Count de Las Cases
Memorial de Sainte Hélène
London, 1823
MY RESIDENCE WITH THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

Volume 1, Part 2
page 260 – 322
1816, March 1 – 15

March 1st.—To-day two vessels arrived front the Cape.  One, the Wellesley, a seventy-four, had another dismounted ship in her hold.  They were both Indian-built ships, and were made of teak wood, which in India is three-fourths cheaper than in England.  This is an excellent kind of wood ;  and it is supposed that ships made of it will last much longer than European-built ships ;  though hitherto it has been complained that they are not such good sailers.  However, it is not improbable that this teak wood may produce a revolution in the materials and construction of English ships.

2d.—The Chinese fleet is arrived.  Several vessels successively entered the road in course of the day, and many others are within sight.  This is a sort of festival and harvest for the people of Saint-Helena.  The money which these transient visitors circulate in the Island constitutes a chief portion of the revenues of the inhabitants.

At five o’clock the Emperor proceeded to the garden, and went on foot as far as an opening between some of the hills, whence we could discern several vessels at full sail, making for the Island.  The last ship that arrived from the Cape brought a phaeton for the Emperor.  He wished to try it this evening, and he got into it, accompanied by the Grand Marshal, and rode round the park.  He, however, thinks that this kind of equipage is both useless and ridiculous in present circumstances.  After dinner the Emperor complained of being much fatigued, and he retired at an early hour.

The invasion of England.

3d.—The Emperor sent for me at two o’clock ;  I found him shaving.  He told me that I beheld in him a man who was on the point of death, on the brink of the grave.  He added that I must have been aware that he was ill, because he must have awoke me often during the night.  I had, indeed, heard him cough and sneeze continually :  he had a violent cold in his head, which he had caught in consequence of staying out too long in the damp air on the preceding evening.  He stated his determination, in future, always to return in doors at six o’clock.  After he had dressed, he sat down to his English lesson ;  but he did not continue at it long, for his head ached severely.  He told me to sit down by him, and made me talk for more than two hours about what I had observed in London during my emigration.  Among other things he inquired, “ Were the English very much afraid of my invasion ?  What was the general opinion at the time ? ”—“ Sire,” I replied, “ I Cannot Inform you :  I had then returned to France.  But in the saloons of Paris we laughed at the idea of an invasion of England ;  and the English who were there at the time did so too.  It was said that even Brunet laughed at the scheme, and that you had caused him to be imprisoned because he had been insolent enough in one of his parts to set some nut-shells afloat in a tub of water, which he called manoeuvring his little flotilla.”—“ Well ! ” replied the Emperor, “ you might laugh in Paris, but Pitt did not laugh in London.  He soon calculated the extent of the danger, and therefore threw a coalition on my shoulders at the moment when I raised my arm to strike.  Never was the English oligarchy exposed to greater danger.

“ I had taken measures to preclude the possibility of failure in my landing.  I had the best army in the world ;  I need only say, it was the army of Austerlitz.  In four days I should have been in London ; I should have entered the English capital, not as a conqueror, but as a liberator.  I should have been another William III ;  but I would have acted with greater generosity and disinterestedness.  The discipline of my army was perfect.  My troops would have behaved in London the same as they would in Paris.  No sacrifices, not even contributions, would have been exacted from the English.  We should have presented ourselves to them, not as conquerors, but as brothers, who came to restore to them their rights and liberties.  I would have assembled the citizens, and directed them to labour themselves in the task of their regeneration ;  because the English had already preceded us in political legislation ;  I would have declared that our only wish was to be able to rejoice in the happiness and prosperity of the English people ;  and to these professions I would have strictly adhered.  In the course of a few months, the two nations, which had been such determined enemies, would have henceforward composed only one people, identified in principles, maxims, and interests.  I should have departed from England, in order to effect, from south to north, under republican colours (for I was then First Consul) the regeneration of Europe, which, at a later period, I was on the point of effecting, from north to south, under monarchical forms.  Both systems were equally good, since both would have been attended by the same result, and would have been carried into execution with firmness, moderation, and good faith.  How many ills that are now endured, and how many that are yet to be experienced, would not unhappy Europe have escaped !  Never was a project so favourable to the interests of civilization conceived with more disinterested intentions, or so near being carried into execution.  It is a remarkable fact, that the obstacles which occasioned my failure were not the work of men, but proceeded from the elements.  In the south, the sea frustrated my plans ;  the burning of Moscow, the snow, and the winter, completed my ruin in the north.  Thus water, air, and fire, all nature, and nature alone, was hostile to the universal regeneration, which nature herself called for ! . . . The problems of Providence are insoluble ! ”

After a few moments silence, he reverted to the subject of the English invasion.  “ It was supposed,” said he, “ that my scheme was merely a vain threat, because it did not appear that I possessed any reasonable means of attempting its execution.  But I had laid my plans deeply, and without being observed.  I had dispersed all our French ships ;  and the English were sailing after them to different parts of the world.  Our ships were to return suddenly and at the same time, and to assemble in a mass along ;  the French coasts.  I would have had seventy or eighty French or Spanish vessels in the Channel ;  and I calculated that I should continue master of it for two months.  Three or four thousand little boats were to be ready at a signal.  A hundred thousand men were every day drilled in embarking and landing, as a part of their exercise.  They were full of ardour, and eager for the enterprise, which was very popular with the French, and was supported by the wishes of a great number of the English.  After landing my troops, I could calculate upon only one pitched battle, the result of which could not be doubtful ;  and victory would have brought us to London.  The nature of the country would not admit of a war of manœuvring.  My conduct would have done the rest.  The people of England groaned under the yoke of an oligarchy.  On feeling that their pride had not been humbled, they would have ranged themselves on our side.  We should have been considered only as allies come to effect their deliverance.  We should have presented ourselves with the magical words of liberty and equality,” &c.

After adverting to a great number of the minor details of the plan, which were all admirable, and remarking how very near it had been to its execution, he suddenly stopped, and said, “ Let us go out, and take a turn.”  We walked for some time ;  it had been raining for three days, but now the weather was perfectly fine.  The Emperor, not forgetting his resolution to be in doors always by six o’clock, immediately ordered the calash ;  took a drive, and returned home in good time.  My son followed on horseback ;  it was the first time he had enjoyed such an honour.  He acquitted himself very well, and the Emperor complimented him on the occasion.

The Emperor continued unwell, and retired to rest very early.

The Chinese Fleet.

4th.—To-day the Emperor received some captains of the China fleet.  He conversed a longtime with two of them respecting their trade, the facility of their intercourse with the Chinese, the manners of that people, &c.  The ships which trade to China are from 14 to 1500 tons burthen, almost equal to sixty-fours ;  and they draw from twenty-two to twenty-three feet of water :  they are laden almost exclusively with tea.  One of those just arrived had nearly 1500 tons on board.  The cargoes of the six ships which came into the road last night are valued at about sixty millions ;  and as they will be subject to a duty of 100 per cent. on their arrival in England, 120 millions will thus at once be thrown into circulation in Europe.

Europeans are allowed very little liberty at Canton.  Their residence is chiefly limited to the suburbs.  They are treated with the greatest contempt by the Chinese, who assume an air of great superiority, and conduct themselves in a very arbitrary manner.  The Chinese are very intelligent, industrious, and active ;  but they are great thieves, and extremely treacherous.  They transact all business in the European languages, which they speak with facility.

The arrival of fleets at Saint-Helena is a circumstance equally pleasing to the crews and the inhabitants of the Island.  The latter sell their merchandize and purchase provisions ;  the seamen, on their part, are enabled to set foot on land, and to refresh themselves.  This state of things usually continues for a fortnight or three weeks ;  but, on the present occasion, the Admiral, to the great disappointment of every body, limited the period of refreshment to two days only for the two first ships that had anchored off the town.—The others were ordered to remain under sail, and to come up to the town in succession, two by two.  It may be supposed that he had received very strict orders, or was under great apprehension, which we do not doubt.

The Emperor walked for some time in the garden before he got into his calash.  Among the trees in the neighbourhood, we perceived some officers newly arrived at the Island, who were endeavouring to get a peep at the Emperor, the sight of whom seemed to be an object of great importance to them.

Etiquette of the Emperor’s Court.—Circumstance that took place at Tarare.—Officers of State.—Chamberlains.—Unequalled splendour of the Court of the Tuileries.—Admirable regulation of the Palace.—The Emperor’s Levees.—Dining in State.—The Court and the City.

5th.—To-day the Emperor conversed a great deal about his court and the etiquette observed in it.  The following is the substance of what fell from him on this subject.

