NAPOLEON AT ST HELENA

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1923, Page 1

NAPOLEON AT ST HELENA

HIS VALET’S MEMOIRS.

A vivid and touching account of Napoleon in his lifter years is given by his second valet, Louis Etienne St. Denis, whose personal recollections have just been published under the title of "Napoleon, from the Ttiileries to St Helena” with an introduction by Professor 0. Alichaut, who is married t 0 St. Denis’s great-grand-daughter. The translation and notes are by E. 11. Potter.

These memoirs are of far groatei

trustworthiness than Constants famous hut very dubious volumes. They were seen and examined by that great Napoleonic authority At. Frederic A Bisson ten years or more ago, and pronounced genuine. The world has long been waiting for their publication, as al-o for the publication of Alarchland’s memoirs, which have also been scrutinised hv AI. Ala-son.

St. Denis was a grod observer and an educated man. the son of a minor official at Louis XYT> Court. Tie was not only Napoleon’s valet hilt also in the sad days of his captivity and illness acted as his librarian and copyist. He was devoted, body and soul, to his master. He wrote seine time after Napoleon's death and did not keep a journal, so that at times he makes small mistakes.

He records a good deal about Napoleon that is new and most interesting. The Emperor kept a sharp eye on the hooks read hv his valets:

If it was a good hook he would put it hack where he found it, hut if it was had he would show a lively displeasure at. the fact that the reading of such hooks in his palace was permitted. I am not sure that he did not throw them into the lire. SIMPLE HABITS.

At St. Helena, in Us banishment, nothing wax more sinking than the Emperor's simplicity of habits: lie were a shooting coat at first, and wlieii this, after having been turned, became really too had, lie wore in its place it civilian's coat, green or brown. He never wore anything but silk stockings, lie newr "ore gloves unless he wore going out on lior.-e----back, and thou he was more likely to put them in his pocket than on his hands. The Emperor m ver wore any jewellery except a watch. He "as annoyed at anything lie regarded as ;t personal slight and kicked St. Denis with his imperial toe ‘‘for using the pronoun you instead of your .Majesty.” lie was careless of him-

The Emperor did not at all know how to take care of his health. lie knew that dampness gave him colds; well, it- often happened that lie went in walk and allowed himself to he caught in the rain. Tie would let himself get wot. He was absolutely like a child. In the long, sad nights at St. Helena. when death was drawing near to him, "he would cough so loud that lie could he In aril all over the house”— awake while the rats scurried to and fro in the rambling corridors. The account of his last illness is, in its perfect simplicity, aii affecting one: The Emperor died without the slightest perceptible convulsion and without the least stiffening; lie went out as the Light of a lamp goes out. St. Denis does not mention the “last "ords” with which history credit:-. Napoleon— •'Fiiim.e . . army .. . head ol ll:e army . . . Josephine." The only utterance of his during that tremendous closing scene of his life uhich the valet records is this:— lie would a-k for a little wine from time in time, which they hastened < o give him. lie said after drinking a few drops, "All, lmw good wine i-| How good nine is!"