LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SKELTON.
31st.—Lieutenant-Governor Skelton and his lady, who had always shewn us great attentions, came to present their respects to the Emperor, who, after an hour’s conversation, desired me to translate to the Colonel an invitation to ride out with him on horseback. The invitation was joyfully accepted, and we set out. We passed through the valley which separates us from Diana’s Peak, to the great astonishment of the Colonel, to whom this ride was perfectly new. He found it fatiguing, and in many parts dangerous. The Emperor detained Colonel and Mrs. Skelton to dinner, and entertained them in the most agreeable way.
NEW-YEAR’S DAY.—FOWLING-PIECES, &C.—COLONEL
WILKS’S FAMILY.
January 1st—3rd, 1816. On new-year’s-day we all assembled about ten o’clock in the morning, to present the compliments of the season to the Emperor. He received us in a few moments. We had to offer him wishes rather than congratulations. The Emperor wished that we should breakfast and spend the whole day together. He observed that we were but a handful in one corner of the world, and that all our consolation must be our regard for each other. We all accompanied the Emperor into the garden, where he walked about until breakfast was ready. At this moment, his fowling-pieces, which had hitherto been detained by the Admiral, were sent back to him. This measure, on the part of the Admiral, was only another proof of the new disposition which he had assumed towards us. The guns could be of no use to the Emperor; for the nature of the ground and the total want of game rendered it impossible that he could enjoy even a shadow of diversion in shooting. There were no birds except a few pigeons among the gum-trees, and these were soon killed, or forced to migrate, by the few shots that Gen Gourgaud and my son amused themselves in firing.
It seemed like a fatality that measures, dictated by the best and kindest intentions on the part of the Admiral, should still bear an appearance of restriction and colouring of caprice, which destroyed their effect. Along with the Emperor’s fowling-pieces were two or three guns belonging to individuals of his suite. These were delivered to their owners; but on condition that they should be sent every evening to the tent of the officer on duty. It may well be supposed that this proposition induced us, without hesitation, to decline the favour altogether; and the guns were not surrendered to us unconditionally, until after a little parleying. And after all what were the important subjects under discussion? A few fowling-pieces; and the owners of them were unfortunate men, banished from the rest of the world, surrounded by sentinels, and guarded by a whole camp. I mention this circumstance, because, though trifling in itself, it proves better than many others our real situation and the mode in which we were treated.
On the 3rd, I breakfasted with Madame Bertrand, whom I was to accompany to dine at the Governor’s. From Madame Bertrand’s abode to Plantation-House (the Governor’s residence) is an hour and a half’s journey in a carriage drawn by six oxen, for the use of horses on this road would be dangerous. We crossed or turned five or six passes, flanked with precipices several hundred feet high. Four of the oxen were taken from the carriage in the rapid descents, and yoked again in ascending the hills. We stopped when we had got about three parts of the way, to pay a visit to a good old lady, eighty-three years of age, who is very fond of Madame Bertrand’s children. Her house is very pleasantly situated: she had not been out of it for sixteen years, when, hearing of the Emperor’s arrival, she set out for the town, declaring that, if it cost her her life, she was resolved to see him:—she was happy enough to gain her object.
Plantation-House is the best situated, and most agreeable residence in the whole island. The mansion, the garden, the out-offices, all call to mind the residence of a family possessing an income of 25 or 30,000 livres in one of the French provinces. The grounds are cultivated with the greatest attention and taste. A resident at Plantation-House might imagine himself in Europe, without ever suspecting the desolation that prevails over every other part of the Island. Plantation-House is occupied by Colonel Wilks, the Governor, whose authority is now superseded by the Admiral. He is a man of most polished manners; his wife is an amiable woman, and his daughter a charming young lady.
The Governor had invited a party of about thirty. The manners and ceremonies of the company were entirely European. We spent several hours at Plantation-House; and this, we may truly say, has been the only interval of oblivion and abstraction that we have enjoyed since we quitted France. Colonel Wilks evinced particular partiality and kindness to me. We mutually expressed the compliments and sympathy of two authors, pleased with each other’s merits. We exchanged our works. The Colonel overwhelmed M. le Sage with flattering compliments: and those which I returned to him were of the sincerest kind; for his work contains a novel and interesting account of Hindostan, where he resided for a considerable time in a diplomatic capacity. A spirit of philosophy, a fund of information, joined to singular purity of style, concur to render it a production of first-rate merit. In his political opinions, Colonel Wilks is cool and impartial; he judges calmly and dispassionately of passing events, and is imbued with the sound ideas and liberal opinions of an intelligent and independent Englishman.
