evening of that day Count Montholon went himself to the Governor to request that Dr. Stokoe might continue in attendance upon Napoleon; that the Doctor, returning to Longwood early on the eighteenth, stayed there the greater part of that day; and that he was again there on the 19th, the 20th, and the 21st. This feat of misrepresentation has been accomplished in Count Montholon's usual manner, namely, by suppressing one letter, omitting the date of another, and perverting the purport of a third. Let us gather a few more plums. He asserts that Sir Hudson Lowe often awoke in the middle of the night dreaming of the Emperor's flight, leapt out of bed, mounted his horse, and rode like a madman to Longwood, to assure himself that he was labouring under the influence of nightmare, instead of a providential instinct,' and that nothing satisfied him except the word of honour of the French officers' (!!!) that the Emperor was in his apartments, when there was an effusion of gratitude on his part, with apologies for having disturbed them! (ed. Paris, i. 246; ed. Lond., i. 184);-that the soldiers of the camp at Deadwood saluted Napoleon with hurrahs; and that the Governor forbade them (naturally enough, if it had ever occurred) from repeating such 'hommage' upon pain of being flogged (ed. Paris, i. 289); --that Count Bertrand could not pass from his residence at Hutt's Gate to Longwood after six o'clock in the evening without a special permission from the orderly officer, and even then he would have to walk between two soldiers who held their bayonets pointed at him; the orders of Sir Hudson Lowe were that the point of the bayonet should touch the breast of the person' (ed. London, ii. 7);-that Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm told Bonaparte that, during the battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, thinking the day lost, and that he could at best hope to effect a decent retreat, sent him (Sir Pulteney Malcolm) orders to prepare for the re-embarkation of the English army! (ed. Paris, i. 320).

We have no desire to anticipate the full refutation which, from our perusal of Sir Hudson Lowe's Memoirs, we are confident that work will be allowed to afford in the cases of Count Las Cases and Dr. O'Meara, as well as of Count Montholon-clearly proving that their most formal statements in detraction of the Governor of St. Helena and of the British Ministry are absolutely untrue; that essential facts have been suppressed; that a false and malignant construction has been given even to the most necessary, nay, the kindest and most conciliatory parts of the Governor's procedure. We must, however, adduce two specimens of Count Montholon's notion of literary honesty, one of which is rather

amusing.

amusing. Among the correspondence in both editions of the 'History' is a violent letter to Sir Hudson Lowe, which the Count says he wrote and sent on the 8th of April, 1819, by order of the Emperor.' To this letter (as printed in both the editions) a long postscript is affixed-and the letter itself, in the English edition, contains the following paragraphs:

'Permit me, Sir, to cite to you another trait of what is done and practised in this island. A lady is in a dying condition: Drs. Weeling and Livingstone declared, in proper terms, on the 1st of April, in a special consultation, that it was necessary for her immediately to quit St. Helena, because she was attacked by the disease of the liver, endemic in this island; that she had no chance of recovery, except from the influence of the air of Europe. I immediately requested these physicians, addressing myself to Mr. Livingstone, to give me their opinion in writing: they consented to do so, but afterwards retracted their consent; alleging that a conclusion would be drawn from this, that, the Emperor Napoleon being attacked by the same disease, a change of climate was necessary for him. But can you then pretend to deny that disease of the liver is endemic in this country?—that individuals who are attacked by it ought to have a change of air, and to breathe that of northern climates? Is there one medical man among those who are or have been here who dares to lie to his conscience and deny that disease of the liver and inflammation of the bowels are diseases endemic in the island of St. Helena? Have not sailors and soldiers attacked by hepatitis been sent to Europe? Do not even creoles who have never before quitted the island receive advice from the physicians, when attacked by this disease, to go and seek recovery in England? What influence can the circumstance of the Countess Montholon's illness then have ?-what motive can you have for opposing, either directly or indirectly, the giving of the physicians' opinion in writing?-a thing necessary to her satisfaction and to her honour: for the more horrible our sojourn in this island has become, through the treatment we receive from you, the more strongly does honour command us to withdraw ourselves from such treatment only by a recognised necessity.

