him in February, 1823, yet a knowledge of Dr. O'Meara's imputations did not prevent the Count from making a declaration on the Doctor's behalf when prosecuted by Sir Hudson for his libels, and he always speaks of him in his present work as poor O'Meara.' On that occasion, by the bye, the Count solemnly declared, in order to do homage to truth, upon his honour before God and man,' that he was firmly convinced' that Bonaparte's life was shortened by the moral assassination of which he was the victim, as much from the effect of the restrictions and administration of Sir Hudson Lowe as from the effect of the devouring climate of St. Helena ;'-all this, we say, the Count solemnly declared-albeit, it is an undoubted fact that the same Count Montholon had been present at the autopsy of Napoleon's corpse on the 6th of May, 1821, and that on that very day he wrote a letter, in which he said—

L'ouverture de son corps a eu lieu ce matin; elle a prouvé qu'il était mort de la même maladie que son père, un squirre ulcéreux à l'estomac, près du pylore: les 7-8mes de la face de l'estomac étaient ulcérés. Il est probable que depuis 4 à 5 ans l'ulcère avait commencé. C'est dans notre malheur une grande consolation pour nous que d'avoir acquis la preuve que sa mort n'est, et n'a pu être, en aucune manière, le résultat de sa captivité, ni de la privation de tous les soins que peut-être l'Europe eût pu offrir à l'espérance.'

But we come back to the question of the Count's character at Longwood; and—as some old readers of our Review may perhaps remember*-the fact is, that, if O'Meara spoke the truth, Count Montholon had obtained from Napoleon and his countrymen a rather awkward sobriquet. In 'poor O'Meara's' letters to Sir Thomas Reade and Major Gorrequer, Countess Montholon was frequently alluded to in a style which decency forbids us to exemplify: but we need not be over delicate about her husband. Now, on the 21st of June, 1816, Dr. O'Meara writes to Major Gorrequer (evidently repeating expressions he had heard Napoleon use, for he always marks them as quotations; and who else conversed with O'Meara in Italian on such subjects?)— Montholon, better known here by the appellation of " Il Bugiardo," says,' &c. ... 'I explained to Montholon-who "se non fosse poltrone e bugiardo. sarebbe bravissimo uomo, ma levategli solamente questi piccoli difetti è perfetto galantuomo"-that you were combining heaven and earth together to lodge him and his amiable consort in state, which he assented to with several hypocritical grimaces and professions of thanks.'

* Quart. Rev.,' No. LV. p. 243. February, 1823.

If he were not a coward and a liar, he would be a fine fellow; and, bating these two little defects, he is a perfect gentleman.'

A few

A few weeks later the Doctor states that some sheets, the produce of old Ireland,' had arrived for the use of Madame de Montholon; and, after one of his habitual indecencies, adds—

'I think if a little of a plant not very dissimilar was applied to the neck of her husband in order to hang him out in the sun to dry for just half an hour, it would not produce many moist eyes at Longwood.'

On the 13th of September Dr. O'Meara told Major Gorrequer, alluding to some copper stewpans, You had better take some steps to have them repaired, as he [Montholon] is malicious enough to assert that it was neglected on purpose to poison them, and very likely he has already done so.'

Writing to his private friend in England on the 16th of March, 1816, Dr. O'Meara said

'Bonaparte has discovered that the Admiral's conduct has been most grossly and shamefully misrepresented and blackened to him. The people he is surrounded by give me some faint idea of what the court of St. Cloud must have been. Everything even here is disguised and mutilated in the representation to him, particularly by Montholon.' After further remarks on the 'attempts made to conceal the truth from Bonaparte, and to give him false impressions concerning every occurrence,' Dr. O'Meara specifies, by way of example, a flagrant misrepresentation by Count Montholon respecting the cause why some sentinels were posted; and adds that, on the truth becoming known to Napoleon, he

'broke out into several invectives against Montholon, whom he called a "coglione," "imbecile," &c. &c., and only fit to go into the kitchen and look after the pots; adding, that he had worse blood in his veins than the black fellow he had sent off-alluding to a negro he had discharged for caterwauling! This has in a great manner opened his eyes to Montholon, as he scarcely spoke to him for several days; and on one occasion, when Montholon was going into the town for some business, Napoleon said to him, "Now, Montholon, do not bring me back any lies as news, as Marshal Bertrand is going to town to-morrow, and I will then hear the truth."

