BONAPARTE

ON THE

NORTHUMBERLAND.

THE story of Napoleon Bonaparte on board the Northumberland is a natural supplement to the story of his life on board the Bellerophon. It is a singular coincidence that some weeks before E. M.'s article appeared in 'N. & Q.' (ante, p. 321), and without any knowledge of that article or of the E. M. who wrote it, I, another E. M., should have written the following story of the continuation of Napoleon's voyage, on the Northumberland, to his last resting-place. The story of the great Napoleon's voyage to St. Helena has been told in various ways and by different people, but never more intimately than by the English surgeon on board the Northumberland. Mr. William Warden kept a record of the various conversations he had with Napoleon and his principal attendants, and of anecdotes connected with them: these he at once committed to a journal, and it was from its pages that the letters were composed which he wrote to a friend at home, evidently of his own profession. These letters were not written with a view to publication, but, yielding to the urgency of his friends, the author printed them about 1816.

The work was well known at that period, but has long since been forgotten. It has sometimes been mentioned by Napoleonic writers, but never, so far as the present writer is aware, in any detail. It may therefore be safely assumed that if now known at all, it can only be to a very limited number of Napoleonic students.

66

The letters are mostly headed "At Sea" or At St. Helena," but they bear no date. In the first letter the writer describes the great public excitement caused by the transfer of Napoleon from the Bellerophon to the Northumberland in Torbay, 5 Aug., 1815:"There was a daily crowd of boats and other vessels filled with curious spectators (some of whom, it is confidently said, have come on purpose from remote parts of the country, and even from London) to snatch such a glimpse of him as could be caught at the distance they were obliged to keep from the Bellerophon, on whose gangway he occasionally stood." On 3 Aug., 1815, the Northumberland arrived off Berry Head, Torbay. She was there joined by the Tonnant, accompanied by the Bellerophon, which had on board Napoleon Bonaparte. Count de las Cases, chamberlain to the ex-Emperor, came on board to arrange the requisite accommodation for his master. 66 'The Count," says Mr. Warden, does not exceed five feet and

an inch in height, and appears to be fifty years of age, of a meagre form and wrinkled forehead.' His diminutive appearance did not fail to invite observation from various beholders. The barge which conveyed Napoleon from the Bellerophon contained Lord Keith, Sir George Cockburn, and Marshal Bertrand, who had shared in all his Imperial master's fortunes, and Generals Montholm and Gourgon, who had been, and still retained the titles of, his aides-decamp. As the boat approached, the figure of Napoleon was readily distinguished from his resemblance to the various prints displayed in the windows of shops.

"With a slow step Bonaparte mounted the gangway, and on feeling himself firm on the quarterarms and the drum rolled. The officers of the deck, he raised his hat when the guard presented Northumberland, who were uncovered, stood considerably in advance. These he approached and saluted with an air of the most affable politeness. ...His dress was that of a general of French infantry......His face was pale, and his beard of an unshaven appearance. His forehead is thinly covered with dark hair, as well as the top of his head, which is large, and has a singular fatness; what hair he has behind is bushy, and I could not discern the slightest mixture of white in it. His eyes, which are grey, are in continual motion, and hurry rapidly to the various objects around him. His teeth are regular and good; his neck is short, but his shoulders of the finest proportion; the rest of his figure, though a little blended with Dutch fatness, is of very handsome form."

On returning on deck the Emperor engaged in conversation with Lord Lowther, Mr. Lyttelton, and Sir George Bingham for an hour before dinner. He complained of the severity with which he was treated in being consigned to pass his days on the rock of St. Helena. In a conversation the author had with Count Bertrand, the latter complained in very forcible terms of the needless cruelty of sending them to such a place; he said that the Emperor had thrown himself on the mercy of England from a full and consoling confidence that he should there find a place of refuge :

"It would have been no disgrace to England to have acknowledged Napoleon Bonaparte as a citizen. It might rather have been a subject of pride to England that the conqueror of almost all Europe but herself sought, in his adverse fortune, to pass the remainder of a life which forms so retired spot of her domains which she might have splendid an epocha in the history of our age, in any allotted him."

