Memoirs of the life, exile, and conversations of the Emperor Napoleon. (Vol. II)

by comte de Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases

EQUALITY OF PUNISHMENTS.—THE EMPEROR REQUIRES ME TO GIVE HIM A DETAILED HISTORY OF MY ATLAS.

15th.—The Emperor, during his walk, conversed on various subjects, and at length happened to light on that of crimes and punishments. He observed that the greatest jurists, even those who had been influenced by the spirit of the age, were divided as to the principle of the equalization of capital punishments. At the establishment of the Code, he should have been averse to equalization, had not circumstances obliged him to adopt a contrary course. He asked my opinion: “I am,” said I, "decidedly favourable to the inequality of punishments. Our notions demand a gradation in punishments, analogous to that which we conceive in crimes. The harmony of our sensations seems to require this. I can never bring myself to rank on a level with each other the wretch who has murdered his father and him who has merely committed a slight robbery accompanied by violence. Should these two criminals be visited by the same punishment?

“In this question the criminal himself is least of all to be considered. The punishment is his business; and humanity discovers many hidden modes of relieving his physical suffering. His ideas previously to the commission of the crime, the feelings which his punishment creates in the minds of the spectators, and the effect it produces on society in general:—these are the points which must claim the attention of the legislator in deciding the question of the equalization of punishments. It is erroneous to suppose that death alone is sufficient, and that the kind of death has no influence on the mind of the criminal in the premeditation of his crime; for if there be inequality of punishment, there is no culprit who would not make his choice if he were permitted so to do. Let any member of society consult his own feelings: he would shudder at the very idea of certain punishments, while perhaps he would be totally indifferent to certain modes of death. The inequality of punishments and the solemnity of executions belong therefore to the justice and policy of civilization. Yet I conceive that it would now be impossible to subdue public opinion on this point.”[^[11]]

The Emperor entirely concurred in these ideas. Having mentioned the crime of regicide, he observed that it might truly be said to be the greatest of all crimes, owing to the consequences which it produced. “The man,” said he, “who should have murdered me in France would have subverted all Europe; and how many times have I not been exposed to assassination!”

Lady Loudon, wife of Lord Moira, the Governor-General of India, has been for several days at St. Helena, where she attracts general attention. She is a lady of high rank, corresponding nearly with a French Duchess under the old regime. The English officers treat her with the utmost respect. To-day the Admiral invited her to a little entertainment on board the Northumberland. He sent a messenger on horseback to request me to lend him my Atlas for the evening, in order that he might shew it to Lady Loudon, whose husband was described in it as the first representative of the Plantagenets, and consequently as the legitimate heir to the throne of England.

The Admiral and I were on a footing of perfect indifference; indeed we had been nearly strangers to each other since the moment he put me ashore. The request was not so much a mark of politeness to me, as a compliment to the work itself. The Atlas had been the subject of conversation, the lady had expressed a wish to see it, and the Admiral felt a desire to shew it to her. However, I was unable to satisfy this desire. The book was in the Emperor’s chamber, and such was the answer I returned.

The Emperor smiled at the honour which the Admiral had intended for me; and I could not help pitying the amusement that had been prepared for the lady. This circumstance led the Emperor himself to speak of the Atlas, and to repeat some observations which had fallen from him before. He remarked that he heard my work spoken of at all times and in all places; that he found it sought after by foreigners as well as Frenchmen. He had heard it mentioned on board the Bellerophon and the Northumberland, at the Island of St. Helena, and, in short, every where, persons of information and rank either knew the work, or expressed a wish to become acquainted with it. “This,” said he, in a lively strain, “is what I call enjoying a real triumph, a great reputation in the literary world. I wish you would give me the history of this Atlas. Tell me when and how you conceived the idea of it, the manner in which it was executed, and its results: why you first of all published it under a fictitious name, and why you did not afterwards affix your real name to it: in short, give me a true and particular account; you understand, Mr. Councillor of State?”

I replied that it would be a long story; though to me the recital would not be devoid of pleasure; for, I added, that my Atlas was the history of a great portion of my life, and that, above all, I was indebted to it for the happiness of being now near the person of the Emperor.

