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

Volume 2, Part 3
page 285 - 368
1816, May 16 - 31

The Governor’s visit—His conversation with the Emperor.

16th.—The breach between the Governor and ourselves had been decided ever since the occurrence of what I have already set down as his first ill-natured trick, his first insult, &c.  Our reserve and mutual dislike encreased every day ;  in short, we were on very bad terms with each other.

He presented himself at Longwood about three o’clock, accompanied by his military secretary, and desired to see the Emperor, as he wished to speak with him on business.  The Emperor was rather unwell, and was not yet dressed ;  however, he said he would see the Governor as soon as he had finished dressing.  In the course of a few minutes, he entered the drawing-room, and I introduced Sir Hudson Lowe.

As I was waiting in the anti-chamber with the military secretary, I could hear, from the Emperor’s tone of voice, that he was irritated, and that the conversation was maintained with great warmth.  The audience was a very long, and a very clamorous one.  On the Governor’s departure, I went to the garden, whither the Emperor had sent for me.  He had not been well for the last two days, and this affair completely upset him.

“ Well, Las Cases,” said he, on perceiving me, “ we have had a violent scene.  I have been thrown quite out of temper !  They have now sent me worse than a gaoler !  Sir Hudson Lowe is a downright executioner !  I received him to-day with my stormy countenance, my head inclined, and my ears pricked up.  We looked most furiously at each other.  My anger must have been powerfully excited, for I felt a vibration in the calf of my left leg.  This is always a sure sign with me ;  and I have not felt it for a long time before.”

The Governor had opened the conversation with an air of embarrassment, and in broken sentences.  He said, some planks of wood had arrived......  The newspapers must have made Napoleon acquainted with this circumstance.......  They were intended for the construction of a residence for him ......  He should be glad to know what he thought of it ...... &c.  To this the Emperor replied only by a very significant look.  Then adverting hastily to other subjects, he told the Governor with warmth, that he asked him for nothing, and that he would receive nothing at his hands and that he merely desired to be left undisturbed.  He added, that though he had much cause to complain of the Admiral, he had never had reason to think him totally destitute of feeling ;  that though he found fault with him, he had notwithstanding received him always in perfect confidence ;  but that during the month that Sir Hudson Lowe had been on the island, he had experienced more causes of irritation than during the six preceding months.

The Governor having observed, that he did not come to receive a lesson ;  the Emperor replied, “ But that is no proof that you do not stand in need of one.  You tell me, Sir, that your instructions are much more rigid than those that were given to the Admiral.  Do they direct that I should suffer death by the sword or by poison ?  No act of atrocity would surprise me on the part of your ministers !  If my death is determined on, execute your orders !  I know not how you will administer the poison ;  but as for putting me to death by the sword, you have already found the means of doing that.  If you should attempt, as you have threatened, to violate the sanctuary of my abode, I give you fair warning, that the brave 53d shall only enter, by trampling over my corse.

“ On hearing of your arrival, I congratulated myself on the hope of meeting with a general, who having spent some portion of his life on the Continent, and having taken part in important public affairs, would know how to act in a becoming way to me ;  but I was grossly deceived.”  The Governor here said, that, as a soldier, his conduct had been conformable with the interests and forms of his country.  On which the Emperor replied, “ Your country, your government, and yourself, will be overwhelmed with disgrace for your conduct to me ;  and this disgrace will extend to your posterity.  Was there ever all act of more refined cruelty than yours, Sir, when a few days ago you invited me to your table under the title of General Bonaparte, with the view of rendering me an object of ridicule or amusement to your guests ?  Would you have proportioned the extent of your respect to the title you were pleased to give me ?  I am not General Bonaparte to you.  It is not for you or any one in the world to deprive me of dignities which are fairly my own.  If Lady Loudon had been within my boundaries, I should undoubtedly have visited her, because I do not stand upon strict etiquette with a woman ;  but I should nevertheless have considered that I was conferring an honour upon her.  I have been told, that you propose that some of the officers of your staff should accompany me in my rides about the Island, instead of the officer established at Longwood.  Sir, when soldiers have been christened by the fire of the battlefield, they have all one rank in my eyes.  It is not the sight of any particular uniform that offends me here ;  but the obligation of seeing soldiers at all, since this must be regarded as a tacit concession of the point which I dispute.  I am not a prisoner of war ;  and I cannot, therefore, submit to the regulations required in such a situation.  I am placed in your power only by the most horrible breach of confidence.”

The Governor, on taking leave, requested to be allowed to present his Military Secretary to the Emperor ;  but the latter replied that that was very unnecessary, and that if the officer had any delilicacy of feeling he could not wish it ;  for his own part he would rather decline it.  He added, that no social relationship could exist between gaolers and prisoners ;  and that the presentation was therefore perfectly useless.  He then dismissed the Governor.

The Grand Marshal joined us ;  he came from his own house, where the Governor had alighted both before and after his visit to the Emperor.  He gave a detailed account of both his calls.

He said that the Governor on his return had shown great ill-humour, and had complained very much of the Emperor’s temper.  Not relying sufficiently on his own wit, he had recourse to that of the Abbé de Pradt, whose work had just then passed through our hands.  He had said, “ that Napoleon was not content with having created to himself an imaginary France, an imaginary Spain, and an imaginary Poland, but that he  now wished to create an imaginary St. Helena.”  On hearing this, the Emperor could not refrain from laughing.

We then drove out in the calash, and on our return the Emperor took a bath.  He sent for me, and giving directions that he would not dine till nine o’clock, kept me with him.  He talked over the affairs of the day, and dwelt on the abominable treatment he suffered, the atrocious malignity by which it was dictated, and the brutality by which it was executed.  After a few moments of silence and reflection, he exclaimed, as he frequently does ;  “ My dear Las Cases, they will kill me here !  It is certain ! ”  What a horrible prophecy ! . . . .

He dismissed me at half past ten.

17.—I was very ill the whole of the night ;  the Emperor breakfasted in the garden, and sent for me to attend him there.  He was himself dull and melancholy, and was not at all well.  After breakfast we walked for a long time in the garden ;  he uttered not a word.  The heat obliged him to return in-doors about ten o’clock.  He regretted excessively the want of shade.

About four o’clock he sent to know how I was.  He had just returned from taking a drive in the calash, in which I had not been able to join him.  I walked with him and the Grand Marshal until half past five.  He still had a melancholy and abstracted air.  He desired Bertrand, to give us an account of his residence at Constantinople in 1796, his journey to Athens, and his return across Albania.  A great deal was said relative to Selim III., and his improvements, the Baron de Tott, &c.  The conversation was very interesting, but unfortunately I find in my manuscript only a few imperfect notes which my memory cannot now assist me in filling up.

After dinner the Emperor, who had scarcely eaten any thing, attempted to read to us the sitting of the academy from Anacharsis.  His voice and his whole frame had lost their wonted vigour and spirit.  Contrary to his custom, he ended without analysis or observation.  He retired to rest as soon as the chapter was concluded.

Madame Marshal Lefèvre.

18th.—The Emperor continued indisposed.  On his return from a drive in the calash he took a bath, and sent for me.  He evinced a gaiety of manner ;  and we conversed till half past eight o’clock.  He ordered dinner in his own study ;  and he desired me to stay and dine with him.  The place, the tête-a-tête, the elegance of the dinner service, and the neatness with which the table was laid out, gave me, I said, an idea of comfort ;  the Emperor smiled at my observation.  He asked me many questions relative to London, my emigration, the French Princes, and the Bishop of Arras.  He himself recurred to the principal events of his Consulship, and gave me some curious details and anecdotes on these subjects.  We then began to talk about the old and new courts of France, &c.  Many of the observations that were made, would, if stated here, only be repetitions, for I believe I have mentioned them before.  Other remarks that fell from the Emperor, and which are merely hinted at in my manuscript, must remain for ever lost.

I will transcribe only the following particulars as new.  I was entertaining the Emperor with the anecdotes and ridiculous stories, that were related gratuitously, no doubt, of Madame Lefèvre, who long enjoyed the privilege of furnishing the drawing-rooms of Paris, and even the drawing-room of the Tuileries, with a subject quizzing.  “ I joined in the ridicule,” said I, “ like every body else, until one day I renounced it for ever, on hearing an anecdote which proved her nobleness of sentiment and goodness of heart.

“ Madame Lafèvre, whose husband was once a private in the guards, and who consequently filled a humble station in life, seemed to take pleasure in reviving the recollection of circumstances connected with her former station, and even in alluding to the laborious occupations which she had been obliged to pursue.  During their poverty, she and her husband had been engaged in a domestic capacity in the family of the Marquis de Valady, the Captain of the corps in which Lafèvre served.  The Marquis, who stood godfather to Lafèvre’s child, played a conspicuous part in the desertion of the guards, nor was he less celebrated for his fanatical zeal in favour of republican liberty ;  but he was nevertheless a man of generous sentiments.  He was a member of the Convention, and he perished because he opposed the execution of Louis XVI., publicly declaring that he considered it as absolute murder, adding, that Louis had already been too unfortunate as a King to render the infliction of any additional punishment necessary.

“ The wife of the Marquis on her return to France after her emigration, immediately received the kindest offers and attentions from the family of Lefèvre, who were then living in a style of splendour and credit.

“ One day Madame Lafèvre called upon her, and, in her usual strain of language, said, ‘ How little kindness and goodness of heart there is among you people of quality.  We, who have risen from the ranks, know our duty better.  We have just heard that M __, one, of our old officers, and your husband’s comrade, has returned from his emigration, and that he is dying for want !  How shameful this is ! . . . . . . We were fearful of offending him by offering him assistance ;  but the case is quite different with you.  An act of service on your part will be gratifying to him.  Pray give him this as coming from yourself.’  With these words, she presented to her friend a rouleau of 100 louis, or 1000 crowns.  From that moment, Sire,” said I, “ I felt no inclination to join in the jokes against Madame Lafèvre ;  I no longer entertained towards her any other feeling than that of profound respect.  I eagerly advanced to take her hand whenever I met her at the Tuileries, and I felt proud in escorting her through the drawing-room, in spite of the sneers that were buzzing around me.”

We then related a number of traits of generosity exercised by the new favourites of fortune towards the old ruined families.  Among others, we adverted to an instance of courtesy, perhaps somewhat far-fetched, in a certain individual, who, being originally a private soldier, attained the rank of Marshal, or General-in-chief, I forget which.  One day, during his newly acquired splendour, he assembled together at a family dinner his former colonel, and four or five officers of the regiment, whom he received in his original uniform of a private, and he addressed his guests in the same terms which he had been in the habit of employing before he attained his elevated rank.

“ And this,” observed the Emperor, “ was the only way to soften down the fury of the times ;  for such acts as these must necessarily have created mutual feelings of kindness between the opposite parties, and we may naturally suppose, that during recent events the persons thus obliged will have returned the obligations they received, were it only for the sake of being quit.”

This word quit reminds me of a characteristic trait of the Emperor, which must be noticed here.

