August 12th.—Letters from Plymouth brought accounts of Bonaparte having been transferred from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland, off Torbay. On Monday, the 7th, Lord Keith sailed from Plymouth in the Tonnant, hoisting his flag on board her for the purpose of presiding over the transhipment—a word which seems to have been fabricated for the present purpose. He went in the barge of the Tonnant to fetch Bonaparte, who, with Marshal Bertrand and his wife, and a Count and Countess de Montholon (with their children), attended by a few servants, are to go in the Northumberland, Admiral Sir G. Cockburn, to St. Helena. An officer who was on board the Northumberland when they arrived on board, says, in a letter to his sister, dated the same day, that Bonaparte was rather in better humour, but had been very sulky for several days, having expected to remain in England. During the time the Bellerophon was off Plymouth, the crowd of spectators which flocked in boats around her was enormous. Lord R. writes that the people began to be partial to Bonaparte. The papers say this morning that Sir Hudson Lowe is arrived in town, which appears as if he were not to accompany the prisoner.
Sir Hudson is appointed Governor of St. Helena, and is going out very soon. It is said a Prussian and an Austrian Commissioner are appointed to reside there also. Commissioners from all the Courts, including France, have been appointed.
14th.—Lord and Lady Aylesbury returned from Paris, where they left everything quiet, though in a very odd state, and such a one as cannot be expected to last. The Prussians are the most disliked, the English praised, and the Russians courted. The works of art are claimed by the Prussians and other nations, from whom they were taken by the French.
On the 7th of October the two Chambers met, and the King made a speech to them, announcing the treaty he had made with the Allied Sovereigns, the particulars of which he should in a short time communicate to them. The French complain heavily of the pictures, statues, and other works of art which they had taken from other countries being taken from them. Canova is at Paris, commissioned by the Pope to pack up those which were taken from Rome.
October 20th.—Accounts arrived from Paris of the addresses of the Chamber of Peers and that of Deputies to the King; both very loyal, and the latter very strong with respect to the punishment of traitors.
General Porlier, who with some officers and about eight hundred men had attempted to revolutionise Corunna, has been executed by order of the Spanish Government.[[58]]
[1816.]
January 10th.—Princess Charlotte summoned to Cranbourne Lodge to accompany the Queen to Brighton, where her birthday was to be kept, and it was and still is expected that she is to marry the Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg at her own request. She went to Brighton with the Queen on the 6th. Nothing extraordinary seems to have been done for her birthday,[[59]] though it completes her twentieth year. Many people of rank were invited to meet the Queen when she was there at Christmas, but not so now.
I had a kind message from Princess Charlotte this morning, conveyed by a person who saw her while at Cranbourne. She was much thinner, as she had been reduced by the medicines she had been obliged to take for a pain in her side, occasioned by a bilious disorder, which was erroneously treated as nervous.
This morning I called on Lord St. Vincent in Mortimer-street, as he came to consult Clive and Sir Edward Horne for his wrist, which had suffered by a fall. I also went with Princess Castelcicala to see the paintings and drawings of Gottenburgh, a German from Vienna. He is an old man, but still makes beautiful small drawings in pencil, portraits chiefly of Roman women; and his small copies in oils, from Correggio and other masters, are very good.