The most important event of the year for Frenchmen was the death of Napoleon Bonaparte at Longwood, in St. Helena. He died on May 5, after taking the holy sacrament. He left a last will with several codicils. In it Napoleon made the following declarations:
"I die in the Apostolical and Roman religion, in the bosom of which I was born more than fifty years ago. It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I have loved so well. I have always had reason to be pleased with my dearest wife, Maria Louisa. I retain for her, to the last moment, the most tender sentiments. I beseech her to watch, in order to preserve my son from the snares which yet environ his infancy. I recommend to my son never to forget that he was born a French prince, and never to allow himself to become an instrument in the hands of the triumvirs who oppress the nations of Europe: he ought never to fight against France, or to injure her in any manner; he ought to adopt my Napoleon's will motto—Everything for the French people. I die prematurely, assassinated by the English oligarchy and its tool. The English nation will not be slow in avenging me. The two unfortunate results of the invasions of France, when she had still so many resources, are to be attributed to the treason of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and Lafayette. I forgive them—may the posterity of France forgive them as I do! I pardon Louis for the libel he published in 1820; it is replete with false assertions and falsified documents. I disavow the 'Manuscript of St. Helena,' and other works, under the title of 'Maxims, Sayings,' etc., which persons have been pleased to publish for the last six years. Such are not the rules which have guided my life. I caused the Duc d'Enghien to be arrested and tried because that step was essential to the safety, interest and honor of the French people, when the Comte d'Artois was maintaining, by his own confession, sixty assassins at Paris. Under similar circumstances I should act in the same way."
The bequests
To his son and immediate relatives, Napoleon left most of his personal effects. Among his relatives and favorite followers he distributed a sum of 6,000,000 francs, left in the hands of his bankers at the time of his flight from Paris; likewise the proceeds of a possible sale of his confiscated crown jewels. Count Lavalette and the children of Labédoyère were remembered with bequests of 100,000 and 50,000 francs, respectively. The final clauses were:
"To be distributed among such proscribed persons as wander in foreign countries, whether they be French, Italians, Belgians, Dutch, Spanish, or inhabitants of the departments of the Rhine, under the directions of my executors, one hundred thousand francs. To be distributed among those who suffered amputation, or were severely wounded at Ligny or Waterloo, who may be still living, according to lists drawn up by my executors. The Guards shall be paid double, those of the Island of Elba quadruple, two hundred thousand francs."
Cantillon remembered
A curious bequest was that of 10,000 francs to Cantillon, a French subaltern, who was tried and acquitted for the attempted assassination of the Duke of Wellington in Paris on February 11, 1818. Napoleon thus explained this bequest:
"Cantillon had as much right to assassinate that oligarchist as the latter had to send me to perish upon the rock of St. Helena. Wellington, who proposed this outrage, attempted to justify it by pleading the interest of Great Britain. Cantillon, if he had really assassinated that lord, would have pleaded the same excuse, and been justified by the same motive—the Last fling at Wellington interest of France—to get rid of this general, who, moreover, by violating the capitulation of Paris, had rendered himself responsible for the blood of the martyrs Ney, Labédoyère, etc., and for the crime of having pillaged the museums, contrary to the text of the treaties."
This last legacy was not paid until 1855, when Napoleon III. discharged it.
Late in the year the Ministry of Duc de Richelieu succumbed to the machinations of Comte d'Artois. Before his resignation, Richelieu complained to the Count, reminding him of his promises of support at the first formation of the Cabinet. "The fact is, my dear Duke," replied Fall of Richelieu's Ministry Monsieur, "if you allow me to say so, you have taken my words too literally. And then the circumstances at that time were so different." The Prime Minister rose abruptly and sought out the King. "Monsieur has broken his word of honor," he said, "he has broken his word as a gentleman." "What would you have me do?" said Louis XVIII. "He conspired against Louis XVI.; he conspires against me; he will conspire against himself." The explosion of a barrel of gunpowder in the royal palace raised apprehensions of Villèle Prime Minister another painful scene, like that preceding the fall of the Ministry of Decazes. Richelieu resigned, and Villèle took his place. Chateaubriand was sent to London as Ambassador. While Parliamentary government in France labored thus under the onslaughts of the Royalist plotters in the Chambers, the so-called Era of Good Feeling in America was continued under the second administration of President Monroe.