/' • 
 
 Ever since I had enjoyed an occasional 
 communication with Napoleon, I never ceased 
 to be animated with a strong and curious desire, 
 to learn his opinion of our renowned Comman- 
 der. I had repeatedly heard that he did not 
 withhold it, but I could never ascertain the 
 fact on any certain authority. The present 
 o2 
 
( 196 ) 
 
 moment appeared to afford me the opportu- 
 nity which I had so anxiously sought ; as he 
 seemed to be in a temper of more than usual 
 communication and courtesy, though I have 
 never had reason to complain of either. At all 
 hazards, 1 therefore resolved to make the trial ; 
 as it might be the only opportunity I should 
 ever possess. — " The people of England/' I 
 said, '* appear to feel an interest in knowing 
 your sentiments respecting the military cha- 
 racter of the Duke of Wellington. They 
 have no doubt that you would be just ; and, 
 perhaps, they may indulge the expectation 
 that your justice would produce an eulogium 
 of which the Duke of Wellington might be 
 proud.'' Silence ensued : I began to think 
 that I might have gone rather too far ; for it 
 is most true, that I had never before addressed 
 him without looking full in his face for a reply, 
 but my eyes dropped at the pause, and no 
 reply was made. This, however, was the 
 second question I had ever asked which 
 remained a moment unanswered. 
 
 At the same time, he did not appear, to be^ 
 
( 197 ) 
 
 in the least displeased ; as in a few minutes he 
 renewed the conversation with this inquiry. 
 
 *' You mentioned a Review what does it 
 
 contain?*' "Criticisms on new Publications as 
 they appear ; and this Number observes upon 
 three publications that relate to }ou: one in 
 particular, said to be by a Lieutenant of the 
 Bellerophon." — "What could he find on my 
 subject to work up into a book?" — " lam almost 
 ashamed, General, to repeat to you the trash 
 these publicationscontain : indeed, it surprised 
 me, that so respectable a work as this Review 
 should condescend to notice them, and quote 
 such silly falsehoods ; nor can it be accounted 
 for in any other way, than a desire to gratify 
 the public impatience to be informed of every 
 thing and any thing that may relate to yoti. It 
 contains, among other misinformations, ac- 
 counts of your conduct and demeanour while 
 you resided at the Briars. You will judge of 
 the ingenuity of its inventions when I add, that 
 he mentions your being angry with one of the 
 little girls, because she was ignorant of your 
 coin, the Napoleon. You are also represented, 
 on the same authority, as having been in a 
 
( 198 ) 
 
 great rage with one of her brothers, for having 
 shown you the picture of the Great Mogul 
 on a pack of cards. Nay, Sir, Monsieur De 
 las Cases does not escape : for he is sent to the 
 side-board to play at Patience^ until the new 
 pack would deal with more facility." — " Your 
 Editors," said iSapoleon, " are infinitely 
 amusing : but is it to be supposed that they 
 believe what they write." -'At least, Sir, i pre- 
 sume, that they hope to amuse those who read. 
 There is, however, another work, which, from 
 its apparent authenticity, has been received 
 with attention. It is written by a Frenchman, 
 the Abbe Pradt." I was now perfectly con- 
 founded by a general, and, as it appeared, an 
 involuntary laugh ; with an exclamation of 
 " O, the Abbe !" — It appears that this person- 
 age was the very humblest of the most humble 
 adulators of Napoleon : he had been in a low 
 situation in the Police, but possessed qualities 
 that are favourable to advancement in such 
 times as those in which he lived, •' He had 
 both cunning and hundour," said Napoleon, 
 *' and 1 took him with me when 1 went to 
 Spain ; and, as I had to wage w ar with monas- 
 