As we were on the point of sitting down to dinner, we were, to our great surprise, informed that the Emperor, in company with the Admiral, had just passed very near the gate of Plantation-House; and one of the guests (Mr. Doveton, of Sandy-Bay) observed, that Napoleon had, in the morning, honoured him with a visit, and spent three quarters of an hour at his house.
LIFE AT LONGWOOD.—THE EMPEROR’S RIDE ON HORSEBACK.—OUR NYMPH.—NICKNAMES.—ON ISLANDS, AND THE DEFENCE OF THEM.—GREAT FORTRESSES; GIBRALTAR.—CULTIVATION AND LAWS OF THE ISLAND. ENTHUSIASM, &c.
4th—8th. When I entered the Emperor’s apartments to give him an account of our excursion on the preceding day, he took hold of my ear, saying: “Well, you deserted me yesterday: I got through the evening very well, notwithstanding. Do not suppose that I could not do without you.” Delightful words! rendered most touching by the tone which accompanied them, and by the knowledge I now possess of him by whom they were uttered.
The weather has every day been fine, the temperature dry; the heat intense, but abating suddenly, as usual, towards five or six o’clock.
The Emperor, since his arrival at Longwood, had left off his usual dictations: he passed his time in reading in his cabinet, dressed himself between three and four o’clock, and afterwards went out on horseback, accompanied by two or three of us. The mornings must have appeared to him longer; but his health was the better for it. Our rides were always directed towards the neighbouring valley, of which I have already spoken; we either passed up it, taking the lower part of it first, and returning by the Grand Marshal’s house; or, on the contrary, went up that side first, in order to descend it in returning: we even went beyond it once or twice, and crossed other similar valleys. We thus explored the neighbourhood, and visited the few habitations which it contained; the whole of which were poor and wretched. The roads were sometimes impassable; we were even occasionally obliged to get off our horses. We had to clear hedges, and to scale stone walls, which we met with very frequently; but we never suffered anything to stop us.
In these our customary rides we had for some days fixed on a regular resting-place in the middle of the valley. There, surrounded by desert rocks, an unexpected flower displayed itself: under a humble roof we discovered a charming young girl, fifteen or sixteen years of age. We had surprised her the first day in her usual costume: it announced any thing but affluence. The following morning we found that she had bestowed the greatest pains on her toilet; but our pretty blossom of the fields now appeared to us nothing more than a very ordinary garden-flower. Nevertheless, we henceforth stopped at her dwelling a few minutes every day; she always approached a few paces to catch the two or three sentences which the Emperor either addressed, or caused to be translated, to her, as he passed by, and we continued our route, discoursing on her charms. From that time she formed an addition to the particular nomenclature of Longwood: she became our nymph. Among those who were intimate with him, the Emperor used, without premeditation, to invent new names for every person and object that attracted his notice. Thus the pass through which we were proceeding, at the moment of which I am now writing, received the name of the Valley of Silence; our host at Briars was our Amphitryon; his neighbour, the Major, who was six feet high, was our Hercules; Sir George Cockburn was my Lord Admiral, as long as we were in good spirits, but, when ill-humour prevailed, there was no title for him but such as the shark, &c.
Our nymph is the identical heroine of the little pastoral with which Doctor Warden has been pleased to embellish his Letters; although I corrected his error, when he gave me the manuscript to read before his departure for Europe, by telling him: “if it is your intention to form a tale, it is well; but if you wish to depict the truth, you must alter this entirely.” It should seem that he thought his tale possessed far more interest; and he has preserved it accordingly. But to return to our nymph: I have been informed that Napoleon brought her great good fortune. The celebrity which she acquired through him attracted the curiosity of travellers, and her own charms effected the rest; she is become the wife of a very rich merchant, or captain, in the service of the East-India Company.
On returning from our rides, we used to find assembled the persons whom the Emperor had invited to dine with him. He had, successively, the Colonel of the 53rd, several of the officers and their ladies, the Admiral, the beautiful and amiable Mrs. Hodson, the wife of our Hercules, whom the Emperor went one day to visit in the valley of Briars, and of whose children he had taken so much notice, &c.
After dinner, the Emperor joined one party at cards, and the rest of the company formed another.
The day the Admiral dined at Longwood, the Emperor, whilst taking his coffee, discoursed for a few minutes upon the affairs of the Island. The Admiral said that the 66th regiment was coming to reinforce the 53rd. The Emperor laughed at this; and asked him, if he did not think himself already strong enough. Then, continuing his general observations, he said that an additional seventy-four would be of more use than a regiment; that ships of war were the security of an Island; that fortifications produced nothing but delay; that the landing of a superior force was a complete success, although its effects might be deferred for a time; provided, however, the distance did not admit of succour arriving.
