Chapter I: Am Not Allowed to Remain in England.—removal to Ostend.—persecutions (1)

IN BELGIUM, PRUSSIA, &C.—AGREEABLE COMPENSATIONS.—ARRIVAL AT
FRANKFORT.

On the preceding evening we had anchored in the Downs, merely for that night; the next morning, at day-break, we set sail for the Thames, London being our place of destination. It now appeared as if no occurrence could henceforth keep me from that city, and I was already calculating the hour of arrival. All my hopes might at last be realized; my confidence was returning; but how greatly was I mistaken!

Arrived at Gravesend, where a vessel is stationed for the special purpose of superintendence over foreigners, I no sooner gave my name than an agent of government informed me that I could not proceed any further, and that I must follow him immediately, with my luggage, on board of the _Alien Ship_. In vain I remonstrated, and represented to him that, with my passport, I was in strict conformity with the regulations: that very document it was which condemned me. I have been since informed that this measure had been ordered against me in every port of England, long before my arrival.

I was no sooner on board the Alien Ship, than seals were placed upon my papers, and I was apprized that I must wait for final orders from Government. I had written to Lord Bathurst the very instant of our anchoring in the Downs; I now wrote to him again. I was ignorant of his intentions towards me; but it seemed to me impossible that he should not eagerly summon me before him; and, above all things, it could not enter into my mind that he would neglect to avail himself of so favourable an opportunity for hearing a counter-statement of all that had taken place at St. Helena. It will be seen, however, that I was mistaken in my suppositions.

With the exception of being kept in confinement, every mark of attention was shewn to me on board the Alien Ship. The Captain, who had had very little to do since the peace, and who never made his appearance but in the day time, gave me his own bed to sleep in.

Harassed by these fresh vexations, suffering from my habitual complaints, and wearied of my new prison, I had gone to bed at an early hour, when I was awaked on a sudden, in the silence of night, by a shrill voice. “Count, Count,” cried some one who was seeking for me in every corner, and who in his hurry had not even waited to procure a light, “_It is the Prince Regent’s pleasure_ that you instantly quit Great Britain.” In the confusion of my broken sleep I chanced to reply, “Assuredly this is a very sorry and silly pleasure for his Royal Highness; but you, Sir, who are you?” He then told me that he was a government messenger. I requested that he would wait until I should be ready, and I tried in vain to complete my night’s rest. At daybreak my son and I were desired to step into a boat, landed with mystery, thrust into a post-chaise, and conducted by the shortest road to Dover, where my guide informed me that he had orders to see me on board of the packet for Calais or Ostend, whichever I preferred, as I was not allowed to fix my choice upon any other port.

It happened, from some cause or other, that we could not sail immediately from Dover, and I was told that there might be a delay of two or three days. We were shut up in an inn, where my keeper, under the specious pretence of consulting my convenience, practised upon me the meanest of all contrivances. If complaints are made on the Continent of disgraceful proceedings on the part of police agents, it must be admitted that the man we had now to deal with might well rival those of any other country.

Having happened to say that it was a pity my papers had been sealed up, as otherwise I might have taken advantage of my stay, in order to write a few letters, he immediately protested against the hardship of my being deprived of what he called a most innocent and a most natural satisfaction; and directly went himself to break the seals, and gave me up all my papers, recommending me to do all in my power to alleviate the unpleasantness of my present situation, of which he was the unwilling instrument. Will it be believed that this was nothing more than a snare laid for me, in order that he might afterwards have the pleasure of seizing whatever I might have written, under the delusion of a feeling of confidence which he thus excited! During the time we were together, this man had been remarkable for his officiousness towards us, coupled, it is true, with a thousand impertinent expressions, which sufficiently evinced all his baseness. He told me, for instance, that he and his colleagues considered it their duty to know no other law than the _pleasure_ of the Prince: he spoke of _his master_, Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary for the Home Department; of _his master_ who had preceded Lord Sidmouth, and so on; and as I observed, in joke, that I had thought that he belonged to the Administration, and not to the Minister, he replied, with the utmost candour, that I was mistaken; that he belonged to the Minister, as it was the Minister who paid him his salary, and who might take it away at his pleasure. He added much other nonsense of the same kind, which savoured more of the negro slave of Jamaica than of a white of Europe, and of a citizen of Great Britain; this, however, would have been a matter of perfect indifference to me, had not his base principles been put in practice upon me, as the sequel will shew.

At the very moment of our departure, and, when I was on the point of starting, this man, until then so complaisant and so officious, told me, in rather an insolent manner, that he had a trifling formality to fulfil towards me; and, seizing upon all my luggage, he searched most minutely amongst my linen and clothes, took possession of all my papers, without the least ceremony, and even refused to give me any kind of inventory of them. I complained aloud; I called for the protection of the Magistrates; I demanded that my protest, at least, should be received; I was answered that, in the situation in which I was placed, and being a foreigner, the benefit of the laws which I invoked could not be extended to me; and in this manner I was obliged to quit England, leaving, however, behind me, the following letter for Lord Sidmouth:—

“MY LORD,—It is with feelings of the deepest regret that I do myself the honour of addressing your Lordship, aware that your reply, which might perhaps gratify the object of my wishes, will reach me too late.

