_Disposition of the British Fleet along the Western Coast of France, in order to prevent Buonaparte's Escape--The Bellerophon off Rochefort--Orders under which Captain Maitland acted--Plans agitated for Napoleon's Escape--Savary and Las Cases open a Negotiation with Captain Maitland--Captain Maitland's Account of what passed at their Interviews--Las Cases' Account--The Statements compared--Napoleon's Letter to the Prince Regent--He surrenders himself on board the Bellerophon, on 15th July--His arrival off Plymouth--All approach to the Ship prohibited--Final determination of the English Government that Buonaparte shall be sent to St. Helena--His Protest._ Our history returns to its principal object. Buonaparte arrived at Rochefort upon the 3d July; so short had been the space between the bloody cast of the die at Waterloo, and his finding himself an exile. Yet even this brief space of fifteen days had made his retreat difficult, if not impracticable. Means, indeed, were provided for his transportation. The two French frigates, the Saale and the Medusa, together with the Balladière, a corvette, and the Epervier, a large brig, waited Buonaparte's presence, and orders to sail for America from their station under the isle d'Aix. But, as Napoleon himself said shortly afterwards, wherever there was water to swim a ship, there he was sure to find the British flag. [Sidenote: LORD KEITH--CAPTAIN MAITLAND.] The news of the defeat at Waterloo had been the signal to the Admiralty to cover the western coast of France with cruisers, in order to prevent the possibility of Napoleon's escaping by sea from any of the ports in that direction. Admiral Lord Keith, an officer of great experience and activity, then commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet, had made a most judicious disposition of the fleet under his command, by stationing an inner line of cruisers, of various descriptions, off the principal ports between Brest and Bayonne, with an exterior line, necessarily more widely extended, betwixt Ushant and Cape Finisterre. The commanders of these vessels had the strictest orders to suffer no vessel to pass unexamined. No less than thirty ships of different descriptions maintained this blockade. According to this arrangement, the British line-of-battle ship, the Bellerophon, cruised off Rochefort, with the occasional assistance of the Slaney, the Phœbe, and other small vessels, sometimes present, and sometimes detached, as the service might require. Captain Maitland, who commanded the Bellerophon, is a man of high character in his profession, of birth, of firmness of mind, and of the most indisputable honour. It is necessary to mention these circumstances, because the national character of England herself is deeply concerned and identified with that of Captain Maitland, in the narrative which follows.