" The passage is quoted in the
_Quarterly
Review_, October,
1815, vol.
1815, vol.
Byron
He was
appointed Governor of St. Helena, August 23, 1815, and landed in the
island April 14, 1816. Byron met him at Lord Holland's, before he sailed
for St. Helena, and was not impressed by his remarks on Napoleon and
Waterloo (_Letters_, 1901, v. 429). He was well-intentioned, honourable,
and, in essentials, humane, but he was arrogant and tactless. The
following sentence, from a letter written by Lowe to O'Meara, October 3,
1816 (Forsyth, i. 318, 319), is characteristic: "With respect to the
instructions I have received, and my manner of making them known, never
having regarded General Bonaparte's opinions in any point whatever as to
_matter_ or _manner_, as an oracle or criterion by which to regulate my
own judgment, I am not disposed to think the less favourably of the
instructions, or my mode of executing them. " It must, however, be borne
in mind that this was written some time after Lowe's fifth and last
interview with his captive (Aug. 18, 1816); that Napoleon had abused him
to his face and behind his back, and was not above resorting to paltry
subterfuges in order to defy and exasperate his "paltry gaoler. "]
[268] {546}[There is reason to think that "the staring stranger" was the
traveller Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844), who called upon Byron at
Venice (see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 252), but did not see him. His account
of his interview with Napoleon is attached to his narrative of a _Voyage
to Java_, 1840. It is not included in the earlier editions of Hall's
_Voyage to the Corea and the Loochoo Islands_, but is quoted by Scott,
in his _Life of Napoleon_, 1827. ]
[269] [Barry Edward O'Meara (1786-1836) began life as assistant-surgeon
to the 62nd Regiment, then stationed in Sicily and Calabria. In 1815 he
was surgeon on board the _Bellerophon_, under Captain F. L. Maitland.
Napoleon took a fancy to him because he could speak Italian, and, as his
own surgeon Mengeaud would not follow him into exile, requested that
O'Meara might accompany him, in the _Northumberland_, to St. Helena. His
position was an ambiguous one. He was to act as Napoleon's medical and,
_quoad hoc_, confidential attendant, but he was not to be subservient to
him or dependent on him. At St. Helena Lowe expected him to be something
between an intermediary and a spy, and, for a time, O'Meara discharged
both functions to the Governor's satisfaction (statements by Dr. O'Meara
are quoted by Lowe in his letter to Lord Bathurst [_Life of Napoleon,
etc. _, by Sir W. Scott, 1828, p. 763]). As time went on, the surgeon
yielded to the glamour of Napoleon's influence, and more and more
disliked and resented the necessity of communicating private
conversations to Lowe. He "withheld his confidence," with the result
that the Governor became suspicious, and treated O'Meara with
reprobation and contempt. At length, on July 18, 1818, on a renewed
accusation of "irregularities," Lord Bathurst dismissed him from his
post, and ordered him to quit St. Helena. He returned to England, and,
October 28, 1818, addressed a letter (see Forsyth's _Napoleon, etc. _,
iii. 432, 433) to J. W. Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty, in which
he argued against the justice of his dismissal. One sentence which
asserted that Lowe had dwelt upon the "benefit which would result to
Europe from the death of Napoleon," was seized upon by Croker as
calumnious, and in answer to his remonstrance, O'Meara's name was struck
off the list of naval surgeons. He published, in 1819, a work entitled
_Exposition of some of the Transactions that have taken place at St.
Helena since the appointment of Sir Hudson Lowe as Governor_, which was
afterwards expanded into _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St. Helena_
(2 vols. , 1822). The latter work made a great sensation, and passed
through five editions. It was republished in 1888. O'Meara was able, and
generously disposed, but he was not "stiff" (_vide infra_, 489). "He
was," says Lord Rosebery (_Napoleon, The Last Phase_, 1900, p. 31), "the
confidential servant of Napoleon: unknown to Napoleon, he was the
confidential agent of Lowe; and behind both their backs he was the
confidential informant of the British Government. . . . Testimony from such
a source is . . . tainted. " Neither men nor angels will disentangle the
wheat from the tares. ]
[270] {547}[Buonaparte died the 5th of May, 1821. ]
[271] [At the end of vol. ii. of O'Meara's _Voice, etc. _ (ed. 5), there
is a statement, signed by Count Montholon, to the effect that he wished
the following inscription to be placed on Napoleon's coffin--
"Napoleon.