“For the last four days I have been in the power of your messenger: who, upon his arrival, removed the seals which had been put upon my papers, saying that he again placed them at my disposal. He has since seen me write, has even encouraged me to do so, and has waited for the moment of my departure, to take possession, in your name, of every one of my papers. This is a snare, my Lord, which my heart forbids me to attribute to a higher quarter than the individual who has practised it. That messenger understood no language but English; he called another person to his aid, who pretended to understand a little French, and who has thought proper to peruse my papers, one after another, and even to detain them all. There was enough for a whole week’s reading, and I did not imagine that any private individual could have such a right over me.

“Every thing has been taken from me, letters, notes, my son’s exercises, title-deeds, family secrets, official documents from Sir Hudson Lowe and Lord Charles Somerset, my daily memoranda, even a letter to the French Minister of Police, and another to my wife, which I had prepared during my leisure moments here, in order that I might forward them on my landing at Ostend. They have been taken without allowing an inventory or register to be made of them. Such, they said, was your Lordship’s order. In the first burst of indignation, I have protested against this violence, and demanded that a Magistrate might receive my complaint. I shall not record here the reply that has been given to me. Recovered from the first moment of surprise, and dreading nothing so much as to see my name mentioned in public discussions; considering also how impossible it was that your Lordship should have ordered so great a deviation from the rules of every acknowledged system of jurisprudence, according to which governments are required, in cases like the present, to take such measures as will enable them to guard against the possibility of being accused of having withdrawn or superadded any document; I contented myself with urging and most earnestly entreating the messenger, who had my fate in his hands, to allow of my departure being retarded until I had been able to write to your Lordship, and until he had himself received a confirmation of his rigorous orders. But this man, who had already caused a delay of three days upon slight pretexts, proved quite inflexible on the present important occasion. In vain I represented to him that I had no objection to shew all my papers to the confidential persons whom your Lordship might have appointed to see them; that it was even for your Lordship’s interest that certain formalities should be observed towards me; that, in the examination of my papers, my presence would be useful, if not absolutely necessary, in order to explain many things that could not be understood without me; whereas, he was sending me to the Continent, and forwarding my papers to London; that no doubt there was some mistake, which twenty-four hours’ time would clear up. I was coolly told, in reply, that I need not be uneasy about returning from the Continent, if that was thought necessary, as your Lordship would defray all the expense of the voyage. My Lord, in what hands have you placed me? On another occasion, in which this man could surely not have consulted your wishes, I found myself compelled to silence my guard, in consequence of the gross and injurious expressions which he used concerning the illustrious personage whom I respect above all others in this world.

“In short, my Lord, since I have reached your shores, I have been treated as a malefactor; and yet, where is my crime? A difference of political opinion, perhaps, and a voluntary imprisonment at Longwood! But is not the latter act one of the most noble and most generous; one so highly honourable that the man does not exist who, at the bottom of his heart, would not be proud of having set the example of it? My Lord, the mildness of disposition and love of justice, which are said to distinguish your Lordship, cannot, I am confident of it, have authorized all that has been done to me. Having been allowed to affix my seal to the papers that have been taken from me, I have hastened to do so, not as a precaution against your Lordship, but on the contrary, to remedy, in your behalf, the want of formality of which your agents may have been guilty.

“I entreat your Lordship to reconsider my case, and not to form an opinion upon my papers, without having first received from me the explanations you may require; and which I shall ever be most ready to afford. I affirm beforehand that, whatever difference of opinion and feeling may be found in them, there is not one that will not bear the test of a judicial investigation or of a friendly discussion. They contain nothing possessing any degree of interest in state matters, and no political secrets. I never possessed any documents of that kind, and if I had, opportunities would not have been wanting to have put them out of the way long before this.

“It would perhaps be the moment to speak also to your Lordship about the papers which have been taken from me at St. Helena, as well as respecting many other subjects to which I shall have to refer, either with your Lordship or Lord Bathurst; but the short space of time that I am allowed, and the confusion of ideas produced by circumstances so sudden and unforeseen, oblige me to defer doing so to some future period.

“I shall anxiously await the answer which your Lordship may be pleased to give me; but where I know not; most probably at Brussels, if I am allowed to remain there.

“I have the honour,” &c.

I was put on board a packet, and we sailed for Ostend; and, as I have now and then taken the liberty to speak of physical sufferings, I shall be forgiven, if, in order to afford a more correct idea of what I must have suffered during my long passage, I observe here that, notwithstanding the hundred days which I had just passed at sea, I still happened to be sick again on board this packet, although the weather was not absolutely bad. This was undoubtedly very ridiculous, but no less true.