'It now remains for me, Sir, to beg you to adopt one of the two following courses: either to conform in your correspondence to the forms so long in use, or to write no more to me; for I cannot receive letters without having liberty to answer them; and a soldier and a gentleman should not endure the affront of seeing all his letters returned to him. Put an end, then, to scenes but little worthy of the rank you occupy, or of my character. If you have any official or personal communications to make to me, make them in the terms which have been in established use for four years; do not make use of the intervention of your officers. With a stranger in the island, a French general officer, belonging in his own country to a distinguished family, it is against all rules of politeness not to communicate directly; and when these communications refer to the Emperor Napoleon, this incivility becomes

a madness,

a madness, which is in itself sufficient to characterize your administration in the eyes of Europe:

"I have the honour, &c. &c.

-Ed. Lond., vol. iii. pp. 83-86.

'GENERAL COUNT MONTHOLON.'

Now mark-first of all, the letter which the Count on the 8th of April, 1819, sent to Sir Hudson Lowe, drew from Sir Hudson a most distinct reply, paragraph by paragraph, which reply the Count has found it inexpedient to publish: but, secondly, the Count's real letter did not contain one single word of the above passages. The autograph is before us. Thirdly, the real letter has no postscript: the postscript of the books forms, in the original. MS., part of the letter itself, and immediately follows the part where the interpolation 'Permit me,' &c. &c., begins. Fourthly, on turning to the French book (vol. ii. pp. 341-343), we find a remarkable variation from the copy in the English book; for the paragraph about Countess Montholon's illness, beginning 'Permit me, Sir, to cite to you,' &c., and ending with the words 'recognised necessity,' does not occur, while the other interpolated paragraph and the postscript are retained.

The Count proceeds to say, from the 11th of April to the 18th of July, 1819, all correspondence relative to the Emperor between the Governor and ourselves ceased.' But exactly within that period there occurred incidents of considerable moment as respects the relations between Count Montholon himself and the Governor; and on which we rather think the Count's History ought not to have been wholly silent-more especially after favouring us with the foregoing lamentations over the hard usage of his Countess.

As early as April, 1819, it was found necessary for Madame Montholon to return to Europe on account of her health; and the Count, long before thoroughly weary of St. Helena, announced his wish to accompany her. His departure was, however, so strongly opposed by Bonaparte, to whom he was useful as an amanuensis, that he consented to remain; but he told the Governor that he would not continue there beyond six months after the departure of his Countess. On the 26th of May the Count made a written application to Sir Hudson Lowe for leave for Madame Montholon to proceed direct to England, instead of by the Cape of Good Hope, the prescribed route; adding, Mon intention est de la rejoindre aussitôt que j'aurais pu réconcilier mon départ avec les devoirs qui me retiennent à Longwood.' Both Sir Hudson and Lady Lowe had all along endeavoured to show Madame Montholon every civility in their power. She at last sailed early in July, and the Count wrote to

the

the Governor, desiring him to offer to Lady Lowe the hommage de tous ses remerciments pour son aimable obligeance à l'occasion du départ de Madame de Montholon.'

In 1820 Count Montholon became extremely anxious to return to Europe. He frequently and urgently requested Sir Hudson Lowe to induce the British Government to send out some person in his place, and his applications continued to be made even so late as January, 1821-that is, until within four months of Bonaparte's death. Now, of this determination to leave Napoleon there is not the slightest indication in any part of the Count's work; and his wish to make it appear that he had resolved to remain with the exx-Emperor till the last has caused him to commit a little piece of ruserie which he flattered himself would never be found out, but which there is the more pleasure in exposing on account of his ungenerous conduct towards General Bertrand (the Emperor's Grand Marshal), of whom he often speaks very slightingly, and more than insinuates that he was deficient in attention to Napoleon. But, as if one trick necessarily involves another, Count Montholon has been guilty of a second bit of duplicity on this occasion, for the sole purpose of vilifying Sir Hudson Lowe-and the double offence meets most justly with a signal retribution.

