notices purporting to give information | emperor the conversation which he had as to Napoleon's whereabouts and his with you this morning. His Majesty probable course of action. will proceed on board your ship with Sometimes these messages were sent the ebb-tide to-morrow morning beapparently in good faith, sometimes tween four and five o'clock." with the hope of confusing or mislead- Whether Napoleon really believed in ing; but so judiciously had he sta- the possibility of a passport from the tioned his ships and so keen was his admiral or the British government is lookout that ere long Napoleon and difficult to say; but Count Bertrand, his friends seem to have recognized the having announced the intention of the impossibility of escape, and on the 14th emperor to embark on board the BelleJuly Las Cases and General Count rophon, continues: "If the admiral, in Lallemand came on board under a flag consequence of the despatch you forof truce. After some conversation the warded to him, should send the passformer said, "The emperor is so anx-port for the United States therein ious to spare the further effusion of demanded, his Majesty will be happy blood that he will proceed to America to repair to America, but should the in any way the British government passport be withheld, he will willingly chooses to sanction, either in a French proceed to England as a private indiship of war, a vessel armed en flute, a vidual, there to enjoy the protection of merchant vessel, or even in a British the laws of your country." In all ship of war." Captain Maitland au- probability the idea of the passport was swered, "I have no authority to agree a mere invention of Bertrand's, a forto any arrangement of that sort, nor do lorn hope of misleading the admiral I believe that my government would and accomplishing by ruse what he consent to it, but I think I may venture well knew could not otherwise be done. to receive him into this ship and con- A list of persons proposing to embark vey him to England; but," he added, with Napoleon was enclosed, five gen"I cannot enter into any promise as to eral officers or personages of rank, the reception he may meet with," and viz., Generals Comte Bertrand, Duc de more to the same effect; and asked Rovigo, Baron Lallemand, Comte de where Buonaparte then was, to which Montholon, and Comte de Las Cases; Las Cases answered, "At Rochefort." two ladies, Mesdames les Comtesses This, though confirmed by General Bertrand and de Montholon, three Lallemand, was untrue, as it afterwards children of the former and one of the proved, for Napoleon never left the latter named lady, three officers in frigates or Isle d'Aix after his arrival attendance with male and female serthere on the 3rd. Shortly before leav-vants, making a total of thirty-three ing the ship Las Cases said: "Under all circumstances, I have little doubt that you will see the emperor on board the Bellerophon."

persons.

There was also a supplementary list of seventeen others to be embarked on board one of the smaller vessels, and Captain Maitland undertook to receive two carriages and five or six horses; but eventually the admiral gave a per

The same evening another flag of truce came off, bringing Las Cases again, who now confessed that Napoleon was at Isle d'Aix, and General mit to a vessel to transport the whole Gourgaud, one of Buonaparte's aides- of Napoleon's equipages, consisting of de-camp, the former bearing a letter six carriages and forty-five horses, but from Count Bertrand addressed to this was not acted upon. Captain Maitland, and the latter one from the emperor himself addressed to H.R.H. the prince regent.

Count Bertrand's letter began thus: "Count Las Cases has reported to the

The letter addressed by the emperor to H.R.H. the prince regent and entrusted to General Gourgaud was in the following terms, a copy being handed to Captain Maitland :

my enemies.

ROCHEFORT, 13 July, 1815.

NAPOLEON.