The following is the narrative, such as it appeared when corrected after my first hasty notes. Its length, doubtless, requires indulgence; but this I trust the reader will be inclined to grant, on consideration that the details which I here enter into revive the recollection of my happiest years, of the period of my youth, my health and strength, in a word, of the dear but brief interval of the plenitude of life. I once more entreat the reader to pardon the prolixity in which I have indulged; but this statement so forcibly revives my recollections of past happiness that even now, on reading it over, I cannot find it in my heart to cancel any part of it.

"This Work was partly the fruit of chance; but above all, of necessity, which, as the common proverb says, is the mother of industry.... At the time of the first reverses of the French emigrants, I was cast by the political hurricane in the streets of London, without friends, without money, and without resources; but possessing the requisite courage and willingness for exertion. To a man animated by such a spirit, London, at that time, afforded certain sources of emolument.

"After having unsuccessfully made several applications, I determined to rely on myself alone, and, like Figaro, I decided on turning author. For a moment, I had thoughts of becoming a romance writer: this idea was suggested to me by the proposals of a bookseller; but he required too much and was inclined to pay too little. I then turned my thoughts to writing history, which, at all events, was calculated to procure for me a certain moral advantage, by storing my mind with positive knowledge. It was then I conceived the first idea of my Atlas, which I may truly regard as an inspiration from Heaven, for to it I owed my life. The work was at first a simple sketch, a mere nomenclature, very different from the form in which it now appears. However, it sufficed immediately to relieve me from embarrassment, and to secure to me what might be called a little fortune, in comparison with the miseries endured by the other emigrants. Then, Sire, came the Peace of Amiens, and the benefits conferred on us by your amnesty. I was enabled to make a journey to France, merely as a traveller, having no other object in view than to breathe my native air and to see the French capital. There I found myself at liberty to express my sentiments without restraint; investigation was easy; my ideas and my judgment were enlarged; I was master of my time, and I undertook to arrange my Atlas in the form in which it now appears. I proposed publishing regularly four sheets per quarter. I was now vastly improved both in my mind and circumstances. Interest, attention, good offers, money and connexions, poured in upon me; and I may confidently affirm that this was the happiest period of my life.

"In England, I had published my Work under a feigned name, in order to avoid compromising the honour of my own. I happened to fix upon Le Sage, just as I might have decided on Leblanc, Legris, or Lenoir. But I could not have made a more unlucky choice, or, at least, I could not have assumed a more general appellation. Sometime afterwards, a letter intended for me passed through all the different colonies of French emigrants in London, and was delivered by turns to twenty-two priests, who all bore the name of Le Sage. At length one, who had apparently discovered that the name did not belong to me, sent me the letter in a violent rage, observing that, when people thought proper to change their names, they should at least avoid taking those that belonged to other persons.

"In France I still preserved the name of Le Sage, which had now become identified with my Atlas. To have published it under a new name might have led to the supposition that it was a new work. Besides, I did not wish to expose my own name to the chance of failure, to the attacks of the Journals, or to the bickerings of criticism. Even though I had been assured of the complete success of the work, I should not probably have felt the more inclined to affix my real name to it, owing to a remnant of my old prejudices, of which I could not easily divest myself.

"Certainly this literary fame flattered me not a little; but I had sprung from a warlike race, and I conceived that I was in duty bound to pursue fame of another kind. However, circumstances rendered this impossible, and I think it proper to mention that at least I was not unconscious of the duty. I never had cause to repent of my double appellation. Independently of my real motive for assuming it, it diffused around me an air of adventure and romance which was by no means disagreeable, and which was moreover in unison with my temper and character. It occasioned many mistakes and humourous scenes which afforded me considerable amusement. In England, for example, I have often, when in company, been questioned in the most innocent way imaginable respecting the merits of M. Le Sage’s work; and at a boarding-school I was once addressed in very discourteous language, because I obstinately persisted in condemning my own Atlas.

"So long as I continued myself to manage the publication of the work, my method was to treat in person with all who offered to set their names down as subscribers. I had now no favours to solicit; I rather found it necessary in some instances to guard against receiving those that were offered. In France particularly I was overwhelmed with acts of kindness and flattering compliments. Some paid me these attentions because they knew me, others precisely because they did not know me; and all because I conducted myself alike to each. For my part, I enjoyed the curious spectacle that now presented itself to me. As every one who wished to become a subscriber was obliged to give in his own name, I took a review of many characters, whom I well knew, and observed them in silence. I was thus enabled to meditate at my ease on the curious diversity of opinion, judgment, and taste. The point which one condemned was precisely that which another most admired, which a third declared to be indispensable, and which a fourth pronounced to be inadmissible. Each according to custom failed not to set forth his own opinion as the prevailing one: it was the sentiment of all Paris and of every body.

