He added to my fright, by repeatedly assuring me the horses were running away, and that we should be all dashed to pieces.’ She was relieved when they joined her mother at Hutt’s Gate, to take tea with the Bertrands in their cramped cottage.31

A ship arrived on 29 May from England bringing general supplies, newspapers and mail. Napoleon asked O’Meara ‘to procure the Morning Chronicle, the Globe, or any of the opposition or neutral papers’.32 The doctor returned, bringing also the book-sized conservative Quarterly Review. With Las Cases assisting with translation, Napoleon began leafing through it. It contained eight lengthy articles on ‘Buonaparte’, including accounts of his humiliating ‘unconditional surrender’ on the Bellerophon, the voyage on the Northumberland and his stay at The Briars. Each article made him more infuriated than the last, especially a description of his ‘series of weaknesses and petulances’ at the Balcombes: his alleged bullying of the family at cards, of frightening young Alexander for asking if he was ‘the Great Mogul’, and of challenging Betsy over the question of the burning of Moscow.

When the mail was delivered, Napoleon received a letter from his mother, 65-year-old Madame Mère, who was living comfortably with his sister Pauline in Rome. Gourgaud watched him read. ‘“I am very old,” she says in her letter to the Emperor, “to undertake a voyage of 2000 leagues. I shall probably die on the way, but what does it matter? I shall die near you.” His Majesty tore the letter up.’33

CHAPTER 12

GOLD LACE AND NODDING PLUMES

In the late afternoon of 17 June 1816, the Newcastle frigate put in at James Bay, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, KCB. He was to succeed Sir George Cockburn as commander of the South Atlantic naval station with its bases at St Helena and the Cape of Good Hope. Also on board were his wife, Lady Clementina, and the three foreign commissioners sent to monitor Bonaparte’s detention, in accordance with the Allies’ convention of August 1815. The Continental powers were determined that there should be no repetition of the escape from Elba. Count Balmain was the representative for Russia, Baron von Stürmer for Austria, accompanied by his wife, and the Marquis de Montchenu for France. Prussia had sent no commissioner, consistent with its position that Bonaparte should have been executed.

The following day (as it happened, the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo), the dignitaries were welcomed ashore and Sir George Cockburn was farewelled with much ceremony, a military parade and salutes fired from the Ladder Hill battery.1 Many of the leading citizens gathered for the occasion, including the Balcombes. They established an immediate rapport with the new admiral and his wife and invited them to stay at The Briars until a house was prepared for them.

Sir Pulteney Malcolm, in the prime of his career at 48, had entered the navy at the age of ten and seen action in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, North Sea, East Indies and China; he had served as third in command behind then Rear-Admiral Cockburn during the Anglo-American War of 1812–14. He was exceedingly well connected: three of his brothers were also knighted, one of them a vice-admiral; and his wife Clementina was the eldest daughter of the Honourable William Fullarton Elphinstone, a director of the East India Company. Significantly, she was also the niece of Admiral Lord Keith, who had informed Napoleon of his final destination.2 Malcolm was on good terms with the Duke of Wellington, having commanded the squadron that cooperated with him during the Waterloo campaign.

At Longwood House, someone mentioned the Waterloo anniversary and ‘a shade of anguish passed over the features of the emperor. In slow and solemn tones he said, “Incomprehensible day! Concurrence of unheard-of fatalities!”’3

Also on that day, Madame de Montholon gave birth to a daughter. Dr O’Meara, always spiteful about the Frenchwoman, sent a note to Major Gorrequer: ‘I don’t imagine there was half so much anxiety over the birth of the King of Rome. You would have thought it the case of a girl of fifteen, newly married, instead of the wrinkled, middle-aged woman who has three husbands, all living, and eight or nine children.’4 Madame presented the baby to ‘His Majesty’, who permitted her to call the child ‘Hélène Napoleone’.5

Keen to assess the new admiral, Napoleon agreed to the governor presenting him. Lowe was able to report to Lord Bathurst of the meeting on 20 June that Bonaparte’s ‘questions were of no significant import; but they indicated quite a different disposition to that with which he had received me on the occasion of my last conference with him, and had to Sir Pulteney Malcolm the appearance of a very marked overture’.6 The charm was intended for the new admiral, whose person and rumoured connections had impressed Napoleon.

The presence of the commissioners disturbed Lowe. The British government had not welcomed their appointment or their purpose—to make clear that Bonaparte was ‘a prisoner of Europe’. The Newcastle brought an official despatch from Bathurst and also his private letter to Lowe suggesting that the commissioners would ‘have too little to do where they are going not to be tempted to do a little mischief ’, such as forming a ‘cabal’—a conspiratorial group—with the French. He thought they should be encouraged ‘to amuse themselves by going to the Cape by way of a change of scene,’ and Lowe could engage to furnish them and their Court with a regular account of the state of the prisoner.7 Napoleon actually agreed. ‘What folly it is,’ he exclaimed to O’Meara, ‘to send those commissioners out here. Without charge or responsibility, they will have nothing to do but to walk about the streets and creep up the rocks. The Prussian government has displayed more judgment and saved its money.’8

Catherine Younghusband informed her aunt, Lady Roche in Ireland, that important personages seemed to be everywhere on the few streets: ‘There is nothing now to be seen in St Helena but Generals, Admirals, Staff officers & Military & Naval heroes of all ages. You cannot walk through the streets of James Town without knocking against Knights or Knights Companions. My Eyes are dazzled by Gold Lace & Nodding Plumes & my Ears confused by the Sir Georges, Sir Thomases, etc.’ 9

Alexandre Antonovich, Comte de Balmain, capable, urbane, multilingual and literate, with a Scottish and Russian background, represented the Czar and was to send his reports through the Russian foreign minister, Count Nesselrode. Balmain was asked to make a daily record of what he observed and any conversations of interest. His astute despatches were soon eagerly anticipated and read with pleasure at the Russian court. 10

The Austrian commissioner, Baron Barthelemy von Stürmer, an elegant young man of 29, came with instructions from Prince Metternich and a sense of self-importance.