The Admiral having asked him which, in his opinion, was the strongest place in the world, the Emperor answered, it was impossible to point it out, because the strength of a place arises partly from its own means of defence, and partly from extraneous and indeterminate circumstances. He, however, mentioned Strasburg, Lille, Metz, Mantua, Antwerp, Malta, and Gibraltar. The Admiral having told him that he had been suspected in England, for some time, of entertaining a design to attack Gibraltar: “We knew better than that,” replied the Emperor; “it was our interest to leave Gibraltar in your possession. It is of no advantage to you; it neither protects nor intercepts any thing; it is only an object of national pride, which costs England very dear, and gives great umbrage to Spain. It would have been very injudicious in us to destroy such ingenious arrangements.”
On the 6th, I was invited, with Madame Bertrand and my son, to dine at Briars, where our old host had assembled much company. We returned very late, and not without having been exposed to danger, from the difficulties of the road and the darkness of the night, which obliged us to perform part of the journey on foot, from consideration for Madame Bertrand.
On the 7th, the Emperor received a visit from the Secretary of the Government and one of the members of the Council. He asked them a great many questions, as usual, concerning the cultivation, the prosperity, and the improvements of which the Island might be capable. In 1772, a system had been adopted for furnishing meat at half price to the inhabitants from the magazines of the Company; the consequence of which was, great idleness, and neglect of agriculture. This system was altered five years ago; which, added to other circumstances, has revived emulation, and carried the prosperity of the Island to a pitch far beyond what it ever enjoyed before. It is to be feared that our arrival may prove a mortal blow to this growing prosperity.
St. Helena, which is seven or eight leagues in circumference (about the size of Paris), is subject to the general laws of England and the local ones of the island: these local laws are drawn up by a Council, and are sanctioned in England by the Court of Directors of the East-India Company. The Council is composed of a Governor, of two civil members, and a Secretary, who keeps the registers; they are all appointed by the Company, and are subject to be removed at pleasure. The members of the Council are legislators, administrators, and magistrates; they decide without appeal, with the aid of a jury, upon civil and criminal matters. There is neither advocate nor attorney in the Island; the Secretary of the Council authenticates all acts, and is a kind of unique notary. The population of the Island amounts at this moment to about five or six thousand souls, including the blacks and the garrison.
I was walking one afternoon in the garden with the Emperor, when a sailor, about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, with a frank and open countenance, approached us, with gestures expressive of eagerness and joy, mingled with apprehension of being perceived from without. He spoke nothing but English, and told me in a hurried manner, that he had twice braved the obstacle of sentinels and all the dangers of severe prohibition, to get a close view of the Emperor. He had obtained this good fortune, he said, looking stedfastly at the Emperor, and should die content; that he offered up his prayers to Heaven that Napoleon might enjoy good health, and be one day more happy. I dismissed him; and, on quitting us, he hid himself again behind the trees and hedges, in order to have a longer view of us. We frequently met with such unequivocal proofs of the good-will of these sailors. Those of the Northumberland, above all, considered themselves as having formed a friendship with the Emperor. While we were residing at Briars, where our seclusion was not so close, they often hovered around us on a Sunday, saying they came to take another look at their shipmate. The day on which we quitted Briars, I was with the Emperor in the garden, when one of the sailors appeared at the gate, asking me if he might step in without giving offence. I asked him of what country he was, and what religion he professed. He answered by making various signs of the cross, in token of his having understood me, and of fraternity. Then looking stedfastly upon the Emperor, before whom he stood, and, raising his eyes to Heaven, he began to hold a conversation with himself, by gestures, which his great jovial face rendered partly grotesque, and partly sentimental. Nevertheless, it would have been difficult to express, more naturally, admiration, respect, kind wishes, and sympathy; whilst big tears started in his eyes. “Tell that dear man,” said he to me, “that I wish him no harm, but all possible happiness. So do most of us. Long life and health to him!” He had a nosegay of wild flowers in his hand, which he seemed to wish to offer to us; but either his attention was taken up, or he felt restrained by the Emperor’s presence, or his own feelings, and he stood wavering, as if contending with himself for some time; then suddenly made us a bow, and disappeared.
The Emperor could not refrain from evincing some emotion at these two circumstances; so strongly did the countenances, accents, and gestures of these two men bear the stamp of truth. He then said, “See the effect of imagination! How powerful is its influence! Here are people who do not know me—who have never seen me; they have only heard me spoken of; and what do they not feel! what would they not do to serve me! And the same caprice is to be found in all countries, in all ages, and in both sexes! This is fanaticism! Yes, imagination rules the world!”
VEXATIOUS TREATMENT OF THE EMPEROR.—FRESH
MISUNDERSTANDINGS WITH THE ADMIRAL.
9th.—The grounds round Longwood, within which we have the liberty of taking the air, admit of only half an hour’s ride on horseback; which has induced the Emperor, in order to extend his ride, or to occupy more time, to descend into the ravines by very bad and indeed dangerous ways.
