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IX.

1821.

CHAP. devastated Europe by his ambition, he was allowed the splendid retirement of Elba; and the only return he made for it was, to invade France, overturn Louis XVIII., and cause his kingdom to be overrun by a million of armed men. He had signed the treaty of Fontainebleau, and the first thing he did was to break it.* When chained to the rock of St Helena, he was still an object of dread to the European powers; his name was more powerful than an army of a hundred and fifty thousand men; he was too great to be forgotten, too little to be trusted. Every imaginable precaution was necessary to prevent the escape of a man who had shown that he regarded the faith of treaties only till it was his interest to break them; and of whom it had been truly said by exalted genius, that "his cocked hat and great-coat, placed on a stick on the coast of Britanny, would cause Europe to run to arms from one end to another."1

1 Chateaubriand.

114.

geration re

English

treatment

of him.

Great was the sensation excited in Europe, and espeGreat exng- cially England, by the publication of the St Helena Megarding the moirs, and the loud and impassioned complaints made of the alleged harsh treatment of the exiled Emperor by the English authorities. They were re-echoed in Parliament by Lord Holland and the leaders of the Opposition, and even the most moderately disposed men were led to doubt the necessity of the rigid precautions which were adopted, and to regret that more generous feelings had not been shown to a fallen enemy. Time, however, has now exercised its wonted influence over these mournful

*The author is well aware of the ground alleged by the partisans of Napoleon for this infraction, viz., that the payments stipulated by the treaty had not been made by the French Government to him. But supposing that there was some foundation for this complaint, it could afford no justification for so desperate and outrageous an act as invading France, without the slightest warning or declaration of war, and overturning the Government. The exces sive pecuniary difficulties under which France at that period laboured, owing to the calamities in which he himself had involved and left her, were the cause of this backwardness in making some of the payments; and the last man in the world who had any title to complain of them was the person whose insa

tiable ambition had caused them all.

IX.

1821.

topics it has demonstrated that the conduct of the CHAP. English Government towards their illustrious captive was not only, in the circumstances, unavoidable, but highly liberal and considerate; and so clearly is this demonstrated, that it is now admitted by the ablest and most impassioned of the French historians of the period.* England bore the whole brunt of the storm, because she was in the front rank, and held the Emperor in her custody; but she did not act singly in the matter-she was only the executor of the general resolutions of the Allies. These were to treat Napoleon with all the respect and consideration due to his rank, but under such precautions as should render his escape a matter of impossibility. The conduct of his partisans, to which he was no stranger, added to the necessary rigour of these precautions; for several plots were formed for his escape, and only failed of success by the vigilance of the military and naval authorities on the island. Yet, even in the presence of these difficulties, the indulgence with which he was treated was such as now to excite the surprise of the 1 Forsyth's most impassioned historians of the Revolution. The ac- Napoleon at St Helena, count shall be given in the words of the ablest and most iii. 343,345. eloquent of their number.1

"The sum of 300,000 francs (£12,000) a-year," says Lamartine, "often added to by additional grants, was

* "Après la crise de 1815, lorsque l'Europe, encore une fois menacée par Napoléon, crut nécessaire de prendre une mesure de précaution qui empêchât une seconde tourmente, Sainte-Hélène fut choisie comme prison d'état. Les puissances durent arrêter un système de surveillance à l'égard du prisonnier, car elles craignaient par-dessus tout le retour de Napoléon. L'Angleterre pourvut largement à ses besoins; la table seule de Napoléon coûtait à la Trésorerie 12,000 livres sterling. Il y a quelque chose qui dépasse mes idées, quand j'examine le grandiose du caractère de Napoléon, et sa vie immense d'administration et de batailles; c'est cet esprit qui s'arrête tant à Sainte-Hélène aux petites difficultés d'étiquette. Napoléon boude si l'on s'assied en sa présence, et si l'on ne le traite pas de Majesté, et d'Empereur; il se drape perpétuellement: il ne voit pas que la grandeur est en lui et non dans la pourpre et de vains titres. A Austerlitz, au conseil d'État, Napoléon est un monument de granit, et de bronze: à Sainte-Hélène, c'est encore un colosse, mais paré d'un costume de cour."-CAPEFIGUE, Histoire de la Restauration, vii. 209.

IX.

1821.

115.

account of

his exile.

