Arrival at St. Helena.
On the 16th of October 1815, Bonaparte touched the rock, his mausoleum, even as, on the 12th of October 1492, Christopher Columbus touched the New World, his monument:
"There," says Walter Scott, "at the entrance to the Indian Ocean, Bonaparte was deprived of the means of making a second avatar or incarnation on earth."
Before being moved to the residence of Longwood, Bonaparte occupied a hut at Briars, near Balcomb's Cottage. On the 9th of December, Longwood, hurriedly enlarged by the carpenters of the English fleet, received its guest. The house, situated on a mountain upland, consisted of a drawing-room, a dining-room, a library, a study and a bed-room. It was not much: those who inhabited the tower of the Temple and the donjon of Vincennes were still worse lodged; true, one paid them the attention of shortening their stay. General Gourgaud, M. and Madame de Montholon with their children, M. de Las Cases and his son camped out provisionally in tents; M. and Madame Bertrand installed themselves at Hut's Gate, a cottage placed on the boundary of the grounds of Longwood.
Bonaparte had a stretch of sand, twelve miles long, as his exercise-ground; sentries surrounded that space and look-out men were posted on the highest peaks. The lion could extend his walks further, but in that case he had to consent to allow himself to be watched by an English bestiarius. Two camps defended the excommunicated enclosure: at night, the circle of the sentries was drawn in round Longwood. At nine o'clock, Napoleon, confined, could no longer go out; the patrols went the round; horsemen on vedette, foot-soldiers placed here and there kept watch in the creeks and in the ravines which ran down to the sea. Two armed brigs cruised, one to leeward, the other to wind-ward of the island. What precautions to guard one man in the midst of the seas! After sunset, no boat could put to sea; the fishing-boats were numbered, and at night they remained in harbour under the responsibility of a lieutenant in the Navy. The Sovereign Generalissimo who had summoned the world to his stirrup was called upon to appear twice a day before a military collar. Bonaparte did not submit to that call; when, by good luck, he was able to avoid the sight of the officer on duty, that officer would not have dared to say where and how he had seen him of whom it was more difficult to establish the absence than to prove the presence to the universe.
Sir George Cockburn[393], the author of those severe regulations, was replaced by Sir Hudson Lowe. Then began the bickerings about which all the Memoirs have told us. If one were to believe those Memoirs, the new Governor must have been of the family of the enormous spiders of St. Helena and the reptile of those woods in which snakes are unknown. England was lacking in elevation, Napoleon in dignity. To put an end to his requirements of etiquette, Bonaparte sometimes seemed determined to conceal himself behind an assumed name, like a monarch travelling in a foreign country; he had the touching idea of taking the name of one of his aides-de-camp, killed at the Battle of Areola[394]. France, Austria, Russia appointed commissaries to the residence of St. Helena[395]: the captive was accustomed to receive the ambassadors of the two latter Powers; the Legitimacy, which had not recognised Napoleon as Emperor, would have acted more nobly by not recognising Napoleon as a prisoner.
Life at Longwood.
A large wooden house, constructed in London, was sent to St Helena; but Napoleon did not feel well enough to inhabit it. His life at Longwood was regulated in this way: he rose at uncertain hours; M. Marchand, his valet, read to him when he was in bed; after rising, in the morning, he dictated to Generals Montholon and Gourgaud and to the son of M. de Las Cases. He breakfasted at ten o'clock, rode on horseback or drove until about three, returned indoors at six and went to bed at eleven. He affected to dress as he is painted in his portrait by Isabey[396]: in the morning, he wrapped himself in a caftan and wound a Madras handkerchief round his head.
St. Helena lies between the two Poles. The navigators who pass from one spot to the other salute this first station where the land refreshes eyes wearied with the spectacle of the Ocean and offers fruits and the coolness of sweet water to mouths chafed with salt. The presence of Bonaparte changed this isle of promise into a plague-stricken rock: foreign ships no longer touched there; so soon as they were signalled at twenty leagues' distance, a cruiser went to challenge them and charged them to keep off: none were allowed into port, except in case of stormy weather, but the ships of the British Navy alone.
Some of the English travellers who had lately admired or who were on their way to see the marvels of the Ganges visited another marvel on their road: India, accustomed to conquerors, had one chained at her gates.