Eh bien, des potentats ce formidable maître Dans l'espoir de sa mort par le ciel fut trompé. De ses ambitions, c'est la seule peut-être Dont le but lui soit échappé. En vain tout secondait sa marche meurtrière; En vain sa gloire incendiaire En tous lieux portait son flambeau; Tout chargé de faisceaux, de sceptres, de couronnes, Ce vaste ravisseur d'empires et de trônes Ne put usurper un tombeau! Tombé sous la main qui châtie, L'Europe le fit prisonnier. Premier roi de sa dynastie, Il en fut aussi le dernier. Une île où grondent les tempêtes Reçut ce géant des conquêtes, Tyran que nul n'osait juger, Vieux guerrier qui, dans sa misère, Dut l'obole de Bélisaire A la pitié de l'étranger. Loin du sacré tombeau qu'il s'arrangeait naguère, C'est là que, dépouillé du royal appareil, Il dort enveloppé de son manteau de guerre, Sans compagnon de son sommeil. Et, tandis qu'il n'a plus, de l'empire du monde, Qu'un noir rocher battu de l'onde, Qu'un vieux saule battu du vent, Un roi longtemps banni, qui fit nos jours prospères, Descend au lit de mort où reposaient ses pères, Sous la garde du Dieu vivant!" But the poet is too generous towards Napoleon in describing him as "_ce vieux saule battu du vent_" (old weather-beaten willow tree), for at that very moment the authorities in St. Helena having abolished the toll that had at first been exacted from, and submitted to by, visitors to Napoleon's tomb, M. Torbet, the owner of the ground in which the emperor was interred, when he found that he could not gain any more from the body, requested that it should be exhumed and removed elsewhere. There was a long controversy about it, and M. Torbet threatened that he himself would disinter the body of the man who had, notwithstanding what the poet had written, usurped everything, even his own grave, and that he would throw the remains out on the highway, until at last the Government decided that the India Company should purchase the land from Torbet for five hundred pounds sterling. It was decided that in future, in consequence of this _douceur_ given to M. Torbet, people should visit the tomb of Napoleon free of charge. We have already mentioned M. Torbet's name three times: let us say it a fourth, in order that it may not be forgotten. If anything could make up for such a disgrace to humanity, for such deeds as M. Torbet revelled in, it would be the reception accorded forty years afterwards to la Fayette in America, when that nation sent one of its finest ships, the _Cadmus_, to fetch him to America as the nation's guest. It was indeed a fine sight to see a whole nation rising up to do honour to one of the founders of its liberty.