Ne a Ajaccio le 15 Aout, 1769,
Mort a Ste. Helene le 5 Mai, 1821;"
but that the Governor said, "that his instructions would not allow him
to sanction any other name being placed on the coffin than that of
'General Bonaparte. '" Lowe would have sanctioned "Napoleon Bonaparte,"
but, on his own admission, _did_ refuse the inscription of the one word
"Napoleon. "--Forsyth, iii. 295, 296, note 3. ]
[272] {548}[Hall, in his interview with Napoleon at St. Helena,
_Narrative of a Voyage to Java_, 1840, p. 77, testifies that, weeks
before the vessel anchored at St. Helena, August 11, 1817, "the
probability of seeing him [Napoleon] had engrossed the thoughts of every
one on board. . . . Even those of our number who, from their situation,
could have no chance of seeing him, caught the fever of the moment, and
the most cold and indifferent person on board was roused on the occasion
into unexpected excitement. "]
[273] [The Colonne Vendome, erected to commemorate the Battle of
Austerlitz, was inaugurated in 1810. ]
[274] [Pompey's, i. e. Diocletian's Pillar stands on a mound near the
Arabian cemetery, about three quarters of a mile from Alexandria,
between the city and Lake Mareotis. ]
[275] [Napoleon was buried, May 9, 1821, in a garden in the middle of a
deep ravine, under the shade of two willow trees. ]
[276] [Byron took for granted that Napoleon's remains would one day rest
under the dome of the Pantheon, where Mirabeau is buried, and where
cenotaphs have been erected to Voltaire and Rousseau. As it is (since
December 15, 1840) he sleeps under the Dome des Invalides. Above the
entrance are these words, which are taken from his will: "Je desire que
mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple
Francais que j'ai tant aime. "]
[277] {549} Guesclin died during the siege of a city; it surrendered,
and the keys were brought and laid upon his bier, so that the place
might appear rendered to his ashes. [Bertrand du Guesclin, born 1320,
first distinguished himself in the service of King John II. of France,
in defending Rennes against Henry Duke of Lancaster, 1356-57. He was
made Constable of France in 1370, and died before the walls of
Chateauneuf-de-Randon (Lozere). July 13, 1380. He was buried by the
order of Charles V. in Saint-Denis, hard by the tomb which the king had
built for himself. In _La Vie vaillant Bertran du Guesclin_ [_Chronique,
etc. _ (par E. Charriere), 1839, tom. ii. p. 321, lines 22716, _sq. _],
the English do not place the keys of the castle on Du Guesclin's bier,
but present them to him as he lies tossing on his death-bed ("a son lit
agite"). So, too, _Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin_, par Claude
Menard, 1618, 540: "Et Engloiz se accorderent a ce faire. Lors issirent
dudit Chastel, et vindrent a Bertran, et lui presenterent les clefs. Et
ne demora gueres, qu'il getta le souppir de la mort. "]
[278] [John of Trocnow, surnamed Zi? ka, or the "One-eyed," was born
circ. 1360, and died while he was besieging a town on the Moravian
border, October 11, 1424. He was the hero of the Hussite or Taborite
crusade (1419-1422), the _malleus Catholicorum_. The story is that on
his death-bed he was asked where he wished to be buried, and replied,
"that it mattered not, that his flesh might be thrown to the vulture and
eagles; but his skin was to be carefully preserved and made into a drum,
to be carried in the front of the battle, that the very sound might
disperse their enemies. " Voltaire, in his _Essai sur Les Moeurs et
L'Esprit des Nations_ (cap. lxxiii. s. f. _OEuvres Completes, etc. _,
1836, iii. 256), mentions the legend as a fact, "Il ordonna qu' apres sa
mort on fit un tambour de sa peau. " Compare _Werner_, act i. sc. I,
lines 693, 694. ]
[279] {550}["Au moment de la bataille Napoleon avait dit a ses troupes,
en leur montrant les Pyramides: 'Soldats, quarante siecles vous
regardent. '"--_Campagnes d'Egypte et de Syrie_, 1798-9, par le General
Bertrand, 1847, i. 160. ]
[280] [Madrid was taken by the French, first in March, 1808, and again
December 2, 1808. ]
[281] [Vienna was taken by the French under Murat, November 14, 1805,
evacuated January 12, 1806, captured by Napoleon, May, 1809, and
restored at the conclusion of peace, October 14, 1809. Her treachery
consisted in her hospitality to the sovereigns at the Congress of
Vienna, November, 1814, and her share in the Treaty of Vienna, March 25,
1815, which ratified the Treaties of Chaumont, March 1, and of Paris,
April 11, 1814. ]
[282] [At Jena Napoleon defeated Prince Hohenlohe, and at Auerstadt
General Davoust defeated the King of Prussia, October 14, 1806. Napoleon
then advanced to Berlin, October 27, from which he issued his famous
decree against British commerce, November 20, 1806. ]
[283] [The partition of Poland. "Henry [of Prussia] arrived at St.
Petersburg, December 9, 1770; and it seems now to be certain that the
first open proposal of a dismemberment of Poland arose in his
conversations with the Empress. . . . Catherine said to the Prince, 'I will
frighten Turkey and flatter England. It is your business to gain
Austria, that she may lull France to sleep;' and she became at length so
eager, that . . . she dipt her finger into ink, and drew with it the lines
of partition on a map of Poland which lay before them. "--_Edinburgh
Review_, November, 1822 (art. x. on _Histoire des Trois Demembremens de
la Pologne_, par M. Ferrand, 1820, etc. , vol. 37, pp. 479, 480. )]
[284] {551} [Napoleon promised much, but did little for the Poles. "In
speaking of the business of Poland he . . . said it was a whim (_c'etait
un caprice_). "--_Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw_, by M. Dufour de
Pradt, 1816, p. 51. "The Polish question," says Lord Wolseley (_Decline
and Fall of Napoleon_, 1893, p. 19), "thrust itself most inconveniently
before him. In early life all his sympathies . . . were with the Poles,
and he had regarded the partition of their country as a crime. . . . As a
very young man liberty was his only religion; but he had now learned to
hate and to fear that term. . . . He had no desire . . . to be the Don
Quixote of Poland by reconstituting it as a kingdom. To fight Russia by
the re-establishment of Polish independence was not, therefore, to be
thought of. "]
[285] [The final partition of Poland took place after the Battle of
Maciejowice, October 12, 1794, when "Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko
fell. " Tyrants, _e. g. _ Napoleon in 1806, and Alexander in 1814 and again
in 1815, approached Kosciusko with respect, and loaded him with flattery
and promises, and then "passed by on the other side. "]
[286] [The reference is to Charles's chagrin when the Grand Vizier
allowed the Russians to retire in safety from the banks of the Pruth,
and assented to the Treaty of Jassy, July 21, 1711. Charles, "impatient
for the fight, and to behold the enemy in his power," had ridden above
fifty leagues from Bender to Jassy, swam the Pruth at the risk of his
life, and found that the Czar had marched off in triumph. He contrived
to rip up the Vizier's robe with his spur, "remonta a cheval, et
retourna a Bender le desespoir dans le coeur" (_Histoire de Charles
XII. _, Livre v. _s. f. _). ]
[287] {552}["Naples, October 29, 1822. Le Vesuve continue a lancer des
pierres et des cendres. "--From _Le Moniteur Universel_, November 21,
1822. ]
[dz] _For staring tourists_----. --[MS. ]
[288] [The material for this description of Napoleon on his return from
Moscow is drawn from De Pradt's _Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw and
Wilna_, published in 1816, pp. 133-141. "I hurried out, and arrived at
the Hotel d'Angleterre. . . . [Warsaw, December 10, 1812]. I saw a small
carriage body placed on a sledge made of four pieces of fir: it had
stood some crashes, and was much damaged. . . . The ministers joined me in
addressing to him . . . wishes for the preservation of his health and the
prosperity of his journey. He replied, 'I never was better; if I carried
the devil with me, I should be all the better for that (_Quand j'aurai
le diable je ne m'en porterai que mieux_). ' These were his last words.