At the period of the Revolution, the Courts of Spain and Naples still imitated the ceremony and grandeur of Louis XIV, mingled with the pomp and exaggeration of the Castilians and Moors.  The Court of Saint-Petersburgh had assumed the tone and forms of the drawing-room ;  that of Vienna, had become quite citizen-like ;  and there no longer remained any vestige of the wit, the grace, and the good taste of the Court of Versailles.

When, therefore, Napoleon attained the sovereign power, he found a clear road before him, and he had an opportunity of forming a Court according to his own taste.  He was desirous of adopting a national medium by accommodating the dignity of the throne to modern customs, and, particularly, by making the creation of a Court contribute to improve the manners of the great, and promote the industry of the mass of the people.  It certainly was no easy matter to reconstruct a throne on the very spot where a reigning monarch had been judicially executed, and where the people had constitutionally sworn their hatred of kings.  It was not easy to restore dignities, titles, and decorations, among a people who for the space of fifteen years had waged a war of proscription against them.  Napoleon, however, who seemed always to possess the power of effecting what he wished, perhaps because he had the art of wishing for what was just and proper, after a great struggle surmounted all these difficulties.  When he became Emperor, he created a class of nobility, and formed a Court.  Victory seemed all on a sudden to do her utmost to consolidate and shed a lustre over this new order of things.  All Europe acknowledged the Emperor ;  and at one period it might have been said, that all the Courts of the Continent had flocked to Paris to add to the splendour of the Tuileries, which was the most brilliant and numerous Court ever seen.  There was a continued series of parties, balls, and entertainments ;  and the Court was always distinguished for extraordinary magnificence and grandeur.  The person of the sovereign was alone remarkable for extreme simplicity, which, indeed, was a characteristic that served to distinguish him amidst the surrounding splendour.  He encouraged all this magnificence, he said, from motives of policy, and not because it accorded with his own taste.  It was calculated to encourage manufactures and national industry.  The ceremonies and fêtes which took place on the marriage of the Empress and the birth of the King of Rome, far surpassed any which had preceded them, and probably will never again be equalled.

The Emperor endeavoured to establish, in his foreign relations, every thing that was calculated to place him in harmony with the other Courts of Europe ;  but at home he constantly tried to adapt old forms to new manners.

He established the morning and evening levees of the old kings of France ;  but with him these levees were merely nominal, and did not exist in reality, as in former times.  Instead of being occupied in the details of the toilet, and the conversations which might naturally ensue, these levees under the Emperor were, in fact, appropriated to receiving in the morning, and dismissing in the evening, such persons of his household as had to receive orders directly from him, and who were privileged to pay their court to him at those hours.

The Emperor also established special presentations to his person and admission to his Court ;  but instead of making noble birth the only means of securing these honours, the title for obtaining them was founded solely on the combined bases of fortune, influence, and public services.

Napoleon, moreover, created titles, the qualifications for which gave the last blow to the old feudal system.  These titles, however, possessed no real value, and were established for an object purely national.  Those which were unaccompanied by any prerogatives or privileges might be enjoyed by persons of any rank or profession, and were bestowed as rewards for all kinds of services.  The Emperor observed that abroad they had the useful effect of appearing to be an approximation to the old manners of Europe while at the same time they served as a toy for musing the vanities of many individuals at home ;  “ for,” said he, “ how many really clever men are children oftener than once in their lives ! ”

The Emperor revived decorations of honour, and distributed crosses and ribbands.  But instead of confining them to particular and exclusive classes, he extended them to society in general as rewards for every description of talent and public service.  By a happy privilege, perhaps peculiar to Napoleon, it happened that the value of these honours was enhanced in proportion to the number distributed.  He estimated that he had conferred about 25,000 decorations of the Legion of honour ;  and the desire to obtain the honour, he said, increased until it became a kind of mania.

After the battle of Wagram he sent the decoration of the Legion of Honour to the Archduke Charles, and by a refinement in compliment, peculiar to Napoleon, he sent him merely the silver cross, which was worn by the private soldiers.

The Emperor said, that it was only by acting strictly and voluntarily in conformity with these maxims that he had become the real national monarch ;  and an adherence to the same course would have rendered the fourth dynasty, the truly constitutional one.  Of these facts, said he, the people of the lowest rank frequently evinced an instinctive knowledge.

The Emperor related the following anecdote :—On returning from his coronation in Italy, as he approached the environs of Lyons, he found all the population assembled on the roads to see him pass, and he took a fancy to ascend the mountain of Tarare alone.  He gave orders that nobody should follow him, and mingling with the crowd he accosted an old woman, and asked what all the bustle meant.  She replied that the Emperor was expected.  After some little conversation he said to her :—“ My good woman, formerly you had Capet the tyrant ;  now you have Napoleon the tyrant,—what have you gained by the change ? ”  The force of this argument disconcerted the old woman for a moment ;  but she immediately recollected herself, and replied, “ Pardon me, sir, there is a great difference.  We ourselves have chosen Napoleon, but we got Capet by chance.”—“ The old woman was right,” said the Emperor, “ and she exhibited more instinctive good sense than many men who are possessed of great information and talent.”

The Emperor surrounded himself with great crown officers.  He established a numerous household of chamberlains, grooms, &c.  He selected persons to fill these offices indiscriminately from among those whom the Revolution had elevated, and from the ancient families which it had ruined.  The former considered themselves as standing on an estate which they had acquired ;  the latter on one which they thought they might recover.  The Emperor had in view, by this mixture of persons, the extinction of hatreds and the amalgamation of parties.  He observed, however, that he was not displeased at seeing a variety of manners.  The individuals belonging to the ancient families performed their duties with the greatest courtesy and assiduity.  A Madame de Montmorency would have stooped down to tie the Empress’s shoes ;  a lady of the new school would have hesitated to do this, lest she should be taken for a real waiting-woman ;  but the Madame de Montmorency had no such apprehension.  These posts of honour were for the most part without emolument ;  they were even attended with expense.  But they brought the individuals who filled them, daily under the eye of the Sovereign—of an all-powerful Sovereign, the source of honour and grace ;  and who declared that he would not have the lowest officer in his household solicit a favour from any one but himself.

At the time of his marriage with the Empress Maria-Louisa, the Emperor made an extensive recruit of chamberlains from among the highest ranks of the old aristocracy ;  this he did with the view of proving to Europe that there existed but one party in France, and rallying round the Empress those individuals whose names must have been familiar to her.  It is understood that the Emperor even hesitated whether or not to select the lady of honour from that class ;  but his fear lest the Empress, with whose character he was unacquainted, might be imbued with prejudices respecting birth, that might too much elate the old party, induced him to make another choice.

From this moment until the period of our disasters, the most ancient and illustrious families eagerly solicited places in the household of the Emperor ;  and how could it be otherwise ?  The Emperor governed the world :  he had raised France and the French people above the level of other nations.  Power, glory, constituted his retinue.  Happy were they who inhaled the atmosphere of the Imperial Court.  To be immediately connected with the Emperor’s person, furnished, both abroad and at home, a title to consideration, homage, and respect.

Upon the Restoration, a royalist, who had preserved himself pure, and in whose sight I had found grace, said to me, in the most serious tone, (for, what a difference in ideas does not difference of party produce !) that with my name, and the openness of conduct I had maintained, I ought not to despair of still obtaining a situation near the King, or in the household of some of the Princes or Princesses.  How greatly was he astonished when I replied :—“ My friend, I have rendered that impossible :  I have served the most powerful master upon earth :  I cannot in future, without degradation, stand in the same relation to any other.  Know, that when we conveyed the orders of the Emperor to a distance, into foreign courts, wearing his uniform, we considered ourselves, and were every where treated, as upon an equality with princes.  He has presented to us the spectacle of no less than seven Kings waiting in his saloons, in the midst of us, and with us.  On his marriage, four Queens bore the robe of the Empress, of whom, moreover, one of us was the Gentleman Usher, another the Equery.  Trust then, my friend, that a noble ambition may be perfectly satisfied with such honours.”

Besides, the magnificence and splendour that composed this unexampled Court, rested on a system and a regularity of administration, that has excited the astonishment and admiration of those who have searched amid its wreck.  The Emperor himself inspected the accounts several times in the course of the year.  All his mansions were found to be repaired and decorated :  they contained nearly forty millions in household furniture, besides four millions in plate.  If he had enjoyed a few years of peace, imagination can scarcely fix limits, he said, to what he would have accomplished.

The Emperor said, he had conceived an excellent idea, which he was much grieved at not having put in execution :  it was to have commissioned some persons to collect the most important petitions :  “ They should have named every day,” said he, “ three or four individuals from the provinces, who would have been admitted to my levee, and have explained their business to me in person ;  I would have discussed it with them immediately, and administered justice to them without delay.”