Your Royal Highness, - A victim to the | sailor's great coat whom one of my factions which distract my country, and to people asserted to be him," and furthe enmity of the greatest powers of Eu- ther, that the owner of the vessels was rope, I have terminated my political career, prevented from going on board, being and I come, like Themistocles, to throw told that they were wanted for two or myself upon the hospitality of the British three days, and that they should be repeople. I put myself under the protection stored with ample payment. Here was of their laws; which I claim from your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, the a predicament! Las Cases was still on most constant, and the most generous of board the Bellerophon, and the captain determined to tell the story abruptly to him, and from the effect produced judge of the value of the information. Captain Maitland now undertook to The Frenchman listened coolly to the forward General Gourgaud immediately story; asked at what hour the emperor to England, telling him at the same was said to have passed Rochelle. Betime that he would not be allowed to ing told, he said: "Then I can safely land without permission from London assert, on my honor, that he was not in or from the port admiral wherever he either of those vessels." Maitland demight arrive, but assured him that the cided on treating the information as letter would be forwarded without delay based on some mistake, aud told Las and presented by the ministers to his Cases that he accepted his word of Royal Highness. It may be stated honor and would take no steps in couhere that on his arrival in England sequence of the message. At three in General Gourgaud refused to deliver the morning another boat was his letter into any other hands than ported, and brought precisely the same those of the prince regent himself, con- intelligence as the last, but from a difsequently it did not reach his Royal ferent quarter. This must have occaHighness until the arrival of the Belle- sioned a cruel anxiety, but the captain rophon, when the original was handed determined to abide by the assurance to Lord Keith, commander-in-chief at of Las Cases. After all both messages Plymouth, by Captain Maitland, when proved to be truthful to a certain Napoleon consented to it being for- extent. The chasse-marées had been warded by an officer despatched to prepared and manned from the frigLondon by his Lordship. ates, and had passed Rochelle at the hour named. They were intended as a last resource if the mission of Las Cases had failed, and were to have awaited the emperor at a point in the Breton passage.

The Slaney, one of the two smaller ships under Maitland's orders, was at once despatched to England with Gourgaud, and her captain was charged with a letter to the Admiralty announcing the intention of Napoleon to surrender on board the Bellerophon on the following morning, but Maitland's troubles and perplexities were not yet at an end. At ten o'clock that night a boat asked permission to come alongside, which being granted, a man came on board and said: "I am sent off from Rochelle to inform you that Buonaparte this morning passed that town in a chasse-marée with another in company. He is now in the Breton passage and means to set sail to-night." On being questioned the man stated: "The vessels passed close to a boat that I was in, and I saw a man wrapped up in a

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re

At the last moment, when Las Cases was writing to Count Bertrand the acquiescence of Captain Maitland in the proposal that he receive and convey to England Buonaparte and his suite, Maitland once more repeated that he was not authorized to stipulate as to their reception in England, but that Buonaparte "must consider himself entirely at the disposal of his Royal Highness the prince regent." Las Cases answered: "I am perfectly aware of that, and have already acquainted the emperor with what you said on the subject."

At break of day, 15th of July, 1815,

L'Epervier, French brig of war, was observed under sail standing out towards the Bellerophon with a flag of truce up. Once more it appeared as if the reward of so much anxiety was to slip past Captain Maitland.

any children, what service he had seen, and many other personal questions with the object apparently of making a favorable impression by pleasing and flattering his host. He requested that the officers might be introduced to him, and questioned each as to his rank, length of service, and if he had taken

At half past five the ebb-tide failed, the wind was blowing right in, and the brig, now within a mile, made no far-part in any action, and then expressed ther progress, while the flagship Superb a wish to be shown round the ship. was seen in the offing advancing with The captain begged him to wait for a wind and tide. Of course, were she on little while, as the ship's company were the spot in time, Napoleon must have then scrubbing and cleaning in all surrendered not to the captain but to directions; however, in another quarter the admiral. So, says Maitland, "Be- of an hour he repeated his request, ing most anxious to terminate the and was accordingly taken over all her affair I had brought so near to a con- decks. He noticed and inquired about clusion, previous to the admiral's everything which appeared to him difarrival, I sent off the Bellerophon's ferent from what he had seen in French barge in charge of her first lieutenant, who returned soon after six o'clock, bringing Napoleon with him."

ships, especially he was struck with the cleanness and neatness of the men, remarking that he thought our seamen were surely a different class of people from the French, and that he thought that it was owing to this that the En

Captain Maitland differed, saying that, without any wish to take from the merit of the men, he thought more was owing to the superior experience of the officers-British ships being so constantly at sea the officers have nothing to divert their attention from them and their men.