It would be easy to multiply extracts from Dr. O'Meara's letters in which the Count's character is similarly treated-but we must leave the rest to be studied in the St. Helena correspondence.

The only difficulty we find in dealing with his magnum opus is to pick out romances that can be exposed within a moderate space for in general a grain of truth is so blended with a bushel of invention, that a long explanation of the facts would be necesWe must try our hand.

sary.

Referring to the early part of the year 1817, Count Montholon

says,

says, The Emperor continued to get worse and worse,' and he attributes his illness to the moist atmosphere of St. Helena:

'It was in the midst of these new apprehensions for the health of the Emperor that Sir Hudson Lowe presented himself before me to complain that we consumed too much fire-wood, and that it was unreasonable for the Emperor, under the tropics, to have a fire every day in his bedroom. He even asserted that this could only arise from a wish, on his part, to cause more expense to England. I recalled to his recollection that it was not long since the boards of the bedroom had sunk, and suddenly a gush of stagnant water sprang from a sort of marsh which extended along two-thirds of the room. "But," said he, "since I have had the boards repaired, and the water emptied out, it seems to me that there is no further occasion for a fire." "In that room, certainly," an

swered I; "but what do you say respecting the other, where the boards are rotten, and the walls covered with moisture?" And at the same time I pointed out to him with my finger proofs, of what I advanced.'-Ed. Lond. ii. 353.

What could more strongly show the heartlessness of the St. Helena Jailer, than that the fallen Emperor should not be allowed a fire in his bedroom-no, not even when he was ill? The facts on which this pathetic story is founded are these. Sir Hudson Lowe never presented himself before' Count Montholon, nor did he ever speak to him on the subject: but on the 8th of May, 1817, the Count having told O'Meara that the French had not fuel enough, the Doctor conveyed the information to Major Gorrequer; and the Major instantly directed wood and coals to be sent to Longwood; and as soon as Sir Hudson Lowe heard of the affair he ordered double the usual quantity of coals to be supplied in future.* Finally, O'Meara, in a subsequent report for the Governor's eye, observes, that the quantity of fuel previously fixed on, had at the time been pronounced sufficient by General Montholon.'

now.

Another fuel incident, not noticed heretofore in print, very

*To DR. O'MEARA.

'Plantation House, May 9, 1817. 'Dear Doctor,-The moment you left me yesterday I wrote to Mr. Fowler desiring he would despatch an additional supply of wood and coals to Longwood, as soon as he possibly could this morning. I have since received the Governor's instructions to order that the future quantity of coals shall be doubled, making ten bags a-day instead of five (the present quantity furnished), and the supply of wood to remain the same as This arrangement is made in consequence of the urgent necessity which exists to avoid as much as possible the destruction of wood in the island, an article so scarce here as to afford very little resource, and the use of which it is consequently most important to economise. At Plantation House (an establishment not less numerous than that of Longwood), where two kitchen-fires are constantly kept, and a laundry besides, which requires more fuel than the cooking, only five bags of coals are used daily, and no wood. The present arrangement would therefore appear to offer an ample supplyfor, though warm baths are used at Longwood, there is no laundry. Believe me, &c. G. GORREQUER.'

well

well illustrates the magnanimity of the Emperor. In September there was again a temporary deficiency of fire-wood, and instead of his servants making the circumstance known to O'Meara, or to the orderly officer at Longwood, the great man directed his valet to break up a bedstead, and actually, himself, dictated two letters in the name of Cipriani, his maître-d'hôtel, saying that the establishment required three times as much as was supplied in consequence of the great humidity of the spot, and desiring Mr. Balcombe to send up three thousand weight of wood to be paid for by the French themselves. This reached the Governor's ears next day, and he immediately sent for O'Meara and requested an explanation, which O'Meara gave in the following remarkable statement-which statement the worthy Doctor took care to suppress in his book. In the memorandum of the next day we find these sentences :