He then mounted the humble sledge, which bore Caesar and his fortune, and
disappeared.
" The passage is quoted in the _Quarterly Review_, October,
1815, vol. xiv. pp. 64-68. ]
[289] {553}
["Soldats Francais! Serrez vos rangs!
Intendez Roland qui vous crie!
Armez vous contre vos tyrans!
Brisez les fers de la patrie. "
"L'Ombre de Roland," _Morning Chronicle_, October 10, 1822. ]
[290] [Gustavus Adolphus fell at the great battle of Lutzen, in
November, 1632. Napoleon defeated the allied Russian and Prussian armies
at Lutzen, May 2, 1813. ]
[291] [On June 26, 1813, Napoleon re-entered Dresden, and on the 27th
repulsed the allied sovereigns, the Emperors of Russia and Prussia, with
tremendous loss. Thousands of prisoners and a great quantity of cannon
were taken. ]
[ea]
_Dresden beholds three nations fly once more_
_Before the lash they oft had felt before_. --[MS. erased. ]
[292] [At the battle of Leipzig, October 18, 1813, on the appearance of
Bernadotte, the Saxon soldiers under Regnier deserted and went over to
the Allies. Napoleon, whose army was already weakened, lost 30,000 men
at Leipzig. ]
[293] [Joseph Buonaparte, who had been stationed on the heights of
Montmartre, March 30, 1814, to witness if not direct the defence of
Paris against the Allies under Blucher, authorized Marmont to
capitulate. His action was, unjustly, regarded as a betrayal of his
brother's capital. ]
[294] {554} I refer the reader to the first address of Prometheus in
AEschylus, when he is left alone by his attendants, and before the
arrival of the chorus of Sea-nymphs. --_Prometheus Vinctus_, line 88,
_sq. _
[295] [Franklin published his _Opinions and Conjectures concerning the
Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter and the Means of
preserving Buildings, Ships, etc. , from Lightning_, in 1751, and in
June, 1752, "the immortal kite was flown. " It was in 1781, when he was
minister plenipotentiary at the Court of France, that the Latin
hexameter, "Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis," first applied to
him by Turgot, was affixed to his portrait by Fragonard. The line, said
to be an adaptation of a line in the _Astronomicon_ of Manilius (lib. i.
104), descriptive of the Reason, "Eripuitque Jovi fulmen viresque
tonandi," was turned into French by Nogaret, d'Alembert, and other wits
and scholars. It appears on the reverse of a medal by F. Dupre, dated
1786. (See _Works_ of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, 1840,
viii. 537-539; _Life and Times, etc. _, by James Parton, 1864, i.
285-291. )]
[296] {555}["To be the first man--_not_ the Dictator, not the Sylla, but
the Washington, or the Aristides, the leader in talent and truth--is
next to the Divinity. "--Journal, November 24, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii.
340. ]
[297] [Simon Bolivar (_El Libertador_), 1783-1830, was at the height of
his power and fame at the beginning of 1823. In 1821 he had united New
Grenada to Venezuela under the name of the Republic of Columbia, and on
the 1st of September he made a solemn entry into Lima. He was greeted
with acclaim, but in accepting the honours which his fellow-citizens
showered upon him, he warned them against the dangers of tyranny.
"Beware," he said, "of a Napoleon or an Iturbide. " Byron, at one time,
had a mind to settle in "Bolivar's country" (letter to Ellice, June 12,
1821, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 89); and he christened his yacht _The
Bolivar_. ]
[298] [A proclamation of Bolivar's, dated June 8, 1822, runs thus:
"Columbians, now all your delightful country is free. . . . From the banks
of the Orinoco to the Andes of Peru, the . . . army marching in triumph
has covered with its protecting arms the entire extent of
Columbia. "--"Jamaica Papers," _Morning Chronicle_, September 28, 1822. ]
[299] {556}[The capitulation of Athens was signed June 21, 1822. "Three
days after the Greeks had sworn to observe the capitulation, they
commenced murdering their helpless prisoners. . . . The streets of Athens
were stained with the blood of four hundred men, women, and
children. "--_History of Greece_, by George Finlay, 1877, vi. 283. The
sword was hid in the myrtle bough. Hence the allusion. (Compare _Childe
Harold_, Canto III. stanza xx. line 9, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 228,
and 291, note 2. )]
[300] [The independence of Chili dated from April 5, 1818, when General
Jose de San Martin routed the Spanish army on the plains of Maypo. On
the 28th of July, 1821, the Independence of Peru was proclaimed. General
San Martin assumed the title of Protector, and, August 3, 4, 1821,
issued proclamations, in which he announced the independence of Peru,
and bade the Spaniards tremble if they "abused his indulgence. "
_Extracts from a Journal written on the Coast of Chili, etc. _, by
Captain Basil Hall, 1824, i. 266-272. ]
[301] [On the 8th of August, 1822, Niketas and Hypsilantes defeated the
Turks under Dramali, near Lerna. The Moreotes attributed their good
fortune to the generalship of Kolokotrones, a Messenian. Compare with
the whole of section vi. the following quotations from an article on the
"Numbers of the Greeks," which appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_,
September 13, 1822--
"'Trust not for freedom to the Franks,
They have a king who buys and sells;
In native swords and native ranks
The only hope of courage dwells. '
Byron.
