"I appeal to History; it will say that an enemy, who for twenty years waged war against the English people, came voluntarily, in his misfortunes, to seek an asylum under their laws. What more brilliant proof could he give of his esteem and his confidence? But what return did England make for so much magnanimity? They feigned to stretch forth a friendly hand to that enemy; and when he delivered himself up in good faith, they sacrificed him.
"Signed, Napoleon."
"On board the Bellerophon,
4th August 1815."
On the above I shall only observe, that no snare had been laid, either on the part of His Majesty's Government or mine. I was placed before Rochefort for the open purpose of preventing Buonaparte from making his escape from that port; and the exertions of myself and those under my command had been so completely successful, that the intention of forcing past the ships under my orders, as well as every other plan proposed, of which there appear to have been several, were abandoned as utterly hopeless. And so far was I from seeking communication with Napoleon, that all the flags of truce proceeding from him, were strongly reprobated by me, as improper, except in extraordinary cases, and were only resorted to when, as appears from Lord Keith's letter of the 23rd of July, orders had been sent from Paris for his arrest, and when (as has since been proved) one or more intimations had been given by the officer commanding in Isle d'Aix, that, if he did not depart, he would be under the necessity of detaining him. Besides, it is now perfectly ascertained, that the determination of repairing to England was adopted at a consultation held by Buonaparte on the night of the 13th of July, when his letter to the Prince Regent was written; and Messrs Las Cases and Lallemand were sent on the morning of the 14th to discover if I would receive him on board the Bellerophon, and convey him to that country.
On the morning of the 6th of August, when walking the deck with Monsieur Las Cases, he for the first time mentioned, that he understood me to have assured him that the Emperor would be well received in England, and allowed to reside there. I replied, "I cannot conceive how you could so far misunderstand me, as I constantly, in my communications with you, stated that I could make no promises whatever: that I thought my orders would bear me out in receiving him on board, and conveying him to England; but even in doing that, I acted very much upon my own responsibility. You questioned me frequently, as to my private opinion; and as I was quite ignorant upon the subject, I could only say I had no reason to believe he would be ill received." It did not, however, require my assistance to raise the hopes of those about Buonaparte, respecting the manner in which he was to be received in England; as one of his followers, on the passage home, asked me if I thought the Prince Regent would confer the order of the Garter upon him. If there was any misunderstanding, (which I cannot allow to have been the case,) Monsieur Las Cases has himself to blame. When he came on board of the Bellerophon for the purpose of treating, he concealed his knowledge of the English language; which, as I had considerable difficulty in expressing myself in French, could only be intended for the purpose of throwing me off my guard, that he might take advantage of any expressions that fell from me, or the officers I had always present at our meetings. Even after he was on board with Buonaparte, though he acknowledged he could read English, and always translated the newspapers for his master, he affected not to be able to speak it. What his actual knowledge of the language was, the following extract of a letter, from a friend of mine on board the Northumberland, dated at sea, August the 22nd, 1815, will show:
"I do not know, whether Las Cases ever let you know he could speak English; but this I can assure you, that he speaks it very near as well as Madame Bertrand, and can hold a conversation, or maintain an argument in it, with as much fluency as she can."
This forenoon, I had a long conversation with Buonaparte. He complained bitterly of the conduct of the British Government; and entered, at considerable length, into the state of his affairs when he determined upon the measure of repairing on board the Bellerophon. "There still," said he, "was a large party in the South, that wished me to put myself at its head; the army behind the Loire was also desirous of my return. At ten o'clock of the night before I embarked, a deputation from the garrison of Rochelle waited upon me, with an offer to conduct me to the army; in addition to which, the troops that were in Rochefort, Bourdeaux, and Isle d'Aix, amounting to twelve thousand men, were at my disposal. But I saw there was no prospect of ultimate success, though I might have occasioned a great deal of trouble and bloodshed, which I did not choose should take place on my account individually;—while the Empire was at stake, it was another matter."
In the afternoon, Mr O'Meara, the surgeon, informed me that General Savary had made a proposal to him to accompany Buonaparte to St Helena as his medical attendant; Monsieur Maingaut, his surgeon, being a young man with whom he was little acquainted, having suffered so much from seasickness in the passage from Rochefort, that he felt averse to undertaking another sea voyage. He consulted me as to the propriety of accepting the offer. I told him it must depend very much upon his own feelings; but if he had no dislike to it, he had better accept the proposal, on condition that our Government consented, and agreed to pay his salary; but, in that case, an official communication must pass, through me, to the Admiral on the subject. This was the first intimation I received of Buonaparte having made any arrangement towards complying with the notification he had received from our Government.
About nine A.M. a large ship was seen to leeward, which, on closing, proved to be the Northumberland. The whole squadron then stood in, and anchored to the westward of Berryhead. I went on board the Tonnant, and reported to Lord Keith that Buonaparte had at last made up his mind to move from the Bellerophon without force being used; and that Count Bertrand was desirous of seeing his Lordship, that he might make the necessary arrangements about the people who were to accompany him. By the Admiral's directions, I returned to my ship and brought Monsieur Bertrand to him. Soon after Sir George Cockburn arrived, and they were shut up together for nearly two hours.
When I first went on board the Tonnant, I received a memorandum from Lord Keith, from which I give an extract; and at the same time a verbal intimation, that I should receive an order in writing the next day, to, remove Buonaparte, and such part of his suite as he might select, to the Northumberland.