"I had now an opportunity of being convinced of the great advantage that a man derives from superintending his own business himself, and of the important influence of politeness and good manners in all the affairs of life. I acceded to every thing that was proposed, I received every hint that was suggested, and I was repaid a hundred-fold for my complaisance. It frequently happened that a person who had called on me, without any intention of purchasing the work, was not only induced to carry it away with him, but brought me ten, twenty, or even a hundred, additional subscribers.

"One described my Atlas as a classic work to the Minister of the Interior; another recommended it to the Minister for Foreign Affairs; a third promised to procure for me the decoration of the Legion of Honour, and a fourth wrote a flattering critique on the work, and got it inserted in the public journals. Some carried their interest and attachment for me even to a degree of enthusiasm. Of this the following are instances. One of my provincial subscribers, who was unacquainted with me, wrote to request, as a particular favour, that I would get my portrait engraved to embellish the work, offering, in case I acceded to the proposition, to defray half the expenses of the engraving. Another, who was the owner of the Chateau de Montmorency, paid me a visit every week under pretence of enquiring whether I had got a new sheet of my Atlas ready for publication, but in reality, as he himself assured me, to pass his happiest hours in my society. He added that, if ever I should take a fancy to sell my conversation as I did the sheets of my work, it was in my power, if I chose, to ruin him. I afterwards learned that this was a man of a very eccentric turn; one of La Bruyere’s characters; quite after the manner of Jean-Jacques. For a considerable time he seemed to rack his invention to make me offers of service in the most delicate way imaginable: he even went so far as to throw out paternal suggestions to me. ‘M. Le Sage,[M. Le Sage,]’ said he, oftener than once ‘you ought to marry. You possess qualities that are calculated to insure the happiness of a wife, and still more that of a father-in-law.’ I must not omit to mention that the old gentleman had but one daughter, and she was a rich heiress. However, the warmth of our intimacy gradually abated, till at length I entirely lost the acquaintance. It was not until a considerable time afterwards[afterwards] that, being on a country excursion with a party of ladies, the sight of the Chateau de Montmorency revived the recollection of my old friend. I related the history of his eccentricities to the ladies who accompanied me: their curiosity was excited, and we determined to visit the chateau. The porter refused to admit us. On my enquiring whether the gentleman was at his country residence, I received for answer that he was there, and that this was precisely the reason why we could not be admitted. I thought it very extraordinary that he should thus immure himself and render himself totally inaccessible. With considerable difficulty I prevailed on the servant to announce M. Le Sage. The sound of the name operated like enchantment; the affront offered to an elegant calash and rich liveries was immediately repaired. The gates were thrown open, apparently to the no small astonishment of the porter. The servants received orders to show us over the building and to offer us every kind of refreshment. We had brought with us in the carriage provisions for a little rural repast; but a sumptuous dinner was laid out for us in one of the best apartments; and we could not, with any thing like a good grace, decline accepting what was so politely offered. All this hospitality was perfectly disinterested on the part of the worthy old gentleman, who was confined to his chamber by the gout. He was overjoyed at seeing me; and he seemed to regard my visit as the return of the prodigal son. He insisted on seeing the ladies who accompanied me, and was carried into the dining-room to do the honours of the dessert. One thing that amused us infinitely was that he seemed to have no idea of the rank of the friends by whom I was accompanied; and he treated them like persons of inferior rank, though they were in reality ladies of distinction. The old gentleman would now scarcely allow me to depart; he insisted on my repeating my visit, and said, that I and all my friends should ever be welcome to his residence. But alas! I could not avail myself of his kindness; for a few days afterwards I read in the papers an account of the death of this kind and sincere friend.

"From the commencement of my greatness, I may, under every point of view, date the termination of the golden age of my Atlas. When I was transplanted to Court and permitted to approach your Majesty’s person, I conceived that I could not with propriety descend to the details that had hitherto occupied me. I confided the management of the copyright to one of my old college companions, who had been an emigrant like myself, but who did not turn the publication to so good an account as I had done.

