“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.”