ld has forgotten the miseries causelessly
inflicted on 10,000 English families. The advantages possessed by a
memoir-writing nation over one that is but half articulate could not
be better illustrated. For the dumb Britons not a single tear is ever
shed; whereas the voluble inmates of Longwood used their pens to such
effect that half the world still believes them to have been bullied
twice a week by Lowe, plied with gifts of poisoned coffee, and nearly
eaten up by rats at night. On this last topic we are treated to tales
of part of a slave's leg being eaten off while he slept at
Longwood--nay, of a horse's leg also being gnawed away at night--so
that our feelings are divided between pity for the sufferers and envy
at the soundness of their slumbers.

Longwood was certainly far from being a suitable abode; but a word
from Napoleon would have led to the erection of the new house on a
site that he chose to indicate. The materials had all been brought
from England; but the word was not spoken until a much later time; and
the inference is inevitable that he preferred to remain where he was
so that he could represent himself as lodged in _cette grange
insalubre._[582] The third of the Longwood household to depart was the
surgeon, O'Meara. The conduct of this British officer in facilitating
Napoleon's secret correspondence has been so fully exposed by Forsyth
and Seaton that we may refer our readers to their works for proofs of
his treachery. Gourgaud's "Journal" reveals the secret influence that
seduced him. Chancing once to refer to the power of money over
Englishmen, Napoleon remarked that that was why we did not want him to
draw sums from Europe, and continued: "_Le docteur n'est si bien pour
moi que depuis que je lui donne mon argent. Ah! j'en suis bien sur, de
celui-la!"_[583] This disclosure enables us to understand why the
surgeon, after being found out and dismissed from the service, sought
to blacken the character of Sir Hudson Lowe by every conceivable
device. The wonder is that he succeeded in imposing his version of
facts on a whole generation.

The next physician who resided at Longwood, Dr. Stokoe, was speedily
cajoled into disobeying the British regulations and underwent official
disgrace. An attempt was then made, through Montholon, to bribe his
successor, Dr. Verling, who indignantly repelled it and withdrew from
his duty.[584]

There can be no doubt that Napoleon found pleasure in these intrigues.
In his