"On entering upon my new post at Court, I was loaded with compliments on my production; but to these I replied indifferently, and just as one would do at a ball, after dropping one’s mask. When it was found that I never alluded to my work, that I never quoted from it, and that I avoided all discussion on it, I was never spoken to on the subject; and at length people began to wonder how I had ever written it, and indeed to doubt whether I had any right at all to be considered as its author.

"On hearing these words, the Emperor said to me, ‘My dear Las Cases, even this doubt has found its way to St. Helena. I have heard it affirmed that the work was not written by you, that you purchased the manuscript from the real author; and in support of this assertion it has been remarked that you know nothing at all about the book, because you never speak of it. To these observations,’ continued he, ‘I have merely contented myself with saying, Did you never know any question to remain without a complete answer? Besides I recognise throughout the whole work the style, the very expressions, of Las Cases.’

“Many,” said I, resuming my narrative, "will think I injured myself by this denial; but I preferred good taste to quackery, and I was only acting according to the dictates of my natural disposition. Your Majesty was the other day describing how Syees used to present himself loaded with written plans, and at the very first word of contradiction, as soon as he found it necessary to act on the defensive, he would gather up his papers and be off in a moment. This was precisely my feeling. I never could stand up publicly to support my opinions. Before I could do this, I must enjoy the authority of rank or the freedom of intimate friendship: otherwise I prefer dooming myself to silence, that is to say, when I am not interrogated and urged to the point. But to return to my subject.

"So long as I remained in obscurity I enjoyed the good-will of every one; but my elevation rendered me an object of enmity, and I felt the influence of that vague feeling of envy and malevolence which ever follows the footsteps of fortune. The public journals, which for a length of time had overflowed with flattery and agreeable expressions in favour of the Historical Atlas, now inserted some very ill-natured articles respecting the work, and when these were traced to their source, the writers frankly avowed that they had been occasioned solely by changes that had taken place in political opinions and public affairs.

"A report was delivered to the Institute of all the works that had appeared for several years past; and in this report the Atlas was very severely treated. Happening to be one day in company with the writer of this report, to whom I was known only by the name of Le Sage, I expressed to him my dissatisfaction at what he had said of the Atlas. He candidly confessed that the work and its author were alike unknown to him; that, having found the labour of writing the report too much for him, he had divided the task among several other persons. He informed me that the article on Le Sage’s Atlas was infinitely more severe when delivered to him than it appeared as inserted in the report. He had softened it down considerably. ‘I can easily perceive,’ continued he, ‘that you have enemies in the literary world, and for these you are indebted to your habits and your situation. You have connected yourself with a Count somebody, who holds places at Court; but courtiers and authors never agree well together. Those gentlemen are, for the most part, very unlike us. It is said that, in this curious partnership, you supply the talent and he provides the money. What is the use of that? The Count is only making his profit of you; your work is good, and your bookseller would have remunerated you for it. However, I am only repeating what I have heard, and I advise you to what I conceive to be your interest. If you wish to enjoy our suffrage, you must connect yourself with us, you must identify yourself with our doctrines, and leave the great folks to themselves.’

"I replied, with all possible civility, that I was certainly indebted to him for his kind advice, though it was not just then in my power to follow it. I assured him that he had formed an unfair opinion of my friend; that our purses and our very lives were common to each other; that our friendship and intimacy were indissoluble; that we had vowed to live and die together, and that nothing could induce us to break that vow. It was altogether a truly comic scene.

"Some time afterwards I was dining at the table of a Prince: I was seated beside my illustrious host, and wore a uniform covered with lace. The member of the Institute was one of the guests. Surprise and embarrassment were portrayed in his countenance. I spoke to him several times; but he always drew close to his neighbours, whispering to them, and apparently making enquiries. After dinner, he came up to me, and very good-humouredly begged me to relieve him from his perplexity. He said that he perfectly recollected having had the honour of meeting me before, but that he was quite at a loss to comprehend the trick that I had played upon him. I disclaimed any intention of hoaxing him. ‘All that you have seen,’ said I, ‘and all that I have told you, is nothing but reality and truth. The mystery is easily solved. You then saw M. Le Sage who supplies the talent, and you now see M. Le Comte who provides the funds. You now understand how histories are written, and I have learned how reports are made out.’