I observed to the Emperor, that the Commission he had created at a very early period, under the name of “ Commission of Petitions,” came very near the idea in question, and was, in fact, productive of much good.  I was President of it on his return from Elba, and in the first month I had already done justice to more than four thousand petitions.  “ It is true,” I observed, “ that circumstances originally, and custom afterwards, had never allowed this establishment to enjoy the most valuable prerogative with which its organization had been endowed, that which would undoubtedly have produced the greatest effect on public opinion ;  namely, to present to him officially, at his great audience on Sunday, the result of the week’s labours.”  But the nature of things, the constant expeditions of the Emperor, and, above all, the jealousy of the Ministers, had concurred to deprive the Commission of this high privilege.

The Emperor said, also, he was sorry he had not established it as part of the etiquette of the Court, that all persons who had been presented, females particularly, who had any claim to obtain an audience of him, should have the unquestioned right of entering the anti-chamber.  The Emperor, passing through it several times in the day, might have taken the opportunity to satisfy some of their requests ;  and might in this manner have spared the refusal of audiences, or the loss of time occasioned by them.  The Emperor had hesitated for some time, he said, about re-establishing the grand couvert of the kings of France, that is, the dining in public, every Sunday, of the whole Imperial family.  He asked our opinion of it.  We differed :  Some approved of it, represented this family spectacle as beneficial to public morals, and fitted to produce the best effects on public spirit ;  besides, said they, it afforded means for every individual to see his sovereign.  Others opposed it, objecting that this ceremony involved something of divine right and feudality, of ignorance and servility, which had no place in our habits or the modern dignity of them.  They might go to see the sovereign at the church or the theatre :  there, they joined at least in the performance of his religious duties, or took part in his pleasures ;  but to go to see him eat, was only to confer ridicule on both parties.  The sovereignty having now become, as the Emperor had so well said, a magistracy, should only be seen in full activity ;  conferring favours, repairing injuries, transacting business, reviewing armies, and above all, divested of the infirmities and the wants of human nature, &c. . . . Its utility, its benefits, should form its new charm :  the image of the sovereign should be present continually and unlooked-for, like Providence.  Such was the new school :—such had been ours.

“ Well,” said the Emperor, “ it may be true that the circumstances of the time should have limited this ceremony to the Imperial heir, and only during his youth ;  for he was the child of the whole nation :  he ought to become thenceforth the object of the sentiments and the sight of all.”

On his return from Elba, the Emperor said he had an idea of dining every Sunday in the Galerie de Diane, with four or five hundred guests :  this, said he, would undoubtedly have produced a great effect on the public, particularly at the time of the Champ de Mai, on the assembling of the Deputies from the departments at Paris ;  but the rapidity and the importance of business prevented it.  Besides, he was apprehensive, perhaps, that there might have been observed in this measure, too great an affectation of popularity, and that his enemies abroad might give it the semblance of fear on his part.

It is the custom, said the Emperor, to talk of the influence of the tone and manners of the Court upon those of a nation ;  he was far from having brought about any such result ;  but it was the fault of circumstances and of several unperceived combinations :  he had reflected much on the subject, and he thought it would have been accomplished in time.

“ The Court,” he continued, “ taken collectively, does not exert this influence ;  it is only because its elements, those who compose it, go to communicate, each in his own sphere of action, that which they have collected from the common source ;  the tone of the Court, then, is not infused into a whole nation, but through intermediate societies.  Now, we had no such societies, nor could we yet have them.  Those delightful assemblies, where one enjoys so fully the advantages of civilization, suddenly disappear at the approach of revolutions, and are re-established but slowly, when the tempests dissipate.  The indispensable bases of company are indolence and luxury ;  but we were all still in a state of agitation, and great fortunes were not yet firmly established.  A great number of theatres, a multitude of public establishments, moreover, presented pleasures more ready, less constrained, and more exciting.  The women of the day, taken collectively, were young ;  they liked better to be out and to shew themselves in public, than to remain at home and compose a narrower circle.  But they would have grown old, and with a little time and tranquillity, every thing would have fallen into its natural course.  And then again,” he observed, “ it would perhaps be an error to judge of a modern Court by the remembrance of the old ones.  The power certainly resided in the old Courts :  they said, the Court and the City ;—at the present day, if we desired to speak correctly, we were obliged to say the City and the Court.  The feudal lords, since they have lost their power, seek to make themselves amends in their enjoyments.  Sovereigns themselves seemed to be, for the future, submitted to this law :  the throne, with our liberal ideas, insensibly ceased to be a seigniory, and became purely a magistracy the Prince having only a simple practical character to sustain, always sufficiently dull and tedious in the long-run, must seek to withdraw from it, to come, as a mere citizen, and take his share in the charms of society.”

Among a great number of new measures projected by the Emperor for a more tranquil futurity, his favourite idea had been, peace being obtained and repose secured, to devote his life to purifying the administration and to local ameliorations ;  to be occupied in perpetual tours in the departments :  he would have visited, not hurried over ;  sojourned, not posted through :  he would have used his own horses, would have been surrounded by the Empress, the King of Rome, his whole Court.  At the same time, he wished this great equipage not to be burdensome to any, but rather a benefit to all :  a suit of tapestry hangings and all the other appendages, following in the train, would have furnished and decorated his places of rest.  The other persons of the Court, he said, would have been extremely welcome to the citizens, who would have looked upon their guests as a benefit rather than a burden, because they would always have been the sure means of their acquiring some advantage or some favours.  “ It is thus,” he continued, “ that I should have been able in every place to prevent frauds, punish misappropriations, direct edifices, bridges, roads ;  drain marshes, fertilize lands, &c.—If Heaven had then,” he continued, “ granted me a few years, I would certainly have made Paris the capital of the world, and all France a real fairy-land.”  He often repeated these last words :  how many people have already said this, or will repeat it after him !

Set of Chessmen from China.—Presentation of the Captains of the China Fleet.

6th.—The Emperor mounted his horse at seven o’clock :  he told me to call my son to accompany us ;  this was a great favour.  During our ride the Emperor dismounted five or six times to observe, with the help of a glass, some vessels that were in sight :  he ascertained one to be a Dutchman ;  the three colours are always, with us, all object of sentiment and of lively emotion.  On one of these occasions, the most mettlesome horse in the company got loose, and occasioned a long pursuit :  my son came up with him, brought him back in triumph, and the Emperor observed, that in a tournament this would be a victory.

On our return, the Emperor breakfasted within doors :  he detained us all.

Before and after breakfast, the Emperor conversed with me on serious matters, which I cannot trust to paper.

The heat was become excessive :  he retired.  It was half past four when he sent for me again ;  he was finishing dressing.  The Doctor brought him a set of chessmen, which he had been buying on board the vessels from China ;  the Emperor had wished to have one.  For this he had paid thirty Napoleons :  it was an object of great admiration with the worthy Doctor ;  and, at the same time, nothing seemed more ridiculous to the Emperor.  All the pieces, instead of resembling our’s, were coarse and clumsy images of the figures indicated by the names :  thus, a knight was armed at all points, and the castle rested on an enormous elephant, &c.  The Emperor could not make use of them, saying, pleasantly, that every piece would require a crane to move it.

In the mean time many officers and others employed in the China fleet were sauntering in the garden.  Their curiosity had led them, some hours before, to our dwelling ;  we had been literally invaded in our chambers.  One said, the pride of his life would be to have seen Napoleon ;  another, that he dared not appear in his wife’s presence in England, if he could not tell her that he had been fortunate enough to behold his features ;  another, that he would willingly forego all the profits of his voyage for a single glance, &c.

The Emperor caused them to be admitted :  it would be difficult to describe their satisfaction and joy :  they had not ventured to expect or to hope for so much.  The Emperor, according to custom, proposed many questions to them concerning China, its commerce, its inhabitants ;  their revenues, their manners ;  the missionaries, &c.  He detained them above half an hour, before he dismissed them.  At their departure we described to him the enthusiasm we had witnessed in these officers, and repeated all that had fallen from them relative to him.  “ I believe it,” said he ;  “ you do not perceive that they are our friends.  All that you have observed in them, belongs to the Commons of England—the natural enemies, perhaps without giving themselves credit for it, of their old and insolent Aristocracy.”

At dinner the Emperor ate little ;  he was unwell :  after coffee, he attempted a game at chess, but he was too much inclined for sleep and retired almost immediately.

A Trick.

7th.—The Emperor mounted his horse at a very early hour ;  he told me again to call my son to accompany him.  The evening before, the Emperor, seeing him on horseback, had asked me if I did not make him learn to groom his horse ;  that nothing was more useful ;  that he had given particular orders for it in the military school at Saint-Germain.  I was vexed that such an idea had escaped me ;  I seized it eagerly, and my son still more so.  He was at this moment on a horse that no one had touched but himself.  The Emperor, whom I informed of it, seemed pleased, and condescended to make him go through a sort of little examination.  Our ride lasted nearly two hours and a half, rambling all the time about Longwood.

