g at every step, and I
immediately stepped up to him, hat in hand, and tendered him my arm,
which he laid hold of at once, smiling, and pointing to the poop,
saying in broken English, "the poop, the poop"; he ascended the
poop-ladder leaning on my arm; and having gained the deck, he quitted
his hold and mounted upon a gun-slide, nodding and smiling thanks, for
my attention, and pointing to the land he said, "Ushant, Cape Ushant."
I replied, "Yes, sire," and withdrew. He then took out a pocket-glass
and applied it to his eye, looking eagerly at the land. In this
position, he remained from five in the morning to nearly mid-day,
without paying any attention to what was passing around him, or
speaking to one of his suite, who had been standing behind him for
several hours.

No wonder he thus gazed, it was the last look of the land of his
glory, and I am convinced he felt it such. What must have been his
feelings in those few hours, how painful the retrospect, and how awful
the look forward!--_there_ still lay before him that land which he had
made so famous, where his proud name had risen until it "o'ershadowed
the earth with his fame"; there had he been worshipped almost as a
god, and bowed to by every servile knee, that now, in the hour of
bitter adversity, had basely deserted and betrayed him. Never man was
read such a lesson as must have passed before him in that brief space,
unless, really, that the greatness of the change, the suddenness of
the fall had benumbed all feeling, and left him only a mass of
contending passions which combated and stilled each other by the very
violence of their working. But this was not the case with Napoleon,
his emotion was visible, he hung upon the land until it looked only a
speck in the distance, and then, turning, stepped from the gun-slide
into the arms of his faithful Bertrand, who stood ready to receive his
fallen master. He uttered not a word as he tottered down the
poop-ladder, his head hung heavily forward, so as to render his
countenance scarcely visible, and in this way he was conducted to his
cabin.

* * * * *

Amongst other plans for killing the time, and lightening the tedium of
a sea passage to the refugees, we bethought us of getting up a play.
This was managed by one of the lieutenants of marines, a fellow of
great taste, and some one or two of the midshipmen, who pretended to
skill in the Shakespearian art. What the piece was I do not