A General had been guilty of irregularities in his department, which, had they been brought before the military tribunals, must have cost him his honour, and perhaps his life.  Now, this General had rendered the most important services to Napoleon on the day of Brumaire.  The Emperor sent for, and reproached him with his misconduct.  “ However,” said he, “ you have laid me under obligations, which I have not forgotten.  I am perhaps about to transgress the laws, and to fail in my duty.  I pardon you, Sir ;  be gone ! but know that from this day forward we are quit.  Take care of yourself for the future, I shall look sharply after you.

The Governor of Java.—Doctor Warden.—Familiar conversation of the Emperor relative to his family.

19th.—Doctor Warden breakfasted with me to-day.  The Governor of Java (Sir Stamford Raffles) and his staff, who had touched at St. Helena on their way to Europe, arrived at Longwood while we were at breakfast.  Governor Raffles was well acquainted with all the Dutch gentlemen whom I had seen in 1810, during my mission to Amsterdam.  The Emperor told me, that he would probably receive his visitors about three or four o’clock.  In the mean time, I conversed for several hours with Doctor Warden, whom I furnished with some explanations on historical facts relating to the Emperor, about which I supposed he intended to write.*

Abut three o’clock the Emperor received in the garden the English gentlemen who had come from Java.  He afterwards took a drive in the calash.

On his return about six o’clock, he desired me to follow him to his study.  He sent for the Grand Marshal and his Lady, and conversed familiarly, until dinner time, on various subjects relating to his family and his minutest domestic affairs during the period of his power.  He dwelt particularly on the Empress Josephine.  “ They lived together,” he said, “ like a private citizen and his wife.  They were most affectionate and united, having for a long period occupied but one chamber and one bed.  These are circumstances,” said the Emperor, “ which exercise great influence over the happiness of a family, securing the reputation of the wife and the confidence of the husband, and preserving union and good conduct on both sides.  A married couple,” continued he, “ may be said never to lose sight of one another, when they pass the night together ;  but otherwise they soon become estranged.  Thus, as long as this practice was continued, none of my thoughts or actions escaped the notice of Josephine.  She observed, seized and comprehended every thing.  This circumstance was sometimes not altogether without its inconvenience to myself and to public affairs ;  but while we were at the camp of Boulogne, a moment of ill-humour put an end to this state of things.”  Certain political events which had occurred at Vienna, together with the report of the coalition which took place in 1805, had occupied the attention of the First Consul throughout the whole of the day, and a great part of the night.  He retired to bed not in very good spirits, and he found Josephine in a violent rage at his long absence.  Jealousy was the real or pretended cause of this ill-humour.  Napoleon grew angry in his turn, threw off the yoke of subjection, and could never be brought to submit to it again.  At the time of his second marriage, the Emperor was fearful lest Maria Louisa, might exact similar obedience, for in that case he must have yielded.  It is the true right and privilege of a wife, he observed.

“ A son by Josephine,” continued the Emperor, “ would have completed my happiness, not only in a political point of view, but as a source of domestic felicity.

“ As a political result, it would have secured to me the possession of the throne ;  the French people would have been as much attached to the son of Josephine as they were to the King of Rome ;  and I should not have set my foot on an abyss covered with a bed of flowers.  But how vain are all human calculations !  Who can pretend to decide on what may lead to happiness or unhappiness in this life !

“ Still I cannot help believing that such a pledge of our union, would have proved a source of domestic felicity ;  it would have put an end to the jealousy of Josephine, by which I was continually harassed, and which after all was the offspring of policy rather than of sentiment.  Josephine despaired of having a child, and she in consequence looked forward with dread to the future.  She was well aware, that no marriage is perfect without children ;  and at the period of her second nuptials, there was no longer any probability of her becoming a mother.  In proportion as her fortune advanced, her alarm increased.  She availed herself of every resource of medicine ;  and sometimes almost persuaded herself that her remedies had proved successful.  When at length she was compelled to renounce all hope, she suggested to her husband the expediency of resorting to a  great political deception ;  and she even went so far as directly to propose the adoption of such a measure.

“ Josephine possessed in an eminent degree the taste for luxury, gaiety, and extravagance, natural to creoles.  It was impossible to regulate her expenditure ;  she was constantly in debt ;  and thus there was always a grand dispute when the day of payment arrived.  She was frequently known to direct her tradesmen to send in only half their accounts.  Even at the Island of Elba, Josephine’s bills came pouring in upon me from all parts of Italy.”

Some one who knew the Empress Josephine at Martinique, communicated to the Emperor many particulars relative to her family and her youthful days.  During her childhood, it was several times predicted that she would wear a crown.  Another circumstance no less curious and remarkable is, that the phial, containing the holy oil used at the coronation of the Kings of France, is said to have been broken by Josephine’s first husband, General Beauharnais, who, at a moment when the tide of popular favour was running against him, hoped by this means to re-establish his credit.

A thousand stories have been told and written respecting the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine.  The campaigns of Italy explain the circumstance that first brought about their acquaintance and their union.  After Vendemiare, Eugene who was yet a child, presented himself to General Bonaparte, then General-in-chief of the army of the Interior, to request that his father’s sword might be restored to him.  Lemarrois, one of Napoleon’s Aides-de-camp, introduced the boy, who, the moment he beheld his father’s sword, burst into tears.  The General-in-chief was moved by this incident, and loaded the child with caresses.  When Eugene described the manners of the young General to his mother, she lost no time in introducing herself to him.  “ It is well known,” said the Emperor, “ that she put faith in presentiments and prophecies.  In her childhood some fortuneteller had predicted that she would attain splendid rank, and would even ascend a throne.  She moreover possessed a considerable share of art ;  and after we became acquainted, she frequently assured me, that her heart beat when she first heard Eugene describe me, and that she then caught a glimpse of her future greatness, and the accomplishment of the prophecies respecting her fate.

“ Another peculiar shade in the character of Josephine,” said the Emperor, “ was her constant habit of negation.  At all times, and whatever question I put to her, her first movement was negative, her first answer No ;  and this no,” continued the Emperor, “ was not precisely a falsehood, but merely a precaution, or a defence.”—“ This,” observed Madame Bertrand, “ is a characteristic distinction between our sex and yours.”—“ But, after all, Madam,” resumed the Emperor, “ this distinction arises only from the difference of education.  You love, and you are taught to say no ;  we, on the contrary, take a pride in declaring that we love, whether we really do or not.  This is the whole course of the opposite conduct of the two sexes.  We are not, and never can be, similar.

“ During the reign of terror,” said the Emperor, “ Josephine was thrown into prison, while her husband perished on the scaffold.  Her son Eugene was bound an apprentice to a joiner, which trade he actually learned.  Hortense had no better prospects.  She was, if I mistake not, sent to learn the business of a sempstress.”

Fouché was the first who ventured to touch the fatal string of the Imperial divorce.  He took upon himself, without any instructions, to advise Josephine to dissolve her marriage for the welfare of France.  Napoleon, however, conceived that the proper moment had not yet arrived.  The step taken by Fouché, was a source of great vexation and trouble :  it very much displeased the Emperor, and if he did not dismiss Fouché, at the earnest solicitation of Josephine, it was because he had himself secretly determined on the divorce, and he did not wish by thus punishing his minister, to give any check to public opinion on the subject.

However, it is but justice to observe that as soon as the Emperor shewed himself resolved on the divorce, Josephine consented to it.  It cost her, it is true, a severe sacrifice ;  but she submitted without murmuring, and without attempting to avail herself of those obstacles which she might, however uselessly, have opposed to the measure.²  She conducted herself with the utmost grace and address.  She desired that the Viceroy might conduct the proceedings, and she herself made offers of service with regard to the house of Austria.

Josephine would willingly have seen Maria Louisa.  She frequently spoke of her with great interest, as well as of the young King of Rome.  Maria Louisa, on her part, behaved wonderfully well to Eugene and Hortense ;  but she manifested the utmost dislike and even jealousy of Josephine.  “ I wished one day to take her to Malmaison,” said the Emperor ;  “ but she burst into tears when I made the proposal.  She said she did not object to my visiting Josephine, only she did not wish to know it.  But whenever she suspected my intention of going to Malmaison, there was no stratagem which she did not employ for the sake of annoying me.  She never left me ;  and as these visits seemed to vex her exceedingly, I did violence to my own feelings and scarcely ever went to Malmaison.  Still, however, when I did happen to go, I was sure to encounter a flood of tears and a multitude of contrivances of every kind.  Josephine always kept in view the example of the wife of Henry IV. who, as she observed, lived in Paris, visited the court, and attended the coronation after her divorce.  But she remarked that her own situation was still preferable, for she already had children of her own, and could not hope to have more.”

Josephine possessed a perfect knowledge of all the different shades of the Emperor’s character, and she evinced the most exquisite tact in turning this knowledge to the best account.  “ For example,” said the Emperor, “ she never solicited any favour for Eugene, or thanked me for any that I conferred on him.  She never even showed any additional complaisance or assiduity at the moment when the greatest honours were lavished on him.  Her grand aim was to prove that all this was my affair, and not hers, and that it tended to my advantage.  Doubtless she entertained the idea that one day or other I would adopt Eugene as my successor.”

The Emperor said he was well convinced that he was the individual whom Josephine loved best in all the world ;  and he added with a smile that he was sure she would have relinquished any assignation to attend him.  She never failed to accompany him on all his journies.  Neither fatigue nor privation could deter her from following him ;  and she employed importunity and even artifice to gain her point.  “ If I stepped into my carriage at midnight, to set out on the longest journey, to my surprise I found Josephine all ready prepared, though I had had no idea of her accompanying me.  ‘But,’ I would say to her, ‘ You cannot possibly go, the journey is too long and will be too fatiguing for you.’—‘ Not at all,’ Josephine would reply.  ‘ Besides, I must set out instantly.’—‘ Well, I am quite ready.’—‘ But you must take a great deal of luggage.’—‘ Oh, no ! every thing is packed up ;’  and I was generally obliged to yield.  In a word, Josephine rendered her husband happy, and constantly proved herself his sincerest friend.  At all times and on all occasions she manifested the most perfect submission and devotedness ;  and thus I shall never cease to remember her with tenderness and gratitude.

“ Josephine,” continued the Emperor, “ ranked the qualities of submission, obedience and complaisance in her sex, on a level with political address ;  and she often condemned the conduct of her daughter Hortense and her relation Stephanie, who lived on very bad terms with their husbands, frequently indulging in caprice, and pretending to assert their independence.

“ Louis,” said the Emperor, “ had been spoiled by reading the works of Rousseau.  He contrived to agree with his wife only for a few months.  There were faults on both sides.  On the one hand, Louis was too teasing in his temper, and on the other Hortense was too volatile.  They were attached to each other at the time of their marriage, which was agreeable to their mutual wishes.  The union was, however, contrived by Josephine, who had her own views in promoting it.  I, on the contrary, would rather have extended my connection with other families, and for a moment I had an idea of forming a union between Louis and a niece of M. de Talleyrand, who was afterwards Madame Juste de Noailles.”