The next day I got to Ostend, and landed without any observation having been made to me by any person. I again thought that this time my misfortunes were at an end, and that I had recovered my liberty; but I was again mistaken; persecutions of another kind were, on the contrary, going to begin: however, I had every reason to be satisfied with the first moments of my residence.

I had not been long at the inn before an agent of the local authorities came and told me, without my being able to guess how I had been already found out, that he had received orders to watch over me, and that he had immediately come to ask me in what manner I wished him to fulfil his instructions.

I had not been accustomed to such polite manner for a length of time, and I made this observation to him; adding, that the step he had taken was quite sufficient to induce me to resign myself with entire confidence to whatever he might wish to do with me; and, as his politeness had led to a prolongation of the conversation between us, which seemed greatly to excite his curiosity, he soon told me that he was going to put a question to me which was indiscreet, no doubt, and perhaps improper; but that he could not resist his desire of being informed whether it was true that I had left Napoleon because he was so much soured by misfortune that it was impossible to live with him; for the English ministerial papers had circulated a thousand reports respecting me, one more ridiculous than the other. I replied to him with a smile, “Sir, if I had any thing to say against Napoleon, if I had the least subject of complaint to adduce against him, be assured that you would not have to guard me at this moment, and that I should be far from being ill treated any where.” Upon which he exclaimed in his turn, striking his forehead, that such was the answer which ought to have suggested itself to his mind. His attentions towards me after this explanation became still more marked; and, having learnt from me that it was my intention to go to Brussels, he imposed no other condition to the uncontrolled liberty which he left me than that of not taking my departure without informing him of it, assuring me at the same time that a determination respecting me could not be delayed twenty-four hours longer, as a courier had been despatched to the Governor of the province, whose return would, in all probability, set me entirely at liberty.

I took advantage of the delay, to which I was thus obliged to submit, to write to the Ministers of the Police of France and of the Netherlands, respectively, concerning the situation in which I was henceforth to be placed.

To the French Minister I wrote in the following manner.

“Sir,—I think it right, on landing on the Continent, to inform your Excellency of the circumstances in which I am placed; and I trust that you will approve the motives that induce me to do so.

“A year ago, I was suddenly removed from Longwood, and have been, since that period, carried from shore to shore like a captive. On entering the Thames, I received an order to depart instantly to the Continent, having no other choice allowed to me but to proceed either to Calais or Ostend.

“A feeling of delicacy and prudence has prompted me to prefer Ostend.

“France is, of all countries, that where my appearance is most likely to be watched, and I have wished to spare the department over which you preside, and myself, the inconveniencies attending such a measure. This double consideration has induced me to adopt the cruel resolution of self-banishment. I have also been actuated by another motive, viz. the hope of possessing in this country greater facilities (setting aside all political views, influenced only by private and personal feelings of affection), for procuring through the legal channel allowed by the English regulations, and even under the cover of the British Ministers, some alleviation and innocent consolations for the martyrs at Longwood. In France, this pious and sacred care might have been misinterpreted, and might consequently have given rise to impediments.

“I hope that a statement so open and candid will remove all unfavourable impressions that might have been suggested to your mind by the circumstances of my case; and, in furtherance of that object, I now take the liberty of enclosing under cover to you, an unsealed letter for my wife, in whose favour I request the interposition of your kindness, in any thing relating to your functions, that may facilitate the means of her coming to share my voluntary exile. Receive,” &c.

To the Minister of the Netherlands I wrote, that it is usual to endeavour to escape from being rendered subject to superintendence; but that I, on the contrary, came to request to be placed under his. I repeated to him, as in the preceding letter, what had happened to me in the Thames, and that I had been thrown on the Continent without any motive having been adduced, or any cause assigned for this measure.

I informed him that I had just written to the Minister of the Police of France, to lay before him the motives which induced me to expose myself to voluntary exile. I represented to him that I was very ill, and that the state of my son’s health was most alarming; that I had just made a passage of a hundred days’ duration in a very small vessel—that I was entirely ignorant as to whether my wife and family were still in existence—that I was totally in the dark respecting the state of my domestic concerns; and, taking all these circumstances into consideration, I entreated him to allow me to reside for a few days at Brussels, to breathe and look around me, to send for my wife, and have the benefit of the attendance of a physician; adding that, perhaps, in the mean time, the British Ministers, whose harsh and precipitate conduct towards me must necessarily have been founded on some error, would consent to allow me to be present, agreeably to my request, at the examination of the papers which they had taken from me.

In conclusion, I assured him that I entertained no political views or feelings, that my sentiments were solely sentiments of individual affection and personal attachment; that such sentiments were natural and honourable, and that my open avowal of them must afford a perfect security that they were not calculated to give any cause of uneasiness.

