The Tragedy of St. HelenaRunciman, Walter Runciman, Baron
History
The Tragedy of St. Helena
Runciman, Walter Runciman, Baron
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Captivity, 1815-1821
As will be hereafter shown, he had not long to wait after Napoleon's
death and the receipt of tokens of friendliness that had been sent to
him through the Colonial Secretary, before he was made to feel that
the Government was not disposed to carry any part of his public
unpopularity on its shoulders. He had done his best or worst to make
that portion of the earth on which he lived miserable to those he
might have made tolerably happy, without infringing the loutish
instructions of a notoriously stupid Government. Instead of this he
made himself so despised that the Emperor, almost with his last
breath, called all good spirits to bear witness against him and his
murderous confederates.
The great soldier had slipped his moorings on May 6, 1821, and on the
7th or 8th, after much ado with the Governor, a post-mortem
examination was held by Dr. Francois Antommarchi in the presence of
Drs. Short, Arnott, Burton, and Livingstone. Lowe was represented by
the Chief of Staff. The examination disclosed an ulcerous growth and
an unnaturally enlarged liver, which may be assumed as the ultimate
cause of death, though Antommarchi's report assuredly points to the
fatal nature of the climatic conditions.
The French were anxious to have the body of their Emperor embalmed,
but Hudson Lowe insisted that his instructions forbade this. Napoleon
had commanded that his heart should be put in a silver vase filled
with spirits of wine and sent to Marie Louise. When Sir Hudson Lowe
heard that this was being done, he sent a peremptory order forbidding
it, stating that no part should be preserved but the stomach, which
would be sent to England. Naturally such wanton disregard of the
Emperor's wish was violently resented by the French, and by the best
of the English who were there. A long and heated discussion seems to
have ensued on this question, which ended in the Governor having to
give way--not altogether--but he was compelled to a compromise, viz.,
that the heart and stomach should be preserved and put into the
coffin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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