The most ridiculous reports were circulated respecting an improper intercourse between Napoleon and Hortense, and it was even affirmed that the latter had had a child by the Emperor.  “ Such a connection,” said he, “ would have been wholly repugnant to my ideas ;  and those who knew any thing of the morality of the Tuileries, must be aware that I need not have been reduced to so unnatural and revolting a choice.  Louis knew perfectly well the value to which these reports were entitled ;  but his vanity and irratibility of temper, were nevertheless offended by them, and he frequently alluded to them as a ground for reproaching his wife.

“ But Hortense,” continued the Emperor, “ the virtuous, the generous, the devoted Hortense, was not entirely faultless in her conduct towards her husband.  This I must acknowledge in spite of all the affection I bore her, and the sincere attachment which I am sure she entertained for me.  Though Louis’ whimsical humours were in all probability sufficiently teasing, yet he loved Hortense ;  and in such a case a woman should learn to subdue her own temper, and endeavour to return her husband’s attachment.  Had she acted in the way most conducive to her interests, she might have avoided her late lawsuit ;  secured happiness to herself, and followed her husband to Holland.  Louis would not then have fled from Amsterdam ;  and I should not have been compelled to unite his kingdom to mine, a measure which contributed to ruin my credit in Europe.  Many other events might also have taken a different turn.

“ The Princess of Baden,” continued the Emperor, “ pursued a wiser course.  On witnessing Josephine’s divorce, she recollected her own situation, and used every endeavour to gain her husband’s affections.  They were afterwards a most happy couple.

“ Pauline was too careless and extravagant.  She might have been immensely rich considering all that I gave her ;  but she gave all away in her turn.  Her mother frequently lectured her on this subject, and told her that she would die in some house of charity.  Madame, however carried her parsimony to a most ridiculous extreme.  I offered to furnish her with a very considerable monthly income, on condition that she would spend it.  She on the other hand was very willing to receive the money, provided she were permitted to hoard it up.  This arose not so much from covetousness as excess of foresight ;  all her fear was that she might one day be reduced to beggary.  She had known the horrors of want, and they now constantly haunted her imagination.  It is however, but just to acknowledge, that she gave a great deal to her children in secret.  She is indeed a kind mother.

“ Nevertheless,” continued the Emperor, “ this woman who was so reluctant to part with a single crown, would willingly have given me her all, on my return from the Island of Elba ;  and after the battle of Waterloo she would have surrendered to me all she possessed in the world, to assist me in re-establishing my affairs.  This she offered to do ;  and would, without a murmur, have doomed herself to live on brown bread.³  Loftiness of sentiment still reigned paramount in her heart :  pride and noble ambition were not yet subdued by avarice.”

Here the Emperor observed, that he had still present in his memory the lessons of pride, which he had received from his mother in his childhood, and which had influenced his conduct through life.  The naturally powerful mind of Madame Mère had been exalted by the great events of which she had been a witness ;  she had seen five or six revolutions ;  and her house had been thrice burnt to the ground by factions in Corsica.

“ Joseph,” said the Emperor, “ rendered me no assistance ;  but he is a very good man.  His wife, Queen Julia, is the most amiable creature that ever existed.  Joseph and I were always attached to each other, and kept on very good terms.  He loves me sincerely, and I doubt not that he would do every thing in the world to serve me.  But his qualities are only suited to private life.  He is of a gentle and kind disposition, possesses talent and information, and is altogether a very amiable man.  In the discharge of the high duties which I confided to him, he did the best he could.  His intentions were good ;  and therefore the principal fault rested not so much with him as with me, who raised him above his proper sphere.  When placed in important circumstances, he found his strength unequal to the task imposed on him.

“ The Queen of Naples had chiefly formed herself amidst great events.  She had solid sense, strength of character, and boundless ambition. . . . . She must naturally suffer severely from her reverses, more particularly as she may be said to have been born a Queen.  She had not, like the rest of us,” observed the Emperor, “ moved in the sphere of private life.  Caroline, Pauline, and Jerome, were still in their childhood when I had attained supreme rank in France ;  thus they never knew any other estate than that which they enjoyed during the period of my power.

“ Jerome was an absolute prodigal.  He plunged into boundless extravagance, and the most odious libertinism.  His excuse perhaps may be his youth, and the temptations by which he was surrounded.  On my return from the Isle of Elba, he appeared to be much improved, and to afford great promise.  One remarkable testimony in his favour, was the love with which he had inspired his wife, whose conduct was admirable, when after my fall, her father, the despotic and harsh King of Wurtemberg, wished to procure her divorce.  The Princess then, with her own hands, honourably inscribed her name in history.”

To our great regret dinner was announced ;  but the Emperor continued to be very talkative during the whole of the evening.  He took a familiar retrospect of various subjects, principally alluding to the conduct of many persons of note during his absence and at the time of his return.  He did not retire until midnight, and he closed the evening’s conversation with the following words :—“ What is doing at this moment in France and in Paris ? and what shall we ourselves be doing on this day twelvemonth ! ”

The Emperor sleeping.—Moral reflections.

20th.—Mr. Balcombe had intimated to me that he was appointed to supply us with what we wanted at the expense of the English Government ;  but I wrote to inform him that as my own pecuniary circumstances enabled me to dispense with this favour, I was resolved not to avail myself of it.  I therefore begged that he would obtain permission from the Governor, to receive from me a bill drawn on some person in England, which could not be transmitted without special permission.  I wished to remain free of all obligations, so that nothing might impede me in freely exercising the just and sad privilege of venting my reproaches and imprecations.

The Emperor rode out in the calash very early.  On his return, about three o’clock he desired me to follow him to his chamber.  “ I am low spirited, unwell, and fatigued,” said he, “ sit down in that arm-chair, and bear me company.”  He then threw himself on his couch and fell asleep, while I watched beside him.  I sat within a few paces of him.  His head was uncovered, and I gazed on his brow,—that brow on which were inscribed Marengo, Austerlitz, and a hundred other immortal victories.  What were my thoughts and sensations at that moment ?  They may be imagined ;  but I cannot attempt to describe them !

In about three quarters of an hour the Emperor awoke.  He took a few turns in his chamber, and he then took a fancy to visit the apartments of all the individuals of his suite.  When he had minutely considered all the inconveniencies of mine, he said with a smile of indignation :—“ Well, Well, I do not think that any christian on earth can be worse lodged than you are.”

After dinner the Emperor attempted to read a part of the Caravansérail de Sarrazin.  After glancing over a few of the tales, and reading a page from one of them, he said :—“ The moral of this story doubtless is, that men never change.  This is not true ;  they change both to better and worse.  A thousand other maxims which authors attempt to establish are all equally false.  They affirm that men are ungrateful ;  but no, they are not so ungrateful as is supposed ;  and if ingratitude be frequently a subject of complaint, it is because the benefactor requires more than he gives.

“ It is also said, that when you know a man’s character, you have a key to his whole conduct.  But this is a mistaken notion.  A man may commit a bad action though he be fundamentally good ;  he may be led into an act of wickedness, without being himself wicked.  This is because man is usually actuated not by the natural bent of his character, but by a secret momentary passion, which has lain dormant and concealed in the inmost recesses of his heart.  Another error is to suppose that the face is the mirror of the mind.  The truth is, that it is very difficult to know a man’s character.  To avoid being deceived on this point, it is necessary to judge a person by his actions only ;  and it must be by his actions of the moment, and merely for that moment.

“ In truth men have their virtues and their vices ;  their heroism and their perversity ;  men are neither generally good nor generally bad ;  but they possess and practise all that is good and bad in this world.  This is the principle natural disposition, education and accidental circumstances are the applications.  I have always been guided by this opinion, and I have generally found it correct.  However, I was deceived in 1814, when I believed that France, at the sight of her dangers, would make common cause with me ;  but I was not deceived in 1815, on my return from Waterloo.”

The Emperor felt unwell, and retired very early.

The Governor arrests one of our servants.—The Bible.

21st.—The Emperor continued indisposed ;  but we nevertheless took our usual airing in the calash.  On our return we were informed that the Governor had been to Longwood and had himself arrested one of our domestics, who had recently quitted the service of Deputy-Governor Skelton, and who had a few days since been engaged by General Montholon.  On hearing this, the Emperor exclaimed :  “ What turpitude ! what meanness !  A Governor. . . . . an English Lieutenant General himself to arrest a servant !  Really this conduct is too disgusting ! ”

The Grand Marshal joined us and announced the arrival of a store ship, which had left England on the 8th of March.

After dinner the Emperor asked what we would read, and we all decided for the Bible.  “ This is certainly very edifying,” said the Emperor ;  “ it would never be guessed in Europe.”  He read to us the book of Joshua, observing at almost every town or village that he named :  “ I encamped there ;  I carried that place by assault ;  I gave battle here, &c.”

Instances of the caprice of authority.—Princess Stephanie of Baden, &c.

22d.—In course of to-day a great deal was said about the sailors of the Northumberland, who had been given to us as domestics, and who we now understood were to be withdrawn from our service.  They had, however, been engaged by a reciprocal contract by which both parties were bound for the space of a year.  But we are without the pale of ordinary law.  The Governor affirmed that the Admiral wanted the men ;  and the Admiral said that he would allow them to remain with us if the Governor pleased.  The sailors were taken away and soldiers were sent in their stead ;  but these were also removed and sent back again, ordered away a second time and again sent back to us.  We were unable to guess the meaning of all these changes.

While I was in the Emperor’s apartment waiting for the announcement of dinner, the conversation fell on Madame Campan’s establishment, the young persons who had been educated in it, and the fortunes which the Emperor had conferred on some of them.  He particularly alluded to Stephanie de Beauharnais, afterwards Princess of Baden, to whom he said he was much attached.  He entered into many details respecting her.

Princess Stephanie of Baden lost her mother in her childhood.  She was left in the care of an English lady, her mother’s intimate friend, who was very rich and without children, and who confided the education of her protegée to some old nuns in the south of France, I believe at Montauban.

Napoleon, during his consulship, one day heard Josephine mention this circumstance, while alluding to her young relation Stephanie.  “ How can you permit this ?” said he.  “ How can you suffer one of your name to be supported by a foreigner, an Englishwoman, who must at this moment be regarded as our enemy ?  Are you not afraid that your memory will one day suffer by this ?”  A courier was immediately despatched to bring the young lady to the Tuileries ;  but the nuns refused to part with her.  Napoleon, however, instituted the necessary legal forms, and a second-courier was speedily sent to the Prefect of the district, with orders instantly to seize the person of the young lady in the name of the law.

Owing to the circumstances of the times, such was the influence of certain systems of education, and of the opinions which they inspired, that Stephanie’s removal was to herself a source of deep regret ;  and she beheld not without terror him who declared himself her relative, and who was about to become her benefactor.  She was placed in the establishment of Madame Campan, at St. Germain ;  all sorts of masters were appointed to superintend her education, and on her introduction to the world, her beauty, wit, accomplishments and virtues, rendered her an object of universal admiration.

The Emperor adopted her as his daughter, and gave her in marriage to the hereditary Prince of Baden.  This union was for several years far from being happy.  In course of time, however, the causes of difference gradually vanished ;  the Prince and Princess became attached to each other, and from that moment they had only to regret the happiness of which they had deprived themselves during the early years of their marriage.