At our return the Emperor had breakfast in the garden, to which he detained us all.

A short time before dinner, I presented myself as usual in the drawing-room :  the Emperor was playing at chess with the Grand Marshal.  The valet-de-chambre in waiting at the door of the room brought me a letter, on which was written very urgent.  Out of respect to the Emperor, I went aside to read it :  it was in English ;  it stated that I had composed an excellent work ;  that, nevertheless, it was not without faults ;  that if I would correct them in a new edition, no doubt but the work would be more valuable for it ;  and then went on to pray that God would keep me in his gracious and holy protection.  Such a letter excited my astonishment, and made me rather angry ;  the colour rushed to my face ;  I did not, at first, give myself time to consider the writing.  In reading it over again I recognised the hand, notwithstanding its being much better written than usual, and I could not help laughing a good deal to myself.  But the Emperor, who cast a side-glance at me, asked me from whom the letter came that was given to me.  I replied, that it was a paper that had caused a very different feeling in me at first, from that which it would leave permanently.  I said this with so much simplicity, the mystification had been so complete, that he laughed till tears came in his eyes.  The letter was from him ;  the pupil had a mind to jest with his master, and try his powers at his expense.  I carefully preserve this letter ;  the gaiety, the style, and the whole circumstance, render it more valuable to me than any diploma the Emperor could have put into my hands when he was in power.

An opportunity for the Emperor to make use of his English.—On medicine.—Corvisart.—Definition.—On the Plague.—Medical practice in Babylon.

8th.—The Emperor had had no sleep during the night ;  he had, therefore, amused himself with writing me another letter in English ;  he sent it to me sealed ;  I corrected the errors in it, and sent him an answer also in English, by the return of the courier.  He understood me perfectly :  this convinced him of the progress he had made, and satisfied him that for the future he could, strictly speaking, correspond in his new tongue.

For nearly a fortnight past General Gourgaud had been unwell ;  his indisposition had turned to a very malignant dysentery, which occasioned some alarm.  The Admiral now sent him the Surgeon of the Northumberland (Dr. Warden) ;  the Emperor detained this gentleman to dinner.  During the repast, and for a long time afterwards, the conversation was exclusively on medicine ;  sometimes lively, sometimes serious and profound.  The Emperor was in good spirits :  he talked with great volubility ;  he overwhelmed the Doctor with questions, and with ingenious and subtle arguments, that perplexed him much :  the latter was much dazzled by this brilliancy ;  so that, after dinner, he took me aside to ask me how it happened that the Emperor was so well informed on these matters :  he did not doubt but they were his usual topics of conversation.  “ Not more than any thing else,” I said, with truth ;  “but there are few subjects with which the Emperor is unacquainted, and he treats them all in a new and engaging manner.”

The Emperor has no faith in medicine, or its remedies, of which he makes no use.  “ Doctor,” said he, “ our body is a machine for the purpose of life :  it is organized to that end—that is its nature.  Leave the life there at its ease, let it take care of itself, it will do better than if you paralyze it by loading it with medicines.  It is like a well-made watch, destined to go for a certain time ;  the watch-maker has not the power of opening it, he cannot meddle with it but at random, and with his eyes bandaged.  For one who, by dint of racking it with his ill-formed instruments, succeeds in doing it any good, how many blockheads destroy it altogether ! ” &c.

The Emperor, then, did not admit the utility of medicine but in a few cases, in disorders that were known and distinctly ascertained by time and experience ;  and he then compared the art of the physician with that of the engineer in regular sieges, where the maxims of Vauban, and the rules of experience, have brought all the chances within the scope of known laws.  In accordance, too, with these principles, the Emperor had conceived the idea of a law, which should have allowed to the mass of medical practitioners in France the use of simple medicines only, and forbidden them to employ heroic remedies, that is, such as may cause death, unless they made three or four thousand francs, at least, by their profession ;  which, said he, afforded grounds for supposing them to have education, judgment, and a certain public reputation.  “ This measure,” said be, “ was certainly just and beneficent ;  but in my circumstances it was unseasonable : information was not yet sufficiently diffused.  No doubt but the mass of the people would have only seen an act of tyranny in the law, which, notwithstanding, would have rescued them from their executioners.”

The Emperor had frequently attacked the celebrated Corvisart, his physician, upon the subject of medicine.  The latter, waving the honour of the profession, and of his colleagues, confessed that he entertained nearly the same opinions, and even acted upon them.  He was a great enemy to medicines, and employed them very sparingly :  the Empress Maria-Louisa, suffering much during her pregnancy, and teazing him for relief, he artfully gave her some pills composed of crumb of bread, which did not fail to be of great service to her, she observed.

The Emperor said, he had brought Corvisart to admit that medicine was a resource available only for the few ;  that it might be of some benefit to the rich, but that it was the scourge of the poor.  “ Now, do you not believe,” said the Emperor, “ that seeing the uncertainty of the art itself, and the ignorance of those who practise it, its effects, taken in the aggregate, are more fatal than useful to the people ? ”  Corvisart assented without hesitation.  “ But have you never killed any body yourself ? ” continued the Emperor ;  “ that is to say, have not some patients died, evidently in consequence of your prescriptions ?”—“ Undoubtedly,” replied Corvisart ;  “ but I ought no more to let that weigh upon my conscience, than would your Majesty, if you had caused the destruction of some troops, not from having made a bad movement, but because their march was impeded by a ditch or a precipice, which it was impossible for you to be aware of,” &c.

Thence the Emperor went on to some problems and definitions, which he proposed to the Doctor.  “ What is life ? ” said he to him ;  “ when and how do we receive it ?  Is that still any thing but mystery ? ”  Then he defined harmless madness to be a vacancy or incoherence of judgment between just perceptions and the application of them :  an insane man eats grapes in a vineyard that is not his own ;  and, in reply to the expostulations of the owner, says :—“ Here are two of us ;  the sun shines upon us ;  then I have a right to eat grapes.”  The dangerous madman was he in whom this vacancy or incoherence of judgment occurred between perceptions and actions :  it was he who cut off the head of a sleeping man, and concealed himself behind a hedge, to enjoy the perplexity of the dead body when he should awake.

The Emperor next asked the Doctor what was the difference between sleep and death ; and answered it himself by saying, that sleep was the momentary suspension of the faculties which are within the power of our volition ;  and death the lasting suspension, not only of these faculties, but also of those over which our will has no control.

From that, the conversation turned upon the plague.  The Emperor maintained that it was taken by inspiration as well as by contact :  he said that it was rendered most dangerous, and most extensively propagated, by fear ;  its principal seat was in the imagination.  In Egypt, all those in whom that (the imagination) was affected, perished.  The most prudent remedy was moral courage.  He had touched with impunity, he said, some infected persons at Jaffa, and had saved many lives by deceiving the soldiers, during two months, as to the nature of the disease :  it was not the plague, they were told, but a fever accompanied with ulcers.  Moreover, he had observed that the best means to preserve the army from it, were to keep them on the march, and give them plenty of exercise :  fatigue, and the occupation of the mind upon other subjects, were found the surest protection, &c.*

The Emperor also said to the Doctor—“ If Hippocrates were on a sudden to enter your hospital, would he not be much astonished ? would he adopt your maxims and your methods ? would he not find fault with you ?  On your part, would you understand his language ? would you at all comprehend each other ?”—He concluded by pleasantly extolling the practice of medicine in Babylon, where the patients were exposed at the door, and the relations, sitting near them, stopped the passengers to enquire if they had ever been afflicted in a similar way, and what had cured them.  One had at least the certainty, said he, of escaping all those whose remedies had killed them.

9th.—I was breakfasting with the Emperor, after our English lesson, when I received a letter from my wife that filled me with joy and gratitude.  She said, that neither fear, fatigue, nor distance, could prevent her joining me ;  that separated from me she could experience no happiness, and that she was only waiting for the proper season.  Admirable devotion ! superior to all that we have manifested here, inasmuch as it is exerted with a perfect knowledge of all its consequences.  I cannot think that in England they will have the cruelty to refuse her :  what does she solicit ? favours, interest ?  No ;  she begs to share the lot of an exile on a solitary rock ;  to fulfil a duty, and to testify her affection.  How far was I from forming a just estimate of the hearts and minds of those who detained us !  Madame de Las Cases found herself constantly repulsed :  sometimes under various pretexts ;  sometimes even without an answer.  At last, and as if to rid himself of her importunity, Lord Bathurst caused her to be informed, in the beginning of 1817, that she would be permitted to go to the Cape of Good Hope (500 leagues beyond Saint-Helena), from whence, “ if the Governor of Saint-Helena (Sir Hudson Lowe) sees no objection, she will be allowed to join her husband.”