( 199 ) 
 
 teries, I fouud the Abbe a phalanx against the 
 dominion of Priests. De las Cases," he added, 
 " will give you fifty entertaining anecdotes of 
 the Abbe. — Can you tell me what is become of 
 him?" — '' I really have not heard. He also 
 gives a description of your return to Warsaw 
 after the (disasters in Russia ; which, I doufet 
 not, would amuse you. He describes a tall 
 figure entering his hotel wrapped in fur, more 
 resembling a being of the other world than 
 any thipg earthly, — It was Caul incourt.-— 
 He says, likewise, you were concealed at 
 the English Hotel, where he procured you 
 some excellent wine. This Review, how- 
 ever, does not spare the Abbe, who declares 
 that the subjugation of Russia was inevitable, 
 had it not been for the sagacity of one man : 
 'And pray,' says the Reviewer,' who is this man? 
 — Why, no less a personage than the Abbe 
 Pradt, who would have it thought that by 
 his roguery he out-witted his Master." " Na- 
 poleon does not often laugh ; but the story, or 
 the idea of the Abbe, or perhaps both, brought 
 his risible faculties into complete exertion. 
 
( 200 ) 
 
 Unroll your ]Map of Flanders, my friend ; 
 display it in due form on your table, and fol- 
 low me, if you can. I was this morning cu- 
 riously gratified by a military description of 
 the various movements of the French army, 
 on Napoleon s Charts from the day it passed 
 the Sambre to the eventful battle of Waterloo. 
 1 naturally expected, as you may suppose, a 
 detail of those various circumstances by which 
 it was lost, or, which amounts to the same 
 thing, — The why and the wherefore it was 
 not gained. My conjecture was not ill- 
 founded, for Gourgond proceeded to point 
 out to me the errors which were committed 
 by some of the principal commanders in the 
 French army, and proved so fatal to the last 
 great effort of their Imperial Master. These 
 he traced with a readiness and perspicuity 
 which induced me to imagine, at the time, 
 that I clearly comprehended the whole. 
 Nevertheless, 1 have my doubts, whether 
 I shall make the errors of these blundering 
 captains as clear to you, as they were, in mj 
 fancy, made apparent to me. 
 
( 201 ) 
 
 Napoleon, it seems, was completely igno- 
 rant of the movement made from Frasnes, by 
 Comit Erelon, (Drouet) on the 16th. For 
 when he appeared near Ligny, Napoleon ac- 
 tually deployed a column of French to oppose 
 him, mistaking his force at the time, for a 
 division of the Prussian army. — ^Erelon was 
 now made acquainted with the defeat of the 
 Prussians ; and, without thinking it necessary 
 to have any communication with Napoleon, 
 as to future operations, returned to his ori- 
 ginal position. That division of the army, 
 therefore, became totally useless for that day 
 both to the Emperor and to Marshal Ney. — 
 Grouchy, losing sight of Blucher, and taking 
 the circuitous route which he pursued, was 
 represented as having committed a most fatal 
 error. — While the right wing of the French, 
 in the battle of the 18th was engaged, in de- 
 feating the flank movement of Bulow, of which 
 they were perfectly apprised, Marshal Ney 
 laad orders to engage the attention of the 
 English during this part of the action ; but by 
 no means to hazard the loss of his troops, or to 
 exhaust their strength. Ney, itappears, did not 
 
( 202 ) 
 
 obey the order, or met with circumstances that 
 rendered it impracticable for him to adhere to 
 it. Me was stated to have contended fov the 
 occupation of a height and thus weakened his 
 corps, so that when the Imperial guards were 
 brought to the charge, he was unable to 
 assist them. — 1 understood that Napoleon had 
 crossed the Sambre with 111,000 men. In 
 the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras he lost 
 10,000. Grouchy's division consisted of 
 30,000 detached to follow Blucher, leaving an 
 effective force, on the morning of the 18th of 
 71,000. I hope you will comprehend my 
 account, which I think was the purport of 
 General Gourgond's statement to me ; though 
 I do not know any two characters more liable 
 to a small share of perpleivity, than a sailor 
 describing a terra firma battle ; and a solcjier 
 entering into the particulars of a naval engage- 
 ment. — But, by way of climax, I was assured 
 that the report of Buonaparte's standing on an 
 elevated wooden frame toobtain acommanding 
 view of the field of battle, is altogether a mis- 
 representation. — It was, on the contrary, a 
 raised mound of earth, where he placed himself 
 
( 203 ) 
 
 with his staff; and the ground being sloppy 
 and slippery, he ordered some trusses of $traw 
 to be pkk?ed under his feetlo keep them; dry, 
 and prevent his sliding. 
 
