Here the Grand Marshal entered the Emperor’s apartment. He came to announce the arrival of the Governor, who was escorted by the Admiral, and followed by the whole of his staff.
After some further conversation, Bertrand was left alone with the Emperor, and I proceeded to the antechamber; here all the suite was assembled. We endeavoured to exchange a few words with each other; but we were rather bent on observing than conversing.
In about half an hour, the Emperor entered the drawing-room. The valet-de-chambre on duty, who was stationed at the door within the apartment, then summoned the Governor, and he was introduced. The Admiral was following close behind him. The valet who had heard only the Governor’s name mentioned, suddenly closed the door without admitting the Admiral, who was shut out in spite of his remonstrance; and he withdrew quite disconcerted into the recess of one of the windows. The valet de chambre who was the cause of this affront, was Noverraz, a Swiss, a good and faithful servant, of whom the Emperor frequently said that his whole understanding was absorbed in his attachment to his master.
We were astonished at this unexpected occurrence; and we at first concluded that Noverraz had acted in obedience to the Emperor’s wishes. Though we had ample reason to complain of the Admiral, yet we did all in our power to relieve him from his embarrassment; his awkward situation distressed us. Meanwhile the Governor’s staff was summoned and introduced; and this circumstance served only to increase the Admiral’s confusion. In about a quarter of an hour the Emperor took leave of his visitors. The Governor came out of the drawing-room, and the Admiral eagerly advanced to meet him. They said a few words to each other with some degree of warmth, then took leave of us and departed.
We joined the Emperor in the garden, and our conversation turned on the Admiral’s discomfiture. The Emperor knew nothing of the matter. The whole circumstance was solely the effect of chance. The Emperor declared himself delighted with the joke. He burst into a fit of laughter, rubbed his hands, and exhibited the joy of a child, of a school-boy, who had successfully played off a trick on his master. “Ah! my good Noverraz,” said he, “you have done a clever thing for once in your life. He had heard me say that I would not see the Admiral again, and he thought he was bound to shut the door in his face. But this honest Swiss may perhaps carry the joke too far; if I were unfortunately to say we must get rid of the Governor, he would be for assassinating him before my eyes. After all,” said the Emperor, assuming a more serious tone, "it was entirely the Governor’s fault. He should have requested that the Admiral might be admitted, particularly as he had informed me that he could be presented only by him. Why, again, did he not request the Admiral’s admission when he presented his officers to me? He is solely to blame. But," continued he, “the Admiral has lost nothing by the mistake. I should without hesitation have apostrophized him in the presence of his countrymen. I should have told him that by the sentiment attached to the honourable uniform which we had both worn for forty years, I accused him of having, in the eyes of the world, degraded his nation and his Sovereign by wantonly and stupidly failing in respect to one of the oldest soldiers in Europe. I should have reproached him with landing me at St. Helena just as he would have landed a convict at Botany-Bay. I should have assured him that a man of true honour would shew me more respect on my rock than if I were still on my throne and surrounded by my armies.” The force and spirit of these remarks put a period to our gaiety, and closed the conversation.
As I have thus alluded to the Admiral, and as he is now about to quit us, I will once for all sum up the insults with which we have to reproach him, with as much impartiality as our situation and the state of our feelings will admit of.
We cannot pardon the affected familiarity with which he treated us, though our conduct afforded but little encouragement to it. Still less can we forgive him for having endeavoured to extend this familiarity to the Emperor. We can never forget the haughty and self-complacent air with which he addressed Napoleon by the title of General. The Emperor, it is true, has immortalized that title; but the tone and the intention with which it was applied were sufficiently insulting.
On our arrival at St. Helena, he lodged the Emperor in a little room, a few feet square, where he kept him for two months, though other residences could have been procured, and there was one which the Admiral had himself fixed upon. He indirectly prohibited the Emperor from riding on horseback, even in the grounds surrounding the Briars; and the individuals of the Emperor’s suite were loaded with embarrassments and humiliations, when they came to pay their daily visits to him in his little cell.
On our removal to Longwood, he stationed sentinels under the very windows of the Emperor; and then, by an evasion, which savoured of the bitterest irony, he alleged that this step had been taken only with a view to the General’s own advantage and protection. He suffered no one to come near us without a note from him, and, having thus placed us in close confinement, he declared that these arrangements had been made solely to secure the Emperor against importunity, and that he (the Admiral) was merely acting the part of Grand Marshal. He gave a ball, and sent a written invitation to General Buonaparte, in the same manner as he did to every individual in the suite. He replied with the most unbecoming jeers to the notes of the Grand Marshal, who used the title of Emperor, saying that he knew no Emperor at the Island of St. Helena, nor any such Sovereign in Europe, or elsewhere, who was not in his own dominions. He refused to forward a letter from the Emperor to the Prince Regent, unless it were delivered to him open, or he were permitted to read it. He even stifled the sentiments and expressions of respect which other individuals manifested for Napoleon. We were assured that he had put persons in inferior situations under arrest, merely for having used the title of Emperor or other similar expressions; which, however, were frequently employed in the 53rd regiment, doubtless, as the Emperor observed, through an irresistible sentiment with which these brave men were inspired.
The Admiral, from his own personal caprice, had limited the extent of our rides and walks. On this subject he had even broken his word to the Emperor. At a moment when he appeared somewhat inclined to make concessions, he had assured Napoleon that he was free to ride in all parts of the Island, without being annoyed even by the sight of the English officer appointed to guard him. But a few days after this, just as Napoleon was on the point of mounting his horse to ride out to breakfast in a shady spot at some distance from our residence, he found himself under the necessity of renouncing this little enjoyment. The officer declared that he must henceforth form one of the party and ride close to him. From that moment the Emperor refused to see the Admiral. The latter had moreover neglected the most ordinary forms of decorum, always fixing upon unsuitable hours for his own visits, and directing strangers who arrived at the Island to select the same unseasonable periods for visiting the Emperor. This was no doubt done with a view of preventing people from gaining access to Napoleon, who constantly refused to be seen on these occasions. It has already been stated that the Admiral acted thus when the Governor paid his first visit to Longwood; and the satisfaction he evinced at the Governor’s ill reception but too plainly betrayed his design.