Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena/Chapter 6

THE EMPEROR'S FAVOURITE RETREAT IN THE BRIARS GARDEN.—THE MALAY SLAVE.—NAPOLEON'S GENERAL INFORMATION AND VERSATILITY OF CONVERSATION.—CONSTERNATION OF CAPTAIN POPFLETON AT THE SUPPOSED ESCAPE OF HIS PRISIONER ON HIS FIRST RIDING EXCURSION AFTER NAPOLEON LEFT THE BRIARS.

THE only exception to the emperor's habits of regularity when with us was in his hour of rising. In the midst of our garden was a very large pond of transparent water, full of gold and silver fish; and near this was the grapery, formed of trellis-work, quite covered with vines of every description ​At the end of the grapery was an arbour, round and over which a treillage of grapes clustered in the richest profusion. To this spot, which was so sheltered as to be cool in the most sultry weather, Napoleon was much attached. He would sometimes convey his papers there as early as four o'clock in the morning, and employ himself until breakfast time in writing; and, when tired of his pen, in dictating to Las Cases. No one was ever permitted to intrude upon him when there, and this little attention was ever after gratefully remembered.

From this prohibition, however, I was exempt, at the emperor's own desire. I was considered a privileged person. Even when he was in the act of dictating a sentence to Las Cases he would come and answer my call, "Come and unlock the garden door," and I was always admitted and welcomed with a smile. I did not abuse this indulgence, and seldom intruded on him when in his retreat I re​member, however, one day, a very pretty young lady came from the valley to pass the morning with us: she was dying to see Napoleon, but the heat was very oppressive, and he had retired to his arbour to avoid it. I hesitated for some time between the fear of disturbing him and disappointing my friend; but at last Miss C. appeared so mortified at not seeing him, that I ran down to the garden and knocked at the door. For a long while I received no answer; but at length, by dint of thumping and calling to the emperor, I succeeded in waking him. He had fallen asleep in the arbour over his papers. He came up to the door, and asked me what I wanted. I said, "Let me in, and you shall know." He replied, "No; tell me first what it is, and then you shall come in." I was then obliged to say I wished to introduce a young lady to him. He declined seeing her, and desired me to say he was unwell. I told him she would be ​dreadfully disappointed, and that she was so pretty. "Not like the lady I was obliged to say agreeable things to yesterday?" he rejoined. I assured him she was quite a different person, being very young and handsome. At last I succeeded in getting the door opened. As soon as I found it unlocked, I ran up to the table where he had been writing and snatched up his papers. "Now," I said, "for your ill nature in keeping me so long at the door, I shall keep these, and then I shall find out all your secrets." He looked a little alarmed when he saw the papers in my hand, and told me to put them down instantly; but I refused, and set off round the garden, flourishing my trophies. At last he told me, if I did not give them up he would not be my friend, and I relinquished them. I then took hold of the emperor's hand, for fear he should escape, and led him to the house, where we found Miss C. I introduced her to Napoleon, ​and he delighted her excessively by his compliments on her beauty, &c. When she was going away, he walked down the lawn with her, and lifted her on to her horse. He told me, after she was gone, that she was a very pretty girl, but had the air of a marchande de modes.

The golden fruit in this modern garden of Hesperides had for its dragon an old Malay slave, named Toby, who had been captured and brought to the island as a slave many years before, and had never since crossed its boundary. He was an original, and rather an interesting character. A perfect despot in his own domain, he never allowed his authority to be disputed; and the family stood almost as much in awe of him, as they did of the master of the Briars himself. Napoleon took a fancy to old Toby, and told papa he wished to purchase him, and give him his freedom; but for some political reason it was not permitted. The old man retained ever ​afterwards the most grateful sense of Napoleon's kindness, and was never more highly gratified than when employed in gathering the choicest fruit, and arranging the most beautiful bouquets, to be sent to Longwood, to "that good man, Bony," as he called the emperor. Napoleon made a point of inquiring, whenever I saw him, after the health of old Toby, and when he took his leave of him he presented him with twenty Napoleons.

The emperor was very accessible while at the Briars, and knowing how much it would delight us, he seemed to wish to return any little attentions we were able to offer him by courtesy and kindness to our friends. My father, one day, during his residence with us, invited a large party, and the emperor said he would join us in the evening. He performed his promise, and delighted every one with his urbanity and condescension. When any of our guests were presented to him, he usually ​inquired his profession, and then turned the conversation upon some topic connected with it. I have often heard wonder expressed at the extent of Napoleon's information, on matters of which he would hardly have been expected to know much. On this occasion, a very clever medical man, after a long conversation with the emperor on the subject of his profession, declared his astonishment to my father at the knowledge he possessed, and the clearness and brilliancy with which he reasoned on it, though his theories were sometimes rather heterodox. Napoleon told him he had no faith whatever in medicine, and that his own remedies were starvation and the warm bath. At the same time he professed a higher opinion of the medical, or rather surgical profession, than of any other. The practice of the law, he said, was too severe an ordeal for poor human nature, adding, that he who habituates himself to the distortion of truth, and to exultation at ​the success of injustice, will at last hardly know right from wrong; so it is, he remarked, with politics, a man must have a conventional conscience. Of the church, also, (les ecclesiastiques,) he spoke harshly, saying that too much was expected from its members, and that they became hypocrites in consequence. As to soldiers, they were cut-throats and robbers, and not the less so because they were ready to send a bullet through your head if you told them your opinion of them. But surgeons, he said, are neither too good nor too bad. Their mission is to benefit mankind, not to destroy, mystify, or inflame them against each other; and they have opportunities of studying human nature as well as of acquiring science. The emperor spoke in high terms of Lorrey, who, he said, was a man of genius and of unimpeachable integrity.^[1]