The Island not being thirty miles in circumference, it would have been desirable to have the circuit extended to within a mile of the sea-coast; then we might have had our rides, and even varied them, within a space of fifteen or eighteen miles. The watching of our movements would neither have been more troublesome nor less effectual, had sentinels been placed upon the sea-shore and at the openings of the valleys; or even had they traced all the Emperor’s steps by signals. We had been told, it is true, that the Emperor was at liberty to go over the whole of the Island under the escort of an English officer; but the Emperor had decided that he would never go out, if deprived of the privilege of being either entirely by himself, or in the society of his friends only. The Admiral, in his last interview with the Emperor, had, with great delicacy, settled that, whenever he (the Emperor) wished to go beyond the prescribed limits, he was to inform the English Captain on duty at Longwood of the circumstance; that the latter should go to his post to open the passage for the Emperor; and that the observation, if any, should thenceforth be continued in such a manner that the Emperor, during the remainder of his excursion, whether he entered any house or took advantage of any fine situation for proceeding with his works, might perceive nothing that could for a moment distract his mind from meditation. According to this arrangement, the Emperor proposed this morning to mount his horse at seven o’clock: he had ordered a slight breakfast to be prepared, and intended to go in the direction of Sandy Bay, to see a spring of water, and to pass the morning amongst some fine vegetation (an advantage which we did not possess at Longwood); and in this spot he proposed to dictate for a few hours.
Our horses were ready; at the moment when we were about to mount them, I went to acquaint the Captain with our intention, who, to my great astonishment, declared his determination of riding beside us; saying that the Emperor could not take it ill, after all, that an officer would not act the part of a servant by remaining behind alone. I replied that the Emperor doubtless would approve this sentiment; but that he would immediately give up his party of pleasure. “You must,” said I, “think it very natural, and by no means a ground of offence, that he feels a repugnance to the company of a person who is guarding him.” The officer evinced much concern, and told me that his situation was extremely embarrassing. “Not at all so,” I observed to him, “if you only execute your orders. We ask nothing of you; you have nothing to justify or explain to us. It must be as desirable to you as to us to get the limits extended towards the sea-shore: you would thereby be freed from a troublesome duty, and one which can do you no honour. The end proposed would not be the less effectually accomplished by such an arrangement. I will venture to say that it would be more so: whenever we wish to watch a person, we must guard the door of his room, or the gates of the enclosure which surrounds him; the intermediate doors are only sources of unavailing trouble. You lose sight of the Emperor every day when he descends into the deep hollows within the circuit, and you ascertain his existence only by his return. Well, then, make a merit of a concession which the nature of things demands. Extend the limits to within a mile of the sea-shore; you may then also trace the Emperor constantly by means of your signals from your heights.”
To all this the officer replied only by repeating that he wanted neither look nor word from the Emperor; that he would be with us, as if he were not present. He seemed, and indeed he was, unable to comprehend that the mere sight of him could be offensive to the Emperor. I told him that there was a scale for the degrees of feeling, and that the same measure did not apply to all the world. He appeared to think that we were putting our own interpretations on the Emperor’s sentiments, and that, if the reasons which he gave me were explained to him (the Emperor), the latter would accede to them. He was inclined to write to him. I assured him that, as far as related personally to himself, he would not be able to say so much to the Emperor as I myself should: but that I would go and repeat to the Emperor, word for word, the conversation which had passed between us. I went, and soon returned, and confirmed to him what I had before advanced. The Emperor from that moment gave up his intended excursion.
Wishing, however, on my own account, to avoid every misunderstanding which might add to discussions, at all times disagreeable, I asked him whether he had any objection to impart to me the account he intended to give the Admiral. He told me he had none; but that he should only give a verbal one. Then, resuming our long conversation, I reduced it in a few words, to two very positive points: on his part, that he had told me he wished to join the party of the Emperor: and on mine, that I had replied that the Emperor from that moment gave up his party, and would not go beyond the limits assigned to him. This statement was perfectly agreed upon by both of us. The Emperor ordered me to be called into his room. Brooding in profound silence over the vexation which he had just experienced, he had undressed again, and was in his morning-gown. He detained me to breakfast, and observed that the sky seemed to threaten rain; that we should have had a bad day for our excursion. But this was a poor consolation for the cruel restraint which had just deprived him of an innocent pleasure.
The fact is that the officer had received fresh orders; but the Emperor had only grounded the project of his little excursion upon the anterior promises of the Admiral, at which the Emperor had felt a pleasure in expressing his satisfaction to him. The present alteration, of which nothing had been said to the Emperor, must necessarily have been extremely unpleasant to him. Either the word given him was broken, or an attempt had been made to impose on him. This affront, which he experienced from the Admiral, is one of those which have considerably hurt the feelings of the Emperor.