At the conferences of Erfurt, the Princess of Baden received the most marked attentions from her brother-in-law, the Emperor Alexander.  During our disasters in 1813, persons who were at the head of political affairs, dreading the result of an interview between Alexander and the Princess of Baden, at Manheim, succeeded in depriving the Princess of the regard of her august relative, by circulating false reports to the prejudice of her character.  Thus, when Alexander arrived at Manheim in his triumphal march to Paris, he by no means treated Princess Stephanie with due respect.  His conduct was calculated to wound her feelings ;  but it could not humble her pride.  On this occasion, the conduct pursued by the Prince of Baden reflected true glory on his character.  The most august personages surrounded him, and urged him to repudiate the wife, whom he had received from the hands of Napoleon.  But the Prince, with true nobleness of sentiment, rejected the idea, observing, that he would never commit an act of baseness, which would be as repugnant to his affections as to his honour.  This generous Prince, to whom we did not render sufficient justice in Paris, afterwards fell a victim to a tedious and painful illness.  The Princess personally attended on her husband throughout the whole of his sufferings, performing with her own hands all the minute services that his situation required :  her devoted attachment gained for her the admiration of her relatives and subjects.

Princess Stephanie of Baden shed a lustre over her exalted station.  She conferred honour on her character as a wife and a daughter.  She at all times professsed the highest veneration for him, who, when in the enjoyment of boundless power, had benevolently adopted her as his child.

The Emperor’s maxims with respect to Sovereignty.—The expulsion of Portalis from the Council of State.—Accidents which occurred to the Emperor at St. Cloud, Auxonne, and Marly.

23d.—The Emperor desired me to attend him in his Chamber, about two o’clock.  He remarked that I did not look well.  He was himself ill, and had had but little sleep during the preceding night.  He began to dress, saying that he should probably feel better when he had finished his toilette.  We then went out to walk in the garden.  The turn of the conversation led the Emperor to remark that our manners required that a sovereign should be regarded only as the blessing of his people ;  his acts of severity must be overlooked in consideration of his acts of clemency ;  mercy must still be held to be his chief attribute.  In Paris, he observed, he had sometimes been reproached for conversations and words which, in truth, ought not to have escaped him.  But he added that his personal situation, his extreme activity, and most of his acts, which really proceeded from himself, ought to have made amends for many things.  He rendered justice to the delicate tact which distinguished the inhabitants of the French capital ;  no where, he said, could be found so much wit or more taste.  He reproached himself for the expulsion of Portalis from the Council of State.  I, who was present at the scene, told him that I thought his manner was somewhat paternal.⁴  “ I was perhaps too severe,” resumed he ;  “ I should have checked myself before I ordered him to be gone.  He attempted no justification, and therefore the scene should have ended, merely by my saying it is well.  His punishment should have awaited him at home.  Anger is always unbecoming in a sovereign.  But perhaps I was excusable in my council where I might consider myself in the bosom of my own family ;  or perhaps, after all, I may be justly condemned for this act.  Every one has his fault ;  nature will exert her sway over us all.”

He said he also reproached himself for his conduct to M. de G . . . . . . at the Tuileries, during one of the grand Sunday audiences, and in presence of all the Court.  “ But in this instance,” said he, “ I was provoked to the utmost extreme.  My anger burst forth against my inclination.  I had given G ...... the command of a legion of the capital, which I was about to defend.  I afterwards learned that he rejoiced in our disasters, and invoked them, though I did not know this at the period to which I am now alluding.  The enemy was advancing upon us, and G ...... coolly wrote to inform me that his health would not permit him to take the command ;  though, as a courtier, he presented himself to me in perfect activity and good spirits.  I was very indignant at his conduct ;  but I repressed my anger, and resolved to take no notice of him.  He, however, on three or four occasions sought an opportunity of throwing himself in my way.  I could no longer stifle my rage, and the bomb exploded.  How, Sir,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I omit the rest of the story ;  it is too long.

“ But,” concluded the Emperor, “ what distressed me most of all, was the situation of G .......’s son, who was my chamberlain, and of whom I had no reason to complain.”

The Emperor then spoke of the Faubourg St. Germain, and questioned me respecting many families and individuals belonging to it.  He happened to mention the name of Madame de S . . . . ., I observed that she had constantly evinced great attachment to the Emperor, for which she was now doubtless severely punished.  The Emperor was not aware of the extent and sincerity of her zeal and devotedness ;  though he had been very much moved by her generous resolution of remaining with the Empress Josephine.  He had, he said, to reproach himself for not having done any thing for Madame de S .... She must have been unfortunate in the choice of the moment at which she solicited her husband’s nomination to the Senate.

I had, from my childhood, been intimately acquainted with Madame de S . . . . . ;  and she made me her confidential friend.  I related to the Emperor the anecdote of her nomination to the post of dame du palais.  Her husband one morning introduced her to the Empress Josephine, who returned her thanks for having made an application to enter her service.  This was a thunderbolt to Madame de S . . . . ., who had never dreamed of making such a solicitation ;  and who, in the natural timidity of her disposition, preserved silence.  At that time I was certainly far from approving or advising her acceptance of the post ;  but I nevertheless rendered her a real act of service by withholding a letter of refusal which she had confided to me, without the knowledge of her friends, and which might have proved fatal to the intrigues of those by whom the affair had been brought about.

The Emperor asked me what could have given rise to this repugnance on the part of Madame de S . . . . . to enter the service of the Empress ;  I replied, that it was occasioned by the connection she had had with the royal family :  “ She was right,” said he, “ how could her husband think of placing her in a situation so hostile to her feelings ? . . . . . A similar case occurred in one of my nominations of Chamberlains.  One individual begged that I would be pleased to allow him to decline the honour, because, as he said, he had been first Gentleman of the Chamber to Louis XVI. and Louis XVIII.  This was perfectly reasonable on his part ;  but how could I possibly listen to such a solicitation ? . . . . . . It was a proof of want of delicacy in those who proposed his nomination ;  but what had I to do with that ?  Could I enter into details of this kind ?  The important affairs that claimed my attention would not permit me to descend to matters of this sort.

“ However,” continued the Emperor, “ if Madame de S . . . . . had gone the right way to work, she might have obtained all she asked for.  But she never evinced any particular interest in what she solicited, and made applications only in favour of individuals who had not proved themselves very deserving ;  among others she recommended to my notice a man, who after being one of the King’s Peers, wished to be made one of mine.  On my return from Elba, his daughter came to assure me, that if I would confer this favour upon him, he would pledge himself to act with zeal in my service, acknowledging, as he said, no interests but those of the nation.  All this was of course fair enough.”

About four o’clock the Emperor got into the calash ;  during our usual ride he mentioned several serious accidents by which, at one time or other, his life had been endangered.

At St. Cloud he once wished to drive his calash six-in-hand.  The horses were startled by Aide-de-camp Cafarelli, inadvertently crossing the road in front of them.  Before the Emperor had time to recover the reins, the horses set off at full speed, and the calash, which rolled along with extreme velocity, struck against a railing.  The Emperor was thrown out to the distance of eight or ten feet, and lay stretched on the ground with his face downwards.  He was, he said, dead for a few seconds.  He felt the moment at which life became extinct, which he called the negative moment.  The first individual of the suite who alighted immediately revived him by a touch.  He observed, that the mere contact suddenly restored him to life, as in the night-mare, the sufferer is relieved as soon as he can utter a cry.

On another occasion, the Emperor said he had nearly been drowned.  When in garrison at Auxonne in 1786, while he was one day amusing himself with swimming, a sudden numbness came over him, he lost his self-possession, and being alone, he was carried along by the current in a senseless state.  He felt life escape him, and even heard his comrades on the shore call out that he was drowned, and hasten in quest of boats to drag for his body.  In this case a sudden shock restored him to life.  His breast struck against a sand-bank ;  and by a miracle, his head being above the water, he recovered himself sufficiently to swim ashore.  The water dislodged itself from his stomach ;  he regained the spot where he had left his clothes, and having dressed himself, he got home, while his friends were still in search of his body.

Another time while hunting the wild boar at Marly, all his suite was put to flight ;  it was like the rout of an army.  The Emperor, with Soult and Berthier maintained their ground against three enormous boars.  “ We killed all three ;  but I received a hurt from my adversary, and nearly lost this finger,” said the Emperor, pointing to the third finger of his left hand, which indeed bore the mark of a severe wound.  “ But the most laughable circumstance of all was, to see the multitude of men, surrounded by their dogs, screening themselves behind the three heroes, and calling out lustily :—Save the Emperor !  Save the Emperor ! while not one advanced to my assistance.”

Political Reflections.

24th.—The Emperor went out only to take an airing in the calash.  We drove for nearly an hour and a half, proceeding at a slow pace, and we lengthened our airing by going twice over the limits of our usual ride.  The Emperor conversed on politics.  The newspapers which we had received three days ago, furnished the subject of discussion.

In France, he observed, the patriots were emigrating rapidly ;  and there seemed to be a wish to encourage their emigration from the circumstance of their property not having been confiscated ; &c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Emperor thought he could perceive from the debates in the English Parliament, that there was a reserved idea respecting the division of France ;  this was a severe shock to his feelings.  “ Every one possessing a true French heart,” said he, “ must now be overwhelmed in despair.  An immense majority of the population of France, must be plunged in the deepest sorrow.  Ah !”  he exclaimed, “ why am I not placed in some remote sphere ?  On a soil truly free and independent, where no external influence could be dreaded !  How would I astonish the universe !  I would address a proclamation to the French ;  I would say to them ;—You are lost if you are not united.  The odious, the insolent foreigner is about to parcel you out and to annihilate you.  Frenchmen arise ! make common cause, at all hazards,— rally, if it must be so, even around the Bourbons . . . . . . . . . . . . let the existence, the safety of France, take place of every other consideration ! . . .”

He thought, however, that Russia must oppose this division, as she would thereby have to fear the growing strength and consolidation of Germany against her.  Some one present remarked, that Austria must oppose it also from the apprehension of wanting the necessary support in case of any attempts on the part of Russia.  It was moreover observed, that in such a case, Austria might probably serve the cause of the King of Rome, by setting him forward.  “ Yes,” replied the Emperor, “ as an instrument of menace, perhaps ;  but never as the object of her good wishes.  Austria must have too much cause to dread him.  The King of Rome will be the man of the people ;  he will be the champion of Italy.  Thus it will be the policy of Austria to take his life.  This will not probably be attempted during the reign of his grandfather, who is a good man ;—but the Emperor Francis cannot live for ever.  If however the manners of the present age should preclude the possibility of an attempt to murder him, they will endeavour to brutalize his faculties.  Or finally, if he should escape both physical and moral assassination,—if his mother’s cares and his own natural endowments should rescue him from all those dangers, then . . . . then . . .” (he repeated several times, as if absorbed in reflection) “why then . . . . But who can calculate on the destinies of any one !”

