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the publication of them, so that the permission to obtain them will not be refused."1

The last desire of Napoleon was executed by the publication of a part only of those manuscripts which were dictated by him to the Generals Gourgaud and Montholon; the remainder are in the possession of General Bertrand, to whom I have been indebted for permission to print the Notes upon the Commentaries of Cæsar which have been in my hands during the last eighteen months. The nature of my service obliged me to be near the person of the Emperor, for he constantly did me the honour to desire I would read to him, or write from his dictation. It was in this manner that the Notes on the Commentaries of Cæsar were written by me, and dictated by Napoleon, during his long and sleepless nights, "during which," he would say, "study and occupation bring some alleviation to my sufferings, and strew a few flowers on the path that conducts me to the grave."

The hours which preceded the death of Napoleon were employed in serious conversation, or in reading aloud, more than in the care of his health. The two last readings which were made to the Emperor by his desire were The Campaigns of Hannibal, read to him by Count Bertrand, and The Campaigns of Dumouriez, which I had the honour to read. The last dictation that he undertook was to Count Montholon, in the night of the 29th of April: it was a project of a military organisation for France, and entitled "PREMIÈRE RÊVERIE." From four to five o'clock in the morning he continued to dictate to me the same subject, after the Count had retired, desiring me to call it "SECONDE RÊVERIE,” and to annex it to the other part.

When he had finished he told me that he felt capable of riding fifteen leagues. Alas! this state was not to last long.

Between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of the 2d of May, being much occupied with testamentary matters, and expressing often a tender anxiety for his son, the Emperor dictated to me the following paper :—

"I leave to my son the house I occupied at Ajaccio with its accessories, two other houses near the Salines, with their gardens, also all my property in the territory of Ajaccio, which, united, will furnish him with an annual income of 50,000 francs.

"I leaveHe now found himself so much fatigued that he could dictate no more; he postponed the remainder until the morrow; his memory also seemed to fail. I knew the property that belonged to the Emperor in Corsica, and was perfectly aware while he dictated this last legacy that he possessed nothing of the kind he specified, and could not, therefore, leave it to his son. I perceived several times during this day great incoherency in his manner, both in speaking and dictating. This aberration of mind continued at intervals until the 5th of May.

1 See Du Casse, tome x. pp. 229-306, for an account of the disappearance of this correspondence, in which we should have read the depth of servility to which the Sovereigns had descended towards Napoleon in his days of power.

1821.

CONSTANT'S ACCOUNT.

529

During the night of the 4th he was much agitated. Amidst a long and continued delirium the words, "France, army,' "1 were frequently though indistinctly uttered by him; and these were the last sounds we heard from his lips. The Emperor spoke no more!

At four o'clock in the morning a comparative calm succeeded the troubles of the night; it was the serenity of courage, the peace of resignation. The eyes of the Emperor became fixed, his mouth remained open; a few drops of saccharine water given to him by Dr. Antommarchi seemed to animate his pulse, a sigh escaped him we still had hope.

At six o'clock all the French who were attached to the service of Napoleon were permitted to enter his room. They endeavoured to stifle the grief that oppressed them: they approached the bed on which he lay; the silence of the chamber of death chilled our very souls.

At half-past six o'clock in the evening a gun from the fort announced "the retreat," the sun sank below the horizon; it was also the moment that this great man who had commanded the world was enveloped in immortal glory. The anxiety of Dr. Antommarchi increased. That hand which had so often commanded victory was now arrested by death. Dr. Arnott, holding his watch, looked on it with fixed attention, to count the intervals of pulsation, and the moments between the lingering sighs. Fifteen seconds-then thirty; now a minute intervenes. We waited: we hoped. Alas! the Emperor was dead!

His lips were colourless; his mouth was slightly contracted; his eyes were open, but fixed; his countenance was calm and serene.

In a few minutes Captain Crokat was introduced by Dr. Arnott to verify the hour of the Emperor's death: his countenance indicated the feelings of his heart. He immediately retired with much respect, and expressed his sorrow at the obligation imposed on him. Directly afterwards two English doctors entered, and having placed their hands on the heart of the Emperor withdrew to certify to Sir Hudson Lowe the report of Dr. Arnott.

Thus perished the Emperor Napoleon, surrounded by only a few faithful and devoted servants, exiled beyond the reach of those natural objects of affection which man seeks in the last and most trying moments of need—a mother, a wife, and a child.

I have read in the last work published relating to St. Helena that the Emperor, after having eulogised the Duke of Marlborough, and after presenting to Dr. Arnott, for the 20th Regiment, a copy of that General's campaigns, turned the Duke into ridicule after he had dismissed the English doctor, and sang the first verse of the well-known ballad written on

1 Thiers (tome xx. p. 706) makes Napoleon's last words "Mon fils . . l'armée... Desaix." Wouters (p. 1033), writing under the eye of Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, makes the last words, "Tête . . . armée... France." Antommarchi (London, Colburn, 1826, vol. ii. p. 152) only gives "Head . . . Army."