The Emperor took a bath, and did not dine with us. At nine o’clock he ordered me to be called into his room, he was reading Don Quixote, which turned our conversation upon Spanish literature, the translation of Le Sage, &c. He was very melancholy, and said little; he sent me away in about three quarters of an hour.
MARCHAND’S ROOM.—LINEN, GARMENTS, &C. OF THE
EMPEROR,—SPURS OF CHAMPAUBERT, &C.
10th.—About four o’clock the Emperor desired me to be called into his room: he was dressed, and had his boots on; his intention was either to get on horseback, or to take a walk in the garden; but a gentle shower of rain was falling. We walked about in conversation, waiting for the weather to clear up. He opened the door of his room leading to the topographical cabinet, in order that we might extend our walk the whole length of this cabinet. As we approached the bed, he asked me if I always slept in it. I answered that I had ceased to do so from the moment that I became acquainted with his wish of going out early in the morning. “What has that to do with it?” said he: “return to it; I shall go out when I please, by the back-door.” The drawing-room door stood half open, and he entered it; Montholon and Gourgaud were there. They were endeavouring to fix a very pretty lustre, and a small glass over the chimney-piece: the Emperor desired the latter might be set straight, as it inclined a little on one side. He was much pleased at this improvement in the drawing-room furniture; a proof that every thing is relative! What could these objects have been in the eyes of a man who, some years ago, had furniture to the value of forty millions in his palaces?
We returned to the topographical cabinet: the rain continued to fall, he gave up his promenade; but he regretted that the Grand Marshal had not arrived; he felt himself this day inclined for work, which he had discontinued for a fortnight. He endeavoured to kill time, whilst waiting for Bertrand. “Let us go and see Madame de Montholon,” said he to me. I announced him; he sat down, made me do the same; and we talked about furniture and housekeeping. He then began to form an inventory of the articles in the apartment, piece by piece; and we all agreed that the furniture was not worth more than thirty Napoleons. Leaving Madame de Montholon’s, he ran from room to room, and stopped in front of the staircase in the corridor which leads to the servants’ room above; it is a kind of very steep ladder. “Let us look at Marchand’s apartment,” said he; “they say that he keeps it like that of a petite maîtresse.” We climbed up; Marchand was there; his little room is clean; he has pasted paper upon it, which he has painted himself. His bed was without curtains: Marchand does not sleep so far from his master’s door; at Briars, he and the two other valets-de-chambre constantly slept upon the ground, across the Emperor’s doorway, so close that, whenever I came away late, I was obliged to step over them. The Emperor ordered the presses to be opened; they contained nothing but his linen and his clothes; the whole was not considerable, yet he was astonished to find himself still so rich. “How many pair of spurs have I?” said he, taking up a pair. “Four pair,” answered Marchand. “Are any of them more remarkable than the rest?”—“No, Sire.”—“Well, I will give a pair of them to Las Cases. Are these old?” “Yes, Sire, they are almost worn out; your Majesty wore them in the campaign of Dresden, and in that of Paris.”—“Here,” said he, giving them to me; “these are for you.” I could have wished that he would have permitted me to receive them on my knees. I felt that I was really receiving something connected with the glorious days of Champaubert, Montmirail, Nangis, Montereau! Was there ever a more appropriate memorial of chivalry, in the times of Amadis? “Your Majesty is making me a knight,” said I; “but how am I to win these spurs? I cannot pretend to achieve any feat of arms; and as to love and devotion, Sire, all I have to bestow has long since been disposed of.”
Still the Grand Marshal did not arrive, and the Emperor wished to set to work. “You cannot write any longer then?” he said to me. “Your eyesight is quite gone.” Ever since we had been here I had given up work entirely; my eyesight failed me, which made me extremely melancholy. “Yes, sire,” I replied, “it is entirely gone; and I am grieved that I lost it in the Campaign of Italy, without enjoying the happiness and glory of having served in it.”—He endeavoured to console me, by telling me that I should recover my eyesight, beyond a doubt, by repose, adding, “Oh why did they not leave us Planat! that good young man would now be of great service to me.” And he desired General Gourgaud to come, that he might dictate to him.
ADMIRAL TAYLOR, &C.
11th.—As I was walking after breakfast, about half-past twelve, before the gate, I saw a numerous cavalcade approaching, preceded by the Colonel of the 53rd: it was Admiral Taylor, who had arrived the evening before with his squadron from the Cape, and was to leave us the next day but one for Europe. Among his captains was his son, who had lost his arm at the battle of Trafalgar, where his father commanded the Tonnant.