I owe it to justice and to gratitude to state that my letter to the Minister of the Police of France had at least the effect of obtaining from him, when occasion offered, all that might be expected from a gentleman.

Such was not the case with respect to the Minister of the Netherlands; the only answer I received from him was the arrival of guards to secure my person. Orders were sent in every direction to find me out again, for they thought I was lost. As I had been told by the person intrusted with the superintendence over me, the permission from the Governor to continue my journey soon arrived, and I had immediately taken advantage of it; choosing, on account of the weak state of my health, the easy, but obscure and slow, conveyance of the barges and canals. This had not been thought of; and they were seeking for me at a great distance from Ostend, whilst I was still almost at its gates. My unsuspecting confidence and security had baffled all their calculations; they had not yet got the exact description of my person, and were consequently much embarrassed to know me; however, I myself soon put an end to their perplexity by throwing myself up, as the saying is, into the wolf’s jaws.

My first step, after my arrival at Brussels, which I reached late in the evening, after a journey of three days, was to send to inform the police of my being in that city, and ask what had been the determination of the Minister relative to my case, in consequence of the letter which I had addressed to him from Ostend. The generous answer to my innocent confidence was, to send instantly to surround the inn where I was, and they waited with impatience the first dawn of day to signify to me that I must leave the kingdom of the Netherlands without the least delay. I was very much indisposed, and had some degree of fever about me; nevertheless, I vainly appealed to their compassion, and asked to be allowed to stay one day longer.

Very serious obstacles must certainly have existed to my being permitted to sojourn in Brussels, or a predisposition to treat me with cruelty, for I was not allowed even one hour. They placed me in a carriage between a police officer and a gendarme, and turned me on the high road. These people, who saw my condition, took compassion upon me, and after a few hours’ journey consented to stop, in order that I might procure a little rest and some requisite medical attendance; but under the express condition that I should resume my journey at an early hour on the following morning, in charge of the guards appointed to succeed them; a system that was strictly acted upon and repeated in every town, notwithstanding the repeated observations and the testimony of all medical men. This cruel treatment compelled me to complain to the French Ambassador at the court of the Netherlands, who I thought would warmly resist such a proceeding; for it was an insult to his public character to treat in this manner, without any just motive, and in direct violation of the laws, a Frenchman who was placed under his protection. I therefore informed him of the vexatious and inhuman conduct which was then exercised towards me.

I told him “that, upon landing at Ostend I had written to the French Minister of Police, to state to him my motives for remaining out of France; that I had also written at the same time to the Minister of the Police of the Netherlands, requesting he would allow me to sojourn a short time in Brussels, and that, having reached that city at a late hour, without having been guarded or placed under any superintendence, I had hastened to inform his Excellency of my arrival; but that I had been suddenly awaked before day-light on the following morning, and surrounded by four police officers and two gendarmes, who signified to me that I must instantly depart, notwithstanding the very precarious state of my health; that I had in vain demanded a physician to verify my case; that I had been told that I should be allowed one for form’s sake, but that I must depart, whatever might be his opinion; that, in fact, I had been removed to Louvain like a malefactor, and in the last stage of sickness, under the escort of a gendarme and of a police officer; that, having arrived in this town during the night, suffering from increased illness, covered with blisters, and in a state of fever, I had asked to be allowed to stop the following day; that the Burgomaster had been inhuman enough to refuse my request, in spite of two or three very strong medical certificates; that, having demanded that the physician at least might accompany me in the carriage, instead of the gendarme, who could follow on horseback, this favour had also been refused me; that all that could be allowed, they said, was that the physician should accompany me in another carriage. This was, no doubt, a piece of irony.”

I added, “that I was quite certain such treatment could not proceed from him who alone, however, on this occasion, would have a right to exercise any influence over my fate; that I was too well acquainted with the sentiments of the nation to which we belonged to suppose for a moment that his instructions could decree the proscription of a person towards whom there neither was, nor could be, any law or motive for such a proceeding; that the ill usage I experienced could therefore only proceed from the authorities of this country, where however, in common justice, I ought not to be considered in any other light than as a traveller; that as such I would demand of them what was my crime, and what were their rights over my person.” And I concluded by placing my interests under his care, as his situation made him their natural protector; and, with a view to call his attention more particularly to me, I gave him news of Madame Bertrand, his wife’s sister, which I had received just as I was leaving Dover, and I offered myself, in case Madame de Latour Dupin wished to say any thing to her sister, to whom it would afford the greatest pleasure, to take charge of it, as I proposed to write to Madame Bertrand regularly once a month, by the channel which the English regulations allowed, viz., under the very cover of Ministers.

His Excellency made no reply to this letter; his endeavours, no doubt, proved unavailing; the impulse, the very orders, perhaps, emanated at this time from the other side of the water.