I leave without comment this specimen of ill-timed pleasantry, to the consideration of any one who has the feelings of a man.  This letter came by the Owen-Glendower frigate, which arrived from the Cape, and brought us at the same time the European papers to December 4.

Trial of Ney.—The Emperor’s carriage taken at Waterloo.—The interview at Dresden.—On the caprice of women.—The Princess Pauline.—Eloquent effusion of the Emperor.

10th—12th.  The weather had now changed to those miserable pelting rains, which scarcely permitted us to walk in the garden ;  fortunately we had newspapers to occupy our time.  At length I had the satisfaction of seeing the Emperor read them without assistance.

These papers contained many details relating to the trial of Marshal Ney, which was at that time in progress.  With reference to this, the Emperor said that the horizon was gloomy ;  that the unfortunate Marshal was certainly in great danger ;  but that we must not, however, despair.  “ The King undoubtedly believes himself quite sure of the Peers,” said he ;  “ they are certainly violent enough, firmly resolved, highly incensed ;  but for all that, suppose the slightest incident, some new rumour, or I know not what ;  then you would see, in spite of all the efforts of the King, and of what they believe to be the interest of their cause, the Chamber of Peers would, all on a sudden, take it into their heads not to find him guilty ;  and thus Ney may be saved.”

This led the Emperor to dilate upon our volatile, fickle, and changeable disposition.  “ All the French,” said he, “ are turbulent, and disposed to rail ;  but they are not addicted to seditious combinations, still less to actual conspiracy.  Their levity is so natural to them, their changes so sudden, that it may be said to be a national dishonour.  They are mere weathercocks, the sport of the winds, it is true ;  but this vice is with them free from the calculations of interest, and that is their best excuse.  But we must only be understood to speak here of the mass, of that which constitutes public opinion ;  for individual examples to the contrary have swarmed in our latter times, that exhibit certain classes in the most disgusting state of meanness.”

It was this knowledge of the national character, the Emperor continued, that had always prevented his having recourse to the High Court.  It was instituted by our Constitution ;  the Council of State had even decreed its organization ;  but the Emperor felt all the danger of the bustle and agitation that such spectacles always produce.  “ Such a proceeding,” he said, “ was in reality an appeal to the public, and was always highly injurious to authority, when the accused gained the cause.  A Ministry in England might sustain, without inconvenience, the effects of a decision against it under such circumstances ;  but a sovereign like me, and situated as I was, could not have suffered it without the utmost danger to public affairs :  for this reason, I preferred having recourse to the ordinary tribunals.  Malevolence often started objections to this ;  but nevertheless, among all those whom it was pleased to call victims, which of them, I ask you, has retained his popularity in our late struggles ?  They have taken care to justify me :  all of them are faded in the national estimation.”

The Emperor had reserved one article in the papers, that he might have my assistance in reading it ;  it referred to the carriage he lost at Waterloo :  the great number of technical expressions rendered it too difficult for him.  The editor gave a very circumstantial account of this carriage, with a minutely-detailed inventory of all its contents ;  to this he sometimes added the most frivolous reflections.  In mentioning a small liquor-case, he observed that the Emperor never forgot himself, but took care to want nothing ;  in noticing certain elegant appendages to his dressing-case, he added that it might be seen he made his toilette comme il faut (the expression was in French).  These last words produced a sensation in the Emperor, which certainly would not have been excited by a more important subject.  “ How !” said he to me, with a mixture of disgust and pain ;  “ these people of England, then, take me for some wild animal ;  have they really been led so far as this ? or their ———, who is a kind of Ox Apis, as I am assured, does he not pay that attention to his toilette that is considered proper by every person of any education among us ?”

It is certain that I should have been a good deal puzzled to explain to him the writer’s meaning.  Besides, it is known that the Emperor, of all people in the world, set the least value on his personal convenience, and studied it the least ;  but, on the other hand, and he acknowledged it with pleasure, there never was one for whom the devotion and attention of servants had been so diligent in that particular.  As he ate at very irregular hours, they contrived, in the course of his journeys and campaigns, to have his dinner, similar to what he was accustomed to at the Tuileries, always ready within a few paces of him.  He had but to speak, and he was instantly served ;  he himself said it was magic.  During fifteen years he constantly drank a particular sort of Burgundy (Chambertin), which he liked and believed to be wholesome for him :  he found this wine provided for him throughout Germany, in the remotest part of Spain, everywhere, even at Moscow, &c.;  and it may truly be said that art, luxury, the refinement of elegance and good taste, contended around him, as if without his knowledge, to afford him gratification.  The English journalists, therefore, described a multitude of objects that were undoubtedly in the carriage ;  but of which the Emperor had not the slightest notion :  not that he was at all surprised at it, he observed.

The bad weather which continued to confine us within doors, had no influence on the disposition of the Emperor, who at this particular time seemed more unreserved and talked more than usual.  He spoke at length, and with the most minute details, of the famous interview at Dresden.  The following are extracts from his conversation :—

This was the epoch when the power of Napoleon was at its height ;  he there appeared as the king of kings ;  he was actually obliged to observe, that some attention ought to be paid to the Emperor of Austria, his father-in-law.  Neither this Sovereign nor the King of Prussia had any household establishment attending them ;  Alexander had none either at Tilsit or Erfurt.  There, as at Dresden, they lived at Napoleon’s table.—“  These Courts,” said the Emperor, “ were paltry and vulgar.”  It was he who regulated the etiquette, and took the lead in them ;  he made Francis take precedence of him, to his unbounded satisfaction.  The luxury and magnificence of Napoleon must have made him appear like an Asiatic prince to them there, as well as at Tilsit, he loaded with diamonds all that came near him.  We informed him, that at Dresden he had not a single French soldier near him ;  and that his Court was sometimes not without apprehensions for the safety of his person.  He could scarcely believe us ;—but we assured him that it was a fact ;  that the Saxon body-guard was the only one he had.  “ It is all one,” he said ;  “ I was then in so good a family, with such worthy people, that I ran no risk ;  I was beloved by all ;  and, at this very time, I am sure the good King of Saxony repeats every day a Pater and an Ave for me.”  He added, “ I ruined the fortunes of that poor Princess Augusta, and I acted very wrong in so doing.  Returning from Tilsit, I received, at Marienwerder, a chamberlain of the King of Saxony, who delivered me a letter from his master ;  he wrote thus :  ‘ I have just received a letter from the Emperor of Austria, who desires my daughter in marriage ;  I send this to you, that you may inform me what answer I ought to return.’”—“ I shall be at Dresden in a few days,” was the reply of the Emperor ;  and, on his arrival, he set his face against the match, and prevented it.  “ I was very wrong,” repeated he ;  “ I was fearful the Emperor Francis would withdraw the King of Saxony from me ;  on the contrary, the Princess Augusta would have brought over the Emperor Francis to my side, and I should not now have been here.”

At Dresden, Napoleon was much occupied in business, and Maria-Louisa, anxious to avail herself of the smallest intervals of leisure to be with her husband, scarcely ever went out, lest she should miss them.  The Emperor Francis, who did nothing, and tired himself all day with going about the town, could not at all comprehend this family seclusion ;  he fancied that it was to affect reserve and importance.  The Empress of Austria endeavoured greatly to get Maria-Louisa to go out ;  she represented to her that her constant assiduity was ridiculous.  She would willingly have given herself the airs of a stepmother with Maria-Louisa, who was not disposed to suffer it, their age being nearly the same.  She came frequently in the morning to her toilette, ransacking among the luxurious and magnificent objects displayed there :  she seldom went out empty-handed.

“ The reign of Maria-Louisa was very short,” said the Emperor ;  “ but it must have been full of enjoyment for her ;  she had the world at her feet.”  One of us took the liberty to ask if the Empress of Austria was not the sworn enemy of Maria-Louisa.  “ Nothing more,” said the Emperor, “ than a little regular court-hatred ;  a thorough detestation in the heart, but glossed over by daily letters of four pages, full of coaxing and tenderness.”

The Empress of Austria was particularly attentive to Napoleon, and took great pains to make much of him while he was present ;  but no sooner was his back turned, than she endeavoured to detach Maria-Louisa from him by the most mischievous and malicious insinuations ;  she was vexed that she could not succeed in obtaining some influence over her.  “ She has, however, address and ability,” said the Emperor, “ and that sufficient to embarrass her husband, who had acquired a conviction that she entertained a poor opinion of him.  Her countenance was agreeable, engaging, and had something very peculiar in it ;  she was a pretty little nun.