Admiral Taylor said he was come to pay his respects to the Emperor; but he had just received for answer that he was unwell; at which the Admiral was much disappointed. I observed to him that the climate of Longwood was very unfavourable to Napoleon. I chose an unlucky time for making this observation, as the sky was beautiful, and the place displayed at this moment all the illusion which it is capable of producing: the Admiral did not fail to remark that the situation was charming. I replied, in a tone of genuine sorrow: “Yes, Admiral, to-day, and for you, who only remain a quarter of an hour in it.” At this he seemed quite disconcerted, began to make excuses, and begged me to pardon him for having made use of what he called an impertinent expression. I must render justice to the peculiar urbanity of manner which he evinced on this occasion.
THE EMPEROR AIMED AT BY A SOLDIER.—OUR EVENING
AMUSEMENTS.—NOVELS.—POLITICAL REMARKS.
12th—14th. The Emperor had now for several days left off his excursions on horseback. The result of his attempt to resume them, on the 12th, was neither calculated to revive his partiality for this amusement, nor to render it once more habitual to him. We had cleared our valley as usual, and were re-ascending at the back part opposite Longwood, when a soldier from one of the heights, where there had hitherto been no post, called out several times, and made various signs to us. As we were in the very centre of our circuit, we paid no attention to him. He then came running down towards us, out of breath, charging his piece as he ran. General Gourgaud remained behind, to see what he wanted, while we continued our route. I could see the General, after dodging the fellow many times, collar and secure him: he made him follow him as far as the neighbouring post by the Grand Marshal’s, which the General endeavoured to make him enter, but he escaped from him. He found that he was a drunken corporal, who had not rightly understood his watchword. He had frequently levelled his piece at us. This circumstance, which might have been very easily repeated, made us tremble for the Emperor’s life: the latter looked upon it only as an affront, and a fresh obstacle to the continuance of his exercises on horseback.
Napoleon had ceased giving invitations to dinner: the hours, the distance, the dressing, were inconvenient to the guests: to us these parties produced only trouble and constraint, without any pleasure.
The Emperor had by degrees resumed his regular work. He now dictated daily to the Grand Marshal upon the expedition to Egypt; some time before dinner he ordered me and my son to be called to him, in order to read the different chapters of the Campaigns of Italy over again, and separate them into paragraphs. Reversis had gone out of fashion; the Emperor had given it up. The time after dinner was henceforth devoted to the reading of some work: the Emperor himself read aloud; when he was tired, he handed the book over to some other person; but then he never could bear their reading more than a quarter of an hour. We were now reading novels, and we began many which we never finished, Manon l’ Escaut we soon rejected as fit only for the ante-chamber; then followed the Memoirs of Grammont, which are so full of wit, but so far from honourable to the morals of the great of that period; the Chevalier de Faublas, which is only to be endured at the age of twenty years, &c. Whenever these readings could be protracted to eleven or twelve o’clock, the Emperor seemed truly rejoiced. He called this making conquests over time; and he found such victories not the most easy to gain.
Politics had also their turn. Every three or four weeks, or thereabouts, we received a large packet of journals from Europe; this, like the cut of a whip, set us going again for some days, during which we discussed, analyzed, and re-discussed the news: and afterwards fell again insensibly into our usual melancholy. The last journals had reached us by the Greyhound sloop, which had arrived some days before. They occupied one of the evenings, and gave rise to one of those moments, wherein that ardour and inspiration burst forth from the Emperor, which I have sometimes witnessed in the Council of State, and which escape him from time to time even here.
He took large strides as he walked amongst us, becoming gradually more animated, and only interrupting his discourse by a few moments of meditation.
“Poor France,” said he, “what will be thy lot! Above all, what is become of thy glory!... I suppress the rest, which is of very great length: I must suppress it.”
The papers seeming to say that England desired the dismemberment of France, but that Russia had opposed it, the Emperor said that he expected this; that it was natural that Russia should be dissatisfied at seeing France divided; because she would then have to fear that the different states of Germany would unite against her; whilst, on the other hand, the English aristocracy must be desirous of reducing France to the extremity of weakness, and of establishing despotism upon her ruins. “I know,” said he, “that this is not your opinion,” addressing himself to me; “you are an Englishman.” I replied that it was very difficult to dispute with him; but that it appeared to me that in this same English aristocracy, it must be allowed, there might possibly exist heads sufficiently clear, as well as hearts just enough, to understand that, after having overthrown that which threatened their existence, it might prove advantageous to raise up that which was no longer to be dreaded; that circumstances were now singularly favourable for establishing a new system, which might for ever unite the two nations in their dearest interests, and render them necessary to each other, instead of keeping them in perpetual enmity, &c. The Emperor concluded the conversation by saying that he must be very perverse, without doubt; but that, with every consideration that he could give the subject, he could foresee nothing but catastrophes, massacres, and bloodshed.
