ers," and
in this we are agreed, but there must be no fine distinction drawn as
to who the perpetrators are or their reason for doing it. Whether a
person for humanity's sake is despatched by a friendly pistol-shot or
the process of six years of refined cruelty, the crime is the same,
the only difference being (if life has to be taken) that it is more
merciful it should be done expeditiously.

The French revered their Emperor, and could not bear to witness his
dire humiliation at the hands of men so infinitely his inferiors,
hence the thought of unlawfully ending his existence. On the other
hand, members of the British Government were swollen out with haughty
righteousness; they regarded themselves as deputies of the Omnipotent.
They determined in solemn conclave that the man against whom they had
waged war for twenty years, and who was only now beaten by a
combination of circumstances, should be put through the ordeal of an
inquisition. If he held out long, well and good, but should he succumb
to their benign treatment, their faith would be steadfast in their own
blamelessness. They were quite unconscious of being an unspeakable
brood of hollow, heartless mediocrities. Why did Lord Keith not give
_them_, as he did the devoted Frenchmen, a little sermon on the
orthodoxy of the gallows? They were far more in need of his guiding
influence.

The British public were deceived by the most malevolent publications.
The great captive was made to appear so dangerous an animal that
neither soldiers nor sailors could keep him in subjection, and the
stories of his misdeeds when at the height of his ravishing glory were
spread broadcast everywhere. Nothing, indeed, was base enough for the
oligarchy of England and the French Royalists to stoop to.

For a time the flow of wickedness went on unchecked. At last a few
good men and women began to speak out the truth, and as though Nature
revolted against the scoundrelism that had been and was now being
perpetrated, a sharp and swelling reaction came over the public. Men
and women began to express the same views as Captain Maitland's
sailors had expressed, viz.: "This man cannot be so bad as they make
him out to be."

Las Cases had been sent to the Cape, but his journal, containing
conversations, dictations, and the general daily life of the exiles
since they embarked aboard the _Bellerophon_, was seized by Lowe, so
that he might pry into it with the hope of finding seditious entries.