I continued in this manner, without intermission, transferred from town to town, from one police officer to another, from gendarme to gendarme, across the whole kingdom of the Netherlands; and when I occasionally asked, in the height of my sufferings, what could be the motive for such harsh treatment, I was simply told, in reply, that such were the orders that had been given; and, in fact, this was all that appeared to be known on the subject. Arrived at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the Prussian territory, I was there exchanged by the Agents of the Netherlands for a receipt, as might have been done with a bale of goods; and the Prussians, in their turn, hurried me along with equal rapidity from place to place, from officer to officer, and from one gendarme to another; and when I enquired of them also the motive of all this, they candidly answered that they did not know; but that I had been thrown into their country, and that they were going to throw me out of it. If I asked to stop, they politely replied that they would not keep me upon their territory; and some friends, for it will hereafter be seen that I found friends every where, whispered in my ear that I ought to thank God for it, and above all things, to take immediate advantage of this piece of good fortune, as some exiled Frenchmen had lately been forced to the shores of the Baltic, and shut up in fortresses. I then declared that I desired to go to Frankfort, an expression which appeared to give pleasure to my hosts, the Prussians, as they said it would no longer concern them. After what I had just learnt, I was equally rejoiced at this upon my own account.

After having described, but very feebly, all the savage brutality that had just been exercised upon me, all the vexations and sufferings that I had endured, it would be unjust and ungrateful in me, and I should be depriving myself of the most gratifying sensation, were I to omit mentioning the kind of compensation which I found at every step of my journey.

My story had made a great noise; it had spread in every direction; it preceded me; the public papers had laid hold of it. It was known whom I had served, to whom I had wished to devote my care, for whom I suffered; and all endeavoured to mark their sense of my conduct. All classes were eager to evince every mark of attention and sympathy towards me; and open demonstrations, or secret offers, awaited me every where. It was then that those words of Napoleon’s occurred to my mind, which I have, by the way, had many subsequent occasions to recal to my recollection: “My dear friends, when you shall have returned to Europe, you will find that, from this spot, I still bestow crowns.” And can there be a nobler, a more precious one, than the esteem, the affection, the sympathy, of those even who know you not, and have never seen you! What hand, however powerful, can bestow any thing of equal value! These feelings manifested themselves at inns, upon the high-roads, every where. Postboys, gendarmes, all that I met with on my journey, addressed me with a kind of pride and exultation. One said, “I belonged to the Imperial Guard;” another, “I was a French gendarme;” a third, “I have been a soldier under Napoleon.” These recollections, and the feelings of good-will to which they gave rise, appeared in all classes and conditions. Twice, in Belgium, offers were made to rescue me, every thing having been, I was informed, carefully prepared beforehand; the same offer had already been made to me at the Cape, by an American Captain; and a similar proposal was made to me at a later period, on the part of some Englishmen, to whom I was quite unknown, and who had resolved to come from London in order to carry me off from Frankfort, where they thought me in a much worse situation than I really was. But I invariably replied—“What end would it answer? Why should I injure so noble a cause?”

The very agents of authority felt an anxiety concerning my fate, and a kind of interest for me. One of them, although appointed to watch me, offered to take charge of any paper that I would venture to intrust to his care; I availed myself of his offer, as I did not see any inconvenience in so doing, even if he had some bad intention, as he might possibly have, and I addressed, to a person of high rank in England, a letter of half a dozen lines, describing with warmth the ill usage which the British Ministers had made me suffer for the last twelve months, and requesting that he would publish my statement, if he saw no objection to it. I enclosed, with the same view, that part of the Emperor’s letter which I had been allowed to copy, adding that I should have continued to to keep it to myself, had not the ridiculous and insulting reports, which were inserted in the newspapers, rendered it imperative upon me to make it public. I, however, left to his discretion to decide what should be done.

How great was my surprise to see the whole published in the Belgic papers two days afterwards! I was extremely mortified at it; it was not at all consistent with my disposition to wish to make so much noise. I was, above all, especially hurt that the person in England to whom I addressed my letter, and to whom I was unknown, should receive it only through the public press: this mode of proceeding was also totally inconsistent with my manners. I was at a loss to conceive how the thing could have happened. I have since learnt that my confident, in the warmth of his zeal, had consulted with two or three persons of the same way of thinking, and that, the papers having been read in their little council, they had decided that, instead of losing time in sending them to England, where, perhaps, no use would be made of them, it would be better to publish them instantly upon the spot, where indeed they created a very lively sensation. Notwithstanding the trouble that I then suffered from them, they proved eventually of the most signal advantage to me.

In short, there would be no end to it were I to mention the affecting marks of attention that were shewn to me; the offers of all kinds, in money, clothes, &c.; even people of the very lowest class were eager to tender their mite. One of them, forcing his way into my apartment, from which he was pulled back by the gendarmes, cried out to me that he had only two coats; that he saw, by my size, that the second would not fit me; that he was therefore going to sell it, and would throw me the amount through the window. What sufferings, what torments would not be effaced by the sensations which such acts must produce!

