In March, 1817, lord Holland made a solemn appeal to the British parliament on the subject of Napoleon's treatment, and was answered by lord Bathurst, in such a manner that no one could be found to second him. The intelligence of this appears to have exerted a powerful influence on the spirits of the captive. It was about the 25th of September, 1818, that his health began to be affected in a manner sufficient to excite alarm in Dr. O'Meara, who informed him, that unless he took regular exercise out of doors (which of late he had seldom done) the progress of the evil would be rapid. Napoleon declared, in answer, that he would never more take exercise while exposed to the challenge of sentinels. The physician stated, that if he persisted, the end would be fatal. "I shall have this consolation at least," answered he, "that my death will be an eternal dishonour to the English nation, who sent me to this climate to die under the hands of..... O'Meara again represented the consequences of his obstinacy. "That which is written, is written," said Napoleon, looking up, "our days are reckoned." Shortly after this, O'Meara-being detected in a suspicious correspondence with one Holmes, Napoleon's pecuniary agent in London-was sent home by Sir Hudson Lowe; and Napoleon declining to receive any physician of the governor's nomination instead, an Italian, by name Antommarchi, was sent out by his sister Pauline. With this doctor there came also two Italian priests, whose presence Napoleon himself had solicited, and selected by his uncle, cardinal Fesch. His obstinate refusal to take bodily exercise might have sprung in some measure from internal and indescribable sensations. To all Antommarchi's medical prescriptions he opposed the like determina-. tion. "Doctor," he said (14th October 1820), no physicking; we are a machine made to live; we are 66 organized for that purpose, and such is our nature; do not counteract the living principle-let it alone -leave it the liberty of self-defence-it will do better than your drugs. Our body is a watch, intended to go for a given time. The watchmaker cannot open it, and must work at random. For once that he relieves or assists it by his crooked instruments, he injures it ten times, and at last de stroys it." With the health of Napoleon his mind sunk also. Some fishes in a pond in the garden at Longwood had attracted his notice; a deleterious substance happened to mix with the water-they sickened and died. "Every thing I love," said Napoleon, "every thing that belongs to me--is stricken. Heaven and mankind unite to afflict me." Fits of long silence and profound melancholy were now frequent. "In those days," he once said aloud, in a reverie, “in those days I was Napoleon. Now I am nothingmy strength, my faculties forsake me-I no longer live, I only exist." When Sir Hudson Lowe was made aware of the condition of the captive, he informed the government at home; and by his majesty's desire, authority was immediately given for removing to St. Helena from the Cape any medical officer on whom Napoleon's choice might fall. This despatch did not, however, reach St. Helena until Napoleon had breathed his last. About the middle of April, 1821, the disease assumed such an appearance, that Dr. Antommarchi became very anxious to have the advice of some English physician, and the patient at length_consented to admit the visits of Dr. Arnott, already referred to. But this gentleman also was heard in vain urging the necessity of medical applications. "Quod scriptum scriptum," once more answered Napoleon;- -"our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined." From the 15th to the 25th of April, Napoleon occupied himself with drawing up his last will; in which he bequeathed his orders, and a specimen of every article in his wardrobe, to his son. On the 18th he gave directions for opening his body after death, expressing a special desire that his stomach should be scrutinized, and its appearances commurcated to his son. "The vomitings," he said, "which succeed one another without interruption, seem to show that of all my organs the stomach is the most diseased. I am inclined to believe it is attacked with the disorder which killed my fathera scirrhus in the pylorus-the physicians of Montpellier prophesied it would be hereditary in our family." He also gave directions to the priest Vignali as to the manner in which he wished his body to be laid out in a chambre ardente (a stateroom lighted with torches). "I am neither a physician," said Napoleon, nor a philosopher; I believe in God, and am of the religion of my father. I was born a Catholic, and will fulfil all the duties of that church, and receive the assistance which she administers." 66 On the 3d of May, it became evident, that the scene was near its close. The attendants would fain have called in more medical men; but they durst not, knowing his feelings on this head; "even had he been speechless," said one of them, “we could not have brooked his eye." The last sacrainents of the church were now administered by Vignali. He lingered on thenceforth in a delirious stupor. On the 4th, the island was swept by a tremendous storm, which tore up almost all the trees about Longwood by the roots. The 5th was another day of tempests; and about six in the evening, Napoleon-having pronounced the words "tête d'armée," passed for ever from the dreams of battle. On the 6th of May, the body being opened by Antommarchi, in the presence of five British medi VOL. II.-Ee cal men, and a number of the military officers of the garrison, as well as Bertrand and Montholon, the cause of death was sufficiently manifest. A cancerous ulcer occupied almost the whole of the stomach. Napoleon desired, in his will, that his body should be buried "on the banks of the Seine, among the French people, whom he had loved so well." Sir Hudson Lowe could not, of course, expect the king of France to permit this to tak place; and a grave was prepared among some weeping willows beside a fountain, in a small valley called Slane's, very near to Longwood. It was under the shade of these willows that the emperor had had his favourite evening seat; and it was there he had been heard to say, that if he must be interred in St. Helena, he should be pleased to lie. The body of the emperor, clad in his usual uniform, was now exposed to public view, and visited accordingly by all the population of the island. The soldiers of the garrison passed the couch slowly, in single file; each officer pausing, in his turn, to press respectfully the frozen hand of the dead. On the 8th, his household, the governor, the admiral, and all the civil and military authorities of the place, attended him to the grave-the pall spread over his coffin being the military cloak which he wore at Marengo. The road not being passable for carriages, a party of English grenadiers bore Napoleon to his tomb. The admiral's ship fired minute guns, while Vignali read the service of his church. The coffin then descended amid a discharge of three volleys from fifteen cannon; and a huge stone was lowered over the remains of one who needs no epitaph. Napoleon confessed more than once at Longwood that he owed his downfall to nothing but the extravagance of his own errors. "It must be owned," said he, "that fortune spoiled me. Ere I was thirty He years of age, I found myself invested with great "Oh! more or less than man-in high or low, However deeply in men's spirits skilled, Look through thine own-nor curb the lust of war, His heart was naturally cold. His school-companion, who was afterward his secretary, M. de Bourienne, confesses that, even in the spring of youth, he was very little disposed to form friendships.* To say that he was incapable of such feelings, or that he really never had a friend, would be to deny to him any part in the nature and destiny of his species.-No one ever dared to be altogether alone in the world. But we doubt if any man ever passed through life, sympathizing so slightly with * Tres peu aimant. |