associated with a mission so crimeful and an occasion so full of
illimitable consequences to England's boasted generosity. Except that
he too well carried out his imperious instructions, Lord Keith does
not come well out of the beginning of the great tragedy. The only
piece of real delicacy shown by Lord Keith to the Emperor was in
allowing him to retain his arms, and snubbing a secretary who reminded
him that the instructions were that _all_ should be disarmed. This
zealous person was told to mind his own business.

Napoleon asks the Admiral if there is any tribunal to which he can
apply to determine the legality of him being sent to St. Helena, as he
protested that he was the guest and not the prisoner of the British
nation; and Keith, with an air of condescending benevolence, assures
him that he is satisfied there is every disposition on the part of the
Government to render his situation as comfortable as prudence would
permit. No wonder Napoleon's reply was animated, and his soul full of
dignified resentment at the perfidy that was about to be administered
to him under the guise of beneficence.

Scott describes the interview with Keith as "a remarkable scene." He
says: "His (Napoleon's) manner was perfectly calm and collected, his
voice equal and firm, his tones very pleasing, the action of the head
was dignified, and the countenance remarkably soft and placid, without
any marks of severity." That is a good testimony from the author of
the "Waverley Novels," who was anything but an impartial biographer.
Not even the novelist's most ardent admirers (and the writer is one of
them) can give him credit for excessive partiality towards the hero
who was the first soldier, statesman, and ruler of the age, who not
only knew the art of conquering men as no other (not even Alexander)
had ever known it, but had the greater quality of knowing how to
conquer and govern himself under conditions that were unexampled in
the history of man.

I say again, that apart from the violence of the treatment of the
Powers towards him (and they all had a shameful share in it), it was a
fatal blunder to send this great mind to perish on a rock when, by
adopting a more humane policy, his incomparable genius might have
been used to carry out the reforms he had set his mind on after his
return from Elba. The tumult which surrounded his career had changed;
he saw with a clear vision the dawn of a new era, and at once
proclaimed to Benjamin Cons