Treating of July, 1820, Count Montholon writes thus in his History:

'Every vessel signalled as coming from Europe gave us a few hours of hope; but this first impression was always followed by more or less intense annoyance caused by the communications of Sir Hudson Lowe. Family letters, cases of books, or instructions from his Governmenteverything afforded him a pretext for paying a visit to Longwood. This time the pretext was the communication of a despatch received from Lord Bathurst relative to General Bertrand. He insisted on my undertaking to communicate this despatch to the Emperor. I obstinately refused, and endeavoured to convince him of the inutility of this communication, since I was certain that Lord Bathurst had received false information concerning the projects of the Grand Marshal, who, I was perfectly convinced, had never thought of returning to Europe. Sir Hudson Lowe departed, taking with him the despatch which I had refused to receive; and I believed I had thoroughly convinced him, but I was mistaken. Next day, July 7th, he wrote the following letter to the Abbé Buonavita :-"Sir,-The enclosed contains information which requires some delicacy and consideration in its communication to the person whom it concerns, and I hope you will excuse my taking the liberty of addressing it to you. I have, &c., H. Lowe."

6

The Count then gives the following as a copy of the despatch relative to General Bertrand,' which the Governor inclosed to Buonavita ::

‹ London,

'London, March 16th, 1820.

"Sir, I have learned that it is the intention of the Countess and General Bertrand to demand permission to return to Europe; and, as in consequence of their departure the society of General Bonaparte at Longwood would be essentially diminished, you will take the first opportunity of informing him of his Majesty's disposition to satisfy any desire which he may express with respect to any persons whose arrival at Longwood would be agreeable to the General. If General Bonaparte would prefer leaving the choice of such persons to Cardinal Fesch or the Princess Pauline Borghese, I will immediately make a communication to them to that effect. It is only necessary to add, that the persons who may be thus sent to Longwood would be required to conform to the established regulations; that is to say, would be subjected to the conditions subscribed to by the persons whose places they would supply, as well as to all restrictions which might afterwards be prescribed with reference to this island. I have, &c. 'BATHURST'

Count Montholon goes on to say :'The Abbé Buonavita hastened to bring me these letters; I entreatea him not to say anything about them to the Emperor, but immediately to deliver them to the Grand Marshal, whom they greatly astonished. He could only find an explanation of them by attributing them to violation of the secresy of the most private family communications. He had expressed, in a letter to his old father, his regret at finding himself totally unable to procure for his children the lessons of all kinds so absolutely necessary to their education, and had said some words about the necessity under which he should find himself of making a voyage to Europe, for the purpose of delivering them to his charge, unless events should speedily put an end to the Emperor's captivity. Bertrand carried the whole affair to the Emperor: his natural and friendly explanations were fully understood, and the two letters were placed among the archives of Longwood. The Abbé Buonavita received orders to reply that he had communicated his letters, and was not charged with any answer. This incident had, however, some influence on the Emperor's state.'-Ed. Paris, ii. 409-412; ed. Lond. iii. 125-128.

We begin with Count Montholon's assertion that, on the 6th of July, he told Sir Hudson Lowe that he was perfectly convinced General Bertrand had never thought of returning to Europe.' Nothing was said on the subject on the 6th of July; but, on the 1st of that month, Count Montholon came to Plantation House, where he had a long and amicable conversation with Sir Hudson Lowe about some books which were wanted at Longwood, about supplying the place of a servant who had threatened to leave them, and on French politics. And then (we copy the minute of the day)—

'Whilst the Governor was absent,' writes Major Gorrequer, to search for some books (which they had not, as it appeared, yet read at Longwood),