"As Russia has now removed her warlike projects, and the Greeks are
engaged single-handed with the whole force of the Ottoman Empire,
etc. . . . Byron's Grecian bard can no longer exclaim--
'My country! on thy voiceless shore
The heroic lay is tuneless now--
The heroic bosom beats no more. '
"Greece is no longer a 'nation's sepulchre,' the foul abode of slaves,
but the living theatre of the patriot's toils and the hero's
achievements. Her banners once more float on the mountains, and the
battles she has already won show that in every glen and valley, as well
as on
'Suli's rock and Parga's shore
Exists the remnant of a line
Such as the Doric mothers bore. '"]
[302] {557}[An account of these Russian intrigues in Greece is contained
in Thomas Gordon's _History of the Greek Revolution_, 1832, i. 194-204. ]
[eb] {558} _Of Incas known but as a cloud_. --[MS. erased. ]
[ec] _Not now the Roman or the Punic horde_. --[MS. ]
[ed] ----_abhorrent of them both_. --[MS. ]
[303] [Pelayo, said to be the son of Favila, Duke of Cantabria, was
elected king by the Christians of the Asturias in 718, and defeated the
Arab generals Suleyman and Manurza. He died A. D. 737. ]
[304] [For the "fabulous sketches" of the Zegri and Abencerrages, rival
Moorish tribes, whose quarrels, at the close of the fifteenth century,
deluged Granada with blood, see the _Civil Wars of Granada_, a prose
fiction, interspersed with ballads, by Gines Perez de Hita, published in
1595. An opera, _Les Abencerages_, by Cherubini, was performed in Paris
in 1813. Chateaubriand's _Les Aventures du dernier Abencerrage_ was not
published till 1826. ]
[ee] _And yet have left worse enemies than they_. --[MS. erased. ]
[305] [Ferdinand VII. returned to Madrid in March, 1814. "No sooner was
he established on his throne . . . than he set himself to restore the old
absolutism with its worst abuses. The nobles recovered their privileges
. . . the Inquisition resumed its activity; and the Jesuits returned to
Spain. . . . A _camarilla_ of worthless courtiers and priests conducted the
government, and urged the king to fresh acts of revolutionary violence.
For six years Spain groaned under a royalist 'reign of
terror. '"--_Encycl. Brit. _, art. "Spain," vol. 22, p. 345. ]
[ef] _As rose on his remorseless ear the cry_. --[MS. erased. ]
[eg] {559} _The re-awakened virtue_----. --[MS. erased. ]
[eh] ----_is on the shore_. --[MS. erased. ]
[306] "'St. Jago and close Spain! ' the old Spanish war-cry. " ["Santiago
y serra Espana. "]
[ei] _The wild Guerilla on Morena_----. --[MS. erased]
[ej] _Of eagle-eyed_----. --[MS. erased. ]
[307] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanzas liv. -lvi. , _Poetical
Works_, i. 57, 58, 91, 92 (note II). The "man" was Tio Jorge (Jorge
Ibort), _vide ibid. _, p. 94. ]
[308] {560} The Arragonians are peculiarly dexterous in the use of this
weapon, and displayed it particularly in former French wars.
[309] [_Vide ante_, the Introduction to the _Age of Bronze_, pp,
537-540. ]
[310] [Patrick Henry, born May 29, 1736, died June 6, 1799, was one of
the leading spirits of the American Revolution. His father, John Henry,
a Scotchman, a cousin of the historian, William Robertson, had acquired
a small property in Virginia. Patrick was not exactly "forest born,"
but, as a child, loved to play truant "in the forest with his gun or
over his angle-rod. " He first came into notice as an orator in the
"Parson's Cause," a suit brought by a minister of the Established Church
to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 lbs. of tobacco.
In his speech he is said to have struck the key-note of the Revolution
by arguing that "a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from
being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits
all right to his subjects' obedience. " His famous speech against the
"Stamps Act" was delivered in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, May
29, 1765. One passage, with which, no doubt, Byron was familiar, has
passed into history. "Caesar had his Brutus--Charles the First had his
Cromwell--and George the Third--" Henry was interrupted with a shout of
"Treason! treason! ! " but finished the sentence with, and "George the
Third _may profit by their example_. If _this_ be treason, make the most
of it. "
Henry was delegate to the first Continental Congress, five times
Governor of Virginia, and was appointed U. S. Senator in 1794.
His contemporaries said that he was "the greatest orator that ever
lived. " He seems to have exercised a kind of magical influence over his
hearers, which they could not explain, which charmed and overwhelmed
them, and "has left behind a tradition of bewitching persuasiveness and
almost prophetic sublimity. "--See _Life of Patrick Henry_, by William
Wirt, 1845, _passim. _]
[ek] {561} ----_to one Napoleon_. --[MS. erased. ]
[el] ----_thy poor old wall forgets_. --[MS. erased. ]
[311] ["I have been over Verona. The amphitheatre is wonderful--beats
even Greece. Of the truth of Juliet's story they seem tenacious to a
degree, insisting on the fact, giving a date (1303), and showing a tomb.
It is a plain, open, and partly decayed sarcophagus, with withered
leaves in it, in a wild and desolate conventual garden, once a cemetery,
now ruined to the very graves. The situation struck me as very
appropriate to the legend, being blighted as their love. . . . The Gothic
monuments of the Scaliger princes pleased me, but 'a poor virtuoso am
I. '"--Letter to Moore, November 7, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 386, 387.
The tombs of the Scaligers are close to the Church of Santa Maria
l'Antica. Juliet's tomb, "of red Verona marble," is in the garden of the
_Orfanotrofio_, between the Via Cappucini and the Adige. It is not "that
ancient vault where all the kindred of the Capulets lie," which has long
since been destroyed. Since 1814 Verona had been under Austria's sway,
and had "treacherously" forgotten her republican traditions. ]
[312] {562}[Francesco Can Grande della Scala died in 1329. It was under
his roof that Dante learned
". . . how salt his food who fares
Upon another's bread--how steep his path
Who treadeth up and down another's stairs. "
For anecdotes of Can Grande, see _Commedia, etc. _, by E.