“An equally ridiculous mistake procured for M. Le Sage in the famous Yellow Dwarf, the honour of being set down as a Weathercock, in quality of genealogist of the order under the humorous name of Parvulus Sapiens (Little Le Sage). For this favour, as I afterwards learned, I was indebted to the suppression that was made during the King’s reign of the genealogy of your Majesty, whose descent I was supposed to have traced from Æneas and Ascanuis. It is difficult to conceive what could have been meant by all this, as there was nothing in the Atlas that could either directly or indirectly have suggested such an idea. However, at all the various times at which the Atlas and its author were assailed, numerous zealous and fervent partisans enquired whether I would be pleased to permit them to take up my defence. I invariably desired that the subject might be dropped; I conceived that, by thus occupying public attention, I should surely endanger my own tranquillity. I smiled at the ill-natured attacks that were made on poor M. Le Sage; but I should have been very sorry to have seen them extended to his alias.

“If however my Atlas enjoyed this general and extensive success, it certainly deserved it. The work is indeed adapted to every age, to every country, to every period; it is suited to all opinions, classes and plans of education. It is an assistant to him who wishes to learn, and a remembrancer to him who has learned. It is a guide to the scholar and an illustrator to the master. It embraces chronology, history, geography, politics, &c. To those who understand it, and know how to use it, it may be truly said to compose a whole library in itself. It is the vade mecum of the pupil and the tutor, of the scholar and the man of business.

“Thus it had an immediate sale, and never, I imagine, did any literary work prove so productive to its author. On its first appearance, the daily subscriptions frequently amounted to 2 or 300 louis. During the period when I personally superintended the publication, I calculated that the receipts constituted a yearly income of at least 60 or 80,000 francs. It procured me a fortune. I had no other, for the Revolution had deprived me of my patrimony, which I had afterwards no hope of recovering; for I had been obliged to renounce it upon oath, before I could be permitted to set foot on the French territory.

“There[“There] have been published 8 or 10,000 copies of my Atlas in various editions; and their sale has thrown into circulation 8 or 900,000, perhaps a million of francs, out of which there has been a clear profit of 300,000 francs now in my hands. This constitutes my whole fortune, for I possess nothing that has not arisen out of my Atlas, and that may not be included in its accounts. On my departure from Europe, the sum of 150,000 francs was due to me in outstanding debts, either good or bad; and I possessed a collection of books obtained by exchange, worth 200,000 francs; which being divided into lots of 1000 crowns each, and exported to foreign countries, seemed to promise certain returns. But, unfortunately, out of all this brilliant produce, I can now only reckon upon what I have already in my hands; the rest is involved in so many chances that I cannot but consider it as lost. I have no agent in Europe to manage my affairs, for I had not time to make arrangements for that purpose; and the details are so numerous, scattered, and diversified, that I could not possibly give any one a clue to follow. The outstanding debts are growing old; some of my debtors are dead, some have left the country, and as for the books, they are mostly scattered about, spoiled, and lost.

“At one time my work was on the point of ensuring to me the possession of a brilliant fortune; but my prospects were defeated by the vilest shuffling. The details of this case are so curious that I cannot forbear mentioning them to your Majesty.

