letter. He had drawn a pencil mark across every passage to which he
objected, and had reduced the whole to a few lines, thus assuming the
privilege of dictating to me what I was to write to Count Bertrand.
The returned letter was accompanied by a communication, which the
Governor observed would serve as an answer to all my preceding
correspondence.
CORRESPONDENCE CONTINUED.—THE GOVERNOR DISCONCERTED
BY MY FINAL DETERMINATION.
22nd, 23rd.—The Governor came to ascertain the effect of his
declaration and his two letters. He doubted not that they had produced
a great impression, and he calculated on finding my letter to the
Grand Marshal ready written, with the corrections he had suggested;
which communication, he expected would bring about my return to
Longwood. But I coolly informed him that, since he had taken upon
himself to dictate to me, I would not write at all. At this, he
appeared surprised and disconcerted, and, after some reflection, he
went so far as to inquire whether the corrections which he had made
were the only obstacles that deterred me. This unusual condescension
on his part was a sufficient guide for me. I therefore continued firm;
and cut the matter short by observing that, in the evening, he should
receive from me my irrevocable determination and the reasons on which
it was grounded, together with my remarks on the different letters
which he had addressed to me.
My letter was as follows:—
“SIR,—You have sent back to me, with your corrections, the letter
which I wrote to Count Bertrand, respecting your verbal offer of
granting me permission to return to Longwood. But as it almost always
happens here, this offer was sincere only in appearance, and it was
doomed to expire in the details of its execution. I was not much
surprised at this. After your departure, the other day, when I came to
reflect on the offer you had made, I foresaw that the matter would
terminate as it really has done. You had the candour to tell me that
you could not permit me and the individuals at Longwood to combine our
ideas; or, in other words, to ascertain our _real wishes_. You have,
doubtless, very good reasons for this. I say nothing against it; only
I cannot suffer myself to be duped, or to be the means of leading into
error those who take an interest in my fate.
“You are too advantageously situated, Sir, between Longwood and me;
and if I must write to Count Bertrand, not my own sentiments, but what
you may think proper to dictate, I decline holding any communication
with him. I shall regard your offer as never having been made, because
it cannot possibly be accepted; and I must refer irrevocably for my
thoughts, sentiments, and decisions on this subject, to my letter of
the 30th of November.
“You mistake, Sir, if you suppose that I wished for answers to all the
arguments and articles contained in my letters. I am aware of the
importance of your occupations, and the value of your time, and
therefore I merely requested an acknowledgment of the receipt of my
letters for the sake of regularity. I presumed you could have no
reason to refuse this.
“You seem surprised, Sir, at the deplorable state of my own and my
son’s health; and you twice express astonishment that I should not
have complained to you on the subject, when I was at Longwood. I
thought but little about my health, Sir, when I was at Longwood; and
besides, when I felt indisposed, I considered it more advisable to
complain to the Doctor than to the Governor. With regard to my son, I
am surprised you should have heard nothing of his situation,
considering the consultations that have been held on his case, the
fits he has had, and the many times he has been bled. Is it to be
wondered at if our present circumstances increase our infirmities?
“I now come to your order for my removal to the Cape. I find that all
the papers which have any reference to the august individual to whom I
have devoted my existence are to be detained. What other papers, Sir,
can I be possessed of? What is meant by saying that I am free to carry
away all the rest? Is not this making an offer, and yet granting
nothing?