“ As to the Emperor Francis, his good-nature is well known, and makes him constantly the dupe of the designing.  His son will be like him.

“ The King of Prussia, as a private character, is an honourable, good, and worthy man ;  but, in his political capacity, he is naturally disposed to yield to necessity :  he is always commanded by whosoever has power on his side, and seems about to strike.

“ As to the Emperor of Russia, he is a man infinitely superior to these :  he possesses wit, grace, information, is fascinating ;  but he is not to be trusted ;  he is devoid of candour, a true Greek of the Lower Empire.  At the same time he is not without ideology, real or assumed :—after all it may only be a smattering derived from his education and his preceptor.  Would you believe,” said the Emperor, “ what I had to discuss with him ?  He maintained that inheritance was an abuse in monarchy, and I had to spend more than an hour, and employ all my eloquence and logic, in proving to him that this right constituted the peace and happiness of the people.  It may be, too, that he was mystifying ;  for he is cunning, false, and expert, . . . . . . . ;  he can go a great length.  If I die here, he will be my real heir in Europe.  I alone was able to stop him with his deluge of Tartars.  The crisis is great, and will have lasting effects upon the Continent of Europe, especially upon Constantinople :  he was solicitous with me for the possession of it.  I have had much coaxing on this subject ;  but I constantly turned a deaf ear to it.  That empire, shattered as it appeared, would constantly have remained a point of separation between us :  it was the marsh that prevented my right being turned.  As to Greece, it is another matter !”  And after talking awhile upon that country, he renewed the subject :  “ Greece awaits a liberator !—There will be a brilliant crown of glory !—He will inscribe his name for ever with those of Homer, Plato, and Epaminondas !—I perhaps was not far from it !—When, during my campaign in Italy, I arrived on the shores of the Adriatic, I wrote to the Directory, that I had before my eyes the kingdom of Alexander !—Still later I entered into engagements with Ali Pacha ;  and when Corfu was taken from us, they must have found there ammunition and a complete equipment for an army of forty or fifty thousand men.  I had caused maps to be made of Macedonia, Servia, Albania, &c.

“ Greece, the Peloponnesus at least, must be the lot of that European power, which shall possess Egypt.  It should be ours.—And then, an independent kingdom in the North, Constantinople with its provinces, to serve as a barrier to the power of Russia :  as they have pretended to do with respect to France, by creating the Kingdom of Belgium.”

Another of these evenings, the Emperor was holding forth against the caprice of women ;  “ Nothing,” said he, “ more clearly indicates rank, education, and good breeding among them, than evenness of temper and the constant desire to please.”  He added, that they were bound by circumstances to shew themselves at all times mistresses of themselves, and to be always attending to their part on the stage.  His two wives, he observed, had always been so :  they certainly differed greatly in their qualities and dispositions ;  but they always agreed in this point.  Never had he witnessed ill-humour in either the one or the other ;  to please him had been the constant object with both of them, &c.

Some one ventured to observe, however, that Maria-Louisa had boasted, that whenever she desired any thing, no matter how difficult, she had only to weep.  The Emperor laughed at it, and said, this was new to him.  He might have suspected it of Josephine, but he had no idea of it in Maria-Louisa.  And then, addressing himself to Mesdames Bertrand and Montholon :  “ Thus it is with you all, ladies,” said he :  “ in some points you all agree.”

He continued for a long time to talk about the two Empresses, and repeated as usual, that one was Innocence, and the other the Graces.  He passed from them to his sisters, and dwelt particularly on the charms of the Princess Pauline.  It was admitted, that she was, without dispute, the handsomest woman in Paris.  The Emperor said that the artists were unanimous in considering her a perfect Venus de Medicis.  As they were proceeding to analyze her beauty with much elegance and grace, he suddenly asked if a Princess of the time . . . . . . . . . . . .

A little pleasantry was hazarded on the influence which the Princess Pauline had exercised, at the Island of Elba, over General Drouot, whose assiduous attentions she attracted in spite of the difference of their ages and the harshness of his countenance.  The Princess, it was said, had drawn from him the secret of the intended departure, eight days before it took place.  He had repeated the fault of Turenne ;  and upon this the Emperor said, “ Such are women, and such is their dangerous power !”  Here Madame Bertrand declared that the Grand Marshal, to a certainty, had not done as much.  “ Madam,” retorted the Emperor, with a smile, “ he was only your husband.”  Some one having remarked that the Princess Pauline, when at Nice, had set up a post-waggon on the road, by which dresses and fashions arrived from Paris every day, the Emperor said :  “ If I had been aware of it, that would not have lasted long, she would have been well scolded.  But thus it happens :  while one is Emperor one knows nothing of these things.”

After this conversation the Emperor enquired what was the day of the month :  it was the 11th of March.  “ Well !” said he, “ it is a year ago to-day, it was a brilliant day ;  I was at Lyons, I reviewed some troops, I had the Mayor to dine with me, who, by the way, has boasted since, that it was the worst dinner he ever made in his life.”  The Emperor became animated ;  he paced the chamber quickly.  “ I was again become a great power,” he continued ;  and a sigh escaped him, which he immediately checked with these words, in an accent and with a warmth which it is difficult to describe :  “ I had founded the finest empire in the world, and I was so necessary to it, that spite of all the last reverses, here, upon my rock, I seem still to remain the master of France.  Look at what is going on there, read the papers, you will find it so in every line.  Let me once more set my foot there, they will see what France is, and what I can do !”  And then what ideas, what projects he developed for the glory and happiness of the country !  He spoke for a long time, with so much interest and so unreservedly, that we could have forgotten time, place, and seasons.  A part of what he said fellows :—

“ What a fatality,” he said, “ that my return from the Island of Elba was not acquiesced in, that every one did not perceive that my reign was desirable and necessary for the balance and repose of Europe !  But kings and people both feared me ;  they were wrong, and may pay dearly for it.  I returned a new man ;  they could not believe it ;  they could not imagine that a man might have sufficient strength of mind to alter his character, or to bend to the power of circumstances.  I had, however, given proofs of this, and some pledges to the same effect.  Who is ignorant that I am not a man for half-measures ?  I would have been as sincerely the monarch of the constitution and of peace, as I had been of absolute sway and great enterprizes.

“ Let us reason a little upon the fears of kings and people on my account.  What could the kings apprehend ?  Did they still dread my ambition, my conquests, my universal monarchy ?  But my power and my resources were no longer the same ;  and, besides, I had only defeated and conquered in my own defence :  this is a truth which time will more fully develope every day.  Europe never ceased to make war upon France, her principles, and me ;  and we were compelled to destroy, to save ourselves from destruction.  The coalition always existed openly or secretly, avowed or denied ;  it way permanent ;  it only rested with the Allies to give us peace ;  for ourselves, we were worn out :  the French dreaded making new conquests.  As to myself, is it supposed that I am insensible to the charms of repose and security, when glory and honour do not require it otherwise ?  With our two Chambers, they, might have forbidden me in future to pass the Rhine ;  and why should I have wished it ?  For my universal monarchy ?  But I never gave any convincing proof of insanity ;  and what is its chief characteristic, but a disproportion between our object and the means of attaining it.  If I have been on the point of accomplishing this universal monarchy, it was without any original design, and because I was led on to it step by step.  The last efforts wanting to arrive at it seemed so trifling, was it very unreasonable to attempt them ?  But on my return from Elba, could a similar idea, a thought so mad, a purpose so unattainable, enter the head of the most rash man in the world ?  The Sovereigns, then, had nothing to fear from my arms.

“ Did they apprehend that I might overwhelm them with anarchical principles ?  But they knew by experience my opinions on that score.  They have all seen me occupy their territories  how often have I been urged to revolutionize their states, give municipal functions to their cities, and excite insurrection among their subjects.  However I may have been stigmatized, in their names, as the modern Attila, Robespierre on horseback, &c. they all know better at the bottom of their hearts—let them look there !  Had I been so, I might, perhaps, still have reigned ;  but they most certainly would have long since ceased to reign.  In the great cause of which I saw myself the chief and the arbitrator, one of two systems was to be followed :  to make kings listen to reason from the people ;  or to conduct the people to happiness by means of their kings.  But it is well known to be no easy matter to check the people when they are once set on :  it was more rational to reckon a little upon the wisdom and intelligence of rulers.  I had a right always to suppose them possessed of sufficient intellect to see such obvious interests :  I was deceived ;  they never calculated at all, and, in their blind fury, they let loose against me that which I withheld when opposed to them.  They will see ! !