The Emperor then turned the conversation to England, by remarking, that she alone was interested in the destruction of France ;  and in the plenitude and versatility of his fancy, he touched on all the various plans which she was likely to adopt for that purpose.  She could not increase the power of Belgium, he said, otherwise Antwerp would become as formidable to her as it had been under his reign.  She must, he observed, leave the Bourbons in the centre, with only eight or ten millions of inhabitants, and surround them with Princes, Dukes or Kings of Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, and Provence ;  so that Cherburg, Brest, Garonne, and the Mediterranean would be in the possession of different sovereigns.  This, he said, would make the French monarchy retrograde several ages, would restore it to its situation under the first Capets, and would provide for the Bourbons a few centuries of new and laborious efforts.—“ But, fortunately,” observed the Emperor, “ before England can arrive at this point, she will have to surmount almost invincible obstacles,—the uniformity of the division of the territory in departments, the similitude of language, the identity of manners, the universality of the code, the generality of my lyceums, and the glory and splendour which I have left behind me ;—these are so many indissoluble knots, and truly national institutions.

“ A great nation like France cannot easily be parcelled out, or if it should, it will be constantly re-uniting and seeking to recover its importance ;  like Ariosto’s giant, who runs after his limbs and even his head, as they are lopped off, and after putting them on begins to fight again.”—“ But Sire,” said some one present, “ the power of the giant depended on the plucking out of a single hair ;  and in like manner Napoleon may be said to be the hair on which depended the existence of France.”—“ No,” resumed the Emperor, “ my memory and my ideas would still survive.—But,” continued he, “ England on the contrary, would in course of time have become a mere appendage to France, had the latter continued under my dominion.  England was by nature intended to be one of our Islands, as well as Oleron or Corsice.  On what trifles does the fate of Empires depend !  How petty and insignificant are our revolutions in the grand organization of the universe !  If instead of entering upon the Egyptian expedition, I had invaded Ireland ;  if some slight derangement of my plans, had not thrown obstacles in the way of my Boulogne enterprise, what would England have been to-day ?  What would have been the situation of the continent, and the whole political world ? ”

Voltaire’s Brutus.

25th.—After dinner the Emperor read Œdipus, which he admired exceedingly.  He next took up Brutus, of which he gave us a very remarkable analysis.  He observed that Voltaire seemed not to have entered into the right feeling for his subject.  “ The Romans,” said he, “ were guided by patriotism as we are by honour.  Voltaire has not pourtrayed the real sublimity of Brutus, sacrificing his sons, for the welfare of his country, and in spite of the pangs of paternal affection.  He has made him a monster of pride, decreeing the death of his children, for the sake of preserving his power, his name, and his celebrity.  The other characters of the tragedy he added, are equally misconceived, Tullia is described as a fury who takes advantage of her situation ;  and not as a woman of tender sentiment, who might be led into crime by seduction and dangerous influence.”

French Colony on the banks of the River St. Lawrence.—The Emperor might have proceeded to America.—Carnot at the time of the abdication.

26th.—The Emperor sent for me about two o’clock.  He was not well and was much fatigued.  We looked over a few newspapers.

In these papers it was stated that Joseph Bonaparte had made extensive purchases of land on the north of the State of New York, on the river St. Lawrence, and that a great number of French families had grouped round him and were soon likely to form a numerous colony.  It was remarked that the spot seemed to have been fixed on with a view to the interests of the United States, and in opposition to the policy of England.  In the south, in Louisiana, for example, the refugees could have looked forward only to the enjoyment of repose and domestic happiness ;  but in their present situation they must soon naturally become objects of attraction to the population of Canada, which was already French, and they must ultimately form a strong barrier, or even a hostile point against the English, who yet possess the dominion of that part of America.  The Emperor said that the establishment would in a few years present a numerous population distinguished for all sorts of useful knowledge.  If they do their duty, said he, they will transmit from their colony excellent writings, victorious refutations of the system which now triumphs in Europe.  When at the island of Elba, the Emperor had entertained a similar idea.

He then proceeded to calculate all that he had given to the different members of his family ;  and observed that they might have amassed considerable sums of money.  For his part, he said, he had nothing ;  if in course of time he might find himself in possession of any property in Europe, he should be wholly indebted for it to the foresight and contrivance of some of his friends.

If the Emperor had gone to America he intended to have collected all his relatives around him ;  and he supposed that they might have realized at least forty millions of francs.  This point would have become the nucleus of a national union ;  a second France.  Before the conclusion of a year, the events of Europe would have collected around him a hundred millions of francs and sixty thousand individuals, most of them possessing wealth, talent, and information.  The Emperor said he should have liked to realize that dream ;  it would have been a renewal of his glory.

“ America,” continued he, “ was in all respects our proper asylum.  It is an immense continent, possessing the advantages of a peculiar system of freedom.  If a man be troubled with melancholy, he may get into a coach, and drive a thousand leagues, enjoying all the way, the pleasure of a common traveller.  In America you may be on a footing of equality with every one ;  you may, if you please, mingle with the crowd, without inconvenience, retaining your own manners, your own language, your own religion, &c.”

He said it was impossible he could henceforth consider himself as a private man in Europe ;  his name was too popular throughout the continent.  He was in some way or other connected with every people, and belonged to every country.

“ As for you,” said he to me smiling, “ your fate seemed naturally to lead you to the shores of the Oronooko or to Mexico, where the recollection of the good Las Cases, is not yet obliterated.  You would there have enjoyed all you could have wished.  The destinies of some men seem to be marked out.  Gregoire, for instance, has only to go to Hayti, and he would immediately be made a Pope.”

At the time of the Emperor’s second abdication, an American in Paris wrote to him as follows :—“ While you were at the head of a nation, you could perform any miracle, you might conceive any hopes ;  but now you can do nothing more in Europe.  Fly to the United States !  I know the hearts of the leading men, and the sentiments of the people of America.  You will there find a second country, and every source of consolation.”  The Emperor would not listen to such a suggestion.  He might, doubtless, by dint of speed or disguise, have gained Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux ;  or Toulon, and in all probability have reached America ;  but he conceived that either, disguise or flight would be derogatory, from his dignity.  He thought himself bound to prove to all Europe his full confidence in the French people, and their extreme attachment to him, by passing through his dominions at such a crisis, merely in the quality of a private man, and unattended by any escort.  But what above all influenced him at that critical moment was, the hope that impending dangers would open the eyes of his subjects, that they would rally around him, and that he might save the country.  This hope caused him to linger at Malmaison, and to postpone his departure, after he had reached Rochefort.  If he is now at St. Helena, he owes his captivity to this sentiment, of which he was unable to divest himself.  Subsequently, when he had no other resource than to accept the hospitality of the Belerophon, it was not perhaps without a feeling of inward satisfaction, that he found himself, by the force of circumstances, irresistibly led to fix his abode in England, where he might enjoy the happiness of being still but little removed from France.  He was well aware that he could not be free in England ;  but he hoped to be heard, and then a chance would at least have been open to the impressions which he might create.  “ The English Ministers,” said he, “ who are the enemies of their country, and who have sold her to foreigners, thought they had too much cause to dread my presence.  They conceived that my opinion in London would be more powerful than the whole opposition :  that it would have compelled them either to change their system, or resign their places ;  and to keep themselves in place, they basely sacrificed the true interests of their country, the triumph, the glory of her laws, the peace of the world, the welfare of Europe, the happiness and the benedictions of posterity.”

In the course of conversation during the evening, the Emperor once more adverted to Waterloo, and described his anxiety and indecision before he came to a final resolution respecting his abdication.  I pass over a multitude of details, lest I should be led into repetition ;  I note down only the following :—

The Emperor’s speech to his ministers was the literal prophecy of all that subsequently took place.  Carnot was the only one who seemed to take a right view of the case.  He opposed the abdication, which he said was a death-blow to France ;  and he wished that we should defend ourselves even to annihilation.  Carnot was the only one who maintained this opinion ;  all the rest were for the abdication.  That measure was determined, and Carnot, covering his face with his hands, burst into tears.

At another moment the Emperor said, “ I am not a God :  I cannot do all by my own single efforts :  I cannot save the nation without the help of the nation.  I am certain that the people then entertained these sentiments, and that they are now suffering undeservedly.  It was the host of intriguers, and men possessing titles and offices, who were really guilty.  That which misled them, and which ruined me, was the mild system of 1814, the benignity of the restoration ;  they looked for a repetition of this lenity.  The change of the Sovereign had become a mere joke.  They all calculated on remaining just as they had been before, whether I should be succeeded by Louis XVIII. or any other.  These stupid, selfish, and egotistical men looked upon the great event as merely a competition, about which they cared but little ;  and they thought only of their individual interests, when a deadly war of principles was about to be commenced.  And why should I disguise the truth ?  There were among the individuals whom I had elevated, and by whom I was surrounded, a number of . . . . . . . !”  Then, turning to me, he added, “ I am not alluding to your Faubourg St. Germain, with respect to which the matter was totally different, and for which some excuse may be found.  During my first reverses in 1814, the greatest traitors were not the individuals connected with that party, of whom I had no great cause to complain ;  and who, therefore, on my return, were not bound to me by any particular ties of gratitude.  I had abdicated, the King was restored.  They had but returned to their old attachments, and had only renewed their allegiance.”

State of French Manufactures.—On Physiognomy.

27th.—The Emperor went out about 2 o’clock ;  the weather was very fine.  The season is sensibly different from that which we had on our arrival ;  the air is infinitely more pure.  The Emperor was, however, very ill, and very low-spirited.  He walked to the extremity of the wood, while we were waiting for the calash.  We took our usual drive.

The conversation turned on the state of manufactures in France.  The Emperor said he had brought them to a degree of prosperity hitherto unknown ;  and which was scarcely credited in Europe, or even in France.  This was a subject of wonder to foreigners on their arrival.  The Abbé de Montesquion, he said, was constantly expressing his astonishment at this circumstance, the proofs of which he had in his own hands, when he became Minister of the Interior.

The Emperor was the first individual in France who said :  Agriculture, first ;  industry, that is to say, manufactures next ;  and, finally, trade, which must arise out of the superabundance of the two first.  He also defined and put into practice, in a clear and connected way, the systems most conducive to the interests of our manufacturers and merchants.  To him we were indebted for the cultivation of sugar, indigo, and cotton.  He offered a reward of 1,000,000 of francs to the individual who should discover a method of spinning flax like cotton ;  and he doubted not that this discovery would have been made.  The fatality of circumstances alone prevented this grand idea from being carried into execution.

“ The old aristocracy, those enemies to our prosperity,” said the Emperor, “ exhausted all their wit in stupid jokes and frivolous caricatures on these subjects.  But the English had no cause to laugh ;  they felt the blow, and have not yet recovered from it.”

A short time before dinner the Emperor sent for me to attend him in his chamber.  He was very unwell ;  he tried to converse, but he had not strength.  He attributed his indisposition to his having drunk some bad wine, which had newly arrived.  He said that Corvesart, Bertholet, and other physicians and chemists, had frequently said that if he experienced the least unpleasant flavour, on first tasting his wine, he must by no means suffer it pass over his throat.