“You detain my Journal, the sole and real object of all this
misunderstanding; the depository, yet incomplete and incorrect, in
which I daily registered all that I thought, saw, or heard. Can any of
my papers be more valuable to me than this? You cannot pretend to have
been ignorant of its contents, since I suffered you to peruse it for
two hours at your own discretion. Will you not be responsible for
having abused this privilege? Will you not, perhaps, one day, have to
justify yourself for the false notions which you have doubtless
transmitted to the English Ministers respecting this manuscript? You
have called it a _Political Journal_. I had no right, you have
observed, in the situation in which I was placed, to keep any account
of what was said by the Emperor Napoleon, and you particularly object
to my having introduced official documents into my Journal. As if all
that I saw, read, and heard, did not by right, and without
impropriety, belong to my own thoughts, and form a part of my own
property, so long as the record was kept private and secret! Who would
suppose that such principles could have been imbibed amidst the
liberal ideas of England? Do they not rather partake of the odious
police maxims of the continent? And, after all, what are the contents
of this Journal? It describes the sublime language and conduct of the
august individual who is the object of it, the incidents of his life,
and also many things which are probably not very agreeable to you! But
who will have given publicity to these facts? The whole was to have
been re-touched, altered, and corrected. Who has prevented this?
However, Sir, you may rest assured, that the circumstances which have
just taken place shall never induce me to say any thing concerning you
which I do not firmly believe to be true.
“In your decision of the 20th of October, you declare that I shall be
removed from Longwood, and sent to the Cape of Good Hope. From the
form and language of this decision, it might naturally be supposed
that it was hostile to my wishes; while, in reality, you thereby
pronounce a sentence which is now, and has been for many days past,
foreign to the new question that has risen up between us. You remove
from Longwood one who, twenty days ago, withdrew from the subjection
to your authority in which he had voluntarily placed himself; and who,
for the last eighteen days, has been formally demanding his removal
from the island. Who would ever guess these facts from a perusal of
your document? You enclose your decision in a letter, in which you
leave me the choice of submitting to your sentence or returning to
Longwood. But by embracing the happiness which you thus hold out to
me, I should secure to you the triumph and satisfaction of being
master of my most private papers; I should again become your captive,
and should be liable to the same searches and seizures, whenever you
might be pleased to make them.... No, Sir! I can make no choice. I can
only repeat what I have already said before. I resign myself to the
laws. If I am guilty, let me be tried; if I am not guilty, restore me
to liberty. If my papers are unconnected with this affair, return them
to me. If you think it proper to submit them to serious examination,
transmit them to the English Ministers, and let me be sent with them.
Besides, as my own and my son’s health imperatively require every kind
of medical assistance, I earnestly implore you to send us to England.
“Nothing was more simple than this affair, and yet it has been
involved in difficulty. In vain you refer to your instructions; they
never can be made to apply to cases so peculiar as this. Your own
wavering determination proves to me that your instructions are neither
clear nor precise. You wished at first to keep me on the island in
solitary confinement and separated from Longwood; you did not think it
right to send me to the Cape. You now torture the literal meaning of
your instructions, in order to give them a forced interpretation. But
recollect that you will be held responsible to your Government for
having misconstrued them, and to me for having violated the law in my
person. Recollect that most of your measures will ultimately appear to
have been vexatious and arbitrary acts. I know not what rights, what
resources, your laws will afford me; but I slumber in this ignorance;
for I trust they will protect me in some way or other. You expect to
be rid of me when I shall be removed to the Cape, separated from my
papers, which you intend to detain in your possession. But even should
I be kept a prisoner there, the winds shall waft my complaints
hitherward. I will make known the mental wounds and bodily sufferings
which you will thus have been the means of aggravating; for, if I
should be detained at the Cape, it must be through you, either by your
direct orders or secret instructions. Sealed papers cannot be opened
except in the presence of the party interested. Will you have me
brought back from the Cape, for the purpose of breaking the seals that
are affixed to mine? Or will you detain me at the Cape until you
receive orders to send my papers to England? What object is to be
gained by all this? There was, and still is, a simple mode of
arranging every thing! My natural disposition to accommodate made me,
as it were, anticipate every difficulty. I was ready to obviate all. I
would willingly have subjected myself in England to any preliminary
measures, however arbitrary, that might have been equivalent to the
quarantine of the Cape. The state of my own and my son’s health was a
valid reason for so doing.
