void
doing what is disagreeable, should be constantly made the victim of
calumnies; that I should be presented as an object of ridicule to the
eyes of the European powers; that the commissioners of the great powers
should say to me themselves, that Count Bertrand had declared to them
that I was a fool; that I could not be sure that the Emperor was at
Longwood; that I had been forty days without seeing him; and that he
might be dead without my knowing any thing of it." He further said that
the newspapers, and particularly the _Edinburgh Review_, were full of
articles which represented him as an assassin. But in the mean time, it
was necessary that the orderly officer should see Napoleon every day,
and that this might be done in any way he pleased. All that was
necessary was, that he should be seen.

Yet this demand of seeing him, which was thus expressed in moderate
terms, and obviously essential to his safe keeping, was answered in the
lofty style of a melodrama. "Count Bertrand and myself have both
informed you, sir, that you should never violate the Emperor's privacy
without forcing his doors, and shedding blood."

A great deal of the pretended irritation of Napoleon and his household,
arose from the governor's omission of the word Emperor in his notes; and
on this subject a cavil had existed even in England. Yet what could be
more childish than such a cavil, either in England or in St Helena? It
is a well-known diplomatic rule, that no title which a new power may
give to itself can be acknowledged, except as a matter of distinct
negotiation; and those Frenchmen must have known that the governor had
no right to acknowledge a title, which had never been acknowledged by
the British Cabinet.

At length the quarrel rose to bullying. The governor having insisted on
his point, that Napoleon should be seen by the orderly officer; this was
fiercely refused; and at length Bertrand made use of offensive language,
filling up the offence by a challenge to the governor. The most
surprising matter in the whole business is, that Sir Hudson did not
instantly send the blusterer to the black-hole. It was obvious that the
idea of fighting with men under his charge was preposterous. But he
still, and we think injudiciously, as a matter of the code of honour,
wrote, that if Count Bertrand had not patience to wait another
opportunity, as he could not fight his _prisoner_, he might satisfy his
rage by fighting Lieutenant-Colonel Lyster,