In the next chapter we are told that their illustrious guest displayed rather an eager appetite: he made a very hearty dinner, which he moistened with claret; he was observed to select a mutton chop, which he contrived to dispose of without the aid

'ENGLANDS PARNASSUS,' 1600.

of either knife or fork. He passed the evening on the quarter-deck, and chatted with easy pleasantry with those near him. Henever moved his hands from their habitual

tion

(See 10 S. ix. 341, 401.)

WHENEVER I have had occasion to

not

places in his dress, except to apply them examine works which consisted largely of to a snuff-box; but he never offered a pinch to any one with whom he was conversing. able rule, Allot skipped translated senprose I have noticed that, as an invariHe played at cards during the evening. tences from old writers that were He never omitted an opportunity of asking dropped from the body of the text and questions. On one occasion he inquired about a religious community in Scotland printed separately; but that if such sencalled Johnsonians !-a question which no tences were accorded a distinct setting, he one could answer; the only probable solu- very often took note of them for his book. InWits Miserie' many verses from old being that when he contemplated invading England he had the Hebrides Poets are mingled with the prose, and in mind, and Johnson's 'Tour to the Lodge has translated them in a form that made them fit for Allot's purposes; but Hebrides' got mixed up in his mind as having relation to some religious community or none of these appears in Englands Parnassus,' whereas few of the pronounced other. The discovery of this peculiarity resulted verses were allowed to escape his notice. in lessening the labour of research, and it proved to me that Allot was a superficial reader, who was only anxious to collect certain material which did not involve much labour in its accumulation. Verse is verse, whether it be shown in the body of the text or separately; and therefore if Ovid, or Lucan, or Virgil is good for quotation in one case, why ignore him in the other? Because Allot did not see these things-that is the answer; he did not read the whole of a book, only its poetry, and when in a prominent setting.

As for Napoleon's invasion of England, our surgeon says that according to his recollection it was not generally considered practicable, but he gives his authority for the actual intention of carrying it out :

"Bonaparte positively avers it. He says that he had 200,000 men on the coast of France opposite to England; and that it was his determination to head them in person. The attempt he acknowledged to be very hazardous, and the issue equally doubtful. His mind, however, was bent on the enterprise, and every possible arrangement was made to give effect to its operations. It was hinted to him, however, that his flotilla was altogether insufficient, and that such a ship as the Northumberland would run down fifty of them......but he stated that his plan was to rid the Channel of English men-of-war, and for that purpose he had directed Admiral Villeneuve, with the combined fleets of France and Spain, to sail apparently for Martinique, for the express purpose of distracting our naval force, by drawing after him a large portion of, if not all, our best ships. Other squadrons of observation would follow, and England might by these manoeuvres be left sufficiently defenceless for his purpose. Admiral Villeneuve was directed, on gaining a certain latitude, to take a baffling course back to Europe, and, having eluded the vigilance of Nelson, to enter the English Channel. The flotilla would then have sallied forth from Ostend, Dunkirk, Boulogne, and the adjoining ports......But Villeneuve was met on his return by Sir Robert Calder, and, having suffered a defeat, took refuge in Ferrol. From that harbour he was peremptorily ordered to sea, according to his original instructions; but contrary to their most imperative and explicit intent, he steered his course for Cadiz. He might as well, exclaimed Napoleon, raising his voice, and increasing his_impetuosity he might as well have gone to the East Indies. Two days after Villeneuve had quitted his anchorage before Cadiz a naval officer arrived there to supersede him. The glorious victory of Trafalgar soon followed, and the French admiral died a few days after his arrival in France; report says by his own hand."

(To be concluded)

E. MARSTON.

·

the pamphlet concerns
The last case of jumbling revealed by
a translation by
Lodge from Horace, and two lines-the
end ones-from some unnamed writer,
who, however, will be discovered to be one
of the poets who figure elsewhere in Allot's
book. For it is a very remarkable fact that,
so far as the names of authors are concerned,
Englands Parnassus is self-contained;
the only exceptions to this rule being,
perhaps, a few passages that are signed

66

Ignoto," Content,' “I. Authoris," and "S. G." But I will return to this side of the subject later on, and finish at once with the mingled passages that concern Wits Miserie' :

'Good Deeds,' p. 141.

