And he might also
have discovered that he had committed a great crime, with no other fruit
than that of making a useless alliance, encumbering himself with an
ungenial companion, and leaving an orphan child dependant on strangers,
and continually tantalised by the recollections of a fallen throne.
Those feelings, in the solitude of his chamber, and the general
dejection of his captivity, must have so often clouded his declining
hours, that no miracle was required to embody them in such a vision as
that described. And yet, so many visitations of this kind have
undoubtedly occurred, that it would be rash to pronounce that this sight
of the woman who had so long been the partner of his brilliant days
might not have been given, to impress its moral on the few melancholy
hours which now lay between him and the grave.

It is painful, after a scene which implies some softness of heart, to
find him unrepentant of one of the most repulsive, because the most
gratuitous crime of his career. In the course of the day, Bertrand, in
translating an English journal, inadvertently began to read an article
containing a violent attack on the conduct of Caulaincourt and Savary in
the seizure of the Duc d'Enghien. Napoleon, interrupting him, suddenly
cried, "This is shameful." He then sent for his will, and interlined the
following words:--"I caused the Duc d'Enghien to be arrested and tried,
because that step was essential to the interest, honour, and safety of
the French people, when the Count d'Artois was maintaining, by his own
confession, sixteen assassins in Paris. Under similar circumstances I
should act in the same way." Having written these few lines he gave back
the will. From this period he was engaged in writing codicils and
appointing executors. He gave to Marchand a diamond necklace, valued at
200,000 francs. He wound up those transactions by an extraordinary
letter,--no less than the form of an announcement of his own death. It
was in these words:--

"Monsieur le Gouverneur, the Emperor Napoleon breathed his last on
the ---- after a long and painful illness. I have the honour to
communicate this intelligence to you.

"The Emperor had ordered me to communicate, if such be your desire,
his last wishes. I beg you to inform me, what are the arrangements,
prescribed by your government for the transportation of his remains
to France, as well as those relating to the persons of his suite. I