ON THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CABINET OF
BONAPARTE, BY GOLDSMITH.—DETAILS, &C.
15th.—When I was on board the Northumberland, I had heard the Secret History of the Cabinet of Bonaparte by Goldsmith, spoken of, and, in my first leisure moments here, I felt an inclination to skim it over; but I met with great difficulty in obtaining it, as the English excused themselves from putting it into my hands, for a considerable time, saying, it was such an abominable libel that they were afraid to let me have it, and were themselves ashamed of it. I was for a long time under the necessity of urging them incessantly, repeating that we were all proof against such civilities; that he who was the object of them only used to laugh at such things, when chance brought them before his eyes; and moreover that, if this work was so bad as it was said to be, it must have failed in its end, and ceased to be hurtful at all. I asked who this Goldsmith, the author, was. I was told, he was an Englishman who ... at Paris, and who, upon his return to England, had endeavoured to avoid ... and at the same time to gain more money, by loading with insults and imprecations that idol to whom he had so long offered incense. I at last obtained the work. It must be confessed that it would be difficult to bring together more horrible and ridiculous abominations than are presented to us in the first pages of this book: rapes, poison, incest, assassination, and all that belongs to them, are heaped by the author upon his hero, and that from his earliest childhood. It is true that the author appears to have given himself little concern about bestowing on these calumnies any air of probability; and that he himself sometimes demonstrates their impossibility, and sometimes refutes them by anachronisms, alibis, and contradictions of every kind; mistakes in the names, persons, and most authentic facts, &c. Thus, for example, when Napoleon was only about ten or twelve years of age, and was confined within the bounds of the Military School, he causes him to commit outrages which would require at least the age of manhood, and a certain degree of liberty, &c. The author makes him undertake what he calls the robberies of Italy, at the head of eight thousand galley-slaves, who had escaped from the bagnio at Toulon. Afterwards, he makes twenty thousand Poles abandon the Austrian ranks to join the standard of the French General, &c. The same author makes Napoleon arrive at Paris in Fructidor, when all the world knows that he never quitted his army. He makes him treat with the Prince of Condé, and ask the hand of the Princess Royal as the price of his treachery. I omit a number of other things equally absurd and impudent. It is evident that, with respect to the loose and ridiculous anecdotes particularly, he only collected all he could hear; but from what source has he drawn his information? The greater part of the anecdotes have certainly had their rise in certain defamatory and malevolent circles of Paris; but, as long as they were on that ground, they still preserved the appearance of some wit, salt, point, colour, some grace in the relation; whilst the stories in this book have evidently descended from the drawing-rooms into the streets, and have only been picked up after rolling in the kennel. The English allowed it to be so coarse that, except to the most vulgar classes of society, the work was a poison which carried its own antidote along with it.
It may probably excite astonishment that I did not lay aside such a production upon reading the first page of it; but its coarseness and vulgarity are so gross that it cannot excite anger: on the other hand, there is no disgust which may not be got over in order to amuse the heavy hours at St. Helena. We consider ourselves fortunate in having any thing to peruse. “Time,” said the Emperor, a few days ago, “is the only thing of which we have too much here.” I therefore continued the work. And besides, I may perhaps be allowed to say that it is not without some pleasure that I now read the absurd tales, the lies, and calumnies, which an author pretends to derive, as usual, from the best authority, relating to objects which I am now so perfectly well acquainted with, and which have become as familiar to me as the details of my own life; and it is likewise gratifying to lay down pages filled with the falsest representations, and exhibiting a portrait purely fanciful to study truth by the side of the real personage, in his own conversation, ever full of novelties and grand ideas.
The Emperor having desired me to come to him this morning after breakfast, I found him in his morning-gown lying on his sofa. The conversation led him to ask me what I was reading at this moment. I replied that it was one of the most notorious and scurrilous libels published against him, and I quoted to him upon the spot some of its most abominable stories. He laughed heartily at them, and desired to see the work. I sent for it, and we went over it together. In passing from one horrid calumny to another, he exclaimed, “Jesus!” crossing himself repeatedly—a custom which I have perceived to be familiar with him, in his little friendly circle, whenever he meets with monstrous, impudent, cynical assertions, which excite his indignation and surprise without rousing his anger. As we proceeded, the Emperor analyzed certain facts, and corrected points of which the author might have known something. Sometimes he shrugged up his shoulders out of compassion; at others, he laughed heartily; but he never betrayed the least sign of anger. When he read the article which speaks of his great debaucheries and excesses, the violences and the outrages which he is represented to have committed, he observed that the author, doubtless, wished to make a hero of him in every respect; that he willingly left him to those who had charged him with impotency; that it was for these gentlemen to agree among themselves; adding, merrily, “that every man was not so unlucky as the pleader of Toulouse.” They were in the wrong, however, he continued, to attack him upon the score of morals; him, who, as all the world knew, had so singularly improved them. They could not be ignorant that he was not at all inclined, by nature, to debauchery; and that, moreover, the multiplicity of his affairs would never have allowed him time to indulge in it. When he came to the pages where his mother was described as acting the most disgusting and abject part at Marseilles, he stopped, and repeated several times with an accent of indignation, and something approaching to grief, “Ah! Madame!—Poor Madame!—with her lofty character! if she were to read this!—Great God!”
