IV
EXTRACT OF A DISPATCH FROM LT-GENERAL SIR HUDSON LOWE TO EARL BATHURST, DATED ST-HELENA, 14 MAY 1821.
… The heart which had been… preserved in spirits of wine was put into a small silver Vase, the stomach in another, and both placed in the coffin with the body.
Mr. Rutledge, assistant surgeon of the 20th regiment, was the person who soldered up the vases in which the heart and stomach were placed, and saw them put into the coffin, the undertakers being also present.
The body, when deposited in the coffin, was dressed in the plain uniform of a French colonel of chasseurs.
The coffin, at the particular desire of Count Montholon, was constructed as follows:
1stly A plain coffin lined with tin;
2dly A lead coffin;
3dly A mahogany coffin.
Count Montholon wished to have the words «Napoléon, né à Ajaccio 15 août 1769, mort à Sainte-Hélène 5 mai 1821» inscribed on it. I wished the Word «Bonaparte» to be inserted after «Napoléon;» to this Count Montholon objected, and therefore no inscription whatever was placed on it.
The grave was formed in the following manner:
A large pit was sunk, of a sufficient width all round to admit of a wall two feet thick of solid masonry being constructed on each side; thus forming an exact oblong, the hollow space within which was precisely twelve feet deep, near eight long and five wide. A bed of masonry was at the bottom. Upon this foundation supported by eight square stones, each a foot in height, there was laid a slab of white stone five inches thick; four other slabs of the same thickness closed the sides and ends, which, being joined at the angles by Roman cement, formed a species of stone grave or sarcophagus. This was just of depth sufficient to admit the coffin being placed within it. Another large slab of white stone, which was supported on one side by two pullies, was let down upon the grave after the coffin had been put into it, and every interstice afterwards filled with stone and Roman cement.
Above the slab of white stone which formed the cover of the stone grave, two layers of masonry strongly cemented and even cramped together, were built in, so as to unite with the two foot wall which supported the earth on each side, and the vacant space between this last work of masonry and the surface of the ground, being about eight feet in depth, was afterwards filled up with earth. The whole was then covered in, a little above the level of the ground, with another bed of flat stones whose external surface extending to the brink of the two feet wall on each side of the grave, covers a space of twelve feet long and nine feet wide.
A guard has been placed over the grave.
The spot chosen is not devoid of a certain interest. The fountain near it is the one from which General Bonaparte was supplied with water daily for his own private use, brought to him every morning in two silver bottles of his own by a Chinese servant of the house. It is one of the finest springs on the island. Two very large willow trees overshadow the tomb, and there is a grove of them at a little distance below it. The ground is the property of a Mr. Forbett, a respectable tradesman of this island, who has a little cottage close adjoining to it. He assented with great readiness to the proposition of the body being buried there. I shall cause a railing to be put round the whole of the ground, it being necessary even for the preservation of the willows, many sprigs from which had already began to be taken by different individuals who went down to visit the place after the corpse was interred.