ver appeared to me but
at those moments of silence and twilight, when nature seems to
sympathize with the fallen and when if there be moments fit, in this
turbulent earth, for celestial intercourse, one must imagine these
would be the moments immortal spirits might select to descend within
the sphere of mortality, to soothe and comfort, to inspire and support
the afflicted.

"Under such impressions the present picture was produced,--I imagined
him standing on the brow of an impending cliff and musing on his past
fortunes,--imagined sea birds screaming at his feet,--the sun just
down,--the sails of his guard ship glittering on the horizon, and the
Atlantic, calm, silent, awfully deep, and endlessly extensive.

"I tried it in a small sketch, and it was instantly purchased,--I
published a print and the demand is now and has been incessant; a
commission for a picture the full size of life, from one well known as
the friend of artists and patron of art followed, and thus I have
ventured to think a conception so unexpectedly popular might, on this
enlarged scale, not be uninteresting to the public.

"No trouble has been spared to render the picture a resemblance, its
height is Napoleon's exact height, according to Constant, his valet,
viz. five feet two inches and three quarters, French, or five feet
five inches and a half, English; the uniform is that of one of the
regiments of Chasseurs, every detail has been dictated by an old
officer of the regiment; and his celebrated hat has been faithfully
copied from one of Napoleon's own hats now in England.

"The best description I ever saw of Napoleon's appearance was in the
letter of an Irish gentleman, named North, published in the _Dublin
Evening Post_, and as it is so very characteristic, it may amuse the
visiter. He saw him at Elba in 1814, and thus paints him:--

"He but little resembles the notion I had of him, or any other man I
ever saw. He is the squarest figure I think I ever remember to have
seen, and exceedingly corpulent. His face is a perfect square, from
the effects of fat, and, as he has no whiskers, his jaw is thrown more
into relief; this description, joined to his odd little three-cornered
cocked hat, and very plain clothes, would certainly give him the
appearance of a vulgar person, if the impression was not counteracted
by his evil soldierly carriage, and the peculiar manner of his
walking, which is confident, theatrical and a little ruffian like, for
he