NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 6

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

HIS LAST DAYS ASA: PRISONER AT THE ISLAND OP ST. HELENA.

’* New BopkA; 0 givesagrraphic rapture of' Napoleon in his bedtooml; ' a ife 'sat; oil ,a sola which, was covered .with, a long; cloth. On this 'reclined Napoleon;, clothed in /his white morning gown; white Rose trousers ahd stockings all in "’one. A- chequered mLMadras (handkerchief) upon his head* and his shirt collar open, without cravat. His air was melancholy and troubled. Before him stood a little round table with some books, at the foot which. day m confusion upon the carpet a heap of those he had already perused/'. His coswas, however,, more-formal than this. KS Hunting uniform, a greet,coat with sporting buttons, and, when the cloth grew shabby, had it turned rather than Sear English cloth. With these ho wore white kerseymere breeches and stockings. He gave- up wearing his uniform oi tne Chasseurs of the Guard six weeks after he arrived in the island. He retamed, however, the famous little cocked hat, but tne

tri-oolo.ured cockade he laid aside with some ceremony two years after Waterloo, telling his valet to keep it as a relie, or in view of better days. These details are not wholly vapid, because he had method and meaning in such trifles. Moreover, if we would picture to ourselves Napoleon in, his final phase,, we must -know them. What was his.manner of life? i He breakfasted alone at eleven, dressed for the day about two, and dined, at first, at seven-, though he afterwards changed the hour to four. Just before Gourgaud left there was a new arrangement; the mid-day breakfast was abolished—there was dinner at three and supper at ten; then a, few days afterwards dinner is to be at twochanges suspected by Gourgaud as intended to suit the health and convenience of Madame de Montholon, but which were probably devised to beguile the long weariness of the day, or to cheat the long wakefulness of the night. -For he practically passed all his days m his hut, rifling writing, talking, but withal bored to strikes one most in his habits is the weariness and futility of it all. One is irresistibly reminded of a caged animal walking restlessly and aimlessly up and

down Ms confined don, and watching the outside world with a- fierce despair of Ms wild eye. If Gourgaud was bored to death, what must the Emperor have been r He is, as a rule, calm and stoical. hometimes indeed, he consoles himself with a sort of abstract grandeur; sometimes he gives l a sublime groan. Adversity was wanting in my career, he says. He takes up one of the official year-books of his reign. "It was a fine Empire. I rofel efghty-three millions of human benJre than half the population of tSSoc He attempts to control Ms "tS^°p n^|o «;fed “After all, what a * t of the bee “‘ifS %£!? console him, for room. IS or institutions tfcai he doubts it. , •~„ "destroyed. such a.s the lr"?y a Sd the I~to»of Hononn and mintion” I “History will sca-icm been a y e to was overthrown. ‘ j a( j digerma + intam my y ■ the future, self-re ent, ; ,I,s Sr"^ ! - fhe monotony ox a proacn for tne the daily torsuppressed life, trees v For sn ments that corro bitterness of slow, years he supposed the bttteme. remorseful desmate - w ith inter--Thofe SSh S?H?nly VXH. e Ijdy Sgmoor never Imvf doSe such a £«£Ti s mengßu* resuL » n f but% in be m »e b sr^ch fr W ed war with strangers. . Cromwell had om essential quality, dissimulation; he had also g-Ut political talents and consummate iud4ncnt; for there was no action m hilife which could he criticised as being ill; calculated. Was he a great generalr Napoleon does not know enough of him tc of his wives he is ~npt cll£1 A • talking, nor is he sparing of the timate details of both. ;He wonders it ns ever really loved anybody. If so it was Josephine—a Jittle. She indeed almost at ways lied, hut- alwawys cleverly, except with regard to her age. As to that she got into such a tangle that her statement; could only be reconciled on the hypothec: that Eugene was twelve years olud wner he was born. She never asked for any thing for herself or her children, hut uiadr mountains of debt. Her greatest • defee. was a vigilant and constant jealousy. However, she was n otjealous of marie Louise, though the latter was extremely susceptible as to her predecessor. V • hei the Emperor tried to take his second wire to see his first the former hurst into te<*iS. and she endeavoured by every possible rose and device to prevent his going there Marie Louise, he declares, was innocence itself, and really loved him. Had she been influenced by that wretched (canaille' Madame de Montebello, ancl by who was a scoundred (miserable), she, too would have followed him to Elba. “And then her father has placed that 'palissor/ Neipperg by her side.’/ This is perhaps the only avpwawl which we have from Napoleon, who kept up_ appearances gallantly to the lastrHiat He was a ware of his wife £ infidelity ; thaugh.Lavalette informed him of. it - during: the Hundred ‘Days,' ’and. hi* suite were*all gossiping about the scandal' Still, he always praises Marie Louise,'and gives, in sum. the following account of her:—She was never at ease with tlir French, remembering that they had killed her aunt Marie Antoinette. She was always truthful and discreet, and courte ous to all, even those whom she most de tested. She was cleverer than hei father, whom alo-ne of- all her family shr loved: she could:not bear her stepmother. Different in this from, Josephine, she war delighted when she received'- ten ;thousand francs to spend. . One could have trusted her with any secret, and, sfie had been jolneKl -atvV-ienna T , l tp.].plj.ey,, id everything/,,;/Bfe,/,wa<& a,. p. good yyomari, and 'fed. A saved 'hjls, Jffe,, Afid-.ye.t,, all ,sad. and. 3onq,r-fie lpyeijL jfe©ri phrine better; Josephine Ntas-va' trifep, ivo>-n man. she ..was his choice. They ’had 'risen, together. He loved her person, her grace, “gibe would have followed me to Elba/ he says, with oblique reproach. Had she had a child of his, h© would never have left her.. If would have been better., so, for ; France." F*?r it was-Austria thatdOsd him. ■ But for, the Austrian marriage, hr would never have made war on Eassia He declares that he has mad© up his mind, should Marie Louise die,, n.ot.tq marry, again. Considering the, circumstances 1 which he was placed, and the' area of choice presented, to: him at St. Helena, there is somtthing half comic, half tragic, In the declaration.