r silly stories of shooting exploits, though
he knew the underlying purpose of them. It was the darker, sordid
wickedness that was daily practised on him that ate like a canker into
mind and body until he was a shattered wreck. It was the foul
treatment of this great man that caused Dr. Barry O'Meara to revolt
and openly proclaim that the captive of St. Helena was being put to
death. As an honourable man he declared he could behold it no longer
without making a spirited protest. He knew that this meant banishment,
ostracism, and persecution by the Government. He foresaw that powerful
agencies would be at work against him, and that no expense would be
spared in order that his statements should be refuted, but he hazarded
everything and defied the world. He came through the ordeal, as all
impartial judges will admit, with cleaner hands and a cleaner tongue
than those who challenged his accuracy.

Make what deductions you may, distort and twist as you like the
unimportant trivialities, the main facts related by O'Meara have never
been really shaken. What is more, he is backed up by Napoleon himself
in Lowe's personal interviews with him, and more particularly by his
letters to the Governor--to say nothing of the substantial backing he
gets from Las Cases, Montholon, Marchand, and Gourgaud--that
shameless, jealous, lachrymose traitor to his great benefactor.

And then there is Santini, whose wish to kill the Governor was not
altogether without good reason, and who was deported from the island
for this and other infringements of the regulations. The publication
of his pamphlet, previously mentioned, created a great sensation, and
it sold like wildfire. It was said to be fabrications, but it was not
_all_ fabrications. Montholon reports that Napoleon criticised the
work, and remarked that some one must have assisted him. Well, so it
was. The story was related to Colonel Maceroni, an Italian, by
Santini, and put into readable form by him, but this does not detract
from that which is really true in it, and a good deal of what O'Meara
contends is confirmed therein.

Then O'Meara's successor, Antommarchi, has even a worse story to
relate. These chronicles vary only in phrase and detail, and even in
these there is wonderful similarity. But when we come down to the
bedrock foundation of their complaints, _i.e._, the policy and
treatment by Lowe and his myrmidons, incited by the Home Government
and their followers, each record be