When the Bellerophon's barge came alongside, the first to come on board was General Bertrand, who said to the captain, "The emperor is in the boat."glish were always victorious at sea. Napoleon then ascended, and on reaching the quarter-deck, took off his hat, and, addressing Captain Maitland, said in a firm tone of voice, "I am come to throw myself on the protection of your prince and laws." On being shown into the cabin, he looked round and said, "Une belle chambre." "Such as it is, sir," the captain answered, "it is at your service while you remain on board the ship I command; " and he emphatically contradicts the story, circulated by some of the journals of the day, that Napoleon took possession in a brutal way, saying, "Tout ou rien pour moi." On the contrary, Maitland asserts that from the time of coming on board to the period of his quitting the ship, his conduct was invariably that of a gentleman, nor in one instance did he ever make use of a rude expression, or was guilty of any kind of ill-breeding."

Noticing a portrait hanging up in the cabin, Napoleon asked, "Qui est cette jeune personne ?" "My wife," said the captain. "Ah! elle est très jeune et très jolie." 1 He then asked had he

1 Subsequently, on seeing Mrs. Maitland herself

Napoleon spoke of several naval actions, and said, "Your laws are either more severe or better administered than ours;" and mentioned instances when, he said, he had been unable to punish officers as they had deserved. This gave an opportunity to Captain Maitland to refer to the case of the French captain of the Calcutta, who was shot by sentence of a court-martial for misbehavior in the action of Basque Roads, unjustly, in the opinion of most of the British officers engaged. "He could do no more to save his ship," said Maitland, who had been present on the occasion, "and she was defended better and longer than any one there." Napoleon answered, "You are

at Plymouth, he turned to Captain Maitland and said, "Mai foi, son portrait ne la flatte pas, elle est plus jolie que lui."

not aware of the circumstances that his apologies but was undressed and occasioned his condemnation; he was going to bed. He always retired bethe first man to quit his ship, which tween eight and nine in the evening, was fought some time by her officers and did not rise till the same hour and crew after he had left her." 1 Na- in the morning, and yet frequently poleon continued, "I can see no suffi- slept on the sofa in the course of the cient reason why your ships should day. Another instance of this growing beat the French with so much ease. lethargy was given by the emperor's The finest men-of-war in your service complaint when the Bellerophon was are French; a French ship is heavier lying in Plymouth Sound, that the senin every respect than one of yours, she tries' call of "All's well" disturbed carries more guns, those guns of a him, and the blank musket shots occalarger calibre, and has a great many sionally fired from the guard boats at more men." Then he added, "I hear aggressive shore boats annoyed him that you take great pains in exercising and prevented his sleeping. This is your guns and training your men to fire the more remarkable when one reat a mark." He questioned Captain members that in the plenitude of his Maitland as to the probability of suc-powers Napoleon could always go off cess had he attempted to force his way to sleep under any circumstances, and out with the two frigates at Isle d'Aix, awake again apparently by sheer force and was answered that though much of will. might depend upon chance, the line-ofbattle ship was more than a match for the two frigates in fighting power; and that in point of position as well, the advantage was on the same side, and in fact it was not probable that he could have made his escape.

The day after his embarkation Napoleon returned the visit of the admiral on board the Superb, and as in the Bellerophon requested that the officers might be introduced to him, and that he might be shown round the ship, which he inspected minutely. Meanwhile the flagship Superb had The first question he asked was curianchored, and Captain Maitland went ous. He inquired was the Superb an on board to report to the admiral, bear- English or a French ship! Of the ing from Napoleon a request that he marines he remarked to Count Bermight see the admiral, who replied trand, "How much might be done with that he would wait on him with pleas- a hundred thousand such soldiers as ure, and in the course of the afternoon these ?" but he condemned the method visited the Bellerophon, and joined the of fixing the bayonets, as he said they dinner-party. On this occasion, and might be easily twisted off if seized by all the time that Napoleon was on an enemy. On stepping into the board, the dinner was served on his plate and arranged by his maître d'hotel, who was ordered by the captain to regulate everything in the manner most agreeable to his master. Napoleon chatted cheerfully and indifferently during the dinner and throughout the evening, and afterwards walked the quarter-deck for a short time, and withdrew to his cabin about half past seven; shortly afterwards the admiral wished to take leave, but was told by Count Bertrand that the emperor sent