CHAP. Consecrated by the English Government to the cost of the table of the little court of the exiled Emperor. Bertrand the marshal of the palace, his wife and son; Lamartine's M. and Madame de Montholon, General Gourgaud and Dr O'Meara; the valet-de-chambre Marchand, Cypriani maître-d'hôtel, Prérion chief of office, Saint-Denys, Noverras, his usher Santini, Rousseau keeper of the plate, and a train of valets, cooks, and footmen, formed the establishment. A library, ten or twelve saddle-horses, gardens, woods, rural labours, constant and free communication at all times between the exiles, correspondence under certain regulations with Europe, receptions and audiences given to travellers who arrived in the island, and were desirous to obtain an audience of the Emperorsuch were the daily amusements of Longwood. Piquets of soldiers under the command of an officer watched the circuit of the building and its environs; a camp was established at a certain distance, but out of sight of the house, so as not to offend the inmates. Napoleon and his officers were at liberty to go out on foot or on horseback from daybreak to nightfall, and to go over the whole extent of the island accompanied only by an officer at a distance, so as to prevent all attempt at escape. Such was the respectful captivity which the complaints of Napoleon and his companions in exile styled the dungeon Lamartine, and martyrdom of St Helena." To this it may be la Restaur- added, that the entire establishment at St Helena was 412,413 kept up by the English Government on so splendid a scale that it cost them £400,000 a-year; that champagne and burgundy were the daily beverage-the best French cookery the fare of the whole party; that the comfort and luxuries they enjoyed were equal to those of any duke in England; and that, as the house at Longwood had been inconvenient, the English Government had provided, at a cost of £40,000, a house neatly constructed of wood in London, which arrived in the

Histoire de

ation, vi.

IX.

1821.

island two days after the Emperor's death. Such were CHAP. the alleged barbarities of England towards a man who had so long striven to effect her destruction, and who had chastised the hostility of Hofer by death in the fosse of Mantua, of Cardinal Pacca by confinement amidst Parl. Deb. Alpine snows in the citadel of Fenestrelles, and the sup- 1159; For posed enmity of the Duke d'Enghien by massacre in 345. the ditch of Vincennes.1*

1

xxxv. 1138,

syth, iii.

between

Sir Hudson

But all this was as nothing as long as Mordecai the Jew 116. sat at the king's gate. In the first instance, indeed, the Irritation bland and courteous manners of Sir Pulteney Malcolm, him and who was intrusted with the chief command, softened the Lowe. restraints of captivity, and made the weary hours pass in comparative comfort; but he was unfortunately succeeded by Sir Hudson Lowe, whose manners were far less conciliating. A gallant veteran, who had accompanied the army of Silesia, in the quality of English commissioner, through its whole campaign in France, he was overwhelmed with the sense of the responsibility under which he laboured, in being intrusted with the custody of so dangerous a captive; and he possessed none of the graces of manner which so often, in persons in authority, add to the charms of concession, and take off the bitterness of restraint. The obloquy cast on Sir Colin Campbell, in consequence of having been accidentally absent from Elba when the Emperor made his escape, was constantly before his eyes. He does not appear to have exceeded his instructions;

* The allowance of wine to the establishment at Longwood was as follows, a fortnight

Vin ordinaire,

Constantia,

Champagne,

Vin de Grave,

Bottles.

84

7

14

21

84

140

350

Ténériffe,
Claret,

And besides, forty-two bottles of porter. A tolerable allowance for ten grown persons, besides servants.-See Parliamentary Debates, xxxv. 1159. The total cost of the table was £12,000 a-year.—Ibid., 1158.

VOL. II.

2 A

IX.

CHAP. and certainly the constant plots which were in agitation for Napoleon's escape, called for and justified every 1821. imaginable precaution. But he was often unreasonably exigeant on trifles of no real moment to the security of the Emperor's detention; and his manner was so unprepossessing, that, even when he conferred an indulgence, it was seldom felt as such. Napoleon, on his part, was not a whit behind the governor of the island in irritability or unreasonable demands. He seemed anxious to provoke outrages, and his ideas were fixed on the effect the account of them would produce in Europe. He was in correspondence with the leading members of the English Opposition, who made generous and strenuous efforts to soften his captivity; and he never lost the hope that, by the effect these representations would make on the British people, and on the world, his place of confinement might be altered; and, by being restored to Europe, he might succeed in playing over again the game of the Hundred Days. All his thoughts were fixed on this object, and it was to 1 Forsyth's lay a foundation for these complaints that he affected to Napoleon at take offence at every trifle, and voluntarily aggravated iii. 334,357; the inconveniences of his own position. Montholon said truly to Sir Hudson Lowe, "If you had been an angel from heaven, you would not have pleased us."1 *

St Helena,

Lam, vi.

416, 417.

117.

The truth is, none of the parties implicated in the All parties treatment of Napoleon at St Helena have emerged unwere wrong scathed out of the ordeal through which they have passed since his death; and the publication of the papers of Sir Hudson Lowe, by Mr Forsyth, has placed this beyond a

regarding his treatment at St Helena.

* "En lisant attentivement les correspondances et les notes étrangères à tout prétexte, entre les familiers de Napoléon et de Hudson Lowe, on est confondu des outrages, des provocations, des invectives, dont le captif et ses amis insultent à tout propos le gouverneur. Napoléon en ce moment cherchait à émouvoir par des cris de douleur la pitié du parlement anglais et à fournir un grief aux orateurs de l'opposition contre le ministère, afin d'obtenir son rapprochement de l'Europe. Le désir de provoquer des outrages par des outrages, et de présenter en suite ces outrages comme des crimes au Continent, transpire dans toutes ces notes. Il est évident que le gouverneur, souvent irrité, quelquefois inquisiteur, toujours inhabile, se sentait lui-même victime de la responsabilité." -LAMARTINE, Hist. de la Restauration, vi. 416, 417.

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