 This was the last visit I paid to Napoleon : 
 and wheii I took my leave of him, he rose 
 from his chair, and said, " I wish you health 
 and happiness, and a safe voyage to your 
 country, where I hope you will find your 
 friends in health and ready to receive you/' 
 
 I had been uniformly treated with such 
 respectful kindness, and, in some degree, 
 with such partial confidence, by General Ber- 
 trand, Mons. de las Cases, and, indeed, by 
 every one of the suite, that I could not take 
 my leave of them without a considerable de- 
 gree of sensibility. A more amiable, united 
 and delightful family than that of General 
 Bertrand I never yet saw : nor is his affection 
 as a husband, and his fondness as a father, 
 less striking than his fidelity to his Master. 
 
 And here I conclude ray Narrative.- 
 
( 204 ) 
 
 If any other little matters should occur to my 
 recollection, I can make a kind of Post- 
 script of them. The sketch which you 
 
 desired of St. Helena, may be the subject of 
 conversation hereafter, by your hospitable and 
 
 friendly fire-side. In the mean time, and 
 
 at all times, 
 
 I am, &c. &c. 
 
 W. W. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. 
 
 Captain Piontowski, an officer in the Po- 
 lish troops attached to Buonaparte's person, 
 who had accompanied him to Elba^ and had 
 a command in the little army that landed in 
 France, formed one of the suite which accom- 
 panied the Ex-emperor to England. — He v/as, 
 however, refused to attend the exile of his 
 fallen Master. The disappointment he suf- 
 fered, on the occasion, was extreme; and he 
 still continued to persevere in his application 
 to follow that fortune to which a sense of the 
 
( 205 ) 
 
 most ardent and affectionate duty impelled 
 him. Notwithstanding a Lady from France, 
 to whom he had been betrothed, joined him 
 at Plymouth and married him, he still most 
 zealously adhered to his original object; and, 
 having at length obtained the sanction of go- 
 vernment, he took his passage in a store-ship 
 for St. Helena. — The arrival of this faithful 
 follower was not expected : Napoleon, how- 
 ever, could not but be sensible of his attach- 
 ment, and received him with kindness, But 
 neither his situation, nor his manners were 
 such as to associate him with the suite, nor 
 did his modesty appear to expect it. An 
 apartment was assigned him by the Generals; 
 and Mr. O'Meara, the Surgeon, thinking he 
 was neglected, with that goodness of heart 
 and generous nature which distinguishes his 
 character, made him welcome to his table. 
 Such were the amiable and unassuming man- 
 ners of the romantic Pole, that this distant 
 treatment of him was a subject of general ani- 
 madversion; and a want of generous feel- 
 ing was attributed to Napoleon, for inatten- 
 tion to such an evident example of fidelity. 
 
( 206 ) 
 
 But this afterwards appeared to be a ground- 
 less suspicion. The Captain occupied his 
 garret during the night, and occasionally 
 amused himself with his gun during the day; 
 happy in the enthusiastic satisfaction of 
 sharing the fate of the great object of his 
 idolatry. It happened, however, in one of his 
 sporting excursions, that his piece accidentally 
 went off in the act of loading it ; and very se- 
 verely wounded his right-hand. With this mis- 
 cihance Napoleon became acquainted, and ex- 
 pressed a desire to see and console him : but, 
 previous to the execution of this kind inten- 
 tion, a female servant of General Montholon 
 was removed from one of the very comfortable 
 rooms at Longw ood, and Piontowski was con- 
 veyed thither. The following day, Napoleon 
 paid him the projected visit, but without sus- 
 pecting he had been in any other apartment, 
 and amply repaid his devoted Pole for the 
 wound in his hand, by giving such a warm 
 delight to his honest and faithful heart. 
 