“The fear of departing from the literal meaning of any particular
point in your instructions has, with you, been more powerful than the
necessity and the right of yielding to their spirit, to the force of
circumstances, and the feelings of humanity. It is not yet too late to
grant what I solicit. I am willing to believe that humanity will
determine you; and if so I shall remain your debtor. The circumstance
of the papers being claimed at Longwood and by me cannot be regarded
as a reasonable obstacle. Besides, it may be asked what you have done
to remove it? Do you wish that I should myself write on the subject?
Three words would suffice to bring us to an understanding.
“At all events, Sir, whatever determination you may come to, whatever
vexation you may reserve for me, nothing can be comparable to what I
suffer in being detained on this horrible island, separated from the
august individual whom I followed hither. The hours and minutes that I
pass in this situation are like years in my unfortunate life, and
dangerously aggravate my son’s precarious state of health. I therefore
again demand, and shall incessantly demand, that you will remove me
from this hated place. I am,” &c.
The Governor was very much vexed by my determination of not returning
to Longwood, though I could not exactly guess the reason why. However,
my resolution was fully confirmed on the following day, when he came
to me, and, after a long and very obscure preamble, respecting his
sincerity and good intentions, he told me that, to facilitate my
communication with Longwood, he would consent to forward my first
letter to Count Bertrand, in the form in which I had myself written
it; and moreover to send along with it a copy of all my
correspondence; a thing which he had hitherto constantly refused to
do. But the more he made concessions, the more firmly I rejected
them:—“’Tis too late,” said I, “the die is cast. I have pronounced
sentence upon myself. I will not write to Longwood, and I demand, for
the hundredth time, that you will remove me hence without further
delay.”—“At least, then,” said the Governor, “will you communicate to
Longwood my offers and your refusal?”—“I have no objection to do
that,” I replied. Sir Hudson Lowe then departed, very much
disconcerted, mentioning, as a last inducement, that he could only
send us away on board a transport, that he did not know when the
vessel might sail, and that there was no medical man on board, which
would be a serious inconvenience, considering the state of my son’s
health.
OUR REMOVAL FROM BALCOMBE’S COTTAGE TO
THE TOWN.
24th.—My son was exceedingly ill during the night, and I was myself
very much indisposed. At daybreak I sent to request the immediate
attendance of Doctors Baxter and O’Meara; and, in the extremity of my
despair, I also wrote to Sir Hudson Lowe, assuring him that it was
impossible we could longer endure the treatment we were now suffering.
I reminded him that, in spite of my son’s dangerous condition, it was
now more than seven days since we had seen a medical attendant; and
that, owing to our inconvenient situation, the Doctors, in spite of
their good intentions, found it impossible to visit us. I therefore
urged the necessity of our quitting the cottage without delay: and I
begged that we might be conveyed to the town, even to the common jail,
if he found it necessary. This letter produced an immediate effect. I
received, on the return of the orderly, a note from the Governor,
stating that I should that day be conveyed to his own residence in the
town. In the evening, an officer came to conduct us thither. How
anxiously did we turn our eyes towards Longwood at the moment of
departure! What were our thoughts and sensations as we proceeded along
the road! What a wound was inflicted on my heart when, for the last
time, I turned to look on Longwood, and saw it gradually disappear
from my sight!
OUR RESIDENCE AT THE GOVERNOR’S CASTLE.—BETTER
TREATMENT, &C.
25th to 28th.—We now found ourselves removed to the Governor’s
residence, which is called the Castle. It is a spacious building and
agreeably situated. Our condition was now changed very much for the
better. We were still guarded by sentinels, it is true; but every
thing was under my orders, and there seemed to be an endeavour to
furnish us profusely with every thing. “Do not spare,” the major-domo
often repeated, “the Honourable East India Company pays for all.” But
these tardy attentions produced little effect upon me. I had but one
object in view, namely, a prompt decision, and that I could not
obtain. The Governor came to me every day, but it was merely to utter
a few complimentary phrases, and not a word of my affairs. However, it
was now indispensable to come to the point. The endless difficulties
that had arisen, and my endeavours to avert them, had kept me in a
continual state of agitation; and vexation of mind was combined with
grief of heart.
