BONAPARTE. 



613 



liberals, and preached the cause of liberty agahistthe 

 tyrant ! The monarchs assembled at Vienna declared 

 Napoleon out of the pale of national law, as the 

 Bourbons had already given orders to hunt him down 

 (courir sus), as the expression was, by which Napo- 

 leon was put on the same footing with the lowest 

 criminal. Whilst he was exerting himself to collect 

 and organize an army, he caused the " additional 

 act " to be added to the constitutions of the empire. 

 In the preamble of this " additional act," which is, in 

 several respects, more liberal than the charter of the 

 Bourbons of 1814, hedeclares that his object had been 

 to establish a federative system over the continent of 

 Europe, and that he had, on this account, delayed the 

 development of individual liberty in France ; but that 

 " henceforth he has no other object than to promote 

 the welfare of France by giving security to liberty." 



The battle of Waterloo (q. v.) defeated all his 

 plans and hopes. He returned to Paris, June 21, 

 where, at the requisition of the representatives, he ab- 

 dicated, on the 22nd ; but this time not for himself and 

 his heirs, but in favour of his son, Napoleon II,, 

 which abdication, of course, was not accepted by the 

 allied powers, who had not ceased to acknowledge 

 the Bourbons as rulers of France, though they were 

 little disposed to make any great effort to support the 

 elder branch of this line, if the French should prove 

 unwilling to receive them. Napoleon retired to Mal- 

 maison, and, after some days, to Rochefort, where lie 

 found the frigates, destined for him, ready, but the 

 harbour closely blockaded by the British. He wished 

 to embark for America.* 



July 3, the capital surrendered to the enemy, and 

 Napoleon was exposed to be given up to the Bour- 

 bons by Fouche or Talleyrand. At the same time, 

 being prevented from sailing, he asked, July 10, the 

 commander of the British ship Bellerophon, which 

 lay off the port of Rochefort, what he had to expect 

 if he claimed the hospitality of the Britisli. The 

 answer was, that the commands of the admiral should 

 be obtained. On the 14th, Napoleon sent once more 

 to the British commander, who answered, that he had 

 not yet received orders, but that he was authorized, if 

 Napoleon would embark immediately for England, 

 to carry him thither, and to show him every respect 

 due to his rank. Napoleon accepted the offer, and, 

 despatching general Gourgaud to the prince regent, 

 with a letter, comparing his own fate to that of The- 

 mistocles, he went on board, July 16; and the 

 vessel immediately sailed for Torbay, where he was 



. * In 1S15, before his departure from Paris, Napoleon in- 

 formed his brother Joseph, that there was, among some 

 papers in a box which he had sent him, a copy of the let- 

 ters which the different sovereigns had written to him. 

 This copy he had ordered to be made by way of precaution, 

 as the originals remained in the archives. Some years 

 later, doctor O'Meara, after his return from St Helena, in- 

 formed Joseph that Napoleon wished to have this corres- 

 pondence published, as the best answer to all the calumnies 

 against him ; but the copies could not be found. The 

 papers in the box containing them had been distributed, 

 among a variety of things, in other boxes, with a view of 

 concealing them from the eyes of the police ; and when 

 these boxes reached the United States of America, the copy 

 of the correspondence was not in either of them. It must 

 have been lost, in the confusion of packing in Paris. It 

 ought to be mentioned, too, that, about the period when 

 O'Meara's communication was received, the mansion of 

 Joseph in America was consumed by the flames. The ori- 

 ginal letters were sold, for 3(C,000, in London, where they 

 had been deposited with a bookseller. Those who assert 

 that Napoleon put this correspondence into the hands of 

 Joseph, at Rochefort, are under a mistake. Joseph received 

 nothing from Napoleon, either at Rochefort or at the isle of 

 Aix. The total disappearance of the letters would be an 

 irreparable loss to history, as they are the key to that por- 

 tion of Napoleon's life which can be understood only by an 

 acquaintance with the secret springs of diplomacy, showing 

 u where he acted freely, and where under the compulsion 

 of circumstance?. 



informed, on the part of the British government, that 

 he was to be conveyed as a prisoner to St Hel iia. 

 On that island he lived from October 18, 1815, to 

 May 5, 1821, at Longwood, receiving from the British 

 the title of " general Bonaparte," and watched by 

 the commissioners of the allies, as a European pri- 

 soner of state. Napoleon was voluntarily accompa- 

 nied by general Bertrand, withes wife and child ; 

 count Montholon, with his wife and child ; count Las 

 Cases, with his son, who was obliged to leave him in 



1817 ; general Gourgaud, who returned to Europe in 



1818 ; and by several servants. 



Napoleon at St Helena maintained his character in 

 the miseries of exile as in the palace of the Tuileries. 

 All the persons who served him at St Helena treated 

 him as emperor; and he appreciated and returned 

 their fidelity with feelings of gratitude and friendship. 

 The governor of the island, Sir Hudson Lowe, 

 watched him with unsparing rigour ; and Napoleon 

 could not at all times help from betraying a querulous 

 resentment at what he considered unnecessary and 

 degrading restrictions. In no respect would he con- 

 cede to the British the right to dispose of his person. 

 When his physician, O'Meara, was ordered to leave 

 him, by the British governor, he remained for some 

 months without medical aid : the prayers of his at- 

 tendants, and the daily declining state of his health, 

 could not induce him to admit of a physician sent by 

 the British governor. When he was no longer 

 permitted to go abroad without military escort, he 

 never left his habitation. His principal employment 

 was the composition of his memoirs. For recreation 

 he played chess, or some one read to him, chiefly tra- 

 gedies. In the confidential circles, he spoke of his 

 childhood and his fate with the calmness with which he 

 would have spoken of the history of antiquity. He en- 

 tertained for his son the most tender affection ; of 

 France he spoke only with respect and love. His sick- 

 ness first assumed a dangerous character in the last 

 six weeks of his life. According to the British physi- 

 cians, who opened his body in the presence of the phy- 

 sician Antommarchi, sent to Napoleon from Italy, it 

 was occasioned by a cancer of the stomach. Napo- 

 Icon was aware that his death was approaching, and 

 spoke of it frequently and with composure. When he 

 heard from the physician that he had but forty-eight 

 hours to live, he asked general Bertrand to assist him 

 in making his will, which occupied them both about 

 fifteen hours. His last dispositions contain several 

 proofs of gratitude and kindness. At the hour of his 

 death, no change was visible in his countenance. He 

 expired on the field-bed which he had used at Aus- 

 terlitz with calmness, in the arms of his faithful 

 friends, Bertrand and Montholon, at Longwood, May 

 5, 1821, about six o'clock in the evening, aged fifty, 

 one years and nine months. May 9, he was buried 

 in a valley of his own selection, with the military 

 honours of a general. The voluntary companions of 

 his exile, general Bertrand and Montholon, with their 

 families, returned, by way of England to France and 

 Paris, with the permission of the French government, 

 October, 1821. 



Napoleon's figure was short. He measured but 

 five feet six inches. His head was rather large, 

 in comparison to his body, and covered with chest- 

 nut-coloured hair. His broad and elevated fore- 

 head indicated a firm will. His eyes were light blue, 

 and susceptible of great variety of expression. The 

 eye-lashes were lighter than the eyebrows, which 

 were of the colour of his hair. His nose was fine, his 

 mouth agreeably formed, and capable of very various 

 expression. His chin was rounded, and his cheek ap- 

 proaching to square. His complexion was clear olive ; 

 otherwise, in general, colourless. His neck was 

 short; his shoulders broad. His hands were small 