 In speaking of different diseases to which 
 the human frame w as subject, a favourite topic 
 
( 207 ) 
 
 with Napoleon, when a professional man was 
 by any means admitted to him, the small-pox 
 happened to be mentioned ; and he instantly 
 entered upon the discovery of vaccination, 
 with which he appeared to be perfectly ac- 
 quainted, and whose beneficial effects he 
 mentioned with the highest encomiums. Nor 
 did his observation close without their usual 
 
 finale an interrogatory. — '' Have not the 
 
 people of England given me some credit, for 
 my having adopted, encouraged, and indeed 
 decreed, the rigid observance of Dr, Jenners 
 Sifstem /" 
 
 The quiet, unassuming demeanour of the 
 persons composing the suite of Napoleon, 
 never knew any interruption, on the deck of 
 the Northumberland, where we held our con- 
 versation, but when General Gourgond chose 
 to display the bloody track of his heroic feats 
 in the field. No idea, however, is intended 
 to be conveyed of his exceeding the real 
 prowess of his military character ; but only 
 that he loved to talk about it, when his former 
 
( 208 ) 
 
 companions in arms were silent. Among 
 other proofs of his hair-breadth 'scapes, he 
 was fond of exhibiting a sword, whose renown, 
 as well as that of its owner, was engraved on 
 the blade ; and whose inscription related, 
 that with this mighty and glorious weapon he 
 saved the life of Napoleon, in Russia, when 
 it was threatened by the uplifted arm of a 
 fierce and avenging Cossack. 
 
 The following is a correct abstract of a 
 conversation had with General Bertrand ; 
 when, and particularly at the commencement 
 of it, his feelings appeared to be very strongly 
 
 excited. He acknowledged very full} , and 
 
 lamented very sensibly, the too extended 
 grasp of Napoleon's ambition. — " It was in 
 "• itself a grand and noble principle, and, left 
 *' to its own original objects, and confined to 
 " its natural operations, might have proved 
 " a source of exteasive good and untarnished 
 *' glory. But evil councils, and who can, at 
 " all moments, and under all circumstances, 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 " repel their insinuating or momentary influ- 
 *' ence, provoked the excesses, which have 
 " been so often seen to strip the most com- 
 " manding of all passions, of its associate 
 '' virtues." — — Here his opinion seemed to 
 point to Maret, Duke of Bassano, as the cause 
 of unspeakable mischief, and an example that 
 inferior spirits are sometimes permitted to 
 influence minds of a far higher order ; and 
 not unfrequently to their dishonour, if not 
 
 to their ruin. '' Napoleon," he added, 
 
 ''is a most extraordinary and wonderful 
 " man." — The conversation proceeded, and 
 I replied. 
 
 " That is not to be doubted : but I wish to 
 " see more of the ordinary man in him. Could 
 "I but observe him endearingly caressing 
 " children, as you. General, do your Hortentia 
 " and your Henry ; or playing with a dog, or 
 '' patting his horse, I should consider him with 
 " very different sentiments from those which 
 " I now feel." — " Believe me, dear Doctor, he 
 " is a man totally different from all others." 
 
 F 
 
( 210 ) 
 
 " That may be : but 1 want him to possess 
 " certam qualities in common with ordinary 
 " men, and I wish you would tell me that he 
 " discovers, at any time, the feelings of affec- 
 " tion and tenderness; the capacity to be a 
 " kind husband and a fond parent/* 
 
 " That I can most assuredly do. He is 
 " not without a heart, in your sense of the 
 " expression. But he does not, cannot, will 
 " not make a parade of it. Is it possible that 
 " you should expect any thing of a frivolous, 
 " or trifling appearance from him ; and, in a 
 " character like his, the amiable playfulness 
 " of private domestic life, might have such a 
 " semblance : besides, the individual feelings 
 " of the man must, after all, be lost to those 
 " who only view him in the blaze of his public 
 " life." 
 
 — "But that blaze, General Bertrand, is 
 " now extinguished ; and I wish for his sake, 
 " and the honour of human nature, that the 
 " symptoms of love, tenderness, and attach- 
 
( 211 ) 
 
 " ment might appear, in some direction or 
 " other, to beam from him." 
 