I was absolutely in a critical state when I arrived in the town. The
Governor was struck with my extreme debility and the change that had
taken place in my appearance. Apparently with the intention of rousing
me, Sir Hudson Lowe mentioned that the Emperor had expressed a very
great wish to see me before my departure. On hearing this, I was
deeply moved. My son afterwards informed me that the Governor appeared
very much embarrassed by the condition to which he saw me reduced.
However, making an effort to collect my strength, I once more begged
that Sir Hudson Lowe would give orders for my removal as speedily as
possible. He at length determined that my departure should take place
two days afterwards. He informed me that he had procured a ship of
war, which would be more suitable for my conveyance, while at the same
time I should enjoy the advantage of having a medical attendant on
board.
THE EMPEROR’S MESSAGE TO ME.—THE GRAND
MARSHAL’S FAREWELL.
29th.—Early this morning, an officer came to request that we would
pack up our things to be conveyed on board the ship, as it was
determined that we should depart very shortly. This we looked upon as
the hour of our deliverance. In a few minutes, all that we possessed
was packed up, and we were in perfect readiness. At length the
wished-for moment of departure was at hand. How our feelings vary
according to the circumstances in which we happen to be placed. But a
short time ago I should have considered it the greatest misfortune
that could befal me to be separated from the Emperor, and removed from
St. Helena. But my late resolutions, the manifest wish of Sir Hudson
Lowe, the positive words of the Emperor: “_I request you, and in case
of need, I command you, to quit this island_;” together with other
important observations which fell from him in the course of previous
conversation, and which I cannot hint at here, though they are
entirely foreign to politics; and finally, the chimeras which my own
imagination had conjured up; all now caused me to dread the thought of
being longer detained. The hour of departure had already been
specified; I nevertheless experienced the most cruel suspense, which
the Governor seemed to justify by keeping away nearly the whole of the
day. Impatience and anxiety had thrown me into a fever; when, about
six o’clock in the evening, the Governor, whom I now despaired of
seeing, made his appearance. After a little preamble, in his usual
way, he informed me that he had brought the Grand Marshal to take
leave of me, and he conducted me into the adjoining apartment, where I
had the happiness of embracing that esteemed companion of my exile.
The Emperor had instructed the Grand Marshal to tell me that “he
should see me desert with pleasure, and see me remain with pleasure.”
These were his words. He added, that he knew my heart and my
sentiments; and that he reposed full and entire confidence in me. As
to the chapters of the Campaign of Italy, which I had requested
permission to keep as a dear and precious memento, he granted them
without hesitation, as well as any thing else that might happen to be
in my possession; for he was pleased to say that, while they were in
my hands he should consider them as being still in his own. Sir Hudson
Lowe was with us during this interview, at which his presence was
indispensable. The Grand Marshal commissioned me to make some
purchases of books, and other things, necessary or useful to the
Emperor, and he particularly requested me to send the Moniteur.
Finally, he took leave of me, telling me significantly to act in all
things as I should judge best.
As I expected, the friendship of the Grand Marshal served only to
increase my distress. He expressed his regret for my departure, and
tried to suggest reasons for inducing me to remain. “His absence,”
said he, in a very graceful manner, addressing himself to the
Governor, “will be regretted by us all. It will be a loss to the
Emperor, and it will even be a loss to you, Sir Hudson Lowe. You will
soon be convinced of this.” The Governor replied by an approving bow;
and both endeavoured to prevail on me to change my resolution. I could
easily guess the Governor’s reasons for this; but I could not so well
divine the cause of the Grand Marshal’s entreaties, particularly after
the message which he had just delivered to me from the Emperor.
Besides, he was aware that, in addition to the numerous powerful
motives which urged me to depart, Sir Hudson Lowe, as I believe I have
already mentioned, offered not the least concession on his part. He
insisted on retaining my papers, and required my implicit submission.
By this means, I should, as it were, have legalized all his measures.
By the precedent thus granted I should have authorized him to seize
and imprison any one of us, whenever he might take a fancy to do so. I
could not, without the Emperor’s express command, submit to such
outrages; and, therefore, I firmly resisted them.
