The Life, Exile and Conversations with Napoleon. Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases

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СКАЧАТЬ birds except a few pigeons among the gum-trees, and these were soon killed, or forced to migrate, by the few shots that Gen Gourgaud and my son amused themselves in firing.

      It seemed like a fatality that measures, dictated by the best and kindest intentions on the part of the Admiral, should still bear an appearance of restriction and colouring of caprice, which destroyed their effect. Along with the Emperor’s fowling-pieces were two or three guns belonging to individuals of his suite. These were delivered to their owners; but on condition that they should be sent every evening to the tent of the officer on duty. It may well be supposed that this proposition induced us, without hesitation, to decline the favour altogether; and the guns were not surrendered to us unconditionally, until after a little parleying. And after all what were the important subjects under discussion? A few fowling-pieces; and the owners of them were unfortunate men, banished from the rest of the world, surrounded by sentinels, and guarded by a whole camp. I mention this circumstance, because, though trifling in itself, it proves better than many others our real situation and the mode in which we were treated.

      On the 3rd, I breakfasted with Madame Bertrand, whom I was to accompany to dine at the Governor’s. From Madame Bertrand’s abode to Plantation-House (the Governor’s residence) is an hour and a half’s journey in a carriage drawn by six oxen, for the use of horses on this road would be dangerous. We crossed or turned five or six passes, flanked with precipices several hundred feet high. Four of the oxen were taken from the carriage in the rapid descents, and yoked again in ascending the hills. We stopped when we had got about three parts of the way, to pay a visit to a good old lady, eighty-three years of age, who is very fond of Madame Bertrand’s children. Her house is very pleasantly situated: she had not been out of it for sixteen years, when, hearing of the Emperor’s arrival, she set out for the town, declaring that, if it cost her her life, she was resolved to see him:—she was happy enough to gain her object.

      Plantation-House is the best situated, and most agreeable residence in the whole island. The mansion, the garden, the out-offices, all call to mind the residence of a family possessing an income of 25 or 30,000 livres in one of the French provinces. The grounds are cultivated with the greatest attention and taste. A resident at Plantation-House might imagine himself in Europe, without ever suspecting the desolation that prevails over every other part of the Island. Plantation-House is occupied by Colonel Wilks, the Governor, whose authority is now superseded by the Admiral. He is a man of most polished manners; his wife is an amiable woman, and his daughter a charming young lady.

      The Governor had invited a party of about thirty. The manners and ceremonies of the company were entirely European. We spent several hours at Plantation-House; and this, we may truly say, has been the only interval of oblivion and abstraction that we have enjoyed since we quitted France. Colonel Wilks evinced particular partiality and kindness to me. We mutually expressed the compliments and sympathy of two authors, pleased with each other’s merits. We exchanged our works. The Colonel overwhelmed M. le Sage with flattering compliments: and those which I returned to him were of the sincerest kind; for his work contains a novel and interesting account of Hindostan, where he resided for a considerable time in a diplomatic capacity. A spirit of philosophy, a fund of information, joined to singular purity of style, concur to render it a production of first-rate merit. In his political opinions, Colonel Wilks is cool and impartial; he judges calmly and dispassionately of passing events, and is imbued with the sound ideas and liberal opinions of an intelligent and independent Englishman.

      As we were on the point of sitting down to dinner, we were, to our great surprise, informed that the Emperor, in company with the Admiral, had just passed very near the gate of Plantation-House; and one of the guests (Mr. Doveton, of Sandy-Bay) observed, that Napoleon had, in the morning, honoured him with a visit, and spent three quarters of an hour at his house.

LIFE AT LONGWOOD.—THE EMPEROR’S RIDE ON HORSEBACK.—OUR NYMPH.—NICKNAMES.—ON ISLANDS, AND THE DEFENCE OF THEM.—GREAT FORTRESSES; GIBRALTAR.—CULTIVATION AND LAWS OF THE ISLAND. ENTHUSIASM, &c.

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      4th—8th. When I entered the Emperor’s apartments to give him an account of our excursion on the preceding day, he took hold of my ear, saying: “Well, you deserted me yesterday: I got through the evening very well, notwithstanding. Do not suppose that I could not do without you.” Delightful words! rendered most touching by the tone which accompanied them, and by the knowledge I now possess of him by whom they were uttered.

      The weather has every day been fine, the temperature dry; the heat intense, but abating suddenly, as usual, towards five or six o’clock.

      The Emperor, since his arrival at Longwood, had left off his usual dictations: he passed his time in reading in his cabinet, dressed himself between three and four o’clock, and afterwards went out on horseback, accompanied by two or three of us. The mornings must have appeared to him longer; but his health was the better for it. Our rides were always directed towards the neighbouring valley, of which I have already spoken; we either passed up it, taking the lower part of it first, and returning by the Grand Marshal’s house; or, on the contrary, went up that side first, in order to descend it in returning: we even went beyond it once or twice, and crossed other similar valleys. We thus explored the neighbourhood, and visited the few habitations which it contained; the whole of which were poor and wretched. The roads were sometimes impassable; we were even occasionally obliged to get off our horses. We had to clear hedges, and to scale stone walls, which we met with very frequently; but we never suffered anything to stop us.

      In these our customary rides we had for some days fixed on a regular resting-place in the middle of the valley. There, surrounded by desert rocks, an unexpected flower displayed itself: under a humble roof we discovered a charming young girl, fifteen or sixteen years of age. We had surprised her the first day in her usual costume: it announced any thing but affluence. The following morning we found that she had bestowed the greatest pains on her toilet; but our pretty blossom of the fields now appeared to us nothing more than a very ordinary garden-flower. Nevertheless, we henceforth stopped at her dwelling a few minutes every day; she always approached a few paces to catch the two or three sentences which the Emperor either addressed, or caused to be translated, to her, as he passed by, and we continued our route, discoursing on her charms. From that time she formed an addition to the particular nomenclature of Longwood: she became our nymph. Among those who were intimate with him, the Emperor used, without premeditation, to invent new names for every person and object that attracted his notice. Thus the pass through which we were proceeding, at the moment of which I am now writing, received the name of the Valley of Silence; our host at Briars was our Amphitryon; his neighbour, the Major, who was six feet high, was our Hercules; Sir George Cockburn was my Lord Admiral, as long as we were in good spirits, but, when ill-humour prevailed, there was no title for him but such as the shark, &c.

      Our nymph is the identical heroine of the little pastoral with which Doctor Warden has been pleased to embellish his Letters; although I corrected his error, when he gave me the manuscript to read before his departure for Europe, by telling him: “if it is your intention to form a tale, it is well; but if you wish to depict the truth, you must alter this entirely.” It should seem that he thought his tale possessed far more interest; and he has preserved it accordingly. But to return to our nymph: I have been informed that Napoleon brought her great good fortune. The celebrity which she acquired through him attracted the curiosity of travellers, and her own charms effected the rest; she is become the wife of a very rich merchant, or captain, in the service of the East-India Company.

      On returning from our rides, we used to find assembled the persons whom the Emperor had invited to dine with him. He had, successively, the Colonel of the 53rd, several of the officers and their ladies, the Admiral, the beautiful and amiable Mrs. Hodson, the wife of our Hercules, whom the Emperor went one day to visit in the valley of Briars, СКАЧАТЬ