rved in the Bedford militia. In 1814 he
went to Italy, and crossed to Elba, where he saw Napoleon. Lord John was
always a most authentic reporter. His description of the Emperor, written
the next day, besides its intrinsic interest, is so characteristic of the
writer himself that it may be quoted here. It is as matter-of-fact as one
of Wellington's dispatches and as shrewd as a passage from one of Horace
Walpole's letters.

PORTO FERRAJO, December 25, 1814 [22]

At eight o'clock in the evening yesterday I went to the Palace
according to appointment to see Napoleon. After waiting some
minutes in the ante-room I was introduced by Count Drouet and found
him standing alone in a small room. He was drest in a green coat
with a hat in his hand very much as he is painted, but excepting
this resemblance of dress, I had a very mistaken idea of him from
his portrait. He appears very short, which is partly owing to his
being very fat, his hands and legs being quite swollen and
unwieldy; this makes him appear awkward and not unlike the whole
length figures of Gibbon, the historian. Besides this, instead of
the bold marked countenance that I expected, he has fat cheeks and
rather a turn-up nose, which, to bring in another historian, made
the shape of his face resemble the portraits of Hume. He has a
dusky grey eye, which would be called a vicious eye in a horse, and
the shape of his mouth expresses contempt and derision--his manner
is very good-natured, and seems studied to put one at one's ease by
its familiarity; his smile and laugh are very agreeable--he asks a
number of questions without object, and often repeats them, a habit
he has no doubt acquired during fifteen years of supreme
command--to this I should also attribute the ignorance he seems to
show at times of the most common facts. When anything that he likes
is said, he puts his head forward and listens with great pleasure,
repeating what is said, but when he does not like what he hears, he
looks away as if unconcerned and changes the Subject. From this one
might conclude that he was open to flattery and violent in his
temper.

He began asking me about my family, the allowance my father gave
me, if I ran into debt, drank, played, etc.

He asked me if I had been in Spain, and if I was not imprisoned by
the Inquisition. I told him that I had seen th