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Ch. XVI.]
the Emperor Napoleon.
185

mediately reported it; he knew my father to be too severe a disciplinarian to over-look even a trifling fault.

My father had been suffering from a very violent attack of gout, which prevented his riding to Longwood, as was his daily habit. When he saw Napoleon after his recovery, the emperor began laughing at him, and told him, if he sat a shorter time after dinner, he would have fewer attacks of gout. He asked him what remedies he had resorted to to be cured. My father replied, he had taken "Eau medicinale," upon which Napoleon laughingly remarked, had he drank more pure water and less wine he might have dispensed with the eau medicinale. He told him he was too young to want physic, as remedies ought only to be resorted to by the old. In speaking of his own abstemious habits, he observed that he drank very little wine; however, the little he did drink was absolutely taken medicinally,