ligations to a man who, during the Peace of
Amiens, persistently urged us to drive forth the Bourbons from our
land, who at its close forcibly detained 10,000 Britons in defiance of
the law of nations, and whose ambition added L600,000,000 to our
National Debt.

Ministers had decided on St. Helena by July 28th. Their decision was
clinched by a Memorandum of General Beatson, late Governor of the
island, dated July 29th, recommending St. Helena, because all the
landing places were protected by batteries, and the semaphores
recently placed on the lofty cliffs would enable the approach of a
rescue squadron to be descried sixty miles off, and the news to be
speedily signalled to the Governor's House. Napoleon's appeal and
protests were accordingly passed over; and, in pursuance of advice
just to hand from Castlereagh at Paris, Ministers decided to treat
him, not as our prisoner, but as the prisoner of all the Powers. A
Convention was set in hand as to his detention; it was signed on
August 2nd at Paris, and bound the other Powers to send Commissioners
as witnesses to the safety of the custody.[538]

His departure from Plymouth was hastened by curious incidents. Crowds
of people assembled there to see the great man, and shoals of
boats--Maitland says more than a thousand on fine days--struggled and
jostled to get as near the "Bellerophon" as the guard-boats would
allow. Two or three persons were drowned; but still the swarm pressed
on. Many of the men wore carnations--a hopeful sign this seemed to Las
Cases--and the women waved their handkerchiefs when he appeared on the
poop or at the open gangway. Maitland was warned that a rescue would
be attempted on the night of the 3rd-4th; and certainly the Frenchmen
were very restless at that time. They believed that if Napoleon could
only set foot on shore he must gain the rights of Habeas Corpus.[539]
And there seemed some chance of his gaining them. Very early on August
4th a man came down from London bringing a subpoena from the Court of
King's Bench to compel Lord Keith and Captain Maitland to produce the
person of Napoleon Bonaparte for attendance in London as witness in a
trial for libel then pending. It appears that some one was to be sued
for a libel on a naval officer, censuring his conduct in the West
Indies; and it was suggested that if he (the defendant) could get
Napoleon's evidence to prove that the French ships were at that time
unserviceable, his case would be stren