Frigates had been waiting for him in the Rochefort road-stead stead since the first of July: hopes which never die, memories inseparable from a last farewell kept him back. How he must have regretted the days of his childhood, when his clear eyes had not yet known the first rain-drops! He left time for the English fleet to approach. He was still able to embark on two luggers which were to join a Danish ship at sea (this was the course which his brother Joseph took); but decision failed him when he looked at the coast of France. He felt an aversion for a republic; the liberty and equality of the United States were repugnant to him. He inclined towards asking shelter of the English: "What disadvantage do you see in that course?" he asked of those whom he consulted. "The disadvantage of dishonouring yourself," answered a naval officer; "you must not fall, even dead, into the hands of the English. They will have you stuffed and show you at a shilling a head." * [Sidenote: The letter to the Regent.] Notwithstanding these observations, the Emperor resolved to give himself up to his conquerors. On the 13th of July, when Louis XVIII. had already been five days in Paris, Napoleon sent the captain[361] of the English ship _Bellerophon_ the following letter for the Prince Regent: "ROYAL HIGHNESS, "A victim to the factions which distract my country and to the enmity of the greatest powers in Europe, I have terminated my political career, and I come, like Themistocles[362], to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British people. I put myself under the protection of their laws; which I claim from Your Royal Highness as the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous of my enemies. "ROCHEFORT, 13 _July_ 1815." If Bonaparte had not, during twenty years, overwhelmed with outrages the British people, its government, its King, and the heir of that King, one might find a certain propriety of tone in this letter; but how had this "Royal Highness," so long despised, so long insulted by Napoleon, suddenly become "the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous" of enemies by the mere fact that he was victorious? Napoleon could not be persuaded of what he was saying; and that which is not true is not eloquent. The phrase setting forth the fact of a fallen greatness addressing itself to an enemy is fine; the well-worn instance of Themistocles is superfluous.