 "You may believe me, when I assure 
 " you, that though they may not have ap- 
 " peared to you, they are by no means want- 
 " ing in him. — By way of example, imagine 
 *' a day as it used to be passed at the Thuil- 
 
 " levies : 1 will describe it to you. At six 
 
 *' in the morning he would be examining a 
 " Russian dispatch ; at seven, the same from 
 " Vienna ; at eight, he might visit a work of 
 " art ; at ten, a review succeeded ; at twelve, 
 " the reception of some department ; at one, 
 " the affairs of the army ; at four, a Prefect 
 " demanded audience ; at six, perhaps, he 
 " had appointed to meet the Empress, whom 
 " he would treat with every mark of kindness 
 " and affection ; admire, with a Parisian 
 " gallantry, the embroidery of her gown, the 
 " folds of her robe, the flowers in her hair, or 
 " the display of jewels on her person : while 
 " he would continue devoted to her, till public 
 " business again required his attention ; to 
 *' which he was ever in a state of prepara- 
 p 2 
 
( 212 ) 
 tion. He was never sensual, never gross, 
 
 " but in an unceasing state of action/' — 
 Count de las Cases continued the subject. 
 
 " He never speaks of himself ; he never 
 " mentions his achievements. Of money he 
 *' is totally regardless ; and he was not known 
 ^' to express a regret for any part of his trea- 
 " sure but the diamond necklace, which he 
 " wore constantly in his neckcloth, because 
 " it was the gift of his sister, the Princess 
 " Bourgoise, whom he tenderly loved/' This 
 he lost, after the battle of Waterloo. 
 
 I was naturally induced to make a sketch 
 of the state and position of our passengers, at 
 the moment when we came to an anchor, off 
 St. Helena ; but, having mislaid it at the mo- 
 ment when I wrote the account of our arrival 
 in one of the foregoing Letters, I then stated 
 it from the general recollection of the instant. 
 Having now recovered the sketch, I have 
 
( 213 ) 
 
 added it as a more exact picture of the scene, 
 and which i have been persuaded will not be 
 considered as an impertinent repetition. 
 
 The morning was pleasant, and the 
 breeze steady : at dawn we were sufficiently 
 near to behold the black peak of St. Helena. 
 Between eight and nine, we were close under 
 the Sugar-Loaf Hill. The whole of the French 
 party had quitted their cabins, with the ex- 
 ception of Napoleon, and taken their re- 
 spective stations. — On the right stood Ma- 
 dame Montholon, with her arm entwined 
 in that of the General, her husband. Her 
 look seemed to ask a cheering influence from 
 him : I could fancy that she said, — " if this 
 is to be my lot, still I have you for my com- 
 fort ; and there is Tristram, that little darling, 
 who will be a comfort to us both."' On the 
 poop sat Madame Bertrand, and the Marshal 
 stood behind her. I was the only unoccupied 
 person belonging to the ship, and could 
 therefore, undisturbed, contemplate the scene 
 around me. I was afraid to approach Ma- 
 dame Bertrand, for I was near enough to 
 
( 214 ) 
 
 perceive an action in the muscle of her throat 
 
 which betokened a sob. De las Cases, 
 
 resting his arm on the shoulder of his son, 
 was stretching his little figure on tip-toe, but 
 in vain, to look over the gangway; but all 
 his exertion would not enable him to see more 
 than half-way down the mountain. — General 
 Gourgond endeavoured, by a smile, to sup- 
 press what he felt ; for he had no female to 
 
 console him. The servants were gazing 
 
 with open mouths, and all their eyes ; while 
 the children, unconscious of island or rock, or 
 prison or palace, were performing their little 
 evolutions as usual ; when the Newfound- 
 land dog would occasionally break in upon 
 their hollow squares. — We did not see Napo- 
 leon till the ship had anchored in front of the 
 Town. About eleven he made his appear- 
 ance. He ascended the poop, and there 
 
 stood, examining with his little glass the 
 numerous cannon which bristled in his view. 
 I observed him with the utmost attention, as 
 I stood beside him for near half an hour; 
 and could not discover, in his countenance, 
 the least symptoms of strong or particu- 
 
( 215 ) 
 
 lar sensations. He afterwards rallied Ma- 
 dame Bertrand on the elegant stockings she 
 wore on the occasion ; when she tried to 
 
 check the tear ; but it would not do. She 
 
 exclaimed, " Oh, Doctor W ', we are 
 
 indeed too good for St. Helena !" 
 
 THE END. 
 
Printed by W. Clowes, 
 Northumberland-court, StrancV. 
 
^1?^