I take the liberty at the same time to enclose, under cover to you, a letter for her Majesty Maria Louisa. And here, Prince, I entreat you to allow me to lay aside the public character with which your highness is invested, to address you in your private character only. I wish to ask for advice rather than to accomplish an act. Having been so long absent from Europe, I might unknowingly and unwillingly transgress the rules of expediency. I give myself up to the effusion of my heart.
Prince, the result of these different feelings has been to induce me to confide the letter which I enclose herein, unsealed, to your discretion and personal judgment. It is again the result of these same feelings which impels me to represent to you the Emperor Napoleon a prey on his rock to the persecution of personal enemies, and abandoned by all the rest of the world. Henceforth I shall live only in the hope of affording him some sources of consolation. From a daily intercourse of eighteen months, and, I may say, from some moments of unreserved confidence, I know those that would be most dear to him. And who can know Napoleon better than I do? He already feels and converses on the subjects of the past events of his own history, as if they had happened three hundred years ago. He remains unchanged only with respect to family feelings. Whatever political events may have occurred, he entertains no doubts on the score of domestic sentiments. How, through what channels, by what means, could I, without transgressing the rules of expediency, or any regulations and intentions, obtain direct intelligence concerning his wife and his son? Prince, I again repeat that this communication is from man to man: it is one heart questioning another.
During my residence at St. Helena, we have not had any intercourse, nor been able to have any with the Commissioner from Austria. Your Highness must have read in a public document,[[31]] written in answer to the Governor, that, if the Austrian and Russian Commissioners had been sent to see that Napoleon was treated in a proper manner, and with the respect due to him, this measure was in harmony with the character of their Sovereigns; but that the Governor, having declared that they had no right or authority to interfere on the subject, had by that declaration rendered them inadmissible. At the same time, Napoleon publicly said that he would willingly receive them as private individuals, yet we have not seen them; be it that such was the tenor of their instructions, or, as I have more reason to suppose, that the Governor wished to subject them, as private individuals, to restrictions which would have degraded their character.
Your Highness will see by the copy of a letter, transcribed for her Majesty Maria Louisa, the severity used towards an Austrian botanist, and how much the Emperor Napoleon was hurt by that circumstance. I again repeat to your Highness the expression of the nature of my sentiments, and the assurance of the high respect with which I am, &c.
COUNT DE LAS CASES.
P. S. In case my Letter for her Majesty Maria Louisa should not be delivered to her, I request your Highness will do me the particular favour to cause the hair which is enclosed in it to be returned to me.
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.