which was calculated to impress upon the hearers that he was completely serious in the extravagant doctrines which he announced.

He failed, of course, to make any impression on Lord Amherst, or on Mr Henry Ellis, third commissioner of the embassy, to whom a large portion of this violent tirade was addressed, and who has permitted us to have the perusal of his private journal, which is much more full on the subject of this interview than the account given in the printed narrative of the embassy which appeared in 1817.*

Having stated Lord Castlereagh's supposed errors towards the state, Napoleon was not silent upon his own injuries. It was chiefly in his conversation with Lord Amherst that he dwelt with great bitterness on Sir Hudson Lowe's conduct to him in various respects; but totally failed in producing the conviction which he aimed at. It seemed, on the contrary, to the ambassador and his attendants, that there never, perhaps, was a prisoner of importance upon whose personal liberty fewer actual restraints had been imposed, than on that of the late Sovereign of France. Mr Ellis, after personal inspection, was induced to regard his complaints concerning provisions and wine as totally undeserving of consideration, and to regret that real or pretended anger should have induced so great a man

See Appendix, No. XI., for one of the best and most authentic accounts of Napoleon's conversation and mode of reasoning.

to countenance such petty misrepresentations. The house at Longwood, considered as a residence for a sovereign, Mr Ellis allowed to be small and inadequate; but, on the other hand, regarded as the residence of a person of rank living in retirement, being the view taken in England of the prisoner's condition, it was, in his opinion, both convenient and respectable. Reviewing, also, the extent of his limits, Mr Ellis observes that greater personal liberty, consistent with any pretension to security, could not be granted to an individual supposed to be under any restraint at all. His intercourse with others, he observes, was certainly under immediate surveillance, no one being permitted to enter Longwood, or its domains, without a pass from the Governor; but this pass, he affirms, was readily granted, and had never formed any check upon such visitors as Napoleon desired to see. The restraint upon his correspondence is admitted as disagreeable and distressing to his feelings, but is considered as a "necessary consequence of that which he now is, and had formerly been." " Two motives," said Mr Ellis, " may, I think, be assigned for Buonaparte's unreasonable complaints. The first, and principal, is to keep alive public interest in Europe, but chiefly in England, where he flatters himself that he has a party; and the second, I think, may be traced to the personal character and habits of Buonaparte, who finds an occupation in the petty intrigues by which these complaints are brought for

ward, and an unworthy gratification in the tracasseries and annoyance which they produce on the spot."

The sagacity of Mr Ellis was not deceived; for General Gourgaud, among other points of information, mentions the interest which Buonaparte had taken in the interview with the embassy which returned to Britain from China, and conceived that his arguments had made a strong impression upon them. The publication of Mr Ellis's account of the embassy dispelled that dream, and gave rise to proportional disappointment at St Helena.

Having now given some account of the general circumstances attending Buonaparte's residence in St Helena, while he enjoyed a considerable portion of health, of his mode of living, his studies and amusements, and having quoted two remarkable instances of his intercourse with strangers of observation and intelligence, we have to resume, in the next chapter, the melancholy particulars of his decline of health, and the few and unimportant incidents which occurred betwixt the commencement of his sickness and its final termination.

CHAPTER VIII.

Napoleon's Illness-viz. Cancer in the Stomach.-Dr Arnott's opinion that it was NOT the effect of Climate, but had been growing upon him since 1817.-The disposition which might have obtained a relaxation of the restrictions by which Napoleon was guarded, not manifested by him.—Removal of Las Cases from his household.—Montholon's various Complaints brought forward by Lord Holland in the House of Lords, and replied to by Lord Bathurst.-Effect of the failure of Lord Holland's Motion upon Buonaparte.— Symptoms of his Illness increase—his refusal to take Exercise or Medicines.-Removal of Dr O'Meara from his attendance on Buonaparte-who refuses to permit the visits of any other English Physician.-Two Roman Catholic Priests sent to St Helena at his desire.-Napoleon's Opinions on the subject of Religion.-Dr Antommarchi arrives to supply the place of O'Meara.—Continued Disputes between Napoleon and Sir Hudson Lowe.-Plans for Effecting Buonaparte's Escape.-Scheme of Johnstone, a daring Smuggler, to approach St Helena in a Submarine Vessel, and receive the Prisoner on board-frustrated by the Seizure of the Vessel.-The disturbed state of Italy and other causes render fresh vigilance in the custody of Napoleon's person necessary.—His Disease increases.—Letter expressing his Majesty's interest in the Illness of Napoleon.-Consent of the latter to admit the visits of Dr Arnott.-Napoleon employs himself in making his Will.—and gives other directions connected with his Decease.-Extreme Unction administered to him.-HIS DEATH, on 5th May, 1821.-Anatomization of the Body.-His Funeral.

REPORTS had been long current concerning the decline of Buonaparte's health, even before the battle

of Waterloo; and many were disposed to impute his failure in that decisive campaign, less to the superiority of his enemies than to the decrease of his own habits of activity. There seems no room for such a conclusion: The rapid manner in which he concentrated his army upon Charleroi, ought to have silenced such a report for ever. He was subject occasionally to slight fits of sleepiness, such as are incident to most men, especially after the age of forty, who sleep ill, rise early, and work hard. When he landed at St Helena, so far did he seem from showing any appearance of declining health, that one of the British grenadiers, who saw him, exclaimed, with his national oath, "They told us he was growing old; he has forty good campaigns in his belly yet, d-n him!" A speech which the French gentlemen envied, as it ought, they said, to have belonged to one of the Old Guard. We have mentioned Captain Hall's account of his apparent state of health in summer 1817; that of Mr Ellis, about the same period, is similar, and he expresses his belief that Buonaparte was never more able to undergo the fatigues of a campaign than at the moment he saw him. Yet at this time, viz. July, 1817, Napoleon was alleging the decline of his health as a reason for obtaining more indulgence, while, on the other hand, he refused to take the exercise judged necessary to preserve his constitution, unless a relaxation of superintendence should be granted to him. It