appointed Governor of St. Helena, August 23, 1815, and landed in the
island April 14, 1816. Byron met him at Lord Holland's, before he sailed
for St. Helena, and was not impressed by his remarks on Napoleon and
Waterloo (_Letters_, 1901, v. 429). He was well-intentioned, honourable,
and, in essentials, humane, but he was arrogant and tactless. The
following sentence, from a letter written by Lowe to O'Meara, October 3,
1816 (Forsyth, i. 318, 319), is characteristic: "With respect to the
instructions I have received, and my manner of making them known, never
having regarded General Bonaparte's opinions in any point whatever as to
_matter_ or _manner_, as an oracle or criterion by which to regulate my
own judgment, I am not disposed to think the less favourably of the
instructions, or my mode of executing them. " It must, however, be borne
in mind that this was written some time after Lowe's fifth and last
interview with his captive (Aug. 18, 1816); that Napoleon had abused him
to his face and behind his back, and was not above resorting to paltry
subterfuges in order to defy and exasperate his "paltry gaoler. "]
[268] {546}[There is reason to think that "the staring stranger" was the
traveller Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844), who called upon Byron at
Venice (see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 252), but did not see him. His account
of his interview with Napoleon is attached to his narrative of a _Voyage
to Java_, 1840. It is not included in the earlier editions of Hall's
_Voyage to the Corea and the Loochoo Islands_, but is quoted by Scott,
in his _Life of Napoleon_, 1827. ]
[269] [Barry Edward O'Meara (1786-1836) began life as assistant-surgeon
to the 62nd Regiment, then stationed in Sicily and Calabria. In 1815 he
was surgeon on board the _Bellerophon_, under Captain F. L. Maitland.
Napoleon took a fancy to him because he could speak Italian, and, as his
own surgeon Mengeaud would not follow him into exile, requested that
O'Meara might accompany him, in the _Northumberland_, to St. Helena. His
position was an ambiguous one. He was to act as Napoleon's medical and,
_quoad hoc_, confidential attendant, but he was not to be subservient to
him or dependent on him. At St. Helena Lowe expected him to be something
between an intermediary and a spy, and, for a time, O'Meara discharged
both functions to the Governor's satisfaction (statements by Dr. O'Meara
are quoted by Lowe in his letter to Lord Bathurst [_Life of Napoleon,
etc. _, by Sir W. Scott, 1828, p. 763]). As time went on, the surgeon
yielded to the glamour of Napoleon's influence, and more and more
disliked and resented the necessity of communicating private
conversations to Lowe. He "withheld his confidence," with the result
that the Governor became suspicious, and treated O'Meara with
reprobation and contempt. At length, on July 18, 1818, on a renewed
accusation of "irregularities," Lord Bathurst dismissed him from his
post, and ordered him to quit St. Helena. He returned to England, and,
October 28, 1818, addressed a letter (see Forsyth's _Napoleon, etc. _,
iii. 432, 433) to J. W. Croker, the Secretary to the Admiralty, in which
he argued against the justice of his dismissal. One sentence which
asserted that Lowe had dwelt upon the "benefit which would result to
Europe from the death of Napoleon," was seized upon by Croker as
calumnious, and in answer to his remonstrance, O'Meara's name was struck
off the list of naval surgeons. He published, in 1819, a work entitled
_Exposition of some of the Transactions that have taken place at St.
Helena since the appointment of Sir Hudson Lowe as Governor_, which was
afterwards expanded into _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from St. Helena_
(2 vols. , 1822). The latter work made a great sensation, and passed
through five editions. It was republished in 1888. O'Meara was able, and
generously disposed, but he was not "stiff" (_vide infra_, 489). "He
was," says Lord Rosebery (_Napoleon, The Last Phase_, 1900, p. 31), "the
confidential servant of Napoleon: unknown to Napoleon, he was the
confidential agent of Lowe; and behind both their backs he was the
confidential informant of the British Government. . . . Testimony from such
a source is . . . tainted. " Neither men nor angels will disentangle the
wheat from the tares. ]
[270] {547}[Buonaparte died the 5th of May, 1821. ]
[271] [At the end of vol. ii. of O'Meara's _Voice, etc. _ (ed. 5), there
is a statement, signed by Count Montholon, to the effect that he wished
the following inscription to be placed on Napoleon's coffin--
"Napoleon.