I was, however, so ill, on arriving at Cologne, that it was found necessary to allow me to stop twenty-four hours in that town. This increase of suffering turned out a fortunate circumstance for me. I was in a gentle sleep when, on a sudden, the _valet de place_ rushed into my apartment, with demonstrations of that joy which the bearer of good news is sure to occasion and even to experience, and announced to me Madame de Las Cases. I had not yet been able to ascertain whether she was alive, and therefore thought that I had misunderstood the man, or was dreaming; but a moment afterwards, the door was thrown open—it was she herself!

RESIDENCE IN GERMANY.

FROM THE TIME OF MY ARRIVAL AT FRANKFORT TO THE
PERIOD OF MY RESIDENCE AT OFFENBACH.

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A Space of Fifteen Months.

_Residence at Frankfort.—My endeavours to alleviate the Situation of
the Inhabitants of Longwood.—Letters to Maria Louisa and to the
Allied Sovereigns.—My Letter to Lord Bathurst.—Petition to the
British Parliament.—Transactions with several Members of the
Emperor’s Family.—Measures to supply the Wants of Longwood;
Details, &c.—Journey to Baden.—Residence at Manheim; Motives for
this choice.—Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle; my Efforts;
Details.—Letter from Madame Mère, &c.—Note to the Sovereigns.—New
Official Documents received from Longwood, and addressed to the
Sovereigns; new Efforts; &c.—State of Public Opinion.—Arrival of
the brig Musquito.—Fresh Vexation; the Minister of Baden orders me
to leave Manheim.—I retire to Offenbach._

The band of captives arrived at last at Frankfort, after having, for fifteen days, undergone persecutions almost unexampled in civilized countries, and in a state of tranquillity. A Prussian officer, whose duty, he politely said, was not so much to guard me as to see that I was well treated, had conducted me thither. He did not allow me to communicate freely with any person, and was not to leave me until some authentic and final decision had been adopted with respect to me.

On arriving at Frankfort, I immediately sent to our Ambassador, as I had done in the Netherlands, the following letter:

SIR,—I have the honour, on arriving in this town, to claim the protection of your public character, against the rigorous measures which have been pursued for some time past in regard to me.

I have been arrested, and am carried about from town to town, under escort, against my will, like a captive. Those who act thus candidly confess that they only push me on in that manner, because I have been so brought to them; and they have not any special motive or positive order on the subject. On my passage through the Netherlands, I addressed a representation on the subject to our ambassador at the court of the Hague; but I have been hurried on so precipitately that it has not been possible for me to receive any answer. I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the letter which I addressed to him, in order to put your Excellency in possession of the first details of my adventure.

It is now, Sir, the hundred and thirtieth day of my travels; I am harrassed, tired, sick, and infirm; I have been tossed by the fury of the waves, and must perish at last if I cannot find a port. In the name of humanity and justice, I implore to be allowed to take breath for a moment. I have found an erroneous impression existing every where in my way: and those who thus disposed of my person have all expressed the greatest surprise, when the discussion of the point has proved that there did not exist in France any law or act, either public or private, directed against me; and that nothing had ever occurred which could give rise to such a proceeding. I request, Sir, that you will be kind enough to prevent, by your testimony, the possibility of an error that might influence the decision to be taken with respect to me; and that you will grant me that protection which I am naturally entitled to expect from you in your public character.

I have the honour, &c.

P.S. I think it right to inform your Excellency that, in the perplexity of my situation, I wrote a few days since to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, to request an asylum in his dominions, should my liberty be placed under any restraint. But a distant country, the language and manners of which are quite new to me, cannot suit me, except in case of necessity. I should wish to be as near to France as possible, in order to be able to see my family, and attend to my domestic concerns, which have been neglected for the last three years; and Brussels, which, in addition to these advantages, possesses that of the language which would enable me to superintend the education of my children, is the place in which I should be happy to reside. I have requested M. Latour Dupin, at the Hague, to obtain the necessary permission to enable me to do so, and I earnestly entreat you to assist him, as far as it lies in your power.

The same thing that had happened in the Netherlands happened also at Frankfort; I received no answer to my letter. But his Excellency did not remain idle with respect to me, and I have been assured that he had immediately required from the senate of this free and sovereign city my removal within the space of twenty-four hours. Fortunately the Prussian officer, who was obliged to follow me, and who did not relish such a continuation of our journey, induced the Minister from his court to interfere, in order that I might be allowed to remain at Frankfort.

From that instant every thing became calm, and the tide of British persecution which, rolling from afar, had so long harassed my existence, was at last stopped. The senate allowed me to reside in Frankfort, and the Prussian officer took his departure. Politeness now succeeded to churlishness: Prince Hardenberg, to whom I had written to complain of my arrest in the Rhenish provinces, replied that he had been very angry about it himself. An answer came from Vienna, most graciously granting the asylum which I had demanded. I was now free, and I acquired also the hope of seeing my liberty respected for the future; for the Duke de Richelieu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to whom our Ambassador at Frankfort applied respecting me, answered, I was told, “that I should be left unmolested.”