On the emperor's first arrival in St. He​lena, he was fond of taking exploring walks in the valley just below our cottage. In these short walks he was unattended by the officer on guard, and he had thus the pleasure of feeling himself free from observation. The officer first appointed to exercise surveillance over him when at Longwood was a Captain Poppleton, of the 53rd regiment. It was his duty to attend him in his rides, and the orders given on these occasions were, "that he was not to lose sight of Napoleon." The latter was one day riding with Generals Bertrand, Montholon, Gourgand, and the rest of his suite, along one of the mountainous bridle-paths at St. Helena, with the orderly officer in attendance. Suddenly the emperor turned short round to his left, and spurring his horse violently, urged him up the face of the precipice, making the large stones fly from under him down the mountain, and leaving the orderly officer aghast. gazing at him in terror for his safety, and ​doubt as to his intentions. Although equally well mounted, none of his Generals dared to follow him. Either Captain Poppleton could not depend on his horse, or his horse was unequal to the task of following Napoleon, and giving it up at once, he rode instantly off to Sir George Cockburn, who happened at the time to be dining with my father at the Briars. He arrived breathless at our house, and, setting all ceremony aside, demanded to see Sir George, on business of the utmost importance. He was ushered at once into the dining-room. The Admiral was in the act of discussing his soup, and listened with an imperturbable countenance to the agitated detail of the occurrence, with Captain Poppleton's startling exclamation of "Oh! sir, I have lost the emperor." He very quietly advised him to return to Longwood, where he would most probably find General Buonaparte. This, as he prognosticated, was the case, and Napo​leon often afterwards laughed at the consternation he had created. On Captain Poppleton's arriving at Longwood he found the emperor seated at dinner, and was unmercifully quizzed by him for the want of nerve he displayed in not daring to ride after him.

The emperor's vanity was flattered at having still the power to create fear, though a captive in such a prison as the impregnable island of St. Helena. I have mentioned being struck with Napoleon's seat on horseback on first seeing him. He one day asked me whether I thought he rode well. I told him, and with the greatest truth, that I thought he looked better on horseback than any one I had ever seen. He appeared pleased, and calling for his horse, he mounted and rode several times at speed round the lawn, making the animal wheel in a very narrow circle, and showing the most complete mastery over him.

​One day, Achambaud, his groom, was breaking in a beautiful young Arab, which had been bought for the emperor's riding. The colt was plunging and rearing in the most frightful manner, and could not be induced to pass a white cloth which had been purposely spread on the lawn to break him from shying. I told Napoleon it was impossible that he could ever ride that horse, it was so vicious. He smiled, and beckoning to Achambaud, desired him to dismount; and then, to my great terror, he himself got on the animal, and soon succeeded in making him not only pass the cloth, but put his feet upon it; and then rode him over and over it several times. Achambaud, as it seemed to me, hardly knew whether to laugh or cry. He was delighted with his emperor's prowess, but mortified at his managing a horse so easily which he had been trying in vain to subdue. Napoleon mentioned that he had once ridden a favourite grey charger one ​hundred and twenty miles in one day. It was to see his mother, who was dangerously ill, and there were no other means of reaching her. The poor animal died in the course of the night. He said that his own power of standing fatigue was immense, and that he could almost live in the saddle. I am afraid to say how many hours he told me once he had remained on horseback, but I remember being much surprised at his powers of endurance. His great strength of constitution was probably more instrumental than one would imagine, at first view, in enabling him to reach the pinnacle of his ambition. The state of the mind is so dependent on the corporeal frame, that it is difficult to see how the kind of mental power which is necessary to success in war, or political turmoil, can exist without a corresponding strength of body, or at least of constitution. In how many critical periods of Napoleon's life would not the illness of a week have been ​fatal to his future schemes of empire! How might the sternness of purpose by which he subjugated his daring compeers of the revolution have been shaken, and his giant ambition thwarted, by a trivial sickness! The mind of even a Napoleon might have been prostrated, and his mighty will enfeebled, by a few days' fever. The successful leader of a revolution ought, especially, to be exempt from the evils to which flesh is heir; his very absence from the arena for a few days is enough to ruin him; depreciating reports are spread, the prestige vanishes, and he is pushed from his stool by some more vigorous and more fortunate competitor.