LETTER TO HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.
Sire,—A sentiment, a sacred duty, brings me to the feet of your Majesty.
The zealous and faithful servant of a royal victim of adversity presumes to lift up his voice to your throne, surrounded by every prosperity which fortune can bestow; will you refuse to hear him?
Unexpectedly torn from Napoleon, and, as it were, struck with sudden death at his side, I have since wandered as in another universe, pursued every where by the recollection of sufferings which I have witnessed and can no longer share.
It is at your feet, Sire, that my heart prompts me to seek for an alleviation of my affliction, for encouragement to my hope.
Your treaty of the 2nd August, 1815, with your illustrious Allies, stipulates that Napoleon is your prisoner, and abandons to England the possession of his person, and the care and necessary measures of his detention.
I shall not say any thing against that treaty, Sire; I shall not even complain of the manner in which the British Ministers execute that part of the treaty which you have intrusted to their care.
The high interests of politics, the great grievances, however they may weigh upon my heart, are at this moment far from my thoughts; domestic cares alone occupy my breast.
I therefore implore your Majesty, as I have implored your high Allies,[[32]] to deign to protect the request which I address to the English Government, to be allowed to devote myself in London to the care of procuring for the illustrious captive, through the means allowed by the laws and regulations, some moral enjoyments, and some physical comforts, which will not be a burden to any body.
My request, Sire, is an innocent favour, natural and simple, and against which no reasonable objection can be raised; indeed, I am not without strong claims on your Majesty’s attention. You are far from being a stranger to them.
In abandoning to others the custody and detention of the captive, your Majesty has certainly not renounced your right of superintendence over the marks of attention and respect due to his sacred person. In renouncing all political interposition, your Majesty has not intended to preclude yourself from contributing to the consolations approved by your individual sentiments, and to those alleviations which do not interfere with the principal object, in view.
Every day, Sire, at St. Helena, chains are imposed, and their weight is aggravated in your name. Can you, Sire, have allowed your name to reach that spot, only to authorize odious and intolerable acts of severity?
He upon whom these acts are inflicted, Sire, is the same to whom you long gave the name of brother. Your royal heart cannot forget it, it cannot remain insensible. I therefore appeal, in order to obtain a small favour, to your sympathy, to your recollections, and even to your dignity. Your magnanimous mind, Sire, has shewn itself too much the friend of public morality, it has displayed too much private delicacy and generosity in its various bearings, to allow me to doubt for an instant of success.
And what is, Sire, once more, the object for which I require your protection? Merely to be allowed to be near the place of communication and conveyance, that is, on the spot the most favourable, and in the situation the most proper, to be able, according to the prescribed forms and regulations, to continue from afar those domestic cares which I am no longer allowed to exercise in the prison itself: that is all.
Nevertheless, Sire, I implore and expect this favour from your Majesty. And how happy should I be if your Majesty should deign to add to it that of confiding to my care that part of the private and moral interest which your great engagements cannot have compelled you to renounce. And who better than myself, Sire, could fulfil that duty? Who could devote himself to it with more ardour? I have banished myself from my native country, in order to be able to give up to that purpose the rest of my life without interruption or restraint. Deign, Sire, to listen to me, and comply with my request, I beseech you. And on whom are these cares to be bestowed? In whose favour do I solicit to be allowed to sacrifice myself? Sire, it is in favour of the man whom you once called your friend.
The reign of your Majesty is sufficiently distinguished by prodigies and monuments of glory; with these, history is already provided; let it also record acts of more exalted virtue; do something for friendship!—Let history say of you: In the midst of the most violent political contest that ever existed, he set the example of something still greater than victory—he remembered, he respected, the feelings of ancient friendship!
How many times, on our rock, have I heard the Emperor Napoleon conversing on the past events of his life, as if they had occurred several centuries ago, and, already speaking the language of history, say: I never had any war with the Emperor Alexander but a political one; that war had nothing to do with our individual feelings: I cannot suppose him to feel any personal animosity against me. A circumstance which would be worthy of you, Sire, tended to confirm him in this opinion. A report reached us on our rock that the Commissioner of your Majesty at St. Helena had, at the end of his instructions, a recommendation, written by your Majesty’s own hand, enjoining him most positively to shew the same marks of respect to the Emperor Napoleon as are shewn to yourself. We took pleasure in repeating this report to him; we were aware that he was pleased by it. Such a proceeding was in harmony with the character of your Majesty, and we believed in it without, however, having had it in our power to convince ourselves of its truth; for (during my stay, at least) we never could hold any communication with the Commissioner of your Majesty. You will doubtless have heard that Napoleon being required by the Governor of St. Helena to receive the Commissioner of your Majesty, and that of your illustrious ally, the Emperor of Austria, ordered the following answer to be given: That if those Commissioners were ordered by their Masters to take care that, in an island in the midst of the ocean, remote from the rest of the world, he should be treated with the respect due to him, he recognised in that measure the character of these two Princes; that the Governor having declared that they had no right to interfere in any thing that happened on that rock, they from that moment were without an official character in his eyes. He, however, added that he should be happy to see them as private individuals; but this message remained without effect, either from their having never been apprized of it, or from their instructions not allowing them to take advantage of it; or lastly, perhaps (and I do not think it at all improbable), because the English Governor wished in that case to subject them to certain conditions which were inconsistent with their character.
If I have thus presumed, Sire, to raise my humble voice to your Majesty, my temerity was inspired by the entire, ardent, and unalterable devotion which I cherish for him who once reigned over me, who was my master ... and that sentiment will plead in my favour in the eyes of your Majesty.
I am, &c.
COUNT DE LAS CASES.
With a heart still oppressed by all the ill usage I had experienced, proceeding from the British Government, I deemed it incumbent upon me, and a public duty as it were, to complain to Lord Bathurst in the following letter, which, by the way, was kept secret for upwards of ten months, and might have remained so for ever, had not Mr. Goulburn, Under Secretary of State, by certain misplaced and incorrect assertions which he made in the House of Commons concerning me, as will hereafter be seen, compelled me in some degree to publish it. This circumstance, however, is an additional pledge to the reader of the authenticity and correctness of all the facts which I have stated.