'Mr. O'Meara informed the Governor that the two notes sent from Cipriani the preceding day, one addressed to Mr. Balcombe, the other to Mr. Barker, applying for an additional quantity of wood for fuel, were neither of them the handwriting or composition of Cipriani: that Cipriani told him that, had they been written by General Montholon, or anybody else, he would not have signed them; but when he found they were General Bonaparte's own words, written by his order, he could not refuse it. Mr. O'Meara further declared he had himself told General Bonaparte that a supply of wood had been sent by the Governor's orders the day before, as soon as he was informed of its being wanted, and that it was a pity an application was not made to the Governor for an increase. General Bonaparte answered, he did not wish to have anything asked for when he could pay for it himself. The Governor observed, this was always the way-they never would tell what they required, and then complained of the want of it; that he had ever desired a list might be given in of what they wished for from England, but could not obtain it. Dr. O'Meara said he had himself asked General Bertrand for a list of what articles they would require from England-who answered "qu'il ne se mêlait pas de ces choses-là!

Count Montholon's allusions to fire-wood remind us of an amusing passage in one of Dr. O'Meara's letters to Sir Thomas Reade:

'Cipriani told Bonaparte that Montholon's house was more like a court than a private person's house; that it contained a magazine of furniture; and that when he could not find anything else, so desirous was he of grabbing something, that he went out and laid hold of the wood FOR FUEL and carried it with him into his store. Bonaparte sent for Montholon immediately.'

If we could afford a whole Number to this book, we should still find it impossible to go over half the fictions of Count

Montholon.

Montholon. What will our readers think of his giving (vol. i. p. 113) a melodramatic account of Bonaparte's sword having been demanded of him on board the Bellerophon by Lord Keith -'cette épée qu'un Anglais osait demander-and of the veteran Admiral's shrinking abashed before the Emperor's' superhuman look-whereas no one ever thought of depriving him of his sword, and Count Las Cases expressly says Napoleon's sword was 'respected'? What of the Count's story (vol. i. p. 125) of Bonaparte's having invited the Master of the Northumberland to dine with the Admiral, and of the Master's saying that the Admiral would not allow a Master to sit at his tablewhereas everybody knows that the Master of a ship of war always dines with the Captain or Admiral, in turn with the other officers? These are absurdities-let us turn to another department. Though he has printed many letters which were written by himself from the dictation of Napoleon, he has not ventured to publish the one stuffed with complaints and abuse which he wrote on the 21st of December, 1815, to Sir George Cockburn: and why? Is it suppressed because he, the Count, afterwards apologised to the Admiral for having written it-imputing its offensive expressions to Bonaparte's petulance-and adding that he (the Count) considered the party to be in point of fact vastly well off?? Moreover, the Count relates conversations between Napoleon and Sir Hudson Lowe on the 9th of May,* again on the 29th of May, and again on the 17th of June, 1816, on none of which days did the Governor speak to Bonaparte. He describes the Emperor as abattu et profondément triste' on the 28th of May, though Las Cases and O'Meara both state that on that day Bonaparte took a long ride with Count Las Cases, which they 'enjoyed very much,' and that, after he returned, he played at skittles or ninepins with his followers! He states (ii. 321-322) that, Bonaparte having been taken ill in the night of the sixteenth of June, 1819, General Bertrand wrote to Dr. Stokoe, on board the flag-ship in the Roads, desiring him to come immediately to Longwood; but, as he did not arrive, the Count wrote a second letter at nine o'clock in the evening; and it was not until the afternoon of the nineteenth that Dr. Stokoe appeared, and then only in consequence of a third summons, he having found difficulty in being allowed to leave the ship. The truth, however, is, that the Doctor reached Longwood before seven o'clock in the morning of the seventeenth, less than six hours after Bertrand's first letter was despatched; that he remained there nearly eight hours; that in the

On this occasion he represents Bonaparte to have said that the badges on the colours of the 53rd Regiment ought to be changed for the words assassinat de Napoléon.

evening