We thus passed more than two hours, after which he began to dress. Doctor O’Meara was introduced to him: it was the usual hour of his being admitted. “Dottore,” said the Emperor to him in Italian, whilst he was shaving himself, “I have just read one of your fine London productions against me.” The Doctor’s countenance indicated a wish to know what it was. I shewed him the book at a distance; it was himself who had lent it to me: he was disconcerted. “It is a very just remark,” continued the Emperor, “that it is the truth only which gives offence. I have not been angry for a moment; but I have frequently laughed at it.” The Doctor endeavoured to reply, and puzzled himself with high-flown sentences: it was, he said, an infamous, disgusting libel; every body knew it to be such; nobody paid any attention to it: nevertheless, persons might be found who would believe it, from its not having been replied to. “But how can that be helped?” said the Emperor. “If it should enter any one’s head to put in print that I had grown hairy, and walked on all fours, there are people who would believe it, and would say that God had punished me as he did Nebuchadnezzar. And what could I do? There is no remedy in such cases.” The Doctor went away, hardly able to believe the gaiety, the indifference, the good-nature of which he had just been witness: with regard to ourselves, we were now accustomed to it.
THE EMPEROR RESOLVES TO LEARN ENGLISH, &C.
16th.—About three o’clock the Emperor desired me to come and converse with him whilst he was dressing himself; we afterwards took a few turns in the garden. He observed, accidentally, that it was a shame he could not yet read English. I assured him that, if he had continued his lessons after the two that I had given when we were off Madeira, he would now be able to read every kind of English books. He was thoroughly persuaded of this, and ordered me to oblige him henceforth to take a lesson every day. The conversation then led me to observe that I had just given my son his first lesson in mathematics. It is a branch of knowledge which the Emperor is very fond of, and in which he is particularly skilled. He was astonished that I could teach my son so much without the help of any work, and without any copy-book; he said, he did not know that I was so learned in this way, and threatened me with examining, when I did not expect it, both the master and the scholar. At dinner he attacked what he called the Professor of Mathematics, who was very near being posed by him: one question did not wait for another, and they were frequently very keen. He never ceased to regret that the mathematics were not taught at a very early age in the Lyceums. He said that all the intentions he had formed respecting the Universities had been frustrated, complained bitterly of M. de Fontanes, lamenting that, whilst he was obliged to be at a distance, carrying on the war, they spoiled all he had done at home, &c. This led the Emperor back to the first years of his life, to father Patrault, his Professor of Mathematics, whose history he gave us: I have already introduced it.
FIRST ENGLISH LESSON, &c.
17th.—The Emperor took his first lesson in the English language to-day. And as it was my intention to put him at once in a situation to read the papers with readiness, this first lesson consisted of nothing more than getting acquainted with an English newspaper; in studying the form and plan of it; in learning the places that are always given to the different subjects which it contains; in separating the notices and gossip of the town from politics; and, in the latter, in learning to distinguish what is authentic from what is mere report or conjecture.
I have engaged that, if the Emperor could endure being annoyed every day with such lessons, he would be able to read the papers in a month without the assistance of any of us. The Emperor wished afterwards to do some exercises; he wrote some sentences which were dictated to him, and translated them into English, with the assistance of a little table, which I made for him, of the auxiliary verbs and articles, and aided by the dictionary for other words which I made him look out himself. I explained to him the rules of syntax and grammar, as they came before us: in this manner he formed various sentences, which amused him more than the versions which we also attempted. After the lesson, at two o’clock, we took a walk in the garden.
Several musquet shots were fired: they were so near us that they appeared to have been fired in the garden itself. The Emperor observed to me that my son (we thought it was he) seemed to have good sport: I replied that it was the last time he should enjoy it so near the Emperor. “Really,” said he, “you may as well go and tell him that he is only to come within cannon-shot of us.” I ran: we had accused him wrongfully, for the guns were fired by the people who were training the Emperor’s horses.
After dinner, during coffee, the Emperor, taking me to the corner of the chimney-piece, put his hand upon my head to measure my height, and said, “I am a giant to you.”—“Your Majesty is a giant to so many others,” I observed to him, “that I am not at all concerned at it.” He spoke immediately of something else; for he does not like to dwell on expressions of this kind.