NAPOLEON'S LAST DAYS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 4

NAPOLEON'S LAST DAYS.

DEATH OF HIS LITTLE PLAYMATE AT ST. HELENA. v THE VIVID IMPRESSIONS OF .. ' CHILDHOOD. The ,last witness of the personal,'life of Napoleon has just died at her homo in Provence. She was the daughter of Gen. de Montholon, the faithful companion of his master at St. Helena, whore she was born a year after the battle of Waterloo, Tho fallen Emperor was her godfather, ■ and ho was her daily comrade and chief playmate until his death. Where one's world was so' limited, even tho memories of an alert child of live years have their value. In her old ago, tho Comtesso de Lapeyrouso—her. marriod name—always repeated the same things in the same .way, not for tho Press, which seems to have -forgotten" her until hor.death, hut to tho friends who wore alwaysiaslfij'tg her about the great man. It was Dbranger's song over again:— Vous I'avez vu, grand'mero? vous I'avez vu? Jacques Normand, whoso literatune,,makes him sympathetic to such voices of the past, talked at length with this notable , lady during one of. tho bright days of hor lifcond. , "I have had nino children; fivo are living. With the years my health has improved; it is excellent—that is, for my ago.' I have never a'cold, my sight is perfect, the same number in glasses smeu I was sixty. I read without troublo and without getting tired. As to memory, it conies and goes—ono day very clear, not so tho clay aftor. Yesterday I remembered very well the Emporor." "And do you remember him we|l to-day?" "Yes, well, really well. Only think!' I was born at St. Helena; he was my godfather. When I was little I saw Him all tho day long— my eyes were full'of him. I 3till see him in his uniform of tho Chasseurs da la Ganlo.it was that ho liked best; also in the morning in a dressing-gown of white cashmere. He was vpry nice about his feet, they were very pretty, and he wore shoes With buckles. I used to come early trotting into his room. There was a bed'with blue curtains trimmed with Tho Emperor jumped me on his knee—walk! trot! gallop I I laughed like mad, and ho laughed, too, for he was kind, simple, good. Ami then his voice—l hear it still, 'lt'wns well toned ('timbree'), without the slightest accent, Why, if I should hear that voice behind mo after all theso years, I should know it at once!" '"Would you like to soo his sword?" the aged playmate of the great man interrupted. It was a triangular blade of blue steel, with gold damascene work and an oaglo at the guard. The sheath was in worn leather, with a belt of black cloth, also much worn, with brass rings. "I sometimes kiss it," said the old woman, simply. "The Eniperor did not have the look of an old man, nor of a wonirout man. He was 'very strong up to his terrible ailment—a cancer of the stomach (pylorus). It was a disease' of his family, '. his father and mother both died of it. He had already had some warning of it, but had resisted. Then the last attack came suddenly, during a carriage drive with my father. The Emperor had the carriage stopped, ho suffered so keenly. Aftor that flic troublo kept growing worse—and he died in spite of the devoted care of Antommaichi. As you know, the Emperor died .1 Christian, hi the' last period of his life ho had become very religious, and scrupulously fulfilled his duties as a Catholic. Ono thing struck me. Ho very often repeated a phrase about Mario Louise, whoso abandonment of him was very painful to him: 'Ah! my good Josephine would not hare left me like that'.' - Yes, I can still hear him saying that!" M. Normand asked a leading question, to which tho reply, after all these years, has still an historical value.

"Do you remember Sir Hudson Lowe, madnmo? Ho was very cruel to the Emporor, was ho not? A sort of executioner?" He took pains to note tho exact words of one who, however young, was ablo to hnve living impressions of what really took place. "Do I remember Sir Hudson Lowe? Yes, I saw him many times with the Emperor, talking with him. An oxooutioner ? Oh, no I. People have been very unjust townnls him, very unjust. Ho was 'correct,' ho oxecuted orders without' adding any of his own. Certainly the Emperor did not liko him, he could not like him; it was England ho hated in him. But ho did justice to tho man, to his perfectly correct bearing, for oxample, ho could not etidure—every day it made him angry—that Sir Hudson Lowe should call him 'general' and not 'sire..' In that, as in everything else, Sir Hudson Lowe only oxecuted orders , which ho had received. When, we went to England after leaving St. Helena, we were very well received. Hut what astonished us greatly was that Sir Hudson Loivp. wns already detested by Knglishmcn. The part bo had to .piny as a jailer mortified them, and even his descendants bad to boar the opprobrium of it." M. Normand adds: "From this visit, nlniost in extremis, 1 keep so lively an impression that I have tried to share it with all those who interest themselves passionately in whatever touches near or remotely tho memory of the great Rmpcrer." S.D.