However, if we were required to pronounce an impartial opinion on him, making allowance for the irritability of our own feelings and the delicacy of his situation, we should not hesitate to declare that our grievances rested in forms rather than facts. We should say, with the Emperor, who had after all a natural predilection for him, that Admiral Cockburn is far from being an ill-disposed man, that he is even susceptible of generous and delicate sentiment; but that he is capricious, irascible, vain, and overbearing: that he is a man who is accustomed to authority, and who exercises it ungraciously; frequently substituting energy for dignity. To express in a few words the nature of our relations with respect to him, we should say, that, as a jailor, he was mild, humane, and generous, and that we have reason to be grateful to him; but that, as a host, he was generally unpolite, often something worse, and that in this character we have cause to be displeased with him.
About two or three o’clock, the Emperor took his usual airing. During our walk in the garden and our ride in the calash, he said a good deal about the events of the morning; and the conversation on this subject was resumed after dinner. Some one jokingly observed that the two first days of the Governor’s arrival had been like days of battle, and were calculated to make us appear very untractable, though we were naturally most patient and accommodating. At these last words, the Emperor smiled and pinched the ear of the individual who made the remark.
The conversation then turned on Sir Hudson Lowe. He was described as being a man about forty-five years of age; of the ordinary height, and of slender make, with red hair, a ruddy complexion, and freckled. His eyes were said to have an oblique kind of expression; glancing askance, seldom fixed full in a person’s face; surmounted by fair, bushy, and very prominent eyebrows. “He is hideous,” said the Emperor, "he has a most villainous countenance. But we must not decide too hastily; the man’s disposition may perhaps make amends for the unfavorable impression which his face produces; this is not impossible."
CONVENTION OF THE SOVEREIGNS RESPECTING NAPOLEON.—REMARKABLE
OBSERVATIONS.
18th. The weather had been horrible for some days past, but it cleared up a little to-day. The Emperor went out early to take his walk in the garden; about 4 o’clock he got into the calash and took rather a longer airing than usual. Before dinner the Emperor desired me to translate to him the Convention of the Allied Sovereigns relative to his captivity. It was as follows:—
CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, AUSTRIA, PRUSSIA, AND RUSSIA.—Signed at Paris, August 20th, 1815.
"Napoleon Bonaparte being in the power of the Allied Sovereigns, their Majesties the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Prussia, have agreed, by virtue of the stipulations of the treaty of the 25th of March, 1815, on the measures best calculated to preclude the possibility of his making any attempt to disturb the peace of Europe.
"Art. I.—Napoleon Bonaparte is considered by the Powers who signed the treaty of the 20th of March last, as their prisoner.
"Art. II.—His safeguard is specially intrusted to the British Government.
"The choice of the place and the measures which may best ensure the object of the present stipulation, are reserved to his Britannic Majesty.