LAST FAREWELL.—SEALING OF MY PAPERS.—DEPARTURE.
30th.—I received an early visit from Admiral Malcolm. He came to
introduce me to Capt. Wright, who was to convey me to the Cape, on
board the Griffin brig. The Admiral recommended me to Capt. Wright as
his friend, and, in a very pleasing manner, assured me that I should
have every reason to be satisfied with the endeavours that would be
made to render things agreeable to me.
I looked forward to the decisive moment with my usual anxiety; for the
Governor betrayed so much eagerness to induce me to remain, that I was
fearful he would finally start some unforeseen obstacle to my
departure.
About eleven o’clock, the Grand Marshal arrived, accompanied by the
Governor and some officers. He renewed his endeavours to prevail on me
to return to Longwood; but without ever expressing the positive desire
of the Emperor. Knowing my sentiments so well as he did, he must have
been aware that a word would have decided me. But this word he did not
pronounce, and he even avoided doing so when I pressed him to it,
always referring to the Emperor’s message, which he had delivered to
me on the preceding day. Thus I had to defend myself against him, from
whom I should have wished to receive support. His expressions of
regard increased my distress, and I was perplexed between the wish of
remaining and the determination of departing. If my heart dictated the
one course, courage demanded the other; and I continued inflexible.
I must not forget to mention that the Grand Marshal, in the course of
conversation, informed me that the Emperor had wished to see me before
my departure. The Governor, however, required that an English officer
should be present during our interview; and the Emperor renounced his
intention, observing that I well knew he would deny himself the
happiness of seeing his own wife and son on such conditions. How was I
gratified by these words!...
I delivered to the Grand Marshal thirteen bills of exchange, on my
banker in London, for the 4000 louis, which I had so frequently
offered to the Emperor, and which the Grand Marshal now informed me he
had consented to accept. This was a real consolation to me.
This business being settled, General Gourgaud, who had accompanied the
Grand Marshal, was also permitted to enter and take leave of me. This
new mark of interest, joined to many others which the General had
shewn me during my imprisonment, failed not to produce an impression
on my heart.
The Grand Marshal and the General remained with me for a considerable
time, and Sir Hudson Lowe had the politeness to say that they might,
if they pleased, stay and breakfast with me. He retired, taking with
him all his people, with the exception of the officer on duty at
Longwood, who had escorted the gentlemen to the castle. This officer
was Captain Poppleton, with whose conduct we had always found reason
to be perfectly satisfied. During our breakfast, over which we sat for
a very long time, we certainly might, in spite of the presence of
Captain Poppleton, have found means to make secret communications with
each other; but we had none to make, and not a syllable of a private
nature passed between us. Had I foreseen this unexpected circumstance,
I might have put into my son’s hands the whole of my correspondence
with Sir Hudson Lowe, and it might, by this means, have been easily
transmitted to Longwood. However, on reflection, I congratulated
myself on not having made any such attempt. I still distrusted Sir
Hudson Lowe, and, from the endeavours he made to prevail on me to
remain, he would certainly have availed himself of such a discovery as
an excuse for changing all the arrangements that had been made, and
issuing fresh orders.
Breakfast being ended, I was the first who had courage to rise and
take farewell. I sent to request that the Governor would come and
execute the final measures. I embraced my friends, and they left me.
General Gourgaud, at parting, several times feelingly alluded to the
little vexations which had occasionally arisen between us. I felt
happy in expressing my conviction that they had been wholly occasioned
by the painful circumstances in which we were placed, and that our
hearts had no share in them. I cherish, with sincere gratitude, the
remembrance of the kind attentions which I received from General
Gourgaud, during the latter period of my residence at St. Helena.[28]
Footnote 28:
I must here introduce a correction respecting General Gourgaud. It
was, by mistake, mentioned in the early part of this work that
General Gourgaud negotiated for permission to proceed to St. Helena.
He was one of the individuals selected by the Emperor.