“At the commencement of the year 1813, two merchants, who had discovered that I was the author of Le Sage’s Historical Atlas, called on me, and offered, if I would supply them with two millions’ worth of copies, to pay me immediately at the rate of 20 per cent. in ready money, and to convey the books gratis to London, where they should still be my property and should remain at my disposal. I stared at this—I could not conceive what was meant, and suspected that the merchants were hoaxing me. They, on the other hand, sought to explain themselves, by saying that the offer was made for the sake of procuring licences, an affair with which they found I was totally unacquainted. On repeating this conversation to a friend, I afterwards learned that the vessels which were licensed to sail to England, to bring home colonial goods, could not leave France without exporting goods equal in nominal value to their intended importation. Books were included among the allowable objects of exportation, and the merchants sought to obtain a light freight and a high price, which, at little expense, would entitle them to a considerable importation. My Atlas was admirably calculated for this kind of speculation. However, before I entered into any agreement, I consulted the Director General of Customs, and the President of the Committee of Exportation, by whom I was informed that the thing was perfectly legal. With this assurance I immediately set to work. I entered upon one of the most curious speculations that can possibly be conceived. Only a brief interval was allowed me for making the necessary preparations. One hundred forms in folio were distributed among thirty of the principal printing offices in Paris; and from that moment the presses were kept at work without intermission. All the vellum paper of a certain size was bought up, and it daily increased in price until it reached upwards of 100 per cent. Such a general bustle prevailed among all the printers in Paris as to alarm the police, until the affair was fully investigated and explained. I afforded employment either directly or indirectly to between 300 and 400 hands. At the expiration of one-and-twenty days I was to be ready with the two millions[millions] worth of copies of the Atlas, and was to receive 400,000 francs in ready money. I was perhaps the only individual in the world who could have engaged in such a speculation; for by a singular chance, I had kept all my forms ready composed by purchasing the types at a vast expense. I was now reaping the fruits of ten years’ industry and expenditure. This was truly a prize in the lottery. I was mad with joy at my unexpected good fortune. But alas! I was building on a sandy foundation, and I was doomed to pay dearly for the few happy moments of my illusion.

“The cynical M. de P——, the Director General of the bookselling trade, who was my colleague in the Council of State, seemed bent on my ruin, though I was unable to divine the cause of his animosity. While he was giving me every assurance of his readiness to serve me, he was, in an underhand way straining every nerve to injure me; and was exciting against me all the most active booksellers, whom he had induced to become the agents of his operations. Of these facts I can entertain no doubt; for the letters secretly written on this subject by P.... were confidentially communicated to me; but motives of delicacy forbid my taking the satisfaction of reproaching him with his baseness.

“He first of all intimated to me that the sheets of my Atlas could not be carried out of France, because the law permitted the exportation of books only. I then enquired whether books in sheets were suffered to be exported; and, on receiving an answer in the affirmative, I observed that my sheets must be considered merely as unbound books. M. de P.... then declared that the favour granted by the Emperor could be extended only to booksellers and not to authors; but M. de Montalivet, the Minister of the Interior, objected to this partiality and silenced M. de P..... The latter then asserted that the price of my sheets had been considerably encreased; but it was proved by reference to two hundred advertisements inserted in the Journals during the last ten years, that the price had never varied. He next alluded to the intrinsic value of the work, and affirmed that what I sold for 100 sous did not cost me more than five or six, and started many other difficulties of an equally absurd kind. Meanwhile time was flying; the ships were taking in their freights, the advantages offered by the owners were diminishing, the arbitrary valuations of the committees arrived, and I, who had persevered in my operations in spite of every difficulty, now found myself involved in a thousand anxieties and vexations, and thought myself happy in escaping absolute ruin, and being able to recover my expenses, which exceeded 80,000 francs.”

“But,” said the Emperor, “this seems almost incredible; I can scarcely conceive how all this happened. Your speculation was exactly suited to my taste; it would have advanced you in my good opinion; I should have been delighted with your activity and the method of your details. Nothing afforded me greater pleasure than to enable those around me to make their fortunes by honest means. Why did you not appeal to me? Why did you not expose the conduct of P....? You should have seen how I would have treated him.”—"Sire," I replied, "such an idea never entered my mind, the moment was critical: your time was precious. How could I hope that your Majesty would listen to me, or that I could satisfactorily explain an affair so complicated and delicate? How could I convince you that I was the author of a work that bore the name of another? What would have been thought of one so near your Majesty’s person meddling with commercial licenses and bookselling speculations? I felt that I was so little known to your Majesty that I dreaded the thought of the affair reaching your ear. Thus, though I was actively engaged in this affair, yet I exerted every endeavour to prevent its gaining publicity, and I made up my mind to suffer the worst."

“You were very wrong,” said the Emperor. “You behaved rather awkwardly towards me and perhaps also towards P....; I cannot otherwise explain the unnatural malignity which he evinced towards you.”

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 appeared 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 ante-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 interview was very long, and very clamorous. 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 nevertheless always received him 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 need 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 53rd shall enter only by trampling over my corse.

“On hearing of your arrival, I congratulated myself in 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 an act of more refined cruelty than yours, Sir, when, a few days ago, you invited me to your table by 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, 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 battle-field, 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 delicacy 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 having intimated 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 with 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.

17th.—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 meeting 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.