Good deeds, in case that they be evil placed,
Ill deeds are reckoned, and soone disgraced :
That is a good deed that prevents a bad.

are not in any known part of Chapman, previous generation, and to invite comalthough Collier refers them to Chapman's parison between the literary achievements continuation of Marlowe's poem, where he of English authors and their foreign rivals, found the third one :both ancient and modern; and, as such a work would cover much of the domain of thought, he curtailed his extracts to a few lines, thus forming a dictionary of quotations that could be readily consulted. To these short extracts he added longer ones containing descriptions of beauty as applied to form, place, and scenery; and rounded off with examples showing the proper way of using tropes and other ornaments of speech. And it was part of his plan that underneath each of his quotations the signature of the author should be placed.

(signed) G. Chapman.

Allot next mingles Thomas Lodge's " Glaucus and Sylla,' 11. 29-30, with Spenser's Ruines of Time,' 11. 55–6 :— 'World,' p. 379.

Take moysture from the sea, take colour from his
kind,

Before the World devoyd of change thou finde.
.All that in this World is great or gay
Doth, as a vapour, vanish and decay.

(signed) Ed. Spencer.

I can only find the last eight lines of the next quotation in Sylvester, in the Babylon,' 11. 524-31, of Du Bartas :

'Sleepe,' p. 319.

A drowsie head to earth by dull desire

To compile such a work as that required not only taste and judgment, but steadiness of purpose, and no mean clerical skill. A the fact that they did not assume their present order until after much shifting about from place to place; for not only do we find authors mingled indiscriminately,

close examination of Allot's extracts reveals

Draws downe the soule, that should to heaven but quotations under the same headings

aspire.

Writing these later lines, wearie well-nie

Of sacred Pallas pleasing labour deare,
Mine humble chin saluteth oft my brest;
With an ambrosian deawe mine eies possest,

By peece meale close; all moving powers die still;
From my dull fingers drops my fainting quill:
Downe in my sloath-bound bed againe I shrinke,
And in darke Laethe all deepe cares I sinke.

(signed) J. Syl.

With Sylvester's fine rendering of Du Bartas's charming lines, I end examples that have come under my notice of mixed passages in Englands Parnassus.' It is true that underFortune,' p. 117, Collier thought he had found a similar case in connexion with a quotation from 'The Mirror for Magistrates; but he was mistaken. He used a copy of the 1610 edition of the work, which omits the line that he distinguishes from the rest of the passage. A glance at an earlier version of the Legend of Lord Irenglas' will show that Allot copied his original accurately.

One result of the finding of these mixed passages is that, whereas at first my computation of the number of extracts in Englands Parnassus' gave a total of 2,330, that figure has had to be increased correspondingly with the errors as they have become known to What the real number will be when the quotations are all located is a matter for intelligent speculation. Allot's book was excellently planned, but it was badly executed. His design was to display in a handy form the thoughts and opinions of poets of his own and the

me.

and from the same works follow a different order from their originals. On the other hand, it is easy to trace passages that Allot selected; and when going systematically through a work little that he took is missed; and, moreover, one can clear up many of his errors at the same time, because one gets to know the matter he would take; and therefore, if it is not quoted under the right signature, it will almost surely be found under a wrong one, or stand as an unsigned entry, either alone or mingled with another passage.

It seems to follow that he must have used separate slips for each of his entries, and that he often forgot to write the authors' names on them, and then trusted to luck for this information after he had arranged his extracts under their several divisions. And what seems to have proved his greatest trouble was the vicious practice of using the word "Idem" instead of the author's name. This practice would appear to be right at the time of transcribing to one who had not had the training of a scribe, because, as in the case of Sylvester or Spenser, who yielded so much material, it would seem irksome to write the name in full on each slip, when "Idem would apparently answer the same purpose. when it came to the time of distribution the folly of this course would be manifest, because the slips would change their places, and the "Idems " would indicate that the passages very often belonged to authors

But