The Duke de Richelieu, feeling his independence, had no doubt only followed the impulse of his natural generosity, whereas it must be presumed that these sentiments were restrained in the breast of our Ambassador at Frankfort by the necessity of giving pledges of his fidelity, having been formerly Napoleon’s minister at the court of King Jerome. This line of conduct was very proper on his part, no doubt; but I had a right to think it unfortunate that it had, on this occasion, been pursued at my expense.

My first care, as soon as I was at liberty to dispose of my actions, was entirely directed to the grand motive which had caused my departure from St. Helena, and brought me back to Europe. Though repulsed from London, on which I had founded my strongest hopes, I nevertheless embraced with ardour the means that were still left to me.

I first wrote to Maria Louisa, as in duty bound, and addressed my letter to her, unsealed and under cover to Prince Metternich, principal Minister of Austria. I afterwards wrote to the three Allied Sovereigns. I transcribe here those letters:

LETTER TO MARIA LOUISA, WRITTEN AT THE CAPE OF GOOD
HOPE, AND FORWARDED TO EUROPE.

MADAM,—I have no sooner left St. Helena than I think it my duty to hasten to lay at the feet of your Majesty some intelligence from your august consort. I have been suddenly torn from his presence, without any previous notice, and as it were struck with sudden death at his side, without the possibility of his having forseen such an event. I am not therefore fortunate enough to be intrusted with any special message for your Majesty; and it is from his every-day habits and conversation that I must collect what details I shall presume to transmit to your Majesty.

Indifferent to public events, the Emperor Napoleon most frequently indulged in the contemplation of his family recollections and affections. He was grieved at not having ever received, although he had officially demanded it of those who guard him, any news from those who are most dear to him. Your Majesty will find the lively expression of that regret traced by the hand of your illustrious consort in the letter which he did me the honour to write me, after I had been separated from him, a copy of which I shall take the liberty of laying before your Majesty.[30]

Footnote 30:

See the Letter from the Emperor Napoleon to Count Las Cases, after
his removal from Longwood.

The health of the Emperor, at my departure, was very much impaired, and his situation was most painful in every respect, being exposed to numerous wants, and deprived of every enjoyment. Fortunately, his mind triumphed over every thing, and remained calm and serene.

I have seen him obliged, every month, to sell part of his plate, to supply his daily wants, and he has been reduced to the necessity of accepting a small sum, which a faithful servant was fortunate enough to have at his disposal in England, when he left him.

Madam, guided by the sentiments which fill my heart, I take the liberty, as a devoted servant, to lay at the feet of your Majesty, in the hope of being agreeable to you, a sacrifice which is dear to me, being some hair of your august consort, which has been a long time in my possession. I presume also to send at the same time to your Majesty a plan of Longwood, drawn by my son for his mother. Your Majesty will no doubt feel interested in examining this remote desert in its details.

On arriving in Europe, my first step would be to throw myself at the feet of your Majesty, if a sacred duty did not oblige me to remain in England, in order to devote every instant of my life to endeavour to impart, through the means allowed by the British regulations, some consolation to the inhabitants of that horrible rock, which retains for ever the object of my most tender cares. The British Ministers will not refuse to allow me to undertake this pious occupation. I shall solicit it with ardour, and fulfil it with loyalty. I am, &c.

COUNT DE LAS CASES.

P. S. On my arrival in Europe, Madam, I have been ejected by England, arrested on the Continent, detained by sickness at Frankfort, and have just obtained an asylum in the dominions of your august father. I take advantage of the first moment of my liberty, to address to your Majesty the above letter, that was written for you at the extremity of Africa, at a distance of three thousand leagues. I entreat your Majesty to deign to receive it favourably, and that will be some consolation for my sufferings.

LETTER TO PRINCE METTERNICH, CONTAINING THE
PRECEDING.

PRINCE,—I hasten to offer to your Highness my sincere thanks for the favour of an asylum obtained in the dominions of his Majesty the Emperor.

I take the liberty at the same time to enclose, under cover to you, a letter for her Majesty Maria Louisa. And here, Prince, I entreat you to allow me to lay aside the public character with which your highness is invested, to address you in your private character only. I wish to ask for advice rather than to accomplish an act. Having been so long absent from Europe, I might unknowingly and unwillingly transgress the rules of expediency. I give myself up to the effusion of my heart.