The turn of the conversation led him to express his surprise at the contrast between the character of the mind, and the expression of the countenance which was observable in some individuals.  “ This proves,” said he, “ that we must not judge of a man by his face ;  we can know him only by his conduct.  What countenances have had to judge of in the course of my life !  What odd examples of physiognomy have come under my observation !  And what rash opinions have I heard on this subject !  Thus I invariably made it a rule never to be influenced either by features or by words.  Still, however, it must be confessed, that we sometimes find curious resemblances between the countenance and the character.  For instance, on looking at the face of our Monseigneur, (meaning the Governor,) who would not recognise the features of a tigercat !  I will mention another instance.  There was a man in my service, who was employed about my person.  I liked him very much ;  but I was obliged to dismiss him, because I several times caught him with his hands in my pockets.  He committed his thefts too impudently :  let any one look at this man, and they must admit that he has a magpie’s eye.”

While we were conversing on the subject of physiognomy, some one remarked, that Mirabeau speaking of Pastoret’s face said :  “ it is a compound of the tiger and the calf ; b ut the calf predominates.”  At this the Emperor laughed heartily, and said it was strictly true.

The Emperor wished to dine alone in his chamber.  He sent for me about ten o’clock.  He was then better ;  and he looked over several of the books which lay scattered upon his couch.  He began to read Racine’s Alexander, of which he expressed his dislike ;  and he afterwards took up Andromache, which is one of his favourite pieces.

Marks of respect shewn to the Emperor by the English soldiers.

28th.—The Emperor went out about two o’clock.  The weather was exceedingly pleasant.  We took nearly an hour’s drive in the calash.  It had been at first proposed that the Emperor should ride on horseback ;  for his health was suffering from the want of that exercise.  But he would not consent to go out on horseback ;  he said that to ride backward and forward within the limits marked out to him was like being confined in a riding-school, and he could not endure it.  However, on our return home, we succeeded in changing his determination.  We all attended him, and we reached the summit of that part of Goat-Hill which separates the horizon of the town from that of Longwood.  On our way back we passed in front of the English camp ;  this was the first time we had passed it since our residence at Longwood.  The soldiers immediately quitted their various occupations, and eagerly formed themselves in a line as we passed along.  “ What European soldier,” said the Emperor, “ would not be inspired with respect at my approach !”  He knew this, and therefore carefully avoided passing the English camp, lest he should be accused of wishing to excite this sentiment.  We all very much enjoyed the ride, and we returned home about five o’clock.  The Emperor was a little fatigued.

For some time past he has relinquished his regular dictations.  He saw some skittles which had been made by the servants for their own amusement.  He ordered them to be brought to us, and we played several games with them.  The Emperor won a napoleon and a half from me.  He made me pay the debt, and then threw the money to the servant who had attended us for the purpose of running after the ball.

Corsica.—Remark made by Paoli.—Magnanimous conduct of Madame Mere.—Lucien intended to be Governor-general of Corsica.—The First Consul’s Court.—Madame de Chevreuse.—The Emperor receives a letter from his mother.

29th.—For same time past, at our urgent solicitation, the Emperor every evening made a promise that he would ride on horseback early on the following morning ;  but whenever the appointed hour arrived he invariably changed his determination.  This morning he was in the garden by half-past eight o’clock ;  and he sent for me.  The conversation turned on Corsica, and was maintained for upwards of an hour.

“ One’s native country,” said he, “ is always dear.  Even St. Helena may have charms to those who were born here.”  To the Emperor, therefore, Corsica presented a thousand attractions.  He described the grand scenery of the country, and remarked that islanders always present originality of character ;  because their situation tends to protect them against invasion, and precludes that perpetual intercourse with foreigners which is experienced in continental states.  The inhabitants of mountainous regions, he said, always possessed a degree of energy, and a turn of mind peculiar to themselves.  He dwelt much on the charms of his native country, which from his early recollections, was to him superior to any other spot in the world.  He thought that the very smell of the earth would enable him to distinguish his native land, even were he conducted blindfold to her shores ;  there was in it something peculiar which he had never observed elsewhere.  Corsica was the scene of all his early attachments ;  he had there passed the happy years of his childhood, freely roaming among the hills and vallies, enjoying the honours and pleasures of hospitality.  He traced different lines of family connections, who, he said, extended the spirit of animosity and revenge, even to the seventh degree ;  and he observed that a young woman in Corsica thought she enhanced the value of her dowry, by enumerating the list of her cousins.  He recollected with pride that when only twenty years of age, he had accompanied Paoli on a grand excursion to Porte di Nuovo.  Paoli’s retinue was numerous ;  he was escorted by upwards of 500 of his followers on horseback.  Napoleon rode by his side, and as they went along, Paoli pointed out to him the different positions and the places which had been the scenes of resistance or triumph during the war for Corsican liberty.  He related to him all the particulars of that glorious conflict ;  and on hearing the remarks and opinions which fell from his young companion :  he said, “ Oh Napoleon ! there is nothing modern in your character ! you are formed entirely on Plutarch’s model.”

When Paoli manifested his determination to surrender the island to the English, the Bonaparte family continued to head the French party, and had the fatal honour of being threatened with a march of the inhabitants of the island, that is to say, they were attacked by a levy in mass :  12 or 15,000 peasants made a descent from the mountains on Ajaccio.  The house occupied by Napoleon’s family was pillaged and burnt, and the vines and flocks were destroyed.  Madame, surrounded by a few faithful friends, wandered for some time on the sea-shore, and was at length obliged to fly to France.  The Bonaparte family had always been much attached to Paoli, and he in his turn had professed particular respect towards Madame.  It is, however, but just to remark, that he employed persuasion before he resorted to force.  “ Renounce this opposition,” said he, “ it will prove the ruin of yourself, your family, and your fortune ;  you will bring irreparable misery on yourself.”  The Emperor, indeed, affirmed that but for the chances of the revolution, the family could never have recovered from their misfortunes.  Madame, like another Cornelia, heroically replied, “ that she, her children, and her relatives would only obey two laws, namely, those of duty and honour.  Had old Archdeacon Lucien been living at that time, his heart would have bled at the idea of the danger of his sheep, goats, and cattle, and his prudence would not have failed to allay the storm.”

Madame Bonaparte, the victim of her patriotism and her devotedness to France, expected to be received at Marseilles as an emigrant of distinction ;  but there she scarcely found herself in safety ;  and to her astonishment discovered that the spirit of patriotism existed only among the very lowest classes of the people.

Napoleon, in his youth wrote a history of Corsica, which he dedicated to the Abbé Raynal.  This production gained for him some flattering compliments and letters from the Abbé, who was the fashionable author of the day.  This history has been lost.

The Emperor remarked, that during the war in Corsica, all the French who came to the Island formed some decided opinion on the character of the mountaineers.  Some said, that they were full of enthusiasm, others regarded them merely as bands of robbers.

It was said in the Senate at Paris, that France had chosen a ruler from among a people whom the Romans would not take for their slaves.  “ The Senator intended this remark as an insult to me,” said the Emperor ;  “ but he forgot how high a compliment he was thus paying to the Corsicans.  He spoke truly ; the Romans never purchased Corsican slaves :  they knew it was impossible to subdue the Corsicans to the yoke of slavery.”

During the war for liberty in Corsica, some one proposed the singular plan of cutting down and burning all the chesnut trees, the fruit of which furnished sustenance to the mountaineers.  By this means it was hoped they would be compelled to descend to the plains to sue for food and peace.  Happily, said the Emperor, this was one of those impracticable plans which can be realized only on paper.  From very different motives, Napoleon during the early period of his life, had constantly declaimed against the goats, which are very numerous in the Island, and commit great ravages among the trees.  He wished them to be entirely extirpated.  On this subject he had some terrible disputes with his uncle, Archdeacon Lucien, who possessed numerous herds of goats, and who defended them like a patriarch.  In his rage, he reproached his nephew with being an innovator, and blamed philosophic ideas, for the danger with which his goats were threatened.

Paoli died in London at a very old age :  he lived to see Napoleon First Consul and Emperor.  The Emperor expressed his regret at not having recalled him.  “ That,” said he “ would have been highly gratifying to me.  Such an act would have been a real trophy of honour.  But my mind was absorbed in important affairs ;  I rarely had time to indulge my personal feelings.”

After the Emperor’s return in 1815, when Lucien arrived in Paris, Joseph advised the Emperor to appoint him Governor-General of Corsica.  This measure was even determined on ;  the importance and hurry of passing events alone prevented its execution.  “ If Lucien had gone to Corsica,” said the Emperor, “ he would still have remained master of the Island, and what resources would it not have presented to our persecuted patriots ?—To how many unfortunate families would not Corsica have afforded an assylum ?”  He repeated that he had perhaps committed a fault at the time of his abdication, in not reserving to himself the sovereignty of Corsica, together with the possession of some millions of the civil list ;  and in not having conveyed all his valuables to Toulon, whence nothing could have impeded his passage.  In Corsica, he would have found himself at home ;  the whole population would have been as it were, his own family.  He might have disposed of every arm and every heart.  Thirty thousand or even 50,000 allied troops could not have subdued him.  No sovereign in Europe would have undertaken such a task.  But it was precisely the happy security of the situation that deterred him from availing himself of it.  He would not have it said, that amidst the wreck of the French people, which he plainly foresaw, he alone had been dexterous enough to gain the port.

Some one here observed that, according to the general opinion, he might, in 1814, have secured the possession of Corsica instead of the island of Elba.  “ Certainly I might,” replied the Emperor, “ and those who are well acquainted with the affairs of Fontainbleau will be surprised that I did not...... I might then have reserved to myself whatever I pleased.  The humour of the moment led me to decide in favour of Elba.  Had I possessed Corsica, it is probable that my return in 1815 would never have been thought of.  Even at Elba those whose interest it was to keep me there, decreed my return by their own misgovernment and the non-fulfilment of the engagements which they had entered into with me.”

We now reminded the Emperor of his intention of riding on horseback ;  but he said he would rather walk and chat.  He ordered his breakfast, after which we conversed for some time on the old court, the nobility who composed it, their pretensions, the King’s equipages, &c.;  and all this was compared with what the Emperor had himself introduced.

The Emperor then reverted to the period of his Consulship, and described the difficulties which he had experienced in forming the kind of court which was then kept up at the Tuileries.  On his arrival there, he was resolved to obliterate the recollection of the manners and conflicts of the period to which he had just succeeded.  But he had hitherto passed his life in camps :—he had just returned from Egypt and had quitted France when young and inexperienced.  He was a stranger to every one, and he at first found this a source of great embarrassment.  Lebrun acted as his guide during the first years of his Consulship.  Bankers and money-speculators were at that time persons of the first consequence.  No sooner did the Consul enter upon his functions, than a host of these individuals crowded round him and eagerly offered to advance him considerable sums of money.  This conduct though seemingly dictated only by generosity was not, however without interested views.  They were for the most part men of bad character ;  and their offers were rejected.  The First Consul had a natural dislike of men of this profession.  He said he had laid down the firm determination to act upon other principles than those of Scherer, Barras, and the Directory.  He was anxious that probity should become the main spring and feature of his new government.  The Consul was also immediately surrounded by the wives of these moneylenders, who were all beautiful and elegant women.  Indeed a money-lender at that time seemed to regard it as indispensably necessary that his wife should be a woman of fascinating manners :  it was a circumstance that tended materially to assist his speculations.  But the prudent Lebrun was at hand to direct the young Telemachus.  He resolved to exclude this sort of society from the Tuileries.  It was, however, no such easy matter to assemble a suitable circle around the Consul :  nobles were rejected in order to avoid giving offence to public opinion ;  and contractors were excluded, with the view of purifying the morals of the new era.  These two classes being thus shut out, of course no very distinguished society remained ;  and the Tuileries for some time presented a sort of magic-lantern, very varied and changeable.