VOL. III.

ΙΟΙ

Marlborough.' I declare that I have no knowledge of any such circumstance. I was present, as well as the author of the work alluded to (the Emperor having sent for me), when the present of the books in question took place. Napoleon had passed in a sort of critical review the great generals, and stopping at the name of Marlborough applauded his tactics and courage. With that solemn tone of voice which Napoleon knew so well how to assume when he wished to stamp his munificence with an imposing character, he said, "Doctor, I love the brave of every nation; I wish to make a present to the 20th Regiment; take these volumes and place them from me in their library."

When at St. Helena the Emperor honoured General Bertrand with an exchange of his own watch for that of the Count; he attached even to this act a glorious recollection; "Take this, Bertrand," said he: "it struck two in the morning when I ordered Joubert to attack Rivoli." It was thus the Emperor knew how to add a value to his gifts.2

1 See Antommarchi, vol. ii. p. 96. Napoleon only laughed when reminded of the air "Marlbrook," saying, "Such is the effect of ridicule; it casts a stigma upon everything, even victory."

2 The remark made the gift priceless! It must have been strange for Napoleon at St. Helena to recall that bright clear cold night in 1797 when, amidst mountains blazing with the Austrian fires, he threw himself on Alvinzi with the weary divisions of Joubert, Masséna, and Rey; and, outnumbered and surrounded, won a victory the account of which reads like the tale of some hero of romance. See Thiers' Revolution, vol. iv. pp. 604-610. There were few among his soldiers who would not have risked their lives for such a gift! See History of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena from the Letters and Journals of Sir Hudson Lowe, by William Forsyth, Q.C. (Murray, 1853, 3 vols.), in which a worse case is made for Lowe and the English Government than might have been expected from the account of the French writers. Note especially the objection to allowing the Foreign Commissioners to communicate freely with Napoleon and his staff (vol. iii. pp. 239-240, 492-493); Lowe's alarm at Montchenu receiving the dangerous present of some French beans (vol. iii. p. 223); and the refusal to allow an inscription on the coffin unless the name "Bonaparte" figured there (vol. iii. p. 295). But Sir Hudson Lowe must have been adequately punished in living to read the accounts of the second funeral in 1840.

1840.

531

CHAPTER XXVI.1

1840.

THE SECOND FUNERAL OF NAPOLEON.

FROM the time of its burial in 1821 the body of Napoleon lay in its quiet grave under the willows at St. Helena, the solitude only broken by the visit of many English and a few French passengers from the ships then taking the Cape route to India and calling at the Island. In 1830 the elder branch of the Bourbons fell, and Louis Philippe succeeded Charles X. The new monarchy professed to be liberal and national enough not to fear reviving the memories of the great Emperor. The tricolour once more waved over France, and at last it seemed impossible to let the body of the Emperor rest in its distant grave.

M. Thiers, the then head of the French Ministry, determined to apply to England for the restoration of the corpse. It was thought right to ask the opinion of the old Duke of Wellington, and the Duke, as ungenerous to his dead foe as he had been to him when alive, advised the retention of the body to prevent its cession being considered as due to fear. Nobler counsels prevailed, and Lord Palmerston in generous words gave an affirmative answer. "The Government of Her Majesty hope that the promptness of this response will be considered in France as a proof of their desire to efface all traces of those 1 This chapter is added by the editor of the 1885 edition.

national animosities which, during the life of the Emperor, armed against each other the French and English nations. The Government of Her Majesty is confident that if such sentiments still exist anywhere, they will be buried in the tomb in which the remains of Napoleon are to be laid," a generous wish in which every Englishman must join; but the title of Emperor given at last to Napoleon casts odium on the men whose petty spite in refusing it gave, as was intended, such annoyance to the dying captive of St. Helena.

"Take back thy dead! and when thou buriest it,
Throw in all former strifes 'twixt thee and me!'

Amen, mine England! 'tis a courteous claim :
But ask a little room too-for thy shame!

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The intention of the French Government was communicated to the Chambers by the Minister of the Interior, M. Charles de Rémusat, the son of the writer of the well-known Memoirs, and the plan was cordially approved. The Prince de Joinville, the third son of Louis Philippe, was put in charge of the expedition to receive the relics, and the frigate La Belle Poule and the corvette La Favorite sailed from Toulon on the 7th of July 1840.3

A special Commission accompanied the Prince.

1 History of France, by Guizot (Sampson Low, 1882), vol. viii.

P. 388.

2 Mrs. Browning, Crowned and Buried.

3 Wouters' Annales Napoléoniennes (Bruxelles, Wouters, 1847), pp. 1076-1078, is mainly followed here.

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