“ Lastly, did the sovereigns take umbrage at seeing a mere soldier attain a crown ?  Did they fear the example ?  The solemnities, the circumstances that accompanied my elevation, my eagerness to conform to their habits, to identify myself with their existence, to become allied to them by blood and by policy, closed the door sufficiently against new comers.  Besides, if there must needs have been the spectacle of an interrupted legitimacy, I maintain that it was much more to their interest that it should take place in my person, one risen from the ranks, than in that of a prince, one of their own family :  for thousands of ages will elapse before the circumstances accumulated in my case draw forth another from among the crowd to reproduce the same spectacle ;  while there is not a sovereign who has not at a few paces distance in his palace, cousins, nephews, brothers, and relations to whom it would be easy to follow such an example if once set.

“ On the other side, what was there to alarm the people ?  Did they fear that I should come to lay waste and to impose chains on them ?  But I returned the Messiah of peace and of their rights :  this new maxim was my whole strength to violate it would have been ruin.  But even the French mistrusted me ;  they had the insanity to discuss when there was nothing to do but to fight ;  to divide when they should have united on any terms.  And was it not better to run the risk of having me again for master, than to expose themselves to that of submitting to a foreign yoke ?  Would it not have been easier to rid themselves of a single despot, of one tyrant, than to shake off the chains of all the nations united ?  And moreover, whence did they derive this mistrust of me ?  Because they had already seen me concentrate every effort in myself, and direct them with a vigorous hand ?  But do they not learn at the present day, to their cost, how necessary that was ?  Well ! the danger was in any case the same :  the contest terrible, and the crisis imminent.  In this state of things, was not absolute power necessary, indispensable ?  The welfare of the country obliged me even to declare it openly on my return from Leipsic.  I should have done so again on my return from Elba.  I was wanting in consistency, or rather in confidence in the French, because many of them no longer placed any in me, and it was doing me a great wrong.  If narrow and vulgar minds only saw, in all my efforts, the care of my own power, ought not those of greater scope to have shewn, that under the circumstances in which we were placed, my power and the country were but one ?  Did it require such great and incurable mischiefs to enable them to comprehend me ?  History will do me more justice :  it will signalize me as the man of self-denials and disinterestedness.  To what temptations was I not exposed in the army of Italy ?  England offered me the Crown of France at the time of the treaty of Amiens.—I refused peace at Châtillon :  I disdained all personal stipulations at Waterloo ;—and why ?  Because all this had no reference to my country, and I lead no ambition distinct from her’s—that of her glory, her ascendancy, her majesty.  And there is the reason that, in spite of so many calamities, I remain so popular among the French.  It is a sort of instinct of after-justice on their part.

“ Who in the world ever had greater treasures at his disposal ?  I have had many hundred millions in my vaults ;  many other hundreds composed my domaine de l’extraordinaire :  all these were my own.  What is become of them ?—They were poured out in the distresses of the country.  Let them contemplate me here ;  I remain destitute upon my rock.  My fortune was wholly in that of France.  In the extraordinary situation to which fate had raised me, my treasures were her’s :  I had identified myself completely with her destinies.  What other calculation was consistent with the height I had risen to ?  Was I ever seen occupied about my personal interests ?  I never knew any other enjoyment, any other riches, than those of the public ;—so much so, that when Josephine, who had a taste for the Arts, succeeded under the sanction of my name in acquiring some masterpieces, though they were in my palace, under my eyes, in my family apartments, they offended me, I thought myself robbed :  they were not in the Museum.

“ Ah ! the French people undoubtedly did much for me ! more than was ever done before for man !  But, at the same time, who ever did so much for them ? who ever identified himself with them in the same manner ?  But to return.—After all, what could be their fears ?  Were not the Chambers and the new Constitution sufficient guarantees for the future ?  Those additional Acts, against which so much indignation was expressed, did they not carry in themselves their own corrective—remedies that were infallible ?  How could I have violated them ?  I had not myself millions of arms ;  I was but a man.  Public opinion raised me up once more ;  public opinion might equally put me down again ;  and, compared with this risk, what had I to gain ?

“But as to surrounding States (I speak particularly as regards England), what could be her fears, her motives, her jealousies ?  We inquire in vain.  With our new Constitution, our two Chambers, had we not adopted her creed for the future ?  Was not that the sure means of coming to a mutual understanding, to establish in future a community of interest ?  The caprice, the passions of their rulers, once fettered, the interests of the people move on, without obstacle, in their natural course :  look at the merchants of hostile nations ;  they continue their intercourse, and pursue their business, however their governments may wage war.  The two nations had arrived at that point.—Thanks to their respective parliaments, each was become the guarantee for the other :  and who can ever tell to what extent the union of the two nations and of their interests might be carried ;  what new combinations might be set at work ?  It is certain that, on the establishment of our two Chambers and our Constitution, the Ministers of England had in their hands the glory and prosperity of their country, the destinies and the welfare of the world.  Had I beaten the English army and won my last battle, I would have caused a great and happy astonishment ;  the following day I would have proposed peace, and, for once, it would have been I who scattered benefits with a prodigal hand.  Instead of this, perhaps, the English will one day have to lament that they were victorious at Waterloo !

“ I repeat it, the people and the sovereigns were wrong :  I had restored thrones and an inoffensive nobility ;  and thrones and nobility may again find themselves in danger.  I had fixed and consecrated the reasonable limits of the people’s rights ;  vague, peremptory, and undefined claims may again arise.

“ Had my return, my establishment on the throne, my adoption, been freely acquiesced in by the sovereigns, the cause of kings and the people would have been settled ;  both would have gained.  Now they are again to try it ;  both may lose.  They might have concluded every thing ;  they may have every thing to begin again :  they might have secured a long and certain calm, and already begun to enjoy it ;  and, instead of that, a spark may now be sufficient to reproduce an universal conflagration !  Poor, weak humanity !”

Attached, as I am, to the words and the opinions which I gathered from Napoleon on his rock of exile, and however perfectly persuaded and convinced of their entire sincerity, I do not the less experience an extreme gratification, whenever a testimony from another quarter confirms the truth of them ;  and I am bound to say, that I have that gratification, as often as opportunity occurs of obtaining other evidence.

The reader has just perused the foregoing remarkable passage, in which Napoleon expresses his ideas, his intentions, his sentiments.  What a value do not these expressions collected at Saint-Helena acquire, when we find them reechoed in Europe, at the distance of 2000 leagues, by a celebrated writer, who, with a shade of difference in his opinions, and at a very different time, had himself received them from the same lips !  What a fortunate circumstance for history !  I cannot, indeed, forbear bringing forward here this extract of M. Benjamin Constant, as well on account of the intrinsic merit of the expressions, as from the weight they acquire from the distinguished writer who records them ;  and also from the pleasure I feel in seeing them coincide so exactly with what I have collected myself in another hemisphere.  There are the same intentions, the same depth of thought, the same sentiments.

“ I went to the Tuileries,” says M. Benjamin Constant in his account ;  “ I found Bonaparte alone.  He began the conversation :  it was long :  I will only give an analysis of it ;  for I do not propose to make an exhibition of an unfortunate man.  I will not amuse my readers at the expense of fallen greatness ;  I will not give up to malevolent curiosity him whom I have served, whatever might be my motive ;  and I will not transcribe more of his discourse than is indispensable ;  but in what I shall transcribe, I will use his own words.

“ He did not attempt to deceive me either as to his views, or the state of affairs.  He did not present himself as one corrected by the lessons of adversity :  he did not desire to take the merit of returning to liberty from inclination :  he investigated coolly as regarded his interest, and with an impartiality too nearly allied to indifference, what was possible and what was preferable.