Ne a Ajaccio le 15 Aout, 1769,
Mort a Ste. Helene le 5 Mai, 1821;"
but that the Governor said, "that his instructions would not allow him
to sanction any other name being placed on the coffin than that of
'General Bonaparte. '" Lowe would have sanctioned "Napoleon Bonaparte,"
but, on his own admission, _did_ refuse the inscription of the one word
"Napoleon. "--Forsyth, iii. 295, 296, note 3. ]
[272] {548}[Hall, in his interview with Napoleon at St. Helena,
_Narrative of a Voyage to Java_, 1840, p. 77, testifies that, weeks
before the vessel anchored at St. Helena, August 11, 1817, "the
probability of seeing him [Napoleon] had engrossed the thoughts of every
one on board. . . . Even those of our number who, from their situation,
could have no chance of seeing him, caught the fever of the moment, and
the most cold and indifferent person on board was roused on the occasion
into unexpected excitement. "]
[273] [The Colonne Vendome, erected to commemorate the Battle of
Austerlitz, was inaugurated in 1810. ]
[274] [Pompey's, i. e. Diocletian's Pillar stands on a mound near the
Arabian cemetery, about three quarters of a mile from Alexandria,
between the city and Lake Mareotis. ]
[275] [Napoleon was buried, May 9, 1821, in a garden in the middle of a
deep ravine, under the shade of two willow trees. ]
[276] [Byron took for granted that Napoleon's remains would one day rest
under the dome of the Pantheon, where Mirabeau is buried, and where
cenotaphs have been erected to Voltaire and Rousseau. As it is (since
December 15, 1840) he sleeps under the Dome des Invalides. Above the
entrance are these words, which are taken from his will: "Je desire que
mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple
Francais que j'ai tant aime. "]
[277] {549} Guesclin died during the siege of a city; it surrendered,
and the keys were brought and laid upon his bier, so that the place
might appear rendered to his ashes. [Bertrand du Guesclin, born 1320,
first distinguished himself in the service of King John II. of France,
in defending Rennes against Henry Duke of Lancaster, 1356-57. He was
made Constable of France in 1370, and died before the walls of
Chateauneuf-de-Randon (Lozere). July 13, 1380. He was buried by the
order of Charles V. in Saint-Denis, hard by the tomb which the king had
built for himself. In _La Vie vaillant Bertran du Guesclin_ [_Chronique,
etc. _ (par E. Charriere), 1839, tom. ii. p. 321, lines 22716, _sq. _],
the English do not place the keys of the castle on Du Guesclin's bier,
but present them to him as he lies tossing on his death-bed ("a son lit
agite"). So, too, _Histoire de Messire Bertrand du Guesclin_, par Claude
Menard, 1618, 540: "Et Engloiz se accorderent a ce faire. Lors issirent
dudit Chastel, et vindrent a Bertran, et lui presenterent les clefs. Et
ne demora gueres, qu'il getta le souppir de la mort. "]
[278] [John of Trocnow, surnamed Zi? ka, or the "One-eyed," was born
circ. 1360, and died while he was besieging a town on the Moravian
border, October 11, 1424. He was the hero of the Hussite or Taborite
crusade (1419-1422), the _malleus Catholicorum_. The story is that on
his death-bed he was asked where he wished to be buried, and replied,
"that it mattered not, that his flesh might be thrown to the vulture and
eagles; but his skin was to be carefully preserved and made into a drum,
to be carried in the front of the battle, that the very sound might
disperse their enemies. " Voltaire, in his _Essai sur Les Moeurs et
L'Esprit des Nations_ (cap. lxxiii. s. f. _OEuvres Completes, etc. _,
1836, iii. 256), mentions the legend as a fact, "Il ordonna qu' apres sa
mort on fit un tambour de sa peau. " Compare _Werner_, act i. sc. I,
lines 693, 694. ]
[279] {550}["Au moment de la bataille Napoleon avait dit a ses troupes,
en leur montrant les Pyramides: 'Soldats, quarante siecles vous
regardent. '"--_Campagnes d'Egypte et de Syrie_, 1798-9, par le General
Bertrand, 1847, i. 160. ]
[280] [Madrid was taken by the French, first in March, 1808, and again
December 2, 1808. ]
[281] [Vienna was taken by the French under Murat, November 14, 1805,
evacuated January 12, 1806, captured by Napoleon, May, 1809, and
restored at the conclusion of peace, October 14, 1809. Her treachery
consisted in her hospitality to the sovereigns at the Congress of
Vienna, November, 1814, and her share in the Treaty of Vienna, March 25,
1815, which ratified the Treaties of Chaumont, March 1, and of Paris,
April 11, 1814. ]
[282] [At Jena Napoleon defeated Prince Hohenlohe, and at Auerstadt
General Davoust defeated the King of Prussia, October 14, 1806. Napoleon
then advanced to Berlin, October 27, from which he issued his famous
decree against British commerce, November 20, 1806. ]
[283] [The partition of Poland. "Henry [of Prussia] arrived at St.
Petersburg, December 9, 1770; and it seems now to be certain that the
first open proposal of a dismemberment of Poland arose in his
conversations with the Empress. . . . Catherine said to the Prince, 'I will
frighten Turkey and flatter England. It is your business to gain
Austria, that she may lull France to sleep;' and she became at length so
eager, that . . . she dipt her finger into ink, and drew with it the lines
of partition on a map of Poland which lay before them. "--_Edinburgh
Review_, November, 1822 (art. x. on _Histoire des Trois Demembremens de
la Pologne_, par M. Ferrand, 1820, etc. , vol. 37, pp. 479, 480. )]
[284] {551} [Napoleon promised much, but did little for the Poles. "In
speaking of the business of Poland he . . . said it was a whim (_c'etait
un caprice_). "--_Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw_, by M. Dufour de
Pradt, 1816, p. 51. "The Polish question," says Lord Wolseley (_Decline
and Fall of Napoleon_, 1893, p. 19), "thrust itself most inconveniently
before him. In early life all his sympathies . . . were with the Poles,
and he had regarded the partition of their country as a crime. . . . As a
very young man liberty was his only religion; but he had now learned to
hate and to fear that term. . . . He had no desire . . . to be the Don
Quixote of Poland by reconstituting it as a kingdom. To fight Russia by
the re-establishment of Polish independence was not, therefore, to be
thought of. "]
[285] [The final partition of Poland took place after the Battle of
Maciejowice, October 12, 1794, when "Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko
fell. " Tyrants, _e. g. _ Napoleon in 1806, and Alexander in 1814 and again
in 1815, approached Kosciusko with respect, and loaded him with flattery
and promises, and then "passed by on the other side. "]
[286] [The reference is to Charles's chagrin when the Grand Vizier
allowed the Russians to retire in safety from the banks of the Pruth,
and assented to the Treaty of Jassy, July 21, 1711. Charles, "impatient
for the fight, and to behold the enemy in his power," had ridden above
fifty leagues from Bender to Jassy, swam the Pruth at the risk of his
life, and found that the Czar had marched off in triumph. He contrived
to rip up the Vizier's robe with his spur, "remonta a cheval, et
retourna a Bender le desespoir dans le coeur" (_Histoire de Charles
XII. _, Livre v. _s. f. _). ]
[287] {552}["Naples, October 29, 1822. Le Vesuve continue a lancer des
pierres et des cendres. "--From _Le Moniteur Universel_, November 21,
1822. ]
[dz] _For staring tourists_----. --[MS. ]
[288] [The material for this description of Napoleon on his return from
Moscow is drawn from De Pradt's _Narrative of an Embassy to Warsaw and
Wilna_, published in 1816, pp. 133-141. "I hurried out, and arrived at
the Hotel d'Angleterre. . . . [Warsaw, December 10, 1812]. I saw a small
carriage body placed on a sledge made of four pieces of fir: it had
stood some crashes, and was much damaged. . . . The ministers joined me in
addressing to him . . . wishes for the preservation of his health and the
prosperity of his journey. He replied, 'I never was better; if I carried
the devil with me, I should be all the better for that (_Quand j'aurai
le diable je ne m'en porterai que mieux_). ' These were his last words.