At Moscow, the Vice-Roy happened to meet with some letters written by Princess Dolgoruki, who had been at Paris at the period here alluded to.  This correspondence gave a very favourable picture of the Tuileries.  The Princess observed, that it was not precisely a court, nor yet exactly a camp ;  but something perfectly new in its kind.  She added, that the First Consul did not carry his hat under his arm, nor wear a dress-sword by his side ;  but that he was nevertheless a swordsman.  “ However,” continued the Emperor, “ such is the effect of evil-report, that, owing to some such expressions as these having been misrepresented to me, Princess Dolgoruki was very unjustly treated.  I ordered her, at that time, to quit France.  We thought her hostile to the principles of our government ;  but we were, as it may be seen, mistaken.  Madame G . . . ., the mistress of M. de T . . . . . . . . ., for he had not yet made her his wife, greatly contributed to alienate from us the regard of the Russians.”

The Emperor observed, that on his return from Elba, he had experienced far less embarrassment in composing his court.  “It was, indeed,” said he, “ all ready formed, by the ladies whom I termed my widows.  These were Madame Duroc, the Duchess of Istria ;  Mesdames Regnier, Lagrand, and all the other widows of my first generals.  I told the Princesses who consulted me on the method of recomposing their courts, to follow my example.  Nothing was more natural and proper.  These ladies, though still young, were already experienced in the world ;  and among them were several beautiful and fascinating women.  Most of them have now lost their fortunes ;  some, I have been told, are re-married, and have changed their names ;⁵ so that of all the wealth and rank founded by me, no traces will perhaps remain ;  even names will disappear.  If this should really be the case, will it not afford ground for saying, that after all there must have been a radical error in the selections I made.  But it will be all the worse for the parties themselves ;  they will by this means only furnish a triumph and a ground of insolence to the old aristocracy.”

We again reminded the Emperor of his intended ride on horseback :  we urged him not to neglect it, because we knew it to be absolutely necessary for his health.  But we could not prevail on him to leave the garden.  “ We are very well here,” said he ;  “ we will have some tents pitched on this spot.”  We began to talk about the Faubourg St. Germain, and the Hotel de Luynes, which the Emperor termed its cathedral.  He described to us the cause of the banishment of Madame de Chevreuse.  He said, he had frequently threatened to visit her with this punishment, and for conduct of the most mischievous and insolent nature.  One day, when urged to the utmost extremity, he addressed her as follows :—“ Madam, according to the feudal notions and doctrines, entertained by you and your friends, you pretend to be the sovereigns of your estates !  Now, on the same principles, I may style myself the Sovereign Lord of France.  I may claim Paris as my village, and may banish from it every individual who is obnoxious to me.  I judge you by your own laws.  Begone ! and never venture to return !”  On decreeing her exile, the Emperor was firmly resolved never to be prevailed on to recal her ;  because, he said, he had endured much before he decreed her punishment, and he found himself compelled to set an example of severity to spare the necessity of repeating it on others.  This was one of his grand principles.

I told the Emperor, that I had frequently visited the Hotel de Luynes, and that I had been well acquainted with Madame de Chevreuse and her mother-in-law, for whom I had always entertained a great regard.  The latter had evinced singular and constant affection for her daughter-in-law, having shared her exile, and accompanied her in her different journeys from place to place.  When proceeding on my mission to Illyria, I one night met them both in an inn at the foot of the Simplon.  To be thus able to procure in the desert the most trivial details relating to Paris and the court, was to them a source of unfeigned joy, and a most unexpected instance of good fortune.  They listened to me with no less eagerness than that evinced by Fouquet on hearing the accounts of Lauzun.  Their banishment from the capital had been to them an absolute sentence of death ;  it had overwhelmed them in despair !

Finally, I assured the Emperor, that for a considerable period I had observed the Hotel de Luynes, if not subdued, at least calmed and reduced to something less than indifference ;  but our unexpected disasters had revived its former spirit.  As to Madame de Chevreuse, who was a pretty, intelligent, and amiable woman, with a somewhat romantic turn of mind, she had doubtless been seduced by the charms of notoriety, or urged on by her numerous flatterers and admirers, some of whole were very little worthy of her regard.  “ I know it,” observed the Emperor ;  “ she hoped to recommence the Fronde ;  but I was not a minor Sovereign.”

The brig Moschetto, which left England on the 23d of March, arrived with files of Journaux des Debats down to the 5th of March, and London papers to the 21st.  On retiring to his closet, the Emperor desired me to follow him.  He began to peruse the Journaux des Debats ;  and in the meanwhile, a letter was delivered to me from the Grand Marshal.  It had just arrived from Europe, and was addressed to the Emperor.  I handed it to him.  He read it over once and sighed ;  and then having read it a second time, he tore it, and threw the fragments beneath the table.  This letter was delivered open ! . . . . . . The Emperor then resumed his perusal of the Journals, and suddenly stopping, he said, after a few moments silence :—“ That letter was from poor Madame :  she is well, and wishes to come to reside with me at St. Helena ! . . . .”  After this he continued his reading.  This, which was the first letter that the Emperor had received from any individual of his family, was in the handwriting of Cardinal Fesch.  The Emperor was evidently much hurt by its having been delivered to him open.

Moreau, Georges, and Pichegru.—Difference of opinion produced by their conspiracy in the camp of Boulogne and in Paris.

30th.—The Emperor went out about two o’clock, and we all attended him.  He began to converse about the intelligence contained in the French papers which he had just received, and alluded to the statues which, it was stated, were to be erected to the memory of Moreau and Pichegru.  “ A statue to Moreau,” said he, “ whose conspiracy in 1803 is now so well proved !  Moreau, who, in 1813, died fighting under the Russian standard !  A monument to the memory of Pichegru, who was guilty of one of the most heinous of crimes ! who purposely suffered himself to be defeated, and who connived with the enemy in the slaughter of his own troops !  And after all,” continued he, “ history is only made up of reports which gain credit by repetition.  Because it has been repeatedly affirmed that these were great men, who deserved well of their country, they will at length pass for such, and their adversaries will be despised.”

Some one present remarked, that it might have been thus in the dark ages of ignorance ;  but that now the multitude of monuments and public documents, the arts of printing and engraving, and the general diffusion of knowledge, must always render truth accessible to those who wish to come at it, and as each party has its own historians, the thinking reader will always be enabled to form an impartial opinion.

The Emperor then described at length the affairs of Moreau, Georges, and Pichegru, to which I have before alluded, and of which I promised further details.  He now informed us, that the man who made the first confessions, indicated, though without naming him, a person to whom Georges, and the other leaders of the conspiracy, never spoke without taking their hats off, and whom they treated with the utmost consideration and respect.  It was at first supposed that this individual must have been the Duke de Berri ;  and some concluded him to have been the Duke d’Enghien, during his momentary appearance.  Charles d’Hosier, one of the conspirators, unexpectedly drew aside the veil.  A few days after his arrest, he was seized with a fit of melancholy and hanged himself in prison.  The alarm was however given and he was cut down.  Stretched on his bed, and while yet struggling between life and death, he vented repeated imprecations on Moreau, and accused him of having treacherously seduced many well-disposed men, and held out to them promises of assistance which he never realized.  He likewise mentioned the names of Georges and Pichegru.  This was the first circumstance that excited suspicion against Georges and Pichegru ;  there was previously no idea of either the one or the other having been engaged in the conspiracy.  Real who had hastened to this sort of death-bed confession of d’Hosier, proposed to the Consul that he should order the arrest of Moreau.

“ This event created a great sensation,” said the Emperor.  “ The public mind was wrought up to a high pitch of fermentation.  Doubts were entertained of the truth of the statements made by the Government respecting the extent of the conspiracy, and the number of the conspirators.  Of the latter it was affirmed there were about forty in Paris.  Their names were published, and the First Consul pledged his honour to secure them.  He summoned Bassières, and gave orders that he with his corps, should surround and guard the walls of Paris.  For the space of six weeks, nobody was suffered to quit the capital without special permission.  A general gloom prevailed through Paris ;  but every day the Moniteur announced the arrest of one or two of the individuals who it was alleged were concerned in the conspiracy.  Public opinion took a turn in my favour ;  and indignation against the conspirators increased in proportion as they were secured.  Not one escaped.”

The public papers of the period detail the particulars of the arrest of Georges, who killed two men before he could be secured.  It appears that he was betrayed by his comrade, who drove the cabriolet in which they were both riding together.

As to Pichegru, he was the victim of the basest treachery.  “ This circumstance,” said the Emperor, “ was truly a disgrace to human nature.  He was sold by his intimate friend ;  by a man whom I will not name, on account of the horror and disgust which his conduct is calculated to excite.”  We informed the Emperor that the name of this individual had been mentioned in the Moniteur, at which he expressed surprise.  “ This man,” continued he, “ who was formerly a military officer, and who has since followed the business of a merchant at Lyons, offered to deliver up Pichegru for 100,000 crowns.  On the day on which he made this proposition, he stated that they had, on the preceding evening supped together, and that Pichegru finding himself every day alluded to in the Moniteur, and being aware that the critical moment was fast approaching, said, ‘ If I and a few other Generals were boldly to present ourselves to the troops, should we not gain them over ?’—‘ No,’ replied the friend, ‘ you form a wrong idea of the state of feeling in France ;  you would not gain over a single soldier.’—He spoke truly.  At night, the faithless friend conducted the officers of the police to Pichegru’s door ;  and he gave them a minute description of his chamber and his means of defending himself.  Pichegru had pistols on his bed-room table, and he kept a light burning while he slept.  The officers gently unlocked the door by means of the false keys, which the treacherous friend had procured for them.  The table was overturned, the candle was extinguished, and the officers seized Pichegru, who immediately jumped out of bed.  He was a very powerful man ;  he struggled desperately, and it was found necessary to bind him and convey him to prison, without waiting till he could be dressed.”

On being placed at the head of the government, the First Consul was extremely anxious to tranquillize the western departments.  He summoned nearly all the leading men of those districts, and succeeded in rousing several of them to a sense of the interests and glory of their country ;  he added, that he even drew tears from the eyes of some.  Georges had his turn among the rest.  The Emperor said that he had endeavoured to touch every individual string of his heart ;  but in vain, he could produce no vibration.  He found him lost to every generous feeling, and coldly intent on his own ambitious calculations.  He persisted in his determination to command his Cantons.  The Consul, having exhausted every conciliatory argument, at length assumed the language of the first Magistrate of France.  He dismissed him, and recommended him to go home and live quietly and submissively ;  and above all, not to mistake the nature of the course he had that moment adopted, nor to attribute to feebleness what was only the result of his moderation, and the consciousness of his power.  He desired him to repeat to himself, and to all who were connected with him, that so long as the First Consul should hold the reins of authority, there would be no chance of safety for any who might dare to engage in conspiracy.  Georges took his leave ;  but, as the event proved, not without having imbibed from this conference a feeling of respect for Napoleon, on whose destruction, however, he still continued bent.