Prince, the result of these different feelings has been to induce me to confide the letter which I enclose herein, unsealed, to your discretion and personal judgment. It is again the result of these same feelings which impels me to represent to you the Emperor Napoleon a prey on his rock to the persecution of personal enemies, and abandoned by all the rest of the world. Henceforth I shall live only in the hope of affording him some sources of consolation. From a daily intercourse of eighteen months, and, I may say, from some moments of unreserved confidence, I know those that would be most dear to him. And who can know Napoleon better than I do? He already feels and converses on the subjects of the past events of his own history, as if they had happened three hundred years ago. He remains unchanged only with respect to family feelings. Whatever political events may have occurred, he entertains no doubts on the score of domestic sentiments. How, through what channels, by what means, could I, without transgressing the rules of expediency, or any regulations and intentions, obtain direct intelligence concerning his wife and his son? Prince, I again repeat that this communication is from man to man: it is one heart questioning another.

During my residence at St. Helena, we have not had any intercourse, nor been able to have any with the Commissioner from Austria. Your Highness must have read in a public document,[31] written in answer to the Governor, that, _if the Austrian and Russian Commissioners had been sent to see that Napoleon was treated in a proper manner, and with the respect due to him, this measure was in harmony with the character of their Sovereigns; but that the Governor, having declared that they had no right or authority to interfere on the subject, had by that declaration rendered them inadmissible_. At the same time, Napoleon publicly said that he would willingly receive them as private individuals, yet we have not seen them; be it that such was the tenor of their instructions, or, as I have more reason to suppose, that the Governor wished to subject them, as private individuals, to restrictions which would have degraded their character.

Your Highness will see by the copy of a letter, transcribed for her Majesty Maria Louisa, the severity used towards an Austrian botanist, and how much the Emperor Napoleon was hurt by that circumstance. I again repeat to your Highness the expression of the nature of my sentiments, and the assurance of the high respect with which I am, &c.

COUNT DE LAS CASES.

P. S. In case my Letter for her Majesty Maria Louisa should not be delivered to her, I request your Highness will do me the particular favour to cause the hair which is enclosed in it to be returned to me.

Footnote 31:

Letter from Count Montholon in answer to Sir Hudson Lowe.

LETTER TO HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.

SIRE,—A sentiment, a sacred duty, brings me to the feet of your Majesty.

The zealous and faithful servant of a royal victim of adversity presumes to lift up his voice to your throne, surrounded by every prosperity which fortune can bestow; will you refuse to hear him?

Unexpectedly torn from Napoleon, and, as it were, struck with sudden death at his side, I have since wandered as in another universe, pursued every where by the recollection of sufferings which I have witnessed and can no longer share.

It is at your feet, Sire, that my heart prompts me to seek for an alleviation of my affliction, for encouragement to my hope.

Your treaty of the 2nd August, 1815, with your illustrious Allies, stipulates that Napoleon is your prisoner, and abandons to England the possession of his person, and the care and necessary measures of his detention.

I shall not say any thing against that treaty, Sire; I shall not even complain of the manner in which the British Ministers execute that part of the treaty which you have intrusted to their care.

The high interests of politics, the great grievances, however they may weigh upon my heart, are at this moment far from my thoughts; domestic cares alone occupy my breast.

I therefore implore your Majesty, as I have implored your high Allies,[32] to deign to protect the request which I address to the English Government, to be allowed to devote myself in London to the care of procuring for the illustrious captive, through the means allowed by the laws and regulations, some moral enjoyments, and some physical comforts, which will not be a burden to any body.

Footnote 32:

Similar letters had been addressed to the Emperor of Austria and to
the King of Prussia, varied only in some particulars, as the
individual circumstances of these Princes respectively required.

My request, Sire, is an innocent favour, natural and simple, and against which no reasonable objection can be raised; indeed, I am not without strong claims on your Majesty’s attention. You are far from being a stranger to them.

In abandoning to others the custody and detention of the captive, your Majesty has certainly not renounced your right of superintendence over the marks of attention and respect due to his sacred person. In renouncing all political interposition, your Majesty has not intended to preclude yourself from contributing to the consolations approved by your individual sentiments, and to those alleviations which do not interfere with the principal object, in view.

Every day, Sire, at St. Helena, chains are imposed, and their weight is aggravated in your name. Can you, Sire, have allowed your name to reach that spot, only to authorize odious and intolerable acts of severity?

He upon whom these acts are inflicted, Sire, is the same to whom you long gave the name of _brother_. Your royal heart cannot forget it, it cannot remain insensible. I therefore appeal, in order to obtain a small favour, to your sympathy, to your recollections, and even to your dignity. Your magnanimous mind, Sire, has shewn itself too much the friend of public morality, it has displayed too much private delicacy and generosity in its various bearings, to allow me to doubt for an instant of success.

And what is, Sire, once more, the object for which I require your protection? Merely to be allowed to be near the place of communication and conveyance, that is, on the spot the most favourable, and in the situation the most proper, to be able, according to the prescribed forms and regulations, to continue from afar those domestic cares which I am no longer allowed to exercise in the prison itself: that is all.