He then mounted the humble sledge, which bore Caesar and his fortune, and
disappeared.
" The passage is quoted in the _Quarterly Review_, October,
1815, vol. xiv. pp. 64-68. ]
[289] {553}
["Soldats Francais! Serrez vos rangs!
Intendez Roland qui vous crie!
Armez vous contre vos tyrans!
Brisez les fers de la patrie. "
"L'Ombre de Roland," _Morning Chronicle_, October 10, 1822. ]
[290] [Gustavus Adolphus fell at the great battle of Lutzen, in
November, 1632. Napoleon defeated the allied Russian and Prussian armies
at Lutzen, May 2, 1813. ]
[291] [On June 26, 1813, Napoleon re-entered Dresden, and on the 27th
repulsed the allied sovereigns, the Emperors of Russia and Prussia, with
tremendous loss. Thousands of prisoners and a great quantity of cannon
were taken. ]
[ea]
_Dresden beholds three nations fly once more_
_Before the lash they oft had felt before_. --[MS. erased. ]
[292] [At the battle of Leipzig, October 18, 1813, on the appearance of
Bernadotte, the Saxon soldiers under Regnier deserted and went over to
the Allies. Napoleon, whose army was already weakened, lost 30,000 men
at Leipzig. ]
[293] [Joseph Buonaparte, who had been stationed on the heights of
Montmartre, March 30, 1814, to witness if not direct the defence of
Paris against the Allies under Blucher, authorized Marmont to
capitulate. His action was, unjustly, regarded as a betrayal of his
brother's capital. ]
[294] {554} I refer the reader to the first address of Prometheus in
AEschylus, when he is left alone by his attendants, and before the
arrival of the chorus of Sea-nymphs. --_Prometheus Vinctus_, line 88,
_sq. _
[295] [Franklin published his _Opinions and Conjectures concerning the
Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter and the Means of
preserving Buildings, Ships, etc. , from Lightning_, in 1751, and in
June, 1752, "the immortal kite was flown. " It was in 1781, when he was
minister plenipotentiary at the Court of France, that the Latin
hexameter, "Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis," first applied to
him by Turgot, was affixed to his portrait by Fragonard. The line, said
to be an adaptation of a line in the _Astronomicon_ of Manilius (lib. i.
104), descriptive of the Reason, "Eripuitque Jovi fulmen viresque
tonandi," was turned into French by Nogaret, d'Alembert, and other wits
and scholars. It appears on the reverse of a medal by F. Dupre, dated
1786. (See _Works_ of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Jared Sparks, 1840,
viii. 537-539; _Life and Times, etc. _, by James Parton, 1864, i.
285-291. )]
[296] {555}["To be the first man--_not_ the Dictator, not the Sylla, but
the Washington, or the Aristides, the leader in talent and truth--is
next to the Divinity. "--Journal, November 24, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii.
340. ]
[297] [Simon Bolivar (_El Libertador_), 1783-1830, was at the height of
his power and fame at the beginning of 1823. In 1821 he had united New
Grenada to Venezuela under the name of the Republic of Columbia, and on
the 1st of September he made a solemn entry into Lima. He was greeted
with acclaim, but in accepting the honours which his fellow-citizens
showered upon him, he warned them against the dangers of tyranny.
"Beware," he said, "of a Napoleon or an Iturbide. " Byron, at one time,
had a mind to settle in "Bolivar's country" (letter to Ellice, June 12,
1821, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 89); and he christened his yacht _The
Bolivar_. ]
[298] [A proclamation of Bolivar's, dated June 8, 1822, runs thus:
"Columbians, now all your delightful country is free. . . . From the banks
of the Orinoco to the Andes of Peru, the . . . army marching in triumph
has covered with its protecting arms the entire extent of
Columbia. "--"Jamaica Papers," _Morning Chronicle_, September 28, 1822. ]
[299] {556}[The capitulation of Athens was signed June 21, 1822. "Three
days after the Greeks had sworn to observe the capitulation, they
commenced murdering their helpless prisoners. . . . The streets of Athens
were stained with the blood of four hundred men, women, and
children. "--_History of Greece_, by George Finlay, 1877, vi. 283. The
sword was hid in the myrtle bough. Hence the allusion. (Compare _Childe
Harold_, Canto III. stanza xx. line 9, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 228,
and 291, note 2. )]
[300] [The independence of Chili dated from April 5, 1818, when General
Jose de San Martin routed the Spanish army on the plains of Maypo. On
the 28th of July, 1821, the Independence of Peru was proclaimed. General
San Martin assumed the title of Protector, and, August 3, 4, 1821,
issued proclamations, in which he announced the independence of Peru,
and bade the Spaniards tremble if they "abused his indulgence. "
_Extracts from a Journal written on the Coast of Chili, etc. _, by
Captain Basil Hall, 1824, i. 266-272. ]
[301] [On the 8th of August, 1822, Niketas and Hypsilantes defeated the
Turks under Dramali, near Lerna. The Moreotes attributed their good
fortune to the generalship of Kolokotrones, a Messenian. Compare with
the whole of section vi. the following quotations from an article on the
"Numbers of the Greeks," which appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_,
September 13, 1822--
"'Trust not for freedom to the Franks,
They have a king who buys and sells;
In native swords and native ranks
The only hope of courage dwells. '
Byron.