Moreau was the rallying point and the centre of attraction to the conspirators, who came from London to attack Paris.  It appeared that Lajollais, his Aide-de-camp, had deceived these men, by addressing them in the name of Moreau, and telling them, that that General was secure of popular favour throughout the whole of France, and could dispose of the whole army.  Moreau constantly assured them, that he could command no one, not even his Aide-de-camp ;  but that if they killed the First Consul, they might do any thing.

Moreau, when left to himself, was a very good sort of man.  He was easily led, and this accounts for his inconsistencies.  He left the palace in raptures, and returned to it full of spleen and malice ;—having in the interim seen his mother-in-law and his wife.  The First Consul, who would have been very glad to have gained him over to his side, once made it up with him completely ;  but their friendship lasted only four days.  The Consul then vowed that he would never renew it.  In fact, attempts were afterwards frequently made to reconcile them together ;  but Napoleon never would agree to it.  He foresaw that Moreau would commit some fault, that he would lose himself ;  and certainly he could not have done so in a way more advantageous to the First Consul.

Some days previous to the battle of Leipsic, some carriages containing property and papers belonging to Moreau, which were on their way to his widow in England, were intercepted at Wittemberg.  Among those papers, there was a letter from Madame Moreau herself, in which she advised her husband to lay aside his silly wavering conduct, and to come boldly to a determination.  She urged him to assist in the triumph of the legitimate cause, that of the Bourbons.  In answer to this, Moreau wrote a few days before his death, begging her not to trouble him with her chimeras.  “ I have come near enough to France,” said he, “ to know all that is going forward there . . . . . . I have got into a true wasp’s nest.”

The Emperor was on the point of publishing these intercepted papers in the Moniteur ;  but there still existed in France some persons blindly tenacious of the opinion they had always maintained of Moreau, and who persisted in regarding him as a victim of tyranny.  The counterrevolution had not yet afforded an opportunity of making known those acts hitherto disavowed, and of claiming their recompense.  The circumstance of personal enmity prevented the Emperor from executing his intention.  He thought it would not be becoming to revive this enmity for his own advantage, and to tarnish the memory of a man, who had just fallen on the field of battle.

The trial of Moreau and Pichegru, which was protracted for such a length of time, violently agitated the public mind.  What added to the notoriety and interest of this trial, was its connection with the affair of the Duke d’Enghien, with which it became interwoven.  “ I have,” said the Emperor “ been reproached with having committed a great fault in that trial.  It has been compared with the affair of the necklace, in the reign of Louis XVI. which that Monarch put into the hands of Parliament, instead of having it judged by a Committee.  Politicians have affirmed, that I should have contented myself with consigning the criminals to the judgment of a Military Committee.  It would have been ended in eight and forty hours.  I could have done it ;  it was legal, and nothing more would have been required of me ;  I should have avoided the risks to which I was exposed.  But I felt my power so unlimited, and I was at the same time so strong in the justice of my cause, that I was determined the affair should be open to the observation of the whole world.  For this reason the ambassadors and agents of Foreign powers were present during the proceedings !”

One of the company present here observed to the Emperor that the course he then adopted, had proved advantageous to history and honourable to his own character.  It had furnished three volumes of authentic documents relating to the trial.

Another individual of the Emperor’s suite, who, at the time of this celebrated trial, was with the army at Boulogne, said that all these events, even the affair of the Duke D’Enghien, had there excited but little interest, and that on his return to Paris, some time after, he was astonished to observe the sensation which they had created in the capital.

The Emperor remarked that the public mind had indeed been highly excited, particularly on the occasion of the death of the Duke d’Enghien, which event, he said, still appeared to be judged of in Europe with blindness and prejudice.  He maintained his right of adopting the step he had taken, and enumerated the reasons which had urged him to it.  He then adverted to the many attempts that had been made to assassinate him, and observed that he was bound in justice to say that he had never detected Louis XVIII. in any direct conspiracy against his life, though such plots had been incessantly renewed in other quarters.  With regard to that Prince he had heard only of his systematic plans, ideal operations, &c.

“ If,” continued he, “ I had continued in France in 1815, I intended to have given publicity to some of the latter attempts that were made against me.  The Maubreuil affair in particular should have been solemnly investigated by the first Court of the Empire, and Europe would have shuddered to see to what an extent the crime of secret assassination could be carried.”

Conversation respecting the situation of England.—Letters detained by the Governor.—Characteristic observations.

31st—At five o’clock, I went to join the Emperor in the garden ;  we were all assembled there.  The conversation turned on politics.  He described the melancholy situation of England, amidst her triumphs.  He alluded to the immensity of her debt, the madness, the impossibility of her becoming a continental power, the dangers which assailed her constitution, the embarrassment of her ministers, and the just clamour of the people.  England with her 150 or 200 thousand men, made as many efforts as he, the Emperor, had ever made during the period of his great power, and perhaps even more.  He had never employed beyond 500 thousand French troops.  The traces of his Continental system were followed by all the powers on the Continent, and would be pursued still further in proportion as those powers became more settled.  He did not hesitate to say, and he proved it, that England would have gained by remaining faithful to the treaty of Amiens ;  that such a line of conduct would have been to the advantage of all Europe, but that Napoleon himself, and his glory would have suffered by it.  Yet it was England and not he who broke the treaty.

There was only one course, he continued, for England to pursue ;  namely, to return to her constitution and abandon the military system ;  to interfere with the Continent only through her maritime influence, in which she was pre-eminent.  It was, he said, easy to foresee that great calamities would assail her should she adopt any other course, and this she would inevitably do, because all her aristocracy urged her to it, and because the folly, pride, or venality of her present ministry, caused her to persist in the system she was pursuing.

The conversation being concluded, the Emperor returned to his study, and desired me to follow him.  He told me that a letter which had been sent to him from England by post, was said to have been kept back by the Governor, because it was not addressed to him officially ;  and it was said that a letter for the Grand-Marshal had been detained for the same reason.  The Emperor observed that if this were true, there was something peculiarly cruel in the conduct of the Governor, in having sent back the letters without even mentioning them to us, and without affording us the consolation of knowing from whom they came . . . A neglect of form, he said, might easily be corrected in the Island ;  but it could not so easily be observed at 2,000 leagues distance.  I told the Emperor that a circumstance nearly similar to that which he had just mentioned had occurred to me eight or ten days back.  “ A person who was on his way to Europe had tormented me with his offers of service.  I yielded to his solicitations, and commissioned him to order me some shoes and to get a watch changed for me, for there is no person here who knows how to repair a watch.  The Governor had forbidden the execution of those commissions, because they had not been addressed to himself.  I have said nothing on the subject to any one, Sire, because it is a principle with me to conceal an insult for which I cannot obtain redress ;  but I shall find an opportunity to tell the Governor my mind.  In the meantime, neither he nor the person to whom I gave the commission, have been able to draw from me a line, or a single word, though the latter has made several attempts to do so.”

After dinner the Emperor, conversing on our situation and the conduct of the Governor, who came to-day and took a rapid circuit round Longwood, reverted to the subject of the last interview they had had together, and made some striking observations respecting it.  “ I behaved very ill to him, no doubt,” said he, “ and nothing but my present situation could excuse me ;  but I was out of humour, and could not help it ;  I should blush for it in any other situation.  Had such a scene taken place at the Tuileries, I should have felt myself bound in conscience to make some atonement.  Never during the period of my power did I speak harshly to any one without afterwards saying something to make amends for it.  But here I uttered not a syllable of conciliation, and I had no wish to do so.  However, the Governor proved himself very insensible to my severity ;  his delicacy did not seem wounded by it.  I should have liked, for his sake, to have seen him evince a little anger, or pull the door violently after him when he went away.  This would at least have shown that there was some spring and elasticity about him ;  but I found nothing of the kind.”

The Emperor then again resumed his conversation on political affairs, which he maintained with so much spirit and interest, that I could have forgotten for a time what part of the world I was in.  I could have believed myself still at the Tuileries, or in the Rue de Bourgogne.

* I was sorry to find, on perusing the Doctor’s work, that he has totally neglected the observations and corrections with which I furnished him ;  and has strangely misrepresented the particulars which I communicated to him.

2 I received from the mouth of the Prince Primate some curious details concerning Josephine’s marriage and divorce.  Madame de Beauharnais was married to General Bonaparte, by a non-juring priest ;  who by pure accident had neglected to procure the requisite authority from the curate of the parish.  This or some other informality in the marriage, afterwards occupied the attention of Cardinal Fesch ;  and whether from his own scruples or otherwise, he succeeded at the time of the coronation, in persuading the Emperor, and Empress to be married over again by him, privately ;  or at least to go over as much of the ceremony as he thought necessary.  At the divorce, the civil separation was pronounced by the Senate.  With regard to the religious separation, the Emperor would not apply to the Pope, and there was no necessity for so doing.  Cardinal Fesch having remarried the parties without witnesses, the Officiality of the Bishoprick of Paris declared that no marriage had taken place.  On this judgment being delivered the Empress Josephine summoned Cardinal Fesch to Malmaison, and asked him whether he could bear witness and sign a declaration that she had been married, and lawfully married.  “ Doubtless,” replied the Cardinal, “ I can bear testimony to the fact, and will sign the declaration.”  Which he accordingly did.
      “ But,” said I to the Prince Primate, “ what judgment was pronounced by the Officiality of Paris ? ”—“ The only proper one,” replied the Prince—“ What then became of the declaration of Cardinal Fesch ?  Was it false ? ”—“ Not in his opinion,” said the Prince.  “ He had acted upon the Italian doctrine, by which Cardinals assume the right of marrying without witnesses, which however is not recognized in France, where a marriage is thereby rendered null.”
      It appears, however, that Josephine, required this declaration only for her own satisfaction, and that she never made any other use of it.

3 How justly did the Emperor paint his mother’s character !  On my return to Europe I was delighted to witness the literal confirmation of all that he had said respecting her.
      As soon as I disclosed to Madame Mère the Emperor’s real situation, and declared my resolution to exert all my efforts to alleviate his misery, the answer returned to me by the courier was, that her whole fortune was at her son’s disposal, and that she would gain her subsistence by entering into service.  She at the same time, authorised me, though I was not personally known to her, to draw immediately in her name any sum that I might think necessary for the Emperor’s use.  Cardinal Pesch also tendered his services in the most affectionate way ;  and I must take this opportunity of mentioning, that all the different members of the Emperor’s family, evinced equal love, zeal, and devotedness.  So long as my health permitted me to maintain correspondence with there, I received a multitude of letters, which form altogether a most interesting collection.  They reflect honour on the hearts of the writers, and they would have proved a source of consolation to the Emperor, had the restrictions of the English government permitted me to submit them to his perusal.

4 See Vol. 1. Part 1. p. 282.

5 The Emperor had been informed, that two or three of the widows of his most distinguished generals had lately re-married.  This, however, is untrue.