Bellerophon's barge he observed to Captain Maitland, "What a very fine set of men you have got; indeed, during his stay on board he seemed to take pleasure in making complimentary remarks, and always seemed most anxious to please. Shortly before leaving the Bellerophon he said, "There has been less noise in this ship, where there are six hundred men, during the whole of the time I have been in her, than there was on board the Epervier, with only one hundred, in the passage from Isle d'Aix to Basque Roads." Lord Keith, who was in command at Ply

1 Lord Cochrane, who commanded the attacking squadron at the Basque Roads, believed that the captain of the Calcutta was shot for having sur-mouth when the Bellerophon arrived,

rendered to his frigate, the Impérieuse, alone.

thought Napoleon's conversation so fas

cinating, that when speaking of his wish | English cruisers off Brest, Napoleon for an interview with the prince regent wished to know if the ships in that he remarked emphatically, "If he had port had hoisted the white flag. The obtained an interview with his Royal question was asked by telegraph, and Highness, in half an hour they would being answered in the affirmative, he have been the best friends in En-made no remark, but merely asked gland." On getting under weigh from how the question and answer had been the Basque Roads he said to the cap- conveyed, and approved of the usefultain, "What I admire most in your ness of the system. ship, is the extreme silence and orderly conduct of your men; on board a French ship every one calls and gives orders, and they gabble like so many geese."

66

On arriving in Torbay, the ship was at once surrounded by a crowd of boats filled with persons from all directions, anxious to see so extraordinary a man as Buonaparte. He frequently came on deck and showed himself at the gangways and stern-windows for the purpose of gratifying their curiosity, of which, however, he remarked to the captain, the English appeared to have a very large portion.

From Torbay the Bellerophon was ordered to Plymouth, the most stringent orders being given that on no account should any communication be allowed with the shore.

The first day at sea Napoleon was in good spirits, chatting cheerfully, and knowing that Captain Maitland had served under Sir Sydney Smith on the coast of Syria, he turned the conversation at dinner to that subject, asking the captain, "Did Sir Sydney Smith ever tell you the cause of his quarrel with me?" Being answered in the negative, Then," ," said he, "I will." As sundry versions of this story have gone abroad, all more or less incorrect, It was not until the 31st of July, just we give it here in Napoleon's own a week after his first arrival in Enwords. "When the French army was gland, that Napoleon was formally before St. Jean d'Acre, he had a paper notified of the intention of the governprivately distributed among the officers ment to transfer him to St. Helena. and soldiers, tending to induce them to His mind had been so much prepared revolt and quit me; on which I issued for this by the newspapers that he did a proclamation denouncing the English not show any strong emotion at receivcommanding officer as a madman, and ing the information, though he comprohibiting all intercourse with him.plained in bitter terms of the injustice This nettled Sir Sydney so much that of such a measure, saying, "The idea he sent me a challenge to meet him in of it is perfect horror to me - c'est pis single combat on the beach at Caiffa. que la cage de fer de Tamerlan," and My reply was, that when Marlborough expressed a desire to write another appeared for that purpose I should be letter to the prince regent. This he at his service, but I had other duties to did; the letter was carried to Lord fulfil besides fighting a duel with an Keith the same afternoon, and by him English commodore." forwarded immediately to London.

There is no word here of the grenadier whom Napoleon is said to have proposed as his substitute according to M. Lanfrey and other writers. Before quitting the subject of Syria, Napoleon, patting Captain Maitland on the head as he sat next to him at the table, said: "If it had not been for you English, I should have been Emperor of the East; but wherever there is water to float a ship we are sure to find you in our way." On passing one of the

At dinner that day he conversed as usual, and Captain Maitland notes with astonishment with what elasticity his spirits regained their usual cheerfulness, though on several subsequent occasions he repeated the expression, "Je n'irai pas à St.-Hélène."

On the 4th of August the Bellerophon was ordered to be prepared to go to sea at a moment's notice, and Captain Maitland had to explain to Napoleon that it was the intention of the govern