"As Russia has now removed her warlike projects, and the Greeks are
engaged single-handed with the whole force of the Ottoman Empire,
etc. . . . Byron's Grecian bard can no longer exclaim--
'My country! on thy voiceless shore
The heroic lay is tuneless now--
The heroic bosom beats no more. '
"Greece is no longer a 'nation's sepulchre,' the foul abode of slaves,
but the living theatre of the patriot's toils and the hero's
achievements. Her banners once more float on the mountains, and the
battles she has already won show that in every glen and valley, as well
as on
'Suli's rock and Parga's shore
Exists the remnant of a line
Such as the Doric mothers bore. '"]
[302] {557}[An account of these Russian intrigues in Greece is contained
in Thomas Gordon's _History of the Greek Revolution_, 1832, i. 194-204. ]
[eb] {558} _Of Incas known but as a cloud_. --[MS. erased. ]
[ec] _Not now the Roman or the Punic horde_. --[MS. ]
[ed] ----_abhorrent of them both_. --[MS. ]
[303] [Pelayo, said to be the son of Favila, Duke of Cantabria, was
elected king by the Christians of the Asturias in 718, and defeated the
Arab generals Suleyman and Manurza. He died A. D. 737. ]
[304] [For the "fabulous sketches" of the Zegri and Abencerrages, rival
Moorish tribes, whose quarrels, at the close of the fifteenth century,
deluged Granada with blood, see the _Civil Wars of Granada_, a prose
fiction, interspersed with ballads, by Gines Perez de Hita, published in
1595. An opera, _Les Abencerages_, by Cherubini, was performed in Paris
in 1813. Chateaubriand's _Les Aventures du dernier Abencerrage_ was not
published till 1826. ]
[ee] _And yet have left worse enemies than they_. --[MS. erased. ]
[305] [Ferdinand VII. returned to Madrid in March, 1814. "No sooner was
he established on his throne . . . than he set himself to restore the old
absolutism with its worst abuses. The nobles recovered their privileges
. . . the Inquisition resumed its activity; and the Jesuits returned to
Spain. . . . A _camarilla_ of worthless courtiers and priests conducted the
government, and urged the king to fresh acts of revolutionary violence.
For six years Spain groaned under a royalist 'reign of
terror. '"--_Encycl. Brit. _, art. "Spain," vol. 22, p. 345. ]
[ef] _As rose on his remorseless ear the cry_. --[MS. erased. ]
[eg] {559} _The re-awakened virtue_----. --[MS. erased. ]
[eh] ----_is on the shore_. --[MS. erased. ]
[306] "'St. Jago and close Spain! ' the old Spanish war-cry. " ["Santiago
y serra Espana. "]
[ei] _The wild Guerilla on Morena_----. --[MS. erased]
[ej] _Of eagle-eyed_----. --[MS. erased. ]
[307] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanzas liv. -lvi. , _Poetical
Works_, i. 57, 58, 91, 92 (note II). The "man" was Tio Jorge (Jorge
Ibort), _vide ibid. _, p. 94. ]
[308] {560} The Arragonians are peculiarly dexterous in the use of this
weapon, and displayed it particularly in former French wars.
[309] [_Vide ante_, the Introduction to the _Age of Bronze_, pp,
537-540. ]
[310] [Patrick Henry, born May 29, 1736, died June 6, 1799, was one of
the leading spirits of the American Revolution. His father, John Henry,
a Scotchman, a cousin of the historian, William Robertson, had acquired
a small property in Virginia. Patrick was not exactly "forest born,"
but, as a child, loved to play truant "in the forest with his gun or
over his angle-rod. " He first came into notice as an orator in the
"Parson's Cause," a suit brought by a minister of the Established Church
to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 lbs. of tobacco.
In his speech he is said to have struck the key-note of the Revolution
by arguing that "a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from
being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits
all right to his subjects' obedience. " His famous speech against the
"Stamps Act" was delivered in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, May
29, 1765. One passage, with which, no doubt, Byron was familiar, has
passed into history. "Caesar had his Brutus--Charles the First had his
Cromwell--and George the Third--" Henry was interrupted with a shout of
"Treason! treason! ! " but finished the sentence with, and "George the
Third _may profit by their example_. If _this_ be treason, make the most
of it. "
Henry was delegate to the first Continental Congress, five times
Governor of Virginia, and was appointed U. S. Senator in 1794.
His contemporaries said that he was "the greatest orator that ever
lived. " He seems to have exercised a kind of magical influence over his
hearers, which they could not explain, which charmed and overwhelmed
them, and "has left behind a tradition of bewitching persuasiveness and
almost prophetic sublimity. "--See _Life of Patrick Henry_, by William
Wirt, 1845, _passim. _]
[ek] {561} ----_to one Napoleon_. --[MS. erased. ]
[el] ----_thy poor old wall forgets_. --[MS. erased. ]
[311] ["I have been over Verona. The amphitheatre is wonderful--beats
even Greece. Of the truth of Juliet's story they seem tenacious to a
degree, insisting on the fact, giving a date (1303), and showing a tomb.
It is a plain, open, and partly decayed sarcophagus, with withered
leaves in it, in a wild and desolate conventual garden, once a cemetery,
now ruined to the very graves. The situation struck me as very
appropriate to the legend, being blighted as their love. . . . The Gothic
monuments of the Scaliger princes pleased me, but 'a poor virtuoso am
I. '"--Letter to Moore, November 7, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 386, 387.
The tombs of the Scaligers are close to the Church of Santa Maria
l'Antica. Juliet's tomb, "of red Verona marble," is in the garden of the
_Orfanotrofio_, between the Via Cappucini and the Adige. It is not "that
ancient vault where all the kindred of the Capulets lie," which has long
since been destroyed. Since 1814 Verona had been under Austria's sway,
and had "treacherously" forgotten her republican traditions. ]
[312] {562}[Francesco Can Grande della Scala died in 1329. It was under
his roof that Dante learned
". . . how salt his food who fares
Upon another's bread--how steep his path
Who treadeth up and down another's stairs. "
For anecdotes of Can Grande, see _Commedia, etc. _, by E.