‘ The nation,’ said he, ‘ has rested for twelve years from all political agitation, and for a year it has been undisturbed by war :  this double repose has begotten a necessity for motion.  It desires, or fancies it desires, a public rostrum and assemblies ;  it has not always desired them.  It cast itself at my feet when I came to the government ;  you must remember, you who made trial of its opinion.  Where was your support, your power ?  No where.  I took less authority than I was invited to take.—Now all is changed.  A weak government, opposed to the interests of the nation, has given these interests the habit of taking up the defensive, and of cavilling at authority.  The taste for constitutions, debates, harangues, seems to return. . . . However, it is only the minority that desires it, do not deceive yourself.  The people, or if you like it better, the mob, desire me alone :  you have not seen them, this mob, crowding after me, rushing from the tops of the mountains, calling me, seeking me, saluting me.**  On my return here from Cannes, I did not conquer—I administered. . . . . I am not only, as it has been said, the Emperor of the soldiers ;  I am that of the peasants, the lower ranks in France. . . . Thus, in spite of all that is past, you see the people return to me—there is a sympathy between us.  It is not so with the privileged classes ;  the nobility have served me, have rushed in crowds into my antechambers ;  there are no offices that they have not accepted, solicited, pressed for.  I have had my Montmorencies, my Noailles, my Rohans, my Beauveaus, my Mortemarts.  But there was no analogy between us.  The steed curvetted, he was well trained, but I perceived that he fretted.  With the people it is another thing ;  the popular fibre responds to mine :  I am come from the ranks of the people, my voice has influence over them.  Observe these conscripts, these sons of peasants, I did not flatter them, I treated them with severity ;  they did not the less surround me, they did not the less shout ‘ the Emperor for ever ! ’  It is because between them and me there is an identity of nature ;  they look to me as their support, their defender against the nobles. . . I have but to make a sign, or rather to turn away my eyes, and the nobles will be massacred in all the departments.  They have carried on such fine intrigues for these six months ! . . . . . But I will not be the king of a Jacquerie.  If there are any means of governing with a Constitution, well and good. . . . . . I desired the empire of the world ;  and, to insure it, unlimited power was necessary to me.  To govern France only, a Constitution may be better. . . . . I desired the empire of the world, and who in my situation would not ?  The world invited me to govern it ;  sovereigns and subjects vied with each other in hastening beneath my sceptre.  I have rarely found any opposition in France ;  but I have, however, met with more from some obscure unarmed Frenchmen, than from all these kings, so vain at present of no longer having a popular man for their equal. . . . . Consider, then, what seems to you to be possible.  Give me your ideas.  Free elections, public discussions, responsible ministers, liberty, all this is my wish. . . . . The liberty of the press in particular :  to stifle it is absurd—I am satisfied upon this point. . . . . I am the man of the people, if the people sincerely wish for liberty :  I owe it them.  I have recognized their sovereignty ;  I am bound to lend an ear to their desires, even to their caprices.  I never desired to oppress them for my own gratification.  I had great designs, fate has decided them ;  I am no longer a conqueror, I can no more become so.  I know what is possible and what is not ;  I have now but one charge :  to relieve France, and give her a government suited to her. . . . . I am not inimical to liberty :  I set it aside when it obstructed my road ;  but I comprehend it, I have been educated in its principles. . . . . At the same time, the work of fifteen years is destroyed ;  it cannot begin again.  It would require twenty years, and the sacrifice of two millions of men. . . . . Besides, I am desirous of peace, and I shall obtain it only by dint of victories.  I will not hold out false hopes to you ;  I abstain from telling you there are negociations in train ;  there are none.  I foresee a difficult contest, a long war.  To maintain it, the nation must support me ;  but, in return, she will require liberty ;  she shall have it. . . . . The situation is new.  I desire no better than to receive information ;  I grow old ;  one is no longer at forty-five what one was at thirty.  The repose of a constitutional monarch may be well suited to me.  It will assuredly be still more suitable to my son.’ ”—(Minerve Français, 94^c liv. tome VIII. 2d Letter on the Hundred Days.  By M.B. Constant.)

13th.—The Emperor sent instructions to the Grand Marshal to write to the Admiral to know if a letter which he, Napoleon, should write to the Prince Regent would be sent to him.  Towards four o’clock, the Deputy Governor Skelton and his lady desired to pay their respects to the Emperor.  He received them, took them to walk in the garden, and afterwards out with him in his carriage.  The weather had been extremely foggy all day.  Upon its clearing up for a short time we saw, on a sudden, a corvette or frigate very near, and coming in with all sails set.

Insult to the Emperor and the Prince of Wales.—Execution of Ney.—Escape of Lavalette.

14th—15th.  We received the Admiral’s answer.  After beginning, according to his established form, by saying that he knew no person by the title of ‘Emperor’ at Saint-Helena, he stated, that he would undoubtedly send the Emperor’s letter to the Prince Regent ;  but that he should adhere to the letter of his instructions, which directed him not to allow any paper to be dispatched to England, without having first opened it.

This communication, it must be acknowledged, gave us great astonishment :  the part of the instructions cited by the Admiral had two objects in view, both of them foreign to the interpretation put upon them by this officer.

The first was, in the case of our making any complaints, that the local authorities might join their observations, and that the government, in England, might do us justice more speedily, without being obliged to send again to the island for farther information.  This precaution, then, was entirely for our interest.  The second object of this measure was, that our correspondence might not be prejudicial to the interests of the government, or the policy of England.  But we were writing to the Sovereign, to the chief, to the individual in whom these interests, and this government centred ;  and if there was any conspiracy here, it was not on the part of us, who were writing to him, but rather on his, who intercepted our letter, or resolved to violate the privacy of it.  That they should establish jailers about us, with all their equipage, though we did not consider it just, still it seemed possible.  But that these jailors should cause their functions to re-act, even upon their Sovereign, was a thing for which we could not find a name !  It was to attach to him completely the idea of a King without faculties, or of a Sultan buried in the recesses of his Seraglio !  It was really a monstrous phenomenon in our European manners !

For a long time, we had little or no intercourse with the Admiral.  One thought that ill-humour had perhaps dictated his answer ;  another supposed that he was fearful the letter might contain some complaints against him.  But the Admiral knew the Emperor too well, not to be aware that he would never appeal to any other tribunal, than to that of nations.  I, who knew what would have been the subject of the letter, felt the most lively indignation at it !  The sole intention of the Emperor had been to employ this method, the only one that seemed compatible with his dignity, to write to his wife, and obtain tidings of his son.  However, the Grand Marshal replied to the Admiral, that he either over-stepped, or misinterpreted his instructions ;  that his determination could only be regarded as another instance of flagrant vexation ;  that the condition imposed, was too much beneath the dignity of the Emperor, as well as of the Prince of Wales, for him to retain any intention of writing.

The frigate that had just arrived was the Spy, bringing the European papers to the 31st December :  they contained the execution of the unfortunate Marshal Ney, and the escape of Lavalette.

“ Ney,” said the Emperor, “ as ill attacked, as he was ill defended, had been condemned by the Chamber of Peers, in the teeth of a formal capitulation.  His execution had been allowed to take place ;  that was another error—from that moment he became a martyr.  That Labédoyère should not have been pardoned, because the clemency extended to him would have seemed only a predilection in favour of the old Aristocracy, might be conceived ;  but the pardon of Ney would only have been a proof of the strength of the government, and the moderation of the Prince.  It will be said, perhaps, that an example was necessary ?  But the Marshal would become so, much more certainly, by a pardon after being degraded by a sentence :  it was to him, in fact, a moral death that deprived him of all influence ;  and nevertheless the object of authority would be obtained, the Sovereign satisfied, the example complete.  The refusal of pardon to Lavalette, and his escape, were new subjects of animadversion equally unpopular.

“ But the saloons in Paris,” be observed, “ exhibited the same passions as the clubs ;  the nobility were a new version of the Jacobins.  Europe, moreover, was in a state of complete anarchy ;  the code of political immorality was openly followed ;  whatever fell under the hands of the Sovereigns was turned to the advantage of each of them.  At least, in my time I was the butt of all the accusations of this kind.  The Sovereigns then talked of nothing but principles and virtue ;  but now,” added he, “ that they were victorious and without control, they practised unblushingly all the wrongs which they themselves then reprobated.  What resource and what hope were there then left for nations and for morality ?  Our countrywomen at least,” he observed, “ rendered their sentiments conspicuous :  Madame Labédoyère was on the point of dying from grief ;  these papers showed us that Madame Ney exhibited the most courageous and determined devotion.  Madame Lavalette was become the heroine of Europe,” &c.

* It is mentioned in the Memoirs of M. Larey, as a phenomenon, or at least something remarkable, that the pressure of circumstances during the retreat from Saint-Jean-d’Acre, having compelled a reduction of the food for the sick to some plain thin biscuits, and their dressings to some brackish water, these invalids traversed sixty leagues of Desert without accidents, and with so much advantage that the greater part found themselves well when they arrived in Egypt.  He attributes this species of prodigy to the exercise, direct or indirect, to the dry heat of the Desert, and above all to the joy of returning to a country which had become for the soldiers a sort of new home.

** Note by M.B.C.—Bonaparte attached a high value to the proofs that his return was not effected by military manœuvres.  I am sorry that I have not by me six pages which he had written or dictated on this subject, and which he had carefully corrected.  He put them into my hands at the time of the communication referred to here.  He desired I would reply to Lord Castlereagh, who, in a speech in parliament, had attributed all his success to the army.
      Not choosing to write at all, till I had ascertained that it was not a despot that I was restoring to France, I declined this task ;  and, in 1815, I entrusted the sketch which Napoleon had given me to one of my friends, who set out for England, from whence I have hitherto neglected to get it back again.  It was written with much warmth ;  it contained expressions singular but powerful, a great rapidity of thought, and some strokes of real eloquence.